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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Current History: A Monthly Magazine of the
+New York Times, May 1918, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Current History: A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times, May 1918
+       Vol. VIII, Part I, No. 2
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: February 2, 2012 [EBook #38750]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CURRENT HISTORY: NY TIMES, MAY 1918 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Moti Ben-Ari and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: PRESIDENT WILSON
+The first portrait of President Wilson since America entered the war,
+taken at the White House March 19, 1918
+(� _Sun Printing and Publishing Association_)]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: FERDINAND FOCH
+Generalissimo of the allied armies on the western front]
+
+
+
+
+CURRENT HISTORY
+
+_A Monthly Magazine of_ =The New York Times=
+
+Published by The New York Times Company, Times Square, New York, N. Y.
+
+    Vol. VIII.} No. 2                               25 Cents a Copy
+    Part I.   }                 May, 1918           $3.00 a Year
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+                                                                    PAGE
+    CURRENT HISTORY CHRONICLED                                       191
+
+    THE BATTLE OF PICARDY: A Military Review                         197
+       The British Reverses and Their Causes By a Military Observer  205
+
+    FOUR EPIC WEEKS OF CARNAGE                      By Philip Gibbs  209
+      How General Carey Saved Amiens                                 219
+      Battle Viewed From the French Front           By G. H. Perris  221
+      Caring for Thousands of Refugees                               228
+
+    PROGRESS OF THE WAR: Chronology to April 18                      231
+
+    RUSSIA UNDER GERMAN DOMINATION                                   235
+      The Czar's Loyalty to the Allies: An Autograph Letter          239
+
+    PERSHING'S ARMY UNDER GENERAL FOCH                               240
+      Our War Machine in New Phases                                  243
+      Shortage in Aircraft Production                                245
+
+    AMERICA'S FIRST YEAR OF WAR                                      247
+      War Department's Improved System          By Benedict Crowell  254
+      The Surgeon General's Great Organization   By Caswell A. Mayo  256
+
+    WAR WORK OF THE AMERICAN RED CROSS                               258
+
+    GREAT BRITAIN FACES A CRISIS              By David Lloyd George  263
+
+    RUSSIA AND THE ALLIES                      By Arthur J. Balfour  272
+
+    PRESIDENT WILSON ON THE RUSSIAN TREATIES                         275
+
+    AMERICAN LIBERTY'S CRUCIAL HOUR             By William E. Borah  278
+
+_Contents Continued on Next Page_
+
+Copyright, 1918, by The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.
+Entered at the Post Offices in New York and in Canada as Second Class
+Matter.
+
+    DEFENDING THE WORLD'S RIGHT TO DEMOCRACY   By J. Hamilton Lewis  281
+       Messenger Dogs in the German Army                             283
+
+    FULL RECORD OF SINKINGS BY U-BOATS           By Sir Eric Geddes  284
+        Admiralty Summary of Shipping Losses                         286
+        The Month's Submarine Record                                 289
+
+    TYPICAL U-BOAT METHODS: British Admiralty Records                290
+        The Story of an Indomitable Captain        By Joseph Conrad  292
+
+    THE NAVAL DEFENSE OF VENICE                                      293
+        Venice Under the Grim Shadow                                 299
+
+    TAKING OVER THE DUTCH SHIPS                                      303
+
+    AIR RAIDS ON PARIS AND LONDON                                    305
+        The Tale of Zeppelin Disasters                               309
+
+    PARIS BOMBARDED BY LONG-RANGE GUNS                               310
+
+    THE IRISH GUARDS                             By Rudyard Kipling  313
+
+    THE GUILT OF GERMANY: Prince Lichnowsky's Memorandum             314
+        Reply of Former Foreign Minister von Jagow                   320
+
+    COUNT CZERNIN ON PEACE TERMS                                     323
+        Great Britain's Reply to Count Czernin                       327
+
+    AUSTRO-FRENCH "PEACE INITIATIVE" CONTROVERSY                     328
+
+    A REVIEW OF THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND      By Thomas G. Frothingham  334
+        Charts of Battle of Jutland                                  332
+
+    GERMAN CHURCHMAN'S DEFENSE OF POISON GAS                         343
+
+    GREAT BRITAIN'S WAR WORK IN 1917                                 344
+
+    THE BATTLE OF CAMBRAI: Official Report    By Field Marshal Haig  349
+
+    THE EUROPEAN WAR AS SEEN BY CARTOONISTS: 42 Cartoons             361
+
+ROTOGRAVURE ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                           PAGE
+    PRESIDENT WILSON                  _Frontis_
+    FERDINAND FOCH, GENERALISSIMO         "
+    BENEDICT CROWELL                        204
+    AMERICAN ARMY CHIEFS                    205
+    BRITISH COMMANDERS IN FRANCE            220
+    GERMAN COMMANDERS IN FRANCE             221
+    UNITED STATES CONGRESS                  236
+    AMERICAN FIRST AID STATION              237
+    REPRESENTATIVES OF CENTRAL POWERS       268
+    PANORAMA OF VENICE                      269
+    HENRY P. DAVISON                        284
+    ACTUAL SURRENDER OF JERUSALEM           285
+    CAMP ZACHARY TAYLOR                     316
+    VIEW OF CAMP SHERMAN                    317
+    GRAVES OF TUSCANIA VICTIMS              332
+    LIBERTY LOAN POSTER                     333
+
+
+
+
+CURRENT HISTORY CHRONICLED
+
+[PERIOD ENDED APRIL 19, 1918.]
+
+AN EPOCH-MAKING MONTH
+
+
+The month covered by this issue of CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE was the most
+fateful in a military way since the beginning of the war. The most
+desperate and sanguinary battle in history, begun with the great German
+offensive in France March 21, 1918, was at its most furious phase when
+these pages were printed. No less than 4,000,000 men were engaged in
+deadly combat on a front of 150 miles.
+
+General Foch, by agreement of the Allies, was made Commander in Chief of
+the allied armies in France, March 28. This decision, long regarded as
+of supreme importance, was hastened by the new emergency. The United
+States on April 16 officially approved the appointment. The result of
+the change was to co-ordinate all the allied forces in France into one
+army. Early fruits of this new unity were apparent in the news of April
+19, when it was announced that heavy French reinforcements had come that
+day to the relief of the hard-pressed and weary British troops in
+Flanders, and had halted the Germans; the same day the French
+counterattacked in the Amiens region and thrust the Germans back, thus
+giving a brighter aspect to the entire situation in France. The story of
+the battle of Picardy up to April 18 is told elsewhere in detail.
+
+The separation of Russian provinces from the old Russian Empire
+continued during the month; the resistance of the Bolsheviki in Finland,
+the Ukraine, Lithuania, the Caucasus, and other provinces that had been
+alienated either by secession or by German acquisition grew feebler as
+the weeks elapsed, and the stability of the new republics under German
+suzerainty was correspondingly strengthened.
+
+The chief political events were the exposure by France of Austria's
+duplicity in seeking a separate peace, which caused the downfall of the
+Austrian Premier, and the application of conscription to Ireland, to be
+followed by home rule. On April 18 Lord Derby was appointed British
+Ambassador to France, succeeding Lord Bertie, and was succeeded as
+Secretary of State for War by Viscount Milner. Austen Chamberlain, son
+of the late Joseph Chamberlain, was made a member of the War Cabinet.
+
+Secretary of War Baker, who had left for England, France, and Italy
+early in March, returned on April 17 and spoke in enthusiastic terms of
+the American forces abroad. He expressed firm confidence in the ultimate
+defeat of Germany.
+
+General Pershing offered all his available forces to General Foch when
+the storm of the German offensive broke, and many American units were at
+once brigaded with British and French forces. The appeals of France and
+Great Britain for man power met with instant response on this side of
+the Atlantic, and every ton of available shipping was employed in the
+transport of American troops. Developments in this regard gave promise
+of fulfilling the War Department's expressed intention of having an
+American Army of 1,500,000 in France by the end of 1918.
+
+All American war preparations were visibly speeded up as the situation
+grew more serious for the Allies, and the spirit of the nation became
+one of widespread determination to win, even though it should require
+years of warfare and the entire physical and financial resources of the
+United States.
+
+
+EXECUTION OF BOLO PACHA
+
+Bolo Pacha, who was convicted by a French court-martial of treason, was
+executed at Vincennes April 17 by a firing squad. The chaplain, after
+the execution, found lying over Bolo's heart two embroidered
+handkerchiefs, which had been pierced by the bullets. One was given to
+Bolo's brother and the other to his widow.
+
+A few days before the execution the condemned man sent for the public
+prosecutor, and, it is stated, made important revelations regarding
+former Premier Caillaux and Senator Humbert, against whom similar
+charges are pending.
+
+It was proved that Bolo Pacha, whose real name was Paul Bolo, was a poor
+man before the war, a pensioner of his brother, Mgr. Bolo, a prominent
+French prelate. The testimony revealed that $1,683,000 had been
+transferred by the Deutsche Bank at Berlin on the recommendation of
+Ambassador Bernstorff to Bolo's credit in New York for the purchase of
+Senator Humbert's newspaper, the Paris Journal; Bolo made an offer of
+$400,000 for Le Figaro, bought 1,500 shares in Le Rappel for $34,000,
+and even approached Clemenceau's Homme Enchain�. Papers he got control
+over included Paris-Midi, Le Cri de Paris, a satirical weekly, and La
+Revue, of which Jean Finot is editor. The curious thing about the method
+employed to make these newspapers serve German interests was that under
+Bolo's control they became exponents of "defeatism" carried to the
+extreme of ultra-French militarism. The explanation is that the German
+war party could use quotations from the Bolo papers to persuade the
+German people that their existence was threatened by the French, thereby
+justifying the German Government and rekindling in the people the war
+fervor which was fast oozing out of them. Then, when the opportune
+moment came, the same ultra-patriotic papers, so it was expected, would
+suddenly turn pacifist and thereby stir up dissension in the nation and
+destroy the efficiency of its war measures.
+
+
+THE NUMBERS IN THE WORLD'S GREATEST BATTLES
+
+THE stupendous character of the battle of Picardy is realized when the
+numbers engaged in previous noted battles of history are considered.
+Setting aside the mythical five millions of the army of Xerxes and the
+ten thousand of Xenophon, accurate figures in Greece are recorded for
+the campaigns of Philip of Macedon and his more famous son. At
+Cheronaea, fought in B. C. 338, Philip had 30,000 infantry and 2,000
+cavalry, the latter led by Alexander, then 18 years old. Alexander's
+cavalry attack on the flank won the battle, driving back the Athenians
+and Thebans, who were slightly outnumbered. At Arbela, in October, 331,
+Alexander the Great, with 47,000 Macedonians, defeated a Persian force
+three or four times as great, piercing between the Persian left and
+centre. Pyrrhus of Epirus had, at Asculum, in the year 279, 45,000
+infantry against an equal number of Romans, but he had elephants,
+practically equivalent to artillery.
+
+Hannibal at Cannae, in 216, had 50,000 veterans against Varro's 50,000
+Romans, who were drawn up with their backs to the sea, and were thus
+unable to withdraw before Hannibal's overwhelming onslaught. Julius
+Caesar at Alesia had 50,000 Romans against 80,000 Gallic infantry and
+15,000 cavalry. At Pharsalus, in the civil war, the Pompeians, with
+60,000, were routed by the Caesareans with 25,000, losing 15,000, while
+Julius Caesar lost only 200. Augustus Caesar formed a standing army of
+300,000, his legions consisting of 3,000 heavy infantry, 1,200 light
+infantry, and 300 cavalry each.
+
+Genghiz Khan began with a small force of 6,000, with which he fought and
+conquered his father-in-law, who had 10,000. At the Battle of the Indus,
+Genghiz Khan commanded a huge army of 300,000 Tartars. At the battle of
+Karakin, in 1218, he led 700,000 Tartars against 400,000 Kharismians,
+completely defeating them. Oliver Cromwell's army, in its most complete
+form, numbered about 80,000. The army of Frederick the Great, at its
+highest point of efficiency, numbered 200,000, while the army of Louis
+XIV. numbered 240,000 men.
+
+In 1793, when Republican France was threatened with invasion, and Carnot
+was "organizing victory," the effective French forces probably numbered
+300,000, though the total number available under the newly introduced
+system of conscription was four times as many, about a million and a
+quarter. At the battle of Auerstadt-Jena, on Oct. 14, 1806, Napoleon had
+a French Army of 160,000, against some 140,000 Prussians. About this
+time Napoleon made the army corps the practical unit instead of the
+division, as formerly. The Grand Army, which invaded Russia in 1812,
+totaled 467,000, but this included 280,000 foreign troops. At the battle
+of Leipsic, a year after the retreat from Moscow, Napoleon, with
+155,000, faced 160,000 Austrians, 60,000 Prussians, and 60,000 Swedes
+under the recreant Frenchman Bernadotte, the ancestor of the present
+King of Sweden.
+
+At Waterloo, the French Army is said to have numbered 72,000, against
+whom were drawn up, at the beginning of the battle, 24,000 British and
+43,500 Dutch and Belgian troops. The Dutch and Belgians withdrew before
+the end of the battle, their place being taken by Bl�cher's contingent.
+
+The forces commanded by George Washington were always numerically small,
+a few thousand only, and were in ceaseless flux. In 1790, the American
+Army consisted of 1,216 men. In the war of 1812, the invading force,
+which burned the national capital, numbered 3,500 men. At the beginning
+of the American civil war, the regular army numbered 15,300. Between
+April, 1861, and April, 1865, the total Federal forces enrolled amounted
+to 2,759,049, while the Confederates enrolled about 1,100,000, making a
+total of practically 4,000,000 from a population of 32,000,000; this
+would be equivalent to an army of from 12,000,000 to 15,000,000 with the
+present population of the United States. The total furnished for the war
+with Spain was 10,017 officers and 213,218 men.
+
+The Austrian Army at Sadowa numbered 200,000; the French Army at Sedan
+some 120,000. At the battle of Mukden, Russians and Japanese each had a
+force of about 300,000, the largest number in any modern battle up to
+that time, though greatly outnumbered by Genghiz Khan.
+
+
+EMPEROR CHARLES'S SEPARATE PEACE PLAN
+
+The disclosures regarding Austria's efforts to make a separate peace
+with France, which are dealt with elsewhere in this issue of CURRENT
+HISTORY MAGAZINE, took a more sensational turn April 11, 1918, when the
+following official note was issued by the French Government:
+
+_Once caught in the cogwheels of lying, there is no means of stopping.
+Emperor Charles, under Berlin's eye, is taking on himself the lying
+denials of Count Czernin, and thus compels the French Government to
+supply the proof. Herewith is the text of an autograph letter
+communicated on March 31, 1917, by Prince Sixtus de Bourbon, the Emperor
+of Austria's brother-in-law, to President Poincar�, and communicated
+immediately, with the Prince's consent, to the French Premier:_
+
+    MY DEAR SIXTUS: The end of the third year of this war, which has
+    brought so much mourning and grief into the world, approaches.
+    All the peoples of my empire are more closely united than ever
+    in the common determination to safeguard the integrity of the
+    monarchy at the cost even of the heaviest sacrifices.
+
+    Thanks to their union, with the generous co-operation of all
+    nationalities, my empire and monarchy have succeeded in
+    resisting the gravest assaults for nearly three years. Nobody
+    can question the military advantages secured by my troops,
+    particularly in the Balkans.
+
+    France, on her side, has shown force, resistance, and dashing
+    courage which are magnificent. We all unreservedly admire the
+    admirable bravery, which is traditional to her army, and the
+    spirit of sacrifice of the entire French people.
+
+    Therefore it is a special pleasure to me to note that, although
+    for the moment adversaries, no real divergence of views or
+    aspirations separates many of my empire from France, and that I
+    am justified in hoping that my keen sympathy for France, joined
+    to that which prevails in the whole monarchy, will forever avoid
+    a return of the state of war, for which no responsibility can
+    fall on me.
+
+    With this in mind, and to show in a definite manner the reality
+    of these feelings, I beg you to convey privately and
+    unofficially to President Poincar� that I will support by every
+    means, and by exerting all my personal influence with my allies,
+    France's just claims regarding Alsace-Lorraine.
+
+    Belgium should be entirely re-established in her sovereignty,
+    retaining entirely her African possessions without prejudice to
+    the compensations she should receive for the losses she has
+    undergone.
+
+    Serbia should be re-established in her sovereignty, and, as a
+    pledge of our good-will, we are ready to assure her equitable
+    natural access to the Adriatic, and also wide economic
+    concessions in Austria-Hungary. On her side, we will demand, as
+    primordial and essential conditions, that Serbia cease in the
+    future all relation with and suppress every association or group
+    whose political object aims at the disintegration of the
+    monarchy, particularly the Serbian political society, Narodni
+    Ochrana; that Serbia loyally and by every means in her power
+    prevent any kind of political agitation, either in Serbia or
+    beyond her frontiers, in the foregoing direction, and give
+    assurances thereof under the guarantee of the Entente Powers.
+
+    The events in Russia compel me to reserve my ideas with regard
+    to that country until a legal definite Government is established
+    there.
+
+    Having thus laid my ideas clearly before you, I would ask you in
+    turn, after consulting with these two powers, to lay before me
+    the opinion first of France and England, with a view thus to
+    preparing the ground for an understanding on the basis of which
+    official preliminary negotiations could be taken up and reach a
+    result satisfactory to all.
+
+    Hoping that thus we will soon be able together to put a limit to
+    the sufferings of so many millions of men and families now
+    plunged in sadness and anxiety, I beg to assure you of my
+    warmest and most brotherly affection.
+
+    CHARLES.
+
+The reply of Emperor Charles to the foregoing letter was in the form of
+the following telegram to Emperor William:
+
+    Clemenceau's accusations against me are so low that I have no
+    intention to discuss longer this affair with France. My cannon
+    in the west is our last reply.
+
+    In faithful friendship,
+
+    CHARLES.
+
+As a result of the publication of the letter, whose existence it is
+claimed was unknown to him, Count Czernin on April 15 resigned his
+portfolio as Foreign Minister and Premier, and accepted appointment as a
+Major General in the Austrian Army. He was succeeded by Baron Burian,
+who was Minister of Foreign Affairs from Sept. 15, 1914, to Dec. 23,
+1916, when he was succeeded by Count Czernin.
+
+It was authoritatively announced that the letter was communicated to the
+British, French, and Italian Premiers at a meeting which took place at
+St. Jean de Maurienne, April 19, 1917, and unanimously judged as
+insincere and intended to mask some subtle manoeuvre for stirring up
+friction between the Allies.
+
+The day before the letter was published Emperor Charles sent a telegram
+to Emperor William, in which he said:
+
+    I accuse M. Clemenceau of piling up lies to escape the web of
+    lies in which he is involved, making the false assertion that I
+    in some manner recognized France's claim to Alsace-Lorraine as
+    just. I indignantly repel the assertion.
+
+To this the German Emperor replied as follows:
+
+    Accept my heartiest thanks for the letter in which you repudiate
+    the assertion of the French Premier regarding your attitude
+    toward the French claims on Alsace-Lorraine as entirely baseless
+    and once again accentuate the solidarity of the interests which
+    exist between us and our empires. I hasten to tell you that in
+    my eyes there is no need whatever for such assurance on your
+    part, for I have not for a moment been in doubt. You have made
+    our cause your own; in like measure we stand for the rights of
+    your monarchy.
+
+    The heavy battles in these years clearly demonstrate this for
+    every one who will see. They have only drawn the bond closer.
+    Our enemies, who are unable to do anything against us in
+    honorable battle, do not recoil from the most sordid and lowest
+    means. We must put up with that, but all the more it is our duty
+    ruthlessly to grapple with and beat the enemy in all the war
+    theatres.
+
+After the publication of the letter the Austrian Government announced
+that it was "garbled" and intimated that portions of it were forged
+before it reached Prince Sixtus. The German press accepted the letter as
+genuine with caustic and hostile criticism. It was announced April 18
+that the original letter of the Emperor was in the possession of Prince
+Sixtus, who sent a copy of it to President Poincar�.
+
+
+WHEN AUSTRIA RULED PRUSSIA
+
+Emperor Karl's effort to make a separate peace recalls the period,
+beginning with the Summer of 1849, when Austria and Prussia were
+literally at daggers drawn. Twenty-eight North German States had just
+formed a Prussian League, under the leadership of Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
+of Prussia. Austria, under the leadership of Franz Josef, organized a
+counterleague of South German States, and had the support of Nicholas
+I. of Russia, who had helped Austria to subdue Hungary. Schwarzenberg,
+the fighting man of the Austrian Confederation, announced his policy:
+"First humiliate Prussia, then destroy her." The practical collision
+between Prussian North Germany and Austrian South Germany came when the
+Elector of Hesse quarreled with his people. The Hessians appealed to the
+Council of the Prussian League, of which Hesse was a member, while the
+Elector of Hesse appealed to the Emperor of Austria. Austria and Prussia
+both set armies in movement, the Austrian force being mainly composed of
+Bavarian troops, and a kind of half-battle was fought on the frontier of
+Bavaria. But the Prussian Army was weak and inefficient, while Nicholas
+I. of Russia was open in his support of Austria. Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
+of Prussia met Schwarzenberg in a conference at Olm�tz on Nov. 28, 1850,
+and offered Prussia's submission to Austria. Austria then restored the
+old Diet and reorganized the German Confederation upon the basis of
+1815, the Federal act creating this confederation having actually
+antedated the battle of Waterloo by a week. In this confederation, which
+was composed of sovereigns, not of peoples, (thirty-four sovereign
+Princes and the four "free cities" of Hamburg, Bremen, L�beck, and
+Frankfort,) and which met in the Federal Diet at Frankfort, the Austrian
+representatives presided, and Austria's pre-eminence lasted until the
+battle of Sadowa, in 1866, when the simultaneous attacks of Prussia and
+Italy brought about Austria's defeat.
+
+
+A UNION OF THE JUGO-SLAVS
+
+A public meeting held at Rome March 14, 1918, was addressed by Professor
+Salvemini, a distinguished historian, who advocated the policy of
+Mazzini that the Italians should ally themselves with the Balkan peoples
+in order to free them from Austrian and Turkish domination. The speaker
+opposed the teaching of Cesare Balbo, who advocated a free hand for
+Austria in the Balkans in return for the cession of the Italian
+provinces. The leading Serbians and numerous influential Jugo-Slav
+exiles from Austria-Hungary have indorsed Professor Salvemini's
+proposition, and a number of Italian Deputies and publicists have joined
+the movement.
+
+A conference under the auspices of the Serbian Society of Great Britain
+was held in London March 13, 1918, which was attended by the Executive
+Committees of the British-Italian League, the Anglo-Hellenic Society,
+and the Anglo-Rumanian Society. The following resolutions were
+unanimously passed:
+
+    1. This conference learns with gratification of the present
+    understanding between representative Italians and the
+    Jugo-Slavs, convinced as it is that it is in the vital interest
+    of both races that they should unite on the basis, as far as
+    practicable, of the principle of self-determination and in a
+    spirit of mutual toleration and friendliness as allies against
+    German and Austro-Magyar military domination.
+
+    2. The conference confidently hopes that such an understanding
+    will not weaken but strengthen the bonds of alliance which exist
+    between Serbia and Greece, and that it will be followed by a
+    similar amicable settlement of all outstanding questions between
+    Italy and Greece, so that the Eastern Mediterranean may present
+    a solid bulwark against the German Drang nach Osten.
+
+    3. The conference sends fraternal greetings to Rumania and
+    assures the Rumanian people that, whatever terms Rumania is
+    forced to accept from the enemy by the cruel exigencies of the
+    war, the British people will not cease to regard her as an ally
+    in spirit, and will not cease to strive for the attainment of
+    her national unity as one of the essential factors of a lasting
+    peace.
+
+A convention of Bohemians, Slavs, Jugo-Slavs, Rumanians, Serbians,
+Italians, and Poles met at Rome on April 10 under the Presidency of
+former Senator Ruffini, with prominent Italians and Frenchmen present,
+among them former Ministers Martini, Barzilai, Franklin, Bouillon, and
+Albert Thomas. Dr. Trumbitch, President of the Jugo-Slav Committee in
+Great Britain, also attended. It was the first assemblage of
+representatives of the nationalities that are opposed to Austrian
+dominion. The Mayor of Rome was a participant. The Italian and Polish
+representatives for the first time gave their adhesion to the Jugo-Slav
+aspiration. The following declaration was adopted:
+
+    1. Every people proclaims it to be its right to determine its
+    own nationality and national unity and complete independence.
+
+    2. Every people knows that the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy is an
+    instrument of German domination and a fundamental obstacle to
+    the realization of its rights to free development and
+    self-government.
+
+    3. The Congress recognizes the necessity of fighting against the
+    common oppressors.
+
+    The representatives of the Jugo-Slavs agree:
+
+    That the unity and independence of the Jugo-Slav Nation is
+    considered of vital importance by Italy.
+
+    That the deliverance of the Adriatic Sea and its defense from
+    any enemy is of capital interest to the two peoples.
+
+    That territorial controversies will be amicably settled on the
+    principle of nationality and in such a manner as not to injure
+    the vital interests of the two nations; interests which will be
+    taken into account at the peace conferences.
+
+The Polish delegates added their declaration that they consider Germany
+as the principal enemy of Poland, and that they believe that the
+disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is the only way through
+which they can obtain their independence from Germany.
+
+
+CAN A NATION BE WIPED OUT?
+
+If we pass by the ancient epoch when it was the custom of the conqueror
+to "take the city, and slay the people therein, and beat down the city,
+and sow it with salt," and come to more modern times, we shall find
+cause to question whether any people has been actually exterminated by
+war.
+
+Probably the worst devastation in modern Europe was that caused by the
+Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) when the Germans were fighting among
+themselves. Season by season, says the historian, armies of ruthless
+freebooters harried the land with fire and sword. The peasant, who found
+that he toiled only to feed robbers and to draw them to outrage and
+torture his family, ceased to labor and became himself robber and camp
+follower. Half the population and two-thirds of the movable property of
+Germany were swept away. In many large districts the facts were worse
+than this average. The Duchy of W�rttemberg had 50,000 people left out
+of 500,000. Populous cities had become hamlets; and for miles upon
+miles, former hamlets were the lairs of wolf packs. Not until 1850 did
+some sections of Germany again contain as many homesteads and cattle as
+in 1618. So there is justification for the belief that Montenegro,
+Serbia, and Armenia will come back again to health and strength.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On March 21 an order was issued, applying to all of Great Britain,
+requiring all entertainments, including theatres, to close at 10:30 P.
+M., and forbidding any shop window lighting. No public meals were
+allowed after 9:30 P. M. at hotels, restaurants, clubs, and boarding
+houses, and the tube and train services were reduced; also, by
+one-sixth, the amount of gas or electricity allowance.
+
+
+BRITISH MAN-POWER BILL.
+
+The British Man-Power bill, which provides for conscription in Ireland
+and was described in the important address by Premier Lloyd George,
+(Page 263,) passed its third reading in the House of Commons April 16 by
+a vote of 301 to 103. The Government announced that a bill giving home
+rule to Ireland would be introduced, and if it failed of passage the
+Government would resign. The Man-Power bill was passed in record time by
+the House of Lords and became a law by the King's signature April 19.
+Meetings of protest were held by Nationalists, who joined with Sinn
+Feiners, O'Brienites, Laborites, and Clericals in denouncing the
+measure.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An increase of 1,426,000 in the number of women employed since 1914 is
+shown in figures announced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The
+greatest increase was in industries, which took in 530,000 more women,
+but the largest proportionate increase was 214,000 additional women
+taken into Government service. Women have replaced 1,413,000 men since
+1914. Industrial and Government work has taken 400,000 women formerly
+employed in domestic service or in dressmaking.
+
+
+
+
+THE BATTLE OF PICARDY
+
+Military Review of the Greatest Battle in History From March 21 to April
+17, 1918 On March 21 the Germans began the great battle which military
+experts of both sides believe may decide the war. What was indicated in
+broad lines was that they wished to reach the Channel by way of the
+Somme and thereby isolate most of the British Army and the entire
+Belgian and Portuguese Armies in the north. A corollary to such an
+isolation would have been a movement south on Paris.
+
+As to the narrower lines of the German military plan, however, they
+became clear. The Germans struck from points where their railways
+allowed them the greatest possible concentration of troops and at points
+where the lines of the Allies, owing to the uncompleted battles of
+Flanders and Cambrai and the failures at Lens, St. Quentin, and La F�re
+last year, were relatively weak or could be out-manoeuvred with superior
+force of men and material.
+
+In the first phase of the battle, which carried the enemy down the Somme
+and its southern tributary, the Avre, to within six miles of Amiens, and
+to within forty-six miles of the Channel, they first eliminated the
+Cambrai salient so as to protect their northern flank and then
+concentrated their attack between St. Quentin and La F�re, near the
+point where the French and the British Armies joined. The flanks of the
+great salient thereby developed, however, made dangerous further
+progress down the Somme. On the north it was threatened by the Arras
+salient with its protecting ridge of Vimy; on the south by the watershed
+of the Oise and Aisne.
+
+Frontal attacks to eliminate the Arras salient and the, Oise-Aisne
+watershed having failed, a flanking movement against the former, which
+should also have strategic ramifications further north, followed as a
+matter of military expediency. Thus on April 9 the second phase began.
+Again they sought the line of cleavage between two armies, where
+differences of language and tactics made military cohesion
+difficult--between the British and the Portuguese on the Lille front. A
+successful penetration of this front for a distance of ten miles would
+have placed the enemy on the left-rear of Vimy Ridge in the south, and
+in the north on the right-rear of Messines Ridge, which protects Ypres,
+the capture of which by the British a year ago had made the subsequent
+battle of Flanders and their occupation of Passchendaele in the
+direction of Roulers possible.
+
+In other words, Vimy Ridge bears the same relation to Arras that
+Messines and its contiguous hills do to Ypres, but while the former
+ridge also flanks the great German salient stretching down to the Oise,
+the latter ridge flanks from the southeast the British salient at Ypres
+developed by the battle of Flanders.
+
+In this second phase of the great battle the German penetration, through
+military design or expediency, has so far been developed in the
+direction of Ypres; not in the direction of Arras.
+
+
+NUMBER OF MEN ENGAGED
+
+As to the number of men engaged on each side, experts at the front have
+been wide apart. It has been understood that Great Britain has in France
+3,500,000 rifles, and that of these 675,000 were on the front when the
+attack began, thus (if these figures are correct) leaving an army of
+reserve and manoeuvre of 2,850,000, minus 150,000 men on leave in
+England. It was understood that the number of French rifles available on
+the Continent is between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000, of which 1,575,000
+were at the front on March 21, leaving 2,425,000 for reserve and
+manoeuvre, which to the extent of 500,000 may have been available in the
+present battle, with the constant deploying of the French line in the
+south and the taking over of ten miles of the British line.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF THE BATTLE OF PICARDY. THE CHAIN LINE ON THE EAST
+SHOWS BATTLE FRONT MARCH 21, 1918. SHADED SPACE INDICATES GERMAN GAINS
+UP TO APRIL 17. BROKEN LINE SHOWS NEW FRONT AT THAT DATE. INTERVENING
+LINES INDICATE GERMAN POSITIONS MARCH 24 AND 26.]
+
+The potential strength of the Germans in the western theatre before the
+Russian revolution was estimated at 4,500,000 rifles, more than half of
+which were on the front. According to Sir Aukland Geddes, the British
+Minister of National Service, the secession of Russia added to the
+enemy's potential strength on the western front possibly as many as
+1,600,000 men, of whom 950,000 were Germans. If we add 1,000,000 to the
+4,500,000 German rifles in the west we have the 5,500,000 thus produced
+opposing, at least, 8,500,000 Allies, consisting of French, British,
+American, Belgian, Portuguese, Russian, and Polish troops. [The British
+official estimates on April 17 appear on Page 207.]
+
+Nevertheless, in nearly all the engagements of the battle thus far, the
+Allies appear to have been measurably outnumbered in a ratio varying
+from three to one to five to three. Up to March 26, aside from the
+French being constantly forced to augment their forces in the south,
+only the British 3d, 4th, and 5th Armies had been engaged, approximately
+numbering 600,000 rifles. Against these, up to the same date, the
+Germans had been able to concentrate ninety-seven divisions, or
+1,164,000 rifles, with special concentrations of 120,000 rifles against
+Bucquoy, on April 6, and 180,000 against the French between Lassigny and
+Noyon, on March 27 and April 3. On the subsequent development of the
+Lille front the Germans seemed to have been able to concentrate their
+forces, where they outnumber the British and Portuguese three to two.
+
+
+ENORMOUS GERMAN LOSSES
+
+It was inevitable, in the retreat forced on the British from their
+static positions, that a large number of men and guns should have been
+captured by the enemy--during the first rush the Germans claimed 75,000
+and 600 respectively. But the German casualties, owing to their massed
+formation, must, according to all accounts, be staggering, having
+probably already reached the Verdun maximum of 600,000. The attrition of
+their war material must also be enormous. And just as the entire armies
+of the Allies outnumber the enemy eight to five, it may be estimated
+that their material, actual and immediately available, is 30 per cent.
+greater.
+
+The most useful guide to the development of the plans of the enemy,
+their modification, transformation, and failure, either transitory or
+permanent, is physical geography. The initial impetus of the assault
+carried the Germans with "shock" and alternating forces beyond a
+hypothetical straight line of fifty miles extending from the Scarpe on
+the north to the junction of the Ailette and the Oise on the south. This
+was done without their moving their heavy guns, probably not even their
+mid-calibre guns, from their emplacements.
+
+
+FIRST DAYS' RESULTS
+
+By March 25 they had covered an area of about 500 square miles and had
+penetrated beyond Croisilles, Bapaume, P�ronne, Brie, Nesle, and the
+forest northeast of Noyon. In the two following days they recovered the
+entire battlefield of the Somme, occupied the British railway junction
+and supply depot at Albert, drove the British four miles down the Somme,
+and took Roye and Noyon from the French, driving the latter across the
+Oise. On the 29th the French counterattacked and recovered eight square
+miles between Lassigny and Noyon, but west of this position the enemy,
+on a twelve-mile front with a penetration of seven miles, enveloped
+Montdidier. The next day the Germans gained some ground north of the
+Scarpe before Vimy Ridge and obliterated an ally salient with its vertex
+at Vrely by straightening their line between the Somme and Montdidier.
+
+From March 29 until April 8 the enemy consolidated his positions on a
+front which had been expanded from seventy-five miles, including two
+large salients, to 125 miles, including innumerable small ones,
+embracing a terrain of about 800 square miles west of the front as it
+was on March 20.
+
+On April 3 the enemy was strongly counterattacked by the British at
+Ayette and by the French at Pl�mont, near Lassigny. Similar
+counterattacks recovered H�buterne for the British and Cantigny for the
+French on April 5; Beaumont Hamel and a strong position west of Albert
+for the British and a flanking position north of Aubvillers for the
+French on April 7.
+
+[Illustration: FLANDERS SECTOR OF THE GREAT BATTLE OF PICARDY. THE CHAIN
+LINE SHOWS BATTLEFRONT, MARCH 21, 1918. SHADED SPACE INDICATES GERMAN
+GAINS UP TO APRIL 17.]
+
+Meanwhile, April 4, the Germans had occupied Hamel and two villages near
+Grivesnes, driving out the French, and had made a furious assault upon
+the positions of the latter between the Luce rivulet and the Avre River,
+but without success. On the 5th they had made similar attacks at five
+points: they were successful against the British at Dernancourt, against
+the French at Casel; they were driven back with heavy losses by the
+British at Moyenneville and Villers-Bertonneux and by the French at
+Cantigny. On the 6th the enemy had made concentrated attacks at six
+points: south of Albert, beyond the Vaire Wood, between Hailles and
+Rouvrel, and on the Oise east of Chauny he gained ground, but his
+attempt to take Mesnil beyond Montdidier and Mount R�naud beyond Noyon
+were costly failures. On the 7th he attacked the British strategic
+position at Eucquoy and the French position east of Chauny. At the
+former place he was repulsed with heavy loss; at the latter his official
+chronicler asserted that he gained ground.
+
+
+ON THE LILLE FRONT
+
+Then north of the great salient just occupied, the Germans struck, on
+April 9, between the important British depots of Arras and Ypres, forty
+miles apart, concentrating on a twelve-mile front between Givenchy and
+Fleurbaix. During the two following days the concentration moved north
+five miles, penetrating between Armenti�res and Messines. On the 11th it
+had developed as far north as Hollebeke, four miles southeast of Ypres,
+had partly enveloped Messines Ridge and entirely Armenti�res and the
+town of Estaires on the Lys River. By the 12th it had swelled beyond
+Merville and Lestrem in the south, was threatening the railway junction
+of Bailleul in the middle ground, had gained a footing on Messines
+Ridge, and was investing the neighboring heights of Neuve Eglise and
+Kemmel in the north. By the morning of the 17th the German penetration
+had reached Locon in the south, the Nieppe Forest in the middle ground,
+and had occupied Bailleul and the eastern heights of the ridge in the
+north and threatened the western and more elevated heights of Mont Rouge
+and Mont Kemmel. Thus in eight days the Germans had developed a sector
+on the Lille front of originally twenty-two miles, a salient embracing
+an area of about 825 square miles with a new front of about thirty-five
+miles.
+
+
+SUMMARY OF THE FIGHTING
+
+The initial bombardment which preceded the first infantry advance
+against the Cambrai salient, at 8 o'clock on the morning of March 21,
+was widely distributed--as far north as Ypres and as far south as the
+Oise. It consisted mainly of gas and high explosive shells. The first
+infantry attack, which penetrated the first and second lines on a
+sixteen-mile front extending from Lagnicourt to Gauche Wood just south
+of Gouseaucourt, caused a retreat from the salient which had been left
+exposed to any superior attack since last December. In rapid succession
+the British positions, now indefinitely exposed on the north, were then
+attacked between Arras and La F�re, with tremendous concentration
+between the latter and St. Quentin. According to the German report of
+the 22d: "After powerful fire by our artillery and mine throwers our
+infantry stormed in broad sectors and everywhere captured the first
+enemy line."
+
+From the 22d until the 25th the Germans kept up a heavy fire upon the
+French front, mingled with raids, both land and air, evidently with the
+intention of preventing a movement of the French behind the lines as
+long as the German intentions remained uncertain.
+
+By the 24th, however, these intentions had been measurably revealed,
+both by documents found on prisoners and by the general tendency of the
+battle. On that day the enemy succeeded in crossing the Somme south of
+P�ronne, while north of it he forced the British to retire from the line
+of the River Torille. On the same day Chauny and Ham were captured, the
+British 3d and 4th Armies were pressed behind P�ronne and Ham, and the
+5th Army almost lost contact with the French. Here began that wonderful
+feat which has made the name of General Carey famous. On the 25th the
+enemy, by a series of drives en masse, managed to envelop Bapaume, while
+south of P�ronne he made still further progress, "west of the Somme."
+
+[Illustration: DETAIL MAP OF NORTHERN SECTOR OF BATTLE OF PICARDY, WHERE
+HEAVY BLOWS WERE STRUCK BY THE GERMANS IN THEIR DRIVE TOWARD AMIENS AND
+THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. THE FIGHTING WAS ESPECIALLY HEAVY AROUND PERONNE
+AND ALBERT]
+
+[Illustration: DETAIL MAP OF SOUTHERN PORTION OF BATTLEFIELD, SHOWING LA
+FERE AND TERGNIER. WHERE GERMANS TRIED TO DRVE A WEDGE BETWEEN BRITISH
+AND FRENCH ARMIES. THE BATTLE SWEPT WESTWARD PAST ROYE AND MONTDIDIER]
+
+Nesle was lost and recovered several times by the French troops, who had
+already begun to relieve certain portions of the British right, with its
+unlucky 5th Army, as early as the 23d. In the engagements between
+Bapaume and P�ronne the German armies of von Below, who had just
+returned from Italy, and von der Marwitz were personally directed by
+Crown Prince Rupprecht, and outnumbered the British three to two.
+
+[Illustration: DETAIL MAP OF THE STRUGGLE FOR ARRAS]
+
+
+THE STRUGGLE FOR ALBERT
+
+From the 25th to the 27th there was a lull in the north, evidently
+conceived by the Germans for bringing their heavier guns up to new
+emplacements, but in the south during this time the enemy heavily
+concentrated against the new French troops that were appearing upon the
+lengthening line and forced them to give up Lihons and Noyon. When the
+German pressure was renewed in the north Albert became the obvious
+objective, on account of the massed attacks made upon Ablainville near
+by. In the battle of the Somme, Albert, as a junction and depot,
+performed for the British in a minor degree what Cambrai later performed
+for the Germans in the present battle. On March 27 the British began a
+retreat on a wide front on both sides of the Somme, and in the evening
+Albert was evacuated. The next day came the great French counterattack
+between Lassigny and Noyon, already mentioned in connection with the
+geographical development of the battle.
+
+On the 28th the German attack was renewed on the Somme, where it pressed
+back the British near the Chippily crossing, and before Arras, where a
+frontal attack was repulsed with great enemy loss. This attack was
+renewed for three successive days. Then on April 3 the French again won
+near Lassigny and repulsed heavy German attacks around Moreuil.
+
+[Illustration: DETAIL MAP OF FLANDERS SECTOR AND BATTLE AROUND
+ARMENTIERES]
+
+On April 4 a frightful battle developed, where on a narrow ten-mile
+front, between Grivesnes, near the vertex of the Montdidier salient, and
+the Roye-Amiens road, the Germans sacrificed thousands of men in a vain
+attempt to drive a wedge between the newly discovered junction of the
+French and British Armies.
+
+From the 4th until the 7th, with the exception of the check the enemy
+met with at Bucquoy on the latter date, he made a reconsolidation of his
+lines, partially digging in on the sector before Amiens. The British
+positions around Arras, to the north of the great salient, which had
+again and again repelled frontal attacks, and the French positions on
+the Montdidier salient and the Oise-Aisne watershed on the south, now
+warned him of the danger of further progress west without augmented
+protection of his flanks.
+
+[Illustration: BENEDICT CROWELL
+Assistant Secretary of War and, during Mr. Baker's absence in Europe,
+Acting Secretary of War
+(� _Harris & Ewing_)]
+
+[Illustration: AMERICAN ARMY CHIEFS AND EXPERTS
+Maj. Gen. George O. Squier,
+_Chief of Signal Corps_]
+
+[Illustration: Lieut. Col. Edward A. Kreger,
+_Judge Advocate General in France_
+(� _Harris & Ewing_)]
+
+[Illustration: Col. Palmer E. Pierce,
+_Director of Purchases for the War Department_
+(� _Harris & Ewing_)]
+
+[Illustration: Maj. Gen. Evan M. Johnston,
+_Temporary Commander at Camp Upton, N. Y._
+(_Press Illustrating Service_)]
+
+Hence, on April 9, the reason for his sudden concentration and attack on
+the Lille front, and particularly upon the junction of the British and
+Portuguese lines near La Bass�e Canal to a point east of Armenti�res,
+which is still in progress. The geographical as well as the strategic
+features of this phase of the battle have already been described.
+Complete success had marked the German efforts on this sector up to
+April 17.
+
+During the entire period covered the airplanes employed on the
+battlefront were in the ratio of seven to five in favor of the Allies,
+whose killings have been in the ratio of five to two. This, taken in
+connection with the destruction of a great German plant and airdrome at
+Friedrichshafen on April 15, is believed to place the dominance of the
+air with all it includes as to observation and the bombing of transport
+and arsenal in the hands of the Allies.
+
+
+
+
+The British Reverses and Their Causes
+
+By a Military Observer
+
+
+Premier Lloyd George in his speech of April 9 [printed on Page 263]
+compared the operations in Picardy with the battle of Cambrai. In fact,
+the best way to understand what happened in the initial stage of the
+great German drive is to remember the sequence of events in the German
+attacks on the positions near Cambrai in 1917. At Cambrai there was a
+mistaken confidence in the ability to hold the terrain, although German
+attacks were expected. When these German assaults came, one was a
+surprise, because there had been an unexpected concentration of German
+troops; and this attack broke through the defense to such an extent that
+it forced the abandonment of other positions, with losses of prisoners
+and guns. All these tactical elements were present at the beginning of
+the German drive in March, but on a much larger scale, because in this
+case the German assaults were made on a front of some fifty miles.
+
+The difficult problem for the Allies, in preparing to defend their long
+front against the expected German offensive, was to provide against the
+well-known German tactics of assembling superior numbers at the place of
+battle. In this war the German "massed attacks" have not been so much a
+matter of formation as of delivering streams of troops at the chosen
+point of contact to overwhelm their opponents with superior numbers at
+that point. These German tactics were again used in the attacks, begun
+on March 21, against the British front from southeast of Arras as far as
+La F�re.
+
+
+FIFTH ARMY'S DISASTER
+
+Here were in position the 3d British Army (General Byng) in the section
+toward Arras, and, on the right to the south, the 5th British Army
+(General Gough) in the region west of St. Quentin. On March 21 there was
+a tremendous bombardment followed by infantry attacks all along the
+line, which resulted in winning many first-line positions. This was
+nothing more than had been expected, and provision had been made against
+it; but, unfortunately, as at Cambrai, the Germans had been enabled to
+make an unexpected concentration of superior numbers against positions
+of the 5th British Army.[1] The assault of this overwhelming force broke
+through the British lines, even to the extent of involving engineers and
+laborers behind the lines, as at Cambrai, with the same disastrous
+results. This breakdown of the defense forced a retreat from the British
+positions far different from the retirement that had been planned--and
+it brought about the withdrawal of the whole 5th Army, resulting in what
+the British Premier called "crippling one of our great armies."
+
+After such a disaster, it was found necessary to abandon a great amount
+of terrain to maintain a junction between the two British armies.
+P�ronne and Bapaume were soon captured by the Germans, and on March 27
+the Germans reported the occupation of Albert. On the same day Roye and
+Noyon were taken. On the next day the Germans had pushed as far west as
+Pierrepont and taken possession of Montdidier. As was to be expected in
+such a retreat, there soon was a large toll of British guns and
+prisoners. On March 29 the Germans claimed 1,100 guns and 70,000
+prisoners. They had also captured great quantities of material and 100
+tanks.
+
+These were heavy losses, but such losses were not the really serious
+element in the situation. A study of the map will show that, as the 5th
+Army retreated toward the west, there was left an increasingly long
+sector south of Noyon and curving north, west of Montdidier to the Avre
+River--and it was necessary that this dangerous opening should be
+protected by the French reserves. With extraordinary rapidity and
+efficiency French troops were rushed to this region, and the almost
+impossible task was accomplished of repairing the defense. But the drain
+on the French reserves had been heavy, and the necessity to use them for
+this purpose had neutralized a force that had been prepared for a
+different object against such a German drive.
+
+That these reserves were being held as a mobile army was so generally
+known that, it will be remembered, there was daily expectation of a
+counterattack by this force. There is no need to point out how great
+might have been the results of an assault upon an enemy exhausted by
+days of fighting; but any such plan was rendered impossible at the time
+by the need to use these troops to defend the new line, which was nearly
+as long as the original battle line at the time of the attacks on March
+21.
+
+
+FOCH MADE GENERALISSIMO
+
+Yet, on the other hand, from this battle's costly object lesson in the
+weakness of divided commands, came at last the appointment of the French
+General, Foch, (March 28,) to absolute command over all the armies of
+the Allies on the western front. For a long time a single command has
+been the one great need to insure military efficiency, and obtaining
+this is an offset against the losses in the battle which brought such a
+command into being.
+
+Throughout the war the great outstanding element of failure for the
+Allies has been lack of co-ordination. The varying aims of the different
+nations in the war have accounted for this to a great degree, but on the
+battlefields of France there should have been no delay in giving the
+command to the chosen General of the nation which had everything at
+stake. All the influence of the United States had been exerted for a
+long time in favor of a single command, and at once the unrestricted use
+of the American force in France was offered to General Foch.
+
+From what has been said of the course of the battle of Picardy, it can
+readily be seen that the task of the new Commander in Chief was one of
+the hardest ever given to a General on taking command of an army. After
+a disaster that had greatly impaired the availability of the troops of
+the Allies, General Foch was obliged to face the culminating effort of
+the greatest military machine in all history with a force placed under
+his command made up of armies that had never been in co-ordination--and
+after the collapse of one of these armies.
+
+Another serious element in the battle in Flanders is the fact that it
+has been necessary to send to this front also French troops from General
+Foch's reserves, making another drain upon these forces. The appointment
+of General Foch to the chief command literally on the battlefield was
+formally confirmed by the British and French Governments in the
+following notice which appeared in Le Temps April 14:
+
+    The British Government and the French Government have agreed to
+    give General Foch the title of Commander in Chief of the allied
+    armies operating in France.
+
+The United States, after having greatly helped to bring about General
+Foch's command, has given a large part of the American force in France
+to be brigaded with the allied troops wherever there are weak spots.
+These factors in the military situation may make it possible for General
+Foch again to assemble a mobile army for a counterstroke against the
+German offensive.
+
+
+PHASES OF THE BATTLE
+
+The first days of April saw the end of the initial phase of the great
+drive. There were other gains that brought the Germans uncomfortably
+near Amiens, but the character of the fighting was similar to that of
+the last three years on the western front. The new line of battle
+extended southwest from Arras, beyond Albert, to the west of Moreuil,
+about nine miles south of Amiens. It lay to the west of Pierrepont and
+Montdidier, curving to the south of Noyon and to the region of the Oise.
+The greatest penetration into the terrain of the Allies had been about
+thirty-five miles. The Berlin War Office announced the capture of 90,000
+prisoners and 1,300 guns in this first phase of the German offensive.
+
+Through the first week of April there was sharp fighting at different
+points in the line, north of Albert, east of Amiens, and on the River
+Oise. In this last region the French, in rectifying their new defense,
+lost 2,000 prisoners, but there was nothing accomplished in any combat
+that meant a tactical change in the general situation. Suddenly, on
+April 8, there were heavy bombardments in the region of La Bass�e and
+Armenti�res, which were followed by strong attacks on this front; and on
+April 9 General Haig reported: "Favored by a thick mist which made
+observation impossible, the enemy succeeded in forcing his way into the
+Allies' positions in the neighborhood of Neuve Chapelle." These attacks
+developed into a second stage of the great German offensive, and, as
+before, the shock of the initial surprise attack seriously impaired the
+British positions. Portuguese troops were reported as fighting with the
+British troops on this sector. On April 10 General Haig reported that
+the Germans had also forced back his line north of Armenti�res. These
+reverses resulted in the capture of Armenti�res on April 11 by the
+Germans, as the city was encircled from the north and south. The Germans
+claimed the capture of the garrison of 3,000 and forty-five guns. The
+battle had spread to a front of about twenty-five miles on April 12,
+with the Germans penetrating to Merville, eleven miles southwest of
+Armenti�res. On this day the German official report claimed 20,000
+prisoners and 200 guns.
+
+
+A HISTORIC ORDER
+
+General Haig issued the following proclamation to his troops on April
+12:
+
+    Three weeks ago today the enemy began his terrific attacks
+    against us on a fifty-mile front. His objects are to separate us
+    from the French, to take the Channel ports, and to destroy the
+    British Army.
+
+    In spite of throwing already 106 divisions into the battle, and
+    enduring the most reckless sacrifice of human life, he has yet
+    made little progress toward his goals.
+
+    We owe this to the determined fighting and self-sacrifice of our
+    troops. Words fail me to express the admiration which I feel for
+    the splendid resistance offered by all ranks of our army under
+    the most trying circumstances.
+
+    Many among us now are tired. To those I would say that victory
+    will belong to the side which holds out the longest. The French
+    Army is moving rapidly and in great force to our support. There
+    is no other course open to us but to fight it out.
+
+    Every position must be held to the last man. There must be no
+    retirement. With our backs to the wall, and believing in the
+    justice of our cause, each one of us must fight to the end. The
+    safety of our homes and the freedom of mankind depend alike upon
+    the conduct of each one of us at this critical moment.
+
+The situation on April 17 was summed up by General Maurice, Director of
+War Operations in the British War Office, in these words:
+
+    The British Army is playing the r�le which it often has played
+    before. It is fighting a Waterloo while Bl�cher is marching to
+    the battlefield.
+
+    The British Army is under a terrible hammering, but, providing
+    we stand that hammering without breaking down, and providing
+    Bl�cher is marching to the battlefield, there is no reason for
+    discouragement.
+
+    The enormous task which the British Army has performed and still
+    is performing may be shown by a few figures. In this battle of
+    Armenti�res the Germans thus far have engaged twenty-eight
+    divisions (392,000 men) and since March 21 they have engaged 126
+    divisions, (1,764,000 men.)
+
+    Of these the British Army alone has engaged seventy-nine,
+    (1,106,000 men,) the French alone have engaged twenty-four,
+    (336,000 men,) and the remainder, twenty-three, (322,000 men,)
+    have been engaged by the British and French together.
+
+    Of the German divisions which the British engaged, twenty-eight
+    have been fought twice and one thrice. Of the German divisions
+    which the French engaged, four have fought twice. Of the German
+    divisions which the French and British engaged together, fifteen
+    have been fought twice and one thrice.
+
+    It is unpleasant business standing the hammering, but so long as
+    we can stand it the only question to be asked is, What is
+    happening to Bl�cher--what has become of the reserves?
+
+Thus the perilous situation stood at the time when this magazine went to
+press--April 19--with the British fighting fiercely in Flanders and
+waiting for Foch to strike with his reserve forces and relieve the
+strain.
+
+
+The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps
+
+By JOHN OXENHAM
+
+
+    _Great work! State work!--willingly done and well,
+    For the men who are doing so much for us
+    Ay--more than words can tell!
+    Right work! White work! faithfully, skillfully done,
+    But the whole of the soul of it will not be known
+    Till the war is properly won._
+
+    They mend the men; they tend the men;
+    They help them carry on;
+    They drop a little veil upon
+    The woes they've undergone.
+
+    They feed the men; they speed the men;
+    They make their daily bread;
+    They mend them while they're living,
+    And they tend them when they're dead.
+
+    There's many a lonely man out there
+    They've saved from black despair;
+    There's many a lowly grave out there
+    Made gracious by their care.
+
+    They toil for them; they moil for them;
+    Help lame dogs over stiles,
+    And do their best to buck them up
+    With cheery words and smiles.
+
+    They're just a little bit of home,
+    Come out to lend a hand.
+    They're gleams of warm bright sunshine
+    In a dreary, weary land.
+
+    They are sweet as pinks and daisies,
+    Just the sight of them is good,
+    When you've lived for eighteen months or so
+    In a sink of Flanders mud.
+
+    _New work, true work, gallantly, patiently done,
+    For the men who are giving their all for us--
+    Your brother, your lover, your son.
+    High work! Thy work, if truly to Thee it's done!--
+    But we never shall know all the debt we owe
+    Till the war is really won._
+
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[1] "And the Germans were actually in some parts within a few yards of
+our front line before any one knew of their approach."--Lloyd George.
+
+
+
+
+Four Epic Weeks of Carnage
+
+By Philip Gibbs
+
+_Special Correspondent with the British Armies_
+
+[Copyrighted in U. S. A.]
+
+    _The first phase of the battle of Picardy, which began March 21,
+    1918, was a vain attempt of the German forces to drive a wedge
+    between the French and British Armies at their point of
+    juncture; the second was an equally unsuccessful attempt to
+    wrest Arras and Vimy Ridge from the British; the third sought to
+    annihilate the British armies in Flanders and break through to
+    the English Channel. The last-named phase was still undecided
+    when this magazine went to press, (April 19.) All three phases
+    were vividly described from day to day by Philip Gibbs. The
+    following narrative is compiled from his dispatches to The New
+    York Times, which are available for Current History Magazine as
+    an affiliated publication of the Times:_
+
+
+Thursday, March 21.--A German offensive against the British front has
+begun. At about 5 o'clock this morning the enemy began an intense
+bombardment of the lines and batteries on a very wide front--something
+like sixty miles, from the country south of the Scarpe and to the west
+of Bullecourt in the neighborhood of Croisilles, as far south as the
+positions between St. Quentin and the British right flank.
+
+After several hours of this hurricane shelling, in which a great deal of
+gas was used, the German infantry advanced and developed attacks against
+a number of strategical points on a very wide front.
+
+Among the places against which they have directed their chief efforts
+are Bullecourt, Lagnecourt, and Noreuil, both west of Cambrai, where
+they once before penetrated the British lines and were slaughtered in
+great numbers; the St. Quentin Ridge, which was on the right of the
+Cambrai fighting, and the villages of Roussoy and Hargicourt, south of
+the Cambrai salient.
+
+_Friday, March 22._--The enemy flung the full weight of his great army
+against the British yesterday. Nearly forty divisions are identified,
+and it is certain that as many as fifty must be engaged. In proportions
+of men, the British are much outnumbered, therefore the obstinacy of
+the resistance of the troops is wonderful. Nine German divisions were
+hurled against three British at one part of the line, and eight against
+two at another. All the storm troops, including the guards, were in
+brand-new uniforms. They advanced in dense masses, and never faltered
+until shattered by the machine-gun fire.
+
+The enemy introduced no new frightfulness, no tanks and no specially
+invented gas, but relied on the power of his artillery and the weight of
+the infantry assault. The supporting waves advanced over the bodies of
+the dead and wounded. The German commanders were ruthless in the
+sacrifice of life, in the hope of overwhelming the defense by the sheer
+weight of numbers.
+
+They had exceeding power in guns. Opposite three of the British
+divisions they had a thousand, and at most parts of the line one to
+every twelve or fifteen yards. They had brought a number of long-range
+guns, probably naval, and their shellfire was scattered as far back as
+twenty-eight miles behind the lines. During the last hour of the
+bombardment they poured out gas shells, and continued to send
+concentrated gas about the British batteries and reserve trenches. The
+atmosphere was filled with poisonous clouds.
+
+_Saturday, March 23._--The enemy has been continuing his attacks all
+day along the whole battlefront and has made further progress at various
+points in spite of the heroic resistance of the British troops, greatly
+outnumbered owing to the enormous concentration of the enemy divisions,
+which are constantly reinforced and passing through one another, so that
+fresh regiments may pursue the assaults.
+
+
+ATTACK AT ST. QUENTIN
+
+The St. Quentin attack began along the whole sweep of the front with six
+hours' bombardment and intense gas shelling of the British batteries,
+and afterward an attack was launched by overwhelming numbers of German
+storm troops. The British battleline was held by some three divisions,
+from a point south of Pontruet to Itancourt, south of the St. Quentin
+Canal. Along this sector the enemy line had been held before the attack
+by three divisions also, but the night before the battle they were
+reinforced until eight German divisions [upward of 100,000 men] were
+massed for assault on a front of some 2,000 yards. I believe this is a
+greater strength than has ever been brought into battle on such a narrow
+front during the whole of this war.
+
+On this sector, the front north and south of St. Quentin, and opposite
+the British line further south, the enemy's intention, as is known from
+prisoners, was to reach the line of the St. Quentin Canal--or the Crozat
+Canal, as it is sometimes called--on the first day, and then advance in
+quick stages westward. The rate of progress was to be eight miles on the
+first day, twelve on the second, and twenty on the third.
+
+In spite of their intense gunfire of massed batteries, supported by
+Austrian howitzers and large numbers of heavy trench mortars, the
+Germans' plans were thwarted so far as this rapidity of progress was
+concerned.
+
+The heavy fog of the early morning on Thursday threw their assault
+troops at some points into wild confusion. The first line of assault,
+each division apparently advancing with two regiments in line, with two
+battalions in line, with the other strength of the divisions following
+in depth, with light machine-gun companies at intervals of 100 yards,
+and then heavy machine guns and field artillery, sometimes became
+hopelessly mixed up with the third and fourth lines, while right
+battalions were confused with left battalions.
+
+This fog and the British machine-gun fire, which caught the German
+waves, checked the pace of their onslaught and caused heavy losses.
+
+The German high command relied entirely on weight of guns and man power
+to break the British resistance, and the driving power of the whole
+monstrous machine was set in movement. The British line was not strong
+enough to hold all the old positions against such a tide of brute force.
+The men served their guns and rifles, but as attack followed attack and
+column followed column, and their own losses increased as the hours
+passed, they were ordered at certain points to give ground and fall
+back, fighting heroic rearguard actions from one position to another.
+
+
+BRITISH LINE BENDS
+
+The main attack, just south of St. Quentin, was directed against
+Urvillers and Essigny, and the enemy forced his way through these places
+by great drives. The British garrison there was partly destroyed by his
+stupendous gunfire. He gained possession of Essigny before midday, March
+21, and captured Contescourt, on the edge of the canal. This gave him
+important high ground, of which he made full use.
+
+He succeeded by this movement in bending in the British line at the
+right flank of the Ulster division, north of the canal, which he crossed
+hereabout, and by advancing his field artillery was able to bombard the
+line to which the main body of the British troops had been withdrawn.
+Down from Maissemy and Holnon Wood to Savy and Roupy he pressed forward
+against this line.
+
+The enemy was so densely massed that there was a division on about a
+kilometer of front. None of them spread out on more than two kilometers
+for a division, with a battalion for every 500 yards.
+
+German storm troops were able to force their way to Vendeuil,
+Lyfontaine, and Benay, south of Essigny, and to strike against Jussy and
+Tergnier, on the St. Quentin Canal, on the evening of the first day.
+
+They brought up two more divisions, and that night, owing to the
+pressure of their attacks, it was decided that the British withdraw to a
+prepared line further west, which was the best defense. This was done
+during the darkness, the retirement being covered by gallant rearguards.
+
+This morning the Germans followed up our withdrawal by clearing up all
+the ground in the bend formed by the acute angle of the St. Quentin
+Canal, which has its apex at Ugny, six kilometers east of Ham, and it
+was reported that their patrols had entered the town of Ham itself.
+
+
+CROSSING THE SOMME
+
+_Monday, March 25._--The enemy fought fiercely yesterday to gain a
+crossing over the Somme south of P�ronne. He flung across a pontoon
+bridge and rafts, and his men tried to cross, but the British field
+artillery, firing at short range, smashed up many of these bridges and
+killed his engineers and infantry. Gallant counterattacks by some of the
+British flung him back across the river at several points, but elsewhere
+he held his crossing long enough to put over some of his forces.
+
+All the fighting in this part of the country since March 21 has been a
+continuous battle, in which the British divisions holding the front line
+below Gouzeaucourt to Maissemy have shown magnificent powers of
+endurance, as indeed have all the others engaged, and have only yielded
+ground under pressure of overwhelming numbers and great gunfire.
+
+There was a bloody struggle in some old chalk quarries, where many
+German dead now lie, and after the enemy had come some way forward ten
+British tanks drove into him and shattered some of his battalions with
+their machine-gun fire, dispersing groups of his advancing units. The
+tanks manoeuvred about, firing continually on each flank and causing
+terror among the enemy's foremost assault troops. The British fought a
+number of rearguard actions and made many counterattacks in the
+neighborhood of Roisel, and fell back to the line of the Somme only when
+new masses of Germans passed through those battalions which they had met
+and beaten.
+
+
+SLAUGHTER OF GERMANS
+
+The British gunners were firing hour after hour at large bodies of
+Germans moving so close to them that the guns were laid directly on to
+their targets, and caused deadly losses in these ranks of field-gray men
+who never ceased to come forward in a living tide at whatever cost of
+life and bore down on the defensive lines. Under this ceaseless tide
+some of the British guns had to be abandoned, but many of them were
+withdrawn to the other side of the Somme, and the gunners were wonderful
+in the skill and courage with which they made this passage, took up new
+positions, and went into action again like exhibition batteries at Earls
+Court.
+
+By Saturday morning the German troops were exhausted and spent, and in
+some parts of the line made no further effort for a time, but halted to
+gain some sleep and await fresh rations. On Saturday and Sunday the
+British, who had had no rest from fighting, were reinforced and given
+some relief, though many of them were again engaged, and, weary as they
+were, put up gallant fights against the enemy, who also had been
+reinforced by great numbers and came on again in an unending onslaught.
+
+
+FIGHTING AGAINST ODDS
+
+_Tuesday, March 26._--Since yesterday morning the enemy has continued
+his violent thrusts against the British line westward from Bapaume and
+P�ronne, and his massed troops, mostly Brandenburgers and picked troops,
+are now advancing in the direction of Roye and Nesle, where French
+troops are heavily engaged.
+
+At the same time he is passing on over the old Somme battlefields down
+from Delville Wood, High Wood, and Maurepas toward the old lines the
+British held before the beginning of the Somme battles in 1916.
+
+The enemy has paused since he began the great offensive, on Thursday
+last, only to bring up new divisions and pass them through and beyond
+those divisions exhausted by attack or shattered under the British fire
+while they reform and rest and then come on again, relieved once more by
+reserves and continually crowding over the captured ground. By this
+means, and owing to the enormous forces at the disposal of the German
+command, they are able to pursue any advantage gained with fresh troops
+against the hard-pressed British, who have been fighting without respite
+since the beginning of the battle, six days ago, except where on the
+right some of them have now been replaced in the front line by French
+battalions.
+
+In spite of the gravity of these hours and the progress made by the
+enemy, there never has been a more glorious spirit shown by British
+troops throughout history, and when one day all the details of this
+battle may be written it will be an epic of heroism more wonderful than
+the world now realizes, for the British troops and their officers have
+withstood an onslaught of enormous forces which have never been less
+than two to one, and in most parts of the line have been four to one and
+six to one and eight to one, nine divisions against three around
+Croisilles, eight divisions against two from the Cambrai sector
+westward, and in many places one division against one battalion.
+
+
+WEARIED BY ENDLESS BATTLE
+
+Our men have been fighting for six days and nights like this, after the
+first storm of shells and gas, until their beards have grown long and
+their faces haggard and worn for lack of sleep, and their clothes have
+become torn on wire and covered with dust of mud and chalk. I saw a
+small party of them today so weary with this endless battle they could
+hardly walk, and they were holding hands like tired children and leaning
+against each other like drunken men, but for the most part they hold
+their heads up gamely, because so far luck has been against them.
+
+The whole movement of the army under the necessity of withdrawal from
+fixed positions is as orderly as though on manoeuvres in England. I can
+say honestly I have seen no officer show sign of being flurried.
+
+It is all an amazing drama, because this open warfare is a new thing to
+the army, and the menace of the enemy is strong and serious, and
+retirement under the terrific pressure of the human avalanche now hurled
+against the defenders is by no means pleasant. But in the inevitable
+turmoil of this situation, in roads crowded with traffic of men and
+guns, in villages seething with troops rushed up toward the battle line,
+on the field of battle itself, the British Army retains its
+self-control, its will power, and its supreme, inspired courage.
+
+
+THE ATTACK AT ALBERT
+
+_Wednesday, March 27._--The enemy has not made further advances on a big
+scale between the Arras-Bapaume road on the left of the battlefront and
+the village of Bray, on the Somme, but has paused in his massed attacks
+in order to reorganize his line and bring up artillery.
+
+There are heavy concentrations of German storm troops behind Maurepas,
+Ginchy, and Beugnatre, and the roads around Bapaume have been crowded
+with men and guns and transport passing down through Le Sars, with
+German cavalry along the Bapaume-Gudecourt road and a steady drift
+downward to the town of Albert.
+
+That poor, stricken city of the golden Virgin, head downward, with her
+babe in her outstretched arms, which I described so often in accounts of
+the battles of the Somme in 1916, when that falling statue was lit up by
+shellfire, was yesterday in the centre of the fighting north of the
+Somme. [The golden Virgin and tower were destroyed later.] The night
+before their assault yesterday they bombed it heavily from the air,
+using the brilliant moonlight, which lay white over all the battlefields
+and these roofs, to fly low and pick their targets wherever they saw
+men moving or horses tethered.
+
+In several cases it was not men they hit, but women and children who,
+when the war seemed to have passed from this place a year ago, crept
+back to their homes and built little wooden booths in which they sold
+papers and picture postcards to the troops. Now suddenly the war has
+flamed over them again and they were caught, before they could escape,
+by thunderbolts out of the shining moonlight, terribly clear and
+revealing dead horses about the ruined streets.
+
+
+TRYING TO TAKE ARRAS
+
+_Friday, March 29._--The enemy's pressure has for the time being relaxed
+a little across the Somme, east of Corbie, and whatever effort he has
+made during the last day and night has been repulsed with the most heavy
+losses.
+
+Yesterday the most exciting situation and the fiercest struggle was on
+the left of the British battleline, from Gavrelle southward to below the
+Scarpe. It was a deliberate, resolute effort by the enemy to capture
+Arras. Three divisions of special storm troops, the 184th, 12th, and
+27th Reserve, had been brought up for this purpose, though one of them
+had been engaged before and roughly handled. They were ordered to take
+Arras yesterday at all costs, and before their advance very heavy
+bombardment was flung over the British lines from about 5 o'clock in the
+morning for several hours.
+
+Their main thrust was toward Roeux, that frightful little village, with
+its chemical works, which I used to write about so much in April and May
+last. Once again yesterday it became a shambles. The British had machine
+guns well placed with a wide field of fire, and as the Germans came down
+the slopes they were swept with streams of bullets, which cut swaths in
+their formations, but once again, as on March 21, the enemy was reckless
+of life, theirs as well as the British, and always his tide of men
+flowed forward, passing over dead and wounded, and creeping forward like
+flowing water. The British field guns raked them while the heavies
+pulled further back to avoid being blown up or captured.
+
+
+FIGHT FOR ORANGE HILL
+
+On and about Orange Hill and Telegraph Hill British battalions who know
+this ground of old fought tenaciously under murderous machine-gun fire,
+the enemy's screen of infantry covering machine-gun batteries which were
+rushed forward very quickly and took up positions in shell holes and
+behind bits of broken wall and any kind of cover, in ditches and sunken
+roads.
+
+A footing gained by the enemy on part of Orange Hill and Infantry Hill
+rendered it necessary to fall back yesterday toward the old German
+support lines before that battle in April, 1917. The British fought like
+tigers, and would not retire until the pressure on them made it
+impossible to resist the continual thrust of new attacks by fresh
+troops. There were heroic actions by small groups of men struggling to
+hold up the front line, and some of them stayed so long after the enemy
+had broken beyond them that they were cut off.
+
+Frightful fighting was happening not far from Neuville, Vitasse, and
+Mercatel and in this neighborhood the British held out with wonderful
+determination until exhausted by battle and until only a poor remnant of
+men had strength to stand against these massed attacks.
+
+By the end of the day the enemy's assaults weakened, and then died out
+because his losses were enormous and the spirit of his attack was broken
+by such stubborn resistance.
+
+
+ENEMY FAILS AT ARRAS
+
+_Sunday, March 31._--We now have knowledge that the attack on Arras was
+prepared on a scale of enormous strength by divisions arranged in depth,
+preceded by a bombardment as great as that which fell upon any part of
+the British line on the morning of March 21, and that the enemy had
+determined to capture not only Arras itself but Vimy Ridge.
+
+It was the heroic resistance of the British troops that defeated this
+furious onslaught and destroyed by enormous losses to the German troops
+this dark scheme of their high command. Seven German divisions were in
+position north of the Scarpe and twelve south, in an arc around the
+defenses of Arras.
+
+The brunt of this attack, preceded by colossal gunfire, fell upon London
+troops, and against these the German tides dashed and broke. By
+artillery fire, machine-gun fire, and rifle fire, the enemy's advancing
+waves of men were swept to pieces, and though they came on again and
+again this massacre continued until at last it must have sickened even
+the high German officers directing the operations from behind. The
+attacks died out and the night was quiet around Arras while the enemy
+collected his wounded. It was an utter defeat which will at least check
+German efforts around Arras.
+
+On this Easter Sunday, under bright sunshine which is breaking through
+the storm clouds, the fields of France are strewn with death. A year ago
+it was the same around the old City of Artois, for it was on Easter
+Sunday, April 2, that we began the battle of Arras and fought over that
+ground which is again our battlefield, and it was a great anthem of
+gunfire which rose up to the sky on Easter morn.
+
+Apart from all regrets at having had to fall back at all and at having
+suffered losses for which there is mourning in our hearts, because so
+many splendid men have fallen on the field of honor--that terrible field
+of honor which will be watered with tears for all time--we may at least
+rejoice that by the skill of our fighting officers and the steady
+courage of our men our line was brought back unbroken.
+
+
+Heroic Cavalry Charge
+
+_Monday, April 1._--The battle of which I have been trying to give a
+daily narrative has been on so vast a scale, filled with so many
+episodes of terrific adventure and with so many hundreds of thousands of
+men moving along its lines of fire that I find it impossible to give a
+picture of the emotion and spirit of it. We out here, who knew this
+thing was coming upon us, creeping nearer every day with its monstrous
+menace, held our breath and waited. When at last the thing broke it was
+more frightful in its loosing of overwhelming powers than even we had
+guessed. Since then all our armies have lived with an intense
+understanding of the greatness of these days, of their meaning to the
+destiny of the world, and every private soldier, or transport driver, or
+linesman, or laborer, has been exalted by an emotion stronger than the
+effect of drugs.
+
+In the wood of Moreuil this morning British cavalry performed a feat as
+fine as the Balaklava charge, and this also should be made into a ballad
+and learned by heart.
+
+Twelve hundred men who had been riding through the night went forward in
+three waves and charged that dark wood next morning at a hard gallop.
+The first wave rode to the edge of the wood, and the second to the
+centre, and the third wave went right through to the other side, riding
+through the enemy and over his machine guns and in the face of a hail of
+bullets from hidden machines. They cleared the wood of Moreuil and
+brought back prisoners and thirteen machine guns, but there were many
+empty saddles, and many men and horses fell.
+
+That was the finest exploit of the British 'Cavalry, but elsewhere it
+did splendid work, and everywhere the men were gallant and cool, as when
+some of the dragoons came under a heavy shrapnel fire near Gentille, and
+many men had to shoot their wounded horses to put them out of their
+agony.
+
+
+Dashing Canadians
+
+Away from Arras and down on the south of the line a certain body of
+Canadians have been having some of the most astounding adventures in all
+this battle, and fighting with valor and heroic audacity. They are
+officers and men of a machine gun detachment organized in the early days
+of the war by a French Canadian officer.
+
+For ten days these Canadians have fought running fights with the German
+artillery, have engaged German cavalry and smashed them, have checked
+enemy columns crossing bridges and pouring onward, have scattered large
+bodies of men surrounding British troops, and in ten days of crowded
+life have destroyed many German storm troops and helped to hold up the
+tide of their advance. Their own losses have not been light, for these
+Canadians have been filled with a grim passion of determination, and
+when the supreme test came they fought and died.
+
+Sometimes they fought in long gray open cars, and sometimes they fought
+dismounted, with machine guns on the ground; but always they fought
+through the ten days and nights, with less than twenty hours' sleep all
+that time. These cars near Maricourt gathered together 150 men who had
+been cut off and held the enemy at bay, covering the withdrawal of some
+of the British heavy guns and tanks. At that time they fought
+dismounted, with Vickers guns, in front of the barbed wire. The
+Canadians had many casualties, and a Captain's arm was torn away by an
+explosive bullet, and at last only a Sergeant and two men of the battery
+were left unwounded. One of them mounted a motor cycle and brought back
+cars and took back the wounded. Two cars found the enemy massing up a
+road, and their machine guns enfiladed the field-gray men and killed
+them in large numbers.
+
+Near La Motte they fought heavy bodies of German cavalry, killed a
+number, and put the rest to flight. They have not been seen since. At
+Cerisy a battalion of Germans, 600 strong, was encountered at a
+crossroads by one car, which brought them to a standstill and dispersed
+them with heavy losses. Everywhere they have been these Canadian armored
+cars have helped to steady the line and give confidence to the infantry.
+
+
+British Airmen at Work
+
+_Thursday, April 4._--It has been raining hard these two nights past and
+this morning. For the German gunners trying to drag up field artillery
+or long-range guns there is now sticky bog and slime to come through. It
+is hard work for the German field companies, pressed furiously, to lay
+narrow-gauge lines over these deserts. All that spells delay in their
+plans and loss of life.
+
+There is terror for the enemy over these fields in daylight and
+darkness, for the British flying men have gone out in squadrons to
+scatter death and destruction among them. This work has reached
+fantastic heights of horror for the German troops under the menace of
+it. There have been times when, I believe, the British have had as many
+as 300 airplanes up at one time. One squadron alone on one night dropped
+six tons of bombs over enemy concentrations, and each man went out six
+times. Another squadron went out four times in one night, and was
+bombing for eleven hours.
+
+When the enemy was advancing in masses the British flying men flew as
+low as 100 feet, dropping bombs among them and firing into them with
+machine guns. They attacked German patrols of cavalry and scattered them
+and machine-gunned trenches full of men, batteries in action and
+transport crowding down narrow roads. They fought German scouts and
+crushed them, and there are several cases in which they fought German
+airplanes at night, so that it was like a fight between vampire bats up
+there where the clouds were touched by moonlight.
+
+
+North of the Somme
+
+_Friday, April 5._--Heavy attacks by the enemy are in progress north of
+the Somme, from Albert to Aveluy Wood. Further north there is separate
+fighting in progress round about the village of Ayette--such a wretched
+little place of brickdust and broken walls when I saw it last on the way
+from Arras to Bapaume--and the enemy is trying to recapture this, his
+fire reaching to villages several thousand yards behind the British
+front.
+
+The British troops in this district are defending their positions
+resolutely, and the first reports indicate that the German storm troops
+are suffering under their machine-gun fire, after being shelled in their
+assembly places by heavy and field artillery.
+
+
+A Valley of Death
+
+_Sunday, April 7._--Since the heavy fights on Friday, when the enemy
+made a series of vain attacks against the British north of Albert, there
+has been no battle. The Germans are still struggling hard to get their
+guns, especially the heavy guns, further forward and to reorganize their
+divisions.
+
+They have no peace or quiet, for they are under a harassing fire, and
+along the valley of the Ancre, above Albert, in that stinking ditch
+between Bouzeincourt and Aveluy and Mesnil and Thiepval, where foul
+water lies stagnant below rows of dead, lopped trees and frightful
+smells arise from the relics of battles two weeks ago, their men are
+very wretched. Here in this valley of death, for it was that, and behind
+in the old fields of the Somme, the German troops have no cover from
+storms or shellfire.
+
+
+Battle of Armenti�res
+
+_Tuesday, April 9._--A heavy and determined attack was begun against us
+this morning a considerable distance north of our recent battles on
+about eleven miles of front between Armenti�res and La Bass�e Canal.
+This new attack was preceded by a long, concentrated bombardment, which
+had gradually been increasing during the last day or two, until it
+reached great heights of fury last night and early this morning. The
+enemy used poison gas in immense quantities; during the night he flung
+over 60,000 gas shells in order to create a wide zone of this evil vapor
+and stupefy the gunners, transport, and infantry.
+
+His gunfire reached out to many towns and villages behind the allied
+lines, like B�thune and Armenti�res, Vermelles and Philosophe, Merville
+and Estaires, and this did not cease around Armenti�res until 11:30 this
+morning, though further south from Fleurbaix his infantry attack was in
+progress at an early hour, certainly by 8 o'clock, and his barrage
+lifted in order to let his troops advance.
+
+Part of the line was held by Portuguese troops, who for a long time have
+been between Laventie and Neuve Chapelle, holding positions which were
+subject to severe raids from time to time. They are now in the thick of
+this battle, most fiercely beset and fighting gallantly.
+
+
+Formidable New Offensive
+
+_Wednesday, April 10._--It is now clear that the attack between
+Armenti�res and Givenchy is a new and formidable offensive. It also is
+made certain by this new thrust that the German high command have
+decided to throw the full weight of their armies against the British in
+an endeavor to destroy their forces in Northern France instead of
+dividing their efforts by striking also at the French. It is a menace
+which calls for a supreme effort of the armies of Great Britain and her
+allies.
+
+Yesterday the enemy struck north on the British left, beginning in the
+flat grounds opposite Neuve Chapelle as the centre of the thrust, with
+Fleurbaix to the north and Givenchy to the south, and extending this
+morning further north still above Armenti�res, and including the ridge
+of Messines.
+
+An enormous gunfire was directed against the British positions along all
+this line last night again after yesterday morning's bombardment, and
+continued without pause through a very unquiet night, when all through
+the hours this tumult of great guns beat upon one's ears with continued
+drumfire, and all the sky was full of flame and light.
+
+This morning again when I went up into French Flanders and through the
+villages which the enemy had been shelling regardless of the women and
+children there, this frightful, unceasing thunder was as loud as ever
+and told one without further news that the battle was still going on and
+that the Germans were extending its zone.
+
+
+Portuguese Are Hard Hit
+
+It was a tragedy for the Portuguese that the heaviest bombardment in the
+storm of gunfire, as terrible in its fury as anything of the kind since
+March 21, was directed against the centre, which they held. It was
+annihilating to their outposts and smashed their front-line defenses,
+which were stoutly held. It beat backward and forward in waves of high
+explosives from the trench line opposite Neuve Chapelle to the second
+line, opposite Fauquissart and Richebourg St. Vaast. Large numbers of
+heavy guns also searched behind these defense systems for crossroads,
+ammunition dumps, railways, villages, and headquarters or units, while
+the Portuguese batteries were assailed with gas shells and flying steel.
+
+The Portuguese front line was overwhelmed by the intensity of the
+bombardment, and, although some of their outposts held on, fighting
+gallantly to the last man, their line had to fall back to the second
+system. This was attacked by enemy assault troops and between 6 and 7 in
+the morning they had reached Fauquissart. The barrage lifted at 7
+o'clock for a general attack on the second line. Here the strongest body
+of Portuguese troops fought stubbornly, but by 11 o'clock the Germans
+forced their way through to Laventie and the position round Fleurbaix
+was threatened.
+
+The Portuguese field artillery served their guns as long as possible and
+destroyed the breechblocks whenever it became inevitable that they would
+have to leave a gun behind. The Portuguese gunners were attached to the
+British heavy batteries and behaved with special courage.
+
+
+Bloody Valley of the Lys
+
+_Thursday, April 11._--Yesterday afternoon and today the enemy exerted
+all his strength in men and guns in the battle now raging from the River
+Lys to Wytschaete. Once again the British are outnumbered, and it is
+only by the courage and stubborn will of battalions weakened by losses
+and of individual soldiers animating their comrades by acts of brave
+example that the enemy has been unable to make rapid progress and, as at
+Wytschaete and Messines, has been flung back with most bloody losses.
+
+The British had to give ground along the Lys Canal south of Armenti�res,
+blowing bridges behind them and the railway bridge at Armenti�res, and
+the enemy is now trying to thrust forward south of Merville by bending
+back the British line from Lestrem and getting his guns across the Lys.
+
+This morning there was a ceaseless tumult of gunfire, loud and terrible,
+over all this countryside. There were strange and terrible scenes on all
+the roads leading to the battle zone where British infantry and gunners
+were going forward to stem the tide. Masses of transport moved and
+civilians passed them in retreat to villages outside the wide area of
+shell range, and wounded men came staggering down afoot, if they could
+walk, or were brought down by ambulances, threading their way through
+all this surge and swell of war.
+
+Here and there stretcher bearers waited with their burdens on the
+roadsides. Among them were men of the Black Watch, with the red hackle
+in their bonnets, calm and grave like statues beside their wounded
+comrades lying there with white, upturned faces and never a murmur or
+groan. They were the heroes who yesterday, with gallant hearts, came up
+at a great pace when the enemy was in Wytschaete and Messines, and in a
+fierce counterattack drove him off the crest of the ridge and dealt him
+a deadly blow there on that high ground, which was won in the battle of
+last June, when English, Irish, and New Zealand troops stormed the ridge
+and captured thousands of prisoners.
+
+The enemy yesterday fell in great numbers and his dead lie thick, and
+though he came on wave after wave, after all his day's agony and
+struggle he had not gained a yard of the crest, but was beaten back.
+
+
+English in Death Struggle
+
+_Friday, April 12._--The enemy is playing a great game in which he is
+flinging all he has into the hazard of war. He has, of course, a
+stupendous number of men, and, while holding his lines across the Somme
+after his drive down from St. Quentin and playing a defensive part
+against the French on the British right, he has moved up to the north
+with secrecy and rapidity a large concentration of troops and guns for
+new and tremendous blows against Haig's forces. This is continuing his
+now determined policy to crush England before either France or America
+is able to draw off his divisions by counteroffensives.
+
+So now the British troops in the north are faced by enormous forces.
+Nearly thirty German divisions are against them from Wytschaete to La
+Bass�e Canal, and with those troops are innumerable machine guns, trench
+mortars, and massed batteries of field guns, very quick to get forward
+in support of their infantry.
+
+This northern offensive is as menacing as that which began to the
+southward on March 21, and the gallant men among these little red brick
+villages in French Flanders and in the flat fields between Bailleul and
+B�thune are greatly outnumbered and can hold back the enemy only by
+fighting with supreme courage.
+
+
+Horrors Amid Beauty
+
+The scene today along the line of this hostile invasion was most tragic,
+because all the cruelty of war was surrounded by beauty so intense that
+the contrast was horrible. The sky was of Summer blue, with sunshine
+glittering on the red-tiled roofs of the cottages and on their
+whitewashed walls and little windowpanes. All the hedges were clothed
+with green and flaked by snow-white thorn blossoms.
+
+In a night, as it seems, all the orchards of France have flowered, and
+cherry and apple trees are in full splendor of bloom, fields are
+powdered with close-growing daisies, and the shadows of trees are long
+across the grass as the sun is setting. But over all this and in the
+midst of all this is agony and blood. On the roads are fugitives,
+wounded soldiers, dead horses, guns, and transports.
+
+There are fires burning on the hillsides. I saw their flames and their
+great, rolling clouds of smoke rise this morning from places where the
+day before I had seen French peasants plowing as though no war were
+near, and young girls scattering grain over the fields harrowed by their
+small brothers, and old women bending to the soil in the small
+farmsteads where all their life was centred, until suddenly the
+frightful truth touched them and they had to leave their homes.
+
+Sometimes today I wished to God the sun would not shine like this nor
+nature mock at me with its thrilling-beauty of life. However, the
+British are full of confidence. If they were forced back they are glad
+to know that they made the enemy pay heavy prices and that their line is
+still unbroken. They are full of faith that against all odds they shall
+hold their own in the last battle of all.
+
+
+Men Utterly Weary
+
+_Sunday, April 14._--The Commander in Chief's order of the day should
+reveal to the British people and to the world what is happening out here
+in France--the enemy's object to seize the Channel ports and destroy the
+British Army, and the frightful forces he has brought against it to
+achieve that plan, and the call that has come to the troops to hold
+every position to the last man. "Many among us now are tired. * * * With
+our back to the wall each one of us must fight to the end."
+
+Yes, the men are tired, so tired after weeks of fighting, after these
+last days and nights, that they can hardly stagger up to resist another
+attack, yet they do so because their spirit wakes again above their
+bodily fatigue; so tired that they go on fighting like sleep-walkers,
+and in any respite lie in ditches and under hedges and in open fields
+under fire in deep slumber until the shouts of their Sergeants stir them
+again. Some of these men have been fighting since March 21 with only a
+few days' rest.
+
+To people living in the villages of Flanders, from which one can see the
+whole sweep of the battleline, Friday night was full of terror, and from
+the windows they watched the burning of places from which they had
+escaped and the bonfires of their homes, and these refugees while
+sleeping with children at their breast wept.
+
+Yesterday it was a drama of noise, beating against one's ears and
+against one's heart, and it was a strange, terrible thing to stand
+there, blind, as it were, listening to the infernal tumult of gunfire
+south of Bailleul, with knockings and sledgehammer strokes, loud and
+shocking, above the incessant drumfire of field artillery.
+
+The German shells came howling over into fields and villages beyond
+Bailleul, bursting with gruff coughs, and there was an evil snarl of
+shrapnel in the mist. It was the noise of the greatest battle in
+history.
+
+
+Fall of Neuve Eglise
+
+_Monday, April 15._--In the attempt to surround Bailleul two heavy
+attacks were made--one on the west toward Meteren, and one on the east
+at Neuve Eglise. Near Meteren the enemy failed utterly and suffered
+immense losses. There has been fierce fighting around a place called the
+Steam Mill, near Meteren, the enemy having been ordered to capture the
+Meteren road and the high ground beyond it at whatever sacrifice. They
+made the sacrifice, but did not get the ground.
+
+Neuve Eglise, however, is now theirs. Last night the British troops who
+had held it through three days and nights of intense strife withdrew,
+unknown to the enemy, to a line a short distance back from the village,
+in order to avoid remaining a target for unceasing shellfire.
+
+It is now the enemy's soldiers who this morning are in the ruins under
+the great bombardment. This battle at Neuve Eglise has been filled with
+grim episodes, for the village changed hands several times. Each side
+fought most fiercely, with any kind of weapon, small bodies of men
+attacking and counterattacking among the broken walls and bits of houses
+and under the stump of the church tower deathtrap, as it now is for
+them. Without yielding to the direct assaults, the British obeyed
+orders, stumbled out of the place, silently and unknown to the enemy,
+and took up a line further back.
+
+On the night before last the British line fell back from near La Ch�che
+and swung around in a loop south of Neuve Eglise toward Ravelsberg Farm.
+It was then that Neuve Eglise itself became a place of hellish battle.
+
+The enemy broke through into its ruined streets, and small parties of
+Wiltshires, Worcesters, and others sprang on the Germans or were killed.
+They fought desperately in backyards, over broken walls, and in
+shell-pierced houses, wherever they could find Germans or hear the
+tattoo of machine guns.
+
+Several times the enemy was cleared out of most of the town, and the
+British held a hollow square containing most of the streets and defended
+it as a kind of fortress, though with dwindling numbers, under a heavy
+fire of shells and trench mortars and machine guns.
+
+
+Capture of Bailleul
+
+_Tuesday, April 16._--It seemed inevitable after the British loss of
+Neuve Eglise that the enemy should make a quick and strong effort to
+capture Bailleul, and this he did last night by putting into the battle
+three divisions of fresh assaulting troops not previously used, and thus
+encircling that city by fierce attacks on ground southeast and east,
+including the ridge of Le Ravetsberg and Mont de Lille. His troops
+included his Alpine corps of Jaegers and possibly a Bavarian division
+and the 117th Division. Among the men defending the city against these
+heavy forces were the Staffords and Notts and Derbies.
+
+Yesterday when I was in the country around Bailleul the enemy's guns
+were working up for this new attack, and there was a continual
+bombardment spreading up to Wytschaete Ridge. Heavy shells were being
+flung into Bailleul itself, and the smoke of fires was rising like mist
+from small towns and villages like Meteren and Morbecque down to
+Merville.
+
+The British guns were also pounding the enemy's positions, and through
+that the concentrations of Germany--infantry, guns, transport, and
+cavalry--were moving up the roads in and north of Merville. The enemy
+must have lost severely again, for the British were stubborn in defense,
+but their machine-gun fire must have been of a deadly nature owing to
+their positions along the railway and on the ridge; but the enemy
+advanced upon them in waves, striking upon both sides of Bailleul, so
+that after great resistance the line was withdrawn beyond the town.
+
+The capture of this city belongs to the third great attack which has
+been delivered by the enemy since March 21. Always he has massed his
+strength opposite the British lines and struck with full weight against
+their troops. In the first phase down from St. Quentin and the Cambrai
+salient the French came to their help and relieved them by their gallant
+aid, but the Germans then edged away from the French to strike the
+British again, this time at Arras, where they failed.
+
+A third phase has now followed in this northern blow and once again the
+British have had to sustain the abominable pressure of German divisions
+constantly relieved and supported by fresh divisions passing through
+them, while the British troops fight on and on, killing the enemy in
+large numbers, but having to withdraw to new lines of defense. Under
+these enormous odds their heroism and their sacrifices are beyond words
+that may be uttered except in the silence of one's heart.
+
+
+Wonderful Panorama
+
+_Wednesday, April 17._--Yesterday morning the fortune of war seemed
+again in favor of the enemy by the capture of Wytschaete Ridge down to
+Spanbroekmolen and by the entry of Meteren, west of Bailleul. The
+hard-pressed British troops were forced to give ground at both these
+places, after a grand resistance which cost the enemy many lives, but in
+the evening counterattacks hurled the enemy back from Wytschaete
+village, that pile of brick dust above stumps of dead trees which were
+Wytschaete Wood, and in a separate battle west of Bailluel the British
+regained, at least for a time, a part of Meteren. This morning renewed
+counterattacks gave them back all of Meteren and the enemy garrison
+there was destroyed.
+
+I watched the battle last night and again this morning from the centre
+of the arc of fire, which was like a loop flung around from Wytschaete
+to Bailleul and in a sharp curve around to Merris and the country about
+Merville, so that the great gunfire and whole sweep of battle were close
+about on three sides.
+
+It was an astounding panorama of open warfare, such as I never dreamed
+of seeing on this western front, where for so long both sides were
+hemmed in by trenches. Bailleul was still blazing. In the early evening,
+after a wet, misty day which filled all this battlefield with a whitish
+fog, one could only see that city under a cloud, but as the sky darkened
+and the wind blew some mist away enormous flames burned redly in the
+poor dead heart of Bailleul, and in their glare there were dark masses
+of walls and broken roofs outlined jaggedly by fire.
+
+To the left the village of Locre was aflame under a storm of high
+explosives, and the enemy's guns were putting heavy shells down the
+roads which lead out to that place.
+
+There were fires of burning farms and hamlets as far southward as
+Merville behind one, as one stood looking out to Bailleul, and lesser
+fires of single cottages and haystacks, and the wind drifted all the
+smoke of them across the sky in long white ribbons.
+
+
+Drumfire Rocks Earth
+
+It was just before dusk when the counterattacks began northward from
+Wytschaete and southward from Meteren, and although before then there
+had been a steady slogging of guns and howling of shells, at that time
+this volume of dreadful noise increased tremendously, and drumfire broke
+out in fury, so that the sky and earth trembled with it. It was like the
+beating of all the drums of the world in muffled tattoo, above which and
+through which there were enormous clangoring hammer strokes from the
+British and German heavies.
+
+It went on till evening, with a few pale gleams of sun through storm
+clouds and the smoke of guns, and for miles all this panorama of battle
+was boiling and seething with bursting shells and curling wreaths of
+smoke from the batteries in action.
+
+When darkness came each battery was revealed by its flashes, and all the
+fields around were filled with red winkings and sharp stabs of flame.
+There was no real darkness of night, for every second the sky was
+crossed by rushes of light and burning beacons in many places, and gun
+flashes etched outlines of trees and cottages.
+
+The general situation today is in our favor for the time being by the
+recapture of Wytschaete and Meteren and the repulse of many German
+attacks, but it is with natural regret one hears of the withdrawal from
+the heights east of Ypres in order to straighten the line and economize
+men. There was one other regret today, though only sentimental. The
+enemy knocked down the Albert church tower, the tower of the golden
+Virgin, who had bent head downward over that ruined city with her babe
+outstretched. It was a great landmark bound up with all our memories.
+
+
+
+
+How General Carey Saved Amiens
+
+A Pivotal Episode in the Great Battle
+
+
+One of the most dramatic episodes of the battle of Picardy was the
+disaster which befell the 5th British Army, under General Gough, and the
+brilliant way in which it was retrieved by Brig. Gen. Sandeman Carey,
+who was warmly complimented by Premier Lloyd George in his man-power
+speech, (Page 263.)
+
+Sir Hubert Gough's army was sent down in January to take over from the
+French a sector forty to fifty miles long. Clearly such a line as this
+could be held only if it were strongly located and cunningly
+constructed, and there is no doubt that it was. Three lines were
+designed: First, an outpost line, then a "line of resistance," and then
+a "battleline." The outpost line was designed with special care. It
+consisted of a number of separate posts so located as to provide for a
+cross-fire on any enemy that penetrated them. It was intended to be held
+until the last gasp, and it was presumed that the Germans might pass
+through it, but that they would be terribly punished by the garrisons of
+the isolated posts.
+
+In one way the attack was not a surprise. General Gough had known for
+days that it was imminent, and had moved his men up to their positions
+and made every preparation possible. But one thing he could not foresee
+or guard against--the mist and fog. Under cover of the mist, which
+prevented sight for more than thirty yards, the Germans crept forward,
+and the outpost line was overrun before the alarm could be given. It was
+simply swamped, and the cross-fire on which so much depended was never
+delivered.
+
+Consequently the fight began at the line of resistance instead, and
+before many hours had passed by sheer weight of numbers the Germans had
+forced the British back on the battleline. Then the fewness of numbers
+began to tell, and, as always at points of junction between divisions,
+the Germans got through between the 7th and 19th, the 19th and 18th, and
+the 3d and 18th. The whole line was broken up, and it seemed as if the
+road was open to Amiens.
+
+Meanwhile it was impossible for the French reinforcements to come up as
+quickly as was necessary, and the retreat began. Bridges were not blown
+up for the simple reason that the parties of engineers were all killed.
+Every kind of soldier that could be collected was hastily thrown into
+action to fill the gap--including a strong contingent of American
+engineers.
+
+Close to where the gap occurred was a training school for machine
+gunners. Of course, the men in training had long since been hurried into
+action, but a large supply of machine guns remained. It is not every
+soldier, however, who understands how to use these weapons, and the
+officer found himself with a large supply of them which at all costs he
+must prevent from being captured, and very few men able to handle them.
+Those who could were put in charge of squads, and whenever they had a
+moment's respite from turning them on the Germans they set to work to
+give hurried instructions.
+
+Orders came to General Carey at 2 A. M., March 26, to hold the gap. He
+went to work at once to develop the plans that had been hurriedly laid
+out. He organized a scratch force by telephone, messengers, and flag
+signals. Every available man--laborer, raw recruit, sapper,
+engineer--was rounded up. By the middle of the next morning Carey had
+found a considerable number of men, and by the early part of the
+afternoon he had organized them into some sort of force and had selected
+and marked out the position it must hold.
+
+For a time he had some guns, but these were hurried away to another
+point that was even more seriously threatened. He had fifty cavalrymen
+to do a little scouting, but in the main he had to depend entirely on
+the sheer grit of his scratch force, who lay in their shallow trenches,
+firing almost point blank at the gray hordes of Germans, and at every
+moment of respite seized their shovels to improve their shelters.
+
+For nearly six days they stuck to it, and, as Lloyd George said, "they
+held the German Army and closed that gap on the way to Amiens."
+
+After a time they got some artillery behind them and things were easier,
+but at first it was just a ding-dong fight, with soldiers taking orders
+from strange officers, officers learning the ground by having to defend
+it, and every man from enlisted man to Brigadier jumping at each job as
+it came along and putting it through with all his might.
+
+During all that six days General Carey was the life and inspiration of
+the entire force. Careless of danger, he rode along the hastily
+intrenched line, giving an order here and shouting words of
+encouragement there to his weary and hard-pressed men.
+
+His staff was as hastily recruited as his men. He had no knowledge of
+how long he must hold out. He was not even certain of getting supplies
+of ammunition and provisions.
+
+All he had to do was to hang on, and hang on he did against an almost
+endless series of formidable attacks. He never lost heart or wavered.
+The gap to Amiens was closed and held.
+
+Three companies of an engineering regiment were caught in the early
+bombardment and ordered to fall back. To one of the American companies,
+which had been consolidated with the British Royal Engineers, was
+delegated the task of guaranteeing the destruction of an engineers'
+dump, which it had been decided to abandon. This detachment destroyed
+all the material, made a rapid retreat, caught up with the larger group,
+and immediately resumed work, laying out trenches. These operations
+lasted from March 22 to 27. As the German attack became more intense,
+the engineers were joined by cooks, orderlies, and railway men as a part
+of General Carey's forces. The commanding officer of an American
+regiment took charge of an infantry sub-sector and directed the action
+of his troops for one week, until the emergency passed at that point. To
+this officer General Rawlinson, commanding the British Army engaged in
+that sector, sent the following letter:
+
+    The army commander wishes to record officially his appreciation
+    of the excellent work your regiment has done in assisting the
+    British Army to resist the enemy's powerful offensive during the
+    last ten days. I fully realize that it has been largely due to
+    your assistance that the enemy has been checked, and I rely on
+    you to assist us still further during the few days which are
+    still to come before I shall be able to relieve you in the line.
+
+    I consider your work in the line to be greatly enhanced by the
+    fact that, for six weeks previous to taking your place in the
+    front line, your men had been working at such high pressure
+    erecting heavy bridges on the Somme. My best congratulations and
+    warm thanks to all.
+
+    RAWLINSON.
+
+[Illustration: Gen. Sir H. S. Horne]
+
+[Illustration: Gen. Sir Julian Byng
+(_Underwood_)]
+
+[Illustration: Gen. Sir H. C. O. Plumer
+(_Bain News Service_)]
+
+[Illustration: Gen. Sir H. S. Rawlinson]
+
+[Illustration: GERMAN COMMANDERS IN FRANCE
+Gen. Ludendorff,
+_Quartermaster General of the Army_]
+
+[Illustration: Gen. Otto von Below
+(_Press Illustrating Service_)]
+
+[Illustration: Gen. von Kathen]
+
+[Illustration: Gen. von Gallwitz]
+
+
+
+
+Battle Viewed From the French Front
+
+By G. H. Perris
+
+_Special Correspondent with the French Armies_
+
+    _George H. Perris was with the French Armies in Picardy
+    throughout the German offensive. The aim of the Germans was to
+    drive a wedge between the British and French Armies at the point
+    of juncture near La F�re, and Mr. Perris was admirably situated
+    to obtain not only the story of the fighting on the allied
+    right, but a good general view of the whole great battle and of
+    the strategic methods adopted by the German command._ CURRENT
+    HISTORY MAGAZINE, _through its connection with_ THE NEW YORK
+    TIMES, _has full use of these important dispatches, which are
+    copyrighted._
+
+[See Map on Page 198.]
+
+
+A little before 5 A. M. on March 21, between the Scarpe and the Oise,
+there began an extremely violent artillery preparation, including
+barrages largely composed of gas shells, especially near Cambrai, and
+toward the Oise a strong counterbattery fire and a plentiful bombardment
+of the allied rear and communications.
+
+At 9:45 A. M. an infantry attack began. Each German division engaged had
+a front of attack of about a mile and a half, and seems to have been
+disposed as follows: Two regiments, less a battalion of each, were in
+the first line, and one regiment was in reserve. Battalions were
+echeloned in a depth of two companies, each with six light machine guns,
+constituting the first wave. The second wave of two companies, carrying
+heavier machine guns, followed at an interval of 100 yards. These were
+followed at 200 or 300 yards' distance by light bomb-throwers and the
+battalion staff. Finally there came one-inch and other very light field
+guns, called "artillery of accompaniment," which deployed as required.
+The divisional reserves consisted of five infantry battalions. No new
+gas was used, and although the enemy has tanks they were not brought
+into action.
+
+
+FIFTY GERMAN DIVISIONS
+
+The first attack was made by perhaps fifty divisions, or about 750,000
+men. Of these at least ten divisions, and perhaps thirteen or fourteen,
+were thrown into the corner of the field between St. Quentin, La F�re,
+and Noyon. They were divided into six columns.
+
+The first consisted of a division with three battalions of chasseurs,
+which, debouching from La F�re, quickly took Tergnier, and on the
+evening of March 22 came to a stop before Vouel, the next village
+westward, and a division which came into action on the evening of the
+22d passed the first, and on the following day pushed on toward Chauny.
+
+The second column consisted of two divisions. The former advanced from
+the old line near Moy, on the Oise, through La Fontaine and Remigny and
+to the southwest. It stopped at Liez, on the Crosat Canal, on the 22d.
+That night it was passed by the other division, which, on the 23d,
+captured Villequier-Aumont, on the St. Quentin-Chauny road. To the right
+of this was the third column, composed of two divisions. The first
+attacked through Cerizy to Benay and Hinacourt, and was stopped on the
+evening of the 22d at Lamontagne. It was passed that evening by the
+other division on the canal, which, after occupying Genlis Wood, closed
+up to the second column.
+
+The fourth column included the 1st and 10th Divisions, of which the
+former attacked through Essigny to Jussy, and on the 23d was at the
+north of Ugny, while the latter on its right passed the canal and
+reached Ugny and Beaumont.
+
+Of the fifth column, which occupied the region of Villeselve, and the
+sixth, in the Ham-Noyon sector, my information is slighter, owing to the
+severity of the trial of the British contingents there before the French
+took over the front.
+
+One division of the sixth column attacked at Le Plessis, north of
+Guiscard, on the 24th, and on the following day took Muirancourt,
+Rimbercourt and Croisilles. Its right was then prolonged by a division
+at Freniches.
+
+
+BRITISH FRONT BROKEN
+
+On the evening of the 22d the front of the British Army ran along the
+Crozat Canal from Tergnier, through Jussy, to the east of St. Simon.
+
+Very well do I remember the bridgehead of Jussy as I saw it after the
+German retreat a year ago. The town, built almost wholly of brick, was
+absolutely leveled to the ground, not a single wall standing. I saw it
+again last Summer, when General X., a fine soldier and an enlightened
+gentleman, had set up a camp hospital and swimming bath, and the bridge
+had been decorated to celebrate the entry of America into the war. It
+was seven miles behind the front, and I confess we never thought to see
+the boche there again.
+
+At 6 P. M. on the 22d General ----received the news that the British
+front had been broken between Beauvois and Vaux, nine miles due west of
+St. Quentin, and that his corps must fall back to Ham and the villages
+of Sancourt and Matigny, immediately north of it. At 8 or 9 o'clock next
+morning the news came in that the enemy was just debouching from the
+south of Ham toward Esmery-Hallon. The British 5th Corps was then in the
+region of Guiscard-Beaumont-Guivry ready for relief.
+
+On the morning of the 24th two German divisions, the first and second
+columns, continued their movements in the Oise Valley, while the third
+and fourth columns took Ugny and Genlis Wood. On the 25th one division
+reached Croisilles, while another attacked Baroeuf on the north of the
+Oise, half way between Noyon and Chauny.
+
+On the 26th one division was near Noyon, another at Larbroye, southwest
+of that town, and a third at Suzoy, two miles west of it. Clemenceau's
+classic phrase, "Remember that the Germans are at Noyon," had
+unexpectedly come alive again.
+
+
+ALLIED TEAMWORK
+
+Noyon, unlike Chauny, Ham, and other neighboring places, was not greatly
+damaged by the Germans before their retreat last year. South of the town
+rises a conical hill called Mont R�naud, which is capped with a wood
+hiding the ch�teau built on the site of an ancient abbey. On Thursday,
+when the Germans were ensconced on Mont R�naud, a French General
+expressed in the presence of the English General commanding a cavalry
+division his intention of retaking it. The British commander at once
+asked that his own troops should have the honor of making the attack.
+This was agreed to, and the British cavalry, dismounted, carried the
+hill by assault in face of a stubborn defense by the enemy.
+
+I am assured that along the line where the French relieved the British
+troops, or where they have been acting together, the best relations have
+prevailed, and that the co-operation of the staffs and field officers
+has been most cordial.
+
+The French, like the British, aviators, by the boldness of their bombing
+and their machine-gun work on the line of the German advance, have done
+much to compensate for the allied losses and the unavoidable delay in
+getting the French batteries into their new positions. Prisoners say the
+German 88th Division was nearly wiped out, and that the 206th suffered
+almost as badly.
+
+
+VON HUTIER'S METHODS
+
+Details of the first advance from St. Quentin to Noyon illustrate the
+new method pursued in this offensive in the particular way in which one
+large unit passes through another in order to carry the movement forward
+as rapidly as possible.
+
+Another feature is its readiness to change the direction of march when
+great difficulty is found by the Germans or a marked weakness on the
+allied side invites such a change. Of the divisions named above, six
+disappeared from that front in the course of the concentration toward
+Noyon. They had been diverted westward when it was recognized that the
+Oise could not be forced, and Amiens became the chief objective.
+
+It is certain that General von Hutier's plans were based upon his
+experience in the capture of Riga. * * * Western resistance, whether
+French or British, is a very different thing from that which the
+Russians put up at Riga. Enormous as are the forces the enemy put into
+this blow, though for the last week they outnumbered and generally
+overwhelmed those hurried up to meet them, they had to pay terribly for
+their success. German war doctrine recognizes this as inevitable in what
+is intended for a decisive operation against great antagonists. Against
+soldiers less experienced, disciplined, and inspired than those of the
+western Allies Hindenburg would have succeeded.
+
+The adaptability of direction of attack which I have indicated is
+remarkable, but the same adaptability in the attack upon Verdun, where
+the right and left banks of the Meuse were alternately tried, gave no
+result. This time the main direction has been thrice changed. It began
+with the wings at St. Quentin and Croisilles; it then moved to the right
+centre from Bapaume to Albert; finally it is concentrated on the left
+centre on both sides of Montdidier.
+
+Because of its methods and speed the battle thus far has been mainly one
+of artillery. German cavalry has been met in small numbers, but it has
+not taken a brilliant part. The enemy's aviation service has been
+notably inferior to that of the Allies. Only light guns with a few
+four-inch pieces have been able to keep up with the advance, and trench
+mortars do not seem to have been brought up quickly. On the other hand,
+groups of allied machine gunners and machine riflemen, taking advantage
+of the depressions of the ground, have everywhere taken heavy toll of
+their adversaries. By the time they can transport their heavier guns the
+Allies will have their former superiority ready to answer them.
+
+
+FAILED TO BREAK THROUGH
+
+March 26.--A full third of the German forces on the western front have
+been engaged on one-eighth of its extent. It is not impossible that a
+secondary offensive may be declared, but it may be taken that we now
+know the worst, and that the utmost possible strength has been put into
+the first blow.
+
+The choice suggests the need of obtaining a rapid decision and the hope
+of shaking the will of our people. If it resulted in a break-through it
+would be justified as good strategy; if not, a number of prisoners and
+miles of ravaged territory have been taken, with no compensation for the
+costs.
+
+So far there is nothing like a break-through. The French are holding
+strongly in the Oise Valley, in safe connection with the British on the
+Somme.
+
+
+FRENCH SOLDIERS CONFIDENT
+
+March 27.--I have been along the French front today, and the news is
+that, although the battle broke with extraordinary violence, it found
+the French prepared, and all is well.
+
+As I watched the sun set in a crimson flood yesterday behind the Noyon
+hills there seemed to be a pause in the struggle. At least, the
+bombardment had slackened, and at one of the headquarters of the French
+Army on the Oise there was no news of an attack then proceeding.
+
+The result of this momentary lull was to enhance the impression of calm
+order and confidence which is one's usual experience in passing from the
+rear to the front. One goes up in a state of suppressed agitation over
+the latest reports and rumors, and finds himself suddenly wrapped around
+by an atmosphere of businesslike quietude that extends nearly to the
+front trenches. Even in the firing line the stoical silence of the men
+and their immobility, except in spasmodic crises, seem to dominate the
+hellish roar of bursting shells.
+
+From this point backward the machine works with a smoothness that
+rebukes our anxieties. In a circuit of forty miles, ending on the hills
+overlooking the left bank of the Oise, between Noyon and Chauny, I did
+not see a single sign of confusion, and there were many signs of
+satisfaction that the war had entered upon a decisive stage.
+
+This is not strange. Very few soldiers hear as much of the latest news
+as one does in Paris or London; but all soldiers know more of the
+strength of their army than civilians can know. They may rarely see
+their General and understand little of military science; they may be
+unable to tell you exactly how the battle line stands, but they have a
+thousand ways of learning the quality of their chiefs and of knowing far
+in advance of the official bulletins whether things are going well or
+ill.
+
+So far as my information goes there is good reason for this equitable
+state of mind. The German advance is remarkable, but it has been
+adequately paid for. Along the successive lines of heights southwest of
+St. Quentin the British, and afterward the French, who took this sector,
+had excellent firing positions, and retired from one to another in good
+order. The enemy came on wave upon wave, reckless of losses, as though
+certain points must be reached at any cost at certain hours. The allied
+troops fired upon them continuously, often exhausting their ammunition
+before the moment came for falling back. The Crown Prince's troops were
+at some points literally mown down. One machine gunner with a good
+target got through 30,000 cartridges, and could have fired twice that
+number had they been at hand. A Bavarian regiment lost half of its
+effectives in this drive toward the Oise.
+
+
+NEW METHOD OF ASSAULT
+
+The new method of assault by which the Germans obtained their first
+successes--new in its intensity, though not in its elements
+combined--seems to be as follows: After a short but heavy bombardment,
+in which gas shells play a larger part than ever, masses of troops
+brought up at the last moment are sent forward, wave after wave. The
+first wave must reach its objective at any cost, and, leaving the still
+resisting groups to be dealt with by bodies of grenadiers and flame
+pumpers, at once begins to throw heavy machine-gun and rifle fire upon
+the rear of the next line to be attacked, so as to prevent reserves
+from coming up. It is then passed by a second wave, which installs
+itself in the next position, engages it, and is in turn passed by a
+third wave, and so on.
+
+Even when, as in this case, the method has been rehearsed with Teutonic
+thoroughness, it is one that involves losses which other than German
+armies could not be asked to bear.
+
+
+THE GERMAN STRENGTH
+
+March 29.--On the front of fifty miles, where the enemy had had only
+sixteen divisions, he commenced his great gamble with about thirty-eight
+divisions. It was already a heavy superiority, but there had been
+recognized up to last night a total of about eighty-seven divisions
+engaged, that is to say over a million men have been poured into this
+space, which forms only about an eighth of the western front, the
+greater part of these being new reserves, brought up after the operation
+was launched. They include many of the best imperial troops, the 1st,
+2d, and 5th Guard Divisions, for instance, and two crack Bavarian
+divisions.
+
+Three of the army commanders are reckoned among the most successful of
+the German Generals--von Below, who directed the Italian offensive; von
+der Marwitz, who did so much with his cavalry corps in the battle of the
+Marne to check pursuit and has done so well since in higher positions,
+and von Hutier, who tried new infantry tactics in the capture of Riga.
+The last named represents the army and the prestige of the Imperial
+Crown Prince. The other two serve the Crown Prince of Bavaria, and the
+enterprise received a special blessing from the Emperor.
+
+Their whole design points to an intention of making this a singly
+decisive operation. Consider again the figures given above. Before the
+offensive the enemy had on this front from the sea to the Alps about 109
+divisions in line and seventy-six in reserve. By calling the reserves
+they have been able (and it has been necessary) by the eighth day of the
+battle to put about eighty-seven divisions, 1,044,000 men, into the
+combat. Good observers consider that at the most they can hardly bring
+up more than forty more divisions.
+
+
+LINE ALMOST BROKEN
+
+March 30.--Immediately west of Noyon, Mont R�naud and some neighboring
+hills have been recovered and are strongly held. The bridges over the
+Oise between Point l'Ev�que and Chauny have been broken, and the river
+there is so well covered by artillery and infantry that there is no
+danger of a passage being forced.
+
+This was the first fruit of the French northward movement on the evening
+of March 21. Several divisions of the neighboring French Army were
+rushed up in motor wagons to the aid of the British right wing, which
+was thus enabled to draw north along the Crozat Canal. Their guns and
+supply columns followed. On the next day a further force was placed
+opposite Chauny, and other French troops were ordered to extend their
+lines northwestward, keeping in touch with the retiring British right.
+The constant displacement required in this delicate task and the fact
+that the French were gradually drawing upon themselves an increasing
+part of the German onset explain the delay in making considerable
+counterattacks.
+
+On the 24th the French repelled repeated attempts to cross the Oise, and
+their lines, which already stretched to Evricourt, more than half way
+from Noyon to Lassigny, were extended to the neighborhood of the latter
+town.
+
+The difficulties inevitable in so rapid a movement of reserves were met
+everywhere with splendid cheerfulness and energy. One of the artillery
+regiments, brought up by motor wagon, had no horses with it, but got its
+pieces into action, and, having to retreat, dragged them back three
+miles by hand.
+
+Meanwhile, definitely checked on the south, and feeling all the time for
+the line of least resistance, the German host was gravitating rapidly
+westward between Roye and Chaulnes. Now that the danger has completely
+passed, it may be said that it came very near breaking through the
+allied front in this region on the 25th. The 26th and 27th saw an
+accentuation of pressure at the point of junction, but, while the front
+was pushed back on the first day to l'Echelle-St. Aurin on the Avre, and
+on the next to Montdidier, other French troops had been brought up to
+strengthen the British right, and yesterday, after several hard combats,
+it seemed that the offensive was definitely contained.
+
+
+BATTLE FOR MONTDIDIER
+
+April 1.--Montdidier, quaintly seated on a steep hill beside the
+Amiens-Clermont railway, is an important crossroads. On Friday the enemy
+had pulled himself together and delivered along twenty-five miles of
+broken country from Demuin to near Lassigny a new mass attack, supported
+with a considerable number of field guns. On the French left the British
+held Demuin, but were driven out of M�zi�res. The French bore the main
+shock heroically. Step by step they fell back, leaving masses of German
+dead and wounded before their lines.
+
+The combat continued throughout Sunday, spreading out a little at both
+ends, and it is impossible for me to piece together the fragmentary and
+often incoherent reports from the field so as adequately to represent
+its wild fluctuations.
+
+Savagely set upon breaking through to Amiens and the Amiens-Paris
+railway, von Hutier's columns succeeded in reaching the Avre at Moreuil.
+Between Montdidier and Lassigny, where the front curves to the
+southeast, the enemy put no less strength into his outward thrust.
+Hand-to-hand fighting continued for hours in the villages of Orvillers
+on the west and Plessis de Roye, near Lassigny, and the neighboring
+hamlet of Pl�mont, all of which repeatedly changed hands. The German
+troops which got into Pl�mont and part of Plessis were driven out by a
+magnificent charge of the French, some units flying in disorder. The
+slaughter of yesterday's fighting is said to exceed anything seen in the
+preceding days of the battle.
+
+On the ninth day a new chapter of the tragic story was opened. The
+Allies, their lines unbroken, were standing with clenched teeth on good
+positions and were hourly adding to their strength in men and guns.
+Amiens appeared to the enemy like a mirage on the western horizon, and
+the two Crown Princes may have reflected that there would be accounts to
+pay at home if this time, after sacrifices such as can only be
+paralleled in rare episodes of military history like the retreat from
+Moscow, they did not bring back a victorious peace.
+
+
+BLOW AT JUNCTION POINT
+
+A smashing blow at the Franco-British junction was then to be decisive.
+It was begun with means believed to be adequate to this aim and was
+directed westward on both sides of Montdidier toward the Beauvais-Amiens
+railway, with a supporting thrust from the threatened flank west of
+Lassigny.
+
+Further south, toward Montdidier, which they already held, the Germans
+crossed the river, again suffering very heavy losses, but were arrested
+on the hills of the western bank. In the evening the struggle, despite
+the exhaustion of both sides, attained its fiercest intensity. Moreuil
+was recaptured on Saturday night by a mixed Canadian and French force,
+lost again during the night, and once more carried by storm in the
+old-fashioned way yesterday morning. No Stosstruppen, (shock troops,) no
+expert grenadiers or flame pumpers this time. Mixed in the same ranks,
+the British colonials in khaki and the French in light blue went forward
+irresistibly with the bayonet.
+
+"The Canadians," says one of my informants, "performed prodigies of
+valor, and when the boches fell back they had lost half their
+effectives."
+
+Full of their success, our troops turned northward and would not be
+satisfied till they had been firmly set on the wooded heights near the
+town. Later in the day several violent enemy attacks were made south of
+the Somme, but they seem to have been of rather a local and scattered
+kind, as though, at least for the moment, fresh efforts of the
+dimensions of those of Friday and Saturday were impossible.
+
+The British have made some progress in the valley of the Luce, and two
+strong German attacks were repulsed between Marcelcave and the Somme,
+as were others in the British sphere on the north of the river. On the
+other hand, the British line was beaten back to the village of Hangard,
+[Hangard was lost and finally retaken and held by the French,] on the
+north bank of the Luce, nearly opposite Demuin.
+
+Like the actions of the preceding days, this battle has been in the main
+a conflict of infantry. On neither side has it been possible to get
+heavy artillery in position in time, but on the allied side French and
+British guns, freshly detrained, gave support of moral as well as
+material importance. When the 75 has a target of masses advancing in
+close, deep waves, its effects are terrible beyond words. In the open
+country the air squadrons of the Allies have also worked havoc in the
+enemy's ranks, besides bursting tons of explosives on his camps and
+lines of communication.
+
+
+AGAINST ENORMOUS ODDS
+
+April 8.--It is evident that the German onslaught has failed to break
+through. What the Allies have lost in ground they have saved in men;
+and, on the other hand, the enemy, who wanted not these miles of
+desolate territory, but a final decision, has paid inordinately without
+getting any nearer the desired result.
+
+For five days his advance, though somewhat behind his ambitious program,
+was not seriously interrupted. On March 25 a certain General reached the
+region of Montdidier and began to build a human barrier. On March 23
+began what may be called a four days' battle of arrest. Three French
+divisions had to meet and did meet the onset of fifteen German
+divisions. There were smaller units that fought one against ten.
+
+The main German effort was against the Moreuil-Grivesnes-Montchel line,
+the object being (with 150,000 men in play there could be no less
+ambitious aim) to break right through to the south of Amiens and
+completely separate the French and British Armies. It culminated on the
+31st with a suicidal assault by the pick of the Prussian Guards and
+other chosen divisions at Grivesnes, when a certain gallant Colonel,
+rifle in hand, directed the barricading of the windows of the ch�teau,
+and with not more than 500 men kept off three or four times as many
+assailants and had strength enough left at last to sweep those who
+remained out of the park.
+
+I need not measure again the trivial gain for the enemy of this four
+days' battle. Perhaps the most significant fact about it is that while,
+overwhelming as was his original force, the enemy had repeatedly to
+withdraw and renew his units, not one French unit was relieved in that
+time. At Mesnil St. Georges one infantry battalion, with some groups of
+chasseurs, drove off five successive attacks by a whole German division.
+I might multiply such instances, but space would fail me to make them
+real with detail.
+
+A pause of four days followed this failure. Then, on April 4, twelve
+divisions were again launched in the northern part of the same narrow
+field--10,000 men per mile of front. They won at great cost the ruins of
+two hamlets and a slice of fields beside them.
+
+
+FIRST PHASE REVIEWED
+
+April 14.--The first phase or act of the offensive, launched with
+unprecedented masses of troops, completely failed to reach its aim and
+entailed losses that no lesser success could warrant. Begun on March 21,
+with three armies--those of von Below, von der Marwitz, and von
+Hutier--counting nearly fifty divisions, about forty more had to be
+brought in before the first week was out.
+
+By that time the French armies had been pushed northwestward with
+admirable rapidity and characteristically splendid spirit, and by the
+last day of the month the host of the Prussian Crown Prince, including
+the Guard and others of the best German units, had been fought to a
+standstill from Noyon and Lassigny to the Avre and the Somme.
+
+Several hard combats in the last fortnight, the latest ending in the
+French recovering the village of Hangard on Friday and their useful
+advance yesterday near Arvillers, do but confirm this result. That the
+German losses are fully commensurate with the ambition of their aims and
+the prodigal method pursued is shown by another fact unprecedented in
+the history of war.
+
+At the end of three weeks of the offensive about 1,500,000 men have been
+cast into the battle, and seventy-five divisions have become so
+dislocated as to have to be withdrawn for reorganization. It is
+therefore probable that the total German casualties up to date approach
+500,000.
+
+
+SECOND PHASE SUMMARIZED
+
+The second phase may be regarded as having opened March 28 with the
+entry of General von Below's right wing into action east of Arras, and
+as culminating with the battle of Armenti�res, involving the army of
+General von Quest and the left wing of General von Arnim's army at
+Ypres, while a subsidiary operation by General von Boehm's army
+threatened the French between the Oise and St. Gobain Forest.
+
+This northern battle began in a much smaller way than the original
+offensive, with about twenty divisions on a twenty-mile front, and it
+may have been its initial success that determined its prompt extension.
+
+While it may fairly be said to have constituted a confession of failure
+in the earlier adventure, its development not only creates a new danger,
+but strengthens the German position athwart the Somme. The situation,
+therefore, must be looked at straightforwardly and spoken of without
+mincing words.
+
+In the middle of March the German armies consisted of 4,000,000 men at
+the front, 1,300,000 on the lines of communication and in the interior,
+and others who can be added to the present effectiveness.
+
+From the village of Hangard to Abb�ville is about forty miles; from
+Merville to Calais is the same distance; to Boulogne a little more; from
+the Ypres front to Dunkirk is about thirty miles; to Nieuport a little
+less. These are the limits of the allied power of manoeuvre for the
+defense of the Channel.
+
+
+
+
+Caring for Thousands of Refugees
+
+
+Long processions of civilian refugees lined the roadsides in the invaded
+area during the days of battle--the pitiful hosts of those fleeing from
+the German guns and the terrors of German occupation. Many thousands of
+villagers and farmers whose little homes had been devastated by the
+first German occupation and by the battle of the Somme had been trying
+bravely to restore their ruined houses and cultivate the tortured soil
+again. With the aid of American friends hundreds of cottages had been
+built, heaps of shattered masonry cleared away, shops and schools
+opened, and French, British, and American committees had formed a
+nucleus around which new life was gradually growing up. No less than
+5,500 acres of the devastated land evacuated by the Germans a year ago
+were again under cultivation--enough to feed 16,000 persons a year.
+
+All this work of the stricken inhabitants, with their replanted fruit
+trees and scanty stores of new implements, had to be abandoned almost at
+a moment's notice. Many of the peasants, stunned by the new catastrophe,
+had to be aroused to flight by the friendly orders of the retreating
+British officers. The Red Cross workers, the Dames de France, and a
+group of courageous American women--the Smith College girls--aided the
+refugees day and night in their retreat from town to town until the
+German advance was checked a few miles short of Amiens.
+
+The American Red Cross transported thousands from the towns and villages
+behind the British lines, working thirty automobiles night and day, and
+carrying 2,000 to friends in Paris in the first few days. These were
+mostly women, children, and aged persons who had been awakened by the
+Red Cross workers on the morning of the 25th, taken to the railroad in
+trucks, and thence transported by rail in special trains. Most of the
+refugees were able to save only a few of their belongings, which were
+wrapped up in shawls and bed sheets, or carried in baskets or handbags.
+One woman, 81 years old, carried only a basket of live chickens, and
+cried because she had been unable to save two rabbits. Another woman
+carried a few cooking utensils under her arm. Many women and children
+were crying because they had been separated from relatives and friends.
+Children only a month old and people who had reached the age of 90 were
+alike numbered among the unfortunates.
+
+
+TRAGIC SCENES
+
+"I saw the first tide of these poor people when the Germans came near to
+Ham and P�ronne and Roye," wrote Philip Gibbs on March 29. "Some of them
+had been once in the hands of the Germans, and at this second menace
+they left their homes and their fields and their shops, and came
+trekking westward and southward.
+
+"One's heart bleeds to see these refugees, and it is the most tragic
+aspect of these days. There are many old people among them, old women in
+black gowns and caps who come hobbling very slowly down the highway of
+war, and old men with bent backs who lean heavily on their gnarled
+sticks as the guns go by, and the fighting men.
+
+"I saw one old man near Ham who was trundling along a wheelbarrow, and
+on this was spread a mattress, and on that was his wife. She looked 90
+years of age, with her white, wrinkled face, and she was fast asleep,
+like a little child. Many children are on the roads, packed tight into
+farm carts with household furniture and bundles of clothing, and poultry
+and pigs and new-born lambs. The noise of the gunfire is behind them,
+and they move faster when it grows louder. They are very brave, these
+boys and girls and these old people. There is hardly any weeping or any
+look on their faces of grudge against this unkind turn of fate. They
+seem to accept it with stoical resignation, with most matter-of-fact
+courage, and their only answer to pity is a smile and the words, 'C'est
+la guerre.' Those are words I first heard in the early weeks of the war
+and hoped never to hear again.
+
+"Many of these people trek in family groups and gatherings of families
+from one village. Small boys and girls drag tired cows after them. The
+other day one of these cows leaned against every tree she passed and
+then sat down, and the girl with her looked around helplessly, not
+knowing what to do. This morning I saw the girl wearing a veil and
+dressed in an elegant way, taking the cow with her. She was quite alone
+on the road. It is queer and touching that most of these fugitives wear
+their best clothes, as though on a f�te day. It is because they are
+clothes they want to save and can only have by wearing them in their
+flight.
+
+"In one small town the fear of the German entry came at night, a bright,
+moonlight night into which there came many German bombing squadrons. The
+citizens had shut up their shops and stood about talking anxiously. Then
+fear and rumor spread among them, and all through the night there was an
+exodus of small families and solitary girls and comrades in misfortune,
+stealing away like shadows from homes they loved, from little fortunes
+or their shops, from all their normal life into the open country, where
+the moonlight lay white and cold on the fields. Behind them bombs were
+being dropped, and some of their houses were destroyed.
+
+"C'est la guerre!"
+
+
+WORK OF AMERICAN GIRLS
+
+The heroic work of the Smith College girls was described by a
+correspondent at the French front under date of March 29:
+
+"Working unceasingly under a constant shellfire, for days without sleep,
+the girls demonstrated admirable initiative and ability and the extreme
+coolness of the tried soldier. They are still in the field today,
+ministering to old men, women, and children. I have talked to the first
+persons to come in from the front, who saw them last Saturday, when
+shells were falling at Grecourt, the tiny Somme village where the unit
+has been quartered for months, aiding the folks of a dozen surrounding
+villages.
+
+"When it became evident that the Germans were coming the girls worked
+frantically with auto trucks, gathering together all the people in
+their territory. In one village they went three times to try to persuade
+an aged woman to leave, but she refused to move unless the ancestral
+bedstead on which she lay could be transported with her. In final
+desperation the girls brought a big supply wagon and loaded the bedstead
+and the woman into it, leaving the village fifteen minutes before the
+first of the Uhlans arrived.
+
+"The girls organized themselves into small units and each unit was
+charged with the evacuation of a single village. Cavalcades of refugees,
+generaled by the Smith girls, marched or rode from their abandoned homes
+to Roye, where a special train was waiting to carry them westward. Even
+cows, chickens, dogs, and cats helped to form the cavalcade which
+reached Roye on Saturday morning. Here the refugees vainly tried to
+crowd the animals into the train.
+
+"The girls of the Smith College unit then proceeded to Montdidier.
+There, with W. B. Jackson of Washington, a former Red Cross delegate at
+Ham, assisted by a group of American Quakers and Red Cross workers, they
+organized a canteen and began giving out blankets and other comforts and
+making a marvelous bean soup and a special food for babies, the basis of
+which was condensed milk. As the refugee trains, some containing as many
+as 1,000 men, women, and children, poured into Montdidier the arriving
+refugees were fed until the supply of food was exhausted.
+
+"Then Montdidier became too hot under the increasing shellfire and the
+workers were forced to split, some going to Amiens and others to
+Beauvais, where they continued their work. Since then practically all
+the Smith College girls and some other workers have gone to Amiens,
+where they are weathering the enemy bombardment in cellars, but carrying
+on their work as usual."
+
+
+FLEEING IN BEST CLOTHES
+
+An Associated Press correspondent added this further bit of eyewitness
+testimony under date of March 27:
+
+"The French refugees of the better class departing from the zones of
+actual operations are coming out clad in all their finery, which
+represents the styles of four or five years ago. Then there are sturdy
+peasants with wooden shoes and clumsily constructed clothes, riding in
+vehicles drawn by horses or donkeys or in carts pushed by men, and some
+are even in wheelbarrows. Upon these queer transports are stacked
+strange assortments of personal belongings.
+
+"There is deep pathos in all this, but none struck the correspondent
+more forcibly than the appearance of a tiny girl who trudged in her
+wooden shoes along a hard, dusty road, her eyes fastened anxiously upon
+a dirty rag doll perched precariously at the top of household effects
+which were being pushed along by an old man. This child was perhaps
+representative of all the refugees--she was coming away with her most
+cherished possession, her baby doll, and was prepared to guard it at all
+costs; her aching feet were as nothing, so long as the doll was safe.
+
+"These refugees are from the towns within the Somme battlefield and
+adjoining it. All these villages have been emptied of their inhabitants.
+So far as possible everything which might be of use to the Germans has
+been removed. In particular, large numbers of cattle have been taken
+away by the owners, who patiently drive the beasts on ahead of them
+along the roads.
+
+"There are few tears or hysterical outbreaks among the refugees, most of
+whom are of the peasant class. They know they must go, and they seem to
+be trusting implicitly in the British, but the misery in their eyes as
+they turn from all they love to a world they do not know is touching.
+Aged women clinging to the hands of little grandchildren, men stooped
+with years, youths and maidens--all fall into a picture such as only a
+catastrophe can produce."
+
+Fifty members of the American Friends' unit of the Red Cross were in the
+region of the great battle, at Ham, Liancourt, Esmery-Hallon,
+Golancourt, and Gruny on the Somme and Aisne. These devoted workers,
+with the aid of many Red Cross trucks that were rushed to them, helped
+thousands of refugees to safety.
+
+The French Government had several hundred tractor plows at work on the
+stricken lands. The American relief units also had a few tractor plows
+and other agricultural materials, all of which had to be abandoned to
+the enemy. All members of relief units were reported safe.
+
+
+Castor Oil for Airplanes
+
+How an important agricultural enterprise was initiated to meet one of
+the requirements of the Aviation Section of the American Army is
+disclosed in the minority report of the Senate Military Affairs
+Committee, presented on April 12, 1918. In the course of a description
+of the initial difficulties encountered in producing battle planes, the
+report says:
+
+"Remember again that when these combat planes were contracted for the
+only known lubricating oil adapted to their delicate parts was an oil
+made from the castor bean. There were not enough beans in this country
+to make anywhere near the amount of oil required. Neither were there
+enough seeds with which to grow the needed quantity of beans. The Signal
+Corps had to search the globe for seeds, and finally secured a shipload
+from distant India. Then the corps had to contract for the planting of
+the seeds in this country, and has succeeded in having about 110,000
+acres planted. It is now claimed that a form of petroleum has been
+developed that will answer the same purpose. This, however, is still in
+the experimental stage, while the oil from the castor bean is known to
+be entirely adequate and reliable."
+
+
+
+
+Progress of the War
+
+Recording Campaigns on All Fronts and Collateral Events From March 18,
+1918, Up to and Including April 17, 1918
+
+
+UNITED STATES
+
+The German Government announced on March 18 that American property in
+Germany would be seized in reprisal for the seizure of German property
+in the United States.
+
+Drastic restrictions were placed by the War Trade Board upon the
+importation of many nonessential commodities, the regulations to become
+effective April 15.
+
+The terms of the Third Liberty Loan were announced by Secretary McAdoo
+on March 25. The bill authorizing it was completed by Congress and
+signed by President Wilson on April 4, and on April 6 the drive began.
+
+Secretary Daniels, in a speech in Cleveland on April 6, disclosed the
+fact that a great fleet of American vessels, including battleships, was
+operating in the war zone.
+
+Announcement was made in Tokio on March 28 that an agreement had been
+concluded under which Japan promised to turn over to the United States
+450,000 tons of shipping.
+
+President Wilson issued a proclamation on April 11, giving Secretary
+McAdoo control of the principal coastwise steamship lines.
+
+Charles M. Schwab was appointed Director General of the Emergency Fleet
+Corporation April 16.
+
+
+SUBMARINE BLOCKADE
+
+Sir Eric Geddes gave in the House of Commons on March 19 figures of
+shipping losses which are given in detail elsewhere in this number of
+CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE, also figures made public by the British
+Admiralty on March 21 are given elsewhere.
+
+The Royal Mail steamer Amazon and the Norwegian steamship Stolt-Neilson,
+commandeered by the British, were sunk March 19.
+
+The steamship Conargo was torpedoed in the Irish Sea March 31, and the
+lifeboats were shelled.
+
+The armed boarding steamer Tithonus was sunk March 28, and the sinking
+of the steamship Carlisle Castle was reported April 2.
+
+On April 1 the Celtic was torpedoed off the Irish coast, but reached
+port in safety.
+
+The American steamer Chattahoochee, formerly the German Sachsen, was
+sunk off the English coast on March 25.
+
+The Spanish steamers Arpillao and Begona were sunk March 25.
+
+The Italian steamer Alessandra was sunk off the Island of Madeira April
+2.
+
+The Ministre de Smet de Naeyer, a Belgian relief ship, was sunk in the
+North Sea on April 6, and twelve members of the crew were lost.
+
+As a result of the commercial agreement between Spain and the United
+States, German submarines began a blockade of Spanish ports, April 11.
+
+Because a German submarine had captured a Uruguayan military commission
+bound for France, the Government of Uruguay on April 11 asked Berlin,
+through Switzerland, whether it considered that a state of war existed
+with Uruguay.
+
+
+CAMPAIGN IN WESTERN EUROPE
+
+March 18--Belgians repulse German raids in the region of Nieuport,
+Dixmude, and Mercken.
+
+March 19--French penetrate German line near Rheims; British carry out
+successful raids in the neighborhood of Villers-Guislain, La Vacquerie,
+and Bois Gienier.
+
+March 20--German airplane drops balls of liquefied mustard gas on
+American lines northwest of Toul; Americans shell Lahayville, causing a
+heavy explosion and forcing the Germans to retreat; French repulse
+violent raids in the Souain sector of Champagne.
+
+March 21--Germans open terrific drive on British lines on a fifty-mile
+front from southeast of Arras as far as La F�re; French lines bombarded
+north and southeast of Rheims as well as on the Champagne front; Paris
+bombarded by long-range guns.
+
+March 22--Germans claim 16,000 prisoners in big drive; General Haig
+reports them gaining at some points and repulsed at others; American
+artillery fire destroys German first and second line trenches east of
+Lun�ville; violent gun duels in the Aisne and Champagne sectors; French
+repulse three German raids near Souain.
+
+March 23--Germans smash British front, win victories near Monchy,
+Cambrai, St. Quentin, and La F�re, and penetrate into second British
+positions between Fontaine les Croisilles and Moeuvres; British evacuate
+positions in the bend southwest of Cambrai; Germans penetrate third
+British position between the Omignon stream and the Somme; Paris again
+shelled by gun seventy-five miles away; ten persons killed and fifteen
+or more wounded; fierce artillery fire on the French front from the
+Oise River to the Vosges Mountains.
+
+March 24--Germans capture P�ronne, Chauny, and Ham, and cross the River
+Somme at certain points south of P�ronne; assaults further north
+repulsed; Paris again bombarded by gun located in the Forest of St.
+Gobain.
+
+March 25--Germans take Bapaume, Nesle, Guiscard, Biaches, Barleux, and
+Etalon; French take over sector of British battlefront south of St.
+Quentin and around Noyon; General Pershing announces that two regiments
+of American engineers are on the Somme battlefield; long-range
+bombardment of Paris continues; one long-range gun explodes, killing ten
+men; American gunners shell St. Bausant and the billets north of
+Boquetau.
+
+March 26--Germans take Noyon, Roye, and Lihon, and cross the battleline
+of 1916 at many points; Americans in the Toul sector drive Germans out
+of Richecourt.
+
+March 27--British, reinforced, beat back German attacks, capture
+Morlaincourt and Chipilly, north of the Somme, and to the south of the
+river advance their lines to the village of Proyart; Germans announce
+the capture of Albert and the crossing of the Ancre north and south of
+the city; French forced to yield ground east of Montdidier, but check
+assaults near Lassigny and Noyon.
+
+March 28--British repulse all-day attacks at Arras; Germans capture
+Montdidier and push their lines as far as Pierrepont, and regain some
+ground south of the Somme which they lost in 1914; French advance at
+Noyon for a mile and a quarter on a six-mile front.
+
+March 29--British line south of the Somme pushed back to a line running
+west of Hamel, Marcelcave, and Demuin; German drive slackens in the
+north; French in the Oise Valley retake Monchel; seventy-five persons
+killed and ninety wounded in church near Paris by shell from long-range
+gun.
+
+March 30--Paris again bombarded by long-range guns; eight killed,
+thirty-seven wounded; Germans wrest six villages in the Montdidier
+sector from the French, and Demuin and M�zi�res from the British, but
+are repulsed in the Boiry-Boyelles region.
+
+March 31--Germans lose ground near Feuchy; British advance near Serre;
+French recapture Ayencourt and Monchel and gain considerable ground near
+Orvillers; American Army starts for the battlefront; Paris again
+bombarded; one person killed, six injured.
+
+April 1--French repulse German attacks against Grivesnes; Germans mass
+troops near Albert for renewed drive; bombardment of Paris resumed.
+
+April 2--British carry on successful minor operations between the Avre
+and the Luce Rivers and in the neighborhood of H�buterne; French
+repulse Germans southwest of La F�re and shell enemy concentrations east
+of Cantigny.
+
+April 3--British occupy Ayette, check Germans near Moreuil; French
+extend their lines north of Pl�mont and take over another sector of the
+line, extending their holdings northward to Thennes; Americans heavily
+gassed in a sector other than Toul.
+
+April 4--Germans deliver terrific attack against the French along a
+front of nearly nine miles, from Grivesnes to north of the Amiens-Royes
+road, and occupy the villages of Mailly-Raineval and Morisel; British
+lose ground north of Hamel and in the direction of Vaire Wood.
+
+April 5--French forces, by vigorous counterattacks, improve their
+positions in the region of Mailly-Raineval and Cantigny; Germans attack
+British lines from the Somme northward to a point above Bucquoy and
+reach the Albert-Amiens railway, but are driven back.
+
+April 6--Germans attack at several points along the French front from
+the region of Montdidier eastward to the east and south of Chauny, but
+are repulsed everywhere except on the left bank of the Oise in the
+Chauny sector.
+
+April 7--Germans push on south of the Oise and take Coucy Wood and
+Pierremande and Folembray; British retake Aveluy Wood and repel attacks
+opposite Albert and south of H�buterne.
+
+April 8--British lines around Bucquoy heavily shelled; Germans drive
+French back to the western bank of the Ailette River and take Verneuil
+and the heights east of Coucy-le-Ch�teau; Americans rout German patrol
+northwest of Toul; French airmen locate and bombard the gun that fired
+on Paris.
+
+April 9--Germans force back the British-Portuguese centre on the River
+Lys between Estaires and Bac St. Maur, and take Richeboucq-St. Vaast and
+Laventie; British repulse attacks at Givenchy and Fleurbaix.
+
+April 10--Germans cross the River Lys at several points between
+Armenti�res and Estaires; British forced back north and south of
+Armenti�res; French repulse Germans in the Hangard region; first
+American troops reach the British front.
+
+April 11--Germans hurl troops at British front from La Bass�e to the
+Ypres-Comines Canal, and force the British to give ground at some
+points, notably at Estaires and Steenwerck.
+
+April 12--Germans launch heavy attacks against the French in the
+Hangard-en-Santerre sector, penetrate Hangard, but later lose half of
+the village to the French; Americans help to repel an attack in the
+Apremont Forest; British forced back west and northwest of Armenti�res
+to Neuve Eglise; Merville lost.
+
+April 13--French advance northwest of Orvilles-Sorel and repulse attack
+near Noyon; British regain Neuve Eglise, but beat off German attacks
+southeast of Bailleul; Americans repulse two attacks in force in the
+Toul sector, winning the first all-day battle in which they have been
+engaged.
+
+April 14--British hold Neuve Eglise against repeated German assaults;
+Germans attack near Bailleul and Merris; Americans repulse attacks north
+of St. Mihiel; bombardment of Paris by long-range gun continues.
+
+April 15--Germans take Neuve Eglise, and hurl huge forces toward
+Bailleul and Wulverghem; British straighten out their salient around
+Wytschaete; definite announcement made of the appointment of General
+Foch as Commander in Chief of the allied armies in France, with enlarged
+powers.
+
+April 16--Germans take Wytschaete and Spanbroekmolen, after forcing the
+British out of Bailleul; sixteen killed, forty-five wounded in
+long-range bombardment of Paris.
+
+April 17--British re-enter Wytschaete and Meteren, but are forced out;
+Germans occupy Poelcappelle, Langemarck, and Passchendaele.
+
+
+CAMPAIGN IN ASIA MINOR
+
+March 21--British advance in Palestine, taking Beit Rima, Kefrut, and
+Elowsallabeh.
+
+March 22-23--British advance nine miles on the left bank of the Jordan;
+Arabs destroy Turkish camel corps company near Jedahah.
+
+March 26--British carry Turkish main positions north of Khan-Baghdadi;
+entire Turkish force in the Hit area captured or destroyed.
+
+April 1--British advance seventy-three miles beyond Anah and menace
+Aleppo.
+
+April 4--Armenians recapture Erzerum from the Turks.
+
+April 7--Turks take Ardahan from the Armenians.
+
+April 11--British in Palestine advance their line to a depth of one and
+a half miles on a front of five miles, and capture the villages of El
+Kefr and Rafat.
+
+April 17--Turks capture Batum.
+
+
+ITALIAN CAMPAIGN
+
+March 22--Fighting becomes more active along the entire front; Italians
+drive back patrols on the Trentino front and eject an Austrian
+detachment from an advanced post in the Frenzela Valley sector.
+
+March 28--Artillery engagements east of Badeneoche; forty Austrian
+divisions transferred to the Italian front.
+
+
+AERIAL RECORD
+
+James Ian Macpherson, Parliamentary Secretary of the British War Office,
+announced in the British Commons on March 19 that 255 flights into
+Germany, constituting 38 raids, had been made since last October, and
+that forty-eight tons of bombs had been dropped.
+
+Italians bombed Metz on the nights of March 17 and March 23 and the
+railway station at Thionville on March 24.
+
+Paris was raided on the night of April 12 and twenty-six were persons
+killed and seventy-two wounded.
+
+Bombs were dropped on the east coast of England on the night of April
+12. Five persons were killed and fifteen injured.
+
+
+NAVAL RECORD
+
+Ostend was bombarded by British monitors on March 21. On the same day
+two German destroyers and two torpedo boats were sunk off Dunkirk by
+British and French destroyers.
+
+The Alexander Agassiz, a small boat formerly of American registry, which
+was outfitted by the Germans at Mazatlan for service as a raider, was
+captured in the Pacific Ocean by an American cruiser on March 19.
+
+The Belgian relief ship Flandres was sunk by a mine on April 11.
+
+The German transport Frankland struck a mine and sank at Noorland, March
+22, and all on board, including Admiral von Meyrer, were drowned.
+
+Ten German trawlers were sunk by the British in the Cattegat on April
+15.
+
+
+RUSSIA, RUMANIA, AND POLAND
+
+Leon Trotzky asked the American military mission for ten American
+officers to aid as inspectors in organizing and training a new volunteer
+army, and requested the aid of American railway engineers and
+transportation experts in the reorganization of the railways, March 20.
+The same day he addressed the Moscow Soviet, calling for a new army of
+from 300,000 to 750,000, commanded by trained officers.
+
+Japanese and British marines were landed at Vladivostok on April 5,
+following the invasion of a Japanese office by five armed Russians, who
+killed one Japanese and wounded two others. The Siberian Council of
+Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates protested to the Consular Corps, but
+the Japanese representatives at Vologda explained that the landing was
+only a local incident and that Admiral Kato had acted on his own
+initiative.
+
+The Trans-Caucasian Constituent Assembly, in session at Tiflis on March
+21, refused to ratify the peace treaty with Germany, and urged immediate
+war. On March 29 the Caucasus Diet approved the basis of a separate
+peace agreement with Turkey, including autonomy for Armenia and the
+restoration of old frontiers.
+
+The Armenians and Georgians refused to recognize the cession of
+territory made under the Brest-Litovsk treaty, and on April 3 fierce
+fighting broke out in the districts of Batum, Kars, and Ardahan, as the
+Turks began military occupation. The Georgians seized most of the
+Russian warships in the Harbor of Batum and took them into the Black
+Sea. On April 4 the Armenians recaptured Erzerum from the Turks, and on
+April 7 the Turks took Ardahan from the Armenian forces.
+
+Alexander Marghiloman, leader of the Conservatives, was appointed
+Premier of Rumania March 20. On the same day Germany announced the
+extension of the armistice until March 22.
+
+On March 21 Germany increased her demands on Rumania, calling for the
+surrender of all war munitions. Austria demanded the surrender of all
+territory west of a line extending from a point east of Red Tower Pass
+to a point on the Danube near Ghilramar, and also a strip of country
+eighty miles long and ten miles wide in the region of Predeal. On March
+23 Germany again extended the armistice because of a delay in the
+formation of the Rumanian Cabinet. On March 29 Germany demanded that the
+Rumanian oil wells be turned over to a German-controlled corporation.
+
+German forces continued their advance in Ukraine, taking Kherson on
+March 21 and burning Poltava on March 31. The Ukrainian Rada protested
+against the German demand for 85 per cent. of the country's grain supply
+and practically all of the sugar supply, March 27. On April 5 the
+Bolshevist Government protested against the invasion by German and
+Ukrainian troops of Kursk Province.
+
+Finland protested to the German Government, March 29, against the arrest
+of Major Henry Crosby Emery, representative of the Guaranty Trust
+Company of New York, and his detention on the Aland Islands.
+
+British and French troops were reported on March 31 to be co-operating
+with the Bolshevist troops in the defense of the Kola and Mourmansk
+troops against the Finnish White Guards. German troops were landed in
+Finland April 3, and on the same day the Finnish White Guards captured
+Tammerfors. The Russian fleet escaped from Helsingfors on April 7. On
+April 8 Germany sent an ultimatum demanding the removal or disarmament
+of all Russian warships in Finnish waters by April 12, and on April 11 a
+German squadron, with several transports, arrived at Lovisa.
+
+On April 14 German troops took Hyving and Finnish White Guards took
+Bjoerneborg. Helsingfors was occupied by the Germans on April 15.
+
+Abo was evacuated by the Red Guards on April 16.
+
+
+MISCELLANEOUS
+
+President Poincar� refused to pardon Bolo Pacha, April 7, and the next
+day the condemned man made a statement concerning other treason cases,
+thus gaining a reprieve. He was executed on the morning of April 17.
+
+Holland refused the Allies' terms for the transfer of Dutch ships and
+demanded guarantees that they would not be used for troops or munitions.
+On March 20 President Wilson issued a proclamation ordering their
+seizure. The Netherlands Government protested in a statement which
+appeared in the Official Gazette March 30. On April 1 President Wilson
+issued an order authorizing the Navy Department to take possession of
+all equipment and cargoes. Secretary Lansing replied to the Netherlands
+Government in a statement issued on April 13.
+
+Premier Lloyd George addressed the British House of Commons on April 9
+on the military situation and the man-power problem. He asked that the
+services of every able-bodied man between the ages of 18 and 50 be
+placed at the disposal of the Government and advocated conscription in
+Ireland. Leave to introduce the man-power bill was carried in the House.
+The next day the second reading was carried, and on April 12 the bill
+was passed. On the same day Sir Horace Plunkett submitted to Lloyd
+George his report on the Irish Convention's plan for home rule. The
+third reading of the man-power bill was passed by the House of Lords
+April 17.
+
+Mme. Despina Davidovitch Storch, a woman of Turkish birth; Baron Henri
+de Beville, Mrs. Elizabeth Charlotte Nix, and a man who called himself
+Count Robert de Clairmont were arrested in New York City on March 18 on
+suspicion of being members of an international spy system working in the
+interests of Germany. President Wilson ordered their deportation to
+France. Mme. Storch died of pneumonia at Ellis Island on March 30.
+
+Lieutenants Calamaras and Hodjopoulos, who landed in Greece from a
+German submarine to act as agents of ex-King Constantine, and who
+planned to arrange a spy system and establish a naval base, were
+executed on March 30.
+
+The Supreme War Council of the Allies issued a statement on March 18
+condemning German political crimes against the Russian and Rumanian
+peoples, refusing to acknowledge Germany's peace treaties with them, and
+announcing their purpose to establish a reign of organized justice.
+
+General Ferdinand Foch was made Generalissimo of all the allied forces
+on the western front on March 28. A definite official announcement of
+his appointment as Commander in Chief, with enlarged powers, was made on
+April 15.
+
+
+
+
+Russia Under German Domination
+
+Record of a Month's Events The Russo-German peace treaty, signed by the
+Bolshevist plenipotentiaries on March 3, 1918, and ratified at a session
+of the All-Russian Soviet Congress held in Moscow on March 14-16, was
+approved, after a prolonged discussion, by the Main Committee of the
+German Reichstag on March 22.
+
+Discussing the situation created in Russia by the Brest-Litovsk pact, a
+Petrograd daily remarks that, while the rest of the world has secret
+diplomacy and open war, Russia has open diplomacy and secret war. In
+fact, the final ratification of the "peace" instrument by both sides did
+not put an end to the military operations of the Central Powers in
+Russia. Nor did the Russians cease to make feeble and sporadic attempts
+at resistance.
+
+In the third week of March the fall of Petrograd seemed imminent, but
+the transfer of the Government to Moscow and the partial evacuation of
+the northern capital by the civil population apparently changed the
+objective of the invading German troops to the ancient Russian
+metropolis. They began to march on Moscow from northwest, west, and
+southwest, but stopped within the distance of approximately 150 miles
+from that city. For the last three weeks practically no fighting has
+been going on in the north of Russia, except occasional guerrilla
+skirmishes and punitive expeditions, conducted by the Germans and the
+propertied classes. On the other hand, in the south the Austro-German
+invaders have been vigorously pushing on, ostensibly under the pretext
+of assisting the friendly Ukrainian nation in its struggle against the
+Soviet power.
+
+By March 20 the Teutons were in possession of the whole of Western
+Ukraine west of the Dnieper. Among other cities they held Zhitomir,
+Kiev, Nikolayev, and Odessa. The latter city, the most important
+commercial seaport in Russia, was reported to have been occupied by
+four Austro-German regiments without a shot. Kherson was taken March 21.
+On March 27, the semi-official Russian news agency announced that the
+Soviet and Ukrainian troops, assisted by naval forces, recaptured
+Odessa. According to an earlier report, Kherson, Nikolayev, and Znamenka
+were also recaptured by Red Guards and armed civilians. The retaking of
+Odessa was officially denied by Vienna, and the city is apparently in
+the hands of the Teutons at this writing (April 18). They are reported
+to have seized large stores of war materials at Odessa, and 2,500 ships
+at Nikolayev, which is a port on the Black Sea, with vast docks for
+building warships. The Austro-Germans also took Poltava, situated midway
+between the Dnieper and Donetz, and set it on fire. The capture of
+Poltava was followed (April 8) by that of Yekaterinoslav and Kharkov,
+the former seat of the Bolshevist Rada.
+
+On April 11 the invaders occupied the small city of Lgov, 130 miles
+northwest of Kharkov, and an ultimatum was sent to the City of Kursk,
+demanding its surrender. Both towns are situated in the province of
+Kursk, which lies beyond the Russo-Ukrainian border as defined by the
+Central Powers.
+
+The march of the Teutons, coupled with their requisitions of food
+products, seemed to arouse a good deal of dissatisfaction among the
+peasants and workmen in the Ukraine. It is reported that the Rada, which
+had invited the Germans, requested them to stop the advance of their
+troops, but their request was not heeded. The behavior of the Teutons in
+Kiev led to a clash between the Ukrainian authorities and the German
+commandant. The demand of the Austro-Germans that the Ukraine should
+furnish them 85 per cent. of its grain and all its sugar except that
+needed for local consumption was particularly resented. On April 7 the
+Bolshevist Foreign Minister Chicherin signified to the German
+Government his willingness to open peace negotiations with the Ukraine.
+According to some advices the Rada wished to form a federated alliance
+with the Russian Republic.
+
+
+IN THE CAUCASUS
+
+Article 4 of the Russo-German treaty provides for the evacuation by the
+Russian troops of the districts of Erivan, Kars, and Batum, (in the
+Caucasus,) and the reorganization of these districts in agreement with
+Turkey. The Transcaucasion Constituent Assembly, meeting in Tiflis,
+refused to recognize the peace with the Central Powers and pronounced
+itself in favor of a war against them. On March 29 it was reported that
+the local Diet declared the independence of the Caucasus and approved
+the project of a separate peace with Turkey. But when, several days
+later, the Turks began the military occupation of the Caucasian
+districts mentioned in the Brest-Litovsk treaty, the Armenians and
+Georgians rose against the invaders. On April 4 the Armenians were said
+to have recaptured Erzerum, in Turkish Armenia, which Russia evacuated
+after the conclusion of peace. Before the Caucasian uprising Turkey
+officially announced its intention to send troops to restore order in
+the Crimea. It was reported that massacres of Armenians were resumed by
+the Turks and that many thousand women and children had been butchered.
+
+On April 14 the Russian Government forwarded to Germany a protest of the
+Armenian National Council, addressed to the German Ministry of Foreign
+Affairs and the President of the Reichstag. The document reads in part:
+
+    Following upon the withdrawal of the Russian troops Turkish
+    troops already have invaded the undefended country and are not
+    only killing every Turkish Armenian, but also every Russian in
+    Armenia.
+
+    In spite of the terms of the peace treaty, which recognizes the
+    right of self-determination for these Caucasian regions, the
+    Turkish Army is advancing toward Kars and Ardahan, destroying
+    the country and killing the Christian population. The
+    responsibility for the future destiny of the Armenians lies
+    entirely with Germany because it was Germany's insistence that
+    resulted in the withdrawal of the Russian troops from the
+    Armenian regions, and at the moment it rests with Germany to
+    prevent the habitual excesses of the Turkish troops, increased
+    by revengefulness and anger.
+
+
+INTERNAL SITUATION
+
+The internal situation in Russia proper remains uncertain, nor have any
+definite changes taken place in the mood of the people or in the
+Governmental policies of the Bolsheviki. It is charged that the
+Bolshevist Government suppressed the full text of the Brest-Litovsk
+Treaty. On April 10 the Commissioner of Commerce of the Bolsheviki
+announced that under the terms of the peace treaty Russia had suffered
+the following losses:
+
+    Seven hundred and eighty thousand square kilometers (301,000
+    square miles) of territory.
+
+    Fifty-six million inhabitants, constituting 32 per cent, of the
+    entire population of the country.
+
+    One-third of Russia's total mileage of railways, amounting to
+    21,530 kilometers, (13,350 miles.)
+
+    Seventy-three per cent. of the total iron production.
+
+    Eighty-nine per cent. of the total coal production.
+
+    Two hundred and sixty-eight sugar refineries, 918 textile
+    factories, 574 breweries, 133 tobacco factories, 1,685
+    distilleries, 244 chemical factories, 615 paper mills, 1,073
+    machine factories.
+
+    These territories, which now become German, formerly brought in
+    annual revenue amounting to 845,238 rubles, and had 1,800
+    savings banks.
+
+The alarming sweep of the Teutonic invasion, together with the growing
+realization of what the Brest-Litovsk agreement really means to Russia,
+seemed finally to arouse some spirit of resistance in the Russian
+masses. Patriarch Tikhon declared that the Russian Church could not
+recognize a peace dismembering the country and subjecting it to a
+foreign power. Since the ratification the spokesmen of the Bolshevist
+Government have not ceased talking of organizing a large army for a new
+war. The prevalent Bolshevist opinion is that the new revolutionary army
+should be used, in the words of the semi-official Bolshevist organ
+Pravda, "not to strengthen, as the imperialists calculate, this or that
+bourgeois front, but to turn the front of the world war into a front of
+the workers' and soldiers' revolution."
+
+[Illustration: The United States Congress in wartime, including nearly
+all the members of the House, on the steps of the Capitol
+(� _Harris & Ewing_)]
+
+[Illustration: An American first aid station in the trenches in France
+(� _Committee on Public Information_)]
+
+
+TALK OF NEW ARMY
+
+In March it was reported that four of the People's Commissaries had gone
+south to organize troops for guerrilla warfare. This idea, however, was
+soon abandoned. Trotzky insisted upon the necessity of having a strictly
+disciplined army of 300,000 to 750,000 men, under regular officers. "We
+cannot," he said, "preserve the illusion that European capital will
+patiently suffer the fact that in Russia the power is in the hands of
+the working class. * * * We are surrounded by enemies on all sides. If
+it were proposed to France to return Alsace, the French Bourse would
+sell Russia tomorrow." On April 2 M. Podvoisky, Assistant Commissary of
+War, stated that Russia would form an army of 1,500,000 men, and that
+the Red Army of Volunteers was steadily growing. The army organization
+has been changed with a view to limiting the application of the elective
+principle. According to some reports the Bolsheviki are hoping to have
+an army of 500,000 by the Fall. Some of the leaders went so far as to
+advocate compulsory military service. On April 10 Leon Trotzky was
+appointed joint Minister of War and Marine.
+
+On the previous day the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets
+unanimously passed a resolution ruling that henceforth Russia's national
+flag would be a red banner bearing the inscription: "_Rossiyskaya,
+Sotzialisticheskaya Federativnaya Sovetskaya Respublika_," (Russian
+Socialist Federative Soviet Republic.) Proposing the measure, the
+Chairman said: "The Russian flag will have to wave over the embassies in
+Berlin and Vienna and we cannot have the old tricolor, so I think it
+most proper to adopt the red flag under which we fought and gained
+victory."
+
+
+BESSARABIA AND RUMANIA
+
+An important event has taken place in the southwestern corner of the
+former Russian Empire, in the rich province of Bessarabia, where
+separatist tendencies have recently made themselves strongly felt. A
+Berlin dispatch, dated April 11, announced that the Bessarabian Diet
+had voted, 86 against 5, that Bessarabia should join the Kingdom of
+Rumania. Thereupon, the Ukrainian Premier filed a protest in Russia
+against this act, stating that the Ukraine must have her say in the
+settlement of Bessarabia's fate in view of the fact that this province
+has a large Ukrainian population and that the Ukraine is controlling an
+important region on the Black Sea adjacent to Bessarabia.
+
+The Council of the People's Commissaries was notified on April 9 that
+the Province of Kazan, situated in the east of European Russia and
+having a population of 2,000,000, had been proclaimed an independent
+republic by the Congress of Peasants of that region.
+
+
+RUSSIA AND THE ALLIES
+
+The Entente did not acknowledge the Russo-German peace. In a statement
+issued March 18 through the British Foreign Office the Governments of
+Great Britain, France, and Italy voiced their protest against "the
+political crimes which, under the name of a German peace, have been
+committed against the Russian people." Ambassador David R. Francis, when
+asked whether he would leave Russia in consequence of the ratification
+of the peace treaty, gave the following reply:
+
+    I shall not leave Russia until compelled by force. The American
+    Government and people are too deeply interested in the
+    prosperity of the Russian people for them to abandon Russia to
+    the Germans. America is sincerely interested in the liberty of
+    the Russian people and will do everything possible to safeguard
+    the real interests of the country.
+
+    If the brave and patriotic Russian people will forget political
+    differences for the time being and act resolutely and
+    vigorously, they will be able to drive the enemy from their
+    territory, and by the end of 1918 bring a lasting peace for
+    themselves and the whole world. America still counts itself an
+    ally of the Russian people, and we shall be ready to help any
+    Government which organizes a vigorous resistance to the German
+    invasion.
+
+The French, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Serbian, Belgian, Brazilian,
+Greek, Portuguese, and Siamese representatives, who left Russia when the
+treaty with Germany was signed, joined the American Ambassador (who did
+not leave the country) at Vologda, 300 miles northeast of Moscow, late
+in March. A dispatch dated March 20 says: "There has been a marked
+change in the attitude of the Allies toward the Soviet Government. * * *
+There are many signs of renewed co-operation between Russia and the
+Allies." The dispatch also quotes M. Chicherin, the Bolshevist Foreign
+Minister, as saying that "Russia's relations with the Entente are
+unchanged."
+
+At the same time Trotzky approached the American military mission,
+established in Moscow, asking it to assist Russia in organizing a
+volunteer army and in improving the country's transportation. On March
+27 the Petit Parisien published a statement to the effect that Trotzky
+had also asked the French to assist him in organizing military
+resistance to the Germans. A leading article in Premier Clemenceau's
+L'Homme Libre contained the following statement: "The Entente, as long
+as the war lasts, will regard Russia, the one and indivisible Russia
+which signed the pact of London, as an ally."
+
+Russia also reckons on the Allies, especially America, for support in
+rehabilitating her industries and developing her resources. A large
+order for agricultural machinery has been placed in the United States,
+and the shipping of the goods has already begun. According to a London
+dispatch the Bolsheviki are sending a commission to the United States to
+settle Russia's accounts with American firms and make arrangements for
+future trade relations.
+
+
+THE JAPANESE LANDING
+
+After Russia's collapse, and especially after her capitulation, Japan's
+intervention in Siberia was a subject of lively discussion in the allied
+countries. Persistent rumors were circulated by the press to the effect
+that large masses of armed and organized Teuton prisoners, numbering at
+least 150,000 men, were ready to seize the Trans-Siberian railroad and
+menace the military stores accumulated in Vladivostok. These rumors were
+declared by the Bolshevist authorities to be a part of the propaganda to
+bring disrepute on the Soviet power and encourage Japanese
+intervention, which Lenine's Government regards as an encroachment of
+world imperialism upon Socialist Russia.
+
+On Friday, April 5, two companies of Japanese sailors landed at
+Vladivostok. According to the report of the President of the Vladivostok
+Soviet, the landing was effected in the presence of the Japanese Consul
+and Admiral Kato, Japanese Marine Minister, without the consent of the
+other allied Consuls. Later in the day fifty British armed sailors were
+landed. There was also an unconfirmed report that American marines, too,
+were landed. On the next day 250 more Japanese sailors entered the city.
+In a proclamation issued at Vladivostok Admiral Kato explained that the
+step was taken because of the murder of a Japanese soldier and in order
+to protect the life and property of Japanese and allied subjects. The
+Vladivostok Soviet protested to the Consular Corps. Resolutions of
+protest were also passed by the Municipal Council and the local Zemstvo.
+
+The news of the landing produced much excitement in the Bolshevist
+headquarters in Moscow. In spite of the statement of the allied
+diplomats that the act was a purely local affair of no political
+importance, the Bolsheviki construed it as the beginning of the rumored
+Japanese invasion. A statement issued by the Commissaries on April 6
+declared that the killing of the Japanese soldier was part of a
+prearranged scheme, and that "Japan had started a campaign against the
+Soviet Republic." The following day the Izvestia spoke of the invasion
+as the continuation of "the crusade against revolutionary Russia" begun
+by imperialistic Germany. In a speech at Moscow on April 8 Premier
+Lenine said: "It is possible that after a short time, perhaps even
+within a few days, we shall have to declare war on Japan." Two days
+later it was reported that the Russian Government had requested Germany
+to permit the postponement of the demobilization of the Russian Army in
+view of the Japanese landing at Vladivostok.
+
+On April 11 the Consular Corps of Vladivostok officially informed the
+local Zemstvo that the landing of allied sailors had been made necessary
+by conditions of anarchy in the port, and that the troops would be
+withdrawn as soon as order had been restored.
+
+On March 16 the American Ambassador, Mr. Francis, made the following
+statement:
+
+    The Soviet Government and the Soviet press are giving too much
+    importance to the landing of these marines, which has no
+    political significance, but merely was a police precaution taken
+    by the Japanese Admiral on his own responsibility for the
+    protection of Japanese life and property in Vladivostok, and the
+    Japanese Admiral, Kato, so informed the American Admiral,
+    Knight, and the American Consul, Caldwell, in Vladivostok. My
+    impression is that the landing of the British marines was
+    pursuant to the request of the British Consul for the protection
+    of the British Consulate and British subjects in Vladivostok,
+    which he anticipated would possibly be jeopardized by the unrest
+    which might result from the Japanese landing.
+
+    The American Consul did not ask protection from the American
+    cruiser in Vladivostok Harbor, and consequently no American
+    marines were landed. This, together with the fact that the
+    French Consul at Vladivostok made no request for protection from
+    the British, American, or Japanese cruisers in the harbor,
+    unquestionably demonstrates that the landing of allied troops is
+    not a concerted action between the Allies.
+
+
+
+
+The Czar's Loyalty to the Allies
+
+An Autograph Letter
+
+A letter written by Nicholas II. to President Poincar� in the Spring of
+1916 has recently been made public. Its interest lies in its expression
+of absolute loyalty to the Allies. It is as follows:
+
+    DEAR AND EXALTED FRIEND: At a moment when France and Russia are
+    more closely bound than ever in the unprecedented struggle of
+    which they are supporting the weight with their faithful allies,
+    it has been a great pleasure to me to see the arrival of members
+    of the French Government in Russia. I have had much pleasure in
+    once again meeting M. Viviani, whom I already know, and in
+    recalling the last interview that I had with you. At the time
+    our one idea was to insure the peaceful development of our two
+    countries, while the enemy was already preparing his attack
+    against the peace of Europe in the hope of securing the hegemony
+    of the world. It also gives me great pleasure to meet M. Albert
+    Thomas, the Minister of Munitions, whose talents have rendered
+    such great services to his country and to the cause of the
+    Allies.
+
+    Having always attached great importance to an intimate
+    collaboration between the two Governments, I attach even greater
+    importance to this collaboration at the present time, now that
+    we are thoroughly determined only to disarm by common agreement
+    after gaining the final victory. It is therefore more necessary
+    to co-ordinate our effort in order that our common action may be
+    more effective. It is unquestionable that each of the Allies is
+    animated by a single desire--that of placing its fullest effort
+    at the disposal of the common cause.
+
+    It is with this desire that my Government and my officers have
+    devotedly studied, in association with members of the French
+    Government, the methods that should be taken to insure that the
+    greatest possible assistance should be given to our various
+    allies. I hope, consequently, that M. Viviani and M. Thomas will
+    leave here with the absolute conviction that so far as it is
+    materially possible Russia will hesitate before no sacrifice to
+    insure the triumph of the allied cause at the earliest possible
+    moment. My warmest wishes are that our united efforts may soon
+    be crowned with the most striking success, and I am anxious to
+    express to you my admiration of France, which has covered itself
+    with fresh glory in the heroic defense of Verdun.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+Pershing's Army Under General Foch
+
+American Troops in France Brigaded With French and British Units for the
+Great Battle in Picardy
+
+
+General Pershing, in a cablegram to General March, Acting Chief of
+Staff, announced on March 29, 1918, that the American expeditionary
+force in France had been placed at the disposal of General Foch, the
+allied Generalissimo. The message read:
+
+    _Have made all our resources available, and our divisions will
+    be used if and when needed. French are in fine spirits, and both
+    armies seem confident._
+
+    (_Signed_) _PERSHING._
+
+General Pershing had called on General Foch at Headquarters on the
+previous day, March 28, and made the offer of American troops. His words
+were reported by the Paris newspaper, L'Information, as follows:
+
+"I come to say to you that the American people would hold it a great
+honor for our troops were they engaged in the present battle. I ask it
+of you, in my name and in that of the American people. There is at this
+moment no other question than that of fighting. Infantry, artillery,
+aviation--all that we have are yours to dispose of as you will. Others
+are coming which are as numerous as will be necessary. I have come to
+say to you that the American people would be proud to be engaged in the
+greatest battle in history."
+
+In a statement given out at the American Headquarters in France on March
+30, Secretary Baker said:
+
+"I am delighted at General Pershing's prompt and effective action in
+placing all the American troops and facilities at the disposal of the
+Allies in the present situation. It will meet with hearty approval in
+the United States, where the people desire their expeditionary forces to
+be of the utmost service in the common cause. I have visited all the
+American troops in France, some of them recently, and had an
+opportunity to observe the enthusiasm with which officers and men
+received the announcement that they would be used in the present
+conflict. One regiment to which the announcement was made spontaneously
+broke into cheers."
+
+
+THE OFFER ACCEPTED
+
+General Foch placed General Pershing's offer before the French war
+council at the front, which included Premier Clemenceau, French
+Commander P�tain, and Louis Loucheur, Minister of Munitions. An official
+note, issued in Paris on March 31, dealing with the operation of
+American troops with the French and British, said:
+
+    _The French Government has decided to accede to the desire
+    expressed by General Pershing in the name of the United States
+    Government. The American troops will fight side by side with the
+    British and French troops and the Star-Spangled Banner will
+    float beside the French and English flags in the plains of
+    Picardy._
+
+Further information showing that the time had come for the active
+participation of the American Army in the new campaign was contained in
+the following British official announcement, issued in London on April
+1:
+
+    As a result of communications which have passed between the
+    Prime Minister [Lloyd George] and President Wilson; of
+    deliberations between Secretary Baker, who visited London a few
+    days ago, and the Prime Minister, Mr. Balfour, and Lord Derby,
+    and consultations in France, in which General Pershing and
+    General Bliss participated, important decisions have been come
+    to by which large forces of trained men in the American Army can
+    be brought to the assistance of the Allies in the present
+    struggle.
+
+    The Government of our great Western ally is not only sending
+    large numbers of American battalions to Europe during the
+    coming critical months, but has agreed to such of its regiments
+    as cannot be used in divisions of their own being brigaded with
+    French and British units so long as the necessity lasts.
+
+    By this means troops which are not yet sufficiently trained to
+    fight as divisions and army corps will form part of seasoned
+    divisions until such time as they have completed their training
+    and General Pershing wishes to withdraw them in order to build
+    up the American Army.
+
+    Arrangements for the transportation of these additional forces
+    are now being completed.
+
+    Throughout these discussions President Wilson has shown the
+    greatest anxiety to do everything possible to assist the Allies
+    and has left nothing undone which could contribute thereto.
+
+    This decision, however, of vital importance as it will be to the
+    maintenance of the allied strength in the next few months, will
+    in no way diminish the need for those further measures for
+    raising fresh troops at home, to which reference already has
+    been made. It is announced at once because the Prime Minister
+    feels that the singleness of purpose with which the United
+    States have made this immediate and, indeed, indispensable
+    contribution toward the triumph of the allied cause should be
+    clearly recognized by the British people.
+
+    The action of the United States in thus merging its troops with
+    the other armies was hailed with gratitude and praise by the
+    press and official spokesmen of all the Entente nations.
+
+The first mention of Americans in the battle of Picardy was contained in
+the War Department's weekly review of the war situation, issued on April
+7. American transport sections, it said, had taken an active part in the
+battle, and the American Aviation Section was co-operating with the
+British.
+
+
+THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS
+
+American engineers also took part in the battle, particularly during the
+first days of the German offensive. Three companies belonging to two
+regiments of the American Railway Engineers were reported in the German
+War Office statement as operating in the areas of Chauny and the Crozat
+Canal. This statement was confirmed in a report from General Pershing to
+the Acting Chief of Staff at Washington. The Americans had been working
+in the rear lines with Canadian engineers, under Canadian command. When
+the German attack came, they threw down their tools and seized the
+weapons with which they had been armed for some months, and formed
+themselves into a fighting unit. The Germans came on, and finally
+reached the positions where the Americans were waiting. The number of
+the engineers was comparatively small. They had no intention of
+retreating, however, and were bent upon killing all the Germans
+possible.
+
+As the first enemy wave advanced, the American forces let them come
+until they were within certain range: then opened fire, pouring in a
+storm of bullets. Gaps appeared in the advancing lines at many places,
+but the German waves came on, without firing a single shot. The
+Americans were unable to understand these tactics. By this time their
+weapons were so hot that they could not be used effectively, and the
+enemy was close, so that the engineers retired, fighting, took up
+another position, then turned and began operations again. A British
+officer who witnessed the engagement is reported to have said: "They
+held on by their teeth until the last moment, inflicting terrific
+casualties on the enemy. Then they moved back and waited for the
+Germans, and repeated the performance." By the time the engineers
+reached a place somewhere near Noyon they were nearly exhausted and
+almost without equipment. There they had a chance to rest and re-equip.
+
+On the sectors where American troops had been stationed before the
+decision to place them at the disposal of General Foch intensive
+training operations in the front-line trenches, with artillery fire and
+raiding of the enemy's positions, had been proceeding along much the
+same lines as during the previous month. A dispatch dated April 3
+reported that American troops on a certain sector other than that in the
+region of Toul had been subjected to an extraordinarily heavy gas
+attack.
+
+With the acceptance of the American offer to join in the battle of
+Picardy, troops began to be withdrawn from the sectors thus far occupied
+and from the American training camps in France, and hurried as rapidly
+as possible to points where the French and British required
+reinforcements.
+
+Casualty lists showed that the Rainbow Division, (composed of troops
+from nearly every State in the Union,) the first of the National Guard
+divisions to cross the Atlantic, had been engaged in the fighting. The
+150th Machine Gun Battalion, made up of guardsmen from the old 2d
+Wisconsin Infantry, had suffered heavily; of the sixty-eight men named
+as severely wounded in one list fifty-six were identified as members of
+the Wisconsin machine-gun unit.
+
+
+AMERICAN WAR CROSSES
+
+General Pershing approved, according to an announcement on March 19, the
+awarding of the first American military crosses for extraordinary
+heroism. The recipients were Lieutenant John O. Green, Sergeant William
+Norton, and Sergeant Patrick Walsh. The crosses were awarded for
+"extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an
+armed enemy." The exploits of these men were described by the General
+commanding their division as follows:
+
+    I recommend that the Distinguished Service Cross be awarded to
+    the officer and men named hereafter, who distinguished
+    themselves by acts of extraordinary heroism.
+
+    Lieutenant Green, while in a dugout, having been wounded by an
+    enemy hand grenade, was summoned to surrender. He refused to do
+    so. Returning the fire of the enemy, he wounded one and pursued
+    the hostile party.
+
+    Sergeant Norton, finding himself in a dugout surrounded by the
+    enemy, into which a grenade had just been thrown, refused to
+    surrender, and made a bold dash outside, killing one of his
+    assailants. By so doing he saved the company's log book.
+
+    Sergeant Walsh followed his company commander to the first lines
+    in spite of a severe barrage. The Captain being killed, he
+    assumed command of the group and attacked a superior force of
+    the enemy, inflicting severe loss upon them. Though of advanced
+    age he refused to leave the front.
+
+To these recommendations General Pershing appended his approval.
+Lieutenant Green and Sergeants Norton and Walsh had all previously
+received the French War Cross, Norton and Walsh being decorated
+personally by Premier Clemenceau on March 3.
+
+Mr. Baker, Secretary of War, during a visit to the front-line trenches
+held by American troops, insisted upon going through a sap to a
+listening post. Peeping over the parapet into No Man's Land, he
+expressed his sensations in the words: "Now I am on the frontier of
+freedom." On the return journey from the trenches a German shell burst
+within less than fifty yards of Mr. Baker's motor car, hit a roadside
+dugout, and tore out a large crater.
+
+
+TOTAL CASUALTIES
+
+For nearly a week in the beginning of April no casualty lists were
+issued by the War Department, owing to a cablegram from the Secretary of
+War prescribing the following rules for handling publicity of matters
+pertaining to troops and operations:
+
+    First--All matters pertaining to events, persons, policies, or
+    operations abroad will only be officially given out from the
+    headquarters, American Expeditionary Force in France.
+
+    Second--Similar matters affecting forces at home will be given
+    out from the War Department.
+
+Suppression of the casualty lists aroused criticism throughout the
+country, and on April 9 the War Department, acting on cabled
+instructions from Mr. Baker, resumed issuing the daily list. The
+summarized totals up to April 11 were:
+
+    DEATHS
+
+    Killed in action                        228
+    Killed or prisoner                        1
+    Killed by accident                      181
+    Died of disease                         867
+    Lost at sea                             237
+    Died of wounds                           69
+    Civilians                                 7
+    Gas attack, suicide, executed, unknown
+    causes                                   42
+                                          -----
+      Total deaths                        1,632
+
+    Wounded                               1,606
+    Captured                                 43
+    Missing                                  30
+                                          -----
+      Total of all casualties             3,311
+
+
+
+
+Our War Machine in New Phases
+
+Month Ended April 18, 1918
+
+
+The outstanding feature of America's part in the war during the past
+month has been the placing at the disposal of General Foch, the allied
+Generalissimo, all the men and resources of the United States now
+available in France. At home preparations were hastened to call up at
+least another 150,000 men under the draft law to replace those sent from
+the training camps to France.
+
+The navy is now represented in the war zone by 150 vessels, including
+battleships, under the command of Admiral Sims.
+
+Drastic changes have been made in various branches of the War
+Department. The Ordnance Department and Quartermaster Corps have been
+brought more into line with the requirements of supplying the armies at
+home and abroad. The Senate Military Affairs Committee has investigated
+the serious delay in aircraft production, and in a majority report
+severely criticised the work of the Signal Corps, under which the
+Aviation Section is organized. The War Industries Board has been
+reshaped, and its Chairman, Mr. Baruch, has been given very extensive
+powers.
+
+The crisis which arose out of the shipbuilding program has been passed,
+and our 150 shipyards are accelerating the rate of production of new
+ships. Dutch ships in American ports aggregating 500,000 tons have been
+seized, and 200,000 tons of Japanese shipping has been received by
+agreement.
+
+The railroads under Government control are becoming more closely adapted
+to the needs of wartime distribution. Several important coastwise
+steamship lines have been taken over and placed under the Director
+General of Railroads.
+
+The food situation still demands strict conservation, and it is
+recognized that America will have to submit to greater sacrifices in
+view of the ever-growing world shortage.
+
+Labor questions have been engaging the serious attention of the
+Government and Congress. The diversion of working people to industries
+where they are most needed for war purposes, and legislation to prevent
+strikes have been under consideration. In addition to the different war
+industries properly so-called, a large amount of labor is now necessary
+for agriculture, so as to plant the largest possible crop and to harvest
+it in the Fall.
+
+To finance the war, and incidentally mark the beginning of the nation's
+second year in the war, subscriptions were opened on April 6 for the
+Third Liberty Loan of $3,000,000,000 at 4� per cent. These bonds are
+nonconvertible and will mature in ten years.
+
+
+WAR DEPARTMENT'S GROWTH
+
+The experience gained by officers who have been serving with General
+Pershing's army in France is becoming an influence in every one of the
+widely ramified branches of the War Department, while Secretary Baker's
+visit abroad to get first-hand knowledge of the requirements of the
+American expeditionary force has been fertile in new ideas.
+
+One of the signs of the growth of the War Department is the appointment
+of a third Assistant Secretary of War. For this position Frederick P.
+Keppel, Dean of Columbia University, New York, was selected by the
+President. On April 12 the appointment was unanimously recommended by
+the Senate Military Committee. The nomination of E. R. Stettinius as an
+Assistant Secretary had already been confirmed. Dr. Keppel's duties
+include the supervision of the nonmilitary activities of the soldiers,
+their personal welfare and comfort, both at home and abroad.
+
+To improve the work of the General Staff at Washington General Pershing,
+it was announced on April 12, is sending home certain officers who have
+become familiar with staff work at the front, and also some practical
+aviation experts to aid in solving the difficulties which have arisen in
+the production of aircraft. Other officers include representatives of
+the Quartermaster Corps who have acquired experience under modern war
+conditions in France. In this way a greater measure of co-ordination
+with the army in France is being obtained.
+
+An order issued by General March, Acting Chief of Staff, on April 12,
+consolidated the Division of Storage and Traffic with the Division of
+Purchases and Supplies, the one division to be known as the Division of
+Purchase, Storage, and Traffic. The division was placed under Major Gen.
+Goethals, who continued to serve as Assistant Chief of Staff and Acting
+Quartermaster General. Brig. Gen. Palmer E. Pierce, who has been a
+member of the War Industries Board and of the War Council created by
+Secretary Baker, was made Director of Purchases in January, 1918, but
+under this scheme of reorganization it was announced that while
+remaining on duty with the War Industries Board he would give up his
+post as Director of Purchases and Supplies. His successor, under Major
+Gen. Goethals, was Colonel Hugh S. Johnston, who has been General
+Crowder's right-hand man in the office of the Provost Marshal General.
+
+
+TWO BILLIONS FOR GUNS
+
+There have also been important changes in the Ordnance Department, it
+being announced on April 8 that Brig. Gen. Charles B. Wheeler, who
+recently succeeded Major Gen. William Crozier as head of the Ordnance
+Department of the Army with the title of Acting Chief of Ordnance, had
+been succeeded by Brig. Gen. C. C. Williams, Chief Ordnance Officer with
+the American expeditionary force in France. General Williams was ordered
+to return to Washington to take up the duties of Active Chief of
+Ordnance.
+
+A summary of the work of the Gun Division, Bureau of Ordnance, prepared
+for the Secretary of War, shows that it has been necessary to equip
+sixteen large plants for the manufacture of mobile artillery and that
+the total program of the Gun Division calls for an expenditure of
+approximately $2,000,000,000. At the outbreak of the war the Gun
+Division was composed of three officers and seven civilians. At the end
+of 1917 it had approximately 500 officers and 3,500 civilians, since
+increased to 1,500 officers and more than 10,000 civilians. The Ordnance
+Department has also established a comprehensive repair service for
+artillery, motor vehicles, and other equipment.
+
+With the creation of a Construction Division in the War Department on
+March 16, to handle the largest single building program in history,
+aggregating $1,084,000,000, a board of eminent experts appointed by
+Acting Secretary Crowell took over the work of the Cantonment Division,
+which did the preliminary work of building national army camps. The
+building program, involving hundreds of thousands of workmen and
+extensive structures for the army throughout the country, is under the
+immediate direction of the Chief of Staff. Headed by Professor A. N.
+Talbot of the University of Illinois, President of the American Society
+of Civil Engineers, the board includes representatives of leading
+architectural, engineering, business, and labor organizations.
+
+
+OUR GROWING ARMY
+
+The year of intensive recruiting for the regular army by volunteer
+enlistment ended on March 30, 1918. A year previously the enlisted
+strength of the regular army was 121,797 men, and to bring it to full
+war strength 183,898 additional soldiers were required. These men were
+obtained some months ago. The recruiting campaign, however, was
+continued, and on March 30 the regular army was about 501,000 strong,
+which represented about one-third of all the men serving under the War
+Department.
+
+Major Gen. Enoch Crowder, the Provost Marshal General, on April 6 sent
+out a call to all the States for a total of 150,000 men in the second
+draft. Instructions were given for the movement of these men to begin on
+April 26, and for their mobilization to be complete five days later.
+They were selected from Class Al of the registration lists and were to
+replace the men who have been sent abroad from the training camps.
+
+A resolution providing that all young men who have reached the age of 21
+years since June 5, 1917, the first draft registration day, shall be
+subject to military service was passed by the Senate on March 29. About
+58,000 men thus become available each month, and in the year since June
+5, 1917, about 700,000 will have been brought under the selective draft
+law. The Senate rejected a proposal for universal military training for
+all males between 19 and 21 by a vote of 36 against 26.
+
+The number of colored citizens registered on June 5, 1917, was 737,626.
+Of these 208,953 have so far been called up, and 133,256 rejected,
+exempted, or discharged, leaving 75,697 certified for service and
+inducted into the national army.
+
+
+
+
+Shortage in Aircraft Production
+
+Senate Committee's Report
+
+
+The shortage of aircraft for the American Army in France has been the
+subject of investigation by the Military Affairs Committee of the
+Senate, following the sensational disclosures regarding German control
+of the air in the sector held by the Americans, [see CURRENT HISTORY
+MAGAZINE, April, 1918, Pp. 12-14.] The Senate Committee was not
+unanimous, and two reports were presented on April 12, 1918, differing
+as to the causes of delay in the execution of the airplane program.
+
+The substance of the majority report is contained in the following
+extracts:
+
+    The Signal Corps has established and is now conducting twenty
+    aviation training schools in the United States. Four additional
+    schools are in process of construction and are expected to be
+    finished in June next.
+
+    The aggregate capacity of the schools now in operation is
+    something over 3,000 cadets; 1,926 have thus far been graduated
+    from this primary training course and commissioned as reserve
+    military aviators. Very few of these have received their
+    advanced training in this country.
+
+    In addition to the above, the Signal Corps, acting upon the
+    invitation of the several Entente Governments, dispatched some
+    1,200 cadets to England, France, and Italy last year, who were
+    to receive primary and advanced training in aviation schools of
+    those countries. The experience of a great many of these men has
+    been most unfortunate in that at some of the schools a very
+    serious delay has occurred in providing them with the training
+    planes, which it was expected would be manufactured in foreign
+    factories in sufficient numbers. As a result, several hundred of
+    the American cadets have been practically idle and have made no
+    progress. About 450 of them are reported as having completed the
+    primary training, after long delay.
+
+    The Signal Corps is giving serious consideration to the
+    advisability of bringing the remainder back to the United States
+    to be trained. With the exception of this severe disappointment,
+    the primary training of our aviators, according to the testimony
+    of the aviation officials, appears to be progressing favorably.
+
+    For some time after the inception of the work the output of
+    primary training planes in this country for use in our schools
+    gave ground for grave concern. In recent weeks, however, the
+    output has been greatly increased, and there seems to be no
+    doubt of the Signal Corps having an amply sufficient number in
+    the future. On April 1, 1918, 3,458 primary training planes had
+    been completed. The advanced training planes are being turned
+    out in accordance with the schedule and estimates laid down at
+    the inception of their manufacture. In advanced training planes
+    four types are being made, the total number up to date
+    manufactured being 342. In these planes three types of engines
+    will be used, of which 965 have been completed. The Liberty
+    motor is not suitable for use in these planes.
+
+    It is apparent from the evidence that the twelve-cylinder
+    Liberty motor is just emerging from the development or
+    experimental stage. Since the original design and the setting up
+    of the first completed motor in July, 1917, a large number of
+    changes have been found necessary, many of them causing delay in
+    reaching quantity production. Within the last two months changes
+    of considerable importance have been made which, it is hoped,
+    will make the motor serviceable for combat planes of the
+    defensive type and for bombing and observation planes.
+
+    Twenty-two thousand five hundred Liberty motors have been
+    ordered, 122 have been completed for the army, and 142 for the
+    navy. Four have been shipped overseas. Some of those already
+    delivered are being altered to overcome the defects ascertained
+    during the last few weeks. It is understood, however, that these
+    alterations will consume but a very short time.
+
+    The production of Liberty motors to date is, of course, gravely
+    disappointing. The Government officials having the manufacture
+    of the Liberty motor in charge have made the mistake of leading
+    the public and the allied nations to the belief that many
+    thousands of these motors would be completed in the Spring of
+    1918.
+
+    The production of combat planes in the United States for use in
+    actual warfare has thus far been a substantial failure and
+    constitutes a most serious disappointment in our war
+    preparations. We had no design of our own; neither did we adopt
+    any one of the European designs until months after we entered
+    the war. In all, five types, at one time or another, have been
+    adopted. Two of them have been abandoned after the expenditure
+    of much time and money. The three remaining types still left
+    upon our program are now in the course of manufacture. Of these
+    the largest and most powerful is the Handley-Page heavy bombing
+    machine, designed to carry as many as six men, eight machine
+    guns, and a heavy load of bombs, and to be driven by two Liberty
+    motors. The testimony before your committee shows that the
+    Signal Corps finally decided upon the manufacture of a number of
+    sets of parts of this machine about Jan. 1, 1918. Officials of
+    the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps testify that they do
+    not expect the completion of the first set of parts in this
+    country before June, 1918.
+
+    Another type of combat plane, known as the De Haviland, is
+    included in our program. This machine habitually carries two
+    men, four machine guns, a moderate load of bombs and other
+    apparatus and is driven by one Liberty motor. Fifteen have been
+    completed; one has been shipped to France; the remaining
+    fourteen have been very recently completed in this country.
+
+    The third type upon the program is known as the Bristol fighter.
+    This machine is lighter and faster than the De Haviland. Its
+    speed is expected to be in the neighborhood of 125 miles per
+    hour. It is what is known as a reconnoissance machine. Another
+    term which might be properly applied to it is "defensive
+    fighter." It carries two men, four machine guns, and is driven
+    by one Liberty motor. The decision to make this type was reached
+    on Nov. 7, 1917. The manufacturers completed the first of these
+    machines during the week ended March 30, 1918. The machine was
+    tested once during that week with a Liberty motor, and,
+    according to the testimony of the aviation officials, met its
+    preliminary test successfully. This machine, a few hours after
+    its flight, caught fire while standing upon the aviation ground
+    and was entirely destroyed. The officials of the Signal Corps
+    assured the committee that another machine would soon be
+    finished by the manufacturer, and that if it met the tests
+    satisfactorily quantity production might be expected within a
+    reasonable period.
+
+    In addition to the American production of engines and airplanes
+    as herein set forth, considerable orders for combat airplanes
+    and engines were last Summer placed with European manufacturers
+    by General Pershing, and we have furnished quantities of
+    material and numbers of mechanics to aid in their construction.
+
+    Your committee is convinced that much of the delay in producing
+    completed combat airplanes is due to ignorance of the art and to
+    failure to organize the effort in such a way as to centralize
+    authority and bring about quick decision.
+
+Further light is thrown on the production of aircraft for the American
+Army by the minority report. One passage reads:
+
+    Soon after the war began the Signal Corps arranged with the
+    French Government for the making of 6,100 combat planes at a
+    total cost of $127,000,000, the planes to be produced as rapidly
+    as American fliers could be trained to operate them. As the
+    American aero squadrons reach the front ready for duty, battle
+    planes are being supplied them under this arrangement. To aid in
+    this foreign manufacture of planes for American fliers, the
+    Signal Corps has shipped to France 11,000 tons of various
+    materials and has sent 7,000 mechanics to release, for French
+    factories making planes for our American fliers, the French
+    workers on motor transports. The Signal Corps then arranged for
+    the making of about 11,500 combat planes in the United States,
+    the term combat plane being here used to embrace all kinds of
+    planes, both offensive and defensive, except training planes.
+
+    Let it be said here that when the war began the United States
+    Government had purchased altogether less than 200 airplanes in
+    its entire history, and that of the few airplane factories in
+    this country probably not one was making over five or six a
+    month. It is hardly possible to grasp the magnitude of the task
+    the factories contracting to make the 11,500 combat planes found
+    before them.
+
+
+
+
+America's First Year of War
+
+An Anniversary Summary
+
+
+April 6, 1918, marked the first anniversary of the participation of the
+United States in the European War. The period was primarily one of
+preparation. If America did little actual fighting in the first year, it
+nevertheless achieved a great deal both in strengthening the cause of
+the Allies and in getting ready to play its own part on the battlefields
+of Europe. The increase in the war strength of the army is shown in the
+following figures:
+
+    APRIL, 1917
+                          Officers.      Men.
+    Regulars              5,791          121,797
+    National Guard        3,733           76,713
+    Reserve Corps                          4,000
+    National Army
+                          -----          -------
+    Total                 9,524          202,510
+
+    APRIL, 1918
+                         Officers.       Men.
+    Regulars             10,698          503,142
+    National Guard       16,893          431,583
+    Reserve Corps        96,210           77,360
+    National Army                        516,839
+                        -------        ---------
+    Total               123,801        1,528,924
+
+Of these 1,652,725 officers and men, several hundred thousand were
+already in Europe in April, either in training camps or on the battle
+front. "Over 100,000" was the figure given by General Pershing when he
+announced the number of adequately trained, fully equipped American
+troops that were immediately available for use in the battle of Picardy.
+The War Department had announced its expectation of having 1,500,000
+American soldiers in the war zone before the end of 1918. The progress
+of training in the camps in the United States was unexpectedly rapid,
+and at the close of the first twelve months our troops were going across
+the Atlantic as fast as transportation could be provided.
+
+General Pershing and his staff arrived in France on June 15, 1917, and
+less than a month later the first division of American troops followed
+him. Exactly 187 days after the United States declared war the first
+American soldiers were in the trenches. The first contingents were
+ordered abroad well in advance of the time intended, or expected, when
+war was declared.
+
+
+LABORS IN FRANCE
+
+The preliminary labors in France necessitated by the presence of an
+ever-increasing army were both diverse and herculean. Docks had to be
+constructed, railways built and equipped and cantonments, hospitals, and
+a base constructed. American engineers went into the French forests and
+there did the work of the pioneers of the American Northwest, cutting
+down trees to build the permanent camps which were to replace the
+temporary cities. They built a railroad 600 miles long from the points
+of disembarkation to the operating base. The rolling stock it carried
+was all shipped across the ocean from the United States.
+
+All this was accomplished with great rapidity. An army locomotive, for
+example, was built in twenty-one days and shipped to the expeditionary
+forces. In a few weeks after the first departures there were urgent
+calls for other locomotives, for cars, trucks, logging trains, sectional
+buildings to be assembled on arrival. All these took many ships and
+appreciably delayed the transport of men. There was sent everything from
+fabricated ironwork for buildings and trestles to nails and crossties
+for the railroads. Among the items of construction is an ordnance base
+costing $25,000,000. Most of this preliminary work was approaching
+completion as the first year ended. Much of it is finished.
+
+American troops occupy trench sectors of their own in the line northwest
+of Toul, and in the neighborhood of Verdun. They have taken up positions
+also in other sectors, and the main body is operating with the Allies in
+opposing the German advance. Casualties in the first year of war
+reached a total of 2,368, distributed as follows:
+
+    Killed in battle                        163
+    Died of disease or accident             957
+    Lost at sea                             237
+    Died of wounds                           52
+    Other causes                             47
+    Missing and prisoners                    63
+    Wounded                                 829
+                                          -----
+    Total                                 2,368
+
+
+RAISING THE NEW ARMIES
+
+Most remarkable in the preparations for the struggle was the method of
+raising the new armies, namely, conscription. With comparatively little
+opposition the selective draft law was passed by Congress barely five
+weeks after the declaration of war, and three weeks later 9,600,000
+young men were registered for military service. By June 30 the 4,000
+local draft boards were ready to begin the task of examination and
+exemption. Sixteen cantonments, small cities in themselves, were already
+under construction in various parts of the country for the reception of
+the drafted men. Ninety days after this work began the initial groups of
+the first national army were on their way to these camps. In a steady
+stream since then the men have been called up, organized into military
+formations, and put under intensive training.
+
+The first half million are now ready and are being sent across the
+ocean, to complete their training within the war zone and take their
+place on the battle front. As fast as the camps are emptied new men are
+being summoned to refill them, new battalions formed, and new forces
+sent forward. Another 800,000 unmarried men without direct dependents
+are under notice to report for duty.
+
+The cost of raising the army under the selective draft law has been only
+54 cents per registrant, $1.69 per man called up, and $4.93 per man
+accepted for service.
+
+With the national army there have also been made available the 450,000
+men of the National Guard, who meantime have been mustered into the
+Federal service and trained under their own officers. Of these three
+divisions, the Rainbow, (so called because almost every State in the
+Union is represented in its composition,) the New England, and the
+Sunset (Far Western) Divisions have already gone abroad, and the first
+two have won honorable mention in the battle zone.
+
+
+TRAINING NEW OFFICERS
+
+The National Guard had its own officers. There was none, however, to
+spare for the national army. The regular military establishment could
+provide only a handful. Two classes at West Point were graduated in
+advance of the usual time, but they were not enough to affect the
+situation. The new army was, therefore, provided with carefully
+selected, specially trained officers, chosen by merit rather than on the
+old system of political appointments, by the general adoption of the
+Plattsburg training camp system, initiated in 1915. When war was
+declared there were already in the United States some 20,000 graduates
+of the Plattsburg, Fort Oglethorpe, and other training camps, who had
+undergone at least one month's intensive military training, supplemented
+by military studies when out of camp.
+
+The Plattsburg organization was taken over by the War Department, and a
+series of sixteen training camps for officers, in which most of the
+earlier Plattsburg graduates were commissioned as subaltern and company
+officers, was opened at advantageous points, and continued until the
+middle of August, 1917. Of 40,203 candidates enrolled in these camps
+27,341 qualified for commissions. Sufficient officers were thus at the
+cantonments to receive and command the national army when the men
+arrived. A second series of officers' training camps was begun in
+August, to add to the line and staff. Approximately 23,000 candidates
+attended, of whom 17,237 obtained commissions. Many who failed have
+since been enlisted and appointed noncommissioned officers in the
+national army. A third series was instituted in January, 1918, to create
+an officers' reserve force. Only enlisted men were admitted, except for
+a limited number of students who had received military training in
+schools under army officers during the last ten years. About 18,000 are
+in attendance, and the problem of officering the new armies has
+practically been solved.
+
+
+PROVIDING THE GUNS
+
+When war was declared, the Army Ordnance Department had ninety-seven
+officers. It now has 5,000 in America and abroad, and in the first year
+of the war had spent $4,756,500,000. To its peace-time task of
+administering eleven small Government arsenals has been added the
+problem of getting quick production of shells of all calibres, rifles,
+ammunition, grenades, and bombs from some 1,400 private manufacturing
+establishments. It has acquired a total of 2,475,219 square feet of
+storage space, has 2,701,880 square feet more under construction, and
+requires 23,000,000 square feet altogether to store its supplies. It has
+miles of railroad sidings, all inclosed, including 50 miles of track
+especially built, and it handles 10,000 carloads of explosives a month,
+with the total steadily increasing. The complexity of the Ordnance
+Department's task may be seen in the fact that the number of items made
+and supplied to the troops totals about 100,000, ranging from the small
+firing pin of a rifle to a complete 16-inch gun and emplacement, or a
+motor truck or tractor. Reserves of all these spare parts must be
+maintained and ready for distribution.
+
+The Ordnance Department has had to create organizations, build new
+plants, finance them and to design as well as to manufacture not only
+the weapons themselves, but thousands of tools, gauges, and jigs
+required for their manufacture. For instance, the French Government
+offered the secret of the recoil mechanism in the carriages of its
+famous .75 guns. To manufacture these it was necessary to machine steel
+castings so accurately that they will not be off two-thousandths of an
+inch in a distance of more than six feet.
+
+
+BUILDING NEW PLANTS
+
+Never had machinery been built in the United States to work on so large
+a scale with such a degree of accuracy. The Ordnance Department had to
+persuade manufacturers to undertake this difficult work, to assist them
+financially to build a thirteen-acre plant, to purchase and manufacture
+$6,000,000 worth of special tools, and develop an organization to do
+this. The contract was signed on Nov. 1, 1917, and today the plant is
+completed and is turning out the recoil mechanisms.
+
+The Nitrate Division has under construction two plants for the
+manufacture of powder, costing $45,000,000 each.
+
+The Ordnance Department itself has provided for the army 1,400,000
+rifles, has brought the production of them up to 45,000 a week, or
+enough to equip three army divisions; has secured deliveries on 17,000
+machine guns and brought the rate of production of them from 20,000 to
+225,000 a year. It has increased the rate of production of field guns,
+heavy and light, from 1,500 to 15,000 a year, and is manufacturing
+35,000 motor trucks and tractors to haul them and their ammunition. It
+has remodeled the British Enfield rifle so that it can be produced in
+quantities to take American ammunition and adopted two new types of
+machine guns, the Browning, heavy and light.
+
+The United States entered the war resolved to win supremacy in the air.
+Congress adopted an appropriation of $640,000,000, in addition to
+$15,000,000 already granted, to provide the best airplane service
+possible. The best motor engineers in the country combined their talents
+to provide a motor, and the result of their efforts was the Liberty
+motor, asserted to be superior to anything used by any army air corps.
+Delivery of the new motors in quantity has been delayed by various
+causes. But the initial difficulties have been solved and quantity
+production of battle planes, as well as of training planes, is expected
+during the Summer of 1918. While there are more than seventy different
+types of airplane motors on the western allied front, the United States
+is relying on a single standardized type, greatly reducing the ratio of
+forty-seven men required on the ground by foreign service for every man
+in the air.
+
+Colossal work has been done by the Quartermaster Corps, which supplies
+almost everything that a soldier needs, except ammunition; which
+transports those supplies as well as the soldier, feeds him, clothes
+him, and provides him with shelter. The war found the Quartermaster
+General's office without funds, Congress having adjourned without voting
+the Army Appropriation bill. But it tided over the interval until money
+was forthcoming. It has since spent $2,789,684,778, has clothed the
+draft armies and fed them, supplied the oversea forces with the million
+things they need, and there are at present few complaints of its work.
+The details are seen in columns of figures all running into millions.
+
+In this first year the Quartermaster Corps has spent $60,000,000 for
+horse-drawn vehicles and harness, more than $50,000,000 for horses,
+mules, and harness, and now estimates it will need for fuel and forage
+alone more than half a billion dollars.
+
+
+ARMY MEDICAL CORPS
+
+In preparation for large numbers of wounded and invalided men, the
+Medical Corps of the army has enlisted doctors and nurses by the
+thousand. In addition to the work being done for the Red Cross, which is
+a separate institution, the Army Medical Corps has enlarged its
+personnel from 8,000 to 106,000, including orderlies, stretcher bearers,
+and ambulance drivers. Its 900 doctors before the war are now increased
+to 18,000. It had 375 army nurses a year ago; now it has 7,000. It had
+no ambulance service; now it has 6,000 drivers in training.
+Reconstruction institutions are being provided in the United States on a
+more comprehensive scale than any other nation at war has attempted.
+Already a few wounded soldiers are being reconstructed at Medical Corps
+hospitals so as to be able to support themselves now that they are blind
+or crippled. Professional men, nurses, and attendants from our most
+noted civil reconstruction hospitals have been added to the personnel of
+the Medical Corps for this work.
+
+The hundreds of thousands of men taken from civil life into the army are
+now showing a death rate from disease below that of men of military age
+in civil life.
+
+
+WORK OF THE NAVY
+
+The navy was ready and began to take part in the war even before the
+formal declaration, for as early as March 12, 1917, in response to the
+President's order, it began arming American merchantmen and fighting
+their battles. Meantime, the navy gathered in recruits and set about
+building ships and getting in supplies ready for the more important work
+which followed when the nation was actually at war. At present there are
+150 warships, including battleships, with 35,000 personnel, in the war
+zone.
+
+In a year the navy has more than trebled its personnel. As a beginning
+it called up its own reserves and also the National Naval Volunteers and
+the Coast Guard. The following figures show the increased personnel:
+
+    APRIL, 1917
+                     Officers.  Men.
+    Regular Navy     4,366      64,680
+    *Naval Reserves   ----      10,000
+    Naval Volunteers  ----      10,069
+    *Coast Guard      ----       4,500
+    Marine Corps       426      13,266
+    Total            4,792     102,515
+
+    APRIL, 1918
+                  Officers.     Men.
+    Regular Navy      7,798    192,385
+    *Naval Reserves  10,033     79,069
+    Naval Volunteers    805     15,000
+    *Coast Guard        639      4,250
+    Marine Corps      1,389     38,629
+    Total            20,664    329,333
+
+    *Approximately.
+
+On May 4, twenty-eight days after the declaration of war, United States
+destroyers arrived at a British port to assist in patrolling European
+waters, and on the following day Admiral Sims attended an allied war
+conference at Paris. The first of the regular armed forces of the United
+States to land in France were units of the naval aeronautic corps. They
+arrived on June 8. The first contingent of the army transported and
+convoyed by the navy was landed safely at a French port early in July.
+Night and day since then American warships have convoyed transports and
+supplies across the Atlantic and brought the ships safely back. Only
+one empty transport in its care has succumbed to an enemy attack, and
+only two naval vessels have been sunk by enemy U-boats--the destroyer
+Jacob Jones, torpedoed Dec. 6, and the patrol vessel Alcedo, a converted
+yacht, sunk Nov. 5, 1917. The small destroyer Chauncey was sunk in
+collision with a British transport. The Cassin was torpedoed, but
+reached port under her own steam, was repaired, and returned to service.
+Casualties in the navy have been 144 killed or died and 10 wounded;
+total, 154.
+
+
+NAVAL AUXILIARIES
+
+At first there was a shortage of the small vessels required for minor
+naval duties. Some 800 craft of various kinds have been taken over and
+converted into the types needed, thus providing the large number of
+vessels required for transports, patrol service, submarine chasers, mine
+sweepers, mine layers, tugs, and other auxiliaries. Hundreds of
+submarine chasers have been built besides the new destroyers put into
+service. There are now four times as many vessels in the naval service
+as there were a year ago. The destroyer fleet now building in record
+time is at least as large a fleet of this type of craft as England is
+believed to have.
+
+The United States battle fleet has grown to twice the size of the
+peace-time fleet. As schools in gunnery and engineering they are
+training thousands of gunners and engineers required for the hundreds of
+vessels added to the navy and the many merchantmen furnished with arms
+and gun crews. Target practice in past years had been devoted mainly to
+practice with the big guns. Special attention during the past year has
+been devoted to the guns of smaller calibre, effective against
+submarines.
+
+When war was declared there were under construction, or about to be
+started, 123 new naval vessels:
+
+    Battleships             15
+    Battle cruisers          6
+    Scout cruisers           7
+    Destroyers              27
+    Submarines              61
+    Fuel ships               2
+    Supply ship              1
+    Transport                1
+    Gunboat                  1
+    Hospital ship            1
+    Ammunition ship          1
+
+Most of these have now been completed and the few remaining are well
+under way. Meantime contracts have been placed for 949 new vessels,
+including submarine chasers designed here which have done good service.
+Altogether there have been added to the navy since April 6, 1917,
+vessels to the number of 1,275, aggregating 1,055,116 tons.
+
+When the Government seized the 109 German-owned ships lying in American
+ports, the German engineers believed that their vessels had been damaged
+beyond repair for a year at least. Within six months the ships were in
+running order and have since carried numbers of American troops and huge
+quantities of supplies to the fighting lines in France. The damage was
+repaired by navy artificers and engineers under the jurisdiction of
+naval officers.
+
+
+BUILDING NEW SHIPS
+
+The vital question of shipping was assigned early in the year to the
+United States Shipping Board, now headed by E. N. Hurley, while the
+Emergency Fleet Corporation, since made subordinate to the board, was
+intrusted with the execution of the building program. Congress
+appropriated $1,135,000,000 for this purpose, and on March 1, 1918,
+$353,247,000 of this sum had been spent. Friction and consequent delay,
+however, at the outset caused vital changes in the composition of the
+Shipping Board. General Goethals, manager of the Emergency Fleet
+Corporation, resigned after a controversy with Mr. Denman, the first
+Chairman of the Shipping Board, over the comparative merits of wooden
+and steel ships. There have been other causes--labor troubles, lack of
+material, and of building facilities, of which America had few.
+
+Meantime the seized German ships, with an aggregate of more than 700,000
+tons dead weight to manage, have been put in service, vessels under
+construction in private shipyards have been commandeered and completed,
+and at least three new ships planned and constructed by the Shipping
+Board have been finished and are now at sea. The seizure of 150,000 tons
+of Dutch shipping in American ports has further added to the
+Government's immediate resources, while an agreement with Japan has made
+another 200,000 tons of shipping available.
+
+America's shipping industry had run down, until in the year before war
+was declared the total output of shipyards in the United States was only
+250,000 tons. The Shipping Board drew up a program to construct
+8,164,508 tons of steel ships, 1,145 ships in all, and 490 wooden ships,
+with a total tonnage of 1,715,000. Only a small part of this enormous
+total could be constructed in the first year of the war with the
+shipyard facilities available, and it has been necessary to build new
+shipyards on an enormous scale. Volunteer shipworkers have been enlisted
+from all quarters, and in April, 1918, work was proceeding at 150
+shipyards in various parts of the country.
+
+The following figures show the actual number of ships put into the water
+since the Shipping Board took control of the situation:
+
+    Steel ships requisitioned on ways, completed
+    by Emergency Fleet Corporation
+    and now in service                          85
+
+    Steel ships requisitioned on ways, turned
+    back to former owners and now
+    completed and in service                    15
+
+    Steel ships requisitioned on ways, hulls
+    of which have been launched                 65
+
+    Steel ships contracted for by Emergency
+    Fleet Corporation which have
+    been completed and put into service          3
+
+    Steel ships contracted for by Emergency
+    Fleet Corporation, hulls of
+    which have been launched                     9
+
+    Wooden ships contracted for by Emergency
+    Fleet Corporation, hulls of
+    which have been launched                    11
+                                               ---
+    Total                                      188
+
+    Steel ships requisitioned which are now
+    actually in service                        100
+
+    Steel ships contracted for by Emergency
+    Fleet Corporation now actually
+    in service                                   3
+                                               ---
+    Total                                      103
+
+By April, 1918, the Government has been able to put 2,762,605 tons of
+shipping into the transatlantic service to carry men and munitions to
+France.
+
+
+FINANCING THE WAR
+
+The United States has been a great financial factor since entering the
+war. The Government lent to the Allies on the security of their bonds
+$4,436,329,750. For America's own expenses Congress has already
+authorized $2,034,000,000, of which one item alone, merchant shipping,
+accounted for more than $1,000,000,000. The total expenses in the first
+year were more than $9,800,000,000, but about $800,000,000 of this went
+for normal activities not connected with the war, so that its total cost
+has been about $9,000,000,000, of which more than $4,000,000,000 has
+been in loans to the Allies. Expenditures for aircraft alone have
+amounted to more than $600,000,000. Naval appropriations, made and
+pending, are more than $3,000,000,000; the War Department has taken
+$7,464,771,756. The army's annual payroll now exceeds $500,000,000 and
+the navy's $125,000,000, and these items are trifling compared with the
+cost of ships, ordnance, munitions, airplanes, motor trucks, and
+supplies of every kind, to say nothing of food. Allotments and
+allowances to soldiers' and sailors' dependents paid by the Government
+in the month of February alone amounted to $19,976,543.
+
+Bonds, certificates of indebtedness, War Savings Certificates, and
+Thrift Stamps issued by the Treasury up to March 12 totaled
+$8,560,802,052.96. To meet expenses the Government has successfully
+floated two Liberty Loans with total subscriptions of $6,616,532,300,
+and on April 6, 1918, the first anniversary of America's entrance into
+the war, a third loan campaign for $3,000,000,000 was begun.
+
+
+TAXES AND PRICES
+
+The income tax has been greatly increased and the exemption limit
+lowered. New taxes have been imposed on corporate and individual
+profits, all profits arising out of the war have been penalized, and the
+old levies greatly increased. War taxes, customs duties, and internal
+revenue collections have brought in nearly $1,500,000,000. While the
+greater part of the war income and excess profits taxes are not due
+until June, the Treasury had collected in internal revenue taxes a
+total of $566,267,000 to March 12, 1918, and had sold $1,255,000,000 in
+certificates of indebtedness, which are receivable in payment of
+internal revenue taxes.
+
+The Government has taken possession of and is operating all enemy-owned
+enterprises. At the same time, through a Federal Farm Loan Bureau,
+assistance is being given to farmers at reasonable rates of interest in
+providing the means for raising crops, needed in greater abundance than
+ever to feed the army and navy and civilian population and the peoples
+of the allied countries.
+
+One of the first acts of the Administration after the declaration of war
+was aimed at putting a curb on the rising prices of the necessities of
+life. Herbert C. Hoover was appointed National Food Administrator, and
+after long delay his appointment was confirmed by the Senate. It was
+criticised, but Mr. Hoover has succeeded not only in bringing down the
+price of such necessaries as wheat, flour, sugar, coffee, meat, and
+lard, but by various devices and appeals to public sentiment has brought
+about a voluntary reduction of consumption and a consequent great
+increase in the amounts of food which America has been able to send
+abroad.
+
+
+FOOD PROBLEMS
+
+When the present Food Administration was created in August, 1917, the
+1917 crop, in so far as productiveness was concerned, had already been
+planted and partly harvested. The available foodstuffs it produced were
+not sufficient, on the basis of normal consumption, to feed the people
+dependent on it, and the question of conservation became paramount. So
+far, "wheatless days," "meatless days," and appeals for food
+conservation have tided the nation over a dangerous period. The fixing
+of prices under a Presidential proclamation has greatly aided,
+speculation in wheat has been wholly eliminated, and the prices of flour
+and bread have been stabilized at a reasonable level.
+
+Hand in hand with food conservation has gone the gradual control of
+industry of all kinds in order to concentrate the nation's resources for
+the purposes of war. The prices of metals necessary to war industries
+have been brought down by negotiation. Coal and fuel oil are controlled
+by Government agents, and it is not believed that the suffering caused
+by the fuel scarcity during the Winter of 1917-18 can be repeated.
+
+The Government has taken over control of the railways and a number of
+coastwise steamship lines. It now operates 260,000 miles of railway,
+employing 1,000,600 men, and representing investments of
+$17,500,000,000.
+
+The War Trade Board, created for the purpose of cutting off supplies to
+Germany through the adjacent neutrals, has developed into a powerful
+economic weapon in the execution of the nation's war policy.
+
+
+Five Million Soldiers' Garments Made by American Women
+
+A recent bulletin of the American Red Cross contains a report showing
+that up to Feb. 1, 1918, this organization had supplied 3,431,067
+sweaters, mufflers, wristlets, helmets, and socks to the soldiers and
+sailors of the United States. Of this total 1,189,469 articles were
+delivered to the fighting services in January of this year. Though
+official figures were not available for later months, it was estimated
+that the total to the end of March was in excess of 5,000,000 garments,
+all knit by American women for the Red Cross. The same bulletin reported
+the distribution of 5,000,000 francs contributed by Americans for the
+relief of those French soldier families which have suffered most from
+the war.
+
+
+
+
+War Department's Improved System
+
+Summary by Benedict Crowell
+
+_Assistant Secretary of War_
+
+    _A year of war has changed the United States War Department from
+    a military group to a closely organized business concern. The
+    vast difference between its methods at the time of our entry
+    into the war and at the beginning of our second year of
+    hostilities is summarized in the appended statement and chart,
+    which were given to THE NEW YORK TIMES by Benedict Crowell, the
+    Assistant Secretary of War, in March, 1918. Mr. Crowell is one
+    of the business experts called into the department last Autumn
+    to reorganize it. In describing the changes made he said:_
+
+
+A year ago there were eleven officers, all strictly military men, and
+about 1,000 privates in the aircraft work. Now in that branch of the war
+business we have thousands of officers and 100,000 men. But 96 per cent.
+of those officers are trained business men and engineers from big civil
+enterprises. Most of them are in military uniform, but that is merely a
+matter of form that does not go to the substance of the business.
+
+The great military work of America, the work of the soldiers, is being
+done in France. In this country we have settled down to the purely
+business undertaking of producing men and material out of which to form
+the armies.
+
+This chart (here reproduced) shows the latest readjustment of General
+Staff functions and activities. A very significant change from what used
+to be is indicated in that line of rectangles under the Chief of Staff,
+each one representing an Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of a major
+division of the war work. These divisions, indicated on the chart by the
+words "storage and traffic," "purchases and supplies," &c., used to be
+committees, in which every vital question had to be settled by a vote,
+with lesser officers having as much power in the matter as their chiefs.
+Now the Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of one of those divisions,
+which is no longer a committee, has power to act on his own initiative.
+His subordinates in the division are his expert advisers on the various
+problems which he must decide, thus eliminating criticisms in the
+earlier period of the war that too much time was lost in getting
+decisions.
+
+One of the modifications that may be made in this chart of the General
+Staff in the near future will have to do with that division now in
+charge of General Pierce, the Assistant Chief of Staff, who is director
+of purchases and supplies and has authority over manufacturing
+priorities, purchases, and production based on estimates and
+requirements. That division, which now leads direct into the office of
+the Chief of Staff, may later on be short-circuited around the Chief of
+Staff direct to the office of a new Assistant Secretary of War in so far
+as its problems have to do with purchases or industrial facilities.
+
+A bill creating two additional Secretaries of War has been passed by
+Congress. One of these assistants will have to do with social and
+welfare activities for the benefit of the troops. The other will deal
+exclusively with purchases and supplies, and the division of the General
+Staff now under General Pierce will be made a part of it.
+
+The direct lines of connection on this chart are as interesting and as
+promising as anything else about it. They indicate smooth-working
+co-ordination and perfected team work. For example, the line of liaison
+from the division of purchases and supplies is to all supply bureaus and
+purchasing agencies of the army, to the War Industries Board, and all
+related Government agencies.
+
+Further co-operation of the War Department, reorganized on a business
+basis, with those organizations vital to the movement of all equipment
+to troops here and abroad, is shown by the liaison line from the
+Director of Storage and Traffic. That line connects the storage and
+traffic business of the War Department directly with the Shipping Board,
+the Director General of Railways, and the Quartermaster General.
+
+[Illustration: CHART OF UNITED STATES WAR DEPARTMENT'S SYSTEM OF
+ORGANIZATION FOR WAR ACTIVITIES.]
+
+Major Gen. Goethals is the Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of storage
+and traffic, and, as such, has full control over all priority of both
+storage and traffic at and to inland, embarkation, and overseas points.
+General Goethals is also still acting as Quartermaster General, a place
+now not so vital under the reorganization as his office of Assistant
+Chief of Staff in charge of storage and traffic.
+
+The War Council was created because it was necessary to have a group of
+experts in the War Department who would have time to study. Up to the
+time of its organization there had been little time to think about big
+problems and do nothing else. Everybody was rushed with some form of
+executive or administrative work.
+
+This council is in session every day and is one of the most effective
+war agencies that the Government has. There is no man on it who does not
+bring to its deliberations and conclusions some vital contribution to
+the welfare of the country and the army. It consists of the Secretary of
+War, the Assistant Secretary of War, General March, Acting Chief of the
+General Staff; General Crowder, Judge Advocate General and Provost
+Marshal General of the Army, one of the nation's great lawyers, who is
+devoting his life to the military welfare of his country; Generals
+Crozier, Sharpe, Weaver, and Pierce, and Charles Day, an able engineer
+drafted from the Shipping Board to render expert counsel to the War
+Department as a member of its War Council.
+
+
+
+
+The Surgeon General's Great Organization
+
+By Caswell A. Mayo
+
+    [This account of the first year's work of the United States War
+    Department in mobilizing the medical talent of the nation was
+    prepared in March, 1918, for THE NEW YORK TIMES, publishers of
+    CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE]
+
+
+In April, 1917, the executive offices of the Surgeon General of the
+United States Army occupied four rooms in the great War, State and Navy
+Building at Washington, and the functions of the office were performed
+by six officers and twenty clerks. Now there are attached to the Surgeon
+General's office 165 officers, who employ 545 clerks, and the staff
+fills five entire buildings and parts of other buildings, exclusive of
+the Surgeon General's library, the Army Medical Museum, and the Army
+Medical School. Within a day 6,000 telegrams and 5,000 other
+communications have been received, replied to, and filed. The latest and
+most approved systems of filing records and correspondence have been
+installed under expert supervision, for the Surgeon General has called
+to his aid specialists in other fields as well as in the field of
+medicine. He has called chemists and statisticians, bankers and
+efficiency engineers, sanitarians and electrical experts, architects and
+engineers, and assigned them to duty in his office.
+
+The Surgeon General himself, Major Gen. W. C. Gorgas, was appointed to
+the office in recognition of the invaluable services rendered by him as
+Chief Sanitary Officer of the Panama Canal Zone. The story of his work
+there in protecting the laborers in the Panama Canal from infectious
+diseases is one of the most brilliant chapters in the history of
+American medicine. Without that work the efforts of Goethals would have
+been as fruitless and as costly in lives and money as those of De
+Lesseps. The Surgeon General's still greater task now is to provide
+against every emergency which may affect the health and lives of
+millions of men taken from the fields, the farms, the factories, and the
+counting houses of the country, gathered into camps for organization and
+sent across 3,000 miles of ocean. He must know how many men will be
+taken sick, and where. He must know how many men will be wounded, and
+where, and he must have at those points adequate provision of expert
+surgeons and enlisted men, of medical and of surgical supplies, of food
+and of clothing, of housing and of transportation, so that at no time
+will any American soldier be sick without succor, or lie wounded without
+aid.
+
+In carrying out this gigantic task the Surgeon General has mobilized the
+medical forces of the country, calling into his office the leaders in
+every specialty of medicine and of surgery. At their desks as early as 7
+o'clock in the morning will be found medical specialists whose
+professional incomes are written in five and six figures, but who have
+abandoned these incomes for the modest pay of a Major, who have given up
+their luxurious homes for a Washington boarding house, and who, instead
+of enjoying a well-earned leisure, toil ceaselessly from early morning
+until late at night in their efforts to co-ordinate most effectively the
+work of the doctors in the war. It is for the purpose of doing justice
+to the attainments of these men that General Gorgas is advocating scores
+of new commissions of high rank in the national army.
+
+Every morning at 7:30 the Surgeon General's truck delivers his mail at
+the Mills Building, at Seventeenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue,
+Washington, in which are situated the central executive offices. The
+mail is distributed and on the desks of the officers for final
+disposition not later than 9:15. Within twelve working hours practically
+every communication received will have been acted upon and returned to
+permanent files. Here, as in every other phase of the work, a specialist
+has been employed, Captain J. L. Gooch having been called from his
+position as subscription manager for the Butterick Company to organize
+the office routine. The most approved mechanical devices, including
+statistical machines, have been installed under Captain Gooch's
+direction.
+
+A complete medical history is kept of every soldier and of every officer
+from the time he enters the service until he retires, resigns, or dies.
+A special fireproof building is now being erected which will be devoted
+exclusively to the care of these records, the preservation of which may
+be a matter of vital importance fifty years hence.
+
+Attached to the Surgeon General's office are three representatives of
+the Royal Army Medical Corps of Great Britain--Colonel T. H. Goodwin, C.
+M. G., D. S. O.; Captain John Gilmour of the Royal Army Medical Corps,
+and Lieut. Col. J. J. Aitken of the Royal Veterinary Corps--and two
+representatives of the French Army Medical Service--Colonel C. U. Dercle
+and Major Edouard Rist. These four surgeons act as liaison officers,
+keeping the Medical Department of the United States Army in touch with
+the medical services of Great Britain and France. They have made many
+informing addresses to medical societies all over the United States and
+have given lectures at the Army Medical School.
+
+The immediate staff of the Surgeon General comprises his personal aid,
+Major M. C. Furbush, M. R. C., of Philadelphia; Colonel George E.
+Bushnell, M. C., (Medical Corps of the regular army;) Colonel Deane C.
+Howard, M. C., and Lieut. Col. James V. Van Dusen, M. C. Colonel
+Bushnell, besides being chief assistant to the Surgeon General, has
+devoted his special attention to the field in which he has won a unique
+reputation, that of the treatment of tuberculosis.
+
+General Gorgas has enlisted the co-operation of the leading surgeons of
+the United States as members of the "Rotary Surgical Staff." Among those
+Medical Reserve Corps officers who have already served for a period at
+the Surgeon General's office and who are still subject to call from time
+to time as occasion requires are Major William J. Mayo, former
+President, and his brother, Major Charles H. Mayo, now President of the
+American Medical Association.
+
+The work of the Surgeon General's office is divided up among seventeen
+general main divisions. The work of each division is practically
+independent of the others, though the work of all is co-ordinated. At
+the head of each of these divisions is an expert in that particular
+field, usually a medical officer of the regular army, who has around
+him a group of expert associates, many of whom are drawn from civil
+life.
+
+On April 1, 1917, there were 700 medical officers and about 10,000
+enlisted men in the Medical Department of the United States Army. There
+are now more than 17,000 medical officers in active service and about
+150,000 enlisted men in the Medical Department.
+
+
+
+
+War Work of the American Red Cross
+
+Summary of a Year's Activities
+
+[Data Furnished by Red Cross Headquarters, Washington, D. C.]
+
+
+President Wilson, as President of the American Red Cross, on May 10,
+1917, appointed a War Council of seven members to direct the work of the
+organization in the extraordinary emergency created by the entrance of
+the United States into the war. The original appointees were Henry P.
+Davison, Chairman, of J. P. Morgan & Co., New York; Charles D. Norton,
+Vice President First National Bank, New York; Major Grayson M. P.
+Murphy, Vice President Guaranty Company, New York; Cornelius N. Bliss,
+Jr., of Bliss, Fabyan & Co., New York, and Edward N. Hurley, Chicago.
+
+Mr. Hurley resigned from the War Council when he was appointed Chairman
+of the Shipping Board, and was succeeded by John D. Ryan, President of
+the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Major Murphy, after organizing the
+Red Cross work in Europe, resigned to re-enter the United States Army,
+and was succeeded on the council by Harvey D. Gibson, President of the
+Liberty National Bank of New York, who has been the General Manager of
+the Red Cross since it began its war activities. Mr. Norton resigned in
+the Spring of 1918, and was succeeded by George B. Case of the law firm
+of White and Case, New York, who previously had been legal adviser to
+the War Council.
+
+The first war fund campaign took place the week of June 18, 1917, which
+was designated "Red Cross Week" by a proclamation of President Wilson.
+The Finance Committee, which had charge of the campaign, was headed by
+Cleveland H. Dodge of New York; Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo was the
+fund Treasurer. One hundred million dollars was the mark set, and the
+week's contributions ran slightly above that figure.
+
+At the establishment of the Red Cross organization on a war basis its
+membership was approximately 500,000. Six months later there were, in
+round numbers, 5,000,000 members, and the number of chapters had
+increased from 562 to 3,287. The "Christmas Membership Drive," during
+the week ended with Christmas Eve, 1917, swelled the membership rolls to
+more than 23,000,000.
+
+In the period between the birthday anniversaries of Lincoln and
+Washington--Feb. 12-22, 1918--the school children of the country were
+brought into the Junior Red Cross organization.
+
+Immediately following the war organization and the raising of the first
+war fund commissions were sent to the various countries in Europe where
+war was in progress. Major Grayson M. P. Murphy was appointed General
+Commissioner for Europe and assumed direct charge of the commission to
+France, where the greater burden of American Red Cross work has fallen.
+The commission to France reached Paris during June. Eighteen men
+constituted the original working force. From this nucleus there
+developed before the end of the year an organization that operated all
+the way from Sicily up the whole western front and into Great Britain.
+
+
+MILLIONS FOR FRENCH RELIEF
+
+Appropriations from the Red Cross war fund to March 1, 1918, including
+those to cover budgets to April 30, totaled $77,721,918.22. Of this
+amount sums aggregating $30,936,103.04 were for relief work in France. A
+chain of warehouses has been established behind the lines all the way
+across France, from the coast to Switzerland. The greatest motor
+transport organization there is in the world, outside of those actually
+operated by the armies, also has been developed. The workers actually
+engaged in the organization in France number more than 3,000, a large
+percentage of them being volunteers who are serving without financial
+compensation, and most of them paying their own expenses as well.
+
+Relief work in France is divided between a Department of Military
+Affairs and a Department of Civil Affairs. The former department, in
+addition to maintaining a hospital supply service that provides for
+3,800 hospitals, a surgical dressings service that turns out and
+distributes hundreds of thousands of dressings every week, and three
+American Red Cross military hospitals, has concentrated a large amount
+of attention on canteen work, in the interest of both the American and
+French Armies.
+
+Twelve canteens at the front have been in operation for the French Army,
+and recently the same service was installed to supply coffee and
+refreshments to American soldiers in the trenches. It is likely that the
+twelve canteens will be increased to forty. The record of the front line
+canteens for a five month period was 700,000 soldiers served. In line of
+communication canteens, located at railroad junction points,
+eighty-eight American women workers have served an average of 20,000
+soldiers daily. At the metropolitan canteens, in Paris, more than
+3,000,000 soldiers have been served since the American Red Cross entered
+this field of work.
+
+Preliminary to the arrival of the American expeditionary force in
+France, the American Red Cross did important work in improving the
+sanitary conditions in the zone which the United States troops were to
+occupy. This work is constantly kept up to meet the situation as the
+army abroad increases in size.
+
+
+CIVILIAN RELIEF WORK
+
+Civilian relief work in France has embraced a campaign against
+tuberculosis, care of refugees and repatri�s, care of children,
+reconstruction and repair work in devastated areas and home service
+among the families of French soldiers. While much of the work in behalf
+of refugees has been done in the zones of comparative safety to which
+people have fled from the war areas, the German offensive launched in
+March found American Red Cross men in large numbers performing actual
+rescue work in villages that were under fire of the enemy. With the aid
+of the motor transport service, hundreds of noncombatants were removed
+to places of safety.
+
+At Evian, on the Swiss border, a corps of workers has been maintained
+for several months, together with a children's hospital, disinfecting
+plant, &c., for the care and relief of the children and aged and infirm
+persons who have been sent back by the Germans from the occupied
+portions of France and Belgium at the rate of 1,000 or more a day.
+
+Relief for the families of French soldiers has had for its object the
+double purpose of providing for the wants of the sick and destitute, and
+strengthening the morale of men at the front. In respect to the latter
+objective a success has been achieved which has called forth many
+expressions of praise from the highest French military and civil
+authorities. A gift of a lump sum of $1,000,000 for distribution among
+50,000 needy families was one of the initial acts in this particular
+line of relief.
+
+
+FOR WOUNDED AND PRISONERS
+
+Minor Red Cross activities in France have included assistance in the
+care of mutilated soldiers, aid in re-educational work and care of the
+blind, and maintenance of plants for the manufacture of splints,
+anaesthetic, &c. An important work in connection with the prosecution
+of medical research has been the carrying on of experiments to ascertain
+the cause of trench fever, which in point of wastage is responsible for
+more than any other sickness.
+
+Since air raids on Paris and other French cities have become a regular
+feature, the American Red Cross has established a day-and-night service
+to respond to air raid alarms, perform rescue work, and remove the
+injured to the hospitals. On many occasions the effectiveness of this
+work has commanded widespread interest.
+
+Among the newer developments is the establishment of a casualty service,
+for the gathering of detail information regarding American soldiers who
+are killed in battle, sick or wounded in the hospitals or taken prisoner
+by the enemy. The information collected is transmitted to relatives at
+home.
+
+Prisoner relief is administered through a central office at Berne,
+Switzerland, where ample supplies of food are stored for shipment to
+German prison camps as the need requires. Recently plans were started to
+have emergency rations stored in prison camps, so that American
+prisoners could have the benefit of them on their arrival there. Through
+the arrangements made all prisoners in enemy camps will receive rations
+in plenty at frequent intervals, and special rations will be provided
+for invalids.
+
+
+IMPORTANT WORK IN ITALY
+
+Appropriations for relief work in Italy have totaled $3,588,826.
+Emergency relief work, rendered at a time when no permanent commission
+had been established in Italy, stands among the most notable of the Red
+Cross achievements of the first year of the war. When the Teuton hordes
+swept into the plains of Northern Italy in October, 1917, driving
+thousands of panic-stricken men, women, and children before them,
+American Red Cross veterans from France rushed into the breach, helped
+to stop the rout, relieved the acute distress, and contributed in no
+small measure to the saving of the country from complete subjugation.
+What the American Red Cross did for Italy in this crisis was made the
+subject of official commendation on various occasions, and elicited
+thanks from the King, Prime Minister, and other dignitaries. A most
+important result accomplished was the cementing of friendship for
+America on the part of the Italian people, who previously, largely
+through German propaganda, had been skeptical of the good faith of the
+United States in the war.
+
+At the outset the American Consuls throughout Italy were supplied with
+money to afford emergency relief. Forty-eight carloads of supplies were
+dispatched to the scene from storehouses in France. Several sections of
+ambulances also were started from France. Soup kitchens were opened,
+from which the refugees were given the first food they had received
+since the flight from their homes. Transportation for the refugees was
+arranged from the north, warehouses were opened at central points,
+manufacture of surgical dressings was undertaken on a mammoth scale,
+hospitals for the concentration of contagious diseases were opened, and
+then, four days after the United States declared war against Austria,
+the first Red Cross ambulances left Milan for the Italian front, cheered
+by thousands of persons there and at all towns through which they
+passed.
+
+By the time the permanent commission reached Rome, in the early Winter,
+a complete survey of the whole Italian situation had been made by
+experts and all the more serious emergencies had been met. The American
+Red Cross was able to supply great quantities of equipment to replace
+the stores that were lost when the Teuton drive destroyed upward of a
+hundred hospitals. The present relief work is being continued along the
+lines of the work in France.
+
+
+BELGIAN RELIEF WORK
+
+Belgian relief work has called for appropriations aggregating
+$2,086,131. There has been a program for improving conditions among the
+Belgian troops, and to provide recreation and medical service outside
+the scope of the Belgian war budget. The initial Red Cross gift was half
+a million francs to the Belgian Red Cross, to be applied for the cost
+of the military hospital at Wolveringham. Contributions also have been
+made to the active field service of the army, in the form of surgical
+and medical equipment.
+
+In civilian relief work in Belgium the American Red Cross placed its
+resources at the command of organizations already in the field to care
+for children and feeble persons, and get them away from the places of
+greatest danger. In order to have supplies ready at hand for emergencies
+twenty barrack warehouses were contracted for last Fall.
+
+Special aid has been given to the schools and colonies for children.
+Establishment of health centres and a 250-bed hospital for the Belgian
+colony at Havre are among the other activities. A gift of 600,000 francs
+was made for the construction of a temporary village for refugees near
+Havre.
+
+
+AIDING BRITISH WOUNDED
+
+American Red Cross appropriations on account of work in Great Britain
+have amounted to $3,078,875. This includes two gifts of $953,000 and
+$1,193,125, respectively, to the British Red Cross and a gift of
+$500,000 to the Canadian Red Cross. The gifts to the British Red Cross
+will be used for relief and comforts to sick and wounded in hospitals,
+for the maintenance of auxiliary hospitals and convalescent homes in
+England, and for institutions for orthopedic and facial treatment and
+for general restorative work for disabled British soldiers. The British
+orthopedic hospitals serve as training schools for American surgeons.
+The gift to the Canadian Red Cross was given in recognition of the part
+Canada has played in the war. The money will be used to alleviate the
+suffering of wounded and sick Canadian soldiers.
+
+The regular work of the American Red Cross in England includes the
+maintenance of a hospital at an English port for sick American soldiers
+and sailors, and support of a hospital at South Devon and of another for
+officers at Lancaster Gate, London.
+
+Commissions have been maintained in Serbia, Rumania, and Russia, where
+relief has been administered according to the needs of the situation in
+each instance. In Rumania the active relief work was abandoned only when
+the Red Cross representatives were forced to leave the country following
+the Ukraine peace. At the present writing [April, 1918] a special
+commission, accompanied by several medical units, is on its way to take
+up relief work in Palestine.
+
+The appropriations for Serbian relief have totaled $875,180.76; for
+Rumania, $2,676,368.76, and for Russia $1,243,845.07. All other foreign
+relief work, miscellaneous in character, has involved appropriations
+amounting to $3,576,300.
+
+
+IN THE UNITED STATES
+
+For camp service in the United States there was appropriated, up to
+March 1, a total of $6,451,150.86. The sweaters, helmets, socks, and
+other supplies and comforts for distribution to the army and navy had a
+value of $5,653,435.86.
+
+There had been appropriated for Red Cross convalescent houses at camps
+and cantonments throughout the United States $512,000, and plans for
+additional houses and nurses' homes at the various camps will call for
+aggregate expenditures of about $1,750,000.
+
+More than 19,000 graduate nurses have been supplied to the United States
+Army for service in this country and abroad by the Red Cross Nursing
+Service. A total of 25,000 must be supplied before the end of the
+present year to meet the needs of the growing army and the greater
+activities of the forces in France.
+
+Fifty base hospital units have been organized, each unit consisting of
+twenty-two surgeons and dentists, sixty-five nurses, and 152 men of the
+enlisted reserve corps. Nineteen of these units are now in service in
+France. The Red Cross has supplied the personnel for ten other units.
+
+Red Cross chapters have organized and are maintaining more than a
+thousand canteens at railroad stations to serve troops passing to and
+from camps and to ports of embarkation. In nearly every city, also,
+women's motor corps service has been established by volunteer workers.
+Throughout the country plans have been made on an extensive scale to
+carry on home service in the interest of the families of soldiers who
+may need assistance, material or otherwise.
+
+
+OTHER ACTIVITIES
+
+Although war activities required its greatest energies, the American Red
+Cross rendered prompt relief in cases of overwhelming disaster outside
+the war zones during the year. There were three major disasters, widely
+separated, in 1917. They were, respectively, the Tientsin flood, which
+made 1,000,000 people homeless and caused a crop and property loss
+amounting to $100,000,000; the Halifax explosion, which wrecked a large
+part of the city and resulted in the killing and maiming of thousands of
+persons, and the Guatemala earthquake, which caused destitution and
+disease, in addition to the property damage and the toll of death and
+injury.
+
+In the case of the flood in China, the Red Cross cabled to the American
+Minister to draw for sums sufficient to meet emergency needs, and later
+assisted the Chinese Government in providing labor for 10,000 refugees
+for a period of several months. The appropriations for relief in
+connection with this disaster totaled $125,000.
+
+Within a few hours after the extent of the Halifax disaster was known,
+special Red Cross trains left New York, Providence, and Boston for the
+scene, carrying tons of bedding, clothing, food, and medical supplies,
+as well as doctors, nurses, and experts in relief administration. Every
+anticipated need was provided for, and unlimited resources were pledged
+to the stricken city.
+
+Urgent relief needs following the earthquake in Guatemala were met
+through the Guatemala Red Cross chapter, which purchased $100,000 worth
+of supplies from the Government stores in the Canal Zone. A shipload of
+medical, food, and other supplies was sent from New Orleans at the
+earliest possible moment, and a Medical Director was appointed to take
+charge of work on the ground. Expert workers and sanitary engineers also
+were dispatched from the United States to look after special phases of
+the situation.
+
+
+An Example of U-Boat Brutality
+
+One day in the first week of March, 1918, a small Belgian fishing smack
+was sighted by a German U-boat and was fired upon without the slightest
+warning. Her masts and sails were shot away, and the skipper was
+severely wounded. The smack carried a crew of only four men, three of
+whom entered their small boat and endeavored to persuade the skipper to
+come with them; but he was so badly injured that he refused to leave.
+He, however, urged his men to save their own lives. Meanwhile the
+submarine had come closer to its prey, and a German officer called to
+the men in the small boat to convey a couple of German sailors on board
+the smack, in order that they might sink her with bombs. The Germans
+proceeded to board the smack, and then, finding the wounded skipper, one
+of them drew his revolver and shot the helpless man dead through the
+head. The dastardly act was committed in full view of the Belgian
+fishermen, one of whom was the unfortunate skipper's son. Having placed
+their bombs in position, the Germans returned to the submarine and cast
+the remaining three Belgians adrift in their cockleshell of a boat
+without food or water, and with no means of reaching land, from the
+nearest point of which they were twenty miles distant. The unfortunate
+men suffered severely from cold and hunger before they were picked up by
+a British patrol boat.
+
+
+
+
+Great Britain Faces a Crisis
+
+Historic Speech by Premier Lloyd George on the Picardy Battle and Its
+Fateful Consequences
+
+    _The British Government introduced a bill April 9, 1918, to
+    raise the military age up to 50, and in special cases to 55, and
+    to provide for conscription in Ireland. Premier David Lloyd
+    George, in introducing the measure in the House of Commons,
+    delivered an important address, in which he reviewed the battle
+    of Picardy up to that time and gave interesting details of the
+    conduct of the war in the preceding months. The address opened a
+    new phase in the world conflict as affected by the posture of
+    affairs in Great Britain. The full speech was sent by special
+    cable to The New York Times and is reproduced herewith as a
+    historic document of the war:_
+
+
+We have now entered the most critical phase of this terrible war. There
+is a lull in the storm, but the hurricane is not over. Doubtless we must
+expect more fierce outbreaks, and ere it is finally exhausted there will
+be many more. The fate of the empire, the fate of Europe, and the fate
+of liberty throughout the world may depend on the success with which the
+very last of these attacks is resisted and countered.
+
+The Government, therefore, propose to submit to Parliament today certain
+recommendations, in order to assist this country and the Allies to
+weather the storm. They will involve, I regret, extreme sacrifices on
+the part of large classes of the population, and nothing would justify
+them but the most extreme necessity and the fact that we are fighting
+for all that is essential and most sacred in our national life.
+
+Before I come to the circumstances which led up to our submitting these
+proposals to Parliament, I ought to say one word as to why Parliament
+was not immediately summoned. Since the battle began the Government have
+been engaged almost every hour in concerting with the Allies the
+necessary measures to assist the armies to deal with the emergency.
+
+The proposals which we intend submitting to Parliament required very
+close and careful examination, and I think there is this advantage in
+our meeting today, rather than immediately after the impact of the
+German attack, that we shall be considering these proposals under
+conditions which will be far removed from any suggestion of panic.
+
+
+THE BATTLE OF PICARDY
+
+I shall now come to the circumstances which have led to the present
+military position. It is very difficult at this time to present a clear,
+connected, and reliable narrative of what happened. There has been a
+great battle on a front of fifty miles--the greatest battle ever fought
+in the history of the world. Enormous forces have been engaged; there
+was a considerable retirement on the part of the British forces, and
+under these conditions it is not always easy for some time to ascertain
+what actually happened.
+
+The House will recollect the difficulty we experienced with regard to
+Cambrai. It was difficult to piece together the story of the event for
+some time, and Cambrai was a very trivial event compared with this
+gigantic battle.
+
+The Generals and their staffs are, naturally, engaged and have to
+concentrate their attention upon the operations of the enemy, and until
+the strain relaxes it would be very difficult to institute the necessary
+inquiries to find out exactly what happened, and to furnish an adequate
+explanation of the battle.
+
+However, there are two or three facts which stand out, and in stating
+them I should like to call attention to two things which I think above
+all must be avoided. The first is that nothing should be said which
+could give information to the enemy; nothing should be said which would
+give encouragement to the enemy, and nothing should be said which would
+give discouragement to our own troops, who are fighting so gallantly at
+this very hour. And the second question is that all recrimination at
+this hour must be shut out.
+
+
+GERMANS SLIGHTLY WEAKER
+
+What was the position at the beginning of the battle? Notwithstanding
+the heavy casualties in 1917 the army in France was considerably
+stronger on Jan. 1, 1918, than on Jan. 1, 1917. Up to the end of
+1917--up to, say, about October or November--the German combatant
+strength in France was as two to the Allies' three. Then came the
+military collapse of Russia, and the Germans hurried up their released
+divisions from the eastern front and brought them to the west. They had
+a certain measure of Austrian support, which had been accorded to them.
+
+Owing to the growth of the strength of our armies in 1917 when this
+battle began the combatant strength of the whole of the German Army on
+the western front was only approximately, though not quite, equal to the
+total combatant strength of the Allies in infantry. They were slightly
+inferior in artillery. They were considerably inferior in cavalry, and,
+what is very important, they were undoubtedly inferior in aircraft.
+
+The Germans, therefore, organized their troops so as to produce a larger
+number of divisions out of the slightly smaller number of infantry and
+slightly smaller number of guns. They had fewer battalions in a division
+and fewer men in a battalion. That is entirely a question of
+organization, and it yet remains to be seen that their organization is
+better than ours. It is necessary to explain that, in order that the
+House should realize why, with approximately the same number of men, the
+Germans have a larger number of divisions on that front.
+
+According to all the facts which have come to hand as to the losses of
+the battle, that roughly represents the relative strength of the
+combatants on both sides at this moment. The Germans had, however, one
+or two important advantages. The first, the initial advantage, which is
+always commanded by the offensive, is that they know where they mean to
+attack. They choose the ground, they choose the location, they know the
+width of the attack, they know the dimensions of the attack, they know
+the time of the attack, they know the method of the attack. All that
+invariably gives the initial advantage to the offensive.
+
+
+Concentrated on the British
+
+The defense has a general advantage, as, owing to air observation,
+concealment is difficult. At the same time, in spite of all that, owing
+to the power of moving troops at night, which the Germans exercised in a
+very large extent, there was a large margin for surprise, even in spite
+of air observation, and of this the enemy took full advantage.
+
+I should like to say one word here as to the difficulty which the allied
+Generals were confronted with in this respect. Before the battle the
+greatest German concentration was in front of our troops. That was no
+proof that the full weight of the attack would fall on us. There was a
+very large concentration opposite the French lines. There was a very
+considerable concentration--I am referring now to the German
+reserves--on the northern part of our line.
+
+After the battle began, or immediately before the battle, the Germans by
+night brought their divisions from the northern part to the point where
+the attack took place. They also took several divisions from opposite
+the French in the same way and brought them to our front. But it would
+have been equally easy for them, while concentrating troops opposite our
+front, to manoeuvre them in the same way opposite the French. I am only
+referring to that in order to show how exceedingly difficult it is for
+Generals on the defensive to decide exactly where, in their judgment,
+the attack is coming and where they ought to concentrate their reserves.
+
+
+General Wilson's Forecast
+
+I may just say a word here. This problem was considered very closely by
+the military staff at Versailles, and I think it right, in justice to
+them, to point out that after a very close study of the German position
+and of the probabilities of the case, they came to the conclusion, and
+they stated their conclusion to the military representatives and to the
+Ministers in the month of January, or the beginning of February, that
+the attack would come south of Arras; that it would be an attack on the
+widest front ever yet assailed; that the Germans would accumulate
+ninety-five divisions for the purpose of making that attack; that they
+would throw the whole of their resources and their strength into
+breaking the British line at that point, and that their objective would
+be the capture of Amiens and the severance of the British and French
+forces.
+
+That was the conclusion which Sir Henry Wilson, Chief of the Imperial
+Staff, came to, and which was submitted at that time, two or three
+months ago, and I think that it was one of the most remarkable forecasts
+of enemy intentions ever made.
+
+As a matter of fact, the attack was made up, I think, by about
+ninety-seven divisions. It was an attack on the widest front that had
+ever been engaged. Its object undoubtedly was the capture of Amiens and
+the severance of the British and French forces. So that, almost in every
+detail, that very remarkable forecast has been verified in the event.
+
+Another remarkable prediction was that it might probably succeed in
+penetrating the British line to the extent of half the distance of the
+front attacked. They came to the conclusion from a close examination of
+the offensives of the war.
+
+
+Advantage of United Command
+
+There was another advantage. There was, first of all, the advantage
+which the Germans had from having the initiative. There was a further
+advantage they had, and this undoubtedly was the greatest advantage,
+from having a united command opposed to a dual one. The Germans
+undoubtedly relied on this to a very large extent for their success.
+They owe much of the success of this attack to this.
+
+It was reported to me on good authority that the Kaiser informed ex-King
+Constantine: "I shall beat them, for they have no united command." Which
+shows that that was what they were relying in the main upon; that,
+although their numbers were slightly inferior, they knew the importance
+that was to be attached to the fact that they had a perfectly united
+command.
+
+And that is an obvious advantage, for if the risks in one particular
+part of the line are great, and in another part of the line are great,
+but substantially less than in the former, with one command there is no
+hesitation in the mind of the Commander in Chief as to which risk he
+will make the greatest provision against.
+
+With two separate commands the problem is a different one. It is more
+difficult to adjust the balance of risk, and the General is always
+naturally inclined to give himself and his army the benefit of any
+doubt. That may be because if anything goes wrong there he alone is to
+be held responsible to his own countrymen for the safety of his army.
+
+
+Weather Favored Germans
+
+The enemy had another incidental but, as it turned out, very important
+advantage--that of the weather. Exceptional weather favored his designs.
+It was both dry and misty. The attack which succeeded was made on that
+part of the line where under ordinary Spring conditions the ground would
+have been almost impassable.
+
+A wounded officer told a friend of mine today, a General, that under
+ordinary conditions no one could walk across the part which was
+traversed by the Germans at this time of the year. But it just happened
+to be absolutely dry and firm, and they walked across ground which no
+one had any right to expect at this time of the year would be in that
+condition.
+
+Not only that, but the fact that it was warm increased the mist, and the
+Germans were actually in some parts within a few yards of our front line
+before any one knew of their approach. It was quite impossible to
+observe them. This was a special disadvantage to us, inasmuch as our
+scheme of organization in that particular part of the line depended
+largely upon the cross-line fire of machine guns and artillery. They
+had, therefore, a very special advantage, of which they made the fullest
+use.
+
+
+Closed Up Gap in Armies
+
+With regard to the battle itself, as I have already stated, it will take
+some time to ascertain the whole facts. At one time it was undoubtedly
+very critical. The enemy broke through between our 3d and 5th Armies,
+and there was a serious gap, and the situation was retrieved owing to
+the magnificent conduct of our troops. They retired in perfectly good
+order, re-establishing the junction between the two armies and
+frustrating the enemy's purpose.
+
+The House can hardly realize, and certainly cannot sufficiently
+thank--nor can the country--our troops for their superb valor and the
+grim tenacity with which they faced overwhelming hordes of the enemy and
+clung to their positions. They retired, but were never routed, and once
+more the cool pluck of the British soldier, that refuses to acknowledge
+defeat, saved Europe.
+
+I am referring to the whole army, Generals, officers, and soldiers. I
+mean the whole army, and I draw no distinction. Their conduct has been
+one of incredible courage and great coolness under the most trying
+conditions. I do not think that any distinction can be drawn between
+officers and men. I am referring to the British Army, and that means
+all.
+
+
+Praises General Carey's Feat
+
+And I specially refer to what one Brigadier General did. Some reference
+has been made in the press already to it, where at one point there was a
+serious gap, which might have let the enemy into Calais.
+
+[At this point the Prime Minister spoke of the critical situation which
+developed when the German attack began. He said the gap on the way to
+Amiens was held by Brig. Gen. Carey, who for six days stood off the
+enemy with engineers, laborers, signalers, and anybody who could hold a
+rifle. The Premier continued:]
+
+Until the whole circumstances which led to the retirement of the 5th
+Army and its failure to hold the line of the Somme, at least till the
+Germans brought out their guns, and perhaps the failure adequately to
+destroy the bridges--until all these are explained it would be unfair to
+censure the General in command of the army, General Gough. But until
+those circumstances are cleared up it would be equally unfair to the
+British Army to retain his services in the field. It is necessary to
+recall him until the facts have been fully ascertained and laid before
+the Government by their military advisers.
+
+After the retirement of the 5th Army the French reserves came up with
+remarkable rapidity, when their position before the battle is borne in
+mind. In fact, the speed with which, when the final decision was taken
+as to the real designs of the enemy, the French reserves were brought up
+is one of the most remarkable feats of organization in this war, and
+between the courage of our troops and the handling of the army--the way
+the 3d Army held, never giving way a hundred yards to the attack of the
+enemy--I think it right that it should be said about the army commanded
+by General Byng--that between the efforts of our soldiers and the loyal
+assistance given in true spirit of comradeship by the French Army, the
+position is for the moment stabilized. But it is clear that the Germans,
+having gained an initial success, are preparing another, and perhaps an
+even greater, attack on the allied armies.
+
+
+Teutons Fail in Main Objects
+
+Up to the present the enemy has undoubtedly obtained a great initial
+success. There is no good in not accepting the facts. It is from that
+basis we must begin to build. But he has failed so far in his main
+objects. He failed to capture Amiens. He failed to separate the French
+and British armies. But we should be guilty of great, it might be fatal,
+error if we were to underestimate the gravity of the prospect.
+
+The enemy has captured valuable ground, which is too near Amiens for
+comfort or security, and he has succeeded for the time being in
+crippling one of our great armies.
+
+I will now tell the House something of the measures adopted by the
+Cabinet to meet the emergency. I have already explained what was done
+about the French reserves. The Cabinet took every step to hurry up
+reinforcements in order to fill up the gap in our armies. No such large
+numbers of men ever passed across the Channel in so short a time.
+
+As the emergency was great it was impossible to allow those who were
+summoned to France the usual leave to visit their relatives. It was with
+the greatest regret that we found it necessary to cancel this
+permission, and nothing but the gravity of the position would have
+justified so harsh a proceeding. But the troops accepted the position in
+a manner which is worthy of the fortitude, courage, and patriotism they
+have shown throughout.
+
+There was an understanding that boys under 19 years would only be used
+in case of emergency. We felt that the emergency had arisen, and in so
+far as those who were over 18 were concerned, those who had already
+received six months' training, we felt it necessary that they should be
+sent to France.
+
+As to the guns and machine guns which were lost, the numbers are grossly
+exaggerated by the enemy. I am assured that they have also exaggerated
+very considerably the number of prisoners they have taken. The Commander
+in Chief assured me last week that it was a gross exaggeration.
+
+I am very glad to be able to say that the Ministry of Munitions were
+able not merely to replace those guns and machine guns, but that they
+still have got a very substantial reserve. The same thing applies to
+ammunition. There is an ample reserve of ammunition both in this country
+and in France.
+
+Our aircraft strength is greater now than before the battle, and we all
+know what brilliant service our airmen rendered in this battle. Until
+the whole story of the battle is told it will be almost impossible to
+estimate the services they rendered in retarding the advance of the
+enemy, in destroying his machinery, and in making it difficult for him
+to bring up his guns and ammunition. We feel confident that our armies,
+Generals, and soldiers will be quite equal to the next encounter
+whenever it comes.
+
+
+America's Dramatic Assistance
+
+The next step to which I should like to call the attention of the House
+is the material and dramatic assistance rendered by President Wilson in
+this emergency--one of the most important decisions in the war. In fact,
+the issue of the battle might very well be determined by this decision.
+
+In America there is a very considerable number of men in the course of
+training, and the Allies looked forward to having a large American army
+in France in the Spring. It has taken longer than was anticipated to
+turn those soldiers into the necessary divisional organizations. If
+America waited to complete these divisional organizations it would not
+be possible for these fine troops in any large numbers to take part in
+this battle in this campaign, although it might be very well the
+decisive battle of the war.
+
+This was, of course, one of the most serious disappointments from which
+the Allies had suffered. It is no use pretending it was not one of our
+chief causes of anxiety. We depend upon it largely to make up the
+defection of Russia.
+
+For many reasons--reasons, perhaps of transport, reasons connected with
+the time it takes, not merely to train troops and their officers, but to
+complete the necessary organization--it was quite impossible to put into
+France the number of divisions every one had confidently expected would
+be there. Under the circumstances we, therefore, submitted to the
+President of the United States a definite proposal. We had the
+advantage of having the Secretary of State for War in this country
+within two or three days after the battle had commenced. Mr. Balfour and
+I had a long conversation with him upon the whole situation, and we
+submitted to him certain recommendations which we had been advised to
+make to Mr. Baker and the American Government.
+
+
+Proposal of Earl of Reading
+
+On the strength of the conversation we submitted proposals to President
+Wilson, with the strong support of Premier Clemenceau, to enable the
+combatant strength of the American Army to come into action during this
+battle, inasmuch as there was no hope of it coming in as a strong
+separate army. By this decision American battalions will be brigaded
+with those of the Allies.
+
+This proposal was submitted by the Earl of Reading on behalf of the
+British Government to President Wilson, and President Wilson assented to
+the proposal without any hesitation, with the result that arrangements
+are now being made for the fighting strength of the American Army to be
+immediately brought to bear in this struggle--a struggle which is only
+now beginning--to this extent, and it is no mere small extent, that the
+German attack has been held up. It has stirred up the resolution and
+energy of America beyond anything which has yet occurred.
+
+Another important decision taken by the allied Governments I must also
+call the attention of the House to. It became more obvious after the
+battle than ever before that the allied armies were suffering from the
+fact that they were fighting as two separate armies and had to negotiate
+support with each other. Valuable time was thus lost. Some of us had
+been deeply impressed by this peril for some time and had done our best
+to avert it.
+
+But the inherent difficulties to be overcome are tremendous. There are
+national prejudices, national interests, professional prejudices and
+traditions. The inherent difficulties of getting two or three separate
+armies to fight as one are almost insurmountable, and it can only be
+done if public opinion in all these countries insists upon it as one
+condition of success.
+
+The Versailles conference was an effort at a remedy. How were the
+Versailles decisions carried out, and the extent to which they were not
+carried out? This is not the time to inquire.
+
+
+Foch Made Generalissimo
+
+I respectfully suggest to the House that no good would come at this
+stage in discussing this question. But if any one needed conviction as
+to the wisdom of that policy, this battle must have supplied it. The
+peril we passed through, by establishing the conviction without
+challenge, may, I think, be worth the price we paid for it.
+
+A few days after the battle commenced there were present not merely the
+Government, but the commanders in the field. We had not merely Field
+Marshals but army commanders present. We were so convinced--and the same
+thing applied to the French--of the importance of more complete
+strategic unity that they agreed to the appointment of General Foch to
+the supreme direction of the strategy of all the allied armies on the
+western front.
+
+May I not say just one word about General Foch? It is not merely that he
+is one of the most brilliant soldiers in Europe, but there is this to be
+said about him: Foch is the man who, when we were attacked and were in a
+similar plight at the first battle of Ypres, rushed the French Army
+there by every conceivable expedient--buses, cabs, lorries, anything he
+could lay his hands upon. He crowded French divisions through, and
+undoubtedly helped to win the great battle.
+
+There is no doubt about the loyalty and comradeship of General Foch. I
+have no doubt that this arrangement will be carried out not merely in
+the letter but in the spirit. But it is the most important decision that
+has been taken in reference to the coming battle. This strategic unity
+is, I submit to the House, the fundamental condition of victory. It can
+only be maintained by complete co-operation between the Governments and
+the Generals and by something more than that--the unmistakable public
+opinion behind it.
+
+
+Asks Support for Foch
+
+Why do I say that? For this reason: A Generalissimo in the ordinary and
+full sense of the term may be impracticable. There are three functions
+which a General wields--strategical, tactical, and administrative. What
+does administrative mean? It means control of organization, the
+appointment and dismissal of officers and Generals, and that is a power
+which it is difficult or almost impossible to give to Generals of
+another country with a national army.
+
+Therefore, in spite of all the arrangements made, unless there be not
+merely good-will, but the knowledge that the public of France, Great
+Britain, and America will assist in co-ordination and in supporting the
+authority in the supreme strategical plans chosen by the Governments,
+and in supporting the Governments in any action they may take to assert
+their authority, any arrangements made will be futile and mischievous. I
+make no apology for dwelling at some length upon this point. I have
+always felt that we were losing value and efficiency in the allied
+armies through lack of co-ordination and concentration.
+
+We have sustained many disasters already through this, and we shall
+encounter more unless this defect in our machinery is put right.
+Hitherto, I regret, every effort at amendment led to rather prolonged
+and very bitter controversy, and these great inherent difficulties were
+themselves accentuated and aggravated. There were difficulties of
+carrying out plans and other obstacles, and, what is worse, valuable
+time is lost.
+
+I entreat the nation as a whole to stand united for the united control
+of the strategical operations of our armies at the front. We know how
+much depends upon unity of concentration. We are fighting a very
+powerful foe, who, in so far as he has triumphed, has triumphed mainly
+because of superior unity and the concentration of his strategic plans.
+
+
+BRITISH FORCES IN ASIA
+
+There is another matter to which I should like to refer, and it is the
+suggestion that our forces have been dissipated on a subsidiary
+enterprise. Not a single division was sent from France to the East. With
+regard to Italy, had it not been for the fact that there are battalions
+of French and British divisions there, the Austrian Army would have been
+free to throw the whole of its strength on the western front. If there
+were not some there now the Austrian Army would be more powerfully
+represented than it is on the western front.
+
+With regard to Saloniki, the only thing the present Government did was
+to reduce the forces there by two divisions. In Mesopotamia there is
+only one white division in all, and in Egypt and Palestine together
+there are only two white divisions, and the rest are either Indians or
+mixed with a very small proportion of British troops. I am referring to
+infantry divisions.
+
+I want the House really to consider what that means. There is a menace
+to our Eastern empire through Persia, because through Persia you
+approach Afghanistan, and through Afghanistan you menace the whole of
+India. Had it not been for the blows inflicted upon the Turks, what
+would have happened? Before these attacks there were Turkish divisions
+helping the Germans in Russia. They would have been there helping the
+Germans on the west, exactly as they helped them on the east.
+
+
+Germans Sent to Help Turks
+
+But what has happened? They were attacked in Palestine and Mesopotamia
+and two Turkish armies were destroyed. If we had remained in Egypt and
+defended Egypt by remaining there on the canal and allowing the Turks to
+hold us with a small force while they were putting the whole of their
+force in Mesopotamia and menacing our position in India by that means,
+the Turks could now have been assisting the Germans in the west as they
+did in the east.
+
+What is happening now? German battalions at this moment have been sent
+to assist the Turks instead of the Turks sending divisions to help the
+Germans. The Germans now have sent battalions to help the Turks in
+Palestine. After all, if you have a great empire you must defend it.
+
+There was a great empire which withdrew its legions from the outlying
+provinces of the empire to defend its heart against the Goths and those
+legions never went back. The British Empire has not been reduced to that
+plight yet. We can defend ourselves successfully in France, and we can
+also hold our empire against any one who assails it in any part of the
+world at the same time.
+
+May I, before I leave this topic, say how much gratitude we owe to India
+for the magnificent way in which she has come to the aid of the empire
+in this emergency?
+
+It is not the fact that we have got three British divisions in Egypt and
+Palestine and one in Mesopotamia that has enabled us to hold our own,
+but it is the fact that we have had these splendid troops from India.
+Many of them volunteered since the war, and they have been more than a
+match for their Turkish adversaries on many a stricken field.
+
+
+Great Losses in France
+
+It is too early to state yet with accuracy our losses, because in the
+case of a battle over such a wide front, fought with such intensity for
+over a fortnight, with vast numbers of men engaged, the losses sustained
+must be considerable. The claims of the enemy as to prisoners have been
+grossly exaggerated, and Field Marshal Haig has assured me that they
+were quite impossible from the figures at his disposal, and which he
+showed me, and the enemy's claims seem quite preposterous from the
+statement he made to me.
+
+But still our losses are very great and our reserves have been called
+upon to a considerable extent to make up the wastage and refit the
+units, and if the drain continues on this scale, a drain on the
+resources of reserves and of man power, it must cause the deepest
+anxiety, unless we take immediate steps to replenish it.
+
+The immediate necessity is relieved by the splendid and generous way and
+promptitude with which America has come to our aid, but they are simply
+lent to receive their training, with a view to their incorporation at
+the first suitable moment in the American Army in France, and even if
+they remain with the British right through the battle, the time will
+come when we shall need large reinforcements, if this battle continues.
+
+I want the House to consider for a moment what the plans of the enemy
+may be as they are now revealed. It was never certain he would take this
+plunge, because he knows what it means if it fails. But he has taken it.
+The battle proves that the enemy has definitely decided to seek a
+military decision this year, whatever the consequences to himself.
+
+
+Reasons for German Effort
+
+There is no doubt he has overwhelming reasons. There is the economic
+condition of his country and the critical economic condition of his
+allies. He is now at the height of his power, and Russia is at the
+least, while America has not yet come in in its strength. So this year
+the enemy may put forth something which approaches his full strength.
+But soon he will grow feebler and weaker in comparison with the allied
+forces.
+
+[Illustration: Representatives of the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk
+(from left to right): Gen. Hoffmann of the German Army; Count Czernin,
+Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, Talaat Pasha, Turkish Grand Vizier,
+and von Kuehlmann, German Foreign Minister
+(_International Film Service_)]
+
+[Illustration: Panorama of Venice as seen from an airplane in wartime]
+
+Everything, therefore, points to the definite determination of Germany
+to put the whole of her resources into seeking a military decision this
+year, and this means a prolonged battle from the North Sea to the
+Adriatic, with Germany and Austria throwing in the whole of their
+strength.
+
+There are still seven or eight months within which the fighting can
+continue, and everything depends upon keeping our strength right to the
+end, whatever the strain upon our resources may be.
+
+With American aid we can do it. But, even with American help, we cannot
+feel secure unless we are prepared ourselves to make even greater
+sacrifices than we have hitherto made. I know what the Government wish.
+I know also what will happen if the demand which the Government is
+putting forward is not responded to.
+
+It is idle to imagine, as some people very lightheartedly seem to think,
+that you have got an unlimited reservoir of man power in this or in any
+belligerent country. We have already raised in this country for military
+and naval purposes very nearly six million men. We cannot raise here the
+same proportion of men per population as you can in other belligerent
+countries. I have repeatedly emphasized that in the House of Commons.
+
+We have the greatest navy in the world, the command of the seas depends
+not merely for ourselves, but for our allies, upon the efforts we put
+forward. That is not only a question of manning the fleet: it is also a
+question of building, of adding to the numbers of ships, and of
+repairing the ships. Then you have got a mercantile marine, without
+which the Allies could not continue the struggle for a single month.
+
+
+Navy and Shipping First
+
+All that must be borne in mind, and whatever happens and whatever
+proposals we put forward today, it would be folly to do anything which
+would interfere with the one fundamental condition of success to the
+Allies--that the navy and shipping must be first.
+
+We have also got to supply coal largely to our allies, as well as steel.
+But, owing largely to improved organizations in the various industries,
+to the way they are adapting themselves from day to day to new
+conditions, and to the increased numbers and greatly increased
+efficiency of woman labor, there is a reserve of men which, consistent
+with the discharge of these obligations, may yet be withdrawn in great
+emergency for our battle line; not without damage to industry--I do not
+forget that--and not without, to a certain extent, weakening the
+economic strength of the country, and not without imposing restrictions
+and perhaps privations, but without impairment to the striking power of
+the country for war. Nothing could justify such drastic action except an
+overwhelming emergency precipitated by a great military crisis.
+
+I want to point out especially why the steps taken now are steps which
+will be useful in this battle. First of all, it is a battle which may
+last for months. The decision may be taken not now or next month, but
+may be months hence. But, beyond that, the Allies at the present moment
+have the same reserves of man power to reinforce their armies as Germany
+has, without taking into account those great reserves in America.
+
+
+The German Age Limit
+
+The Germans, however, are calling up another class, which will produce
+550,000 efficient young men. These will be prepared to be thrown into
+the battle line. This is the 1920 class, aged 18�. These can be thrown
+into the battle line before this fight is over, and we must be prepared
+for their advent in this struggle this year.
+
+Therefore, I have to submit to Parliament the totals for increasing, and
+increasing very materially, the reserves which will be available for
+reinforcing our armies in the field during this prolonged battle, upon
+which we are only just entering. I will now give roughly some of the
+proposals we intend to make in order to increase the number of men
+available.
+
+We already have raised for armed forces during the first quarter of the
+year more than the quarter's proportion of the original number of men
+which it was estimated was the minimum required for the present year. We
+are also effecting a very strict comb-out of some of the essential
+industries. Very large levies have been taken from munition works. They
+will amount, I think, to something like 100,000 grade 1 men.
+
+
+New Call on the Miners
+
+That has been done already this year, and it will, of course, involve
+the utilization of other labor to a very large extent in munition works.
+A call for 500,000 has been made already on the coal industry, and these
+men have been rapidly recruited. I regret to say that military needs
+will necessitate the calling up of another 150,000 men from this
+industry. These men can be spared, we are convinced, after entering into
+the matter very carefully, without endangering the essential output of
+coal for national industries.
+
+No one is likely to forget the fine response made by the miners at the
+beginning of the war, or the splendid part they have taken in hundreds
+of battles since then. They have been loyal in meeting the present
+demand of 50,000 men, and I am confident they would meet a further call
+upon them in the same spirit, in view of this great national emergency
+under which we are making it. The transport services also have been
+called upon to release the greatest possible number of fit men.
+
+
+Combing Out Civil Service Under 25
+
+Further calls are to be made upon the civil service. I do not think it
+is realized how much the civil service has done already. On one hand, it
+has had to release a large number of men for the army, and, on the
+other, it has to meet and is meeting the increased strain of work. But
+even at the risk of some dislocation we must call upon it to do more,
+and a clean cut of young, fit men must be made.
+
+It is proposed that no fit men below the age of 25 should be retained.
+That is the clean-out. We comb out beyond that. I shall explain it
+later. It is proposed that it should be applied to other industries as
+well.
+
+When we are adding to the age and when we are extending the military
+age, it should not be said that there are fit young men of 25 who are
+employed in the various industries of the country. This will bring the
+civil service into line, and on a general level, so far as a clean-out
+is concerned, with the munitions industries.
+
+Under an act passed in January of this year, we are issuing orders
+canceling all occupational exemptions by age blocks in specified
+occupations. That is the clean-out. The first of these orders is being
+laid on the table in the House today and other orders of the same power
+will follow.
+
+I know that the House will appreciate that it is not merely necessary to
+have men, but to have them quickly. It is no use raising them unless
+they are raised in time to take part in the struggle this year, when we
+shall be short of drafts, if the battle is a prolonged one.
+
+The Government, therefore, has shortened the length of the calling up
+notice from fourteen days to seven and have authorized the sending of
+notice by whatever method is the most expeditious and convenient. It may
+be necessary even to curtail the rights of appeal on medical grounds,
+but for the moment it is not proposed to do so. We have had a good many
+frivolous appeals, which have wasted a good deal of time, and if that
+goes on, it will be absolutely necessary, in the interest of the
+security of the country, that the rights of appeal should be curtailed
+in this respect.
+
+
+Military Age Raised to 50
+
+There is another consideration. The strain upon the medical profession
+has been great already. We are very short of medical men, and we may be
+driven to do it by the hard necessities of the case.
+
+I now turn to the new proposal embodied in the bill, which I beg leave
+to introduce today. Our first proposal is to raise the military age up
+to 50, and in certain specified cases we ask for powers to raise it to
+55, but that only when a man with special qualifications is needed.
+
+For instance, it may be necessary to do it, in the case of medical men,
+in order to secure their services. It may be necessary in certain
+special classes, with special training and special experience, to secure
+their services for the army. When you come to the question of raising
+the age to 50, it does not mean that men between 42 and 50 are
+necessarily to be taken in order to put them into the fighting line. It
+may be that there are men of that age who are just as fit as men of 25,
+but I am sorry to say that that is the exception, and we cannot,
+therefore, depend upon men of that age altogether to make the finest
+fighting material.
+
+There are a good many services in the army which do not require the very
+best physical material, and it would be very helpful to get men of this
+age to fill those services, in order to release younger and fitter men
+to enter the fighting line. There is also to be borne in mind the fact
+that we have to prepare for our home defense, so as to be able to
+release men from this country and fill their places by men between 42
+and 50, who, I have no doubt, would fight very tenaciously for their own
+homes if there were an invasion.
+
+The proportion of men from 42 to 50 years of age whom we expect to be
+available is not very high--something like 7 per cent. That is only 7
+per cent. of men from 42 to 50 will be available for the army.
+
+I only want to reassure people between 42 and 50 that all the men of
+that age are not going to be called up to the fighting line. I gave a
+sort of rough estimate that it would be only a small percentage of men
+of this age who would be likely to come under the provisions of the
+bill.
+
+[The Premier then took up the system of exemptions, which is revised in
+the bill. He explained that the King, under the provisions of the bill,
+could cancel former exemptions, and that men would be exempted on
+medical grounds only, with provisions also for speeding up the procedure
+of appeal tribunals. He continued:]
+
+We have to choose between either submitting to defeat or taking the
+necessary measures to avert it. We will never submit to accepting
+defeat.
+
+I need hardly say that this provision will not be used to set aside the
+pledges given to discharged soldiers. They will be carefully observed.
+
+
+CONSCRIPTION IN IRELAND
+
+I now come to the question of Ireland. When an emergency has arisen
+which makes it necessary to put men of 50 and boys of 18 into the army
+in the fight for liberty and independence--[Joseph Devlin here
+interrupted]--"and small nationalities," the Premier resumed: Especially
+as I am reminded, to fight for liberty and independence and small
+nationalities, I am perfectly certain it is not possible to justify any
+longer the exclusion of Ireland.
+
+John Dillon--You will not get any men from Ireland by compulsion, not a
+man.
+
+The Premier--What is the position? No home rule proposal ever submitted
+in this House proposed to deprive the Imperial Parliament of the power
+of dealing with all questions in relation to the army and navy. These
+invariably are in every home rule bill I have ever seen and are purely
+questions for the Imperial Parliament, so that I am claiming no more as
+a national right than was ever claimed in the House. The Defense of the
+Realm act also was extended to Ireland.
+
+The character of the quarrel in which we are engaged is just as much
+Irish as English. May I say it is more so? It is more Irish, Scotch, and
+Welsh than it is even English. Ireland, through its representatives at
+the beginning of the war, assented to it.
+
+Mr. Devlin--Because it was a war for small nationalities.
+
+The Prime Minister--Ireland, through its representatives, assented to
+the war, voted for the war, supported the war. Irish representatives and
+Ireland, through its representatives, without a dissenting voice
+committed the empire to this war. They are as responsible for it as any
+part of the United Kingdom. May I just read the declaration issued by
+the Irish Party on Dec. 17, 1914, shortly after the war began?
+
+Mr. Byrne--We have had a revolution since then.
+
+The Prime Minister--This is the Declaration of the Irish Party:
+
+    A test to search men's souls has arisen. The empire is engaged
+    in the most serious war in history. It is a just war, provoked
+    by the intolerable military despotism of Germany. It is a war
+    for the defense of the sacred rights and liberties of small
+    nations and the respect and enlargement of the great principles
+    of nationality. Involved in it is the fate of France, our
+    kindred country and the chief nation of that powerful Celtic
+    race to which we belong; the fate of Belgium, to whom we are
+    attached by the same great ties of race and by the common desire
+    of small nations to assert their freedom, and the fate of
+    Poland, whose sufferings and struggles bear so marked a
+    resemblance to our own.
+
+    It is a war for the high ideals of human government and
+    international relations, and Ireland would be false to her
+    history and to every consideration of honor, good faith, and
+    self-interest did she not willingly bear her share in its
+    burdens and its sacrifices.
+
+It is not merely illogical that Ireland should not help, it is unjust.
+If it were merely England's battle, the young men of Ireland might
+regard that fact with indifference, but it is not. They are just as much
+concerned as the young men of England. Therefore, it is proposed to
+extend conscription on the same conditions as in Great Britain.
+
+As there is no machinery in existence and no register has as yet been
+completed in Ireland, it may take some weeks before active enrollments
+begin. As soon as arrangements are complete the Government will put the
+act into immediate operation.
+
+
+Irish Members Raise Uproar
+
+[When Mr. Lloyd George referred to Ireland, Alfred Byrne, Nationalist
+member from Dublin, shouted: "We won't have conscription in Ireland!" An
+uproar followed. The Premier said the report of the Irish Convention was
+adopted by a majority only, and therefore the Government would take the
+responsibility for such proposals for self-government as were just and
+could be carried out without violent controversy. It would be some weeks
+before enrollment in Ireland began, the Premier continued. One
+Nationalist cried out: "It will never begin." Michael Flavin,
+Nationalist member from Kerry, said: "You come across and try to take
+us." Another Nationalist exclaimed: "It is a declaration of war against
+Ireland."]
+
+When the Premier was referring to Ireland, John Dillon, the successor of
+the late John Redmond as leader of the Irish Nationalists in Parliament,
+said: "If Irish liberty were at stake I would not hesitate to support
+that policy. I never challenged the justice of war. I don't challenge it
+now."
+
+Mr. Lloyd George began: "I don't want to cause trouble--"
+
+"You will get plenty," interrupted an Irish member.
+
+Resuming, Lloyd George said "While we have one ship afloat we should not
+accept a German peace. The men being taken now may be the means of a
+decisive issue."
+
+Mr. Asquith said he would suspend judgment until he saw the bill in
+print. He invited every one to keep his mind and ears accessible to
+reasonable argument. At the conclusion of Mr. Asquith's speech, Joseph
+Devlin moved an adjournment and warned the Government that it was
+entering upon a course of madness if it endeavored to inforce
+conscription on Ireland. His motion was defeated later by a vote of 323
+to 80.
+
+Mr. Dillon said he hoped for the sake of the war and for the sake of the
+empire that the methods of the War Cabinet in dealing with the war were
+different from its methods in dealing with Ireland. A bill applying
+conscription to Ireland, Mr. Dillon continued, would plunge the country
+into bloodshed and confusion and would open a new war front in addition
+to the western front. He urged the War Cabinet to inform itself as to
+the state of Irish feeling before proposing conscription to Ireland.
+
+Leave to introduce the Government's Man-Power bill was carried after
+further hot debate by 299 to 80.
+
+
+
+
+Russia and the Allies
+
+The Russian and the French Revolution Compared--The Gloomy Outlook of
+Russia
+
+By Arthur J. Balfour
+
+_British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs_
+
+[FROM AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN PARLIAMENT MARCH 14, 1918]
+
+
+The inference that Russia would have been kept in the war if we had
+announced that we proposed to go in for the status quo ante and
+readjustments is wrong. Pronouncements made by Russian statesmen always
+included self-determination. Self-determination can never be squared
+with mere adjustments. It may be that self-determination might
+conceivably receive a large measure of fulfillment, I agree, up to a
+certain point, but that Russian statesmen by their declarations have
+materially limited the scope of the war I believe to be inaccurate. But
+whether accurate or not, one is entirely misrepresenting the political
+and social forces of Russia if he thinks that the reason Russia went out
+of the war was that our war aims were not publicly or semi-publicly
+reconsidered in concert with the Allies.
+
+I do not profess to have a remedy for the misfortunes that have
+occurred--as I think to civilization itself--from the fact that the
+Russian revolution occurred in the middle of a European war. I welcome
+the change from autocracy to what we hoped and still hope, what we
+believed and still believe, is going to be a reign of ordered liberty.
+But the revolution, unfortunately, came at a time when Russia was weary
+with the sacrifices of a great war, and it was mixed up and almost
+overshadowed on its political side by the pacifist influences which were
+allowed to reign uncontrolled in the army and navy and all the other
+forces which might and should have been co-ordinated to resist the
+common enemy.
+
+There are resemblances between the Russian revolution and the French
+Revolution, but from our point of view, and from the point of view of
+the war and of how we are to secure in the future the freedom of small
+nationalities, and how we are to save the world from the domination of
+one overgreedy power, from that point of view no greater misfortune
+could have occurred than the coincidence between the Russian revolution
+and the fact that a war was being conducted in which Russia was one of
+the great Allies. I personally am an optimist about Russia, but I am not
+an optimist about the immediate future of Russia, because it seems to me
+that difficulties are thrown in Russia's way by the fact that the war
+raged before the revolution. Russia is only nominally out of the war at
+the present time, but is still suffering from the invasion of her
+enemies. The French Revolution was associated with great military
+operations. It ended in the production of an army whose fiery efficiency
+was the wonder of Europe and which overturned all the decrepit
+monarchies in the Central European States. Contrast that with what has
+happened in Russia since the revolution. There is not a single fighting
+instrument possessed by Russia which the Russian revolutionaries have
+not deliberately but absolutely and completely destroyed.
+
+
+RESULTS OF THE REVOLUTION
+
+The Russian Army no longer exists and the Russian Navy no longer exists.
+The Rumanian Army--that most gallant and most unfortunate body, which
+might have and would have co-operated to preserve both Russia and
+Rumania from the tyranny of the Central Powers--had been betrayed by
+Russia itself. The unhappy results of the revolution from the military
+point of view are quite plain and obvious to the most casual observer.
+The actual course pursued by the Bolsheviki has rendered them completely
+helpless in the face of German aggression. Now they express the
+desire--I am sure they express it genuinely and earnestly--that they
+should reconstitute the Russian Army for the purpose of Russian defense,
+and they would welcome our assistance, doubtless, in carrying out this
+object. But can you reconstitute it for purposes of national defense?
+Can you improvise a new instrument when fragments of the old instrument
+are lying shattered around you? It cannot be done in a day.
+
+Had Russia not been at war I believe it would have taken many years to
+complete what I hope and believe is to be the beneficent course of the
+Russian revolution. Autocracy--and it is very difficult to see how the
+Russia we know could have been created without it--showed itself quite
+incapable of bringing into existence that frame of mind which makes a
+great self-conscious nation independent of the particular form which its
+institutions may have at the moment. Autocracy was destroyed, and
+immediately Russia fell into chaos.
+
+I am not sure that it was not my honorable friend (Mr. MacCallum Scott)
+who said exactly the same thing happened in France. The same thing
+really did not happen in France. I do not say we cannot find in this or
+that episode parallels to the French Revolution, but the total effect of
+the Revolution was not the disintegration of France but its integration.
+The units out of which modern France was constructed were no doubt
+compacted into a nation under the old monarchy, but the divisions
+between these units were still obvious; they still remained in the
+institutions of the country, and it was not until the Revolution that
+France became homogeneous from end to end and all the old provincial
+distinctions were swept away.
+
+Precisely the opposite has happened in Russia. The revolution comes and
+immediately all the old divisions between populations, between different
+regions, between different creeds, suddenly become marked and
+prominent. First this body and then that body threatens to fall way, and
+it must inevitably take time before we see the end of that process and
+know clearly how much of the old Russia, if any, ought to cease to form
+part of the new Russia and how the new Russia will be constituted. A
+very difficult process in time of peace, a very difficult process in
+time of prosperity, but how are you going to carry it out in time of war
+when you have at your gates an enemy remorseless, persevering, quite
+unscrupulous, like that which is dealing at its own sweet will with
+Russia at the present moment? That is the real difficulty which we have
+always had to deal with and to think over to the best of our ability
+when we consider some of the problems raised by the honorable gentleman
+who initiated this debate.
+
+
+JAPAN AND SIBERIA
+
+[The speaker then took up an inquiry regarding a suggestion of Japanese
+intervention in Siberia. He said the hypothesis that whenever one
+country sends troops into another country those troops invariably stay
+where they are sent, and annexation is the result, was false; if such
+were the case there would be a bad outlook for the north of France. He
+argued that if the Japanese did intervene it would be as friends of
+Russia and enemies of Germany, to preserve the country from German
+domination, and he proceeded thus:]
+
+Russia lies absolutely derelict upon the waters, and now it has no power
+of resistance at all; there can be a German penetration from end to end
+of Russia, which, I think, will be absolutely disastrous for Russia
+itself, and certainly will be very injurious to the future of the
+Allies. I suspect that at this moment a German officer is much safer
+traveling at large through Russia than an allied officer. Why? Not
+because the Russians love the Germans, but because, as a matter of fact,
+the German penetration has really struck at the root of Russian power. I
+was informed the other day that only one bank was allowed at Moscow.
+That bank is a German bank.
+
+The Bolshevist Government, I believe, sincerely desire--I hope not too
+late, though I fear it may be so--to resist this German penetration. How
+can they resist it when they themselves or their predecessors have
+destroyed every instrument which makes resistance possible?
+
+Inevitably Russia's allies have to ask themselves whether, if Russia
+herself has destroyed every instrument of self-protection which she once
+possessed, they cannot themselves among themselves supply that which she
+now lacks. We do that in Russia's own interests and for Russia's own
+sake, if it is done. It is not done to satisfy the greed of this or that
+power. That is the Allies' point of view. May I ask the House to
+consider the question from the Russian point of view? It is impossible
+to penetrate the future. Russia has always been a country of surprises,
+and that she remains at the present moment. What are the things which
+most of us fear for Russia when we look to the future? Frankly, I tell
+the House what I myself fear for Russia is this: Under the impulse,
+under the shadow of the great revolution, the cataclysm of social order
+has been shaken to its foundations, and many disasters, and I fear many
+crimes, have been committed.
+
+
+DIVIDE AND GOVERN
+
+It is Germany's interest, I believe, to foster and continue and promote
+that condition of disorder. Those who watch her methods throughout the
+world know that she always wishes to encourage disorder in every other
+country but her own. If the country is a republic she wishes to
+introduce absolutism; if it is an absolutist Government then she seeks
+to encourage republicanism. She counts it her gain that other
+Governments should be weak, and she knows that there is no better way of
+making other countries weak than by making them divided--a house divided
+against itself. Therefore I believe that Germany unchecked will do her
+best to continue those disorders which have unhappily stained the path
+of the Russian revolution.
+
+What must be the result? The result must be--especially in a country
+where the sense of national unity appears, at all events, for the
+moment to be singularly weak compared with that which prevails in other
+civilized countries--that men will at last look around and say to
+themselves, "This disorder is intolerable; it makes life impossible;
+human effort cannot go on; something must be done, good or bad, to put
+an end to mere chaos." There will therefore be classes in Russia, some
+with patriotic motives, but some with personal and selfish motives, who
+will welcome anything in the world which gives them the semblance of a
+stable, orderly, and civilized Government.
+
+When that time comes, then I can see Germany will say, Now we will step
+in; we will, by both the open and subterranean methods which we have
+developed and cultivated, now exercise our power in the country. We will
+re-establish, possibly in the same form, possibly in some new form, the
+autocracy which we in this House hoped had gone forever; and you will
+have in a Russia shorn of some of its fairest provinces set up again an
+autocracy far worse than the old autocracy, because it will lean upon a
+foreign power to continue its existence. Then, indeed, if that prophecy
+came to pass--and I most earnestly hope I am in this a false
+prophet--all our dreams of Russian development and Russian liberty would
+be gone. Russia under this Government would be a mere echo of the
+Central Powers; she would cease to be a make-weight in any sense to
+German militarism. She would have lost all that initiative, all that
+power for self-development that we so earnestly hoped the revolution had
+given her.
+
+
+A GLOOMY HOROSCOPE
+
+I admit that this picture is dark and sombre. Will anybody have the
+courage to say he can draw a horoscope for the future more likely to be
+fulfilled, if Russia remains, as I fear she is at this moment,
+absolutely helpless in face of the German penetration? It all turns upon
+that. If Russia could only rouse herself now and offer effective
+resistance to the German invader, that might give her a national spirit
+and sense of unity, and make her future far more splendid than her
+past. Therefore the question will inevitably be asked: Can any of the
+Allies give to Russia in her extremity that help and that sympathy of
+which she so sorely stands in need? It is help and sympathy which the
+Allies desire to give, and not invasion and plunder. I agree that there
+may be circumstances, prejudices, and feelings which render assistance
+in the East by the only country which can give it in the East a question
+of difficulty and doubt--a question which must be weighed in every
+balance and looked at from every point of view; but that the
+Allies--America, Britain, France, Italy, and Japan--should do what they
+can at this moment to help Russia, if she fails to help herself, through
+the great crisis of her destiny appears to me to be beyond doubt, and I
+will not reject, a priori, any suggestion which seems to offer the
+slightest solution of our doing any good in that direction.
+
+
+THE LOYALTY OF JAPAN
+
+I do not think this debate should finish without repudiating the
+suggestion made that Japan is moved by selfish and dishonorable motives
+in any course which may have been discussed in Japan, either among her
+own statesmen or the Allies. Japan has maintained perfect loyalty. She
+has kept all the promises made to the Allies. I hope I have said enough
+to indicate the general problems as they present themselves to this
+Government, and at the same time also to show that we recognize to the
+full how difficult this problem is, how hard it is to help a nation
+which is utterly incapable for the moment of helping itself. The House
+will feel, I think, that the decisions which the Allies may have to give
+are not without difficulty, and the principles upon which those
+decisions will be come to are neither ungenerous, unfair, nor hostile to
+Russia or the Russian revolution; but on the contrary that our one
+object is to see Russia strong, intact, secure, and free. If these
+objects can be attained, then, indeed, and then only, will the Russian
+revolution bring forth all the fruits which Russia's best friends desire
+to see.
+
+
+
+
+President on the Russian Treaties
+
+Declares Germany Has Repudiated Her Peace Avowals and Will Be Met With
+"Force to the Utmost"
+
+    _President Wilson delivered an address at Baltimore on April 6,
+    1918, in which he denounced the terms which the Central Powers
+    had exacted from Russia and Rumania, and defined the attitude of
+    the United States toward all peace proposals offered on such a
+    basis. The text of his speech in full is as follows:_
+
+
+Fellow-citizens: This is the anniversary of our acceptance of Germany's
+challenge to fight for our right to live and be free, and for the sacred
+rights of freemen everywhere. The nation is awake. There is no need to
+call to it. We know what the war must cost, our utmost sacrifice, the
+lives of our fittest men, and, if need be, all that we possess.
+
+The loan we are met to discuss is one of the least parts of what we are
+called upon to give and to do, though in itself imperative. The people
+of the whole country are alive to the necessity of it and are ready to
+lend to the utmost, even where it involves a sharp skimping and daily
+sacrifice to lend out of meagre earnings. They will look with
+reprobation and contempt upon those who can and will not, upon those who
+demand a higher rate of interest, upon those who think of it as a mere
+commercial transaction. I have not come, therefore, to urge the loan. I
+have come only to give you, if I can, a more vivid conception of what it
+is for.
+
+The reasons for this great war, the reason why it had to come, the need
+to fight it through, and the issues that hang upon its outcome, are more
+clearly disclosed now than ever before. It is easy to see just what this
+particular loan means, because the cause we are fighting for stands more
+sharply revealed than at any previous crisis of the momentous struggle.
+The man who knows least can now see plainly how the cause of justice
+stands, and what the imperishable thing he is asked to invest in. Men in
+America may be more sure than they ever were before that the cause is
+their own, and that, if it should be lost, their own great nation's
+place and mission in the world would be lost with it.
+
+
+OUR VERDICT DELIBERATE
+
+I call you to witness, my fellow-countrymen, that at no stage of this
+terrible business have I judged the purposes of Germany intemperately. I
+should be ashamed in the presence of affairs so grave, so fraught with
+the destinies of mankind throughout all the world, to speak with
+truculence, to use the weak language of hatred or vindictive purpose. We
+must judge as we would be judged. I have sought to learn the objects
+Germany has in this war from the mouths of her own spokesmen, and to
+deal as frankly with them as I wished them to deal with me. I have laid
+bare our own ideals, our own purposes, without reserve or doubtful
+phrase, and have asked them to say as plainly what it is that they seek.
+
+We have ourselves proposed no injustice, no aggression. We are ready,
+whenever the final reckoning is made, to be just to the German people,
+deal fairly with the German power, as with all others. There can be no
+difference between peoples in the final judgment, if it is indeed to be
+a righteous judgment. To propose anything but justice, even-handed and
+dispassionate justice, to Germany at any time, whatever the outcome of
+the war, would be to renounce and dishonor our own cause, for we ask
+nothing that we are not willing to accord.
+
+It has been with this thought that I have sought to learn from those who
+spoke for Germany whether it was justice or dominion and the execution
+of their own will upon the other nations of the world that the German
+leaders were seeking. They have answered--answered in unmistakable
+terms. They have avowed that it was not justice, but dominion and the
+unhindered execution of their own will.
+
+
+GERMANY'S REAL RULERS
+
+The avowal has not come from Germany's statesmen. It has come from her
+military leaders, who are her real rulers. Her statesmen have said that
+they wished peace, and were ready to discuss its terms whenever their
+opponents were willing to sit down at the conference table with them.
+Her present Chancellor has said--in indefinite and uncertain terms,
+indeed, and in phrases that often seem to deny their own meaning, but
+with as much plainness as he thought prudent--that he believed that
+peace should be based upon the principles which we had declared would be
+our own in the final settlement.
+
+At Brest-Litovsk her civilian delegates spoke in similar terms;
+professed their desire to conclude a fair peace and accord to the
+peoples with whose fortunes they were dealing the right to choose their
+own allegiances. But action accompanied and followed the profession.
+Their military masters, the men who act for Germany and exhibit her
+purpose in execution, proclaimed a very different conclusion. We cannot
+mistake what they have done--in Russia, in Finland, in the Ukraine, in
+Rumania. The real test of their justice and fair play has come. From
+this we may judge the rest.
+
+They are enjoying in Russia a cheap triumph in which no brave or gallant
+nation can long take pride. A great people, helpless by their own act,
+lies for the time at their mercy. Their fair professions are forgotten.
+They nowhere set up justice, but everywhere impose their power and
+exploit everything for their own use and aggrandizement, and the peoples
+of conquered provinces are invited to be free under their dominion!
+
+Are we not justified in believing that they would do the same things at
+their western front if they were not there face to face with armies whom
+even their countless divisions cannot overcome? If, when they have felt
+their check to be final, they should propose favorable and equitable
+terms with regard to Belgium and France and Italy, could they blame us
+if we concluded that they did so only to assure themselves of a free
+hand in Russia and the East?
+
+Their purpose is, undoubtedly, to make all the Slavic peoples, all the
+free and ambitious nations of the Baltic Peninsula, all the lands that
+Turkey has dominated and misruled, subject to their will and ambition,
+and build upon that dominion an empire of force upon which they fancy
+that they can then erect an empire of gain and commercial supremacy--an
+empire as hostile to the Americas as to the Europe which it will
+overawe--an empire which will ultimately master Persia, India, and the
+peoples of the Far East.
+
+
+DEMOCRATIC IDEALS FLOUTED
+
+In such a program our ideals, the ideals of justice and humanity and
+liberty, the principle of the free self-determination of nations, upon
+which all the modern world insists, can play no part. They are rejected
+for the ideals of power, for the principle that the strong must rule the
+weak, that trade must follow the flag, whether those to whom it is taken
+welcome it or not, that the peoples of the world are to be made subject
+to the patronage and overlordship of those who have the power to enforce
+it.
+
+That program once carried out, America and all who care or dare to stand
+with her must arm and prepare themselves to contest the mastery of the
+world--a mastery in which the rights of common men, the rights of women
+and of all who are weak, must for the time being be trodden underfoot
+and disregarded and the old, age-long struggle for freedom and right
+begin again at its beginning. Everything that America has lived for and
+loved and grown great to vindicate and bring to a glorious realization
+will have fallen in utter ruin and the gates of mercy once more
+pitilessly shut upon mankind!
+
+The thing is preposterous and impossible; and yet is not that what the
+whole course and action of the German armies have meant wherever they
+have moved? I do not wish, even in this moment of utter disillusionment,
+to judge harshly or unrighteously. I judge only what the German arms
+have accomplished with unpitying thoroughness throughout every fair
+region they have touched.
+
+
+AMERICA ACCEPTS CHALLENGE
+
+What, then, are we to do? For myself, I am ready, ready still, ready
+even now, to discuss a fair and just and honest peace at any time that
+it is sincerely purposed--a peace in which the strong and the weak shall
+fare alike. But the answer, when I proposed such a peace, came from the
+German commanders in Russia, and I cannot mistake the meaning of the
+answer.
+
+I accept the challenge. I know that you accept it. All the world shall
+know that you accept it. It shall appear in the utter sacrifice and
+self-forgetfulness with which we shall give all that we love and all
+that we have to redeem the world and make it fit for free men like
+ourselves to live in. This now is the meaning of all that we do. Let
+everything that we say, my fellow-countrymen, everything that we
+henceforth plan and accomplish, ring true to this response till the
+majesty and might of our concerted power shall fill the thought and
+utterly defeat the force of those who flout and misprize what we honor
+and hold dear.
+
+Germany has once more said that force, and force alone, shall decide
+whether justice and peace shall reign in the affairs of men, whether
+right as America conceives it or dominion as she conceives it shall
+determine the destinies of mankind. There is, therefore, but one
+response possible from us: Force, force to the utmost, force without
+stint or limit, the righteous and triumphant force which shall make
+right the law of the world and cast every selfish dominion down in the
+dust.
+
+
+
+
+American Liberty's Crucial Hour
+
+By William E. Borah
+
+_United States Senator From Idaho_
+
+[DELIVERED IN THE SENATE, MARCH 18, 1918, AT THE CLIMAX OF A DEBATE OVER
+THE FIXING OF WHEAT PRICES]
+
+
+Mr. President: The German historian, Professor Meyer, in a book written
+since the beginning of the war, in which he sums up the issues involved,
+or rather the issue, because it all resolves itself into one, uses this
+language: "The truth of the whole matter undoubtedly is that the time
+has arrived when two distinct forms of State organization must face each
+other in a life-and-death struggle."
+
+That is undoubtedly the understanding and belief of those who are
+responsible for this war. It is coming to be the understanding and
+belief of those who have had the war forced upon them. We have finally
+put aside the tragedy at the Bosnian capital and the wrongs inflicted
+upon Belgium as the moving causes of the war. They were but the prologue
+to the imperial theme. We now see and understand clearly and
+unmistakably the cause at all times lying back of these things. Upon the
+one hand are Magna Charta, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of
+Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the principles
+of human liberty which they embody and preserve. Upon the other hand is
+that peculiar form of State organization which, in the language of the
+Emperor, rests alone upon the strength of the army and whose highest
+creed finds expression in the words of one of its greatest advocates
+that war is a part of the eternal order instituted by God. We go back to
+Runnymede, where fearless men wrenched from the hands of power habeas
+corpus and the trial by jury. They point us to Breslau and Molwitz,
+where Frederick the Great, in violation of his plighted word,
+inaugurated the rule of fraud and force and laid the foundation for that
+mighty structure whose central and dominating principle is that of
+power.
+
+[Illustration: SENATOR WILLIAM E. BORAH]
+
+It is that power with which we are at war today. Shall men, shall the
+people, be governed by some remorseless and soulless entity softly
+called the "State" or shall the instrumentalities of government yield
+alone and at all times to the wants and necessities, the hopes and
+aspirations, of the masses? That is now the issue. Nothing should longer
+conceal it. It is but another and more stupendous phase of the old
+struggle, a struggle as ancient and as inevitable as the thirst for
+power and the love of liberty, a struggle in which men have fought and
+sacrificed all the way from Marathon to Verdun.
+
+It seems strange now, and it will seem more extraordinary to those who
+come after us, that we did not recognize from the beginning that this
+was the issue. But, obscured by the d�bris of European life, confused
+with the dynastic quarrels and racial bitterness of the Old World, it
+was difficult to discern, and still more difficult to realize, that the
+very life of our institutions was at stake, that the scheme of the
+enemy, amazing and astounding, was not alone to control territory and
+dominate commerce, but to change the drift of human progress and to
+readjust the standards of the world's civilization. Perhaps, too, our
+love of peace, our traditional friendship for all nations, lulled
+suspicion and discouraged inquiry. Be that as it may, there can be no
+doubt now.
+
+Whatever the cause, however perverse the fates which bring us to this
+crisis, we are called upon not to settle questions of territory or
+establish new spheres of national activity, but to defend the
+institutions under which we live. Who doubts should we fail that the
+whole theory and system of government for which we have labored and
+struggled, our whole conception of civilization, would be discredited
+utterly? Who but believes that, should we lose, militarism would be the
+searching test of all Governments and that the world would be an armed
+camp harried and tortured and decimated by endless wars?
+
+No; we can no longer doubt the issue, and, notwithstanding some
+discouraging facts, we must not doubt the result. We are simply meeting
+the test which brave men have met before, for this issue has been fought
+over and over again for 3,000 years. Islam's fanaticism was grounded in
+the same design and made of the same stuff, but it broke upon the valor
+of Charles Martel's men at Tours. But the conflict was not conclusive.
+The elder Napoleon was obsessed by the same dream of world dominion, the
+same passion for military glory, that now obsesses those against whom we
+war. But he, too, saw his universal sceptre depart when chance and
+fate, which sometimes war on the side of liberty, turned from him on the
+field of Waterloo. And now the issue is again made up, and again this
+dream of world dominion, this passion for military glory, torments the
+souls of our would-be masters. And now again somewhere on the
+battlefields of Europe the same fate awaits the hosts of irresponsible
+power. In such a contest and with such an issue we cannot lose; it would
+not harmonize with the law of human progress.
+
+It has been the proud belief of some that not only would this war result
+in greater prestige and greater security for free institutions, but that
+it would effectuate the spread of democracy throughout Europe. We all
+hope for great things, for we believe in the ultimate triumph of free
+institutions, but we must not expect these things out of hand. The
+broken sobs of nations struggling to be independent and free so often
+heard in that part of the world and then heard no more, the story of
+Russia just now being written in contention and blood, admonishes anew
+that the republican road to safety and stability is encompassed by all
+kinds of trials and beset by countless perils. Democracy is the severest
+test of character which can be put upon a people, and must be learned
+and acquired in the rigid school of experience. It cannot be handed
+whole and complete to any people, though every member of the community
+were a Socrates.
+
+But what we have determined in this crisis, as I understand it, is that
+we will keep the road of democracy open. No one shall close it. If any
+nation shall hereafter rise to the sublime requirement of
+self-government and choose to go that way, it shall have the right to do
+so. Above all things we have determined, cost what it may in treasure
+and blood, that this experiment here upon this Western Continent shall
+justify the faith of its builders, that there shall remain here in all
+the integrity of its powers neither wrenched nor marred by the passions
+of war from within nor humbled nor dishonored by military power from
+without, the Republic of the fathers; that since the challenge has been
+thrown down that this is a war unto death between two opposing theories
+of government we are determined that whatever else happens as a result
+of this war this form of organization, this theory of state, this last
+great hope, this fruition of 130 years of struggle and toil, "shall not
+perish from the earth."
+
+So, Sir, stripped of all incidental and confusing things, the problem
+which our soldiers will help to solve is whether the theory of
+government exemplified in the dynasty of the Hohenzollerns or the theory
+of government exemplified in the faith of Abraham Lincoln shall prevail.
+It is after all a war of ideals, a clash of systems, a death struggle of
+ideals.
+
+Amid the sacrilege of war it is our belief that the old order passeth.
+In such a contest there is little room for compromise. We can no more
+quit than Washington could have quit at Valley Forge. We can no more
+compromise than Lincoln could have compromised after Chancellorsville.
+
+We can and should keep the issue clear of all selfish and imperialistic
+ambitions, but the issue itself cannot be compromised. Cost what it may
+in treasure and blood, the burden, as if by fate, has been laid upon us,
+and we must meet it manfully and successfully. To compromise is to
+acknowledge defeat. The policies of Frederick the Great, which would
+make of all human souls mere cogs in a vast military machine, and the
+policies of Washington, which would make government the expression and
+the instrument of popular power, are contending for supremacy on the
+battlefield of Europe. Just that single, simple, stupendous issue,
+beside which all other issues in this war are trivial, must have a
+settlement as clear and conclusive as the settlement at Runnymede or
+Yorktown. To lose sight of this fact is to miss the supreme purpose of
+the war, and to permit it to be embarrassed or belittled by questions of
+territory is to betray the cause of civilization. And to fail to settle
+it clearly and conclusively is to fail in the most vital and sublime
+task ever laid upon a people.
+
+We need not prophesy now when victory will come. Neither is it
+profitable to speculate how it will come. If it is a real and not a
+sham peace, we will have no trouble in recognizing it when it does come.
+Whether it shall come in the bloody and visible triumph of arms or, as
+we hope, through the overthrow and destruction of militarism by the
+people of the respective countries, we do not know. But that it will
+come we confidently believe. Indeed, if the principles of right and the
+precepts of liberty are not a myth, we know it will come.
+
+It has been said by some one that it was not possible for Napoleon to
+win at Waterloo, not on account of Wellington, not on account of
+Bl�cher, but on account of the unchanging laws of liberty and justice.
+Let us call something of this faith to our own contest. Let us go
+forward in the belief that it is not possible in the morning of the
+twentieth century of the Christian civilization for militarism, for
+brute force, to triumph. It would be in contravention to every law,
+human and Divine, upon which rests the happiness and preservation of the
+human family. It would be to place brute force first in the Divine
+economy of things. It would be to place might over right, and in the
+last and final struggle that cannot be done.
+
+No; we cannot lose. We must win. The only question is whether we shall,
+through efficiency and concerted and united action, win without
+unnecessary loss of life, unnecessary waste of treasure, or whether we
+shall, through lack of unity in spirit and purpose, win only after
+fearful and unnecessary sacrifices.
+
+It has often been said since the war began, Mr. President, that a
+republic cannot make war. I trample the doctrine under my feet. I scorn
+the faithless creed as the creed of cowards and traitors. If a republic
+cannot make war, if it cannot stand the ordeal of conflict, why in the
+name of the living God are our boys on the western front? Are they there
+to suffer and die for a miserable craft that can only float in the
+serene breeze of the Summer seas and must sink or drive for port at the
+first coming on of the storm? No; they are there to defend a craft which
+is equal to every conflict and superior to every foe--the triumph and
+the pride of all the barks that have battled with the ocean of time.
+
+A republic can make war. It can make war successfully and triumphantly
+and remain a republic every hour of the conflict. The genius who
+presided over the organization of this Republic, whose impressive force
+was knit into every fibre of our national organization, was the greatest
+soldier, save one, of the modern world; and the most far-visioned leader
+and statesman of all time. He knew that though devoted to peace the time
+would come when the Republic would have to make war. Over and over again
+he solemnly warned his countrymen to be ever ready and always prepared.
+He intended, therefore, that this Republic should make war and make war
+effectively, and the Republic which Washington framed and baptized with
+his love can make war. Let these faithless recreants cease to preach
+their pernicious doctrine.
+
+Sir, this theory, this belief that a self-governing people cannot make
+war without forfeiting their freedom and their form of government is
+vicious enough to have been kenneled in some foreign clime. A hundred
+million people knit together by the ties of a common patriotism, united
+in spirit and purpose, conscious of the fact that their freedom is
+imperiled, and exerting their energies and asserting their powers
+through the avenues and machinery of a representative Republic is the
+most masterful enginery of war yet devised by man. It has in it a power,
+an element of strength, which no military power of itself can bring into
+effect.
+
+The American soldier, a part of the life of his nation, imbued with
+devotion to his country, has something in him that no system or mere
+military training and discipline as applied to automatons of an absolute
+Government can ever give. The most priceless heritage which this war
+will leave to a war-torn and weary world is the demonstrated fact that a
+free people of a free Government can make war successfully and
+triumphantly, can defy and defeat militarism and preserve through it all
+their independence, their freedom, and the integrity of their
+institutions.
+
+
+
+
+Defending the World's Right to Democracy
+
+By James Hamilton Lewis
+
+_United States Senator from Illinois_
+
+[FROM A RECENT SPEECH IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE]
+
+
+No democracy was ever founded in any Government of earth that did not
+have to fight to continue its existence or maintain its ideals. Hear
+Goethe proclaim to Prussia, "Those who have liberty must fight to keep
+it." The test of every free land that tries out its worthiness or
+unworthiness to exist as a Government of freedom has been its
+willingness or refusal to fight and die for its faith. No Government
+that has not exhibited a capacity to sacrifice all it has for the theory
+for which it was founded, and to prove its ability to protect and
+perpetuate the institutions it has created, has ever yet existed for a
+length of time sufficient to be recorded in history as having fostered
+liberty or transmitted democracy to men. No Government has yet been
+accorded by civilization a place among the nations of the earth until it
+had first demonstrated its worthiness to administer justice by doing
+justice to itself, and then to prove its power in conflict to overcome
+its natural enemies, whether from within or without. * * *
+
+Our United States, too, must pass under the rod. America's institutions
+of freedom, inspiring mankind to her example and awakening oppressed
+lands to follow her course if they would know liberty, inflamed the
+souls of the royal rulers of Prussia with fear and fired them to war of
+destruction upon all that America stood for and was living for. * * *
+
+[Illustration: SENATOR J. HAMILTON LEWIS]
+
+Whatever riches America has amassed from her industry, whatever wealth
+gathered from her commerce, what harvests garnered from her fields, are
+all as but the least of offering compared to that which she brings to
+civilization in the growth of liberty, the perfection of justice, and
+the expansion of freedom with which she has been able by her example and
+her power, through her religion and her generosities, to endow mankind.
+Other nations have risen in triumph of power and lived for a while in
+the glory of arms, but by selfish achievement--conquest through the
+slash of swords--they have fallen. As these wrenched victory by strength
+and success by power, they but showed the way to the rival wherein to
+multiply and by these same standards prevail. That which was victor
+yesterday was the conquered of today, and thus one after the other the
+powerful nations of the world, resting only upon the achievement of
+riches, the multiplication of wealth, and the power of the sword, have
+broken and melted away, leaving nothing enduring to which mankind
+appeals as example to follow or the children of men turn to as gods to
+be worshipped or praised. Hear Ruskin echoing this truth:
+
+    Riches of Tyre, Thebes, and Carthage; yea, I say also the once
+    Rome and great Persia are left for our beholding in the periods
+    of their decline. They are ghosts upon the sands of the sea.
+    Theirs was power, riches, grandeur; much for a country--nothing
+    for man. They rose; they shined, yea glowed, laughed,
+    persecuted, and oppressed, and then they died, and man asks not,
+    where are they? nor cares that they live not among nations. As
+    among men, there is to nations a justice of God and the
+    vengeance of time.
+
+Mr. President, refined civilization as it increases in its purpose of
+equality among men and justice to all peoples scorns the suggestion of
+accepting these dead nations of the past as models of national education
+or guides of personal conduct. The people of the modern world shun them
+and hold as their boast before earth how they disdain to pattern after
+them, and turning the face of all those that are new and hopeful to the
+one standard, approach the United States of America, and bowing in
+admiration, ask but to follow her past growth, hold her guiding hand,
+and walk beside her in the light of approving heaven.
+
+Then who are they who misrepresent the purpose of democracy under Wilson
+that they may defeat all democracy to all men? These charge that
+America, under Wilson, would continue war to force Governments and
+people of foreign lands to take our form of government. Let the world
+know that as George Washington fought for democracy as a right to
+America and Thomas Jefferson proclaimed it as a necessity to mankind,
+while Lincoln made it his creed of emancipation for all color and all
+climes--so, too, Wilson fights for democracy as a right of the whole
+world. The promise of Wilson to "make the world safe for democracy" is
+no threat to make the world take democracy. It is but the assurance of
+the effort to give to the world its chance to take democracy. This war
+of America is the announcement that we, by our entrance into the
+conflict, will prevent any despot from depriving any people of the right
+to exercise their free will in rejecting despotism and choosing
+democracy. The United States does not fight to force any Government to
+adopt the theory of our Government, nor does the United States fight to
+force any foreign people to take our form of government against any form
+of government they may choose for themselves. But America does fight to
+prevent any foreign Government from thwarting any land from enjoying
+democracy if it so wills by the voice of its own people. And this United
+States fights now and will ever fight to the expenditure of its last
+dollar and the sacrifice of every son, rather than submit to any monarch
+wresting our democracy from us, to the death of our liberty and the end
+of our Republic.
+
+Messenger Dogs in the German Army
+
+How They Are Trained
+
+Through captures made in the battle of the Chemin des Dames the French
+General Staff has obtained precise information regarding the German
+Army's use of dogs as war couriers. The training of the animals is
+divided into two periods--the training at school and that at the front.
+At school the men receive detailed instructions as to the care and
+treatment of dogs, after which they begin a rigorous drill, training
+each dog to run daily over a longer and longer course, accompanied by
+his masters; then the dogs must run over the same courses alone, while
+the two trainers are posted one at each end. The longest course is about
+three miles.
+
+On the battle line there is similar training. On Sept. 1, 1917, for
+instance, the 52d Meldehundetrupp left the school at Wiegnehies to join
+the 52d Infantry Division, near the Hurtebise Farm, in Champagne. The
+troup consisted of one officer, six sub-officers, thirty-six men, and
+twenty-one dogs. It was divided at once among the units of the division,
+the level sectors receiving a larger contingent than the hilly sectors,
+where communications are less difficult. Marshy ground, where human
+messengers might be mired, and positions heavily pounded by artillery
+also were favored.
+
+In their respective sectors the dogs are subjected to local training.
+Little by little they are drilled to run as couriers between the company
+and the battalion, on the one hand, and the battalion and the regiment
+on the other. Thus the courier that has to keep up connection between
+the company and the battalion is sent by one trainer, who stays with the
+company commander, to the other, who is quartered with the chief of the
+battalion. In twenty or thirty days, it appears, the dogs are broken to
+their work as couriers, and have become familiarized with the tunnels,
+trenches, shelters, and officers' posts, as well as with the roar of
+cannonade and the rat-tat-tat of machine guns.
+
+As for the practical results of all this training and ingenious
+organization, the French officers say these are still in doubt. They
+indicate the nature of the doubt by citing the case of two trained dogs
+at Pinon. When the French attacked with a heavy bombardment, one dog
+disappeared in terror and the other was made sick and useless by a
+French gas bomb. The fact remains, nevertheless, that canine messengers
+are doing useful work in dangerous places on both sides of No Man's
+Land, and to some extent conserving human lives.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+Full Record of Sinkings by U-Boats
+
+Statement by Sir Eric Geddes
+
+_First Lord of the British Admiralty_
+
+    _Sir Eric Geddes in a speech before the House of Commons on
+    March 20, 1918, for the first time revealed the total shipping
+    losses of Great Britain and the other Allies and neutrals from
+    the beginning of the war up to Jan. 1, 1918. His summary was
+    followed next day by a statement from the Admiralty Office
+    giving the figures in fuller detail. This was made public
+    simultaneously at London and Washington. The essential portions
+    of both utterances are presented below. Sir Eric Geddes said:_
+
+
+The world's tonnage from the commencement of the war until Dec. 31,
+1917, exclusive of enemy-owned tonnage, has fallen by a net figure of,
+roughly, 2,500,000 gross tons. This is out of 33,000,000 estimated
+allied and neutral ocean-going tonnage, which is arrived at after
+deducting small craft, river and estuary craft, and a considerable
+amount of lake tonnage, tugs, &c., so that with a net loss of 2,500,000
+tons we, the allied and neutral world, have suffered about 8 per cent.
+reduction in ocean-going tonnage of the world, excluding enemy
+countries. The total world's tonnage, exclusive of enemy tonnage, is
+42,000,000, and the deduction is made after careful consideration and
+investigation. The percentage of net loss in British tonnage alone is
+higher than this, and reaches 20 per cent. for British tonnage, the more
+favorable allied and neutral tonnage percentage being, of course, due
+largely to a credit brought in by the United States of interned German
+ships.
+
+The main submarine attack is upon us. It was to starve these islands
+that the enemy instituted this form of warfare. In 1915-16 the output of
+new tonnage was very low--it was lowest in 1916. In fact, before the
+intense submarine warfare commenced we were over 1,300,000 tons to the
+bad from all causes since the beginning of the war. Then our shipping
+has been in the war zone to a far greater extent and far longer than has
+that of some of our allies, and our navigational risks and losses, which
+are included, are greater, because of the absence of lights in the
+waters around our coast and elsewhere.
+
+With regard to enemy exaggeration: For the twelve months of
+unrestricted submarine warfare, from Feb. 1, 1917, to Jan. 31, 1918, the
+enemy has proclaimed in his public notifications that he has sunk over
+9,500,000 tons of British, allied, and neutral shipping. The actual
+figures of vessels sunk by submarine action, including those damaged and
+ultimately abandoned, amount roughly to 6,000,000 tons, so that we have
+an exaggeration of 3,500,000 tons in twelve months, or well over 58 per
+cent. In January the exaggeration was 113 per cent. It is rather amusing
+that since I publicly showed up this grossly false declaration of
+results the usual return of submarine sinkings for February has not been
+issued by Berlin. It is now overdue. I think, if any proof of the
+failure of the campaign is needed, this exaggeration and Berlin's
+reticence would show it.
+
+
+TO THE SHIPBUILDING TASK
+
+For the first two years of the war or more the shipyards of the country
+had lost their men and the work had become dislocated. Hulls had been on
+the slips for very long periods and there was no material in existence
+to finish them. Vessels were lying in the yards awaiting engines, but
+the engines had never been built, because up to 1917 the Admiralty had
+made use of the engine shops for naval work. There was great confusion
+in the shipbuilding industry, not due to the fault of the industry, not
+really due to any one's fault, but due to war conditions. The output had
+been checked by urgent work being placed in the same works by different
+departments. With the introduction of the Controller's Department it was
+immediately realized that this policy was bad for output as a whole.
+It was accordingly arranged to allocate yards or separate sections of
+yards, so that one class of tonnage only would be produced. The result
+is that forty-seven large shipyards, containing 209 berths, are wholly
+engaged on ocean-going merchant vessels. That is entirely apart from the
+large private warship building establishments, which are obviously most
+suited for naval work. But there are in addition eleven--and only
+eleven--other yards suitable for large merchant tonnage which have at
+the present time naval craft on the stocks.
+
+[Illustration: HENRY P. DAVISON
+Chairman of the War Council of the American Red Cross Society
+(� _Harris & Ewing_)]
+
+[Illustration: The actual surrender of Jerusalem, Dec. 9, 1917, when two
+British outposts met the Mayor (carrying a cane) and his party with the
+white flag. The formal surrender took place next day.
+(� _American Colony Photographers_)]
+
+I now give the figures of output in the yards. In the fourth quarter of
+1914 the merchant tonnage produced in the United Kingdom was 420,000.
+From that date it steadily fell, and it must be noted that the fall was
+concurrent with our great munitions effort. In the fourth quarter of
+1915 it had fallen to 92,000. It then began to rise, and the rise is as
+follows:
+
+    1916
+                  Tons.                Tons.
+    1st quarter  95,000  3d quarter  125,000
+    2d quarter  108,000  4th quarter 213,000
+
+    1917
+                  Tons.                Tons.
+    1st quarter 246,000   3d quarter 248,000
+    2d quarter  249,000  4th quarter 420,000
+
+These figures refer to the British Isles alone. In the fourth quarter of
+1917 foreign construction was 512,000 tons, giving a total output for
+the world, exclusive of enemy countries, of 932,000 tons for the last
+quarter of last year. Against that we have the losses due to enemy
+action and to maritime risk.
+
+
+THE MONTHLY DEFICIENCY
+
+These losses amounted for the last quarter of last year to 1,200,000
+tons. That was by far the lowest quarter of sinkings we have had since
+unrestricted submarine warfare began, and it looks as if this quarter
+was going to be lower still. So that we have the fact that by increase
+in output and decrease in sinkings for the last quarter of last year the
+Allies were within 100,000 tons, on the average per month, of making
+good the loss due to enemy action and marine risks. Considering British
+losses and output alone, the proportionate deficiency is somewhat
+higher. We lost on the average 260,000 tons per month during the last
+quarter of 1917, and we built 140,000 tons per month, an average
+deficiency of 120,000 tons per month. We must all regret that the
+British position has suffered most among the Allies, but we have
+contributed the greatest naval effort, and have sustained the greatest
+attacks, and I do not think we, as a nation, will bemoan our stars or
+our naval efforts in this great war.
+
+The net result of maritime risk and enemy action, whether by surface,
+air or submarine craft, from the beginning of the war until the end of
+last year is a reduction of 2,500,000 tons of shipping, and from the
+last quarter of last year the Allies and neutrals are replacing 75 per
+cent. of the lost tonnage, or only 100,000 tons a month below the losses
+from all causes.
+
+It is well within the capacity of the allied yards, or even our own
+yards, before very long, with a proper supply of material and man power
+entirely to make good the world losses.
+
+
+SUMMARY OF PROGRESS
+
+I do not think I am divulging information which should not be made
+public when I say that the output of guns and ammunition of all calibres
+in 1917 is not far short of twice the output in 1916. I need not remind
+the House of the special effort being made in the output of airplanes.
+These, I understand, are nearly two and a half times the output of 1916,
+and arrangements for labor and material to secure a still greater output
+this year were in progress during the later months of 1917. We have been
+able to accomplish what I think must be admitted as an enormous
+development in the shipbuilding industry. We have reached in 1917 a
+total warship and merchant tonnage output practically equal to the
+biggest shipbuilding year this country has ever known. We have
+multiplied by ten the number of naval craft repaired and refitted, and
+in six months we have increased the merchant ship repaired tonnage by
+80 per cent.--an increase of 237,000 tons per week. I would ask the
+House to notice this fact, that, notwithstanding all these great
+extensions of work in many directions, and notwithstanding all these
+great extensions of power of the country, we ended 1917 with an output
+of new merchant tonnage of 420,000 for the last quarter, against 213,000
+for the last quarter of 1916. That was done, moreover, with a dislocated
+industry, with yards only gradually being cleared of unfinished work,
+and with large numbers of unskilled personnel in the yards.
+
+
+
+
+Admiralty Summary of Shipping Losses
+
+Record of Three Years
+
+    _The British Board of Admiralty, with the sanction of the War
+    Cabinet and the concurrence of the Allies, on March 21 published
+    a memorandum revealing the world's total shipping losses from
+    the beginning of the war to Jan. 1, 1918. The essential portions
+    are as follows:_
+
+
+In the Spring of 1917 the full menace of the submarine campaign was
+first disclosed. Since that date we have steadily increased our
+knowledge and our material resources for this novel warfare. Three
+statements are attached, showing for the United Kingdom and for the
+world, for the period August, 1914, to December, 1917:
+
+1. Losses by enemy action and marine risk.
+
+2. Mercantile shipbuilding output.
+
+3. Enemy vessels captured and brought into service.
+
+Diagrams showing in graphic form the losses and shipbuilding output for
+the United Kingdom and for the world are also attached. The situation
+should be viewed from the standpoint of the world's tonnage, as in these
+problems the mercantile navies of the whole world, excluding the enemy,
+may be regarded as one. It will be noticed that the diagrams record
+facts, and that nothing has been included in the nature of an estimate.
+
+The results of the last year have shown the ability of our seamen to get
+upon terms with the submarine menace and gradually to gain the upper
+hand. This has been achieved in spite of an imperfect knowledge of a new
+and barbarous method of warfare and of a scarcity of suitable material.
+Our material resources for this warfare are already improved and are
+being rapidly augmented, while science is placing at our disposal means
+of offense and defense of which we have been in need.
+
+[Illustration: WORLD'S SHIPPING LOSSES IN 1917. THE BLACK EXTENSION OF
+EACH COLUMN SHOWS THE GERMAN EXAGGERATION. THE AVERAGE EXAGGERATION FOR
+THE 12 MONTHS IS 58 PER CENT.]
+
+With regard to the other factor, a rapid and continuous increase in the
+output of merchant tonnage will inevitably follow the united efforts of
+all engaged in merchant shipbuilding in this country. * * * During the
+critical period that confronts us we must rely to a large extent on our
+own shipyards and on ourselves. Our partners in the war are making every
+effort to increase their production of ships, but a considerable time
+must elapse before the desired output is secured.
+
+[Illustration: WORLD'S LOSSES OF SHIPPING IN COMPARISON WITH WORLD'S
+TOTAL SHIP CONSTRUCTION]
+
+To produce in the United Kingdom 1,800,000 tons in 1918, and to reach an
+ultimate production at the rate of 3,000,000 tons per annum, is well
+within the present and prospective capacity of our shipyards and our
+marine engineering shops. But the ranks of the skilled men must be
+enlarged without delay by the introduction of men and women at present
+unskilled. The education of these newcomers, upgrading, and
+interchangeability of work are essential, and must be pressed on with
+the good-will of employers, foremen, and men.
+
+It is to insure the vigorous co-operation of all concerned that the
+Admiralty has recommended the publication of the facts.
+
+[Illustration: SHIPPING LOSSES OF UNITED KINGDOM AS COMPARED WITH OUTPUT
+OF NEW SHIPS]
+
+
+POSITION AT THE END OF 1917
+
+The following table summarizes the position at the end of 1917:
+
+                              British.  Foreign.   World.
+
+    Losses                   7,079,492  4,748,080 11,827,572
+    Gains:
+      New construction       3,031,555  3,574,720  6,606,275
+      Enemy tonnage captured   780,000  1,809,000  2,589,000
+                             ---------  ---------  ---------
+    Total gains              3,811,555  5,383,720  9,195,275
+    Net loss (world)                               2,632,297
+
+
+RECORD OF THREE YEARS
+
+The following statement shows United Kingdom and world's merchant
+tonnage lost through enemy action and marine risks since the outbreak of
+war:
+
+                            United             Total for
+      Period.              Kingdom.  Foreign.   World.
+                            Gross     Gross     Gross
+                            Tons.     Tons.     Tons.
+       1914.
+    August and September    314,000   85,947   *399,947
+    4th Quarter             154,728   126,688   281,416
+       1915.
+    1st Quarter             215,905   104,542   320,447
+    2d Quarter              223,676   156,743   380,419
+    3d Quarter              356,659   172,822   529,481
+    4th Quarter             307,139   187,234   494,373
+       1916.
+    1st Quarter             325,237   198,958   524,195
+    2d Quarter              270,690   251,599   522,289
+    3d Quarter              284,358   307,681   592,939
+    4th Quarter             617,563   541,780 1,159,343
+       1917.
+    1st Quarter             911,840   707,533  1,619,373
+    2d Quarter            1,361,870   875,064  2,236,934
+    3d Quarter              952,938   541,535  1,494,473
+    4th Quarter             782,889   489,954  1,272,843
+                           --------   -------  ---------
+    Totals                7,079,492 4,748,080 11,827,572
+
+    * This figure includes 182,839 gross tonnage interned in enemy ports.
+
+The next statement shows output of merchant shipbuilding of the United
+Kingdom and the world (excluding enemy countries) since the outbreak of
+war:
+
+                     United                   Total for
+    Period.         Kingdom.      Foreign.     World.
+                     Gross         Gross       Gross
+                     Tons.         Tons.       Tons.
+       1914.
+    August and
+    September       253,290}
+    4th Quarter     422,320}      337,310     1,012,920
+
+       1915.
+    1st Quarter     266,267}
+    2d Quarter      146,870}
+    3d Quarter      145,070}      551,081     1,202,000
+    4th Quarter      92,712}
+
+       1916.
+    1st Quarter      95,566}
+    2d Quarter      107,693}
+    3d Quarter      124,961}    1,146,448     1,688,000
+    4th Quarter     213,332}
+
+       1917.
+    1st Quarter     246,239       282,200       528,439
+    2d Quarter      249,331       377,109       626,440
+    3d Quarter      248,283       368,170       616,453
+    4th Quarter     419,621       512,402       932,023
+                  ---------     ---------     ---------
+       Total      3,031,555     3,574,720     6,606,275
+
+
+ENEMY TONNAGE CAPTURED
+
+A further statement shows the enemy tonnage captured and brought into
+service by United Kingdom and by Allies since the outbreak of war:
+
+                     United
+                    Kingdom.      Allies.      Total.
+    Period.          Gross         Gross       Gross
+                     Tons.         Tons.       Tons.
+
+       1914.
+    August and
+    September       725,500       453,000     1,178,500
+    4th Quarter      28,000         5,000        38,000
+
+       1915.
+    1st Quarter       5,000         1,000         6,000
+    2d Quarter          500           500         1,000
+    3d Quarter        3,500         6,000         9,500
+    4th Quarter       2,500           ...         2,500
+
+       1916.
+    1st Quarter         ...       241,000       241,000
+    2d Quarter        3,500         8,000        11,500
+    3d Quarter          ...        47,500        47,500
+    4th Quarter         ...           ...           ...
+
+       1917.
+    1st Quarter         ...           ...           ...
+    2d Quarter        7,000       702,500       709,500
+    3d Quarter        4,500       266,500       271,000
+    4th Quarter         ...        78,000        78,000
+                    -------     ---------     ---------
+    Total           780,000     1,809,000     2,589,000
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+The Month's Submarine Record
+
+British merchant ships sunk during the month ended April 7, 1918, were
+fewer than in the preceding month, the weekly official reports showing a
+sharp increase followed by an unusually low record, resulting in a
+considerably decreased total. The British Admiralty figures were:
+
+                                  Over 1,600   Under 1,600  Fishing
+                                     Tons.        Tons.     Vessels.
+    Week ended March 17, 1918         11            6           2
+    Week ended March 24               16           12           1
+    Week ended March 31                6            7           5
+    Week ended April 7                 4            2           2
+                                      --           --          --
+    Total for four weeks              37           27          10
+
+    Total previous 4 weeks            53           16           9
+
+One of the largest vessels sunk was the British steamship Minnetonka,
+13,528 gross tons, formerly in the New York-London service of the
+Atlantic Transport Line. This happened in the Mediterranean in February,
+1918, while the Minnetonka was in the service of the British Admiralty.
+The Minnetonka was the last of the four passenger ships of the line,
+aggregating 55,099 gross tons, to remain afloat. The others all have
+been sunk since the war began. The three others were the Minneapolis,
+sunk March 22, 1916; Minnehaha, sunk Sept. 7, 1917, and the Minnewaska,
+sunk Nov. 29, 1917.
+
+Incomplete French records show the loss of three vessels of over 1,600
+tons and five under 1,600 tons. Italian losses included seven steamships
+of over 1,500 tons, three sailing vessels of over 100 tons, and fifteen
+smaller sailing craft.
+
+Official dispatches from Barcelona reported the sinking by German
+submarines of two Spanish vessels, one in the Mediterranean and the
+other off the Canary Islands. These reports confirmed the statement that
+Germany had commenced a blockade of the Spanish coast to prevent the use
+of Spanish shipping to help the Allies.
+
+A German submarine of the largest seagoing type on April 10 appeared in
+the port of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, on the west coast of
+Africa, and bombarded the wireless and cable stations there. The
+submarine threw scores of shells from her deck guns into the wireless
+station, causing extensive damage. She had just turned her attention to
+the cable offices when a steamer was sighted passing the harbor mouth.
+The submarine left in chase and did not return. Liberia declared war on
+Germany Aug. 4, 1917.
+
+Some indication of the losses sustained by the German U-boat fleet is
+contained in the following reports:
+
+Nine members of the crew of a German submarine which was sunk by an
+American liner on March 10, when two days out from a French port, were
+taken prisoners. The rest of the crew perished, the Captain committing
+suicide when he saw that his submarine was doomed.
+
+Under a heavy attack from three German submarines and three German
+destroyers, a British seaplane persisted in its efforts against another
+enemy U-boat and succeeded in sinking it before being damaged by the
+fire of the other enemy warships. Seaplanes also accounted for three
+other submarines.
+
+A German U-boat while laying mines on the British coast struck one of
+them and was blown in two. The only survivor was the Captain, who was
+taken prisoner. The remainder of the crew, numbering seventeen, were
+drowned in the submarine.
+
+The German submarine, it is stated in the report of the British War
+Cabinet, has a surface speed up to 18 knots and a submerged speed of 10
+to 11 knots. She carries from fifteen to twenty torpedoes; she can
+travel 100 miles completely submerged; and she can remain under water on
+the bottom for a period up to forty-eight hours. A submarine attacking
+with a torpedo only shows about three inches of periscope at intervals,
+with the result that few ships which are torpedoed ever see the
+submarine which has carried out the attack. The range of the torpedoes
+fired by a submarine is anything up to five miles, and the speed of the
+torpedo is as high as 40 knots.
+
+
+
+
+Typical U-Boat Methods
+
+From British Admiralty Records
+
+    _The British Admiralty on March 17, 1918, permitted publication
+    of the logs of a number of vessels that had been sunk by German
+    submarines. These records reveal many stories of heroism and
+    sacrifice. Some of the incidents recorded are as follows:_
+
+
+In the case of one ship, on which there were forty-seven hands, the
+boatswain was standing abreast of the mainmast when he saw the wake of a
+torpedo as it approached, and he had no time to report before the vessel
+was struck. After the explosion all hands were sent on deck. The ship
+sank stern first. There was no time to lower the boats, and practically
+the whole crew had lifebelts on when thrown into the water. When the
+submarine came to the surface a line was thrown to a raft which the crew
+had managed to launch, and it was hauled alongside the enemy vessel. A
+colored man was ordered on board, and as soon as he stepped on the
+submarine both his wrists were seized, and he was firmly held while
+being interrogated. The enemy took a photograph of him and also of a man
+on the raft. When the interrogation was completed the colored sailor
+dived from the submarine and swam to the raft. As the ship was sinking
+the master dived off the bridge; he was not seen later. A number of men
+were rescued after being in the water for four hours.
+
+Robbery was reported in connection with another attack. After the vessel
+had been shelled many times, the master and crew abandoned the ship,
+lowered the lifeboat, and rowed toward the submarine. Eight shots were
+fired at the lifeboat, followed by four revolver shots. It was only then
+that the crew saw the submarine, which was about 500 yards away. The
+Captain and his men were taken on board; and the commander of the
+submarine boarded the vessel, removed the clothes, provisions, and
+papers, and left bombs on board which afterward blew her up. The master
+was searched, and �22 5s., with his watch and chain, was taken from
+him. The commander of the enemy vessel said that there was no food left
+in the submarine, which had been six weeks out, and he also mentioned
+that food in Germany was very short. During the night the crew were
+picked up by a destroyer.
+
+"Torpedoed, and on her beam ends, but not actually seen to sink," is the
+description given by a Captain of an attack on his vessel. She was
+struck between the stokehold and No. 2 hold, both of which were blown
+in. The crew had time to take to the boats. The German Captain, speaking
+perfect English, asked for the name of the ship and her tonnage, and
+verified the particulars given to him by reference to _Lloyd's
+Register_. The master's boat, with twenty-three men, reached shore the
+following day, and the mate's boat, with the remainder of the crew, was
+picked up. It was reported by the master that the officers and men of
+the submarine were "quite friendly and polite."
+
+One night a vessel was struck by a torpedo. The engines were stopped,
+and all hands went to the boat stations. The port boat was lowered
+safely, but within three minutes the ship sank and the davit caught it
+and capsized it, all hands being thrown into the water. The second
+officer went down with the ship, but seized hold of the capsized boat
+and climbed on top of it. The boatswain also was taken down, and he,
+too, as well as a seaman, got on the boat. After they had been on the
+upturned boat for some minutes a submarine appeared and hailed them to
+come on board. They explained that it was impossible. The submarine went
+ahead, and about a quarter of an hour later returned, and the men were
+again asked, in a rough voice, to come on board. The same answer was
+given, whereupon the submarine again went ahead, putting her helm over,
+and the men were thrown into the water. Those on the submarine must have
+known that there was a man under the boat, as they could easily have
+heard him knocking. His comrades, however, pulled out the plug and gave
+him air, and eventually the boat was righted and he was rescued.
+
+One of a group of other ships was torpedoed and the crew took to the
+boats, one of which capsized, and seven of the men managed to reach the
+lifeboat. The submarine came close, flashed her searchlight on the boat
+and on the men in the water, and, after jeering at them, made off. The
+survivors were picked up by a French torpedo boat next morning.
+
+Attacked by a U-boat, which fired two shots, the master got out the
+boats, left the ship, and pulled toward the enemy vessel. The commander
+took four or five of his own men in the ship's boat and put some bombs
+on board. As these failed to explode he went back for more explosives,
+taking with him everything out of the ship that could be carried--food,
+clothing, compass, and all the metal that the enemy could lay hands on.
+The vessel was then blown up, the crew in the meantime being on the deck
+of the submarine. They were treated very badly, their clothes being
+thrown out of the boat into the sea. Only one oar was left them, five
+having been flung overboard. The master begged for another, but he could
+not get any more.
+
+Two submarines were sighted at a distance of about six miles attacking a
+bark. The master of the observing vessel altered his course and lit a
+smoke cowl to screen his ship, but it was not very effective. Shortly
+afterward he was attacked by one of the submarines. Being armed, the
+vessel opened fire, but the U-boat was not within range, and a shot from
+the submarine struck the ship. Orders were given to haul down the
+ensign, and steps were taken to abandon her. The boats were lowered and
+the ship was abandoned, the enemy still firing. The ship was hit
+nineteen times before the crew was properly clear. When the submarine
+came up the vessel was "generally looted," everything the enemy could
+lay their hands on being taken, including the spirits in the bonded
+room. Some of the Germans were seen drinking on the bridge. The enemy
+were alongside for about an hour, and "treated our men quite fairly,
+even returning some of their personal gear which they had looted." The
+enemy crew were very particular in getting all the leather they possibly
+could, even going so far as to take old boots which were long past
+usage. Soap was also in great request, and a tin of lard was considered
+a prize.
+
+In another instance a vessel struck on the port side in the engine room
+went down at once, the crew having only time to launch the boats. About
+ten minutes before the ship was torpedoed a floating object was sighted,
+which appeared like a small vessel bottom upward. This was reported by
+flag code to another vessel close by, but no reply was received before
+the ship was hit. The master was of opinion that this object must have
+been placed there as a decoy by the submarine to draw the attention of
+the lookouts away from herself.
+
+When a motor schooner was struck the ship's boat was rowed to the
+submarine and the master and one man were taken aboard. The submarine
+then towed the boat to the disabled ship, and sent two men on her with
+bombs. An officer asked the master, "What was the cargo? Where from?
+Where bound? Why did the ship not come with convoy?" The officer spoke
+very good English, being prompted in German by the Captain of the
+U-boat. The master and crew were much struck by the pallid appearance of
+the officers and crew of the submarine and by their nervous and excited
+manner. The commander was continually urging haste, and the officer who
+was placing the bombs on board could hardly hold them, owing to his
+nervous tension. One of the crew of the submarine who had lived long in
+England, speaking to the ship's crew, cursed the war and said that he
+wished it was over, exclaiming that it was not their fault, but that
+they had to do their duty. "You won't believe it in England," he added,
+"but it's true." The submarine appeared to be of an old type and to have
+been a long time at sea.
+
+
+
+
+The Story of an Indomitable Captain
+
+Told by Joseph Conrad
+
+    _The story of a certain British steamship traveling from Lerwick to
+    Iceland and torpedoed on the way has been told in The London Daily
+    Mail by the British novelist, Joseph Conrad, in these words:_
+
+The ship went down in less than four minutes. The Captain was the last
+man on board, going down with her, and was sucked under. On coming up he
+was caught under an upturned boat to which five hands were clinging.
+
+"One lifeboat," says the chief engineer, "which was floating empty in
+the distance, was cleverly manoeuvred to our assistance by the steward,
+who swam off to her pluckily. Our next endeavor was to release the
+Captain, who was entangled under the boat. As it was impossible to right
+her, we set to to split her side open with the boat hook, because by
+awful bad luck the head of the axe we had flew off at the first blow and
+was lost. The work took thirty minutes, and the extricated Captain was
+in a pitiable condition, being badly bruised and having swallowed a lot
+of salt water. He was unconscious. While at that work the submarine came
+to the surface quite close and made a complete circle round us, the
+seven men which we counted on the conning tower laughing at our efforts.
+
+"There were eighteen of us saved. I deeply regret the loss of the chief
+officer, a fine fellow and a kind shipmate showing splendid promise. The
+other men lost--one A. B., one greaser, and two firemen--were quiet,
+conscientious good fellows."
+
+With no restoratives in the boat, they endeavored to bring the Captain
+around by means of massage. Meantime the oars were got out in order to
+reach the Faroes, which were about thirty miles dead to windward, but
+after about nine hours' hard work they had to desist, and, putting out
+the sea anchor, they took shelter under the canvas boat cover from the
+cold wind and torrential rain. Says the narrator:
+
+"We were all very wet and miserable, and decided to have two biscuits
+all around. The effects of this and being under the shelter of the
+canvas warmed us up and made us feel pretty well contented. At about
+sunrise the Captain showed signs of recovery, and by the time the sun
+was up he was looking a lot better, much to our relief."
+
+After being informed of what had been done, the revived Captain "dropped
+a bombshell in our midst" by proposing to make for the Shetlands, which
+were "only 150 miles off." "The wind is in our favor," he said. "I will
+take you there. Are you all willing?" This--comments the chief
+engineer--from a man who but a few hours previously had been hauled back
+from the grave! The Captain's confident manner inspired them, and they
+all agreed.
+
+Under the best possible conditions a boat run of 150 miles in the North
+Atlantic and in Winter weather would have been a feat of no mean merit,
+but in the circumstances it required a man of uncommon nerve and skill
+to make such a proposal. With an oar for a mast and the boat cover cut
+down for a sail, they started on their dangerous journey, with the boat
+compass and the stars for their guide. The Captain's undaunted serenity
+buoyed them all up against despondency. He told them what point he was
+making for. It was Ronas Hill--"and we struck it as straight as a die."
+
+"And there was our captain, just his usual self, as if nothing had
+happened, as if bringing the boat that hazardous journey and being the
+means of saving 18 souls was to him an everyday occurrence."
+
+
+
+
+The Naval Defense of Venice
+
+By E. M. B.
+
+[FROM INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY ITALIAN NAVY DEPARTMENT]
+
+    _The Italian Navy and the Italian 3d Army divided the honor of
+    holding back the Austro-German forces during the retreat of
+    October, 1917, thus enabling the main army to reorganize for
+    defense on the line of the Piave. The navy's work was
+    particularly difficult, as it had no means at hand to meet the
+    attack of land forces. It was obliged, therefore, to improvise
+    the necessary troops and material in order to hold back the
+    invasion, to make swift and skillful use of the lighter naval
+    craft, and to adapt all available means to the end in view. How
+    the task was achieved is related herewith:_
+
+
+The enemy advance guards met a stubborn resistance from the Italian Navy
+on the lower Tagliamento line. Here a small body of sailors contested
+the passage of the lower course of the river. Hydroplanes bombed the
+bridges which the Austrians were endeavoring to construct near Latisana
+and the troops which were gathering on the opposite bank from Latisana
+to the sea. Submarine chasers ascended the Tagliamento several times, as
+well as the Lemene and the Livenga, in order to engage and disperse the
+patrols which the enemy was sending out along the coast in the hope of
+reaching Venice before the Italian Army could construct a solid
+protecting ring to the north of the city. Detachments of marines opened
+fire at each stage of the retreat along the interior canals of the
+Tagliamento to Caorle, and from Caorle to the Venetian lagoons, thus
+helping to check the oncoming forces of Boroevic and to give time for
+the necessary clearing of that region. In spite of an exceptionally
+difficult sea, barred by mine fields and shoals, the Italian torpedo
+boats were finally able not only to cover the flank of all the moving
+forces but also to escort and protect the numerous convoys laden with
+war material which had been forced to go out in the Adriatic to prevent
+capture by the enemy.
+
+
+HARD TASKS OF MARINES
+
+The retreat was accomplished by stages. Each stopping place, where the
+land and marine forces were gathered and rearranged before carrying out
+the established plan, had to be protected during the counterattacks of
+the Italian rear guards, which became more frequent and vigorous with
+the increasing accuracy of the enemy fire. These attacks were made more
+difficult by the swampy nature of the ground. This flat and marshy land
+offers no points of defense and has no traversable and continuous roads.
+The marines were outnumbered by the regiments confronting them.
+
+Every difficulty was overcome by the valor and self-sacrifice of the
+Italian sailors. Aviators were seen flying for several consecutive days
+without resting--attacking the moving enemy columns with machine guns;
+defending themselves against numerous enemy airplanes, or dropping
+messages under fire at the points of reunion of the Italian troops in
+order to insure co-operation between the navy and the army; and
+continually alternating flights of observation with those of bombardment
+under the most adverse conditions.
+
+Platoons of marines stood in the mud behind guns corroded by the
+inundations, holding back entire companies of enemy troops for days and
+nights without the possibility of obtaining relief or food. Some of the
+gun crews dragged not only the mounts and the guns by hand across very
+swampy ground, with the water up to their knees, but also the munition
+cases, without taking time for sleeping or eating.
+
+Armed submarine chasers threaded their way up winding and narrow canals,
+in which they could not even have turned around in case of a forced
+retreat, and hammered a Hungarian battalion for hours, until it had to
+retire in disorder before the determination of a handful of men with a
+few cannons and machine guns. Batteries of marines prolonged the defense
+of Caorle, a few hundred meters from the enemy advance guards, and did
+not cease firing until every civilian and everything movable had been
+placed in security. After this they succeeded in reaching the line of
+the Piave with their efficiency unimpaired.
+
+Some companies of sailors clad in gray-green held off a big group of
+"Honveds," [Hungarian guards,] forced back the boats which were
+attempting to cross the river, made prisoners of men who had succeeded
+in crossing with machine guns, captured their arms, defended their own
+flank from the continuous encircling movements of other enemy troops who
+had crossed the Piave further up stream, and finally formed a firm
+pillar of defense for the right flank of the army where it made its
+final stand.
+
+This is a short summary of the work carried out by the Italian Navy
+during the two weeks following the evacuation of Monfalcone and Grado.
+When the navy was called upon not only to co-operate and to protect but
+to constitute an important part of the line of resistance on the lower
+Piave, its duties were multiplied and assumed the character of a direct
+participation in the land war. Its special mission was to defend the
+Lagoons of Venice. The work of forming the principal ring of defense
+around the City of the Doges was confided to the machine gunners of the
+navy. The duty of defending the approaches along the seacoast was given
+to the sailors, and that of observing the battlefields on the lagoons to
+the aviators. The torpedo boats were asked to guarantee the extreme
+right wing against surprise from the sea.
+
+
+BATTERIES ON THE LAGOONS
+
+The artillery employed by the navy in the defense of the lower Piave and
+of Venice may be divided into three groups: Floating batteries on
+pontoons, batteries set up on the ground, and armed ships. Most of the
+floating pontoons came from Monfalcone on the lower Isonzo and from the
+marine defense of Grado. The crews working these guns had given
+magnificent proof of their valor during all the battles of the Carso,
+fighting in the open in almost impossible positions. The sailors
+suffered great fatigue and difficulties during the retreat in
+transporting these floating batteries along the waterways to their
+present position in stormy weather; but still greater were the
+sacrifices the naval gunners had to undergo in order to transform the
+intricate canals and muddy ground into solid positions. This life in the
+midst of swamps is a melancholy one. The officers and men working the
+guns have to live and sleep inside the pontoons between the depots of
+powder and projectiles. The tides and currents are continuously
+displacing the floating batteries, and constant work, day and night, is
+necessary to maintain the defense.
+
+It is due to the Italian sailors to recognize that this gigantic work,
+so rapidly undertaken, saved Venice and gave the army, its retreat
+having been accomplished, a strong support on its right wing. They
+helped to repel all the Hungarian attacks around Zenson. At the side of
+these floating batteries the British monitors held the bridges which the
+Austro-Hungarians were obstinately throwing across the new Piave under
+the fire of their guns, and destroyed them with surprising accuracy.
+
+
+ENEMY BRIDGES DESTROYED
+
+When the enemy succeeded in landing troops on the point of the island,
+which was mostly inundated, between the new and the old Piave, they
+tried to augment this advance guard by using a bridge of boats at
+Grisolera. But the float was shattered, the boats sunk. Enemy forces
+higher up the river then threw a floating bridge across at Ca' Sacco.
+Italy's naval guns shattered this bridge also. The enemy then ascended
+higher up the Piave and built three massive bridges at Agenzia Trezze.
+These were likewise destroyed. The Austrians descended the river and
+built another bridge at Tombolino; but they were also prevented from
+crossing here. They then endeavored to establish communication at San
+Don�, but here also the shells from the big guns on the floats reached
+them. There is now [April, 1918] a daily struggle between the enemy
+desiring to force their way across the river and the great guns on the
+lagoons impeding the passage, defending the approach, and ruining the
+work they accomplish.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING LAGOONS AND MARSHES BETWEEN VENICE AND THE
+PIAVE, WHERE THE ITALIAN NAVY IS HELPING TO HOLD BACK THE INVADERS]
+
+The Italian armed ships sometimes participate in actions against the
+enemy infantry. Recently one evening the ship Captain Sauro went up the
+old Piave, wending its way into an artificial canal which divided the
+Italian first line of defense from the enemy line. The sailors of the
+Sauro replied steadily to the rifle fire of Hungarian advance posts in
+the houses along the canals and landed on the shore occupied by the
+enemy patrols, forcing them to flee and firing the abandoned shelters
+after taking out the captured munitions. They then returned to the ship
+and, though harassed by enemy fire, succeeded in returning safely to
+their point of departure.
+
+
+WORK OF LAND BATTERIES
+
+Some of the land batteries had equally hard tasks. In the middle of last
+November many batteries had to withstand continual attacks from the sea
+by Austrian battleships of the Monarch type, escorted by destroyers,
+which had been sent to the Venetian shore with the purpose of rendering
+the Piave untenable. One naval battery of medium-calibre guns, commanded
+successively by two brothers, fired ceaselessly, without resting, though
+subjected to the fire of enemy artillery and machine guns, not only from
+the front and side, but also from the Adriatic in the rear. During the
+last days of the retreat, while the defense line of the Lagoons of
+Venice was not yet consolidated, that battery was for a long time
+isolated from every communication, without food, reinforcements, or
+support, yet it did not cede one inch, it never slackened fire, and it
+never asked for help. It was one of the heroic deeds of the Italian
+defense between Cavazuccherina and the sea. In the afternoon of Nov. 16,
+though attacked by the Austrian battleships Budapest and Wien, not only
+did these same batteries protect the return of two Italian submarine
+chasers which had gone out to attack the Austrian naval division, but
+they effectively counterattacked the battleships and their twelve
+destroyers until their return in the direction of Istria. The
+battleships never attempted this attack again.
+
+
+NAVAL AVIATION
+
+The plain extending from Zenson to the sea does not offer any elevated
+points for observation and the control of artillery fire. Therefore, the
+task of directing the shellfire had to be confided to the airplanes, and
+in the lagoons to the seaplanes. But in order that the seaplanes may
+fulfill their work of observation with safety they must be defended from
+enemy airplanes and must, therefore, be escorted by chasing machines.
+
+The Italian seaplanes and their escorts did not spare themselves. The
+aviators of one squadron accomplished seventy-nine bombarding and
+observation flights in the first twenty days of November during a total
+of ninety-two hours of flight--not counting practice flights.
+
+
+THE SUBMARINE CHASERS
+
+Every one now knows, at least by reputation, the M. A. S., [Motoscafi
+Antisommergibili di Scorta,] the Italian little armored boats that are
+doing effective work in the Tyrrhenean and the Adriatic, but few
+understand the great assistance they have given in their support of the
+army in the marshy Venetian plain covered with watercourses.
+
+The M. A. S. were not built to fight on rivers, but to scour the seas;
+yet they are frequently seen engaging some enemy advance post. Where
+the enemy lines border on a river or a canal the menacing prow of an M.
+A. S. will now and then rise under the barbed wire of the Hungarian
+trenches. These swift motor boats have become the cavalry of the
+marshes. They are slaves to their fragility, but they have the advantage
+of speed and surprise.
+
+The M. A. S. attacked the moving enemy companies across the lagoons with
+machine guns and their little guns. They were bombarded in turn; but
+their bravery and their size made them often very fortunate. At
+Bevazzano a big column of Honveds marching along the shore was put to
+flight by them. Again they shelled a cyclist corps, killing a large
+number. They landed a few men on ground already occupied by the enemy
+and succeeded in destroying or in capturing various machine-gun
+outposts. Elsewhere they supported isolated companies of sailors,
+protecting the lagoons, with their small guns. With great daring they
+pushed up to Porto Gruaro, which had already been invaded from Lemene.
+Shortly after, while the present line of Intestadure-Capo
+Sile-Cavazuccherina-Cortelazzo was being organized, the M. A. S. ran up
+and down for entire days through the Piave, the old Piave, and the
+Cavetta Canal, undertaking frequent sporadic fights with the machine
+gunners and the picked shooters of Boroevic.
+
+The armed motor boats by themselves insured the liaison between the
+lines for several days, and today, when the line of resistance from the
+lagoons is safe, the tactical use of the M. A. S. in the interior canals
+is still frequent and efficacious.
+
+
+FIGHTING LARGER CRAFT
+
+These armored motor boats also held the Adriatic coast, especially
+between the mouth of the Piave and the Venetian estuary. Nor were
+opportunities lacking for the little craft to fight against superior
+forces, as was the case on Nov. 16, 1917. The battleships of the Monarch
+type--Wien and Budapest--escorted by a division of torpedo boats and
+destroyers, appeared that morning before Cortelazzo and opened a violent
+bombardment against the Italian lines, attacking them from the flank.
+Assailed by seaplanes, counterattacked by Italian coast artillery, and
+threatened by approaching destroyers, they retired, but in the afternoon
+they returned and reopened fire at the mouth of the Piave.
+
+[Illustration: ONE OF THE MANY SMALL NAVAL BATTERIES THAT ARE DEFENDING
+VENICE IN THE NEIGHBORING LAGOONS.]
+
+Thereupon, the M. A. S. appeared from the open sea and plunged into the
+enemy formation. They intervened where the duel between the coast
+artillery and the battleships was most intense. When the motor boats had
+approached within less than a mile, the guns of the Monarch, ceasing to
+fire on land, turned a violent fire against the audacious newcomers. The
+enemy destroyers threw themselves on the two Italian chasers, shooting
+with every gun on board, while the battleships were manoeuvring to
+retire eastward. The M. A. S. approached the large ships within a few
+hundred meters, fired their torpedoes, and reversed their course. The
+Monarchs were able to avoid the torpedoes by rapid evolutions and
+returned toward the Istrian coast, while even the turret guns continued
+their fire against the minute Italian chasers.
+
+The battleships having withdrawn, the chasers found themselves
+surrounded by five adversary torpedo boats, which were attempting to
+cut off their retreat. They gave a good account of themselves, however,
+meanwhile gaining the protection of the coast batteries; the enemy
+destroyers retired, while the M. A. S. returned to their base with
+insignificant damage and with crews unhurt.
+
+
+THE NAVAL BATTALIONS
+
+When the news of the Austro-German invasion first spread through the
+Italian naval bases, the Captains of the battleships saw an unusual
+procession passing before their cabins, all asking the same thing--to be
+moved into the infantry and sent to the front. Special orders of the day
+were necessary to make the rank and file understand that each man could
+best play his part by remaining at his own post. It was announced,
+however, that those whose services were not absolutely necessary at
+their bases would be given full satisfaction. The first naval infantry
+companies were thus formed in a few days. Sections of the navy belonging
+to the defense of Monfalcone and Grado were under fire on foot from the
+first days of the resistance between the Tagliamento and the Livenza,
+and many others wished to join these gray-green companies.
+
+The first battalion of sailors, perfectly equipped and organized for
+trench warfare, went into the front line the 1st of November. Most of
+these men were not experiencing land firing for the first time, as they
+had participated with small groups in the defense of Monfalcone and
+Grado, but they had never before been used as real naval infantry. The
+lower Piave, where it forms a zigzag before flowing into the Adriatic,
+was assigned to the naval battalion as its line of defense. At dawn on
+Nov. 13 the battalion underwent a tremendous shock from the advance
+guard of the left flank of Boroevic's army. The attack was definitely
+repulsed. However, a few kilometers to the west, where the line of the
+Piave was held by battalions of territorials, the enemy succeeded in
+throwing a bridge of boats across the river near Grisolera and getting
+an armed patrol with machine guns to the opposite shore.
+
+The territorials withdrew to Case Molinato, in the direction of
+Cavazuccherina, and groups of Honveds crossed the large watery island
+between the old and new Piave. The naval battalion, therefore, found its
+left flank suddenly exposed and had to face both front and lateral
+attacks. The Italians were commanded by an officer of great strength of
+character, Lieut. Commander Starita, who decided to hold and to
+counterattack in spite of the difficult position. The enemy was
+therefore unable to enlarge the breach and was energetically held in the
+delta of the river.
+
+
+"ARDITI" OF THE NAVY
+
+In the meantime the Hungarian machine gunners who had crossed the Piave
+fortified themselves in the houses, barricaded the doors and windows
+with sandbags, and, supported by these machine gunners, other enemy
+patrols crept over, especially at night, through the dense vegetation of
+the delta, and with riflefire and bombs tormented the sailors, who had
+remained without any contact with the army. Lieut. Commander Starita,
+though having only a few hundred men at his disposal, held a front of
+several kilometers on three sides and organized a special corps of
+"braves" to clean out the infested zone. He improvised the "Arditi" of
+the navy and led them into action. Near Case Allegri a platoon of
+Hungarians had established themselves in an old guardhouse and had made
+a small fort with several machine guns. A patrol led by Captain Starita
+was able to surround them and to penetrate and kill the commanding
+officer despite the heavy fire of the machine gunners. The twenty
+surviving Hungarians, as soon as they saw their leader fall, raised
+their hands and called out "Kamerad!" The marines disarmed them, bound
+them with their puttees, captured the machine guns, and conducted them
+to the main battalion.
+
+The same day, near Revedoli, a boat full of enemy soldiers attempted to
+cross the river and to outflank the marines on the right, aided by a
+bend in the river. The outlook post discovered what was happening and
+another Italian patrol came to the rescue and engaged the Honveds. The
+Hungarians were almost all captured and the boat taken. The following
+day the Starita battalion, which in the meantime had remained isolated
+from the rest of the army with a dismounted squadron of cavalry and with
+a company of Alpine machine gunners, was put under a hard strain, as the
+left flank of Boroevic's army was renewing the attack with great
+strength. The enemy was repulsed, and the marine patrols took new
+prisoners and fresh booty. As these operations had produced appreciable
+losses, the line of the battalion was withdrawn on the evening of Nov.
+14 from Case Allegri to the mouth of the river, without any
+communication with the rest of the front.
+
+The Italian troops of the lagoon section also had established a definite
+line on the Sile and the old Piave, covering Cavazuccherina with a
+bridgehead. The retirement of the naval battalion to the new line of the
+Cavetta Canal from Cavazuccherina to the sea was then decided upon.
+Lieut. Commander Starita received orders to reach the final positions on
+the night of the 15th. It would have been an unnecessary sacrifice to
+continue an isolated fight on the new Piave, as the sailors wished to
+do. Therefore, the battalion made an orderly retirement with their
+booty and all their prisoners to the line of Cavetta.
+
+Between the 16th and 17th the enemy succeeded in sending some chosen
+fighters with machine guns and hand grenades to the houses of
+Cortelazza, north of the bend of the river. As the distance between the
+two banks is only a few yards, the sailors opened a heavy fire on the
+enemy advance guards, intensifying it at night. The battalion did not
+have sufficient material to undertake a strong counterattack and to
+repulse the advance guards beyond Cortelazza. On the 18th the necessary
+material and hand grenades began to arrive. The counterattack was
+immediately opened with great energy, the houses were retaken, and so
+the marines were able to throw a bridgehead beyond the Cavetta Canal and
+Cortelazza, which, consolidated, represents the extreme point of the
+land resistance toward the sea.
+
+This first naval company, which did so much to arrest the progress of
+the Austro-Hungarians toward the Lagoon of St. Mark, now gives a
+veteran's greeting to every new group of marines that comes to add its
+strength to the ring around Venice.
+
+[Illustration: DWELLING HOUSES IN VENICE RUINED BY AIR-RAID BOMBS]
+
+
+
+
+Venice Under the Grim Shadow
+
+The City's Wartime Aspects
+
+[A Rotogravure Etching of Venice Appears in This Issue Opposite Page
+269]
+
+
+When the Austro-German armies swept down through the Venetian plain last
+October and November, leaving ruin in their wake, they were stopped at
+the Piave River, whose waters flow into the lagoon a few miles east of
+Venice. Though the Italian Army and Navy made a ring of steel around
+the City of the Doges, and have held the enemy at bay from that time to
+the present, the sounds of battle have been constantly in the ears of
+the inhabitants, and frequent air raids have left jagged scars on many
+buildings and even in the pavement of the Piazza San Marco.
+
+[Illustration: ST. MARK'S CATHEDRAL IN WAR GARB: THE BRONZE HORSES HAVE
+BEEN REMOVED FROM OVER THE MAIN ENTRANCE, AND PARTS OF THE FACADE ARE
+PROTECTED]
+
+Throughout the Winter of 1917-18 Venice remained a city without
+tourists, its population dwindling from 150,000 to about 40,000, its
+canals silent and almost empty of life, yet full of a new and wistful
+beauty. The first days of peril had brought the enemy within twelve or
+thirteen miles of Venice. From the Fondamento Nuovo, at the northern end
+of the city, the people could see the flash of guns and the bursting of
+shells. The roar of guns disturbed their work by day and their sleep by
+night.
+
+
+EVACUATING THE CITY
+
+The civilian population was a hindrance rather than a help to the
+defenders, so the Admiral in command (for Venice is under naval, not
+military authority) thought it well to arrange for the partial
+evacuation of the city. In conjunction with the Syndic, Count Erimani,
+he first asked all foreigners to remove themselves to places of safety.
+Then offices were opened in each of the thirty parishes, and the people
+were ordered to report within forty-eight hours. This census was taken,
+so that railway facilities for traveling might be provided for all, and
+that places of safety might be found for those who were too poor to go
+away at their own expense, and pay their way afterward.
+
+In a few days nearly half the population, some 70,000, had gone, the
+majority to Florence, Rome, and other places in Central and Southern
+Italy, and the others to Genoa and the Riviera. Some were sent by sea to
+the Ancona coast. After this first rush the exodus went on more
+leisurely, some 3,000 leaving each day. Institutions of all kinds,
+offices, shops, restaurants, and caf�s, closed their doors, even the
+Caf� Florian, which had been open day and night continuously for over
+100 years. Banks and offices transferred their businesses to other
+towns.
+
+There are no cellars in Venice, nor can the inhabitants have any dugouts
+in which to conceal valuables, for at a depth of two or three feet below
+the ground floors of all buildings water is reached. Accordingly the
+authorities at the Municipal Building, at St. Mark's Library, at the
+Ducal Palace, at the Archives, as well as at banks and insurance
+offices, had their documents and valuables conveyed to places of
+security by boat and rail.
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF ST. MARK'S: CHAPEL OF THE CRUCIFIX PROTECTED
+BY SANDBAGS AND MATTRESS-LIKE SHEATHS]
+
+When Italy first went into the war precautions had been taken to protect
+the public monuments of Venice against aerial bombardment. The Doges'
+Palace and the Church of St. Mark were protected by barricades of
+sandbags, as were all the more valuable statues throughout the city. St.
+Mark's gilded copper horses, beaten out by hand, the only example extant
+of a Roman Quadriga--
+
+        The four steeds divine,
+    That strike the ground resounding with their feet,
+    And from their nostrils snort ethereal flame--
+
+were removed at that time from their pedestals above the main entrance
+to the church, and stabled under an archway on the ground floor of the
+Doges' Palace. When the new peril came with the invasion, however, they
+were conveyed by a battleship to a safer refuge in Rome. The precious
+equestrian statue of Colleoni, so much admired by Ruskin, with other
+treasures familiar to the tourist, also has been removed to a place of
+security. The bells of St. Mark's campanile and those of every church in
+the city have been taken away.
+
+By the first weeks of 1918 the population had shrunk to less than
+60,000, and at night one could walk through miles and miles of stilled
+and empty streets, darkened against the peril of air raids, or could
+travel by gondola along lonely canals rippled only by the Winter wind,
+with the cold moonlight silvering a deserted fairyland. Two months later
+the population was further reduced by sending away 20,000 women,
+children, and old men with a view to eliminating useless mouths to feed
+and preventing unnecessary slaughter. By that time Austro-German
+ingenuity had invented a new system of dropping bombs; instead of
+scattering them over the city the missiles were grouped in large numbers
+in a very limited space so that the destruction on that area was
+complete.
+
+
+LIKE A DEAD CITY
+
+An English war correspondent who visited Venice in the Winter drew this
+word picture:
+
+"Shuttered palaces face each other across silent canals. A footstep
+ringing down those narrow alleys, which are like deep, dark slits in a
+close-crowded mass of many-storied houses, starts echoes that die
+undisturbed away. The black gondola glides through a dead city more
+beautiful in the silence and stillness of this war trance of hers than
+ever in the fullness of her vivacious life. At each corner of the
+narrow water lane the white-haired gondolier raises his mournful cry,
+but by long habit, for he knows that no answer will ring out from beyond
+the angle of the dark stone wall, and no tapering prow glide out to be
+avoided by a turn of his skillful oar.
+
+"The Grand Canal is a green and gleaming vista of desertion. The scream
+of seagulls, beating its tranquil surface with their wings, is the only
+sound that disturbs the quiet of its reverie. A pleasing melancholy
+invests the deserted quays, and in remote corners of little lost canals
+you can almost hear the whispering of innumerable spirits of the Venice
+of long ago who have been drawn back to their old home by this strange
+peace that lies upon the city.
+
+"Venice, without tourists, without guides, without postcard sellers and
+hotel touts, is a close preserve of beauty for the few who have the
+fortune to be here. The atmosphere and the dignity of the days when she
+was a ruling city are here as they have never been before in modern
+times, nor ever will be again."
+
+
+THE WORST AIR RAID
+
+The greatest air raid of all the forty-five which Venice had endured
+since the war's beginning was that of the night of Feb. 26-27, 1918. It
+lasted eight hours--from 10:20 to 6:15 A. M.--and there was not a single
+interval of more than half an hour during all that time of brilliant
+moonlight in which bombs were not falling on the city. There were 300 in
+all. Thirty-eight houses were smashed, the Royal Palace was struck, one
+wing of an old people's home was blown to pieces, and three churches
+were damaged, including that of St. Chrysostom, in which an altar with
+one of Cellini's last landscapes was wrecked. Fifteen bombs fell near
+the Doges' Palace, one barely missing the Bridge of Sighs and falling
+into the narrow canal which it spans. Ten bombs fell around the Rialto
+Bridge. About fifteen civilians were wounded seriously, including two
+women. Only one man was killed, thanks to the promptness with which the
+Venetians now take shelter.
+
+According to the official account at least fifty airplanes took part in
+the raid, and some of these returned again and again, bringing fresh
+cargoes of bombs throughout the night. The Austrian lines are so near
+that the trip to the bomb bases and back again requires only twenty-five
+minutes, and this was the average length of the intervals between the
+bombardments. G. Ward Price, a war correspondent, in describing the
+experiences of that night, wrote:
+
+"Suddenly another crash re-echoed throughout the city, and the din of
+the bombardment started once more. I followed the quickly vanishing
+throng through an archway, where a green light marked a place of
+shelter. For two hours I was part of a close-packed throng in the dark
+vaulted room. There were women and wide-eyed children there in plenty,
+tired out with the long standing, which for them lasted until dawn, but
+none showing alarm, though, in addition to the nerve trying din outside,
+a constant shower of pieces of shell and flying bits of masonry whirred
+and pelted and pattered down incessantly outside.
+
+
+BRAVE WOMEN'S LAUGHTER
+
+"Toward 2 o'clock I made another move toward the centre of the city. I
+heard the drone of an attacking airplane drawing nearer over the still
+lagoon, and a policeman beckoned me into the vestibule of a high palazzo
+in one of those narrow Venetian alleys between tall black rows of houses
+which are like a communication trench of masonry. All was cheerfulness
+in this marble anteroom, a family of young daughters laughing and
+chattering with their mother while the noisy night crept slowly on.
+Taking advantage of another lull, I reached my hotel, but not until 6
+o'clock, when the dawn was well advanced, did the tumult of this
+eight-hour-long bombardment cease.
+
+"And yet this morning, as one went about in the warm sunshine seeing the
+places which the bombs had destroyed, the people seemed untroubled
+enough. Troops of black-shawled girls went chattering by, and the boys
+were playing a sort of 'shove-halfpenny' game, using as counters the
+shell splinters they had found scattered about the city ways."
+
+Since then there have been many other raids, but none so prolonged. The
+black-shawled women whose laughter defied the nightly peril have gone
+for the most part, taking with them the alert "bambini," who at that
+period still shouted at play in the streets. Only armed defenders are
+left, with those who are absolutely necessary to aid them. The muffled
+echo of distant guns is heard by day and the crash of bombs by night.
+Just outside the city is a little cemetery where are gathered the bodies
+of the Italian and French aviators who have died defending these shores.
+The marble pavement of the Piazza and Piazzetta is torn in places, and
+the swarming pigeons of other days have dwindled sadly, for no tourists
+come to feed them. In the sky over the lagoon, where the gulls once
+reigned supreme, airplanes now keep watch against the ceaseless threat
+in the direction of the Piave.
+
+
+
+
+Taking Over the Dutch Ships
+
+The United States Seizes for the War Period 500,000 Tons of Dutch
+Shipping
+
+
+The April issue of CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE contained a brief reference
+to the intention of the United States and British Governments to seize
+the Dutch shipping in their ports on account of Holland's refusal to
+carry food cargoes for fear of offending Germany. The two Governments
+took action March 20, 1918, when all Dutch shipping in American and
+British harbors was seized by the naval authorities of the two
+countries. The total of shipping acquired is estimated at 750,000 tons,
+500,000 being in American waters. The largest Dutch steamship, the Nieuw
+Amsterdam, which was in New York Harbor at the time, was not seized, but
+was permitted to return to Holland with a cargo of food, as it had been
+agreed when she made her outward voyage, during the pending of the
+negotiations, that, whatever the result, she would be immune; moreover,
+all Dutch shipping outward bound to American waters at the date of the
+seizure which had not yet reached port were also to be permitted to
+return to their home ports.
+
+President Wilson's proclamation directing the seizure stated that "the
+law "and practice of nations accords to a "belligerent power the right
+in times of "military exigency and for purposes "essential to the
+prosecution of war, to take over and utilize neutral vessels lying
+within its jurisdiction." The President also made a formal statement in
+which he reviewed the negotiations with Holland for the restoration of
+her merchant marine lying idle in American ports to a normal condition
+of activity for the transportation of foodstuffs. He had sought to have
+these Dutch ships carry food for Switzerland, for Belgian relief, and
+for Holland as well. He stated that on Jan. 25, 1918, the Dutch Minister
+proposed that
+
+    one hundred and fifty thousand tons of Dutch shipping should at
+    the discretion of the United States be employed partly in the
+    service of Belgian relief and partly for Switzerland on safe
+    conduct to Cette, France, and that for each ship sent to Holland
+    in the service of Belgian relief a corresponding vessel should
+    leave Holland for the United States. Two Dutch ships in the
+    United States ports with cargoes of foodstuffs were to proceed
+    to Holland, similar tonnage being sent in exchange from Holland
+    to the United States for charter as in the case of other Dutch
+    ships lying in the United States ports.
+
+The President stated that shortly afterward Holland rejected her own
+proposals, presumably through fear of German submarines, every
+suggestion thereafter was postponed, and answers were delayed, until
+finally, on March 7, it became clear that Holland was prevented by
+German coercion from fulfilling any agreement to put her ships into
+service; it was then concluded to exercise the sovereign rights of a
+belligerent under the international law of "angary," and to place the
+Dutch ships under American jurisdiction. The President concluded as
+follows:
+
+    We have informed the Dutch Government that her colonial trade
+    will be facilitated and that she may at once send ships from
+    Holland to secure the bread cereals which her people require.
+    These ships will be freely bunkered and will be immune from
+    detention on our part. The liner Nieuw Amsterdam, which came
+    within our jurisdiction under an agreement for her return, will,
+    of course, be permitted at once to return to Holland. Not only
+    so, but she will be authorized to carry back with her the two
+    cargoes of foodstuffs which Holland would have secured under the
+    temporary chartering agreement had not Germany prevented. Ample
+    compensation will be paid to the Dutch owners of the ships which
+    will be put into our service and suitable provision will be made
+    to meet the possibility of ships being lost through enemy
+    action.
+
+    It is our earnest desire to safeguard to the fullest extent the
+    interests of Holland and of her nationals. By exercising in this
+    crisis our admitted right to control all property within our
+    territory we do no wrong to Holland. The manner in which we
+    proposed to exercise this right and our proposals made to
+    Holland concurrently therewith, cannot, I believe, fail to
+    evidence to Holland the sincerity of our friendship toward her.
+
+The seizure of the Dutch ships was accomplished without friction on
+March 20 by manning them with American naval officers, with the
+co-operation of the United States Shipping Board. The Dutch crews were
+released, and many of the officers and sailors returned to Holland a few
+days later.
+
+The action of the American and British authorities produced much
+agitation in Holland; the Dutch newspapers bitterly denounced the action
+as unwarranted. A statement appeared in the Official Gazette of the
+Netherlands Government on March 30 in which the seizure was
+characterized as an act of violence. The statement asserted that the act
+was "indefensible from the viewpoint of international law and
+unjustifiable." Denial was made that an agreement failed through German
+pressure. The Dutch official statement ended as follows:
+
+    The powers in question, owing to the loss of ships, felt
+    constrained to replace the tonnage by obtaining the disposal of
+    a very large number of ships which belonged not to them but to
+    the Netherlands. They became aware that the Netherlands
+    Government could not permit the ships to sail in the interest of
+    the associated Governments except on the conditions imposed by
+    neutrality, but which were, in the judgment of the Governments,
+    not sufficiently in accordance with their interests. Therefore,
+    they decided to seize the Dutch merchant fleet in so far as it
+    lay within their power.
+
+    The Netherlands Government deems it its duty, especially in
+    serious times such as the present, to speak with complete
+    candor. It voices the sentiments of the entire Dutch Nation,
+    which sees in the seizure an act of violence which it will
+    oppose with all the energy of its conviction and its wounded
+    national feeling.
+
+    According to the Presidential statement, this procedure offers
+    Holland ample opportunity to obtain bread grain. This is so only
+    apparently; for would it not be an irresponsible act, after the
+    experiences of Dutch ships in American and British ports, to
+    permit other ships to sail to these ports without adequate
+    guarantees that these experiences shall not occur?
+
+    The American Government has always appealed to right and
+    justice, has always come forward as the champion of small
+    nations. That it now co-operates in an act diametrically opposed
+    to those principles is a proceeding which can find no
+    counterweight in the manifestations of friendship or assurances
+    of lenient application of the wrong committed.
+
+The United States Government proceeded at once to put the commandeered
+ships into service. On April 12 Secretary Lansing issued a statement
+answering the Dutch protest in detail. After pointing out that the
+Netherlands Government had not questioned the legality of the action
+taken by the United States, Secretary Lansing showed that it had
+involved no element of unfriendliness and was justified by the evidence
+in the case. Events had proved that to have granted bunker coal and food
+cargoes on ordinary terms would have released foodstuffs in Holland for
+sale to Germany and "would in fact have been an act beneficial to the
+enemy and having no relation to our friendship to the Netherlands."
+
+
+
+
+Air Raids on Paris and London
+
+A Historical Summary
+
+Paris experienced one of the most disastrous air raids of the war on the
+night of March 11, 1918, when nine squadrons of German airplanes,
+aggregating nearly sixty units, took part in an attack on the city and
+suburbs. Several buildings were demolished and set on fire. The number
+of persons killed was 34, and there were in addition 79 injured, 88 of
+these casualties being in Paris.
+
+In addition to the bomb victims, 66 persons were suffocated through
+crowding in a panic into a Metropolitan (subway) Railway entrance to
+take refuge from the raiders. These were for the most part women and
+children.
+
+A fog which had covered the city in the morning settled down again in
+the early evening. It was thick enough to cause the general belief that
+there was little chance that the Germans would attempt an air raid. This
+belief, however, was shattered at 9:10 o'clock, when the warning was
+sounded of the approach of hostile aircraft. The raid ended shortly
+after midnight, with a loss to the Germans of four machines, which were
+brought down by the French anti-aircraft defenses.
+
+Mr. Baker, the United States Secretary of War, was in conference with
+General Tasker H. Bliss, the American Chief of Staff, in a hotel suite
+when the air alarm was sounded. Secretary Baker was not disturbed by the
+noise of the sirens or the barrage of the anti-aircraft guns, but the
+hotel management, fearing for the safety of himself and his party,
+persuaded the members to descend to the wine cellar, where later they
+were joined by Major Gen. William M. Black.
+
+Mr. Baker, in the course of a statement the following day, said: "It was
+my first experience of the actualities of war and a revelation of the
+methods inaugurated by an enemy who wages the same war against women and
+children as against soldiers. If his object is to damage property, the
+results are trifling when compared with his efforts. If his object is to
+weaken the people's morale, the reply is given by the superb conduct of
+the people of Paris. Moreover, aerial raids on towns, which are
+counterpart of the pitiless submarine war and the attacks against
+American rights, are the very explanation of the reasons why America
+entered the war. We are sending our soldiers to Europe to fight until
+the world is delivered from these horrors."
+
+
+THE ENEMY MACHINES
+
+George Prade, a leading French authority on aircraft, told a newspaper
+correspondent that the German airplanes used in the attack on Paris were
+the result of a construction program decided on by the German Staff last
+Summer to meet in advance what is generally known in France as the
+American aviation program.
+
+When it was announced that the Americans had decided to construct an
+enormous air fleet for service on the western front, the German War
+Staff developed plans for much more powerful machines. In June and July,
+1917, they began the construction in series of more than 2,000 engines
+much higher powered than those in previous use. These consisted of
+Mercedes engines of 260 horse power with six cylinders and Maybach and
+Benz, both 250 horse power, and with six cylinders. These engines took
+the place of heavier but less powerful six and eight cylinder engines,
+ranging from 225 to 235 horse power. The Germans thus not only gained in
+power, but definitely adopted a plan for planes with two motors and two
+independent propellers. Each new machine was built with three chasses, a
+middle one carrying the crew, and two outside, each carrying an engine
+and a propeller. Three distinct types were developed, known,
+respectively, as Gothas, Friedrichshafens, and A. E. G.'s.
+
+The length of wings ranges from 72� to 86 feet. The propellers in
+earlier machines were placed at the rear, but now they are on the front
+of the cars. Machines of all three types carry either three or four men,
+and are fitted with three appliances for launching bombs. The
+projectiles vary enormously, ranging from aerial torpedoes, the smallest
+of which weighs two hundredweight, down to small shrapnel bombs. Each of
+these machines carries a minimum of 153 gallons of petrol and 15 gallons
+of oil, sufficient for at least a four hours' flight. Their average
+speed is between 80 and 90 miles an hour.
+
+Referring to the question of hitting any given target, M. Prade said it
+was practically impossible to strike any particular objective when a
+plane was traveling at a rate of thirty-eight to forty yards a second. A
+bomb must be dropped more or less at random, which is the reason why
+such form of warfare is simply criminal. It is impossible to tell where
+the bomb will fall. Three men are generally sufficient to handle a
+machine, one for each engine and a third to drop bombs. The fourth man
+carried is generally a pilot, who is able from his knowledge of Paris
+districts to direct the airplane more or less accurately toward
+objectives.
+
+Big raiding machines generally are accompanied by a large number of
+smaller two-seated, single-motor planes of 180 to 260 horse power, such
+as are generally used for reconnoissance purposes. These planes, of
+which the Hanover is the newest type, are usually of only thirty-eight
+to forty feet wing spread, but can get up to 20,000 feet carrying four
+small bombs.
+
+The raid of March 11 was preceded on March 8 by an almost equally
+formidable attack on Paris, the casualties being 13 killed and 50
+injured. One of the raiding machines, an airplane of the Gotha type, was
+found in the Forest of Compi�gne, where it had fallen while returning
+from the raid. All four of its occupants were killed. They included
+Captain Fritz Eckstein, the commander of the raiding squadrons, and an
+officer of the Kaiser's White Cuirassiers from Potsdam. Three other
+machines were brought down. Altogether, fifteen trained aviators,
+mechanics, and pilots were either killed or made prisoner.
+
+
+BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH
+
+Bombardment in 1917 played a more and more important part in aerial
+operations. The Germans had for some time expended their principal
+efforts upon aviation on the battlefield; besides, up to 1916 they were
+averse to night flying. But by the beginning of 1918 they had brought
+into existence a system of aerial bombardment supplied with powerful
+machines, and had developed an increasing series of attacks on the
+French troops, on the camps at the rear, and, alas! on the cities of
+France. Nancy and Dunkirk are sad examples of their work.
+
+The German squadrons known as Kampfgeschwader, furnished with special
+trains that transport them to any desired point and placed under the
+direct authority of the Quartermaster General, make use of great
+triplanes armed with machine guns and supplied with automatic bomb
+throwers; the Gothas, which, with their two Mercedes motors of 260 horse
+power each, can carry 1,200 pounds of explosives and gasoline for five
+hours, and the Friedrichshafens, whose two Benz motors of 225 horse
+power each can carry enough gasoline for four hours and twelve bombs
+totaling half a ton in weight.
+
+It was with these machines--employed in mass formation--that the Germans
+attempted their great bombing operations in the Autumn of 1917, notably
+the expedition in November, when in a single night seven groups of
+airplanes made successive attacks on English cities; also the raid of
+Dec. 19 on London, when twenty machines took part in the attack on
+London and caused serious damage, including the work of an incendiary
+bomb that set fire to a factory and burned it to the ground. It is with
+these machines which they are still improving, and which they are
+multiplying by the bold creation of series, that the Germans have vainly
+sought to hold command of the air during their offensive in Picardy.
+
+The example and threat of the enemy had their effect in France. The
+French bombarding groups, which, born at the end of 1914, had in 1915
+achieved famous flights into the heart of Germany, were compelled, with
+the advent of aerial combats, to renounce daylight operations, as these
+had become impossible or too uncertain for their slow and heavy
+machines, insufficiently armed, and had turned their attention to
+perilous night expeditions. But, despite successful raids and effective
+destruction, the French bombing operations remained more or less
+unsatisfactory.
+
+In the course of 1917 the use of the flying squadrons was finally
+adapted to the diverse needs of the battle front. In the French
+offensive at Verdun, while tactical aviation guided the waves of
+assault, regulated the artillery fire, and furnished information to the
+General Staff, while the swift airplane chasers, by a vigilant barrage,
+prevented all observation by enemy machines, the bombarding groups daily
+took part also in the action by hurling flames and destruction on
+railway stations, munition depots, storehouses at the rear, and sowing
+panic among the troops that were preparing to attack.
+
+Equipped at length with machines that combined the indispensable
+characteristics of speed, power, and armament, enabling them to hold the
+air in daytime, the French bombardiers attacked arsenals in the interior
+of Germany, and the British war dispatches of Dec. 25 mentioned a
+daylight raid of allied air squadrons upon Mannheim, where several fires
+followed, with heavy explosions at the central railway station and in
+the factories.
+
+The night groups, which had long made their raids only by moonlight, at
+length grew accustomed to flying in complete darkness. They multiplied
+their expeditions against enemy cantonments, railways, aviation fields,
+factories, and military and industrial centres. The task that remained
+at the opening of the Spring of 1918 was the fuller co-ordination of the
+groups of bombardiers.
+
+By that time the French had an excellent daylight airplane as well as
+successful night machines, and announced the early completion of still
+better ones. Their projectiles were not inferior to those of the
+Germans, and their supply was up to the demand. Thus they faced the
+German offensive fully equipped to hold their own so far as air
+supremacy was concerned.
+
+
+RAIDS ON LONDON
+
+London, as well as Paris, received frequent visits from enemy airplanes
+in February and March, 1918. On the three successive nights of Feb. 16,
+17, and 18 German raiders attacked the British metropolis. Twenty-seven
+persons were killed and forty-one were injured. Many of the German
+machines failed to reach the city owing to the great improvement which
+had been effected in the aerial defenses both on the coast and around
+London itself. Both the anti-aircraft guns and the airmen helped to
+diminish the casualties. The third night's raid resulted in an entire
+absence of both casualties and damage to property.
+
+Seven or eight German airplanes made a raid over England on the night of
+March 7. Two of them reached London and dropped bombs in various
+districts. Eleven persons were killed and forty-six injured in the
+metropolitan area. In addition a certain amount of damage was done to
+dwellings and some people buried under the wreckage.
+
+Zeppelins were again employed by the Germans in a raid on the east coast
+of England on March 12. One of them dropped bombs on Hull, while the two
+others wandered for some hours over remote country districts at great
+altitudes, unloading their bombs in open country before proceeding out
+to sea again. This was the first Zeppelin raid on England since Oct. 19,
+1917. The Germans had sustained such heavy losses in Zeppelins that they
+had substituted airplanes. [An account of the fate of the Zeppelins is
+included elsewhere in this issue.]
+
+
+BRITISH REPRISALS
+
+Reprisals by British aviators have been frequent and drastic. The
+British Air Ministry, in one of the detailed statements which it issues
+from time to time, presented the following list of raids into Germany
+from Dec. 1, 1917, and Feb. 19, 1918, a period of eleven weeks:
+
+    Date.                                                  Wt. of
+    1917.                                                   b'mbs
+    Dec.        Objective.     Locality.    Population.    in lbs.
+    5         Rly. sidings.    Zweibrucken.     14,700      1,344
+    5         Works          [B]Burbach                     1,096
+    6         Works          [B]Burbach                     2,216
+    11        Boot factory     Pirmasens        34,000      1,594
+    24        Factories        Mannheim        290,000      2,252
+    1918.
+    Jan.
+    3-4       Railways         Nr. Metz        100,000        760
+    4-5       Railways         Nr. Metz        100,000      2,940
+    5-6       Town          [A]Courcelles                   1,344
+    5-6       Town & rlys.  [A]Conflans                     2,180
+    14        Munition factory
+              & rlys.          Karlsruhe       140,000      2,800
+    14-15     Steelworks       Thionville       13,000      2,105
+    14-15     Railways         Metz            100,000        524
+    14-15     Railways      [A]Eringen                        280
+    16-17     Railways         Benadorf                       280
+    16-17     Town             Ormy                           255
+    16-17     Searchlight      Vigny                           26
+    21-22     Steelworks       Thionville       13,000      1,220
+    21-22     Rly. sidings     Bensdorf                     2,210
+      "       Rly. junction    Arnaville                    1,344
+    24-25     Steelworks, rlys. and barracks.
+                               Thionville       13,000      1,120
+                    "          Treves           48,000        809
+    24-25     Railway          Oberbilig                      280
+    24-25     Factory          Mannheim        290,000        672
+    24-25     Railway          Saarburg          9,800        280
+    24-25     Steelworks       Thionville       13,000      1,344
+    25        Barracks and
+              station          Treves           48,000      1,350
+    27        Barracks and
+              station          Treves           48,000        230
+    Feb.
+    9-10      Railway       [A]Courcelles        1,844
+    12        Town             Offenburg        15,400      2,838
+    16-17     Rly. station  [A]Conflans          1,488
+    17-18     Rly. sidings  [A]Conflans          2,240
+    18        Steelworks       Thionville       13,000        936
+    18        Barracks and
+              station          Treves           48,000      1,250
+    18-19     Barracks and
+              station          Treves          48,000       2,206
+    18-19     Rly. and gas
+              works            Thionville      13,000         650
+    19  Station  Treves  48,000 2,400
+
+    A See Metz.
+    B See Saarbrucken.
+
+James I. Macpherson, Parliamentary Secretary of the War Office, stated
+in the House of Commons on March 19 that British airmen had made 255
+flights into German territory since October, 1917. The 255 flights
+constituted 38 raids, and only 10 machines were lost. The aviators
+dropped 48 tons of bombs.
+
+According to a dispatch from The Hague dated April 3, the damage caused
+by raids in the Rhenish cities was much more extensive than had been
+admitted. Places where bombs actually fell were described as
+"unrecognizable." Of the bombs dropped at Coblenz in the most recent
+raid, eight did considerable damage. One fell upon a station, one fell
+amid a company of soldiers going to get food, and others practically
+destroyed half of the barracks where French prisoners were confined in
+1870. In Cologne a branch factory of the Baden Aniline Works was partly
+destroyed and a number of people were killed and wounded. Great damage
+also was done at Mainz. It was also reported that much damage was done
+at D�sseldorf. After the raids the authorities made every effort to
+clear up the wreckage as rapidly as possible, and the town was made to
+resume normal life immediately.
+
+In connection with military operations on the western front, official
+reports showed that the Allies had gained great successes in destroying
+enemy airplanes. The enemy losses in January, 1918, were 292; in
+February, 273, and in the first seventeen days of March 278. For the
+week ended March 17 the British Royal Flying Corps alone destroyed 99
+German airplanes and drove down 42, losing 23 of its own machines.
+
+One of the most surprising air raids was that of March 11 on Naples, in
+Southern Italy, far from enemy lines, when a dirigible dropped bombs on
+the city. Private houses, asylums, and churches were damaged or
+destroyed and 16 persons killed and 40 injured.
+
+Among the most savage attacks on Paris by aircraft was that in the night
+of April 12, when two hostile machines got through the anti-aircraft
+barrage and succeeded in killing 26 persons and injuring 72. One of the
+torpedoes burst a gas main in the street where it fell, but firemen
+promptly extinguished the fire that ensued. The American Red Cross was
+first on the scene of the explosion, and in a very short time had the
+victims safely removed to a hospital.
+
+
+The Tale of Zeppelin Disasters
+
+What has become of the German airship fleet initiated by the late Count
+Zeppelin is now known to the Intelligence Department of the French Army,
+which has given out a complete list of the 100 or more dirigibles
+constructed since the first one was launched over Lake Constance.
+
+Up to August, 1914, the total of Zeppelin airships built numbered
+twenty-five, while since the war the two great works at Friedrichshafen
+and Staaken have produced between seventy-five and eighty. As the mean
+period for the building of a Zeppelin is known with certainty to be two
+months, there must always have been four new airships on the stocks at
+the same time.
+
+Most of the Zeppelins launched into the air before the war came to
+grief, thus leaving in the service of the German Army and Navy a fleet
+of less than a dozen when fighting began. Since then nearly all the
+dirigibles, old and new, have been handed over to the German Navy, which
+has used them for many kinds of work, such as bombing expeditions,
+protection of mine layers and small torpedo boats at sea, chasing
+submarines, searching for mine fields, and, last and most important,
+reconnoitring for the High Seas Fleet.
+
+Disaster has attended the flight of an overwhelming majority of these
+air monsters, no fewer than thirty of which are known to have been
+destroyed in one way or another, as is shown by the following list:
+
+    L-1--Destroyed just before the war, when it fell in the North
+    Sea near Heligoland.
+
+    L-2--Burned at Buhlsbuettel just before the war.
+
+    L-3--Descended at Famoe in Denmark at beginning of the war, and
+    was burned by its crew.
+
+    L-4--Descended at Blaavands Huk, Denmark, at beginning of the
+    war, and was burned by its crew.
+
+    L-5--Brought down on the Belgian front in 1915; part of crew saved.
+
+    L-6--Burned at Buhlsbuettel in its hangar in September, 1916.
+
+    L-7--Brought down by British destroyers off Portland, crew being
+    drowned, in 1915.
+
+    L-8--Brought down by machine guns in Belgium, part of crew being
+    killed, in 1915.
+
+    L-9--Burned at Buhlfriettel in its hangar at same time as L-6.
+
+    L-10--Struck by lightning near Cuxhaven during its initial
+    flights, and lost with its crew.
+
+    L-12--Destroyed at Ostend in 1915 when returning from a raid on
+    England.
+
+    L-15--Brought down in the Thames, England, in 1916.
+
+    L-16--Destroyed on Oct. 19, 1917.
+
+    L-18--Burned in a hangar at Tondern in 1916.
+
+    L-19--Fell in the Baltic while returning from a raid on England.
+
+    L-22--Burned accidentally while coming out of its hangar at
+    Tondern.
+
+    L-23--Fell on the English coast.
+
+    L-25--Destroyed while being employed as a training balloon at
+    Wildpark.
+
+    L-31--Fell in London in 1916.
+
+    L-32--Brought down in London in 1916, (Sept. 23-24.)
+
+    L-33--Brought down in England, Sept. 23, 1916, and crew interned.
+
+    L-35--Brought down in England.
+
+    L-39--Brought down at Compi�gne, France, March, 1917.
+
+    L-40--Fell in the woods near Emden.
+
+    L-43--Brought down in July, 1917, at Terscheling.
+
+    L-44--Brought down afire at Saint-Clement, Oct. 20, 1917.
+
+    L-45--Brought down and burned at Silteron, Oct. 20, 1917.
+
+    L-48--Brought down in England, June, 1917.
+
+    L-49--Brought down at Bourbonne-les-Bains, Oct. 20, 1917.
+
+    L-50--Fell at Dommartin, Oct. 20, 1917.
+
+    L-57--Broke up on its first voyage.
+
+The last named is the highest number believed to have been in the
+service. Missing numbers in the list given above are accounted for as
+follows:
+
+    L-11--Put out of service in 1917 and believed to be in shed at Hage.
+
+    L-13--In the shed at Hage since May, 1917.
+
+    L-14--School airship at Northolz.
+
+    L-17--Believed to have been destroyed at sea.
+
+    L-20--Dismantled.
+
+    L-21--Dismantled; believed burned at Tondern.
+
+    L-24--Dismantled.
+
+    L-26--Planned, but never constructed.
+
+    L-27, L-28, L-29, and L-30--Planned, but never constructed.
+
+    L-34--Believed destroyed off England.
+
+    L-37--Attached to Baltic squadron, but believed destroyed.
+
+    L-38--Whereabout unknown.
+
+    L-41, L-42, L-46, L-47, L-51, L-52, L-53, L-54, L-55, and L-56--In
+    service in the North Sea.
+
+No information is obtainable as to the fate of the remainder of the
+Zeppelins, nor as to whether their construction was ever completed, but
+the few other types of dirigible airships used by the Germans have not
+been better served by fate than their more renowned sisters.
+
+The Schuette-Lanz dirigible is something like a Zeppelin, but with a
+framework of bamboo instead of aluminium. There have been eight of these
+in use since the beginning of the war, and their fate or present
+condition is shown in the following list:
+
+    S L-3--Long since out of service.
+
+    S L-4--Struck by lightning in the Baltic.
+
+    S L-6--Believed to have fallen into the Baltic.
+
+    S L-8--In service in the Baltic.
+
+    S L-9--Burned at Stolp.
+
+    S L-14--In service in the Baltic.
+
+    S L-16--Believed to be still in service.
+
+    S L-20--In service.
+
+There was also one Gross semi-rigid dirigible, which was put out of
+service at the end of February, 1915, and three Parseval non-rigid
+airships, one of which was destroyed in Russia, the second used as a
+schoolship, and the third understood to be still in service.
+
+
+
+
+Paris Bombarded by Long-Range Guns
+
+The Disaster on Good Friday
+
+Paris, though accustomed to the perils of German air raids, was amazed
+on the morning of March 23, 1918, to find itself bombarded by one or
+more guns of unprecedented range, which were dropping 9-inch shells into
+the city and its suburbs at intervals of twenty minutes. The nearest
+German line was more than sixty-two miles away, and the possibility of
+artillery bombardment at such a range was at first doubted in all the
+allied countries, but by the following day the fact was established that
+the shells were actually coming from the region of the Forest of St.
+Gobain, seven miles back of the French trenches near Laon, and about
+seventy-five miles from Paris. The French artillery at the front at once
+took measures to locate and destroy the guns, but without immediate
+results.
+
+The first day's casualties from the long-distance shells were stated to
+be ten killed and fifteen wounded. The second day, which was Palm
+Sunday, was ushered in by loud explosions from the new missiles, but by
+church time the Parisians had already discounted the new sensation and
+thronged the streets on their way to the churches. The women who sell
+palm leaves on that day did their usual thriving business. During the
+early morning hours the street traffic was partly suspended, but by noon
+both the subway and the tramway cars were running again.
+
+The shells were found to be doing comparatively little damage in
+proportion to their size. The municipal authorities announced on the
+second day that the German bombardment should not be allowed to
+interrupt the normal life of the city, and that the people would be
+warned by special signals, differing from those for air raids, and
+consisting of the beating of drums and blowing of whistles by the
+policemen. On Monday, when the police began to use the new system of
+alarm, they were the object of much good-natured chaffing on account of
+their awkwardness with the drumsticks.
+
+Twenty-four shells reached Paris the first day, twenty-seven the second,
+fewer the third, and thus the bombardment went on daily, with occasional
+casualties and little effect on the habitual life of the city. The
+famous palace of the Tuileries was damaged by one of the shells, and
+other public buildings were struck. The damage was largely confined to
+the Montmartre district, the amusement centre of Paris, and nearly all
+the shells fell within a section about a mile square, indicating that
+the gun was immovable. One shell dropped in front of the Gare de l'Oest,
+a railway terminal, killing six men.
+
+The casualties, however, were comparatively few until March 29, when a
+shell struck the Church of St. Gervais at the hour of the Good Friday
+service, killing seventy-five persons and wounding ninety, some of whom
+died later. Fifty-four of those killed were women, five being Americans.
+The shell had struck the church in such a way as to cause a portion of
+it to collapse and fall upon the worshippers at the moment of the
+elevation of the Host.
+
+
+PROTEST FROM THE POPE
+
+The intense indignation of all France at this new outrage on
+noncombatants was voiced at once through the press and in speeches in
+the Chamber of Deputies. The authorities of the Catholic Church were
+deeply stirred, and Pope Benedict sent a protest to Berlin against the
+bombardment of Paris, and especially against the destruction of churches
+and the wholesale massacre of civilians. Cardinal Amette, Archbishop of
+Paris, arriving at the scene of the catastrophe a few moments after the
+explosion, expressed the general feeling when he exclaimed: "The beasts!
+To have chosen the day of our Lord's death for committing such a crime!"
+The Vatican sent Cardinal Amette the following dispatch:
+
+    The Holy Father, deploring the fact that the bloody conflict,
+    which already has caused everywhere so much suffering, has
+    again, on the very day of the Saviour's Passion, found more
+    innocent victims, who are still dearer to his heart owing to
+    their faith and piety, expresses his deepest sympathy. He sends
+    the apostolic blessing to all the faithful in Paris, and desires
+    to know if it is necessary to send material aid to the families
+    in mourning.
+
+The Cardinal also received the following letter from Grand Rabbi Israel
+Levi on behalf of those of the Jewish faith:
+
+    Your Eminence, I am the interpreter of the feelings of all my
+    French co-religionists in saying that I share in the mourning
+    which has come to so many families devastated by sacrilegious
+    barbarism. We are one in pious indignation at the crime, which
+    seems to have been intended as an insult to what humanity holds
+    most sacred.
+
+Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York, voiced the sentiments of New
+York Catholics in this message to the Archbishop of Paris:
+
+    Shocked by the brutal killing of innocent victims gathered at
+    religious services to commemorate the passing of our blessed
+    Saviour on Good Friday, the Catholics of New York join your
+    noble protest against this outrage of the sanctuary on such a
+    day and at such an hour and, expressing their sympathy to the
+    bereaved relatives of the dead and injured, pledge their
+    unfaltering allegiance in support of the common cause that
+    unites our two great republics. May God bless the brave officers
+    and men of the allied armies in their splendid defense of
+    liberty and justice!
+
+Among those killed in this disaster was H. Stroehlin, Secretary of the
+Swiss Legation. The German Foreign Office later made an indirect
+expression of regret to Switzerland for this act, but sought to justify
+the bombardment on the ground that Paris is a fortress. The Kaiser sent
+a special note of congratulation to the managers of the Krupp works
+regarding the success of the weapon.
+
+
+AMBASSADOR SHARP'S REPORT
+
+William G. Sharp, the American Ambassador to France, visited the wrecked
+church shortly after the disaster and sent a detailed report to
+Secretary Lansing at Washington. The State Department, on April 3,
+issued the following:
+
+    The Secretary of State has received from Ambassador Sharp in
+    Paris a graphic report of his visit to the scene of the horrible
+    tragedy which occurred on the afternoon of Good Friday in a
+    church by the explosion of a German shell projected from far
+    back of the enemy lines a distance of more than seventy miles.
+    The appalling destruction wrought by this shell is, as the
+    Ambassador remarked, probably not equaled by any single
+    discharge of any hostile gun in the cruelty and horrors of its
+    results.
+
+    In no other one spot in Paris, even where poverty had gathered
+    on that holy day to worship, could destruction of life have been
+    so great. Nearly a hundred mangled corpses lying in the morgues,
+    with almost as many seriously wounded, attested to the measure
+    of the toll exacted. Far up to the high, vaulted arches, between
+    the flying buttresses well to the front of the church, is a
+    great gap in the wall, from which fell upon the heads of the
+    devoted worshippers many tons of solid masonry. It was this that
+    caused such a great loss of life.
+
+    As the Ambassador entered the church, where but a few hours
+    before had been gathered the worshippers, he could easily
+    picture the scene that followed the explosion. The amount of
+    d�bris, remaining just as it fell on the floor, covered the
+    entire space between the lofty columns supporting the arches at
+    each side. Only a miracle could have saved from death or serious
+    injury those who escaped the falling mass. The scene was that of
+    some horrible shambles, and it was not until well into the night
+    that all the bodies were recovered. Upon the floor in many
+    places could still be seen the blood of the victims, among whom
+    were many prominent and well-to-do people.
+
+    The Ambassador called to express his sympathy to his Swiss
+    colleague, whose lifelong friend, the Secretary of the Swiss
+    Legation, was killed while leaving the church. The Minister was
+    deeply affected as he spoke of the great loss to him through the
+    Secretary's death. The Secretary was well known in Washington,
+    where he served with the Swiss Legation from 1902 to 1904, and
+    was very highly esteemed by all who knew him.
+
+    In conclusion, Mr. Sharp says that the exceptional circumstances
+    under which this tragedy occurred, both as to the sacred
+    character of the day and the place, have greatly aroused the
+    indignation of the people of Paris toward an enemy who seeks to
+    destroy human life without regard to the immunities prescribed
+    by the laws of civilization and humanity, and, instead of
+    terrorizing the people, shells of the great cannons, as well as
+    the bombs dropped from the German airplanes, only serve to
+    strengthen the resolve of the French to resist, to the last man,
+    if necessary, the invasion of such a foe.
+
+
+CHARACTER OF THE GUN
+
+Portions of exploded shells examined in the Municipal Laboratory of
+Paris indicated that the calibre of the new German gun was a trifle less
+than nine inches, and that the projectiles, weighing perhaps 200 pounds,
+contained a comparatively weak charge of high explosives, arranged in
+two chambers connected by a fuse, often causing two distinct explosions
+a minute or more apart. It was stated later by German military
+scientists that it took each shell more than three minutes to travel
+from the mouth of the gun to Paris, and that on its way it had to rise
+to a height of more than twenty miles from the earth. Three Paris
+experts found that at least two of these great guns were being used.
+According to German prisoners, one of the guns exploded on March 29,
+killing a German Lieutenant and nine men.
+
+In their jubilation over the new weapon the German newspapers stated
+that the first bombardment of Paris had been witnessed by the Kaiser and
+by the builder of the long-range gun, Professor Fritz Rausenberger, who
+is an artillerist, manager of the Krupp Works, and builder of the famous
+42-centimeter (16�-inch) gun used to demolish the Belgian forts at the
+beginning of the war.
+
+The violence of the concussion of the new weapon was indicated by the
+statement of American scientists that every shot was found to be
+recorded by seismographs all over the United States; in other words, the
+shock of each discharge caused the needles of earthquake detectors three
+or four thousand miles away to record small dots on the smoked paper
+used in these instruments.
+
+Paris, though embittered by the new form of attack, refused to be
+frightened by the long-range shells. The attendance at the churches on
+Easter Sunday was even larger than usual. The police authorities issued
+an order on April 4 that theatre matin�es and afternoon entertainments
+of all kinds should be temporarily discontinued; but, owing to numerous
+protests, this order was modified next day, and the usual daytime
+performances in the theatres were allowed on condition that the
+bombardment had not begun at the hour of assembly, and that the place of
+amusement be evacuated immediately if the shelling began during the
+performance. In the weeks that followed the bombardment became more and
+more desultory and ineffectual.
+
+It was recorded on April 9 that French aviators had discovered the
+location of the new guns at Crepy-en-Laonnais, near the road from La
+F�re to Laon, and that continual bombardment of the spot was causing the
+increasingly intermittent nature of the German long-range fire. The
+French had learned the location to a yard, and from a powerful battery
+ten miles away they were dropping enormous shells weighing half a ton
+each into the low hills where the German monsters were hidden. There
+were three of the supercannon, and a few days later an air photograph
+showed that two French shells had fallen on the barrel of one of them,
+putting it out of commission. Tremendous craters had been made around
+the others, and one French shell had fallen on a main railway line,
+blocking it a whole day. A correspondent who visited the French battery
+engaged in this work wrote on April 13:
+
+"It is stated that these German guns are ninety-six feet long. At the
+moment of firing, other big guns let fly simultaneously, to confuse the
+French, and a smoke screen is emitted in the vicinity to hide the pieces
+from aircraft. Up to yesterday there had been no firing at night, lest
+the flashes show the position of the cannon. How necessary this
+precaution is may be illustrated by my experience last night, when I saw
+the whole northern sky constantly lit up by the guns on the eighty-mile
+front of the German offensive."
+
+After April 13, when the Germans knew that their secret was fully known,
+they began bombarding Paris by night, though without any increase in
+effectiveness. Up to the middle of April a total of 150 long-distance
+shells had fallen in Paris, and the only ones that had caused any
+notable casualties were those which struck the Church of St. Gervais, an
+infant asylum, and an old man's bowling green.
+
+
+
+
+The Irish Guards
+
+By RUDYARD KIPLING
+
+[Read at a matin�e in London in aid of the Irish Guards' War Fund, for
+which it was written by Mr. Kipling.]
+
+    We're not so old in the Army List,
+      But we're not so young at our trade,
+    For we had the honor at Fontenoy
+      Of meeting the Guards Brigade.
+    'Twas Lally, Dillon, Bulkeley, Clare,
+      And Lee that led us then,
+    And after a hundred and seventy years
+      We're fighting for France again!
+        _Old Days! The wild geese are flighting,
+          Head to the storm as they faced it before!
+        For where there are Irish there's bound to be fighting,
+          And when there's no fighting, it's Ireland no more!
+              Ireland no more!_
+
+    The fashion's all for khaki now,
+      But once through France we went
+    Full-dressed in scarlet Army cloth--
+      The English--left at Ghent.
+    They're fighting on our side today,
+      But before they changed their clothes
+    The half of Europe knew our fame
+      As all of Ireland knows!
+        _Old days! The wild geese are flying,
+          Head to the storm as they faced it before!
+        For where there are Irish there's memory undying,
+          And when we forget, it is Ireland no more!
+               Ireland no more!_
+
+    From Barry Wood to Gouzeaucourt,
+      From Boyne to Pilkem Ridge,
+    The ancient days come back no more
+      Than water under the bridge.
+    But the bridge it stands and the water runs
+      As red as yesterday,
+    And the Irish move to the sound of the guns
+      Like salmon to the sea!
+        _Old days! The wild geese are ranging,
+          Head to the storm as they faced it before!
+        For where there are Irish their hearts are unchanging,
+          And when they are changeful, it is Ireland no more!
+                Ireland no more!_
+
+    We're not so old in the Army List,
+      But we're not so new in the ring,
+    For we carried our packs with Marshal Saxe
+      When Louis was our King.
+    But Douglas Haig's our Marshal now
+      And we're King George's men,
+    And after one hundred and seventy years
+      We're fighting for France again!
+        _Ah, France! And did we stand by you
+      When life was made splendid with gifts and rewards?
+        Ah, France! And will we deny you
+          In the hour of your agony, Mother of Swords?
+      Old Days! The wild geese are flighting,
+        Head to the storm as they faced it before!
+      For where there are Irish there's loving and fighting,
+        And when we stop either, it's Ireland no more!
+                Ireland no more!_
+
+
+
+
+The Guilt of Germany
+
+German Ambassador to Great Britain in 1914 Proves That His Country
+Forced the War
+
+Prince Lichnowsky, who was the German Ambassador to Great Britain when
+the war began, is the author of an extremely interesting and important
+historical document which became public in March, 1918. It is in the
+form of a private memorandum written by the Prince, in which he frankly
+and definitely admits that the guilt for starting the world conflict
+rests upon his own country. The document, through some unrevealed
+agency, reached the Stockholm newspaper Politiken, the influential
+mouthpiece of the Swedish Socialists, and was printed in installments.
+
+The publication created a profound sensation throughout Europe. It
+evoked passionate rebukes of the Prince in the Reichstag and drew forth
+an important utterance from the former German Foreign Minister, who
+failed to refute its supremely important revelations. It was reported
+early in April that the German Government had taken steps to institute
+proceedings against the Prince on the charges of revealing State secrets
+and of treason to the State.
+
+The memorandum was written by Prince Lichnowsky about eighteen months
+ago for the purpose of explaining and justifying his position to his
+personal friends, and only half a dozen typewritten copies were made.
+One of these copies, through a betrayal, reached the Wilhelmstrasse, and
+caused a great scandal, and another was communicated to some members of
+the Minority Socialist Party. But how it happened that a copy got across
+the German frontier remains a mystery. Internal evidence, however,
+leaves no doubt in regard to the authenticity of the document. It is
+entitled "My London Mission, 1912-1914," and is dated "Kuchelna, (Prince
+Lichnowsky's country seat,) August, 1916."
+
+Prince Lichnowsky begins with a recital of the circumstances which led
+to his being appointed to London after many years of retirement from
+diplomacy, and a description of the European position as he then found
+it. The moment, he believes,
+
+    was undoubtedly favorable for a new attempt to get on a better
+    footing with England. Our enigmatical Moroccan policy had
+    repeatedly shaken confidence in our peaceful disposition and
+    aroused the suspicion that we were not quite sure what we
+    wanted, or that our intention was to keep Europe in suspense,
+    and, when occasion served, to humiliate the French. An Austrian
+    colleague, who was long in Paris, said to me, "If the French
+    begin to forget r�vanche, you regularly remind them of it by
+    treading heavily on their toes."
+
+    After rejecting M. Delcass�'s attempt to come to an agreement
+    with us in regard to Morocco, and declaring that we had no
+    political interests there, an attitude which was in full
+    accordance with the traditions of the Bismarckian policy, we
+    suddenly recognized in Abdul Aziz a Kruger No. 2. To him, also,
+    like the Boers, we promised the powerful support of the German
+    Empire--at the same cost and with the same result. For both
+    affairs ended, as they had to end, unless we were already then
+    resolved to undertake a world war--namely, in withdrawal.
+
+    Our attitude promoted the Russo-Japanese and the Russo-British
+    rapprochements. In face of the German peril all other conflicts
+    fell into the background. The possibility of a new Franco-German
+    war had become evident.
+
+
+THE BRITISH PROGRAM
+
+After describing the futility of Germany's Moroccan policy, Prince
+Lichnowsky goes on:
+
+    When I arrived in London, in November, 1912, public opinion had
+    calmed about the Morocco question. Mr. Haldane's mission had
+    certainly failed, since we had demanded a promise of neutrality
+    instead of satisfying ourselves with a compact which would
+    secure us against a British attack or an attack with British
+    support. Sir Edward Grey, however, had not given up the idea of
+    reaching an agreement with us and, as a beginning, made an
+    attempt in this direction in the economic and colonial spheres.
+    With Herr von K�hlmann as expert intermediary, an exchange of
+    views took place concerning the renewal of the Portuguese
+    Colonial Agreement and the Bagdad Railway, the object of which
+    was to divide the aforesaid colonies, as well as Asia Minor,
+    into spheres of interest. The British statesman desired, since
+    the old disputes with France and Russia were settled, to reach a
+    corresponding agreement with us. His aim was not to isolate us,
+    but to get us to take part in the already established concert.
+    Having succeeded in throwing a bridge across the Franco-British
+    and Russo-British divisions, he wished also, as far as possible,
+    to remove the causes of friction between England and Germany,
+    and, by a network of agreements--to which might well eventually
+    have been added an agreement on the unfortunate naval
+    question--to secure the peace of the world.
+
+    This was Sir Edward Grey's program. In his own words "Without
+    prejudice to the existing friendly understandings with France
+    and Russia, which pursued no aggressive aims, and involved in
+    themselves for England no binding obligations, to reach a
+    friendly rapprochement and understanding with Germany." In
+    short, to bring the two groups nearer together.
+
+    In this connection two schools of opinion--the optimists, who
+    believed in the possibility of an understanding; the pessimists,
+    who considered that war was sooner or later unavoidable. To the
+    former belonged Mr. Asquith, Sir Edward Grey, Mr. Haldane, and
+    most of the members of the Liberal Cabinet, as well as the
+    leading Liberal organs, like The Westminster, The Chronicle, and
+    The (Manchester) Guardian. To the pessimists belonged,
+    primarily, Conservative politicians like Mr. Balfour, who on
+    repeated occasions allowed me to know his opinion, and leading
+    soldiers like Lord Roberts, who preached the necessity for the
+    introduction of compulsory service; also the Northcliffe press,
+    and the important English journalist, Mr. Garvin. During my time
+    in office, however, this party refrained from all attacks, and
+    maintained, both personally and politically, a friendly
+    attitude. But our naval policy and our conduct in 1905, 1908,
+    and 1911 had created among them the belief that some day it
+    would come to war. The first school, exactly as among us in
+    Germany, are now accused of foolishness and short-sightedness,
+    while the second are regarded as true prophets.
+
+Prince Lichnowsky goes on to describe the situation during the Balkan
+war. There were two policies, he says, open to Germany--to act as an
+impartial mediator and seek a stable settlement in accordance with the
+wishes of the Balkan peoples, or to conduct a strict Triple Alliance
+policy. He himself recommended the former, but the Wilhelmstrasse
+determined on the latter. Austria wished to keep Serbia from the
+Adriatic; Italy wished to prevent the Greeks from reaching Avlona;
+Russia supported the Serbs, France supported the Greeks. Germany had no
+motive whatever for supporting her allies, and thus bringing about a bad
+settlement, except the desire to consolidate what, in Prince
+Lichnowsky's opinion, was a palpably worthless alliance--worthless
+because it was obvious that Italy would break from the alliance in the
+event of war, while Austria was absolutely dependent on Germany in peace
+and war without an alliance.
+
+The best way to increase Austria's dependence was to cultivate friendly
+relations between Germany and Russia. The Kaiser, for dynastic reasons,
+was in favor of the division of Albania between Greece and Serbia, but
+"when I, in a letter to him, urged this solution, I received from the
+Chancellor a severe reprimand to the effect that I was supporting
+Austria's enemies, and should refrain from direct correspondence with
+the Emperor."
+
+Thus Germany decided to take her stand on the side of the Turkish and
+Magyar oppressors for the sake of the Triple Alliance--a fatal blunder,
+which Prince Lichnowsky describes as "all the more striking since a
+sudden Franco-Russian assault--the only hypothesis which could justify
+the Triple Alliance policy--could, in fact, be ruled out of our
+calculations."
+
+
+DANGEROUS BALKAN POLICY
+
+It was not only unnecessary, he declares, but dangerous, to pay
+attention to Austria's wishes, since to look at the Eastern question
+through Austrian spectacles must lead to a collision with Russia and a
+world war.
+
+    Such a policy, moreover, was bound to alienate sympathy among
+    the young, strong, and aspiring communities of the Balkan
+    Peninsula, who were ready to turn to us and to open their
+    markets to us. The opposition between courts and peoples,
+    between the dynastic and the democratic idea of the State, was
+    clearly defined, and, as usual, we stood on the wrong side. * *
+    * In Serbia, against our own economic interests, we supported
+    the Austrian policy of strangulation. We have always ridden
+    horses whose collapse could be foreseen--Kruger, Abdul Aziz,
+    Abdul Hamid, and William of Wied--and finally we came to grief
+    in Berchtold's stable.
+
+Prince Lichnowsky proceeds to describe the Conference of Ambassadors in
+London in 1913, and the influential and conciliatory part played there
+by Sir Edward Grey, who always, he says, found a way out of every
+apparent deadlock.
+
+    But we, instead of taking up a position analogous to that of
+    England, invariably espoused the standpoint of Vienna. Count
+    Mensdorff led the Triple Alliance in London; I was his second.
+    My task consisted in supporting his proposals. In Berlin the
+    prudent and experienced Count Sz�gy�ny was in control. "Here the
+    casus foederis arises," was his constant refrain, and when I
+    once ventured to question the correctness of this conclusion I
+    was seriously warned for Austrophobia. At all points we accepted
+    and supported the views of Austria and Italy. Sir Edward Grey,
+    on the other hand, practically never sided with Russia or
+    France. Usually, indeed, he took the side of our group, so as
+    not to provide any pretext for conflict. That pretext was
+    supplied later by a dead Archduke.
+
+
+THE GUILT ESTABLISHED
+
+Lichnowsky states that a few days after the Serajevo murder of June 28,
+1914, he was in Berlin, and from interviews with Chancellor von Bethmann
+Hollweg he found that the latter did not share the Prince's belief that
+peace might be maintained, and complained of Russian armaments. The
+memorandum continues:
+
+    I then went to Dr. Zimmermann, who was representing Herr von
+    Jagow, [Foreign Secretary,] and from him learned that Russia was
+    about to raise 900,000 fresh troops. His words showed an
+    unmistakable animosity toward Russia, which, he said, was
+    everywhere in our way. Of course, I was not told that General
+    von Moltke was pressing for war. I learned, however, that Herr
+    von Tschereschky [the German Ambassador in Vienna] had received
+    a rebuke because he reported that he had advised moderation in
+    Vienna toward Serbia.
+
+    Subsequently I learned that at a decisive conversation in
+    Potsdam July 5 an inquiry addressed to us by Vienna found
+    positive assent among all personages in authority. Indeed, they
+    added that there would be no harm if war with Russia were to
+    result. I received instruction that I was to induce the English
+    press to take up a friendly attitude if Austria gave the
+    deathblow to the Great Serbian movement, and as far as possible
+    I was, by my influence, to prevent public opinion opposing
+    Austria.
+
+    I gave warning against the whole project, which I described as
+    adventurous and dangerous, and I advised that moderation be
+    recommended to the Austrians because I did not believe in
+    localization of conflict.
+
+    Herr von Jagow answered me that Russia was not ready, that there
+    doubtless would be a certain amount of bluster, but that the
+    more firmly we stood by Austria the more would Russia draw back.
+    He said Austria already was accusing us of want of spirit and we
+    must not squeeze her; and that, on the other hand, feeling in
+    Russia was becoming ever more anti-German and so we must simply
+    risk it.
+
+    I knew that Sir Edward Grey's influence in Petrograd could be
+    turned to use in favor of peace, so I used my friendly relations
+    with Sir Edward, [British Foreign Secretary,] and in confidence
+    begged him to advise moderation in Russia if Austria demanded
+    satisfaction from Serbia.
+
+    At first the attitude of the English press was calm and friendly
+    to the Austrians because the murder was condemned, but gradually
+    more and more voices were heard to insist that, however
+    necessary it was to punish the crime, exploitation of crime for
+    political purposes could not be justified. Austria was strongly
+    urged to show moderation.
+
+    When the ultimatum appeared, all the papers, except The
+    Standard, which was always like slow water and apparently was
+    paid by the Austrians, were as one in their condemnation. The
+    whole world, except in Berlin and Vienna, understood that it
+    meant war, and indeed a world war.
+
+    The British fleet, which chanced to be assembled for review, was
+    not demobilized.
+
+
+    England and Russia for Peace
+
+    At first I pressed for a conciliatory answer as far as possible
+    on the part of Serbia, since the attitude of the Russian
+    Government left no further doubt of the seriousness of the
+    situation. The Serbian reply was in accordance with the British
+    efforts, and everything actually had been accepted except two
+    points, about which a readiness to negotiate had been expressed.
+
+[Illustration: Panoramic view of Camp Zachary Taylor, Louisville, Ky.,
+where the 84th (National Army) Division is in training
+(� _Caulfield & Shook_)]
+
+[Illustration: Panoramic view of Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio, where
+the 83d (National Army) Division is in training
+(_Photo R. K. Wagner & Co._)]
+
+    If Russia and England had wanted war in order to fall upon us a
+    hint to Belgrade would have been sufficient, and the unheard of
+    [Austrian] note would have remained unanswered. Sir Edward Grey
+    went through the Serbian reply with me and pointed to the
+    conciliatory attitude of the Government at Belgrade. We then
+    discussed his mediation proposal, which was to arrange an
+    interpretation of the two points acceptable to both parties.
+
+    Cambon, [French Ambassador in London,] Marquis Imperiali,
+    [Italian Ambassador in London,] and I should have met under Sir
+    Edward Grey's presidency, and it would have been easy to find an
+    acceptable form for the disputed points which, in the main,
+    concerned the participation of Austrian officials in the
+    investigation at Belgrade.
+
+    Given good will, everything could have been settled in one or
+    two sittings, and mere acceptance of the British proposal would
+    have relieved the tension and would further have improved our
+    relations to England. I urgently recommended the proposal,
+    saying that otherwise a world war was imminent, in which we had
+    everything to lose and nothing to gain.
+
+    In vain! I was told that it was against the dignity of Austria
+    and that we did not want to interfere in the Serbian business
+    but left it to our ally. I was told to work for localization of
+    conflict. Of course, it would only have needed a hint from
+    Berlin to make Count Berchtold, Austrian Foreign Minister,
+    satisfy himself with a diplomatic success and put up with the
+    Serbian reply, but this hint was not given.
+
+
+    Germany Forced the War
+
+    On the contrary, we pressed for war. What a fine success it
+    would have been! After our refusal Sir Edward asked us to come
+    forward with a proposal of our own. We insisted upon war. I
+    could get no other answer from Berlin than that it was enormous
+    conciliation on the part of Austria to contemplate no annexation
+    of territory.
+
+    Thereupon Sir Edward justly pointed out that even without
+    annexations of territory a country can be humiliated and
+    subjected, and that Russia would regard this as a humiliation
+    which she would not stand. The impression became ever stronger
+    that we desired war in all circumstances, otherwise our attitude
+    on the question, which after all did not directly concern us,
+    was unintelligible.
+
+    The urgent appeals and definite declarations of Sazonoff
+    [Russian Foreign Minister] later on the positively humble
+    telegrams of the Czar, the repeated proposals of Sir Edward, the
+    warnings of San Giuliano, [Italian Foreign Minister,] my own
+    urgent advice--all were of no use, for Berlin went on insisting
+    that Serbia must be massacred. The more I pressed the less
+    willing they were to alter their course, if only because I was
+    not to have the success of saving peace in company with Sir
+    Edward Grey.
+
+    So Grey on July 29 resolved upon his well-known warning. I
+    replied I had always reported that we should have to reckon upon
+    English hostility if it came to war with France. The Minister
+    said to me repeatedly, "If war breaks out it will be the
+    greatest catastrophe the world has ever seen." After that events
+    moved rapidly.
+
+    When Count Berchtold, who hitherto had played strong man on
+    instructions from Berlin, at last decided to change his course,
+    we answered Russian mobilization--after Russia had waited and
+    negotiated in vain for a whole week--with our ultimatum and
+    declaration of war.
+
+    Up to the last moment I had hoped for a waiting attitude on the
+    part of England. As late as August the King of England replied
+    evasively to the French President, but in a telegram from
+    Berlin, which announced the threatening danger of war, England
+    already was mentioned as an opponent. In Berlin, therefore, one
+    already reckoned upon war with England.
+
+    Before my departure Sir Edward Grey received me on Aug. 5 at his
+    house. I went there at his desire. He was deeply moved. He said
+    to me that he would always be ready to mediate, and "We do not
+    want to crush Germany." Unfortunately this confidential
+    conversation was published, and thereby von Bethmann Hollweg
+    destroyed the last possibility of reaching a peace via England.
+
+
+    Questions of Guilt
+
+    As it appears from all official publications without the facts
+    being controverted by our own White Book, which, owing to its
+    poverty and gaps, constitutes a grave self-accusation:
+
+    1. We encouraged Count Berchtold to attack Serbia, although no
+    German interest was involved and the danger of a world war must
+    have been known to us; whether we knew the text of the ultimatum
+    is a question of complete indifference.
+
+    2. In the days between July 23 and 30, 1914, when Sazonoff
+    emphatically declared that Russia could not tolerate an attack
+    on Serbia, we rejected the British proposals of mediation,
+    although Serbia, under Russian and British pressure, had
+    accepted almost the whole ultimatum, and although an agreement
+    about the two points in question could easily have been reached
+    and Berchtold was even ready to satisfy himself with the Serbian
+    reply.
+
+    3. On July 30, when Berchtold wanted to give way, we, without
+    Austria having been attacked, replied to Russia's mere
+    mobilization by sending an ultimatum to St. Petersburg, and on
+    July 31 we declared war on the Russians, although the Czar had
+    pledged his word that as long as negotiations continued not a
+    man should march--so that we deliberately destroyed the
+    possibility of a peaceful settlement.
+
+    [Illustration: PRINCE LICHNOWSKY]
+
+    In view of these indisputable facts, it is not surprising that
+    the whole world outside of Germany attributes to us sole guilt
+    for the world war.
+
+
+THE BAGDAD RAILWAY
+
+Anglo-German negotiations concerning the Berlin-Bagdad Railway and
+German naval and commercial jealousy of Great Britain are touched upon
+in further sections of the personal memorandum.
+
+Prince Lichnowsky says that the Bagdad Railway treaty aimed in fact at a
+division of Asia Minor into spheres of interest, although this
+expression was carefully avoided in consideration of the rights of the
+Sultan of Turkey. Sir Edward Grey asserted repeatedly that there was no
+agreement between England and France aiming at a division of Asia Minor.
+The greatest concession that Sir Edward made to Prince Lichnowsky
+personally was for the continuation of the railway line to Basra.
+
+By this treaty the whole of Mesopotamia up to Basra became a German zone
+of interest by which all British rights and the question of shipping on
+the Tigris were left untouched. The British economic territories, the
+Prince adds, included the coasts of the Persian Gulf and the Smyrna-Aden
+Railway, the French territory was Syria, and the Russian Armenia. Had
+the treaty been concluded and published, he continues, an agreement
+would have been reached with Great Britain which would have finally
+ended all doubt of the possibility of Anglo-German co-operation.
+
+
+GERMANY'S NAVAL THREAT
+
+Referring to the difficult question of German naval activity, Prince
+Lichnowsky says that the creation of a mighty fleet on the other shore
+of the North Sea and the simultaneous development of the Continent's
+most important military power into a most important naval power had at
+least to be recognized by Great Britain as uncomfortable. To preserve
+the supremacy of the seas which Great Britain must have in order not to
+go down, the Prince adds, she had to undertake preparations and expenses
+which weighed heavily on the taxpayers. Nevertheless, the powers become
+reconciled to the German fleet in its definite strength. Obviously it
+was not welcome to Great Britain and, the Prince says, constituted one
+of the motives, but neither the only nor the most important motive, for
+England to join hands with Russia and France.
+
+On account of the German fleet alone, Prince Lichnowsky says, Great
+Britain would have drawn the sword as little as on account of German
+trade, "which, it is pretended, called forth her jealousy and finally
+brought about war."
+
+
+"NAVAL HOLIDAY"
+
+During Prince Lichnowsky's term of office Winston Spencer Churchill,
+then First Lord of the Admiralty, raised the question of the so-called
+naval holiday, proposing it for financial reasons as much as on account
+of the pacifist inclinations of his party. Churchill wanted a pause of
+one year in building ships. Prince Lichnowsky maintains it would have
+been difficult to support this plan on account of the workmen employed
+and the technical personnel. The German naval program was settled, and
+it would have been difficult to alter it. The Prince asserts that it was
+possible, in spite of the German fleet and without a naval holiday, to
+come to an understanding. In that spirit he had carried out his mission
+and had almost succeeded in realizing his program when the war broke out
+and destroyed everything.
+
+Discussing the question of trade jealousy, Prince Lichnowsky says it
+rested on a faulty judgment of circumstances. In British commercial
+circles, he says, he found the greatest good-will and the desire for
+further economic interests in common. In order to get in touch with the
+most important business circles he accepted invitations from the
+Chambers of Commerce in London, Bradford, Newcastle, and Liverpool, and
+he had a hearty reception everywhere.
+
+In conclusion Prince Lichnowsky gives his impressions of English
+society. King George he describes as very amiable and well-meaning, with
+sound understanding and common sense, and invariably well disposed
+toward the German Ambassador.
+
+
+LICHNOWSKY EXPLAINS
+
+The German Vice Chancellor, Friedrich von Payer, announced in the
+Reichstag late in March that on account of the disclosures Prince
+Lichnowsky had resigned his rank and expressed regrets. Herr von Payer
+stated that Prince Lichnowsky himself, on March 15, made a statement to
+the Imperial Chancellor in which he said:
+
+    Your Excellency knows that the purely private notes which I
+    wrote down in the Summer of 1916 found their way into wider
+    circles by an unprecedented breach of confidence. It was mainly
+    a question of subjective considerations about our entire foreign
+    policy since the Berlin Congress. I perceived in the policy
+    hitherto pursued of repelling Russia and in the extension of the
+    policy of alliances to Oriental questions the real roots of the
+    world war. I then submitted our Morocco naval policy to a brief
+    examination. My London mission could at the same time not
+    remain out of consideration, especially as I felt need in regard
+    to the future and with a view to my own justification of noting
+    the details of my experiences and impressions there before they
+    vanished from my memory.
+
+Prince Lichnowsky then described how the memorandum, which he had shown
+to a few political friends, got into wider circulation owing to an
+indiscretion, and finally expressed lively regret at such an extremely
+vexatious incident.
+
+
+VICE CHANCELLOR'S REPLY
+
+Herr von Payer said that Prince Lichnowsky had meanwhile tendered his
+resignation of his present rank, which had been accepted, and, as he had
+doubtless no bad intention, but had simply been guilty of imprudence, no
+further steps would be taken against him. The Vice Chancellor proceeded:
+
+    Some assertions in his document must, however, be contradicted,
+    especially his assertions about political events in the last
+    months preceding the war. Prince Lichnowsky was not of his own
+    knowledge acquainted with these events, but he apparently
+    received from a third and wrongly informed quarter inaccurate
+    information. The key to mistakes and false conclusions may also
+    be the Prince's overestimation of his own services, which are
+    accompanied by hatred against those who do not recognize his
+    achievements as he expected. The entire memorandum is penetrated
+    by a striking veneration for foreign diplomats, especially the
+    British, who are described in a truly affectionate manner, and
+    on the other hand by an equally striking irritation against
+    almost all German statesmen. The result was that the Prince
+    frequently regarded Germany's most zealous enemies as her best
+    friends because they were personally on good terms with him. The
+    fact that, as he admits, he attached at first no great
+    importance to the assassination of the heir to the Austrian
+    throne, and was displeased that the situation was judged
+    otherwise in Berlin, makes it plain that the Prince had no clear
+    judgment for the events that followed and their import.
+
+
+VON PAYER'S DENIALS
+
+The Vice Chancellor then characterized as false all Prince Lichnowsky's
+assertions about General von Moltke's urging war at the Potsdam Crown
+Council of July 5, 1914, and the dispatch of the Austrian protocol by
+"this alleged Crown Council" to Count Mensdorff with the postscript
+that it would be no great harm even if war with Russia arose out of it.
+
+Herr von Payer also denied the statement that the then Foreign Secretary
+was in Vienna in 1914, as well as the statement that Count von
+Pourtal�s, the German Ambassador in Petrograd, had reported that Russia
+would in no circumstances move. The Sukhomlinoff trial had shown how
+unfounded were Prince Lichnowsky's reproaches against Germany for
+replying to the Russian mobilization by an ultimatum and a declaration
+of war. It was also false to assert that the German Government rejected
+all Great Britain's mediation proposals. Lord Grey's last mediation
+proposal was very urgently supported in Vienna by Berlin. The aim of the
+memorandum was obvious. It was to show the reader how much better and
+more intelligent Prince Lichnowsky's policy was and how he could have
+assured the peace of the empire if his advice had been followed. The
+Vice Chancellor added: "The memorandum will cause enough harm among
+malevolent and superficial people; it has no historical value whatever."
+
+Dr. Payer then discussed the revelations of Dr. M�hlon, at present in
+Switzerland. Dr. M�hlon, an ex-Director of Krupps, had made a statement
+according to which he had a conference with two exalted personages in
+the latter half of July, 1914, from which it appeared that it was not
+the intention of the German Government to maintain peace. The Vice
+Chancellor alleged that Dr. M�hlon was suffering from neurasthenia at
+the time, and that no importance could be attached to his revelations,
+since the two gentlemen referred to had denied making the statements
+attributed to them.
+
+
+VON STUMM'S STATEMENT
+
+Herr von Stumm, Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, said that while in
+London the Prince devoted himself zealously to his task. His views had
+frequently not agreed with those of the German Foreign Office,
+especially regarding his strong optimism in reference to Anglo-German
+relations. When his hopes, aiming at an Anglo-German understanding, were
+destroyed by the war, the Prince returned to Germany "greatly excited,"
+and even then did not restrain his criticism of German policy. His
+excitement increased owing to attacks against him in the German press.
+All these circumstances, said von Stumm, must be taken into
+consideration when gauging the value of the memorandum.
+
+In the subsequent discussion disapproval of Prince Lichnowsky's attitude
+was expressed, but some speakers urged the need for the reorganization
+of Germany's diplomatic service.
+
+According to the report of the debate published by the Neues Wiener
+Journal, Herr von Payer himself acknowledged that prior to the war
+German diplomacy had made some bad blunders, and that reform was
+urgently needed. Herr M�ller (Progressive) sharply criticised Herr von
+Flotow, who was German Ambassador in Rome at the beginning of the war,
+and charged him with having declared to the Marquis di San Giuliano,
+then Italian Foreign Minister, that there existed for Italy no casus
+foederis. Prince B�low also came in for severe criticism.
+
+
+
+
+The Former Foreign Minister's Reply
+
+
+The former Foreign Minister of Germany, Herr von Jagow, published a
+reply to Prince Lichnowsky in the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, in
+which he virtually confirmed the Prince's main assertions. He applied
+such phrases as "an unheard-of assertion," "a mass of inaccuracies and
+perversions," to Lichnowsky's memorandum, but he did not meet the former
+Ambassador's charges with any new evidence, merely referring his readers
+to former publications of the German Government.
+
+Von Jagow's reply bears out the assertion that in 1913 England was
+prepared to enter into friendly agreements with Germany. She was "ready
+to meet us." A Bagdad railway agreement was almost completed when
+Germany drew the sword. Negotiations about the future of the African
+colonies of Portugal in certain contingencies had been resumed, and the
+German Foreign Secretary looked forward to further agreements in the Far
+East and elsewhere.
+
+The former Foreign Minister refuses to adopt the Pan-German view that
+"England laid all the mines which caused the war." On the contrary, he
+bears witness with former Ambassador Lichnowsky to Sir Edward Grey's
+"love of peace and his serious wish to reach an agreement with us." He
+says that it is true that Sir Edward could have prevented war, but he is
+careful not to indicate how. Presumably he means he could have done it
+by following Germany's example and treating England's engagements as
+"scraps of paper."
+
+He agrees that the war was not popular with the British people, and that
+Belgium had to serve as a battlecry. Germany, on the other hand, had to
+maintain her prestige. It had been damaged by her political defeat in
+Morocco. A fresh diminution of it would have been, he remarks,
+"intolerable for our position in Europe and in the world."
+
+In one point of fact he corrects Prince Lichnowsky. He denies that he
+himself visited Vienna at any time between the Spring of 1913 and the
+outbreak of the war. He confirms, as far as he remembers, all the
+expressions attributed to him by Lichnowsky.
+
+His only reference to the Potsdam Council of July 5, 1914, (when, it is
+asserted, the Teuton leaders made the final decision for war,) is not a
+denial that the meeting took place, but a single sentence: "On July 5 I
+was absent from Berlin."
+
+In regard to Lichnowsky's main charges, Herr von Jagow talks of
+"unheard-of" assertions and "inaccuracies and perversions," but he does
+not bring forward any fresh arguments to meet the charges, and merely
+refers to the publications of the German Government concerning the
+conversations which took place in June, 1914, between the Kaiser and
+Archduke Francis Ferdinand. Herr von Jagow says:
+
+    At Konopischt no plan was laid down (festgelegt) for an active
+    policy against Serbia. Archduke Francis Ferdinand was not at all
+    an advocate of a policy leading to war, although he was often
+    reckoned as such. During the London conference he advised
+    moderation and avoidance of war.
+
+Herr van Jagow here avoids the issue raised by Lichnowsky, who did not
+say that a definite scheme was arranged at Konopischt, but that the
+indication was, not that Archduke Francis Ferdinand was in favor of war,
+but that his death was a positive relief to the advocates of war.
+
+In the course of his statement Herr von Jagow, who remained Foreign
+Secretary until late in 1916, says:
+
+    When I was appointed State Secretary in January, 1913, it seemed
+    to me that a German-English rapprochement was desirable, and an
+    understanding upon those points where our interests touched and
+    sometimes even crossed, and this I deemed feasible. At least, it
+    was my intention to work on this.
+
+With regard to the Bagdad question Herr von Jagow says:
+
+    If England insisted upon excluding us from Mesopotamia, it
+    appeared to me that a conflict would be avoided with difficulty.
+    We were met in a conciliatory manner by the English Government,
+    and an agreement had almost been reached just previous to the
+    outbreak of the world war.
+
+He meets Lichnowsky's assertion that Germany drove Russia "into the arms
+of France and England by our Oriental and Balkan policy" with the
+contention that the Pan-Slavism which governed Russian politics was
+directly anti-German. Upon the London conference on Algeciras he says:
+
+    We no more desired war on Albania's account than did Sir Edward
+    Grey. That is why, in spite of our former experiences at
+    Algeciras, we consented to the conference. The merit of a
+    conciliatory attitude at the conference must not be denied to
+    Sir Edward Grey, but it is going a little too far to say that he
+    in nowise took up his stand on the side of the Entente. He
+    certainly often urged St. Petersburg to give way, and found
+    principles of accord (Einigungs Formeln) suitable to this end.
+    But outwardly he represented the Entente, as he could no more
+    leave his associates in the lurch than could we. Nor did he wish
+    to do so.
+
+    On the other hand, the assertion that we adopted without
+    exception the standpoint prescribed for us by Vienna is
+    absolutely untrue. We played, as England did, a conciliatory
+    r�le, and urged moderation upon Vienna far more than Lichnowsky
+    seems to be aware of, or at any rate admits. Vienna thereupon
+    made a variety of the most far-reaching concessions, Dibra and
+    Djakowa.
+
+
+ENGLAND EXONERATED
+
+Mentioning the Serajevo murders as the climax of the continued Russian
+provocations against Austria, von Jagow says:
+
+    The prestige and existence of the Danube monarchy were at stake.
+    We could not agree to the English proposal concerning a
+    conference of Ministers, as it would doubtless have led to a
+    serious diplomatic defeat for us.
+
+    I do not intend to adopt the theory now widespread among us that
+    England was the originator of all the intrigues leading to the
+    war. On the contrary, I believe in Sir Edward Grey's love of
+    peace and his genuine desire to arrive at an understanding with
+    us, but he had allowed himself to become too hopelessly
+    entangled in the network of Franco-Russian policy. He could find
+    no way out, and therefore failed to do that which had been in
+    his power to prevent the world war. War was not popular among
+    the English people, therefore Belgium had to serve as a battle
+    cry.
+
+At the end of his observations von Jagow restates his policy as follows:
+
+    I also pursued a policy which aimed at an agreement with England
+    because I was of the opinion that this was the only road by
+    which we could get out of the unfavorable situation into which
+    the unequal distribution of strength and weakness of the Triple
+    Alliance had brought us. Political marriages "until death us do
+    part" are, as Prince Lichnowsky says, impossible in
+    international relations, but in the existing state of affairs in
+    Europe isolations are equally impossible. The history of Europe
+    is composed of coalitions, some of which have led to avoidance
+    of wars and some to violent conflicts. A loosening and final
+    dissolution of old unions, which no longer satisfy all
+    conditions, cannot be recommended until new constellations are
+    within reach. That was the aim of our policy of rapprochement
+    with England. As long as this policy did not provide trustworthy
+    guarantees we could not abandon the old securities and
+    obligations which they involved.
+
+    Our Morocco policy led to political defeat. Happily, this had
+    been avoided in the Bosnian crisis and at the London conference.
+    Fresh diminution of our prestige was intolerable for our
+    position in Europe and in the world. Prosperity of States and
+    their political and economic successes depend upon the prestige
+    which they enjoy in the world.
+
+
+A FURTHER ACKNOWLEDGMENT
+
+Captain Persius, the military editor of the Berlin Tageblatt, in
+discussing the revelations of Prince Lichnowsky and the reply of Herr
+von Jagow in their relation to a possible peace by agreement, used these
+words:
+
+"An understanding ought to be easier, now that we have heard from two
+opposing sources, from von Jagow and Lichnowsky, that England was not
+responsible for the war, as has been believed hitherto in wide circles
+in Germany."
+
+
+Decrease of Birth Rate in Hungary
+
+_The following statistics were read by the Karolyist Deputy, Lodovico
+Hollo, to the Hungarian Chamber of Deputies, at the session of Jan. 16,
+1918: _
+
+(1) Births.--Before the war 765,000 children a year were born in
+Hungary. In the first year of the war, 1914, the number of births was
+reduced by 18,000; in 1915 only 481,000 children were born--that is,
+284,000 less than in time of peace. In 1916 the number of births was
+333,000--that is, a reduction of 432,000. In 1917 the births amounted to
+328,000--that is, the reduction was 438,000. Therefore our losses (in
+Hungary alone) behind the front reach the number of 1,172,866
+individuals.
+
+(2) Deaths.--Whereas in time of peace infant mortality for a period of
+seven years was 34 per cent., in 1915 the proportion was increased to 48
+per cent. and in 1916 to 50 per cent.
+
+These facts prove what sacrifices Hungary is making, to the prejudice of
+her own people, to continue the war.
+
+
+
+
+Count Czernin on Peace Terms
+
+A Reply to President Wilson and a Survey of Results of the Russian Peace
+Treaties
+
+    _Count Czernin, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, delivered
+    an address April 2, 1918, to a deputation of the Vienna City
+    Council, in the nature of a reply to President Wilson's address
+    of Feb. 11 on "Peace Aims," the text of which appeared in the
+    March issue of Current History Magazine. Count Czernin spoke as
+    follows:_
+
+
+GENTLEMEN: I am quite ready to reply to the questions put by the
+Burgomaster and thereby to give both you and the wider public a full
+view of political conditions as I see them at the moment. I had hoped to
+speak before the competent forum, but the fact that one of our
+commissions cannot meet at present makes this impossible, so I take this
+opportunity of affording in brief a review of the international
+situation.
+
+With the signing of peace with Rumania the war in the east is ended.
+Three treaties of peace have been signed--with Petrograd, Ukraine, and
+Rumania. One principal section of the war is thus ended.
+
+Before discussing the separate peaces which have been signed, and before
+going into details, I wish to return to the statements of the President
+of the United States wherein he replied to the speech I made before the
+delegations on Jan. 24. In many parts of the world Mr. Wilson's speech
+was regarded as an attempt to drive a wedge between Vienna and Berlin. I
+do not believe that, because I have much too high an opinion of Mr.
+Wilson's statesmanship to suspect him of such a train of thought.
+
+According to my impressions, Mr. Wilson does not want to separate Vienna
+from Berlin. He does not desire that, and knows that it is impossible.
+
+He perhaps thinks, however, that Vienna presents more favorable soil for
+sowing the seeds of a general peace. He has perhaps said to himself that
+the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy has the good fortune to have a monarch who
+genuinely and honorably desires a general peace, but that this monarch
+will never be guilty of a breach of faith; that he will never make a
+shameful peace, and that behind this monarch stand 55,000,000 souls.
+
+I imagine that Mr. Wilson says to himself that this closely knit mass of
+people represents a force which is not to be disregarded and that this
+honorable and firm will to peace with which the monarch is imbued and
+which binds him to the peoples of both States is capable of carrying a
+great idea in the service of which Mr. Wilson has also placed himself.
+
+Before I discuss Mr. Wilson's last utterances I would like to clear up
+one misunderstanding. In my last speech which I delivered before the
+Austrian delegations I replied to an inquiry in this connection that
+probably Mr. Wilson was already in possession of my utterances. Later
+Mr. Wilson corrected this, and pointed out that there must be some
+mistake. I had prepared my speech beforehand, so as to avoid any
+possibility of its being incorrectly or incompletely transmitted, and at
+the moment I made my speech I supposed that it had already reached
+Washington. Apparently, however, it only arrived there some days later.
+
+This does not affect the matter itself. My object was to assure that the
+President of the United States should get the exact text of my speech,
+and this object was attained and the trifling delay of a few days was a
+matter of indifference.
+
+With regard to Mr. Wilson's reply, I can only say that I consider it
+very important that the German Chancellor, in his admirable speech of
+Feb. 25, took the answer out of my mouth and declared that the four
+points developed by Mr. Wilson in his speech of Feb. 11 are the basis
+upon which a general peace can be discussed. I entirely agree with him
+in this.
+
+President Wilson's four points are a suitable basis upon which to begin
+negotiating about a general peace. The question is whether or not Mr.
+Wilson will succeed in uniting his allies upon this basis.
+
+
+SAYS FRANCE ASKED TERMS
+
+God is my witness that we have tried everything possible to avoid a new
+offensive. The Entente would not have it. A short time before the
+beginning of the offensive in the west M. Clemenceau inquired of me
+whether and upon what basis I was prepared to negotiate. I immediately
+replied, in agreement with Berlin, that I was ready to negotiate, and
+that as regards France I saw no other obstacle for peace than France's
+desire for Alsace-Lorraine.
+
+The reply from Paris was that France was willing to negotiate only on
+that basis. There was then no choice left.
+
+The gigantic struggle in the west has already begun. Austro-Hungarian
+and German troops are fighting shoulder to shoulder as they did in
+Russia, Serbia, Rumania, and Italy. We are fighting united for the
+defense of Austria-Hungary and Germany. Our armies will show the Entente
+that French and Italian aspirations to portions of our territory are
+Utopias which will be terribly avenged.
+
+The explanation of this attitude of the Entente Powers, which verges on
+lunacy, is to a great extent to be sought in certain domestic events
+here, to which I shall return later. Whatever may happen, we shall not
+sacrifice German interests any more than Germany will desert us. Loyalty
+on the Danube is not less than German loyalty. We are not fighting for
+imperialist or annexationist ends, either for ourselves or for Germany,
+but we shall act together to the end for our defense, for our political
+existence and for our future.
+
+The first breach in the determination of our enemies to war has been
+driven by the peace negotiations with Russia. That was a break-through
+by the idea of peace.
+
+It is a symptom of childish dilettantism to overlook the close
+relationship of the various peace signatures with each other. The
+constellation of enemy powers in the east was like a net. When one mesh
+was cut through the remaining meshes loosened of their own accord.
+
+We first gave international recognition to the separation of Ukraine
+from Russia, which had to be accomplished as an internal affair of
+Russia. Profiting from resultant circumstances which were favorable to
+our aims, we concluded with the Ukraine the peace sought by that
+country.
+
+This gave the lead to peace with Petrograd, whereby Rumania was left
+standing alone, so that she also had to conclude peace. So one peace
+brought another, and the desired success, namely, the end of the war in
+the east, was achieved.
+
+The peace concluded with Rumania, it is calculated, will be the starting
+point of friendly relations. The slight frontier rectifications which we
+receive are not annexations. Wholly uninhabited regions, they serve
+solely for military protection. To those who insist that these
+rectifications fall under the category of annexations and accuse me of
+inconsistency, I reply that I have publicly protested against holding
+out a license to our enemies which would assure them against the dangers
+of further adventures.
+
+
+ROBBING RUMANIA
+
+From Russia I did not demand a single meter, but Rumania neglected the
+favorable moment. The protection of mercantile shipping in the lower
+Danube and the guarding of the Iron Gate are guaranteed by the extension
+of the frontier to the heights of Turnu-Severin, by leasing for thirty
+years a valuable wharf near this town, together with a strip along the
+river bank at an annual rental of 1,000 lei, and, finally, by obtaining
+the leasing rights to the islands of Ostrovo, Marecorbu, and Simearu,
+and the transfer of the frontier several kilometers southward in the
+region of the Petroseny coal mine, which better safeguards our
+possessions in the Szurdok Pass coal basin.
+
+Nagy-Szeben and Fogaras will receive a new security frontier of an
+average width of from 15 to 18 kilometers at all passes of importance,
+as, for instance, Predeal, Bodz, Gyimes, Bekas, and Tolgyes. The new
+frontier has been so far removed to Rumanian ground as military reasons
+require.
+
+The rectification east of Czernowitz has protected that city against
+future attacks.
+
+At the moment when we are successfully endeavoring to renew friendly and
+neighborly relations with Rumania, it is unlikely that we would open old
+wounds, but every one knows the history of Rumania's entrance into the
+war and will admit that it was my duty to protect the monarchy against
+future surprises of a similar kind.
+
+
+BURDENS OF THE FUTURE
+
+I consider the safest guarantee for the future, international agreements
+to prevent war. In such agreements, if they are framed in binding form,
+I should see much stronger guarantees against surprise attacks by
+neighbors than in frontier rectifications, but thus far, except in the
+case of President Wilson, I have been unable to discover among any of
+our enemies serious inclination to accept this idea. However, despite
+the small degree of approval this idea receives, I consider that it will
+be realized.
+
+Calculating the burdens with which the States of the world will emerge
+from the war, I vainly ask myself how they will cover military
+expenditures if competition in armaments remains unrestricted. I do not
+believe that it will be possible for the States after this war
+adequately to meet the increased requirements due to the war. I think,
+rather, that financial conditions will compel the States to enter into a
+compromise regarding the limitation of armaments.
+
+This calculation of mine is neither idealistic nor fantastic, but is
+based upon reality in politics in the most literal sense of the word. I,
+for my part, would consider it a great disaster if in the end there
+should be failure to achieve general agreements regarding the
+diminution of armaments.
+
+It is obvious that in the peace with Rumania we shall take precautions
+to have our interests in the questions of grain, food supply, and
+petroleum fully protected. We shall further take precautions that the
+Catholic Church and our schools receive the state of protection they
+need, and we shall solve the Jewish question. The Jew shall henceforth
+be a citizen with equal rights in Rumania.
+
+
+MAKING RUMANIA PAY
+
+The irredentist propaganda, which has produced so much evil in Hungary,
+will be restrained and, finally, precautions will be taken to obtain
+indemnification for the injustice innocently suffered by many of our
+countrymen owing to the war.
+
+We shall strive by means of a new commercial treaty and appropriate
+settlement of the railway and shipping questions to protect our economic
+interests in Rumania.
+
+Rumania's future lies in the east. Large portions of Bessarabia are
+inhabited by Rumanians, and there are many indications that the Rumanian
+population there desires close union with Rumania. If Rumania will adopt
+a frank, cordial, friendly attitude toward us we will have no objections
+to meeting those tendencies in Bessarabia. Rumania can gain much more in
+Bessarabia than she lost in the war.
+
+[Count Czernin said that he was anxious that the rectifications of the
+frontier should not leave any embitterment behind, and expressed the
+opinion that Rumania in her own interest must turn to the Central
+Powers.]
+
+In concluding peace with Rumania and Ukraine, it has been my first
+thought to furnish the monarchy with foodstuffs and raw materials.
+Russia did not come into consideration in this connection owing to the
+disorganization there.
+
+We agreed with Ukraine that the quantity of grain to be delivered to the
+Central Powers should be at least 1,000,000 tons. Thirty cars of grain
+and peas are now en route, 600 cars are ready to be transported, and
+these transports will be continued until the imports are organized and
+can begin regularly. Larger transports are rendered possible by the
+peace with Rumania, which enables goods to be sent from Odessa to Danube
+ports.
+
+We hope during May to undertake the first large transport from Ukraine.
+While I admit that the imports from Ukraine are still small and must be
+increased, nevertheless our food situation would have been considerably
+worse had this agreement not been concluded.
+
+From Rumania we will obtain a considerable surplus of last year's
+harvest. Moreover, about 400,000 tons of grain, peas, beans, and fodder
+must be transported via the Danube. Rumania must also immediately
+provide us with 800,000 sheep and pigs, which will improve our meat
+supply slightly.
+
+It is clear from this that everything will be done to obtain from the
+exploitation of the regions which peace has opened for us in the east
+whatever is obtainable. The difficulties of obtaining these supplies
+from Ukraine are still considerable, as no state of order exists there.
+But with the good-will of the Ukrainian Government and our organization
+we will succeed in overcoming the difficulties.
+
+An immediate general peace would not give us further advantages, as all
+Europe today is suffering from lack of foodstuffs. While the lack of
+cargo space prevents other nations from supplying themselves, the
+granaries of Ukraine and Rumania remain open to the Central Powers.
+
+[Replying to the annexationists, Count Czernin said:]
+
+The forcible annexation of foreign peoples would place difficulties in
+the way of a general peace, and such an extension of territories would
+not strengthen the empire. On the contrary, considering the grouping of
+the monarchy, they would weaken us. What we require are not territorial
+annexations, but economic safeguards for the future.
+
+We wish to do everything to create in the Balkans a situation of
+lasting calm. Not until the collapse of Russia did there cease to exist
+the factor which hitherto made it impossible for us to bring about a
+definite state of internal peace in the Balkans.
+
+We know that the desire for peace is very great in Serbia, but Serbia
+has been prevented by the Entente Powers from concluding it. Bulgaria
+must receive from Serbia certain districts inhabited by Bulgarians. We,
+however, have no desire to destroy Serbia. We will enable Serbia to
+develop, and we would welcome closer economic relations with her.
+
+We do not desire to influence the future relations between the monarchy
+and Serbia and Montenegro by motives conflicting with friendly,
+neighborly relations. The best state of egoism is to come to terms with
+a beaten neighbor, which leads to this: My egoism regarding
+Austria-Hungary is that after being conquered militarily our enemies
+must be conquered morally. Only then is victory complete, and in this
+respect diplomacy must finish the work of the armies.
+
+
+THE DESIRE FOR PEACE
+
+Since I came into office I have striven only after one aim, namely, to
+secure an honorable peace for the monarchy and to create a situation
+which will secure to Austria-Hungary future free development, and,
+moreover, to do everything possible to insure that this terrible war
+shall be the last one for time out of mind. I have never spoken
+differently. I do not intend to go begging for peace, or to obtain it by
+entreaties or lamentations, but to enforce it by our moral right and
+physical strength. Any other tactics, I consider, would contribute to
+the prolongation of the war.
+
+I must say, to my regret, that during the last few weeks and months much
+has been spoken and done in Austria that prolongs the war. Those who are
+prolonging the war are divided into various groups, according to their
+motives and tactics. There are, first, those who continuously beg for
+peace. They are despicable and foolish. To endeavor to conclude peace at
+any price is despicable, for it is unmanly, and it is foolish because
+it continuously feeds the already dying aggressive spirit of the enemy.
+The desire for peace of the great masses is natural as well as
+comprehensible, but the leaders of the people must consider that certain
+utterances produce abroad just the opposite effect from what they
+desire.
+
+Firmly relying on our strength and the justice of our cause, I have
+already concluded three moderate but honorable peace treaties. The rest
+of our enemies also begin to understand that we have no other desire
+than to secure the future of the monarchy and of our allies, and that we
+intend to enforce this and can and will enforce it. I shall unswervingly
+prosecute this course and join issue with any one who opposes me.
+
+The second group of war prolongers are the annexationists. It is a
+distortion of fact to assert that Germany has made conquests in the
+east. Lenine's anarchy drove the border people into the arms of Germany.
+Is Germany to refuse this involuntary choice of foreign border States?
+
+The German Government has as little desire for oppressions as we, and I
+am perfectly convinced that neither annexationists nor weaklings can
+prevent forever a moderate and honorable peace. They delay it, but they
+cannot prevent it.
+
+The hopes of our enemies of final victory are not merely based on
+military expectations and the blockade. They are based to a great extent
+on our interior political conditions and on certain political leaders,
+not forgetting the Czechs. Recently we were almost on the point of
+entering into negotiations with the Western Powers, when the wind
+suddenly veered round and, as we know with certainty, the Entente
+decided it had better wait, as parliamentary and political events in our
+country justified the hope that the monarchy would soon be defenseless.
+
+[Count Czernin attacked the Czech leaders and Czech troops, who, he
+declared, "criminally fight against their own country," and appealed to
+the people to be united against this "high treason." The Government, he
+said, was quite ready to proceed to the revision of the Constitution,
+but this would not be helped by those who hoped through the victory of
+the Entente to gain their ends. "If we expel this poison," he declared,
+"a general honorable peace is nearer than the public imagines, but no
+one has the right to remain aside in this last decisive struggle."]
+
+
+
+
+Great Britain's Reply to Count Czernin
+
+_Lord Robert Cecil, Parliamentary Under Secretary of Foreign Affairs,
+made the following statement in answer to Count Czernin_:
+
+
+Whatever doubt about Count Czernin might have existed before his latest
+declaration, there can be no doubt now that he stands for Prussian
+ideals and Prussian policy. I must confess that I prefer Prussian
+brutality to Austrian hypocrisy. If you are going to rob and strangle
+your neighbor it is better not to talk of your moderation.
+
+Count Czernin claims with the greatest audacity that he and his allies
+have just made proposals that are moderate, and even guided by the
+principles of self-determination, no annexations, and no indemnities. As
+far as self-determination is concerned, in every one of the new States
+they have set up they have done so without the slightest regard to the
+wishes of the peoples and no serious attempt was made even to follow
+racial boundaries or racial antecedents.
+
+The province of Dobrudja, (Rumania,) which has been handed over to
+Bulgaria, has only 18 per cent. Bulgarians and 50 per cent. Rumanians,
+and Southern Bessarabia, which apparently is offered to Rumania, is the
+part of Bessarabia having the fewest Rumanians. As for no annexations,
+Count Czernin claims that all he has done is to carry out slight
+frontier rectifications. What he really has done is to take an important
+part of the Danube and all the passes between Austria-Hungary and
+Rumania. Not only this, he has driven back the Carpathian frontier eight
+or ten miles.
+
+But the most hypocritical part of Czernin's peace terms, while affecting
+not to demand a war indemnity for the Central Powers, is the fact that
+they have imposed one of the heaviest war indemnities ever levied. It is
+a curious provision which applies to the new States that they are to be
+under no obligation whatever toward Russia arising from former relations
+with her. The result is to concentrate on the remainder of Russia the
+debt which hitherto was spread over the whole of Russia.
+
+No wonder that Count Czernin, in a moment of candor, says that in the
+conclusion of peace with the Ukraine and Rumania the first thought was
+to furnish Austria with necessary foodstuffs and material. That has been
+the object of this peace, and it has been accomplished by giving to
+Austria-Hungary such economic and strategic advantages as to place these
+two countries at the mercy of the Central Powers.
+
+From the Ukraine particularly Czernin claims there is to be secured all
+food obtainable. No doubt this will be not a question of purchase, but
+of seizure. All the cost of requisitions made by the Central Powers will
+be written off in Rumania.
+
+It will amount to �50,000,000. Beyond that they claim the exclusive
+right to exploit the petroleum fields, and any disputes arising from
+this are to be settled by a tribunal set up in Leipsic.
+
+
+
+
+Austro-French "Peace Initiative" Controversy
+
+Clemenceau Flatly Contradicts Czernin
+
+
+Count Czernin's assertion in his speech of April 2 that Premier
+Clemenceau of France had initiated a peace parley with Austria-Hungary
+was immediately denied by the French Premier with the curt declaration:
+"The statement is a lie." There followed a somewhat extended controversy
+on the subject, which Count Czernin sought to utilize for his own
+purposes of war diplomacy, and which is placed on record here for the
+side lights it sheds on a hitherto secret chapter of the continuous
+peace intrigues of the Central Powers.
+
+Premier Clemenceau's curt "d�menti" was followed on April 6 by this
+official statement from the French Government:
+
+    Premier Clemenceau, upon assuming the duties of President of the
+    Council, found that conversations had been entered into in
+    Switzerland upon Austria's initiative between the Count
+    Revertata, a personal friend of Emperor Charles, and Commandant
+    Armand of the Second Bureau, French General Staff, designated
+    for that purpose by the French Minister at the time.
+
+    M. Clemenceau did not wish to assume the responsibility of
+    interrupting conferences which had yielded no results, but which
+    might furnish useful sources of information. Commandant Armand
+    thus was allowed to continue his journey in Switzerland, upon
+    the request of Count Revertata. Instructions were given M.
+    Armand in the presence of his chief by M. Clemenceau as follows:
+    "Listen and say nothing."
+
+    Count Revertata, becoming convinced that his attempt to bring
+    about a German peace was doomed to failure, in order fully to
+    characterize his mission, gave Commandant Armand a letter
+    written in his own hand, dated Feb. 25, 1918, the first sentence
+    of which reads: "During the month of August, 1917, with a view
+    to obtaining from the French Government a proposition to Austria
+    which might lead to future peace and be of such a nature as to
+    be susceptible of being indorsed by Austria and presented to the
+    German Government, conferences have been entered upon."
+
+    Count Revertata, being himself the solicitor, acknowledges it in
+    the following terms: "That the purpose was to obtain from the
+    French Government propositions of peace, under cover of Austria,
+    for transmission to Berlin."
+
+    Such is the fact established by an authenticated document which
+    Count Czernin has dared to refer to in the following terms:
+    "Clemenceau, shortly before the beginning of the offensive on
+    the western front, had me asked whether I was ready to enter
+    upon negotiations, and upon what basis." In speaking thus he
+    not only did not tell the truth, but told the opposite of truth,
+    which in France is termed "lying."
+
+    It is but natural that Premier Clemenceau should be unable to
+    restrain his indignation when Count Czernin, justly anxious as
+    to the final consequences of the western offensive, reversed the
+    roles with such audacity, representing the French Government as
+    begging for peace at the very moment when, with our allies, we
+    were preparing for the infliction of a supreme defeat upon the
+    Central Empires.
+
+    It would be too easy to recall to what extent Austria has
+    importuned Rome, Washington, and London with solicitations for
+    an alleged separate peace which had no other aim than to slip
+    upon us the yoke which she professes to find to her taste. Who
+    does not know the story of a recent meeting (in Switzerland, of
+    course) of a former Austrian Ambassador and a figure high in the
+    councils of the Entente Allies? The conferences lasted only a
+    few minutes. Here again it was not our ally who sought the
+    interview. It was the Austrian Government.
+
+    Does not Count Czernin remember another attempt of the same sort
+    made in Paris and London only two months before that of Count
+    Revertata by a person of much higher rank? That again, as in the
+    present case, is authentic, but much more significant proof
+    exists.
+
+
+CONFIRMED BY PAINLEVE
+
+Professor Paul Painlev�, who preceded M. Clemenceau as Premier, issued
+the following explanatory statement:
+
+    During the year 1917 Austria made several attempts to open
+    semi-official negotiations with the Entente Allies. Notably in
+    June, 1917, I was advised by the Second Bureau that Austria,
+    through the person of Count Revertata, had several times asked,
+    through a Swiss intermediary, for an interview with the officer
+    attached to the Second Bureau, Major Armand, a distant relative.
+
+    Alexander Ribot, then Premier, having been consulted, Major
+    Armand and Count Revertata met in August, 1917. The matter
+    stopped there, and no interview took place from August until
+    November, when I left office.
+
+    The events which occurred afterward naturally are unknown to me,
+    but I presume, from the statement made by Premier Clemenceau,
+    that Count Revertata returned to the charge.
+
+
+AUSTRIA'S OFFICIAL STATEMENT
+
+The following official statement regarding the matter was issued the
+same day at Vienna by the Imperial Government:
+
+    On instructions from the Foreign Minister Count Revertata,
+    Counselor of the Legation in Switzerland, repeatedly had
+    discussions in Switzerland with a confidential agent of M.
+    Clemenceau, Count Armand, attached to the French War Ministry,
+    who was sent to Switzerland to interview Count Revertata. As a
+    result of the interview of these two gentlemen in Freiburg,
+    Switzerland, on Feb. 2, the question was discussed whether and
+    on what basis a discussion concerning the bringing about of a
+    general peace would be possible between the Foreign Ministers of
+    Austria-Hungary and France, or between official representatives
+    of these Ministers.
+
+    Thereupon Count Revertata, after obtaining instructions from the
+    Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, toward the close of February
+    declared on behalf of the Minister to Count Armand, for
+    communication to M. Clemenceau, that Count Czernin was prepared
+    for a discussion with a representative of France, and regarded
+    it as possible to hold a conversation with the prospect of
+    success as soon as France renounced its plan for the conquest of
+    Alsace-Lorraine.
+
+    Count Revertata received a reply in the name of M. Clemenceau to
+    the effect that the latter was not in a position to accept the
+    proposed renunciation by France of this disannexation, so that a
+    meeting of the representatives at that time would, in the view
+    of both parties, be useless.
+
+
+GENERAL SMUTS'S TESTIMONY
+
+The Paris Matin on April 7 stated that General Smuts, South African
+representative in the British Cabinet, was the "figure high in the
+councils of the Entente Allies" referred to by the French Government in
+the statement of April 5 denying the assertion of Count Czernin that the
+French Prime Minister had sought to open peace negotiations with
+Austria-Hungary. The representative of the Dual Monarchy who met General
+Smuts in Switzerland was Count Mensdorff-Pouilly-Dietrichstein,
+Austro-Hungarian Ambassador at London when the war broke out.
+Immediately upon being introduced to Count Mensdorff, says the
+newspaper, General Smuts, taking the initiative in the conversation,
+bluntly said:
+
+"Is it true that you wish to make a separate peace?"
+
+This direct query was too much for the trained diplomat, and the Count
+began a long, evasive reply.
+
+"Yes or no?" reiterated the British representative.
+
+Obtaining no direct reply General Smuts said:
+
+"Then--good-night!"
+
+The interview lasted barely three minutes. Vienna was shocked, Le Matin
+says, at the boorish manner of the "old Transvaal warrior."
+
+
+VIENNA'S SECOND STATEMENT
+
+Further elaboration of Count Czernin's version of the case was proffered
+on April 8 in a second official statement issued at Vienna by the
+Austro-Hungarian Foreign Office, as follows:
+
+    In contrast to the first brief declaration of Premier
+    Clemenceau, in which he gave the lie to Foreign Minister
+    Czernin, it is observed with satisfaction that M. Clemenceau's
+    statement of April 6 admits that discussions in regard to the
+    question of peace took place between two confidential agents of
+    Austria-Hungary and France. The account given by M. Clemenceau
+    of the initiation and course of these negotiations, and likewise
+    the statement by M. Painlev� on the same subject, however,
+    deviate in many important particulars and to such a degree from
+    the facts that a detailed correction of the French communication
+    appears to be necessary.
+
+    In July, 1917, Count Revertata was requested by an intermediary
+    in the name of the French Government to state whether he was in
+    a position to receive a communication from that Government to
+    the Government of Austria-Hungary. When Count Revertata, after
+    having obtained the sanction of the Austro-Hungarian Government,
+    replied in the affirmative to this inquiry, in the same
+    month--July, 1917--Major Armand was charged with such
+    communication by the then French Premier, Ribot. He arrived on
+    Aug. 7, 1917, at Count Revertata's private residence in
+    Freiburg, the Count being distantly related to him.
+
+    Major Armand then addressed to Count Revertata a question as to
+    whether discussions between France and Austria-Hungary were
+    possible. Thus the initiative for these discussions was taken
+    from the French side.
+
+    Count Revertata reported to the Austro-Hungarian Foreign
+    Minister that this question had been put on instructions of the
+    French Government, and the Minister thereupon requested Count
+    Revertata to enter into discussions with the French confidential
+    agent, and in the course of these discussions to establish
+    whether by this means a basis for bringing about a general peace
+    could be secured.
+
+    On Aug. 22 and 23 Count Revertata entered into discussions with
+    Major Armand, which, however, as Premier Clemenceau quite
+    correctly declares, yielded no result. The negotiations
+    thereupon were broken off.
+
+
+    Parleys Resumed in January
+
+    The Clemenceau version that the discussions between Revertata
+    and Armand were proceeding on his entry into office is
+    incorrect. Not until January, 1918, did Armand, this time on
+    instructions from Clemenceau, again get in touch with Revertata.
+    The thread had been broken in August, 1917, and was therefore
+    again taken up by Clemenceau himself in January, 1918.
+
+    From this fresh contact there resulted the discussions referred
+    to in the official communiqu� of April 4, 1918. It is, however,
+    correct that Count Revertata handed to Major Armand on Feb. 23,
+    1918, the memorandum regarding which Premier Clemenceau only
+    cites the first sentence and which confirms that in the
+    discussions with Armand, which had taken place in August, 1917,
+    Revertata was charged with the task of finding out whether
+    proposals were obtainable from the French Government, which had
+    addressed to Austria-Hungary an offer of a basis for a general
+    peace, and also whether they would be such as Austria-Hungary
+    could bring to the knowledge of her allies.
+
+    It, therefore, entirely corresponded with the facts when Count
+    Czernin in his speech on April 2 last declared that Premier
+    Clemenceau, some time before the beginning of the western
+    offensive, had inquired of me whether I was prepared for
+    negotiations and on what basis.
+
+    The accusation of lying brought against Count Czernin by M.
+    Clemenceau cannot therefore be maintained, even in the
+    restricted sense made by the present communiqu� of the French
+    Government.
+
+
+    Admits Other Peace Manoeuvres
+
+    Nothing is known to the Austro-Hungarian Government of
+    entreaties for an alleged separate peace with which the
+    Austro-Hungarian Government worried the Governments of Rome,
+    Washington, and London. When M. Clemenceau asks the
+    Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister whether he remembers that two
+    months before the Revertata affair--that is, about a year
+    ago--an attempt of a like nature was made by a personage of far
+    higher rank, Count Czernin does not hesitate to reply in the
+    affirmative. But for the sake of completeness and entire
+    correctness it should be added that this attempt also led to no
+    result.
+
+    So much for the establishment of the facts. For the rest, it
+    need only be remarked that Count Czernin for his part would see
+    no reason to deny it if, in this or any similar case, he had
+    taken the initiative, because, in contrast to M. Clemenceau, he
+    believes that it cannot be a matter for reproach for a
+    Government to make attempts to bring about an honorable peace,
+    which would liberate all peoples from the terrors of the present
+    war.
+
+    The dispute raised by M. Clemenceau has, moreover, diverted
+    attention from the real kernel of Count Czernin's statement. The
+    essence of this statement was not so much who suggested the
+    discussions undertaken before the beginning of the western
+    offensive, but who caused their collapse. And M. Clemenceau up
+    to the present has not denied that he refused to enter upon
+    negotiations on the basis of the renunciation of the
+    reacquisition of Alsace-Lorraine.
+
+
+RETORT BY CLEMENCEAU
+
+Premier Clemenceau replied to this Vienna statement on the same day by
+issuing the following:
+
+    A diluted lie is still a lie. Count Czernin told a lie when he
+    said that some time before the German offensive began Premier
+    Clemenceau caused him to be asked "if he was ready to open
+    negotiations and upon what basis."
+
+    As to the passage in the manuscript note of Count Revertata,
+    where he says he acted for Austria to obtain peace proposals
+    from France, the solicitant's text is authentic, and Count
+    Czernin has not dared to dispute it.
+
+    To hide his confusion he tries to maintain that the conversation
+    was resumed at the request of M. Clemenceau. Unfortunately for
+    him, there is a fact which reduces his allegation to nothing,
+    namely, that Clemenceau was apprised of the matter on Nov. 18,
+    1917, (that is to say, the day after he took over the Ministry
+    of War,) by communication from the intermediary dated Nov. 10,
+    and intended for his predecessors. For Count Czernin's
+    contention to be true, M. Clemenceau would have had to take the
+    initiative in question before he was Premier. Thus Count Czernin
+    is categorically contradicted by facts.
+
+    He is reduced to maintaining that Major Armand was M.
+    Clemenceau's confidential man. Well, until this incident M.
+    Clemenceau had seen this officer of the Intelligence Department
+    only once, for five minutes at a riding school fifteen or twenty
+    years ago.
+
+    Finally, Count Czernin, as a last resource, says that what he
+    attributes to M. Clemenceau is unimportant. "What is really
+    important," he affirms, "is not to know who took the initiative
+    for the conversations before the offensive, but who caused them
+    to fail." Then why all this fuss? To demonstrate that every
+    French Government, like France itself, is immovable on the
+    question of Alsace-Lorraine?
+
+    Who could have thought it would have been necessary for Count
+    Revertata to elucidate for Count Czernin a question upon which
+    the Emperor of Austria himself has said the last word? It was no
+    other than Emperor Charles who, in a letter dated March, 1917,
+    put on record in his own writing his adhesion to "France's just
+    claim relative to Alsace-Lorraine." A second imperial letter
+    stated that the Emperor was "in agreement with his Minister." It
+    only remained for Czernin to contradict himself.
+
+Ex-Premier Ribot stated on April 9 that during his Premiership "France
+never directly or through a neutral intermediary took the initiative in
+any such proceeding as the Austrian official communication asserted."
+
+
+German Designs on Madeira
+
+Colonel Lord Denbigh, in an address before the Royal Colonial Institute,
+London, recently told how German designs upon the Island of Madeira were
+checkmated by Great Britain in 1906. He said it was more or less a piece
+of secret history outside diplomatic and naval circles. At Madeira, he
+said, the Germans first took a hotel. Then they wanted a convalescent
+home, and, finally, desired to establish certain vested interests. They
+demanded certain concessions from Portugal. The German Ambassador, early
+in 1906, called on the Portuguese Government, and said that, if the
+concessions asked for were not granted, the Kaiser would send his navy
+up the Tagus to Lisbon. The Portuguese Government telegraphed to
+England, and that night the British Admiralty were on the point of
+mobilizing the whole resources of the British fleet. They thought of
+another way of meeting the situation, however, and sent the Atlantic
+fleet close up against the Portuguese coast. They let the Kaiser know
+what had happened through an undiplomatic source, with the result that
+next day the German Ambassador had to call again on the Portuguese
+Government and explain that he had exceeded his instructions.
+
+
+
+
+I.--Battle of Jutland: First Phase
+
+
+[Illustration:
+This diagram indicates the courses and ranges during the first stage of
+the battle, from the establishment of contact by the battle cruiser
+squadrons at 3:30 P. M. until the arrival of the German battle fleet
+about 5 P. M.
+
+The British battle cruisers, and, presumably, those of Hipper also, were
+formed in _bow and quarter line_; or _line of bearing_--the ships on
+parallel courses but diagonally astern of the leader. During the
+approach the light cruisers and destroyers on each side--the position of
+which is not indicated--were spread out ahead of the main squadrons. The
+British second light cruiser squadron later took station ahead of Beatty
+and at 4:38 gave warning of the approach of the German battle fleet.
+
+At 4:42 the British battle cruisers turned _in succession_, (squadron
+right countermarch,) the rear ships following the course of the leader.
+According to the diagram published with the official British reports in
+The London Times, Admiral Hipper's turn at 4:52 was _to the left_; but
+the German charts and some later British diagrams indicate the direction
+as above.]
+
+[Illustration: Graves of American soldiers who perished in the sinking
+of the Tuscania, at Port Charlotte, Island of Islay, Scotland
+(_Times Photo Service_)]
+
+[Illustration: County volunteers of Islay firing a volley at the funeral
+of Tuscania victims at Kilnaughton, to the accompaniment of bagpipe
+lament
+(_Times Photo Service_)]
+
+[Illustration: One of the many artistic posters used by the United
+States Government in the Third Liberty Loan campaign, April 6 to May 4,
+1918]
+
+
+
+
+II.--Battle of Jutland: Main Engagement
+
+
+[Illustration:
+This diagram covers the main engagement, from the approach of the German
+battle fleet about 5 P. M. until the British fleet assumed a southerly
+course at 9 P. M. At various points in the action German units are
+reported to have been disabled or driven out of the line. Owing to
+uncertainty as to exact time and place, these losses are not indicated.
+During the opening stage of the action (Chart I.) the visibility was at
+first "good," but after 4:18 "considerably obscured" toward the
+northeast. On the northward course, between 5 and 6, the British
+squadrons were "silhouetted against a clear horizon to westward, while
+the enemy were for the most part obscured by mist." After 6 P. M.
+visibility, though reduced, was favorable to the British. The sea was
+calm and the wind light throughout the action.]
+
+
+
+
+A Review of the Battle of Jutland
+
+By Thomas G. Frothingham
+
+_Member of Military Historical Society of Massachusetts and of the
+United States Naval Institute_
+
+    NOTE--_The reader of this review will be greatly helped in
+    following the movements of the opposing fleets by the two charts
+    on the preceding pages. These have been ably prepared by Allan
+    Westcott of the United States Naval Academy, and they should be
+    carefully studied._
+
+
+Sufficient time has now passed since the battle of Jutland (May 31,
+1916) to eliminate the early distorted versions of the action and to
+give a proper perspective of the tactics of the opposing fleets. To
+understand the battle, it is necessary to realize that it had become the
+custom of the British fleet to leave its safeguarded bases in the north
+of the British Isles and make periodical sweeps through the North Sea.
+At the beginning of his report of the battle Admiral Jellicoe describes
+this practice:
+
+    The ships of the Grand Fleet, in pursuance of the general policy
+    of periodical sweeps through the North Sea, had left its base on
+    the previous day in accordance with instructions issued by me.
+    In the early afternoon of Wednesday, May 31, the first and
+    second battle cruiser squadrons, the first, second, and third
+    light cruiser squadrons, and destroyers from the first, ninth,
+    tenth, and thirteenth flotillas, supported by the fifth battle
+    squadron, were, in accordance with my directions, scouting to
+    the southward of the battle fleet.
+
+With the object of engaging a fleet that had been usually so disposed
+and so employed, the Germans came out from their bases. For some time
+after the battle there were tales of other objectives--to cover the
+escape of raiders, to get ships through the Baltic, &c. But all these
+theories have been abandoned, and it is now agreed that the Germans
+planned to fight the superior British fleet under conditions
+advantageous to themselves. All the German manoeuvres indicate that this
+was their design, and no other.
+
+The opposing forces in the battle of Jutland were as follows:
+
+1. An advance British force under Vice Admiral Beatty, consisting of six
+battle cruisers, (four Lions of 28.5 knots speed, each carrying eight
+13.5-inch guns, and two Indefatigables of 25 knots speed, each carrying
+eight 12-inch guns,) supported by the fifth battle squadron, under Rear
+Admiral Evan-Thomas, (four 25-knot battleships of the Queen Elizabeth
+class, each carrying eight 15-inch guns.)
+
+The fleet speed of this advance force was 25 knots.
+
+2. The main body of the British Grand Fleet, under Admiral Jellicoe,
+flying his flag in the Iron Duke--consisting of a fast wing under Rear
+Admiral Hood, (three 26-knot battle cruisers of Invincible class, each
+carrying eight 12-inch guns,) a division of four armored cruisers under
+Rear Admiral Arbuthnot, and twenty-five dreadnoughts in three squadrons
+commanded by Vice Admirals Burney, Jerram, and Sturdee.
+
+The fleet speed of this main body was 20 knots, and its formidable
+armament will be found in the table on Page 338.
+
+3. About twenty light cruisers and 160 destroyers, divided between the
+advance force and the main body.
+
+The German strength comprised:
+
+1. An advance force under Vice Admiral Hipper, consisting of five battle
+cruisers, (three Derfflingers of probably 27 knots speed, each carrying
+eight 12-inch guns, and two Moltkes of probably 28 knots speed, each
+carrying ten 11-inch guns.)
+
+The fleet speed of this advance force was 27 knots.
+
+2. The main body of the German High Seas Fleet, under Admiral Scheer,
+consisting of sixteen dreadnoughts and six predreadnought battleships.
+
+[Illustration: CHART SHOWING POSITIONS IN BATTLE OF JUTLAND IN RELATION
+TO SURROUNDINGS OF THE NORTH SEA. (1) SCENE OF BATTLE. (2) POSITION OF
+BRITISH FLEET AT 3 A. M., JUNE 1, 1916, BEFORE RETRACING ITS COURSE TO
+THE BATTLEFIELD.]
+
+The fleet speed of this main body was 17 knots, because the German
+dreadnoughts had been eked out with predreadnought battleships of less
+speed. Four dreadnoughts carried twelve 11-inch guns each, four twelve
+12-inch guns each, the rest ten 12-inch guns each. The six old German
+battleships were very inferior, carrying only four heavy guns each.
+
+3. About twenty light cruisers and eighty or ninety destroyers, divided
+between the advance force and the main body.
+
+The above-described makeup of the opposing fleets must be kept in mind
+when studying the course of the action. The day of the battle was
+cloudy, but the sun shone through the clouds most of the time. At no
+time was there anything approaching a sea. Visibility was reported as
+good in the first stages of the action, but late in the afternoon, there
+being little wind, mist and smoke hung heavy over the surface of the
+sea. These conditions must also be remembered.
+
+
+DISPOSITION OF BRITISH FLEET
+
+First of all, it should be said that any criticism of Admiral Jellicoe
+as to the makeup of the British advance force is not justified. The
+Queen Elizabeth class of dreadnoughts had been designed with the great
+speed of 25 knots for the purpose of working with battle cruisers on
+such service. This gave them a speed that was uniform with the fleet
+speed of Vice Admiral Beatty's battle cruiser squadrons, although the
+individual ships of the Lion class were faster. The name ship of this
+battleship class, the Queen Elizabeth, had been through a long, racking
+service in the Dardanelles operations, and was not with the fleet. The
+other four ships of the class made up the fifth battle squadron under
+Rear Admiral Evan-Thomas, which was under Vice Admiral Beatty's command.
+
+This disposition of Admiral Jellicoe's fleet, with the advance force
+flung out ahead, seems sound from every tactical point of view, with the
+assumption that the advance was to be in touch with the main fleet, or,
+if out of touch, tactical possibilities had been provided for and plans
+of action prearranged.
+
+In the sweep through the North Sea, with the main body of the British
+Grand Fleet some fifty miles astern, Vice Admiral Beatty's advance force
+was cruising to southward of Admiral Jellicoe May 31, 1916, when, at
+2:20 P. M., the presence of enemy ships was reported by a light cruiser.
+Admiral Beatty altered course "to the eastward and subsequently to
+northeastward, the enemy being sighted at 3:31 P. M. Their force
+consisted of five battle cruisers."[2]
+
+
+BEGINNING OF THE ACTION
+
+It is stated in Vice Admiral Beatty's report that it was over an hour
+after the first news of the vicinity of enemy ships before he increased
+speed to 25 knots to engage ("at 3:30 P. M."[2]). Yet Vice Admiral
+Beatty reports that Rear Admiral Evan-Thomas's fifth battle squadron
+(the four Queen Elizabeths) was still 10,000 yards away when he made
+this move to engage the enemy with his battle cruisers. This forces us
+to the conclusion that Admiral Beatty thought his six battle cruisers
+would be able to take care of the situation. His confidence is explained
+by the fact that all previous sorties of the Germans had been made by
+battle cruisers or small craft.
+
+Both sides threw out screens of light cruisers, which clashed, and at
+3:48 "the action commenced at a range of 18,500 yards, both sides
+opening fire practically simultaneously."[3] The British battle cruisers
+fought on a course curving to the southeast, and then on a straight
+south-southeast course, and the five German battle cruisers fought them
+on a parallel course, instead of edging away from the superior British
+force. It is now easy to see that the trend of the action was absolutely
+in the direction of the approaching main body of the German High Seas
+Fleet, but this very naturally was not apparent at the time to Admiral
+Beatty.
+
+The first phase of the battle may properly be studied as a fight
+between the British and German battle cruisers, in consequence of the
+before-stated gap separating the two parts of Admiral Beatty's command.
+This interval of 10,000 yards prevented the fifth battle squadron of
+Queen Elizabeth dreadnoughts from being a factor at the time. Vice
+Admiral Beatty reports that this squadron "opened fire at a range of
+20,000 yards," and he continues: "The fifth battle squadron was engaging
+the enemy's rear ships, unfortunately at very long range." (It is
+interesting to note this comment on a range of 20,000 yards, in view of
+the fantastic distances at which the Queen Elizabeth had been depicted
+by alarmists as shelling our coast cities.)
+
+In this part of the action came the first of the many upsets of pre-war
+calculations. Comparing the given strength of the two opposing squadrons
+in action, it will be seen that the British battle cruisers were greatly
+superior; in fact, the odds would have been considered prohibitive
+before this battle. Yet it was the British squadron that suffered,
+losing one-third of its ships. Ten minutes after the beginning of the
+action the Indefatigable was sunk, and at 4:30 the Queen Mary met the
+same fate. In each case it is said that there was a great explosion up
+through the turrets, suggesting that a weak turret construction is
+really a conductor of fire to the magazine in case of a heavy hit, and
+pointing to the need of better separation of the supply of ammunition
+from the magazine.
+
+
+DESTROYERS TAKE PART
+
+At 4:15 there was an attack "simultaneously"[4] by British and German
+destroyers which resulted in a lively fight, but no damage to any of the
+capital ships. Yet the possibilities of such torpedo attacks were so
+evident, here and later in the battle, that the destroyer at once
+attained a greater value as an auxiliary of the battleship. It should
+also be noted that German submarines were reported present at this
+stage, but they accomplished nothing against the screened fighting
+ships. A British airplane had been sent up from a mother ship just
+before the engagement, though Admiral Beatty reports that it was forced
+to fly low on account of the clouds, and had a hard task "to identify
+four enemy light cruisers." There was apparently no chance of a wide
+observation that would have warned Admiral Beatty of the approaching
+German High Seas Fleet. In this short hour were concentrated many new
+problems of naval warfare.
+
+The advancing German High Seas Fleet was reported at 4:38 by a light
+cruiser, and sighted at 4:42 by the British battle cruisers. A few
+minutes later Vice Admiral Beatty's ships turned right about (180
+degrees) in succession. The German battle cruisers also turned to a
+northwesterly course, closely followed up by the van of the German High
+Seas Fleet, and the action was continued on this course.
+
+The report of Admiral Beatty and his conduct in this part of the action
+show that he had not suspected the presence of the German High Seas
+Fleet, but the lavish criticism of his turn in succession is without
+reason. In the first place, his ships met no disaster at the turn, and
+the manoeuvre is absolutely justified by the fact that it brought the
+four Queen Elizabeth battleships into position to fight a rearguard
+action against the greatly strengthened enemy. Any other disposition of
+Admiral Beatty's command would have been a mistake.
+
+It also follows that, against the turn made in this way, it would have
+been an error for Vice Admiral Hipper to try for a capping position,
+with the object of smothering Admiral Beatty's cruisers in detail at
+their pivoting point. Such an attempt would have exposed his own battle
+cruisers to the 15-inch guns of the approaching dreadnoughts of Admiral
+Evan-Thomas's squadron. Admiral Hipper's conduct in turning to the
+northwest ahead of the van of the German High Seas Fleet seems the best
+thing he could have done at the time. The leading German battleships,
+which were of the K�nig class, fell into line, closely following Admiral
+Hipper's battle cruisers, and the battle was continued at 14,000 yards
+on a northwest course.
+
+On the British side the brunt of the action was sustained by Admiral
+Evan-Thomas's fifth battle squadron, which from this time was in line
+astern of Admiral Beatty's battle cruisers. The German battle cruisers
+could not stand up with the same effectiveness against the heavy guns of
+the fifth battle squadron, and this, with an increase to full speed,
+enabled Admiral Beatty to draw ahead. He again opened up a gap between
+his battle cruisers and the fifth battle squadron, taking a course that
+curved to the north and northeast, in search of Admiral Jellicoe's
+battle fleet, which was hastening to his assistance. The leading ships
+of the Grand Fleet were sighted at 5:56, and Admiral Beatty altered his
+course to the east at extreme speed. The German van also turned to
+eastward.
+
+In the meantime from the north the British Grand Fleet had been closing
+at utmost fleet speed on a southeast by south course. Ahead of the
+battle fleet was the squadron of three battle cruisers under Rear
+Admiral Hood. This squadron, well in advance of the main body, took
+position ahead of Admiral Beatty's battle cruisers, which had turned to
+their southerly course, as shown by the diagram.
+
+In the second phase of the action, which has just been described, there
+were clashes of light cruisers and isolated torpedo attacks, none of
+which had any tactical effect on the battle. It is now evident from the
+conduct of the German command that the German fleet was not led into a
+trap, and that Admiral Scheer deliberately chose to engage the British
+Grand Fleet, thinking the conditions favorable, although his course
+necessarily curved away to the southwestward and left the British Grand
+Fleet between the German fleet and all its bases. It is also evident
+that the ships of the German van had not been damaged by the fifth
+British battle squadron to the extent of demoralizing the German
+gunfire. The immediate damage inflicted on the advance of the British
+Grand Fleet is proof enough of this.
+
+[Illustration: Make-Up and Armament of British Grand Fleet
+In addition the Grand Fleet comprised Rear Admiral Hood's squadron of
+three battle cruisers and Rear Admiral Arbuthnot's squadron of four
+armored cruisers.]
+
+
+HOOD'S FLAGSHIP SUNK
+
+As stated, Rear Admiral Hood took station ahead of Vice Admiral Beatty's
+battle cruisers, with his advance squadron of battle cruisers (6:21)
+closing to a range of 8,000 yards, (6:25.) A few minutes later his
+flagship, the Invincible, was sunk by gunfire. Almost at the same time
+three of Rear Admiral Arbuthnot's armored cruisers, Black Prince,
+Warrior, and Defense, "not aware of the approach of the enemy's heavy
+ships,"[5] were put out of action. (Defense was sunk; Warrior sank while
+attempt was being made to tow her home; Black Prince was sunk later,
+probably by gunfire.)
+
+At this stage the British Grand Fleet formed in battle line astern of
+the battle cruisers, and engaged the enemy on a course to the southwest,
+the German fleet now being to the westward, as shown on the diagram. The
+fifth battle squadron then took position astern of Admiral Jellicoe's
+main body. It was here that the Warspite, a dreadnought of the Queen
+Elizabeth class, jammed her helm, and was out of control for a time, as
+described by her Captain after the action. The battleship was, however,
+extricated from her predicament. The battle cruiser L�tzow, the flagship
+of the German advance force, had become totally disabled, and Vice
+Admiral Hipper had trans-shipped his flag to another battle cruiser.
+
+By this time smoke and mist hung over the sea, and the Germans took
+advantage of these conditions, also using smoke screens, to fight the
+only action possible for their fleet against the overwhelming force now
+in line against them. The German ships would appear and disappear in the
+smoke and mist. Admiral Jellicoe reports of this stage of the action:
+
+    Owing principally to the mist, but partly to the smoke, it was
+    possible to see only a few ships at a time in the enemy's battle
+    line. Toward the van only some four or five ships were ever
+    visible at once. More could be seen from the rear squadron, but
+    never more than eight to twelve. * * * The action between the
+    battle fleets lasted intermittently from 6:17 P. M. to 8:20 P.
+    M., at ranges between 9,000 yards and 12,000 yards. During this
+    time the British fleet made alterations of course from southeast
+    by east to west (168� degrees) in the endeavor to close, but the
+    enemy constantly turned away and opened the range under cover of
+    destroyer attacks and smoke screens. The alterations of course
+    had the effect of bringing the British fleet (which commenced
+    the action in a position of advantage on the bow of the enemy)
+    to a quarterly bearing from the enemy's battle line, but at the
+    same time placed us between the enemy and his bases.
+
+
+JELLICOE'S NIGHT MANOEUVRE
+
+As the darkness came on, it is evident that these tactics on the part of
+the Germans, with increasing threats of torpedo attacks, became more and
+more baffling to the British command, and then came the crucial decision
+which ended the battle. Admiral Jellicoe reports:
+
+    At 9 P. M. the enemy was entirely out of sight, and the threat
+    of torpedo boat destroyer attacks during the rapidly approaching
+    darkness made it necessary for me to dispose of the fleet for
+    the night, with a view to its safety from such attacks, while
+    providing for a renewal of action at daylight. I accordingly
+    manoeuvred to remain between the enemy and his bases, placing
+    our flotillas in a position in which they would afford
+    protection to the fleet from destroyer attack and at the same
+    time be favorably situated for attacking the enemy's heavy
+    ships.
+
+Concerning this stage of the action Admiral Jellicoe in his report
+quotes Vice Admiral Beatty as follows:
+
+    In view of the gathering darkness and the fact that our
+    strategical position was such as to make it appear certain that
+    we should locate the enemy at daylight under most favorable
+    circumstances, I did not consider it desirable or proper to
+    close the enemy battle fleet during the dark hours.
+
+Here the British Admiral and his second in command were in accord, but
+the responsibility for the resultant movement of the British fleet must
+rest with Admiral Jellicoe as chief in command. By his order the British
+fleet steamed through the dark hours at moderate speed on southerly
+courses some ninety miles from the battlefield. Although the British
+fleet was thus placed in the general direction of Heligoland, this meant
+that Admiral Jellicoe had relinquished all touch with the German fleet,
+and this left the German fleet practically free to proceed to its bases,
+which was done without any interference, bringing in their damaged
+ships. The Germans even attempted to tow the wreck of the L�tzow into
+port, but she sank on the way in.
+
+This move to the southward by the British fleet ended the battle of
+Jutland. In the night there were isolated clashes of small fry, the
+adventures of lame ducks, &c., but there was nothing that affected the
+tactical results, and nothing that was in any sense a part of a battle
+of fleets. None of these encounters even indicated the location of the
+German fleet.
+
+
+DEPARTURE OF GERMAN FLEET
+
+At the early coming of light in these latitudes (about 3 A. M., June 1)
+the British fleet was to the southward and westward of the Horn Reef,
+about ninety miles from the battlefield. The British fleet then retraced
+its course to the battlefield. This return of the British fleet, by the
+same lane it followed in the night, did not give much opportunity to
+regain touch with the German fleet. Admiral Jellicoe reports that he
+remained in the vicinity of the battlefield until 11 A. M. when he was
+"reluctantly compelled to the conclusion that the High Seas Fleet had
+returned into port." Soon afterward the British fleet proceeded to its
+bases.
+
+In the early accounts of the battle there were fanciful tales of pursuit
+of the German ships through the night, and even after Admiral Jellicoe's
+report, the British public did not at first realize the situation at the
+end of the action. But, after a time, when this was better understood,
+there arose one of the greatest naval controversies that have ever
+agitated Great Britain, centred around the alleged "defensive" naval
+policy for maintaining the supremacy of Great Britain on the seas--the
+pros and cons as to closing the Germans while there was light, and
+keeping in touch through the dark hours. With that discussion this
+article has nothing to do, but the tactical situation at the end of the
+battle should be stated.
+
+At 9 o'clock the German fleet was to the westward. The British fleet was
+between it and all its bases. The British fleet was superior in speed,
+and had such an overwhelming superiority in ships and guns that it could
+afford to discard its damaged ships without impairing this superiority.
+The British Admiral had plenty of light cruisers and destroyers to throw
+out a screen and to maintain touch with the German fleet. There
+undoubtedly was a proportion of damaged ships in the German fleet; and
+this, with its original inferior fleet speed, would have made it a hard
+task for the German fleet to attempt to ease around the British fleet
+and reach its bases. These conditions were in favor of keeping in touch
+with the German fleet--and it is needless to point out the great results
+that would have come from a successful action with the German fleet in
+the morning.
+
+On the other hand, one should state the elements which influenced
+Admiral Jellicoe's decision, first of all to safeguard his ships, and
+yet remain at a distance in the direction of a German base. Upon his
+fleet depended the established British control of the seas. Many of his
+ships had received hard knocks--and many were short of ammunition and
+fuel. Above all, there was the ominous threat of torpedo attacks in the
+night.
+
+These were the conditions of the problem that confronted the British
+Admiral, brought about by the culminating tactics of the battle. Admiral
+Jellicoe's decision was that the situation did not justify him in
+imperiling his fleet and with it the naval supremacy of Great Britain.
+
+In this greatest of all naval actions it is interesting to study the
+course of the battle in comparison with pre-war calculations. The
+outstanding feature, the collapse of the three British battle cruisers,
+was not entirely unexpected by naval opinion. The battle cruiser had
+found a great vogue, especially in England, but before this battle a
+reaction had already set in, aided by the fact that the Lion had been
+put out by weaker gunfire in the Dogger Bank chase. Many naval men had
+come to believe that the battle cruiser was only a cruiser after
+all--though a valuable cruiser--and not up to taking a place in a real
+line of battle.
+
+More surprising was the fact that at no stage of the action did the
+heavier British guns dominate the German guns. This was evident in the
+first phase, when Admiral Beatty's six battle cruisers were fighting on
+parallel courses with Admiral Hipper's five battle cruisers. The British
+ships carried thirty-two 13.5-inch and sixteen 12-inch guns, against
+their enemy's twenty-four 12-inch guns and twenty 11-inch guns.
+
+In the second stage of the action on northerly courses, when Admiral
+Beatty's command was engaging the van of the German fleet, the four
+Queen Elizabeths, with their thirty-two 15-inch guns, were in position,
+and there was nothing heavier than a 12-inch gun in the German fleet.
+
+In the third phase, after Vice Admiral Beatty's command had joined the
+main body of Admiral Jellicoe's fleet, the superiority of the British in
+heavy guns was enormous, as can be seen from the table on Page 338. It
+is true that the Germans took advantage of the mist and smoke as
+described. Yet, from Admiral Jellicoe's report, it is evident that there
+were many chances to let off salvos at the enemy ships, and he reports
+the ranges as very moderate, ("between 9,000 and 12,000 yards.")
+
+
+WEIGHT OF METAL HURLED
+
+As to the shooting on both sides, it is evident that there must be a
+great deal of hard thinking going on in the navies of the world as to
+improvement in this respect. The weight of metal hurled into the sea was
+prodigious. "In the first and second phases it is estimated that each
+of the ships under Vice Admiral Beatty and Rear Admiral Evan-Thomas
+fired about 600 tons and the Germans quite as much if not more."[6]
+
+The battleships stood up well, and everything in the battle confirmed
+the judgment of those who had pinned their faith to the battleships as
+the essential of naval power.
+
+The two most revolutionary elements in naval warfare were present, but
+they cannot be said to have exerted any tactical effect on the battle.
+The limited use of the airplane has been told, and a Zeppelin was
+reported at about 4 A. M. June 1, which may have observed the location
+of the British fleet. U-boats were reported early in the action, but
+there is no hint that they took any real part in the battle. Yet this
+does not mean that they are not to be considered. With the great
+improvements in the type, it is probable that in many conditions the
+U-boat will be a factor in battles of fleets, and such contingencies
+should be safeguarded in advance.
+
+The destroyer came to its own in the battle of Jutland as an auxiliary
+of the battle fleet, both for offense and defense. The whole course of
+the action proved that a screen of destroyers was absolutely necessary.
+For offense, it might be argued truthfully that, of the great number of
+torpedoes used, very few hit anything. The Marlborough was the only
+capital ship reported struck in the real action, and she was able
+afterward to take some part in the battle, and then get back to her
+base. It is supposed that the damaged Pommern may have been so destroyed
+later, and torpedoes may have struck other scattered marks. But above
+all things stands out the fact that it was the threat of night torpedo
+attacks by destroyers which made the British fleet withdraw from the
+battlefield.
+
+There is no question of the fact that this withdrawal of the British
+fleet had a great moral effect on Germany. The announcement to the
+people and to the Reichstag had a heartening effect on the Germans at
+just the time they needed some such stimulant. But the actual tactical
+result of the battle was indecisive. It may be said the Germans had so
+manoeuvred their fleet that a detached part of the superior British
+force was cut up, but the damage was not enough to impair the
+established superiority of the British fleet, and the end of the battle
+left the British control of the sea absolutely unchanged.
+
+The following is the British statement of losses:
+
+    BATTLE CRUISERS
+                            Tonnage Armor  Main
+                                    Belt. Battery.  Sp'd.  Men. C'p'd
+    Queen Mary              27,000  9 in. 8 13.5-in. 28   1,000   '13
+    Indefatigable           18,750  8 in. 8 12-in.   26     899   '11
+    Invincible              17,250  7 in. 8 12-in.   26     750   '08
+
+    ARMORED CRUISERS
+    Defense                 14,600  6 in. 4 9.2-in.  23     755   '08
+    Black Prince            13,550  6 in. 6 9.2-in.  20.5   704   '06
+    Warrior                 13,550  6 in. 6 9.2-in.  22.9   704   '08
+
+    DESTROYERS
+    Tipperary                1,900  ...   ...        31     160   '14
+    Turbulent                  ...  ...   ...        ..     ...    ..
+    Fortune                    920  ...   ...        29.50  100   '12
+    Sp'w Hawk                  950  ...   3 4-in.    31.32  100   '12
+    Ardent                     950  ...   3 4-in.    31.32  100   '12
+    Nomad                      ...  ...   ...        ...    ...    ..
+    Nestor                     ...  ...   ...        ...    ...    ..
+    Shark                      950  ...   3 4-in.    31.32  100   '12
+
+The losses admitted by the German Admiralty are:
+
+    BATTLESHIP
+                              Tonnage.  Armament.             Date
+                                                   Sp'd.   Completion.
+    Pommern                   13,040     4 11-in.   19         1907
+                                        14 6.7-in.
+
+    BATTLE CRUISER
+    Luetzow                   28,000     8 12-in.   27         1915
+                                        12 6-in.
+
+    LIGHT CRUISERS
+    Rostock                    4,820    12 4.1-in.  27.3       1914
+    Frauenlob                  2,656    10 4.1-in.  21.5       1903
+
+    NEW LIGHT CRUISERS
+    Elbing                     ...      ...         ...        ...
+    Wiesbaden                  ...      ...         ...        ...
+
+    DESTROYERS
+    Five                       ...      ...         ...        ...
+
+    TOTAL TONNAGE LOST
+    British                                                117,150
+    German                                                  60,720
+
+    TOTAL PERSONNEL LOST
+    British                                                  6,105
+    German                                                   2,414
+
+NOTE BY EDITOR.--No official confirmation of the German losses was
+published. The British Admiralty maintains that the losses, including
+only German vessels "seen to sink," aggregated 109,220 tons. Other
+Admiralty claims were that the Germans lost one dreadnought of the
+Kronprinz type, 25,480 tons; one of the Heligoland type, 22,440 tons;
+battleship Pommern, 13,000 tons; battle cruiser L�tzow, 28,000 tons;
+five Rostocks, 24,500 tons; destroyers, 4,000 tons; submarines, 800
+tons; total, 117,220 tons.
+
+
+British Analysis of the Jutland Battle
+
+Expert British Admiralty writers do not concur in all the conclusions of
+our contributor, Mr. Frothingham, especially where he refers to the
+withdrawal of the British fleet.
+
+The official report of Admiral Jellicoe states that "German vessels were
+entirely out of the fight at 9 o'clock," and that "the withdrawal of the
+British fleet was a 'manoeuvre' so as to remain between the Germans and
+their bases."
+
+Sir Cyprian Bridge, a British naval expert, in referring to the
+situation of the German fleet when darkness fell after the battle,
+writes: "It was a beaten and a broken fleet that escaped from the trap,"
+(referring to the British Battle Fleet at the north and the battle
+cruisers at the south, acting in strategic harmony.) "Many of its units
+had been lost. Its gunnery had become demoralized, and no one can blame
+its discretion in making for home at its top-most speed and leaving the
+British fleet once more in undisputed command of the North Sea. For
+this, in a word, was the result of the battle. * * * Whatever their
+effort signified, it failed to shake our hold upon the sea. * * * We
+have fought many indecisive actions, * * * few which have more fully
+freed us of all fear of what the enemy fleet might be able to
+accomplish. By such standards the battle off Jutland will well hold its
+own against all but a few of our most famous victories."
+
+John Buchan published a description of the battle of Jutland by
+authority of the British Government. He, a historical authority, says:
+"The result of the battle of Jutland was that Britain was more confirmed
+than ever in her mastery of the sea. * * * From a technical point of
+view the battle appears as an example of a tactical division of the
+fleet, undertaken in order to coax a laggard enemy to battle. * * * It
+defeated, utterly defeated, the German plan. If it was not--as with two
+hours more daylight it would have been--a complete destruction of
+Germany's sea power, it was a complete demonstration of Britain's
+crushing superiority."
+
+Arthur Pollen, an expert naval writer in British periodicals, referred
+to the results of the battle in these words: "Thus the Germans, who had
+entered the North Sea, according to their own account, to engage and
+destroy the British ships that have been systematically sweeping the
+waters north and east of the Horn Reef, attained the first part of their
+objective only. They did succeed in engaging. But the consequences were
+disastrous. The plan of overwhelming the British fast division with
+superior numbers was defeated by the masterly handling of the British
+force, combined with the effective use that force made of its artillery.
+So far from Sir David Beatty having been overwhelmed, he succeeded
+admirably in his main object, which was to draw the German fleet into a
+position where Sir John Jellicoe's squadrons could engage it. The enemy
+was only saved from total destruction by mist and by the approach of
+night. Not only did his whole plan miscarry, but he was driven
+ignominiously from the field, and with a very heavy loss in ships and
+men."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[2] Report of Vice Admiral Beatty.
+
+[3] Report of Vice Admiral Beatty.
+
+[4] Report of Vice Admiral Beatty.
+
+[5] Report of Admiral Jellicoe.
+
+[6] "Naval Power in the War." Lieut. Commander Charles C. Gill, U. S. N.
+
+
+
+
+A Leading German Churchman Defends Poison Gas
+
+The International Committee of the Red Cross at Geneva early in 1918
+issued an appeal against the use of poisonous gases. The Rev. Dr. Balan,
+President of the Consistory for the Prussian Province of Posen and head
+of the Protestant Church in that province, refused, "after
+conscientiously examining it before God," to indorse or circulate the
+appeal, and wrote as follows to the President of the International
+Committee:
+
+    The first question that occurred to me on reading your appeal
+    was, Is it really a more inhumane method of waging war when
+    Germany, in defending herself against an immensely superior
+    force of enemies in a fight for existence forced upon her, makes
+    use also of poisonous gas, than when her enemies pour over our
+    armies, so much weaker in numbers, devastating and
+    disintegrating showers of iron, lasting days and weeks, and to
+    which we cannot reply in such volume because we have not so many
+    human hands at our disposal for the manufacture of munitions as
+    our enemies have? I say, No. I ask further, Is it more humane to
+    set the whole world in motion in order by starving it to prevent
+    a great nation that, with its noble, chivalrous Kaiser at its
+    head, has manifested clearly enough its unbounded love of peace,
+    from taking the place to which it is entitled by the side of
+    other nations than when this nation uses every means of defense
+    that its enlightened scientists have discovered? I say again,
+    No.
+
+Dr. Balan maintains in the further course of his letter that the enemies
+of Germany cannot expect to be treated humanely in any special manner,
+for all war is inhumane, because they have from the outset persistently
+and constantly utterly disregarded the laws of nations and the "sacred
+sign of the Red Cross." In conclusion this Prussian church dignitary
+informs the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross
+that if he and his friends really wish to render the whole suffering
+population of Europe a truly great service, they should do their utmost
+to bring home to the French people, who are so deeply to be pitied, the
+fact that the phantom which, deluded by the lies of their and England's
+rulers, they still pursue is dragging them every day to deeper and more
+hopeless misery. At the very moment that France realizes this, Dr. Balan
+asserts, there will be peace. He explains that the phantom pursued by
+the French is "the recovery of two provinces that have been German from
+time immemorial, and of which we were once robbed against all right and
+justice."
+
+
+
+
+Great Britain's War Work in 1917
+
+War Cabinet's Official Survey of Military Events and Far-Reaching
+Economic Changes
+
+    _A report issued by the British War Cabinet on March 18, 1918,
+    in the form of a Blue Book of 200 pages or more, presents a
+    historical review of what Great Britain accomplished in 1917,
+    with a survey of the changes that came over the character of the
+    war in that year, and of the far-reaching Governmental and
+    economic developments that took place in the British Nation. As
+    the introductory chapter is in itself a comprehensive summary,
+    the main portions of it are here presented._
+
+
+The year 1917 saw two marked developments. On the one hand there was a
+profound change in the character of the war itself. The inauguration of
+a general attack upon the sea communications of the Allies through the
+unrestricted use of the submarine greatly widened the scope of warlike
+operations and forced the people of the British Isles to expend an
+immense amount of time and energy on counterpreparations of all kinds.
+The Russian revolution completely upset the allied plan for a concerted
+offensive against the Central Powers on all fronts during the Spring and
+Summer of 1917, and eventually led to such a disintegration of the
+Russian Army as enabled the German Government to transfer the greater
+part of its military resources from the eastern to the western theatre
+of war. Finally, the overthrow of the Russian autocracy, coupled with
+the entry of the United States into the war and the adhesion of Greece,
+Brazil, China, and other neutrals to the allied cause, widened the war
+itself from a battle for the liberty of small nations and the defense of
+public right in Europe into a world-wide struggle for the triumph of a
+free civilization and democratic government.
+
+The year brought a gradual growth of inter-ally co-operation and
+creation of the Imperial War Cabinet. This development and the sessions
+of the Imperial War Conference were the natural outcome of the spirit of
+unity and self-sacrifice which has enabled the peoples of the British
+Commonwealth to produce no less than 7,500,000 men to fight for freedom
+in addition to vast quantities of munitions and supplies of all kinds.
+So successful was this experiment in the opinion of its members that it
+was decided unanimously that there ought to be an annual meeting of the
+Imperial Cabinet and that the Prime Ministers of the empire or their
+specially delegated representatives, together with the Ministers in
+charge of the great imperial offices, should be its _ex officio_
+members.
+
+
+War Cabinet Reorganization
+
+Another sphere in which reorganization and expansion were necessary was
+that of home affairs. The period began with a reconstruction of the
+administrative machinery at the centre. It had become increasingly
+evident that the older system under which the supreme direction of the
+war rested, with a Cabinet consisting of the departmental chiefs under
+the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister, was not sufficiently prompt and
+elastic for the conduct of a war which involved the mobilization and
+direction of the resources not only of the United Kingdom but of the
+British Empire. Even the formation of a smaller Cabinet committee of the
+departmental Ministers chiefly concerned in the war did not meet the
+needs of the case. With the advent of the new Government a modification
+was introduced whereby the supreme direction of the war was intrusted to
+a small War Cabinet, freed from all administrative duties, and yet in
+the closest touch with all departmental Ministers, while administrative
+responsibility was placed in the hands of Ministers who were left free
+to devote their whole time to this aspect of Governmental work.
+
+By this arrangement the War Cabinet was able to give all its attention
+to the task of co-ordination and direction, and so make more effective
+use of the immense resources which the empire had gradually produced
+during the preceding years. It also made it easier to create a number of
+much-needed new administrative departments. The most important of these
+were the Ministry of Shipping, the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of
+Food, and the Ministry of Pensions, to which were added at later dates
+the Ministry of Reconstruction, the Ministry of National Service, and
+the Ministry of the Air. * * *
+
+
+The Man-Power Problem
+
+The first problem was that of man power. During the preceding year all
+sources which could be tapped without trenching upon the essential
+supplies of the allied armies and the nation had been exhausted, and the
+question had narrowed itself down to that of finding substitutes for fit
+men of military age still engaged in industry. An attempt was,
+therefore, made to enroll a large army of volunteers to take the place
+of the men called to the army. Partly owing to difficulties in
+withdrawing labor from the great war industries and partly owing to the
+limited supply of labor, great obstacles presented themselves in the
+execution of this scheme. But though the plan of enrolling an army of
+industrial volunteers had eventually to be abandoned the system of
+dilution and substitution was steadily carried out, and 820,646 men of
+all categories were taken for the service of the army during the year.
+
+The needs of the army, however, were not the only drain. A large amount
+of additional labor was required for agriculture, timber production, and
+iron ore mining, as well as for industrial purposes. The needs in these
+respects also were gradually supplied by reducing unessential industries
+and by organizing supplies of soldier, civilian, and foreign labor.
+Investigations were carried out as to the use of labor in different
+trades, and trade committees representing employers and employed were
+organized to deal with economy of man-power in particular industries.
+The evidence so obtained, while it demonstrated clearly the complexity
+and difficulty of a system of compulsory national service in industry,
+made it clear that in order to effect the best strategic use of the man
+power of the country, the National Service Department required extension
+rather than restriction. Accordingly, in August, 1917, the department
+was reorganized as a Ministry, recruiting was transferred from the War
+Office, and arrangements were made to insure effective co-operation
+between the Ministry and the employment exchanges for the period of the
+war.
+
+
+Munitions
+
+Notwithstanding the tremendous calls upon the man power of the country
+for the ever-increasing needs of the army, the supply of munitions has
+steadily increased. In addition to large consignments to other fronts of
+the war, there has been an increase of 30 per cent. in all kinds of
+guns and howitzers, and of over 100 per cent. in heavy guns and
+howitzers in the recent offensive in France, as compared with those of
+last year. The weight of shell filled per month has been more than
+doubled since 1916. The output of high explosives has been sufficient to
+meet the increased demands of our armies, to build up stocks, and to
+supply part of the needs of the Allies. There has been a steady
+improvement in the detonating value of gun ammunition and a continuous
+reduction in the number of premature explosions. In addition to guns,
+shells, and rifles, the demands of the military and naval forces during
+the year for aircraft, tanks, mechanical transport, railway material,
+and equipment of every sort and kind have been endless. Despite the
+immensity of the demand, it has, on the whole, been supplied. The
+British Army is now probably the best provided of all the armies in the
+field, not only in technical equipment but in clothing, food, and
+similar provision.
+
+
+Fighting the Submarine
+
+The most difficult problems which confronted the Administration in the
+early part of 1917 were those which arose from the growing inadequacy of
+the overseas communications of the Allies--problems which were
+aggravated by the introduction of the unlimited submarine campaign on
+Feb. 1. The expansion of the armies, the ever-increasing demand for
+warlike material, the fall in production, especially of foodstuffs in
+all allied countries through the calling of men to the colors, and the
+decline in cultivation, coupled with the diversion of a large part of
+the shipping of the Allies to purely military and naval transportation,
+had already put a severe strain on the shipping resources of the
+country. The immediate effect of the new campaign was to double the rate
+of losses which had been incurred during 1916, and these losses rose
+rapidly to a climax in March and April.
+
+The countermeasures which were adopted by the navy, however, were
+successful in reducing the attack to manageable proportions, though they
+involved a drain upon the national resources both in man power and
+material which is often not fully recognized, and which is by no means
+the least important of the contributions of the British Empire to the
+war. The number of men engaged either in the navy or in supplying naval
+needs now exceeds a million. Unfortunately it is not possible to set
+forth in detail the immense scope of the Admiralty operations. But they
+include a very great addition to the armed craft in the service of the
+navy from torpedo boat destroyers to mine-sweepers, airships, and
+airplanes, and the organization of a vast system of patrols and
+mine-sweepers. As a result of the self-sacrificing devotion on the part
+of the men of the navy and the auxiliary services, and the steadfast
+performance in all weathers and seasons of their monotonous and
+dangerous duties, the enemy never succeeded in interfering to any vital
+degree with the sea communications of the Allies.
+
+
+The Shipping Problem
+
+The naval preparations, however, were only part of the measures which
+were necessary to deal with the shipping situation. The second step was
+to create the Ministry of Shipping. At the end of 1916 the tonnage
+requisitioned by the State was less than one-half of the whole, and this
+was mainly used on purely military and naval services for the British
+Government or the Allies. During 1917 practically the whole of the
+remainder of the British ocean-going mercantile marine was brought under
+requisition at Blue Book rates and organized as a national war service.
+The Dominion Government also liberated much overseas shipping for war
+purposes, and neutral shipping was brought as far as possible into
+allied service. A close scrutiny was then made of the countries from
+which the necessary imports could be derived, and shipping was
+concentrated on the shortest routes, thereby multiplying the number of
+voyages the ships could make in the year. Leading regulations were
+revised, which increased the carrying capacity from the 1913 figure of
+106 to 150 tons per 100 tons net of shipping entering our ports, and
+arrangements were made for shortening the time occupied in the turn
+round of ships at the ports. In the latter part of the year the convoy
+system was introduced, which reduced the shipping losses, though it
+involved certain delays to individual ships.
+
+In addition to these improvements in the methods of using shipping, a
+large program of shipbuilding was put into operation, not only in
+British yards but in all the available yards in neutral countries as
+well. To insure greater speed in building a large number of the new
+ships were ordered to a standard design. In spite of the difficulties of
+all kinds which have confronted the production of ships, notably the
+shortage in the supply of steel plates and of labor, the output has
+steadily mounted. During 1917 1,163,500 tons of new ships were built, as
+against 542,000 tons in 1916, and by the end of 1918 the rate of output
+of all ships, war and merchant, ought to be double that of any previous
+year in British history. In order to make possible this increase
+forty-five new berths have been provided in private shipyards, and the
+construction of three new national shipyards, containing thirty-four
+berths, has been begun. Besides this effort at home 175,000 tons of
+shipping were purchased abroad, an amount which would have been very
+greatly exceeded if the United States had not taken over the whole
+program of ships being constructed on British account when they entered
+the war.
+
+The third step in dealing with the shipping problem was a drastic
+reduction of imports. In 1916 imports were cut down by 1,600,000 tons.
+Early in 1917 a committee was appointed which recommended a preliminary
+program of reductions amounting to 6,000,000 tons. This was approved and
+came into operation on March 1. The program was shortly afterward
+increased by further severe restrictions of the imports of timber. The
+outcome of this policy has been that practically all cargo space is now
+reserved for goods carried directly or indirectly on Government account,
+and consists almost entirely of essential foodstuffs, raw materials
+required for the manufacture of national necessities and military needs
+or of munitions of war. The chief reductions were in timber, paper,
+feeding stuffs, and brewing materials. The unfortunate but inevitable
+consequence of the restriction of imports and of the diversion of
+shipping from trading to war routes has been a large diminution in
+exports.
+
+The fourth step was to secure a large increase in the production of food
+and raw materials at home. There is now good reason to expect that in
+1918 the tillage area in the United Kingdom will exceed that of 1916 by
+over 3,000,000 acres. These satisfactory results have only been possible
+through the public-spirited activity of large numbers of people
+throughout the country, including farmers, workers, and organizers, to
+whom the nation has good reason to be grateful.
+
+
+Control of Food Consumption
+
+The fifth step in meeting the shipping shortage was to expand Government
+control over the distribution of all the chief national supplies, partly
+in order to secure that the best use was made of what was available and
+partly in order to prevent waste. The most important measure in this
+sphere was the creation of the Ministry of Food. Its first step was to
+insure an adequate supply of breadstuffs. This was accomplished by
+raising the percentage of milling of wheat, by requiring the dilution of
+wheat with other cereals and by an increased program of imports. At the
+same time a scale of voluntary rations was announced and an active
+campaign was started in order to secure observance of them. The use of
+wheat, oats, barley, and maize for animal food was also restricted or
+prohibited. As a result, at the beginning of the Winter of 1917 the
+national reserve of breadstuffs was in a more satisfactory position than
+any time since the outbreak of war, the wheat stocks alone being
+3,000,000 quarters in excess of the stocks in the corresponding period
+of 1916. A serious shortage, however, in the French and Italian harvests
+and the needs of our other allies placed a heavy demand upon our
+supplies of wheat, and toward the end of the year considerable
+quantities were diverted to their use. During the year the control of
+the Ministry was extended to cover all imported foodstuffs, practically
+all of which are now purchased on the national account, and an
+increasing measure of control has been established over home-grown
+cereals, meat, and dairy produce. In order to prevent the artificial
+raising of prices through competition, these purchases are now carried
+out in concert with our allies through inter-ally committees. As the
+year progressed the need for greater economy in consumption than was
+apparently attainable by voluntary means and the difficulties in
+distributing equitably the restricted supplies compelled the
+introduction of a system of rationing. The system began with sugar, and
+at the end of the year was gradually being extended to cover other
+staple foodstuffs.
+
+
+Beer and Other Articles
+
+Another large economy was effected early in the year by a reduction of
+the manufacture of beer from the 1914 total of about 36,000,000 barrels
+and the 1916 total of 26,000,000 barrels to a total of some 14,000,000
+standard barrels. The manufacture of spirits for human consumption has
+been stopped. Strong measures have also been taken to restrict the
+consumption of coal, oils, timber, cotton, and other articles. At the
+beginning of the year the coal mines and iron mines were taken over for
+the period of the war, and Government control over the available
+supplies was established. A system of distribution of coal was then
+brought into operation, which has not only insured all necessary
+supplies, but has effected economy in railway transportation. It is
+estimated that this reform will result in an economy of no less than
+700,000,000 railway ton miles in the carriage of coal. A Timber
+Controller was appointed to ration the greatly restricted supplies of
+wood. The consumption of petrol for private use was gradually curtailed
+until it was finally forbidden. Much has also been done to economize
+labor and material through the more active control in the national
+interest both of railway and canal transportation.
+
+
+Naval and Military Results
+
+The result of these drastic measures has been that, despite all the
+enemy efforts to win a victory by the destruction of the merchant
+shipping of the world, the British people have been able to prosecute
+the war with the utmost vigor during the whole year. The navy has
+continued to hold its predominant position at sea, has denied the oceans
+to the enemy for the purpose of transporting troops or supplies and has
+exercised an ever-growing pressure upon him through the blockade. At the
+same time, though the submarine menace has not yet been mastered, the
+supply both of the military expeditions in all parts of the world and of
+the civilian population at home has been maintained. It may, indeed, be
+said with confidence that as the result of the work of the navy, of the
+merchant marine, and of many civilian sections of the community the
+German attempt to win the war by the destruction of the merchant
+shipping of the world has been definitely baffled.
+
+In the military sphere, though no decision has been reached, great
+results have also been achieved. At the outset of the year the military
+prospects before the Allies were good. Their plans, however, for a
+converging attack on the Central Empires on all fronts were upset by the
+disorganization of the Russian armies which followed the revolution--a
+disorganization which ended in such complete dissolution that the
+Germans were enabled to transfer a large part of their eastern forces to
+the western front by the end of the year. None the less, during the
+whole of 1917 the German forces have been steadily pressed back from one
+highly fortified position to another in face of the systematic assaults
+of the allied armies. The enemy, indeed, has consistently borne tribute
+to the terrible power of the British attacks and to the heavy losses,
+both on land and in the air, which they have inflicted upon him. The
+chief successes have been gained at Arras, Messines, and in Flanders.
+
+
+Non-European Theatres
+
+On the other hand, there has been a complete transformation of the scene
+in the non-European theatres of the war. After a long period of
+comparative stagnation and failure, British arms have once more advanced
+to victory. The last of the German colonies--German East Africa--has
+been cleared of the enemy; Mesopotamia, with its capital, Bagdad, has
+been rescued from the devastating rule of the Turk, and Southern
+Palestine, including Jerusalem, after many centuries of effort, has been
+liberated by Christian hands. British prestige, indeed, in the East,
+which had fallen to a low ebb, has been completely restored; Germanic
+hopes of southeastern conquest have been rudely shattered through the
+withdrawal of over 100,000 square miles of territory from German
+control, and the capacity of Turkey to continue the war has been gravely
+impaired. The military results of the year are thus very considerable.
+British armies have fought not in France alone, but in Italy, Macedonia,
+Mesopotamia, Palestine, and East Africa, and from being a combination of
+peaceful communities the empire stands forth as the most powerful of all
+the Commonwealths which are withstanding Prussian aggression. The extent
+of this effort, the unfailing courage and morale of the British armies,
+and the clear determination of all the British peoples to accept no
+peace which does not restore national liberty and public right afford
+ground for confidence that the Allies will eventually secure the purpose
+for which they entered the war.
+
+
+Social and Economic Changes
+
+There is a nonmilitary aspect of the administrative developments of the
+year which it is important to note. In themselves these developments
+have been the result of the determination of the people to leave
+nothing undone which could contribute to the winning of the war. None
+the less they are bound to produce lasting and far-reaching effects on
+the social and economic life of the community. No record of the year
+would be complete which did not point out the changes which have been
+wrought in the structure of society by the experiences of the war.
+
+In the first place, the organic life of the community has been greatly
+strengthened. On the one hand, not only have enormous numbers of men,
+and latterly of women also, been mobilized for military and naval
+purposes, but the vast majority of the people are now working directly
+or indirectly on public service. If they are not in the army, the navy,
+or the civil service, they are growing food, or making munitions, or
+engaged in the work of organizing, transporting, or distributing the
+national supplies.
+
+On the other hand the State has taken control for the period of the war
+over certain national industries, such as the railways, shipping, coal,
+and iron mines, and the great majority of engineering businesses. It has
+also made itself responsible for the securing of adequate quantities of
+certain staple commodities and services, such as food, coal, timber, and
+other raw materials, railroad and sea transportation, and for
+distributing the available supplies justly as between individual and
+individual in the national interest.
+
+
+Regulating Prices
+
+The Government has further had to regulate prices and prevent
+profiteering. It has done so partly by controlling freights, fixing
+maximum prices to the home producer, and regulating wholesale and retail
+charges, and partly by its monopoly of imported supplies. The
+information which the Government has obtained as to sources of supply,
+consumption, and cost of production, and the relations it has entered
+into with other Governments as to the mutual purchase of essential
+products which they jointly control, have, for the first time, brought
+within the sphere of practical politics the possibility of fixing
+relatively stable world prices for fundamental staples. The State has
+even taken the drastic step of fixing the price of the four-pound loaf
+at 9d., at a considerable loss to itself.
+
+Thus the war, and especially the year 1917, has brought about a
+transformation of the social and administrative structure of the State,
+much of which is bound to be permanent. Owing to the imperative
+importance of speed there has perhaps been an undue expansion of the
+function of the Central Government. But a very large amount of work has
+been devolved on to local authorities and to new bodies, such as the War
+Agricultural Executive Committees or the Local Food Control Committees.
+Taking the year as a whole the Administration has been brought into far
+closer contact with every aspect of the life of the people, the
+provinces and the metropolis have been linked more closely together, and
+the whole community has received an education in the problems of
+practical democracy such as it has never had before.
+
+
+The Industrial Problem
+
+In the second place, the war has profoundly altered the conditions of
+the industrial problem. Since 1914 the community itself has become by
+far the greatest employer of labor. It has assumed control for the
+duration of the war over a great number of the larger private
+undertakings, it has limited profits by imposing an 80 per cent. excess
+profits tax, and it has intervened to prevent profiteering in the
+essential requirements of the nation. Further, the regulation of the
+trade unions have been suspended for the duration of the war, industry
+has been diluted throughout, new methods and new industries have been
+introduced, labor-saving machinery has been everywhere installed, and
+the speed of production and the number and skill of workers has greatly
+risen. The nation today is far better organized and far more productive
+than it has ever been before.
+
+With the advent of the new Government at the end of 1916 a Ministry of
+Labor was created to deal with labor questions. It is still early to
+speak of the results of its work, but an important step toward the
+creation of better conditions in the industrial world has been taken in
+the adoption by the Government of the report of the Whitley Committee,
+which recommended the development of machinery in the shape of
+industrial councils, representatives of employers and employed
+throughout the country, whereby it should be possible to solve the
+difficulties which will arise by the process of peaceful conference and
+negotiation in place of the methods of industrial war. Despite all
+difficulties and the recent increase in industrial unrest, it is
+probably true to say that as the result of the war there is now a better
+understanding both by capital and labor of their mutual problems than at
+any previous time.
+
+
+1917 in Retrospect
+
+Looked at as a whole, 1917 has been a remarkable year. During it the war
+has assumed more and more the character of a struggle on the part of all
+the free nations for the final destruction of militarism and the
+establishment of an international order which will give real securities
+for liberty and public right throughout the world. The nations of which
+the British Commonwealth is composed have been drawn together in their
+joint effort for the common cause. And within the United Kingdom there
+has been a growth in the sense of public service and of the power to
+improve and adapt economic and social and administrative methods which
+will make it far easier to build up a healthier and more equitably
+organized society in future.
+
+
+
+
+THE BATTLE OF CAMBRAI
+
+Full Text of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig's Report of a Victory and
+Reverse
+
+    _The battle of Cambrai began on Nov. 20, 1917, with the
+    successful surprise attack of the British Third Army under Sir
+    Julian Byng, and came to an end on the night of Dec. 4-5 with
+    the withdrawal of British troops from Bourlon Wood to "a more
+    compact line on the Flesqui�res Ridge." A German attack, which
+    began on Nov. 30, had succeeded in wresting away a large portion
+    of the British gains. This reverse was later the subject of
+    British Parliamentary inquiry, but the commission found no
+    serious military errors to censure. Sir Douglas Haig's official
+    report to the Secretary of War is printed below in full. It
+    acquires a fresh interest from the fact that the terrain fought
+    over is in part the same as that across which the Germans have
+    since swept in their Spring offensive of 1918._
+
+
+    _General Headquarters,
+    British Armies in the Field,
+    Feb. 20, 1918._
+
+My Lord: I have the honor to submit the following report on the
+operations on the Cambrai front during November and December, 1917:
+
+1. As pointed out in my last dispatch, the object of these operations
+was to gain a local success by a sudden attack at a point where the
+enemy did not expect it. Our repeated attacks in Flanders and those of
+our allies elsewhere had brought about large concentrations of the
+enemy's forces on the threatened fronts, with a consequent reduction in
+the garrisons of certain other sectors of his line.
+
+Of these weakened sectors the Cambrai front had been selected as the
+most suitable for the surprise operation in contemplation. The ground
+there was, on the whole, favorable for the employment of tanks, which
+were to play an important part in the enterprise, and facilities existed
+for the concealment of the necessary preparations for the attack.
+
+If, after breaking through the German defense systems on this front, we
+could secure Bourlon to the north, and establish a good flank position
+to the east, in the direction of Cambrai, we should be well placed to
+exploit the situation locally between Bourlon and the Sens�e River and
+to the northwest. The capture of Cambrai itself was subsidiary to this
+operation, the object of our advance toward that town being primarily to
+cover our flank and puzzle the enemy regarding our intentions.
+
+The enemy was laying out fresh lines of defense behind those which he
+had already completed on the Cambrai front; and it was to be expected
+that his troops would be redistributed as soon as our pressure in
+Flanders was relaxed. He had already brought large forces from Russia in
+exchange for divisions exhausted in the struggle in the western theatre,
+and it was practically certain that heavy reinforcements would be
+brought from east to west during the Winter. Moreover, his tired
+divisions, after a Winter's rest, would recover their efficiency.
+
+For all these reasons, if the existing opportunity for a surprise attack
+were allowed to lapse, it would probably be many months before an
+equally favorable one would again offer itself. Furthermore, having
+regard to the future, it was desirable to show the enemy that he could
+not with impunity reduce his garrisons beyond a certain point without
+incurring grave risks.
+
+Against these arguments in favor of immediate action I had to weigh the
+fact that my own troops had been engaged for many months in heavy
+fighting, and that, though their efforts had been uniformly successful,
+the conditions of the struggle had greatly taxed their strength. Only
+part of the losses in my divisions had been replaced, and many recently
+arrived drafts, still far from being fully trained, were included in the
+ranks of the armies. Under these conditions it was a serious matter to
+make a further heavy call on my troops at the end of such a strenuous
+year.
+
+On the other hand, from the nature of the operation, the size of the
+force which could be employed was bound, in any case, to be
+comparatively small, since success depended so much on secrecy, and it
+is impossible to keep secret the concentration of very large forces. The
+demand made upon my resources, therefore, should not be a great one.
+
+While considering these different factors, preparations were quietly
+carried on, so that all might be ready for the attack if I found it
+possible to carry it out. The success of the enemy's offensive in Italy
+subsequently added great force to the arguments in favor of undertaking
+the operation, although the means at my disposal for the purpose were
+further reduced as a consequence of the Italian situation.
+
+Eventually I decided that, despite the various limiting factors, I could
+muster enough force to make a first success sufficiently sure to justify
+undertaking the attack, but that the degree to which this success could
+be followed up must depend on circumstances.
+
+It was calculated that, provided secrecy could be maintained to the last
+moment, no large hostile reinforcements were likely to reach the scene
+of action for forty-eight hours after the commencement of the attack. I
+informed General the Hon. Sir Julian Byng, K. C. B., K. C. M. G., M. V.
+O., to whom the execution of the plans in connection with the Cambrai
+operations was intrusted, that the advance would be stopped by me after
+that time, or sooner if necessary, unless the results then gained and
+the general situation justified its continuance.
+
+
+Plan of Attack
+
+The general plan of attack was to dispense with previous artillery
+preparation, and to depend instead on tanks to smash through the enemy's
+wire, of which there was a great quantity protecting his trenches.
+
+As soon as the advance of the tanks and infantry, working in close
+co-operation, began, the artillery was to assist with counter battery
+and barrage work; but no previous registration of guns for this purpose
+could be permitted, as it would rouse the enemy's suspicions. The
+artillery of our new armies was therefore necessarily subjected to a
+severe test in this operation, and proved itself entirely worthy of the
+confidence placed in it.
+
+The infantry, tanks, and artillery thus working in combination were to
+endeavor to break through all the enemy's lines of defense on the first
+day. If this were successfully accomplished and the situation developed
+favorably, cavalry were then to be passed through to raid the enemy's
+communications, disorganize his system of command, damage his railways,
+and interfere as much as possible with the arrival of his
+reinforcements. It was explained to all commanders that everything
+depended on secrecy up to the moment of starting, and after that on
+bold, determined, and rapid action. Unless opposition could be beaten
+down quickly, no great results could be looked for.
+
+The Commander in Chief of the French Armies, to whom I secretly
+communicated my plans, most readily agreed to afford me every
+assistance. In addition to the steps taken by him to engage the enemy's
+attention elsewhere, he arranged for a strong force of French infantry
+and cavalry to be in a position whence they could be moved forward
+rapidly to take part in the exploitation of our success, if the
+situation should render it possible to bring them into action. On Nov.
+20 certain of these French units were actually put in motion. The course
+of events, however, did not open out the required opportunity for their
+employment, but the French forces were held in readiness and within easy
+reach so long as there appeared to be any hope of it. Had the situation
+on Nov. 20 developed somewhat more favorably in certain directions, the
+nature of which will become apparent in the course of this report, the
+presence and co-operation of these French troops would have been of the
+greatest value.
+
+
+The Enemy's Defenses
+
+2. The German defenses on this front had been greatly improved and
+extended since the opening of our offensive in April, and comprised
+three main systems of resistance.
+
+The first of these three trench systems, constituting part of the
+Hindenburg line proper, ran in a general northwesterly direction for a
+distance of six miles from the Canal de l'Escaut at Banteux to
+Havrincourt. There it turned abruptly north along the line of the Canal
+du Nord for a distance of four miles to Moeuvres, thus forming a
+pronounced salient in the German front.
+
+In advance of the Hindenburg line the enemy had constructed a series of
+strong forward positions, including La Vacquerie and the northeastern
+corner of Havrincourt Wood. Behind it, and at distances respectively
+varying from a little less to rather more than a mile, and from three
+and a half to four and a half miles, lay the second and third main
+German systems, known as the Hindenburg reserve line, and the
+Beaurevoir, Masni�res, Marquion lines.
+
+
+The Attack Begun
+
+3. All necessary preparations were completed in time, and with a secrecy
+reflecting the greatest credit on all concerned. At 6:20 A. M. on Nov
+20, without any previous artillery bombardment, tanks and infantry
+attacked on a front of about six miles from east of Gonnelieu to the
+Canal du Nord opposite Hermies.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF THE BATTLE OF CAMBRAI, SHOWING FURTHEST BRITISH
+ADVANCE AND GROUND LOST AFTER GERMAN ATTACK. (SEE KEY ABOVE.)]
+
+At the same hour demonstrations with gas, smoke, and artillery took
+place on practically the whole of the British front south of the Scarpe,
+and subsidiary attacks were launched east of Ep�hy and between
+Bullecourt and Fontaine les Croisilles.
+
+On the principal front of attack the tanks moved forward in advance of
+the infantry, crushing down the enemy's wire and forming great lanes
+through which our infantry could pass. Protected by smoke barrages from
+the view of the enemy's artillery, they rolled on across the German
+trenches, smashing up the enemy's machine guns and driving his infantry
+to ground. Close behind our tanks our own infantry followed, and, while
+the tanks patrolled the line of hostile trenches, cleared the German
+infantry from their dugouts and shelters.
+
+In this way, both the main system of the Hindenburg line and its outer
+defenses were rapidly overrun, and tanks and infantry proceeded in
+accordance with program to the attack upon the Hindenburg reserve line.
+
+In this advance the 12th (Eastern) Division moved along the Bonavis
+Ridge on the right of our attack, encountered obstinate resistance at
+Lateau Wood, which sheltered a number of German batteries. Fierce
+fighting, in which infantry and tank crews displayed the greatest
+gallantry, continued throughout the morning at this point, and ended in
+the capture of the position, together with the enemy's guns.
+
+Meanwhile the 20th (Light) Division, which had captured La Vacquerie at
+the opening of its attack, stormed the powerful defenses of Welsh Ridge.
+The 6th Division carried the village of Ribecourt, after sharp fighting
+among the streets and houses, while the 62d (West Riding) Division (T.)
+stormed Havrincourt, where also parties of the enemy held out for a
+time.
+
+The capture of these two villages secured the flanks of the 51st
+(Highland) Division (T.) advancing on the left centre of our attack up
+the slopes of Flesqui�res Hill against the German trench lines on the
+southern side of Flesqui�res village. Here very heavy fighting took
+place. The stout brick wall skirting the ch�teau grounds opposed a
+formidable obstacle to our advance, while German machine guns swept the
+approaches. A number of tanks were knocked out by direct hits from
+German field batteries in position beyond the crest of the hill. None
+the less, with the exception of the village itself, our second
+objectives in this area were gained before midday.
+
+Many of the hits upon our tanks at Flesqui�res were obtained by a German
+artillery officer who, remaining alone at his battery, served a field
+gun single-handed until killed at his gun. The great bravery of this
+officer aroused the admiration of all ranks.
+
+
+Capture of Marcoing
+
+On the left of our attack, west of the Canal du Nord, the 36th (Ulster)
+Division captured a German strong point on the spoil bank of the canal
+and pushed northward in touch with the West Riding troops, who, as the
+first stage in a most gallant and remarkably successful advance, had
+taken Havrincourt. By 10:30 A. M. the general advance beyond the
+Hindenburg reserve line to our final objectives had begun, and cavalry
+were moving up behind our infantry.
+
+In this period of the attack tanks and British infantry battalions of
+the 29th Division entered Masni�res and captured Marcoing and Neuf Wood,
+securing the passages of the Canal de l'Escaut at both villages.
+
+At Marcoing the tanks arrived at the moment when a party of the enemy
+were in the act of running out an electrical connection to blow up one
+of the bridges. This party was fired on by a tank and the bridge secured
+intact. At Masni�res, however, the retreating enemy succeeded in
+destroying partially the bridge carrying the main road. In consequence
+the first tank which endeavored to cross at this point fell through the
+bridge, completing its destruction.
+
+The advance of a number of our guns had been unavoidably delayed in the
+sunken roads which served this part of the battlefield, and though our
+infantry continued their progress beyond Masni�res, without the
+assistance of tanks and artillery, they were not able at first to clear
+the enemy entirely from the northern portion of the village. Here
+parties of Germans held out during the afternoon, and gave the enemy
+time to occupy Rumilly and the section of the Beaurevoir-Masni�res line
+south of it; while the destruction of the bridge also prevented the
+cavalry from crossing the canal in sufficient strength to overcome his
+resistance.
+
+In spite of this difficulty, a squadron of the Fort Garry Horse,
+Canadian cavalry brigade, succeeded during the afternoon in crossing the
+canal by a temporary bridge constructed during the day. This squadron
+passed through the Beaurevoir-Masni�res line and charged and captured a
+German battery in position to the east of it. Continuing its advance, it
+dispersed a body of about 300 German infantry, and did not cease its
+progress until the greater part of its horses had been killed or
+wounded. The squadron thereupon took up a position in a sunken road,
+where it maintained itself until night fell. It then withdrew to our
+lines, bringing with it several prisoners taken in the course of a most
+gallant exploit.
+
+
+Brilliant Cavalry Work
+
+Meanwhile, west of the canal de l'Escaut patrols of the 6th Division
+during the afternoon entered Noyelles-sur-l'Escaut, where they were
+reinforced by cavalry, and other cavalry units pushed out toward
+Cantaing. West of Flesqui�res, the 62d Division, operating northward
+from Havrincourt, made important progress. Having carried the Hindenburg
+reserve line north of that village, it rapidly continued its attack and
+captured Graincourt, where two anti-tank guns were destroyed by the
+tanks accompanying our infantry. Before nightfall infantry and cavalry
+had entered Anneux, though the enemy's resistance in this village does
+not appear to have been entirely overcome until the following morning.
+
+This attack of the 62d (West Riding) Division constitutes a brilliant
+achievement, in which the troops concerned completed an advance of four
+and a half miles from their original front, overrunning two German
+systems of defense and gaining possession of three villages.
+
+On the left flank of our attack Ulster battalions pushed northward along
+the Hindenburg line and its forward defenses, maintaining touch with the
+West Riding troops, and carried the whole of the German trench systems
+west of the Canal du Nord as far north as the Bapaume-Cambrai road.
+
+At the end of the first day of the attack, therefore, three German
+systems of defense had been broken through to a depth of some four and a
+half miles on a wide front, and over 5,000 prisoners had already been
+brought in. But for the wrecking of the bridge at Masni�res and the
+check at Flesqui�res still greater results might have been attained.
+
+Throughout these operations the value of the services rendered by the
+tanks was very great, and the utmost gallantry, enterprise, and
+resolution were displayed by both officers and crews. In combination
+with the other arms, they helped to make possible a remarkable success.
+Without their aid in opening a way through the German wire, success
+could only have been attained by methods which would have given the
+enemy ample warning of our attack and have allowed him time to mass
+troops to oppose it. As has been pointed out above, to enable me to
+undertake such an operation with the troops at my disposal secrecy to
+the last moment was essential. The tanks alone made it possible to
+dispense with artillery preparation, and so to conceal our intentions
+from the enemy up to the actual moment of attack.
+
+Great credit is due also to the Royal Flying Corps for very gallant and
+most valuable work carried out under conditions of the greatest
+difficulty from low clouds and driving mist.
+
+In the subsidiary attack at Bullecourt battalions of the 3d Division and
+the 16th (Irish) Division successfully completed the work begun by our
+operations in this area in May and June, 1917, capturing the remainder
+of the Hindenburg support trench on their front, with some 700
+prisoners. A number of counterattacks against our new positions at
+Bullecourt on this and the following day were repulsed, with great loss
+to the enemy.
+
+
+The Advance Continued
+
+4. On the morning of Nov. 21 the attack on Flesqui�res was resumed, and
+by 8 A. M. the village had been turned from the northwest and captured.
+The obstacle which more than anything else had limited the results of
+Nov. 20 was thereby removed, and later in the morning the advance once
+more became general.
+
+Masni�res had been cleared of the enemy during the previous evening, and
+at 11 A. M. our troops attacked the Beaurevoir-Masni�res line and
+established themselves in the portion to the east and north of
+Masni�res. Heavy fighting took place, and a counterattack from the
+direction of Rumilly was beaten off. At the same hour we attacked and
+captured Les Rues des Vignes, but later in the morning the enemy
+counterattacked and compelled our troops to fall back from this
+position. Progress was also made toward Cr�vecoeur; but though the canal
+was crossed during the afternoon, it was found impossible to force the
+passage of the river in face of the enemy's machine-gun fire.
+
+That evening orders were issued by the 3d Army to secure the ground
+already gained in this area of the battle, and to capture Rumilly on the
+morrow; but in consequence of the exhaustion of the troops engaged it
+was found necessary later in the night to cancel the orders for this
+attack.
+
+West of the Canal de l'Escaut infantry of the 29th Division and
+dismounted regiments of the 1st and 5th Cavalry Divisions, including the
+Ambala Brigade, were heavily engaged throughout the day in Noyelles, and
+beat off all attacks in continuous fighting.
+
+Following upon the capture of Flesqui�res, the 51st and 62d Divisions,
+in co-operation with a number of tanks and squadrons of the 1st Cavalry
+Division, attacked at 10:30 A. M. in the direction of
+Fontaine-notre-Dame and Bourlon.
+
+In this attack the capture of Anneux was completed, and early in the
+afternoon Cantaing was seized, with some hundreds of prisoners. Progress
+was made on the outskirts of Bourlon Wood, and late in the afternoon
+Fontaine-notre-Dame was taken by troops of the 51st Division and tanks.
+The attack on Bourlon Wood itself was checked by machine-gun fire,
+though tanks advanced some distance into the wood.
+
+Further west, the 36th Division advanced north of the Bapaume-Cambrai
+road, and reached the southern outskirts of Moeuvres, where strong
+opposition was encountered.
+
+
+Position on Nov. 21
+
+5. On the evening of the second day of the attack, therefore, our troops
+held a line which ran approximately as follows:
+
+From our old front line east of Gonnelieu the right flank of our new
+positions lay along the eastern slopes of the Bonavis Ridge, passing
+east of Lateau Wood and striking the Masni�res-Beaurevoir line north of
+the Canal de l'Escaut at a point about half way between Cr�vecoeur and
+Masni�res. From this point our line ran roughly northwest, past and
+including Masni�res, Noyelles, and Cantaing, to Fontaine, also
+inclusive. Thence it bent back to the south for a short distance, making
+a sharp salient round the latter village, and ran in a general westerly
+direction along the southern edge of Bourlon Wood and across the
+southern face of the spur to the west of the wood, to the Canal du Nord,
+southeast of the village of Moeuvres. From Moeuvres the line linked up
+once more with our old front at a point about midway between Bourcies
+and Pronville.
+
+The forty-eight hours after which it had been calculated that the
+enemy's reserves would begin to arrive had in effect expired, and the
+high ground at Bourlon Village and Wood, as well as certain important
+tactical features to the east and west of the wood, still remained in
+the enemy's possession. It now became necessary to decide whether to
+continue the operation offensively or to take up a defensive attitude
+and rest content with what had been attained.
+
+
+The Decision to Go On
+
+6. It was not possible, however, to let matters stand as they were. The
+positions captured by us north of Flesqui�res were completely commanded
+by the Bourlon Ridge, and unless this ridge were gained it would be
+impossible to hold them, except at excessive cost. If I decided not to
+go on a withdrawal to the Flesqui�res Ridge would be necessary, and
+would have to be carried out at once.
+
+On the other hand, the enemy showed certain signs of an intention to
+withdraw. Craters had been formed at road junctions, and troops could be
+seen ready to move east. The possession of Bourlon Ridge would enable
+our troops to obtain observation over the ground to the north, which
+sloped gently down to the Sens�e River. The enemy's defensive lines
+south of the Scarpe and Sens�e Rivers would thereby be turned, his
+communications exposed to the observed fire of our artillery, and his
+positions in this sector jeopardized. In short, so great was the
+importance of the ridge to the enemy that its loss would probably cause
+the abandonment by the Germans of their carefully prepared defense
+systems for a considerable distance to the north of it.
+
+The successive days of constant marching and fighting had placed a very
+severe strain upon the endurance of the troops, and, before a further
+advance could be undertaken, some time would have to be spent in resting
+and relieving them. This need for delay was regrettable, as the enemy's
+forces were increasing, and fresh German divisions were known to be
+arriving, but, with the limited number of troops at my command, it was
+unavoidable.
+
+It was to be remembered, however, that the hostile reinforcements coming
+up at this stage could at first be no more than enough to replace the
+enemy's losses; and although the right of our advance had definitely
+been stayed, the enemy had not yet developed such strength about Bourlon
+as it seemed might not be overcome by the numbers at my disposal. As has
+already been pointed out, on the Cambrai side of the battlefield I had
+only aimed at securing a defensive flank to enable the advance to be
+pushed northward and northwestward, and this part of my task had been to
+a large extent achieved.
+
+An additional and very important argument in favor of proceeding with my
+attack was supplied by the situation in Italy, upon which a continuance
+of pressure on the Cambrai front might reasonably be expected to
+exercise an important effect, no matter what measure of success attended
+my efforts. Moreover, two divisions previously under orders for Italy
+had on this day been placed at my disposal, and with this accession of
+strength the prospect of securing Bourlon seemed good.
+
+After weighing these various considerations, therefore, I decided to
+continue the operations to gain the Bourlon position.
+
+Nov. 22 was spent in organizing the captured ground, in carrying out
+certain reliefs, and in giving other troops the rest they greatly
+needed. Soon after midday the enemy regained Fontaine-notre-Dame; but
+with our troops already on the outskirts of Bourlon Wood and Cantaing
+held by us, it was thought that the recapture of Fontaine should not
+prove very difficult. The necessary arrangements for renewing the attack
+were therefore pushed on, and our plans were extended to include the
+recapture of Fontaine-notre-Dame.
+
+Meanwhile, early in the night of Nov. 22, a battalion of the Queen's
+Westminsters stormed a commanding tactical point in the Hindenburg line
+west of Moeuvres known as Tadpole Copse, the possession of which would
+be of value in connection with the left flank of the Bourlon position
+when the latter had been secured.
+
+
+Struggle for Bourlon Ridge
+
+7. On the morning of Nov. 23, the 51st Division, supported by tanks,
+attacked Fontaine-notre-Dame, but was unable to force an entrance. Early
+in the afternoon this division repeated its attack from the west, and a
+number of tanks entered Fontaine, where they remained till dusk,
+inflicting considerable loss on the enemy. We did not succeed, however,
+in clearing the village, and at the end of the day no progress had been
+made on this part of our front.
+
+At 10:30 A. M. the 40th Division attacked Bourlon Wood, and after four
+and a half hours of hard fighting, in which tanks again rendered
+valuable assistance to our infantry, captured the whole of the wood and
+entered Bourlon village. Here hostile counterattacks prevented our
+further progress, and though the village was at one time reported to
+have been taken by us, this proved later to be erroneous. A heavy
+hostile attack upon our positions in the wood, in which all three
+battalions of the 9th Grenadier Regiment appear to have been employed,
+was completely repulsed.
+
+Throughout this day, also, the 36th Division and troops of the 56th
+(London) Division (T.) were engaged in stubborn fighting in the
+neighborhood of Moeuvres and Tadpole Copse, and made some progress.
+
+This struggle for Bourlon resulted in several days of fiercely contested
+fighting, in which English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish battalions,
+together with dismounted cavalry, performed most gallant service and
+inflicted heavy loss on the enemy.
+
+During the morning of Nov. 24 the enemy twice attacked, and at his
+second attempt pressed back our troops in the northeastern corner of the
+wood. An immediate counterattack delivered by the 14th Battalion, Argyll
+and Sutherland Highlanders, the 15th Hussars, dismounted, and the
+remnants of the 119th Infantry Brigade, drove back the enemy in turn,
+and by noon our line had been re-established. Meanwhile, dismounted
+cavalry had repulsed an attack on the high ground west of Bourlon Wood,
+and in the afternoon a third hostile attack upon the wood was stopped by
+our artillery and rifle fire.
+
+
+Bourlon Village Captured
+
+On this afternoon our infantry again attacked Bourlon village, and
+captured the whole of it. Later in the evening a fourth attack upon our
+positions in the wood was beaten off after fierce fighting. Further
+progress was made on this day in the Hindenburg line west of Moeuvres,
+but the enemy's resistance in the whole of this area was very strong. On
+the evening of Nov. 25 a fresh attack by the enemy regained Bourlon
+village, though our troops offered vigorous resistance, and parties of
+the 13th Battalion East Surrey Regiment held out in the southeast corner
+of the village until touch was re-established with them two days later.
+The continual fighting and the strength of the enemy's attacks, however,
+had told heavily on the 40th Division, which had borne the brunt of the
+struggle. This division was accordingly withdrawn, and on the following
+day our troops were again pressed back slightly in the northern
+outskirts of Bourlon Wood.
+
+With the enemy in possession of the shoulder of the ridge above
+Fontaine-notre-Dame, as well as of part of the high ground west of
+Bourlon Wood, our position in the wood itself was a difficult one, and
+much of the ground to the south of it was still exposed to the enemy's
+observation. It was decided, therefore, to make another effort on Nov.
+27 to capture Fontaine-notre-Dame and Bourlon village and to gain
+possession of the whole of the Bourlon Ridge.
+
+In this attack, in which tanks co-operated, British Guards temporarily
+regained possession of Fontaine-notre-Dame, taking some hundreds of
+prisoners, and troops of the 62d Division once more entered Bourlon
+village. Later in the morning, however, heavy counterattacks developed
+in both localities, and our troops were unable to maintain the ground
+they had gained. During the afternoon the enemy also attacked our
+positions at Tadpole Copse, but was repulsed.
+
+As the result of five days of constant fighting, therefore, we held a
+strong position on the Bourlon Hill and in the wood, but had not yet
+succeeded in gaining all the ground required for the security of this
+important feature. The two following days passed comparatively quietly,
+while the troops engaged were relieved and steps were undertaken to
+prepare for a deliberate attack which might give us the tactical points
+we sought.
+
+Meanwhile, on other parts of the front, the organization of our new
+positions was proceeding as rapidly as conditions would allow. In
+particular, troops of the 12th Division had effected some improvement on
+the right flank of our advance opposite Banteux, and the 16th Division
+had made further progress in the Hindenburg line northwest of
+Bullecourt.
+
+At the end of November the number of prisoners taken in our operations
+southwest of Cambrai exceeded 10,500. We had also captured 142 guns,
+some 350 machine guns, and 70 trench mortars, with great quantities of
+ammunition, material, and stores of all kinds.
+
+
+The German Attack
+
+8. During the last days of November increased registration of hostile
+artillery, the movements of troops and transport observed behind the
+German lines, together with other indications of a like nature, pointed
+to further efforts by the enemy to regain the positions we had wrested
+from him.
+
+The front affected by this increased activity included that of our
+advance, as well as the ground to Vendhuille and beyond. The massing of
+the enemy's infantry, however, his obvious anxiety concerning the
+security of his defenses south of the Sens�e River, the tactical
+importance of the high ground about Bourlon, and the fact that we were
+still only in partial possession of it, all pointed to the principal
+attack being delivered in the Bourlon sector.
+
+9. Measures were accordingly taken, both by the 3d Army and by the lower
+formations concerned, to prepare for eventualities. Arrangements had
+been made after our last attack to relieve the troops holding the
+Bourlon positions by such fresh divisions as were available, and when
+these reliefs had been satisfactorily completed I felt confident that
+the defense of this sector could be considered secure.
+
+Covering our right flank from Cantaing to the Banteux Ravine, a distance
+of about 16,000 yards, five British divisions were disposed, and, though
+these had been fighting for several days and were consequently tired, I
+felt confident that they would prove equal to stopping any attack the
+enemy could make on them.
+
+From the Banteux Ravine southward the divisions in line were weak and
+held very extended fronts. On the other hand, the line held by us in
+this southern sector had been in our possession for some months. Its
+defenses were for this reason more complete and better organized than
+those of the ground gained by us in our attack. Moreover, the capture of
+the Bonavis Ridge had added to the security of our position further
+south.
+
+The reserve divisions immediately available in the area consisted of the
+Guards and 2d Cavalry Divisions, both of which had been engaged in the
+recent fighting at Fontaine and Bourlon Wood. These were located behind
+the La Vacquerie-Villers Guislain front, while another division, the
+62d, which had also been recently engaged, was placed further to the
+northwest in the direction of the Bapaume-Cambrai road. A fresh South
+Midland Division was assembling further back, two other cavalry
+divisions were within from two to three hours' march of the battle area,
+and another cavalry division but a little further distant.
+
+In view of the symptoms of activity observed on the enemy's front,
+special precautions were taken by local commanders, especially from
+Villers Guislain to the south. Troops were warned to expect attack,
+additional machine guns were placed to secure supporting points, and
+divisional reserves were closed up. Special patrols were also sent out
+to watch for signs of any hostile advance.
+
+
+The Battle Reopened
+
+10. Between the hours of 7 and 8 A. M. on the last day of November the
+enemy attacked, after a short but intense artillery preparation, on the
+greater part of a front of some ten miles from Vendhuille to Masni�res
+inclusive. From Masni�res to Banteux, both inclusive, four German
+divisions would seem to have been employed against the three British
+divisions holding this area. Between Banteux exclusive and Vendhuille
+one German division and portions of two others were employed against the
+northern half of the British division holding that front.
+
+On the Masni�res front the 29th Division, composed of English, Scottish,
+Welsh, Irish, Guernsey, and Newfoundland battalions, although seriously
+threatened as the day wore on by the progress made by the enemy further
+south, where their battery positions had been taken in reverse, most
+gallantly beat off a succession of powerful assaults and maintained
+their line intact.
+
+At the northern end of the Bonavis Ridge and in the Gonnelieu sector the
+swiftness with which the advance of the enemy's infantry followed the
+opening of his bombardment appears to have overwhelmed our troops, both
+in line and in immediate support, almost before they had realized that
+the attack had begun.
+
+The nature of the bombardment, which seems to have been heavy enough to
+keep our men under cover without at first seriously alarming them,
+contributed to the success of the enemy's plans. No steadily advancing
+barrage gave warning of the approach of the German assault columns,
+whose secret assembly was assisted by the many deep folds and hollows
+typical of a chalk formation, and shielded from observation from the air
+by an early morning mist. Only when the attack was upon them great
+numbers of low-flying German airplanes rained machine-gun fire upon our
+infantry, while an extensive use of smoke shell and bombs made it
+extremely difficult for our troops to see what was happening on other
+parts of the battlefield, or to follow the movements of the enemy. In
+short, there is little doubt that, although an attack was expected
+generally, yet in these areas of the battle at the moment of delivery
+the assault effected a local surprise.
+
+
+Stubborn British Resistance
+
+None the less, stubborn resistance was offered during the morning by
+isolated parties of our troops and by machine-gun detachments in the
+neighborhood of Lateau Wood and southeast of La Vacquerie, as well as at
+other points. In more than one instance heavy losses are known to have
+been inflicted on the enemy by machine-gun fire at short range.
+Northeast of La Vacquerie the 92d Field Artillery Brigade repulsed four
+attacks, in some of which the enemy's infantry approached to within 200
+yards of our guns before the surviving gunners were finally compelled to
+withdraw, after removing the breechblocks from their pieces. East of
+Villers-Guislain the troops holding our forward positions on the high
+ground were still offering a strenuous resistance to the enemy's attack
+on their front at a time when large forces of German infantry had
+already advanced up the valley between them and Villers-Guislain. South
+of this village a single strong point known as Limerick Post, garrisoned
+by troops of the 1st and 5th Battalions, (King's Own,) Royal Lancaster
+Regiment, and the 1st and 10th Battalions, Liverpool Regiment, held out
+with great gallantry throughout the day, though heavily attacked.
+
+The progress made by the enemy, however, across the northern end of the
+Bonavis Ridge and up the deep gully between Villers-Guislain and
+Gonnelieu, known as 22 Ravine, turned our positions on the ridge as well
+as in both villages. Taking in flank and rear, the defenses of
+Villers-Guislain, Gonnelieu, and Bonavis were rapidly overrun.
+Gouzeaucourt was captured about 9 A. M., the outer defenses of La
+Vacquerie were reached, and a number of guns which had been brought up
+close to the line in order to enable them to cover the battle front
+about Masni�res and Marcoing fell into the hands of the enemy.
+
+At this point the enemy's advance was checked by the action of our local
+reserves, and meanwhile measures had been taken with all possible speed
+to bring up additional troops. About midday the Guards came into action
+west of Gouzeaucourt, while cavalry moved up to close the gap on their
+right and made progress toward Villers-Guislain from the south and
+southwest.
+
+The attack of the Guards, which was delivered with the greatest
+gallantry and resolution, drove the enemy out of Gouzeaucourt and made
+progress on the high ground known as the St. Quentin Ridge, east of the
+village. In this operation the Guards were materially assisted by the
+gallant action of a party of the 29th Division, who, with a company of
+North Midland Royal Engineers, held on throughout the day to a position
+in an old trench near Gouzeaucourt. Valuable work was also done by a
+brigade of field artillery of the 47th Division, which moved direct into
+action from the line of march.
+
+During the afternoon three battalions of tanks which, when they received
+news of the attack, were preparing to move away from the battlefield to
+refit, arrived at Gouzeaucourt and aided the infantry to hold the
+recaptured ground. Great credit is due to the officers and men of the
+tank brigade concerned for the speed with which they brought their tanks
+into action.
+
+Meanwhile, the defense of La Vacquerie had been successfully maintained,
+and our line had been established to the north of that village, in touch
+with our troops in Masni�res.
+
+
+The Northern Attack
+
+11. In the northern area, from Fontaine-notre-Dame to Tadpole Copse, the
+German attack was not launched until some two hours later. This was the
+enemy's main attack, and was carried out with large forces and great
+resolution.
+
+After a heavy preliminary bombardment, and covered by an artillery
+barrage, the enemy's infantry advanced shortly after 9 A. M. in dense
+waves, in the manner of his attacks in the first battle of Ypres. In the
+course of the morning and afternoon no less than five principal attacks
+were made in this area, and on one portion of the attack as many as
+eleven waves of German infantry advanced successively to the assault. On
+the whole of this front a resolute endeavor was made to break down by
+sheer weight of numbers the defense of the London Territorials and other
+English battalions holding the sector.
+
+In this fighting the 47th (London) Division (T.), the 2d Division, and
+the 56th (London) Division (T.) greatly distinguished themselves, and
+there were accomplished many deeds of great heroism.
+
+Under the fury of the enemy's bombardment a company of the 17th
+Battalion Royal Fusiliers were in the course of being withdrawn from an
+exposed position in a saphead in advance of our line between Bourlon
+Wood and Moeuvres when the German attack burst upon them. The officer in
+command sent three of his platoons back, and with a rearguard composed
+of the remainder of his company held off the enemy's infantry until the
+main position had been organized. Having faithfully accomplished their
+task, this rearguard died fighting to the end with their faces to the
+enemy.
+
+Somewhat later in the morning an attack in force between the Canal du
+Nord and Moeuvres broke into our foremost positions and isolated a
+company of the 13th Battalion, Essex Regiment, in a trench just west of
+the canal. After maintaining a splendid and successful resistance
+throughout the day, whereby the pressure upon our main line was greatly
+relieved, at 4 P. M. this company held a council of war, at which the
+two remaining company officers, the company Sergeant Major, and the
+platoon Sergeants were present, and unanimously determined to fight to
+the last and have "no surrender." Two runners who were sent to notify
+this decision to battalion headquarters succeeded in getting through to
+our lines and delivered their message. During the remainder of the
+afternoon and far into the following night this gallant company were
+heard fighting, and there is little room for doubt that they carried out
+to a man their heroic resolution.
+
+
+Enormous German Losses
+
+Early in the afternoon large masses of the enemy again attacked west of
+Bourlon Wood, and, though beaten off with great loss at most points,
+succeeded in overwhelming three out of a line of posts held by a company
+of the 1st Battalion, Royal Berks Regiment, on the right of the 2d
+Division. Though repeatedly attacked by vastly superior numbers, the
+remainder of these posts stood firm, and when, two days later, the three
+posts which had been overpowered were regained, such a heap of German
+dead lay in and around them that the bodies of our own men were hidden.
+
+All accounts go to show that the enemy's losses in the whole of his
+constantly repeated attacks on this sector of the battle front were
+enormous. One battery of eight machine guns fired 70,000 rounds of
+ammunition into ten successive waves of Germans. Long lines of attacking
+infantry were caught by our machine-gun fire in enfilade, and were shot
+down in line as they advanced. Great execution also was done by our
+field artillery, and in the course of the battle guns were brought up to
+the crest line and fired direct upon the enemy at short range.
+
+At one point west of Bourlon the momentum of his first advance carried
+the enemy through our front line and a short way down the southern
+slopes of the ridge. There, however, the German masses came under
+direct fire from our field artillery at short range and were broken up.
+Our local reserves at once counterattacked and succeeded in closing the
+gap that had been made in our line. Early in the afternoon the enemy
+again forced his way into our foremost positions in this locality,
+opening a gap between the 1st and 6th Battalions and the 1st and 15th
+Battalions, London regiments. Counterattacks led by the two battalion
+commanders, with all available men, including the personnel of their
+headquarters, once more restored the situation. All other attacks were
+beaten off with the heaviest losses to the enemy.
+
+The greatest credit is due to the troops at Masni�res, Bourlon, and
+Moeuvres for the very gallant service performed by them on this day. But
+for their steady courage and stanchness in defense, the success gained
+by the enemy on the right of our battle front might have had serious
+consequences.
+
+I cannot close the account of this day's fighting without recording my
+obligation to the Commander in Chief of the French Armies for the prompt
+way in which he placed French troops within reach for employment in case
+of need at the unfettered discretion of the 3d Army commander. Part of
+the artillery of this force actually came into action, rendering
+valuable service, and though the remainder of the troops were not called
+upon, the knowledge that they were available should occasion arise was a
+great assistance.
+
+
+At Gonnelieu and Masni�res
+
+12. On Dec. 1 fighting continued fiercely on the whole front.
+
+The Guards completed the capture of the St. Quentin Ridge and entered
+Gonnelieu, where they captured over 350 prisoners and a large number of
+machine guns. Tanks took an effective part in the fighting for the
+ridge. At one point, where our infantry were held up by fire from a
+hostile trench, a single tank attacked and operated up and down the
+trench, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy's garrison. Our infantry
+were then able to advance and secure the trench, which was found full of
+dead Germans. In it were also found fifteen machine guns that had been
+silenced by the tank. In the whole of this fighting splendid targets
+were obtained by all tank crews and the German casualties were seen to
+be very great.
+
+Further south a number of tanks co-operated with dismounted Indian
+cavalry of the 5th Cavalry Division and with the Guards in the attacks
+upon Villers-Guislain and Gauche Wood, and were in great measure
+responsible for the capture of the wood. Heavy fighting took place for
+this position, which it is clear that the enemy had decided to hold at
+all costs. When the infantry and cavalry finally took possession of the
+wood, great numbers of German dead and smashed machine guns were found.
+In one spot four German machine guns, with dead crews lying round, were
+discovered within a radius of twenty yards. Three German field guns,
+complete with teams, were also captured in this wood.
+
+Other tanks proceeded to Villers-Guislain, and, in spite of heavy direct
+artillery fire, three reached the outskirts of the village, but the fire
+of the enemy's machine guns prevented our troops advancing from the
+south from supporting them, and the tanks ultimately withdrew.
+
+Severe fighting took place, also, at Masni�res. During the afternoon and
+evening at least nine separate attacks were beaten off by the 29th
+Division on this front, and other hostile attacks were repulsed in the
+neighborhood of Marcoing, Fontaine-notre-Dame, and Bourlon. With the
+Bonavis Ridge in the enemy's hands, however, Masni�res was exposed to
+attack on three sides, and on the night of Dec. 1-2 our troops were
+withdrawn under orders to a line west of the village.
+
+On the afternoon of Dec. 2 a series of heavy attacks developed against
+Welsh Ridge in the neighborhood of La Vacquerie, and further assaults
+were made on our positions in the neighborhood of Masni�res and Bourlon.
+These attacks were broken in succession by our machine-gun fire, but the
+enemy persisted in his attempts against Welsh Ridge, and gradually
+gained ground. By nightfall our line had been pushed back to a position
+west and north of Gonnelieu.
+
+Next day the enemy renewed his attacks in great force on the whole front
+from Gonnelieu to Marcoing, and ultimately gained possession of La
+Vacquerie. North of La Vacquerie repeated attacks made about Masni�res
+and Marcoing were repulsed in severe fighting, but the positions still
+retained by us beyond the Canal de l'Escaut were extremely exposed, and
+during the night our troops were withdrawn under orders to the west bank
+of the canal.
+
+
+Withdrawal From Bourlon
+
+13. By this time the enemy had evidently become exhausted by the efforts
+he had made and the severity of his losses, and Dec. 4 passed
+comparatively quietly. For some days, however, local fighting continued
+in the neighborhood of La Vacquerie, and his attitude remained
+aggressive. Local attacks in this sector were repulsed on Dec. 5, and on
+this and the following two days further fierce fighting took place, in
+which the enemy again endeavored without success to drive us from our
+positions on Welsh Ridge.
+
+The strength which the enemy had shown himself able to develop in his
+attacks made it evident that only by prolonged and severe fighting could
+I hope to re-establish my right flank on the Bonavis Ridge. Unless this
+was done, the situation of my troops in the salient north of Flesqui�res
+would be difficult and dangerous, even if our hold on Bourlon Hill were
+extended.
+
+I had therefore to decide either to embark on another offensive battle
+on a large scale, or to withdraw to a more compact line on the
+Flesqui�res Ridge.
+
+Although this decision involved giving up important positions most
+gallantly won, I had no doubt as to the correct course under the
+conditions. Accordingly, on the night of Dec. 4-5 the evacuation of the
+position held by us north of the Flesqui�res Ridge was commenced. On the
+morning of Dec. 7 this withdrawal was completed successfully, without
+interference from the enemy.
+
+Before withdrawing, the more important of the enemy's field defenses
+were destroyed, and those of his guns which we had been unable to remove
+were rendered useless. The enemy did not discover our withdrawal for
+some time, and when, on the afternoon of Dec. 5, he began to feel his
+way forward, he did so with great caution. In spite of his care, on more
+than one occasion bodies of his infantry were caught in the open by our
+artillery.
+
+Much skill and courage were shown by our covering troops in this
+withdrawal, and an incident which occurred on the afternoon of Dec. 6 in
+the neighborhood of Graincourt deserves special notice. A covering
+party, consisting of two companies of the 1st and 15th Battalions,
+London Regiment, 47th Division, much reduced in strength by the fighting
+at Bourlon Wood, found their flank exposed by a hostile attack further
+east, and were enveloped and practically cut off. These companies
+successfully cut their way through to our advanced line of resistance,
+where they arrived in good order, after having inflicted serious
+casualties on the enemy.
+
+The new line taken up by us corresponded roughly to the old Hindenburg
+reserve line, and ran from a point about one and a half miles north by
+east of La Vacquerie, north of Ribecourt and Flesqui�res to the Canal du
+Nord, about one and a half miles north of Havrincourt--i. e., between
+two and two and a half miles in front of the line held by us prior to
+the attack of Nov. 20. We therefore retained in our possession an
+important section of the Hindenburg trench system, with its excellent
+dugouts and other advantages.
+
+
+Results of the Battle
+
+14. The material results of the three weeks' fighting described above
+can be stated in general terms very shortly.
+
+We had captured and retained in our possession over 12,000 yards of the
+former German front line from La Vacquerie to a point opposite Boursies,
+together with between 10,000 and 11,000 yards of the Hindenburg line and
+Hindenburg reserve line and the village of Ribecourt, Flesqui�res, and
+Havrincourt. A total of 145 German guns were taken or destroyed by us in
+the course of the operations, and 11,100 German prisoners were captured.
+
+On the other hand, the enemy had occupied an unimportant section of our
+front line between Vendhuille and Gonnelieu.
+
+There is little doubt that our operations were of considerable indirect
+assistance to the allied forces in Italy. Large demands were made upon
+the available German reserves at a time when a great concentration of
+German divisions was still being maintained in Flanders. There is
+evidence that German divisions intended for the Italian theatre were
+diverted to the Cambrai front, and it is probable that the further
+concentration of German forces against Italy was suspended for at least
+two weeks at a most critical period, when our allies were making their
+first stand on the Piave line.
+
+
+General Review
+
+15. I have already summarized in the opening paragraphs of this dispatch
+both the reasons which decided me to undertake the Cambrai operations
+and the limitations to which these operations were subject.
+
+In view of the strength of the German forces on the front of my attack
+and the success with which secrecy was maintained during our
+preparations, I had calculated that the enemy's prepared defenses would
+be captured in the first rush. I had good hope that his resisting power
+behind these defenses would then be so enfeebled for a period that we
+should be able on the same day to establish ourselves quickly and
+completely on the dominating Bourlon Ridge from Fontaine-notre-Dame to
+Moeuvres and to secure our right flank along a line including the
+Bonavis Ridge, Cr�vecour, and Rumilly to Fontaine-notre-Dame. Even if
+this did not prove possible within the first twenty-four hours, a second
+day would be at our disposal before the enemy's reserves could begin to
+arrive in any formidable numbers.
+
+Meanwhile, with no wire and no prepared defenses to hamper them, it was
+reasonable to hope that masses of cavalry would find it possible to pass
+through, whose task would be thoroughly to disorganize the enemy's
+systems of command and intercommunication in the whole area between the
+Canal de l'Escaut, the River Sens�e, and the Canal du Nord, as well as
+to the east and northeast of Cambrai.
+
+My intentions as regards subsequent exploitation were to push westward
+and northwestward, taking the Hindenburg line in reverse from Moeuvres
+to the River Scarpe, and capturing all the enemy's defenses and probably
+most of his garrisons lying west of a line from Cambrai northward to the
+Sens�e, and south of that river and the Scarpe.
+
+Time would have been required to enable us to develop and complete the
+operation; but the prospects of gaining the necessary time, by the use
+of cavalry in the manner outlined above, were in my opinion good enough
+to justify the attempt to execute the plan. I am of opinion that on Nov.
+20 and 21 we went very near to a success sufficiently complete to bring
+the realization of our full program within our power.
+
+The reasons for my decision to continue the fight after Nov. 21 have
+already been explained. Though in the event no advantage was gained
+thereby, I still consider that, as the problem presented itself at the
+time, the more cautious course would have been difficult to justify. It
+must be remembered that it was not a question of remaining where we
+stood, but of abandoning tactical positions of value, gained with great
+gallantry, the retention of which seemed not only to be within our
+power, but likely even yet to lead to further success.
+
+Whatever may be the final decision on this point, as well as on the
+original decision to undertake the enterprise at all with the forces
+available, the continuation of our efforts against Fontaine-notre-Dame
+gave rise to severe fighting, in which our troops more than held their
+own.
+
+
+Risks Voluntarily Accepted
+
+On Nov. 30 risks were accepted by us at some points in order to increase
+our strength at others. Our fresh reserves had been thrown in on the
+Bourlon front, where the enemy brought against us a total force of seven
+divisions to three and failed. I do not consider that it would have been
+justifiable on the indications to have allotted a smaller garrison to
+this front.
+
+Between Masni�res and Vendhuille the enemy's superiority in infantry
+over our divisions in line was in the proportion of about four to three,
+and we were sufficiently provided with artillery. That his attack was
+partially successful may tend to show that the garrison allotted to this
+front was insufficient, either owing to want of numbers, lack of
+training, or exhaustion from previous fighting.
+
+Captured maps and orders have made it clear that the enemy aimed at far
+more considerable results than were actually achieved by him. Three
+convergent attacks were to be made on the salient formed by our advance;
+two of them delivered approximately simultaneously about Gonnelieu and
+Masni�res, followed later by a still more powerful attack on the Bourlon
+front. The objectives of these attacks extended to the high ground at
+Beaucamp and Trescault, and the enemy's hope was to capture and destroy
+the whole of the British forces in the Cambrai salient.
+
+This bold and ambitious plan was foiled on the greater part of our front
+by the splendid defense of the British divisions engaged; and, though
+the defense broke down for a time in one area, the recovery made by the
+weak forces still left and those within immediate reach is worthy of the
+highest praise. Numberless instances of great gallantry, promptitude,
+and skill were shown, some few which have been recounted.
+
+I desire to acknowledge the skill and resource displayed by General Byng
+throughout the Cambrai operations and to express my appreciation of the
+manner in which they were conducted by him as well as by his staff and
+the subordinate commanders.
+
+In conclusion, I would point out that the sudden breaking through by our
+troops of an immense system of defense has had a most inspiring moral
+effect on the armies I command and must have a correspondingly
+depressing influence upon the enemy. The great value of the tanks in the
+offensive has been conclusively proved. In view of this experience, the
+enemy may well hesitate to deplete any portion of his front, as he did
+last Summer, in order to set free troops to concentrate for decisive
+action at some other point.
+
+    I have the honor to be, my Lord, your obedient servant,
+        D. HAIG,
+    _Field Marshal, Commanding in Chief, British Armies in France_.
+
+
+Millions of Horses Used by the Armies
+
+Figures compiled by the Red Star Animal Relief Society show that at the
+beginning of 1918 there were 4,500,000 horses in use by all the armies
+in the war, and that the losses on the western front alone averaged
+47,000 a month. About 1,500,000 horses had been bought by the Allies in
+America; 33,000 of these had died before they could be embarked, and
+6,000 died in the ships. The value of horses shipped to Europe in 1917
+was more than $50,000,000, and the loss in a heavy month of fighting is
+about $1,500,000. The United States Army in France will need 750,000
+horses for draft purposes and mounts, with several hundred thousands
+more to fill losses. Experience on both sides has proved that a shortage
+of horses means a corresponding loss of guns in battle and the
+impossibility of rapid advance. Only well animals can be used, and there
+are always thousands in the hospitals. Behind the British lines there is
+a horse hospital within four miles of any point, and eight miles away
+from each is another. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
+Animals has hospitals for 10,000 horses and mules, with well-designed
+buildings, complete operating equipments, ambulances, forage barns,
+cooking kitchens, quarters for the staff, and every detail for curing
+the wounded animals. The veterinary surgeons of this society are saving
+80 per cent. of the injured horses and sending them back to the
+batteries.
+
+
+
+
+THE EUROPEAN WAR AS SEEN BY CARTOONISTS
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoon]
+In the Hands of His Friends
+--_From The San Francisco Chronicle_.]
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoons]
+"Vorw�rts Mit Gott!"
+Sacrificing the Manhood and Youth of a Nation to Save a Throne.]
+
+[Illustration:
+--_From The New York Times._
+"Hold the line! We're coming ten million strong!"]
+
+[Illustration: [Italian Cartoon]
+In Danger of Shipwreck
+--_From Il 420, Florence._
+President Wilson's war aims threaten to bring disaster to the Central
+Powers' peace boat.]
+
+[Illustration: [English Cartoon]
+If They Had Been Rationed
+--_From London Opinion._
+How certain great historical personages might have looked if they had
+lived in the days of bread cards.]
+
+[Illustration: [German Cartoon]
+Smoking the Peace Pipe
+--_From Der Brummer, Berlin._
+THE ENTENTE: "What a pity we are excluded!"]
+
+[Illustration: [English Cartoon]
+The Rescuer's Usual Fate!
+--_From London Opinion._
+POLICEMAN JOHN BULL: "But I only came on the scene because he had
+started to knock you about!"
+MRS. RUSSIA: "Never mind about that. Go on, Bill, teach 'im to
+interfere--hit me again."]
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoon]
+Proving a Fallacy
+--_From The Chicago Herald._
+Russia's faith in Socialist pacifism, and what came of it.]
+
+[Illustration: [English Cartoon]
+A Threatened Interruption
+--_From London Opinion._
+["Japan will take steps of the most decided and most adequate character
+to meet the occasion."--VISCOUNT MOTONO, Minister for Foreign
+Affairs.]]
+
+[Illustration: [English Cartoon]
+Russia's Fate
+--_From The Passing Show, London._
+If he _would_ go fooling around with him what could they do?]
+
+[Illustration: [English Cartoon]
+Futurist Art in Russia
+--_From The National News, London._
+STURDY OLD BURGESS: "And what, Sir, may your picture represent?"
+PLUPERFECT FUTURIST TROTZKY: "The mental state of a Bolshevik
+contemplating 'German capitalists, bankers, and landlords, supported by
+the silent co-operation of English and French bourgeoisie.'"
+STURDY OLD BURGESS: "Sir, you have produced a priceless masterpiece--and
+if it is true that you have sold it for �22,000 you have given it
+away!"]
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoons]
+The Wurst Is Yet to Come
+--_San Francisco Call-Post._]
+
+[Illustration: His New Trousers
+--_San Francisco Call-Post._]
+
+[Illustration: The Kaiser's God
+--_San Francisco Chronicle._]
+
+[Illustration: Tougher Than Bear Meat
+--_San Francisco Chronicle._]
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoons]
+Judging the Landslide by a Pebble
+--_From Collier's._]
+
+[Illustration: "That's My Fight Too!"
+--_New York World._]
+
+[Illustration: Dealing With Gas Attacks
+--_Dallas News._]
+
+[Illustration: [German Cartoon]
+Italy's Troubles
+--_From Der Brummer, Berlin._
+ITALY: "Hang it all! I have been at this window for nearly three
+years!"]
+
+[Illustration: [Dutch Cartoon]
+Austria and America
+--_From De Amsterdammer, Amsterdam._
+GERMAN DRILL SERGEANT: "Now, Austrians! Eyes front! Mark time! Keep your
+eyes on me!"]
+
+[Illustration: [Italian Cartoon]
+That Dinner in Paris
+--_From Il 420, Florence._
+WILHELM: "Now that we have settled Russia, prepare that Paris feast."
+CHEF: "For Paris, Sire? I am afraid the food will turn bad, as it did
+the other time."]
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoon]
+The Hohenzollern Fingerprints
+--_Macauley in Butterfield Syndicate._]
+
+[Illustration: [English Cartoon]
+"Here's to Dear Old Trotzky!"
+--_Passing Show, London._]
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoon]
+In the Lion's Mouth
+--_Knickerbocker Press, Albany._]
+
+[Illustration: [French Cartoon]
+The Russian Campaign
+"Where are you running?"
+"To kill our General before he commits suicide."
+--_From La Victoire, Paris._]
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoon]
+The Progress of Kultur
+--_From The New York World._]
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoons]
+Under His New Colonel--R. E. Morse
+--_Bushnell for Central Press Association._]
+
+[Illustration: Anxious Moments
+--_Bushnell for Central Press Association._]
+
+[Illustration: A Tail of Camouflage
+--_Bushnell for Central Press Association._]
+
+[Illustration: But Can He Get Out?
+--_Bushnell for Central Press Association._]
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoons]
+"Sire, Ve Haf Located die Sammies!"
+--_Baltimore American._]
+
+[Illustration: Putting All Their Punch in One Glove
+--_Baltimore American._]
+
+[Illustration: Bringing the War Home to Us
+--_Baltimore American._]
+
+[Illustration: Stuck
+--_Baltimore American._]
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoons]
+Another German Substitute
+--_Dayton Daily News._]
+
+[Illustration: Back to Earth
+--_St. Louis Post-Dispatch._]
+
+[Illustration: It Shoots Further Than He Dreams
+--_Dallas News._]
+
+[Illustration: "Whither Are We Going?"
+--_Satterfield Syndicate._]
+
+[Illustration: [Russian Cartoons]
+The Bolsheviki as Art Collectors
+--_From Novi Satirikon, Petrograd._]
+
+[Illustration: Thus It Was--Thus It Is
+--_From Novi Satirikon, Petrograd._]
+
+[Illustration: The Bolsheviki Even Brought the English to Their Knees
+[Russian papers state that prayers for Russia were held in England,
+beginning, "Save Russia from the Bolsheviki."]
+--_From Novi Satirikon, Petrograd._]
+
+[Illustration: The Feast
+--_From Novi Satirikon, Petrograd._]
+
+
+
+
+_SUPPLEMENT TO MAY CURRENT HISTORY_
+
+LICHNOWSKY'S MEMORANDUM
+
+Full Text of the Suppressed Document in Which the Former German
+Ambassador at London Reveals Germany's Guilt in Starting the War
+
+    _The full text of the memorandum of Prince Lichnowsky, who was
+    German Ambassador in London at the outbreak of the war, was
+    obtained in this country in installments, which had appeared in
+    various European newspapers, chiefly the Politiken of Stockholm,
+    the Vorwaerts of Berlin, and the Muenchener Neueste Nachrichten.
+    The earlier installments to reach America were translated and
+    summarized in the regular pages of this issue of Current History
+    Magazine, beginning on Page 314. After the issue had gone to
+    press the complete text became procurable. In order to give its
+    readers the immediate benefit of this opportunity, Current
+    History Magazine herewith presents the entire document--one of
+    the most important of the war--in the form of a special
+    supplement, despite the fact that some parts of it are
+    duplicated in the abridged version on Page 314._
+
+    _Prince Lichnowsky's now famous memorandum bears the title "My
+    London Mission, 1912-1914" and is dated "Kuchelna, (his country
+    seat,) 16 August, 1916." It became public in March, 1918, and
+    created a profound sensation in Germany as well as in the
+    Entente countries._
+
+
+_Kuchelna, 16 August, 1916._
+
+Baron Marschall died in September, 1912, having held his post in London
+for a few months only. His appointment, which was due mainly to his age
+and the plotting of a younger man to get to London, was one of the many
+mistakes made by our Foreign Office. In spite of his imposing
+personality and great reputation, he was too old and tired to be able to
+adapt himself to a purely foreign and Anglo-Saxon milieu. He was more of
+a bureaucrat and a lawyer than a diplomat or statesman. He set to work
+to convince Englishmen of the harmless character of our fleet, and
+naturally succeeded in strengthening an entirely opposite impression.
+
+To my great surprise I was offered the post in October. After many
+years' work I had withdrawn to the country, as no suitable post had been
+found for me, and I spent my time on my farm and in my garden, on
+horseback and in the fields, but I read industriously and published
+occasional political articles. Thus eight years passed, and thirteen
+since I had left Vienna as Ambassador. That was actually my last
+political employment. I do not know to whom my appointment in London was
+due. At all events, not to his Majesty, as I did not belong to his
+immediate set, although he was always gracious to me. I know by
+experience that his candidates were frequently successfully opposed. As
+a matter of fact, Herr von Kiderlen-W�chter wanted to send Baron von
+Stumm to London. He met me at once with undisguised ill-will, and tried
+to frighten me by rudeness. Herr von Bethmann Hollweg was amiable to me,
+and had visited me shortly before at Gr�tz. I am, therefore, inclined to
+think that they settled on me, as no other candidate was available. Had
+Baron von Marschall not died, it is unlikely that I should have been
+dug out any more than in previous years. The moment was obviously
+favorable for an attempt to come to a better understanding with England.
+
+
+THE MOROCCO QUESTION
+
+Our obscure policy in Morocco had repeatedly caused distrust of our
+peaceful intention, or, at least, had raised doubts as to whether we
+knew what we wanted or whether our intention was to keep Europe in a
+state of suspense and, on occasion, to humiliate the French. An Austrian
+colleague, who was a long time in Paris, said to me: "The French had
+begun to forget la r�vanche. You have regularly reminded them of it by
+tramping on their toes." After we had declined Delcass�'s offer to come
+to an agreement regarding Morocco, and then solemnly declared that we
+had no political interest there--an attitude which agreed with
+Bismarckian political conditions--we suddenly discovered in Abdul Aziz a
+Kruger Number Two. To him also, as to the Boers, we promised the
+protection of the mighty German Empire, and with the same result. Both
+manifestations concluded, as they were bound to conclude, with a
+retraction, if we were not prepared to start a world war. The pitiable
+conference of Algeciras could alter nothing, and still less cause
+Delcass�'s fall. Our attitude furthered the Russo-Japanese and
+Russo-British rapprochement. In face of "the German peril" all other
+considerations faded into the background. The possibility of another
+Franco-German war had been patent, and, as had not been the case in
+1870, such a war could not leave out Russia or England.
+
+
+WORTHLESS AGREEMENTS
+
+The valuelessness of the Triple Alliance had already been demonstrated
+at Algeciras, and, immediately afterward, the equal worthlessness of the
+agreements made there when the Sultanate fell to pieces, which was, of
+course, unavoidable. Meanwhile, the belief was spreading among the
+Russian people that our foreign policy was weak and was breaking down
+under "encirclement," and that cowardly surrender followed on haughty
+gestures. It is to the credit of von Kiderlen-W�chter, though otherwise
+overrated as a statesman, that he cleared up the Moroccan situation and
+adapted himself to circumstances which could not be altered. Whether the
+world had to be upset by the Agadir coup is a question I do not touch.
+This event was hailed with joy in Germany, but in England caused all the
+more uneasiness in that the British Government waited in vain for three
+weeks for a statement of our intentions. Mr. Lloyd George's Mansion
+House speech, intended to warn us, was a consequence. Before Delcass�'s
+fall and before the Algeciras conference we could have obtained harbors
+and bases on the West Coast, but that was no longer possible.
+
+When I came to London in November, 1912, people had become easier about
+the question of Morocco, especially since an agreement had been reached
+with France and Berlin. Lord Haldane's mission had failed, it is true,
+as we demanded promises of neutrality instead of contenting ourselves
+with a treaty which would insure us against a British attack or any
+attack with British support. Sir Edward Grey had not, meanwhile, given
+up the idea of coming to an understanding with us, and made such an
+attempt first on economic and colonial grounds. Through the agency of
+that qualified and expert Councilor of Embassy, von K�hlmann, an
+exchange of opinions had taken place with regard to the renewal of the
+Portuguese colonial treaty and the Bagdad Railway, which thus carried
+out the unexpected aim of dividing into spheres of interest both the
+above-mentioned colonies and Asia Minor. The British statesman, old
+points in dispute both with France and Russia having been settled,
+wished to come to a similar agreement with us. His intention was not to
+isolate us but to make us in so far as possible partners in a working
+concern. Just as he had succeeded in bridging Franco-British and
+Russo-British difficulties, so he wished as far as possible to remove
+German-British difficulties, and by a network of treaties--which would
+finally include an agreement on the miserable fleet question--to secure
+the peace of the world, as our earlier policy had lent itself to a
+co-operation with the Entente, which contained a mutual assurance
+against the danger of war.
+
+
+GREY'S DESIRES
+
+This was Sir Edward Grey's program in his own words: "Without infringing
+on the existing friendly relations with France and Russia, which in
+themselves contained no aggressive elements, and no binding obligations
+for England; to seek to achieve a more friendly rapprochement with
+Germany, and to bring the two groups nearer together."
+
+In England, as with us, there were two opinions, that of the optimists,
+who believed in an understanding, and that of the pessimists, who
+considered war inevitable sooner or later. Among the former were Mr.
+Asquith, Sir Edward Grey, Lord Haldane, and most of the Ministers in the
+Radical Cabinet, as well as leading Liberal organs, such as The
+Westminster Gazette, The Manchester Guardian, and The Daily Chronicle.
+To the pessimists belong especially Conservative politicians like Mr.
+Balfour, who repeatedly made his meaning clear to me; leading soldiers
+such as Lord Roberts, who insisted on the necessity of conscription, and
+on "the writing on the wall," and, further, the Northcliffe press, and
+that leading English journalist, Mr. Garvin of The Observer. During my
+term of office they abstained from all attacks and took up, personally
+and politically, a friendly attitude. Our naval policy and our attitude
+in the years 1905, 1908, and 1911 had, nevertheless, caused them to
+think that it might one day come to war. Just as with us, the former are
+now dubbed shortsighted and simple-minded, while the latter are
+regarded as the true prophets.
+
+
+BALKAN QUESTIONS
+
+The first Balkan war led to the collapse of Turkey and with it the
+defeat of our policy, which had been identified with Turkey for many
+years. Since the salvation of Turkey in Europe was no longer feasible,
+only two possibilities for settling the question remained. Either we
+declared we had no longer any interest in the definition of boundaries
+in the Balkan Peninsula, and left the settlement of the question to the
+Balkan peoples themselves, or we supported our allies and carried out a
+Triple Alliance policy in the East, thereby giving up the r�le of
+mediator.
+
+I urged the former course from the beginning, but the German Foreign
+Office very much preferred the latter. The chief question was Albania.
+Our allies desired the establishment of an independent State of Albania,
+as Austria would not allow Serbia to reach the Adriatic, and Italy did
+not wish the Greeks to reach Valona or even the territory north of
+Corfu. On the other hand, Russia, as is known, favored Serbian, and
+France Greek, desires. My advice was now to consider the question as
+outside the alliance, and to support, neither Austrian nor Italian
+wishes. Without our support the establishment of Albania, whose
+incapability of existence might have been foreseen, was an
+impossibility. Serbia would have pushed forward to the coast; then the
+present world war would have been avoided. France and Italy would have
+remained definitely divided as to Greece, and the Italians, had they not
+wished to fight France, alone, would have been obliged to consent to the
+expansion of Greece to the district north of Durazzo. The greater part
+of civilized Albania is Greek. The southern towns are entirely Greek,
+and, at the time of the conference of Ambassadors, deputations from the
+larger towns came to London to carry through the annexation to Greece.
+
+In Greece today whole groups are Albanian, and the so-called Greek
+national dress is of Albanian origin. The amalgamation of the
+preponderating Orthodox and Islamic Albanians with the Greek State was,
+therefore, the best solution and the most natural, if one leaves out of
+account Scutari and the northern part of Serbia and Montenegro. His
+Majesty was also in favor of this solution on dynastic grounds. When I
+encouraged the monarch by letter to this effect, I received violent
+reproaches from the Chancellor for supporting Austria's opponents, and
+he forbade all such interference in the future, and even direct
+correspondence. We had eventually, however, to abandon the tradition of
+carrying out the Triple Alliance policy in the East and to acknowledge
+our mistake, which consisted in identifying ourselves with the Turks in
+the south and the Austro-Magyars in the north; for the continuance of
+that policy, which we began at the Congress in Berlin and subsequently
+carried on zealously, was bound in time, should the necessary skill in
+conducting it fail, to lead to a collision with Russia and a world war.
+
+
+TURKEY, RUSSIA, ITALY
+
+Instead of uniting with Russia on the basis of the independence of the
+Sultan, whom the Russians also did not wish to drive out of
+Constantinople, and confining ourselves to economic interests in the
+East, while at the same time refraining from all military and political
+interference and being satisfied with a division of Asia Minor into
+spheres of interest, the goal of our political ambition was to dominate
+in the Bosporus. In Russia, therefore, the opinion arose that the way to
+Constantinople and to the Mediterranean lay through Berlin. Instead of
+encouraging a powerful development in the Balkan States, which were once
+free and are very different from the Russians, of which fact we have
+already had experience, we placed ourselves on the side of the Turkish
+and Magyar oppressors. The dire mistake of our Triple Alliance and our
+Eastern policies, which drove Russia--our natural friend and best
+neighbor--into the arms of France and England, and kept her from her
+policy of Asiatic expansion, was the more evident, as a Franco-Russian
+attack, the only hypothesis justifying a Triple Alliance policy, had to
+be eliminated from our calculations.
+
+As to the value of the alliance with Italy, one word only. Italy needs
+our money and our tourists after the war, with or without our alliance.
+That our alliance would go by the board in the event of war was to be
+foreseen. The alliance, consequently, was worthless.
+
+Austria, however, needed our protection both in war and peace, and had
+no other point d'appui. This dependence on us is based on political,
+national, and economic grounds, and is all the greater in proportion to
+the intimacy of our relations with Russia. This was proved in the
+Bosnian crisis. Since Count Beust, no Vienna Minister had been so
+self-conscious with us as Count Aehrenthal was during the last years of
+his life. Under the influence of a properly conducted German policy
+which would keep us in touch with Russia, Austria-Hungary is our vassal,
+and is tied to us even without an alliance and without reciprocal
+services; under the influence of a misguided policy, however, we are
+tied to Austria-Hungary. An alliance would therefore be purposeless.
+
+I know Austria far too well not to know that a return to the policy of
+Count Felix Schwarzenberg or to that of Count Moritz Esterhazy was
+unthinkable. Little as the Slavs living there love us, they wish just as
+little for a return to the German Kaiserdom, even with a
+Hapsburg-Lorraine at its head. They are striving for an internal
+Austrian federation on a national basis, a condition which is even less
+likely of realization within the German Empire than under the Double
+Eagle. Austro-Germans look on Berlin as the centre of German power and
+Kultur, and they know that Austria can never be a leading power. They
+desire as close a connection as possible with the empire, but not to the
+extent of an anti-German policy.
+
+
+BALKAN QUARRELS
+
+Since the seventies the conditions have changed fundamentally in
+Austria, and also, perhaps, in Bavaria. Just as here a return to
+Pan-German particularism and the old Bavarian policy is not to be
+feared, so there a revival of the policy of Prince Kaunitz and Prince
+Schwarzenberg is not to be contemplated. But by a constitutional union
+with Austria, which even without Galicia and Dalmatia is inhabited at
+least to the extent of one-half by non-Germans, our interests would
+suffer; while, on the other hand, by the subordination of our policy to
+the point of view of Vienna and Budapest, we should have to "�pouser les
+querelles de l'Autriche."
+
+We, therefore, had no need to heed the desires of our allies. They were
+not only unnecessary but dangerous, inasmuch as they would lead to a
+collision with Russia if we looked at Eastern questions through Austrian
+eyes. The transformation of our alliance with its single original
+purpose into a complete alliance, involving a complexity of common
+interests, was calculated to call forth the very state of things which
+the constitutional negotiations were designed to prevent, namely, war.
+Such a policy of alliances would, moreover, entail the loss of the
+sympathies of the young, strong, and growing communities in the Balkan
+Peninsula, which were ready to turn to us and open their market to us.
+The contrast between dynastic and democratic ideas had to be given clear
+expression, and, as usual, we stood on the wrong side. King Carol told
+one of our representatives that he had made an alliance with us on
+condition that we retained control of affairs, but that if that control
+passed to Austria it would entirely change the basis of affairs, and
+under those conditions he could no longer participate. Matters stood in
+the same position in Serbia, where against our own economic interests we
+were supporting an Austrian policy of strangulation.
+
+
+BACKED WRONG HORSES
+
+We had always backed horses which, it was evident, would lose, such as
+Kruger, Abdul Aziz, Abdul Hamid, Wilhelm of Wied, and finally--and this
+was the most miserable mistake of all--Count Berchtold.
+
+Shortly after my arrival in London, in 1912, Sir Edward Grey proposed an
+informal exchange of views in order to prevent a European war developing
+out of the Balkan war, since, at the outbreak of that war, we had
+unfortunately declined the proposal of the French Government to join in
+a declaration of disinterestedness and impartiality on the part of the
+powers. The British statesman maintained from the beginning that England
+had no interest in Albania, and would, therefore, not go to war on the
+subject. In his r�le of "honest broker" he would confine his efforts to
+mediation and an attempt to smooth away difficulties between the two
+groups. He, therefore, by no means placed himself on the side of the
+Entente Powers, and during the negotiations, which lasted about eight
+months, he lent his good-will and powerful influence toward the
+establishment of an understanding. Instead of adopting the English point
+of view, we accepted that dictated to us by Vienna. Count Mensdorff led
+the Triple Alliance in London and I was his second.
+
+
+GREY ALWAYS CONCILIATORY
+
+My duty was to support his proposals. The clever and experienced Count
+Szogyenyi was at the helm in Berlin. His refrain was "casus foederis,"
+and when once I dared to doubt the justice of this phrase I was
+seriously warned against Austrophobism. Referring to my father, it was
+even said that I had inherited it. On every point, including Albania,
+the Serbian harbors in the Adriatic, Scutari, and in the definition of
+the Albanian frontiers, we were on the side of Austria and Italy, while
+Sir Edward Grey hardly ever took the French or Russian point of view. On
+the contrary, he nearly always took our part in order to give no pretext
+for war--which was afterward brought about by a dead Archduke. It was
+with his help that King Nicholas was induced to leave Scutari. Otherwise
+there would have been war over this matter, as we should never have
+dared to ask "our allies" to make concessions.
+
+Sir Edward Grey conducted the negotiations with care, calm, and tact.
+When a question threatened to become involved he proposed a formula
+which met the case and always secured consent. He acquired the full
+confidence of all the representatives.
+
+
+AUSTRIA AND RUSSIA
+
+Once again we had successfully withstood one of the many threats against
+the strength characterizing our policy. Russia had been obliged to give
+way to us all along the line, as she never got an opportunity to advance
+Serbian wishes. Albania was set up as an Austrian vassal State, and
+Serbia was driven away from the sea. The conference was thus a fresh
+humiliation for Russia.
+
+As in 1878 and 1908, we had opposed the Russian program without German
+interests being brought into play. Bismarck had to minimize the mistake
+of the Congress by a secret treaty, and his attitude in the Battenberg
+question--the downward incline being taken by us in the Bosnian
+question--was followed up in London, and was not given up, with the
+result that it led to the abyss.
+
+The dissatisfaction then prevalent in Russia was given vent to during
+the London Conference by an attack in the Russian press on my Russian
+colleague and on Russian diplomacy.
+
+His German origin and Catholic faith, his reputation as a friend of
+Germany, and the accident that he was related both to Count Mensdorff
+and to myself were all made use of by dissatisfied parties. Although not
+a particularly important personality, Count Benckendorff possessed many
+qualities of a good diplomat--tact, worldly knowledge, experience, an
+agreeable personality, and a natural eye for men and things. He sought
+always to avoid provocative attitudes, and was supported by the attitude
+of England and France.
+
+I once said: "The feeling in Russia is very anti-German." He replied:
+"There are also many strong influential pro-German circles there. But
+the people generally are anti-Austrian."
+
+It only remains to be added that our exaggerated Austrophilism is not
+exactly likely to break up the Entente and turn Russia's attention to
+her Asiatic interests.
+
+
+PRE-WAR DIPLOMACY
+
+    [The next passages, which had formerly been suppressed by the
+    Swedish Government, appeared in the Politiken of Stockholm on
+    March 26:]
+
+At the same time (1913) the Balkan Conference met in London, and I had
+the opportunity of meeting the leading men of the Balkan States. The
+most important personage among them was M. Venizelos. He was anything
+but anti-German, and particularly prized the Order of the Red Eagle,
+which he even wore at the French Embassy. With his winning amiability
+and savoir faire he could always win sympathy.
+
+Next to him a great r�le was played by Daneff, the then Bulgarian Prime
+Minister and Count Berchtold's confidant. He gave the impression of
+being a capable and energetic man, and even the influence of his friends
+at Vienna and Budapest, at which he sometimes laughed, was attributable
+to the fact that he had let himself be drawn into the second Balkan war
+and had declined Russian intervention.
+
+M. Take Jonescu was often in London, too, and visited me regularly. I
+had known him since the time when I was Secretary at Bucharest. He was
+also one of Herr von Kiderlen-W�chter's friends. His aim in London was
+to secure concessions for Rumania by negotiations with M. Daneff. In
+this he was supported by the most capable Rumanian Minister, M. Misu.
+That these negotiations were stranded by the Bulgarian opposition is
+known. Count Berchtold--and naturally we with him--was entirely on the
+side of Bulgaria; otherwise we should have succeeded by pressure on M.
+Daneff in obtaining the desired satisfaction for the Rumanians and have
+bound Rumania to us, as she was by Austria's attitude in the second
+Balkan war, while afterward she was estranged from the Central Powers.
+
+
+AUSTRIA'S PRESTIGE INJURED
+
+Bulgaria's defeat in the second Balkan war and Serbia's victory, as well
+as the Rumanian advance, naturally constituted a reproach to Austria.
+The idea of equalizing this by military intervention in Serbia seems to
+have gained ground rapidly in Vienna. This is proved by the Italian
+disclosure, and it may be presumed that the Marquis di San Giuliano, who
+described the plan as a "pericolossissima adventura," (an extremely
+risky adventure,) saved us from a European war as far back as the Summer
+of 1912. Intimate as Russo-Italian relations were, the aspiration of
+Vienna must have been known in St. Petersburg. In any event, M. Take
+Jonescu told me that M. Sazonoff had said in Constanza that an attack
+on Serbia on the part of Austria meant war with Russia.
+
+In the Spring of 1914 one of my Secretaries, on returning from leave in
+Vienna, said that Herr von Tschirsohky (German Ambassador in Vienna) had
+declared that war must soon come. But as I was always kept in the dark
+regarding important things, I considered his pessimism unfounded.
+
+Ever since the peace of Bucharest it seems to have been the opinion in
+Vienna that the revision of this treaty should be undertaken
+independently, and only a favorable opportunity was awaited. The
+statesmen in Vienna and Bucharest could naturally count upon our
+support. This they knew, for already they had been reproached several
+times for their slackness. Berlin even insisted on the "rehabilitation"
+of Austria.
+
+
+ANGLO-GERMAN RELATIONS
+
+When I returned to London in December, 1913, after a long holiday, the
+Liman von Sanders question had led to our relations with Russia becoming
+acute. Sir Edward Grey called my attention with some uneasiness to the
+consequent unrest in St. Petersburg, saying: "I have never seen them so
+excited." Berlin instructed me to beg the Minister to urge calm in St.
+Petersburg and help to solve the difficulty. Sir Edward was quite
+willing, and his intervention contributed not inconsiderably to
+smoothing matters over. My good relations with Sir Edward and his great
+influence in St. Petersburg served in a like manner on several occasions
+when it was a question of carrying through something of which our
+representative there was completely incapable.
+
+During the critical days of July, 1914, Sir Edward said to me: "If ever
+you want something done in St. Petersburg you come to me regularly, but
+if ever I appeal for your influence in Vienna you refuse your support."
+The good and dependable relations I was fortunate in making not only in
+society and among influential people, such as Sir Edward Grey and Mr.
+Asquith, but also with others at public dinners, had brought about a
+noticeable improvement in our relations with England. Sir Edward
+devoted himself honestly to further this rapprochement, and his
+intentions were especially noticeable in two questions--the Colonial
+Treaty and the treaty regarding the Bagdad Railway.
+
+
+THE AFRICAN AGREEMENT
+
+    [This portion is translated from the Muenchener Neueste
+    Nachrichten.]
+
+In the year 1898 a secret treaty had been signed by Count Hatzfeldt
+[then German Ambassador in London] and Mr. Balfour, which divided the
+Portuguese colonies in Africa into economic-political spheres of
+interest between us and England. As the Portuguese Government possessed
+neither the power nor the means to open up or adequately to administer
+its extensive possessions, the Portuguese Government had already at an
+earlier date thought of selling these possessions and thereby putting
+their finances in order.
+
+Between us and England an agreement had been reached which defined the
+interests of the two parties and which was of all the greater value
+because Portugal, as is well known, is completely dependent upon
+England. This treaty was no doubt to secure outwardly the integrity and
+independence of the Portuguese Empire, and it only expressed the
+intention of giving financial and economic assistance to the Portuguese.
+Consequently it did not, according to the text, conflict with the old
+Anglo-Portuguese alliance, dating from the fifteenth century, which was
+last renewed under Charles II. and which guaranteed the territories of
+the two parties. Nevertheless, at the instance of the Marquis Soveral,
+who presumably was not ignorant of the Anglo-German agreement, a new
+treaty--the so-called Windsor treaty--which confirmed the old
+agreements, was concluded in 1899 between England and Portugal.
+
+
+ENGLAND'S GENEROUS ATTITUDE
+
+The object of the negotiations between us and England, which had begun
+before my arrival, was to alter and amend our treaty of 1898, which
+contained many impossible features--for example, with regard to the
+geographical delimitation. Thanks to the conciliatory attitude of the
+British Government, I succeeded in giving to the new treaty a form which
+entirely accorded with our wishes and interests. All Angola, as far as
+the 20th degree of longitude, was allotted to us, so that we reached the
+Congo territory from the south. Moreover, the valuable islands of San
+Thom� and Principe, which lie north of the equator, and therefore really
+belonged to the French sphere of interest, were allotted to us--a fact
+which caused my French colleague to make lively, although vain,
+representations. Further, we obtained the northern part of Mozambique;
+the frontier was formed by the Likungo.
+
+The British Government showed the utmost readiness to meet out interests
+and wishes. Sir Edward Grey intended to prove his good-will to us, but
+he also desired to promote our colonial development, because England
+hoped to divert Germany's development of strength from the North Sea and
+Western Europe to the world-sea and Africa. "We don't want to grudge
+Germany her colonial development," a member of the Cabinet said to me.
+
+
+THE CONGO STATE
+
+Originally, at the British suggestion, the Congo State was to be
+included in the treaty, which would have given us a right of pre-emption
+and a possibility of economic penetration in the Congo State. But we
+refused this offer, out of alleged respect for Belgian sensibilities!
+Perhaps the idea was to economize our successes? With regard also to the
+practical realization of the real but unexpressed object of the
+treaty--the actual partition at a later date of the Portuguese colonial
+possessions--the new formulation showed considerable advantages and
+progress as compared with the old. Thus the treaty contemplated
+circumstances which would enable us to enter the territories ascribed to
+us, for the protection of our interests.
+
+These conditional clauses were so wide that it was really left to us to
+decide when really "vital" interests were concerned, so that, in view of
+the complete dependence of Portugal upon England we merely needed to go
+on cultivating our relations with England in order, later on, with
+English assent, to realize our mutual intentions.
+
+The sincerity of the English Government in its effort to respect our
+rights was proved by the fact that Sir Edward Grey, before ever the
+treaty was completed or signed, called our attention to English men of
+business who were seeking opportunities to invest capital in the
+territories allotted to us by the new treaty, and who desired British
+support. In doing so he remarked that the undertakings in question
+belonged to our sphere of interest.
+
+
+WILHELMSTRASSE INTRIGUES
+
+The treaty was practically complete at the time of the King's visit to
+Berlin in May, 1913. A conversation then took place in Berlin under the
+Presidency of the Imperial Chancellor, (Herr von Bethmann Hollweg,) in
+which I took part, and at which special wishes were laid down. On my
+return to London I succeeded, with the help of my Counselor of Embassy,
+von K�hlmann, who was working upon the details of the treaty with Mr.
+Parker, in putting through our last proposals also. It was possible for
+the whole treaty to be initialed by Sir Edward Grey and myself in
+August, 1913, before I went on leave. Now, however, new difficulties
+were to arise, which prevented the signature, and it was only a year
+later, shortly before the outbreak of war, that I was able to obtain
+authorization for the final settlement. Signature, however, never took
+place.
+
+Sir Edward Grey was willing to sign only if the treaty was published,
+together with the two treaties of 1898 and 1899; England has no other
+secret treaties, and it is contrary to her existing principles that she
+should conceal binding agreements. He said, however, that he was ready
+to take account of our wishes concerning the time and manner of
+publication, provided that publication took place within one year, at
+latest, after the signature. In the [Berlin] Foreign Office, however,
+where my London successes aroused increasing dissatisfaction, and where
+an influential personage, [the reference is apparently to Herr von
+Stumm,] who played the part of Herr von Holstein, was claiming the
+London Embassy for himself, it was stated that the publication would
+imperil our interests in the colonies, because the Portuguese would show
+their gratitude by giving us no more concessions. The accuracy of this
+excuse is illuminated by the fact that the old treaty was most probably
+just as much long known to the Portuguese as our new agreements must
+have been, in view of the intimacy of relations between Portugal and
+England; it was illuminated also by the fact that, in view of the
+influence which England possesses at Lisbon, the Portuguese Government
+is completely powerless in face of an Anglo-German understanding.
+
+
+WRECKING THE TREATY
+
+Consequently, it was necessary to find another excuse for wrecking the
+treaty. It was said that the publication of the Windsor Treaty, which
+was concluded in the time of Prince Hohenlohe, and which was merely a
+renewal of the treaty of Charles II., which had never lapsed, might
+imperil the position of Herr von Bethmann Hollweg, as being a proof of
+British hypocrisy and perfidy! On this I pointed out that the preamble
+to our treaties said exactly the same thing as the Windsor Treaty and
+other similar treaties--namely, that we desired to protect the sovereign
+rights of Portugal and the integrity of its possessions!
+
+In spite of repeated conversations with Sir Edward Grey, in which the
+Minister made ever fresh proposals concerning publication, the [Berlin]
+Foreign Office remained obstinate, and finally agreed with Sir Edward
+Goschen [British Ambassador in Berlin] that everything should remain as
+it was before. So the treaty, which gave us extraordinary advantages,
+the result of more than one year's work, had collapsed because it would
+have been a public success for me.
+
+When in the Spring of 1914 I happened, at a dinner in the embassy, at
+which Mr. Harcourt [then Colonial Secretary] was present, to mention the
+matter, the Colonial Secretary said that he was embarrassed and did not
+know how to behave. He said that the present state of affairs was
+intolerable, because he [Mr. Harcourt] wanted to respect our rights,
+but, on the other hand, was in doubt as to whether he should follow the
+old treaty or the new. He said that it was therefore extremely desirable
+to clear matters up, and to bring to a conclusion an affair which had
+been hanging on for so long.
+
+
+"A DISASTROUS MISTAKE"
+
+When I reported to this effect I received a rude and excited order,
+telling me to refrain from any further interference in the matter.
+
+I now regret that I did not go to Berlin in order to offer his Majesty
+my resignation, and that I still did not lose my belief in the
+possibility of an agreement between me and the leading [German]
+personages. That was a disastrous mistake, which was to be tragically
+avenged some months later.
+
+Slight though was the extent to which I then still possessed the
+good-will of the Imperial Chancellor--because he feared that I was
+aiming at his office--I must do him the justice to say that at the end
+of June, 1914, in our last conversation before the outbreak of war, he
+gave his consent to the signature and publication. Nevertheless, it
+required further repeated suggestions on my part, which were supported
+by Dr. Solf, [German Colonial Secretary,] in order at last to obtain
+official consent at the end of July. Then the Serbian crisis was already
+threatening the peace of Europe, and so the completion of the treaty had
+to be postponed. The treaty is now one of the victims of the war.
+
+
+BAGDAD RAILWAY TREATY
+
+    [This portion is translated from the Stockholm Politiken of
+    March 26.]
+
+At the same time, while the African agreement was under discussion, I
+was negotiating, with the effective co-operation of Herr von K�hlmann,
+the so-called Bagdad Railway Treaty. This aimed, in fact, at the
+division of Asia Minor into spheres of interest, although this
+expression was carefully avoided in consideration of the Sultan's
+rights. Sir Edward Grey declared repeatedly that there was no agreement
+between England and France aiming at a division of Asia Minor.
+
+In the presence of the Turkish representative, Hakki Pasha, all economic
+questions in connection with the German treaty were settled mainly in
+accordance with the wishes of the Ottoman Bank. The greatest concession
+Sir Edward Grey made me personally was the continuation of the line to
+Basra. We had not insisted on this terminus in order to establish
+connection with Alexandretta. Hitherto Bagdad had been the terminus of
+the line. The shipping on the Shatt el Arab was to be in the hands of an
+international commission. We also obtained a share in the harbor works
+at Basra, and even acquired shipping rights on the Tigris, hitherto the
+monopoly of the firm of Lynch.
+
+By this treaty the whole of Mesopotamia up to Basra became our zone of
+interest, whereby the whole British rights, the question of shipping on
+the Tigris, and the Wilcox establishments were left untouched, as well
+as all the district of Bagdad and the Anatolian railways.
+
+The British economic territories included the coasts of the Persian Gulf
+and the Smyrna-Aidin railway, the French Syria, and the Russian Armenia.
+Had both treaties been concluded and published, an agreement would have
+been reached with England which would have finally ended all doubt of
+the possibility of an Anglo-German co-operation.
+
+
+GERMAN NAVAL DEVELOPMENT
+
+Most difficult of all, there remained the question of the fleet. It was
+never quite rightly judged. The creation of a mighty fleet on the other
+shore of the North Sea and the simultaneous development of the
+Continent's most important military power into its most important naval
+power had at least to be recognized by England as uncomfortable. This
+presumably cannot be doubted. To maintain the necessary lead and not to
+become dependent, to preserve the supremacy of the sea, which Britain
+must have in order not to go down, she had to undertake preparations
+and expenses which weighed heavily on the taxpayer. A threat against the
+British world position was made in that our policy allowed the
+possibility of warlike development to appear. This possibility was
+obviously near during the Morocco crisis and the Bosnian question.
+
+People had become reconciled to our fleet in its definite strength.
+Obviously it was not welcome to the British and constituted one of the
+motives, but neither the only nor the most important motive, for
+England's joining hands with Russia and France. On account of our fleet
+alone, however, England would have drawn the sword as little as on
+account of our trade, which it is pretended called forth her jealousy
+and ultimately brought about war.
+
+From the beginning I adopted the standpoint that in spite of the fleet
+it would be possible to come to a friendly understanding and
+reapprochement if we did not propose new votes of credit, and, above
+all, if we carried out an indisputable peace policy. I also avoided all
+mention of the fleet, and between me and Sir Edward Grey the word was
+never uttered. Sir Edward Grey declared on one occasion at a Cabinet
+meeting: "The present German Ambassador has never mentioned the fleet to
+me."
+
+
+UNDERSTANDING POSSIBLE.
+
+During my term of office the then First Lord, Mr. Churchill, raised the
+question of a so-called naval holiday, and proposed, for financial
+reasons as much as on account of the pacifist inclinations of his party,
+a one year's pause in armaments. Officially the suggestion was not
+supported by Sir Edward Grey. He never spoke of it to me, but Mr.
+Churchill spoke to me on repeated occasions.
+
+I am convinced that his initiative was honest, cunning in general not
+being part of the Englishman's constitution. It would have been a great
+success for Mr. Churchill to secure economies for the country and to
+lighten the burden of armament, which was weighing heavily on the
+people.
+
+I maintain that it would have been difficult to support his intention.
+How about the workmen employed for this purpose? How about the technical
+personnel? Our naval program was settled, and it would be difficult to
+alter it. Nor, on the other hand, did we intend exceeding it. But he
+pointed out that the means spent on portentous armaments could equally
+be used for other purposes. I maintain that such expenditure would have
+benefited home industries.
+
+
+NO TRADE JEALOUSY
+
+I also succeeded, in conversation with Sir William Tyrrell, Sir Edward
+Grey's private secretary, in keeping away that subject without raising
+suspicion, although it came up in Parliament, and preventing the
+Government's proposal from being made. But it was Mr. Churchill's and
+the Government's favorite idea that by supporting his initiative in the
+matter of large ships we should give proof of our good-will and
+considerably strengthen and increase the tendency on the part of the
+Government to get in closer contact with us. But, as I have said, it was
+possible in spite of our fleet and without naval holidays to come to an
+understanding.
+
+In that spirit I had carried out my mission from the beginning, and had
+even succeeded in realizing my program when the war broke out and
+destroyed everything.
+
+Trade jealousy, so much talked about among us, rests on faulty judgment
+of circumstances. It is a fact that Germany's progress as a trading
+country after the war of 1870 and during the following decades
+threatened the interests of British trade circles, constituting a form
+of monopoly with its industry and export houses. But the growing
+interchange of merchandise with Germany, which was first on the list of
+all European exporting countries, a fact I always referred to in my
+public speeches, had allowed the desire to mature to preserve good
+relations with England's best client and business friend, and had
+gradually suppressed all other thoughts and motives. The Englishman, as
+a matter of fact, adapts himself to circumstances and does not tilt
+against windmills. In commercial circles I found the greatest good-will
+and desire to further our common economic interests.
+
+
+AMIABLY RECEIVED
+
+In other circles I had a most amiable reception, and enjoyed the cordial
+good-will of the Court, society, and the Government. No one there
+interested himself in the Russian, Italian, Austrian, or even the French
+representative, in spite of the imposing personality and political
+success of the last named. Only the German and American Ambassadors
+attracted public attention.
+
+In order to get in touch with the most important business circles I
+accepted invitations from the United Chambers of Commerce, the London
+and Bradford Chambers, and those of the great cities of Newcastle and
+Liverpool. I had a hearty reception everywhere. Glasgow and Edinburgh
+had also invited me, and I promised them visits. People who did not
+understand English conditions and did not appreciate the value of public
+dinners, and others who disliked my success, reproached me with having
+done harm by my speeches. I, on the contrary, believe that my public
+appearances and my discussion of common economic interests contributed
+considerably toward the improvement of conditions, apart from the fact
+that it would have been impolitic and impolite to refuse invitations.
+
+In other circles I had a most amiable reception and enjoyed the cordial
+good-will of the Court, society, and the Government.
+
+
+INFLUENCE OF THE CROWN
+
+The King, very amiable and well meaning and possessed of sound
+understanding and common sense, was invariably well disposed toward me
+and desired honestly to facilitate my mission. In spite of the small
+amount of power which the British Constitution gives the Crown, the King
+can, by virtue of his position, greatly influence the tone both of
+society and the Government. The Crown is the apex of society from which
+the tone emanates. Society, which is overwhelmingly Unionist, is
+largely occupied by ladies connected with politics. It is represented in
+the Lords and the Commons, consequently also in the Cabinet.
+
+The Englishman either belongs to society or ought to belong to it. His
+aim is, and always will be, to be a distinguished man and a gentleman,
+and even men of modest origin, such as Mr. Asquith, prefer to be in
+society, with its elegant women.
+
+British gentlemen of both parties enjoy the same education, go to the
+same colleges and university, and engage in the same sports--golf,
+cricket, lawn tennis, and polo. All have played cricket and football in
+their youth, all have the same habits, and all spend the week-end in the
+country. No social cleavage divides the parties, only political
+cleavage. To some extent of late years the politicians in the two camps
+have avoided one another in society. Not even on the ground of a neutral
+mission could the two camps be amalgamated, for since the Home Rule and
+Veto bills the Unionists have despised the Radicals. A few months after
+my arrival the King and Queen dined with me, and Lord Londonderry left
+the house after dinner in order not to be together with Sir Edward Grey.
+But there is no opposition from difference in caste and education as in
+France. There are not two worlds, but the same world, and their opinion
+of a foreigner is common and not without influence on his political
+standing, whether a Lansdowne or an Asquith is at the helm.
+
+
+POLITICS AND SOCIETY
+
+The difference of caste no longer exists in England since the time of
+the Stuarts and since the Whig oligarchy (in contradistinction to the
+Tory county families) allowed the bourgeoisie in the towns to rise in
+society. There is greater difference in political opinions on
+constitutional or Church questions than on financial or political
+questions. Aristocrats who have joined the popular party, Radicals such
+as Grey, Churchill, Harcourt, and Crewe, are most hated by the Unionist
+aristocracy. None of these gentlemen have I ever met in great
+aristocratic houses, only in the houses of party friends.
+
+We were received in London with open arms and both parties outdid one
+another in amiability.
+
+It would be a mistake to undervalue social connections in view of the
+close connection in England between society and politics, even though
+the majority of the upper ten thousand are in opposition to the
+Government. Between an Asquith and a Devonshire there is no such deep
+cleft as between a Briand and a Duc de Doudeauville, for example. In
+times of political tension they do not foregather. They belong to two
+separate social groups, but are part of the same society, if on
+different levels, the centre of which is the Court. They have friends
+and habits in common, they are often related or connected. A phenomenon
+like Lloyd George, a man of the people, a small solicitor and a
+self-made man, is an exception. Even John Burns, a Socialist Labor
+leader and a self-taught man, seeks society relations. On the ground of
+a general striving to be considered gentlemen of social weight and
+position such men must not be undervalued.
+
+In no place, consequently, is an envoy's social circle of greater
+consequence than in England. A hospitable house with friendly guests is
+worth more than the profoundest scientific knowledge, and a learned man
+of insignificant appearance and too small means would, in spite of all
+his learning, acquire no influence. The Briton hates a bore and a
+pedant. He loves a good fellow.
+
+
+SIR EDWARD GREY'S SOCIALISM
+
+Sir Edward Grey's influence in all questions of foreign policy was
+almost unlimited. True, he used to say on important occasions: "I must
+lay that before the Cabinet"; but it is equally true that the latter
+invariably took his view. Although he did not know foreign countries
+and, with the exception of one short visit to Paris, had never left
+England, he was closely informed on all important questions, owing to
+many years' Parliamentary experience and natural grasp. He understood
+French without speaking it. Elected at an early age to Parliament, he
+began immediately to occupy himself with foreign affairs. Parliamentary
+Under Secretary of State at the Foreign Office under Lord Rosebery, he
+became in 1906 Secretary of State under Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman,
+and filled the post for ten years.
+
+Sprung from an old North of England family of landowners, from whom the
+statesman, Earl Grey, is also descended, he joined the left wing of his
+party and sympathized with the Socialists and pacifists. He can be
+called a Socialist in the ideal sense, for he applied his theories even
+in private life, which is characterized by great simplicity and
+unpretentiousness, although he is possessed of considerable means. All
+display is foreign to him. He had a small residence in London and never
+gave dinners, except officially, at the Foreign Office on the King's
+birthday.
+
+
+SIMPLE MODE OF LIFE
+
+If, exceptionally, he asked a few guests to his house, it was to a
+simple dinner or luncheon in a small circle with parlor maids for
+service. The week-ends he spent regularly in the country, like his
+colleagues, but not at large country house parties. He lives mostly in
+his cottage in the New Forest, taking long walks, and is passionately
+fond of nature and ornithology. Or he journeyed to his property in the
+north and tamed squirrels. In his youth he was a noted cricket and
+tennis player. His chief sport is now salmon and trout fishing in the
+Scotch lakes with Lord Glenconner, Mr. Asquith's brother-in-law. Once,
+when spending his week-ends with Lord Glenconner, he came thirty miles
+on a bicycle and returned in the same way. His simple, upright manner
+insured him the esteem even of his opponents, who were more easily to be
+found in home than in foreign political circles.
+
+Lies and intrigue were foreign to his nature. His wife, whom he loved
+and from whom he was never separated, died as the result of an accident
+to the carriage driven by him. As is known, one brother was killed by a
+lion.
+
+Wordsworth was his favorite poet, and he could quote him by the hour.
+His British calm did not lack a sense of humor. When breakfasting with
+us and the children and he heard their German conversation, he would
+say, "I cannot help admiring the way they talk German," and laughed at
+his joke. This is the man who was called "the Liar Grey" and the
+"originator of the world war."
+
+
+ASQUITH AND HIS FAMILY
+
+Asquith is a man of quite different mold. A jovial, sociable fellow, a
+friend of the ladies, especially young and beautiful ones, he loves
+cheery surroundings and a good cook, and is supported by a cheery young
+wife. He was formerly a well-known lawyer, with a large income and many
+years' Parliamentary experience. Later he was known as a Minister under
+Gladstone, a pacifist like his friend Grey, and friendly to an
+understanding with Germany. He treated all questions with an experienced
+business man's calm and certainty, and enjoyed good health and excellent
+nerves, steeled by assiduous golf.
+
+His daughters went to a German boarding school and speak fluent German.
+We quickly became good friends with him and his family, and were guests
+at his little house on the Thames.
+
+He only rarely occupied himself with foreign affairs. When important
+questions cropped up, with him lay the ultimate decision. During the
+critical days of July Asquith often came to warn us, and he was
+ultimately in despair over the tragic turn of events. On Aug. 2, when I
+saw Asquith in order to make a final attempt, he was completely broken,
+and, although quite calm, tears ran down his face.
+
+
+NICOLSON AND TYRRELL
+
+Sir Arthur Nicolson and Sir William Tyrrell had the greatest influence
+in the Foreign Office. The former was not our friend, but his attitude
+toward me was consistently correct and obliging. Our personal relations
+were of the best. Neither did he wish for war, but when we [moved?]
+against France he undoubtedly worked for immediate intervention. He was
+the confidant of my French colleague, and was in constant touch with
+him, and was destined to succeed Lord Bertie in Paris. As is known, Sir
+Arthur was formerly Ambassador in St. Petersburg, and had concluded the
+treaty of 1907 which enabled Russia to turn again to the West and the
+Near East.
+
+Sir Edward Grey's private secretary, Sir William Tyrrell, had far
+greater influence than the Permanent Under Secretary of State. This
+unusually intelligent man had been at a school in Germany, and had then
+entered the Diplomatic Service, but he was abroad only a short time. At
+first he belonged to the modern anti-German school of young English
+diplomats, but later he became a determined supporter of an
+understanding. To this aim and object he even influenced Sir Edward
+Grey, with whom he was very intimate. After the outbreak of war he left
+the department, and went to the Home Office, probably in consequence of
+criticism of him for his Germanophile leanings.
+
+
+CABALS AGAINST LICHNOWSKY
+
+The rage of certain gentlemen over my success in London and the position
+I had achieved was indescribable. Schemes were set on foot to impede my
+carrying out my duties, I was left in complete ignorance of most
+important things, and had to confine myself to sending in unimportant
+and dull reports. Secret reports from agents about things of which I
+could know nothing without spies and necessary funds were never
+available for me, and it was only in the last days of July, 1914, that I
+heard accidentally from the Naval Attach� of the secret Anglo-French
+agreement for joint action of the two fleets in case of war. Soon after
+my arrival I became convinced that in no circumstances need we fear a
+British attack or British support of a foreign attack, but that under
+all conditions England would protect France. I advanced this opinion in
+repeated reports with detailed reasoning and insistence, but without
+gaining credence, although Lord Haldane's refusing of the formula of
+neutrality and England's attitude during the Morocco crisis were clear
+indications. In addition, the above-mentioned secret agreements were
+known to the department. I repeatedly urged that England, as a
+commercial State, would suffer greatly in any war between the European
+great powers, and would therefore prevent such a war by all available
+means; but, on the other hand, in the interest of the European balance
+of power, and to prevent Germany's overlordship, would never tolerate
+the weakening or destruction of France. Lord Haldane told me this
+shortly after my arrival. All influential people spoke in the same way.
+
+
+THE ARCHDUKE'S DEATH
+
+At the end of June I went to Kiel by the royal orders a few weeks after
+I had received the honorary degree of Doctor at Oxford, an honor no
+German Ambassador since Herr von Bunsen had received. On board the
+Meteor we received the news of the death of the Archduke, the heir to
+the throne. His Majesty complained that his attempts to win the noble
+Archduke over to his ideas were thereby rendered fruitless. How far
+plans for an active policy against Serbia had already been made at
+Konopischt I am not in a position to judge. As I was not informed about
+intentions and events in Vienna I attached no further importance to the
+matter. I could only observe that the feeling of relief outweighed the
+other feelings of the Austrian aristocrats. One of the guests on board
+the Meteor was the Austrian Count Felix Thun. In spite of glorious
+weather seasickness had kept him to his cabin. After receiving the news
+he became well. Shock or joy had cured him.
+
+On reaching Berlin I visited the Chancellor, and said I considered the
+situation of our foreign policy very satisfactory, as we were on better
+terms with England than we had been for a long time. In France a
+pacifist Government was at the helm. Herr von Bethmann Hollweg did not
+seem to share my optimism, and complained of the Russian armaments. I
+tried to calm him, and pointed out especially that Russia had absolutely
+no interest in attacking us, and that such an attack would not receive
+Anglo-French support, as both countries, England and France, desired
+peace. Then I called on Dr. Zimmermann, who represented von Jagow, and
+learned from him that Russia was about to mobilize 900,000 new troops.
+From his manner of speaking he was evidently annoyed with Russia, who
+was everywhere in our way. There was also the question of the
+difficulties of commercial politics. Of course, I was not told that
+General von Moltke was working eagerly for war. But I learned that Herr
+von Tschirschky had received a rebuff for having reported that he had
+advised moderation in Vienna toward Serbia.
+
+
+AUSTRIA'S WAR PLOT
+
+On my return journey from Silesia I only remained a few hours in Berlin,
+but I heard there that Austria intended to take steps against Serbia to
+put an end to this intolerable situation. Unfortunately I undervalued
+the importance of the information. I thought nothing would come of it,
+and that it would be easy to settle the matter if Russia threatened. I
+now regret that I did not stop in Berlin, and at once declare that I
+could not agree to such a policy.
+
+I have since learned that the inquiries and appeals from Vienna won
+unconditional assent from all the influential men at a decisive
+consultation at Potsdam on July 5, with the addition that it would not
+matter if war with Russia resulted. This is what was stated, anyhow, in
+the Austrian protocol which Count Mensdorff received in London. Shortly
+afterward Herr von Jagow arrived in Vienna to discuss the whole question
+with Count Berchtold.
+
+Subsequently, I received instructions to work to obtain a friendly
+attitude on the part of the English press, if Austria dealt Serbia a
+deathblow, and by my influence to prevent so far as possible public
+opinion from becoming opposed to Austria. Remembering England's attitude
+during the annexation crisis, when public opinion sympathized with
+Serbian rights to Bosnia and her kindly favoring of national movements
+in the time of Lord Byron and that of Garibaldi, one thing and another
+indicated so strongly the improbability of British support of the
+proposed punitive expedition against the Archduke's murderers, that I
+felt bound to issue a serious warning. I also sent a warning against the
+whole project, which I characterized as adventurous and dangerous, and
+advised moderation being urged on the Austrians, as I did not believe in
+the localization of the conflict.
+
+
+JAGOW'S MISTAKEN BLUFF
+
+Herr von Jagow answered that Russia was not ready, that there would be
+some fuss, but that the more firmly we held to Austria the sooner would
+Russia give way. Austria, he said, had already accused us of flabbiness,
+(flaumacherei,) and so we must not get into a mess. Opinion in Russia,
+he added, was becoming more and more pro-German, so we must just take
+the risks. In view of this attitude, which, as I subsequently found out,
+was the result of Count Pourtal�s's reports that Russia would in no
+circumstances move, and caused us to urge Count Berchtold to the
+greatest possible energy, I hoped for salvation in English intervention,
+as I knew Sir Edward Grey's influence with St. Petersburg in the
+direction of peace could prevail. I availed myself, therefore, of my
+good relations with the British Foreign Minister to beg him
+confidentially to advise moderation on the part of Russia in case
+Austria, as appeared probable, should demand satisfaction from the
+Serbians.
+
+In the beginning the attitude of the English press toward the Austrians
+was quiet and friendly, as the murder was condemned. Little by little,
+however, voices increased in number insisting that, however necessary
+the punishment of a crime might be, no elaboration of it for a political
+purpose could be justified. Austria was urgently called upon to act with
+moderation. The whole world outside Berlin and Vienna understood that it
+meant war, and world war. The British fleet, which happened to be
+assembled for review, was not demobilized.
+
+
+GERMANY FORCES WAR
+
+The Serbian answer corresponded with British efforts, for actually M.
+Pashitch had accepted all but two points, about which he was prepared to
+negotiate. Had England and Russia wanted war in order to fall upon us,
+a hint to Belgrade would have been given, and the unspeakable note would
+have remained unanswered. Sir Edward Grey went through the Serbian
+answer with me, and pointed out the conciliatory attitude of the
+Belgrade Government. We even discussed his proposal for intervention,
+which should insure an interpretation of these two points acceptable to
+both parties. With Sir Edward Grey presiding, M. Cambon, the Marquis
+Imperiali, and I were to meet, and it would have been easy to find an
+acceptable form for the points under discussion, which were mainly
+concerned with the part to be taken by Austrian officials in the
+inquiries at Belgrade. With good-will all could have been cleared up in
+two or three sittings, and a simple acknowledgment of the British
+proposal would have brought about a d�tente and further improved our
+relations with England. I therefore urged it forcibly, as otherwise a
+world war stood at our gates.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In vain. It would be, I was told, wounding to Austria's dignity, nor
+would we mix ourselves up in that Serbian matter. We left it to our
+allies. I was to work for the localization of the conflict. It naturally
+only needed a hint from Berlin to induce Count Berchtold to content
+himself with a diplomatic success and put up with the Serbian reply. But
+this hint was not given. On the contrary, we pressed for war. What a
+fine success it would have been!
+
+
+INTOLERABLE CONDITIONS
+
+After our refusal Sir Edward asked us to come forward with a proposal of
+our own. We insisted upon war. I could get no other answer [from Berlin]
+than that it was an enormous "concession" on the part of Austria to
+contemplate no annexation of territory.
+
+Thereupon Sir Edward justly pointed out that even without annexations of
+territory a country can be humiliated and subjected, and that Russia
+would regard this as a humiliation which she would not stand.
+
+The impression became ever stronger that we desired war in all
+circumstances. Otherwise our attitude in a question which, after all,
+did not directly concern us was unintelligible. The urgent appeals and
+definite declarations of M. Sazonoff, [Russian Foreign Minister,] later
+on the positively humble telegrams of the Czar, the repeated proposals
+of Sir Edward, the warnings of San Giuliano [Italian Foreign Minister]
+and of Bollati, [Italian Ambassador in Berlin,] my urgent advice--it was
+all of no use, for Berlin went on insisting that Serbia must be
+massacred.
+
+The more I pressed, the less willing they were to alter their course, if
+only because I was not to have the success of saving peace in the
+company of Sir Edward Grey.
+
+So Grey on July 29 resolved upon his well-known warning. I replied that
+I had always reported that we should have to reckon upon English
+hostility if it came to war with France. The Minister said to me
+repeatedly: "If war breaks out it will be the greatest catastrophe the
+world has ever seen."
+
+
+GREY STILL SOUGHT PEACE
+
+After that events moved rapidly. When Count Berchtold, who hitherto had
+played the strong man on instructions from Berlin, at last decided to
+change his course, we answered the Russian mobilization--after Russia
+had for a whole week negotiated and waited in vain--with our ultimatum
+and declaration of war.
+
+Sir Edward Grey still looked for new ways of escape. In the morning of
+Aug. 1, Sir W. Tyrrell came to me to say that his chief still hoped to
+find a way out. Should we remain neutral if France did the same? I
+understood him to mean that we should then be ready to spare France, but
+his meaning was that we should remain absolutely neutral--neutral
+therefore even toward Russia. That was the well-known misunderstanding.
+Sir Edward had given me an appointment for the afternoon, but as he was
+then at a meeting of the Cabinet, he called me up on the telephone,
+after Sir W. Tyrrell had hurried straight to him. But in the afternoon
+he spoke no longer of anything but Belgian neutrality, and of the
+possibility that we and France should face one another armed, without
+attacking one another.
+
+Thus there was no proposal whatever, but a question without any
+obligation, because our conversation, as I have already explained, was
+to take place soon afterward. In Berlin, however--without waiting for
+the conversation--this news was used as the foundation for a
+far-reaching act. Then came Poincar�'s letter, Bonar Law's letter, and
+the telegram from the King of the Belgians. The hesitating members of
+the Cabinet were converted, with the exception of three members, who
+resigned.
+
+
+PEACE HOPES DESTROYED
+
+Up to the last moment I had hoped for a waiting attitude on the part of
+England. My French colleague also felt himself by no means secure, as I
+learned from a private source. As late as Aug. 1 the King replied
+evasively to the French President. But in the telegram from Berlin,
+which announced the threatening danger of war, England was already
+mentioned as an opponent. In Berlin, therefore, one already reckoned
+upon war with England.
+
+Before my departure Sir Edward Grey received me on Aug. 5 at his house.
+I had gone there at his desire. He was deeply moved. He said to me that
+he would always be ready to mediate, and, "We don't want to crush
+Germany." Unfortunately, this confidential conversation was published.
+Thereby Herr von Bethmann Hollweg destroyed the last possibility of
+reaching peace via England.
+
+Our departure was thoroughly dignified and calm. Before we left, the
+King had sent his equerry, Sir E. Ponsonby, to me, to express his regret
+at my departure and that he could not see me personally. Princess Louise
+wrote to me that the whole family lamented our going. Mrs. Asquith and
+other friends came to the embassy to say good-bye.
+
+A special train took us to Harwich, where a guard of honor was drawn up
+for me. I was treated like a departing sovereign. Thus ended my London
+mission. It was wrecked, not by the perfidy of the British, but by the
+perfidy of our policy.
+
+At the railway station in London Count Mensdorff [Austrian Ambassador]
+appeared with his staff. He was cheerful, and gave me to understand that
+perhaps he would remain in London. But to the English he said that it
+was not Austria, but we, who had wanted the war.
+
+
+A BITTER RETROSPECT
+
+When now, after two years, I realize everything in retrospect, I say to
+myself that I realized too late that there was no place for me in a
+system which for years has lived only on tradition and routine, and
+which tolerates only representatives who report what one wants to read.
+Absence of prejudice and an independent judgment are combated, want of
+ability and of character are extolled and esteemed, but successes arouse
+hostility and uneasiness.
+
+I had abandoned opposition to our mad Triple Alliance policy, because I
+saw that it was useless and that my warnings were represented as
+Austrophobia and an id�e fixe. In a policy which is not mere gymnastics,
+or playing with documents, but the conduct of the business of the firm,
+there is no such thing as likes and dislikes; there is nothing but the
+interest of the community; but a policy which is based merely upon
+Austrians, Magyars, and Turks must end in hostility to Russia, and
+ultimately lead to a catastrophe.
+
+In spite of former aberrations, everything was still possible in July,
+1914. Agreement with England had been reached. We should have had to
+send to Petersburg a representative who, at any rate, reached the
+average standard of political ability, and we should have had to give
+Russia the certainty that we desired neither to dominate the Starits nor
+to throttle the Serbs. M. Sazonoff was saying to us: "L�chez l'Autriche
+et nous l�cherons les Fran�ais," and M. Cambon [French Ambassador in
+Berlin] said to Herr von Jagow: "Vous n'avez [pas] besoin de suivre
+l'Autriche partout."
+
+We needed neither alliances nor wars, but merely treaties which would
+protect us and others, and which would guarantee us an economic
+development for which there had been no precedent in history. And if
+Russia had been relieved of trouble in the west, she would have been
+able to turn again to the east, and then the Anglo-Russian antagonism
+would have arisen automatically without our interference--and the
+Russo-Japanese antagonism no less than the Anglo-Russian.
+
+We could also have approached the question of limitation of armaments,
+and should have had no further need to bother about the confusions of
+Austria. Austria-Hungary would then become the vassal of the German
+Empire--without an alliance, and, above all, without sentimental
+services on our part, leading ultimately to war for the liberation of
+Poland and the destruction of Serbia, although German interests demanded
+exactly the contrary.
+
+I had to support in London a policy which I knew to be fallacious. I was
+punished for it, for it was a sin against the Holy Ghost.
+
+
+ARRIVAL AT BERLIN
+
+On my arrival in Berlin I saw at once that I was to be made the
+scapegoat for the catastrophe of which our Government had made itself
+guilty in opposition to my advice and my warnings.
+
+The report was persistently circulated by official quarters that I had
+let myself be deceived by Sir Edward Grey, because if he had not wanted
+war Russia would not have mobilized. Count Pourtal�s, whose reports
+could be relied upon, was to be spared, if only because of his family
+connections. He was said to have behaved "splendidly," and he was
+enthusiastically praised, while I was all the more sharply blamed.
+
+"What has Russia got to do with Serbia?" this statesman said to me after
+eight years of official activity in Petersburg. It was made out that the
+whole business was a perfidious British trick which I had not
+understood. In the Foreign Office I was told that in 1916 it would in
+any case have come to war. But then Russia would have been "ready," and
+so it was better now.
+
+As appears from all official publications, without the facts being
+controverted by our own White Book, which, owing to its poverty and
+gaps, constitutes a grave self-accusation:
+
+1. We encouraged Count Berchtold to attack Serbia, although no German
+interest was involved, and the danger of a world war must have been
+known to us--whether we knew the text of the ultimatum is a question of
+complete indifference.
+
+2. In the days between July 23 and July 30, 1914, when M. Sazonoff
+emphatically declared that Russia could not tolerate an attack upon
+Serbia, we rejected the British proposals of mediation, although Serbia,
+under Russian and British pressure, had accepted almost the whole
+ultimatum, and although an agreement about the two points in question
+could easily have been reached, and Count Berchtold was even ready to
+satisfy himself with the Serbian reply.
+
+3. On July 30, when Count Berchtold wanted to give way, we, without
+Austria having been attacked, replied to Russia's mere mobilization by
+sending an ultimatum to Petersburg, and on July 31 we declared war on
+the Russians, although the Czar had pledged his word that as long as
+negotiations continued not a man should march--so that we deliberately
+destroyed the possibility of a peaceful settlement.
+
+In view of these indisputable facts, it is not surprising that the whole
+civilized world outside Germany attributes to us the sole guilt for the
+world war.
+
+
+GERMANY'S WAR SPIRIT
+
+Is it not intelligible that our enemies declare that they will not rest
+until a system is destroyed which constitutes a permanent threatening of
+our neighbors? Must they not otherwise fear that in a few years they
+will again have to take up arms, and again see their provinces overrun
+and their towns and villages destroyed? Were these people not right who
+prophesied that the spirit of Treitschke and Bernhardi dominated the
+German people--the spirit which glorifies war as an aim in itself and
+does not abhor it as an evil; that among us it is still the feudal
+knights and Junkers and the caste of warriors who rule and who fix our
+ideals and our values--not the civilian gentleman; that the love of
+dueling, which inspires our youth at the universities, lives on in those
+who guide the fortunes of the people? Had not the events at Zabern and
+the Parliamentary debates on that case shown foreign countries how civil
+rights and freedoms are valued among us, when questions of military
+power are on the other side?
+
+Cramb, a historian who has since died, an admirer of Germany, put the
+German point of view into the words of Euphorion:
+
+    Tr�umt Ihr den Friedenstag?
+    Tr�ume, wer tr�umen mag!
+    Krieg ist das Losungswort!
+    Sieg, und so klingt es fort.
+
+Militarism, really a school for the nation and an instrument of policy,
+makes policy into the instrument of military power, if the patriarchal
+absolutism of a soldier-kingdom renders possible an attitude which would
+not be permitted by a democracy which had disengaged itself from
+military-junker influences.
+
+That is what our enemies think, and that is what they are bound to
+think, when they see that, in spite of capitalistic industrialization,
+and in spite of socialistic organization, the living, as Friedrich
+Nietzsche says, are still governed by the dead. The principal war aim of
+our enemies, the democratization of Germany, will be achieved.
+
+
+JEOPARDIZING THE FUTURE
+
+Today, after two years of the war, there can be no further doubt that we
+cannot hope for an unconditional victory over Russians, English, French,
+Italians, Rumanians, and Americans, and that we cannot reckon upon the
+overthrow of our enemies. But we can reach a compromised peace only upon
+the basis of the evacuation of the occupied territories, the possession
+of which in any case signifies for us a burden and weakness and the
+peril of new wars. Consequently, everything should be avoided which
+hinders a change of course on the part of those enemy groups which might
+perhaps still be won over to the idea of compromise--the British
+Radicals and the Russian Reactionaries. Even from this point of view our
+Polish project is just as objectionable as any interference with
+Belgian rights, or the execution of British citizens--to say nothing of
+the mad submarine war scheme.
+
+Our future lies upon the water. True, but it therefore does not lie in
+Poland and Belgium, in France and Serbia. That is a reversion to the
+Holy Roman Empire, to the aberrations of the Hohenstaufens and
+Hapsburgs. It is the policy of the Plantagenets, not the policy of Drake
+and Raleigh, Nelson and Rhodes.
+
+Triple Alliance policy is a relapse into the past, a revolt from the
+future, from imperialism, from world policy. Central Europe is
+mediaevalism; Berlin-Bagdad is a cul de sac, and not a road into the
+open, to unlimited possibilities, and to the world mission of the German
+people.
+
+I am no enemy of Austria, or Hungary, or Italy, or Serbia, or any other
+State; I am only an enemy of the Triple Alliance policy, which was bound
+to divert us from our aims, and to bring us on to the sloping plane of
+Continental policy. It was not German policy, but Austrian dynastic
+policy. The Austrians had accustomed themselves to regard the alliance
+as a shield, under whose protection they could make excursions at
+pleasure into the East.
+
+
+RUINOUS RESULTS
+
+And what result have we to expect from the struggle of peoples? The
+United States of Africa will be British, like the United States of
+America, of Australia, and of Oceania, and the Latin States of Europe,
+as I said years ago, will fall into the same relationship to the United
+Kingdom as the Latin sisters of America to the United States. They will
+be dominated by the Anglo-Saxon; France, exhausted by the war, will link
+herself still more closely to Great Britain. In the long run, Spain also
+will not resist.
+
+In Asia, the Russian and Japanese will expand their borders and their
+customs, and the south will remain to the British.
+
+The world will belong to the Anglo-Saxon, the Russian, and the Japanese,
+and the German will remain alone with Austria and Hungary. His sphere of
+power will be that of thought and of trade, not that of the bureaucrats
+and the soldiers. The German appeared too late, and the world war has
+destroyed the last possibility of catching up the lost ground, of
+founding a colonial empire.
+
+For we shall not supplant the sons of Japheth; the program of the great
+Rhodes, who saw the salvation of mankind in British expansion and
+British imperialism, will be realized.
+
+    Tu regere imperio populos Romano, memento.
+    Hae tibi erunt artes: pacisquqe imponere morem,
+    Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos.
+
+
+
+
+Krupp Director Confirms Prince Lichnowsky's Indictment
+
+Coincident with the publication in Germany of the famous memorandum of
+Prince Lichnowsky squarely putting the blame for the outbreak of the
+world war upon the Kaiser and the German militarists, there also
+appeared in circular form in Germany a letter written by a certain Dr.
+M�hlon, a former member of the Krupp Directorate now living in
+Switzerland, corroborating the charges made by the Prince. The M�hlon
+letter was briefly referred to in an official dispatch from Switzerland
+received in Washington on March 29 as having produced an animated
+discussion throughout the empire.
+
+A copy of the Leipziger Volkszeitung of March 20 tells how, in a
+discussion of the Lichnowsky and M�hlon memoranda before the Main
+Committee of the Reichstag on March 16, Vice Chancellor von Payer tried
+to minimize the value of Dr. M�hlon's statements by asserting that the
+former Krupp Director was a sick, nervous man who no doubt did not
+intend to injure his country's cause, but who was hardly responsible for
+his actions because of his many nervous breakdowns. Later, the Berliner
+Tageblatt printed the text of Dr. M�hlon's letter, which was evidently
+written before the resignation of Dr. Karl Helfferich as Vice Chancellor
+last November. As translated by The London Times, Dr. M�hlon's
+memorandum reads:
+
+
+TALK WITH HELFFERICH
+
+"In the middle of July, 1914, I had, as I frequently had, a conversation
+with Dr. Helfferich, then Director of the Deutsche Bank in Berlin, and
+now Vice Chancellor. The Deutsche Bank had adopted a negative attitude
+toward certain large transactions in Bulgaria and Turkey, in which the
+firm of Krupp, for business reasons--delivery of war material--had a
+lively interest. As one of the reasons to justify the attitude of the
+Deutsche Bank, Dr. Helfferich finally gave me the following reason:
+
+    "The political situation has become very menacing. The Deutsche
+    Bank must in any case wait before entering into any further
+    engagements abroad. The Austrians have just been with the
+    Kaiser. In a week's time Vienna will send a very severe
+    ultimatum to Serbia, with a very short interval for the answer.
+    The ultimatum will contain demands such as punishment of a
+    number of officers, dissolution of political associations,
+    criminal investigation in Serbia by Austrian officials, and, in
+    fact, a whole series of definite satisfactions will be demanded
+    at once; otherwise Austria-Hungary will declare war on Serbia.
+
+"Dr. Helfferich added that the Kaiser had expressed his decided approval
+of this procedure on the part of Austria-Hungary. He had said that he
+regarded a conflict with Serbia as an internal affair between these two
+countries, in which he would permit no other State to interfere. If
+Russia mobilized, he would mobilize also. But in his case mobilization
+meant immediate war. This time there would be no oscillation. Helfferich
+said that the Austrians were extremely well satisfied at this determined
+attitude on the part of the Kaiser.
+
+"When I thereupon said to Dr. Helfferich that this uncanny communication
+converted my fears of a world war, which were already strong, into
+absolute certainty, he replied that it certainly looked like that. But
+perhaps France and Russia would reconsider the matter. In any case, the
+Serbs deserved a lesson which they would remember. This was the first
+intimation that I had received about the Kaiser's discussions with our
+allies. I knew Dr. Helfferich's particularly intimate relations with the
+personages who were sure to be initiated, and I knew that his
+communication was trustworthy.
+
+
+KAISER FOR WAR
+
+"After my return from Berlin I informed Herr Krupp von B�hlen and
+Halbach, one of whose Directors I then was at Essen. Dr. Helfferich had
+given me permission and at that time the intention was to make him a
+Director of Krupps. Herr von B�hlen seemed disturbed that Dr. Helfferich
+was in possession of such information, and he made a remark to the
+effect that the Government people can never keep their mouths shut. He
+then told me the following. He said that he had himself been with the
+Kaiser in the last few days. The Kaiser had spoken to him also of his
+conversation with the Austrians, and of its result; but he had described
+the matter as so secret that he [Krupp] would not even have dared to
+inform his own Directors. As, however, I already knew, he could tell me
+that Helfferich's statements were accurate. Indeed, Helfferich seemed to
+know more details than he did. He said that the situation was really
+very serious. The Kaiser had told him that he would declare war
+immediately if Russia mobilized, and that this time people would see
+that he did not turn about. The Kaiser's repeated insistence that this
+time nobody would be able to accuse him of indecision had, he said, been
+almost comic in its effect.
+
+
+GERMAN DUPLICITY
+
+"On the very day indicated to me by Helfferich the Austrian ultimatum to
+Serbia appeared. At this time I was again in Berlin, and I told
+Helfferich that I regarded the tone and contents of the ultimatum as
+simply monstrous. Dr. Helfferich, however, said that the note only had
+that ring in the German translation. He had seen the ultimatum in
+French, and in French it really could not be regarded as overdone. On
+this occasion Helfferich also said to me that the Kaiser had gone on his
+northern cruise only as a 'blind'; he had not arranged the cruise on the
+usual extensive scale, but was remaining close at hand and keeping in
+constant touch. Now one must simply wait and see what would happen. The
+Austrians, who, of course, did not expect the ultimatum to be accepted,
+were really acting rapidly before the other powers could find time to
+interfere. The Deutsche Bank had already made its arrangements, so as to
+be prepared for all eventualities. For example, it was no longer paying
+out the gold which came in. That could easily be done without attracting
+notice, and the amount day by day reached considerable sums.
+
+"Immediately after the Vienna ultimatum to Serbia the German Government
+issued declarations to the effect that Austria-Hungary had acted all
+alone, without Germany's previous knowledge. When one attempted to
+reconcile these declarations with the events mentioned above, the only
+possible explanation was that the Kaiser had tied himself down without
+inviting the co-operation of his Government, and that, in the
+conversations with the Austrians, the Germans took care not to agree
+upon the text of the ultimatum. For I have already shown that the
+contents of the ultimatum were pretty accurately known in Germany.
+
+"Herr Krupp von B�hlen, with whom I spoke about these German
+declarations--which, at any rate in their effect, were lies--was also by
+no means edified. For, as he said, Germany ought not, in such a
+tremendous affair, to have given a blank check to a State like Austria;
+and it was the duty of the leading statesmen to demand, both of the
+Kaiser and of our allies, that the Austrian claims and the ultimatum to
+Serbia should be discussed in minute detail and definitely decided upon,
+and also that we should decide upon the precise program of our further
+proceedings. He said that, whatever point of view one took, we ought not
+to give ourselves into the hands of the Austrians and expose ourselves
+to eventualities which had not been reckoned out in advance. One ought
+to have connected appropriate conditions with our obligations. In short,
+Herr von B�hlen regarded the German denial of previous knowledge, if
+there was any trace of truth in it, as an offense against the elementary
+principles of diplomacy; and he told me that he intended to speak in
+this sense to Herr von Jagow, then Foreign Secretary, who was a special
+friend of his.
+
+
+GERMAN GOVERNMENT BLAMED
+
+"As a result of this conversation Herr von B�hlen told me that Herr von
+Jagow stuck firmly to his assertion that he had had nothing to do with
+the text of the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum, and that Germany had never
+made any such demands. In reply to the objection that this was
+inconceivable, Herr von Jagow replied that he, as a diplomatist, had
+naturally thought of making such a demand. When, however, Herr von Jagow
+was occupying himself with the matter and was called in, the Kaiser had
+so committed himself that it was too late for any procedure according to
+diplomatic custom, and there was nothing more to be done. The situation
+was such that it would have been impossible to intervene with drafting
+proposals. In the end, he [Jagow] had thought that non-interference
+would have its advantages--namely, the good impression which could be
+made in Petersburg and Paris with the German declaration that Germany
+had not co-operated in the preparation of the Vienna ultimatum."
+
+
+A REMARKABLE LETTER
+
+Herr M�hlon authorized the Humanit�, a Paris Socialist paper, through
+its Swiss correspondent, to publish the following remarkable letter
+which he addressed from Berne, on May 7, 1917, to Herr von Bethmann
+Hollweg, then Imperial Chancellor:
+
+"However great the number and weight of the mistakes accumulated on the
+German side since the beginning of the war, I nevertheless persisted for
+a long time in the belief that a belated foresight would at last dawn
+upon the minds of our Directors. It was with this hope that I put myself
+to a certain extent at your disposal, in order to collaborate with you
+in Rumania, and that I indicated to you that I was disposed to help in
+Switzerland, where I am living at present, if the object of our efforts
+was to be rapprochement of the enemy parties. That I was, and that I
+remain, hostile to any activity other than reconciliation and
+restoration I proved soon after the opening of hostilities by the
+definite resignation of my Directorship of Krupps' works.
+
+"But since the first days of 1917 I have abandoned all hope as regards
+the present Directors of Germany. Our offer of peace without indication
+of our war aims, the accentuation of the submarine war, the deportations
+of Belgians, the systematic destruction in France, and the torpedoing of
+English hospital ships have so degraded the Governors of the German
+Empire that I am profoundly convinced that they are disqualified forever
+for the elaboration and conclusion of a sincere and just agreement. The
+personalities may change, but they cannot remain the representatives of
+the German cause.
+
+"The German people will not be able to repair the grievous crimes
+committed against its own present and future, and against that of Europe
+and the whole human race until it is represented by different men with a
+different mentality. To tell the truth, it is mere justice that its
+reputation throughout the whole world is as bad as it is. The triumph of
+its methods--the methods by which it has hitherto conducted the war both
+militarily and politically--would constitute a defeat for the ideas and
+the supreme hopes of mankind. One has only to imagine that a people
+exhausted, demoralized, or hating violence, should consent to a peace
+with a Government which has conducted such a war, in order to understand
+how the general level and the chances of life of the peoples would
+remain black and deceptive.
+
+"As a man and as a German who desires nothing but the welfare of the
+deceived and tortured German people, I turn away definitely from the
+present representatives of the German r�gime. And I have only one
+wish--that all independent men may do the same and that many Germans may
+understand and act.
+
+"In view of the fact that it is impossible for me at present to make any
+manifestation before German public opinion, I have thought it to be my
+absolute duty to inform your Excellency of my point of view."
+
+
+
+
+Reichstag Debate on Lichnowsky
+
+
+The Main Committee of the Reichstag dealt with Prince Lichnowsky's
+memorandum on March 16. Herr von Payer, Vice Chancellor, stated that
+Prince Lichnowsky himself on March 15 made a statement to the Imperial
+Chancellor, in which he said:
+
+"Your Excellency knows that the purely private notes which I wrote down
+in the Summer of 1916 found their way into wider circles by an
+unprecedented breach of confidence. It was mainly a question of
+subjective considerations about our entire foreign policy since the
+Berlin Congress. I perceived in the policy hitherto pursued of repelling
+(in der seitherigen Abkehr) Russia and in the extension of the policy of
+alliances to Oriental questions the real roots of the world war. I then
+submitted our Morocco naval policy to a brief examination. My London
+mission could at the same time not remain out of consideration,
+especially as I felt the need in regard to the future and with a view to
+my own justification of noting the details of my experiences and
+impressions there before they vanished from my memory. These notes were
+intended in a certain degree only for family archives, and I wrote them
+down without documentary material or notes from the period of my
+official activity. I considered I might show them, on the assurance of
+absolute secrecy, to a very few political friends in whose judgment as
+well as trustworthiness I had equal confidence."
+
+
+LICHNOWSKY RESIGNS RANK
+
+Prince Lichnowsky then described in his letter how the memorandum, owing
+to an indiscretion, got into circulation, and finally expressed lively
+regret at such an extremely vexatious incident.
+
+Herr von Payer said that Prince Lichnowsky had meanwhile tendered his
+resignation of his present rank, which had been accepted, and as he had
+doubtless no bad intention, but had simply been guilty of imprudence, no
+further steps would be taken against him. The Vice Chancellor proceeded:
+
+"Some assertions in his documents must, however, be contradicted,
+especially his assertions about political events in the last months
+preceding the war. Prince Lichnowsky was not of his own knowledge
+acquainted with these events, but he apparently received from a third,
+and wrongly informed quarter, inaccurate information. The key to the
+mistakes and false conclusions may also be the Prince's overestimation
+of his own services, which are accompanied by hatred against those who
+do not recognize his achievements as he expected. The entire memorandum
+is penetrated by a striking veneration for foreign diplomats, especially
+the British, who are described in a truly affectionate manner, and, on
+the other hand, by an equally striking irritation against almost all
+German statesmen. The result was that the Prince frequently regarded
+Germany's most zealous enemy as her best friend because they were
+personally on good terms with him.
+
+"The fact that, as he admits, he attached at first no great importance
+to the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne, and was
+displeased that the situation was judged otherwise in Berlin, makes it
+plain that the Prince had no clear judgment for the events that followed
+and their import."
+
+The Vice Chancellor then characterized as false all Prince Lichnowsky's
+assertions about General von Moltke's urging war at the Potsdam Crown
+Council of June 5, 1914, and the dispatch of the Austrian protocol on
+"this alleged Crown Council" to Count Mensdorff, containing the
+postscript that it would be no great harm even if war with Russia arose
+out of it.
+
+
+PAYER'S DEFENSE
+
+Herr von Payer also denied the statement that the then Foreign Secretary
+was in Vienna in 1914, as well as the statement that Count von
+Pourtal�s, the German Ambassador in Petrograd, had reported that Russia
+would in no circumstances move. The Sukhomlinoff trial had shown how
+unfounded were Prince Lichnowsky's reproaches against Germany for
+replying to the Russian mobilization by an ultimatum and a declaration
+of war. It was also false to assert that the German Government rejected
+all Great Britain's mediation proposals. Lord Grey's last mediation
+proposal was very urgently supported in Vienna by Berlin. The aim of the
+memorandum was obvious. It was to show the reader how much better and
+more intelligent Prince Lichnowsky's policy was, and how he could have
+assured the peace of the empire if his advice had been followed.
+
+The Vice Chancellor continued:
+
+"Nobody will reproach the Prince with this belief in himself. He was
+also free to make notes about events, and his attitude toward them, but
+he should then have considered it a duty that his views should not have
+become known to the public, and, no matter how small his circle of
+readers was, it was his duty to state nothing contradicting facts which
+he knew. As things now are, the memorandum will cause enough harm among
+malevolent and superficial people. The memorandum has no historical
+value whatever."
+
+Referring to a manifolded copy of a letter from Dr. M�hlon, who is at
+present in Switzerland, and at the outbreak of war was on Krupps' Board
+of Directors, Herr von Payer said that the letter related to the
+utterances of two highly placed gentlemen from which he drew the
+conclusion that the German Government in July, 1914, lacked a desire
+for peace. Both these gentlemen had stated in writing that Dr. M�hlon
+had suffered from nerves, and he (Herr von Payer) also took the view
+that his statements were those of a man of diseased mind.
+
+In the discussion that followed, Herr Scheidemann said that the
+Socialist Party regarded imperialism as the fundamental cause of the
+war. Prince Lichnowsky's memorandum, in which he attempted to put the
+blame for the war on Germany, could, in his opinion, only make an
+impression on so-called out-and-out pacifists.
+
+Herr M�ller-Meiningen said that, notwithstanding what Dr. M�hlon and
+Prince Lichnowsky had said, he was absolutely convinced that the
+overwhelming majority of the German people, the Chancellor, and the
+representatives of the Foreign Office, and, above all, the German
+Emperor, always desired peace.
+
+Herr Stresemann expressed a desire to see the last White Book
+supplemented. Prince Lichnowsky's memorandum could not be taken
+seriously.
+
+Herr von Payer, intervening, said that the question as to whether
+criminal or disciplinary action might be taken against Prince Lichnowsky
+was considered by the Imperial Department of Justice. The result was
+that, on various legal grounds, neither a prosecution of the Prince for
+diplomatic high treason in the sense of Paragraph 92 of the Penal Code,
+nor proceedings under Paragraph 89 or Paragraph 353, the so-called Arnim
+paragraph, would have offered any chance of success. After the Prince's
+retirement, there was no longer any question of disciplinary proceedings
+against him. The Prince has been prohibited by the Foreign Office from
+publishing articles in the press.
+
+
+LICHNOWSKY'S "OPTIMISM"
+
+Herr von Stumm, Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, replying to a
+question as to who was responsible for Prince Lichnowsky's appointment
+in London, said that the appointment was made by the Kaiser, in
+agreement with the responsible Imperial Chancellor. While in London the
+Prince had devoted himself zealously to his task. His views, it was
+true, had frequently not agreed with those of the German Foreign Office.
+That was especially the case regarding his strong optimism in reference
+to German-English relations. When his hopes aiming at a German-English
+understanding were destroyed by the war, the Prince returned to Germany
+greatly excited, and even then did not restrain his criticism of
+Germany's policy.
+
+Herr von Stumm continued:
+
+"His excitement increased owing to attacks against him in the German
+press. All these circumstances must be taken into consideration when
+gauging the value of his memorandum. It was unjustifiable to draw
+conclusions from it regarding the Ambassador's activity in London and
+blame the Government for it. Regarding the German White Book, the Under
+Secretary admitted that it was not very voluminous, but it had to be
+compiled quickly, so as to present to the Reichstag at the opening a
+clear picture of the question of guilt. The Blue Books of other States,
+it was true, were much more voluminous. The German White Book, however,
+differed from them in so far to its advantage as it contained no
+falsification. A new edition of the German White Book is in
+preparation."
+
+Dr. Payer then discussed the revelations of Dr. M�hlon, at present in
+Switzerland. Dr. M�hlon, an ex-Director of Krupps, had made a statement
+according to which he had a conference with two exalted personages in
+the latter half of July, 1914, from which it appeared that it was not
+the intention of the German Government to maintain peace. The Vice
+Chancellor alleged that Dr. M�hlon was suffering from neurasthenia at
+the time, and that no importance could be attached to his revelations,
+since the two gentlemen referred to had denied making the statements
+attributed to them.
+
+In the subsequent discussion disapproval of Prince Lichnowsky's attitude
+was expressed, but some speakers urged the need for the reorganization
+of Germany's diplomatic service.
+
+According to the report of the debate published by the Neues Wiener
+Journal, Herr von Payer himself acknowledged that prior to the war
+German diplomacy had made some bad blunders, and that reform was
+urgently needed. Herr M�ller (Progressive) sharply criticised Herr von
+Flotow, who was German Ambassador in Rome at the beginning of the war,
+and charged him with having declared to the Marquis di San Giuliano,
+then Italian Foreign Minister, that there existed for Italy no casus
+foederis. Prince B�low also came in for severe criticism.
+
+A bill indicting Prince Lichnowsky for treason has been introduced into
+the Reichstag and is still pending at this writing. A dispatch from
+Geneva on April 21 stated that he was virtually a prisoner in his
+ch�teau in Silesia. According to the D�sseldorfer Tageblatt the Prince
+was under police surveillance because of the discovery of a plan for his
+escape to Switzerland.
+
+
+
+
+Comments of German Publicists
+
+
+Immediately following the sending out by the semi-official Wolff
+Telegraph Bureau on March 19 of an account of the discussion in the Main
+Committee of the Reichstag on March 16 of the Lichnowsky memorandum,
+together with excerpts from that document, the editorial writers of the
+German newspapers began emptying vials of wrath upon the head of the
+former Ambassador in London. With the exception of the Socialist and a
+few Liberal newspapers, the press was practically a unit in condemning
+the Prince for his "treasonable and indiscreet acts" and in asserting
+that, although his "revelations" might be welcomed with shouts of joy in
+the allied countries, they would have no serious effect upon the
+fighting spirit of the German Nation.
+
+In trying to explain what prompted Prince Lichnowsky to write his
+memorandum for "the family archives," nearly all the German editors lay
+great stress upon his alleged personal vanity and his resentment at
+seeing his efforts toward strengthening the bonds between England and
+Germany made a grim joke by the outbreak of the world war. The Prince is
+also called a simple-minded person, completely taken in by the deceptive
+courtesy of the British diplomats and possessing none of the
+qualifications necessary to make him a profitable representative of the
+Kaiser at the Court of St. James's. All through the comments, from
+extreme Pan-German to socialistic, runs a vein of sarcastic criticism of
+the peculiar "ability" shown by the German Foreign Office in picking its
+Ambassadors.
+
+All the Pan-German and annexationist papers take occasion to link up
+Prince Lichnowsky with Dr. von Bethmann Hollweg, the former Imperial
+Chancellor, and make the latter responsible for the appointment of the
+"pacifist" Prince. In doing this they renew all their old charges of
+weakness and pacifism against the ex-Chancellor, and intimate that he
+may be the next German formerly occupying a high place in the Government
+to write memoranda for his family archives. Some of the papers did not
+wait to write regular editorials about the memorandum, but interlarded
+their reports of the meeting of the Reichstag Committee with sarcastic
+comment and explanations. This was notably the case with the Vossische
+Zeitung, the leading exponent of reconciliation with Russia at the
+expense of Great Britain.
+
+
+REVENTLOW FURIOUS
+
+Although it has since been cabled that the Imperial Government was
+considering taking action against Prince Lichnowsky, and that Captain
+Beerfelde, a member of the German General Staff, was under arrest for
+having aided in the distribution of manifolded copies of the memorandum,
+there was no general demand in the German press for the trial of the
+Prince on a charge of high treason. The exceptions were a few extreme
+Pan-German organs, led by Count zu Reventlow's Deutsche Tageszeitung. On
+the other hand, a few of the Socialist and Liberal papers cautiously
+remarked that, after all, although what the Prince said about the
+responsibility for the war was altogether too pro-Entente, it might help
+the movement in Germany for a negotiated peace.
+
+Count zu Reventlow's article in the Deutsche Tageszeitung read, in part,
+as follows:
+
+"When a former Ambassador, and an experienced diplomat and official
+besides, writes an article and gives it to some one else in these times,
+there is, in our opinion, no excuse. It is a case of high treason and it
+makes little difference if here one might perhaps admit the view of its
+being high treason through negligence, because certainly no former
+diplomat and official ought to allow himself to be so negligent, and
+furthermore he must have known the great danger of his action, which, as
+has been said, was exclusively meant to be to his personal interest.
+Therefore, we cannot very well understand for what reasons the proper
+steps have not been taken already against Prince Lichnowsky. We use the
+characterization 'high treason' after due deliberation.
+
+"Prince Lichnowsky should not have allowed a single piece of his article
+to have left his hands, for he was very well able to judge that its
+publication outside of the German Empire was bound to have the effect of
+a treasonable act. The German cause will not be made any worse because a
+former diplomat, completely enchanted by English ways and never in touch
+with the essence of the English policy, places himself on the side of
+the enemies of the German Empire."
+
+The K�lnische Volkszeitung, the organ of the annexationist faction of
+the Centre Party, concluded its editorial thus:
+
+"One thing must be emphasized, Liebknecht, Dittmann, and other traitors
+have been jailed because of their high treason. Lichnowsky wanted to
+show to the whole world with his memorandum that Germany had sought,
+wanted, and begun the war because some persons did not wish to have him,
+Prince Lichnowsky, enjoy the success of the Anglo-German friendship.
+And, in so doing, Lichnowsky furnished our enemies with weapons, worked
+to our enemies' advantage. In time of war this is treason. The excuse
+that the fourteen copies that he had prepared were only written for his
+friends is ridiculous. Theodore Wolff of the Berliner Tageblatt is known
+to be one of Lichnowsky's most intimate friends. Who knows who the
+others may be! If a Social Democrat or an anarchist writes an inciting
+pamphlet in the form of a memorandum and doesn't distribute it himself,
+but has his friends do it, is he then exempt from punishment? If a
+person commits high treason and does not circulate the document himself,
+but lets others do it, or at least does not take precautions to see that
+it is not distributed, does he go free? The German people will hardly
+understand the decision of the Imperial Department of Justice as just
+rendered in favor of Lichnowsky. Even at the last session of the
+Prussian House of Lords Prince Lichnowsky sat beside his friend
+Dernberg. Will he appear in the House of Lords again?"
+
+
+GERMANIA WAXED SARCASTIC
+
+Germania, speaking for the so-called moderate section of the Centre
+Party, called the Lichnowsky case "one of the most disturbing political
+events that we have experienced in the course of the war," and hoped
+that the courts would still have a chance to decide as to the Prince's
+guilt. The newspaper comment was in general spiced with much sarcastic
+comparison of the Lichnowsky case with the cases of Dr. Karl Liebknecht
+and Deputy Wilhelm Dittmann, and many remarks were passed regarding the
+difference between the treatment accorded to a member of the Prussian
+nobility and that suffered by commoners and representatives of the
+German working class. The Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, in ending its comment
+as to the paeans of joy with which the enemy press would be sure to
+welcome the publication of the Lichnowsky indictment, added the
+following item of news:
+
+"We learn on good authority, in the matter of the distribution of the
+Lichnowsky pamphlet, that in the beginning of February the police
+succeeded in seizing 2,000 copies of this pamphlet which the Neues
+Vaterland Society had had sent to it from South Germany through its
+business manager, Else Bruck. She, together with Henke, a bookseller,
+was placed under charges, but was acquitted by the court-martial,
+presumably because the court was not able to foresee the far-reaching
+result of the document."
+
+Under the heading "The Blind Argus" the Bremer Nachrichten opined that
+the man who should have been using a thousand eyes in London in the
+interest of Germany was blind, and it referred to the Lichnowsky case as
+"the most gloomy chapter in the history of German diplomacy."
+
+
+PAN-GERMANS CAUSTIC
+
+Prince Lichnowsky's aversion to the old Triple Alliance drew much
+caustic criticism, especially from the Pan-German press, and excerpts
+from the semi-official Vienna Fremdenblatt and other Austrian papers,
+indignantly repudiating the Prince's charge that the Dual Monarchy had
+always regarded Germany as a shield under which it could make raids upon
+the Near East and otherwise stir up trouble, were eagerly reprinted in
+Germany.
+
+The Berlin Vorw�rts, speaking for the pro-Government Socialists, said:
+
+"The Ambassador returned with the feeling of a man who had seen his life
+work knocked to pieces. No doubt he felt at that time not very different
+from us German Socialists who had also worked for reconciliation with
+France and England and now, in the face of the unchained elemental
+forces, had to recognize our impotence with gnashing of teeth. In
+Germany, Prince Lichnowsky, who had believed in the possibility of
+agreement as every toiler must believe in his work, was greeted with the
+scorn of the Pan-Germans, who asserted that he had allowed himself to be
+softsoaped by the English and had never recognized their real
+intentions. * * *
+
+"And who can deny that this pamphlet casts a deep shadow upon the German
+foreign policy before the war? They can say that everything that
+Lichnowsky writes is the result of a diseased imagination and that all
+is distorted and badly drawn. But this would merely mean that the most
+important Ambassadorial post that Germany had at her disposal was
+occupied by a fool and a blockhead. So, if one wishes to spare the
+German policy this compromising implication, the only thing to do is to
+take the memorandum and its author seriously and argue the points with
+him in an expert manner."
+
+The Vorw�rts concluded its comment by saying that, no matter how the war
+started, the German people were now determined to see that Germany was
+not defeated, but if Prince Lichnowsky's article would help the people
+of Germany to adopt a more conciliatory attitude toward England and thus
+hasten a negotiated peace, it was worth reading. Comment of other
+Socialist papers was along the same lines.
+
+
+
+
+Comment of an English Editor
+
+    _Valentine Chirol, former foreign editor of The London Times,
+    published the following in that newspaper on March 26, 1918:_
+
+
+The publication of Prince Lichnowsky's memorandum furnishes evidence
+which even the most skeptical Englishman can hardly question of the
+peculiar system of dualism practiced by the German Foreign Office in the
+conduct of its diplomacy abroad. To those who had opportunities of
+observing its methods at close quarters this is no new revelation. The
+German Foreign Office has almost invariably conducted its diplomatic
+work abroad through two or more different channels, for it was always
+too tortuous and complicated to be intrusted to any single agent. There
+was the public policy directed toward more or less avowable ends to be
+propounded in official dispatches and conversations, and there was "the
+higher policy" to be promoted by means of discreet propaganda in the
+press and in society, and especially by appropriate appeals to the
+prejudices or interests of political and financial and commercial
+circles. Hence in the more important posts abroad it was the habit of
+the Wilhelmstrasse to rely mainly upon the Councilor of Embassy both to
+check the proceedings of the Ambassador and to manipulate all the
+complicated threads of its diplomatic network in which, for various
+reasons, it was deemed inexpedient for the Ambassador to get himself
+entangled, sometimes lest inconvenient disclosures might impair his
+influence with the Government to which he was accredited, and
+sometimes--as in the case of Prince Lichnowsky in London, and of the
+late Prince Radolin in Paris--because the Ambassador's personal sense of
+honor or his belief in the superiority of honorable statesmanship
+recoiled from the duplicity of "the higher policy." * * *
+
+I gained an insight into this complex machinery when I went to Berlin as
+correspondent of The Times, in the early years of the present Emperor's
+reign, through Baron Holstein, who was then known as the "eminence
+Grise" of the German Foreign Office from the commanding influence he
+wielded without the slightest ostentation of power. Owing to accidental
+circumstances, I came into much closer intimacy with him than he was
+wont to allow, not merely to journalists, but even to the chief foreign
+diplomatists in Berlin; and, subject to occasional intermittences when
+he resented somewhat ferociously my expositions of German policy, I
+maintained friendly relations with him long after I had ceased to reside
+in Berlin and he had himself outlived the Emperor's favor, for which he
+lacked the courtier's obsequiousness. He had been bred in the
+Bismarckian tradition; he had been a member of the old Chancellor's
+staff throughout the Franco-Prussian war, and had acted as his
+confidential agent when he was Councilor of Embassy in Paris under Count
+Harry von Arnim, whose sensational downfall he helped to bring about at
+Bismarck's behest. Although in other respects a man of great integrity
+and with many admirable qualities, including, besides a certain rather
+cynical frankness, a thoroughly un-Prussian contempt for the gewgaws of
+official life, he was so saturated with the Wilhelmstrasse tradition
+that he was rather proud than otherwise of the unsavory part he had
+played toward his Paris chief, and had, therefore, the less hesitation
+in disclosing to me, when he thought it served his purpose, the
+existence of equally peculiar relations between Count Wolf-Metternich,
+then Councilor of Embassy in London, and the then Ambassador, Count
+Hatzfeld.
+
+In the face of such a confession as Prince Lichnowsky's, it would be
+amusing, were it not so pitiful, to see the same British politicians who
+were so egregiously duped by Germany's "secret" diplomacy before the war
+still venting their chagrin in the House of Commons, not on their German
+"friends," by whom they were constantly fooled, and are apparently quite
+prepared to be fooled again tomorrow, but upon the British Foreign
+Office, whose timely appreciation of the German menace they invariably
+derided and whose endeavors to forearm the country against it they did
+their utmost to defeat.
+
+
+
+
+Dr. Liebknecht's Indictment of Germany
+
+
+A copy has been received of an open letter by Dr. Karl Liebknecht, the
+German Socialist, which proved an important factor in his
+imprisonment--which still continues. It bears date May 3, 1916, and was
+addressed to the Berlin District Court-Martial. The German authorities
+suppressed it, and made it a criminal offense for any one to be found in
+possession of it.
+
+After stating his view of the war as a struggle of the masses against
+the classes throughout the world, Dr. Liebknecht wrote:
+
+"The German Government is in its very social and political being an
+instrument for the exploitation and suppression of the laboring masses.
+It serves at home and abroad the interests of Junkerdom, capitalism, and
+militarism. It is the reckless representative of world political
+expansion, the strongest driver of competition in armaments, and
+therewith one of the weightiest exponents in the creation of the causes
+for the present war. It plotted this war in conjunction with the
+Austrian Government, and so burdened itself with the chief
+responsibility for its outbreak. It arranged this war while misleading
+the masses of the people and even the Reichstag.
+
+"Compare, for instance, the keeping silent about the ultimatum to
+Belgium, the making up of the German White Book, the alteration of the
+Czar's telegram of July 29, 1914, &c. It seeks to maintain the war
+feeling in the nation by the most blameworthy means. It carries on the
+war by methods which, even regarded from the hitherto customary level,
+are monstrous. Such, for instance, are the invasion of Belgium and
+Luxemburg, poison gases, the Zeppelins, which are designed to destroy
+everything living, combatant or noncombatant, in a wide circle below
+them; the submarine trade war; the torpedoing of the Lusitania; the
+system of hostages and contributions, especially in the beginning, in
+Belgium; the systematic trapping of Ukrainian, Polish, Irish,
+Mohammedan, and other war prisoners in German prison camps for purposes
+of a traitorous war service and traitorous espionage in the interests of
+the Central Powers; the treaty of Under Secretary Zimmermann with Sir
+Roger Casement of December, 1914, as to the formation, equipment, and
+training of British soldiers from among the prisoners to form an Irish
+brigade in the German prison camps; the attempts to use civilian
+subjects of hostile States who were in Germany, by threatening them with
+forced internment, for war services of a treacherous character against
+their country; the dictum necessity knows no law, &c.
+
+"The German Government has tremendously increased the want of political
+rights and the exploitation of the masses of the people by the
+conditions it imposed under a state of siege. It refuses all serious
+political and social reforms, while by phrases about the supposed
+equality of all parties, about the supposed reform of political and
+social treatment, about the supposed 'neuorientierung,' &c., it tries to
+maintain its hold on the masses of the people for the purposes of its
+imperialistic war policy. Because of its regard for the agragrians and
+the capitalists it has entirely failed in the economic provisioning of
+the population during the war, and it has prepared the road for making
+usury out of the people and their very needs. Today still it holds fast
+to its war objects of conquest, and therewith forms the chief hindrance
+to immediate peace negotiations on the ground of no annexations and no
+force of any kind. By the maintenance of the illegal state of siege,
+censorship, and so on, it smothers public knowledge of uncomfortable
+facts and criticism of its methods.
+
+"The present war is not a war for the defense of the national
+inviolability or for the liberty of small nations. From the standpoint
+of the proletariat it signifies only the most extreme concentration and
+increase of the political suppression, their economic draining, and
+militaristic slaughter of the life of the working classes for
+capitalistic and absolutist advantage. To this there is only one answer
+of the laboring classes of all countries, namely, a sharpened
+international class fight against the capitalistic Governments and
+dominating classes of all countries, for the removal of every form of
+suppression and exploitation, and for ending the war by a peace in the
+Socialistic sense. As a Socialist I am on principle an opponent of this
+war, as of the existing military system. The fight against militarism is
+a life question for the working classes. The war demands that the
+anti-militarism struggle shall be carried on with redoubled energy."
+
+
+
+
+Why the German Strike Failed
+
+
+The attempt of the German workingmen last Winter to force a genuine
+peace movement by means of a general strike was promptly suppressed by
+the Government, which proclaimed a state of siege and threatened to
+force the strikers into military service. The underlying causes of this
+failure were explained in an instructive article in the Arbeiter
+Zeitung, the leading Austrian labor organ, from which the following is
+taken:
+
+    The most important reason is undoubtedly the lack of unity among
+    the German working classes. Even in Berlin the strike was not
+    general; in many factories only part of the men went out, while
+    the rest continued their work. In many cities, such as Munich,
+    the workmen divided according to party; the Independent
+    Socialists struck, members of the old party went on with their
+    work. The most important industrial districts were only slightly
+    affected. On the Rhine, in Westphalia, in Upper Silesia, even in
+    Saxony, where lie the chief fortresses of independent socialism,
+    only a small section struck. And even where they struck there
+    was no kind of uniform action; in many towns, like N�rnberg, for
+    instance, only a demonstrative strike of limited duration was
+    decided upon, while elsewhere the intention was to hold out
+    until the demands were obtained. In Berlin the pressmen struck,
+    but not the compositors; one newspaper could appear, another
+    not.
+
+    It was always the weakness of German Social Democracy that it
+    had least influence on the very sections of the working class
+    whose strike would involve the greatest economic danger. The
+    railway men now take the first place in the movement in England,
+    America, France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, and now in Russia,
+    too; only in Germany have they always stood outside the ranks of
+    the class-conscious workmen. Of the miners and iron founders,
+    too, only part is Socialist; a very considerable part follows
+    the Centre and the Polish Nationalists. These facts explain the
+    weakness of the movement, and also the energy of the Prussian
+    authorities. The German Government would have hesitated to take
+    violent measures if it had had reason to fear that such measures
+    would provoke an extension of the movement to the railways,
+    mines, and foundries. _The weakness of the movement is not a
+    result of the energy of the authorities; on the contrary, only
+    its weakness made that energy possible._
+
+    How is it, then, that the German working classes, after three
+    and a half years of unheard-of sacrifice and deprivation, are
+    not capable of carrying through a struggle for peace with the
+    same unanimity and clearness of aim as in many former struggles?
+    This is, at least, partially due to the unfortunate development
+    of German Social Democracy during the war. It has united with
+    the Centre and the Liberals in the Reichstag bloc. It has thus
+    scored various successes--the inclusion of progressive
+    parliamentarians in the Government; the Reichstag resolution in
+    favor of peace by understanding; the Reform bill in the Prussian
+    Parliament. But this policy, which made Social Democracy the
+    ally of bourgeois parties and the support of the Government, was
+    fiercely attacked by the Opposition, which finally constituted
+    itself as a separate party. * * * The bloc policy and action of
+    the masses are mutually exclusive policies; those who themselves
+    belong in the Reichstag to the majority which supports the
+    Government cannot create the atmosphere in which alone a united
+    action of the masses is possible. Nor, indeed, was that the
+    intention of the German Social Democratic majority; _the
+    mass-strike came without any act on its part and against its
+    will_. When the strike was there, the leaders (of the majority)
+    none the less placed themselves at its head; but the masses,
+    having been educated for three and a half years to trust the
+    Government's intentions, were naturally not willing to make
+    heavy sacrifices in a struggle against this very Government.
+
+    In other democratic lands such a situation can hardly arise.
+    There the parliamentary majority decides the policy of the
+    Government, and if the Socialists form part of that majority,
+    they can effectively influence policy, and so there can be no
+    idea of the working classes having to conduct a political
+    mass-strike against this Government. In Germany it is different.
+    Here the voting of the imperial budget and of the war credits is
+    not much more than a theoretical confession of faith in the
+    Fatherland; to belong to the Reichstag majority is not a
+    guarantee of real political power. A few Generals, a few
+    influential bank directors and big manufacturers can, under
+    given circumstances, influence policy more effectually than the
+    whole Reichstag majority. Thus, indeed, it can happen that the
+    Government's policy seems very little influenced by socialism,
+    though this latter supports the Government; that, consequently,
+    a considerable part of the working classes decides upon a
+    political strike against the Government which for three and a
+    half years has enjoyed the support of the majority of working
+    class Deputies in the Reichstag. And only thus can we explain
+    the strange spectacle, inexplicable to any other country, that a
+    Government in whose formation Social Democracy has had a share,
+    and which at every division is supported by the Socialists,
+    knows no other means of meeting a strike save by forbidding
+    meetings, introducing a state of siege and militarizing! The
+    bloc policy is dangerous everywhere; but these dangers are
+    incomparably greater in the classic land of Government by
+    authority (Obrigkeitsregierung) than in the democratic
+    countries. The unedifying picture which German Social Democracy
+    presents today is at bottom the result of German sham democracy,
+    of the poverty and backwardness of German political life.
+
+    But, in spite of all, we hope that even the German strike will
+    not have an unfavorable effect on future development. Many a
+    struggle which had to end without tangible success has, later
+    on, proved fruitful after all! So it will be this time. The
+    German Government did not have to give the workmen any definite
+    assurances; but it had learned that every extension of the war
+    provokes the gravest social dangers; and if this time it still
+    found it easy to dispose of the strike, because a large section
+    of the working classes still trusts in it, all its force
+    (Machtmittel) would avail it nothing, if the whole German
+    working class once acquired the conviction that the Government
+    is prolonging the war for the sake of Pan-German lust of
+    conquest.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+Last Fight of the Mary Rose
+
+A British Naval Episode
+
+    _The following story of how the little Mary Rose, a British
+    destroyer, went down with colors flying, when, in October, 1917,
+    she fought against overwhelming enemy forces, has been compiled
+    from official sources:_
+
+
+The Mary Rose left a Norwegian port in charge of a westbound convoy of
+merchant ships in the afternoon of Oct. 16, 1917. At dawn on the 17th
+flashes of gunfire were sighted astern. The Captain of the Mary Rose,
+Lieut. Commander Charles Fox, who was on the bridge at the time,
+remarked that he supposed it was a submarine shelling the convoy, and
+promptly turned his ship to investigate. All hands were called to action
+stations. The Mary Rose had increased to full speed, and in a short time
+three light cruisers were sighted coming toward them at high speed out
+of the morning mist. The Mary Rose promptly challenged, and, receiving
+no reply, opened fire with every gun that would bear at a range of about
+four miles. The German light cruisers appeared to be nonplused by this
+determined single-handed onslaught, as they did not return the fire
+until the range had closed to three miles.
+
+They then opened fire, and the Mary Rose held gallantly on through a
+barrage of bursting shell until only a mile separated her from the
+enemy. Up to this point the German marksmanship was poor, but as the
+British destroyer turned to bring her torpedo tubes to bear a salvo
+struck her, bursting in the engine room and leaving her disabled, a log
+on the water. All guns, with the exception of the after one, were out of
+action and their crews killed or wounded, but the after gun continued in
+action, under the direction of Sub-Lieutenant Marsh, R. N. V. R., as
+long as it would bear. The Captain came down from the wrecked bridge and
+passed aft, encouraging and cheering his defeated men. He stopped beside
+the wrecked remains of the midship gun and shouted to the survivors of
+its crew: "God bless my heart, lads, get her going again; we're not
+done yet!" The enemy was now pouring a concentrated fire into the
+motionless vessel. One of the boilers, struck by a shell, exploded, and
+through the inferno of escaping steam, smoke, and the vapor of bursting
+shell came that familiar, cheery voice: "We're not done yet."
+
+As the German light cruisers sped past, two able seamen, (French and
+Bailey,) who alone had survived among the torpedo tubes' crews, on their
+own initiative laid and fired the remaining torpedo. French was killed
+immediately and Bailey badly wounded. Realizing that the enemy had
+passed ahead, and that the four-inch gun could no longer be brought to
+bear on them, the Captain went below and set about destroying his
+ciphers. The First Lieutenant, (Lieutenant Bavin,) seeing one of the
+light cruisers returning toward them, called the gunner (Mr. Handcock)
+and bade him sink the ship. The Captain then came on deck and gave the
+order "Abandon ship." All the boats had been shattered by shellfire at
+their davits, but the survivors launched a Carley raft and paddled clear
+of the ship. The German light cruiser detailed to administer the coup de
+grace then approached to within 300 yards and poured a succession of
+salvos into the already riddled hull.
+
+The Mary Rose sank at 7:15 A. M. with colors flying. The Captain, First
+Lieutenant, and gunner were lost with the ship, but the handful of
+survivors, in charge of Sub-Lieutenant J. R. D. Freeman, on the Carley
+raft, fell in some hours later with a lifeboat belonging to one of the
+ships of the convoy. Sailing and rowing, they made the Norwegian coast
+some forty-eight hours later, and were tended with the utmost kindness
+by the Norwegian authorities.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes
+
+Obvious errors of punctuation and diacritics repaired.
+
+Hyphen removed: breech[-]blocks (p. 356).
+
+Hyphen added: ocean[-]going (p. 346).
+
+Contents: CHRCHMAN's changed to CHURCHMAN's (GERMAN CHURCHMAN'S DEFENSE
+OF POISON GAS).
+
+p. 200: "hyopthetical" changed to "hypothetical" (a hypothetical
+straight line of fifty miles).
+
+p. 201: "Grivenes" changed to "Grivesnes" (two villages near Grivesnes,
+driving out the French).
+
+p. 205: "Friedrichafen" changed to "Friedrichshafen" (airdrome at
+Friedrichshafen on April 15).
+
+p. 207: "self-sacrifce" changed to "self-sacrifice" (self-sacrifice of
+our troops).
+
+p. 227: "Mauvitz" changed to "Marvitz" (von Below, von der Marwitz, and
+von Hutier).
+
+p. 229: "wringled" changed to "wrinkled" (of age, with her white,
+wrinkled face).
+
+p. 233: "inititative" changed to "initiative" (on his own initiative).
+
+p. 234: "Conmmander" changed to "Commander" (his appointment as
+Commander in Chief).
+
+p. 242: "asumed" changed to "assumed" (he assumed command of the group).
+
+p. 256: "Sugeon" changed to "Surgeon" (Surgeon General's office).
+
+p. 263: "inportant" changed to "important" (delivered an important
+address).
+
+p. 266: "reinforecements" changed to "reinforcements" (to hurry up
+reinforcements).
+
+p. 273: "indepedent" changed to "independent" (a great self-conscious
+nation independent).
+
+p. 279: "writen" changed to "written" (a book written since the
+beginning of the war).
+
+p. 279: "goverment" changed to "government" (system of government).
+
+p. 280: "determinined" changed to "determined" (we are determined).
+
+p. 280: "consclusive" changed to "conclusive" (as clear and conclusive).
+
+p. 291: "thown" changed to "thrown" (a line was thrown to a raft).
+
+p. 307: "centrail" changed to "central" (the central railway station).
+
+p. 315: Duplicate line removed: (In his own words, "Without prejudice
+to").
+
+p. 316: "forseen" changed to "foreseen" (whose collapse could be
+foreseen).
+
+p. 330: "worrried" changed to "worried" (worried the Governments).
+
+p. 334: "carrrying" changed to "carrying" (carrying only four heavy guns
+each).
+
+p. 346: "thee" changed to "three" (the construction of three new
+national shipyards).
+
+p. 348: "114" changed to "1914" (Since 1914 the community).
+
+p. 353: "essentual" changed to "essential" (to the last moment was
+essential).
+
+p. 354: "threfore" changed to "therefore" (therefore, I decided to
+continue the operations).
+
+p. 354: "Burlon" changed to "Bourlon" (on the outskirts of Bourlon
+Wood).
+
+p. 354: "Fontaine-notre-Dane" changed to "Fontaine-notre-Dame" (to
+include the recapture of Fontaine-notre-Dame).
+
+p. 354: "know" changed to "known" (known as Tadpole Copse).
+
+p. i: "Her" changed to "Herr" (Herr von Bethmann Hollweg).
+
+p. v: Lines rearranged in the last paragraph of the section "BACKED
+WRONG HORSES".
+
+p. vii: "by" changed to "my" (begun before my arrival).
+
+p. viii: "or" changed to "of" (the valuable islands of San Thom� and
+Principe).
+
+p. x: "burder" changed to "burden" (lighten the burden of armament).
+
+p. xi: "Eir" changed to "Sir" (Sir Edward Grey's).
+
+p. xiii: The brackets and question mark are in the original:
+"when we [moved?] against France".
+
+p. xv: "protocal" changed to "protocol" (in the Austrian protocol).
+
+p. xvi: "me" changed to "we" (would we mix ourselves up).
+
+p. xxv: "Her" changed to "Herr" (Herr von Payer).
+
+p. xxv: "nwspapers" changed to "newspapers" (a few Liberal
+newspapers).
+
+p. xxvii: "anrachist" changed to "anarchist" (If a Social Democrat or
+an anarchist).
+
+p. xxx: "oconomic" changed to "economic" (in the economic
+provisioning).
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Current History: A Monthly Magazine of
+the New York Times, May 1918, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CURRENT HISTORY: NY TIMES, MAY 1918 ***
+
+***** This file should be named 38750-8.txt or 38750-8.zip *****
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Current History: A Monthly Magazine of the
+New York Times, May 1918, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Current History: A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times, May 1918
+       Vol. VIII, Part I, No. 2
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: February 2, 2012 [EBook #38750]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CURRENT HISTORY: NY TIMES, MAY 1918 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Moti Ben-Ari and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
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+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="frontis1"></a>
+<a href="images/i187.jpg"></a><a href="images/i187.jpg"><img src="images/i187-t.jpg" width="159" height="250" alt="PRESIDENT WILSON
+The first portrait of President Wilson since America entered the war,
+taken at the White House March 19, 1918
+(� Sun Printing and Publishing Association)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />PRESIDENT WILSON
+The first portrait of President Wilson since America entered the war,
+taken at the White House March 19, 1918<br />
+(� Sun Printing and Publishing Association)</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a name="frontis2"></a>
+<a href="images/i188.jpg"><img src="images/i188-t.jpg" width="158" height="250" alt="FERDINAND FOCH
+Generalissimo of the allied armies on the western front" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />FERDINAND FOCH<br />
+Generalissimo of the allied armies on the western front</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h1>CURRENT HISTORY</h1>
+<h2><i>A Monthly Magazine of</i> <b>The New York Times</b></h2>
+<div class="center">Published by The New York Times Company, Times Square, New York, N. Y.</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left">Vol. VIII.} No. 2</td><td align="center">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;May, 1918&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right">25 Cents a Copy</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Part I.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;}</td><td align="center"></td><td align="right">$3.00 a Year</td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<h3>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h3>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right"></td><td align="right">PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">CURRENT HISTORY CHRONICLED</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_191">191</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">THE BATTLE OF PICARDY: A Military Review</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_197">197</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The British Reverses and Their Causes</td><td align="right">By a Military Observer</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_205">205</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">FOUR EPIC WEEKS OF CARNAGE</td><td align="right">By Philip Gibbs</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_209">209</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;How General Carey Saved Amiens</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_219">219</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Battle Viewed From the French Front</td><td align="right">By G. H. Perris</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_221">221</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Caring for Thousands of Refugees</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_228">228</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">PROGRESS OF THE WAR: Chronology to April 18</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_231">231</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">RUSSIA UNDER GERMAN DOMINATION</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Czar's Loyalty to the Allies: An Autograph Letter</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_239">239</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">PERSHING'S ARMY UNDER GENERAL FOCH</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_240">240</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Our War Machine in New Phases</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Shortage in Aircraft Production</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_245">245</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">AMERICA'S FIRST YEAR OF WAR</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_247">247</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;War Department's Improved System</td><td align="right">By Benedict Crowell</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_254">254</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Surgeon General's Great Organization</td><td align="right">By Caswell A. Mayo</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_256">256</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">WAR WORK OF THE AMERICAN RED CROSS</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_258">258</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">GREAT BRITAIN FACES A CRISIS</td><td align="right">By David Lloyd George</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_263">263</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">RUSSIA AND THE ALLIES</td><td align="right">By Arthur J. Balfour</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_272">272</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">PRESIDENT WILSON ON THE RUSSIAN TREATIES</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_275">275</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">AMERICAN LIBERTY'S CRUCIAL HOUR</td><td align="right">By William E. Borah</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_278">278</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="3"><i>Contents Continued on Next Page</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="3">Copyright, 1918, by The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="3">Entered at the Post Offices in New York and in Canada as Second Class Matter.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="3"></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="3">CONTENTS&mdash;<i>Continued</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left">DEFENDING THE WORLD'S RIGHT TO DEMOCRACY</td><td align="right">By J. Hamilton Lewis</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_281">281</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Messenger Dogs in the German Army</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_283">283</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">FULL RECORD OF SINKINGS BY U-BOATS</td><td align="right">By Sir Eric Geddes</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_284">284</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Admiralty Summary of Shipping Losses</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_286">286</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Month's Submarine Record</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_289">289</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">TYPICAL U-BOAT METHODS: British Admiralty Records</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_290">290</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Story of an Indomitable Captain</td><td align="right">By Joseph Conrad</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_292">292</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">THE NAVAL DEFENSE OF VENICE</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_293">293</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Venice Under the Grim Shadow</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_299">299</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">TAKING OVER THE DUTCH SHIPS</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_303">303</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">AIR RAIDS ON PARIS AND LONDON</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_305">305</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Tale of Zeppelin Disasters</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_309">309</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">PARIS BOMBARDED BY LONG-RANGE GUNS</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_310">310</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">THE IRISH GUARDS</td><td align="right">By Rudyard Kipling</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_313">313</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">THE GUILT OF GERMANY: Prince Lichnowsky's Memorandum</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_314">314</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Reply of Former Foreign Minister von Jagow</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_320">320</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">COUNT CZERNIN ON PEACE TERMS</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_323">323</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Great Britain's Reply to Count Czernin</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_327">327</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">AUSTRO-FRENCH "PEACE INITIATIVE" CONTROVERSY</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_328">328</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">A REVIEW OF THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND</td><td align="right">By Thomas G. Frothingham</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_334">334</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Charts of Battle of Jutland</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_332">332</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">GERMAN CHURCHMAN'S DEFENSE OF POISON GAS</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_343">343</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">GREAT BRITAIN'S WAR WORK IN 1917</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_344">344</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">THE BATTLE OF CAMBRAI: Official Report</td><td align="right">By Field Marshal Haig</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_349">349</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">THE EUROPEAN WAR AS SEEN BY CARTOONISTS: 42 Cartoons</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_361">361</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+<br /><br />
+</div>
+
+<h3>ROTOGRAVURE ILLUSTRATIONS</h3>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">President Wilson</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#frontis1"><i>Frontis</i></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Ferdinand Foch, Generalissimo</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#frontis2">"</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Benedict Crowell</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_204">204</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">American Army Chiefs</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_205">205</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">British Commanders in France</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_220">220</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">German Commanders in France</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_221">221</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">United States Congress</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_236">236</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">American First Aid Station</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Representatives of Central Powers</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_268">268</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Panorama of Venice</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_269">269</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Henry P. Davison</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_284">284</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Actual Surrender of Jerusalem</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_285">285</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Camp Zachary Taylor</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_316">316</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">View of Camp Sherman</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_317">317</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Graves of Tuscania Victims</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_332">332</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Liberty Loan Poster</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_333">333</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CURRENT HISTORY CHRONICLED</h2>
+
+<h3>[<span class="smcap">Period Ended April 19, 1918.</span>]</h3>
+
+<div class="center"><span class="smcap">An Epoch-making Month</span></div>
+
+
+<p>The month covered by this issue of <span class="smcap">Current History Magazine</span> was the most
+fateful in a military way since the beginning of the war. The most
+desperate and sanguinary battle in history, begun with the great German
+offensive in France March 21, 1918, was at its most furious phase when
+these pages were printed. No less than 4,000,000 men were engaged in
+deadly combat on a front of 150 miles.</p>
+
+<p>General Foch, by agreement of the Allies, was made Commander in Chief of
+the allied armies in France, March 28. This decision, long regarded as
+of supreme importance, was hastened by the new emergency. The United
+States on April 16 officially approved the appointment. The result of
+the change was to co-ordinate all the allied forces in France into one
+army. Early fruits of this new unity were apparent in the news of April
+19, when it was announced that heavy French reinforcements had come that
+day to the relief of the hard-pressed and weary British troops in
+Flanders, and had halted the Germans; the same day the French
+counterattacked in the Amiens region and thrust the Germans back, thus
+giving a brighter aspect to the entire situation in France. The story of
+the battle of Picardy up to April 18 is told elsewhere in detail.</p>
+
+<p>The separation of Russian provinces from the old Russian Empire
+continued during the month; the resistance of the Bolsheviki in Finland,
+the Ukraine, Lithuania, the Caucasus, and other provinces that had been
+alienated either by secession or by German acquisition grew feebler as
+the weeks elapsed, and the stability of the new republics under German
+suzerainty was correspondingly strengthened.</p>
+
+<p>The chief political events were the exposure by France of Austria's
+duplicity in seeking a separate peace, which caused the downfall of the
+Austrian Premier, and the application of conscription to Ireland, to be
+followed by home rule. On April 18 Lord Derby was appointed British
+Ambassador to France, succeeding Lord Bertie, and was succeeded as
+Secretary of State for War by Viscount Milner. Austen Chamberlain, son
+of the late Joseph Chamberlain, was made a member of the War Cabinet.</p>
+
+<p>Secretary of War Baker, who had left for England, France, and Italy
+early in March, returned on April 17 and spoke in enthusiastic terms of
+the American forces abroad. He expressed firm confidence in the ultimate
+defeat of Germany.</p>
+
+<p>General Pershing offered all his available forces to General Foch when
+the storm of the German offensive broke, and many American units were at
+once brigaded with British and French forces. The appeals of France and
+Great Britain for man power met with instant response on this side of
+the Atlantic, and every ton of available shipping was employed in the
+transport of American troops. Developments in this regard gave promise
+of fulfilling the War Department's expressed intention of having an
+American Army of 1,500,000 in France by the end of 1918.</p>
+
+<p>All American war preparations were visibly speeded up as the situation
+grew more serious for the Allies, and the spirit of the nation became
+one of widespread determination to win, even though it should require
+years of warfare and the entire physical and financial resources of the
+United States.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><span class="smcap">Execution of Bolo Pacha</span></div>
+
+<p>Bolo Pacha, who was convicted by a French court-martial of treason, was
+executed at Vincennes April 17 by a firing squad. The chaplain, after
+the execution, found lying over Bolo's heart two embroidered
+handkerchiefs, which had been pierced by the bullets. One was given to
+Bolo's brother and the other to his widow.</p>
+
+<p>A few days before the execution the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> condemned man sent for the public
+prosecutor, and, it is stated, made important revelations regarding
+former Premier Caillaux and Senator Humbert, against whom similar
+charges are pending.</p>
+
+<p>It was proved that Bolo Pacha, whose real name was Paul Bolo, was a poor
+man before the war, a pensioner of his brother, Mgr. Bolo, a prominent
+French prelate. The testimony revealed that $1,683,000 had been
+transferred by the Deutsche Bank at Berlin on the recommendation of
+Ambassador Bernstorff to Bolo's credit in New York for the purchase of
+Senator Humbert's newspaper, the Paris Journal; Bolo made an offer of
+$400,000 for Le Figaro, bought 1,500 shares in Le Rappel for $34,000,
+and even approached Clemenceau's Homme Enchain�. Papers he got control
+over included Paris-Midi, Le Cri de Paris, a satirical weekly, and La
+Revue, of which Jean Finot is editor. The curious thing about the method
+employed to make these newspapers serve German interests was that under
+Bolo's control they became exponents of "defeatism" carried to the
+extreme of ultra-French militarism. The explanation is that the German
+war party could use quotations from the Bolo papers to persuade the
+German people that their existence was threatened by the French, thereby
+justifying the German Government and rekindling in the people the war
+fervor which was fast oozing out of them. Then, when the opportune
+moment came, the same ultra-patriotic papers, so it was expected, would
+suddenly turn pacifist and thereby stir up dissension in the nation and
+destroy the efficiency of its war measures.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><span class="smcap">The Numbers in the World's Greatest Battles</span></div>
+
+<p>THE stupendous character of the battle of Picardy is realized when the
+numbers engaged in previous noted battles of history are considered.
+Setting aside the mythical five millions of the army of Xerxes and the
+ten thousand of Xenophon, accurate figures in Greece are recorded for
+the campaigns of Philip of Macedon and his more famous son. At
+Cheronaea, fought in B. C. 338, Philip had 30,000 infantry and 2,000
+cavalry, the latter led by Alexander, then 18 years old. Alexander's
+cavalry attack on the flank won the battle, driving back the Athenians
+and Thebans, who were slightly outnumbered. At Arbela, in October, 331,
+Alexander the Great, with 47,000 Macedonians, defeated a Persian force
+three or four times as great, piercing between the Persian left and
+centre. Pyrrhus of Epirus had, at Asculum, in the year 279, 45,000
+infantry against an equal number of Romans, but he had elephants,
+practically equivalent to artillery.</p>
+
+<p>Hannibal at Cannae, in 216, had 50,000 veterans against Varro's 50,000
+Romans, who were drawn up with their backs to the sea, and were thus
+unable to withdraw before Hannibal's overwhelming onslaught. Julius
+Caesar at Alesia had 50,000 Romans against 80,000 Gallic infantry and
+15,000 cavalry. At Pharsalus, in the civil war, the Pompeians, with
+60,000, were routed by the Caesareans with 25,000, losing 15,000, while
+Julius Caesar lost only 200. Augustus Caesar formed a standing army of
+300,000, his legions consisting of 3,000 heavy infantry, 1,200 light
+infantry, and 300 cavalry each.</p>
+
+<p>Genghiz Khan began with a small force of 6,000, with which he fought and
+conquered his father-in-law, who had 10,000. At the Battle of the Indus,
+Genghiz Khan commanded a huge army of 300,000 Tartars. At the battle of
+Karakin, in 1218, he led 700,000 Tartars against 400,000 Kharismians,
+completely defeating them. Oliver Cromwell's army, in its most complete
+form, numbered about 80,000. The army of Frederick the Great, at its
+highest point of efficiency, numbered 200,000, while the army of Louis
+XIV. numbered 240,000 men.</p>
+
+<p>In 1793, when Republican France was threatened with invasion, and Carnot
+was "organizing victory," the effective French forces probably numbered
+300,000, though the total number available under the newly introduced
+system of conscription was four times as many, about a million and a
+quarter. At the battle of Auerstadt-Jena, on Oct. 14, 1806, Napoleon had
+a French Army of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> 160,000, against some 140,000 Prussians. About this
+time Napoleon made the army corps the practical unit instead of the
+division, as formerly. The Grand Army, which invaded Russia in 1812,
+totaled 467,000, but this included 280,000 foreign troops. At the battle
+of Leipsic, a year after the retreat from Moscow, Napoleon, with
+155,000, faced 160,000 Austrians, 60,000 Prussians, and 60,000 Swedes
+under the recreant Frenchman Bernadotte, the ancestor of the present
+King of Sweden.</p>
+
+<p>At Waterloo, the French Army is said to have numbered 72,000, against
+whom were drawn up, at the beginning of the battle, 24,000 British and
+43,500 Dutch and Belgian troops. The Dutch and Belgians withdrew before
+the end of the battle, their place being taken by Bl�cher's contingent.</p>
+
+<p>The forces commanded by George Washington were always numerically small,
+a few thousand only, and were in ceaseless flux. In 1790, the American
+Army consisted of 1,216 men. In the war of 1812, the invading force,
+which burned the national capital, numbered 3,500 men. At the beginning
+of the American civil war, the regular army numbered 15,300. Between
+April, 1861, and April, 1865, the total Federal forces enrolled amounted
+to 2,759,049, while the Confederates enrolled about 1,100,000, making a
+total of practically 4,000,000 from a population of 32,000,000; this
+would be equivalent to an army of from 12,000,000 to 15,000,000 with the
+present population of the United States. The total furnished for the war
+with Spain was 10,017 officers and 213,218 men.</p>
+
+<p>The Austrian Army at Sadowa numbered 200,000; the French Army at Sedan
+some 120,000. At the battle of Mukden, Russians and Japanese each had a
+force of about 300,000, the largest number in any modern battle up to
+that time, though greatly outnumbered by Genghiz Khan.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><span class="smcap">Emperor Charles's Separate Peace Plan</span></div>
+
+<p>The disclosures regarding Austria's efforts to make a separate peace
+with France, which are dealt with elsewhere in this issue of <span class="smcap">Current
+History Magazine</span>, took a more sensational turn April 11, 1918, when the
+following official note was issued by the French Government:</p>
+
+<p><i>Once caught in the cogwheels of lying, there is no means of stopping.
+Emperor Charles, under Berlin's eye, is taking on himself the lying
+denials of Count Czernin, and thus compels the French Government to
+supply the proof. Herewith is the text of an autograph letter
+communicated on March 31, 1917, by Prince Sixtus de Bourbon, the Emperor
+of Austria's brother-in-law, to President Poincar�, and communicated
+immediately, with the Prince's consent, to the French Premier:</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Sixtus</span>: The end of the third year of this war, which has
+brought so much mourning and grief into the world, approaches.
+All the peoples of my empire are more closely united than ever
+in the common determination to safeguard the integrity of the
+monarchy at the cost even of the heaviest sacrifices.</p>
+
+<p>Thanks to their union, with the generous co-operation of all
+nationalities, my empire and monarchy have succeeded in
+resisting the gravest assaults for nearly three years. Nobody
+can question the military advantages secured by my troops,
+particularly in the Balkans.</p>
+
+<p>France, on her side, has shown force, resistance, and dashing
+courage which are magnificent. We all unreservedly admire the
+admirable bravery, which is traditional to her army, and the
+spirit of sacrifice of the entire French people.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore it is a special pleasure to me to note that, although
+for the moment adversaries, no real divergence of views or
+aspirations separates many of my empire from France, and that I
+am justified in hoping that my keen sympathy for France, joined
+to that which prevails in the whole monarchy, will forever avoid
+a return of the state of war, for which no responsibility can
+fall on me.</p>
+
+<p>With this in mind, and to show in a definite manner the reality
+of these feelings, I beg you to convey privately and
+unofficially to President Poincar� that I will support by every
+means, and by exerting all my personal influence with my allies,
+France's just claims regarding Alsace-Lorraine.</p>
+
+<p>Belgium should be entirely re-established in her sovereignty,
+retaining entirely her African possessions without prejudice to
+the compensations she should receive for the losses she has
+undergone.</p>
+
+<p>Serbia should be re-established in her sovereignty, and, as a
+pledge of our good-will,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> we are ready to assure her equitable
+natural access to the Adriatic, and also wide economic
+concessions in Austria-Hungary. On her side, we will demand, as
+primordial and essential conditions, that Serbia cease in the
+future all relation with and suppress every association or group
+whose political object aims at the disintegration of the
+monarchy, particularly the Serbian political society, Narodni
+Ochrana; that Serbia loyally and by every means in her power
+prevent any kind of political agitation, either in Serbia or
+beyond her frontiers, in the foregoing direction, and give
+assurances thereof under the guarantee of the Entente Powers.</p>
+
+<p>The events in Russia compel me to reserve my ideas with regard
+to that country until a legal definite Government is established
+there.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus laid my ideas clearly before you, I would ask you in
+turn, after consulting with these two powers, to lay before me
+the opinion first of France and England, with a view thus to
+preparing the ground for an understanding on the basis of which
+official preliminary negotiations could be taken up and reach a
+result satisfactory to all.</p>
+
+<p>Hoping that thus we will soon be able together to put a limit to
+the sufferings of so many millions of men and families now
+plunged in sadness and anxiety, I beg to assure you of my
+warmest and most brotherly affection.</p>
+
+<div class="right">CHARLES. </div>
+</div>
+
+<p>The reply of Emperor Charles to the foregoing letter was in the form of
+the following telegram to Emperor William:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Clemenceau's accusations against me are so low that I have no
+intention to discuss longer this affair with France. My cannon
+in the west is our last reply.</p>
+
+<p>In faithful friendship,</p>
+
+<div class="right">CHARLES. </div>
+</div>
+
+<p>As a result of the publication of the letter, whose existence it is
+claimed was unknown to him, Count Czernin on April 15 resigned his
+portfolio as Foreign Minister and Premier, and accepted appointment as a
+Major General in the Austrian Army. He was succeeded by Baron Burian,
+who was Minister of Foreign Affairs from Sept. 15, 1914, to Dec. 23,
+1916, when he was succeeded by Count Czernin.</p>
+
+<p>It was authoritatively announced that the letter was communicated to the
+British, French, and Italian Premiers at a meeting which took place at
+St. Jean de Maurienne, April 19, 1917, and unanimously judged as
+insincere and intended to mask some subtle manoeuvre for stirring up
+friction between the Allies.</p>
+
+<p>The day before the letter was published Emperor Charles sent a telegram
+to Emperor William, in which he said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>I accuse M. Clemenceau of piling up lies to escape the web of
+lies in which he is involved, making the false assertion that I
+in some manner recognized France's claim to Alsace-Lorraine as
+just. I indignantly repel the assertion. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>To this the German Emperor replied as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Accept my heartiest thanks for the letter in which you repudiate
+the assertion of the French Premier regarding your attitude
+toward the French claims on Alsace-Lorraine as entirely baseless
+and once again accentuate the solidarity of the interests which
+exist between us and our empires. I hasten to tell you that in
+my eyes there is no need whatever for such assurance on your
+part, for I have not for a moment been in doubt. You have made
+our cause your own; in like measure we stand for the rights of
+your monarchy.</p>
+
+<p>The heavy battles in these years clearly demonstrate this for
+every one who will see. They have only drawn the bond closer.
+Our enemies, who are unable to do anything against us in
+honorable battle, do not recoil from the most sordid and lowest
+means. We must put up with that, but all the more it is our duty
+ruthlessly to grapple with and beat the enemy in all the war
+theatres. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>After the publication of the letter the Austrian Government announced
+that it was "garbled" and intimated that portions of it were forged
+before it reached Prince Sixtus. The German press accepted the letter as
+genuine with caustic and hostile criticism. It was announced April 18
+that the original letter of the Emperor was in the possession of Prince
+Sixtus, who sent a copy of it to President Poincar�.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><span class="smcap">When Austria Ruled Prussia</span></div>
+
+<p>Emperor Karl's effort to make a separate peace recalls the period,
+beginning with the Summer of 1849, when Austria and Prussia were
+literally at daggers drawn. Twenty-eight North German States had just
+formed a Prussian League, under the leadership of Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
+of Prussia. Austria, under the leadership of Franz Josef, organized a
+counterleague of South German States, and had the support of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> Nicholas
+I. of Russia, who had helped Austria to subdue Hungary. Schwarzenberg,
+the fighting man of the Austrian Confederation, announced his policy:
+"First humiliate Prussia, then destroy her." The practical collision
+between Prussian North Germany and Austrian South Germany came when the
+Elector of Hesse quarreled with his people. The Hessians appealed to the
+Council of the Prussian League, of which Hesse was a member, while the
+Elector of Hesse appealed to the Emperor of Austria. Austria and Prussia
+both set armies in movement, the Austrian force being mainly composed of
+Bavarian troops, and a kind of half-battle was fought on the frontier of
+Bavaria. But the Prussian Army was weak and inefficient, while Nicholas
+I. of Russia was open in his support of Austria. Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
+of Prussia met Schwarzenberg in a conference at Olm�tz on Nov. 28, 1850,
+and offered Prussia's submission to Austria. Austria then restored the
+old Diet and reorganized the German Confederation upon the basis of
+1815, the Federal act creating this confederation having actually
+antedated the battle of Waterloo by a week. In this confederation, which
+was composed of sovereigns, not of peoples, (thirty-four sovereign
+Princes and the four "free cities" of Hamburg, Bremen, L�beck, and
+Frankfort,) and which met in the Federal Diet at Frankfort, the Austrian
+representatives presided, and Austria's pre-eminence lasted until the
+battle of Sadowa, in 1866, when the simultaneous attacks of Prussia and
+Italy brought about Austria's defeat.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><span class="smcap">A Union of the Jugo-Slavs</span></div>
+
+<p>A public meeting held at Rome March 14, 1918, was addressed by Professor
+Salvemini, a distinguished historian, who advocated the policy of
+Mazzini that the Italians should ally themselves with the Balkan peoples
+in order to free them from Austrian and Turkish domination. The speaker
+opposed the teaching of Cesare Balbo, who advocated a free hand for
+Austria in the Balkans in return for the cession of the Italian
+provinces. The leading Serbians and numerous influential Jugo-Slav
+exiles from Austria-Hungary have indorsed Professor Salvemini's
+proposition, and a number of Italian Deputies and publicists have joined
+the movement.</p>
+
+<p>A conference under the auspices of the Serbian Society of Great Britain
+was held in London March 13, 1918, which was attended by the Executive
+Committees of the British-Italian League, the Anglo-Hellenic Society,
+and the Anglo-Rumanian Society. The following resolutions were
+unanimously passed:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>1. This conference learns with gratification of the present
+understanding between representative Italians and the
+Jugo-Slavs, convinced as it is that it is in the vital interest
+of both races that they should unite on the basis, as far as
+practicable, of the principle of self-determination and in a
+spirit of mutual toleration and friendliness as allies against
+German and Austro-Magyar military domination.</p>
+
+<p>2. The conference confidently hopes that such an understanding
+will not weaken but strengthen the bonds of alliance which exist
+between Serbia and Greece, and that it will be followed by a
+similar amicable settlement of all outstanding questions between
+Italy and Greece, so that the Eastern Mediterranean may present
+a solid bulwark against the German Drang nach Osten.</p>
+
+<p>3. The conference sends fraternal greetings to Rumania and
+assures the Rumanian people that, whatever terms Rumania is
+forced to accept from the enemy by the cruel exigencies of the
+war, the British people will not cease to regard her as an ally
+in spirit, and will not cease to strive for the attainment of
+her national unity as one of the essential factors of a lasting
+peace. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A convention of Bohemians, Slavs, Jugo-Slavs, Rumanians, Serbians,
+Italians, and Poles met at Rome on April 10 under the Presidency of
+former Senator Ruffini, with prominent Italians and Frenchmen present,
+among them former Ministers Martini, Barzilai, Franklin, Bouillon, and
+Albert Thomas. Dr. Trumbitch, President of the Jugo-Slav Committee in
+Great Britain, also attended. It was the first assemblage of
+representatives of the nationalities that are opposed to Austrian
+dominion. The Mayor of Rome was a participant. The Italian and Polish
+representatives for the first time gave their adhesion to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> Jugo-Slav
+aspiration. The following declaration was adopted:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>1. Every people proclaims it to be its right to determine its
+own nationality and national unity and complete independence.</p>
+
+<p>2. Every people knows that the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy is an
+instrument of German domination and a fundamental obstacle to
+the realization of its rights to free development and
+self-government.</p>
+
+<p>3. The Congress recognizes the necessity of fighting against the
+common oppressors.</p>
+
+<p>The representatives of the Jugo-Slavs agree:</p>
+
+<p>That the unity and independence of the Jugo-Slav Nation is
+considered of vital importance by Italy.</p>
+
+<p>That the deliverance of the Adriatic Sea and its defense from
+any enemy is of capital interest to the two peoples.</p>
+
+<p>That territorial controversies will be amicably settled on the
+principle of nationality and in such a manner as not to injure
+the vital interests of the two nations; interests which will be
+taken into account at the peace conferences. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Polish delegates added their declaration that they consider Germany
+as the principal enemy of Poland, and that they believe that the
+disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is the only way through
+which they can obtain their independence from Germany.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><span class="smcap">Can a Nation Be Wiped Out?</span></div>
+
+<p>If we pass by the ancient epoch when it was the custom of the conqueror
+to "take the city, and slay the people therein, and beat down the city,
+and sow it with salt," and come to more modern times, we shall find
+cause to question whether any people has been actually exterminated by
+war.</p>
+
+<p>Probably the worst devastation in modern Europe was that caused by the
+Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) when the Germans were fighting among
+themselves. Season by season, says the historian, armies of ruthless
+freebooters harried the land with fire and sword. The peasant, who found
+that he toiled only to feed robbers and to draw them to outrage and
+torture his family, ceased to labor and became himself robber and camp
+follower. Half the population and two-thirds of the movable property of
+Germany were swept away. In many large districts the facts were worse
+than this average. The Duchy of W�rttemberg had 50,000 people left out
+of 500,000. Populous cities had become hamlets; and for miles upon
+miles, former hamlets were the lairs of wolf packs. Not until 1850 did
+some sections of Germany again contain as many homesteads and cattle as
+in 1618. So there is justification for the belief that Montenegro,
+Serbia, and Armenia will come back again to health and strength.</p>
+
+<p>On March 21 an order was issued, applying to all of Great Britain,
+requiring all entertainments, including theatres, to close at 10:30 P.
+M., and forbidding any shop window lighting. No public meals were
+allowed after 9:30 P. M. at hotels, restaurants, clubs, and boarding
+houses, and the tube and train services were reduced; also, by
+one-sixth, the amount of gas or electricity allowance.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center"><span class="smcap">British Man-power Bill.</span></div>
+
+<p>The British Man-Power bill, which provides for conscription in Ireland
+and was described in the important address by Premier Lloyd George,
+(Page <a href="#Page_263">263</a>,) passed its third reading in the House of Commons April 16 by
+a vote of 301 to 103. The Government announced that a bill giving home
+rule to Ireland would be introduced, and if it failed of passage the
+Government would resign. The Man-Power bill was passed in record time by
+the House of Lords and became a law by the King's signature April 19.
+Meetings of protest were held by Nationalists, who joined with Sinn
+Feiners, O'Brienites, Laborites, and Clericals in denouncing the
+measure.</p>
+
+
+<p>An increase of 1,426,000 in the number of women employed since 1914 is
+shown in figures announced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The
+greatest increase was in industries, which took in 530,000 more women,
+but the largest proportionate increase was 214,000 additional women
+taken into Government service. Women have replaced 1,413,000 men since
+1914. Industrial and Government work has taken 400,000 women formerly
+employed in domestic service or in dressmaking.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span></p>
+<h2>THE BATTLE OF PICARDY</h2>
+
+<h3>Military Review of the Greatest Battle in History From March 21 to April
+17, 1918</h3>
+
+<p>On March 21 the Germans began the great battle which military
+experts of both sides believe may decide the war. What was indicated in
+broad lines was that they wished to reach the Channel by way of the
+Somme and thereby isolate most of the British Army and the entire
+Belgian and Portuguese Armies in the north. A corollary to such an
+isolation would have been a movement south on Paris.</p>
+
+<p>As to the narrower lines of the German military plan, however, they
+became clear. The Germans struck from points where their railways
+allowed them the greatest possible concentration of troops and at points
+where the lines of the Allies, owing to the uncompleted battles of
+Flanders and Cambrai and the failures at Lens, St. Quentin, and La F�re
+last year, were relatively weak or could be out-manoeuvred with superior
+force of men and material.</p>
+
+<p>In the first phase of the battle, which carried the enemy down the Somme
+and its southern tributary, the Avre, to within six miles of Amiens, and
+to within forty-six miles of the Channel, they first eliminated the
+Cambrai salient so as to protect their northern flank and then
+concentrated their attack between St. Quentin and La F�re, near the
+point where the French and the British Armies joined. The flanks of the
+great salient thereby developed, however, made dangerous further
+progress down the Somme. On the north it was threatened by the Arras
+salient with its protecting ridge of Vimy; on the south by the watershed
+of the Oise and Aisne.</p>
+
+<p>Frontal attacks to eliminate the Arras salient and the, Oise-Aisne
+watershed having failed, a flanking movement against the former, which
+should also have strategic ramifications further north, followed as a
+matter of military expediency. Thus on April 9 the second phase began.
+Again they sought the line of cleavage between two armies, where
+differences of language and tactics made military cohesion
+difficult&mdash;between the British and the Portuguese on the Lille front. A
+successful penetration of this front for a distance of ten miles would
+have placed the enemy on the left-rear of Vimy Ridge in the south, and
+in the north on the right-rear of Messines Ridge, which protects Ypres,
+the capture of which by the British a year ago had made the subsequent
+battle of Flanders and their occupation of Passchendaele in the
+direction of Roulers possible.</p>
+
+<p>In other words, Vimy Ridge bears the same relation to Arras that
+Messines and its contiguous hills do to Ypres, but while the former
+ridge also flanks the great German salient stretching down to the Oise,
+the latter ridge flanks from the southeast the British salient at Ypres
+developed by the battle of Flanders.</p>
+
+<p>In this second phase of the great battle the German penetration, through
+military design or expediency, has so far been developed in the
+direction of Ypres; not in the direction of Arras.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">NUMBER OF MEN ENGAGED</div>
+
+<p>As to the number of men engaged on each side, experts at the front have
+been wide apart. It has been understood that Great Britain has in France
+3,500,000 rifles, and that of these 675,000 were on the front when the
+attack began, thus (if these figures are correct) leaving an army of
+reserve and manoeuvre of 2,850,000, minus 150,000 men on leave in
+England. It was understood that the number of French rifles available on
+the Continent is between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000, of which 1,575,000
+were at the front on March 21, leaving 2,425,000 for reserve and
+manoeuvre, which to the extent of 500,000 may have been available in the
+present battle, with the constant deploying of the French line in the
+south and the taking over of ten miles of the British line.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+<a href="images/i205.png"><img src="images/i205-t.png" width="250" height="164" alt="" title="" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>
+<a href="images/i206.png"><img src="images/i206-t.png" width="250" height="146" alt="MAP OF THE BATTLE OF PICARDY. THE CHAIN LINE ON THE EAST
+SHOWS BATTLE FRONT MARCH 21, 1918. SHADED SPACE INDICATES GERMAN GAINS
+UP TO APRIL 17. BROKEN LINE SHOWS NEW FRONT AT THAT DATE. INTERVENING
+LINES INDICATE GERMAN POSITIONS MARCH 24 AND 26." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />MAP OF THE BATTLE OF PICARDY. THE CHAIN LINE ON THE EAST
+SHOWS BATTLE FRONT MARCH 21, 1918. SHADED SPACE INDICATES GERMAN GAINS
+UP TO APRIL 17. BROKEN LINE SHOWS NEW FRONT AT THAT DATE. INTERVENING
+LINES INDICATE GERMAN POSITIONS MARCH 24 AND 26.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
+The potential strength of the Germans in the western theatre before the
+Russian revolution was estimated at 4,500,000 rifles, more than half of
+which were on the front. According to Sir Aukland Geddes, the British
+Minister of National Service, the secession of Russia added to the
+enemy's potential strength on the western front possibly as many as
+1,600,000 men, of whom 950,000 were Germans. If we add 1,000,000 to the
+4,500,000 German rifles in the west we have the 5,500,000 thus produced
+opposing, at least, 8,500,000 Allies, consisting of French, British,
+American, Belgian, Portuguese, Russian, and Polish troops. [The British
+official estimates on April 17 appear on Page <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.]</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, in nearly all the engagements of the battle thus far, the
+Allies appear to have been measurably outnumbered in a ratio varying
+from three to one to five to three. Up to March 26, aside from the
+French being constantly forced to augment their forces in the south,
+only the British 3d, 4th, and 5th Armies had been engaged, approximately
+numbering 600,000 rifles. Against these, up to the same date, the
+Germans had been able to concentrate ninety-seven divisions, or
+1,164,000 rifles, with special concentrations of 120,000 rifles against
+Bucquoy, on April 6, and 180,000 against the French between Lassigny and
+Noyon, on March 27 and April 3. On the subsequent development of the
+Lille front the Germans seemed to have been able to concentrate their
+forces, where they outnumber the British and Portuguese three to two.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">ENORMOUS GERMAN LOSSES</div>
+
+<p>It was inevitable, in the retreat forced on the British from their
+static positions, that a large number of men and guns should have been
+captured by the enemy&mdash;during the first rush the Germans claimed 75,000
+and 600 respectively. But the German casualties, owing to their massed
+formation, must, according to all accounts, be staggering, having
+probably already reached the Verdun maximum of 600,000. The attrition of
+their war material must also be enormous. And just as the entire armies
+of the Allies outnumber the enemy eight to five, it may be estimated
+that their material, actual and immediately available, is 30 per cent.
+greater.</p>
+
+<p>The most useful guide to the development of the plans of the enemy,
+their modification, transformation, and failure, either transitory or
+permanent, is physical geography. The initial impetus of the assault
+carried the Germans with "shock" and alternating forces beyond a
+hypothetical straight line of fifty miles extending from the Scarpe on
+the north to the junction of the Ailette and the Oise on the south. This
+was done without their moving their heavy guns, probably not even their
+mid-calibre guns, from their emplacements.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">FIRST DAYS' RESULTS</div>
+
+<p>By March 25 they had covered an area of about 500 square miles and had
+penetrated beyond Croisilles, Bapaume, P�ronne, Brie, Nesle, and the
+forest northeast of Noyon. In the two following days they recovered the
+entire battlefield of the Somme, occupied the British railway junction
+and supply depot at Albert, drove the British four miles down the Somme,
+and took Roye and Noyon from the French, driving the latter across the
+Oise. On the 29th the French counterattacked and recovered eight square
+miles between Lassigny and Noyon, but west of this position the enemy,
+on a twelve-mile front with a penetration of seven miles, enveloped
+Montdidier. The next day the Germans gained some ground north of the
+Scarpe before Vimy Ridge and obliterated an ally salient with its vertex
+at Vrely by straightening their line between the Somme and Montdidier.</p>
+
+<p>From March 29 until April 8 the enemy consolidated his positions on a
+front which had been expanded from seventy-five miles, including two
+large salients, to 125 miles, including innumerable small ones,
+embracing a terrain of about 800 square miles west of the front as it
+was on March 20.</p>
+
+<p>On April 3 the enemy was strongly counterattacked by the British at
+Ayette and by the French at Pl�mont, near<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> Lassigny. Similar
+counterattacks recovered H�buterne for the British and Cantigny for the
+French on April 5; Beaumont Hamel and a strong position west of Albert
+for the British and a flanking position north of Aubvillers for the
+French on April 7.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i209.png"><img src="images/i209-t.png" width="184" height="250" alt="FLANDERS SECTOR OF THE GREAT BATTLE OF PICARDY. THE CHAIN
+LINE SHOWS BATTLEFRONT, MARCH 21, 1918. SHADED SPACE INDICATES GERMAN
+GAINS UP TO APRIL 17." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />FLANDERS SECTOR OF THE GREAT BATTLE OF PICARDY. THE CHAIN
+LINE SHOWS BATTLEFRONT, MARCH 21, 1918. SHADED SPACE INDICATES GERMAN
+GAINS UP TO APRIL 17.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, April 4, the Germans had occupied Hamel and two villages near
+Grivesnes, driving out the French, and had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> made a furious assault upon
+the positions of the latter between the Luce rivulet and the Avre River,
+but without success. On the 5th they had made similar attacks at five
+points: they were successful against the British at Dernancourt, against
+the French at Casel; they were driven back with heavy losses by the
+British at Moyenneville and Villers-Bertonneux and by the French at
+Cantigny. On the 6th the enemy had made concentrated attacks at six
+points: south of Albert, beyond the Vaire Wood, between Hailles and
+Rouvrel, and on the Oise east of Chauny he gained ground, but his
+attempt to take Mesnil beyond Montdidier and Mount R�naud beyond Noyon
+were costly failures. On the 7th he attacked the British strategic
+position at Eucquoy and the French position east of Chauny. At the
+former place he was repulsed with heavy loss; at the latter his official
+chronicler asserted that he gained ground.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">ON THE LILLE FRONT</div>
+
+<p>Then north of the great salient just occupied, the Germans struck, on
+April 9, between the important British depots of Arras and Ypres, forty
+miles apart, concentrating on a twelve-mile front between Givenchy and
+Fleurbaix. During the two following days the concentration moved north
+five miles, penetrating between Armenti�res and Messines. On the 11th it
+had developed as far north as Hollebeke, four miles southeast of Ypres,
+had partly enveloped Messines Ridge and entirely Armenti�res and the
+town of Estaires on the Lys River. By the 12th it had swelled beyond
+Merville and Lestrem in the south, was threatening the railway junction
+of Bailleul in the middle ground, had gained a footing on Messines
+Ridge, and was investing the neighboring heights of Neuve Eglise and
+Kemmel in the north. By the morning of the 17th the German penetration
+had reached Locon in the south, the Nieppe Forest in the middle ground,
+and had occupied Bailleul and the eastern heights of the ridge in the
+north and threatened the western and more elevated heights of Mont Rouge
+and Mont Kemmel. Thus in eight days the Germans had developed a sector
+on the Lille front of originally twenty-two miles, a salient embracing
+an area of about 825 square miles with a new front of about thirty-five
+miles.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">SUMMARY OF THE FIGHTING</div>
+
+<p>The initial bombardment which preceded the first infantry advance
+against the Cambrai salient, at 8 o'clock on the morning of March 21,
+was widely distributed&mdash;as far north as Ypres and as far south as the
+Oise. It consisted mainly of gas and high explosive shells. The first
+infantry attack, which penetrated the first and second lines on a
+sixteen-mile front extending from Lagnicourt to Gauche Wood just south
+of Gouseaucourt, caused a retreat from the salient which had been left
+exposed to any superior attack since last December. In rapid succession
+the British positions, now indefinitely exposed on the north, were then
+attacked between Arras and La F�re, with tremendous concentration
+between the latter and St. Quentin. According to the German report of
+the 22d: "After powerful fire by our artillery and mine throwers our
+infantry stormed in broad sectors and everywhere captured the first
+enemy line."</p>
+
+<p>From the 22d until the 25th the Germans kept up a heavy fire upon the
+French front, mingled with raids, both land and air, evidently with the
+intention of preventing a movement of the French behind the lines as
+long as the German intentions remained uncertain.</p>
+
+<p>By the 24th, however, these intentions had been measurably revealed,
+both by documents found on prisoners and by the general tendency of the
+battle. On that day the enemy succeeded in crossing the Somme south of
+P�ronne, while north of it he forced the British to retire from the line
+of the River Torille. On the same day Chauny and Ham were captured, the
+British 3d and 4th Armies were pressed behind P�ronne and Ham, and the
+5th Army almost lost contact with the French. Here began that wonderful
+feat which has made the name of General Carey famous. On the 25th the
+enemy, by a series of drives en masse, managed to envelop Bapaume, while
+south of P�ronne he made still further progress, "west of the Somme."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i213a.png"><img src="images/i213a-t.png" width="250" height="66" alt="DETAIL MAP OF NORTHERN SECTOR OF BATTLE OF PICARDY, WHERE
+HEAVY BLOWS WERE STRUCK BY THE GERMANS IN THEIR DRIVE TOWARD AMIENS AND
+THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. THE FIGHTING WAS ESPECIALLY HEAVY AROUND PERONNE
+AND ALBERT" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />DETAIL MAP OF NORTHERN SECTOR OF BATTLE OF PICARDY, WHERE
+HEAVY BLOWS WERE STRUCK BY THE GERMANS IN THEIR DRIVE TOWARD AMIENS AND
+THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. THE FIGHTING WAS ESPECIALLY HEAVY AROUND PERONNE
+AND ALBERT</span><br /><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i213b.png"><img src="images/i213b-t.png" width="250" height="64" alt="DETAIL MAP OF SOUTHERN PORTION OF BATTLEFIELD, SHOWING LA
+FERE AND TERGNIER. WHERE GERMANS TRIED TO DRVE A WEDGE BETWEEN BRITISH
+AND FRENCH ARMIES. THE BATTLE SWEPT WESTWARD PAST ROYE AND MONTDIDIER" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />DETAIL MAP OF SOUTHERN PORTION OF BATTLEFIELD, SHOWING LA
+FERE AND TERGNIER. WHERE GERMANS TRIED TO DRVE A WEDGE BETWEEN BRITISH
+AND FRENCH ARMIES. THE BATTLE SWEPT WESTWARD PAST ROYE AND MONTDIDIER</span>
+</div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nesle was lost and recovered several times by the French troops, who had
+already begun to relieve certain portions of the British right, with its
+unlucky 5th Army, as early as the 23d. In the engagements between
+Bapaume and P�ronne the German armies of von Below, who had just
+returned from Italy, and von der Marwitz were personally directed by
+Crown Prince Rupprecht, and outnumbered the British three to two.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 250px;">
+<a href="images/i214.png"><img src="images/i214-t.png" width="250" height="248" alt="DETAIL MAP OF THE STRUGGLE FOR ARRAS" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">DETAIL MAP OF THE STRUGGLE FOR ARRAS</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE STRUGGLE FOR ALBERT</div>
+
+<p>From the 25th to the 27th there was a lull in the north, evidently
+conceived by the Germans for bringing their heavier guns up to new
+emplacements, but in the south during this time the enemy heavily
+concentrated against the new French troops that were appearing upon the
+lengthening line and forced them to give up Lihons and Noyon. When the
+German pressure was renewed in the north Albert became the obvious
+objective, on account of the massed attacks made upon Ablainville near
+by. In the battle of the Somme, Albert, as a junction and depot,
+performed for the British in a minor degree what Cambrai later performed
+for the Germans in the present battle. On March 27 the British began a
+retreat on a wide front on both sides of the Somme, and in the evening
+Albert was evacuated. The next day came the great French counterattack
+between Lassigny and Noyon, already mentioned in connection with the
+geographical development of the battle.</p>
+
+<p>On the 28th the German attack was renewed on the Somme, where it pressed
+back the British near the Chippily crossing, and before Arras, where a
+frontal attack was repulsed with great enemy loss. This attack was
+renewed for three successive days. Then on April 3 the French again won
+near Lassigny and repulsed heavy German attacks around Moreuil.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 250px;">
+<a href="images/i215.png"><img src="images/i215-t.png" width="250" height="244" alt="DETAIL MAP OF FLANDERS SECTOR AND BATTLE AROUND
+ARMENTIERES" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">DETAIL MAP OF FLANDERS SECTOR AND BATTLE AROUND
+ARMENTIERES</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>On April 4 a frightful battle developed, where on a narrow ten-mile
+front, between Grivesnes, near the vertex of the Montdidier salient, and
+the Roye-Amiens road, the Germans sacrificed thousands of men in a vain
+attempt to drive a wedge between the newly discovered junction of the
+French and British Armies.</p>
+
+<p>From the 4th until the 7th, with the exception of the check the enemy
+met with at Bucquoy on the latter date, he made a reconsolidation of his
+lines, partially digging in on the sector before Amiens. The British
+positions around Arras, to the north of the great salient, which had
+again and again repelled frontal attacks, and the French positions on
+the Montdidier salient and the Oise-Aisne watershed on the south, now
+warned him of the danger of further progress west without augmented
+protection of his flanks.</p>
+
+<p>Hence, on April 9, the reason for his sudden concentration and attack on
+the Lille front,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> and particularly upon the junction of the British and
+Portuguese lines near La Bass�e Canal to a point east of Armenti�res,
+which is still in progress. The geographical as well as the strategic
+features of this phase of the battle have already been described.
+Complete success had marked the German efforts on this sector up to
+April 17.</p>
+
+<p>During the entire period covered the airplanes employed on the
+battlefront were in the ratio of seven to five in favor of the Allies,
+whose killings have been in the ratio of five to two. This, taken in
+connection with the destruction of a great German plant and airdrome at
+Friedrichshafen on April 15, is believed to place the dominance of the
+air with all it includes as to observation and the bombing of transport
+and arsenal in the hands of the Allies.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i216.jpg"><img src="images/i216-t.jpg" width="159" height="250" alt="BENEDICT CROWELL
+Assistant Secretary of War and, during Mr. Baker&#39;s absence in Europe,
+Acting Secretary of War
+(� Harris &amp; Ewing)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />BENEDICT CROWELL<br />
+Assistant Secretary of War and, during Mr. Baker&#39;s absence in Europe,
+Acting Secretary of War<br />
+(� Harris &amp; Ewing)</span>
+</div>
+
+<h3><br /><br />AMERICAN ARMY CHIEFS AND EXPERTS</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 500px;">
+<a href="images/i217a.jpg"><img src="images/i217a-t.jpg" width="165" height="250" alt="AMERICAN ARMY CHIEFS AND EXPERTS
+Maj. Gen. George O. Squier,
+Chief of Signal Corps" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Maj. Gen. George O. Squier,<br />
+Chief of Signal Corps</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 500px;">
+<a href="images/i217b.jpg"><img src="images/i217b-t.jpg" width="170" height="250" alt="Lieut. Col. Edward A. Kreger,
+Judge Advocate General in France
+(� Harris &amp; Ewing)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Lieut. Col. Edward A. Kreger,<br />
+Judge Advocate General in France<br />
+(� Harris &amp; Ewing)</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 500px;">
+<a href="images/i217c.jpg"><img src="images/i217c-t.jpg" width="176" height="250" alt="Col. Palmer E. Pierce,
+Director of Purchases for the War Department
+(� Harris &amp; Ewing)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Col. Palmer E. Pierce,<br />
+Director of Purchases for the War Department<br />
+(� Harris &amp; Ewing)</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 500px;">
+<a href="images/i217d.jpg"><img src="images/i217d-t.jpg" width="176" height="250" alt="Maj. Gen. Evan M. Johnston,
+Temporary Commander at Camp Upton, N. Y.
+(Press Illustrating Service)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Maj. Gen. Evan M. Johnston,<br />
+Temporary Commander at Camp Upton, N. Y.<br />
+(Press Illustrating Service)</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>The British Reverses and Their Causes</h2>
+
+<h3>By a Military Observer</h3>
+
+
+<p>Premier Lloyd George in his speech of April 9 [printed on Page <a href="#Page_263">263</a>]
+compared the operations in Picardy with the battle of Cambrai. In fact,
+the best way to understand what happened in the initial stage of the
+great German drive is to remember the sequence of events in the German
+attacks on the positions near Cambrai in 1917. At Cambrai there was a
+mistaken confidence in the ability to hold the terrain, although German
+attacks were expected. When these German assaults came, one was a
+surprise, because there had been an unexpected concentration of German
+troops; and this attack broke through the defense to such an extent that
+it forced the abandonment of other positions, with losses of prisoners
+and guns. All these tactical elements were present at the beginning of
+the German drive in March, but on a much larger scale, because in this
+case the German assaults were made on a front of some fifty miles.</p>
+
+<p>The difficult problem for the Allies, in preparing to defend their long
+front against the expected German offensive, was to provide against the
+well-known German tactics of assembling superior numbers at the place of
+battle. In this war the German "massed attacks" have not been so much a
+matter of formation as of delivering streams of troops at the chosen
+point of contact to overwhelm their opponents with superior numbers at
+that point. These German tactics were again used in the attacks, begun
+on March 21, against the British front from southeast of Arras as far as
+La F�re.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">FIFTH ARMY'S DISASTER</div>
+
+<p>Here were in position the 3d British Army (General Byng) in the section
+toward Arras, and, on the right to the south, the 5th British Army
+(General Gough) in the region west of St. Quentin. On March 21 there was
+a tremendous bombardment followed by infantry attacks all along the
+line, which resulted in winning many first-line positions. This was
+nothing more than had been expected, and provision had been made against
+it; but, unfortunately, as at Cambrai, the Germans had been enabled to
+make an unexpected concentration of superior numbers against positions
+of the 5th British Army.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> The assault of this overwhelming force broke
+through the British lines, even to the extent of involving engineers and
+laborers behind the lines, as at Cambrai, with the same disastrous
+results. This breakdown of the defense forced a retreat from the British
+positions far different from the retirement that had been planned&mdash;and
+it brought about the withdrawal of the whole 5th Army, resulting in what
+the British Premier called "crippling one of our great armies."</p>
+
+<p>After such a disaster, it was found necessary to abandon a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+great amount of terrain to maintain a junction between the two British
+armies. P�ronne and Bapaume were soon captured by the Germans, and on
+March 27 the Germans reported the occupation of Albert. On the same day
+Roye and Noyon were taken. On the next day the Germans had pushed as far
+west as Pierrepont and taken possession of Montdidier. As was to be
+expected in such a retreat, there soon was a large toll of British guns
+and prisoners. On March 29 the Germans claimed 1,100 guns and 70,000
+prisoners. They had also captured great quantities of material and 100
+tanks.</p>
+
+<p>These were heavy losses, but such losses were not the really serious
+element in the situation. A study of the map will show that, as the 5th
+Army retreated toward the west, there was left an increasingly long
+sector south of Noyon and curving north, west of Montdidier to the Avre
+River&mdash;and it was necessary that this dangerous opening should be
+protected by the French reserves. With extraordinary rapidity and
+efficiency French troops were rushed to this region, and the almost
+impossible task was accomplished of repairing the defense. But the drain
+on the French reserves had been heavy, and the necessity to use them for
+this purpose had neutralized a force that had been prepared for a
+different object against such a German drive.</p>
+
+<p>That these reserves were being held as a mobile army was so generally
+known that, it will be remembered, there was daily expectation of a
+counterattack by this force. There is no need to point out how great
+might have been the results of an assault upon an enemy exhausted by
+days of fighting; but any such plan was rendered impossible at the time
+by the need to use these troops to defend the new line, which was nearly
+as long as the original battle line at the time of the attacks on March
+21.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">FOCH MADE GENERALISSIMO</div>
+
+<p>Yet, on the other hand, from this battle's costly object lesson in the
+weakness of divided commands, came at last the appointment of the French
+General, Foch, (March 28,) to absolute command over all the armies of
+the Allies on the western front. For a long time a single command has
+been the one great need to insure military efficiency, and obtaining
+this is an offset against the losses in the battle which brought such a
+command into being.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the war the great outstanding element of failure for the
+Allies has been lack of co-ordination. The varying aims of the different
+nations in the war have accounted for this to a great degree, but on the
+battlefields of France there should have been no delay in giving the
+command to the chosen General of the nation which had everything at
+stake. All the influence of the United States had been exerted for a
+long time in favor of a single command, and at once the unrestricted use
+of the American force in France was offered to General Foch.</p>
+
+<p>From what has been said of the course of the battle of Picardy, it can
+readily be seen that the task of the new Commander in Chief was one of
+the hardest ever given to a General on taking command of an army. After
+a disaster that had greatly impaired the availability of the troops of
+the Allies, General Foch was obliged to face the culminating effort of
+the greatest military machine in all history with a force placed under
+his command made up of armies that had never been in co-ordination&mdash;and
+after the collapse of one of these armies.</p>
+
+<p>Another serious element in the battle in Flanders is the fact that it
+has been necessary to send to this front also French troops from General
+Foch's reserves, making another drain upon these forces. The appointment
+of General Foch to the chief command literally on the battlefield was
+formally confirmed by the British and French Governments in the
+following notice which appeared in Le Temps April 14:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>The British Government and the French Government have agreed to
+give General Foch the title of Commander in Chief of the allied
+armies operating in France. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The United States, after having greatly helped to bring about General
+Foch's command, has given a large part<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> of the American force in France
+to be brigaded with the allied troops wherever there are weak spots.
+These factors in the military situation may make it possible for General
+Foch again to assemble a mobile army for a counterstroke against the
+German offensive.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">PHASES OF THE BATTLE</div>
+
+<p>The first days of April saw the end of the initial phase of the great
+drive. There were other gains that brought the Germans uncomfortably
+near Amiens, but the character of the fighting was similar to that of
+the last three years on the western front. The new line of battle
+extended southwest from Arras, beyond Albert, to the west of Moreuil,
+about nine miles south of Amiens. It lay to the west of Pierrepont and
+Montdidier, curving to the south of Noyon and to the region of the Oise.
+The greatest penetration into the terrain of the Allies had been about
+thirty-five miles. The Berlin War Office announced the capture of 90,000
+prisoners and 1,300 guns in this first phase of the German offensive.</p>
+
+<p>Through the first week of April there was sharp fighting at different
+points in the line, north of Albert, east of Amiens, and on the River
+Oise. In this last region the French, in rectifying their new defense,
+lost 2,000 prisoners, but there was nothing accomplished in any combat
+that meant a tactical change in the general situation. Suddenly, on
+April 8, there were heavy bombardments in the region of La Bass�e and
+Armenti�res, which were followed by strong attacks on this front; and on
+April 9 General Haig reported: "Favored by a thick mist which made
+observation impossible, the enemy succeeded in forcing his way into the
+Allies' positions in the neighborhood of Neuve Chapelle." These attacks
+developed into a second stage of the great German offensive, and, as
+before, the shock of the initial surprise attack seriously impaired the
+British positions. Portuguese troops were reported as fighting with the
+British troops on this sector. On April 10 General Haig reported that
+the Germans had also forced back his line north of Armenti�res. These
+reverses resulted in the capture of Armenti�res on April 11 by the
+Germans, as the city was encircled from the north and south. The Germans
+claimed the capture of the garrison of 3,000 and forty-five guns. The
+battle had spread to a front of about twenty-five miles on April 12,
+with the Germans penetrating to Merville, eleven miles southwest of
+Armenti�res. On this day the German official report claimed 20,000
+prisoners and 200 guns.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">A HISTORIC ORDER</div>
+
+<p>General Haig issued the following proclamation to his troops on April
+12:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Three weeks ago today the enemy began his terrific attacks
+against us on a fifty-mile front. His objects are to separate us
+from the French, to take the Channel ports, and to destroy the
+British Army.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of throwing already 106 divisions into the battle, and
+enduring the most reckless sacrifice of human life, he has yet
+made little progress toward his goals.</p>
+
+<p>We owe this to the determined fighting and self-sacrifice of our
+troops. Words fail me to express the admiration which I feel for
+the splendid resistance offered by all ranks of our army under
+the most trying circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>Many among us now are tired. To those I would say that victory
+will belong to the side which holds out the longest. The French
+Army is moving rapidly and in great force to our support. There
+is no other course open to us but to fight it out.</p>
+
+<p>Every position must be held to the last man. There must be no
+retirement. With our backs to the wall, and believing in the
+justice of our cause, each one of us must fight to the end. The
+safety of our homes and the freedom of mankind depend alike upon
+the conduct of each one of us at this critical moment. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The situation on April 17 was summed up by General Maurice, Director of
+War Operations in the British War Office, in these words:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>The British Army is playing the r�le which it often has played
+before. It is fighting a Waterloo while Bl�cher is marching to
+the battlefield.</p>
+
+<p>The British Army is under a terrible hammering, but, providing
+we stand that hammering without breaking down, and providing
+Bl�cher is marching to the battlefield, there is no reason for
+discouragement.</p>
+
+<p>The enormous task which the British Army has performed and still
+is performing may be shown by a few figures. In this battle of
+Armenti�res the Germans<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> thus far have engaged twenty-eight
+divisions (392,000 men) and since March 21 they have engaged 126
+divisions, (1,764,000 men.)</p>
+
+<p>Of these the British Army alone has engaged seventy-nine,
+(1,106,000 men,) the French alone have engaged twenty-four,
+(336,000 men,) and the remainder, twenty-three, (322,000 men,)
+have been engaged by the British and French together.</p>
+
+<p>Of the German divisions which the British engaged, twenty-eight
+have been fought twice and one thrice. Of the German divisions
+which the French engaged, four have fought twice. Of the German
+divisions which the French and British engaged together, fifteen
+have been fought twice and one thrice.</p>
+
+<p>It is unpleasant business standing the hammering, but so long as
+we can stand it the only question to be asked is, What is
+happening to Bl�cher&mdash;what has become of the reserves? </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Thus the perilous situation stood at the time when this magazine went to
+press&mdash;April 19&mdash;with the British fighting fiercely in Flanders and
+waiting for Foch to strike with his reserve forces and relieve the
+strain.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps</div>
+
+<p>By JOHN OXENHAM</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<i>Great work! State work!&mdash;willingly done and well,<br />
+For the men who are doing so much for us<br />
+Ay&mdash;more than words can tell!<br />
+Right work! White work! faithfully, skillfully done,<br />
+But the whole of the soul of it will not be known<br />
+Till the war is properly won.</i><br />
+<br />
+They mend the men; they tend the men;<br />
+They help them carry on;<br />
+They drop a little veil upon<br />
+The woes they've undergone.<br />
+<br />
+They feed the men; they speed the men;<br />
+They make their daily bread;<br />
+They mend them while they're living,<br />
+And they tend them when they're dead.<br />
+<br />
+There's many a lonely man out there<br />
+They've saved from black despair;<br />
+There's many a lowly grave out there<br />
+Made gracious by their care.<br />
+<br />
+They toil for them; they moil for them;<br />
+Help lame dogs over stiles,<br />
+And do their best to buck them up<br />
+With cheery words and smiles.<br />
+<br />
+They're just a little bit of home,<br />
+Come out to lend a hand.<br />
+They're gleams of warm bright sunshine<br />
+In a dreary, weary land.<br />
+<br />
+They are sweet as pinks and daisies,<br />
+Just the sight of them is good,<br />
+When you've lived for eighteen months or so<br />
+In a sink of Flanders mud.<br />
+<br />
+<i>New work, true work, gallantly, patiently done,<br />
+For the men who are giving their all for us&mdash;<br />
+Your brother, your lover, your son.<br />
+High work! Thy work, if truly to Thee it's done!&mdash;<br />
+But we never shall know all the debt we owe<br />
+Till the war is really won.</i><br />
+<br /><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a>
+"And the Germans were actually in some parts within a few
+yards of our front line before any one knew of their approach."&mdash;Lloyd
+George.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i227.jpg"><img src="images/i227-t.jpg" width="250" height="71" alt="" title="" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="Four_Epic_Weeks_of_Carnage" id="Four_Epic_Weeks_of_Carnage"></a>Four Epic Weeks of Carnage</h2>
+
+<h3>By Philip Gibbs</h3>
+
+<div class="center"><i>Special Correspondent with the British Armies</i></div>
+
+<div class="center">[Copyrighted in U. S. A.]</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>The first phase of the battle of Picardy, which began March 21,
+1918, was a vain attempt of the German forces to drive a wedge
+between the French and British Armies at their point of
+juncture; the second was an equally unsuccessful attempt to
+wrest Arras and Vimy Ridge from the British; the third sought to
+annihilate the British armies in Flanders and break through to
+the English Channel. The last-named phase was still undecided
+when this magazine went to press, (April 19.) All three phases
+were vividly described from day to day by Philip Gibbs. The
+following narrative is compiled from his dispatches to The New
+York Times, which are available for Current History Magazine as
+an affiliated publication of the Times:</i> </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Thursday, March 21.&mdash;A German offensive against the British front has
+begun. At about 5 o'clock this morning the enemy began an intense
+bombardment of the lines and batteries on a very wide front&mdash;something
+like sixty miles, from the country south of the Scarpe and to the west
+of Bullecourt in the neighborhood of Croisilles, as far south as the
+positions between St. Quentin and the British right flank.</p>
+
+<p>After several hours of this hurricane shelling, in which a great deal of
+gas was used, the German infantry advanced and developed attacks against
+a number of strategical points on a very wide front.</p>
+
+<p>Among the places against which they have directed their chief efforts
+are Bullecourt, Lagnecourt, and Noreuil, both west of Cambrai, where
+they once before penetrated the British lines and were slaughtered in
+great numbers; the St. Quentin Ridge, which was on the right of the
+Cambrai fighting, and the villages of Roussoy and Hargicourt, south of
+the Cambrai salient.</p>
+
+<p><i>Friday, March 22.</i>&mdash;The enemy flung the full weight of his great army
+against the British yesterday. Nearly forty divisions are identified,
+and it is certain that as many as fifty must be engaged. In proportions
+of men, the British are much outnumbered, therefore the obstinacy of
+the resistance of the troops is wonderful. Nine German divisions were
+hurled against three British at one part of the line, and eight against
+two at another. All the storm troops, including the guards, were in
+brand-new uniforms. They advanced in dense masses, and never faltered
+until shattered by the machine-gun fire.</p>
+
+<p>The enemy introduced no new frightfulness, no tanks and no specially
+invented gas, but relied on the power of his artillery and the weight of
+the infantry assault. The supporting waves advanced over the bodies of
+the dead and wounded. The German commanders were ruthless in the
+sacrifice of life, in the hope of overwhelming the defense by the sheer
+weight of numbers.</p>
+
+<p>They had exceeding power in guns. Opposite three of the British
+divisions they had a thousand, and at most parts of the line one to
+every twelve or fifteen yards. They had brought a number of long-range
+guns, probably naval, and their shellfire was scattered as far back as
+twenty-eight miles behind the lines. During the last hour of the
+bombardment they poured out gas shells, and continued to send
+concentrated gas about the British batteries and reserve trenches. The
+atmosphere was filled with poisonous clouds.</p>
+
+<p><i>Saturday, March 23.</i>&mdash;The enemy has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> been continuing his attacks all
+day along the whole battlefront and has made further progress at various
+points in spite of the heroic resistance of the British troops, greatly
+outnumbered owing to the enormous concentration of the enemy divisions,
+which are constantly reinforced and passing through one another, so that
+fresh regiments may pursue the assaults.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">ATTACK AT ST. QUENTIN</div>
+
+<p>The St. Quentin attack began along the whole sweep of the front with six
+hours' bombardment and intense gas shelling of the British batteries,
+and afterward an attack was launched by overwhelming numbers of German
+storm troops. The British battleline was held by some three divisions,
+from a point south of Pontruet to Itancourt, south of the St. Quentin
+Canal. Along this sector the enemy line had been held before the attack
+by three divisions also, but the night before the battle they were
+reinforced until eight German divisions [upward of 100,000 men] were
+massed for assault on a front of some 2,000 yards. I believe this is a
+greater strength than has ever been brought into battle on such a narrow
+front during the whole of this war.</p>
+
+<p>On this sector, the front north and south of St. Quentin, and opposite
+the British line further south, the enemy's intention, as is known from
+prisoners, was to reach the line of the St. Quentin Canal&mdash;or the Crozat
+Canal, as it is sometimes called&mdash;on the first day, and then advance in
+quick stages westward. The rate of progress was to be eight miles on the
+first day, twelve on the second, and twenty on the third.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of their intense gunfire of massed batteries, supported by
+Austrian howitzers and large numbers of heavy trench mortars, the
+Germans' plans were thwarted so far as this rapidity of progress was
+concerned.</p>
+
+<p>The heavy fog of the early morning on Thursday threw their assault
+troops at some points into wild confusion. The first line of assault,
+each division apparently advancing with two regiments in line, with two
+battalions in line, with the other strength of the divisions following
+in depth, with light machine-gun companies at intervals of 100 yards,
+and then heavy machine guns and field artillery, sometimes became
+hopelessly mixed up with the third and fourth lines, while right
+battalions were confused with left battalions.</p>
+
+<p>This fog and the British machine-gun fire, which caught the German
+waves, checked the pace of their onslaught and caused heavy losses.</p>
+
+<p>The German high command relied entirely on weight of guns and man power
+to break the British resistance, and the driving power of the whole
+monstrous machine was set in movement. The British line was not strong
+enough to hold all the old positions against such a tide of brute force.
+The men served their guns and rifles, but as attack followed attack and
+column followed column, and their own losses increased as the hours
+passed, they were ordered at certain points to give ground and fall
+back, fighting heroic rearguard actions from one position to another.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">BRITISH LINE BENDS</div>
+
+<p>The main attack, just south of St. Quentin, was directed against
+Urvillers and Essigny, and the enemy forced his way through these places
+by great drives. The British garrison there was partly destroyed by his
+stupendous gunfire. He gained possession of Essigny before midday, March
+21, and captured Contescourt, on the edge of the canal. This gave him
+important high ground, of which he made full use.</p>
+
+<p>He succeeded by this movement in bending in the British line at the
+right flank of the Ulster division, north of the canal, which he crossed
+hereabout, and by advancing his field artillery was able to bombard the
+line to which the main body of the British troops had been withdrawn.
+Down from Maissemy and Holnon Wood to Savy and Roupy he pressed forward
+against this line.</p>
+
+<p>The enemy was so densely massed that there was a division on about a
+kilometer of front. None of them spread out on more than two kilometers
+for a division, with a battalion for every 500 yards.</p>
+
+<p>German storm troops were able to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> force their way to Vendeuil,
+Lyfontaine, and Benay, south of Essigny, and to strike against Jussy and
+Tergnier, on the St. Quentin Canal, on the evening of the first day.</p>
+
+<p>They brought up two more divisions, and that night, owing to the
+pressure of their attacks, it was decided that the British withdraw to a
+prepared line further west, which was the best defense. This was done
+during the darkness, the retirement being covered by gallant rearguards.</p>
+
+<p>This morning the Germans followed up our withdrawal by clearing up all
+the ground in the bend formed by the acute angle of the St. Quentin
+Canal, which has its apex at Ugny, six kilometers east of Ham, and it
+was reported that their patrols had entered the town of Ham itself.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">CROSSING THE SOMME</div>
+
+<p><i>Monday, March 25.</i>&mdash;The enemy fought fiercely yesterday to gain a
+crossing over the Somme south of P�ronne. He flung across a pontoon
+bridge and rafts, and his men tried to cross, but the British field
+artillery, firing at short range, smashed up many of these bridges and
+killed his engineers and infantry. Gallant counterattacks by some of the
+British flung him back across the river at several points, but elsewhere
+he held his crossing long enough to put over some of his forces.</p>
+
+<p>All the fighting in this part of the country since March 21 has been a
+continuous battle, in which the British divisions holding the front line
+below Gouzeaucourt to Maissemy have shown magnificent powers of
+endurance, as indeed have all the others engaged, and have only yielded
+ground under pressure of overwhelming numbers and great gunfire.</p>
+
+<p>There was a bloody struggle in some old chalk quarries, where many
+German dead now lie, and after the enemy had come some way forward ten
+British tanks drove into him and shattered some of his battalions with
+their machine-gun fire, dispersing groups of his advancing units. The
+tanks manoeuvred about, firing continually on each flank and causing
+terror among the enemy's foremost assault troops. The British fought a
+number of rearguard actions and made many counterattacks in the
+neighborhood of Roisel, and fell back to the line of the Somme only when
+new masses of Germans passed through those battalions which they had met
+and beaten.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">SLAUGHTER OF GERMANS</div>
+
+<p>The British gunners were firing hour after hour at large bodies of
+Germans moving so close to them that the guns were laid directly on to
+their targets, and caused deadly losses in these ranks of field-gray men
+who never ceased to come forward in a living tide at whatever cost of
+life and bore down on the defensive lines. Under this ceaseless tide
+some of the British guns had to be abandoned, but many of them were
+withdrawn to the other side of the Somme, and the gunners were wonderful
+in the skill and courage with which they made this passage, took up new
+positions, and went into action again like exhibition batteries at Earls
+Court.</p>
+
+<p>By Saturday morning the German troops were exhausted and spent, and in
+some parts of the line made no further effort for a time, but halted to
+gain some sleep and await fresh rations. On Saturday and Sunday the
+British, who had had no rest from fighting, were reinforced and given
+some relief, though many of them were again engaged, and, weary as they
+were, put up gallant fights against the enemy, who also had been
+reinforced by great numbers and came on again in an unending onslaught.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">FIGHTING AGAINST ODDS</div>
+
+<p><i>Tuesday, March 26.</i>&mdash;Since yesterday morning the enemy has continued
+his violent thrusts against the British line westward from Bapaume and
+P�ronne, and his massed troops, mostly Brandenburgers and picked troops,
+are now advancing in the direction of Roye and Nesle, where French
+troops are heavily engaged.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time he is passing on over the old Somme battlefields down
+from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> Delville Wood, High Wood, and Maurepas toward the old lines the
+British held before the beginning of the Somme battles in 1916.</p>
+
+<p>The enemy has paused since he began the great offensive, on Thursday
+last, only to bring up new divisions and pass them through and beyond
+those divisions exhausted by attack or shattered under the British fire
+while they reform and rest and then come on again, relieved once more by
+reserves and continually crowding over the captured ground. By this
+means, and owing to the enormous forces at the disposal of the German
+command, they are able to pursue any advantage gained with fresh troops
+against the hard-pressed British, who have been fighting without respite
+since the beginning of the battle, six days ago, except where on the
+right some of them have now been replaced in the front line by French
+battalions.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the gravity of these hours and the progress made by the
+enemy, there never has been a more glorious spirit shown by British
+troops throughout history, and when one day all the details of this
+battle may be written it will be an epic of heroism more wonderful than
+the world now realizes, for the British troops and their officers have
+withstood an onslaught of enormous forces which have never been less
+than two to one, and in most parts of the line have been four to one and
+six to one and eight to one, nine divisions against three around
+Croisilles, eight divisions against two from the Cambrai sector
+westward, and in many places one division against one battalion.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">WEARIED BY ENDLESS BATTLE</div>
+
+<p>Our men have been fighting for six days and nights like this, after the
+first storm of shells and gas, until their beards have grown long and
+their faces haggard and worn for lack of sleep, and their clothes have
+become torn on wire and covered with dust of mud and chalk. I saw a
+small party of them today so weary with this endless battle they could
+hardly walk, and they were holding hands like tired children and leaning
+against each other like drunken men, but for the most part they hold
+their heads up gamely, because so far luck has been against them.</p>
+
+<p>The whole movement of the army under the necessity of withdrawal from
+fixed positions is as orderly as though on manoeuvres in England. I can
+say honestly I have seen no officer show sign of being flurried.</p>
+
+<p>It is all an amazing drama, because this open warfare is a new thing to
+the army, and the menace of the enemy is strong and serious, and
+retirement under the terrific pressure of the human avalanche now hurled
+against the defenders is by no means pleasant. But in the inevitable
+turmoil of this situation, in roads crowded with traffic of men and
+guns, in villages seething with troops rushed up toward the battle line,
+on the field of battle itself, the British Army retains its
+self-control, its will power, and its supreme, inspired courage.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE ATTACK AT ALBERT</div>
+
+<p><i>Wednesday, March 27.</i>&mdash;The enemy has not made further advances on a big
+scale between the Arras-Bapaume road on the left of the battlefront and
+the village of Bray, on the Somme, but has paused in his massed attacks
+in order to reorganize his line and bring up artillery.</p>
+
+<p>There are heavy concentrations of German storm troops behind Maurepas,
+Ginchy, and Beugnatre, and the roads around Bapaume have been crowded
+with men and guns and transport passing down through Le Sars, with
+German cavalry along the Bapaume-Gudecourt road and a steady drift
+downward to the town of Albert.</p>
+
+<p>That poor, stricken city of the golden Virgin, head downward, with her
+babe in her outstretched arms, which I described so often in accounts of
+the battles of the Somme in 1916, when that falling statue was lit up by
+shellfire, was yesterday in the centre of the fighting north of the
+Somme. [The golden Virgin and tower were destroyed later.] The night
+before their assault yesterday they bombed it heavily from the air,
+using the brilliant moonlight, which lay white over all the battlefields
+and these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> roofs, to fly low and pick their targets wherever they saw
+men moving or horses tethered.</p>
+
+<p>In several cases it was not men they hit, but women and children who,
+when the war seemed to have passed from this place a year ago, crept
+back to their homes and built little wooden booths in which they sold
+papers and picture postcards to the troops. Now suddenly the war has
+flamed over them again and they were caught, before they could escape,
+by thunderbolts out of the shining moonlight, terribly clear and
+revealing dead horses about the ruined streets.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">TRYING TO TAKE ARRAS</div>
+
+<p><i>Friday, March 29.</i>&mdash;The enemy's pressure has for the time being relaxed
+a little across the Somme, east of Corbie, and whatever effort he has
+made during the last day and night has been repulsed with the most heavy
+losses.</p>
+
+<p>Yesterday the most exciting situation and the fiercest struggle was on
+the left of the British battleline, from Gavrelle southward to below the
+Scarpe. It was a deliberate, resolute effort by the enemy to capture
+Arras. Three divisions of special storm troops, the 184th, 12th, and
+27th Reserve, had been brought up for this purpose, though one of them
+had been engaged before and roughly handled. They were ordered to take
+Arras yesterday at all costs, and before their advance very heavy
+bombardment was flung over the British lines from about 5 o'clock in the
+morning for several hours.</p>
+
+<p>Their main thrust was toward Roeux, that frightful little village, with
+its chemical works, which I used to write about so much in April and May
+last. Once again yesterday it became a shambles. The British had machine
+guns well placed with a wide field of fire, and as the Germans came down
+the slopes they were swept with streams of bullets, which cut swaths in
+their formations, but once again, as on March 21, the enemy was reckless
+of life, theirs as well as the British, and always his tide of men
+flowed forward, passing over dead and wounded, and creeping forward like
+flowing water. The British field guns raked them while the heavies
+pulled further back to avoid being blown up or captured.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">FIGHT FOR ORANGE HILL</div>
+
+<p>On and about Orange Hill and Telegraph Hill British battalions who know
+this ground of old fought tenaciously under murderous machine-gun fire,
+the enemy's screen of infantry covering machine-gun batteries which were
+rushed forward very quickly and took up positions in shell holes and
+behind bits of broken wall and any kind of cover, in ditches and sunken
+roads.</p>
+
+<p>A footing gained by the enemy on part of Orange Hill and Infantry Hill
+rendered it necessary to fall back yesterday toward the old German
+support lines before that battle in April, 1917. The British fought like
+tigers, and would not retire until the pressure on them made it
+impossible to resist the continual thrust of new attacks by fresh
+troops. There were heroic actions by small groups of men struggling to
+hold up the front line, and some of them stayed so long after the enemy
+had broken beyond them that they were cut off.</p>
+
+<p>Frightful fighting was happening not far from Neuville, Vitasse, and
+Mercatel and in this neighborhood the British held out with wonderful
+determination until exhausted by battle and until only a poor remnant of
+men had strength to stand against these massed attacks.</p>
+
+<p>By the end of the day the enemy's assaults weakened, and then died out
+because his losses were enormous and the spirit of his attack was broken
+by such stubborn resistance.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">ENEMY FAILS AT ARRAS</div>
+
+<p><i>Sunday, March 31.</i>&mdash;We now have knowledge that the attack on Arras was
+prepared on a scale of enormous strength by divisions arranged in depth,
+preceded by a bombardment as great as that which fell upon any part of
+the British line on the morning of March 21, and that the enemy had
+determined to capture not only Arras itself but Vimy Ridge.</p>
+
+<p>It was the heroic resistance of the British troops that defeated this
+furious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> onslaught and destroyed by enormous losses to the German troops
+this dark scheme of their high command. Seven German divisions were in
+position north of the Scarpe and twelve south, in an arc around the
+defenses of Arras.</p>
+
+<p>The brunt of this attack, preceded by colossal gunfire, fell upon London
+troops, and against these the German tides dashed and broke. By
+artillery fire, machine-gun fire, and rifle fire, the enemy's advancing
+waves of men were swept to pieces, and though they came on again and
+again this massacre continued until at last it must have sickened even
+the high German officers directing the operations from behind. The
+attacks died out and the night was quiet around Arras while the enemy
+collected his wounded. It was an utter defeat which will at least check
+German efforts around Arras.</p>
+
+<p>On this Easter Sunday, under bright sunshine which is breaking through
+the storm clouds, the fields of France are strewn with death. A year ago
+it was the same around the old City of Artois, for it was on Easter
+Sunday, April 2, that we began the battle of Arras and fought over that
+ground which is again our battlefield, and it was a great anthem of
+gunfire which rose up to the sky on Easter morn.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from all regrets at having had to fall back at all and at having
+suffered losses for which there is mourning in our hearts, because so
+many splendid men have fallen on the field of honor&mdash;that terrible field
+of honor which will be watered with tears for all time&mdash;we may at least
+rejoice that by the skill of our fighting officers and the steady
+courage of our men our line was brought back unbroken.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Heroic Cavalry Charge</div>
+
+<p><i>Monday, April 1.</i>&mdash;The battle of which I have been trying to give a
+daily narrative has been on so vast a scale, filled with so many
+episodes of terrific adventure and with so many hundreds of thousands of
+men moving along its lines of fire that I find it impossible to give a
+picture of the emotion and spirit of it. We out here, who knew this
+thing was coming upon us, creeping nearer every day with its monstrous
+menace, held our breath and waited. When at last the thing broke it was
+more frightful in its loosing of overwhelming powers than even we had
+guessed. Since then all our armies have lived with an intense
+understanding of the greatness of these days, of their meaning to the
+destiny of the world, and every private soldier, or transport driver, or
+linesman, or laborer, has been exalted by an emotion stronger than the
+effect of drugs.</p>
+
+<p>In the wood of Moreuil this morning British cavalry performed a feat as
+fine as the Balaklava charge, and this also should be made into a ballad
+and learned by heart.</p>
+
+<p>Twelve hundred men who had been riding through the night went forward in
+three waves and charged that dark wood next morning at a hard gallop.
+The first wave rode to the edge of the wood, and the second to the
+centre, and the third wave went right through to the other side, riding
+through the enemy and over his machine guns and in the face of a hail of
+bullets from hidden machines. They cleared the wood of Moreuil and
+brought back prisoners and thirteen machine guns, but there were many
+empty saddles, and many men and horses fell.</p>
+
+<p>That was the finest exploit of the British 'Cavalry, but elsewhere it
+did splendid work, and everywhere the men were gallant and cool, as when
+some of the dragoons came under a heavy shrapnel fire near Gentille, and
+many men had to shoot their wounded horses to put them out of their
+agony.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Dashing Canadians</div>
+
+<p>Away from Arras and down on the south of the line a certain body of
+Canadians have been having some of the most astounding adventures in all
+this battle, and fighting with valor and heroic audacity. They are
+officers and men of a machine gun detachment organized in the early days
+of the war by a French Canadian officer.</p>
+
+<p>For ten days these Canadians have fought running fights with the German
+artillery, have engaged German cavalry and smashed them, have checked
+enemy columns crossing bridges and pouring onward, have scattered large
+bodies of men surrounding British troops, and in ten days of crowded
+life have destroyed many German storm troops and helped to hold up the
+tide of their advance. Their own losses have not been light, for these
+Canadians have been filled with a grim passion of determination, and
+when the supreme test came they fought and died.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes they fought in long gray open cars, and sometimes they fought
+dismounted, with machine guns on the ground; but always they fought
+through the ten days and nights, with less than twenty hours' sleep all
+that time. These cars near Maricourt gathered together 150 men who had
+been cut off and held the enemy at bay, covering the withdrawal of some
+of the British heavy guns and tanks. At that time they fought
+dismounted, with Vickers guns, in front of the barbed wire. The
+Canadians had many casualties, and a Captain's arm was torn away by an
+explosive bullet, and at last only a Sergeant and two men of the battery
+were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> left unwounded. One of them mounted a motor cycle and brought back
+cars and took back the wounded. Two cars found the enemy massing up a
+road, and their machine guns enfiladed the field-gray men and killed
+them in large numbers.</p>
+
+<p>Near La Motte they fought heavy bodies of German cavalry, killed a
+number, and put the rest to flight. They have not been seen since. At
+Cerisy a battalion of Germans, 600 strong, was encountered at a
+crossroads by one car, which brought them to a standstill and dispersed
+them with heavy losses. Everywhere they have been these Canadian armored
+cars have helped to steady the line and give confidence to the infantry.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">British Airmen at Work</div>
+
+<p><i>Thursday, April 4.</i>&mdash;It has been raining hard these two nights past and
+this morning. For the German gunners trying to drag up field artillery
+or long-range guns there is now sticky bog and slime to come through. It
+is hard work for the German field companies, pressed furiously, to lay
+narrow-gauge lines over these deserts. All that spells delay in their
+plans and loss of life.</p>
+
+<p>There is terror for the enemy over these fields in daylight and
+darkness, for the British flying men have gone out in squadrons to
+scatter death and destruction among them. This work has reached
+fantastic heights of horror for the German troops under the menace of
+it. There have been times when, I believe, the British have had as many
+as 300 airplanes up at one time. One squadron alone on one night dropped
+six tons of bombs over enemy concentrations, and each man went out six
+times. Another squadron went out four times in one night, and was
+bombing for eleven hours.</p>
+
+<p>When the enemy was advancing in masses the British flying men flew as
+low as 100 feet, dropping bombs among them and firing into them with
+machine guns. They attacked German patrols of cavalry and scattered them
+and machine-gunned trenches full of men, batteries in action and
+transport crowding down narrow roads. They fought German scouts and
+crushed them, and there are several cases in which they fought German
+airplanes at night, so that it was like a fight between vampire bats up
+there where the clouds were touched by moonlight.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">North of the Somme</div>
+
+<p><i>Friday, April 5.</i>&mdash;Heavy attacks by the enemy are in progress north of
+the Somme, from Albert to Aveluy Wood. Further north there is separate
+fighting in progress round about the village of Ayette&mdash;such a wretched
+little place of brickdust and broken walls when I saw it last on the way
+from Arras to Bapaume&mdash;and the enemy is trying to recapture this, his
+fire reaching to villages several thousand yards behind the British
+front.</p>
+
+<p>The British troops in this district are defending their positions
+resolutely, and the first reports indicate that the German storm troops
+are suffering under their machine-gun fire, after being shelled in their
+assembly places by heavy and field artillery.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">A Valley of Death</div>
+
+<p><i>Sunday, April 7.</i>&mdash;Since the heavy fights on Friday, when the enemy
+made a series of vain attacks against the British north of Albert, there
+has been no battle. The Germans are still struggling hard to get their
+guns, especially the heavy guns, further forward and to reorganize their
+divisions.</p>
+
+<p>They have no peace or quiet, for they are under a harassing fire, and
+along the valley of the Ancre, above Albert, in that stinking ditch
+between Bouzeincourt and Aveluy and Mesnil and Thiepval, where foul
+water lies stagnant below rows of dead, lopped trees and frightful
+smells arise from the relics of battles two weeks ago, their men are
+very wretched. Here in this valley of death, for it was that, and behind
+in the old fields of the Somme, the German troops have no cover from
+storms or shellfire.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Battle of Armenti�res</div>
+
+<p><i>Tuesday, April 9.</i>&mdash;A heavy and determined attack was begun against us
+this morning a considerable distance north of our recent battles on
+about eleven miles of front between Armenti�res and La Bass�e Canal.
+This new attack was preceded by a long, concentrated bombardment, which
+had gradually been increasing during the last day or two, until it
+reached great heights of fury last night and early this morning. The
+enemy used poison gas in immense quantities; during the night he flung
+over 60,000 gas shells in order to create a wide zone of this evil vapor
+and stupefy the gunners, transport, and infantry.</p>
+
+<p>His gunfire reached out to many towns and villages behind the allied
+lines, like B�thune and Armenti�res, Vermelles and Philosophe, Merville
+and Estaires, and this did not cease around Armenti�res until 11:30 this
+morning, though further south from Fleurbaix his infantry attack was in
+progress at an early hour, certainly by 8 o'clock, and his barrage
+lifted in order to let his troops advance.</p>
+
+<p>Part of the line was held by Portuguese troops, who for a long time have
+been between Laventie and Neuve Chapelle, holding positions which were
+subject to severe raids from time to time. They are now in the thick of
+this battle, most fiercely beset and fighting gallantly.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Formidable New Offensive</div>
+
+<p><i>Wednesday, April 10.</i>&mdash;It is now clear that the attack between
+Armenti�res and Givenchy is a new and formidable offensive. It also is
+made certain by this new thrust that the German high command have
+decided to throw the full weight of their armies against the British in
+an endeavor to destroy their forces<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> in Northern France instead of
+dividing their efforts by striking also at the French. It is a menace
+which calls for a supreme effort of the armies of Great Britain and her
+allies.</p>
+
+<p>Yesterday the enemy struck north on the British left, beginning in the
+flat grounds opposite Neuve Chapelle as the centre of the thrust, with
+Fleurbaix to the north and Givenchy to the south, and extending this
+morning further north still above Armenti�res, and including the ridge
+of Messines.</p>
+
+<p>An enormous gunfire was directed against the British positions along all
+this line last night again after yesterday morning's bombardment, and
+continued without pause through a very unquiet night, when all through
+the hours this tumult of great guns beat upon one's ears with continued
+drumfire, and all the sky was full of flame and light.</p>
+
+<p>This morning again when I went up into French Flanders and through the
+villages which the enemy had been shelling regardless of the women and
+children there, this frightful, unceasing thunder was as loud as ever
+and told one without further news that the battle was still going on and
+that the Germans were extending its zone.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Portuguese Are Hard Hit</div>
+
+<p>It was a tragedy for the Portuguese that the heaviest bombardment in the
+storm of gunfire, as terrible in its fury as anything of the kind since
+March 21, was directed against the centre, which they held. It was
+annihilating to their outposts and smashed their front-line defenses,
+which were stoutly held. It beat backward and forward in waves of high
+explosives from the trench line opposite Neuve Chapelle to the second
+line, opposite Fauquissart and Richebourg St. Vaast. Large numbers of
+heavy guns also searched behind these defense systems for crossroads,
+ammunition dumps, railways, villages, and headquarters or units, while
+the Portuguese batteries were assailed with gas shells and flying steel.</p>
+
+<p>The Portuguese front line was overwhelmed by the intensity of the
+bombardment, and, although some of their outposts held on, fighting
+gallantly to the last man, their line had to fall back to the second
+system. This was attacked by enemy assault troops and between 6 and 7 in
+the morning they had reached Fauquissart. The barrage lifted at 7
+o'clock for a general attack on the second line. Here the strongest body
+of Portuguese troops fought stubbornly, but by 11 o'clock the Germans
+forced their way through to Laventie and the position round Fleurbaix
+was threatened.</p>
+
+<p>The Portuguese field artillery served their guns as long as possible and
+destroyed the breechblocks whenever it became inevitable that they would
+have to leave a gun behind. The Portuguese gunners were attached to the
+British heavy batteries and behaved with special courage.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Bloody Valley of the Lys</div>
+
+<p><i>Thursday, April 11.</i>&mdash;Yesterday afternoon and today the enemy exerted
+all his strength in men and guns in the battle now raging from the River
+Lys to Wytschaete. Once again the British are outnumbered, and it is
+only by the courage and stubborn will of battalions weakened by losses
+and of individual soldiers animating their comrades by acts of brave
+example that the enemy has been unable to make rapid progress and, as at
+Wytschaete and Messines, has been flung back with most bloody losses.</p>
+
+<p>The British had to give ground along the Lys Canal south of Armenti�res,
+blowing bridges behind them and the railway bridge at Armenti�res, and
+the enemy is now trying to thrust forward south of Merville by bending
+back the British line from Lestrem and getting his guns across the Lys.</p>
+
+<p>This morning there was a ceaseless tumult of gunfire, loud and terrible,
+over all this countryside. There were strange and terrible scenes on all
+the roads leading to the battle zone where British infantry and gunners
+were going forward to stem the tide. Masses of transport moved and
+civilians passed them in retreat to villages outside the wide area of
+shell range, and wounded men came staggering down afoot, if they could
+walk, or were brought down by ambulances, threading their way through
+all this surge and swell of war.</p>
+
+<p>Here and there stretcher bearers waited with their burdens on the
+roadsides. Among them were men of the Black Watch, with the red hackle
+in their bonnets, calm and grave like statues beside their wounded
+comrades lying there with white, upturned faces and never a murmur or
+groan. They were the heroes who yesterday, with gallant hearts, came up
+at a great pace when the enemy was in Wytschaete and Messines, and in a
+fierce counterattack drove him off the crest of the ridge and dealt him
+a deadly blow there on that high ground, which was won in the battle of
+last June, when English, Irish, and New Zealand troops stormed the ridge
+and captured thousands of prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>The enemy yesterday fell in great numbers and his dead lie thick, and
+though he came on wave after wave, after all his day's agony and
+struggle he had not gained a yard of the crest, but was beaten back.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">English in Death Struggle</div>
+
+<p><i>Friday, April 12.</i>&mdash;The enemy is playing a great game in which he is
+flinging all he has into the hazard of war. He has, of course, a
+stupendous number of men, and, while holding his lines across the Somme
+after his drive down from St. Quentin and playing a defensive part
+against the French on the British right, he has moved up to the north
+with secrecy and rapidity a large concentration of troops and guns for
+new and tremendous blows against Haig's forces. This is continuing his
+now determined policy to crush England<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> before either France or America
+is able to draw off his divisions by counteroffensives.</p>
+
+<p>So now the British troops in the north are faced by enormous forces.
+Nearly thirty German divisions are against them from Wytschaete to La
+Bass�e Canal, and with those troops are innumerable machine guns, trench
+mortars, and massed batteries of field guns, very quick to get forward
+in support of their infantry.</p>
+
+<p>This northern offensive is as menacing as that which began to the
+southward on March 21, and the gallant men among these little red brick
+villages in French Flanders and in the flat fields between Bailleul and
+B�thune are greatly outnumbered and can hold back the enemy only by
+fighting with supreme courage.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Horrors Amid Beauty</div>
+
+<p>The scene today along the line of this hostile invasion was most tragic,
+because all the cruelty of war was surrounded by beauty so intense that
+the contrast was horrible. The sky was of Summer blue, with sunshine
+glittering on the red-tiled roofs of the cottages and on their
+whitewashed walls and little windowpanes. All the hedges were clothed
+with green and flaked by snow-white thorn blossoms.</p>
+
+<p>In a night, as it seems, all the orchards of France have flowered, and
+cherry and apple trees are in full splendor of bloom, fields are
+powdered with close-growing daisies, and the shadows of trees are long
+across the grass as the sun is setting. But over all this and in the
+midst of all this is agony and blood. On the roads are fugitives,
+wounded soldiers, dead horses, guns, and transports.</p>
+
+<p>There are fires burning on the hillsides. I saw their flames and their
+great, rolling clouds of smoke rise this morning from places where the
+day before I had seen French peasants plowing as though no war were
+near, and young girls scattering grain over the fields harrowed by their
+small brothers, and old women bending to the soil in the small
+farmsteads where all their life was centred, until suddenly the
+frightful truth touched them and they had to leave their homes.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes today I wished to God the sun would not shine like this nor
+nature mock at me with its thrilling-beauty of life. However, the
+British are full of confidence. If they were forced back they are glad
+to know that they made the enemy pay heavy prices and that their line is
+still unbroken. They are full of faith that against all odds they shall
+hold their own in the last battle of all.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Men Utterly Weary</div>
+
+<p><i>Sunday, April 14.</i>&mdash;The Commander in Chief's order of the day should
+reveal to the British people and to the world what is happening out here
+in France&mdash;the enemy's object to seize the Channel ports and destroy the
+British Army, and the frightful forces he has brought against it to
+achieve that plan, and the call that has come to the troops to hold
+every position to the last man. "Many among us now are tired. * * * With
+our back to the wall each one of us must fight to the end."</p>
+
+<p>Yes, the men are tired, so tired after weeks of fighting, after these
+last days and nights, that they can hardly stagger up to resist another
+attack, yet they do so because their spirit wakes again above their
+bodily fatigue; so tired that they go on fighting like sleep-walkers,
+and in any respite lie in ditches and under hedges and in open fields
+under fire in deep slumber until the shouts of their Sergeants stir them
+again. Some of these men have been fighting since March 21 with only a
+few days' rest.</p>
+
+<p>To people living in the villages of Flanders, from which one can see the
+whole sweep of the battleline, Friday night was full of terror, and from
+the windows they watched the burning of places from which they had
+escaped and the bonfires of their homes, and these refugees while
+sleeping with children at their breast wept.</p>
+
+<p>Yesterday it was a drama of noise, beating against one's ears and
+against one's heart, and it was a strange, terrible thing to stand
+there, blind, as it were, listening to the infernal tumult of gunfire
+south of Bailleul, with knockings and sledgehammer strokes, loud and
+shocking, above the incessant drumfire of field artillery.</p>
+
+<p>The German shells came howling over into fields and villages beyond
+Bailleul, bursting with gruff coughs, and there was an evil snarl of
+shrapnel in the mist. It was the noise of the greatest battle in
+history.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Fall of Neuve Eglise</div>
+
+<p><i>Monday, April 15.</i>&mdash;In the attempt to surround Bailleul two heavy
+attacks were made&mdash;one on the west toward Meteren, and one on the east
+at Neuve Eglise. Near Meteren the enemy failed utterly and suffered
+immense losses. There has been fierce fighting around a place called the
+Steam Mill, near Meteren, the enemy having been ordered to capture the
+Meteren road and the high ground beyond it at whatever sacrifice. They
+made the sacrifice, but did not get the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Neuve Eglise, however, is now theirs. Last night the British troops who
+had held it through three days and nights of intense strife withdrew,
+unknown to the enemy, to a line a short distance back from the village,
+in order to avoid remaining a target for unceasing shellfire.</p>
+
+<p>It is now the enemy's soldiers who this morning are in the ruins under
+the great bombardment. This battle at Neuve Eglise has been filled with
+grim episodes, for the village changed hands several times. Each side
+fought most fiercely, with any kind of weapon, small bodies of men
+attacking and counterattacking among the broken walls and bits of houses
+and under the stump of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> church tower deathtrap, as it now is for
+them. Without yielding to the direct assaults, the British obeyed
+orders, stumbled out of the place, silently and unknown to the enemy,
+and took up a line further back.</p>
+
+<p>On the night before last the British line fell back from near La Ch�che
+and swung around in a loop south of Neuve Eglise toward Ravelsberg Farm.
+It was then that Neuve Eglise itself became a place of hellish battle.</p>
+
+<p>The enemy broke through into its ruined streets, and small parties of
+Wiltshires, Worcesters, and others sprang on the Germans or were killed.
+They fought desperately in backyards, over broken walls, and in
+shell-pierced houses, wherever they could find Germans or hear the
+tattoo of machine guns.</p>
+
+<p>Several times the enemy was cleared out of most of the town, and the
+British held a hollow square containing most of the streets and defended
+it as a kind of fortress, though with dwindling numbers, under a heavy
+fire of shells and trench mortars and machine guns.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Capture of Bailleul</div>
+
+<p><i>Tuesday, April 16.</i>&mdash;It seemed inevitable after the British loss of
+Neuve Eglise that the enemy should make a quick and strong effort to
+capture Bailleul, and this he did last night by putting into the battle
+three divisions of fresh assaulting troops not previously used, and thus
+encircling that city by fierce attacks on ground southeast and east,
+including the ridge of Le Ravetsberg and Mont de Lille. His troops
+included his Alpine corps of Jaegers and possibly a Bavarian division
+and the 117th Division. Among the men defending the city against these
+heavy forces were the Staffords and Notts and Derbies.</p>
+
+<p>Yesterday when I was in the country around Bailleul the enemy's guns
+were working up for this new attack, and there was a continual
+bombardment spreading up to Wytschaete Ridge. Heavy shells were being
+flung into Bailleul itself, and the smoke of fires was rising like mist
+from small towns and villages like Meteren and Morbecque down to
+Merville.</p>
+
+<p>The British guns were also pounding the enemy's positions, and through
+that the concentrations of Germany&mdash;infantry, guns, transport, and
+cavalry&mdash;were moving up the roads in and north of Merville. The enemy
+must have lost severely again, for the British were stubborn in defense,
+but their machine-gun fire must have been of a deadly nature owing to
+their positions along the railway and on the ridge; but the enemy
+advanced upon them in waves, striking upon both sides of Bailleul, so
+that after great resistance the line was withdrawn beyond the town.</p>
+
+<p>The capture of this city belongs to the third great attack which has
+been delivered by the enemy since March 21. Always he has massed his
+strength opposite the British lines and struck with full weight against
+their troops. In the first phase down from St. Quentin and the Cambrai
+salient the French came to their help and relieved them by their gallant
+aid, but the Germans then edged away from the French to strike the
+British again, this time at Arras, where they failed.</p>
+
+<p>A third phase has now followed in this northern blow and once again the
+British have had to sustain the abominable pressure of German divisions
+constantly relieved and supported by fresh divisions passing through
+them, while the British troops fight on and on, killing the enemy in
+large numbers, but having to withdraw to new lines of defense. Under
+these enormous odds their heroism and their sacrifices are beyond words
+that may be uttered except in the silence of one's heart.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Wonderful Panorama</div>
+
+<p><i>Wednesday, April 17.</i>&mdash;Yesterday morning the fortune of war seemed
+again in favor of the enemy by the capture of Wytschaete Ridge down to
+Spanbroekmolen and by the entry of Meteren, west of Bailleul. The
+hard-pressed British troops were forced to give ground at both these
+places, after a grand resistance which cost the enemy many lives, but in
+the evening counterattacks hurled the enemy back from Wytschaete
+village, that pile of brick dust above stumps of dead trees which were
+Wytschaete Wood, and in a separate battle west of Bailluel the British
+regained, at least for a time, a part of Meteren. This morning renewed
+counterattacks gave them back all of Meteren and the enemy garrison
+there was destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>I watched the battle last night and again this morning from the centre
+of the arc of fire, which was like a loop flung around from Wytschaete
+to Bailleul and in a sharp curve around to Merris and the country about
+Merville, so that the great gunfire and whole sweep of battle were close
+about on three sides.</p>
+
+<p>It was an astounding panorama of open warfare, such as I never dreamed
+of seeing on this western front, where for so long both sides were
+hemmed in by trenches. Bailleul was still blazing. In the early evening,
+after a wet, misty day which filled all this battlefield with a whitish
+fog, one could only see that city under a cloud, but as the sky darkened
+and the wind blew some mist away enormous flames burned redly in the
+poor dead heart of Bailleul, and in their glare there were dark masses
+of walls and broken roofs outlined jaggedly by fire.</p>
+
+<p>To the left the village of Locre was aflame under a storm of high
+explosives, and the enemy's guns were putting heavy shells down the
+roads which lead out to that place.</p>
+
+<p>There were fires of burning farms and hamlets as far southward as
+Merville behind one, as one stood looking out to Bailleul, and lesser
+fires of single cottages and haystacks, and the wind drifted all the
+smoke of them across the sky in long white ribbons.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Drumfire Rocks Earth</div>
+
+<p>It was just before dusk when the counterattacks began northward from
+Wytschaete and southward from Meteren, and although before then there
+had been a steady slogging of guns and howling of shells, at that time
+this volume of dreadful noise increased tremendously, and drumfire broke
+out in fury, so that the sky and earth trembled with it. It was like the
+beating of all the drums of the world in muffled tattoo, above which and
+through which there were enormous clangoring hammer strokes from the
+British and German heavies.</p>
+
+<p>It went on till evening, with a few pale gleams of sun through storm
+clouds and the smoke of guns, and for miles all this panorama of battle
+was boiling and seething with bursting shells and curling wreaths of
+smoke from the batteries in action.</p>
+
+<p>When darkness came each battery was revealed by its flashes, and all the
+fields around were filled with red winkings and sharp stabs of flame.
+There was no real darkness of night, for every second the sky was
+crossed by rushes of light and burning beacons in many places, and gun
+flashes etched outlines of trees and cottages.</p>
+
+<p>The general situation today is in our favor for the time being by the
+recapture of Wytschaete and Meteren and the repulse of many German
+attacks, but it is with natural regret one hears of the withdrawal from
+the heights east of Ypres in order to straighten the line and economize
+men. There was one other regret today, though only sentimental. The
+enemy knocked down the Albert church tower, the tower of the golden
+Virgin, who had bent head downward over that ruined city with her babe
+outstretched. It was a great landmark bound up with all our memories.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>How General Carey Saved Amiens</h2>
+
+<h3>A Pivotal Episode in the Great Battle</h3>
+
+
+<p>One of the most dramatic episodes of the battle of Picardy was the
+disaster which befell the 5th British Army, under General Gough, and the
+brilliant way in which it was retrieved by Brig. Gen. Sandeman Carey,
+who was warmly complimented by Premier Lloyd George in his man-power
+speech, (Page <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.)</p>
+
+<p>Sir Hubert Gough's army was sent down in January to take over from the
+French a sector forty to fifty miles long. Clearly such a line as this
+could be held only if it were strongly located and cunningly
+constructed, and there is no doubt that it was. Three lines were
+designed: First, an outpost line, then a "line of resistance," and then
+a "battleline." The outpost line was designed with special care. It
+consisted of a number of separate posts so located as to provide for a
+cross-fire on any enemy that penetrated them. It was intended to be held
+until the last gasp, and it was presumed that the Germans might pass
+through it, but that they would be terribly punished by the garrisons of
+the isolated posts.</p>
+
+<p>In one way the attack was not a surprise. General Gough had known for
+days that it was imminent, and had moved his men up to their positions
+and made every preparation possible. But one thing he could not foresee
+or guard against&mdash;the mist and fog. Under cover of the mist, which
+prevented sight for more than thirty yards, the Germans crept forward,
+and the outpost line was overrun before the alarm could be given. It was
+simply swamped, and the cross-fire on which so much depended was never
+delivered.</p>
+
+<p>Consequently the fight began at the line of resistance instead, and
+before many hours had passed by sheer weight of numbers the Germans had
+forced the British back on the battleline. Then the fewness of numbers
+began to tell, and, as always at points of junction between divisions,
+the Germans got through between the 7th and 19th, the 19th and 18th, and
+the 3d and 18th. The whole line was broken up, and it seemed as if the
+road was open to Amiens.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile it was impossible for the French reinforcements to come up as
+quickly as was necessary, and the retreat began. Bridges were not blown
+up for the simple reason that the parties of engineers were all killed.
+Every kind of soldier that could be collected was hastily thrown into
+action to fill the gap&mdash;including a strong contingent of American
+engineers.</p>
+
+<p>Close to where the gap occurred was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> training school for machine
+gunners. Of course, the men in training had long since been hurried into
+action, but a large supply of machine guns remained. It is not every
+soldier, however, who understands how to use these weapons, and the
+officer found himself with a large supply of them which at all costs he
+must prevent from being captured, and very few men able to handle them.
+Those who could were put in charge of squads, and whenever they had a
+moment's respite from turning them on the Germans they set to work to
+give hurried instructions.</p>
+
+<p>Orders came to General Carey at 2 A. M., March 26, to hold the gap. He
+went to work at once to develop the plans that had been hurriedly laid
+out. He organized a scratch force by telephone, messengers, and flag
+signals. Every available man&mdash;laborer, raw recruit, sapper,
+engineer&mdash;was rounded up. By the middle of the next morning Carey had
+found a considerable number of men, and by the early part of the
+afternoon he had organized them into some sort of force and had selected
+and marked out the position it must hold.</p>
+
+<p>For a time he had some guns, but these were hurried away to another
+point that was even more seriously threatened. He had fifty cavalrymen
+to do a little scouting, but in the main he had to depend entirely on
+the sheer grit of his scratch force, who lay in their shallow trenches,
+firing almost point blank at the gray hordes of Germans, and at every
+moment of respite seized their shovels to improve their shelters.</p>
+
+<p>For nearly six days they stuck to it, and, as Lloyd George said, "they
+held the German Army and closed that gap on the way to Amiens."</p>
+
+<p>After a time they got some artillery behind them and things were easier,
+but at first it was just a ding-dong fight, with soldiers taking orders
+from strange officers, officers learning the ground by having to defend
+it, and every man from enlisted man to Brigadier jumping at each job as
+it came along and putting it through with all his might.</p>
+
+<p>During all that six days General Carey was the life and inspiration of
+the entire force. Careless of danger, he rode along the hastily
+intrenched line, giving an order here and shouting words of
+encouragement there to his weary and hard-pressed men.</p>
+
+<p>His staff was as hastily recruited as his men. He had no knowledge of
+how long he must hold out. He was not even certain of getting supplies
+of ammunition and provisions.</p>
+
+<p>All he had to do was to hang on, and hang on he did against an almost
+endless series of formidable attacks. He never lost heart or wavered.
+The gap to Amiens was closed and held.</p>
+
+<p>Three companies of an engineering regiment were caught in the early
+bombardment and ordered to fall back. To one of the American companies,
+which had been consolidated with the British Royal Engineers, was
+delegated the task of guaranteeing the destruction of an engineers'
+dump, which it had been decided to abandon. This detachment destroyed
+all the material, made a rapid retreat, caught up with the larger group,
+and immediately resumed work, laying out trenches. These operations
+lasted from March 22 to 27. As the German attack became more intense,
+the engineers were joined by cooks, orderlies, and railway men as a part
+of General Carey's forces. The commanding officer of an American
+regiment took charge of an infantry sub-sector and directed the action
+of his troops for one week, until the emergency passed at that point. To
+this officer General Rawlinson, commanding the British Army engaged in
+that sector, sent the following letter:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>The army commander wishes to record officially his appreciation
+of the excellent work your regiment has done in assisting the
+British Army to resist the enemy's powerful offensive during the
+last ten days. I fully realize that it has been largely due to
+your assistance that the enemy has been checked, and I rely on
+you to assist us still further during the few days which are
+still to come before I shall be able to relieve you in the line.</p>
+
+<p>I consider your work in the line to be greatly enhanced by the
+fact that, for six weeks previous to taking your place in the
+front line, your men had been working at such high pressure
+erecting heavy bridges on the Somme. My best congratulations and
+warm thanks to all.</p>
+
+<p>RAWLINSON. </p>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3>BRITISH COMMANDERS IN FRANCE</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 500px;">
+<a href="images/i254a.jpg"><img src="images/i254a-t.jpg" width="161" height="250" alt="Gen. Sir H. S. Horne" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Gen. Sir H. S. Horne</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 500px;">
+<a href="images/i254b.jpg"><img src="images/i254b-t.jpg" width="166" height="250" alt="Gen. Sir H. C. O. Plumer
+(Bain News Service)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Gen. Sir H. C. O. Plumer<br />
+(Bain News Service)</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 500px;">
+<a href="images/i254c.jpg"><img src="images/i254c-t.jpg" width="168" height="250" alt="Gen. Sir Julian Byng
+(Underwood)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Gen. Sir Julian Byng<br />
+(Underwood)</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 500px;">
+<a href="images/i254d.jpg"><img src="images/i254d-t.jpg" width="166" height="250" alt="Gen. Sir H. S. Rawlinson" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Gen. Sir H. S. Rawlinson</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h3>GERMAN COMMANDERS IN FRANCE</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 500px;">
+<a href="images/i255a.jpg"><img src="images/i255a-t.jpg" width="168" height="250" alt="Gen. Ludendorff,
+Quartermaster General of the Army" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Gen. Ludendorff,<br />
+Quartermaster General of the Army</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 500px;">
+<a href="images/i255b.jpg"><img src="images/i255b-t.jpg" width="162" height="250" alt="Gen. von Kathen" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Gen. von Kathen</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 500px;">
+<a href="images/i255c.jpg"><img src="images/i255c-t.jpg" width="160" height="250" alt="Gen. Otto von Below
+(Press Illustrating Service)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Gen. Otto von Below<br />
+(Press Illustrating Service)</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 500px;">
+<a href="images/i255d.jpg"><img src="images/i255d-t.jpg" width="161" height="250" alt="Gen. von Gallwitz" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Gen. von Gallwitz</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span></p>
+<h2>Battle Viewed From the French Front</h2>
+
+<h3>By G. H. Perris</h3>
+
+<p><i>Special Correspondent with the French Armies</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>George H. Perris was with the French Armies in Picardy
+throughout the German offensive. The aim of the Germans was to
+drive a wedge between the British and French Armies at the point
+of juncture near La F�re, and Mr. Perris was admirably situated
+to obtain not only the story of the fighting on the allied
+right, but a good general view of the whole great battle and of
+the strategic methods adopted by the German command.</i> <span class="smcap">Current
+History Magazine</span>, <i>through its connection with</i> <span class="smcap">The New York
+Times</span>, <i>has full use of these important dispatches, which are
+copyrighted.</i> </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>[See Map on Page <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.]</p>
+
+
+<p>A little before 5 A. M. on March 21, between the Scarpe and the Oise,
+there began an extremely violent artillery preparation, including
+barrages largely composed of gas shells, especially near Cambrai, and
+toward the Oise a strong counterbattery fire and a plentiful bombardment
+of the allied rear and communications.</p>
+
+<p>At 9:45 A. M. an infantry attack began. Each German division engaged had
+a front of attack of about a mile and a half, and seems to have been
+disposed as follows: Two regiments, less a battalion of each, were in
+the first line, and one regiment was in reserve. Battalions were
+echeloned in a depth of two companies, each with six light machine guns,
+constituting the first wave. The second wave of two companies, carrying
+heavier machine guns, followed at an interval of 100 yards. These were
+followed at 200 or 300 yards' distance by light bomb-throwers and the
+battalion staff. Finally there came one-inch and other very light field
+guns, called "artillery of accompaniment," which deployed as required.
+The divisional reserves consisted of five infantry battalions. No new
+gas was used, and although the enemy has tanks they were not brought
+into action.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">FIFTY GERMAN DIVISIONS</div>
+
+<p>The first attack was made by perhaps fifty divisions, or about 750,000
+men. Of these at least ten divisions, and perhaps thirteen or fourteen,
+were thrown into the corner of the field between St. Quentin, La F�re,
+and Noyon. They were divided into six columns.</p>
+
+<p>The first consisted of a division with three battalions of chasseurs,
+which, debouching from La F�re, quickly took Tergnier, and on the
+evening of March 22 came to a stop before Vouel, the next village
+westward, and a division which came into action on the evening of the
+22d passed the first, and on the following day pushed on toward Chauny.</p>
+
+<p>The second column consisted of two divisions. The former advanced from
+the old line near Moy, on the Oise, through La Fontaine and Remigny and
+to the southwest. It stopped at Liez, on the Crosat Canal, on the 22d.
+That night it was passed by the other division, which, on the 23d,
+captured Villequier-Aumont, on the St. Quentin-Chauny road. To the right
+of this was the third column, composed of two divisions. The first
+attacked through Cerizy to Benay and Hinacourt, and was stopped on the
+evening of the 22d at Lamontagne. It was passed that evening by the
+other division on the canal, which, after occupying Genlis Wood, closed
+up to the second column.</p>
+
+<p>The fourth column included the 1st and 10th Divisions, of which the
+former attacked through Essigny to Jussy, and on the 23d was at the
+north of Ugny, while the latter on its right passed the canal and
+reached Ugny and Beaumont.</p>
+
+<p>Of the fifth column, which occupied the region of Villeselve, and the
+sixth, in the Ham-Noyon sector, my information is slighter, owing to the
+severity of the trial of the British contingents there before the French
+took over the front.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>One division of the sixth column attacked at Le Plessis, north of
+Guiscard, on the 24th, and on the following day took Muirancourt,
+Rimbercourt and Croisilles. Its right was then prolonged by a division
+at Freniches.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">BRITISH FRONT BROKEN</div>
+
+<p>On the evening of the 22d the front of the British Army ran along the
+Crozat Canal from Tergnier, through Jussy, to the east of St. Simon.</p>
+
+<p>Very well do I remember the bridgehead of Jussy as I saw it after the
+German retreat a year ago. The town, built almost wholly of brick, was
+absolutely leveled to the ground, not a single wall standing. I saw it
+again last Summer, when General X., a fine soldier and an enlightened
+gentleman, had set up a camp hospital and swimming bath, and the bridge
+had been decorated to celebrate the entry of America into the war. It
+was seven miles behind the front, and I confess we never thought to see
+the boche there again.</p>
+
+<p>At 6 P. M. on the 22d General &mdash;&mdash;received the news that the British
+front had been broken between Beauvois and Vaux, nine miles due west of
+St. Quentin, and that his corps must fall back to Ham and the villages
+of Sancourt and Matigny, immediately north of it. At 8 or 9 o'clock next
+morning the news came in that the enemy was just debouching from the
+south of Ham toward Esmery-Hallon. The British 5th Corps was then in the
+region of Guiscard-Beaumont-Guivry ready for relief.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the 24th two German divisions, the first and second
+columns, continued their movements in the Oise Valley, while the third
+and fourth columns took Ugny and Genlis Wood. On the 25th one division
+reached Croisilles, while another attacked Baroeuf on the north of the
+Oise, half way between Noyon and Chauny.</p>
+
+<p>On the 26th one division was near Noyon, another at Larbroye, southwest
+of that town, and a third at Suzoy, two miles west of it. Clemenceau's
+classic phrase, "Remember that the Germans are at Noyon," had
+unexpectedly come alive again.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">ALLIED TEAMWORK</div>
+
+<p>Noyon, unlike Chauny, Ham, and other neighboring places, was not greatly
+damaged by the Germans before their retreat last year. South of the town
+rises a conical hill called Mont R�naud, which is capped with a wood
+hiding the ch�teau built on the site of an ancient abbey. On Thursday,
+when the Germans were ensconced on Mont R�naud, a French General
+expressed in the presence of the English General commanding a cavalry
+division his intention of retaking it. The British commander at once
+asked that his own troops should have the honor of making the attack.
+This was agreed to, and the British cavalry, dismounted, carried the
+hill by assault in face of a stubborn defense by the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>I am assured that along the line where the French relieved the British
+troops, or where they have been acting together, the best relations have
+prevailed, and that the co-operation of the staffs and field officers
+has been most cordial.</p>
+
+<p>The French, like the British, aviators, by the boldness of their bombing
+and their machine-gun work on the line of the German advance, have done
+much to compensate for the allied losses and the unavoidable delay in
+getting the French batteries into their new positions. Prisoners say the
+German 88th Division was nearly wiped out, and that the 206th suffered
+almost as badly.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">VON HUTIER'S METHODS</div>
+
+<p>Details of the first advance from St. Quentin to Noyon illustrate the
+new method pursued in this offensive in the particular way in which one
+large unit passes through another in order to carry the movement forward
+as rapidly as possible.</p>
+
+<p>Another feature is its readiness to change the direction of march when
+great difficulty is found by the Germans or a marked weakness on the
+allied side invites such a change. Of the divisions named above, six
+disappeared from that front in the course of the concentration toward
+Noyon. They had been diverted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> westward when it was recognized that the
+Oise could not be forced, and Amiens became the chief objective.</p>
+
+<p>It is certain that General von Hutier's plans were based upon his
+experience in the capture of Riga. * * * Western resistance, whether
+French or British, is a very different thing from that which the
+Russians put up at Riga. Enormous as are the forces the enemy put into
+this blow, though for the last week they outnumbered and generally
+overwhelmed those hurried up to meet them, they had to pay terribly for
+their success. German war doctrine recognizes this as inevitable in what
+is intended for a decisive operation against great antagonists. Against
+soldiers less experienced, disciplined, and inspired than those of the
+western Allies Hindenburg would have succeeded.</p>
+
+<p>The adaptability of direction of attack which I have indicated is
+remarkable, but the same adaptability in the attack upon Verdun, where
+the right and left banks of the Meuse were alternately tried, gave no
+result. This time the main direction has been thrice changed. It began
+with the wings at St. Quentin and Croisilles; it then moved to the right
+centre from Bapaume to Albert; finally it is concentrated on the left
+centre on both sides of Montdidier.</p>
+
+<p>Because of its methods and speed the battle thus far has been mainly one
+of artillery. German cavalry has been met in small numbers, but it has
+not taken a brilliant part. The enemy's aviation service has been
+notably inferior to that of the Allies. Only light guns with a few
+four-inch pieces have been able to keep up with the advance, and trench
+mortars do not seem to have been brought up quickly. On the other hand,
+groups of allied machine gunners and machine riflemen, taking advantage
+of the depressions of the ground, have everywhere taken heavy toll of
+their adversaries. By the time they can transport their heavier guns the
+Allies will have their former superiority ready to answer them.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">FAILED TO BREAK THROUGH</div>
+
+<p>March 26.&mdash;A full third of the German forces on the western front have
+been engaged on one-eighth of its extent. It is not impossible that a
+secondary offensive may be declared, but it may be taken that we now
+know the worst, and that the utmost possible strength has been put into
+the first blow.</p>
+
+<p>The choice suggests the need of obtaining a rapid decision and the hope
+of shaking the will of our people. If it resulted in a break-through it
+would be justified as good strategy; if not, a number of prisoners and
+miles of ravaged territory have been taken, with no compensation for the
+costs.</p>
+
+<p>So far there is nothing like a break-through. The French are holding
+strongly in the Oise Valley, in safe connection with the British on the
+Somme.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">FRENCH SOLDIERS CONFIDENT</div>
+
+<p>March 27.&mdash;I have been along the French front today, and the news is
+that, although the battle broke with extraordinary violence, it found
+the French prepared, and all is well.</p>
+
+<p>As I watched the sun set in a crimson flood yesterday behind the Noyon
+hills there seemed to be a pause in the struggle. At least, the
+bombardment had slackened, and at one of the headquarters of the French
+Army on the Oise there was no news of an attack then proceeding.</p>
+
+<p>The result of this momentary lull was to enhance the impression of calm
+order and confidence which is one's usual experience in passing from the
+rear to the front. One goes up in a state of suppressed agitation over
+the latest reports and rumors, and finds himself suddenly wrapped around
+by an atmosphere of businesslike quietude that extends nearly to the
+front trenches. Even in the firing line the stoical silence of the men
+and their immobility, except in spasmodic crises, seem to dominate the
+hellish roar of bursting shells.</p>
+
+<p>From this point backward the machine works with a smoothness that
+rebukes our anxieties. In a circuit of forty miles, ending on the hills
+overlooking the left bank of the Oise, between Noyon and Chauny, I did
+not see a single sign of confusion, and there were many signs of
+satisfaction that the war had entered upon a decisive stage.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This is not strange. Very few soldiers hear as much of the latest news
+as one does in Paris or London; but all soldiers know more of the
+strength of their army than civilians can know. They may rarely see
+their General and understand little of military science; they may be
+unable to tell you exactly how the battle line stands, but they have a
+thousand ways of learning the quality of their chiefs and of knowing far
+in advance of the official bulletins whether things are going well or
+ill.</p>
+
+<p>So far as my information goes there is good reason for this equitable
+state of mind. The German advance is remarkable, but it has been
+adequately paid for. Along the successive lines of heights southwest of
+St. Quentin the British, and afterward the French, who took this sector,
+had excellent firing positions, and retired from one to another in good
+order. The enemy came on wave upon wave, reckless of losses, as though
+certain points must be reached at any cost at certain hours. The allied
+troops fired upon them continuously, often exhausting their ammunition
+before the moment came for falling back. The Crown Prince's troops were
+at some points literally mown down. One machine gunner with a good
+target got through 30,000 cartridges, and could have fired twice that
+number had they been at hand. A Bavarian regiment lost half of its
+effectives in this drive toward the Oise.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">NEW METHOD OF ASSAULT</div>
+
+<p>The new method of assault by which the Germans obtained their first
+successes&mdash;new in its intensity, though not in its elements
+combined&mdash;seems to be as follows: After a short but heavy bombardment,
+in which gas shells play a larger part than ever, masses of troops
+brought up at the last moment are sent forward, wave after wave. The
+first wave must reach its objective at any cost, and, leaving the still
+resisting groups to be dealt with by bodies of grenadiers and flame
+pumpers, at once begins to throw heavy machine-gun and rifle fire upon
+the rear of the next line to be attacked, so as to prevent reserves
+from coming up. It is then passed by a second wave, which installs
+itself in the next position, engages it, and is in turn passed by a
+third wave, and so on.</p>
+
+<p>Even when, as in this case, the method has been rehearsed with Teutonic
+thoroughness, it is one that involves losses which other than German
+armies could not be asked to bear.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE GERMAN STRENGTH</div>
+
+<p>March 29.&mdash;On the front of fifty miles, where the enemy had had only
+sixteen divisions, he commenced his great gamble with about thirty-eight
+divisions. It was already a heavy superiority, but there had been
+recognized up to last night a total of about eighty-seven divisions
+engaged, that is to say over a million men have been poured into this
+space, which forms only about an eighth of the western front, the
+greater part of these being new reserves, brought up after the operation
+was launched. They include many of the best imperial troops, the 1st,
+2d, and 5th Guard Divisions, for instance, and two crack Bavarian
+divisions.</p>
+
+<p>Three of the army commanders are reckoned among the most successful of
+the German Generals&mdash;von Below, who directed the Italian offensive; von
+der Marwitz, who did so much with his cavalry corps in the battle of the
+Marne to check pursuit and has done so well since in higher positions,
+and von Hutier, who tried new infantry tactics in the capture of Riga.
+The last named represents the army and the prestige of the Imperial
+Crown Prince. The other two serve the Crown Prince of Bavaria, and the
+enterprise received a special blessing from the Emperor.</p>
+
+<p>Their whole design points to an intention of making this a singly
+decisive operation. Consider again the figures given above. Before the
+offensive the enemy had on this front from the sea to the Alps about 109
+divisions in line and seventy-six in reserve. By calling the reserves
+they have been able (and it has been necessary) by the eighth day of the
+battle to put about eighty-seven divisions, 1,044,000 men, into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
+combat. Good observers consider that at the most they can hardly bring
+up more than forty more divisions.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">LINE ALMOST BROKEN</div>
+
+<p>March 30.&mdash;Immediately west of Noyon, Mont R�naud and some neighboring
+hills have been recovered and are strongly held. The bridges over the
+Oise between Point l'Ev�que and Chauny have been broken, and the river
+there is so well covered by artillery and infantry that there is no
+danger of a passage being forced.</p>
+
+<p>This was the first fruit of the French northward movement on the evening
+of March 21. Several divisions of the neighboring French Army were
+rushed up in motor wagons to the aid of the British right wing, which
+was thus enabled to draw north along the Crozat Canal. Their guns and
+supply columns followed. On the next day a further force was placed
+opposite Chauny, and other French troops were ordered to extend their
+lines northwestward, keeping in touch with the retiring British right.
+The constant displacement required in this delicate task and the fact
+that the French were gradually drawing upon themselves an increasing
+part of the German onset explain the delay in making considerable
+counterattacks.</p>
+
+<p>On the 24th the French repelled repeated attempts to cross the Oise, and
+their lines, which already stretched to Evricourt, more than half way
+from Noyon to Lassigny, were extended to the neighborhood of the latter
+town.</p>
+
+<p>The difficulties inevitable in so rapid a movement of reserves were met
+everywhere with splendid cheerfulness and energy. One of the artillery
+regiments, brought up by motor wagon, had no horses with it, but got its
+pieces into action, and, having to retreat, dragged them back three
+miles by hand.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, definitely checked on the south, and feeling all the time for
+the line of least resistance, the German host was gravitating rapidly
+westward between Roye and Chaulnes. Now that the danger has completely
+passed, it may be said that it came very near breaking through the
+allied front in this region on the 25th. The 26th and 27th saw an
+accentuation of pressure at the point of junction, but, while the front
+was pushed back on the first day to l'Echelle-St. Aurin on the Avre, and
+on the next to Montdidier, other French troops had been brought up to
+strengthen the British right, and yesterday, after several hard combats,
+it seemed that the offensive was definitely contained.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">BATTLE FOR MONTDIDIER</div>
+
+<p>April 1.&mdash;Montdidier, quaintly seated on a steep hill beside the
+Amiens-Clermont railway, is an important crossroads. On Friday the enemy
+had pulled himself together and delivered along twenty-five miles of
+broken country from Demuin to near Lassigny a new mass attack, supported
+with a considerable number of field guns. On the French left the British
+held Demuin, but were driven out of M�zi�res. The French bore the main
+shock heroically. Step by step they fell back, leaving masses of German
+dead and wounded before their lines.</p>
+
+<p>The combat continued throughout Sunday, spreading out a little at both
+ends, and it is impossible for me to piece together the fragmentary and
+often incoherent reports from the field so as adequately to represent
+its wild fluctuations.</p>
+
+<p>Savagely set upon breaking through to Amiens and the Amiens-Paris
+railway, von Hutier's columns succeeded in reaching the Avre at Moreuil.
+Between Montdidier and Lassigny, where the front curves to the
+southeast, the enemy put no less strength into his outward thrust.
+Hand-to-hand fighting continued for hours in the villages of Orvillers
+on the west and Plessis de Roye, near Lassigny, and the neighboring
+hamlet of Pl�mont, all of which repeatedly changed hands. The German
+troops which got into Pl�mont and part of Plessis were driven out by a
+magnificent charge of the French, some units flying in disorder. The
+slaughter of yesterday's fighting is said to exceed anything seen in the
+preceding days of the battle.</p>
+
+<p>On the ninth day a new chapter of the tragic story was opened. The
+Allies, their lines unbroken, were standing with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> clenched teeth on good
+positions and were hourly adding to their strength in men and guns.
+Amiens appeared to the enemy like a mirage on the western horizon, and
+the two Crown Princes may have reflected that there would be accounts to
+pay at home if this time, after sacrifices such as can only be
+paralleled in rare episodes of military history like the retreat from
+Moscow, they did not bring back a victorious peace.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">BLOW AT JUNCTION POINT</div>
+
+<p>A smashing blow at the Franco-British junction was then to be decisive.
+It was begun with means believed to be adequate to this aim and was
+directed westward on both sides of Montdidier toward the Beauvais-Amiens
+railway, with a supporting thrust from the threatened flank west of
+Lassigny.</p>
+
+<p>Further south, toward Montdidier, which they already held, the Germans
+crossed the river, again suffering very heavy losses, but were arrested
+on the hills of the western bank. In the evening the struggle, despite
+the exhaustion of both sides, attained its fiercest intensity. Moreuil
+was recaptured on Saturday night by a mixed Canadian and French force,
+lost again during the night, and once more carried by storm in the
+old-fashioned way yesterday morning. No Stosstruppen, (shock troops,) no
+expert grenadiers or flame pumpers this time. Mixed in the same ranks,
+the British colonials in khaki and the French in light blue went forward
+irresistibly with the bayonet.</p>
+
+<p>"The Canadians," says one of my informants, "performed prodigies of
+valor, and when the boches fell back they had lost half their
+effectives."</p>
+
+<p>Full of their success, our troops turned northward and would not be
+satisfied till they had been firmly set on the wooded heights near the
+town. Later in the day several violent enemy attacks were made south of
+the Somme, but they seem to have been of rather a local and scattered
+kind, as though, at least for the moment, fresh efforts of the
+dimensions of those of Friday and Saturday were impossible.</p>
+
+<p>The British have made some progress in the valley of the Luce, and two
+strong German attacks were repulsed between Marcelcave and the Somme,
+as were others in the British sphere on the north of the river. On the
+other hand, the British line was beaten back to the village of Hangard,
+[Hangard was lost and finally retaken and held by the French,] on the
+north bank of the Luce, nearly opposite Demuin.</p>
+
+<p>Like the actions of the preceding days, this battle has been in the main
+a conflict of infantry. On neither side has it been possible to get
+heavy artillery in position in time, but on the allied side French and
+British guns, freshly detrained, gave support of moral as well as
+material importance. When the 75 has a target of masses advancing in
+close, deep waves, its effects are terrible beyond words. In the open
+country the air squadrons of the Allies have also worked havoc in the
+enemy's ranks, besides bursting tons of explosives on his camps and
+lines of communication.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">AGAINST ENORMOUS ODDS</div>
+
+<p>April 8.&mdash;It is evident that the German onslaught has failed to break
+through. What the Allies have lost in ground they have saved in men;
+and, on the other hand, the enemy, who wanted not these miles of
+desolate territory, but a final decision, has paid inordinately without
+getting any nearer the desired result.</p>
+
+<p>For five days his advance, though somewhat behind his ambitious program,
+was not seriously interrupted. On March 25 a certain General reached the
+region of Montdidier and began to build a human barrier. On March 23
+began what may be called a four days' battle of arrest. Three French
+divisions had to meet and did meet the onset of fifteen German
+divisions. There were smaller units that fought one against ten.</p>
+
+<p>The main German effort was against the Moreuil-Grivesnes-Montchel line,
+the object being (with 150,000 men in play there could be no less
+ambitious aim) to break right through to the south of Amiens and
+completely separate the French and British Armies. It culminated on the
+31st with a suicidal assault by the pick of the Prussian Guards and
+other chosen divisions at Grivesnes, when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> a certain gallant Colonel,
+rifle in hand, directed the barricading of the windows of the ch�teau,
+and with not more than 500 men kept off three or four times as many
+assailants and had strength enough left at last to sweep those who
+remained out of the park.</p>
+
+<p>I need not measure again the trivial gain for the enemy of this four
+days' battle. Perhaps the most significant fact about it is that while,
+overwhelming as was his original force, the enemy had repeatedly to
+withdraw and renew his units, not one French unit was relieved in that
+time. At Mesnil St. Georges one infantry battalion, with some groups of
+chasseurs, drove off five successive attacks by a whole German division.
+I might multiply such instances, but space would fail me to make them
+real with detail.</p>
+
+<p>A pause of four days followed this failure. Then, on April 4, twelve
+divisions were again launched in the northern part of the same narrow
+field&mdash;10,000 men per mile of front. They won at great cost the ruins of
+two hamlets and a slice of fields beside them.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">FIRST PHASE REVIEWED</div>
+
+<p>April 14.&mdash;The first phase or act of the offensive, launched with
+unprecedented masses of troops, completely failed to reach its aim and
+entailed losses that no lesser success could warrant. Begun on March 21,
+with three armies&mdash;those of von Below, von der Marwitz, and von
+Hutier&mdash;counting nearly fifty divisions, about forty more had to be
+brought in before the first week was out.</p>
+
+<p>By that time the French armies had been pushed northwestward with
+admirable rapidity and characteristically splendid spirit, and by the
+last day of the month the host of the Prussian Crown Prince, including
+the Guard and others of the best German units, had been fought to a
+standstill from Noyon and Lassigny to the Avre and the Somme.</p>
+
+<p>Several hard combats in the last fortnight, the latest ending in the
+French recovering the village of Hangard on Friday and their useful
+advance yesterday near Arvillers, do but confirm this result. That the
+German losses are fully commensurate with the ambition of their aims and
+the prodigal method pursued is shown by another fact unprecedented in
+the history of war.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of three weeks of the offensive about 1,500,000 men have been
+cast into the battle, and seventy-five divisions have become so
+dislocated as to have to be withdrawn for reorganization. It is
+therefore probable that the total German casualties up to date approach
+500,000.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">SECOND PHASE SUMMARIZED</div>
+
+<p>The second phase may be regarded as having opened March 28 with the
+entry of General von Below's right wing into action east of Arras, and
+as culminating with the battle of Armenti�res, involving the army of
+General von Quest and the left wing of General von Arnim's army at
+Ypres, while a subsidiary operation by General von Boehm's army
+threatened the French between the Oise and St. Gobain Forest.</p>
+
+<p>This northern battle began in a much smaller way than the original
+offensive, with about twenty divisions on a twenty-mile front, and it
+may have been its initial success that determined its prompt extension.</p>
+
+<p>While it may fairly be said to have constituted a confession of failure
+in the earlier adventure, its development not only creates a new danger,
+but strengthens the German position athwart the Somme. The situation,
+therefore, must be looked at straightforwardly and spoken of without
+mincing words.</p>
+
+<p>In the middle of March the German armies consisted of 4,000,000 men at
+the front, 1,300,000 on the lines of communication and in the interior,
+and others who can be added to the present effectiveness.</p>
+
+<p>From the village of Hangard to Abb�ville is about forty miles; from
+Merville to Calais is the same distance; to Boulogne a little more; from
+the Ypres front to Dunkirk is about thirty miles; to Nieuport a little
+less. These are the limits of the allied power of manoeuvre for the
+defense of the Channel.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span></p>
+<h2>Caring for Thousands of Refugees</h2>
+
+
+<p>Long processions of civilian refugees lined the roadsides in the invaded
+area during the days of battle&mdash;the pitiful hosts of those fleeing from
+the German guns and the terrors of German occupation. Many thousands of
+villagers and farmers whose little homes had been devastated by the
+first German occupation and by the battle of the Somme had been trying
+bravely to restore their ruined houses and cultivate the tortured soil
+again. With the aid of American friends hundreds of cottages had been
+built, heaps of shattered masonry cleared away, shops and schools
+opened, and French, British, and American committees had formed a
+nucleus around which new life was gradually growing up. No less than
+5,500 acres of the devastated land evacuated by the Germans a year ago
+were again under cultivation&mdash;enough to feed 16,000 persons a year.</p>
+
+<p>All this work of the stricken inhabitants, with their replanted fruit
+trees and scanty stores of new implements, had to be abandoned almost at
+a moment's notice. Many of the peasants, stunned by the new catastrophe,
+had to be aroused to flight by the friendly orders of the retreating
+British officers. The Red Cross workers, the Dames de France, and a
+group of courageous American women&mdash;the Smith College girls&mdash;aided the
+refugees day and night in their retreat from town to town until the
+German advance was checked a few miles short of Amiens.</p>
+
+<p>The American Red Cross transported thousands from the towns and villages
+behind the British lines, working thirty automobiles night and day, and
+carrying 2,000 to friends in Paris in the first few days. These were
+mostly women, children, and aged persons who had been awakened by the
+Red Cross workers on the morning of the 25th, taken to the railroad in
+trucks, and thence transported by rail in special trains. Most of the
+refugees were able to save only a few of their belongings, which were
+wrapped up in shawls and bed sheets, or carried in baskets or handbags.
+One woman, 81 years old, carried only a basket of live chickens, and
+cried because she had been unable to save two rabbits. Another woman
+carried a few cooking utensils under her arm. Many women and children
+were crying because they had been separated from relatives and friends.
+Children only a month old and people who had reached the age of 90 were
+alike numbered among the unfortunates.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">TRAGIC SCENES</div>
+
+<p>"I saw the first tide of these poor people when the Germans came near to
+Ham and P�ronne and Roye," wrote Philip Gibbs on March 29. "Some of them
+had been once in the hands of the Germans, and at this second menace
+they left their homes and their fields and their shops, and came
+trekking westward and southward.</p>
+
+<p>"One's heart bleeds to see these refugees, and it is the most tragic
+aspect of these days. There are many old people among them, old women in
+black gowns and caps who come hobbling very slowly down the highway of
+war, and old men with bent backs who lean heavily on their gnarled
+sticks as the guns go by, and the fighting men.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw one old man near Ham who was trundling along a wheelbarrow, and
+on this was spread a mattress, and on that was his wife. She looked 90
+years of age, with her white, wrinkled face, and she was fast asleep,
+like a little child. Many children are on the roads, packed tight into
+farm carts with household furniture and bundles of clothing, and poultry
+and pigs and new-born lambs. The noise of the gunfire is behind them,
+and they move faster when it grows louder. They are very brave, these
+boys and girls and these old people. There is hardly any weeping or any
+look on their faces of grudge against this unkind turn of fate. They
+seem to accept it with stoical resignation, with most matter-of-fact
+courage, and their only answer to pity is a smile and the words, 'C'est
+la guerre.' Those are words I first heard in the early weeks of the war
+and hoped never to hear again.</p>
+
+<p>"Many of these people trek in family groups and gatherings of families
+from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> one village. Small boys and girls drag tired cows after them. The
+other day one of these cows leaned against every tree she passed and
+then sat down, and the girl with her looked around helplessly, not
+knowing what to do. This morning I saw the girl wearing a veil and
+dressed in an elegant way, taking the cow with her. She was quite alone
+on the road. It is queer and touching that most of these fugitives wear
+their best clothes, as though on a f�te day. It is because they are
+clothes they want to save and can only have by wearing them in their
+flight.</p>
+
+<p>"In one small town the fear of the German entry came at night, a bright,
+moonlight night into which there came many German bombing squadrons. The
+citizens had shut up their shops and stood about talking anxiously. Then
+fear and rumor spread among them, and all through the night there was an
+exodus of small families and solitary girls and comrades in misfortune,
+stealing away like shadows from homes they loved, from little fortunes
+or their shops, from all their normal life into the open country, where
+the moonlight lay white and cold on the fields. Behind them bombs were
+being dropped, and some of their houses were destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>"C'est la guerre!"</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">WORK OF AMERICAN GIRLS</div>
+
+<p>The heroic work of the Smith College girls was described by a
+correspondent at the French front under date of March 29:</p>
+
+<p>"Working unceasingly under a constant shellfire, for days without sleep,
+the girls demonstrated admirable initiative and ability and the extreme
+coolness of the tried soldier. They are still in the field today,
+ministering to old men, women, and children. I have talked to the first
+persons to come in from the front, who saw them last Saturday, when
+shells were falling at Grecourt, the tiny Somme village where the unit
+has been quartered for months, aiding the folks of a dozen surrounding
+villages.</p>
+
+<p>"When it became evident that the Germans were coming the girls worked
+frantically with auto trucks, gathering together all the people in
+their territory. In one village they went three times to try to persuade
+an aged woman to leave, but she refused to move unless the ancestral
+bedstead on which she lay could be transported with her. In final
+desperation the girls brought a big supply wagon and loaded the bedstead
+and the woman into it, leaving the village fifteen minutes before the
+first of the Uhlans arrived.</p>
+
+<p>"The girls organized themselves into small units and each unit was
+charged with the evacuation of a single village. Cavalcades of refugees,
+generaled by the Smith girls, marched or rode from their abandoned homes
+to Roye, where a special train was waiting to carry them westward. Even
+cows, chickens, dogs, and cats helped to form the cavalcade which
+reached Roye on Saturday morning. Here the refugees vainly tried to
+crowd the animals into the train.</p>
+
+<p>"The girls of the Smith College unit then proceeded to Montdidier.
+There, with W. B. Jackson of Washington, a former Red Cross delegate at
+Ham, assisted by a group of American Quakers and Red Cross workers, they
+organized a canteen and began giving out blankets and other comforts and
+making a marvelous bean soup and a special food for babies, the basis of
+which was condensed milk. As the refugee trains, some containing as many
+as 1,000 men, women, and children, poured into Montdidier the arriving
+refugees were fed until the supply of food was exhausted.</p>
+
+<p>"Then Montdidier became too hot under the increasing shellfire and the
+workers were forced to split, some going to Amiens and others to
+Beauvais, where they continued their work. Since then practically all
+the Smith College girls and some other workers have gone to Amiens,
+where they are weathering the enemy bombardment in cellars, but carrying
+on their work as usual."</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">FLEEING IN BEST CLOTHES</div>
+
+<p>An Associated Press correspondent added this further bit of eyewitness
+testimony under date of March 27:</p>
+
+<p>"The French refugees of the better class departing from the zones of
+actual<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> operations are coming out clad in all their finery, which
+represents the styles of four or five years ago. Then there are sturdy
+peasants with wooden shoes and clumsily constructed clothes, riding in
+vehicles drawn by horses or donkeys or in carts pushed by men, and some
+are even in wheelbarrows. Upon these queer transports are stacked
+strange assortments of personal belongings.</p>
+
+<p>"There is deep pathos in all this, but none struck the correspondent
+more forcibly than the appearance of a tiny girl who trudged in her
+wooden shoes along a hard, dusty road, her eyes fastened anxiously upon
+a dirty rag doll perched precariously at the top of household effects
+which were being pushed along by an old man. This child was perhaps
+representative of all the refugees&mdash;she was coming away with her most
+cherished possession, her baby doll, and was prepared to guard it at all
+costs; her aching feet were as nothing, so long as the doll was safe.</p>
+
+<p>"These refugees are from the towns within the Somme battlefield and
+adjoining it. All these villages have been emptied of their inhabitants.
+So far as possible everything which might be of use to the Germans has
+been removed. In particular, large numbers of cattle have been taken
+away by the owners, who patiently drive the beasts on ahead of them
+along the roads.</p>
+
+<p>"There are few tears or hysterical outbreaks among the refugees, most of
+whom are of the peasant class. They know they must go, and they seem to
+be trusting implicitly in the British, but the misery in their eyes as
+they turn from all they love to a world they do not know is touching.
+Aged women clinging to the hands of little grandchildren, men stooped
+with years, youths and maidens&mdash;all fall into a picture such as only a
+catastrophe can produce."</p>
+
+<p>Fifty members of the American Friends' unit of the Red Cross were in the
+region of the great battle, at Ham, Liancourt, Esmery-Hallon,
+Golancourt, and Gruny on the Somme and Aisne. These devoted workers,
+with the aid of many Red Cross trucks that were rushed to them, helped
+thousands of refugees to safety.</p>
+
+<p>The French Government had several hundred tractor plows at work on the
+stricken lands. The American relief units also had a few tractor plows
+and other agricultural materials, all of which had to be abandoned to
+the enemy. All members of relief units were reported safe.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Castor Oil for Airplanes</div>
+
+<p>How an important agricultural enterprise was initiated to meet one of
+the requirements of the Aviation Section of the American Army is
+disclosed in the minority report of the Senate Military Affairs
+Committee, presented on April 12, 1918. In the course of a description
+of the initial difficulties encountered in producing battle planes, the
+report says:</p>
+
+<p>"Remember again that when these combat planes were contracted for the
+only known lubricating oil adapted to their delicate parts was an oil
+made from the castor bean. There were not enough beans in this country
+to make anywhere near the amount of oil required. Neither were there
+enough seeds with which to grow the needed quantity of beans. The Signal
+Corps had to search the globe for seeds, and finally secured a shipload
+from distant India. Then the corps had to contract for the planting of
+the seeds in this country, and has succeeded in having about 110,000
+acres planted. It is now claimed that a form of petroleum has been
+developed that will answer the same purpose. This, however, is still in
+the experimental stage, while the oil from the castor bean is known to
+be entirely adequate and reliable."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span></p>
+<h2>Progress of the War</h2>
+
+<h3>Recording Campaigns on All Fronts and Collateral Events From March 18,
+1918, Up to and Including April 17, 1918</h3>
+
+<div class="center">UNITED STATES</div>
+
+<p>The German Government announced on March 18 that American property in
+Germany would be seized in reprisal for the seizure of German property
+in the United States.</p>
+
+<p>Drastic restrictions were placed by the War Trade Board upon the
+importation of many nonessential commodities, the regulations to become
+effective April 15.</p>
+
+<p>The terms of the Third Liberty Loan were announced by Secretary McAdoo
+on March 25. The bill authorizing it was completed by Congress and
+signed by President Wilson on April 4, and on April 6 the drive began.</p>
+
+<p>Secretary Daniels, in a speech in Cleveland on April 6, disclosed the
+fact that a great fleet of American vessels, including battleships, was
+operating in the war zone.</p>
+
+<p>Announcement was made in Tokio on March 28 that an agreement had been
+concluded under which Japan promised to turn over to the United States
+450,000 tons of shipping.</p>
+
+<p>President Wilson issued a proclamation on April 11, giving Secretary
+McAdoo control of the principal coastwise steamship lines.</p>
+
+<p>Charles M. Schwab was appointed Director General of the Emergency Fleet
+Corporation April 16.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">SUBMARINE BLOCKADE</div>
+
+<p>Sir Eric Geddes gave in the House of Commons on March 19 figures of
+shipping losses which are given in detail elsewhere in this number of
+<span class="smcap">Current History Magazine</span>, also figures made public by the British
+Admiralty on March 21 are given elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>The Royal Mail steamer Amazon and the Norwegian steamship Stolt-Neilson,
+commandeered by the British, were sunk March 19.</p>
+
+<p>The steamship Conargo was torpedoed in the Irish Sea March 31, and the
+lifeboats were shelled.</p>
+
+<p>The armed boarding steamer Tithonus was sunk March 28, and the sinking
+of the steamship Carlisle Castle was reported April 2.</p>
+
+<p>On April 1 the Celtic was torpedoed off the Irish coast, but reached
+port in safety.</p>
+
+<p>The American steamer Chattahoochee, formerly the German Sachsen, was
+sunk off the English coast on March 25.</p>
+
+<p>The Spanish steamers Arpillao and Begona were sunk March 25.</p>
+
+<p>The Italian steamer Alessandra was sunk off the Island of Madeira April
+2.</p>
+
+<p>The Ministre de Smet de Naeyer, a Belgian relief ship, was sunk in the
+North Sea on April 6, and twelve members of the crew were lost.</p>
+
+<p>As a result of the commercial agreement between Spain and the United
+States, German submarines began a blockade of Spanish ports, April 11.</p>
+
+<p>Because a German submarine had captured a Uruguayan military commission
+bound for France, the Government of Uruguay on April 11 asked Berlin,
+through Switzerland, whether it considered that a state of war existed
+with Uruguay.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">CAMPAIGN IN WESTERN EUROPE</div>
+
+<p>March 18&mdash;Belgians repulse German raids in the region of Nieuport,
+Dixmude, and Mercken.</p>
+
+<p>March 19&mdash;French penetrate German line near Rheims; British carry out
+successful raids in the neighborhood of Villers-Guislain, La Vacquerie,
+and Bois Gienier.</p>
+
+<p>March 20&mdash;German airplane drops balls of liquefied mustard gas on
+American lines northwest of Toul; Americans shell Lahayville, causing a
+heavy explosion and forcing the Germans to retreat; French repulse
+violent raids in the Souain sector of Champagne.</p>
+
+<p>March 21&mdash;Germans open terrific drive on British lines on a fifty-mile
+front from southeast of Arras as far as La F�re; French lines bombarded
+north and southeast of Rheims as well as on the Champagne front; Paris
+bombarded by long-range guns.</p>
+
+<p>March 22&mdash;Germans claim 16,000 prisoners in big drive; General Haig
+reports them gaining at some points and repulsed at others; American
+artillery fire destroys German first and second line trenches east of
+Lun�ville; violent gun duels in the Aisne and Champagne sectors; French
+repulse three German raids near Souain.</p>
+
+<p>March 23&mdash;Germans smash British front, win victories near Monchy,
+Cambrai, St. Quentin, and La F�re, and penetrate into second British
+positions between Fontaine les Croisilles and Moeuvres; British evacuate
+positions in the bend southwest of Cambrai; Germans penetrate third
+British position between the Omignon stream and the Somme; Paris again
+shelled by gun seventy-five miles away; ten persons killed and fifteen
+or more wounded; fierce artillery fire on the French front<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> from the
+Oise River to the Vosges Mountains.</p>
+
+<p>March 24&mdash;Germans capture P�ronne, Chauny, and Ham, and cross the River
+Somme at certain points south of P�ronne; assaults further north
+repulsed; Paris again bombarded by gun located in the Forest of St.
+Gobain.</p>
+
+<p>March 25&mdash;Germans take Bapaume, Nesle, Guiscard, Biaches, Barleux, and
+Etalon; French take over sector of British battlefront south of St.
+Quentin and around Noyon; General Pershing announces that two regiments
+of American engineers are on the Somme battlefield; long-range
+bombardment of Paris continues; one long-range gun explodes, killing ten
+men; American gunners shell St. Bausant and the billets north of
+Boquetau.</p>
+
+<p>March 26&mdash;Germans take Noyon, Roye, and Lihon, and cross the battleline
+of 1916 at many points; Americans in the Toul sector drive Germans out
+of Richecourt.</p>
+
+<p>March 27&mdash;British, reinforced, beat back German attacks, capture
+Morlaincourt and Chipilly, north of the Somme, and to the south of the
+river advance their lines to the village of Proyart; Germans announce
+the capture of Albert and the crossing of the Ancre north and south of
+the city; French forced to yield ground east of Montdidier, but check
+assaults near Lassigny and Noyon.</p>
+
+<p>March 28&mdash;British repulse all-day attacks at Arras; Germans capture
+Montdidier and push their lines as far as Pierrepont, and regain some
+ground south of the Somme which they lost in 1914; French advance at
+Noyon for a mile and a quarter on a six-mile front.</p>
+
+<p>March 29&mdash;British line south of the Somme pushed back to a line running
+west of Hamel, Marcelcave, and Demuin; German drive slackens in the
+north; French in the Oise Valley retake Monchel; seventy-five persons
+killed and ninety wounded in church near Paris by shell from long-range
+gun.</p>
+
+<p>March 30&mdash;Paris again bombarded by long-range guns; eight killed,
+thirty-seven wounded; Germans wrest six villages in the Montdidier
+sector from the French, and Demuin and M�zi�res from the British, but
+are repulsed in the Boiry-Boyelles region.</p>
+
+<p>March 31&mdash;Germans lose ground near Feuchy; British advance near Serre;
+French recapture Ayencourt and Monchel and gain considerable ground near
+Orvillers; American Army starts for the battlefront; Paris again
+bombarded; one person killed, six injured.</p>
+
+<p>April 1&mdash;French repulse German attacks against Grivesnes; Germans mass
+troops near Albert for renewed drive; bombardment of Paris resumed.</p>
+
+<p>April 2&mdash;British carry on successful minor operations between the Avre
+and the Luce Rivers and in the neighborhood of H�buterne; French
+repulse Germans southwest of La F�re and shell enemy concentrations east
+of Cantigny.</p>
+
+<p>April 3&mdash;British occupy Ayette, check Germans near Moreuil; French
+extend their lines north of Pl�mont and take over another sector of the
+line, extending their holdings northward to Thennes; Americans heavily
+gassed in a sector other than Toul.</p>
+
+<p>April 4&mdash;Germans deliver terrific attack against the French along a
+front of nearly nine miles, from Grivesnes to north of the Amiens-Royes
+road, and occupy the villages of Mailly-Raineval and Morisel; British
+lose ground north of Hamel and in the direction of Vaire Wood.</p>
+
+<p>April 5&mdash;French forces, by vigorous counterattacks, improve their
+positions in the region of Mailly-Raineval and Cantigny; Germans attack
+British lines from the Somme northward to a point above Bucquoy and
+reach the Albert-Amiens railway, but are driven back.</p>
+
+<p>April 6&mdash;Germans attack at several points along the French front from
+the region of Montdidier eastward to the east and south of Chauny, but
+are repulsed everywhere except on the left bank of the Oise in the
+Chauny sector.</p>
+
+<p>April 7&mdash;Germans push on south of the Oise and take Coucy Wood and
+Pierremande and Folembray; British retake Aveluy Wood and repel attacks
+opposite Albert and south of H�buterne.</p>
+
+<p>April 8&mdash;British lines around Bucquoy heavily shelled; Germans drive
+French back to the western bank of the Ailette River and take Verneuil
+and the heights east of Coucy-le-Ch�teau; Americans rout German patrol
+northwest of Toul; French airmen locate and bombard the gun that fired
+on Paris.</p>
+
+<p>April 9&mdash;Germans force back the British-Portuguese centre on the River
+Lys between Estaires and Bac St. Maur, and take Richeboucq-St. Vaast and
+Laventie; British repulse attacks at Givenchy and Fleurbaix.</p>
+
+<p>April 10&mdash;Germans cross the River Lys at several points between
+Armenti�res and Estaires; British forced back north and south of
+Armenti�res; French repulse Germans in the Hangard region; first
+American troops reach the British front.</p>
+
+<p>April 11&mdash;Germans hurl troops at British front from La Bass�e to the
+Ypres-Comines Canal, and force the British to give ground at some
+points, notably at Estaires and Steenwerck.</p>
+
+<p>April 12&mdash;Germans launch heavy attacks against the French in the
+Hangard-en-Santerre sector, penetrate Hangard, but later lose half of
+the village to the French; Americans help to repel an attack in the
+Apremont Forest; British forced back west and northwest of Armenti�res
+to Neuve Eglise; Merville lost.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>April 13&mdash;French advance northwest of Orvilles-Sorel and repulse attack
+near Noyon; British regain Neuve Eglise, but beat off German attacks
+southeast of Bailleul; Americans repulse two attacks in force in the
+Toul sector, winning the first all-day battle in which they have been
+engaged.</p>
+
+<p>April 14&mdash;British hold Neuve Eglise against repeated German assaults;
+Germans attack near Bailleul and Merris; Americans repulse attacks north
+of St. Mihiel; bombardment of Paris by long-range gun continues.</p>
+
+<p>April 15&mdash;Germans take Neuve Eglise, and hurl huge forces toward
+Bailleul and Wulverghem; British straighten out their salient around
+Wytschaete; definite announcement made of the appointment of General
+Foch as Commander in Chief of the allied armies in France, with enlarged
+powers.</p>
+
+<p>April 16&mdash;Germans take Wytschaete and Spanbroekmolen, after forcing the
+British out of Bailleul; sixteen killed, forty-five wounded in
+long-range bombardment of Paris.</p>
+
+<p>April 17&mdash;British re-enter Wytschaete and Meteren, but are forced out;
+Germans occupy Poelcappelle, Langemarck, and Passchendaele.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">CAMPAIGN IN ASIA MINOR</div>
+
+<p>March 21&mdash;British advance in Palestine, taking Beit Rima, Kefrut, and
+Elowsallabeh.</p>
+
+<p>March 22-23&mdash;British advance nine miles on the left bank of the Jordan;
+Arabs destroy Turkish camel corps company near Jedahah.</p>
+
+<p>March 26&mdash;British carry Turkish main positions north of Khan-Baghdadi;
+entire Turkish force in the Hit area captured or destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>April 1&mdash;British advance seventy-three miles beyond Anah and menace
+Aleppo.</p>
+
+<p>April 4&mdash;Armenians recapture Erzerum from the Turks.</p>
+
+<p>April 7&mdash;Turks take Ardahan from the Armenians.</p>
+
+<p>April 11&mdash;British in Palestine advance their line to a depth of one and
+a half miles on a front of five miles, and capture the villages of El
+Kefr and Rafat.</p>
+
+<p>April 17&mdash;Turks capture Batum.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">ITALIAN CAMPAIGN</div>
+
+<p>March 22&mdash;Fighting becomes more active along the entire front; Italians
+drive back patrols on the Trentino front and eject an Austrian
+detachment from an advanced post in the Frenzela Valley sector.</p>
+
+<p>March 28&mdash;Artillery engagements east of Badeneoche; forty Austrian
+divisions transferred to the Italian front.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">AERIAL RECORD</div>
+
+<p>James Ian Macpherson, Parliamentary Secretary of the British War Office,
+announced in the British Commons on March 19 that 255 flights into
+Germany, constituting 38 raids, had been made since last October, and
+that forty-eight tons of bombs had been dropped.</p>
+
+<p>Italians bombed Metz on the nights of March 17 and March 23 and the
+railway station at Thionville on March 24.</p>
+
+<p>Paris was raided on the night of April 12 and twenty-six were persons
+killed and seventy-two wounded.</p>
+
+<p>Bombs were dropped on the east coast of England on the night of April
+12. Five persons were killed and fifteen injured.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">NAVAL RECORD</div>
+
+<p>Ostend was bombarded by British monitors on March 21. On the same day
+two German destroyers and two torpedo boats were sunk off Dunkirk by
+British and French destroyers.</p>
+
+<p>The Alexander Agassiz, a small boat formerly of American registry, which
+was outfitted by the Germans at Mazatlan for service as a raider, was
+captured in the Pacific Ocean by an American cruiser on March 19.</p>
+
+<p>The Belgian relief ship Flandres was sunk by a mine on April 11.</p>
+
+<p>The German transport Frankland struck a mine and sank at Noorland, March
+22, and all on board, including Admiral von Meyrer, were drowned.</p>
+
+<p>Ten German trawlers were sunk by the British in the Cattegat on April
+15.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">RUSSIA, RUMANIA, AND POLAND</div>
+
+<p>Leon Trotzky asked the American military mission for ten American
+officers to aid as inspectors in organizing and training a new volunteer
+army, and requested the aid of American railway engineers and
+transportation experts in the reorganization of the railways, March 20.
+The same day he addressed the Moscow Soviet, calling for a new army of
+from 300,000 to 750,000, commanded by trained officers.</p>
+
+<p>Japanese and British marines were landed at Vladivostok on April 5,
+following the invasion of a Japanese office by five armed Russians, who
+killed one Japanese and wounded two others. The Siberian Council of
+Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates protested to the Consular Corps, but
+the Japanese representatives at Vologda explained that the landing was
+only a local incident and that Admiral Kato had acted on his own
+initiative.</p>
+
+<p>The Trans-Caucasian Constituent Assembly, in session at Tiflis on March
+21, refused to ratify the peace treaty with Germany, and urged immediate
+war. On March 29 the Caucasus Diet approved the basis of a separate
+peace agreement with Turkey, including autonomy for Armenia and the
+restoration of old frontiers.</p>
+
+<p>The Armenians and Georgians refused to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> recognize the cession of
+territory made under the Brest-Litovsk treaty, and on April 3 fierce
+fighting broke out in the districts of Batum, Kars, and Ardahan, as the
+Turks began military occupation. The Georgians seized most of the
+Russian warships in the Harbor of Batum and took them into the Black
+Sea. On April 4 the Armenians recaptured Erzerum from the Turks, and on
+April 7 the Turks took Ardahan from the Armenian forces.</p>
+
+<p>Alexander Marghiloman, leader of the Conservatives, was appointed
+Premier of Rumania March 20. On the same day Germany announced the
+extension of the armistice until March 22.</p>
+
+<p>On March 21 Germany increased her demands on Rumania, calling for the
+surrender of all war munitions. Austria demanded the surrender of all
+territory west of a line extending from a point east of Red Tower Pass
+to a point on the Danube near Ghilramar, and also a strip of country
+eighty miles long and ten miles wide in the region of Predeal. On March
+23 Germany again extended the armistice because of a delay in the
+formation of the Rumanian Cabinet. On March 29 Germany demanded that the
+Rumanian oil wells be turned over to a German-controlled corporation.</p>
+
+<p>German forces continued their advance in Ukraine, taking Kherson on
+March 21 and burning Poltava on March 31. The Ukrainian Rada protested
+against the German demand for 85 per cent. of the country's grain supply
+and practically all of the sugar supply, March 27. On April 5 the
+Bolshevist Government protested against the invasion by German and
+Ukrainian troops of Kursk Province.</p>
+
+<p>Finland protested to the German Government, March 29, against the arrest
+of Major Henry Crosby Emery, representative of the Guaranty Trust
+Company of New York, and his detention on the Aland Islands.</p>
+
+<p>British and French troops were reported on March 31 to be co-operating
+with the Bolshevist troops in the defense of the Kola and Mourmansk
+troops against the Finnish White Guards. German troops were landed in
+Finland April 3, and on the same day the Finnish White Guards captured
+Tammerfors. The Russian fleet escaped from Helsingfors on April 7. On
+April 8 Germany sent an ultimatum demanding the removal or disarmament
+of all Russian warships in Finnish waters by April 12, and on April 11 a
+German squadron, with several transports, arrived at Lovisa.</p>
+
+<p>On April 14 German troops took Hyving and Finnish White Guards took
+Bjoerneborg. Helsingfors was occupied by the Germans on April 15.</p>
+
+<p>Abo was evacuated by the Red Guards on April 16.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">MISCELLANEOUS</div>
+
+<p>President Poincar� refused to pardon Bolo Pacha, April 7, and the next
+day the condemned man made a statement concerning other treason cases,
+thus gaining a reprieve. He was executed on the morning of April 17.</p>
+
+<p>Holland refused the Allies' terms for the transfer of Dutch ships and
+demanded guarantees that they would not be used for troops or munitions.
+On March 20 President Wilson issued a proclamation ordering their
+seizure. The Netherlands Government protested in a statement which
+appeared in the Official Gazette March 30. On April 1 President Wilson
+issued an order authorizing the Navy Department to take possession of
+all equipment and cargoes. Secretary Lansing replied to the Netherlands
+Government in a statement issued on April 13.</p>
+
+<p>Premier Lloyd George addressed the British House of Commons on April 9
+on the military situation and the man-power problem. He asked that the
+services of every able-bodied man between the ages of 18 and 50 be
+placed at the disposal of the Government and advocated conscription in
+Ireland. Leave to introduce the man-power bill was carried in the House.
+The next day the second reading was carried, and on April 12 the bill
+was passed. On the same day Sir Horace Plunkett submitted to Lloyd
+George his report on the Irish Convention's plan for home rule. The
+third reading of the man-power bill was passed by the House of Lords
+April 17.</p>
+
+<p>Mme. Despina Davidovitch Storch, a woman of Turkish birth; Baron Henri
+de Beville, Mrs. Elizabeth Charlotte Nix, and a man who called himself
+Count Robert de Clairmont were arrested in New York City on March 18 on
+suspicion of being members of an international spy system working in the
+interests of Germany. President Wilson ordered their deportation to
+France. Mme. Storch died of pneumonia at Ellis Island on March 30.</p>
+
+<p>Lieutenants Calamaras and Hodjopoulos, who landed in Greece from a
+German submarine to act as agents of ex-King Constantine, and who
+planned to arrange a spy system and establish a naval base, were
+executed on March 30.</p>
+
+<p>The Supreme War Council of the Allies issued a statement on March 18
+condemning German political crimes against the Russian and Rumanian
+peoples, refusing to acknowledge Germany's peace treaties with them, and
+announcing their purpose to establish a reign of organized justice.</p>
+
+<p>General Ferdinand Foch was made Generalissimo of all the allied forces
+on the western front on March 28. A definite official announcement of
+his appointment as Commander in Chief, with enlarged powers, was made on
+April 15.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span></p>
+<h2>Russia Under German Domination</h2>
+
+<h3>Record of a Month's Events</h3>
+
+<p>The Russo-German peace treaty, signed by the
+Bolshevist plenipotentiaries on March 3, 1918, and ratified at a session
+of the All-Russian Soviet Congress held in Moscow on March 14-16, was
+approved, after a prolonged discussion, by the Main Committee of the
+German Reichstag on March 22.</p>
+
+<p>Discussing the situation created in Russia by the Brest-Litovsk pact, a
+Petrograd daily remarks that, while the rest of the world has secret
+diplomacy and open war, Russia has open diplomacy and secret war. In
+fact, the final ratification of the "peace" instrument by both sides did
+not put an end to the military operations of the Central Powers in
+Russia. Nor did the Russians cease to make feeble and sporadic attempts
+at resistance.</p>
+
+<p>In the third week of March the fall of Petrograd seemed imminent, but
+the transfer of the Government to Moscow and the partial evacuation of
+the northern capital by the civil population apparently changed the
+objective of the invading German troops to the ancient Russian
+metropolis. They began to march on Moscow from northwest, west, and
+southwest, but stopped within the distance of approximately 150 miles
+from that city. For the last three weeks practically no fighting has
+been going on in the north of Russia, except occasional guerrilla
+skirmishes and punitive expeditions, conducted by the Germans and the
+propertied classes. On the other hand, in the south the Austro-German
+invaders have been vigorously pushing on, ostensibly under the pretext
+of assisting the friendly Ukrainian nation in its struggle against the
+Soviet power.</p>
+
+<p>By March 20 the Teutons were in possession of the whole of Western
+Ukraine west of the Dnieper. Among other cities they held Zhitomir,
+Kiev, Nikolayev, and Odessa. The latter city, the most important
+commercial seaport in Russia, was reported to have been occupied by
+four Austro-German regiments without a shot. Kherson was taken March 21.
+On March 27, the semi-official Russian news agency announced that the
+Soviet and Ukrainian troops, assisted by naval forces, recaptured
+Odessa. According to an earlier report, Kherson, Nikolayev, and Znamenka
+were also recaptured by Red Guards and armed civilians. The retaking of
+Odessa was officially denied by Vienna, and the city is apparently in
+the hands of the Teutons at this writing (April 18). They are reported
+to have seized large stores of war materials at Odessa, and 2,500 ships
+at Nikolayev, which is a port on the Black Sea, with vast docks for
+building warships. The Austro-Germans also took Poltava, situated midway
+between the Dnieper and Donetz, and set it on fire. The capture of
+Poltava was followed (April 8) by that of Yekaterinoslav and Kharkov,
+the former seat of the Bolshevist Rada.</p>
+
+<p>On April 11 the invaders occupied the small city of Lgov, 130 miles
+northwest of Kharkov, and an ultimatum was sent to the City of Kursk,
+demanding its surrender. Both towns are situated in the province of
+Kursk, which lies beyond the Russo-Ukrainian border as defined by the
+Central Powers.</p>
+
+<p>The march of the Teutons, coupled with their requisitions of food
+products, seemed to arouse a good deal of dissatisfaction among the
+peasants and workmen in the Ukraine. It is reported that the Rada, which
+had invited the Germans, requested them to stop the advance of their
+troops, but their request was not heeded. The behavior of the Teutons in
+Kiev led to a clash between the Ukrainian authorities and the German
+commandant. The demand of the Austro-Germans that the Ukraine should
+furnish them 85 per cent. of its grain and all its sugar except that
+needed for local consumption was particularly resented. On April 7 the
+Bolshevist Foreign Minister Chicherin signified<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> to the German
+Government his willingness to open peace negotiations with the Ukraine.
+According to some advices the Rada wished to form a federated alliance
+with the Russian Republic.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">IN THE CAUCASUS</div>
+
+<p>Article 4 of the Russo-German treaty provides for the evacuation by the
+Russian troops of the districts of Erivan, Kars, and Batum, (in the
+Caucasus,) and the reorganization of these districts in agreement with
+Turkey. The Transcaucasion Constituent Assembly, meeting in Tiflis,
+refused to recognize the peace with the Central Powers and pronounced
+itself in favor of a war against them. On March 29 it was reported that
+the local Diet declared the independence of the Caucasus and approved
+the project of a separate peace with Turkey. But when, several days
+later, the Turks began the military occupation of the Caucasian
+districts mentioned in the Brest-Litovsk treaty, the Armenians and
+Georgians rose against the invaders. On April 4 the Armenians were said
+to have recaptured Erzerum, in Turkish Armenia, which Russia evacuated
+after the conclusion of peace. Before the Caucasian uprising Turkey
+officially announced its intention to send troops to restore order in
+the Crimea. It was reported that massacres of Armenians were resumed by
+the Turks and that many thousand women and children had been butchered.</p>
+
+<p>On April 14 the Russian Government forwarded to Germany a protest of the
+Armenian National Council, addressed to the German Ministry of Foreign
+Affairs and the President of the Reichstag. The document reads in part:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Following upon the withdrawal of the Russian troops Turkish
+troops already have invaded the undefended country and are not
+only killing every Turkish Armenian, but also every Russian in
+Armenia.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the terms of the peace treaty, which recognizes the
+right of self-determination for these Caucasian regions, the
+Turkish Army is advancing toward Kars and Ardahan, destroying
+the country and killing the Christian population. The
+responsibility for the future destiny of the Armenians lies
+entirely with Germany because it was Germany's insistence that
+resulted in the withdrawal of the Russian troops from the
+Armenian regions, and at the moment it rests with Germany to
+prevent the habitual excesses of the Turkish troops, increased
+by revengefulness and anger. </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="center">INTERNAL SITUATION</div>
+
+<p>The internal situation in Russia proper remains uncertain, nor have any
+definite changes taken place in the mood of the people or in the
+Governmental policies of the Bolsheviki. It is charged that the
+Bolshevist Government suppressed the full text of the Brest-Litovsk
+Treaty. On April 10 the Commissioner of Commerce of the Bolsheviki
+announced that under the terms of the peace treaty Russia had suffered
+the following losses:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Seven hundred and eighty thousand square kilometers (301,000
+square miles) of territory.</p>
+
+<p>Fifty-six million inhabitants, constituting 32 per cent, of the
+entire population of the country.</p>
+
+<p>One-third of Russia's total mileage of railways, amounting to
+21,530 kilometers, (13,350 miles.)</p>
+
+<p>Seventy-three per cent. of the total iron production.</p>
+
+<p>Eighty-nine per cent. of the total coal production.</p>
+
+<p>Two hundred and sixty-eight sugar refineries, 918 textile
+factories, 574 breweries, 133 tobacco factories, 1,685
+distilleries, 244 chemical factories, 615 paper mills, 1,073
+machine factories.</p>
+
+<p>These territories, which now become German, formerly brought in
+annual revenue amounting to 845,238 rubles, and had 1,800
+savings banks. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The alarming sweep of the Teutonic invasion, together with the growing
+realization of what the Brest-Litovsk agreement really means to Russia,
+seemed finally to arouse some spirit of resistance in the Russian
+masses. Patriarch Tikhon declared that the Russian Church could not
+recognize a peace dismembering the country and subjecting it to a
+foreign power. Since the ratification the spokesmen of the Bolshevist
+Government have not ceased talking of organizing a large army for a new
+war. The prevalent Bolshevist opinion is that the new revolutionary army
+should be used, in the words of the semi-official Bolshevist organ
+Pravda, "not to strengthen, as the imperialists calculate, this or that
+bourgeois front, but to turn the front of the world war into a front of
+the workers' and soldiers' revolution."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i291.jpg"><img src="images/i291-t.jpg" width="250" height="142" alt="The United States Congress in wartime, including nearly
+all the members of the House, on the steps of the Capitol
+(� Harris &amp; Ewing)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />The United States Congress in wartime, including nearly
+all the members of the House, on the steps of the Capitol<br />
+(� Harris &amp; Ewing)</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i292.jpg"><img src="images/i292-t.jpg" width="250" height="144" alt="An American first aid station in the trenches in France
+(� Committee on Public Information)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />An American first aid station in the trenches in France<br />
+(� Committee on Public Information)</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="center"><br /><br />TALK OF NEW ARMY</div>
+<p>In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>
+March it was reported that four of the People's Commissaries had gone
+south to organize troops for guerrilla warfare. This idea, however, was
+soon abandoned. Trotzky insisted upon the necessity of having a strictly
+disciplined army of 300,000 to 750,000 men, under regular officers. "We
+cannot," he said, "preserve the illusion that European capital will
+patiently suffer the fact that in Russia the power is in the hands of
+the working class. * * * We are surrounded by enemies on all sides. If
+it were proposed to France to return Alsace, the French Bourse would
+sell Russia tomorrow." On April 2 M. Podvoisky, Assistant Commissary of
+War, stated that Russia would form an army of 1,500,000 men, and that
+the Red Army of Volunteers was steadily growing. The army organization
+has been changed with a view to limiting the application of the elective
+principle. According to some reports the Bolsheviki are hoping to have
+an army of 500,000 by the Fall. Some of the leaders went so far as to
+advocate compulsory military service. On April 10 Leon Trotzky was
+appointed joint Minister of War and Marine.</p>
+
+<p>On the previous day the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets
+unanimously passed a resolution ruling that henceforth Russia's national
+flag would be a red banner bearing the inscription: "<i>Rossiyskaya,
+Sotzialisticheskaya Federativnaya Sovetskaya Respublika</i>," (Russian
+Socialist Federative Soviet Republic.) Proposing the measure, the
+Chairman said: "The Russian flag will have to wave over the embassies in
+Berlin and Vienna and we cannot have the old tricolor, so I think it
+most proper to adopt the red flag under which we fought and gained
+victory."</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">BESSARABIA AND RUMANIA</div>
+
+<p>An important event has taken place in the southwestern corner of the
+former Russian Empire, in the rich province of Bessarabia, where
+separatist tendencies have recently made themselves strongly felt. A
+Berlin dispatch, dated April 11, announced that the Bessarabian Diet
+had voted, 86 against 5, that Bessarabia should join the Kingdom of
+Rumania. Thereupon, the Ukrainian Premier filed a protest in Russia
+against this act, stating that the Ukraine must have her say in the
+settlement of Bessarabia's fate in view of the fact that this province
+has a large Ukrainian population and that the Ukraine is controlling an
+important region on the Black Sea adjacent to Bessarabia.</p>
+
+<p>The Council of the People's Commissaries was notified on April 9 that
+the Province of Kazan, situated in the east of European Russia and
+having a population of 2,000,000, had been proclaimed an independent
+republic by the Congress of Peasants of that region.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">RUSSIA AND THE ALLIES</div>
+
+<p>The Entente did not acknowledge the Russo-German peace. In a statement
+issued March 18 through the British Foreign Office the Governments of
+Great Britain, France, and Italy voiced their protest against "the
+political crimes which, under the name of a German peace, have been
+committed against the Russian people." Ambassador David R. Francis, when
+asked whether he would leave Russia in consequence of the ratification
+of the peace treaty, gave the following reply:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>I shall not leave Russia until compelled by force. The American
+Government and people are too deeply interested in the
+prosperity of the Russian people for them to abandon Russia to
+the Germans. America is sincerely interested in the liberty of
+the Russian people and will do everything possible to safeguard
+the real interests of the country.</p>
+
+<p>If the brave and patriotic Russian people will forget political
+differences for the time being and act resolutely and
+vigorously, they will be able to drive the enemy from their
+territory, and by the end of 1918 bring a lasting peace for
+themselves and the whole world. America still counts itself an
+ally of the Russian people, and we shall be ready to help any
+Government which organizes a vigorous resistance to the German
+invasion. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The French, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Serbian, Belgian, Brazilian,
+Greek, Portuguese, and Siamese representatives, who left Russia when the
+treaty with Germany was signed, joined the American Ambassador (who did
+not leave the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> country) at Vologda, 300 miles northeast of Moscow, late
+in March. A dispatch dated March 20 says: "There has been a marked
+change in the attitude of the Allies toward the Soviet Government. * * *
+There are many signs of renewed co-operation between Russia and the
+Allies." The dispatch also quotes M. Chicherin, the Bolshevist Foreign
+Minister, as saying that "Russia's relations with the Entente are
+unchanged."</p>
+
+<p>At the same time Trotzky approached the American military mission,
+established in Moscow, asking it to assist Russia in organizing a
+volunteer army and in improving the country's transportation. On March
+27 the Petit Parisien published a statement to the effect that Trotzky
+had also asked the French to assist him in organizing military
+resistance to the Germans. A leading article in Premier Clemenceau's
+L'Homme Libre contained the following statement: "The Entente, as long
+as the war lasts, will regard Russia, the one and indivisible Russia
+which signed the pact of London, as an ally."</p>
+
+<p>Russia also reckons on the Allies, especially America, for support in
+rehabilitating her industries and developing her resources. A large
+order for agricultural machinery has been placed in the United States,
+and the shipping of the goods has already begun. According to a London
+dispatch the Bolsheviki are sending a commission to the United States to
+settle Russia's accounts with American firms and make arrangements for
+future trade relations.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE JAPANESE LANDING</div>
+
+<p>After Russia's collapse, and especially after her capitulation, Japan's
+intervention in Siberia was a subject of lively discussion in the allied
+countries. Persistent rumors were circulated by the press to the effect
+that large masses of armed and organized Teuton prisoners, numbering at
+least 150,000 men, were ready to seize the Trans-Siberian railroad and
+menace the military stores accumulated in Vladivostok. These rumors were
+declared by the Bolshevist authorities to be a part of the propaganda to
+bring disrepute on the Soviet power and encourage Japanese
+intervention, which Lenine's Government regards as an encroachment of
+world imperialism upon Socialist Russia.</p>
+
+<p>On Friday, April 5, two companies of Japanese sailors landed at
+Vladivostok. According to the report of the President of the Vladivostok
+Soviet, the landing was effected in the presence of the Japanese Consul
+and Admiral Kato, Japanese Marine Minister, without the consent of the
+other allied Consuls. Later in the day fifty British armed sailors were
+landed. There was also an unconfirmed report that American marines, too,
+were landed. On the next day 250 more Japanese sailors entered the city.
+In a proclamation issued at Vladivostok Admiral Kato explained that the
+step was taken because of the murder of a Japanese soldier and in order
+to protect the life and property of Japanese and allied subjects. The
+Vladivostok Soviet protested to the Consular Corps. Resolutions of
+protest were also passed by the Municipal Council and the local Zemstvo.</p>
+
+<p>The news of the landing produced much excitement in the Bolshevist
+headquarters in Moscow. In spite of the statement of the allied
+diplomats that the act was a purely local affair of no political
+importance, the Bolsheviki construed it as the beginning of the rumored
+Japanese invasion. A statement issued by the Commissaries on April 6
+declared that the killing of the Japanese soldier was part of a
+prearranged scheme, and that "Japan had started a campaign against the
+Soviet Republic." The following day the Izvestia spoke of the invasion
+as the continuation of "the crusade against revolutionary Russia" begun
+by imperialistic Germany. In a speech at Moscow on April 8 Premier
+Lenine said: "It is possible that after a short time, perhaps even
+within a few days, we shall have to declare war on Japan." Two days
+later it was reported that the Russian Government had requested Germany
+to permit the postponement of the demobilization of the Russian Army in
+view of the Japanese landing at Vladivostok.</p>
+
+<p>On April 11 the Consular Corps of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> Vladivostok officially informed the
+local Zemstvo that the landing of allied sailors had been made necessary
+by conditions of anarchy in the port, and that the troops would be
+withdrawn as soon as order had been restored.</p>
+
+<p>On March 16 the American Ambassador, Mr. Francis, made the following
+statement:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>The Soviet Government and the Soviet press are giving too much
+importance to the landing of these marines, which has no
+political significance, but merely was a police precaution taken
+by the Japanese Admiral on his own responsibility for the
+protection of Japanese life and property in Vladivostok, and the
+Japanese Admiral, Kato, so informed the American Admiral,
+Knight, and the American Consul, Caldwell, in Vladivostok. My
+impression is that the landing of the British marines was
+pursuant to the request of the British Consul for the protection
+of the British Consulate and British subjects in Vladivostok,
+which he anticipated would possibly be jeopardized by the unrest
+which might result from the Japanese landing.</p>
+
+<p>The American Consul did not ask protection from the American
+cruiser in Vladivostok Harbor, and consequently no American
+marines were landed. This, together with the fact that the
+French Consul at Vladivostok made no request for protection from
+the British, American, or Japanese cruisers in the harbor,
+unquestionably demonstrates that the landing of allied troops is
+not a concerted action between the Allies. </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="center">The Czar's Loyalty to the Allies</div>
+
+<div class="center">An Autograph Letter</div>
+
+<p>A letter written by Nicholas II. to President Poincar� in the Spring of
+1916 has recently been made public. Its interest lies in its expression
+of absolute loyalty to the Allies. It is as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear and Exalted Friend</span>: At a moment when France and Russia are
+more closely bound than ever in the unprecedented struggle of
+which they are supporting the weight with their faithful allies,
+it has been a great pleasure to me to see the arrival of members
+of the French Government in Russia. I have had much pleasure in
+once again meeting M. Viviani, whom I already know, and in
+recalling the last interview that I had with you. At the time
+our one idea was to insure the peaceful development of our two
+countries, while the enemy was already preparing his attack
+against the peace of Europe in the hope of securing the hegemony
+of the world. It also gives me great pleasure to meet M. Albert
+Thomas, the Minister of Munitions, whose talents have rendered
+such great services to his country and to the cause of the
+Allies.</p>
+
+<p>Having always attached great importance to an intimate
+collaboration between the two Governments, I attach even greater
+importance to this collaboration at the present time, now that
+we are thoroughly determined only to disarm by common agreement
+after gaining the final victory. It is therefore more necessary
+to co-ordinate our effort in order that our common action may be
+more effective. It is unquestionable that each of the Allies is
+animated by a single desire&mdash;that of placing its fullest effort
+at the disposal of the common cause.</p>
+
+<p>It is with this desire that my Government and my officers have
+devotedly studied, in association with members of the French
+Government, the methods that should be taken to insure that the
+greatest possible assistance should be given to our various
+allies. I hope, consequently, that M. Viviani and M. Thomas will
+leave here with the absolute conviction that so far as it is
+materially possible Russia will hesitate before no sacrifice to
+insure the triumph of the allied cause at the earliest possible
+moment. My warmest wishes are that our united efforts may soon
+be crowned with the most striking success, and I am anxious to
+express to you my admiration of France, which has covered itself
+with fresh glory in the heroic defense of Verdun. </p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i299.jpg"><img src="images/i299-t.jpg" width="250" height="44" alt="" title="" /></a>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span></p>
+<h2>Pershing's Army Under General Foch</h2>
+
+<h3>American Troops in France Brigaded With French and British Units for the
+Great Battle in Picardy</h3>
+
+<p>General Pershing, in a cablegram to General
+March, Acting Chief of Staff, announced on March 29, 1918, that the
+American expeditionary force in France had been placed at the disposal
+of General Foch, the allied Generalissimo. The message read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>Have made all our resources available, and our divisions will
+be used if and when needed. French are in fine spirits, and both
+armies seem confident.</i></p>
+
+<div class="right">(<i>Signed</i>) <i>PERSHING.</i> </div>
+</div>
+
+<p>General Pershing had called on General Foch at Headquarters on the
+previous day, March 28, and made the offer of American troops. His words
+were reported by the Paris newspaper, L'Information, as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"I come to say to you that the American people would hold it a great
+honor for our troops were they engaged in the present battle. I ask it
+of you, in my name and in that of the American people. There is at this
+moment no other question than that of fighting. Infantry, artillery,
+aviation&mdash;all that we have are yours to dispose of as you will. Others
+are coming which are as numerous as will be necessary. I have come to
+say to you that the American people would be proud to be engaged in the
+greatest battle in history."</p>
+
+<p>In a statement given out at the American Headquarters in France on March
+30, Secretary Baker said:</p>
+
+<p>"I am delighted at General Pershing's prompt and effective action in
+placing all the American troops and facilities at the disposal of the
+Allies in the present situation. It will meet with hearty approval in
+the United States, where the people desire their expeditionary forces to
+be of the utmost service in the common cause. I have visited all the
+American troops in France, some of them recently, and had an
+opportunity to observe the enthusiasm with which officers and men
+received the announcement that they would be used in the present
+conflict. One regiment to which the announcement was made spontaneously
+broke into cheers."</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE OFFER ACCEPTED</div>
+
+<p>General Foch placed General Pershing's offer before the French war
+council at the front, which included Premier Clemenceau, French
+Commander P�tain, and Louis Loucheur, Minister of Munitions. An official
+note, issued in Paris on March 31, dealing with the operation of
+American troops with the French and British, said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>The French Government has decided to accede to the desire
+expressed by General Pershing in the name of the United States
+Government. The American troops will fight side by side with the
+British and French troops and the Star-Spangled Banner will
+float beside the French and English flags in the plains of
+Picardy.</i> </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Further information showing that the time had come for the active
+participation of the American Army in the new campaign was contained in
+the following British official announcement, issued in London on April
+1:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>As a result of communications which have passed between the
+Prime Minister [Lloyd George] and President Wilson; of
+deliberations between Secretary Baker, who visited London a few
+days ago, and the Prime Minister, Mr. Balfour, and Lord Derby,
+and consultations in France, in which General Pershing and
+General Bliss participated, important decisions have been come
+to by which large forces of trained men in the American Army can
+be brought to the assistance of the Allies in the present
+struggle.</p>
+
+<p>The Government of our great Western ally is not only sending
+large numbers of American battalions to Europe during<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> the
+coming critical months, but has agreed to such of its regiments
+as cannot be used in divisions of their own being brigaded with
+French and British units so long as the necessity lasts.</p>
+
+<p>By this means troops which are not yet sufficiently trained to
+fight as divisions and army corps will form part of seasoned
+divisions until such time as they have completed their training
+and General Pershing wishes to withdraw them in order to build
+up the American Army.</p>
+
+<p>Arrangements for the transportation of these additional forces
+are now being completed.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout these discussions President Wilson has shown the
+greatest anxiety to do everything possible to assist the Allies
+and has left nothing undone which could contribute thereto.</p>
+
+<p>This decision, however, of vital importance as it will be to the
+maintenance of the allied strength in the next few months, will
+in no way diminish the need for those further measures for
+raising fresh troops at home, to which reference already has
+been made. It is announced at once because the Prime Minister
+feels that the singleness of purpose with which the United
+States have made this immediate and, indeed, indispensable
+contribution toward the triumph of the allied cause should be
+clearly recognized by the British people.</p>
+
+<p>The action of the United States in thus merging its troops with
+the other armies was hailed with gratitude and praise by the
+press and official spokesmen of all the Entente nations. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The first mention of Americans in the battle of Picardy was contained in
+the War Department's weekly review of the war situation, issued on April
+7. American transport sections, it said, had taken an active part in the
+battle, and the American Aviation Section was co-operating with the
+British.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS</div>
+
+<p>American engineers also took part in the battle, particularly during the
+first days of the German offensive. Three companies belonging to two
+regiments of the American Railway Engineers were reported in the German
+War Office statement as operating in the areas of Chauny and the Crozat
+Canal. This statement was confirmed in a report from General Pershing to
+the Acting Chief of Staff at Washington. The Americans had been working
+in the rear lines with Canadian engineers, under Canadian command. When
+the German attack came, they threw down their tools and seized the
+weapons with which they had been armed for some months, and formed
+themselves into a fighting unit. The Germans came on, and finally
+reached the positions where the Americans were waiting. The number of
+the engineers was comparatively small. They had no intention of
+retreating, however, and were bent upon killing all the Germans
+possible.</p>
+
+<p>As the first enemy wave advanced, the American forces let them come
+until they were within certain range: then opened fire, pouring in a
+storm of bullets. Gaps appeared in the advancing lines at many places,
+but the German waves came on, without firing a single shot. The
+Americans were unable to understand these tactics. By this time their
+weapons were so hot that they could not be used effectively, and the
+enemy was close, so that the engineers retired, fighting, took up
+another position, then turned and began operations again. A British
+officer who witnessed the engagement is reported to have said: "They
+held on by their teeth until the last moment, inflicting terrific
+casualties on the enemy. Then they moved back and waited for the
+Germans, and repeated the performance." By the time the engineers
+reached a place somewhere near Noyon they were nearly exhausted and
+almost without equipment. There they had a chance to rest and re-equip.</p>
+
+<p>On the sectors where American troops had been stationed before the
+decision to place them at the disposal of General Foch intensive
+training operations in the front-line trenches, with artillery fire and
+raiding of the enemy's positions, had been proceeding along much the
+same lines as during the previous month. A dispatch dated April 3
+reported that American troops on a certain sector other than that in the
+region of Toul had been subjected to an extraordinarily heavy gas
+attack.</p>
+
+<p>With the acceptance of the American offer to join in the battle of
+Picardy, troops began to be withdrawn from the sectors thus far occupied
+and from the American training camps in France, and hurried as rapidly
+as possible to points<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> where the French and British required
+reinforcements.</p>
+
+<p>Casualty lists showed that the Rainbow Division, (composed of troops
+from nearly every State in the Union,) the first of the National Guard
+divisions to cross the Atlantic, had been engaged in the fighting. The
+150th Machine Gun Battalion, made up of guardsmen from the old 2d
+Wisconsin Infantry, had suffered heavily; of the sixty-eight men named
+as severely wounded in one list fifty-six were identified as members of
+the Wisconsin machine-gun unit.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">AMERICAN WAR CROSSES</div>
+
+<p>General Pershing approved, according to an announcement on March 19, the
+awarding of the first American military crosses for extraordinary
+heroism. The recipients were Lieutenant John O. Green, Sergeant William
+Norton, and Sergeant Patrick Walsh. The crosses were awarded for
+"extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an
+armed enemy." The exploits of these men were described by the General
+commanding their division as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>I recommend that the Distinguished Service Cross be awarded to
+the officer and men named hereafter, who distinguished
+themselves by acts of extraordinary heroism.</p>
+
+<p>Lieutenant Green, while in a dugout, having been wounded by an
+enemy hand grenade, was summoned to surrender. He refused to do
+so. Returning the fire of the enemy, he wounded one and pursued
+the hostile party.</p>
+
+<p>Sergeant Norton, finding himself in a dugout surrounded by the
+enemy, into which a grenade had just been thrown, refused to
+surrender, and made a bold dash outside, killing one of his
+assailants. By so doing he saved the company's log book.</p>
+
+<p>Sergeant Walsh followed his company commander to the first lines
+in spite of a severe barrage. The Captain being killed, he
+assumed command of the group and attacked a superior force of
+the enemy, inflicting severe loss upon them. Though of advanced
+age he refused to leave the front. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>To these recommendations General Pershing appended his approval.
+Lieutenant Green and Sergeants Norton and Walsh had all previously
+received the French War Cross, Norton and Walsh being decorated
+personally by Premier Clemenceau on March 3.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Baker, Secretary of War, during a visit to the front-line trenches
+held by American troops, insisted upon going through a sap to a
+listening post. Peeping over the parapet into No Man's Land, he
+expressed his sensations in the words: "Now I am on the frontier of
+freedom." On the return journey from the trenches a German shell burst
+within less than fifty yards of Mr. Baker's motor car, hit a roadside
+dugout, and tore out a large crater.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">TOTAL CASUALTIES</div>
+
+<p>For nearly a week in the beginning of April no casualty lists were
+issued by the War Department, owing to a cablegram from the Secretary of
+War prescribing the following rules for handling publicity of matters
+pertaining to troops and operations:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>First&mdash;All matters pertaining to events, persons, policies, or
+operations abroad will only be officially given out from the
+headquarters, American Expeditionary Force in France.</p>
+
+<p>Second&mdash;Similar matters affecting forces at home will be given
+out from the War Department. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Suppression of the casualty lists aroused criticism throughout the
+country, and on April 9 the War Department, acting on cabled
+instructions from Mr. Baker, resumed issuing the daily list. The
+summarized totals up to April 11 were:</p>
+
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">DEATHS</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Killed in action</td><td align="right">228</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Killed or prisoner</td><td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Killed by accident</td><td align="right">181</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Died of disease</td><td align="right">867</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Lost at sea</td><td align="right">237</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Died of wounds</td><td align="right">69</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Civilians</td><td align="right">7</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Gas attack, suicide, executed,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;unknown causes</td><td align="right">42</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Total deaths</td><td align="right">1,632</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Wounded</td><td align="right">1,606</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Captured</td><td align="right">43</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Missing</td><td align="right">30</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Total of all casualties</td><td align="right">3,311</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span></p>
+<h2>Our War Machine in New Phases</h2>
+
+<h3>Month Ended April 18, 1918</h3>
+
+
+<p>The outstanding feature of America's part in the war during the past
+month has been the placing at the disposal of General Foch, the allied
+Generalissimo, all the men and resources of the United States now
+available in France. At home preparations were hastened to call up at
+least another 150,000 men under the draft law to replace those sent from
+the training camps to France.</p>
+
+<p>The navy is now represented in the war zone by 150 vessels, including
+battleships, under the command of Admiral Sims.</p>
+
+<p>Drastic changes have been made in various branches of the War
+Department. The Ordnance Department and Quartermaster Corps have been
+brought more into line with the requirements of supplying the armies at
+home and abroad. The Senate Military Affairs Committee has investigated
+the serious delay in aircraft production, and in a majority report
+severely criticised the work of the Signal Corps, under which the
+Aviation Section is organized. The War Industries Board has been
+reshaped, and its Chairman, Mr. Baruch, has been given very extensive
+powers.</p>
+
+<p>The crisis which arose out of the shipbuilding program has been passed,
+and our 150 shipyards are accelerating the rate of production of new
+ships. Dutch ships in American ports aggregating 500,000 tons have been
+seized, and 200,000 tons of Japanese shipping has been received by
+agreement.</p>
+
+<p>The railroads under Government control are becoming more closely adapted
+to the needs of wartime distribution. Several important coastwise
+steamship lines have been taken over and placed under the Director
+General of Railroads.</p>
+
+<p>The food situation still demands strict conservation, and it is
+recognized that America will have to submit to greater sacrifices in
+view of the ever-growing world shortage.</p>
+
+<p>Labor questions have been engaging the serious attention of the
+Government and Congress. The diversion of working people to industries
+where they are most needed for war purposes, and legislation to prevent
+strikes have been under consideration. In addition to the different war
+industries properly so-called, a large amount of labor is now necessary
+for agriculture, so as to plant the largest possible crop and to harvest
+it in the Fall.</p>
+
+<p>To finance the war, and incidentally mark the beginning of the nation's
+second year in the war, subscriptions were opened on April 6 for the
+Third Liberty Loan of $3,000,000,000 at 4&frac14; per cent. These bonds
+are nonconvertible and will mature in ten years.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">WAR DEPARTMENT'S GROWTH</div>
+
+<p>The experience gained by officers who have been serving with General
+Pershing's army in France is becoming an influence in every one of the
+widely ramified branches of the War Department, while Secretary Baker's
+visit abroad to get first-hand knowledge of the requirements of the
+American expeditionary force has been fertile in new ideas.</p>
+
+<p>One of the signs of the growth of the War Department is the appointment
+of a third Assistant Secretary of War. For this position Frederick P.
+Keppel, Dean of Columbia University, New York, was selected by the
+President. On April 12 the appointment was unanimously recommended by
+the Senate Military Committee. The nomination of E. R. Stettinius as an
+Assistant Secretary had already been confirmed. Dr. Keppel's duties
+include the supervision of the nonmilitary activities of the soldiers,
+their personal welfare and comfort, both at home and abroad.</p>
+
+<p>To improve the work of the General Staff at Washington General Pershing,
+it was announced on April 12, is sending home certain officers who have
+become familiar with staff work at the front, and also some practical
+aviation experts to aid in solving the difficulties which have arisen in
+the production of aircraft. Other officers include representatives<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> of
+the Quartermaster Corps who have acquired experience under modern war
+conditions in France. In this way a greater measure of co-ordination
+with the army in France is being obtained.</p>
+
+<p>An order issued by General March, Acting Chief of Staff, on April 12,
+consolidated the Division of Storage and Traffic with the Division of
+Purchases and Supplies, the one division to be known as the Division of
+Purchase, Storage, and Traffic. The division was placed under Major Gen.
+Goethals, who continued to serve as Assistant Chief of Staff and Acting
+Quartermaster General. Brig. Gen. Palmer E. Pierce, who has been a
+member of the War Industries Board and of the War Council created by
+Secretary Baker, was made Director of Purchases in January, 1918, but
+under this scheme of reorganization it was announced that while
+remaining on duty with the War Industries Board he would give up his
+post as Director of Purchases and Supplies. His successor, under Major
+Gen. Goethals, was Colonel Hugh S. Johnston, who has been General
+Crowder's right-hand man in the office of the Provost Marshal General.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">TWO BILLIONS FOR GUNS</div>
+
+<p>There have also been important changes in the Ordnance Department, it
+being announced on April 8 that Brig. Gen. Charles B. Wheeler, who
+recently succeeded Major Gen. William Crozier as head of the Ordnance
+Department of the Army with the title of Acting Chief of Ordnance, had
+been succeeded by Brig. Gen. C. C. Williams, Chief Ordnance Officer with
+the American expeditionary force in France. General Williams was ordered
+to return to Washington to take up the duties of Active Chief of
+Ordnance.</p>
+
+<p>A summary of the work of the Gun Division, Bureau of Ordnance, prepared
+for the Secretary of War, shows that it has been necessary to equip
+sixteen large plants for the manufacture of mobile artillery and that
+the total program of the Gun Division calls for an expenditure of
+approximately $2,000,000,000. At the outbreak of the war the Gun
+Division was composed of three officers and seven civilians. At the end
+of 1917 it had approximately 500 officers and 3,500 civilians, since
+increased to 1,500 officers and more than 10,000 civilians. The Ordnance
+Department has also established a comprehensive repair service for
+artillery, motor vehicles, and other equipment.</p>
+
+<p>With the creation of a Construction Division in the War Department on
+March 16, to handle the largest single building program in history,
+aggregating $1,084,000,000, a board of eminent experts appointed by
+Acting Secretary Crowell took over the work of the Cantonment Division,
+which did the preliminary work of building national army camps. The
+building program, involving hundreds of thousands of workmen and
+extensive structures for the army throughout the country, is under the
+immediate direction of the Chief of Staff. Headed by Professor A. N.
+Talbot of the University of Illinois, President of the American Society
+of Civil Engineers, the board includes representatives of leading
+architectural, engineering, business, and labor organizations.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">OUR GROWING ARMY</div>
+
+<p>The year of intensive recruiting for the regular army by volunteer
+enlistment ended on March 30, 1918. A year previously the enlisted
+strength of the regular army was 121,797 men, and to bring it to full
+war strength 183,898 additional soldiers were required. These men were
+obtained some months ago. The recruiting campaign, however, was
+continued, and on March 30 the regular army was about 501,000 strong,
+which represented about one-third of all the men serving under the War
+Department.</p>
+
+<p>Major Gen. Enoch Crowder, the Provost Marshal General, on April 6 sent
+out a call to all the States for a total of 150,000 men in the second
+draft. Instructions were given for the movement of these men to begin on
+April 26, and for their mobilization to be complete five days later.
+They were selected from Class Al of the registration lists and were to
+replace the men who have been sent abroad from the training camps.</p>
+
+<p>A resolution providing that all young men who have reached the age of 21
+years<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> since June 5, 1917, the first draft registration day, shall be
+subject to military service was passed by the Senate on March 29. About
+58,000 men thus become available each month, and in the year since June
+5, 1917, about 700,000 will have been brought under the selective draft
+law. The Senate rejected a proposal for universal military training for
+all males between 19 and 21 by a vote of 36 against 26.</p>
+
+<p>The number of colored citizens registered on June 5, 1917, was 737,626.
+Of these 208,953 have so far been called up, and 133,256 rejected,
+exempted, or discharged, leaving 75,697 certified for service and
+inducted into the national army.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>Shortage in Aircraft Production</h2>
+
+<h3>Senate Committee's Report</h3>
+
+
+<p>The shortage of aircraft for the American Army in France has been the
+subject of investigation by the Military Affairs Committee of the
+Senate, following the sensational disclosures regarding German control
+of the air in the sector held by the Americans, [see <span class="smcap">Current History
+Magazine</span>, April, 1918, Pp. 12-14.] The Senate Committee was not
+unanimous, and two reports were presented on April 12, 1918, differing
+as to the causes of delay in the execution of the airplane program.</p>
+
+<p>The substance of the majority report is contained in the following
+extracts:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>The Signal Corps has established and is now conducting twenty
+aviation training schools in the United States. Four additional
+schools are in process of construction and are expected to be
+finished in June next.</p>
+
+<p>The aggregate capacity of the schools now in operation is
+something over 3,000 cadets; 1,926 have thus far been graduated
+from this primary training course and commissioned as reserve
+military aviators. Very few of these have received their
+advanced training in this country.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the above, the Signal Corps, acting upon the
+invitation of the several Entente Governments, dispatched some
+1,200 cadets to England, France, and Italy last year, who were
+to receive primary and advanced training in aviation schools of
+those countries. The experience of a great many of these men has
+been most unfortunate in that at some of the schools a very
+serious delay has occurred in providing them with the training
+planes, which it was expected would be manufactured in foreign
+factories in sufficient numbers. As a result, several hundred of
+the American cadets have been practically idle and have made no
+progress. About 450 of them are reported as having completed the
+primary training, after long delay.</p>
+
+<p>The Signal Corps is giving serious consideration to the
+advisability of bringing the remainder back to the United States
+to be trained. With the exception of this severe disappointment,
+the primary training of our aviators, according to the testimony
+of the aviation officials, appears to be progressing favorably.</p>
+
+<p>For some time after the inception of the work the output of
+primary training planes in this country for use in our schools
+gave ground for grave concern. In recent weeks, however, the
+output has been greatly increased, and there seems to be no
+doubt of the Signal Corps having an amply sufficient number in
+the future. On April 1, 1918, 3,458 primary training planes had
+been completed. The advanced training planes are being turned
+out in accordance with the schedule and estimates laid down at
+the inception of their manufacture. In advanced training planes
+four types are being made, the total number up to date
+manufactured being 342. In these planes three types of engines
+will be used, of which 965 have been completed. The Liberty
+motor is not suitable for use in these planes.</p>
+
+<p>It is apparent from the evidence that the twelve-cylinder
+Liberty motor is just emerging from the development or
+experimental stage. Since the original design and the setting up
+of the first completed motor in July, 1917, a large number of
+changes have been found necessary, many of them causing delay in
+reaching quantity production. Within the last two months changes
+of considerable importance have been made which, it is hoped,
+will make the motor serviceable for combat planes of the
+defensive type and for bombing and observation planes.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty-two thousand five hundred Liberty motors have been
+ordered, 122 have been completed for the army, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> 142 for the
+navy. Four have been shipped overseas. Some of those already
+delivered are being altered to overcome the defects ascertained
+during the last few weeks. It is understood, however, that these
+alterations will consume but a very short time.</p>
+
+<p>The production of Liberty motors to date is, of course, gravely
+disappointing. The Government officials having the manufacture
+of the Liberty motor in charge have made the mistake of leading
+the public and the allied nations to the belief that many
+thousands of these motors would be completed in the Spring of
+1918.</p>
+
+<p>The production of combat planes in the United States for use in
+actual warfare has thus far been a substantial failure and
+constitutes a most serious disappointment in our war
+preparations. We had no design of our own; neither did we adopt
+any one of the European designs until months after we entered
+the war. In all, five types, at one time or another, have been
+adopted. Two of them have been abandoned after the expenditure
+of much time and money. The three remaining types still left
+upon our program are now in the course of manufacture. Of these
+the largest and most powerful is the Handley-Page heavy bombing
+machine, designed to carry as many as six men, eight machine
+guns, and a heavy load of bombs, and to be driven by two Liberty
+motors. The testimony before your committee shows that the
+Signal Corps finally decided upon the manufacture of a number of
+sets of parts of this machine about Jan. 1, 1918. Officials of
+the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps testify that they do
+not expect the completion of the first set of parts in this
+country before June, 1918.</p>
+
+<p>Another type of combat plane, known as the De Haviland, is
+included in our program. This machine habitually carries two
+men, four machine guns, a moderate load of bombs and other
+apparatus and is driven by one Liberty motor. Fifteen have been
+completed; one has been shipped to France; the remaining
+fourteen have been very recently completed in this country.</p>
+
+<p>The third type upon the program is known as the Bristol fighter.
+This machine is lighter and faster than the De Haviland. Its
+speed is expected to be in the neighborhood of 125 miles per
+hour. It is what is known as a reconnoissance machine. Another
+term which might be properly applied to it is "defensive
+fighter." It carries two men, four machine guns, and is driven
+by one Liberty motor. The decision to make this type was reached
+on Nov. 7, 1917. The manufacturers completed the first of these
+machines during the week ended March 30, 1918. The machine was
+tested once during that week with a Liberty motor, and,
+according to the testimony of the aviation officials, met its
+preliminary test successfully. This machine, a few hours after
+its flight, caught fire while standing upon the aviation ground
+and was entirely destroyed. The officials of the Signal Corps
+assured the committee that another machine would soon be
+finished by the manufacturer, and that if it met the tests
+satisfactorily quantity production might be expected within a
+reasonable period.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the American production of engines and airplanes
+as herein set forth, considerable orders for combat airplanes
+and engines were last Summer placed with European manufacturers
+by General Pershing, and we have furnished quantities of
+material and numbers of mechanics to aid in their construction.</p>
+
+<p>Your committee is convinced that much of the delay in producing
+completed combat airplanes is due to ignorance of the art and to
+failure to organize the effort in such a way as to centralize
+authority and bring about quick decision. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Further light is thrown on the production of aircraft for the American
+Army by the minority report. One passage reads:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Soon after the war began the Signal Corps arranged with the
+French Government for the making of 6,100 combat planes at a
+total cost of $127,000,000, the planes to be produced as rapidly
+as American fliers could be trained to operate them. As the
+American aero squadrons reach the front ready for duty, battle
+planes are being supplied them under this arrangement. To aid in
+this foreign manufacture of planes for American fliers, the
+Signal Corps has shipped to France 11,000 tons of various
+materials and has sent 7,000 mechanics to release, for French
+factories making planes for our American fliers, the French
+workers on motor transports. The Signal Corps then arranged for
+the making of about 11,500 combat planes in the United States,
+the term combat plane being here used to embrace all kinds of
+planes, both offensive and defensive, except training planes.</p>
+
+<p>Let it be said here that when the war began the United States
+Government had purchased altogether less than 200 airplanes in
+its entire history, and that of the few airplane factories in
+this country probably not one was making over five or six a
+month. It is hardly possible to grasp the magnitude of the task
+the factories contracting to make the 11,500 combat planes found
+before them. </p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span></p>
+<h2>America's First Year of War</h2>
+
+<p>An Anniversary Summary April 6, 1918, marked the first anniversary of
+the participation of the United States in the European War. The period
+was primarily one of preparation. If America did little actual fighting
+in the first year, it nevertheless achieved a great deal both in
+strengthening the cause of the Allies and in getting ready to play its
+own part on the battlefields of Europe. The increase in the war strength
+of the army is shown in the following figures:</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="3">APRIL, 1917</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="center">Officers.</td><td align="center">Men.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Regulars</td><td align="right">5,791</td><td align="right">121,797</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">National Guard&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right">3,733</td><td align="right">76,713</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Reserve Corps</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">4,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">National Army</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;Total</td><td align="right">9,524</td><td align="right">202,510</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="3">APRIL, 1918</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="center">Officers.</td><td align="center">Men.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Regulars</td><td align="right">10,698</td><td align="right">503,142</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">National Guard</td><td align="right">16,893</td><td align="right">431,583</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Reserve Corps</td><td align="right">96,210</td><td align="right">77,360</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">National Army</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">516,839</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;Total</td><td align="right">123,801</td><td align="right">1,528,924</td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>Of these 1,652,725 officers and men, several hundred thousand were
+already in Europe in April, either in training camps or on the battle
+front. "Over 100,000" was the figure given by General Pershing when he
+announced the number of adequately trained, fully equipped American
+troops that were immediately available for use in the battle of Picardy.
+The War Department had announced its expectation of having 1,500,000
+American soldiers in the war zone before the end of 1918. The progress
+of training in the camps in the United States was unexpectedly rapid,
+and at the close of the first twelve months our troops were going across
+the Atlantic as fast as transportation could be provided.</p>
+
+<p>General Pershing and his staff arrived in France on June 15, 1917, and
+less than a month later the first division of American troops followed
+him. Exactly 187 days after the United States declared war the first
+American soldiers were in the trenches. The first contingents were
+ordered abroad well in advance of the time intended, or expected, when
+war was declared.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">LABORS IN FRANCE</div>
+
+<p>The preliminary labors in France necessitated by the presence of an
+ever-increasing army were both diverse and herculean. Docks had to be
+constructed, railways built and equipped and cantonments, hospitals, and
+a base constructed. American engineers went into the French forests and
+there did the work of the pioneers of the American Northwest, cutting
+down trees to build the permanent camps which were to replace the
+temporary cities. They built a railroad 600 miles long from the points
+of disembarkation to the operating base. The rolling stock it carried
+was all shipped across the ocean from the United States.</p>
+
+<p>All this was accomplished with great rapidity. An army locomotive, for
+example, was built in twenty-one days and shipped to the expeditionary
+forces. In a few weeks after the first departures there were urgent
+calls for other locomotives, for cars, trucks, logging trains, sectional
+buildings to be assembled on arrival. All these took many ships and
+appreciably delayed the transport of men. There was sent everything from
+fabricated ironwork for buildings and trestles to nails and crossties
+for the railroads. Among the items of construction is an ordnance base
+costing $25,000,000. Most of this preliminary work was approaching
+completion as the first year ended. Much of it is finished.</p>
+
+<p>American troops occupy trench sectors of their own in the line northwest
+of Toul, and in the neighborhood of Verdun. They have taken up positions
+also in other sectors, and the main body is operating with the Allies in
+opposing the German advance. Casualties in the first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> year of war
+reached a total of 2,368, distributed as follows:</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left">Killed in battle</td><td align="right">163</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Died of disease or accident&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right">957</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Lost at sea</td><td align="right">237</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Died of wounds</td><td align="right">52</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Other causes</td><td align="right">47</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Missing and prisoners</td><td align="right">63</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Wounded</td><td align="right">829</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;Total</td><td align="right">2,368</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="center"><br /><br />RAISING THE NEW ARMIES</div>
+
+<p>Most remarkable in the preparations for the struggle was the method of
+raising the new armies, namely, conscription. With comparatively little
+opposition the selective draft law was passed by Congress barely five
+weeks after the declaration of war, and three weeks later 9,600,000
+young men were registered for military service. By June 30 the 4,000
+local draft boards were ready to begin the task of examination and
+exemption. Sixteen cantonments, small cities in themselves, were already
+under construction in various parts of the country for the reception of
+the drafted men. Ninety days after this work began the initial groups of
+the first national army were on their way to these camps. In a steady
+stream since then the men have been called up, organized into military
+formations, and put under intensive training.</p>
+
+<p>The first half million are now ready and are being sent across the
+ocean, to complete their training within the war zone and take their
+place on the battle front. As fast as the camps are emptied new men are
+being summoned to refill them, new battalions formed, and new forces
+sent forward. Another 800,000 unmarried men without direct dependents
+are under notice to report for duty.</p>
+
+<p>The cost of raising the army under the selective draft law has been only
+54 cents per registrant, $1.69 per man called up, and $4.93 per man
+accepted for service.</p>
+
+<p>With the national army there have also been made available the 450,000
+men of the National Guard, who meantime have been mustered into the
+Federal service and trained under their own officers. Of these three
+divisions, the Rainbow, (so called because almost every State in the
+Union is represented in its composition,) the New England, and the
+Sunset (Far Western) Divisions have already gone abroad, and the first
+two have won honorable mention in the battle zone.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">TRAINING NEW OFFICERS</div>
+
+<p>The National Guard had its own officers. There was none, however, to
+spare for the national army. The regular military establishment could
+provide only a handful. Two classes at West Point were graduated in
+advance of the usual time, but they were not enough to affect the
+situation. The new army was, therefore, provided with carefully
+selected, specially trained officers, chosen by merit rather than on the
+old system of political appointments, by the general adoption of the
+Plattsburg training camp system, initiated in 1915. When war was
+declared there were already in the United States some 20,000 graduates
+of the Plattsburg, Fort Oglethorpe, and other training camps, who had
+undergone at least one month's intensive military training, supplemented
+by military studies when out of camp.</p>
+
+<p>The Plattsburg organization was taken over by the War Department, and a
+series of sixteen training camps for officers, in which most of the
+earlier Plattsburg graduates were commissioned as subaltern and company
+officers, was opened at advantageous points, and continued until the
+middle of August, 1917. Of 40,203 candidates enrolled in these camps
+27,341 qualified for commissions. Sufficient officers were thus at the
+cantonments to receive and command the national army when the men
+arrived. A second series of officers' training camps was begun in
+August, to add to the line and staff. Approximately 23,000 candidates
+attended, of whom 17,237 obtained commissions. Many who failed have
+since been enlisted and appointed noncommissioned officers in the
+national army. A third series was instituted in January, 1918, to create
+an officers' reserve force. Only enlisted men were admitted, except for
+a limited number of students who had received military training in
+schools under army officers during the last ten years. About 18,000
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> are
+in attendance, and the problem of officering the new armies has
+practically been solved.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">PROVIDING THE GUNS</div>
+
+<p>When war was declared, the Army Ordnance Department had ninety-seven
+officers. It now has 5,000 in America and abroad, and in the first year
+of the war had spent $4,756,500,000. To its peace-time task of
+administering eleven small Government arsenals has been added the
+problem of getting quick production of shells of all calibres, rifles,
+ammunition, grenades, and bombs from some 1,400 private manufacturing
+establishments. It has acquired a total of 2,475,219 square feet of
+storage space, has 2,701,880 square feet more under construction, and
+requires 23,000,000 square feet altogether to store its supplies. It has
+miles of railroad sidings, all inclosed, including 50 miles of track
+especially built, and it handles 10,000 carloads of explosives a month,
+with the total steadily increasing. The complexity of the Ordnance
+Department's task may be seen in the fact that the number of items made
+and supplied to the troops totals about 100,000, ranging from the small
+firing pin of a rifle to a complete 16-inch gun and emplacement, or a
+motor truck or tractor. Reserves of all these spare parts must be
+maintained and ready for distribution.</p>
+
+<p>The Ordnance Department has had to create organizations, build new
+plants, finance them and to design as well as to manufacture not only
+the weapons themselves, but thousands of tools, gauges, and jigs
+required for their manufacture. For instance, the French Government
+offered the secret of the recoil mechanism in the carriages of its
+famous .75 guns. To manufacture these it was necessary to machine steel
+castings so accurately that they will not be off two-thousandths of an
+inch in a distance of more than six feet.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">BUILDING NEW PLANTS</div>
+
+<p>Never had machinery been built in the United States to work on so large
+a scale with such a degree of accuracy. The Ordnance Department had to
+persuade manufacturers to undertake this difficult work, to assist them
+financially to build a thirteen-acre plant, to purchase and manufacture
+$6,000,000 worth of special tools, and develop an organization to do
+this. The contract was signed on Nov. 1, 1917, and today the plant is
+completed and is turning out the recoil mechanisms.</p>
+
+<p>The Nitrate Division has under construction two plants for the
+manufacture of powder, costing $45,000,000 each.</p>
+
+<p>The Ordnance Department itself has provided for the army 1,400,000
+rifles, has brought the production of them up to 45,000 a week, or
+enough to equip three army divisions; has secured deliveries on 17,000
+machine guns and brought the rate of production of them from 20,000 to
+225,000 a year. It has increased the rate of production of field guns,
+heavy and light, from 1,500 to 15,000 a year, and is manufacturing
+35,000 motor trucks and tractors to haul them and their ammunition. It
+has remodeled the British Enfield rifle so that it can be produced in
+quantities to take American ammunition and adopted two new types of
+machine guns, the Browning, heavy and light.</p>
+
+<p>The United States entered the war resolved to win supremacy in the air.
+Congress adopted an appropriation of $640,000,000, in addition to
+$15,000,000 already granted, to provide the best airplane service
+possible. The best motor engineers in the country combined their talents
+to provide a motor, and the result of their efforts was the Liberty
+motor, asserted to be superior to anything used by any army air corps.
+Delivery of the new motors in quantity has been delayed by various
+causes. But the initial difficulties have been solved and quantity
+production of battle planes, as well as of training planes, is expected
+during the Summer of 1918. While there are more than seventy different
+types of airplane motors on the western allied front, the United States
+is relying on a single standardized type, greatly reducing the ratio of
+forty-seven men required on the ground by foreign service for every man
+in the air.</p>
+
+<p>Colossal work has been done by the Quartermaster Corps, which supplies
+almost<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> everything that a soldier needs, except ammunition; which
+transports those supplies as well as the soldier, feeds him, clothes
+him, and provides him with shelter. The war found the Quartermaster
+General's office without funds, Congress having adjourned without voting
+the Army Appropriation bill. But it tided over the interval until money
+was forthcoming. It has since spent $2,789,684,778, has clothed the
+draft armies and fed them, supplied the oversea forces with the million
+things they need, and there are at present few complaints of its work.
+The details are seen in columns of figures all running into millions.</p>
+
+<p>In this first year the Quartermaster Corps has spent $60,000,000 for
+horse-drawn vehicles and harness, more than $50,000,000 for horses,
+mules, and harness, and now estimates it will need for fuel and forage
+alone more than half a billion dollars.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">ARMY MEDICAL CORPS</div>
+
+<p>In preparation for large numbers of wounded and invalided men, the
+Medical Corps of the army has enlisted doctors and nurses by the
+thousand. In addition to the work being done for the Red Cross, which is
+a separate institution, the Army Medical Corps has enlarged its
+personnel from 8,000 to 106,000, including orderlies, stretcher bearers,
+and ambulance drivers. Its 900 doctors before the war are now increased
+to 18,000. It had 375 army nurses a year ago; now it has 7,000. It had
+no ambulance service; now it has 6,000 drivers in training.
+Reconstruction institutions are being provided in the United States on a
+more comprehensive scale than any other nation at war has attempted.
+Already a few wounded soldiers are being reconstructed at Medical Corps
+hospitals so as to be able to support themselves now that they are blind
+or crippled. Professional men, nurses, and attendants from our most
+noted civil reconstruction hospitals have been added to the personnel of
+the Medical Corps for this work.</p>
+
+<p>The hundreds of thousands of men taken from civil life into the army are
+now showing a death rate from disease below that of men of military age
+in civil life.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">WORK OF THE NAVY</div>
+
+<p>The navy was ready and began to take part in the war even before the
+formal declaration, for as early as March 12, 1917, in response to the
+President's order, it began arming American merchantmen and fighting
+their battles. Meantime, the navy gathered in recruits and set about
+building ships and getting in supplies ready for the more important work
+which followed when the nation was actually at war. At present there are
+150 warships, including battleships, with 35,000 personnel, in the war
+zone.</p>
+
+<p>In a year the navy has more than trebled its personnel. As a beginning
+it called up its own reserves and also the National Naval Volunteers and
+the Coast Guard. The following figures show the increased personnel:</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="3">APRIL, 1917</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">Officers.</td><td align="right">Men.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Regular Navy</td><td align="right">4,366</td><td align="right">64,680</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">*Naval Reserves</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">10,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Naval Volunteers</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">10,069</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">*Coast Guard</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">4,500</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Marine Corps</td><td align="right">426</td><td align="right">13,266</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;Total</td><td align="right">4,792</td><td align="right">102,515</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="3">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="3">APRIL, 1918</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">Officers.</td><td align="right">Men.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Regular Navy</td><td align="right">7,798</td><td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;192,385</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">*Naval Reserves</td><td align="right">10,033</td><td align="right">79,069</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Naval Volunteers&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right">805</td><td align="right">15,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">*Coast Guard</td><td align="right">639</td><td align="right">4,250</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Marine Corps</td><td align="right">1,389</td><td align="right">38,629</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;Total</td><td align="right">20,664</td><td align="right">329,333</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;*Approximately.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>On May 4, twenty-eight days after the declaration of war, United States
+destroyers arrived at a British port to assist in patrolling European
+waters, and on the following day Admiral Sims attended an allied war
+conference at Paris. The first of the regular armed forces of the United
+States to land in France were units of the naval aeronautic corps. They
+arrived on June 8. The first contingent of the army transported and
+convoyed by the navy was landed safely at a French port early in July.
+Night and day since then American warships have convoyed transports and
+supplies across the Atlantic and brought the ships safely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> back. Only
+one empty transport in its care has succumbed to an enemy attack, and
+only two naval vessels have been sunk by enemy U-boats&mdash;the destroyer
+Jacob Jones, torpedoed Dec. 6, and the patrol vessel Alcedo, a converted
+yacht, sunk Nov. 5, 1917. The small destroyer Chauncey was sunk in
+collision with a British transport. The Cassin was torpedoed, but
+reached port under her own steam, was repaired, and returned to service.
+Casualties in the navy have been 144 killed or died and 10 wounded;
+total, 154.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">NAVAL AUXILIARIES</div>
+
+<p>At first there was a shortage of the small vessels required for minor
+naval duties. Some 800 craft of various kinds have been taken over and
+converted into the types needed, thus providing the large number of
+vessels required for transports, patrol service, submarine chasers, mine
+sweepers, mine layers, tugs, and other auxiliaries. Hundreds of
+submarine chasers have been built besides the new destroyers put into
+service. There are now four times as many vessels in the naval service
+as there were a year ago. The destroyer fleet now building in record
+time is at least as large a fleet of this type of craft as England is
+believed to have.</p>
+
+<p>The United States battle fleet has grown to twice the size of the
+peace-time fleet. As schools in gunnery and engineering they are
+training thousands of gunners and engineers required for the hundreds of
+vessels added to the navy and the many merchantmen furnished with arms
+and gun crews. Target practice in past years had been devoted mainly to
+practice with the big guns. Special attention during the past year has
+been devoted to the guns of smaller calibre, effective against
+submarines.</p>
+
+<p>When war was declared there were under construction, or about to be
+started, 123 new naval vessels:</p>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left">Battleships</td><td align="right">15</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Battle cruisers</td><td align="right">6</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Scout cruisers</td><td align="right">7</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Destroyers</td><td align="right">27</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Submarines</td><td align="right">61</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Fuel ships</td><td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Supply ship</td><td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Transport</td><td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Gunboat</td><td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Hospital ship</td><td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Ammunition ship&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right">1</td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>Most of these have now been completed and the few remaining are well
+under way. Meantime contracts have been placed for 949 new vessels,
+including submarine chasers designed here which have done good service.
+Altogether there have been added to the navy since April 6, 1917,
+vessels to the number of 1,275, aggregating 1,055,116 tons.</p>
+
+<p>When the Government seized the 109 German-owned ships lying in American
+ports, the German engineers believed that their vessels had been damaged
+beyond repair for a year at least. Within six months the ships were in
+running order and have since carried numbers of American troops and huge
+quantities of supplies to the fighting lines in France. The damage was
+repaired by navy artificers and engineers under the jurisdiction of
+naval officers.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">BUILDING NEW SHIPS</div>
+
+<p>The vital question of shipping was assigned early in the year to the
+United States Shipping Board, now headed by E. N. Hurley, while the
+Emergency Fleet Corporation, since made subordinate to the board, was
+intrusted with the execution of the building program. Congress
+appropriated $1,135,000,000 for this purpose, and on March 1, 1918,
+$353,247,000 of this sum had been spent. Friction and consequent delay,
+however, at the outset caused vital changes in the composition of the
+Shipping Board. General Goethals, manager of the Emergency Fleet
+Corporation, resigned after a controversy with Mr. Denman, the first
+Chairman of the Shipping Board, over the comparative merits of wooden
+and steel ships. There have been other causes&mdash;labor troubles, lack of
+material, and of building facilities, of which America had few.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the seized German ships, with an aggregate of more than 700,000
+tons dead weight to manage, have been put in service, vessels under
+construction in private shipyards have been commandeered and completed,
+and at least three new ships planned and constructed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> by the Shipping
+Board have been finished and are now at sea. The seizure of 150,000 tons
+of Dutch shipping in American ports has further added to the
+Government's immediate resources, while an agreement with Japan has made
+another 200,000 tons of shipping available.</p>
+
+<p>America's shipping industry had run down, until in the year before war
+was declared the total output of shipyards in the United States was only
+250,000 tons. The Shipping Board drew up a program to construct
+8,164,508 tons of steel ships, 1,145 ships in all, and 490 wooden ships,
+with a total tonnage of 1,715,000. Only a small part of this enormous
+total could be constructed in the first year of the war with the
+shipyard facilities available, and it has been necessary to build new
+shipyards on an enormous scale. Volunteer shipworkers have been enlisted
+from all quarters, and in April, 1918, work was proceeding at 150
+shipyards in various parts of the country.</p>
+
+<p>The following figures show the actual number of ships put into the water
+since the Shipping Board took control of the situation:</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left">Steel ships requisitioned on ways, completed</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;by Emergency Fleet Corporation</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;and now in service</td><td align="right">85</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Steel ships requisitioned on ways, turned</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;back to former owners and now</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;completed and in service</td><td align="right">15</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Steel ships requisitioned on ways, hulls</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;of which have been launched</td><td align="right">65</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Steel ships contracted for by Emergency</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;Fleet Corporation which have</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;been completed and put into service</td><td align="right">3</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Steel ships contracted for by Emergency</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;Fleet Corporation, hulls of</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;which have been launched</td><td align="right">9</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Wooden ships contracted for by Emergency&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;Fleet Corporation, hulls of</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;which have been launched</td><td align="right">11</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Total</td><td align="right">188</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Steel ships requisitioned which are now</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;actually in service</td><td align="right">100</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Steel ships contracted for by Emergency</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;Fleet Corporation now actually</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;in service</td><td align="right">3</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Total</td><td align="right">103</td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>By April, 1918, the Government has been able to put 2,762,605 tons of
+shipping into the transatlantic service to carry men and munitions to
+France.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">FINANCING THE WAR</div>
+
+<p>The United States has been a great financial factor since entering the
+war. The Government lent to the Allies on the security of their bonds
+$4,436,329,750. For America's own expenses Congress has already
+authorized $2,034,000,000, of which one item alone, merchant shipping,
+accounted for more than $1,000,000,000. The total expenses in the first
+year were more than $9,800,000,000, but about $800,000,000 of this went
+for normal activities not connected with the war, so that its total cost
+has been about $9,000,000,000, of which more than $4,000,000,000 has
+been in loans to the Allies. Expenditures for aircraft alone have
+amounted to more than $600,000,000. Naval appropriations, made and
+pending, are more than $3,000,000,000; the War Department has taken
+$7,464,771,756. The army's annual payroll now exceeds $500,000,000 and
+the navy's $125,000,000, and these items are trifling compared with the
+cost of ships, ordnance, munitions, airplanes, motor trucks, and
+supplies of every kind, to say nothing of food. Allotments and
+allowances to soldiers' and sailors' dependents paid by the Government
+in the month of February alone amounted to $19,976,543.</p>
+
+<p>Bonds, certificates of indebtedness, War Savings Certificates, and
+Thrift Stamps issued by the Treasury up to March 12 totaled
+$8,560,802,052.96. To meet expenses the Government has successfully
+floated two Liberty Loans with total subscriptions of $6,616,532,300,
+and on April 6, 1918, the first anniversary of America's entrance into
+the war, a third loan campaign for $3,000,000,000 was begun.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">TAXES AND PRICES</div>
+
+<p>The income tax has been greatly increased and the exemption limit
+lowered. New taxes have been imposed on corporate and individual
+profits, all profits arising out of the war have been penalized, and the
+old levies greatly increased. War taxes, customs duties, and internal
+revenue collections have brought in nearly $1,500,000,000. While the
+greater part of the war income and excess profits taxes are not due
+until June, the Treasury<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> had collected in internal revenue taxes a
+total of $566,267,000 to March 12, 1918, and had sold $1,255,000,000 in
+certificates of indebtedness, which are receivable in payment of
+internal revenue taxes.</p>
+
+<p>The Government has taken possession of and is operating all enemy-owned
+enterprises. At the same time, through a Federal Farm Loan Bureau,
+assistance is being given to farmers at reasonable rates of interest in
+providing the means for raising crops, needed in greater abundance than
+ever to feed the army and navy and civilian population and the peoples
+of the allied countries.</p>
+
+<p>One of the first acts of the Administration after the declaration of war
+was aimed at putting a curb on the rising prices of the necessities of
+life. Herbert C. Hoover was appointed National Food Administrator, and
+after long delay his appointment was confirmed by the Senate. It was
+criticised, but Mr. Hoover has succeeded not only in bringing down the
+price of such necessaries as wheat, flour, sugar, coffee, meat, and
+lard, but by various devices and appeals to public sentiment has brought
+about a voluntary reduction of consumption and a consequent great
+increase in the amounts of food which America has been able to send
+abroad.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">FOOD PROBLEMS</div>
+
+<p>When the present Food Administration was created in August, 1917, the
+1917 crop, in so far as productiveness was concerned, had already been
+planted and partly harvested. The available foodstuffs it produced were
+not sufficient, on the basis of normal consumption, to feed the people
+dependent on it, and the question of conservation became paramount. So
+far, "wheatless days," "meatless days," and appeals for food
+conservation have tided the nation over a dangerous period. The fixing
+of prices under a Presidential proclamation has greatly aided,
+speculation in wheat has been wholly eliminated, and the prices of flour
+and bread have been stabilized at a reasonable level.</p>
+
+<p>Hand in hand with food conservation has gone the gradual control of
+industry of all kinds in order to concentrate the nation's resources for
+the purposes of war. The prices of metals necessary to war industries
+have been brought down by negotiation. Coal and fuel oil are controlled
+by Government agents, and it is not believed that the suffering caused
+by the fuel scarcity during the Winter of 1917-18 can be repeated.</p>
+
+<p>The Government has taken over control of the railways and a number of
+coastwise steamship lines. It now operates 260,000 miles of railway,
+employing 1,000,600 men, and representing investments of
+$17,500,000,000.</p>
+
+<p>The War Trade Board, created for the purpose of cutting off supplies to
+Germany through the adjacent neutrals, has developed into a powerful
+economic weapon in the execution of the nation's war policy.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Five Million Soldiers' Garments Made by American Women</div>
+
+<p>A recent bulletin of the American Red Cross contains a report showing
+that up to Feb. 1, 1918, this organization had supplied 3,431,067
+sweaters, mufflers, wristlets, helmets, and socks to the soldiers and
+sailors of the United States. Of this total 1,189,469 articles were
+delivered to the fighting services in January of this year. Though
+official figures were not available for later months, it was estimated
+that the total to the end of March was in excess of 5,000,000 garments,
+all knit by American women for the Red Cross. The same bulletin reported
+the distribution of 5,000,000 francs contributed by Americans for the
+relief of those French soldier families which have suffered most from
+the war.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span></p>
+<h2>War Department's Improved System</h2>
+
+<h3>Summary by Benedict Crowell</h3>
+
+<div class="center"><i>Assistant Secretary of War</i></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>A year of war has changed the United States War Department from
+a military group to a closely organized business concern. The
+vast difference between its methods at the time of our entry
+into the war and at the beginning of our second year of
+hostilities is summarized in the appended statement and chart,
+which were given to <span class="smcap">The New York Times</span> by Benedict Crowell, the
+Assistant Secretary of War, in March, 1918. Mr. Crowell is one
+of the business experts called into the department last Autumn
+to reorganize it. In describing the changes made he said:</i> </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A year ago there were eleven officers, all strictly military men, and
+about 1,000 privates in the aircraft work. Now in that branch of the war
+business we have thousands of officers and 100,000 men. But 96 per cent.
+of those officers are trained business men and engineers from big civil
+enterprises. Most of them are in military uniform, but that is merely a
+matter of form that does not go to the substance of the business.</p>
+
+<p>The great military work of America, the work of the soldiers, is being
+done in France. In this country we have settled down to the purely
+business undertaking of producing men and material out of which to form
+the armies.</p>
+
+<p>This chart (here reproduced) shows the latest readjustment of General
+Staff functions and activities. A very significant change from what used
+to be is indicated in that line of rectangles under the Chief of Staff,
+each one representing an Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of a major
+division of the war work. These divisions, indicated on the chart by the
+words "storage and traffic," "purchases and supplies," &amp;c., used to be
+committees, in which every vital question had to be settled by a vote,
+with lesser officers having as much power in the matter as their chiefs.
+Now the Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of one of those divisions,
+which is no longer a committee, has power to act on his own initiative.
+His subordinates in the division are his expert advisers on the various
+problems which he must decide, thus eliminating criticisms in the
+earlier period of the war that too much time was lost in getting
+decisions.</p>
+
+<p>One of the modifications that may be made in this chart of the General
+Staff in the near future will have to do with that division now in
+charge of General Pierce, the Assistant Chief of Staff, who is director
+of purchases and supplies and has authority over manufacturing
+priorities, purchases, and production based on estimates and
+requirements. That division, which now leads direct into the office of
+the Chief of Staff, may later on be short-circuited around the Chief of
+Staff direct to the office of a new Assistant Secretary of War in so far
+as its problems have to do with purchases or industrial facilities.</p>
+
+<p>A bill creating two additional Secretaries of War has been passed by
+Congress. One of these assistants will have to do with social and
+welfare activities for the benefit of the troops. The other will deal
+exclusively with purchases and supplies, and the division of the General
+Staff now under General Pierce will be made a part of it.</p>
+
+<p>The direct lines of connection on this chart are as interesting and as
+promising as anything else about it. They indicate smooth-working
+co-ordination and perfected team work. For example, the line of liaison
+from the division of purchases and supplies is to all supply bureaus and
+purchasing agencies of the army, to the War Industries Board, and all
+related Government agencies.</p>
+
+<p>Further co-operation of the War Department, reorganized on a business
+basis, with those organizations vital to
+the movement of all equipment
+to troops here and abroad, is shown by the liaison line from the
+Director of Storage and Traffic. That line connects the storage and
+traffic business of the War Department directly with the Shipping Board,
+the Director General of Railways, and the Quartermaster General.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>
+<a href="images/i336.png"><img src="images/i336-t.png" width="250" height="151" alt="CHART OF UNITED STATES WAR DEPARTMENT&#39;S SYSTEM OF
+ORGANIZATION FOR WAR ACTIVITIES." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />CHART OF UNITED STATES WAR DEPARTMENT&#39;S SYSTEM OF
+ORGANIZATION FOR WAR ACTIVITIES.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Major<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> Gen. Goethals is the Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of storage
+and traffic, and, as such, has full control over all priority of both
+storage and traffic at and to inland, embarkation, and overseas points.
+General Goethals is also still acting as Quartermaster General, a place
+now not so vital under the reorganization as his office of Assistant
+Chief of Staff in charge of storage and traffic.</p>
+
+<p>The War Council was created because it was necessary to have a group of
+experts in the War Department who would have time to study. Up to the
+time of its organization there had been little time to think about big
+problems and do nothing else. Everybody was rushed with some form of
+executive or administrative work.</p>
+
+<p>This council is in session every day and is one of the most effective
+war agencies that the Government has. There is no man on it who does not
+bring to its deliberations and conclusions some vital contribution to
+the welfare of the country and the army. It consists of the Secretary of
+War, the Assistant Secretary of War, General March, Acting Chief of the
+General Staff; General Crowder, Judge Advocate General and Provost
+Marshal General of the Army, one of the nation's great lawyers, who is
+devoting his life to the military welfare of his country; Generals
+Crozier, Sharpe, Weaver, and Pierce, and Charles Day, an able engineer
+drafted from the Shipping Board to render expert counsel to the War
+Department as a member of its War Council.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>The Surgeon General's Great Organization</h2>
+
+<h3>By Caswell A. Mayo</h3>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>[This account of the first year's work of the United States War
+Department in mobilizing the medical talent of the nation was
+prepared in March, 1918, for <span class="smcap">The New York Times</span>, publishers of
+<span class="smcap">Current History Magazine</span>] </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>In April, 1917, the executive offices of the Surgeon General of the
+United States Army occupied four rooms in the great War, State and Navy
+Building at Washington, and the functions of the office were performed
+by six officers and twenty clerks. Now there are attached to the Surgeon
+General's office 165 officers, who employ 545 clerks, and the staff
+fills five entire buildings and parts of other buildings, exclusive of
+the Surgeon General's library, the Army Medical Museum, and the Army
+Medical School. Within a day 6,000 telegrams and 5,000 other
+communications have been received, replied to, and filed. The latest and
+most approved systems of filing records and correspondence have been
+installed under expert supervision, for the Surgeon General has called
+to his aid specialists in other fields as well as in the field of
+medicine. He has called chemists and statisticians, bankers and
+efficiency engineers, sanitarians and electrical experts, architects and
+engineers, and assigned them to duty in his office.</p>
+
+<p>The Surgeon General himself, Major Gen. W. C. Gorgas, was appointed to
+the office in recognition of the invaluable services rendered by him as
+Chief Sanitary Officer of the Panama Canal Zone. The story of his work
+there in protecting the laborers in the Panama Canal from infectious
+diseases is one of the most brilliant chapters in the history of
+American medicine. Without that work the efforts of Goethals would have
+been as fruitless and as costly in lives and money as those of De
+Lesseps. The Surgeon General's still greater task now is to provide
+against every emergency<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> which may affect the health and lives of
+millions of men taken from the fields, the farms, the factories, and the
+counting houses of the country, gathered into camps for organization and
+sent across 3,000 miles of ocean. He must know how many men will be
+taken sick, and where. He must know how many men will be wounded, and
+where, and he must have at those points adequate provision of expert
+surgeons and enlisted men, of medical and of surgical supplies, of food
+and of clothing, of housing and of transportation, so that at no time
+will any American soldier be sick without succor, or lie wounded without
+aid.</p>
+
+<p>In carrying out this gigantic task the Surgeon General has mobilized the
+medical forces of the country, calling into his office the leaders in
+every specialty of medicine and of surgery. At their desks as early as 7
+o'clock in the morning will be found medical specialists whose
+professional incomes are written in five and six figures, but who have
+abandoned these incomes for the modest pay of a Major, who have given up
+their luxurious homes for a Washington boarding house, and who, instead
+of enjoying a well-earned leisure, toil ceaselessly from early morning
+until late at night in their efforts to co-ordinate most effectively the
+work of the doctors in the war. It is for the purpose of doing justice
+to the attainments of these men that General Gorgas is advocating scores
+of new commissions of high rank in the national army.</p>
+
+<p>Every morning at 7:30 the Surgeon General's truck delivers his mail at
+the Mills Building, at Seventeenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue,
+Washington, in which are situated the central executive offices. The
+mail is distributed and on the desks of the officers for final
+disposition not later than 9:15. Within twelve working hours practically
+every communication received will have been acted upon and returned to
+permanent files. Here, as in every other phase of the work, a specialist
+has been employed, Captain J. L. Gooch having been called from his
+position as subscription manager for the Butterick Company to organize
+the office routine. The most approved mechanical devices, including
+statistical machines, have been installed under Captain Gooch's
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>A complete medical history is kept of every soldier and of every officer
+from the time he enters the service until he retires, resigns, or dies.
+A special fireproof building is now being erected which will be devoted
+exclusively to the care of these records, the preservation of which may
+be a matter of vital importance fifty years hence.</p>
+
+<p>Attached to the Surgeon General's office are three representatives of
+the Royal Army Medical Corps of Great Britain&mdash;Colonel T. H. Goodwin, C.
+M. G., D. S. O.; Captain John Gilmour of the Royal Army Medical Corps,
+and Lieut. Col. J. J. Aitken of the Royal Veterinary Corps&mdash;and two
+representatives of the French Army Medical Service&mdash;Colonel C. U. Dercle
+and Major Edouard Rist. These four surgeons act as liaison officers,
+keeping the Medical Department of the United States Army in touch with
+the medical services of Great Britain and France. They have made many
+informing addresses to medical societies all over the United States and
+have given lectures at the Army Medical School.</p>
+
+<p>The immediate staff of the Surgeon General comprises his personal aid,
+Major M. C. Furbush, M. R. C., of Philadelphia; Colonel George E.
+Bushnell, M. C., (Medical Corps of the regular army;) Colonel Deane C.
+Howard, M. C., and Lieut. Col. James V. Van Dusen, M. C. Colonel
+Bushnell, besides being chief assistant to the Surgeon General, has
+devoted his special attention to the field in which he has won a unique
+reputation, that of the treatment of tuberculosis.</p>
+
+<p>General Gorgas has enlisted the co-operation of the leading surgeons of
+the United States as members of the "Rotary Surgical Staff." Among those
+Medical Reserve Corps officers who have already served for a period at
+the Surgeon General's office and who are still subject to call from time
+to time as occasion requires are Major William J. Mayo, former
+President, and his brother, Major Charles H. Mayo, now President of the
+American Medical Association.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The work of the Surgeon General's office is divided up among seventeen
+general main divisions. The work of each division is practically
+independent of the others, though the work of all is co-ordinated. At
+the head of each of these divisions is an expert in that particular
+field, usually a medical officer of the regular army, who has around
+him a group of expert associates, many of whom are drawn from civil
+life.</p>
+
+<p>On April 1, 1917, there were 700 medical officers and about 10,000
+enlisted men in the Medical Department of the United States Army. There
+are now more than 17,000 medical officers in active service and about
+150,000 enlisted men in the Medical Department.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>War Work of the American Red Cross</h2>
+
+<h3>Summary of a Year's Activities</h3>
+
+<div class="center">[Data Furnished by Red Cross Headquarters, Washington, D. C.] </div>
+
+<p>President Wilson, as President of the American Red Cross, on May 10,
+1917, appointed a War Council of seven members to direct the work of the
+organization in the extraordinary emergency created by the entrance of
+the United States into the war. The original appointees were Henry P.
+Davison, Chairman, of J. P. Morgan &amp; Co., New York; Charles D. Norton,
+Vice President First National Bank, New York; Major Grayson M. P.
+Murphy, Vice President Guaranty Company, New York; Cornelius N. Bliss,
+Jr., of Bliss, Fabyan &amp; Co., New York, and Edward N. Hurley, Chicago.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hurley resigned from the War Council when he was appointed Chairman
+of the Shipping Board, and was succeeded by John D. Ryan, President of
+the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Major Murphy, after organizing the
+Red Cross work in Europe, resigned to re-enter the United States Army,
+and was succeeded on the council by Harvey D. Gibson, President of the
+Liberty National Bank of New York, who has been the General Manager of
+the Red Cross since it began its war activities. Mr. Norton resigned in
+the Spring of 1918, and was succeeded by George B. Case of the law firm
+of White and Case, New York, who previously had been legal adviser to
+the War Council.</p>
+
+<p>The first war fund campaign took place the week of June 18, 1917, which
+was designated "Red Cross Week" by a proclamation of President Wilson.
+The Finance Committee, which had charge of the campaign, was headed by
+Cleveland H. Dodge of New York; Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo was the
+fund Treasurer. One hundred million dollars was the mark set, and the
+week's contributions ran slightly above that figure.</p>
+
+<p>At the establishment of the Red Cross organization on a war basis its
+membership was approximately 500,000. Six months later there were, in
+round numbers, 5,000,000 members, and the number of chapters had
+increased from 562 to 3,287. The "Christmas Membership Drive," during
+the week ended with Christmas Eve, 1917, swelled the membership rolls to
+more than 23,000,000.</p>
+
+<p>In the period between the birthday anniversaries of Lincoln and
+Washington&mdash;Feb. 12-22, 1918&mdash;the school children of the country were
+brought into the Junior Red Cross organization.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately following the war organization and the raising of the first
+war fund commissions were sent to the various countries in Europe where
+war was in progress. Major Grayson M. P. Murphy was appointed General
+Commissioner for Europe and assumed direct charge of the commission to
+France, where the greater burden of American Red Cross work has fallen.
+The commission to France reached Paris during June. Eighteen men
+constituted the original working force. From this nucleus there
+developed before the end of the year an organization that operated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> all
+the way from Sicily up the whole western front and into Great Britain.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">MILLIONS FOR FRENCH RELIEF</div>
+
+<p>Appropriations from the Red Cross war fund to March 1, 1918, including
+those to cover budgets to April 30, totaled $77,721,918.22. Of this
+amount sums aggregating $30,936,103.04 were for relief work in France. A
+chain of warehouses has been established behind the lines all the way
+across France, from the coast to Switzerland. The greatest motor
+transport organization there is in the world, outside of those actually
+operated by the armies, also has been developed. The workers actually
+engaged in the organization in France number more than 3,000, a large
+percentage of them being volunteers who are serving without financial
+compensation, and most of them paying their own expenses as well.</p>
+
+<p>Relief work in France is divided between a Department of Military
+Affairs and a Department of Civil Affairs. The former department, in
+addition to maintaining a hospital supply service that provides for
+3,800 hospitals, a surgical dressings service that turns out and
+distributes hundreds of thousands of dressings every week, and three
+American Red Cross military hospitals, has concentrated a large amount
+of attention on canteen work, in the interest of both the American and
+French Armies.</p>
+
+<p>Twelve canteens at the front have been in operation for the French Army,
+and recently the same service was installed to supply coffee and
+refreshments to American soldiers in the trenches. It is likely that the
+twelve canteens will be increased to forty. The record of the front line
+canteens for a five month period was 700,000 soldiers served. In line of
+communication canteens, located at railroad junction points,
+eighty-eight American women workers have served an average of 20,000
+soldiers daily. At the metropolitan canteens, in Paris, more than
+3,000,000 soldiers have been served since the American Red Cross entered
+this field of work.</p>
+
+<p>Preliminary to the arrival of the American expeditionary force in
+France, the American Red Cross did important work in improving the
+sanitary conditions in the zone which the United States troops were to
+occupy. This work is constantly kept up to meet the situation as the
+army abroad increases in size.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">CIVILIAN RELIEF WORK</div>
+
+<p>Civilian relief work in France has embraced a campaign against
+tuberculosis, care of refugees and repatri�s, care of children,
+reconstruction and repair work in devastated areas and home service
+among the families of French soldiers. While much of the work in behalf
+of refugees has been done in the zones of comparative safety to which
+people have fled from the war areas, the German offensive launched in
+March found American Red Cross men in large numbers performing actual
+rescue work in villages that were under fire of the enemy. With the aid
+of the motor transport service, hundreds of noncombatants were removed
+to places of safety.</p>
+
+<p>At Evian, on the Swiss border, a corps of workers has been maintained
+for several months, together with a children's hospital, disinfecting
+plant, &amp;c., for the care and relief of the children and aged and infirm
+persons who have been sent back by the Germans from the occupied
+portions of France and Belgium at the rate of 1,000 or more a day.</p>
+
+<p>Relief for the families of French soldiers has had for its object the
+double purpose of providing for the wants of the sick and destitute, and
+strengthening the morale of men at the front. In respect to the latter
+objective a success has been achieved which has called forth many
+expressions of praise from the highest French military and civil
+authorities. A gift of a lump sum of $1,000,000 for distribution among
+50,000 needy families was one of the initial acts in this particular
+line of relief.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">FOR WOUNDED AND PRISONERS</div>
+
+<p>Minor Red Cross activities in France have included assistance in the
+care of mutilated soldiers, aid in re-educational work and care of the
+blind, and maintenance of plants for the manufacture of splints,
+anaesthetic, &amp;c. An important<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> work in connection with the prosecution
+of medical research has been the carrying on of experiments to ascertain
+the cause of trench fever, which in point of wastage is responsible for
+more than any other sickness.</p>
+
+<p>Since air raids on Paris and other French cities have become a regular
+feature, the American Red Cross has established a day-and-night service
+to respond to air raid alarms, perform rescue work, and remove the
+injured to the hospitals. On many occasions the effectiveness of this
+work has commanded widespread interest.</p>
+
+<p>Among the newer developments is the establishment of a casualty service,
+for the gathering of detail information regarding American soldiers who
+are killed in battle, sick or wounded in the hospitals or taken prisoner
+by the enemy. The information collected is transmitted to relatives at
+home.</p>
+
+<p>Prisoner relief is administered through a central office at Berne,
+Switzerland, where ample supplies of food are stored for shipment to
+German prison camps as the need requires. Recently plans were started to
+have emergency rations stored in prison camps, so that American
+prisoners could have the benefit of them on their arrival there. Through
+the arrangements made all prisoners in enemy camps will receive rations
+in plenty at frequent intervals, and special rations will be provided
+for invalids.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">IMPORTANT WORK IN ITALY</div>
+
+<p>Appropriations for relief work in Italy have totaled $3,588,826.
+Emergency relief work, rendered at a time when no permanent commission
+had been established in Italy, stands among the most notable of the Red
+Cross achievements of the first year of the war. When the Teuton hordes
+swept into the plains of Northern Italy in October, 1917, driving
+thousands of panic-stricken men, women, and children before them,
+American Red Cross veterans from France rushed into the breach, helped
+to stop the rout, relieved the acute distress, and contributed in no
+small measure to the saving of the country from complete subjugation.
+What the American Red Cross did for Italy in this crisis was made the
+subject of official commendation on various occasions, and elicited
+thanks from the King, Prime Minister, and other dignitaries. A most
+important result accomplished was the cementing of friendship for
+America on the part of the Italian people, who previously, largely
+through German propaganda, had been skeptical of the good faith of the
+United States in the war.</p>
+
+<p>At the outset the American Consuls throughout Italy were supplied with
+money to afford emergency relief. Forty-eight carloads of supplies were
+dispatched to the scene from storehouses in France. Several sections of
+ambulances also were started from France. Soup kitchens were opened,
+from which the refugees were given the first food they had received
+since the flight from their homes. Transportation for the refugees was
+arranged from the north, warehouses were opened at central points,
+manufacture of surgical dressings was undertaken on a mammoth scale,
+hospitals for the concentration of contagious diseases were opened, and
+then, four days after the United States declared war against Austria,
+the first Red Cross ambulances left Milan for the Italian front, cheered
+by thousands of persons there and at all towns through which they
+passed.</p>
+
+<p>By the time the permanent commission reached Rome, in the early Winter,
+a complete survey of the whole Italian situation had been made by
+experts and all the more serious emergencies had been met. The American
+Red Cross was able to supply great quantities of equipment to replace
+the stores that were lost when the Teuton drive destroyed upward of a
+hundred hospitals. The present relief work is being continued along the
+lines of the work in France.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">BELGIAN RELIEF WORK</div>
+
+<p>Belgian relief work has called for appropriations aggregating
+$2,086,131. There has been a program for improving conditions among the
+Belgian troops, and to provide recreation and medical service outside
+the scope of the Belgian war budget. The initial Red Cross gift was half
+a million francs to the Belgian Red<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> Cross, to be applied for the cost
+of the military hospital at Wolveringham. Contributions also have been
+made to the active field service of the army, in the form of surgical
+and medical equipment.</p>
+
+<p>In civilian relief work in Belgium the American Red Cross placed its
+resources at the command of organizations already in the field to care
+for children and feeble persons, and get them away from the places of
+greatest danger. In order to have supplies ready at hand for emergencies
+twenty barrack warehouses were contracted for last Fall.</p>
+
+<p>Special aid has been given to the schools and colonies for children.
+Establishment of health centres and a 250-bed hospital for the Belgian
+colony at Havre are among the other activities. A gift of 600,000 francs
+was made for the construction of a temporary village for refugees near
+Havre.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">AIDING BRITISH WOUNDED</div>
+
+<p>American Red Cross appropriations on account of work in Great Britain
+have amounted to $3,078,875. This includes two gifts of $953,000 and
+$1,193,125, respectively, to the British Red Cross and a gift of
+$500,000 to the Canadian Red Cross. The gifts to the British Red Cross
+will be used for relief and comforts to sick and wounded in hospitals,
+for the maintenance of auxiliary hospitals and convalescent homes in
+England, and for institutions for orthopedic and facial treatment and
+for general restorative work for disabled British soldiers. The British
+orthopedic hospitals serve as training schools for American surgeons.
+The gift to the Canadian Red Cross was given in recognition of the part
+Canada has played in the war. The money will be used to alleviate the
+suffering of wounded and sick Canadian soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>The regular work of the American Red Cross in England includes the
+maintenance of a hospital at an English port for sick American soldiers
+and sailors, and support of a hospital at South Devon and of another for
+officers at Lancaster Gate, London.</p>
+
+<p>Commissions have been maintained in Serbia, Rumania, and Russia, where
+relief has been administered according to the needs of the situation in
+each instance. In Rumania the active relief work was abandoned only when
+the Red Cross representatives were forced to leave the country following
+the Ukraine peace. At the present writing [April, 1918] a special
+commission, accompanied by several medical units, is on its way to take
+up relief work in Palestine.</p>
+
+<p>The appropriations for Serbian relief have totaled $875,180.76; for
+Rumania, $2,676,368.76, and for Russia $1,243,845.07. All other foreign
+relief work, miscellaneous in character, has involved appropriations
+amounting to $3,576,300.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">IN THE UNITED STATES</div>
+
+<p>For camp service in the United States there was appropriated, up to
+March 1, a total of $6,451,150.86. The sweaters, helmets, socks, and
+other supplies and comforts for distribution to the army and navy had a
+value of $5,653,435.86.</p>
+
+<p>There had been appropriated for Red Cross convalescent houses at camps
+and cantonments throughout the United States $512,000, and plans for
+additional houses and nurses' homes at the various camps will call for
+aggregate expenditures of about $1,750,000.</p>
+
+<p>More than 19,000 graduate nurses have been supplied to the United States
+Army for service in this country and abroad by the Red Cross Nursing
+Service. A total of 25,000 must be supplied before the end of the
+present year to meet the needs of the growing army and the greater
+activities of the forces in France.</p>
+
+<p>Fifty base hospital units have been organized, each unit consisting of
+twenty-two surgeons and dentists, sixty-five nurses, and 152 men of the
+enlisted reserve corps. Nineteen of these units are now in service in
+France. The Red Cross has supplied the personnel for ten other units.</p>
+
+<p>Red Cross chapters have organized and are maintaining more than a
+thousand canteens at railroad stations to serve troops passing to and
+from camps and to ports of embarkation. In nearly every city, also,
+women's motor corps service has been established by volunteer workers.
+Throughout the country plans<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> have been made on an extensive scale to
+carry on home service in the interest of the families of soldiers who
+may need assistance, material or otherwise.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">OTHER ACTIVITIES</div>
+
+<p>Although war activities required its greatest energies, the American Red
+Cross rendered prompt relief in cases of overwhelming disaster outside
+the war zones during the year. There were three major disasters, widely
+separated, in 1917. They were, respectively, the Tientsin flood, which
+made 1,000,000 people homeless and caused a crop and property loss
+amounting to $100,000,000; the Halifax explosion, which wrecked a large
+part of the city and resulted in the killing and maiming of thousands of
+persons, and the Guatemala earthquake, which caused destitution and
+disease, in addition to the property damage and the toll of death and
+injury.</p>
+
+<p>In the case of the flood in China, the Red Cross cabled to the American
+Minister to draw for sums sufficient to meet emergency needs, and later
+assisted the Chinese Government in providing labor for 10,000 refugees
+for a period of several months. The appropriations for relief in
+connection with this disaster totaled $125,000.</p>
+
+<p>Within a few hours after the extent of the Halifax disaster was known,
+special Red Cross trains left New York, Providence, and Boston for the
+scene, carrying tons of bedding, clothing, food, and medical supplies,
+as well as doctors, nurses, and experts in relief administration. Every
+anticipated need was provided for, and unlimited resources were pledged
+to the stricken city.</p>
+
+<p>Urgent relief needs following the earthquake in Guatemala were met
+through the Guatemala Red Cross chapter, which purchased $100,000 worth
+of supplies from the Government stores in the Canal Zone. A shipload of
+medical, food, and other supplies was sent from New Orleans at the
+earliest possible moment, and a Medical Director was appointed to take
+charge of work on the ground. Expert workers and sanitary engineers also
+were dispatched from the United States to look after special phases of
+the situation.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">An Example of U-Boat Brutality</div>
+
+<p>One day in the first week of March, 1918, a small Belgian fishing smack
+was sighted by a German U-boat and was fired upon without the slightest
+warning. Her masts and sails were shot away, and the skipper was
+severely wounded. The smack carried a crew of only four men, three of
+whom entered their small boat and endeavored to persuade the skipper to
+come with them; but he was so badly injured that he refused to leave.
+He, however, urged his men to save their own lives. Meanwhile the
+submarine had come closer to its prey, and a German officer called to
+the men in the small boat to convey a couple of German sailors on board
+the smack, in order that they might sink her with bombs. The Germans
+proceeded to board the smack, and then, finding the wounded skipper, one
+of them drew his revolver and shot the helpless man dead through the
+head. The dastardly act was committed in full view of the Belgian
+fishermen, one of whom was the unfortunate skipper's son. Having placed
+their bombs in position, the Germans returned to the submarine and cast
+the remaining three Belgians adrift in their cockleshell of a boat
+without food or water, and with no means of reaching land, from the
+nearest point of which they were twenty miles distant. The unfortunate
+men suffered severely from cold and hunger before they were picked up by
+a British patrol boat.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span></p>
+<h2>Great Britain Faces a Crisis</h2>
+
+<h3>Historic Speech by Premier Lloyd George on the Picardy Battle and Its
+Fateful Consequences</h3>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>The British Government introduced a bill April 9, 1918, to
+raise the military age up to 50, and in special cases to 55, and
+to provide for conscription in Ireland. Premier David Lloyd
+George, in introducing the measure in the House of Commons,
+delivered an important address, in which he reviewed the battle
+of Picardy up to that time and gave interesting details of the
+conduct of the war in the preceding months. The address opened a
+new phase in the world conflict as affected by the posture of
+affairs in Great Britain. The full speech was sent by special
+cable to The New York Times and is reproduced herewith as a
+historic document of the war:</i> </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>We have now entered the most critical phase of this terrible war. There
+is a lull in the storm, but the hurricane is not over. Doubtless we must
+expect more fierce outbreaks, and ere it is finally exhausted there will
+be many more. The fate of the empire, the fate of Europe, and the fate
+of liberty throughout the world may depend on the success with which the
+very last of these attacks is resisted and countered.</p>
+
+<p>The Government, therefore, propose to submit to Parliament today certain
+recommendations, in order to assist this country and the Allies to
+weather the storm. They will involve, I regret, extreme sacrifices on
+the part of large classes of the population, and nothing would justify
+them but the most extreme necessity and the fact that we are fighting
+for all that is essential and most sacred in our national life.</p>
+
+<p>Before I come to the circumstances which led up to our submitting these
+proposals to Parliament, I ought to say one word as to why Parliament
+was not immediately summoned. Since the battle began the Government have
+been engaged almost every hour in concerting with the Allies the
+necessary measures to assist the armies to deal with the emergency.</p>
+
+<p>The proposals which we intend submitting to Parliament required very
+close and careful examination, and I think there is this advantage in
+our meeting today, rather than immediately after the impact of the
+German attack, that we shall be considering these proposals under
+conditions which will be far removed from any suggestion of panic.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE BATTLE OF PICARDY</div>
+
+<p>I shall now come to the circumstances which have led to the present
+military position. It is very difficult at this time to present a clear,
+connected, and reliable narrative of what happened. There has been a
+great battle on a front of fifty miles&mdash;the greatest battle ever fought
+in the history of the world. Enormous forces have been engaged; there
+was a considerable retirement on the part of the British forces, and
+under these conditions it is not always easy for some time to ascertain
+what actually happened.</p>
+
+<p>The House will recollect the difficulty we experienced with regard to
+Cambrai. It was difficult to piece together the story of the event for
+some time, and Cambrai was a very trivial event compared with this
+gigantic battle.</p>
+
+<p>The Generals and their staffs are, naturally, engaged and have to
+concentrate their attention upon the operations of the enemy, and until
+the strain relaxes it would be very difficult to institute the necessary
+inquiries to find out exactly what happened, and to furnish an adequate
+explanation of the battle.</p>
+
+<p>However, there are two or three facts which stand out, and in stating
+them I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> should like to call attention to two things which I think above
+all must be avoided. The first is that nothing should be said which
+could give information to the enemy; nothing should be said which would
+give encouragement to the enemy, and nothing should be said which would
+give discouragement to our own troops, who are fighting so gallantly at
+this very hour. And the second question is that all recrimination at
+this hour must be shut out.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">GERMANS SLIGHTLY WEAKER</div>
+
+<p>What was the position at the beginning of the battle? Notwithstanding
+the heavy casualties in 1917 the army in France was considerably
+stronger on Jan. 1, 1918, than on Jan. 1, 1917. Up to the end of
+1917&mdash;up to, say, about October or November&mdash;the German combatant
+strength in France was as two to the Allies' three. Then came the
+military collapse of Russia, and the Germans hurried up their released
+divisions from the eastern front and brought them to the west. They had
+a certain measure of Austrian support, which had been accorded to them.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the growth of the strength of our armies in 1917 when this
+battle began the combatant strength of the whole of the German Army on
+the western front was only approximately, though not quite, equal to the
+total combatant strength of the Allies in infantry. They were slightly
+inferior in artillery. They were considerably inferior in cavalry, and,
+what is very important, they were undoubtedly inferior in aircraft.</p>
+
+<p>The Germans, therefore, organized their troops so as to produce a larger
+number of divisions out of the slightly smaller number of infantry and
+slightly smaller number of guns. They had fewer battalions in a division
+and fewer men in a battalion. That is entirely a question of
+organization, and it yet remains to be seen that their organization is
+better than ours. It is necessary to explain that, in order that the
+House should realize why, with approximately the same number of men, the
+Germans have a larger number of divisions on that front.</p>
+
+<p>According to all the facts which have come to hand as to the losses of
+the battle, that roughly represents the relative strength of the
+combatants on both sides at this moment. The Germans had, however, one
+or two important advantages. The first, the initial advantage, which is
+always commanded by the offensive, is that they know where they mean to
+attack. They choose the ground, they choose the location, they know the
+width of the attack, they know the dimensions of the attack, they know
+the time of the attack, they know the method of the attack. All that
+invariably gives the initial advantage to the offensive.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Concentrated on the British</div>
+
+<p>The defense has a general advantage, as, owing to air observation,
+concealment is difficult. At the same time, in spite of all that, owing
+to the power of moving troops at night, which the Germans exercised in a
+very large extent, there was a large margin for surprise, even in spite
+of air observation, and of this the enemy took full advantage.</p>
+
+<p>I should like to say one word here as to the difficulty which the allied
+Generals were confronted with in this respect. Before the battle the
+greatest German concentration was in front of our troops. That was no
+proof that the full weight of the attack would fall on us. There was a
+very large concentration opposite the French lines. There was a very
+considerable concentration&mdash;I am referring now to the German
+reserves&mdash;on the northern part of our line.</p>
+
+<p>After the battle began, or immediately before the battle, the Germans by
+night brought their divisions from the northern part to the point where
+the attack took place. They also took several divisions from opposite
+the French in the same way and brought them to our front. But it would
+have been equally easy for them, while concentrating troops opposite our
+front, to manoeuvre them in the same way opposite the French. I am only
+referring to that in order to show how exceedingly difficult it is for
+Generals on the defensive to decide exactly where, in their judgment,
+the attack is coming and where they ought to concentrate their reserves.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">General Wilson's Forecast</div>
+
+<p>I may just say a word here. This problem was considered very closely by
+the military staff at Versailles, and I think it right, in justice to
+them, to point out that after a very close study of the German position
+and of the probabilities of the case, they came to the conclusion, and
+they stated their conclusion to the military representatives and to the
+Ministers in the month of January, or the beginning of February, that
+the attack would come south of Arras; that it would be an attack on the
+widest front ever yet assailed; that the Germans would accumulate
+ninety-five divisions for the purpose of making that attack; that they
+would throw the whole of their resources and their strength into
+breaking the British line at that point, and that their objective would
+be the capture of Amiens and the severance of the British and French
+forces.</p>
+
+<p>That was the conclusion which Sir Henry Wilson, Chief of the Imperial
+Staff, came to, and which was submitted at that time, two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> or three
+months ago, and I think that it was one of the most remarkable forecasts
+of enemy intentions ever made.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, the attack was made up, I think, by about
+ninety-seven divisions. It was an attack on the widest front that had
+ever been engaged. Its object undoubtedly was the capture of Amiens and
+the severance of the British and French forces. So that, almost in every
+detail, that very remarkable forecast has been verified in the event.</p>
+
+<p>Another remarkable prediction was that it might probably succeed in
+penetrating the British line to the extent of half the distance of the
+front attacked. They came to the conclusion from a close examination of
+the offensives of the war.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Advantage of United Command</div>
+
+<p>There was another advantage. There was, first of all, the advantage
+which the Germans had from having the initiative. There was a further
+advantage they had, and this undoubtedly was the greatest advantage,
+from having a united command opposed to a dual one. The Germans
+undoubtedly relied on this to a very large extent for their success.
+They owe much of the success of this attack to this.</p>
+
+<p>It was reported to me on good authority that the Kaiser informed ex-King
+Constantine: "I shall beat them, for they have no united command." Which
+shows that that was what they were relying in the main upon; that,
+although their numbers were slightly inferior, they knew the importance
+that was to be attached to the fact that they had a perfectly united
+command.</p>
+
+<p>And that is an obvious advantage, for if the risks in one particular
+part of the line are great, and in another part of the line are great,
+but substantially less than in the former, with one command there is no
+hesitation in the mind of the Commander in Chief as to which risk he
+will make the greatest provision against.</p>
+
+<p>With two separate commands the problem is a different one. It is more
+difficult to adjust the balance of risk, and the General is always
+naturally inclined to give himself and his army the benefit of any
+doubt. That may be because if anything goes wrong there he alone is to
+be held responsible to his own countrymen for the safety of his army.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Weather Favored Germans</div>
+
+<p>The enemy had another incidental but, as it turned out, very important
+advantage&mdash;that of the weather. Exceptional weather favored his designs.
+It was both dry and misty. The attack which succeeded was made on that
+part of the line where under ordinary Spring conditions the ground would
+have been almost impassable.</p>
+
+<p>A wounded officer told a friend of mine today, a General, that under
+ordinary conditions no one could walk across the part which was
+traversed by the Germans at this time of the year. But it just happened
+to be absolutely dry and firm, and they walked across ground which no
+one had any right to expect at this time of the year would be in that
+condition.</p>
+
+<p>Not only that, but the fact that it was warm increased the mist, and the
+Germans were actually in some parts within a few yards of our front line
+before any one knew of their approach. It was quite impossible to
+observe them. This was a special disadvantage to us, inasmuch as our
+scheme of organization in that particular part of the line depended
+largely upon the cross-line fire of machine guns and artillery. They
+had, therefore, a very special advantage, of which they made the fullest
+use.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Closed Up Gap in Armies</div>
+
+<p>With regard to the battle itself, as I have already stated, it will take
+some time to ascertain the whole facts. At one time it was undoubtedly
+very critical. The enemy broke through between our 3d and 5th Armies,
+and there was a serious gap, and the situation was retrieved owing to
+the magnificent conduct of our troops. They retired in perfectly good
+order, re-establishing the junction between the two armies and
+frustrating the enemy's purpose.</p>
+
+<p>The House can hardly realize, and certainly cannot sufficiently
+thank&mdash;nor can the country&mdash;our troops for their superb valor and the
+grim tenacity with which they faced overwhelming hordes of the enemy and
+clung to their positions. They retired, but were never routed, and once
+more the cool pluck of the British soldier, that refuses to acknowledge
+defeat, saved Europe.</p>
+
+<p>I am referring to the whole army, Generals, officers, and soldiers. I
+mean the whole army, and I draw no distinction. Their conduct has been
+one of incredible courage and great coolness under the most trying
+conditions. I do not think that any distinction can be drawn between
+officers and men. I am referring to the British Army, and that means
+all.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Praises General Carey's Feat</div>
+
+<p>And I specially refer to what one Brigadier General did. Some reference
+has been made in the press already to it, where at one point there was a
+serious gap, which might have let the enemy into Calais.</p>
+
+<p>[At this point the Prime Minister spoke of the critical situation which
+developed when the German attack began. He said the gap on the way to
+Amiens was held by Brig. Gen. Carey, who for six days stood off the
+enemy with engineers, laborers, signalers, and anybody who could hold a
+rifle. The Premier continued:]</p>
+
+<p>Until the whole circumstances which led to the retirement of the 5th
+Army and its failure to hold the line of the Somme, at least till the
+Germans brought out their guns, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> perhaps the failure adequately to
+destroy the bridges&mdash;until all these are explained it would be unfair to
+censure the General in command of the army, General Gough. But until
+those circumstances are cleared up it would be equally unfair to the
+British Army to retain his services in the field. It is necessary to
+recall him until the facts have been fully ascertained and laid before
+the Government by their military advisers.</p>
+
+<p>After the retirement of the 5th Army the French reserves came up with
+remarkable rapidity, when their position before the battle is borne in
+mind. In fact, the speed with which, when the final decision was taken
+as to the real designs of the enemy, the French reserves were brought up
+is one of the most remarkable feats of organization in this war, and
+between the courage of our troops and the handling of the army&mdash;the way
+the 3d Army held, never giving way a hundred yards to the attack of the
+enemy&mdash;I think it right that it should be said about the army commanded
+by General Byng&mdash;that between the efforts of our soldiers and the loyal
+assistance given in true spirit of comradeship by the French Army, the
+position is for the moment stabilized. But it is clear that the Germans,
+having gained an initial success, are preparing another, and perhaps an
+even greater, attack on the allied armies.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Teutons Fail in Main Objects</div>
+
+<p>Up to the present the enemy has undoubtedly obtained a great initial
+success. There is no good in not accepting the facts. It is from that
+basis we must begin to build. But he has failed so far in his main
+objects. He failed to capture Amiens. He failed to separate the French
+and British armies. But we should be guilty of great, it might be fatal,
+error if we were to underestimate the gravity of the prospect.</p>
+
+<p>The enemy has captured valuable ground, which is too near Amiens for
+comfort or security, and he has succeeded for the time being in
+crippling one of our great armies.</p>
+
+<p>I will now tell the House something of the measures adopted by the
+Cabinet to meet the emergency. I have already explained what was done
+about the French reserves. The Cabinet took every step to hurry up
+reinforcements in order to fill up the gap in our armies. No such large
+numbers of men ever passed across the Channel in so short a time.</p>
+
+<p>As the emergency was great it was impossible to allow those who were
+summoned to France the usual leave to visit their relatives. It was with
+the greatest regret that we found it necessary to cancel this
+permission, and nothing but the gravity of the position would have
+justified so harsh a proceeding. But the troops accepted the position in
+a manner which is worthy of the fortitude, courage, and patriotism they
+have shown throughout.</p>
+
+<p>There was an understanding that boys under 19 years would only be used
+in case of emergency. We felt that the emergency had arisen, and in so
+far as those who were over 18 were concerned, those who had already
+received six months' training, we felt it necessary that they should be
+sent to France.</p>
+
+<p>As to the guns and machine guns which were lost, the numbers are grossly
+exaggerated by the enemy. I am assured that they have also exaggerated
+very considerably the number of prisoners they have taken. The Commander
+in Chief assured me last week that it was a gross exaggeration.</p>
+
+<p>I am very glad to be able to say that the Ministry of Munitions were
+able not merely to replace those guns and machine guns, but that they
+still have got a very substantial reserve. The same thing applies to
+ammunition. There is an ample reserve of ammunition both in this country
+and in France.</p>
+
+<p>Our aircraft strength is greater now than before the battle, and we all
+know what brilliant service our airmen rendered in this battle. Until
+the whole story of the battle is told it will be almost impossible to
+estimate the services they rendered in retarding the advance of the
+enemy, in destroying his machinery, and in making it difficult for him
+to bring up his guns and ammunition. We feel confident that our armies,
+Generals, and soldiers will be quite equal to the next encounter
+whenever it comes.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">America's Dramatic Assistance</div>
+
+<p>The next step to which I should like to call the attention of the House
+is the material and dramatic assistance rendered by President Wilson in
+this emergency&mdash;one of the most important decisions in the war. In fact,
+the issue of the battle might very well be determined by this decision.</p>
+
+<p>In America there is a very considerable number of men in the course of
+training, and the Allies looked forward to having a large American army
+in France in the Spring. It has taken longer than was anticipated to
+turn those soldiers into the necessary divisional organizations. If
+America waited to complete these divisional organizations it would not
+be possible for these fine troops in any large numbers to take part in
+this battle in this campaign, although it might be very well the
+decisive battle of the war.</p>
+
+<p>This was, of course, one of the most serious disappointments from which
+the Allies had suffered. It is no use pretending it was not one of our
+chief causes of anxiety. We depend upon it largely to make up the
+defection of Russia.</p>
+
+<p>For many reasons&mdash;reasons, perhaps of transport, reasons connected with
+the time it takes, not merely to train troops and their officers, but to
+complete the necessary organization&mdash;it was quite impossible to put into
+France the number of divisions every one had confidently expected would
+be there. Under the circumstances we, therefore, submitted to the
+President of the United States a definite proposal. We had the
+advantage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> of having the Secretary of State for War in this country
+within two or three days after the battle had commenced. Mr. Balfour and
+I had a long conversation with him upon the whole situation, and we
+submitted to him certain recommendations which we had been advised to
+make to Mr. Baker and the American Government.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Proposal of Earl of Reading</div>
+
+<p>On the strength of the conversation we submitted proposals to President
+Wilson, with the strong support of Premier Clemenceau, to enable the
+combatant strength of the American Army to come into action during this
+battle, inasmuch as there was no hope of it coming in as a strong
+separate army. By this decision American battalions will be brigaded
+with those of the Allies.</p>
+
+<p>This proposal was submitted by the Earl of Reading on behalf of the
+British Government to President Wilson, and President Wilson assented to
+the proposal without any hesitation, with the result that arrangements
+are now being made for the fighting strength of the American Army to be
+immediately brought to bear in this struggle&mdash;a struggle which is only
+now beginning&mdash;to this extent, and it is no mere small extent, that the
+German attack has been held up. It has stirred up the resolution and
+energy of America beyond anything which has yet occurred.</p>
+
+<p>Another important decision taken by the allied Governments I must also
+call the attention of the House to. It became more obvious after the
+battle than ever before that the allied armies were suffering from the
+fact that they were fighting as two separate armies and had to negotiate
+support with each other. Valuable time was thus lost. Some of us had
+been deeply impressed by this peril for some time and had done our best
+to avert it.</p>
+
+<p>But the inherent difficulties to be overcome are tremendous. There are
+national prejudices, national interests, professional prejudices and
+traditions. The inherent difficulties of getting two or three separate
+armies to fight as one are almost insurmountable, and it can only be
+done if public opinion in all these countries insists upon it as one
+condition of success.</p>
+
+<p>The Versailles conference was an effort at a remedy. How were the
+Versailles decisions carried out, and the extent to which they were not
+carried out? This is not the time to inquire.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Foch Made Generalissimo</div>
+
+<p>I respectfully suggest to the House that no good would come at this
+stage in discussing this question. But if any one needed conviction as
+to the wisdom of that policy, this battle must have supplied it. The
+peril we passed through, by establishing the conviction without
+challenge, may, I think, be worth the price we paid for it.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after the battle commenced there were present not merely the
+Government, but the commanders in the field. We had not merely Field
+Marshals but army commanders present. We were so convinced&mdash;and the same
+thing applied to the French&mdash;of the importance of more complete
+strategic unity that they agreed to the appointment of General Foch to
+the supreme direction of the strategy of all the allied armies on the
+western front.</p>
+
+<p>May I not say just one word about General Foch? It is not merely that he
+is one of the most brilliant soldiers in Europe, but there is this to be
+said about him: Foch is the man who, when we were attacked and were in a
+similar plight at the first battle of Ypres, rushed the French Army
+there by every conceivable expedient&mdash;buses, cabs, lorries, anything he
+could lay his hands upon. He crowded French divisions through, and
+undoubtedly helped to win the great battle.</p>
+
+<p>There is no doubt about the loyalty and comradeship of General Foch. I
+have no doubt that this arrangement will be carried out not merely in
+the letter but in the spirit. But it is the most important decision that
+has been taken in reference to the coming battle. This strategic unity
+is, I submit to the House, the fundamental condition of victory. It can
+only be maintained by complete co-operation between the Governments and
+the Generals and by something more than that&mdash;the unmistakable public
+opinion behind it.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Asks Support for Foch</div>
+
+<p>Why do I say that? For this reason: A Generalissimo in the ordinary and
+full sense of the term may be impracticable. There are three functions
+which a General wields&mdash;strategical, tactical, and administrative. What
+does administrative mean? It means control of organization, the
+appointment and dismissal of officers and Generals, and that is a power
+which it is difficult or almost impossible to give to Generals of
+another country with a national army.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, in spite of all the arrangements made, unless there be not
+merely good-will, but the knowledge that the public of France, Great
+Britain, and America will assist in co-ordination and in supporting the
+authority in the supreme strategical plans chosen by the Governments,
+and in supporting the Governments in any action they may take to assert
+their authority, any arrangements made will be futile and mischievous. I
+make no apology for dwelling at some length upon this point. I have
+always felt that we were losing value and efficiency in the allied
+armies through lack of co-ordination and concentration.</p>
+
+<p>We have sustained many disasters already through this, and we shall
+encounter more unless this defect in our machinery is put right.
+Hitherto, I regret, every effort at amendment led to rather prolonged
+and very bitter controversy, and these great inherent difficulties were
+themselves accentuated and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> aggravated. There were difficulties of
+carrying out plans and other obstacles, and, what is worse, valuable
+time is lost.</p>
+
+<p>I entreat the nation as a whole to stand united for the united control
+of the strategical operations of our armies at the front. We know how
+much depends upon unity of concentration. We are fighting a very
+powerful foe, who, in so far as he has triumphed, has triumphed mainly
+because of superior unity and the concentration of his strategic plans.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">BRITISH FORCES IN ASIA</div>
+
+<p>There is another matter to which I should like to refer, and it is the
+suggestion that our forces have been dissipated on a subsidiary
+enterprise. Not a single division was sent from France to the East. With
+regard to Italy, had it not been for the fact that there are battalions
+of French and British divisions there, the Austrian Army would have been
+free to throw the whole of its strength on the western front. If there
+were not some there now the Austrian Army would be more powerfully
+represented than it is on the western front.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to Saloniki, the only thing the present Government did was
+to reduce the forces there by two divisions. In Mesopotamia there is
+only one white division in all, and in Egypt and Palestine together
+there are only two white divisions, and the rest are either Indians or
+mixed with a very small proportion of British troops. I am referring to
+infantry divisions.</p>
+
+<p>I want the House really to consider what that means. There is a menace
+to our Eastern empire through Persia, because through Persia you
+approach Afghanistan, and through Afghanistan you menace the whole of
+India. Had it not been for the blows inflicted upon the Turks, what
+would have happened? Before these attacks there were Turkish divisions
+helping the Germans in Russia. They would have been there helping the
+Germans on the west, exactly as they helped them on the east.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Germans Sent to Help Turks</div>
+
+<p>But what has happened? They were attacked in Palestine and Mesopotamia
+and two Turkish armies were destroyed. If we had remained in Egypt and
+defended Egypt by remaining there on the canal and allowing the Turks to
+hold us with a small force while they were putting the whole of their
+force in Mesopotamia and menacing our position in India by that means,
+the Turks could now have been assisting the Germans in the west as they
+did in the east.</p>
+
+<p>What is happening now? German battalions at this moment have been sent
+to assist the Turks instead of the Turks sending divisions to help the
+Germans. The Germans now have sent battalions to help the Turks in
+Palestine. After all, if you have a great empire you must defend it.</p>
+
+<p>There was a great empire which withdrew its legions from the outlying
+provinces of the empire to defend its heart against the Goths and those
+legions never went back. The British Empire has not been reduced to that
+plight yet. We can defend ourselves successfully in France, and we can
+also hold our empire against any one who assails it in any part of the
+world at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>May I, before I leave this topic, say how much gratitude we owe to India
+for the magnificent way in which she has come to the aid of the empire
+in this emergency?</p>
+
+<p>It is not the fact that we have got three British divisions in Egypt and
+Palestine and one in Mesopotamia that has enabled us to hold our own,
+but it is the fact that we have had these splendid troops from India.
+Many of them volunteered since the war, and they have been more than a
+match for their Turkish adversaries on many a stricken field.</p>
+
+<div class="center">Great Losses in France</div>
+
+<p>It is too early to state yet with accuracy our losses, because in the
+case of a battle over such a wide front, fought with such intensity for
+over a fortnight, with vast numbers of men engaged, the losses sustained
+must be considerable. The claims of the enemy as to prisoners have been
+grossly exaggerated, and Field Marshal Haig has assured me that they
+were quite impossible from the figures at his disposal, and which he
+showed me, and the enemy's claims seem quite preposterous from the
+statement he made to me.</p>
+
+<p>But still our losses are very great and our reserves have been called
+upon to a considerable extent to make up the wastage and refit the
+units, and if the drain continues on this scale, a drain on the
+resources of reserves and of man power, it must cause the deepest
+anxiety, unless we take immediate steps to replenish it.</p>
+
+<p>The immediate necessity is relieved by the splendid and generous way and
+promptitude with which America has come to our aid, but they are simply
+lent to receive their training, with a view to their incorporation at
+the first suitable moment in the American Army in France, and even if
+they remain with the British right through the battle, the time will
+come when we shall need large reinforcements, if this battle continues.</p>
+
+<p>I want the House to consider for a moment what the plans of the enemy
+may be as they are now revealed. It was never certain he would take this
+plunge, because he knows what it means if it fails. But he has taken it.
+The battle proves that the enemy has definitely decided to seek a
+military decision this year, whatever the consequences to himself.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Reasons for German Effort</div>
+
+<p>There is no doubt he has overwhelming reasons. There is the economic
+condition of his country and the critical economic condition of his
+allies. He is now at the height of his power, and Russia is at the
+least, while America has not yet come in in its strength. So this year
+the enemy may put forth something which approaches his full strength.
+But soon he will grow feebler and weaker in comparison with the allied
+forces.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i371.jpg"><img src="images/i371-t.jpg" width="250" height="134" alt="Representatives of the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk
+(from left to right): Gen. Hoffmann of the German Army; Count Czernin,
+Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, Talaat Pasha, Turkish Grand Vizier,
+and von Kuehlmann, German Foreign Minister
+(International Film Service)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Representatives of the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk
+(from left to right): Gen. Hoffmann of the German Army; Count Czernin,
+Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, Talaat Pasha, Turkish Grand Vizier,
+and von Kuehlmann, German Foreign Minister<br />
+(International Film Service)</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i372.jpg"><img src="images/i372-t.jpg" width="250" height="144" alt="Panorama of Venice as seen from an airplane in wartime" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Panorama of Venice as seen from an airplane in wartime</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Everything,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>
+therefore, points to the definite determination of Germany
+to put the whole of her resources into seeking a military decision this
+year, and this means a prolonged battle from the North Sea to the
+Adriatic, with Germany and Austria throwing in the whole of their
+strength.</p>
+
+<p>There are still seven or eight months within which the fighting can
+continue, and everything depends upon keeping our strength right to the
+end, whatever the strain upon our resources may be.</p>
+
+<p>With American aid we can do it. But, even with American help, we cannot
+feel secure unless we are prepared ourselves to make even greater
+sacrifices than we have hitherto made. I know what the Government wish.
+I know also what will happen if the demand which the Government is
+putting forward is not responded to.</p>
+
+<p>It is idle to imagine, as some people very lightheartedly seem to think,
+that you have got an unlimited reservoir of man power in this or in any
+belligerent country. We have already raised in this country for military
+and naval purposes very nearly six million men. We cannot raise here the
+same proportion of men per population as you can in other belligerent
+countries. I have repeatedly emphasized that in the House of Commons.</p>
+
+<p>We have the greatest navy in the world, the command of the seas depends
+not merely for ourselves, but for our allies, upon the efforts we put
+forward. That is not only a question of manning the fleet: it is also a
+question of building, of adding to the numbers of ships, and of
+repairing the ships. Then you have got a mercantile marine, without
+which the Allies could not continue the struggle for a single month.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Navy and Shipping First</div>
+
+<p>All that must be borne in mind, and whatever happens and whatever
+proposals we put forward today, it would be folly to do anything which
+would interfere with the one fundamental condition of success to the
+Allies&mdash;that the navy and shipping must be first.</p>
+
+<p>We have also got to supply coal largely to our allies, as well as steel.
+But, owing largely to improved organizations in the various industries,
+to the way they are adapting themselves from day to day to new
+conditions, and to the increased numbers and greatly increased
+efficiency of woman labor, there is a reserve of men which, consistent
+with the discharge of these obligations, may yet be withdrawn in great
+emergency for our battle line; not without damage to industry&mdash;I do not
+forget that&mdash;and not without, to a certain extent, weakening the
+economic strength of the country, and not without imposing restrictions
+and perhaps privations, but without impairment to the striking power of
+the country for war. Nothing could justify such drastic action except an
+overwhelming emergency precipitated by a great military crisis.</p>
+
+<p>I want to point out especially why the steps taken now are steps which
+will be useful in this battle. First of all, it is a battle which may
+last for months. The decision may be taken not now or next month, but
+may be months hence. But, beyond that, the Allies at the present moment
+have the same reserves of man power to reinforce their armies as Germany
+has, without taking into account those great reserves in America.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">The German Age Limit</div>
+
+<p>The Germans, however, are calling up another class, which will produce
+550,000 efficient young men. These will be prepared to be thrown into
+the battle line. This is the 1920 class, aged 18&frac12;. These can be
+thrown into the battle line before this fight is over, and we must be
+prepared for their advent in this struggle this year.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, I have to submit to Parliament the totals for increasing, and
+increasing very materially, the reserves which will be available for
+reinforcing our armies in the field during this prolonged battle, upon
+which we are only just entering. I will now give roughly some of the
+proposals we intend to make in order to increase the number of men
+available.</p>
+
+<p>We already have raised for armed forces during the first quarter of the
+year more than the quarter's proportion of the original number of men
+which it was estimated was the minimum required for the present year. We
+are also effecting a very strict comb-out of some of the essential
+industries. Very large levies have been taken from munition works. They
+will amount, I think, to something like 100,000 grade 1 men.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">New Call on the Miners</div>
+
+<p>That has been done already this year, and it will, of course, involve
+the utilization of other labor to a very large extent in munition works.
+A call for 500,000 has been made already on the coal industry, and these
+men have been rapidly recruited. I regret to say that military needs
+will necessitate the calling up of another 150,000 men from this
+industry. These men can be spared, we are convinced, after entering into
+the matter very carefully, without endangering the essential output of
+coal for national industries.</p>
+
+<p>No one is likely to forget the fine response made by the miners at the
+beginning of the war, or the splendid part they have taken in hundreds
+of battles since then. They have been loyal in meeting the present
+demand of 50,000 men, and I am confident they would meet a further call
+upon them in the same spirit, in view of this great national emergency<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>
+under which we are making it. The transport services also have been
+called upon to release the greatest possible number of fit men.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Combing Out Civil Service Under 25</div>
+
+<p>Further calls are to be made upon the civil service. I do not think it
+is realized how much the civil service has done already. On one hand, it
+has had to release a large number of men for the army, and, on the
+other, it has to meet and is meeting the increased strain of work. But
+even at the risk of some dislocation we must call upon it to do more,
+and a clean cut of young, fit men must be made.</p>
+
+<p>It is proposed that no fit men below the age of 25 should be retained.
+That is the clean-out. We comb out beyond that. I shall explain it
+later. It is proposed that it should be applied to other industries as
+well.</p>
+
+<p>When we are adding to the age and when we are extending the military
+age, it should not be said that there are fit young men of 25 who are
+employed in the various industries of the country. This will bring the
+civil service into line, and on a general level, so far as a clean-out
+is concerned, with the munitions industries.</p>
+
+<p>Under an act passed in January of this year, we are issuing orders
+canceling all occupational exemptions by age blocks in specified
+occupations. That is the clean-out. The first of these orders is being
+laid on the table in the House today and other orders of the same power
+will follow.</p>
+
+<p>I know that the House will appreciate that it is not merely necessary to
+have men, but to have them quickly. It is no use raising them unless
+they are raised in time to take part in the struggle this year, when we
+shall be short of drafts, if the battle is a prolonged one.</p>
+
+<p>The Government, therefore, has shortened the length of the calling up
+notice from fourteen days to seven and have authorized the sending of
+notice by whatever method is the most expeditious and convenient. It may
+be necessary even to curtail the rights of appeal on medical grounds,
+but for the moment it is not proposed to do so. We have had a good many
+frivolous appeals, which have wasted a good deal of time, and if that
+goes on, it will be absolutely necessary, in the interest of the
+security of the country, that the rights of appeal should be curtailed
+in this respect.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Military Age Raised to 50</div>
+
+<p>There is another consideration. The strain upon the medical profession
+has been great already. We are very short of medical men, and we may be
+driven to do it by the hard necessities of the case.</p>
+
+<p>I now turn to the new proposal embodied in the bill, which I beg leave
+to introduce today. Our first proposal is to raise the military age up
+to 50, and in certain specified cases we ask for powers to raise it to
+55, but that only when a man with special qualifications is needed.</p>
+
+<p>For instance, it may be necessary to do it, in the case of medical men,
+in order to secure their services. It may be necessary in certain
+special classes, with special training and special experience, to secure
+their services for the army. When you come to the question of raising
+the age to 50, it does not mean that men between 42 and 50 are
+necessarily to be taken in order to put them into the fighting line. It
+may be that there are men of that age who are just as fit as men of 25,
+but I am sorry to say that that is the exception, and we cannot,
+therefore, depend upon men of that age altogether to make the finest
+fighting material.</p>
+
+<p>There are a good many services in the army which do not require the very
+best physical material, and it would be very helpful to get men of this
+age to fill those services, in order to release younger and fitter men
+to enter the fighting line. There is also to be borne in mind the fact
+that we have to prepare for our home defense, so as to be able to
+release men from this country and fill their places by men between 42
+and 50, who, I have no doubt, would fight very tenaciously for their own
+homes if there were an invasion.</p>
+
+<p>The proportion of men from 42 to 50 years of age whom we expect to be
+available is not very high&mdash;something like 7 per cent. That is only 7
+per cent. of men from 42 to 50 will be available for the army.</p>
+
+<p>I only want to reassure people between 42 and 50 that all the men of
+that age are not going to be called up to the fighting line. I gave a
+sort of rough estimate that it would be only a small percentage of men
+of this age who would be likely to come under the provisions of the
+bill.</p>
+
+<p>[The Premier then took up the system of exemptions, which is revised in
+the bill. He explained that the King, under the provisions of the bill,
+could cancel former exemptions, and that men would be exempted on
+medical grounds only, with provisions also for speeding up the procedure
+of appeal tribunals. He continued:]</p>
+
+<p>We have to choose between either submitting to defeat or taking the
+necessary measures to avert it. We will never submit to accepting
+defeat.</p>
+
+<p>I need hardly say that this provision will not be used to set aside the
+pledges given to discharged soldiers. They will be carefully observed.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">CONSCRIPTION IN IRELAND</div>
+
+<p>I now come to the question of Ireland. When an emergency has arisen
+which makes it necessary to put men of 50 and boys of 18 into the army
+in the fight for liberty and independence&mdash;[Joseph Devlin here
+interrupted]&mdash;"and small nationalities," the Premier resumed: Especially
+as I am reminded,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> to fight for liberty and independence and small
+nationalities, I am perfectly certain it is not possible to justify any
+longer the exclusion of Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>John Dillon&mdash;You will not get any men from Ireland by compulsion, not a
+man.</p>
+
+<p>The Premier&mdash;What is the position? No home rule proposal ever submitted
+in this House proposed to deprive the Imperial Parliament of the power
+of dealing with all questions in relation to the army and navy. These
+invariably are in every home rule bill I have ever seen and are purely
+questions for the Imperial Parliament, so that I am claiming no more as
+a national right than was ever claimed in the House. The Defense of the
+Realm act also was extended to Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>The character of the quarrel in which we are engaged is just as much
+Irish as English. May I say it is more so? It is more Irish, Scotch, and
+Welsh than it is even English. Ireland, through its representatives at
+the beginning of the war, assented to it.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Devlin&mdash;Because it was a war for small nationalities.</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister&mdash;Ireland, through its representatives, assented to
+the war, voted for the war, supported the war. Irish representatives and
+Ireland, through its representatives, without a dissenting voice
+committed the empire to this war. They are as responsible for it as any
+part of the United Kingdom. May I just read the declaration issued by
+the Irish Party on Dec. 17, 1914, shortly after the war began?</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrne&mdash;We have had a revolution since then.</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister&mdash;This is the Declaration of the Irish Party:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>A test to search men's souls has arisen. The empire is engaged
+in the most serious war in history. It is a just war, provoked
+by the intolerable military despotism of Germany. It is a war
+for the defense of the sacred rights and liberties of small
+nations and the respect and enlargement of the great principles
+of nationality. Involved in it is the fate of France, our
+kindred country and the chief nation of that powerful Celtic
+race to which we belong; the fate of Belgium, to whom we are
+attached by the same great ties of race and by the common desire
+of small nations to assert their freedom, and the fate of
+Poland, whose sufferings and struggles bear so marked a
+resemblance to our own.</p>
+
+<p>It is a war for the high ideals of human government and
+international relations, and Ireland would be false to her
+history and to every consideration of honor, good faith, and
+self-interest did she not willingly bear her share in its
+burdens and its sacrifices. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It is not merely illogical that Ireland should not help, it is unjust.
+If it were merely England's battle, the young men of Ireland might
+regard that fact with indifference, but it is not. They are just as much
+concerned as the young men of England. Therefore, it is proposed to
+extend conscription on the same conditions as in Great Britain.</p>
+
+<p>As there is no machinery in existence and no register has as yet been
+completed in Ireland, it may take some weeks before active enrollments
+begin. As soon as arrangements are complete the Government will put the
+act into immediate operation.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Irish Members Raise Uproar</div>
+
+<p>[When Mr. Lloyd George referred to Ireland, Alfred Byrne, Nationalist
+member from Dublin, shouted: "We won't have conscription in Ireland!" An
+uproar followed. The Premier said the report of the Irish Convention was
+adopted by a majority only, and therefore the Government would take the
+responsibility for such proposals for self-government as were just and
+could be carried out without violent controversy. It would be some weeks
+before enrollment in Ireland began, the Premier continued. One
+Nationalist cried out: "It will never begin." Michael Flavin,
+Nationalist member from Kerry, said: "You come across and try to take
+us." Another Nationalist exclaimed: "It is a declaration of war against
+Ireland."]</p>
+
+<p>When the Premier was referring to Ireland, John Dillon, the successor of
+the late John Redmond as leader of the Irish Nationalists in Parliament,
+said: "If Irish liberty were at stake I would not hesitate to support
+that policy. I never challenged the justice of war. I don't challenge it
+now."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lloyd George began: "I don't want to cause trouble&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You will get plenty," interrupted an Irish member.</p>
+
+<p>Resuming, Lloyd George said "While we have one ship afloat we should not
+accept a German peace. The men being taken now may be the means of a
+decisive issue."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Asquith said he would suspend judgment until he saw the bill in
+print. He invited every one to keep his mind and ears accessible to
+reasonable argument. At the conclusion of Mr. Asquith's speech, Joseph
+Devlin moved an adjournment and warned the Government that it was
+entering upon a course of madness if it endeavored to inforce
+conscription on Ireland. His motion was defeated later by a vote of 323
+to 80.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Dillon said he hoped for the sake of the war and for the sake of the
+empire that the methods of the War Cabinet in dealing with the war were
+different from its methods in dealing with Ireland. A bill applying
+conscription to Ireland, Mr. Dillon continued, would plunge the country
+into bloodshed and confusion and would open a new war front in addition
+to the western front. He urged the War Cabinet to inform itself as to
+the state of Irish feeling before proposing conscription to Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>Leave to introduce the Government's Man-Power bill was carried after
+further hot debate by 299 to 80.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span></p>
+<h2>Russia and the Allies</h2>
+
+<h3>The Russian and the French Revolution Compared&mdash;The Gloomy Outlook of
+Russia</h3>
+
+<div class="center">By Arthur J. Balfour<br /><br />
+<i>British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs</i><br /><br />
+[<span class="smcap">From an Address Delivered in Parliament March 14, 1918</span>]<br />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The inference that Russia would have been kept in the war if we had
+announced that we proposed to go in for the status quo ante and
+readjustments is wrong. Pronouncements made by Russian statesmen always
+included self-determination. Self-determination can never be squared
+with mere adjustments. It may be that self-determination might
+conceivably receive a large measure of fulfillment, I agree, up to a
+certain point, but that Russian statesmen by their declarations have
+materially limited the scope of the war I believe to be inaccurate. But
+whether accurate or not, one is entirely misrepresenting the political
+and social forces of Russia if he thinks that the reason Russia went out
+of the war was that our war aims were not publicly or semi-publicly
+reconsidered in concert with the Allies.</p>
+
+<p>I do not profess to have a remedy for the misfortunes that have
+occurred&mdash;as I think to civilization itself&mdash;from the fact that the
+Russian revolution occurred in the middle of a European war. I welcome
+the change from autocracy to what we hoped and still hope, what we
+believed and still believe, is going to be a reign of ordered liberty.
+But the revolution, unfortunately, came at a time when Russia was weary
+with the sacrifices of a great war, and it was mixed up and almost
+overshadowed on its political side by the pacifist influences which were
+allowed to reign uncontrolled in the army and navy and all the other
+forces which might and should have been co-ordinated to resist the
+common enemy.</p>
+
+<p>There are resemblances between the Russian revolution and the French
+Revolution, but from our point of view, and from the point of view of
+the war and of how we are to secure in the future the freedom of small
+nationalities, and how we are to save the world from the domination of
+one overgreedy power, from that point of view no greater misfortune
+could have occurred than the coincidence between the Russian revolution
+and the fact that a war was being conducted in which Russia was one of
+the great Allies. I personally am an optimist about Russia, but I am not
+an optimist about the immediate future of Russia, because it seems to me
+that difficulties are thrown in Russia's way by the fact that the war
+raged before the revolution. Russia is only nominally out of the war at
+the present time, but is still suffering from the invasion of her
+enemies. The French Revolution was associated with great military
+operations. It ended in the production of an army whose fiery efficiency
+was the wonder of Europe and which overturned all the decrepit
+monarchies in the Central European States. Contrast that with what has
+happened in Russia since the revolution. There is not a single fighting
+instrument possessed by Russia which the Russian revolutionaries have
+not deliberately but absolutely and completely destroyed.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">RESULTS OF THE REVOLUTION</div>
+
+<p>The Russian Army no longer exists and the Russian Navy no longer exists.
+The Rumanian Army&mdash;that most gallant and most unfortunate body, which
+might have and would have co-operated to preserve both Russia and
+Rumania from the tyranny of the Central Powers&mdash;had been betrayed by
+Russia itself. The unhappy results of the revolution from the military
+point of view are quite plain and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> obvious to the most casual observer.
+The actual course pursued by the Bolsheviki has rendered them completely
+helpless in the face of German aggression. Now they express the
+desire&mdash;I am sure they express it genuinely and earnestly&mdash;that they
+should reconstitute the Russian Army for the purpose of Russian defense,
+and they would welcome our assistance, doubtless, in carrying out this
+object. But can you reconstitute it for purposes of national defense?
+Can you improvise a new instrument when fragments of the old instrument
+are lying shattered around you? It cannot be done in a day.</p>
+
+<p>Had Russia not been at war I believe it would have taken many years to
+complete what I hope and believe is to be the beneficent course of the
+Russian revolution. Autocracy&mdash;and it is very difficult to see how the
+Russia we know could have been created without it&mdash;showed itself quite
+incapable of bringing into existence that frame of mind which makes a
+great self-conscious nation independent of the particular form which its
+institutions may have at the moment. Autocracy was destroyed, and
+immediately Russia fell into chaos.</p>
+
+<p>I am not sure that it was not my honorable friend (Mr. MacCallum Scott)
+who said exactly the same thing happened in France. The same thing
+really did not happen in France. I do not say we cannot find in this or
+that episode parallels to the French Revolution, but the total effect of
+the Revolution was not the disintegration of France but its integration.
+The units out of which modern France was constructed were no doubt
+compacted into a nation under the old monarchy, but the divisions
+between these units were still obvious; they still remained in the
+institutions of the country, and it was not until the Revolution that
+France became homogeneous from end to end and all the old provincial
+distinctions were swept away.</p>
+
+<p>Precisely the opposite has happened in Russia. The revolution comes and
+immediately all the old divisions between populations, between different
+regions, between different creeds, suddenly become marked and
+prominent. First this body and then that body threatens to fall way, and
+it must inevitably take time before we see the end of that process and
+know clearly how much of the old Russia, if any, ought to cease to form
+part of the new Russia and how the new Russia will be constituted. A
+very difficult process in time of peace, a very difficult process in
+time of prosperity, but how are you going to carry it out in time of war
+when you have at your gates an enemy remorseless, persevering, quite
+unscrupulous, like that which is dealing at its own sweet will with
+Russia at the present moment? That is the real difficulty which we have
+always had to deal with and to think over to the best of our ability
+when we consider some of the problems raised by the honorable gentleman
+who initiated this debate.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">JAPAN AND SIBERIA</div>
+
+<p>[The speaker then took up an inquiry regarding a suggestion of Japanese
+intervention in Siberia. He said the hypothesis that whenever one
+country sends troops into another country those troops invariably stay
+where they are sent, and annexation is the result, was false; if such
+were the case there would be a bad outlook for the north of France. He
+argued that if the Japanese did intervene it would be as friends of
+Russia and enemies of Germany, to preserve the country from German
+domination, and he proceeded thus:]</p>
+
+<p>Russia lies absolutely derelict upon the waters, and now it has no power
+of resistance at all; there can be a German penetration from end to end
+of Russia, which, I think, will be absolutely disastrous for Russia
+itself, and certainly will be very injurious to the future of the
+Allies. I suspect that at this moment a German officer is much safer
+traveling at large through Russia than an allied officer. Why? Not
+because the Russians love the Germans, but because, as a matter of fact,
+the German penetration has really struck at the root of Russian power. I
+was informed the other day that only one bank was allowed at Moscow.
+That bank is a German bank.</p>
+
+<p>The Bolshevist Government, I believe,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> sincerely desire&mdash;I hope not too
+late, though I fear it may be so&mdash;to resist this German penetration. How
+can they resist it when they themselves or their predecessors have
+destroyed every instrument which makes resistance possible?</p>
+
+<p>Inevitably Russia's allies have to ask themselves whether, if Russia
+herself has destroyed every instrument of self-protection which she once
+possessed, they cannot themselves among themselves supply that which she
+now lacks. We do that in Russia's own interests and for Russia's own
+sake, if it is done. It is not done to satisfy the greed of this or that
+power. That is the Allies' point of view. May I ask the House to
+consider the question from the Russian point of view? It is impossible
+to penetrate the future. Russia has always been a country of surprises,
+and that she remains at the present moment. What are the things which
+most of us fear for Russia when we look to the future? Frankly, I tell
+the House what I myself fear for Russia is this: Under the impulse,
+under the shadow of the great revolution, the cataclysm of social order
+has been shaken to its foundations, and many disasters, and I fear many
+crimes, have been committed.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">DIVIDE AND GOVERN</div>
+
+<p>It is Germany's interest, I believe, to foster and continue and promote
+that condition of disorder. Those who watch her methods throughout the
+world know that she always wishes to encourage disorder in every other
+country but her own. If the country is a republic she wishes to
+introduce absolutism; if it is an absolutist Government then she seeks
+to encourage republicanism. She counts it her gain that other
+Governments should be weak, and she knows that there is no better way of
+making other countries weak than by making them divided&mdash;a house divided
+against itself. Therefore I believe that Germany unchecked will do her
+best to continue those disorders which have unhappily stained the path
+of the Russian revolution.</p>
+
+<p>What must be the result? The result must be&mdash;especially in a country
+where the sense of national unity appears, at all events, for the
+moment to be singularly weak compared with that which prevails in other
+civilized countries&mdash;that men will at last look around and say to
+themselves, "This disorder is intolerable; it makes life impossible;
+human effort cannot go on; something must be done, good or bad, to put
+an end to mere chaos." There will therefore be classes in Russia, some
+with patriotic motives, but some with personal and selfish motives, who
+will welcome anything in the world which gives them the semblance of a
+stable, orderly, and civilized Government.</p>
+
+<p>When that time comes, then I can see Germany will say, Now we will step
+in; we will, by both the open and subterranean methods which we have
+developed and cultivated, now exercise our power in the country. We will
+re-establish, possibly in the same form, possibly in some new form, the
+autocracy which we in this House hoped had gone forever; and you will
+have in a Russia shorn of some of its fairest provinces set up again an
+autocracy far worse than the old autocracy, because it will lean upon a
+foreign power to continue its existence. Then, indeed, if that prophecy
+came to pass&mdash;and I most earnestly hope I am in this a false
+prophet&mdash;all our dreams of Russian development and Russian liberty would
+be gone. Russia under this Government would be a mere echo of the
+Central Powers; she would cease to be a make-weight in any sense to
+German militarism. She would have lost all that initiative, all that
+power for self-development that we so earnestly hoped the revolution had
+given her.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">A GLOOMY HOROSCOPE</div>
+
+<p>I admit that this picture is dark and sombre. Will anybody have the
+courage to say he can draw a horoscope for the future more likely to be
+fulfilled, if Russia remains, as I fear she is at this moment,
+absolutely helpless in face of the German penetration? It all turns upon
+that. If Russia could only rouse herself now and offer effective
+resistance to the German invader, that might give her a national spirit
+and sense of unity,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> and make her future far more splendid than her
+past. Therefore the question will inevitably be asked: Can any of the
+Allies give to Russia in her extremity that help and that sympathy of
+which she so sorely stands in need? It is help and sympathy which the
+Allies desire to give, and not invasion and plunder. I agree that there
+may be circumstances, prejudices, and feelings which render assistance
+in the East by the only country which can give it in the East a question
+of difficulty and doubt&mdash;a question which must be weighed in every
+balance and looked at from every point of view; but that the
+Allies&mdash;America, Britain, France, Italy, and Japan&mdash;should do what they
+can at this moment to help Russia, if she fails to help herself, through
+the great crisis of her destiny appears to me to be beyond doubt, and I
+will not reject, a priori, any suggestion which seems to offer the
+slightest solution of our doing any good in that direction.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE LOYALTY OF JAPAN</div>
+
+<p>I do not think this debate should finish without repudiating the
+suggestion made that Japan is moved by selfish and dishonorable motives
+in any course which may have been discussed in Japan, either among her
+own statesmen or the Allies. Japan has maintained perfect loyalty. She
+has kept all the promises made to the Allies. I hope I have said enough
+to indicate the general problems as they present themselves to this
+Government, and at the same time also to show that we recognize to the
+full how difficult this problem is, how hard it is to help a nation
+which is utterly incapable for the moment of helping itself. The House
+will feel, I think, that the decisions which the Allies may have to give
+are not without difficulty, and the principles upon which those
+decisions will be come to are neither ungenerous, unfair, nor hostile to
+Russia or the Russian revolution; but on the contrary that our one
+object is to see Russia strong, intact, secure, and free. If these
+objects can be attained, then, indeed, and then only, will the Russian
+revolution bring forth all the fruits which Russia's best friends desire
+to see.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>President on the Russian Treaties</h2>
+
+<h3>Declares Germany Has Repudiated Her Peace Avowals and Will Be Met With
+"Force to the Utmost"</h3>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>President Wilson delivered an address at Baltimore on April 6,
+1918, in which he denounced the terms which the Central Powers
+had exacted from Russia and Rumania, and defined the attitude of
+the United States toward all peace proposals offered on such a
+basis. The text of his speech in full is as follows:</i> </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Fellow-citizens: This is the anniversary of our acceptance of Germany's
+challenge to fight for our right to live and be free, and for the sacred
+rights of freemen everywhere. The nation is awake. There is no need to
+call to it. We know what the war must cost, our utmost sacrifice, the
+lives of our fittest men, and, if need be, all that we possess.</p>
+
+<p>The loan we are met to discuss is one of the least parts of what we are
+called upon to give and to do, though in itself imperative. The people
+of the whole country are alive to the necessity of it and are ready to
+lend to the utmost, even where it involves a sharp skimping and daily
+sacrifice to lend out of meagre earnings. They will look with
+reprobation and contempt upon those who can and will not, upon those who
+demand a higher rate of interest, upon those who think of it as a mere
+commercial transaction. I have not come, therefore, to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> urge the loan. I
+have come only to give you, if I can, a more vivid conception of what it
+is for.</p>
+
+<p>The reasons for this great war, the reason why it had to come, the need
+to fight it through, and the issues that hang upon its outcome, are more
+clearly disclosed now than ever before. It is easy to see just what this
+particular loan means, because the cause we are fighting for stands more
+sharply revealed than at any previous crisis of the momentous struggle.
+The man who knows least can now see plainly how the cause of justice
+stands, and what the imperishable thing he is asked to invest in. Men in
+America may be more sure than they ever were before that the cause is
+their own, and that, if it should be lost, their own great nation's
+place and mission in the world would be lost with it.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">OUR VERDICT DELIBERATE</div>
+
+<p>I call you to witness, my fellow-countrymen, that at no stage of this
+terrible business have I judged the purposes of Germany intemperately. I
+should be ashamed in the presence of affairs so grave, so fraught with
+the destinies of mankind throughout all the world, to speak with
+truculence, to use the weak language of hatred or vindictive purpose. We
+must judge as we would be judged. I have sought to learn the objects
+Germany has in this war from the mouths of her own spokesmen, and to
+deal as frankly with them as I wished them to deal with me. I have laid
+bare our own ideals, our own purposes, without reserve or doubtful
+phrase, and have asked them to say as plainly what it is that they seek.</p>
+
+<p>We have ourselves proposed no injustice, no aggression. We are ready,
+whenever the final reckoning is made, to be just to the German people,
+deal fairly with the German power, as with all others. There can be no
+difference between peoples in the final judgment, if it is indeed to be
+a righteous judgment. To propose anything but justice, even-handed and
+dispassionate justice, to Germany at any time, whatever the outcome of
+the war, would be to renounce and dishonor our own cause, for we ask
+nothing that we are not willing to accord.</p>
+
+<p>It has been with this thought that I have sought to learn from those who
+spoke for Germany whether it was justice or dominion and the execution
+of their own will upon the other nations of the world that the German
+leaders were seeking. They have answered&mdash;answered in unmistakable
+terms. They have avowed that it was not justice, but dominion and the
+unhindered execution of their own will.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">GERMANY'S REAL RULERS</div>
+
+<p>The avowal has not come from Germany's statesmen. It has come from her
+military leaders, who are her real rulers. Her statesmen have said that
+they wished peace, and were ready to discuss its terms whenever their
+opponents were willing to sit down at the conference table with them.
+Her present Chancellor has said&mdash;in indefinite and uncertain terms,
+indeed, and in phrases that often seem to deny their own meaning, but
+with as much plainness as he thought prudent&mdash;that he believed that
+peace should be based upon the principles which we had declared would be
+our own in the final settlement.</p>
+
+<p>At Brest-Litovsk her civilian delegates spoke in similar terms;
+professed their desire to conclude a fair peace and accord to the
+peoples with whose fortunes they were dealing the right to choose their
+own allegiances. But action accompanied and followed the profession.
+Their military masters, the men who act for Germany and exhibit her
+purpose in execution, proclaimed a very different conclusion. We cannot
+mistake what they have done&mdash;in Russia, in Finland, in the Ukraine, in
+Rumania. The real test of their justice and fair play has come. From
+this we may judge the rest.</p>
+
+<p>They are enjoying in Russia a cheap triumph in which no brave or gallant
+nation can long take pride. A great people, helpless by their own act,
+lies for the time at their mercy. Their fair professions are forgotten.
+They nowhere set up justice, but everywhere impose their power and
+exploit everything for their own use and aggrandizement, and the peoples
+of conquered provinces are invited to be free under their dominion!</p>
+
+<p>Are we not justified in believing that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> they would do the same things at
+their western front if they were not there face to face with armies whom
+even their countless divisions cannot overcome? If, when they have felt
+their check to be final, they should propose favorable and equitable
+terms with regard to Belgium and France and Italy, could they blame us
+if we concluded that they did so only to assure themselves of a free
+hand in Russia and the East?</p>
+
+<p>Their purpose is, undoubtedly, to make all the Slavic peoples, all the
+free and ambitious nations of the Baltic Peninsula, all the lands that
+Turkey has dominated and misruled, subject to their will and ambition,
+and build upon that dominion an empire of force upon which they fancy
+that they can then erect an empire of gain and commercial supremacy&mdash;an
+empire as hostile to the Americas as to the Europe which it will
+overawe&mdash;an empire which will ultimately master Persia, India, and the
+peoples of the Far East.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">DEMOCRATIC IDEALS FLOUTED</div>
+
+<p>In such a program our ideals, the ideals of justice and humanity and
+liberty, the principle of the free self-determination of nations, upon
+which all the modern world insists, can play no part. They are rejected
+for the ideals of power, for the principle that the strong must rule the
+weak, that trade must follow the flag, whether those to whom it is taken
+welcome it or not, that the peoples of the world are to be made subject
+to the patronage and overlordship of those who have the power to enforce
+it.</p>
+
+<p>That program once carried out, America and all who care or dare to stand
+with her must arm and prepare themselves to contest the mastery of the
+world&mdash;a mastery in which the rights of common men, the rights of women
+and of all who are weak, must for the time being be trodden underfoot
+and disregarded and the old, age-long struggle for freedom and right
+begin again at its beginning. Everything that America has lived for and
+loved and grown great to vindicate and bring to a glorious realization
+will have fallen in utter ruin and the gates of mercy once more
+pitilessly shut upon mankind!</p>
+
+<p>The thing is preposterous and impossible; and yet is not that what the
+whole course and action of the German armies have meant wherever they
+have moved? I do not wish, even in this moment of utter disillusionment,
+to judge harshly or unrighteously. I judge only what the German arms
+have accomplished with unpitying thoroughness throughout every fair
+region they have touched.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">AMERICA ACCEPTS CHALLENGE</div>
+
+<p>What, then, are we to do? For myself, I am ready, ready still, ready
+even now, to discuss a fair and just and honest peace at any time that
+it is sincerely purposed&mdash;a peace in which the strong and the weak shall
+fare alike. But the answer, when I proposed such a peace, came from the
+German commanders in Russia, and I cannot mistake the meaning of the
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>I accept the challenge. I know that you accept it. All the world shall
+know that you accept it. It shall appear in the utter sacrifice and
+self-forgetfulness with which we shall give all that we love and all
+that we have to redeem the world and make it fit for free men like
+ourselves to live in. This now is the meaning of all that we do. Let
+everything that we say, my fellow-countrymen, everything that we
+henceforth plan and accomplish, ring true to this response till the
+majesty and might of our concerted power shall fill the thought and
+utterly defeat the force of those who flout and misprize what we honor
+and hold dear.</p>
+
+<p>Germany has once more said that force, and force alone, shall decide
+whether justice and peace shall reign in the affairs of men, whether
+right as America conceives it or dominion as she conceives it shall
+determine the destinies of mankind. There is, therefore, but one
+response possible from us: Force, force to the utmost, force without
+stint or limit, the righteous and triumphant force which shall make
+right the law of the world and cast every selfish dominion down in the
+dust.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span></p>
+<h2>American Liberty's Crucial Hour</h2>
+
+<h3>By William E. Borah</h3>
+
+<div class="center"><i>United States Senator From Idaho</i><br /><br />
+[<span class="smcap">Delivered in the Senate, March 18, 1918, at the Climax of a
+Debate Over the Fixing of Wheat Prices</span>]
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Mr. President: The German historian, Professor Meyer, in a book written
+since the beginning of the war, in which he sums up the issues involved,
+or rather the issue, because it all resolves itself into one, uses this
+language: "The truth of the whole matter undoubtedly is that the time
+has arrived when two distinct forms of State organization must face each
+other in a life-and-death struggle."</p>
+
+<p>That is undoubtedly the understanding and belief of those who are
+responsible for this war. It is coming to be the understanding and
+belief of those who have had the war forced upon them. We have finally
+put aside the tragedy at the Bosnian capital and the wrongs inflicted
+upon Belgium as the moving causes of the war. They were but the prologue
+to the imperial theme. We now see and understand clearly and
+unmistakably the cause at all times lying back of these things. Upon the
+one hand are Magna Charta, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of
+Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the principles
+of human liberty which they embody and preserve. Upon the other hand is
+that peculiar form of State organization which, in the language of the
+Emperor, rests alone upon the strength of the army and whose highest
+creed finds expression in the words of one of its greatest advocates
+that war is a part of the eternal order instituted by God. We go back to
+Runnymede, where fearless men wrenched from the hands of power habeas
+corpus and the trial by jury. They point us to Breslau and Molwitz,
+where Frederick the Great, in violation of his plighted word,
+inaugurated the rule of fraud and force and laid the foundation for that
+mighty structure whose central and dominating principle is that of
+power.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 300px;">
+<a href="images/i397.jpg"><img src="images/i397-t.jpg" width="153" height="250" alt="SENATOR WILLIAM E. BORAH" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />SENATOR WILLIAM E. BORAH</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>It is that power with which we are at war today. Shall men, shall the
+people, be governed by some remorseless and soulless entity softly
+called the "State" or shall the instrumentalities of government yield
+alone and at all times to the wants and necessities, the hopes and
+aspirations, of the masses? That is now the issue. Nothing should longer
+conceal it. It is but another and more stupendous phase of the old
+struggle, a struggle as ancient and as inevitable as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> the thirst for
+power and the love of liberty, a struggle in which men have fought and
+sacrificed all the way from Marathon to Verdun.</p>
+
+<p>It seems strange now, and it will seem more extraordinary to those who
+come after us, that we did not recognize from the beginning that this
+was the issue. But, obscured by the d�bris of European life, confused
+with the dynastic quarrels and racial bitterness of the Old World, it
+was difficult to discern, and still more difficult to realize, that the
+very life of our institutions was at stake, that the scheme of the
+enemy, amazing and astounding, was not alone to control territory and
+dominate commerce, but to change the drift of human progress and to
+readjust the standards of the world's civilization. Perhaps, too, our
+love of peace, our traditional friendship for all nations, lulled
+suspicion and discouraged inquiry. Be that as it may, there can be no
+doubt now.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever the cause, however perverse the fates which bring us to this
+crisis, we are called upon not to settle questions of territory or
+establish new spheres of national activity, but to defend the
+institutions under which we live. Who doubts should we fail that the
+whole theory and system of government for which we have labored and
+struggled, our whole conception of civilization, would be discredited
+utterly? Who but believes that, should we lose, militarism would be the
+searching test of all Governments and that the world would be an armed
+camp harried and tortured and decimated by endless wars?</p>
+
+<p>No; we can no longer doubt the issue, and, notwithstanding some
+discouraging facts, we must not doubt the result. We are simply meeting
+the test which brave men have met before, for this issue has been fought
+over and over again for 3,000 years. Islam's fanaticism was grounded in
+the same design and made of the same stuff, but it broke upon the valor
+of Charles Martel's men at Tours. But the conflict was not conclusive.
+The elder Napoleon was obsessed by the same dream of world dominion, the
+same passion for military glory, that now obsesses those against whom we
+war. But he, too, saw his universal sceptre depart when chance and
+fate, which sometimes war on the side of liberty, turned from him on the
+field of Waterloo. And now the issue is again made up, and again this
+dream of world dominion, this passion for military glory, torments the
+souls of our would-be masters. And now again somewhere on the
+battlefields of Europe the same fate awaits the hosts of irresponsible
+power. In such a contest and with such an issue we cannot lose; it would
+not harmonize with the law of human progress.</p>
+
+<p>It has been the proud belief of some that not only would this war result
+in greater prestige and greater security for free institutions, but that
+it would effectuate the spread of democracy throughout Europe. We all
+hope for great things, for we believe in the ultimate triumph of free
+institutions, but we must not expect these things out of hand. The
+broken sobs of nations struggling to be independent and free so often
+heard in that part of the world and then heard no more, the story of
+Russia just now being written in contention and blood, admonishes anew
+that the republican road to safety and stability is encompassed by all
+kinds of trials and beset by countless perils. Democracy is the severest
+test of character which can be put upon a people, and must be learned
+and acquired in the rigid school of experience. It cannot be handed
+whole and complete to any people, though every member of the community
+were a Socrates.</p>
+
+<p>But what we have determined in this crisis, as I understand it, is that
+we will keep the road of democracy open. No one shall close it. If any
+nation shall hereafter rise to the sublime requirement of
+self-government and choose to go that way, it shall have the right to do
+so. Above all things we have determined, cost what it may in treasure
+and blood, that this experiment here upon this Western Continent shall
+justify the faith of its builders, that there shall remain here in all
+the integrity of its powers neither wrenched nor marred by the passions
+of war from within nor humbled nor dishonored by military power from
+without, the Republic of the fathers; that since<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> the challenge has been
+thrown down that this is a war unto death between two opposing theories
+of government we are determined that whatever else happens as a result
+of this war this form of organization, this theory of state, this last
+great hope, this fruition of 130 years of struggle and toil, "shall not
+perish from the earth."</p>
+
+<p>So, Sir, stripped of all incidental and confusing things, the problem
+which our soldiers will help to solve is whether the theory of
+government exemplified in the dynasty of the Hohenzollerns or the theory
+of government exemplified in the faith of Abraham Lincoln shall prevail.
+It is after all a war of ideals, a clash of systems, a death struggle of
+ideals.</p>
+
+<p>Amid the sacrilege of war it is our belief that the old order passeth.
+In such a contest there is little room for compromise. We can no more
+quit than Washington could have quit at Valley Forge. We can no more
+compromise than Lincoln could have compromised after Chancellorsville.</p>
+
+<p>We can and should keep the issue clear of all selfish and imperialistic
+ambitions, but the issue itself cannot be compromised. Cost what it may
+in treasure and blood, the burden, as if by fate, has been laid upon us,
+and we must meet it manfully and successfully. To compromise is to
+acknowledge defeat. The policies of Frederick the Great, which would
+make of all human souls mere cogs in a vast military machine, and the
+policies of Washington, which would make government the expression and
+the instrument of popular power, are contending for supremacy on the
+battlefield of Europe. Just that single, simple, stupendous issue,
+beside which all other issues in this war are trivial, must have a
+settlement as clear and conclusive as the settlement at Runnymede or
+Yorktown. To lose sight of this fact is to miss the supreme purpose of
+the war, and to permit it to be embarrassed or belittled by questions of
+territory is to betray the cause of civilization. And to fail to settle
+it clearly and conclusively is to fail in the most vital and sublime
+task ever laid upon a people.</p>
+
+<p>We need not prophesy now when victory will come. Neither is it
+profitable to speculate how it will come. If it is a real and not a
+sham peace, we will have no trouble in recognizing it when it does come.
+Whether it shall come in the bloody and visible triumph of arms or, as
+we hope, through the overthrow and destruction of militarism by the
+people of the respective countries, we do not know. But that it will
+come we confidently believe. Indeed, if the principles of right and the
+precepts of liberty are not a myth, we know it will come.</p>
+
+<p>It has been said by some one that it was not possible for Napoleon to
+win at Waterloo, not on account of Wellington, not on account of
+Bl�cher, but on account of the unchanging laws of liberty and justice.
+Let us call something of this faith to our own contest. Let us go
+forward in the belief that it is not possible in the morning of the
+twentieth century of the Christian civilization for militarism, for
+brute force, to triumph. It would be in contravention to every law,
+human and Divine, upon which rests the happiness and preservation of the
+human family. It would be to place brute force first in the Divine
+economy of things. It would be to place might over right, and in the
+last and final struggle that cannot be done.</p>
+
+<p>No; we cannot lose. We must win. The only question is whether we shall,
+through efficiency and concerted and united action, win without
+unnecessary loss of life, unnecessary waste of treasure, or whether we
+shall, through lack of unity in spirit and purpose, win only after
+fearful and unnecessary sacrifices.</p>
+
+<p>It has often been said since the war began, Mr. President, that a
+republic cannot make war. I trample the doctrine under my feet. I scorn
+the faithless creed as the creed of cowards and traitors. If a republic
+cannot make war, if it cannot stand the ordeal of conflict, why in the
+name of the living God are our boys on the western front? Are they there
+to suffer and die for a miserable craft that can only float in the
+serene breeze of the Summer seas and must sink or drive for port at the
+first coming on of the storm? No; they are there to defend a craft which
+is equal to every conflict and superior to every foe&mdash;the triumph<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> and
+the pride of all the barks that have battled with the ocean of time.</p>
+
+<p>A republic can make war. It can make war successfully and triumphantly
+and remain a republic every hour of the conflict. The genius who
+presided over the organization of this Republic, whose impressive force
+was knit into every fibre of our national organization, was the greatest
+soldier, save one, of the modern world; and the most far-visioned leader
+and statesman of all time. He knew that though devoted to peace the time
+would come when the Republic would have to make war. Over and over again
+he solemnly warned his countrymen to be ever ready and always prepared.
+He intended, therefore, that this Republic should make war and make war
+effectively, and the Republic which Washington framed and baptized with
+his love can make war. Let these faithless recreants cease to preach
+their pernicious doctrine.</p>
+
+<p>Sir, this theory, this belief that a self-governing people cannot make
+war without forfeiting their freedom and their form of government is
+vicious enough to have been kenneled in some foreign clime. A hundred
+million people knit together by the ties of a common patriotism, united
+in spirit and purpose, conscious of the fact that their freedom is
+imperiled, and exerting their energies and asserting their powers
+through the avenues and machinery of a representative Republic is the
+most masterful enginery of war yet devised by man. It has in it a power,
+an element of strength, which no military power of itself can bring into
+effect.</p>
+
+<p>The American soldier, a part of the life of his nation, imbued with
+devotion to his country, has something in him that no system or mere
+military training and discipline as applied to automatons of an absolute
+Government can ever give. The most priceless heritage which this war
+will leave to a war-torn and weary world is the demonstrated fact that a
+free people of a free Government can make war successfully and
+triumphantly, can defy and defeat militarism and preserve through it all
+their independence, their freedom, and the integrity of their
+institutions.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>Defending the World's Right to Democracy</h2>
+
+<h3>By James Hamilton Lewis</h3>
+
+<div class="center"><i>United States Senator from Illinois</i><br /><br />
+[<span class="smcap">From a Recent Speech in the United States Senate</span>]
+</div>
+
+<p>No democracy was ever founded in any Government of earth that did not
+have to fight to continue its existence or maintain its ideals. Hear
+Goethe proclaim to Prussia, "Those who have liberty must fight to keep
+it." The test of every free land that tries out its worthiness or
+unworthiness to exist as a Government of freedom has been its
+willingness or refusal to fight and die for its faith. No Government
+that has not exhibited a capacity to sacrifice all it has for the theory
+for which it was founded, and to prove its ability to protect and
+perpetuate the institutions it has created, has ever yet existed for a
+length of time sufficient to be recorded in history as having fostered
+liberty or transmitted democracy to men. No Government has yet been
+accorded by civilization a place among the nations of the earth until it
+had first demonstrated its worthiness to administer justice by doing
+justice to itself, and then to prove its power in conflict to overcome
+its natural enemies, whether from within or without. * * *</p>
+
+<p>Our United States, too, must pass under the rod. America's institutions
+of freedom, inspiring mankind to her example and awakening oppressed
+lands to follow her course if they would know liberty, inflamed the
+souls of the royal rulers of Prussia with fear and fired them to war of
+destruction upon all that America stood for and was living for. * * *<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;">
+<a href="images/i407.jpg"><img src="images/i407-t.jpg" width="168" height="250" alt="SENATOR J. HAMILTON LEWIS" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />SENATOR J. HAMILTON LEWIS</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Whatever riches America has amassed from her industry, whatever wealth
+gathered from her commerce, what harvests garnered from her fields, are
+all as but the least of offering compared to that which she brings to
+civilization in the growth of liberty, the perfection of justice, and
+the expansion of freedom with which she has been able by her example and
+her power, through her religion and her generosities, to endow mankind.
+Other nations have risen in triumph of power and lived for a while in
+the glory of arms, but by selfish achievement&mdash;conquest through the
+slash of swords&mdash;they have fallen. As these wrenched victory by strength
+and success by power, they but showed the way to the rival wherein to
+multiply and by these same standards prevail. That which was victor
+yesterday was the conquered of today, and thus one after the other the
+powerful nations of the world, resting only upon the achievement of
+riches, the multiplication of wealth, and the power of the sword, have
+broken and melted away, leaving nothing enduring to which mankind
+appeals as example to follow or the children of men turn to as gods to
+be worshipped or praised. Hear Ruskin echoing this truth:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Riches of Tyre, Thebes, and Carthage; yea, I say also the once
+Rome and great Persia are left for our beholding in the periods
+of their decline. They are ghosts upon the sands of the sea.
+Theirs was power, riches, grandeur; much for a country&mdash;nothing
+for man. They rose; they shined, yea glowed, laughed,
+persecuted, and oppressed, and then they died, and man asks not,
+where are they? nor cares that they live not among nations. As
+among men, there is to nations a justice of God and the
+vengeance of time. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mr. President, refined civilization as it increases in its purpose of
+equality among men and justice to all peoples scorns the suggestion of
+accepting these dead nations of the past as models of national education
+or guides of personal conduct. The people of the modern world shun them
+and hold as their boast before earth how they disdain to pattern after
+them, and turning the face of all those that are new and hopeful to the
+one standard, approach the United States of America, and bowing in
+admiration, ask but to follow her past growth, hold her guiding hand,
+and walk beside her in the light of approving heaven.</p>
+
+<p>Then who are they who misrepresent the purpose of democracy under Wilson
+that they may defeat all democracy to all men? These charge that
+America, under Wilson, would continue war to force Governments and
+people of foreign lands to take our form of government. Let the world
+know that as George Washington fought for democracy as a right to
+America and Thomas Jefferson proclaimed it as a necessity to mankind,
+while Lincoln made it his creed of emancipation for all color and all
+climes&mdash;so, too, Wilson fights for democracy as a right of the whole
+world. The promise of Wilson to "make the world safe for democracy" is
+no threat to make the world take democracy. It is but the assurance of
+the effort to give to the world its chance to take democracy. This war
+of America is the announcement that we, by our entrance into the
+conflict, will prevent any despot from depriving any people of the right
+to exercise their free will in rejecting despotism and choosing
+democracy. The United States does not fight<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> to force any Government to
+adopt the theory of our Government, nor does the United States fight to
+force any foreign people to take our form of government against any form
+of government they may choose for themselves. But America does fight to
+prevent any foreign Government from thwarting any land from enjoying
+democracy if it so wills by the voice of its own people. And this United
+States fights now and will ever fight to the expenditure of its last
+dollar and the sacrifice of every son, rather than submit to any monarch
+wresting our democracy from us, to the death of our liberty and the end
+of our Republic.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>Messenger Dogs in the German Army</h2>
+
+<h3>How They Are Trained</h3>
+
+<p>Through captures made in the battle of the Chemin des Dames the French
+General Staff has obtained precise information regarding the German
+Army's use of dogs as war couriers. The training of the animals is
+divided into two periods&mdash;the training at school and that at the front.
+At school the men receive detailed instructions as to the care and
+treatment of dogs, after which they begin a rigorous drill, training
+each dog to run daily over a longer and longer course, accompanied by
+his masters; then the dogs must run over the same courses alone, while
+the two trainers are posted one at each end. The longest course is about
+three miles.</p>
+
+<p>On the battle line there is similar training. On Sept. 1, 1917, for
+instance, the 52d Meldehundetrupp left the school at Wiegnehies to join
+the 52d Infantry Division, near the Hurtebise Farm, in Champagne. The
+troup consisted of one officer, six sub-officers, thirty-six men, and
+twenty-one dogs. It was divided at once among the units of the division,
+the level sectors receiving a larger contingent than the hilly sectors,
+where communications are less difficult. Marshy ground, where human
+messengers might be mired, and positions heavily pounded by artillery
+also were favored.</p>
+
+<p>In their respective sectors the dogs are subjected to local training.
+Little by little they are drilled to run as couriers between the company
+and the battalion, on the one hand, and the battalion and the regiment
+on the other. Thus the courier that has to keep up connection between
+the company and the battalion is sent by one trainer, who stays with the
+company commander, to the other, who is quartered with the chief of the
+battalion. In twenty or thirty days, it appears, the dogs are broken to
+their work as couriers, and have become familiarized with the tunnels,
+trenches, shelters, and officers' posts, as well as with the roar of
+cannonade and the rat-tat-tat of machine guns.</p>
+
+<p>As for the practical results of all this training and ingenious
+organization, the French officers say these are still in doubt. They
+indicate the nature of the doubt by citing the case of two trained dogs
+at Pinon. When the French attacked with a heavy bombardment, one dog
+disappeared in terror and the other was made sick and useless by a
+French gas bomb. The fact remains, nevertheless, that canine messengers
+are doing useful work in dangerous places on both sides of No Man's
+Land, and to some extent conserving human lives.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;">
+<a href="images/i414.png"><img src="images/i414-t.png" width="250" height="84" alt="" title="" /></a>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span></p>
+<h2>Full Record of Sinkings by U-Boats</h2>
+
+<h3>Statement by Sir Eric Geddes</h3>
+
+<div class="center"><i>First Lord of the British Admiralty</i></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>Sir Eric Geddes in a speech before the House of Commons on
+March 20, 1918, for the first time revealed the total shipping
+losses of Great Britain and the other Allies and neutrals from
+the beginning of the war up to Jan. 1, 1918. His summary was
+followed next day by a statement from the Admiralty Office
+giving the figures in fuller detail. This was made public
+simultaneously at London and Washington. The essential portions
+of both utterances are presented below. Sir Eric Geddes said:</i> </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The world's tonnage from the commencement of the war until Dec. 31,
+1917, exclusive of enemy-owned tonnage, has fallen by a net figure of,
+roughly, 2,500,000 gross tons. This is out of 33,000,000 estimated
+allied and neutral ocean-going tonnage, which is arrived at after
+deducting small craft, river and estuary craft, and a considerable
+amount of lake tonnage, tugs, &amp;c., so that with a net loss of 2,500,000
+tons we, the allied and neutral world, have suffered about 8 per cent.
+reduction in ocean-going tonnage of the world, excluding enemy
+countries. The total world's tonnage, exclusive of enemy tonnage, is
+42,000,000, and the deduction is made after careful consideration and
+investigation. The percentage of net loss in British tonnage alone is
+higher than this, and reaches 20 per cent. for British tonnage, the more
+favorable allied and neutral tonnage percentage being, of course, due
+largely to a credit brought in by the United States of interned German
+ships.</p>
+
+<p>The main submarine attack is upon us. It was to starve these islands
+that the enemy instituted this form of warfare. In 1915-16 the output of
+new tonnage was very low&mdash;it was lowest in 1916. In fact, before the
+intense submarine warfare commenced we were over 1,300,000 tons to the
+bad from all causes since the beginning of the war. Then our shipping
+has been in the war zone to a far greater extent and far longer than has
+that of some of our allies, and our navigational risks and losses, which
+are included, are greater, because of the absence of lights in the
+waters around our coast and elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to enemy exaggeration: For the twelve months of
+unrestricted submarine warfare, from Feb. 1, 1917, to Jan. 31, 1918, the
+enemy has proclaimed in his public notifications that he has sunk over
+9,500,000 tons of British, allied, and neutral shipping. The actual
+figures of vessels sunk by submarine action, including those damaged and
+ultimately abandoned, amount roughly to 6,000,000 tons, so that we have
+an exaggeration of 3,500,000 tons in twelve months, or well over 58 per
+cent. In January the exaggeration was 113 per cent. It is rather amusing
+that since I publicly showed up this grossly false declaration of
+results the usual return of submarine sinkings for February has not been
+issued by Berlin. It is now overdue. I think, if any proof of the
+failure of the campaign is needed, this exaggeration and Berlin's
+reticence would show it.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">TO THE SHIPBUILDING TASK</div>
+
+<p>For the first two years of the war or more the shipyards of the country
+had lost their men and the work had become dislocated. Hulls had been on
+the slips for very long periods and there was no material in existence
+to finish them. Vessels were lying in the yards awaiting engines, but
+the engines had never been built, because up to 1917 the Admiralty had
+made use of the engine shops for naval work. There was great confusion
+in the shipbuilding industry, not due to the fault of the industry, not
+really due to any one's fault, but due to war conditions. The output had
+been checked by urgent work being placed in the same works by different
+departments. With the introduction of the Controller's Department it was
+immediately<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> realized that this policy was bad for output as a whole.
+It was accordingly arranged to allocate yards or separate sections of
+yards, so that one class of tonnage only would be produced. The result
+is that forty-seven large shipyards, containing 209 berths, are wholly
+engaged on ocean-going merchant vessels. That is entirely apart from the
+large private warship building establishments, which are obviously most
+suited for naval work. But there are in addition eleven&mdash;and only
+eleven&mdash;other yards suitable for large merchant tonnage which have at
+the present time naval craft on the stocks.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i418.jpg"><img src="images/i418-t.jpg" width="156" height="250" alt="HENRY P. DAVISON
+Chairman of the War Council of the American Red Cross Society
+(� Harris &amp; Ewing)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />HENRY P. DAVISON<br />
+Chairman of the War Council of the American Red Cross Society<br />
+(� Harris &amp; Ewing)</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i419.jpg"><img src="images/i419-t.jpg" width="162" height="250" alt="The actual surrender of Jerusalem, Dec. 9, 1917, when two
+British outposts met the Mayor (carrying a cane) and his party with the
+white flag. The formal surrender took place next day.
+(� American Colony Photographers)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />The actual surrender of Jerusalem, Dec. 9, 1917, when two
+British outposts met the Mayor (carrying a cane) and his party with the
+white flag. The formal surrender took place next day.<br />
+(� American Colony Photographers)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I now give the figures of output in the yards. In the fourth quarter of
+1914 the merchant tonnage produced in the United Kingdom was 420,000.
+From that date it steadily fell, and it must be noted that the fall was
+concurrent with our great munitions effort. In the fourth quarter of
+1915 it had fallen to 92,000. It then began to rise, and the rise is as
+follows:</p>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="5">1916</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">Tons.</td><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">Tons.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">1st quarter&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right">95,000</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">3d quarter&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right">125,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">2d quarter</td><td align="right">108,000</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">4th quarter</td><td align="right">213,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="5">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="5">1917</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">Tons.</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">Tons.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">1st quarter</td><td align="right">246,000</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">3d quarter</td><td align="right">248,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">2d quarter</td><td align="right">249,000</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">4th quarter</td><td align="right">420,000</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>These figures refer to the British Isles alone. In the fourth quarter of
+1917 foreign construction was 512,000 tons, giving a total output for
+the world, exclusive of enemy countries, of 932,000 tons for the last
+quarter of last year. Against that we have the losses due to enemy
+action and to maritime risk.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE MONTHLY DEFICIENCY</div>
+
+<p>These losses amounted for the last quarter of last year to 1,200,000
+tons. That was by far the lowest quarter of sinkings we have had since
+unrestricted submarine warfare began, and it looks as if this quarter
+was going to be lower still. So that we have the fact that by increase
+in output and decrease in sinkings for the last quarter of last year the
+Allies were within 100,000 tons, on the average per month, of making
+good the loss due to enemy action and marine risks. Considering British
+losses and output alone, the proportionate deficiency is somewhat
+higher. We lost on the average 260,000 tons per month during the last
+quarter of 1917, and we built 140,000 tons per month, an average
+deficiency of 120,000 tons per month. We must all regret that the
+British position has suffered most among the Allies, but we have
+contributed the greatest naval effort, and have sustained the greatest
+attacks, and I do not think we, as a nation, will bemoan our stars or
+our naval efforts in this great war.</p>
+
+<p>The net result of maritime risk and enemy action, whether by surface,
+air or submarine craft, from the beginning of the war until the end of
+last year is a reduction of 2,500,000 tons of shipping, and from the
+last quarter of last year the Allies and neutrals are replacing 75 per
+cent. of the lost tonnage, or only 100,000 tons a month below the losses
+from all causes.</p>
+
+<p>It is well within the capacity of the allied yards, or even our own
+yards, before very long, with a proper supply of material and man power
+entirely to make good the world losses.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">SUMMARY OF PROGRESS</div>
+
+<p>I do not think I am divulging information which should not be made
+public when I say that the output of guns and ammunition of all calibres
+in 1917 is not far short of twice the output in 1916. I need not remind
+the House of the special effort being made in the output of airplanes.
+These, I understand, are nearly two and a half times the output of 1916,
+and arrangements for labor and material to secure a still greater output
+this year were in progress during the later months of 1917. We have been
+able to accomplish what I think must be admitted as an enormous
+development in the shipbuilding industry. We have reached in 1917 a
+total warship and merchant tonnage output practically equal to the
+biggest shipbuilding year this country has ever known. We have
+multiplied by ten the number of naval craft repaired and refitted, and
+in six months we have increased<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> the merchant ship repaired tonnage by
+80 per cent.&mdash;an increase of 237,000 tons per week. I would ask the
+House to notice this fact, that, notwithstanding all these great
+extensions of work in many directions, and notwithstanding all these
+great extensions of power of the country, we ended 1917 with an output
+of new merchant tonnage of 420,000 for the last quarter, against 213,000
+for the last quarter of 1916. That was done, moreover, with a dislocated
+industry, with yards only gradually being cleared of unfinished work,
+and with large numbers of unskilled personnel in the yards.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>Admiralty Summary of Shipping Losses</h2>
+
+<h3>Record of Three Years</h3>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>The British Board of Admiralty, with the sanction of the War
+Cabinet and the concurrence of the Allies, on March 21 published
+a memorandum revealing the world's total shipping losses from
+the beginning of the war to Jan. 1, 1918. The essential portions
+are as follows:</i> </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the Spring of 1917 the full menace of the submarine campaign was
+first disclosed. Since that date we have steadily increased our
+knowledge and our material resources for this novel warfare. Three
+statements are attached, showing for the United Kingdom and for the
+world, for the period August, 1914, to December, 1917:</p>
+
+<p>1. Losses by enemy action and marine risk.</p>
+
+<p>2. Mercantile shipbuilding output.</p>
+
+<p>3. Enemy vessels captured and brought into service.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 400px;">
+<a href="images/i426.png"><img src="images/i426-t.png" width="235" height="250" alt="WORLD&#39;S SHIPPING LOSSES IN 1917. THE BLACK EXTENSION OF
+EACH COLUMN SHOWS THE GERMAN EXAGGERATION. THE AVERAGE EXAGGERATION FOR
+THE 12 MONTHS IS 58 PER CENT." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />WORLD&#39;S SHIPPING LOSSES IN 1917. THE BLACK EXTENSION OF
+EACH COLUMN SHOWS THE GERMAN EXAGGERATION. THE AVERAGE EXAGGERATION FOR
+THE 12 MONTHS IS 58 PER CENT.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Diagrams showing in graphic form the losses and shipbuilding output for
+the United Kingdom and for the world are also attached. The situation
+should be viewed from the standpoint of the world's tonnage, as in these
+problems the mercantile navies of the whole world, excluding the enemy,
+may be regarded as one. It will be noticed that the diagrams record
+facts, and that nothing has been included in the nature of an estimate.</p>
+
+<p>The results of the last year have shown the ability of our seamen to get
+upon terms with the submarine menace and gradually to gain the upper
+hand. This has been achieved in spite of an imperfect knowledge of a new
+and barbarous method of warfare and of a scarcity of suitable material.
+Our material resources for this warfare are already improved and are
+being rapidly augmented, while science is placing at our disposal means
+of offense and defense of which we have been in need.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the other factor, a rapid and continuous increase in the
+output of merchant tonnage will inevitably follow the united efforts of
+all engaged in merchant shipbuilding in this country. * * * During the
+critical period that confronts us we must rely to a large extent on our
+own shipyards and on ourselves. Our partners in the war are making every
+effort to increase their production of ships, but a considerable time
+must elapse before the desired output is secured.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br /><br /><br /><br />
+<a href="images/i427.png"><img src="images/i427-t.png" width="250" height="111" alt="WORLD&#39;S LOSSES OF SHIPPING IN COMPARISON WITH WORLD&#39;S
+TOTAL SHIP CONSTRUCTION" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />WORLD&#39;S LOSSES OF SHIPPING IN COMPARISON WITH WORLD&#39;S
+TOTAL SHIP CONSTRUCTION</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>To produce in the United Kingdom 1,800,000 tons in 1918, and to reach an
+ultimate production at the rate of 3,000,000 tons per annum, is well
+within the present and prospective capacity of our shipyards and our
+marine engineering shops. But the ranks of the skilled men must be
+enlarged without delay by the introduction of men and women at present
+unskilled. The education of these newcomers, upgrading, and
+interchangeability of work are essential, and must be pressed on with
+the good-will of employers, foremen, and men.</p>
+
+<p>It is to insure the vigorous co-operation of all concerned that the
+Admiralty has recommended the publication of the facts.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i430.png"><img src="images/i430-t.png" width="250" height="165" alt="SHIPPING LOSSES OF UNITED KINGDOM AS COMPARED WITH OUTPUT
+OF NEW SHIPS" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />SHIPPING LOSSES OF UNITED KINGDOM AS COMPARED WITH OUTPUT
+OF NEW SHIPS</span><br /><br /><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="center">POSITION AT THE END OF 1917</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span></p>
+<p>The following table summarizes the position at the end of 1917:</p>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">British.</td><td align="right">Foreign.</td><td align="right">World.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Losses</td><td align="right">7,079,492</td><td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;4,748,080</td><td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;11,827,572</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Gains:</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;New construction</td><td align="right">3,031,555</td><td align="right">3,574,720</td><td align="right">6,606,275</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;Enemy tonnage captured&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right">780,000</td><td align="right">1,809,000</td><td align="right">2,589,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;Total gains</td><td align="right">3,811,555</td><td align="right">5,383,720</td><td align="right">9,195,275</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;Net loss (world)</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">2,632,297</td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<div class="center"><br /><br />RECORD OF THREE YEARS</div>
+
+<p>The following statement shows United Kingdom and world's merchant
+tonnage lost through enemy action and marine risks since the outbreak of
+war:</p>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="center">United</td><td align="center">&nbsp;</td><td align="center">Total for</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">Period.</td><td align="center">Kingdom.</td><td align="center">Foreign.</td><td align="center">World.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="center">Gross</td><td align="center">Gross</td><td align="center">Gross</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">1914</td><td align="center">Tons.</td><td align="center">Tons.</td><td align="center">Tons.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">August and September</td><td align="right">314,000</td><td align="right">85,947</td><td align="right">*399,947</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">4th Quarter</td><td align="right">154,728</td><td align="right">126,688</td><td align="right">281,416</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">1915.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">1st Quarter</td><td align="right">215,905</td><td align="right">104,542</td><td align="right">320,447</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">2d Quarter</td><td align="right">223,676</td><td align="right">156,743</td><td align="right">380,419</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">3d Quarter</td><td align="right">356,659</td><td align="right">172,822</td><td align="right">529,481</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">4th Quarter</td><td align="right">307,139</td><td align="right">187,234</td><td align="right">494,373</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">1916.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">1st Quarter</td><td align="right">325,237</td><td align="right">198,958</td><td align="right">524,195</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">2d Quarter</td><td align="right">270,690</td><td align="right">251,599</td><td align="right">522,289</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">3d Quarter</td><td align="right">284,358</td><td align="right">307,681</td><td align="right">592,939</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">4th Quarter</td><td align="right">617,563</td><td align="right">541,780</td><td align="right">1,159,343</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">1917.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">1st Quarter</td><td align="right">911,840</td><td align="right">707,533</td><td align="right">1,619,373</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">2d Quarter</td><td align="right">1,361,870</td><td align="right">875,064</td><td align="right">2,236,934</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">3d Quarter</td><td align="right">952,938</td><td align="right">541,535</td><td align="right">1,494,473</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">4th Quarter</td><td align="right">782,889</td><td align="right">489,954</td><td align="right">1,272,843</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Totals</td><td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;7,079,492</td><td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;4,748,080</td><td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;11,827,572</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="4">* This figure includes 182,839 gross tonnage interned in enemy ports.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>The next statement shows output of merchant shipbuilding of the United
+Kingdom and the world (excluding enemy countries) since the outbreak of
+war:</p>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="center">United</td><td align="center">&nbsp;</td><td align="center">Total for</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">Period.</td><td align="center">Kingdom.</td><td align="center">Foreign.</td><td align="center">World.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="center">Gross</td><td align="center">Gross</td><td align="center">Gross</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">1914</td><td align="center">Tons.</td><td align="center">Tons.</td><td align="center">Tons.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">August and September&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right">253,290}</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">4th Quarter</td><td align="right">422,320}</td><td align="right">337,310</td><td align="right">1,012,920</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">1915.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">1st Quarter</td><td align="right">266,267}</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">2d Quarter</td><td align="right">146,870}</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">3d Quarter</td><td align="right">145,070}</td><td align="right">551,081</td><td align="right">1,202,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">4th Quarter</td><td align="right">92,712}</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">1916.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">1st Quarter</td><td align="right">95,566}</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">2d Quarter</td><td align="right">107,693}</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">3d Quarter</td><td align="right">124,961}</td><td align="right">1,146,448</td><td align="right">1,688,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">4th Quarter</td><td align="right">213,332}</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">1917.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">1st Quarter</td><td align="right">246,239</td><td align="right">282,200</td><td align="right">528,439</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">2d Quarter</td><td align="right">249,331</td><td align="right">377,109</td><td align="right">626,440</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">3d Quarter</td><td align="right">248,283</td><td align="right">368,170</td><td align="right">616,453</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">4th Quarter</td><td align="right">419,621</td><td align="right">512,402</td><td align="right">932,023</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Total</td><td align="right">3,031,555</td><td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3,574,720</td><td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;6,606,275</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<div class="center"><br /><br />ENEMY TONNAGE CAPTURED</div>
+
+<p>A further statement shows the enemy tonnage captured and brought into
+service by United Kingdom and by Allies since the outbreak of war:</p>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="center">United</td><td align="center">&nbsp;</td><td align="center">Total for</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">Period.</td><td align="center">Kingdom.</td><td align="center">Foreign.</td><td align="center">World.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="center">Gross</td><td align="center">Gross</td><td align="center">Gross</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">1914</td><td align="center">Tons.</td><td align="center">Tons.</td><td align="center">Tons.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">August and September&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right">725,500</td><td align="right">453,000</td><td align="right">1,178,500</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">4th Quarter</td><td align="right">28,000</td><td align="right">5,000</td><td align="right">38,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">1915.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">1st Quarter</td><td align="right">5,000</td><td align="right">1,000</td><td align="right">6,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">2d Quarter</td><td align="right">500</td><td align="right">500</td><td align="right">1,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">3d Quarter</td><td align="right">3,500</td><td align="right">6,000</td><td align="right">9,500</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">4th Quarter</td><td align="right">2,500</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">2,500</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">1916.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">1st Quarter</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">241,000</td><td align="right">241,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">2d Quarter</td><td align="right">3,500</td><td align="right">8,000</td><td align="right">11,500</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">3d Quarter</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">47,500</td><td align="right">47,500</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">4th Quarter</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">1917.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">1st Quarter</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">...</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">2d Quarter</td><td align="right">7,000</td><td align="right">702,500</td><td align="right">709,500</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">3d Quarter</td><td align="right">4,500</td><td align="right">266,500</td><td align="right">271,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">4th Quarter</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">78,000</td><td align="right">78,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td><td align="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Total</td><td align="right">780,000</td><td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1,809,000</td><td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2,589,000</td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><br /><br />
+<a href="images/i433.jpg"><img src="images/i433-t.jpg" width="250" height="81" alt="" title="" />
+<br /></a><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="center">The Month's Submarine Record</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span>British merchant ships sunk during the month ended April 7, 1918, were
+fewer than in the preceding month, the weekly official reports showing a
+sharp increase followed by an unusually low record, resulting in a
+considerably decreased total. The British Admiralty figures were:</p>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="center">Over</td><td align="center">Under</td><td align="center">Fishing</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="center">1600 Tons.</td><td align="center">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1600 Tons.</td><td align="center">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Vessels.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Week ended March 17, 1918&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right">11</td><td align="right">6</td><td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Week ended March 24</td><td align="right">16</td><td align="right">12</td><td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Week ended March 31</td><td align="right">6</td><td align="right">7</td><td align="right">5</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Week ended April 7</td><td align="right">4</td><td align="right">2</td><td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&mdash;</td><td align="right">&mdash;</td><td align="right">&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Total for four weeks</td><td align="right">37</td><td align="right">27</td><td align="right">10</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&mdash;</td><td align="right">&mdash;</td><td align="right">&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Total previous 4 weeks</td><td align="right">53</td><td align="right">16</td><td align="right">9</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>One of the largest vessels sunk was the British steamship Minnetonka,
+13,528 gross tons, formerly in the New York-London service of the
+Atlantic Transport Line. This happened in the Mediterranean in February,
+1918, while the Minnetonka was in the service of the British Admiralty.
+The Minnetonka was the last of the four passenger ships of the line,
+aggregating 55,099 gross tons, to remain afloat. The others all have
+been sunk since the war began. The three others were the Minneapolis,
+sunk March 22, 1916; Minnehaha, sunk Sept. 7, 1917, and the Minnewaska,
+sunk Nov. 29, 1917.</p>
+
+<p>Incomplete French records show the loss of three vessels of over 1,600
+tons and five under 1,600 tons. Italian losses included seven steamships
+of over 1,500 tons, three sailing vessels of over 100 tons, and fifteen
+smaller sailing craft.</p>
+
+<p>Official dispatches from Barcelona reported the sinking by German
+submarines of two Spanish vessels, one in the Mediterranean and the
+other off the Canary Islands. These reports confirmed the statement that
+Germany had commenced a blockade of the Spanish coast to prevent the use
+of Spanish shipping to help the Allies.</p>
+
+<p>A German submarine of the largest seagoing type on April 10 appeared in
+the port of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, on the west coast of
+Africa, and bombarded the wireless and cable stations there. The
+submarine threw scores of shells from her deck guns into the wireless
+station, causing extensive damage. She had just turned her attention to
+the cable offices when a steamer was sighted passing the harbor mouth.
+The submarine left in chase and did not return. Liberia declared war on
+Germany Aug. 4, 1917.</p>
+
+<p>Some indication of the losses sustained by the German U-boat fleet is
+contained in the following reports:</p>
+
+<p>Nine members of the crew of a German submarine which was sunk by an
+American liner on March 10, when two days out from a French port, were
+taken prisoners. The rest of the crew perished, the Captain committing
+suicide when he saw that his submarine was doomed.</p>
+
+<p>Under a heavy attack from three German submarines and three German
+destroyers, a British seaplane persisted in its efforts against another
+enemy U-boat and succeeded in sinking it before being damaged by the
+fire of the other enemy warships. Seaplanes also accounted for three
+other submarines.</p>
+
+<p>A German U-boat while laying mines on the British coast struck one of
+them and was blown in two. The only survivor was the Captain, who was
+taken prisoner. The remainder of the crew, numbering seventeen, were
+drowned in the submarine.</p>
+
+<p>The German submarine, it is stated in the report of the British War
+Cabinet, has a surface speed up to 18 knots and a submerged speed of 10
+to 11 knots. She carries from fifteen to twenty torpedoes; she can
+travel 100 miles completely submerged; and she can remain under water on
+the bottom for a period up to forty-eight hours. A submarine attacking
+with a torpedo only shows about three inches of periscope at intervals,
+with the result that few ships which are torpedoed ever see the
+submarine which has carried out the attack. The range of the torpedoes
+fired by a submarine is anything up to five miles, and the speed of the
+torpedo is as high as 40 knots.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span></p>
+<h2>Typical U-Boat Methods</h2>
+
+<h3>From British Admiralty Records</h3>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>The British Admiralty on March 17, 1918, permitted publication
+of the logs of a number of vessels that had been sunk by German
+submarines. These records reveal many stories of heroism and
+sacrifice. Some of the incidents recorded are as follows:</i> </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the case of one ship, on which there were forty-seven hands, the
+boatswain was standing abreast of the mainmast when he saw the wake of a
+torpedo as it approached, and he had no time to report before the vessel
+was struck. After the explosion all hands were sent on deck. The ship
+sank stern first. There was no time to lower the boats, and practically
+the whole crew had lifebelts on when thrown into the water. When the
+submarine came to the surface a line was thrown to a raft which the crew
+had managed to launch, and it was hauled alongside the enemy vessel. A
+colored man was ordered on board, and as soon as he stepped on the
+submarine both his wrists were seized, and he was firmly held while
+being interrogated. The enemy took a photograph of him and also of a man
+on the raft. When the interrogation was completed the colored sailor
+dived from the submarine and swam to the raft. As the ship was sinking
+the master dived off the bridge; he was not seen later. A number of men
+were rescued after being in the water for four hours.</p>
+
+<p>Robbery was reported in connection with another attack. After the vessel
+had been shelled many times, the master and crew abandoned the ship,
+lowered the lifeboat, and rowed toward the submarine. Eight shots were
+fired at the lifeboat, followed by four revolver shots. It was only then
+that the crew saw the submarine, which was about 500 yards away. The
+Captain and his men were taken on board; and the commander of the
+submarine boarded the vessel, removed the clothes, provisions, and
+papers, and left bombs on board which afterward blew her up. The master
+was searched, and �22 5s., with his watch and chain, was taken from
+him. The commander of the enemy vessel said that there was no food left
+in the submarine, which had been six weeks out, and he also mentioned
+that food in Germany was very short. During the night the crew were
+picked up by a destroyer.</p>
+
+<p>"Torpedoed, and on her beam ends, but not actually seen to sink," is the
+description given by a Captain of an attack on his vessel. She was
+struck between the stokehold and No. 2 hold, both of which were blown
+in. The crew had time to take to the boats. The German Captain, speaking
+perfect English, asked for the name of the ship and her tonnage, and
+verified the particulars given to him by reference to <i>Lloyd's
+Register</i>. The master's boat, with twenty-three men, reached shore the
+following day, and the mate's boat, with the remainder of the crew, was
+picked up. It was reported by the master that the officers and men of
+the submarine were "quite friendly and polite."</p>
+
+<p>One night a vessel was struck by a torpedo. The engines were stopped,
+and all hands went to the boat stations. The port boat was lowered
+safely, but within three minutes the ship sank and the davit caught it
+and capsized it, all hands being thrown into the water. The second
+officer went down with the ship, but seized hold of the capsized boat
+and climbed on top of it. The boatswain also was taken down, and he,
+too, as well as a seaman, got on the boat. After they had been on the
+upturned boat for some minutes a submarine appeared and hailed them to
+come on board. They explained that it was impossible. The submarine went
+ahead, and about a quarter of an hour later returned, and the men were
+again asked, in a rough voice, to come on board. The same answer was
+given, whereupon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> the submarine again went ahead, putting her helm over,
+and the men were thrown into the water. Those on the submarine must have
+known that there was a man under the boat, as they could easily have
+heard him knocking. His comrades, however, pulled out the plug and gave
+him air, and eventually the boat was righted and he was rescued.</p>
+
+<p>One of a group of other ships was torpedoed and the crew took to the
+boats, one of which capsized, and seven of the men managed to reach the
+lifeboat. The submarine came close, flashed her searchlight on the boat
+and on the men in the water, and, after jeering at them, made off. The
+survivors were picked up by a French torpedo boat next morning.</p>
+
+<p>Attacked by a U-boat, which fired two shots, the master got out the
+boats, left the ship, and pulled toward the enemy vessel. The commander
+took four or five of his own men in the ship's boat and put some bombs
+on board. As these failed to explode he went back for more explosives,
+taking with him everything out of the ship that could be carried&mdash;food,
+clothing, compass, and all the metal that the enemy could lay hands on.
+The vessel was then blown up, the crew in the meantime being on the deck
+of the submarine. They were treated very badly, their clothes being
+thrown out of the boat into the sea. Only one oar was left them, five
+having been flung overboard. The master begged for another, but he could
+not get any more.</p>
+
+<p>Two submarines were sighted at a distance of about six miles attacking a
+bark. The master of the observing vessel altered his course and lit a
+smoke cowl to screen his ship, but it was not very effective. Shortly
+afterward he was attacked by one of the submarines. Being armed, the
+vessel opened fire, but the U-boat was not within range, and a shot from
+the submarine struck the ship. Orders were given to haul down the
+ensign, and steps were taken to abandon her. The boats were lowered and
+the ship was abandoned, the enemy still firing. The ship was hit
+nineteen times before the crew was properly clear. When the submarine
+came up the vessel was "generally looted," everything the enemy could
+lay their hands on being taken, including the spirits in the bonded
+room. Some of the Germans were seen drinking on the bridge. The enemy
+were alongside for about an hour, and "treated our men quite fairly,
+even returning some of their personal gear which they had looted." The
+enemy crew were very particular in getting all the leather they possibly
+could, even going so far as to take old boots which were long past
+usage. Soap was also in great request, and a tin of lard was considered
+a prize.</p>
+
+<p>In another instance a vessel struck on the port side in the engine room
+went down at once, the crew having only time to launch the boats. About
+ten minutes before the ship was torpedoed a floating object was sighted,
+which appeared like a small vessel bottom upward. This was reported by
+flag code to another vessel close by, but no reply was received before
+the ship was hit. The master was of opinion that this object must have
+been placed there as a decoy by the submarine to draw the attention of
+the lookouts away from herself.</p>
+
+<p>When a motor schooner was struck the ship's boat was rowed to the
+submarine and the master and one man were taken aboard. The submarine
+then towed the boat to the disabled ship, and sent two men on her with
+bombs. An officer asked the master, "What was the cargo? Where from?
+Where bound? Why did the ship not come with convoy?" The officer spoke
+very good English, being prompted in German by the Captain of the
+U-boat. The master and crew were much struck by the pallid appearance of
+the officers and crew of the submarine and by their nervous and excited
+manner. The commander was continually urging haste, and the officer who
+was placing the bombs on board could hardly hold them, owing to his
+nervous tension. One of the crew of the submarine who had lived long in
+England, speaking to the ship's crew, cursed the war and said that he
+wished it was over, exclaiming that it was not their fault, but that
+they had to do their duty. "You won't believe it in England," he added,
+"but it's true." The submarine appeared to be of an old type and to have
+been a long time at sea.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span></p>
+<h2>The Story of an Indomitable Captain</h2>
+
+<h3>Told by Joseph Conrad</h3>
+
+<p><i>The story of a certain British steamship traveling from Lerwick to
+Iceland and torpedoed on the way has been told in The London Daily Mail
+by the British novelist, Joseph Conrad, in these words:</i></p>
+
+<p>The ship went down in less than four minutes. The Captain was the last
+man on board, going down with her, and was sucked under. On coming up he
+was caught under an upturned boat to which five hands were clinging.</p>
+
+<p>"One lifeboat," says the chief engineer, "which was floating empty in
+the distance, was cleverly manoeuvred to our assistance by the steward,
+who swam off to her pluckily. Our next endeavor was to release the
+Captain, who was entangled under the boat. As it was impossible to right
+her, we set to to split her side open with the boat hook, because by
+awful bad luck the head of the axe we had flew off at the first blow and
+was lost. The work took thirty minutes, and the extricated Captain was
+in a pitiable condition, being badly bruised and having swallowed a lot
+of salt water. He was unconscious. While at that work the submarine came
+to the surface quite close and made a complete circle round us, the
+seven men which we counted on the conning tower laughing at our efforts.</p>
+
+<p>"There were eighteen of us saved. I deeply regret the loss of the chief
+officer, a fine fellow and a kind shipmate showing splendid promise. The
+other men lost&mdash;one A. B., one greaser, and two firemen&mdash;were quiet,
+conscientious good fellows."</p>
+
+<p>With no restoratives in the boat, they endeavored to bring the Captain
+around by means of massage. Meantime the oars were got out in order to
+reach the Faroes, which were about thirty miles dead to windward, but
+after about nine hours' hard work they had to desist, and, putting out
+the sea anchor, they took shelter under the canvas boat cover from the
+cold wind and torrential rain. Says the narrator:</p>
+
+<p>"We were all very wet and miserable, and decided to have two biscuits
+all around. The effects of this and being under the shelter of the
+canvas warmed us up and made us feel pretty well contented. At about
+sunrise the Captain showed signs of recovery, and by the time the sun
+was up he was looking a lot better, much to our relief."</p>
+
+<p>After being informed of what had been done, the revived Captain "dropped
+a bombshell in our midst" by proposing to make for the Shetlands, which
+were "only 150 miles off." "The wind is in our favor," he said. "I will
+take you there. Are you all willing?" This&mdash;comments the chief
+engineer&mdash;from a man who but a few hours previously had been hauled back
+from the grave! The Captain's confident manner inspired them, and they
+all agreed.</p>
+
+<p>Under the best possible conditions a boat run of 150 miles in the North
+Atlantic and in Winter weather would have been a feat of no mean merit,
+but in the circumstances it required a man of uncommon nerve and skill
+to make such a proposal. With an oar for a mast and the boat cover cut
+down for a sail, they started on their dangerous journey, with the boat
+compass and the stars for their guide. The Captain's undaunted serenity
+buoyed them all up against despondency. He told them what point he was
+making for. It was Ronas Hill&mdash;"and we struck it as straight as a die."</p>
+
+<p>"And there was our captain, just his usual self, as if nothing had
+happened, as if bringing the boat that hazardous journey and being the
+means of saving 18 souls was to him an everyday occurrence."</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span></p>
+<h2>The Naval Defense of Venice</h2>
+
+<h3>By E. M. B.</h3>
+
+<div class="center">[<span class="smcap">From Information Supplied by Italian Navy Department</span>]</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>The Italian Navy and the Italian 3d Army divided the honor of
+holding back the Austro-German forces during the retreat of
+October, 1917, thus enabling the main army to reorganize for
+defense on the line of the Piave. The navy's work was
+particularly difficult, as it had no means at hand to meet the
+attack of land forces. It was obliged, therefore, to improvise
+the necessary troops and material in order to hold back the
+invasion, to make swift and skillful use of the lighter naval
+craft, and to adapt all available means to the end in view. How
+the task was achieved is related herewith:</i> </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The enemy advance guards met a stubborn resistance from the Italian Navy
+on the lower Tagliamento line. Here a small body of sailors contested
+the passage of the lower course of the river. Hydroplanes bombed the
+bridges which the Austrians were endeavoring to construct near Latisana
+and the troops which were gathering on the opposite bank from Latisana
+to the sea. Submarine chasers ascended the Tagliamento several times, as
+well as the Lemene and the Livenga, in order to engage and disperse the
+patrols which the enemy was sending out along the coast in the hope of
+reaching Venice before the Italian Army could construct a solid
+protecting ring to the north of the city. Detachments of marines opened
+fire at each stage of the retreat along the interior canals of the
+Tagliamento to Caorle, and from Caorle to the Venetian lagoons, thus
+helping to check the oncoming forces of Boroevic and to give time for
+the necessary clearing of that region. In spite of an exceptionally
+difficult sea, barred by mine fields and shoals, the Italian torpedo
+boats were finally able not only to cover the flank of all the moving
+forces but also to escort and protect the numerous convoys laden with
+war material which had been forced to go out in the Adriatic to prevent
+capture by the enemy.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">HARD TASKS OF MARINES</div>
+
+<p>The retreat was accomplished by stages. Each stopping place, where the
+land and marine forces were gathered and rearranged before carrying out
+the established plan, had to be protected during the counterattacks of
+the Italian rear guards, which became more frequent and vigorous with
+the increasing accuracy of the enemy fire. These attacks were made more
+difficult by the swampy nature of the ground. This flat and marshy land
+offers no points of defense and has no traversable and continuous roads.
+The marines were outnumbered by the regiments confronting them.</p>
+
+<p>Every difficulty was overcome by the valor and self-sacrifice of the
+Italian sailors. Aviators were seen flying for several consecutive days
+without resting&mdash;attacking the moving enemy columns with machine guns;
+defending themselves against numerous enemy airplanes, or dropping
+messages under fire at the points of reunion of the Italian troops in
+order to insure co-operation between the navy and the army; and
+continually alternating flights of observation with those of bombardment
+under the most adverse conditions.</p>
+
+<p>Platoons of marines stood in the mud behind guns corroded by the
+inundations, holding back entire companies of enemy troops for days and
+nights without the possibility of obtaining relief or food. Some of the
+gun crews dragged not only the mounts and the guns by hand across very
+swampy ground, with the water up to their knees, but also the munition
+cases, without taking time for sleeping or eating.</p>
+
+<p>Armed submarine chasers threaded their way up winding and narrow canals,
+in which they could not even have turned around in case of a forced
+retreat, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> hammered a Hungarian battalion for hours, until it had to
+retire in disorder before the determination of a handful of men with a
+few cannons and machine guns. Batteries of marines prolonged the defense
+of Caorle, a few hundred meters from the enemy advance guards, and did
+not cease firing until every civilian and everything movable had been
+placed in security. After this they succeeded in reaching the line of
+the Piave with their efficiency unimpaired.</p>
+
+<p>Some companies of sailors clad in gray-green held off a big group of
+"Honveds," [Hungarian guards,] forced back the boats which were
+attempting to cross the river, made prisoners of men who had succeeded
+in crossing with machine guns, captured their arms, defended their own
+flank from the continuous encircling movements of other enemy troops who
+had crossed the Piave further up stream, and finally formed a firm
+pillar of defense for the right flank of the army where it made its
+final stand.</p>
+
+<p>This is a short summary of the work carried out by the Italian Navy
+during the two weeks following the evacuation of Monfalcone and Grado.
+When the navy was called upon not only to co-operate and to protect but
+to constitute an important part of the line of resistance on the lower
+Piave, its duties were multiplied and assumed the character of a direct
+participation in the land war. Its special mission was to defend the
+Lagoons of Venice. The work of forming the principal ring of defense
+around the City of the Doges was confided to the machine gunners of the
+navy. The duty of defending the approaches along the seacoast was given
+to the sailors, and that of observing the battlefields on the lagoons to
+the aviators. The torpedo boats were asked to guarantee the extreme
+right wing against surprise from the sea.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">BATTERIES ON THE LAGOONS</div>
+
+<p>The artillery employed by the navy in the defense of the lower Piave and
+of Venice may be divided into three groups: Floating batteries on
+pontoons, batteries set up on the ground, and armed ships. Most of the
+floating pontoons came from Monfalcone on the lower Isonzo and from the
+marine defense of Grado. The crews working these guns had given
+magnificent proof of their valor during all the battles of the Carso,
+fighting in the open in almost impossible positions. The sailors
+suffered great fatigue and difficulties during the retreat in
+transporting these floating batteries along the waterways to their
+present position in stormy weather; but still greater were the
+sacrifices the naval gunners had to undergo in order to transform the
+intricate canals and muddy ground into solid positions. This life in the
+midst of swamps is a melancholy one. The officers and men working the
+guns have to live and sleep inside the pontoons between the depots of
+powder and projectiles. The tides and currents are continuously
+displacing the floating batteries, and constant work, day and night, is
+necessary to maintain the defense.</p>
+
+<p>It is due to the Italian sailors to recognize that this gigantic work,
+so rapidly undertaken, saved Venice and gave the army, its retreat
+having been accomplished, a strong support on its right wing. They
+helped to repel all the Hungarian attacks around Zenson. At the side of
+these floating batteries the British monitors held the bridges which the
+Austro-Hungarians were obstinately throwing across the new Piave under
+the fire of their guns, and destroyed them with surprising accuracy.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">ENEMY BRIDGES DESTROYED</div>
+
+<p>When the enemy succeeded in landing troops on the point of the island,
+which was mostly inundated, between the new and the old Piave, they
+tried to augment this advance guard by using a bridge of boats at
+Grisolera. But the float was shattered, the boats sunk. Enemy forces
+higher up the river then threw a floating bridge across at Ca' Sacco.
+Italy's naval guns shattered this bridge also. The enemy then ascended
+higher up the Piave and built three massive bridges at Agenzia Trezze.
+These were likewise destroyed. The Austrians descended the river and
+built another bridge at Tombolino; but they were also prevented from
+crossing here. They then endeavored to establish communication at San
+Don�, but here also the shells from the big guns on the floats reached
+them. There is now [April, 1918] a daily struggle between the enemy
+desiring to force their way across the river and the great guns on the
+lagoons impeding the passage, defending the approach, and ruining the
+work they accomplish.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i448.png"><img src="images/i448-t.png" width="250" height="235" alt="MAP SHOWING LAGOONS AND MARSHES BETWEEN VENICE AND THE
+PIAVE, WHERE THE ITALIAN NAVY IS HELPING TO HOLD BACK THE INVADERS" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />MAP SHOWING LAGOONS AND MARSHES BETWEEN VENICE AND THE
+PIAVE, WHERE THE ITALIAN NAVY IS HELPING TO HOLD BACK THE INVADERS</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Italian armed ships sometimes participate in actions against the
+enemy infantry. Recently one evening the ship Captain Sauro went up the
+old Piave, wending its way into an artificial canal which divided the
+Italian first line of defense from the enemy line. The sailors of the
+Sauro replied steadily to the rifle fire of Hungarian advance posts in
+the houses along the canals and landed on the shore occupied by the
+enemy patrols, forcing them to flee and firing the abandoned shelters
+after taking out the captured munitions. They then returned to the ship
+and, though harassed by enemy fire, succeeded in returning safely to
+their point of departure.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">WORK OF LAND BATTERIES</div>
+
+<p>Some of the land batteries had equally hard tasks. In the middle of last
+November many batteries had to withstand continual attacks from the sea
+by Austrian battleships of the Monarch type, escorted by destroyers,
+which had been sent to the Venetian shore with the purpose of rendering
+the Piave untenable. One naval battery of medium-calibre guns, commanded
+successively by two brothers, fired ceaselessly, without resting, though
+subjected to the fire of enemy artillery and machine guns, not only from
+the front and side, but also from the Adriatic in the rear. During the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>
+last days of the retreat, while the defense line of the Lagoons of
+Venice was not yet consolidated, that battery was for a long time
+isolated from every communication, without food, reinforcements, or
+support, yet it did not cede one inch, it never slackened fire, and it
+never asked for help. It was one of the heroic deeds of the Italian
+defense between Cavazuccherina and the sea. In the afternoon of Nov. 16,
+though attacked by the Austrian battleships Budapest and Wien, not only
+did these same batteries protect the return of two Italian submarine
+chasers which had gone out to attack the Austrian naval division, but
+they effectively counterattacked the battleships and their twelve
+destroyers until their return in the direction of Istria. The
+battleships never attempted this attack again.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">NAVAL AVIATION</div>
+
+<p>The plain extending from Zenson to the sea does not offer any elevated
+points for observation and the control of artillery fire. Therefore, the
+task of directing the shellfire had to be confided to the airplanes, and
+in the lagoons to the seaplanes. But in order that the seaplanes may
+fulfill their work of observation with safety they must be defended from
+enemy airplanes and must, therefore, be escorted by chasing machines.</p>
+
+<p>The Italian seaplanes and their escorts did not spare themselves. The
+aviators of one squadron accomplished seventy-nine bombarding and
+observation flights in the first twenty days of November during a total
+of ninety-two hours of flight&mdash;not counting practice flights.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE SUBMARINE CHASERS</div>
+
+<p>Every one now knows, at least by reputation, the M. A. S., [Motoscafi
+Antisommergibili di Scorta,] the Italian little armored boats that are
+doing effective work in the Tyrrhenean and the Adriatic, but few
+understand the great assistance they have given in their support of the
+army in the marshy Venetian plain covered with watercourses.</p>
+
+<p>The M. A. S. were not built to fight on rivers, but to scour the seas;
+yet they are frequently seen engaging some enemy advance post. Where
+the enemy lines border on a river or a canal the menacing prow of an M.
+A. S. will now and then rise under the barbed wire of the Hungarian
+trenches. These swift motor boats have become the cavalry of the
+marshes. They are slaves to their fragility, but they have the advantage
+of speed and surprise.</p>
+
+<p>The M. A. S. attacked the moving enemy companies across the lagoons with
+machine guns and their little guns. They were bombarded in turn; but
+their bravery and their size made them often very fortunate. At
+Bevazzano a big column of Honveds marching along the shore was put to
+flight by them. Again they shelled a cyclist corps, killing a large
+number. They landed a few men on ground already occupied by the enemy
+and succeeded in destroying or in capturing various machine-gun
+outposts. Elsewhere they supported isolated companies of sailors,
+protecting the lagoons, with their small guns. With great daring they
+pushed up to Porto Gruaro, which had already been invaded from Lemene.
+Shortly after, while the present line of Intestadure-Capo
+Sile-Cavazuccherina-Cortelazzo was being organized, the M. A. S. ran up
+and down for entire days through the Piave, the old Piave, and the
+Cavetta Canal, undertaking frequent sporadic fights with the machine
+gunners and the picked shooters of Boroevic.</p>
+
+<p>The armed motor boats by themselves insured the liaison between the
+lines for several days, and today, when the line of resistance from the
+lagoons is safe, the tactical use of the M. A. S. in the interior canals
+is still frequent and efficacious.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">FIGHTING LARGER CRAFT</div>
+
+<p>These armored motor boats also held the Adriatic coast, especially
+between the mouth of the Piave and the Venetian estuary. Nor were
+opportunities lacking for the little craft to fight against superior
+forces, as was the case on Nov. 16, 1917. The battleships of the Monarch
+type&mdash;Wien and Budapest&mdash;escorted by a division of torpedo boats and
+destroyers, appeared that morning before Cortelazzo and opened a violent
+bombardment against the Italian lines, attacking them from the flank.
+Assailed by seaplanes, counterattacked by Italian coast artillery, and
+threatened by approaching destroyers, they retired, but in the afternoon
+they returned and reopened fire at the mouth of the Piave.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i453.jpg"><img src="images/i453-t.jpg" width="250" height="143" alt="ONE OF THE MANY SMALL NAVAL BATTERIES THAT ARE DEFENDING
+VENICE IN THE NEIGHBORING LAGOONS." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />ONE OF THE MANY SMALL NAVAL BATTERIES THAT ARE DEFENDING
+VENICE IN THE NEIGHBORING LAGOONS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Thereupon, the M. A. S. appeared from the open sea and plunged into the
+enemy formation. They intervened where the duel between the coast
+artillery and the battleships was most intense. When the motor boats had
+approached within less than a mile, the guns of the Monarch, ceasing to
+fire on land, turned a violent fire against the audacious newcomers. The
+enemy destroyers threw themselves on the two Italian chasers, shooting
+with every gun on board, while the battleships were manoeuvring to
+retire eastward. The M. A. S. approached the large ships within a few
+hundred meters, fired their torpedoes, and reversed their course. The
+Monarchs were able to avoid the torpedoes by rapid evolutions and
+returned toward the Istrian coast, while even the turret guns continued
+their fire against the minute Italian chasers.</p>
+
+<p>The battleships having withdrawn, the chasers found themselves
+surrounded by five adversary torpedo boats, which were attempting to
+cut off their retreat. They gave a good account of themselves, however,
+meanwhile gaining the protection of the coast batteries; the enemy
+destroyers retired, while the M. A. S. returned to their base with
+insignificant damage and with crews unhurt.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE NAVAL BATTALIONS</div>
+
+<p>When the news of the Austro-German invasion first spread through the
+Italian naval bases, the Captains of the battleships saw an unusual
+procession passing before their cabins, all asking the same thing&mdash;to be
+moved into the infantry and sent to the front. Special orders of the day
+were necessary to make the rank and file understand that each man could
+best play his part by remaining at his own post. It was announced,
+however, that those whose services were not absolutely necessary at
+their bases would be given full satisfaction. The first naval infantry
+companies were thus formed in a few days. Sections of the navy belonging
+to the defense of Monfalcone and Grado were under fire on foot from the
+first days of the resistance between the Tagliamento and the Livenza,
+and many others wished to join these gray-green companies.</p>
+
+<p>The first battalion of sailors, perfectly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> equipped and organized for
+trench warfare, went into the front line the 1st of November. Most of
+these men were not experiencing land firing for the first time, as they
+had participated with small groups in the defense of Monfalcone and
+Grado, but they had never before been used as real naval infantry. The
+lower Piave, where it forms a zigzag before flowing into the Adriatic,
+was assigned to the naval battalion as its line of defense. At dawn on
+Nov. 13 the battalion underwent a tremendous shock from the advance
+guard of the left flank of Boroevic's army. The attack was definitely
+repulsed. However, a few kilometers to the west, where the line of the
+Piave was held by battalions of territorials, the enemy succeeded in
+throwing a bridge of boats across the river near Grisolera and getting
+an armed patrol with machine guns to the opposite shore.</p>
+
+<p>The territorials withdrew to Case Molinato, in the direction of
+Cavazuccherina, and groups of Honveds crossed the large watery island
+between the old and new Piave. The naval battalion, therefore, found its
+left flank suddenly exposed and had to face both front and lateral
+attacks. The Italians were commanded by an officer of great strength of
+character, Lieut. Commander Starita, who decided to hold and to
+counterattack in spite of the difficult position. The enemy was
+therefore unable to enlarge the breach and was energetically held in the
+delta of the river.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">"ARDITI" OF THE NAVY</div>
+
+<p>In the meantime the Hungarian machine gunners who had crossed the Piave
+fortified themselves in the houses, barricaded the doors and windows
+with sandbags, and, supported by these machine gunners, other enemy
+patrols crept over, especially at night, through the dense vegetation of
+the delta, and with riflefire and bombs tormented the sailors, who had
+remained without any contact with the army. Lieut. Commander Starita,
+though having only a few hundred men at his disposal, held a front of
+several kilometers on three sides and organized a special corps of
+"braves" to clean out the infested zone. He improvised the "Arditi" of
+the navy and led them into action. Near Case Allegri a platoon of
+Hungarians had established themselves in an old guardhouse and had made
+a small fort with several machine guns. A patrol led by Captain Starita
+was able to surround them and to penetrate and kill the commanding
+officer despite the heavy fire of the machine gunners. The twenty
+surviving Hungarians, as soon as they saw their leader fall, raised
+their hands and called out "Kamerad!" The marines disarmed them, bound
+them with their puttees, captured the machine guns, and conducted them
+to the main battalion.</p>
+
+<p>The same day, near Revedoli, a boat full of enemy soldiers attempted to
+cross the river and to outflank the marines on the right, aided by a
+bend in the river. The outlook post discovered what was happening and
+another Italian patrol came to the rescue and engaged the Honveds. The
+Hungarians were almost all captured and the boat taken. The following
+day the Starita battalion, which in the meantime had remained isolated
+from the rest of the army with a dismounted squadron of cavalry and with
+a company of Alpine machine gunners, was put under a hard strain, as the
+left flank of Boroevic's army was renewing the attack with great
+strength. The enemy was repulsed, and the marine patrols took new
+prisoners and fresh booty. As these operations had produced appreciable
+losses, the line of the battalion was withdrawn on the evening of Nov.
+14 from Case Allegri to the mouth of the river, without any
+communication with the rest of the front.</p>
+
+<p>The Italian troops of the lagoon section also had established a definite
+line on the Sile and the old Piave, covering Cavazuccherina with a
+bridgehead. The retirement of the naval battalion to the new line of the
+Cavetta Canal from Cavazuccherina to the sea was then decided upon.
+Lieut. Commander Starita received orders to reach the final positions on
+the night of the 15th. It would have been an unnecessary sacrifice to
+continue an isolated fight on the new Piave, as the sailors wished to
+do. Therefore, the battalion made an orderly retirement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> with their
+booty and all their prisoners to the line of Cavetta.</p>
+
+<p>Between the 16th and 17th the enemy succeeded in sending some chosen
+fighters with machine guns and hand grenades to the houses of
+Cortelazza, north of the bend of the river. As the distance between the
+two banks is only a few yards, the sailors opened a heavy fire on the
+enemy advance guards, intensifying it at night. The battalion did not
+have sufficient material to undertake a strong counterattack and to
+repulse the advance guards beyond Cortelazza. On the 18th the necessary
+material and hand grenades began to arrive. The counterattack was
+immediately opened with great energy, the houses were retaken, and so
+the marines were able to throw a bridgehead beyond the Cavetta Canal and
+Cortelazza, which, consolidated, represents the extreme point of the
+land resistance toward the sea.</p>
+
+<p>This first naval company, which did so much to arrest the progress of
+the Austro-Hungarians toward the Lagoon of St. Mark, now gives a
+veteran's greeting to every new group of marines that comes to add its
+strength to the ring around Venice.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i460.jpg"><img src="images/i460-t.jpg" width="250" height="166" alt="DWELLING HOUSES IN VENICE RUINED BY AIR-RAID BOMBS" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />DWELLING HOUSES IN VENICE RUINED BY AIR-RAID BOMBS</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>Venice Under the Grim Shadow</h2>
+
+<h3>The City's Wartime Aspects</h3>
+
+<div class="center">[A Rotogravure Etching of Venice Appears in This Issue Opposite Page
+<a href="#Page_269">269</a>]</div>
+
+<p>When the Austro-German armies swept down through the Venetian plain last
+October and November, leaving ruin in their wake, they were stopped at
+the Piave River, whose waters flow into the lagoon a few miles east of
+Venice. Though the Italian Army and Navy made a ring of steel around
+the City of the Doges, and have held the enemy at bay from that time to
+the present, the sounds of battle have been constantly in the ears of
+the inhabitants, and frequent air raids have left jagged scars on many
+buildings and even in the pavement of the Piazza San Marco.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i463.jpg"><img src="images/i463-t.jpg" width="250" height="163" alt="ST. MARK&#39;S CATHEDRAL IN WAR GARB: THE BRONZE HORSES HAVE
+BEEN REMOVED FROM OVER THE MAIN ENTRANCE, AND PARTS OF THE FACADE ARE
+PROTECTED" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />ST. MARK&#39;S CATHEDRAL IN WAR GARB: THE BRONZE HORSES HAVE
+BEEN REMOVED FROM OVER THE MAIN ENTRANCE, AND PARTS OF THE FACADE ARE
+PROTECTED</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Throughout the Winter of 1917-18 Venice<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> remained a city without
+tourists, its population dwindling from 150,000 to about 40,000, its
+canals silent and almost empty of life, yet full of a new and wistful
+beauty. The first days of peril had brought the enemy within twelve or
+thirteen miles of Venice. From the Fondamento Nuovo, at the northern end
+of the city, the people could see the flash of guns and the bursting of
+shells. The roar of guns disturbed their work by day and their sleep by
+night.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">EVACUATING THE CITY</div>
+
+<p>The civilian population was a hindrance rather than a help to the
+defenders, so the Admiral in command (for Venice is under naval, not
+military authority) thought it well to arrange for the partial
+evacuation of the city. In conjunction with the Syndic, Count Erimani,
+he first asked all foreigners to remove themselves to places of safety.
+Then offices were opened in each of the thirty parishes, and the people
+were ordered to report within forty-eight hours. This census was taken,
+so that railway facilities for traveling might be provided for all, and
+that places of safety might be found for those who were too poor to go
+away at their own expense, and pay their way afterward.</p>
+
+<p>In a few days nearly half the population, some 70,000, had gone, the
+majority to Florence, Rome, and other places in Central and Southern
+Italy, and the others to Genoa and the Riviera. Some were sent by sea to
+the Ancona coast. After this first rush the exodus went on more
+leisurely, some 3,000 leaving each day. Institutions of all kinds,
+offices, shops, restaurants, and caf�s, closed their doors, even the
+Caf� Florian, which had been open day and night continuously for over
+100 years. Banks and offices transferred their businesses to other
+towns.</p>
+
+<p>There are no cellars in Venice, nor can the inhabitants have any dugouts
+in which to conceal valuables, for at a depth of two or three feet below
+the ground floors of all buildings water is reached. Accordingly the
+authorities at the Municipal Building, at St. Mark's Library, at the
+Ducal Palace, at the Archives, as well as at banks and insurance
+offices, had their documents and valuables conveyed to places of
+security by boat and rail.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i466.jpg"><img src="images/i466-t.jpg" width="250" height="154" alt="INTERIOR OF ST. MARK&#39;S: CHAPEL OF THE CRUCIFIX PROTECTED
+BY SANDBAGS AND MATTRESS-LIKE SHEATHS" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />INTERIOR OF ST. MARK&#39;S: CHAPEL OF THE CRUCIFIX PROTECTED
+BY SANDBAGS AND MATTRESS-LIKE SHEATHS</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>When Italy first went into the war precautions had been taken to protect<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span>
+the public monuments of Venice against aerial bombardment. The Doges'
+Palace and the Church of St. Mark were protected by barricades of
+sandbags, as were all the more valuable statues throughout the city. St.
+Mark's gilded copper horses, beaten out by hand, the only example extant
+of a Roman Quadriga&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+The four steeds divine,<br />
+That strike the ground resounding with their feet,<br />
+And from their nostrils snort ethereal flame&mdash;<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>were removed at that time from their pedestals above the main entrance
+to the church, and stabled under an archway on the ground floor of the
+Doges' Palace. When the new peril came with the invasion, however, they
+were conveyed by a battleship to a safer refuge in Rome. The precious
+equestrian statue of Colleoni, so much admired by Ruskin, with other
+treasures familiar to the tourist, also has been removed to a place of
+security. The bells of St. Mark's campanile and those of every church in
+the city have been taken away.</p>
+
+<p>By the first weeks of 1918 the population had shrunk to less than
+60,000, and at night one could walk through miles and miles of stilled
+and empty streets, darkened against the peril of air raids, or could
+travel by gondola along lonely canals rippled only by the Winter wind,
+with the cold moonlight silvering a deserted fairyland. Two months later
+the population was further reduced by sending away 20,000 women,
+children, and old men with a view to eliminating useless mouths to feed
+and preventing unnecessary slaughter. By that time Austro-German
+ingenuity had invented a new system of dropping bombs; instead of
+scattering them over the city the missiles were grouped in large numbers
+in a very limited space so that the destruction on that area was
+complete.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">LIKE A DEAD CITY</div>
+
+<p>An English war correspondent who visited Venice in the Winter drew this
+word picture:</p>
+
+<p>"Shuttered palaces face each other across silent canals. A footstep
+ringing down those narrow alleys, which are like deep, dark slits in a
+close-crowded mass of many-storied houses, starts echoes that die
+undisturbed away. The black gondola glides through a dead city more
+beautiful in the silence and stillness of this war trance of hers than
+ever in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> fullness of her vivacious life. At each corner of the
+narrow water lane the white-haired gondolier raises his mournful cry,
+but by long habit, for he knows that no answer will ring out from beyond
+the angle of the dark stone wall, and no tapering prow glide out to be
+avoided by a turn of his skillful oar.</p>
+
+<p>"The Grand Canal is a green and gleaming vista of desertion. The scream
+of seagulls, beating its tranquil surface with their wings, is the only
+sound that disturbs the quiet of its reverie. A pleasing melancholy
+invests the deserted quays, and in remote corners of little lost canals
+you can almost hear the whispering of innumerable spirits of the Venice
+of long ago who have been drawn back to their old home by this strange
+peace that lies upon the city.</p>
+
+<p>"Venice, without tourists, without guides, without postcard sellers and
+hotel touts, is a close preserve of beauty for the few who have the
+fortune to be here. The atmosphere and the dignity of the days when she
+was a ruling city are here as they have never been before in modern
+times, nor ever will be again."</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE WORST AIR RAID</div>
+
+<p>The greatest air raid of all the forty-five which Venice had endured
+since the war's beginning was that of the night of Feb. 26-27, 1918. It
+lasted eight hours&mdash;from 10:20 to 6:15 A. M.&mdash;and there was not a single
+interval of more than half an hour during all that time of brilliant
+moonlight in which bombs were not falling on the city. There were 300 in
+all. Thirty-eight houses were smashed, the Royal Palace was struck, one
+wing of an old people's home was blown to pieces, and three churches
+were damaged, including that of St. Chrysostom, in which an altar with
+one of Cellini's last landscapes was wrecked. Fifteen bombs fell near
+the Doges' Palace, one barely missing the Bridge of Sighs and falling
+into the narrow canal which it spans. Ten bombs fell around the Rialto
+Bridge. About fifteen civilians were wounded seriously, including two
+women. Only one man was killed, thanks to the promptness with which the
+Venetians now take shelter.</p>
+
+<p>According to the official account at least fifty airplanes took part in
+the raid, and some of these returned again and again, bringing fresh
+cargoes of bombs throughout the night. The Austrian lines are so near
+that the trip to the bomb bases and back again requires only twenty-five
+minutes, and this was the average length of the intervals between the
+bombardments. G. Ward Price, a war correspondent, in describing the
+experiences of that night, wrote:</p>
+
+<p>"Suddenly another crash re-echoed throughout the city, and the din of
+the bombardment started once more. I followed the quickly vanishing
+throng through an archway, where a green light marked a place of
+shelter. For two hours I was part of a close-packed throng in the dark
+vaulted room. There were women and wide-eyed children there in plenty,
+tired out with the long standing, which for them lasted until dawn, but
+none showing alarm, though, in addition to the nerve trying din outside,
+a constant shower of pieces of shell and flying bits of masonry whirred
+and pelted and pattered down incessantly outside.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">BRAVE WOMEN'S LAUGHTER</div>
+
+<p>"Toward 2 o'clock I made another move toward the centre of the city. I
+heard the drone of an attacking airplane drawing nearer over the still
+lagoon, and a policeman beckoned me into the vestibule of a high palazzo
+in one of those narrow Venetian alleys between tall black rows of houses
+which are like a communication trench of masonry. All was cheerfulness
+in this marble anteroom, a family of young daughters laughing and
+chattering with their mother while the noisy night crept slowly on.
+Taking advantage of another lull, I reached my hotel, but not until 6
+o'clock, when the dawn was well advanced, did the tumult of this
+eight-hour-long bombardment cease.</p>
+
+<p>"And yet this morning, as one went about in the warm sunshine seeing the
+places which the bombs had destroyed, the people seemed untroubled
+enough. Troops of black-shawled girls went chattering by, and the boys
+were playing a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span> sort of 'shove-halfpenny' game, using as counters the
+shell splinters they had found scattered about the city ways."</p>
+
+<p>Since then there have been many other raids, but none so prolonged. The
+black-shawled women whose laughter defied the nightly peril have gone
+for the most part, taking with them the alert "bambini," who at that
+period still shouted at play in the streets. Only armed defenders are
+left, with those who are absolutely necessary to aid them. The muffled
+echo of distant guns is heard by day and the crash of bombs by night.
+Just outside the city is a little cemetery where are gathered the bodies
+of the Italian and French aviators who have died defending these shores.
+The marble pavement of the Piazza and Piazzetta is torn in places, and
+the swarming pigeons of other days have dwindled sadly, for no tourists
+come to feed them. In the sky over the lagoon, where the gulls once
+reigned supreme, airplanes now keep watch against the ceaseless threat
+in the direction of the Piave.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>Taking Over the Dutch Ships</h2>
+
+<h3>The United States Seizes for the War Period 500,000 Tons of Dutch
+Shipping</h3>
+
+<p>The April issue of <span class="smcap">Current History Magazine</span> contained a brief reference
+to the intention of the United States and British Governments to seize
+the Dutch shipping in their ports on account of Holland's refusal to
+carry food cargoes for fear of offending Germany. The two Governments
+took action March 20, 1918, when all Dutch shipping in American and
+British harbors was seized by the naval authorities of the two
+countries. The total of shipping acquired is estimated at 750,000 tons,
+500,000 being in American waters. The largest Dutch steamship, the Nieuw
+Amsterdam, which was in New York Harbor at the time, was not seized, but
+was permitted to return to Holland with a cargo of food, as it had been
+agreed when she made her outward voyage, during the pending of the
+negotiations, that, whatever the result, she would be immune; moreover,
+all Dutch shipping outward bound to American waters at the date of the
+seizure which had not yet reached port were also to be permitted to
+return to their home ports.</p>
+
+<p>President Wilson's proclamation directing the seizure stated that "the
+law "and practice of nations accords to a "belligerent power the right
+in times of "military exigency and for purposes "essential to the
+prosecution of war, to take over and utilize neutral vessels lying
+within its jurisdiction." The President also made a formal statement in
+which he reviewed the negotiations with Holland for the restoration of
+her merchant marine lying idle in American ports to a normal condition
+of activity for the transportation of foodstuffs. He had sought to have
+these Dutch ships carry food for Switzerland, for Belgian relief, and
+for Holland as well. He stated that on Jan. 25, 1918, the Dutch Minister
+proposed that</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>one hundred and fifty thousand tons of Dutch shipping should at
+the discretion of the United States be employed partly in the
+service of Belgian relief and partly for Switzerland on safe
+conduct to Cette, France, and that for each ship sent to Holland
+in the service of Belgian relief a corresponding vessel should
+leave Holland for the United States. Two Dutch ships in the
+United States ports with cargoes of foodstuffs were to proceed
+to Holland, similar tonnage being sent in exchange from Holland
+to the United States for charter as in the case of other Dutch
+ships lying in the United States ports. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The President stated that shortly afterward Holland rejected her own
+proposals, presumably through fear of German submarines, every
+suggestion thereafter was postponed, and answers were delayed, until
+finally, on March 7, it became<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> clear that Holland was prevented by
+German coercion from fulfilling any agreement to put her ships into
+service; it was then concluded to exercise the sovereign rights of a
+belligerent under the international law of "angary," and to place the
+Dutch ships under American jurisdiction. The President concluded as
+follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>We have informed the Dutch Government that her colonial trade
+will be facilitated and that she may at once send ships from
+Holland to secure the bread cereals which her people require.
+These ships will be freely bunkered and will be immune from
+detention on our part. The liner Nieuw Amsterdam, which came
+within our jurisdiction under an agreement for her return, will,
+of course, be permitted at once to return to Holland. Not only
+so, but she will be authorized to carry back with her the two
+cargoes of foodstuffs which Holland would have secured under the
+temporary chartering agreement had not Germany prevented. Ample
+compensation will be paid to the Dutch owners of the ships which
+will be put into our service and suitable provision will be made
+to meet the possibility of ships being lost through enemy
+action.</p>
+
+<p>It is our earnest desire to safeguard to the fullest extent the
+interests of Holland and of her nationals. By exercising in this
+crisis our admitted right to control all property within our
+territory we do no wrong to Holland. The manner in which we
+proposed to exercise this right and our proposals made to
+Holland concurrently therewith, cannot, I believe, fail to
+evidence to Holland the sincerity of our friendship toward her. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The seizure of the Dutch ships was accomplished without friction on
+March 20 by manning them with American naval officers, with the
+co-operation of the United States Shipping Board. The Dutch crews were
+released, and many of the officers and sailors returned to Holland a few
+days later.</p>
+
+<p>The action of the American and British authorities produced much
+agitation in Holland; the Dutch newspapers bitterly denounced the action
+as unwarranted. A statement appeared in the Official Gazette of the
+Netherlands Government on March 30 in which the seizure was
+characterized as an act of violence. The statement asserted that the act
+was "indefensible from the viewpoint of international law and
+unjustifiable." Denial was made that an agreement failed through German
+pressure. The Dutch official statement ended as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>The powers in question, owing to the loss of ships, felt
+constrained to replace the tonnage by obtaining the disposal of
+a very large number of ships which belonged not to them but to
+the Netherlands. They became aware that the Netherlands
+Government could not permit the ships to sail in the interest of
+the associated Governments except on the conditions imposed by
+neutrality, but which were, in the judgment of the Governments,
+not sufficiently in accordance with their interests. Therefore,
+they decided to seize the Dutch merchant fleet in so far as it
+lay within their power.</p>
+
+<p>The Netherlands Government deems it its duty, especially in
+serious times such as the present, to speak with complete
+candor. It voices the sentiments of the entire Dutch Nation,
+which sees in the seizure an act of violence which it will
+oppose with all the energy of its conviction and its wounded
+national feeling.</p>
+
+<p>According to the Presidential statement, this procedure offers
+Holland ample opportunity to obtain bread grain. This is so only
+apparently; for would it not be an irresponsible act, after the
+experiences of Dutch ships in American and British ports, to
+permit other ships to sail to these ports without adequate
+guarantees that these experiences shall not occur?</p>
+
+<p>The American Government has always appealed to right and
+justice, has always come forward as the champion of small
+nations. That it now co-operates in an act diametrically opposed
+to those principles is a proceeding which can find no
+counterweight in the manifestations of friendship or assurances
+of lenient application of the wrong committed. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The United States Government proceeded at once to put the commandeered
+ships into service. On April 12 Secretary Lansing issued a statement
+answering the Dutch protest in detail. After pointing out that the
+Netherlands Government had not questioned the legality of the action
+taken by the United States, Secretary Lansing showed that it had
+involved no element of unfriendliness and was justified by the evidence
+in the case. Events had proved that to have granted bunker coal and food
+cargoes on ordinary terms would have released foodstuffs in Holland for
+sale to Germany and "would in fact have been an act beneficial to the
+enemy and having no relation to our friendship to the Netherlands."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span></p>
+<h2>Air Raids on Paris and London</h2>
+
+<h3>A Historical Summary</h3>
+
+<p>Paris experienced one of the most disastrous air raids of the war on the
+night of March 11, 1918, when nine squadrons of German airplanes,
+aggregating nearly sixty units, took part in an attack on the city and
+suburbs. Several buildings were demolished and set on fire. The number
+of persons killed was 34, and there were in addition 79 injured, 88 of
+these casualties being in Paris.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the bomb victims, 66 persons were suffocated through
+crowding in a panic into a Metropolitan (subway) Railway entrance to
+take refuge from the raiders. These were for the most part women and
+children.</p>
+
+<p>A fog which had covered the city in the morning settled down again in
+the early evening. It was thick enough to cause the general belief that
+there was little chance that the Germans would attempt an air raid. This
+belief, however, was shattered at 9:10 o'clock, when the warning was
+sounded of the approach of hostile aircraft. The raid ended shortly
+after midnight, with a loss to the Germans of four machines, which were
+brought down by the French anti-aircraft defenses.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Baker, the United States Secretary of War, was in conference with
+General Tasker H. Bliss, the American Chief of Staff, in a hotel suite
+when the air alarm was sounded. Secretary Baker was not disturbed by the
+noise of the sirens or the barrage of the anti-aircraft guns, but the
+hotel management, fearing for the safety of himself and his party,
+persuaded the members to descend to the wine cellar, where later they
+were joined by Major Gen. William M. Black.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Baker, in the course of a statement the following day, said: "It was
+my first experience of the actualities of war and a revelation of the
+methods inaugurated by an enemy who wages the same war against women and
+children as against soldiers. If his object is to damage property, the
+results are trifling when compared with his efforts. If his object is to
+weaken the people's morale, the reply is given by the superb conduct of
+the people of Paris. Moreover, aerial raids on towns, which are
+counterpart of the pitiless submarine war and the attacks against
+American rights, are the very explanation of the reasons why America
+entered the war. We are sending our soldiers to Europe to fight until
+the world is delivered from these horrors."</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE ENEMY MACHINES</div>
+
+<p>George Prade, a leading French authority on aircraft, told a newspaper
+correspondent that the German airplanes used in the attack on Paris were
+the result of a construction program decided on by the German Staff last
+Summer to meet in advance what is generally known in France as the
+American aviation program.</p>
+
+<p>When it was announced that the Americans had decided to construct an
+enormous air fleet for service on the western front, the German War
+Staff developed plans for much more powerful machines. In June and July,
+1917, they began the construction in series of more than 2,000 engines
+much higher powered than those in previous use. These consisted of
+Mercedes engines of 260 horse power with six cylinders and Maybach and
+Benz, both 250 horse power, and with six cylinders. These engines took
+the place of heavier but less powerful six and eight cylinder engines,
+ranging from 225 to 235 horse power. The Germans thus not only gained in
+power, but definitely adopted a plan for planes with two motors and two
+independent propellers. Each new machine was built with three chasses, a
+middle one carrying the crew, and two outside, each carrying an engine
+and a propeller. Three distinct types were developed, known,
+respectively, as Gothas, Friedrichshafens, and A. E. G.'s.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The length of wings ranges from 72&frac12; to 86 feet. The propellers in
+earlier machines were placed at the rear, but now they are on the front
+of the cars. Machines of all three types carry either three or four men,
+and are fitted with three appliances for launching bombs. The
+projectiles vary enormously, ranging from aerial torpedoes, the smallest
+of which weighs two hundredweight, down to small shrapnel bombs. Each of
+these machines carries a minimum of 153 gallons of petrol and 15 gallons
+of oil, sufficient for at least a four hours' flight. Their average
+speed is between 80 and 90 miles an hour.</p>
+
+<p>Referring to the question of hitting any given target, M. Prade said it
+was practically impossible to strike any particular objective when a
+plane was traveling at a rate of thirty-eight to forty yards a second. A
+bomb must be dropped more or less at random, which is the reason why
+such form of warfare is simply criminal. It is impossible to tell where
+the bomb will fall. Three men are generally sufficient to handle a
+machine, one for each engine and a third to drop bombs. The fourth man
+carried is generally a pilot, who is able from his knowledge of Paris
+districts to direct the airplane more or less accurately toward
+objectives.</p>
+
+<p>Big raiding machines generally are accompanied by a large number of
+smaller two-seated, single-motor planes of 180 to 260 horse power, such
+as are generally used for reconnoissance purposes. These planes, of
+which the Hanover is the newest type, are usually of only thirty-eight
+to forty feet wing spread, but can get up to 20,000 feet carrying four
+small bombs.</p>
+
+<p>The raid of March 11 was preceded on March 8 by an almost equally
+formidable attack on Paris, the casualties being 13 killed and 50
+injured. One of the raiding machines, an airplane of the Gotha type, was
+found in the Forest of Compi�gne, where it had fallen while returning
+from the raid. All four of its occupants were killed. They included
+Captain Fritz Eckstein, the commander of the raiding squadrons, and an
+officer of the Kaiser's White Cuirassiers from Potsdam. Three other
+machines were brought down. Altogether, fifteen trained aviators,
+mechanics, and pilots were either killed or made prisoner.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH</div>
+
+<p>Bombardment in 1917 played a more and more important part in aerial
+operations. The Germans had for some time expended their principal
+efforts upon aviation on the battlefield; besides, up to 1916 they were
+averse to night flying. But by the beginning of 1918 they had brought
+into existence a system of aerial bombardment supplied with powerful
+machines, and had developed an increasing series of attacks on the
+French troops, on the camps at the rear, and, alas! on the cities of
+France. Nancy and Dunkirk are sad examples of their work.</p>
+
+<p>The German squadrons known as Kampfgeschwader, furnished with special
+trains that transport them to any desired point and placed under the
+direct authority of the Quartermaster General, make use of great
+triplanes armed with machine guns and supplied with automatic bomb
+throwers; the Gothas, which, with their two Mercedes motors of 260 horse
+power each, can carry 1,200 pounds of explosives and gasoline for five
+hours, and the Friedrichshafens, whose two Benz motors of 225 horse
+power each can carry enough gasoline for four hours and twelve bombs
+totaling half a ton in weight.</p>
+
+<p>It was with these machines&mdash;employed in mass formation&mdash;that the Germans
+attempted their great bombing operations in the Autumn of 1917, notably
+the expedition in November, when in a single night seven groups of
+airplanes made successive attacks on English cities; also the raid of
+Dec. 19 on London, when twenty machines took part in the attack on
+London and caused serious damage, including the work of an incendiary
+bomb that set fire to a factory and burned it to the ground. It is with
+these machines which they are still improving, and which they are
+multiplying by the bold creation of series, that the Germans have vainly
+sought to hold command of the air during their offensive in Picardy.</p>
+
+<p>The example and threat of the enemy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span> had their effect in France. The
+French bombarding groups, which, born at the end of 1914, had in 1915
+achieved famous flights into the heart of Germany, were compelled, with
+the advent of aerial combats, to renounce daylight operations, as these
+had become impossible or too uncertain for their slow and heavy
+machines, insufficiently armed, and had turned their attention to
+perilous night expeditions. But, despite successful raids and effective
+destruction, the French bombing operations remained more or less
+unsatisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of 1917 the use of the flying squadrons was finally
+adapted to the diverse needs of the battle front. In the French
+offensive at Verdun, while tactical aviation guided the waves of
+assault, regulated the artillery fire, and furnished information to the
+General Staff, while the swift airplane chasers, by a vigilant barrage,
+prevented all observation by enemy machines, the bombarding groups daily
+took part also in the action by hurling flames and destruction on
+railway stations, munition depots, storehouses at the rear, and sowing
+panic among the troops that were preparing to attack.</p>
+
+<p>Equipped at length with machines that combined the indispensable
+characteristics of speed, power, and armament, enabling them to hold the
+air in daytime, the French bombardiers attacked arsenals in the interior
+of Germany, and the British war dispatches of Dec. 25 mentioned a
+daylight raid of allied air squadrons upon Mannheim, where several fires
+followed, with heavy explosions at the central railway station and in
+the factories.</p>
+
+<p>The night groups, which had long made their raids only by moonlight, at
+length grew accustomed to flying in complete darkness. They multiplied
+their expeditions against enemy cantonments, railways, aviation fields,
+factories, and military and industrial centres. The task that remained
+at the opening of the Spring of 1918 was the fuller co-ordination of the
+groups of bombardiers.</p>
+
+<p>By that time the French had an excellent daylight airplane as well as
+successful night machines, and announced the early completion of still
+better ones. Their projectiles were not inferior to those of the
+Germans, and their supply was up to the demand. Thus they faced the
+German offensive fully equipped to hold their own so far as air
+supremacy was concerned.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">RAIDS ON LONDON</div>
+
+<p>London, as well as Paris, received frequent visits from enemy airplanes
+in February and March, 1918. On the three successive nights of Feb. 16,
+17, and 18 German raiders attacked the British metropolis. Twenty-seven
+persons were killed and forty-one were injured. Many of the German
+machines failed to reach the city owing to the great improvement which
+had been effected in the aerial defenses both on the coast and around
+London itself. Both the anti-aircraft guns and the airmen helped to
+diminish the casualties. The third night's raid resulted in an entire
+absence of both casualties and damage to property.</p>
+
+<p>Seven or eight German airplanes made a raid over England on the night of
+March 7. Two of them reached London and dropped bombs in various
+districts. Eleven persons were killed and forty-six injured in the
+metropolitan area. In addition a certain amount of damage was done to
+dwellings and some people buried under the wreckage.</p>
+
+<p>Zeppelins were again employed by the Germans in a raid on the east coast
+of England on March 12. One of them dropped bombs on Hull, while the two
+others wandered for some hours over remote country districts at great
+altitudes, unloading their bombs in open country before proceeding out
+to sea again. This was the first Zeppelin raid on England since Oct. 19,
+1917. The Germans had sustained such heavy losses in Zeppelins that they
+had substituted airplanes. [An account of the fate of the Zeppelins is
+included elsewhere in this issue.]</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">BRITISH REPRISALS</div>
+
+<p>Reprisals by British aviators have been frequent and drastic. The
+British Air Ministry, in one of the detailed statements which it issues
+from time to time, presented the following list of raids into Germany
+from Dec. 1, 1917, and Feb. 19, 1918, a period of eleven weeks:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="center">Date.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">1917.</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">Wt. of b'mbs</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">Dec.</td><td align="left">Objective.</td><td align="left">Locality.</td><td align="right">Population.</td><td align="right">in lbs.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">5</td><td align="left">Rly. sidings.</td><td align="left">Zweibrucken.</td><td align="right">14,700</td><td align="right">1,344</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">5</td><td align="left">Works</td><td align="left">[B]Burbach</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">1,096</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">6</td><td align="left">Works</td><td align="left">[B]Burbach</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">2,216</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">11</td><td align="left">Boot factory</td><td align="left">Pirmasens</td><td align="right">34,000</td><td align="right">1,594</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">24</td><td align="left">Factories</td><td align="left">Mannheim</td><td align="right">290,000</td><td align="right">2,252</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">1918.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">Jan.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">3-4</td><td align="left">Railways</td><td align="left">Nr. Metz</td><td align="right">100,000</td><td align="right">760</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">4-5</td><td align="left">Railways</td><td align="left">Nr. Metz</td><td align="right">100,000</td><td align="right">2,940</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">5-6</td><td align="left">Town</td><td align="left">[A]Courcelles</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">1,344</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">5-6</td><td align="left">Town &amp; rlys.</td><td align="left">[A]Conflans</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">2,180</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">14</td><td align="left">Munition factory</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&amp; rlys.</td><td align="left">Karlsruhe</td><td align="right">140,000</td><td align="right">2,800</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">14-15</td><td align="left">Steelworks</td><td align="left">Thionville</td><td align="right">13,000</td><td align="right">2,105</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">14-15</td><td align="left">Railways</td><td align="left">Metz</td><td align="right">100,000</td><td align="right">524</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">14-15</td><td align="left">Railways</td><td align="left">[A]Eringen</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">280</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">16-17</td><td align="left">Railways</td><td align="left">Benadorf</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">280</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">16-17</td><td align="left">Town</td><td align="left">Ormy</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">255</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">16-17</td><td align="left">Searchlight</td><td align="left">Vigny</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">26</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">21-22</td><td align="left">Steelworks</td><td align="left">Thionville</td><td align="right">13,000</td><td align="right">1,220</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">21-22</td><td align="left">Rly. sidings</td><td align="left">Bensdorf</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">2,210</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">Rly. junction</td><td align="left">Arnaville</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">1,344</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">24-25</td><td align="left">Steelworks, rlys.</td><td align="left">{Thionville</td><td align="right">13,000</td><td align="right">1,120</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">and barracks.</td><td align="left">{Treves</td><td align="right">48,000</td><td align="right">809</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">24-25</td><td align="left">Railway</td><td align="left">Oberbilig</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">280</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">24-25</td><td align="left">Factory</td><td align="left">Mannheim</td><td align="right">290,000</td><td align="right">672</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">24-25</td><td align="left">Railway</td><td align="left">Saarburg</td><td align="right">9,800</td><td align="right">280</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">24-25</td><td align="left">Steelworks</td><td align="left">Thionville</td><td align="right">13,000</td><td align="right">1,344</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">25</td><td align="left">Barracks and</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">station</td><td align="left">Treves</td><td align="right">48,000</td><td align="right">1,350</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">27</td><td align="left">Barracks and</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">station</td><td align="left">Treves</td><td align="right">48,000</td><td align="right">230</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">Feb.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">9-10</td><td align="left">Railway</td><td align="left">[A]Courcelles</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">1,844</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">12</td><td align="left">Town</td><td align="left">Offenburg</td><td align="right">15,400</td><td align="right">2,838</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">16-17</td><td align="left">Rly. station</td><td align="left">[A]Conflans</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">1,488</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">17-18</td><td align="left">Rly. sidings</td><td align="left">[A]Conflans</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">2,240</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">18</td><td align="left">Steelworks</td><td align="left">Thionville</td><td align="right">13,000</td><td align="right">936</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">18</td><td align="left">Barracks and</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">station</td><td align="left">Treves</td><td align="right">48,000</td><td align="right">1,250</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">18-19</td><td align="left">Barracks and</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">station</td><td align="left">Treves</td><td align="right">48,000</td><td align="right">2,206</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">18-19</td><td align="left">Rly. and gas</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">works</td><td align="left">Thionville</td><td align="right">13,000</td><td align="right">650</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">19</td><td align="left">Station</td><td align="left">Treves</td><td align="right">48,000</td><td align="right">2,400</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"></td><td align="left" colspan="2">A See Metz. &nbsp;&nbsp; B See Saarbrucken.</td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>James I. Macpherson, Parliamentary Secretary of the War Office, stated
+in the House of Commons on March 19 that British airmen had made 255
+flights into German territory since October, 1917. The 255 flights
+constituted 38 raids, and only 10 machines were lost. The aviators
+dropped 48 tons of bombs.</p>
+
+<p>According to a dispatch from The Hague dated April 3, the damage caused
+by raids in the Rhenish cities was much more extensive than had been
+admitted. Places where bombs actually fell were described as
+"unrecognizable." Of the bombs dropped at Coblenz in the most recent
+raid, eight did considerable damage. One fell upon a station, one fell
+amid a company of soldiers going to get food, and others practically
+destroyed half of the barracks where French prisoners were confined in
+1870. In Cologne a branch factory of the Baden Aniline Works was partly
+destroyed and a number of people were killed and wounded. Great damage
+also was done at Mainz. It was also reported that much damage was done
+at D�sseldorf. After the raids the authorities made every effort to
+clear up the wreckage as rapidly as possible, and the town was made to
+resume normal life immediately.</p>
+
+<p>In connection with military operations on the western front, official
+reports showed that the Allies had gained great successes in destroying
+enemy airplanes. The enemy losses in January, 1918, were 292; in
+February, 273, and in the first seventeen days of March 278. For the
+week ended March 17 the British Royal Flying Corps alone destroyed 99
+German airplanes and drove down 42, losing 23 of its own machines.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most surprising air raids was that of March 11 on Naples, in
+Southern Italy, far from enemy lines, when a dirigible dropped bombs on
+the city. Private houses, asylums, and churches were damaged or
+destroyed and 16 persons killed and 40 injured.</p>
+
+<p>Among the most savage attacks on Paris by aircraft was that in the night
+of April 12, when two hostile machines got through the anti-aircraft
+barrage and succeeded in killing 26 persons and injuring 72. One of the
+torpedoes burst a gas main in the street where it fell, but firemen
+promptly extinguished the fire that ensued. The American Red Cross was
+first on the scene of the explosion, and in a very short time had the
+victims safely removed to a hospital.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<div class="center">The Tale of Zeppelin Disasters</div>
+
+<p>What has become of the German airship fleet initiated by the late Count
+Zeppelin is now known to the Intelligence Department of the French Army,
+which has given out a complete list of the 100 or more dirigibles
+constructed since the first one was launched over Lake Constance.</p>
+
+<p>Up to August, 1914, the total of Zeppelin airships built numbered
+twenty-five, while since the war the two great works at Friedrichshafen
+and Staaken have produced between seventy-five and eighty. As the mean
+period for the building of a Zeppelin is known with certainty to be two
+months, there must always have been four new airships on the stocks at
+the same time.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the Zeppelins launched into the air before the war came to
+grief, thus leaving in the service of the German Army and Navy a fleet
+of less than a dozen when fighting began. Since then nearly all the
+dirigibles, old and new, have been handed over to the German Navy, which
+has used them for many kinds of work, such as bombing expeditions,
+protection of mine layers and small torpedo boats at sea, chasing
+submarines, searching for mine fields, and, last and most important,
+reconnoitring for the High Seas Fleet.</p>
+
+<p>Disaster has attended the flight of an overwhelming majority of these
+air monsters, no fewer than thirty of which are known to have been
+destroyed in one way or another, as is shown by the following list:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>L-1&mdash;Destroyed just before the war, when it fell in the North
+Sea near Heligoland.</p>
+
+<p>L-2&mdash;Burned at Buhlsbuettel just before the war.</p>
+
+<p>L-3&mdash;Descended at Famoe in Denmark at beginning of the war, and
+was burned by its crew.</p>
+
+<p>L-4&mdash;Descended at Blaavands Huk, Denmark, at beginning of the
+war, and was burned by its crew.</p>
+
+<p>L-5&mdash;Brought down on the Belgian front in 1915; part of crew
+saved.</p>
+
+<p>L-6&mdash;Burned at Buhlsbuettel in its hangar in September, 1916.</p>
+
+<p>L-7&mdash;Brought down by British destroyers off Portland, crew being
+drowned, in 1915.</p>
+
+<p>L-8&mdash;Brought down by machine guns in Belgium, part of crew being
+killed, in 1915.</p>
+
+<p>L-9&mdash;Burned at Buhlfriettel in its hangar at same time as L-6.</p>
+
+<p>L-10&mdash;Struck by lightning near Cuxhaven during its initial
+flights, and lost with its crew.</p>
+
+<p>L-12&mdash;Destroyed at Ostend in 1915 when returning from a raid on
+England.</p>
+
+<p>L-15&mdash;Brought down in the Thames, England, in 1916.</p>
+
+<p>L-16&mdash;Destroyed on Oct. 19, 1917.</p>
+
+<p>L-18&mdash;Burned in a hangar at Tondern in 1916.</p>
+
+<p>L-19&mdash;Fell in the Baltic while returning from a raid on England.</p>
+
+<p>L-22&mdash;Burned accidentally while coming out of its hangar at
+Tondern.</p>
+
+<p>L-23&mdash;Fell on the English coast.</p>
+
+<p>L-25&mdash;Destroyed while being employed as a training balloon at
+Wildpark.</p>
+
+<p>L-31&mdash;Fell in London in 1916.</p>
+
+<p>L-32&mdash;Brought down in London in 1916, (Sept. 23-24.)</p>
+
+<p>L-33&mdash;Brought down in England, Sept. 23, 1916, and crew
+interned.</p>
+
+<p>L-35&mdash;Brought down in England.</p>
+
+<p>L-39&mdash;Brought down at Compi�gne, France, March, 1917.</p>
+
+<p>L-40&mdash;Fell in the woods near Emden.</p>
+
+<p>L-43&mdash;Brought down in July, 1917, at Terscheling.</p>
+
+<p>L-44&mdash;Brought down afire at Saint-Clement, Oct. 20, 1917.</p>
+
+<p>L-45&mdash;Brought down and burned at Silteron, Oct. 20, 1917.</p>
+
+<p>L-48&mdash;Brought down in England, June, 1917.</p>
+
+<p>L-49&mdash;Brought down at Bourbonne-les-Bains, Oct. 20, 1917.</p>
+
+<p>L-50&mdash;Fell at Dommartin, Oct. 20, 1917.</p>
+
+<p>L-57&mdash;Broke up on its first voyage. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The last named is the highest number believed to have been in the
+service. Missing numbers in the list given above are accounted for as
+follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>L-11&mdash;Put out of service in 1917 and believed to be in shed at
+Hage.</p>
+
+<p>L-13&mdash;In the shed at Hage since May, 1917.</p>
+
+<p>L-14&mdash;School airship at Northolz.</p>
+
+<p>L-17&mdash;Believed to have been destroyed at sea.</p>
+
+<p>L-20&mdash;Dismantled.</p>
+
+<p>L-21&mdash;Dismantled; believed burned at Tondern.</p>
+
+<p>L-24&mdash;Dismantled.</p>
+
+<p>L-26&mdash;Planned, but never constructed.</p>
+
+<p>L-27, L-28, L-29, and L-30&mdash;Planned, but never constructed.</p>
+
+<p>L-34&mdash;Believed destroyed off England.</p>
+
+<p>L-37&mdash;Attached to Baltic squadron, but believed destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>L-38&mdash;Whereabout unknown.</p>
+
+<p>L-41, L-42, L-46, L-47, L-51, L-52, L-53, L-54, L-55, and
+L-56&mdash;In service in the North Sea. </p>
+</div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>No information is obtainable as to the fate of the remainder of the
+Zeppelins, nor as to whether their construction was ever completed, but
+the few other types of dirigible airships used by the Germans have not
+been better served by fate than their more renowned sisters.</p>
+
+<p>The Schuette-Lanz dirigible is something like a Zeppelin, but with a
+framework of bamboo instead of aluminium. There have been eight of these
+in use since the beginning of the war, and their fate or present
+condition is shown in the following list:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>S L-3&mdash;Long since out of service.</p>
+
+<p>S L-4&mdash;Struck by lightning in the Baltic.</p>
+
+<p>S L-6&mdash;Believed to have fallen into the Baltic.</p>
+
+<p>S L-8&mdash;In service in the Baltic.</p>
+
+<p>S L-9&mdash;Burned at Stolp.</p>
+
+<p>S L-14&mdash;In service in the Baltic.</p>
+
+<p>S L-16&mdash;Believed to be still in service.</p>
+
+<p>S L-20&mdash;In service. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>There was also one Gross semi-rigid dirigible, which was put out of
+service at the end of February, 1915, and three Parseval non-rigid
+airships, one of which was destroyed in Russia, the second used as a
+schoolship, and the third understood to be still in service.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>Paris Bombarded by Long-Range Guns</h2>
+
+<h3>The Disaster on Good Friday</h3>
+
+<p>Paris, though accustomed to the perils of German air raids, was amazed
+on the morning of March 23, 1918, to find itself bombarded by one or
+more guns of unprecedented range, which were dropping 9-inch shells into
+the city and its suburbs at intervals of twenty minutes. The nearest
+German line was more than sixty-two miles away, and the possibility of
+artillery bombardment at such a range was at first doubted in all the
+allied countries, but by the following day the fact was established that
+the shells were actually coming from the region of the Forest of St.
+Gobain, seven miles back of the French trenches near Laon, and about
+seventy-five miles from Paris. The French artillery at the front at once
+took measures to locate and destroy the guns, but without immediate
+results.</p>
+
+<p>The first day's casualties from the long-distance shells were stated to
+be ten killed and fifteen wounded. The second day, which was Palm
+Sunday, was ushered in by loud explosions from the new missiles, but by
+church time the Parisians had already discounted the new sensation and
+thronged the streets on their way to the churches. The women who sell
+palm leaves on that day did their usual thriving business. During the
+early morning hours the street traffic was partly suspended, but by noon
+both the subway and the tramway cars were running again.</p>
+
+<p>The shells were found to be doing comparatively little damage in
+proportion to their size. The municipal authorities announced on the
+second day that the German bombardment should not be allowed to
+interrupt the normal life of the city, and that the people would be
+warned by special signals, differing from those for air raids, and
+consisting of the beating of drums and blowing of whistles by the
+policemen. On Monday, when the police began to use the new system of
+alarm, they were the object of much good-natured chaffing on account of
+their awkwardness with the drumsticks.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty-four shells reached Paris the first day, twenty-seven the second,
+fewer the third, and thus the bombardment went on daily, with occasional
+casualties and little effect on the habitual life of the city. The
+famous palace of the Tuileries was damaged by one of the shells, and
+other public buildings were struck. The damage was largely confined to
+the Montmartre district, the amusement centre of Paris, and nearly all
+the shells fell within a section about a mile square, indicating that
+the gun was immovable. One shell dropped in front of the Gare de l'Oest,
+a railway terminal, killing six men.</p>
+
+<p>The casualties, however, were comparatively<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> few until March 29, when a
+shell struck the Church of St. Gervais at the hour of the Good Friday
+service, killing seventy-five persons and wounding ninety, some of whom
+died later. Fifty-four of those killed were women, five being Americans.
+The shell had struck the church in such a way as to cause a portion of
+it to collapse and fall upon the worshippers at the moment of the
+elevation of the Host.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">PROTEST FROM THE POPE</div>
+
+<p>The intense indignation of all France at this new outrage on
+noncombatants was voiced at once through the press and in speeches in
+the Chamber of Deputies. The authorities of the Catholic Church were
+deeply stirred, and Pope Benedict sent a protest to Berlin against the
+bombardment of Paris, and especially against the destruction of churches
+and the wholesale massacre of civilians. Cardinal Amette, Archbishop of
+Paris, arriving at the scene of the catastrophe a few moments after the
+explosion, expressed the general feeling when he exclaimed: "The beasts!
+To have chosen the day of our Lord's death for committing such a crime!"
+The Vatican sent Cardinal Amette the following dispatch:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>The Holy Father, deploring the fact that the bloody conflict,
+which already has caused everywhere so much suffering, has
+again, on the very day of the Saviour's Passion, found more
+innocent victims, who are still dearer to his heart owing to
+their faith and piety, expresses his deepest sympathy. He sends
+the apostolic blessing to all the faithful in Paris, and desires
+to know if it is necessary to send material aid to the families
+in mourning. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Cardinal also received the following letter from Grand Rabbi Israel
+Levi on behalf of those of the Jewish faith:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Your Eminence, I am the interpreter of the feelings of all my
+French co-religionists in saying that I share in the mourning
+which has come to so many families devastated by sacrilegious
+barbarism. We are one in pious indignation at the crime, which
+seems to have been intended as an insult to what humanity holds
+most sacred. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York, voiced the sentiments of New
+York Catholics in this message to the Archbishop of Paris:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Shocked by the brutal killing of innocent victims gathered at
+religious services to commemorate the passing of our blessed
+Saviour on Good Friday, the Catholics of New York join your
+noble protest against this outrage of the sanctuary on such a
+day and at such an hour and, expressing their sympathy to the
+bereaved relatives of the dead and injured, pledge their
+unfaltering allegiance in support of the common cause that
+unites our two great republics. May God bless the brave officers
+and men of the allied armies in their splendid defense of
+liberty and justice! </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Among those killed in this disaster was H. Stroehlin, Secretary of the
+Swiss Legation. The German Foreign Office later made an indirect
+expression of regret to Switzerland for this act, but sought to justify
+the bombardment on the ground that Paris is a fortress. The Kaiser sent
+a special note of congratulation to the managers of the Krupp works
+regarding the success of the weapon.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">AMBASSADOR SHARP'S REPORT</div>
+
+<p>William G. Sharp, the American Ambassador to France, visited the wrecked
+church shortly after the disaster and sent a detailed report to
+Secretary Lansing at Washington. The State Department, on April 3,
+issued the following:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>The Secretary of State has received from Ambassador Sharp in
+Paris a graphic report of his visit to the scene of the horrible
+tragedy which occurred on the afternoon of Good Friday in a
+church by the explosion of a German shell projected from far
+back of the enemy lines a distance of more than seventy miles.
+The appalling destruction wrought by this shell is, as the
+Ambassador remarked, probably not equaled by any single
+discharge of any hostile gun in the cruelty and horrors of its
+results.</p>
+
+<p>In no other one spot in Paris, even where poverty had gathered
+on that holy day to worship, could destruction of life have been
+so great. Nearly a hundred mangled corpses lying in the morgues,
+with almost as many seriously wounded, attested to the measure
+of the toll exacted. Far up to the high, vaulted arches, between
+the flying buttresses well to the front of the church, is a
+great gap in the wall, from which fell upon the heads of the
+devoted worshippers many tons of solid masonry. It was this that
+caused such a great loss of life.</p>
+
+<p>As the Ambassador entered the church, where but a few hours
+before had been gathered the worshippers, he could easily
+picture the scene that followed the explosion. The amount of
+d�bris, remaining just as it fell on the floor, covered the
+entire<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span> space between the lofty columns supporting the arches at
+each side. Only a miracle could have saved from death or serious
+injury those who escaped the falling mass. The scene was that of
+some horrible shambles, and it was not until well into the night
+that all the bodies were recovered. Upon the floor in many
+places could still be seen the blood of the victims, among whom
+were many prominent and well-to-do people.</p>
+
+<p>The Ambassador called to express his sympathy to his Swiss
+colleague, whose lifelong friend, the Secretary of the Swiss
+Legation, was killed while leaving the church. The Minister was
+deeply affected as he spoke of the great loss to him through the
+Secretary's death. The Secretary was well known in Washington,
+where he served with the Swiss Legation from 1902 to 1904, and
+was very highly esteemed by all who knew him.</p>
+
+<p>In conclusion, Mr. Sharp says that the exceptional circumstances
+under which this tragedy occurred, both as to the sacred
+character of the day and the place, have greatly aroused the
+indignation of the people of Paris toward an enemy who seeks to
+destroy human life without regard to the immunities prescribed
+by the laws of civilization and humanity, and, instead of
+terrorizing the people, shells of the great cannons, as well as
+the bombs dropped from the German airplanes, only serve to
+strengthen the resolve of the French to resist, to the last man,
+if necessary, the invasion of such a foe. </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="center">CHARACTER OF THE GUN</div>
+
+<p>Portions of exploded shells examined in the Municipal Laboratory of
+Paris indicated that the calibre of the new German gun was a trifle less
+than nine inches, and that the projectiles, weighing perhaps 200 pounds,
+contained a comparatively weak charge of high explosives, arranged in
+two chambers connected by a fuse, often causing two distinct explosions
+a minute or more apart. It was stated later by German military
+scientists that it took each shell more than three minutes to travel
+from the mouth of the gun to Paris, and that on its way it had to rise
+to a height of more than twenty miles from the earth. Three Paris
+experts found that at least two of these great guns were being used.
+According to German prisoners, one of the guns exploded on March 29,
+killing a German Lieutenant and nine men.</p>
+
+<p>In their jubilation over the new weapon the German newspapers stated
+that the first bombardment of Paris had been witnessed by the Kaiser and
+by the builder of the long-range gun, Professor Fritz Rausenberger, who
+is an artillerist, manager of the Krupp Works, and builder of the famous
+42-centimeter (16&frac12;-inch) gun used to demolish the Belgian forts
+at the beginning of the war.</p>
+
+<p>The violence of the concussion of the new weapon was indicated by the
+statement of American scientists that every shot was found to be
+recorded by seismographs all over the United States; in other words, the
+shock of each discharge caused the needles of earthquake detectors three
+or four thousand miles away to record small dots on the smoked paper
+used in these instruments.</p>
+
+<p>Paris, though embittered by the new form of attack, refused to be
+frightened by the long-range shells. The attendance at the churches on
+Easter Sunday was even larger than usual. The police authorities issued
+an order on April 4 that theatre matin�es and afternoon entertainments
+of all kinds should be temporarily discontinued; but, owing to numerous
+protests, this order was modified next day, and the usual daytime
+performances in the theatres were allowed on condition that the
+bombardment had not begun at the hour of assembly, and that the place of
+amusement be evacuated immediately if the shelling began during the
+performance. In the weeks that followed the bombardment became more and
+more desultory and ineffectual.</p>
+
+<p>It was recorded on April 9 that French aviators had discovered the
+location of the new guns at Crepy-en-Laonnais, near the road from La
+F�re to Laon, and that continual bombardment of the spot was causing the
+increasingly intermittent nature of the German long-range fire. The
+French had learned the location to a yard, and from a powerful battery
+ten miles away they were dropping enormous shells weighing half a ton
+each into the low hills where the German monsters were hidden. There
+were three of the supercannon, and a few days later an air photograph
+showed that two French shells had fallen on the barrel of one of them,
+putting it out of commission. Tremendous craters had been made around
+the others, and one French shell had fallen on a main railway line,
+blocking it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span> a whole day. A correspondent who visited the French battery
+engaged in this work wrote on April 13:</p>
+
+<p>"It is stated that these German guns are ninety-six feet long. At the
+moment of firing, other big guns let fly simultaneously, to confuse the
+French, and a smoke screen is emitted in the vicinity to hide the pieces
+from aircraft. Up to yesterday there had been no firing at night, lest
+the flashes show the position of the cannon. How necessary this
+precaution is may be illustrated by my experience last night, when I saw
+the whole northern sky constantly lit up by the guns on the eighty-mile
+front of the German offensive."</p>
+
+<p>After April 13, when the Germans knew that their secret was fully known,
+they began bombarding Paris by night, though without any increase in
+effectiveness. Up to the middle of April a total of 150 long-distance
+shells had fallen in Paris, and the only ones that had caused any
+notable casualties were those which struck the Church of St. Gervais, an
+infant asylum, and an old man's bowling green.</p>
+
+
+<h3>The Irish Guards</h3>
+
+<div class="center">By RUDYARD KIPLING<br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="center">[Read at a matin�e in London in aid of the Irish Guards' War Fund, for
+which it was written by Mr. Kipling.]<br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="poem">
+We're not so old in the Army List,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;But we're not so young at our trade,<br />
+For we had the honor at Fontenoy<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Of meeting the Guards Brigade.<br />
+'Twas Lally, Dillon, Bulkeley, Clare,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And Lee that led us then,<br />
+And after a hundred and seventy years<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;We're fighting for France again!<br />
+<span class="i2">
+<i>Old Days! The wild geese are flighting,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Head to the storm as they faced it before!<br />
+For where there are Irish there's bound to be fighting,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And when there's no fighting, it's Ireland no more!</i><br />
+</span>
+<span class="i4"><i>Ireland no more!</i></span>
+<br />
+The fashion's all for khaki now,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;But once through France we went<br />
+Full-dressed in scarlet Army cloth&mdash;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;The English&mdash;left at Ghent.<br />
+They're fighting on our side today,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;But before they changed their clothes<br />
+The half of Europe knew our fame<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;As all of Ireland knows!<br />
+<span class="i2">
+<i>Old days! The wild geese are flying,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Head to the storm as they faced it before!<br />
+For where there are Irish there's memory undying,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And when we forget, it is Ireland no more!</i><br />
+</span>
+<span class="i4"><i>Ireland no more!</i></span>
+<br />
+From Barry Wood to Gouzeaucourt,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;From Boyne to Pilkem Ridge,<br />
+The ancient days come back no more<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Than water under the bridge.<br />
+But the bridge it stands and the water runs<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;As red as yesterday,<br />
+And the Irish move to the sound of the guns<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Like salmon to the sea!<br />
+<span class="i2">
+<i>Old days! The wild geese are ranging,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Head to the storm as they faced it before!<br />
+For where there are Irish their hearts are unchanging,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And when they are changeful, it is Ireland no more!</i><br />
+</span>
+<span class="i4"><i>Ireland no more!</i></span>
+<br />
+We're not so old in the Army List,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;But we're not so new in the ring,<br />
+For we carried our packs with Marshal Saxe<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;When Louis was our King.<br />
+But Douglas Haig's our Marshal now<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And we're King George's men,<br />
+And after one hundred and seventy years<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;We're fighting for France again!<br />
+<span class="i2">
+<i>Ah, France! And did we stand by you<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;When life was made splendid with gifts and rewards?<br />
+Ah, France! And will we deny you<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;In the hour of your agony, Mother of Swords?<br />
+Old Days! The wild geese are flighting,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Head to the storm as they faced it before!<br />
+For where there are Irish there's loving and fighting,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And when we stop either, it's Ireland no more!</i><br />
+</span>
+<span class="i4"><i>Ireland no more!</i></span>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span></p>
+<h2>The Guilt of Germany</h2>
+
+<h3>German Ambassador to Great Britain in 1914 Proves That His Country
+Forced the War</h3>
+
+<p>Prince Lichnowsky, who was the German Ambassador to Great Britain when
+the war began, is the author of an extremely interesting and important
+historical document which became public in March, 1918. It is in the
+form of a private memorandum written by the Prince, in which he frankly
+and definitely admits that the guilt for starting the world conflict
+rests upon his own country. The document, through some unrevealed
+agency, reached the Stockholm newspaper Politiken, the influential
+mouthpiece of the Swedish Socialists, and was printed in installments.</p>
+
+<p>The publication created a profound sensation throughout Europe. It
+evoked passionate rebukes of the Prince in the Reichstag and drew forth
+an important utterance from the former German Foreign Minister, who
+failed to refute its supremely important revelations. It was reported
+early in April that the German Government had taken steps to institute
+proceedings against the Prince on the charges of revealing State secrets
+and of treason to the State.</p>
+
+<p>The memorandum was written by Prince Lichnowsky about eighteen months
+ago for the purpose of explaining and justifying his position to his
+personal friends, and only half a dozen typewritten copies were made.
+One of these copies, through a betrayal, reached the Wilhelmstrasse, and
+caused a great scandal, and another was communicated to some members of
+the Minority Socialist Party. But how it happened that a copy got across
+the German frontier remains a mystery. Internal evidence, however,
+leaves no doubt in regard to the authenticity of the document. It is
+entitled "My London Mission, 1912-1914," and is dated "Kuchelna, (Prince
+Lichnowsky's country seat,) August, 1916."</p>
+
+<p>Prince Lichnowsky begins with a recital of the circumstances which led
+to his being appointed to London after many years of retirement from
+diplomacy, and a description of the European position as he then found
+it. The moment, he believes,</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>was undoubtedly favorable for a new attempt to get on a better
+footing with England. Our enigmatical Moroccan policy had
+repeatedly shaken confidence in our peaceful disposition and
+aroused the suspicion that we were not quite sure what we
+wanted, or that our intention was to keep Europe in suspense,
+and, when occasion served, to humiliate the French. An Austrian
+colleague, who was long in Paris, said to me, "If the French
+begin to forget r�vanche, you regularly remind them of it by
+treading heavily on their toes."</p>
+
+<p>After rejecting M. Delcass�'s attempt to come to an agreement
+with us in regard to Morocco, and declaring that we had no
+political interests there, an attitude which was in full
+accordance with the traditions of the Bismarckian policy, we
+suddenly recognized in Abdul Aziz a Kruger No. 2. To him, also,
+like the Boers, we promised the powerful support of the German
+Empire&mdash;at the same cost and with the same result. For both
+affairs ended, as they had to end, unless we were already then
+resolved to undertake a world war&mdash;namely, in withdrawal.</p>
+
+<p>Our attitude promoted the Russo-Japanese and the Russo-British
+rapprochements. In face of the German peril all other conflicts
+fell into the background. The possibility of a new Franco-German
+war had become evident. </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE BRITISH PROGRAM</div>
+
+<p>After describing the futility of Germany's Moroccan policy, Prince
+Lichnowsky goes on:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>When I arrived in London, in November, 1912, public opinion had
+calmed about the Morocco question. Mr. Haldane's mission had
+certainly failed, since we had demanded a promise of neutrality
+instead of satisfying ourselves with a compact which would
+secure us against a British attack or an attack with British
+support. Sir Edward Grey, however, had not given up the idea of
+reaching an agreement with us and, as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span> beginning, made an
+attempt in this direction in the economic and colonial spheres.
+With Herr von K�hlmann as expert intermediary, an exchange of
+views took place concerning the renewal of the Portuguese
+Colonial Agreement and the Bagdad Railway, the object of which
+was to divide the aforesaid colonies, as well as Asia Minor,
+into spheres of interest. The British statesman desired, since
+the old disputes with France and Russia were settled, to reach a
+corresponding agreement with us. His aim was not to isolate us,
+but to get us to take part in the already established concert.
+Having succeeded in throwing a bridge across the Franco-British
+and Russo-British divisions, he wished also, as far as possible,
+to remove the causes of friction between England and Germany,
+and, by a network of agreements&mdash;to which might well eventually
+have been added an agreement on the unfortunate naval
+question&mdash;to secure the peace of the world.</p>
+
+<p>This was Sir Edward Grey's program. In his own words "Without
+prejudice to the existing friendly understandings with France
+and Russia, which pursued no aggressive aims, and involved in
+themselves for England no binding obligations, to reach a
+friendly rapprochement and understanding with Germany." In
+short, to bring the two groups nearer together.</p>
+
+<p>In this connection two schools of opinion&mdash;the optimists, who
+believed in the possibility of an understanding; the pessimists,
+who considered that war was sooner or later unavoidable. To the
+former belonged Mr. Asquith, Sir Edward Grey, Mr. Haldane, and
+most of the members of the Liberal Cabinet, as well as the
+leading Liberal organs, like The Westminster, The Chronicle, and
+The (Manchester) Guardian. To the pessimists belonged,
+primarily, Conservative politicians like Mr. Balfour, who on
+repeated occasions allowed me to know his opinion, and leading
+soldiers like Lord Roberts, who preached the necessity for the
+introduction of compulsory service; also the Northcliffe press,
+and the important English journalist, Mr. Garvin. During my time
+in office, however, this party refrained from all attacks, and
+maintained, both personally and politically, a friendly
+attitude. But our naval policy and our conduct in 1905, 1908,
+and 1911 had created among them the belief that some day it
+would come to war. The first school, exactly as among us in
+Germany, are now accused of foolishness and short-sightedness,
+while the second are regarded as true prophets. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Prince Lichnowsky goes on to describe the situation during the Balkan
+war. There were two policies, he says, open to Germany&mdash;to act as an
+impartial mediator and seek a stable settlement in accordance with the
+wishes of the Balkan peoples, or to conduct a strict Triple Alliance
+policy. He himself recommended the former, but the Wilhelmstrasse
+determined on the latter. Austria wished to keep Serbia from the
+Adriatic; Italy wished to prevent the Greeks from reaching Avlona;
+Russia supported the Serbs, France supported the Greeks. Germany had no
+motive whatever for supporting her allies, and thus bringing about a bad
+settlement, except the desire to consolidate what, in Prince
+Lichnowsky's opinion, was a palpably worthless alliance&mdash;worthless
+because it was obvious that Italy would break from the alliance in the
+event of war, while Austria was absolutely dependent on Germany in peace
+and war without an alliance.</p>
+
+<p>The best way to increase Austria's dependence was to cultivate friendly
+relations between Germany and Russia. The Kaiser, for dynastic reasons,
+was in favor of the division of Albania between Greece and Serbia, but
+"when I, in a letter to him, urged this solution, I received from the
+Chancellor a severe reprimand to the effect that I was supporting
+Austria's enemies, and should refrain from direct correspondence with
+the Emperor."</p>
+
+<p>Thus Germany decided to take her stand on the side of the Turkish and
+Magyar oppressors for the sake of the Triple Alliance&mdash;a fatal blunder,
+which Prince Lichnowsky describes as "all the more striking since a
+sudden Franco-Russian assault&mdash;the only hypothesis which could justify
+the Triple Alliance policy&mdash;could, in fact, be ruled out of our
+calculations."</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">DANGEROUS BALKAN POLICY</div>
+
+<p>It was not only unnecessary, he declares, but dangerous, to pay
+attention to Austria's wishes, since to look at the Eastern question
+through Austrian spectacles must lead to a collision with Russia and a
+world war.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Such a policy, moreover, was bound to alienate sympathy among
+the young, strong, and aspiring communities of the Balkan
+Peninsula, who were ready to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> turn to us and to open their
+markets to us. The opposition between courts and peoples,
+between the dynastic and the democratic idea of the State, was
+clearly defined, and, as usual, we stood on the wrong side. * *
+* In Serbia, against our own economic interests, we supported
+the Austrian policy of strangulation. We have always ridden
+horses whose collapse could be foreseen&mdash;Kruger, Abdul Aziz,
+Abdul Hamid, and William of Wied&mdash;and finally we came to grief
+in Berchtold's stable. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Prince Lichnowsky proceeds to describe the Conference of Ambassadors in
+London in 1913, and the influential and conciliatory part played there
+by Sir Edward Grey, who always, he says, found a way out of every
+apparent deadlock.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>But we, instead of taking up a position analogous to that of
+England, invariably espoused the standpoint of Vienna. Count
+Mensdorff led the Triple Alliance in London; I was his second.
+My task consisted in supporting his proposals. In Berlin the
+prudent and experienced Count Sz�gy�ny was in control. "Here the
+casus foederis arises," was his constant refrain, and when I
+once ventured to question the correctness of this conclusion I
+was seriously warned for Austrophobia. At all points we accepted
+and supported the views of Austria and Italy. Sir Edward Grey,
+on the other hand, practically never sided with Russia or
+France. Usually, indeed, he took the side of our group, so as
+not to provide any pretext for conflict. That pretext was
+supplied later by a dead Archduke. </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE GUILT ESTABLISHED</div>
+
+<p>Lichnowsky states that a few days after the Serajevo murder of June 28,
+1914, he was in Berlin, and from interviews with Chancellor von Bethmann
+Hollweg he found that the latter did not share the Prince's belief that
+peace might be maintained, and complained of Russian armaments. The
+memorandum continues:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>I then went to Dr. Zimmermann, who was representing Herr von
+Jagow, [Foreign Secretary,] and from him learned that Russia was
+about to raise 900,000 fresh troops. His words showed an
+unmistakable animosity toward Russia, which, he said, was
+everywhere in our way. Of course, I was not told that General
+von Moltke was pressing for war. I learned, however, that Herr
+von Tschereschky [the German Ambassador in Vienna] had received
+a rebuke because he reported that he had advised moderation in
+Vienna toward Serbia.</p>
+
+<p>Subsequently I learned that at a decisive conversation in
+Potsdam July 5 an inquiry addressed to us by Vienna found
+positive assent among all personages in authority. Indeed, they
+added that there would be no harm if war with Russia were to
+result. I received instruction that I was to induce the English
+press to take up a friendly attitude if Austria gave the
+deathblow to the Great Serbian movement, and as far as possible
+I was, by my influence, to prevent public opinion opposing
+Austria.</p>
+
+<p>I gave warning against the whole project, which I described as
+adventurous and dangerous, and I advised that moderation be
+recommended to the Austrians because I did not believe in
+localization of conflict.</p>
+
+<p>Herr von Jagow answered me that Russia was not ready, that there
+doubtless would be a certain amount of bluster, but that the
+more firmly we stood by Austria the more would Russia draw back.
+He said Austria already was accusing us of want of spirit and we
+must not squeeze her; and that, on the other hand, feeling in
+Russia was becoming ever more anti-German and so we must simply
+risk it.</p>
+
+<p>I knew that Sir Edward Grey's influence in Petrograd could be
+turned to use in favor of peace, so I used my friendly relations
+with Sir Edward, [British Foreign Secretary,] and in confidence
+begged him to advise moderation in Russia if Austria demanded
+satisfaction from Serbia.</p>
+
+<p>At first the attitude of the English press was calm and friendly
+to the Austrians because the murder was condemned, but gradually
+more and more voices were heard to insist that, however
+necessary it was to punish the crime, exploitation of crime for
+political purposes could not be justified. Austria was strongly
+urged to show moderation.</p>
+
+<p>When the ultimatum appeared, all the papers, except The
+Standard, which was always like slow water and apparently was
+paid by the Austrians, were as one in their condemnation. The
+whole world, except in Berlin and Vienna, understood that it
+meant war, and indeed a world war.</p>
+
+<p>The British fleet, which chanced to be assembled for review, was
+not demobilized.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">England and Russia for Peace</div>
+
+<p>At first I pressed for a conciliatory answer as far as possible
+on the part of Serbia, since the attitude of the Russian
+Government left no further doubt of the seriousness of the
+situation. The Serbian reply was in accordance with the British
+efforts, and everything actually had been accepted except two
+points, about which a readiness to negotiate had been expressed. </p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i507a.jpg"><img src="images/i507a-t.jpg" width="250" height="70" alt="" title=""/></a><br />
+<a href="images/i507b.jpg"><img src="images/i507b-t.jpg" width="250" height="71" alt="Panoramic view of Camp Zachary Taylor, Louisville, Ky.,
+where the 84th (National Army) Division is in training
+(� Caulfield &amp; Shook)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Panoramic view of Camp Zachary Taylor, Louisville, Ky.,
+where the 84th (National Army) Division is in training<br />
+(� Caulfield &amp; Shook)</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i508a.jpg"><img src="images/i508a-t.jpg" width="250" height="73" alt="" title=""/><br /></a>
+<a href="images/i508b.jpg"><img src="images/i508b-t.jpg" width="250" height="71" alt="Panoramic view of Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio, where
+the 83d (National Army) Division is in training
+(Photo R. K. Wagner &amp; Co.)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Panoramic view of Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio, where
+the 83d (National Army) Division is in training<br />
+(Photo R. K. Wagner &amp; Co.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>If<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> Russia and England had wanted war in order to fall upon us a
+hint to Belgrade would have been sufficient, and the unheard of
+[Austrian] note would have remained unanswered. Sir Edward Grey
+went through the Serbian reply with me and pointed to the
+conciliatory attitude of the Government at Belgrade. We then
+discussed his mediation proposal, which was to arrange an
+interpretation of the two points acceptable to both parties.</p>
+
+<p>Cambon, [French Ambassador in London,] Marquis Imperiali,
+[Italian Ambassador in London,] and I should have met under Sir
+Edward Grey's presidency, and it would have been easy to find an
+acceptable form for the disputed points which, in the main,
+concerned the participation of Austrian officials in the
+investigation at Belgrade.</p>
+
+<p>Given good will, everything could have been settled in one or
+two sittings, and mere acceptance of the British proposal would
+have relieved the tension and would further have improved our
+relations to England. I urgently recommended the proposal,
+saying that otherwise a world war was imminent, in which we had
+everything to lose and nothing to gain.</p>
+
+<p>In vain! I was told that it was against the dignity of Austria
+and that we did not want to interfere in the Serbian business
+but left it to our ally. I was told to work for localization of
+conflict. Of course, it would only have needed a hint from
+Berlin to make Count Berchtold, Austrian Foreign Minister,
+satisfy himself with a diplomatic success and put up with the
+Serbian reply, but this hint was not given.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Germany Forced the War</div>
+
+<p>On the contrary, we pressed for war. What a fine success it
+would have been! After our refusal Sir Edward asked us to come
+forward with a proposal of our own. We insisted upon war. I
+could get no other answer from Berlin than that it was enormous
+conciliation on the part of Austria to contemplate no annexation
+of territory.</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon Sir Edward justly pointed out that even without
+annexations of territory a country can be humiliated and
+subjected, and that Russia would regard this as a humiliation
+which she would not stand. The impression became ever stronger
+that we desired war in all circumstances, otherwise our attitude
+on the question, which after all did not directly concern us,
+was unintelligible.</p>
+
+<p>The urgent appeals and definite declarations of Sazonoff
+[Russian Foreign Minister] later on the positively humble
+telegrams of the Czar, the repeated proposals of Sir Edward, the
+warnings of San Giuliano, [Italian Foreign Minister,] my own
+urgent advice&mdash;all were of no use, for Berlin went on insisting
+that Serbia must be massacred. The more I pressed the less
+willing they were to alter their course, if only because I was
+not to have the success of saving peace in company with Sir
+Edward Grey.</p>
+
+<p>So Grey on July 29 resolved upon his well-known warning. I
+replied I had always reported that we should have to reckon upon
+English hostility if it came to war with France. The Minister
+said to me repeatedly, "If war breaks out it will be the
+greatest catastrophe the world has ever seen." After that events
+moved rapidly.</p>
+
+<p>When Count Berchtold, who hitherto had played strong man on
+instructions from Berlin, at last decided to change his course,
+we answered Russian mobilization&mdash;after Russia had waited and
+negotiated in vain for a whole week&mdash;with our ultimatum and
+declaration of war.</p>
+
+<p>Up to the last moment I had hoped for a waiting attitude on the
+part of England. As late as August the King of England replied
+evasively to the French President, but in a telegram from
+Berlin, which announced the threatening danger of war, England
+already was mentioned as an opponent. In Berlin, therefore, one
+already reckoned upon war with England.</p>
+
+<p>Before my departure Sir Edward Grey received me on Aug. 5 at his
+house. I went there at his desire. He was deeply moved. He said
+to me that he would always be ready to mediate, and "We do not
+want to crush Germany." Unfortunately this confidential
+conversation was published, and thereby von Bethmann Hollweg
+destroyed the last possibility of reaching a peace via England.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Questions of Guilt</div>
+
+<p>As it appears from all official publications without the facts
+being controverted by our own White Book, which, owing to its
+poverty and gaps, constitutes a grave self-accusation:</p>
+
+<p>1. We encouraged Count Berchtold to attack Serbia, although no
+German interest was involved and the danger of a world war must
+have been known to us; whether we knew the text of the ultimatum
+is a question of complete indifference.</p>
+
+<p>2. In the days between July 23 and 30, 1914, when Sazonoff
+emphatically declared that Russia could not tolerate an attack
+on Serbia, we rejected the British proposals of mediation,
+although Serbia, under Russian and British pressure, had
+accepted almost the whole ultimatum, and although an agreement
+about the two points in question could easily have been reached
+and Berchtold was even ready to satisfy himself with the Serbian
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>3. On July 30, when Berchtold wanted to give way, we, without
+Austria having been attacked, replied to Russia's mere<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span>
+mobilization by sending an ultimatum to St. Petersburg, and on
+July 31 we declared war on the Russians, although the Czar had
+pledged his word that as long as negotiations continued not a
+man should march&mdash;so that we deliberately destroyed the
+possibility of a peaceful settlement.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i511.jpg"><img src="images/i511-t.jpg" width="171" height="250" alt="PRINCE LICHNOWSKY" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />PRINCE LICHNOWSKY</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>In view of these indisputable facts, it is not surprising that
+the whole world outside of Germany attributes to us sole guilt
+for the world war. </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE BAGDAD RAILWAY</div>
+
+<p>Anglo-German negotiations concerning the Berlin-Bagdad Railway and
+German naval and commercial jealousy of Great Britain are touched upon
+in further sections of the personal memorandum.</p>
+
+<p>Prince Lichnowsky says that the Bagdad Railway treaty aimed in fact at a
+division of Asia Minor into spheres of interest, although this
+expression was carefully avoided in consideration of the rights of the
+Sultan of Turkey. Sir Edward Grey asserted repeatedly that there was no
+agreement between England and France aiming at a division of Asia Minor.
+The greatest concession that Sir Edward made to Prince Lichnowsky
+personally was for the continuation of the railway line to Basra.</p>
+
+<p>By this treaty the whole of Mesopotamia up to Basra became a German zone
+of interest by which all British rights and the question of shipping on
+the Tigris were left untouched. The British economic territories, the
+Prince adds, included the coasts of the Persian Gulf and the Smyrna-Aden
+Railway, the French territory was Syria, and the Russian Armenia. Had
+the treaty been concluded and published, he continues, an agreement
+would have been reached with Great Britain which would have finally
+ended all doubt of the possibility of Anglo-German co-operation.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">GERMANY'S NAVAL THREAT</div>
+
+<p>Referring to the difficult question of German naval activity, Prince
+Lichnowsky says that the creation of a mighty fleet on the other shore
+of the North Sea and the simultaneous development of the Continent's
+most important military power into a most important naval power had at
+least to be recognized by Great Britain as uncomfortable. To preserve
+the supremacy of the seas which Great Britain must have in order not to
+go down, the Prince adds, she had to undertake preparations and expenses
+which weighed heavily on the taxpayers. Nevertheless, the powers become
+reconciled to the German fleet in its definite strength. Obviously it
+was not welcome to Great Britain and, the Prince says, constituted one
+of the motives, but neither the only nor the most important motive, for
+England to join hands with Russia and France.</p>
+
+<p>On account of the German fleet alone, Prince Lichnowsky says, Great
+Britain would have drawn the sword as little as on account of German
+trade, "which, it is pretended, called forth her jealousy and finally
+brought about war."</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">"NAVAL HOLIDAY"</div>
+
+<p>During Prince Lichnowsky's term of office Winston Spencer Churchill,
+then First Lord of the Admiralty, raised the question of the so-called
+naval holiday, proposing it for financial reasons as much as on account
+of the pacifist inclinations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span> of his party. Churchill wanted a pause of
+one year in building ships. Prince Lichnowsky maintains it would have
+been difficult to support this plan on account of the workmen employed
+and the technical personnel. The German naval program was settled, and
+it would have been difficult to alter it. The Prince asserts that it was
+possible, in spite of the German fleet and without a naval holiday, to
+come to an understanding. In that spirit he had carried out his mission
+and had almost succeeded in realizing his program when the war broke out
+and destroyed everything.</p>
+
+<p>Discussing the question of trade jealousy, Prince Lichnowsky says it
+rested on a faulty judgment of circumstances. In British commercial
+circles, he says, he found the greatest good-will and the desire for
+further economic interests in common. In order to get in touch with the
+most important business circles he accepted invitations from the
+Chambers of Commerce in London, Bradford, Newcastle, and Liverpool, and
+he had a hearty reception everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>In conclusion Prince Lichnowsky gives his impressions of English
+society. King George he describes as very amiable and well-meaning, with
+sound understanding and common sense, and invariably well disposed
+toward the German Ambassador.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">LICHNOWSKY EXPLAINS</div>
+
+<p>The German Vice Chancellor, Friedrich von Payer, announced in the
+Reichstag late in March that on account of the disclosures Prince
+Lichnowsky had resigned his rank and expressed regrets. Herr von Payer
+stated that Prince Lichnowsky himself, on March 15, made a statement to
+the Imperial Chancellor in which he said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Your Excellency knows that the purely private notes which I
+wrote down in the Summer of 1916 found their way into wider
+circles by an unprecedented breach of confidence. It was mainly
+a question of subjective considerations about our entire foreign
+policy since the Berlin Congress. I perceived in the policy
+hitherto pursued of repelling Russia and in the extension of the
+policy of alliances to Oriental questions the real roots of the
+world war. I then submitted our Morocco naval policy to a brief
+examination. My London mission could at the same time not
+remain out of consideration, especially as I felt need in regard
+to the future and with a view to my own justification of noting
+the details of my experiences and impressions there before they
+vanished from my memory. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Prince Lichnowsky then described how the memorandum, which he had shown
+to a few political friends, got into wider circulation owing to an
+indiscretion, and finally expressed lively regret at such an extremely
+vexatious incident.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">VICE CHANCELLOR'S REPLY</div>
+
+<p>Herr von Payer said that Prince Lichnowsky had meanwhile tendered his
+resignation of his present rank, which had been accepted, and, as he had
+doubtless no bad intention, but had simply been guilty of imprudence, no
+further steps would be taken against him. The Vice Chancellor proceeded:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Some assertions in his document must, however, be contradicted,
+especially his assertions about political events in the last
+months preceding the war. Prince Lichnowsky was not of his own
+knowledge acquainted with these events, but he apparently
+received from a third and wrongly informed quarter inaccurate
+information. The key to mistakes and false conclusions may also
+be the Prince's overestimation of his own services, which are
+accompanied by hatred against those who do not recognize his
+achievements as he expected. The entire memorandum is penetrated
+by a striking veneration for foreign diplomats, especially the
+British, who are described in a truly affectionate manner, and
+on the other hand by an equally striking irritation against
+almost all German statesmen. The result was that the Prince
+frequently regarded Germany's most zealous enemies as her best
+friends because they were personally on good terms with him. The
+fact that, as he admits, he attached at first no great
+importance to the assassination of the heir to the Austrian
+throne, and was displeased that the situation was judged
+otherwise in Berlin, makes it plain that the Prince had no clear
+judgment for the events that followed and their import. </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="center">VON PAYER'S DENIALS</div>
+
+<p>The Vice Chancellor then characterized as false all Prince Lichnowsky's
+assertions about General von Moltke's urging war at the Potsdam Crown
+Council of July 5, 1914, and the dispatch of the Austrian protocol by
+"this alleged Crown Council" to Count Mensdorff with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span> the postscript
+that it would be no great harm even if war with Russia arose out of it.</p>
+
+<p>Herr von Payer also denied the statement that the then Foreign Secretary
+was in Vienna in 1914, as well as the statement that Count von
+Pourtal�s, the German Ambassador in Petrograd, had reported that Russia
+would in no circumstances move. The Sukhomlinoff trial had shown how
+unfounded were Prince Lichnowsky's reproaches against Germany for
+replying to the Russian mobilization by an ultimatum and a declaration
+of war. It was also false to assert that the German Government rejected
+all Great Britain's mediation proposals. Lord Grey's last mediation
+proposal was very urgently supported in Vienna by Berlin. The aim of the
+memorandum was obvious. It was to show the reader how much better and
+more intelligent Prince Lichnowsky's policy was and how he could have
+assured the peace of the empire if his advice had been followed. The
+Vice Chancellor added: "The memorandum will cause enough harm among
+malevolent and superficial people; it has no historical value whatever."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Payer then discussed the revelations of Dr. M�hlon, at present in
+Switzerland. Dr. M�hlon, an ex-Director of Krupps, had made a statement
+according to which he had a conference with two exalted personages in
+the latter half of July, 1914, from which it appeared that it was not
+the intention of the German Government to maintain peace. The Vice
+Chancellor alleged that Dr. M�hlon was suffering from neurasthenia at
+the time, and that no importance could be attached to his revelations,
+since the two gentlemen referred to had denied making the statements
+attributed to them.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">VON STUMM'S STATEMENT</div>
+
+<p>Herr von Stumm, Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, said that while in
+London the Prince devoted himself zealously to his task. His views had
+frequently not agreed with those of the German Foreign Office,
+especially regarding his strong optimism in reference to Anglo-German
+relations. When his hopes, aiming at an Anglo-German understanding, were
+destroyed by the war, the Prince returned to Germany "greatly excited,"
+and even then did not restrain his criticism of German policy. His
+excitement increased owing to attacks against him in the German press.
+All these circumstances, said von Stumm, must be taken into
+consideration when gauging the value of the memorandum.</p>
+
+<p>In the subsequent discussion disapproval of Prince Lichnowsky's attitude
+was expressed, but some speakers urged the need for the reorganization
+of Germany's diplomatic service.</p>
+
+<p>According to the report of the debate published by the Neues Wiener
+Journal, Herr von Payer himself acknowledged that prior to the war
+German diplomacy had made some bad blunders, and that reform was
+urgently needed. Herr M�ller (Progressive) sharply criticised Herr von
+Flotow, who was German Ambassador in Rome at the beginning of the war,
+and charged him with having declared to the Marquis di San Giuliano,
+then Italian Foreign Minister, that there existed for Italy no casus
+foederis. Prince B�low also came in for severe criticism.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>The Former Foreign Minister's Reply</h2>
+
+
+<p>The former Foreign Minister of Germany, Herr von Jagow, published a
+reply to Prince Lichnowsky in the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, in
+which he virtually confirmed the Prince's main assertions. He applied
+such phrases as "an unheard-of assertion," "a mass of inaccuracies and
+perversions," to Lichnowsky's memorandum, but he did not meet the former
+Ambassador's charges with any new evidence, merely referring his readers
+to former publications of the German Government.</p>
+
+<p>Von Jagow's reply bears out the assertion that in 1913 England was
+prepared to enter into friendly agreements with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span> Germany. She was "ready
+to meet us." A Bagdad railway agreement was almost completed when
+Germany drew the sword. Negotiations about the future of the African
+colonies of Portugal in certain contingencies had been resumed, and the
+German Foreign Secretary looked forward to further agreements in the Far
+East and elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>The former Foreign Minister refuses to adopt the Pan-German view that
+"England laid all the mines which caused the war." On the contrary, he
+bears witness with former Ambassador Lichnowsky to Sir Edward Grey's
+"love of peace and his serious wish to reach an agreement with us." He
+says that it is true that Sir Edward could have prevented war, but he is
+careful not to indicate how. Presumably he means he could have done it
+by following Germany's example and treating England's engagements as
+"scraps of paper."</p>
+
+<p>He agrees that the war was not popular with the British people, and that
+Belgium had to serve as a battlecry. Germany, on the other hand, had to
+maintain her prestige. It had been damaged by her political defeat in
+Morocco. A fresh diminution of it would have been, he remarks,
+"intolerable for our position in Europe and in the world."</p>
+
+<p>In one point of fact he corrects Prince Lichnowsky. He denies that he
+himself visited Vienna at any time between the Spring of 1913 and the
+outbreak of the war. He confirms, as far as he remembers, all the
+expressions attributed to him by Lichnowsky.</p>
+
+<p>His only reference to the Potsdam Council of July 5, 1914, (when, it is
+asserted, the Teuton leaders made the final decision for war,) is not a
+denial that the meeting took place, but a single sentence: "On July 5 I
+was absent from Berlin."</p>
+
+<p>In regard to Lichnowsky's main charges, Herr von Jagow talks of
+"unheard-of" assertions and "inaccuracies and perversions," but he does
+not bring forward any fresh arguments to meet the charges, and merely
+refers to the publications of the German Government concerning the
+conversations which took place in June, 1914, between the Kaiser and
+Archduke Francis Ferdinand. Herr von Jagow says:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>At Konopischt no plan was laid down (festgelegt) for an active
+policy against Serbia. Archduke Francis Ferdinand was not at all
+an advocate of a policy leading to war, although he was often
+reckoned as such. During the London conference he advised
+moderation and avoidance of war. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Herr van Jagow here avoids the issue raised by Lichnowsky, who did not
+say that a definite scheme was arranged at Konopischt, but that the
+indication was, not that Archduke Francis Ferdinand was in favor of war,
+but that his death was a positive relief to the advocates of war.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of his statement Herr von Jagow, who remained Foreign
+Secretary until late in 1916, says:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>When I was appointed State Secretary in January, 1913, it seemed
+to me that a German-English rapprochement was desirable, and an
+understanding upon those points where our interests touched and
+sometimes even crossed, and this I deemed feasible. At least, it
+was my intention to work on this. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>With regard to the Bagdad question Herr von Jagow says:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>If England insisted upon excluding us from Mesopotamia, it
+appeared to me that a conflict would be avoided with difficulty.
+We were met in a conciliatory manner by the English Government,
+and an agreement had almost been reached just previous to the
+outbreak of the world war. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>He meets Lichnowsky's assertion that Germany drove Russia "into the arms
+of France and England by our Oriental and Balkan policy" with the
+contention that the Pan-Slavism which governed Russian politics was
+directly anti-German. Upon the London conference on Algeciras he says:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>We no more desired war on Albania's account than did Sir Edward
+Grey. That is why, in spite of our former experiences at
+Algeciras, we consented to the conference. The merit of a
+conciliatory attitude at the conference must not be denied to
+Sir Edward Grey, but it is going a little too far to say that he
+in nowise took up his stand on the side of the Entente. He
+certainly often urged St. Petersburg to give way, and found
+principles of accord (Einigungs Formeln) suitable to this end.
+But outwardly he represented the Entente, as he could no more
+leave his associates in the lurch than could we. Nor did he wish
+to do so. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, the assertion that we adopted without
+exception the standpoint prescribed for us by Vienna is
+absolutely untrue. We played, as England did, a conciliatory
+r�le, and urged moderation upon Vienna far more than Lichnowsky
+seems to be aware of, or at any rate admits. Vienna thereupon
+made a variety of the most far-reaching concessions, Dibra and
+Djakowa. </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="center">ENGLAND EXONERATED</div>
+
+<p>Mentioning the Serajevo murders as the climax of the continued Russian
+provocations against Austria, von Jagow says:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>The prestige and existence of the Danube monarchy were at stake.
+We could not agree to the English proposal concerning a
+conference of Ministers, as it would doubtless have led to a
+serious diplomatic defeat for us.</p>
+
+<p>I do not intend to adopt the theory now widespread among us that
+England was the originator of all the intrigues leading to the
+war. On the contrary, I believe in Sir Edward Grey's love of
+peace and his genuine desire to arrive at an understanding with
+us, but he had allowed himself to become too hopelessly
+entangled in the network of Franco-Russian policy. He could find
+no way out, and therefore failed to do that which had been in
+his power to prevent the world war. War was not popular among
+the English people, therefore Belgium had to serve as a battle
+cry. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>At the end of his observations von Jagow restates his policy as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>I also pursued a policy which aimed at an agreement with England
+because I was of the opinion that this was the only road by
+which we could get out of the unfavorable situation into which
+the unequal distribution of strength and weakness of the Triple
+Alliance had brought us. Political marriages "until death us do
+part" are, as Prince Lichnowsky says, impossible in
+international relations, but in the existing state of affairs in
+Europe isolations are equally impossible. The history of Europe
+is composed of coalitions, some of which have led to avoidance
+of wars and some to violent conflicts. A loosening and final
+dissolution of old unions, which no longer satisfy all
+conditions, cannot be recommended until new constellations are
+within reach. That was the aim of our policy of rapprochement
+with England. As long as this policy did not provide trustworthy
+guarantees we could not abandon the old securities and
+obligations which they involved.</p>
+
+<p>Our Morocco policy led to political defeat. Happily, this had
+been avoided in the Bosnian crisis and at the London conference.
+Fresh diminution of our prestige was intolerable for our
+position in Europe and in the world. Prosperity of States and
+their political and economic successes depend upon the prestige
+which they enjoy in the world. </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="center">A FURTHER ACKNOWLEDGMENT</div>
+
+<p>Captain Persius, the military editor of the Berlin Tageblatt, in
+discussing the revelations of Prince Lichnowsky and the reply of Herr
+von Jagow in their relation to a possible peace by agreement, used these
+words:</p>
+
+<p>"An understanding ought to be easier, now that we have heard from two
+opposing sources, from von Jagow and Lichnowsky, that England was not
+responsible for the war, as has been believed hitherto in wide circles
+in Germany."</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Decrease of Birth Rate in Hungary</div>
+
+<p><i>The following statistics were read by the Karolyist Deputy, Lodovico
+Hollo, to the Hungarian Chamber of Deputies, at the session of Jan. 16,
+1918: </i></p>
+
+<p>(1) Births.&mdash;Before the war 765,000 children a year were born in
+Hungary. In the first year of the war, 1914, the number of births was
+reduced by 18,000; in 1915 only 481,000 children were born&mdash;that is,
+284,000 less than in time of peace. In 1916 the number of births was
+333,000&mdash;that is, a reduction of 432,000. In 1917 the births amounted to
+328,000&mdash;that is, the reduction was 438,000. Therefore our losses (in
+Hungary alone) behind the front reach the number of 1,172,866
+individuals.</p>
+
+<p>(2) Deaths.&mdash;Whereas in time of peace infant mortality for a period of
+seven years was 34 per cent., in 1915 the proportion was increased to 48
+per cent. and in 1916 to 50 per cent.</p>
+
+<p>These facts prove what sacrifices Hungary is making, to the prejudice of
+her own people, to continue the war.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span></p>
+<h2>Count Czernin on Peace Terms</h2>
+
+<h3>A Reply to President Wilson and a Survey of Results of the Russian Peace
+Treaties</h3>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>Count Czernin, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, delivered
+an address April 2, 1918, to a deputation of the Vienna City
+Council, in the nature of a reply to President Wilson's address
+of Feb. 11 on "Peace Aims," the text of which appeared in the
+March issue of Current History Magazine. Count Czernin spoke as
+follows:</i> </p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>: I am quite ready to reply to the questions put by the
+Burgomaster and thereby to give both you and the wider public a full
+view of political conditions as I see them at the moment. I had hoped to
+speak before the competent forum, but the fact that one of our
+commissions cannot meet at present makes this impossible, so I take this
+opportunity of affording in brief a review of the international
+situation.</p>
+
+<p>With the signing of peace with Rumania the war in the east is ended.
+Three treaties of peace have been signed&mdash;with Petrograd, Ukraine, and
+Rumania. One principal section of the war is thus ended.</p>
+
+<p>Before discussing the separate peaces which have been signed, and before
+going into details, I wish to return to the statements of the President
+of the United States wherein he replied to the speech I made before the
+delegations on Jan. 24. In many parts of the world Mr. Wilson's speech
+was regarded as an attempt to drive a wedge between Vienna and Berlin. I
+do not believe that, because I have much too high an opinion of Mr.
+Wilson's statesmanship to suspect him of such a train of thought.</p>
+
+<p>According to my impressions, Mr. Wilson does not want to separate Vienna
+from Berlin. He does not desire that, and knows that it is impossible.</p>
+
+<p>He perhaps thinks, however, that Vienna presents more favorable soil for
+sowing the seeds of a general peace. He has perhaps said to himself that
+the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy has the good fortune to have a monarch who
+genuinely and honorably desires a general peace, but that this monarch
+will never be guilty of a breach of faith; that he will never make a
+shameful peace, and that behind this monarch stand 55,000,000 souls.</p>
+
+<p>I imagine that Mr. Wilson says to himself that this closely knit mass of
+people represents a force which is not to be disregarded and that this
+honorable and firm will to peace with which the monarch is imbued and
+which binds him to the peoples of both States is capable of carrying a
+great idea in the service of which Mr. Wilson has also placed himself.</p>
+
+<p>Before I discuss Mr. Wilson's last utterances I would like to clear up
+one misunderstanding. In my last speech which I delivered before the
+Austrian delegations I replied to an inquiry in this connection that
+probably Mr. Wilson was already in possession of my utterances. Later
+Mr. Wilson corrected this, and pointed out that there must be some
+mistake. I had prepared my speech beforehand, so as to avoid any
+possibility of its being incorrectly or incompletely transmitted, and at
+the moment I made my speech I supposed that it had already reached
+Washington. Apparently, however, it only arrived there some days later.</p>
+
+<p>This does not affect the matter itself. My object was to assure that the
+President of the United States should get the exact text of my speech,
+and this object was attained and the trifling delay of a few days was a
+matter of indifference.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to Mr. Wilson's reply, I can only say that I consider it
+very important that the German Chancellor, in his admirable speech of
+Feb. 25, took the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span> answer out of my mouth and declared that the four
+points developed by Mr. Wilson in his speech of Feb. 11 are the basis
+upon which a general peace can be discussed. I entirely agree with him
+in this.</p>
+
+<p>President Wilson's four points are a suitable basis upon which to begin
+negotiating about a general peace. The question is whether or not Mr.
+Wilson will succeed in uniting his allies upon this basis.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">SAYS FRANCE ASKED TERMS</div>
+
+<p>God is my witness that we have tried everything possible to avoid a new
+offensive. The Entente would not have it. A short time before the
+beginning of the offensive in the west M. Clemenceau inquired of me
+whether and upon what basis I was prepared to negotiate. I immediately
+replied, in agreement with Berlin, that I was ready to negotiate, and
+that as regards France I saw no other obstacle for peace than France's
+desire for Alsace-Lorraine.</p>
+
+<p>The reply from Paris was that France was willing to negotiate only on
+that basis. There was then no choice left.</p>
+
+<p>The gigantic struggle in the west has already begun. Austro-Hungarian
+and German troops are fighting shoulder to shoulder as they did in
+Russia, Serbia, Rumania, and Italy. We are fighting united for the
+defense of Austria-Hungary and Germany. Our armies will show the Entente
+that French and Italian aspirations to portions of our territory are
+Utopias which will be terribly avenged.</p>
+
+<p>The explanation of this attitude of the Entente Powers, which verges on
+lunacy, is to a great extent to be sought in certain domestic events
+here, to which I shall return later. Whatever may happen, we shall not
+sacrifice German interests any more than Germany will desert us. Loyalty
+on the Danube is not less than German loyalty. We are not fighting for
+imperialist or annexationist ends, either for ourselves or for Germany,
+but we shall act together to the end for our defense, for our political
+existence and for our future.</p>
+
+<p>The first breach in the determination of our enemies to war has been
+driven by the peace negotiations with Russia. That was a break-through
+by the idea of peace.</p>
+
+<p>It is a symptom of childish dilettantism to overlook the close
+relationship of the various peace signatures with each other. The
+constellation of enemy powers in the east was like a net. When one mesh
+was cut through the remaining meshes loosened of their own accord.</p>
+
+<p>We first gave international recognition to the separation of Ukraine
+from Russia, which had to be accomplished as an internal affair of
+Russia. Profiting from resultant circumstances which were favorable to
+our aims, we concluded with the Ukraine the peace sought by that
+country.</p>
+
+<p>This gave the lead to peace with Petrograd, whereby Rumania was left
+standing alone, so that she also had to conclude peace. So one peace
+brought another, and the desired success, namely, the end of the war in
+the east, was achieved.</p>
+
+<p>The peace concluded with Rumania, it is calculated, will be the starting
+point of friendly relations. The slight frontier rectifications which we
+receive are not annexations. Wholly uninhabited regions, they serve
+solely for military protection. To those who insist that these
+rectifications fall under the category of annexations and accuse me of
+inconsistency, I reply that I have publicly protested against holding
+out a license to our enemies which would assure them against the dangers
+of further adventures.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">ROBBING RUMANIA</div>
+
+<p>From Russia I did not demand a single meter, but Rumania neglected the
+favorable moment. The protection of mercantile shipping in the lower
+Danube and the guarding of the Iron Gate are guaranteed by the extension
+of the frontier to the heights of Turnu-Severin, by leasing for thirty
+years a valuable wharf near this town, together with a strip along the
+river bank at an annual rental of 1,000 lei, and, finally, by obtaining
+the leasing rights to the islands of Ostrovo, Marecorbu, and Simearu,
+and the transfer of the frontier several kilometers southward in the
+region of the Petroseny coal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span> mine, which better safeguards our
+possessions in the Szurdok Pass coal basin.</p>
+
+<p>Nagy-Szeben and Fogaras will receive a new security frontier of an
+average width of from 15 to 18 kilometers at all passes of importance,
+as, for instance, Predeal, Bodz, Gyimes, Bekas, and Tolgyes. The new
+frontier has been so far removed to Rumanian ground as military reasons
+require.</p>
+
+<p>The rectification east of Czernowitz has protected that city against
+future attacks.</p>
+
+<p>At the moment when we are successfully endeavoring to renew friendly and
+neighborly relations with Rumania, it is unlikely that we would open old
+wounds, but every one knows the history of Rumania's entrance into the
+war and will admit that it was my duty to protect the monarchy against
+future surprises of a similar kind.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">BURDENS OF THE FUTURE</div>
+
+<p>I consider the safest guarantee for the future, international agreements
+to prevent war. In such agreements, if they are framed in binding form,
+I should see much stronger guarantees against surprise attacks by
+neighbors than in frontier rectifications, but thus far, except in the
+case of President Wilson, I have been unable to discover among any of
+our enemies serious inclination to accept this idea. However, despite
+the small degree of approval this idea receives, I consider that it will
+be realized.</p>
+
+<p>Calculating the burdens with which the States of the world will emerge
+from the war, I vainly ask myself how they will cover military
+expenditures if competition in armaments remains unrestricted. I do not
+believe that it will be possible for the States after this war
+adequately to meet the increased requirements due to the war. I think,
+rather, that financial conditions will compel the States to enter into a
+compromise regarding the limitation of armaments.</p>
+
+<p>This calculation of mine is neither idealistic nor fantastic, but is
+based upon reality in politics in the most literal sense of the word. I,
+for my part, would consider it a great disaster if in the end there
+should be failure to achieve general agreements regarding the
+diminution of armaments.</p>
+
+<p>It is obvious that in the peace with Rumania we shall take precautions
+to have our interests in the questions of grain, food supply, and
+petroleum fully protected. We shall further take precautions that the
+Catholic Church and our schools receive the state of protection they
+need, and we shall solve the Jewish question. The Jew shall henceforth
+be a citizen with equal rights in Rumania.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">MAKING RUMANIA PAY</div>
+
+<p>The irredentist propaganda, which has produced so much evil in Hungary,
+will be restrained and, finally, precautions will be taken to obtain
+indemnification for the injustice innocently suffered by many of our
+countrymen owing to the war.</p>
+
+<p>We shall strive by means of a new commercial treaty and appropriate
+settlement of the railway and shipping questions to protect our economic
+interests in Rumania.</p>
+
+<p>Rumania's future lies in the east. Large portions of Bessarabia are
+inhabited by Rumanians, and there are many indications that the Rumanian
+population there desires close union with Rumania. If Rumania will adopt
+a frank, cordial, friendly attitude toward us we will have no objections
+to meeting those tendencies in Bessarabia. Rumania can gain much more in
+Bessarabia than she lost in the war.</p>
+
+<p>[Count Czernin said that he was anxious that the rectifications of the
+frontier should not leave any embitterment behind, and expressed the
+opinion that Rumania in her own interest must turn to the Central
+Powers.]</p>
+
+<p>In concluding peace with Rumania and Ukraine, it has been my first
+thought to furnish the monarchy with foodstuffs and raw materials.
+Russia did not come into consideration in this connection owing to the
+disorganization there.</p>
+
+<p>We agreed with Ukraine that the quantity of grain to be delivered to the
+Central Powers should be at least 1,000,000 tons. Thirty cars of grain
+and peas<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span> are now en route, 600 cars are ready to be transported, and
+these transports will be continued until the imports are organized and
+can begin regularly. Larger transports are rendered possible by the
+peace with Rumania, which enables goods to be sent from Odessa to Danube
+ports.</p>
+
+<p>We hope during May to undertake the first large transport from Ukraine.
+While I admit that the imports from Ukraine are still small and must be
+increased, nevertheless our food situation would have been considerably
+worse had this agreement not been concluded.</p>
+
+<p>From Rumania we will obtain a considerable surplus of last year's
+harvest. Moreover, about 400,000 tons of grain, peas, beans, and fodder
+must be transported via the Danube. Rumania must also immediately
+provide us with 800,000 sheep and pigs, which will improve our meat
+supply slightly.</p>
+
+<p>It is clear from this that everything will be done to obtain from the
+exploitation of the regions which peace has opened for us in the east
+whatever is obtainable. The difficulties of obtaining these supplies
+from Ukraine are still considerable, as no state of order exists there.
+But with the good-will of the Ukrainian Government and our organization
+we will succeed in overcoming the difficulties.</p>
+
+<p>An immediate general peace would not give us further advantages, as all
+Europe today is suffering from lack of foodstuffs. While the lack of
+cargo space prevents other nations from supplying themselves, the
+granaries of Ukraine and Rumania remain open to the Central Powers.</p>
+
+<p>[Replying to the annexationists, Count Czernin said:]</p>
+
+<p>The forcible annexation of foreign peoples would place difficulties in
+the way of a general peace, and such an extension of territories would
+not strengthen the empire. On the contrary, considering the grouping of
+the monarchy, they would weaken us. What we require are not territorial
+annexations, but economic safeguards for the future.</p>
+
+<p>We wish to do everything to create in the Balkans a situation of
+lasting calm. Not until the collapse of Russia did there cease to exist
+the factor which hitherto made it impossible for us to bring about a
+definite state of internal peace in the Balkans.</p>
+
+<p>We know that the desire for peace is very great in Serbia, but Serbia
+has been prevented by the Entente Powers from concluding it. Bulgaria
+must receive from Serbia certain districts inhabited by Bulgarians. We,
+however, have no desire to destroy Serbia. We will enable Serbia to
+develop, and we would welcome closer economic relations with her.</p>
+
+<p>We do not desire to influence the future relations between the monarchy
+and Serbia and Montenegro by motives conflicting with friendly,
+neighborly relations. The best state of egoism is to come to terms with
+a beaten neighbor, which leads to this: My egoism regarding
+Austria-Hungary is that after being conquered militarily our enemies
+must be conquered morally. Only then is victory complete, and in this
+respect diplomacy must finish the work of the armies.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE DESIRE FOR PEACE</div>
+
+<p>Since I came into office I have striven only after one aim, namely, to
+secure an honorable peace for the monarchy and to create a situation
+which will secure to Austria-Hungary future free development, and,
+moreover, to do everything possible to insure that this terrible war
+shall be the last one for time out of mind. I have never spoken
+differently. I do not intend to go begging for peace, or to obtain it by
+entreaties or lamentations, but to enforce it by our moral right and
+physical strength. Any other tactics, I consider, would contribute to
+the prolongation of the war.</p>
+
+<p>I must say, to my regret, that during the last few weeks and months much
+has been spoken and done in Austria that prolongs the war. Those who are
+prolonging the war are divided into various groups, according to their
+motives and tactics. There are, first, those who continuously beg for
+peace. They are despicable and foolish. To endeavor to conclude peace at
+any price is despicable,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span> for it is unmanly, and it is foolish because
+it continuously feeds the already dying aggressive spirit of the enemy.
+The desire for peace of the great masses is natural as well as
+comprehensible, but the leaders of the people must consider that certain
+utterances produce abroad just the opposite effect from what they
+desire.</p>
+
+<p>Firmly relying on our strength and the justice of our cause, I have
+already concluded three moderate but honorable peace treaties. The rest
+of our enemies also begin to understand that we have no other desire
+than to secure the future of the monarchy and of our allies, and that we
+intend to enforce this and can and will enforce it. I shall unswervingly
+prosecute this course and join issue with any one who opposes me.</p>
+
+<p>The second group of war prolongers are the annexationists. It is a
+distortion of fact to assert that Germany has made conquests in the
+east. Lenine's anarchy drove the border people into the arms of Germany.
+Is Germany to refuse this involuntary choice of foreign border States?</p>
+
+<p>The German Government has as little desire for oppressions as we, and I
+am perfectly convinced that neither annexationists nor weaklings can
+prevent forever a moderate and honorable peace. They delay it, but they
+cannot prevent it.</p>
+
+<p>The hopes of our enemies of final victory are not merely based on
+military expectations and the blockade. They are based to a great extent
+on our interior political conditions and on certain political leaders,
+not forgetting the Czechs. Recently we were almost on the point of
+entering into negotiations with the Western Powers, when the wind
+suddenly veered round and, as we know with certainty, the Entente
+decided it had better wait, as parliamentary and political events in our
+country justified the hope that the monarchy would soon be defenseless.</p>
+
+<p>[Count Czernin attacked the Czech leaders and Czech troops, who, he
+declared, "criminally fight against their own country," and appealed to
+the people to be united against this "high treason." The Government, he
+said, was quite ready to proceed to the revision of the Constitution,
+but this would not be helped by those who hoped through the victory of
+the Entente to gain their ends. "If we expel this poison," he declared,
+"a general honorable peace is nearer than the public imagines, but no
+one has the right to remain aside in this last decisive struggle."]</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>Great Britain's Reply to Count Czernin</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>Lord Robert Cecil, Parliamentary Under Secretary of Foreign
+Affairs, made the following statement in answer to Count
+Czernin</i>: </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Whatever doubt about Count Czernin might have existed before his latest
+declaration, there can be no doubt now that he stands for Prussian
+ideals and Prussian policy. I must confess that I prefer Prussian
+brutality to Austrian hypocrisy. If you are going to rob and strangle
+your neighbor it is better not to talk of your moderation.</p>
+
+<p>Count Czernin claims with the greatest audacity that he and his allies
+have just made proposals that are moderate, and even guided by the
+principles of self-determination, no annexations, and no indemnities. As
+far as self-determination is concerned, in every one of the new States
+they have set up they have done so without the slightest regard to the
+wishes of the peoples and no serious attempt was made even to follow
+racial boundaries or racial antecedents.</p>
+
+<p>The province of Dobrudja, (Rumania,) which has been handed over to
+Bulgaria, has only 18 per cent. Bulgarians and 50 per cent. Rumanians,
+and Southern Bessarabia, which apparently is offered to Rumania, is the
+part of Bessarabia having the fewest Rumanians. As for no annexations,
+Count Czernin claims that all he has done is to carry out slight
+frontier rectifications. What he really has done is to take an important
+part of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> the Danube and all the passes between Austria-Hungary and
+Rumania. Not only this, he has driven back the Carpathian frontier eight
+or ten miles.</p>
+
+<p>But the most hypocritical part of Czernin's peace terms, while affecting
+not to demand a war indemnity for the Central Powers, is the fact that
+they have imposed one of the heaviest war indemnities ever levied. It is
+a curious provision which applies to the new States that they are to be
+under no obligation whatever toward Russia arising from former relations
+with her. The result is to concentrate on the remainder of Russia the
+debt which hitherto was spread over the whole of Russia.</p>
+
+<p>No wonder that Count Czernin, in a moment of candor, says that in the
+conclusion of peace with the Ukraine and Rumania the first thought was
+to furnish Austria with necessary foodstuffs and material. That has been
+the object of this peace, and it has been accomplished by giving to
+Austria-Hungary such economic and strategic advantages as to place these
+two countries at the mercy of the Central Powers.</p>
+
+<p>From the Ukraine particularly Czernin claims there is to be secured all
+food obtainable. No doubt this will be not a question of purchase, but
+of seizure. All the cost of requisitions made by the Central Powers will
+be written off in Rumania.</p>
+
+<p>It will amount to �50,000,000. Beyond that they claim the exclusive
+right to exploit the petroleum fields, and any disputes arising from
+this are to be settled by a tribunal set up in Leipsic.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>Austro-French "Peace Initiative" Controversy</h2>
+
+<h3>Clemenceau Flatly Contradicts Czernin</h3>
+
+
+<p>Count Czernin's assertion in his speech of April 2 that Premier
+Clemenceau of France had initiated a peace parley with Austria-Hungary
+was immediately denied by the French Premier with the curt declaration:
+"The statement is a lie." There followed a somewhat extended controversy
+on the subject, which Count Czernin sought to utilize for his own
+purposes of war diplomacy, and which is placed on record here for the
+side lights it sheds on a hitherto secret chapter of the continuous
+peace intrigues of the Central Powers.</p>
+
+<p>Premier Clemenceau's curt "d�menti" was followed on April 6 by this
+official statement from the French Government:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Premier Clemenceau, upon assuming the duties of President of the
+Council, found that conversations had been entered into in
+Switzerland upon Austria's initiative between the Count
+Revertata, a personal friend of Emperor Charles, and Commandant
+Armand of the Second Bureau, French General Staff, designated
+for that purpose by the French Minister at the time.</p>
+
+<p>M. Clemenceau did not wish to assume the responsibility of
+interrupting conferences which had yielded no results, but which
+might furnish useful sources of information. Commandant Armand
+thus was allowed to continue his journey in Switzerland, upon
+the request of Count Revertata. Instructions were given M.
+Armand in the presence of his chief by M. Clemenceau as follows:
+"Listen and say nothing."</p>
+
+<p>Count Revertata, becoming convinced that his attempt to bring
+about a German peace was doomed to failure, in order fully to
+characterize his mission, gave Commandant Armand a letter
+written in his own hand, dated Feb. 25, 1918, the first sentence
+of which reads: "During the month of August, 1917, with a view
+to obtaining from the French Government a proposition to Austria
+which might lead to future peace and be of such a nature as to
+be susceptible of being indorsed by Austria and presented to the
+German Government, conferences have been entered upon."</p>
+
+<p>Count Revertata, being himself the solicitor, acknowledges it in
+the following terms: "That the purpose was to obtain from the
+French Government propositions of peace, under cover of Austria,
+for transmission to Berlin."</p>
+
+<p>Such is the fact established by an authenticated document which
+Count Czernin has dared to refer to in the following terms:
+"Clemenceau, shortly before the beginning of the offensive on
+the western front, had me asked whether I was ready to enter
+upon negotiations,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span> and upon what basis." In speaking thus he
+not only did not tell the truth, but told the opposite of truth,
+which in France is termed "lying."</p>
+
+<p>It is but natural that Premier Clemenceau should be unable to
+restrain his indignation when Count Czernin, justly anxious as
+to the final consequences of the western offensive, reversed the
+roles with such audacity, representing the French Government as
+begging for peace at the very moment when, with our allies, we
+were preparing for the infliction of a supreme defeat upon the
+Central Empires.</p>
+
+<p>It would be too easy to recall to what extent Austria has
+importuned Rome, Washington, and London with solicitations for
+an alleged separate peace which had no other aim than to slip
+upon us the yoke which she professes to find to her taste. Who
+does not know the story of a recent meeting (in Switzerland, of
+course) of a former Austrian Ambassador and a figure high in the
+councils of the Entente Allies? The conferences lasted only a
+few minutes. Here again it was not our ally who sought the
+interview. It was the Austrian Government.</p>
+
+<p>Does not Count Czernin remember another attempt of the same sort
+made in Paris and London only two months before that of Count
+Revertata by a person of much higher rank? That again, as in the
+present case, is authentic, but much more significant proof
+exists. </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="center">CONFIRMED BY PAINLEVE</div>
+
+<p>Professor Paul Painlev�, who preceded M. Clemenceau as Premier, issued
+the following explanatory statement:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>During the year 1917 Austria made several attempts to open
+semi-official negotiations with the Entente Allies. Notably in
+June, 1917, I was advised by the Second Bureau that Austria,
+through the person of Count Revertata, had several times asked,
+through a Swiss intermediary, for an interview with the officer
+attached to the Second Bureau, Major Armand, a distant relative.</p>
+
+<p>Alexander Ribot, then Premier, having been consulted, Major
+Armand and Count Revertata met in August, 1917. The matter
+stopped there, and no interview took place from August until
+November, when I left office.</p>
+
+<p>The events which occurred afterward naturally are unknown to me,
+but I presume, from the statement made by Premier Clemenceau,
+that Count Revertata returned to the charge. </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="center">AUSTRIA'S OFFICIAL STATEMENT</div>
+
+<p>The following official statement regarding the matter was issued the
+same day at Vienna by the Imperial Government:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>On instructions from the Foreign Minister Count Revertata,
+Counselor of the Legation in Switzerland, repeatedly had
+discussions in Switzerland with a confidential agent of M.
+Clemenceau, Count Armand, attached to the French War Ministry,
+who was sent to Switzerland to interview Count Revertata. As a
+result of the interview of these two gentlemen in Freiburg,
+Switzerland, on Feb. 2, the question was discussed whether and
+on what basis a discussion concerning the bringing about of a
+general peace would be possible between the Foreign Ministers of
+Austria-Hungary and France, or between official representatives
+of these Ministers.</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon Count Revertata, after obtaining instructions from the
+Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, toward the close of February
+declared on behalf of the Minister to Count Armand, for
+communication to M. Clemenceau, that Count Czernin was prepared
+for a discussion with a representative of France, and regarded
+it as possible to hold a conversation with the prospect of
+success as soon as France renounced its plan for the conquest of
+Alsace-Lorraine.</p>
+
+<p>Count Revertata received a reply in the name of M. Clemenceau to
+the effect that the latter was not in a position to accept the
+proposed renunciation by France of this disannexation, so that a
+meeting of the representatives at that time would, in the view
+of both parties, be useless. </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="center">GENERAL SMUTS'S TESTIMONY</div>
+
+<p>The Paris Matin on April 7 stated that General Smuts, South African
+representative in the British Cabinet, was the "figure high in the
+councils of the Entente Allies" referred to by the French Government in
+the statement of April 5 denying the assertion of Count Czernin that the
+French Prime Minister had sought to open peace negotiations with
+Austria-Hungary. The representative of the Dual Monarchy who met General
+Smuts in Switzerland was Count Mensdorff-Pouilly-Dietrichstein,
+Austro-Hungarian Ambassador at London when the war broke out.
+Immediately upon being introduced to Count Mensdorff, says the
+newspaper, General Smuts, taking the initiative in the conversation,
+bluntly said:</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true that you wish to make a separate peace?"</p>
+
+<p>This direct query was too much for the trained diplomat, and the Count
+began a long, evasive reply.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes or no?" reiterated the British representative.</p>
+
+<p>Obtaining no direct reply General Smuts said:</p>
+
+<p>"Then&mdash;good-night!"</p>
+
+<p>The interview lasted barely three minutes. Vienna was shocked, Le Matin
+says, at the boorish manner of the "old Transvaal warrior."</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">VIENNA'S SECOND STATEMENT</div>
+
+<p>Further elaboration of Count Czernin's version of the case was proffered
+on April 8 in a second official statement issued at Vienna by the
+Austro-Hungarian Foreign Office, as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In contrast to the first brief declaration of Premier
+Clemenceau, in which he gave the lie to Foreign Minister
+Czernin, it is observed with satisfaction that M. Clemenceau's
+statement of April 6 admits that discussions in regard to the
+question of peace took place between two confidential agents of
+Austria-Hungary and France. The account given by M. Clemenceau
+of the initiation and course of these negotiations, and likewise
+the statement by M. Painlev� on the same subject, however,
+deviate in many important particulars and to such a degree from
+the facts that a detailed correction of the French communication
+appears to be necessary.</p>
+
+<p>In July, 1917, Count Revertata was requested by an intermediary
+in the name of the French Government to state whether he was in
+a position to receive a communication from that Government to
+the Government of Austria-Hungary. When Count Revertata, after
+having obtained the sanction of the Austro-Hungarian Government,
+replied in the affirmative to this inquiry, in the same
+month&mdash;July, 1917&mdash;Major Armand was charged with such
+communication by the then French Premier, Ribot. He arrived on
+Aug. 7, 1917, at Count Revertata's private residence in
+Freiburg, the Count being distantly related to him.</p>
+
+<p>Major Armand then addressed to Count Revertata a question as to
+whether discussions between France and Austria-Hungary were
+possible. Thus the initiative for these discussions was taken
+from the French side.</p>
+
+<p>Count Revertata reported to the Austro-Hungarian Foreign
+Minister that this question had been put on instructions of the
+French Government, and the Minister thereupon requested Count
+Revertata to enter into discussions with the French confidential
+agent, and in the course of these discussions to establish
+whether by this means a basis for bringing about a general peace
+could be secured.</p>
+
+<p>On Aug. 22 and 23 Count Revertata entered into discussions with
+Major Armand, which, however, as Premier Clemenceau quite
+correctly declares, yielded no result. The negotiations
+thereupon were broken off.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Parleys Resumed in January</div>
+
+<p>The Clemenceau version that the discussions between Revertata
+and Armand were proceeding on his entry into office is
+incorrect. Not until January, 1918, did Armand, this time on
+instructions from Clemenceau, again get in touch with Revertata.
+The thread had been broken in August, 1917, and was therefore
+again taken up by Clemenceau himself in January, 1918.</p>
+
+<p>From this fresh contact there resulted the discussions referred
+to in the official communiqu� of April 4, 1918. It is, however,
+correct that Count Revertata handed to Major Armand on Feb. 23,
+1918, the memorandum regarding which Premier Clemenceau only
+cites the first sentence and which confirms that in the
+discussions with Armand, which had taken place in August, 1917,
+Revertata was charged with the task of finding out whether
+proposals were obtainable from the French Government, which had
+addressed to Austria-Hungary an offer of a basis for a general
+peace, and also whether they would be such as Austria-Hungary
+could bring to the knowledge of her allies.</p>
+
+<p>It, therefore, entirely corresponded with the facts when Count
+Czernin in his speech on April 2 last declared that Premier
+Clemenceau, some time before the beginning of the western
+offensive, had inquired of me whether I was prepared for
+negotiations and on what basis.</p>
+
+<p>The accusation of lying brought against Count Czernin by M.
+Clemenceau cannot therefore be maintained, even in the
+restricted sense made by the present communiqu� of the French
+Government.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Admits Other Peace Manoeuvres</div>
+
+<p>Nothing is known to the Austro-Hungarian Government of
+entreaties for an alleged separate peace with which the
+Austro-Hungarian Government worried the Governments of Rome,
+Washington, and London. When M. Clemenceau asks the
+Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister whether he remembers that two
+months before the Revertata affair&mdash;that is, about a year
+ago&mdash;an attempt of a like nature was made by a personage of far
+higher rank, Count Czernin does not hesitate to reply in the
+affirmative. But for the sake of completeness and entire
+correctness it should be added that this attempt also led to no
+result.</p>
+
+<p>So much for the establishment of the facts. For the rest, it
+need only be remarked that Count Czernin for his part would see
+no reason to deny it if, in this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span> or any similar case, he had
+taken the initiative, because, in contrast to M. Clemenceau, he
+believes that it cannot be a matter for reproach for a
+Government to make attempts to bring about an honorable peace,
+which would liberate all peoples from the terrors of the present
+war.</p>
+
+<p>The dispute raised by M. Clemenceau has, moreover, diverted
+attention from the real kernel of Count Czernin's statement. The
+essence of this statement was not so much who suggested the
+discussions undertaken before the beginning of the western
+offensive, but who caused their collapse. And M. Clemenceau up
+to the present has not denied that he refused to enter upon
+negotiations on the basis of the renunciation of the
+reacquisition of Alsace-Lorraine. </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="center">RETORT BY CLEMENCEAU</div>
+
+<p>Premier Clemenceau replied to this Vienna statement on the same day by
+issuing the following:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>A diluted lie is still a lie. Count Czernin told a lie when he
+said that some time before the German offensive began Premier
+Clemenceau caused him to be asked "if he was ready to open
+negotiations and upon what basis."</p>
+
+<p>As to the passage in the manuscript note of Count Revertata,
+where he says he acted for Austria to obtain peace proposals
+from France, the solicitant's text is authentic, and Count
+Czernin has not dared to dispute it.</p>
+
+<p>To hide his confusion he tries to maintain that the conversation
+was resumed at the request of M. Clemenceau. Unfortunately for
+him, there is a fact which reduces his allegation to nothing,
+namely, that Clemenceau was apprised of the matter on Nov. 18,
+1917, (that is to say, the day after he took over the Ministry
+of War,) by communication from the intermediary dated Nov. 10,
+and intended for his predecessors. For Count Czernin's
+contention to be true, M. Clemenceau would have had to take the
+initiative in question before he was Premier. Thus Count Czernin
+is categorically contradicted by facts.</p>
+
+<p>He is reduced to maintaining that Major Armand was M.
+Clemenceau's confidential man. Well, until this incident M.
+Clemenceau had seen this officer of the Intelligence Department
+only once, for five minutes at a riding school fifteen or twenty
+years ago.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, Count Czernin, as a last resource, says that what he
+attributes to M. Clemenceau is unimportant. "What is really
+important," he affirms, "is not to know who took the initiative
+for the conversations before the offensive, but who caused them
+to fail." Then why all this fuss? To demonstrate that every
+French Government, like France itself, is immovable on the
+question of Alsace-Lorraine?</p>
+
+<p>Who could have thought it would have been necessary for Count
+Revertata to elucidate for Count Czernin a question upon which
+the Emperor of Austria himself has said the last word? It was no
+other than Emperor Charles who, in a letter dated March, 1917,
+put on record in his own writing his adhesion to "France's just
+claim relative to Alsace-Lorraine." A second imperial letter
+stated that the Emperor was "in agreement with his Minister." It
+only remained for Czernin to contradict himself. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Ex-Premier Ribot stated on April 9 that during his Premiership "France
+never directly or through a neutral intermediary took the initiative in
+any such proceeding as the Austrian official communication asserted."</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">German Designs on Madeira</div>
+
+<p>Colonel Lord Denbigh, in an address before the Royal Colonial Institute,
+London, recently told how German designs upon the Island of Madeira were
+checkmated by Great Britain in 1906. He said it was more or less a piece
+of secret history outside diplomatic and naval circles. At Madeira, he
+said, the Germans first took a hotel. Then they wanted a convalescent
+home, and, finally, desired to establish certain vested interests. They
+demanded certain concessions from Portugal. The German Ambassador, early
+in 1906, called on the Portuguese Government, and said that, if the
+concessions asked for were not granted, the Kaiser would send his navy
+up the Tagus to Lisbon. The Portuguese Government telegraphed to
+England, and that night the British Admiralty were on the point of
+mobilizing the whole resources of the British fleet. They thought of
+another way of meeting the situation, however, and sent the Atlantic
+fleet close up against the Portuguese coast. They let the Kaiser know
+what had happened through an undiplomatic source, with the result that
+next day the German Ambassador had to call again on the Portuguese
+Government and explain that he had exceeded his instructions.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span></p>
+<h2>I.&mdash;Battle of Jutland: First Phase</h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i545.png"><img src="images/i545-t.png" width="203" height="250" alt="Battle of Jutland I.
+By Allan Westcott, U.S. Naval Academy." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Battle of Jutland I.<br />
+<i>By Allan Westcott, U.S. Naval Academy.</i></span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>This diagram indicates the courses and ranges during the first stage of
+the battle, from the establishment of contact by the battle cruiser
+squadrons at 3:30 P. M. until the arrival of the German battle fleet
+about 5 P. M.</p>
+
+<p>The British battle cruisers, and, presumably, those of Hipper also, were
+formed in bow and quarter line; or line of bearing&mdash;the ships on
+parallel courses but diagonally astern of the leader. During the
+approach the light cruisers and destroyers on each side&mdash;the position of
+which is not indicated&mdash;were spread out ahead of the main squadrons. The
+British second light cruiser squadron later took station ahead of Beatty
+and at 4:38 gave warning of the approach of the German battle fleet.</p>
+
+<p>At 4:42 the British battle cruisers turned in succession, (squadron
+right countermarch,) the rear ships following the course of the leader.
+According to the diagram published with the official British reports in
+The London Times, Admiral Hipper&#39;s turn at 4:52 was to the left; but
+the German charts and some later British diagrams indicate the direction
+as above.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i546a.jpg"><img src="images/i546a-t.jpg" width="250" height="189" alt="Graves of American soldiers who perished in the sinking
+of the Tuscania, at Port Charlotte, Island of Islay, Scotland
+(Times Photo Service)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Graves of American soldiers who perished in the sinking
+of the Tuscania, at Port Charlotte, Island of Islay, Scotland<br />
+(Times Photo Service)</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i546b.jpg"><img src="images/i546b-t.jpg" width="250" height="185" alt="County volunteers of Islay firing a volley at the funeral
+of Tuscania victims at Kilnaughton, to the accompaniment of bagpipe
+lament
+(Times Photo Service)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />County volunteers of Islay firing a volley at the funeral
+of Tuscania victims at Kilnaughton, to the accompaniment of bagpipe
+lament<br />
+(Times Photo Service)</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i547.jpg"><img src="images/i547-t.jpg" width="160" height="250" alt="One of the many artistic posters used by the United
+States Government in the Third Liberty Loan campaign, April 6 to May 4,
+1918" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />One of the many artistic posters used by the United
+States Government in the Third Liberty Loan campaign, April 6 to May 4,
+1918</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span></p>
+<h2>II.&mdash;Battle of Jutland: Main Engagement</h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i548.png"><img src="images/i548-t.png" width="197" height="250" alt="Battle of Jutland I.
+By Allan Westcott, U.S. Naval Academy." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Battle of Jutland II.<br />
+By Allan Westcott, U.S. Naval Academy.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>This diagram covers the main engagement, from the approach of the German
+battle fleet about 5 P. M. until the British fleet assumed a southerly
+course at 9 P. M. At various points in the action German units are
+reported to have been disabled or driven out of the line. Owing to
+uncertainty as to exact time and place, these losses are not indicated.
+During the opening stage of the action (Chart I.) the visibility was at
+first "good," but after 4:18 "considerably obscured" toward the
+northeast. On the northward course, between 5 and 6, the British
+squadrons were "silhouetted against a clear horizon to westward, while
+the enemy were for the most part obscured by mist." After 6 P. M.
+visibility, though reduced, was favorable to the British. The sea was
+calm and the wind light throughout the action.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span>]</p>
+<h2>A Review of the Battle of Jutland</h2>
+
+<h3>By Thomas G. Frothingham</h3>
+
+<div class="center"><i>Member of Military Historical Society of Massachusetts and of the
+United States Naval Institute</i></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>NOTE&mdash;<i>The reader of this review will be greatly helped in
+following the movements of the opposing fleets by the two charts
+on the preceding pages. These have been ably prepared by Allan
+Westcott of the United States Naval Academy, and they should be
+carefully studied.</i> </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Sufficient time has now passed since the battle of Jutland (May 31,
+1916) to eliminate the early distorted versions of the action and to
+give a proper perspective of the tactics of the opposing fleets. To
+understand the battle, it is necessary to realize that it had become the
+custom of the British fleet to leave its safeguarded bases in the north
+of the British Isles and make periodical sweeps through the North Sea.
+At the beginning of his report of the battle Admiral Jellicoe describes
+this practice:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>The ships of the Grand Fleet, in pursuance of the general policy
+of periodical sweeps through the North Sea, had left its base on
+the previous day in accordance with instructions issued by me.
+In the early afternoon of Wednesday, May 31, the first and
+second battle cruiser squadrons, the first, second, and third
+light cruiser squadrons, and destroyers from the first, ninth,
+tenth, and thirteenth flotillas, supported by the fifth battle
+squadron, were, in accordance with my directions, scouting to
+the southward of the battle fleet. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>With the object of engaging a fleet that had been usually so disposed
+and so employed, the Germans came out from their bases. For some time
+after the battle there were tales of other objectives&mdash;to cover the
+escape of raiders, to get ships through the Baltic, &amp;c. But all these
+theories have been abandoned, and it is now agreed that the Germans
+planned to fight the superior British fleet under conditions
+advantageous to themselves. All the German manoeuvres indicate that this
+was their design, and no other.</p>
+
+<p>The opposing forces in the battle of Jutland were as follows:</p>
+
+<p>1. An advance British force under Vice Admiral Beatty, consisting of six
+battle cruisers, (four Lions of 28.5 knots speed, each carrying eight
+13.5-inch guns, and two Indefatigables of 25 knots speed, each carrying
+eight 12-inch guns,) supported by the fifth battle squadron, under Rear
+Admiral Evan-Thomas, (four 25-knot battleships of the Queen Elizabeth
+class, each carrying eight 15-inch guns.)</p>
+
+<p>The fleet speed of this advance force was 25 knots.</p>
+
+<p>2. The main body of the British Grand Fleet, under Admiral Jellicoe,
+flying his flag in the Iron Duke&mdash;consisting of a fast wing under Rear
+Admiral Hood, (three 26-knot battle cruisers of Invincible class, each
+carrying eight 12-inch guns,) a division of four armored cruisers under
+Rear Admiral Arbuthnot, and twenty-five dreadnoughts in three squadrons
+commanded by Vice Admirals Burney, Jerram, and Sturdee.</p>
+
+<p>The fleet speed of this main body was 20 knots, and its formidable
+armament will be found in the table on Page <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</p>
+
+<p>3. About twenty light cruisers and 160 destroyers, divided between the
+advance force and the main body.</p>
+
+<p>The German strength comprised:</p>
+
+<p>1. An advance force under Vice Admiral Hipper, consisting of five battle
+cruisers, (three Derfflingers of probably 27 knots speed, each carrying
+eight 12-inch guns, and two Moltkes of probably 28 knots speed, each
+carrying ten 11-inch guns.)</p>
+
+<p>The fleet speed of this advance force was 27 knots.</p>
+
+<p>2. The main body of the German High Seas Fleet, under Admiral Scheer,
+consisting of sixteen dreadnoughts and six predreadnought battleships.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i552.png"><img src="images/i552-t.png" width="250" height="248" alt="CHART SHOWING POSITIONS IN BATTLE OF JUTLAND IN RELATION
+TO SURROUNDINGS OF THE NORTH SEA. (1) SCENE OF BATTLE. (2) POSITION OF
+BRITISH FLEET AT 3 A. M., JUNE 1, 1916, BEFORE RETRACING ITS COURSE TO
+THE BATTLEFIELD." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />CHART SHOWING POSITIONS IN BATTLE OF JUTLAND IN RELATION
+TO SURROUNDINGS OF THE NORTH SEA. (1) SCENE OF BATTLE. (2) POSITION OF
+BRITISH FLEET AT 3 A. M., JUNE 1, 1916, BEFORE RETRACING ITS COURSE TO
+THE BATTLEFIELD.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The fleet speed of this main body was 17 knots, because the German
+dreadnoughts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span> had been eked out with predreadnought battleships of less
+speed. Four dreadnoughts carried twelve 11-inch guns each, four twelve
+12-inch guns each, the rest ten 12-inch guns each. The six old German
+battleships were very inferior, carrying only four heavy guns each.</p>
+
+<p>3. About twenty light cruisers and eighty or ninety destroyers, divided
+between the advance force and the main body.</p>
+
+<p>The above-described makeup of the opposing fleets must be kept in mind
+when studying the course of the action. The day of the battle was
+cloudy, but the sun shone through the clouds most of the time. At no
+time was there anything approaching a sea. Visibility was reported as
+good in the first stages of the action, but late in the afternoon, there
+being little wind, mist and smoke hung heavy over the surface of the
+sea. These conditions must also be remembered.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">DISPOSITION OF BRITISH FLEET</div>
+
+<p>First of all, it should be said that any criticism of Admiral Jellicoe
+as to the makeup of the British advance force is not justified. The
+Queen Elizabeth class of dreadnoughts had been designed with the great
+speed of 25 knots for the purpose of working with battle cruisers on
+such service. This gave them a speed that was uniform with the fleet
+speed of Vice Admiral Beatty's battle cruiser<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span> squadrons, although the
+individual ships of the Lion class were faster. The name ship of this
+battleship class, the Queen Elizabeth, had been through a long, racking
+service in the Dardanelles operations, and was not with the fleet. The
+other four ships of the class made up the fifth battle squadron under
+Rear Admiral Evan-Thomas, which was under Vice Admiral Beatty's command.</p>
+
+<p>This disposition of Admiral Jellicoe's fleet, with the advance force
+flung out ahead, seems sound from every tactical point of view, with the
+assumption that the advance was to be in touch with the main fleet, or,
+if out of touch, tactical possibilities had been provided for and plans
+of action prearranged.</p>
+
+<p>In the sweep through the North Sea, with the main body of the British
+Grand Fleet some fifty miles astern, Vice Admiral Beatty's advance force
+was cruising to southward of Admiral Jellicoe May 31, 1916, when, at
+2:20 P. M., the presence of enemy ships was reported by a light cruiser.
+Admiral Beatty altered course "to the eastward and subsequently to
+northeastward, the enemy being sighted at 3:31 P. M. Their force
+consisted of five battle cruisers."<a href="#Footnote_A_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+
+<div class="center">BEGINNING OF THE ACTION</div>
+
+<p>It is stated in Vice Admiral Beatty's report that it was over an hour
+after the first news of the vicinity of enemy ships before he increased
+speed to 25 knots to engage ("at 3:30 P. M."<a name="FNanchor_A_2" id="FNanchor_A_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>). Yet Vice Admiral
+Beatty reports that Rear Admiral Evan-Thomas's fifth battle squadron
+(the four Queen Elizabeths) was still 10,000 yards away when he made
+this move to engage the enemy with his battle cruisers. This forces us
+to the conclusion that Admiral Beatty thought his six battle cruisers
+would be able to take care of the situation. His confidence is explained
+by the fact that all previous sorties of the Germans had been made by
+battle cruisers or small craft.</p>
+
+<p>Both sides threw out screens of light cruisers, which clashed, and at
+3:48 "the action commenced at a range of 18,500 yards, both sides
+opening fire practically simultaneously."<a name="FNanchor_B_3" id="FNanchor_B_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> The British battle cruisers
+fought on a course curving to the southeast, and then on a straight
+south-southeast course, and the five German battle cruisers fought them
+on a parallel course, instead of edging away from the superior British
+force. It is now easy to see that the trend of the action was absolutely
+in the direction of the approaching main body of the German High Seas
+Fleet, but this very naturally was not apparent at the time to Admiral
+Beatty.</p>
+
+<p>The first phase of the battle may properly be studied as a fight between
+the British and German battle cruisers, in consequence of the
+before-stated gap separating the two parts of Admiral Beatty's command.
+This interval of 10,000 yards prevented the fifth battle squadron of
+Queen Elizabeth dreadnoughts from being a factor at the time. Vice
+Admiral Beatty reports that this squadron "opened fire at a range of
+20,000 yards," and he continues: "The fifth battle squadron was engaging
+the enemy's rear ships, unfortunately at very long range." (It is
+interesting to note this comment on a range of 20,000 yards, in view of
+the fantastic distances at which the Queen Elizabeth had been depicted
+by alarmists as shelling our coast cities.)</p>
+
+<p>In this part of the action came the first of the many upsets of pre-war
+calculations. Comparing the given strength of the two opposing squadrons
+in action, it will be seen that the British battle cruisers were greatly
+superior; in fact, the odds would have been considered prohibitive
+before this battle. Yet it was the British squadron that suffered,
+losing one-third of its ships. Ten minutes after the beginning of the
+action the Indefatigable was sunk, and at 4:30 the Queen Mary met the
+same fate. In each case it is said that there was a great explosion up
+through the turrets, suggesting that a weak turret construction is
+really a conductor of fire to the magazine in case of a heavy hit, and
+pointing to the need of better separation of the supply of ammunition
+from the magazine.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">DESTROYERS TAKE PART</div>
+
+<p>At<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span>
+4:15 there was an attack "simultaneously"<a name="FNanchor_A_4" id="FNanchor_A_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> by British and German
+destroyers which resulted in a lively fight, but no damage to any of the
+capital ships. Yet the possibilities of such torpedo attacks were so
+evident, here and later in the battle, that the destroyer at once
+attained a greater value as an auxiliary of the battleship. It should
+also be noted that German submarines were reported present at this
+stage, but they accomplished nothing against the screened fighting
+ships. A British airplane had been sent up from a mother ship just
+before the engagement, though Admiral Beatty reports that it was forced
+to fly low on account of the clouds, and had a hard task "to identify
+four enemy light cruisers." There was apparently no chance of a wide
+observation that would have warned Admiral Beatty of the approaching
+German High Seas Fleet. In this short hour were concentrated many new
+problems of naval warfare.</p>
+
+<p>The advancing German High Seas Fleet was reported at 4:38 by a light
+cruiser, and sighted at 4:42 by the British battle cruisers. A few
+minutes later Vice Admiral Beatty's ships turned right about (180
+degrees) in succession. The German battle cruisers also turned to a
+northwesterly course, closely followed up by the van of the German High
+Seas Fleet, and the action was continued on this course.</p>
+
+<p>The report of Admiral Beatty and his conduct in this part of the action
+show that he had not suspected the presence of the German High Seas
+Fleet, but the lavish criticism of his turn in succession is without
+reason. In the first place, his ships met no disaster at the turn, and
+the manoeuvre is absolutely justified by the fact that it brought the
+four Queen Elizabeth battleships into position to fight a rearguard
+action against the greatly strengthened enemy. Any other disposition of
+Admiral Beatty's command would have been a mistake.</p>
+
+<p>It also follows that, against the turn made in this way, it would have
+been an error for Vice Admiral Hipper to try for a capping position,
+with the object of smothering Admiral Beatty's cruisers in detail at
+their pivoting point. Such an attempt would have exposed his own battle
+cruisers to the 15-inch guns of the approaching dreadnoughts of Admiral
+Evan-Thomas's squadron. Admiral Hipper's conduct in turning to the
+northwest ahead of the van of the German High Seas Fleet seems the best
+thing he could have done at the time. The leading German battleships,
+which were of the K�nig class, fell into line, closely following Admiral
+Hipper's battle cruisers, and the battle was continued at 14,000 yards
+on a northwest course.</p>
+
+<p>On the British side the brunt of the action was sustained by Admiral
+Evan-Thomas's fifth battle squadron, which from this time was in line
+astern of Admiral Beatty's battle cruisers. The German battle cruisers
+could not stand up with the same effectiveness against the heavy guns of
+the fifth battle squadron, and this, with an increase to full speed,
+enabled Admiral Beatty to draw ahead. He again opened up a gap between
+his battle cruisers and the fifth battle squadron, taking a course that
+curved to the north and northeast, in search of Admiral Jellicoe's
+battle fleet, which was hastening to his assistance. The leading ships
+of the Grand Fleet were sighted at 5:56, and Admiral Beatty altered his
+course to the east at extreme speed. The German van also turned to
+eastward.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime from the north the British Grand Fleet had been closing
+at utmost fleet speed on a southeast by south course. Ahead of the
+battle fleet was the squadron of three battle cruisers under Rear
+Admiral Hood. This squadron, well in advance of the main body, took
+position ahead of Admiral Beatty's battle cruisers, which had turned to
+their southerly course, as shown by the diagram.</p>
+
+<p>In the second phase of the action, which has just been described, there
+were clashes of light cruisers and isolated torpedo attacks, none of
+which had any tactical effect on the battle. It is now evident from the
+conduct of the German command that the German fleet was not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span> led into a
+trap, and that Admiral Scheer deliberately chose to engage the British
+Grand Fleet, thinking the conditions favorable, although his course
+necessarily curved away to the southwestward and left the British Grand
+Fleet between the German fleet and all its bases. It is also evident
+that the ships of the German van had not been damaged by the fifth
+British battle squadron to the extent of demoralizing the German
+gunfire. The immediate damage inflicted on the advance of the British
+Grand Fleet is proof enough of this.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i559.png"><img src="images/i559-t.png" width="250" height="119" alt="Make-Up and Armament of British Grand Fleet
+In addition the Grand Fleet comprised Rear Admiral Hood&#39;s squadron of
+three battle cruisers and Rear Admiral Arbuthnot&#39;s squadron of four
+armored cruisers." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Make-Up and Armament of British Grand Fleet<br /><br />
+In addition the Grand Fleet comprised Rear Admiral Hood&#39;s squadron of
+three battle cruisers and Rear Admiral Arbuthnot&#39;s squadron of four
+armored cruisers.<br /><br /><br /></span>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="center">HOOD'S FLAGSHIP SUNK</div>
+
+<p>As stated, Rear Admiral Hood took station ahead of Vice Admiral Beatty's
+battle cruisers, with his advance squadron of battle cruisers (6:21)
+closing to a range of 8,000 yards, (6:25.) A few minutes later his
+flagship, the Invincible, was sunk by gunfire. Almost at the same time
+three of Rear Admiral Arbuthnot's armored cruisers, Black Prince,
+Warrior, and Defense, "not aware of the approach of the enemy's heavy
+ships,"<a name="FNanchor_A_5" id="FNanchor_A_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> were put out of action. (Defense was sunk; Warrior sank while
+attempt was being made to tow her home; Black Prince was sunk later,
+probably by gunfire.)</p>
+
+<p>At this stage the British Grand Fleet formed in battle line astern of
+the battle cruisers, and engaged the enemy on a course to the southwest,
+the German fleet now being to the westward, as shown on the diagram. The
+fifth battle squadron then took position astern of Admiral Jellicoe's
+main body. It was here that the Warspite, a dreadnought of the Queen
+Elizabeth class, jammed her helm, and was out of control for a time, as
+described by her Captain after the action. The battleship was, however,
+extricated from her predicament. The battle cruiser L�tzow, the flagship
+of the German advance force, had become totally disabled, and Vice
+Admiral Hipper had trans-shipped his flag to another battle cruiser.</p>
+
+<p>By this time smoke and mist hung over the sea, and the Germans took
+advantage of these conditions, also using smoke screens, to fight the
+only action possible for their fleet against the overwhelming force now
+in line against them. The German ships would appear and disappear in the
+smoke and mist. Admiral Jellicoe reports of this stage of the action:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Owing principally to the mist, but partly to the smoke, it was
+possible to see only a few ships at a time in the enemy's battle
+line. Toward the van only some four or five ships were ever
+visible at once. More could be seen from the rear squadron, but
+never more than eight to twelve. * * * The action between the
+battle fleets lasted intermittently from 6:17 P. M. to 8:20 P.
+M., at ranges between 9,000 yards and 12,000 yards. During this
+time the British fleet made alterations of course from southeast
+by east to west (168&frac34; degrees) in the endeavor to close,
+but the enemy constantly turned away and opened the range under
+cover of destroyer attacks and smoke screens. The alterations of
+course had the effect of bringing the British fleet (which
+commenced the action in a position of advantage on the bow of
+the enemy) to a quarterly bearing from the enemy's battle line,
+but at the same time placed us between the enemy and his bases. </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="center">JELLICOE'S NIGHT MANOEUVRE</div>
+
+<p>As the darkness came on, it is evident that these tactics on the part of
+the Germans, with increasing threats of torpedo attacks, became more and
+more baffling to the British command, and then came the crucial decision
+which ended the battle. Admiral Jellicoe reports:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>At 9 P. M. the enemy was entirely out of sight, and the threat
+of torpedo boat destroyer attacks during the rapidly approaching
+darkness made it necessary for me to dispose of the fleet for
+the night, with a view to its safety from such attacks, while
+providing for a renewal of action at daylight. I accordingly
+manoeuvred to remain between the enemy and his bases, placing
+our flotillas in a position in which they would afford
+protection to the fleet from destroyer attack and at the same
+time be favorably situated for attacking the enemy's heavy
+ships. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Concerning this stage of the action Admiral Jellicoe in his report
+quotes Vice Admiral Beatty as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In view of the gathering darkness and the fact that our
+strategical position was such as to make it appear certain that
+we should locate the enemy at daylight under most favorable
+circumstances, I did not consider it desirable or proper to
+close the enemy battle fleet during the dark hours. </p>
+</div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Here the British Admiral and his second in command were in accord, but
+the responsibility for the resultant movement of the British fleet must
+rest with Admiral Jellicoe as chief in command. By his order the British
+fleet steamed through the dark hours at moderate speed on southerly
+courses some ninety miles from the battlefield. Although the British
+fleet was thus placed in the general direction of Heligoland, this meant
+that Admiral Jellicoe had relinquished all touch with the German fleet,
+and this left the German fleet practically free to proceed to its bases,
+which was done without any interference, bringing in their damaged
+ships. The Germans even attempted to tow the wreck of the L�tzow into
+port, but she sank on the way in.</p>
+
+<p>This move to the southward by the British fleet ended the battle of
+Jutland. In the night there were isolated clashes of small fry, the
+adventures of lame ducks, &amp;c., but there was nothing that affected the
+tactical results, and nothing that was in any sense a part of a battle
+of fleets. None of these encounters even indicated the location of the
+German fleet.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">DEPARTURE OF GERMAN FLEET</div>
+
+<p>At the early coming of light in these latitudes (about 3 A. M., June 1)
+the British fleet was to the southward and westward of the Horn Reef,
+about ninety miles from the battlefield. The British fleet then retraced
+its course to the battlefield. This return of the British fleet, by the
+same lane it followed in the night, did not give much opportunity to
+regain touch with the German fleet. Admiral Jellicoe reports that he
+remained in the vicinity of the battlefield until 11 A. M. when he was
+"reluctantly compelled to the conclusion that the High Seas Fleet had
+returned into port." Soon afterward the British fleet proceeded to its
+bases.</p>
+
+<p>In the early accounts of the battle there were fanciful tales of pursuit
+of the German ships through the night, and even after Admiral Jellicoe's
+report, the British public did not at first realize the situation at the
+end of the action. But, after a time, when this was better understood,
+there arose one of the greatest naval controversies that have ever
+agitated Great Britain, centred around the alleged "defensive" naval
+policy for maintaining the supremacy of Great Britain on the seas&mdash;the
+pros and cons as to closing the Germans while there was light, and
+keeping in touch through the dark hours. With that discussion this
+article has nothing to do, but the tactical situation at the end of the
+battle should be stated.</p>
+
+<p>At 9 o'clock the German fleet was to the westward. The British fleet was
+between it and all its bases. The British fleet was superior in speed,
+and had such an overwhelming superiority in ships and guns that it could
+afford to discard its damaged ships without impairing this superiority.
+The British Admiral had plenty of light cruisers and destroyers to throw
+out a screen and to maintain touch with the German fleet. There
+undoubtedly was a proportion of damaged ships in the German fleet; and
+this, with its original inferior fleet speed, would have made it a hard
+task for the German fleet to attempt to ease around the British fleet
+and reach its bases. These conditions were in favor of keeping in touch
+with the German fleet&mdash;and it is needless to point out the great results
+that would have come from a successful action with the German fleet in
+the morning.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, one should state the elements which influenced
+Admiral Jellicoe's decision, first of all to safeguard his ships, and
+yet remain at a distance in the direction of a German base. Upon his
+fleet depended the established British control of the seas. Many of his
+ships had received hard knocks&mdash;and many were short of ammunition and
+fuel. Above all, there was the ominous threat of torpedo attacks in the
+night.</p>
+
+<p>These were the conditions of the problem that confronted the British
+Admiral, brought about by the culminating tactics of the battle. Admiral
+Jellicoe's decision was that the situation did not justify him in
+imperiling his fleet and with it the naval supremacy of Great Britain.</p>
+
+<p>In this greatest of all naval actions it is interesting to study the
+course of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span> the battle in comparison with pre-war calculations. The
+outstanding feature, the collapse of the three British battle cruisers,
+was not entirely unexpected by naval opinion. The battle cruiser had
+found a great vogue, especially in England, but before this battle a
+reaction had already set in, aided by the fact that the Lion had been
+put out by weaker gunfire in the Dogger Bank chase. Many naval men had
+come to believe that the battle cruiser was only a cruiser after
+all&mdash;though a valuable cruiser&mdash;and not up to taking a place in a real
+line of battle.</p>
+
+<p>More surprising was the fact that at no stage of the action did the
+heavier British guns dominate the German guns. This was evident in the
+first phase, when Admiral Beatty's six battle cruisers were fighting on
+parallel courses with Admiral Hipper's five battle cruisers. The British
+ships carried thirty-two 13.5-inch and sixteen 12-inch guns, against
+their enemy's twenty-four 12-inch guns and twenty 11-inch guns.</p>
+
+<p>In the second stage of the action on northerly courses, when Admiral
+Beatty's command was engaging the van of the German fleet, the four
+Queen Elizabeths, with their thirty-two 15-inch guns, were in position,
+and there was nothing heavier than a 12-inch gun in the German fleet.</p>
+
+<p>In the third phase, after Vice Admiral Beatty's command had joined the
+main body of Admiral Jellicoe's fleet, the superiority of the British in
+heavy guns was enormous, as can be seen from the table on Page <a href="#Page_338">338</a>. It
+is true that the Germans took advantage of the mist and smoke as
+described. Yet, from Admiral Jellicoe's report, it is evident that there
+were many chances to let off salvos at the enemy ships, and he reports
+the ranges as very moderate, ("between 9,000 and 12,000 yards.")</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">WEIGHT OF METAL HURLED</div>
+
+<p>As to the shooting on both sides, it is evident that there must be a
+great deal of hard thinking going on in the navies of the world as to
+improvement in this respect. The weight of metal hurled into the sea was
+prodigious. "In the first and second phases it is estimated that each
+of the ships under Vice Admiral Beatty and Rear Admiral Evan-Thomas
+fired about 600 tons and the Germans quite as much if not more."<a name="FNanchor_A_6" id="FNanchor_A_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>The battleships stood up well, and everything in the battle confirmed
+the judgment of those who had pinned their faith to the battleships as
+the essential of naval power.</p>
+
+<p>The two most revolutionary elements in naval warfare were present, but
+they cannot be said to have exerted any tactical effect on the battle.
+The limited use of the airplane has been told, and a Zeppelin was
+reported at about 4 A. M. June 1, which may have observed the location
+of the British fleet. U-boats were reported early in the action, but
+there is no hint that they took any real part in the battle. Yet this
+does not mean that they are not to be considered. With the great
+improvements in the type, it is probable that in many conditions the
+U-boat will be a factor in battles of fleets, and such contingencies
+should be safeguarded in advance.</p>
+
+<p>The destroyer came to its own in the battle of Jutland as an auxiliary
+of the battle fleet, both for offense and defense. The whole course of
+the action proved that a screen of destroyers was absolutely necessary.
+For offense, it might be argued truthfully that, of the great number of
+torpedoes used, very few hit anything. The Marlborough was the only
+capital ship reported struck in the real action, and she was able
+afterward to take some part in the battle, and then get back to her
+base. It is supposed that the damaged Pommern may have been so destroyed
+later, and torpedoes may have struck other scattered marks. But above
+all things stands out the fact that it was the threat of night torpedo
+attacks by destroyers which made the British fleet withdraw from the
+battlefield.</p>
+
+<p>There is no question of the fact that this withdrawal of the British
+fleet had a great moral effect on Germany. The announcement to the
+people and to the Reichstag had a heartening effect on the Germans at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span>
+just the time they needed some such stimulant. But the actual tactical
+result of the battle was indecisive. It may be said the Germans had so
+manoeuvred their fleet that a detached part of the superior British
+force was cut up, but the damage was not enough to impair the
+established superiority of the British fleet, and the end of the battle
+left the British control of the sea absolutely unchanged.</p>
+
+<p>The following is the British statement of losses:</p>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="7">BATTLE CRUISERS</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="center">&nbsp;</td><td align="center">Armor</td><td align="center">Main</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="center">Tonnage</td><td align="center">Belt.</td>
+  <td align="center">Battery.</td><td align="center">Sp'd.</td>
+  <td align="center">Men.</td><td align="center">C'p'd</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Queen Mary</td><td align="right">27,000</td><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;9 in.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="left">8 13.5-in.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="left">28&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="right">1,000</td><td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'13</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Indefatigable</td><td align="right">18,750</td><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;8 in.</td><td align="left">8 12-in.</td><td align="left">26</td><td align="right">899</td><td align="right">'11</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Invincible</td><td align="right">17,250</td><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;7 in.</td><td align="left">8 12-in.</td><td align="left">26</td><td align="right">750</td><td align="right">'08</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="7">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="7">ARMORED CRUISERS</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Defense</td><td align="right">14,600</td><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;6 in.</td><td align="left">4 9.2-in.</td><td align="left">23</td><td align="right">755</td><td align="right">'08</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Black Prince</td><td align="right">13,550</td><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;6 in.</td><td align="left">6 9.2-in.</td><td align="left">20.5</td><td align="right">704</td><td align="right">'06</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Warrior</td><td align="right">13,550</td><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;6 in.</td><td align="left">6 9.2-in.</td><td align="left">22.9</td><td align="right">704</td><td align="right">'08</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="7">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="7">DESTROYERS</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Tipperary</td><td align="right">1,900</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">31</td><td align="right">160</td><td align="right">'14</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Turbulent</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Fortune</td><td align="right">920</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">29.50</td><td align="right">100</td><td align="right">'12</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Sp'w Hawk</td><td align="right">950</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">3 4-in.</td><td align="left">31.32</td><td align="right">100</td><td align="right">'12</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Ardent</td><td align="right">950</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">3 4-in.</td><td align="left">31.32</td><td align="right">100</td><td align="right">'12</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Nomad</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Nestor</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Shark</td><td align="right">950</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">3 4-in.</td><td align="left">31.32</td><td align="right">100</td><td align="right">'12</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>The losses admitted by the German Admiralty are:</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="5">BATTLESHIP</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="center">Tonnage.</td><td align="center">Armament.</td><td align="center">Sp'd.</td><td align="center">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Date Completion.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Pommern</td><td align="right">13,040</td><td align="right">4 11-in.</td><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;19</td><td align="right">1907</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">14 6.7-in.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="5">BATTLE CRUISER</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Luetzow</td><td align="right">28,000</td><td align="right">8 12-in.</td><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;27</td><td align="right">1915</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">12 6-in.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="5">LIGHT CRUISERS</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Rostock</td><td align="right">4,820</td><td align="right">12 4.1-in.</td><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;27.3</td><td align="right">1914</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Frauenlob</td><td align="right">2,656</td><td align="right">10 4.1-in.</td><td align="left">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;21.5</td><td align="right">1903</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="5">NEW LIGHT CRUISERS</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Elbing</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Wiesbaden</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="5">DESTROYERS</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Five</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="5">TOTAL TONNAGE LOST</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">British</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">117,150</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">German</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">60,720</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="5">TOTAL PERSONNEL LOST</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">British</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">6,105</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">German</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">2,414</td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">NOTE BY EDITOR.&mdash;No official confirmation of the German losses was
+published. The British Admiralty maintains that the losses, including
+only German vessels "seen to sink," aggregated 109,220 tons. Other
+Admiralty claims were that the Germans lost one dreadnought of the
+Kronprinz type, 25,480 tons; one of the Heligoland type, 22,440 tons;
+battleship Pommern, 13,000 tons; battle cruiser L�tzow, 28,000 tons;
+five Rostocks, 24,500 tons; destroyers, 4,000 tons; submarines, 800
+tons; total, 117,220 tons.</div>
+
+
+<div class="center"><br /><br />British Analysis of the Jutland Battle</div>
+
+<p>Expert British Admiralty writers do not concur in all the conclusions of
+our contributor, Mr. Frothingham, especially where he refers to the
+withdrawal of the British fleet.</p>
+
+<p>The official report of Admiral Jellicoe states that "German vessels were
+entirely out of the fight at 9 o'clock," and that "the withdrawal of the
+British fleet was a 'manoeuvre' so as to remain between the Germans and
+their bases."</p>
+
+<p>Sir Cyprian Bridge, a British naval expert, in referring to the
+situation of the German fleet when darkness fell after the battle,
+writes: "It was a beaten and a broken fleet that escaped from the trap,"
+(referring to the British Battle Fleet at the north and the battle
+cruisers at the south, acting in strategic harmony.) "Many of its units
+had been lost. Its gunnery had become demoralized, and no one can blame
+its discretion in making for home at its top-most speed and leaving the
+British fleet once more in undisputed command of the North Sea. For
+this, in a word, was the result of the battle. * * * Whatever their
+effort signified, it failed to shake our hold upon the sea. * * * We
+have fought many indecisive actions, * * * few which have more fully
+freed us of all fear of what the enemy fleet might be able to
+accomplish. By such standards the battle off Jutland will well hold its
+own against all but a few of our most famous victories."</p>
+
+<p>John Buchan published a description of the battle of Jutland by
+authority of the British Government. He, a historical authority, says:
+"The result of the battle of Jutland was that Britain was more confirmed
+than ever in her mastery of the sea. * * * From a technical point of
+view the battle appears as an example of a tactical division of the
+fleet, undertaken in order to coax a laggard enemy to battle. * * * It
+defeated, utterly defeated, the German plan. If<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span> it was not&mdash;as with two
+hours more daylight it would have been&mdash;a complete destruction of
+Germany's sea power, it was a complete demonstration of Britain's
+crushing superiority."</p>
+
+<p>Arthur Pollen, an expert naval writer in British periodicals, referred
+to the results of the battle in these words: "Thus the Germans, who had
+entered the North Sea, according to their own account, to engage and
+destroy the British ships that have been systematically sweeping the
+waters north and east of the Horn Reef, attained the first part of their
+objective only. They did succeed in engaging. But the consequences were
+disastrous. The plan of overwhelming the British fast division with
+superior numbers was defeated by the masterly handling of the British
+force, combined with the effective use that force made of its artillery.
+So far from Sir David Beatty having been overwhelmed, he succeeded
+admirably in his main object, which was to draw the German fleet into a
+position where Sir John Jellicoe's squadrons could engage it. The enemy
+was only saved from total destruction by mist and by the approach of
+night. Not only did his whole plan miscarry, but he was driven
+ignominiously from the field, and with a very heavy loss in ships and
+men."<br /></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_2" id="Footnote_A_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Report of Vice Admiral Beatty.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_3" id="Footnote_B_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Report of Vice Admiral Beatty.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_4" id="Footnote_A_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Report of Vice Admiral Beatty.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_5" id="Footnote_A_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Report of Admiral Jellicoe.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_6" id="Footnote_A_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> "Naval Power in the War." Lieut. Commander Charles C. Gill,
+U. S. N.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>A Leading German Churchman Defends Poison Gas</h2>
+
+<p>The International Committee of the Red Cross at Geneva early in 1918
+issued an appeal against the use of poisonous gases. The Rev. Dr. Balan,
+President of the Consistory for the Prussian Province of Posen and head
+of the Protestant Church in that province, refused, "after
+conscientiously examining it before God," to indorse or circulate the
+appeal, and wrote as follows to the President of the International
+Committee:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>The first question that occurred to me on reading your appeal
+was, Is it really a more inhumane method of waging war when
+Germany, in defending herself against an immensely superior
+force of enemies in a fight for existence forced upon her, makes
+use also of poisonous gas, than when her enemies pour over our
+armies, so much weaker in numbers, devastating and
+disintegrating showers of iron, lasting days and weeks, and to
+which we cannot reply in such volume because we have not so many
+human hands at our disposal for the manufacture of munitions as
+our enemies have? I say, No. I ask further, Is it more humane to
+set the whole world in motion in order by starving it to prevent
+a great nation that, with its noble, chivalrous Kaiser at its
+head, has manifested clearly enough its unbounded love of peace,
+from taking the place to which it is entitled by the side of
+other nations than when this nation uses every means of defense
+that its enlightened scientists have discovered? I say again,
+No. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Dr. Balan maintains in the further course of his letter that the enemies
+of Germany cannot expect to be treated humanely in any special manner,
+for all war is inhumane, because they have from the outset persistently
+and constantly utterly disregarded the laws of nations and the "sacred
+sign of the Red Cross." In conclusion this Prussian church dignitary
+informs the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross
+that if he and his friends really wish to render the whole suffering
+population of Europe a truly great service, they should do their utmost
+to bring home to the French people, who are so deeply to be pitied, the
+fact that the phantom which, deluded by the lies of their and England's
+rulers, they still pursue is dragging them every day to deeper and more
+hopeless misery. At the very moment that France realizes this, Dr. Balan
+asserts, there will be peace. He explains that the phantom pursued by
+the French is "the recovery of two provinces that have been German from
+time immemorial, and of which we were once robbed against all right and
+justice."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span></p>
+<h2>Great Britain's War Work in 1917</h2>
+
+<h3>War Cabinet's Official Survey of Military Events and Far-Reaching
+Economic Changes</h3>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>A report issued by the British War Cabinet on March 18, 1918,
+in the form of a Blue Book of 200 pages or more, presents a
+historical review of what Great Britain accomplished in 1917,
+with a survey of the changes that came over the character of the
+war in that year, and of the far-reaching Governmental and
+economic developments that took place in the British Nation. As
+the introductory chapter is in itself a comprehensive summary,
+the main portions of it are here presented.</i> </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The year 1917 saw two marked developments. On the one hand there was a
+profound change in the character of the war itself. The inauguration of
+a general attack upon the sea communications of the Allies through the
+unrestricted use of the submarine greatly widened the scope of warlike
+operations and forced the people of the British Isles to expend an
+immense amount of time and energy on counterpreparations of all kinds.
+The Russian revolution completely upset the allied plan for a concerted
+offensive against the Central Powers on all fronts during the Spring and
+Summer of 1917, and eventually led to such a disintegration of the
+Russian Army as enabled the German Government to transfer the greater
+part of its military resources from the eastern to the western theatre
+of war. Finally, the overthrow of the Russian autocracy, coupled with
+the entry of the United States into the war and the adhesion of Greece,
+Brazil, China, and other neutrals to the allied cause, widened the war
+itself from a battle for the liberty of small nations and the defense of
+public right in Europe into a world-wide struggle for the triumph of a
+free civilization and democratic government.</p>
+
+<p>The year brought a gradual growth of inter-ally co-operation and
+creation of the Imperial War Cabinet. This development and the sessions
+of the Imperial War Conference were the natural outcome of the spirit of
+unity and self-sacrifice which has enabled the peoples of the British
+Commonwealth to produce no less than 7,500,000 men to fight for freedom
+in addition to vast quantities of munitions and supplies of all kinds.
+So successful was this experiment in the opinion of its members that it
+was decided unanimously that there ought to be an annual meeting of the
+Imperial Cabinet and that the Prime Ministers of the empire or their
+specially delegated representatives, together with the Ministers in
+charge of the great imperial offices, should be its <i>ex officio</i>
+members.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">War Cabinet Reorganization</div>
+
+<p>Another sphere in which reorganization and expansion were necessary was
+that of home affairs. The period began with a reconstruction of the
+administrative machinery at the centre. It had become increasingly
+evident that the older system under which the supreme direction of the
+war rested, with a Cabinet consisting of the departmental chiefs under
+the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister, was not sufficiently prompt and
+elastic for the conduct of a war which involved the mobilization and
+direction of the resources not only of the United Kingdom but of the
+British Empire. Even the formation of a smaller Cabinet committee of the
+departmental Ministers chiefly concerned in the war did not meet the
+needs of the case. With the advent of the new Government a modification
+was introduced whereby the supreme direction of the war was intrusted to
+a small War Cabinet, freed from all administrative duties, and yet in
+the closest touch with all departmental Ministers, while administrative
+responsibility was placed in the hands of Ministers who were left free
+to devote their whole time to this aspect of Governmental work.</p>
+
+<p>By this arrangement the War Cabinet was able to give all its attention
+to the task of co-ordination and direction, and so make more effective
+use of the immense resources which the empire had gradually produced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span>
+during the preceding years. It also made it easier to create a number of
+much-needed new administrative departments. The most important of these
+were the Ministry of Shipping, the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of
+Food, and the Ministry of Pensions, to which were added at later dates
+the Ministry of Reconstruction, the Ministry of National Service, and
+the Ministry of the Air. * * *</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">The Man-Power Problem</div>
+
+<p>The first problem was that of man power. During the preceding year all
+sources which could be tapped without trenching upon the essential
+supplies of the allied armies and the nation had been exhausted, and the
+question had narrowed itself down to that of finding substitutes for fit
+men of military age still engaged in industry. An attempt was,
+therefore, made to enroll a large army of volunteers to take the place
+of the men called to the army. Partly owing to difficulties in
+withdrawing labor from the great war industries and partly owing to the
+limited supply of labor, great obstacles presented themselves in the
+execution of this scheme. But though the plan of enrolling an army of
+industrial volunteers had eventually to be abandoned the system of
+dilution and substitution was steadily carried out, and 820,646 men of
+all categories were taken for the service of the army during the year.</p>
+
+<p>The needs of the army, however, were not the only drain. A large amount
+of additional labor was required for agriculture, timber production, and
+iron ore mining, as well as for industrial purposes. The needs in these
+respects also were gradually supplied by reducing unessential industries
+and by organizing supplies of soldier, civilian, and foreign labor.
+Investigations were carried out as to the use of labor in different
+trades, and trade committees representing employers and employed were
+organized to deal with economy of man-power in particular industries.
+The evidence so obtained, while it demonstrated clearly the complexity
+and difficulty of a system of compulsory national service in industry,
+made it clear that in order to effect the best strategic use of the man
+power of the country, the National Service Department required extension
+rather than restriction. Accordingly, in August, 1917, the department
+was reorganized as a Ministry, recruiting was transferred from the War
+Office, and arrangements were made to insure effective co-operation
+between the Ministry and the employment exchanges for the period of the
+war.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Munitions</div>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the tremendous calls upon the man power of the country
+for the ever-increasing needs of the army, the supply of munitions has
+steadily increased. In addition to large consignments to other fronts of
+the war, there has been an increase of 30 per cent. in all kinds of
+guns and howitzers, and of over 100 per cent. in heavy guns and
+howitzers in the recent offensive in France, as compared with those of
+last year. The weight of shell filled per month has been more than
+doubled since 1916. The output of high explosives has been sufficient to
+meet the increased demands of our armies, to build up stocks, and to
+supply part of the needs of the Allies. There has been a steady
+improvement in the detonating value of gun ammunition and a continuous
+reduction in the number of premature explosions. In addition to guns,
+shells, and rifles, the demands of the military and naval forces during
+the year for aircraft, tanks, mechanical transport, railway material,
+and equipment of every sort and kind have been endless. Despite the
+immensity of the demand, it has, on the whole, been supplied. The
+British Army is now probably the best provided of all the armies in the
+field, not only in technical equipment but in clothing, food, and
+similar provision.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Fighting the Submarine</div>
+
+<p>The most difficult problems which confronted the Administration in the
+early part of 1917 were those which arose from the growing inadequacy of
+the overseas communications of the Allies&mdash;problems which were
+aggravated by the introduction of the unlimited submarine campaign on
+Feb. 1. The expansion of the armies, the ever-increasing demand for
+warlike material, the fall in production, especially of foodstuffs in
+all allied countries through the calling of men to the colors, and the
+decline in cultivation, coupled with the diversion of a large part of
+the shipping of the Allies to purely military and naval transportation,
+had already put a severe strain on the shipping resources of the
+country. The immediate effect of the new campaign was to double the rate
+of losses which had been incurred during 1916, and these losses rose
+rapidly to a climax in March and April.</p>
+
+<p>The countermeasures which were adopted by the navy, however, were
+successful in reducing the attack to manageable proportions, though they
+involved a drain upon the national resources both in man power and
+material which is often not fully recognized, and which is by no means
+the least important of the contributions of the British Empire to the
+war. The number of men engaged either in the navy or in supplying naval
+needs now exceeds a million. Unfortunately it is not possible to set
+forth in detail the immense scope of the Admiralty operations. But they
+include a very great addition to the armed craft in the service of the
+navy from torpedo boat destroyers to mine-sweepers, airships, and
+airplanes, and the organization of a vast system of patrols and
+mine-sweepers. As a result of the self-sacrificing devotion on the part
+of the men of the navy and the auxiliary services, and the steadfast
+performance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span> in all weathers and seasons of their monotonous and
+dangerous duties, the enemy never succeeded in interfering to any vital
+degree with the sea communications of the Allies.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">The Shipping Problem</div>
+
+<p>The naval preparations, however, were only part of the measures which
+were necessary to deal with the shipping situation. The second step was
+to create the Ministry of Shipping. At the end of 1916 the tonnage
+requisitioned by the State was less than one-half of the whole, and this
+was mainly used on purely military and naval services for the British
+Government or the Allies. During 1917 practically the whole of the
+remainder of the British ocean-going mercantile marine was brought under
+requisition at Blue Book rates and organized as a national war service.
+The Dominion Government also liberated much overseas shipping for war
+purposes, and neutral shipping was brought as far as possible into
+allied service. A close scrutiny was then made of the countries from
+which the necessary imports could be derived, and shipping was
+concentrated on the shortest routes, thereby multiplying the number of
+voyages the ships could make in the year. Leading regulations were
+revised, which increased the carrying capacity from the 1913 figure of
+106 to 150 tons per 100 tons net of shipping entering our ports, and
+arrangements were made for shortening the time occupied in the turn
+round of ships at the ports. In the latter part of the year the convoy
+system was introduced, which reduced the shipping losses, though it
+involved certain delays to individual ships.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to these improvements in the methods of using shipping, a
+large program of shipbuilding was put into operation, not only in
+British yards but in all the available yards in neutral countries as
+well. To insure greater speed in building a large number of the new
+ships were ordered to a standard design. In spite of the difficulties of
+all kinds which have confronted the production of ships, notably the
+shortage in the supply of steel plates and of labor, the output has
+steadily mounted. During 1917 1,163,500 tons of new ships were built, as
+against 542,000 tons in 1916, and by the end of 1918 the rate of output
+of all ships, war and merchant, ought to be double that of any previous
+year in British history. In order to make possible this increase
+forty-five new berths have been provided in private shipyards, and the
+construction of three new national shipyards, containing thirty-four
+berths, has been begun. Besides this effort at home 175,000 tons of
+shipping were purchased abroad, an amount which would have been very
+greatly exceeded if the United States had not taken over the whole
+program of ships being constructed on British account when they entered
+the war.</p>
+
+<p>The third step in dealing with the shipping problem was a drastic
+reduction of imports. In 1916 imports were cut down by 1,600,000 tons.
+Early in 1917 a committee was appointed which recommended a preliminary
+program of reductions amounting to 6,000,000 tons. This was approved and
+came into operation on March 1. The program was shortly afterward
+increased by further severe restrictions of the imports of timber. The
+outcome of this policy has been that practically all cargo space is now
+reserved for goods carried directly or indirectly on Government account,
+and consists almost entirely of essential foodstuffs, raw materials
+required for the manufacture of national necessities and military needs
+or of munitions of war. The chief reductions were in timber, paper,
+feeding stuffs, and brewing materials. The unfortunate but inevitable
+consequence of the restriction of imports and of the diversion of
+shipping from trading to war routes has been a large diminution in
+exports.</p>
+
+<p>The fourth step was to secure a large increase in the production of food
+and raw materials at home. There is now good reason to expect that in
+1918 the tillage area in the United Kingdom will exceed that of 1916 by
+over 3,000,000 acres. These satisfactory results have only been possible
+through the public-spirited activity of large numbers of people
+throughout the country, including farmers, workers, and organizers, to
+whom the nation has good reason to be grateful.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Control of Food Consumption</div>
+
+<p>The fifth step in meeting the shipping shortage was to expand Government
+control over the distribution of all the chief national supplies, partly
+in order to secure that the best use was made of what was available and
+partly in order to prevent waste. The most important measure in this
+sphere was the creation of the Ministry of Food. Its first step was to
+insure an adequate supply of breadstuffs. This was accomplished by
+raising the percentage of milling of wheat, by requiring the dilution of
+wheat with other cereals and by an increased program of imports. At the
+same time a scale of voluntary rations was announced and an active
+campaign was started in order to secure observance of them. The use of
+wheat, oats, barley, and maize for animal food was also restricted or
+prohibited. As a result, at the beginning of the Winter of 1917 the
+national reserve of breadstuffs was in a more satisfactory position than
+any time since the outbreak of war, the wheat stocks alone being
+3,000,000 quarters in excess of the stocks in the corresponding period
+of 1916. A serious shortage, however, in the French and Italian harvests
+and the needs of our other allies placed a heavy demand upon our
+supplies of wheat, and toward the end of the year considerable
+quantities were diverted to their use. During the year the control of
+the Ministry was extended to cover all imported foodstuffs, practically
+all of which are now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span> purchased on the national account, and an
+increasing measure of control has been established over home-grown
+cereals, meat, and dairy produce. In order to prevent the artificial
+raising of prices through competition, these purchases are now carried
+out in concert with our allies through inter-ally committees. As the
+year progressed the need for greater economy in consumption than was
+apparently attainable by voluntary means and the difficulties in
+distributing equitably the restricted supplies compelled the
+introduction of a system of rationing. The system began with sugar, and
+at the end of the year was gradually being extended to cover other
+staple foodstuffs.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Beer and Other Articles</div>
+
+<p>Another large economy was effected early in the year by a reduction of
+the manufacture of beer from the 1914 total of about 36,000,000 barrels
+and the 1916 total of 26,000,000 barrels to a total of some 14,000,000
+standard barrels. The manufacture of spirits for human consumption has
+been stopped. Strong measures have also been taken to restrict the
+consumption of coal, oils, timber, cotton, and other articles. At the
+beginning of the year the coal mines and iron mines were taken over for
+the period of the war, and Government control over the available
+supplies was established. A system of distribution of coal was then
+brought into operation, which has not only insured all necessary
+supplies, but has effected economy in railway transportation. It is
+estimated that this reform will result in an economy of no less than
+700,000,000 railway ton miles in the carriage of coal. A Timber
+Controller was appointed to ration the greatly restricted supplies of
+wood. The consumption of petrol for private use was gradually curtailed
+until it was finally forbidden. Much has also been done to economize
+labor and material through the more active control in the national
+interest both of railway and canal transportation.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Naval and Military Results</div>
+
+<p>The result of these drastic measures has been that, despite all the
+enemy efforts to win a victory by the destruction of the merchant
+shipping of the world, the British people have been able to prosecute
+the war with the utmost vigor during the whole year. The navy has
+continued to hold its predominant position at sea, has denied the oceans
+to the enemy for the purpose of transporting troops or supplies and has
+exercised an ever-growing pressure upon him through the blockade. At the
+same time, though the submarine menace has not yet been mastered, the
+supply both of the military expeditions in all parts of the world and of
+the civilian population at home has been maintained. It may, indeed, be
+said with confidence that as the result of the work of the navy, of the
+merchant marine, and of many civilian sections of the community the
+German attempt to win the war by the destruction of the merchant
+shipping of the world has been definitely baffled.</p>
+
+<p>In the military sphere, though no decision has been reached, great
+results have also been achieved. At the outset of the year the military
+prospects before the Allies were good. Their plans, however, for a
+converging attack on the Central Empires on all fronts were upset by the
+disorganization of the Russian armies which followed the revolution&mdash;a
+disorganization which ended in such complete dissolution that the
+Germans were enabled to transfer a large part of their eastern forces to
+the western front by the end of the year. None the less, during the
+whole of 1917 the German forces have been steadily pressed back from one
+highly fortified position to another in face of the systematic assaults
+of the allied armies. The enemy, indeed, has consistently borne tribute
+to the terrible power of the British attacks and to the heavy losses,
+both on land and in the air, which they have inflicted upon him. The
+chief successes have been gained at Arras, Messines, and in Flanders.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Non-European Theatres</div>
+
+<p>On the other hand, there has been a complete transformation of the scene
+in the non-European theatres of the war. After a long period of
+comparative stagnation and failure, British arms have once more advanced
+to victory. The last of the German colonies&mdash;German East Africa&mdash;has
+been cleared of the enemy; Mesopotamia, with its capital, Bagdad, has
+been rescued from the devastating rule of the Turk, and Southern
+Palestine, including Jerusalem, after many centuries of effort, has been
+liberated by Christian hands. British prestige, indeed, in the East,
+which had fallen to a low ebb, has been completely restored; Germanic
+hopes of southeastern conquest have been rudely shattered through the
+withdrawal of over 100,000 square miles of territory from German
+control, and the capacity of Turkey to continue the war has been gravely
+impaired. The military results of the year are thus very considerable.
+British armies have fought not in France alone, but in Italy, Macedonia,
+Mesopotamia, Palestine, and East Africa, and from being a combination of
+peaceful communities the empire stands forth as the most powerful of all
+the Commonwealths which are withstanding Prussian aggression. The extent
+of this effort, the unfailing courage and morale of the British armies,
+and the clear determination of all the British peoples to accept no
+peace which does not restore national liberty and public right afford
+ground for confidence that the Allies will eventually secure the purpose
+for which they entered the war.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Social and Economic Changes</div>
+
+<p>There is a nonmilitary aspect of the administrative developments of the
+year which it is important to note. In themselves these developments
+have been the result of the determination<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span> of the people to leave
+nothing undone which could contribute to the winning of the war. None
+the less they are bound to produce lasting and far-reaching effects on
+the social and economic life of the community. No record of the year
+would be complete which did not point out the changes which have been
+wrought in the structure of society by the experiences of the war.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, the organic life of the community has been greatly
+strengthened. On the one hand, not only have enormous numbers of men,
+and latterly of women also, been mobilized for military and naval
+purposes, but the vast majority of the people are now working directly
+or indirectly on public service. If they are not in the army, the navy,
+or the civil service, they are growing food, or making munitions, or
+engaged in the work of organizing, transporting, or distributing the
+national supplies.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand the State has taken control for the period of the war
+over certain national industries, such as the railways, shipping, coal,
+and iron mines, and the great majority of engineering businesses. It has
+also made itself responsible for the securing of adequate quantities of
+certain staple commodities and services, such as food, coal, timber, and
+other raw materials, railroad and sea transportation, and for
+distributing the available supplies justly as between individual and
+individual in the national interest.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Regulating Prices</div>
+
+<p>The Government has further had to regulate prices and prevent
+profiteering. It has done so partly by controlling freights, fixing
+maximum prices to the home producer, and regulating wholesale and retail
+charges, and partly by its monopoly of imported supplies. The
+information which the Government has obtained as to sources of supply,
+consumption, and cost of production, and the relations it has entered
+into with other Governments as to the mutual purchase of essential
+products which they jointly control, have, for the first time, brought
+within the sphere of practical politics the possibility of fixing
+relatively stable world prices for fundamental staples. The State has
+even taken the drastic step of fixing the price of the four-pound loaf
+at 9d., at a considerable loss to itself.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the war, and especially the year 1917, has brought about a
+transformation of the social and administrative structure of the State,
+much of which is bound to be permanent. Owing to the imperative
+importance of speed there has perhaps been an undue expansion of the
+function of the Central Government. But a very large amount of work has
+been devolved on to local authorities and to new bodies, such as the War
+Agricultural Executive Committees or the Local Food Control Committees.
+Taking the year as a whole the Administration has been brought into far
+closer contact with every aspect of the life of the people, the
+provinces and the metropolis have been linked more closely together, and
+the whole community has received an education in the problems of
+practical democracy such as it has never had before.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">The Industrial Problem</div>
+
+<p>In the second place, the war has profoundly altered the conditions of
+the industrial problem. Since 1914 the community itself has become by
+far the greatest employer of labor. It has assumed control for the
+duration of the war over a great number of the larger private
+undertakings, it has limited profits by imposing an 80 per cent. excess
+profits tax, and it has intervened to prevent profiteering in the
+essential requirements of the nation. Further, the regulation of the
+trade unions have been suspended for the duration of the war, industry
+has been diluted throughout, new methods and new industries have been
+introduced, labor-saving machinery has been everywhere installed, and
+the speed of production and the number and skill of workers has greatly
+risen. The nation today is far better organized and far more productive
+than it has ever been before.</p>
+
+<p>With the advent of the new Government at the end of 1916 a Ministry of
+Labor was created to deal with labor questions. It is still early to
+speak of the results of its work, but an important step toward the
+creation of better conditions in the industrial world has been taken in
+the adoption by the Government of the report of the Whitley Committee,
+which recommended the development of machinery in the shape of
+industrial councils, representatives of employers and employed
+throughout the country, whereby it should be possible to solve the
+difficulties which will arise by the process of peaceful conference and
+negotiation in place of the methods of industrial war. Despite all
+difficulties and the recent increase in industrial unrest, it is
+probably true to say that as the result of the war there is now a better
+understanding both by capital and labor of their mutual problems than at
+any previous time.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">1917 in Retrospect</div>
+
+<p>Looked at as a whole, 1917 has been a remarkable year. During it the war
+has assumed more and more the character of a struggle on the part of all
+the free nations for the final destruction of militarism and the
+establishment of an international order which will give real securities
+for liberty and public right throughout the world. The nations of which
+the British Commonwealth is composed have been drawn together in their
+joint effort for the common cause. And within the United Kingdom there
+has been a growth in the sense of public service and of the power to
+improve and adapt economic and social and administrative methods which
+will make it far easier to build up a healthier and more equitably
+organized society in future.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span></p>
+<h2>THE BATTLE OF CAMBRAI</h2>
+
+<h3>Full Text of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig's Report of a Victory and
+Reverse</h3>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>The battle of Cambrai began on Nov. 20, 1917, with the
+successful surprise attack of the British Third Army under Sir
+Julian Byng, and came to an end on the night of Dec. 4-5 with
+the withdrawal of British troops from Bourlon Wood to "a more
+compact line on the Flesqui�res Ridge." A German attack, which
+began on Nov. 30, had succeeded in wresting away a large portion
+of the British gains. This reverse was later the subject of
+British Parliamentary inquiry, but the commission found no
+serious military errors to censure. Sir Douglas Haig's official
+report to the Secretary of War is printed below in full. It
+acquires a fresh interest from the fact that the terrain fought
+over is in part the same as that across which the Germans have
+since swept in their Spring offensive of 1918.</i> </p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="center"><i>General Headquarters,<br />
+British Armies in the Field,</i><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="right"><i>Feb. 20, 1918.</i>
+</div>
+
+<p>My Lord: I have the honor to submit the following report on the
+operations on the Cambrai front during November and December, 1917:</p>
+
+<p>1. As pointed out in my last dispatch, the object of these operations
+was to gain a local success by a sudden attack at a point where the
+enemy did not expect it. Our repeated attacks in Flanders and those of
+our allies elsewhere had brought about large concentrations of the
+enemy's forces on the threatened fronts, with a consequent reduction in
+the garrisons of certain other sectors of his line.</p>
+
+<p>Of these weakened sectors the Cambrai front had been selected as the
+most suitable for the surprise operation in contemplation. The ground
+there was, on the whole, favorable for the employment of tanks, which
+were to play an important part in the enterprise, and facilities existed
+for the concealment of the necessary preparations for the attack.</p>
+
+<p>If, after breaking through the German defense systems on this front, we
+could secure Bourlon to the north, and establish a good flank position
+to the east, in the direction of Cambrai, we should be well placed to
+exploit the situation locally between Bourlon and the Sens�e River and
+to the northwest. The capture of Cambrai itself was subsidiary to this
+operation, the object of our advance toward that town being primarily to
+cover our flank and puzzle the enemy regarding our intentions.</p>
+
+<p>The enemy was laying out fresh lines of defense behind those which he
+had already completed on the Cambrai front; and it was to be expected
+that his troops would be redistributed as soon as our pressure in
+Flanders was relaxed. He had already brought large forces from Russia in
+exchange for divisions exhausted in the struggle in the western theatre,
+and it was practically certain that heavy reinforcements would be
+brought from east to west during the Winter. Moreover, his tired
+divisions, after a Winter's rest, would recover their efficiency.</p>
+
+<p>For all these reasons, if the existing opportunity for a surprise attack
+were allowed to lapse, it would probably be many months before an
+equally favorable one would again offer itself. Furthermore, having
+regard to the future, it was desirable to show the enemy that he could
+not with impunity reduce his garrisons beyond a certain point without
+incurring grave risks.</p>
+
+<p>Against these arguments in favor of immediate action I had to weigh the
+fact that my own troops had been engaged for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span> many months in heavy
+fighting, and that, though their efforts had been uniformly successful,
+the conditions of the struggle had greatly taxed their strength. Only
+part of the losses in my divisions had been replaced, and many recently
+arrived drafts, still far from being fully trained, were included in the
+ranks of the armies. Under these conditions it was a serious matter to
+make a further heavy call on my troops at the end of such a strenuous
+year.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, from the nature of the operation, the size of the
+force which could be employed was bound, in any case, to be
+comparatively small, since success depended so much on secrecy, and it
+is impossible to keep secret the concentration of very large forces. The
+demand made upon my resources, therefore, should not be a great one.</p>
+
+<p>While considering these different factors, preparations were quietly
+carried on, so that all might be ready for the attack if I found it
+possible to carry it out. The success of the enemy's offensive in Italy
+subsequently added great force to the arguments in favor of undertaking
+the operation, although the means at my disposal for the purpose were
+further reduced as a consequence of the Italian situation.</p>
+
+<p>Eventually I decided that, despite the various limiting factors, I could
+muster enough force to make a first success sufficiently sure to justify
+undertaking the attack, but that the degree to which this success could
+be followed up must depend on circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>It was calculated that, provided secrecy could be maintained to the last
+moment, no large hostile reinforcements were likely to reach the scene
+of action for forty-eight hours after the commencement of the attack. I
+informed General the Hon. Sir Julian Byng, K. C. B., K. C. M. G., M. V.
+O., to whom the execution of the plans in connection with the Cambrai
+operations was intrusted, that the advance would be stopped by me after
+that time, or sooner if necessary, unless the results then gained and
+the general situation justified its continuance.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Plan of Attack</div>
+
+<p>The general plan of attack was to dispense with previous artillery
+preparation, and to depend instead on tanks to smash through the enemy's
+wire, of which there was a great quantity protecting his trenches.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the advance of the tanks and infantry, working in close
+co-operation, began, the artillery was to assist with counter battery
+and barrage work; but no previous registration of guns for this purpose
+could be permitted, as it would rouse the enemy's suspicions. The
+artillery of our new armies was therefore necessarily subjected to a
+severe test in this operation, and proved itself entirely worthy of the
+confidence placed in it.</p>
+
+<p>The infantry, tanks, and artillery thus working in combination were to
+endeavor to break through all the enemy's lines of defense on the first
+day. If this were successfully accomplished and the situation developed
+favorably, cavalry were then to be passed through to raid the enemy's
+communications, disorganize his system of command, damage his railways,
+and interfere as much as possible with the arrival of his
+reinforcements. It was explained to all commanders that everything
+depended on secrecy up to the moment of starting, and after that on
+bold, determined, and rapid action. Unless opposition could be beaten
+down quickly, no great results could be looked for.</p>
+
+<p>The Commander in Chief of the French Armies, to whom I secretly
+communicated my plans, most readily agreed to afford me every
+assistance. In addition to the steps taken by him to engage the enemy's
+attention elsewhere, he arranged for a strong force of French infantry
+and cavalry to be in a position whence they could be moved forward
+rapidly to take part in the exploitation of our success, if the
+situation should render it possible to bring them into action. On Nov.
+20 certain of these French units were actually put in motion. The course
+of events, however, did not open out the required opportunity for their
+employment, but the French forces were held in readiness and within easy
+reach so long as there appeared to be any hope of it. Had the situation
+on Nov. 20 developed somewhat more favorably in certain directions, the
+nature of which will become apparent in the course of this report, the
+presence and co-operation of these French troops would have been of the
+greatest value.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">The Enemy's Defenses</div>
+
+<p>2. The German defenses on this front had been greatly improved and
+extended since the opening of our offensive in April, and comprised
+three main systems of resistance.</p>
+
+<p>The first of these three trench systems, constituting part of the
+Hindenburg line proper, ran in a general northwesterly direction for a
+distance of six miles from the Canal de l'Escaut at Banteux to
+Havrincourt. There it turned abruptly north along the line of the Canal
+du Nord for a distance of four miles to Moeuvres, thus forming a
+pronounced salient in the German front.</p>
+
+<p>In advance of the Hindenburg line the enemy had constructed a series of
+strong forward positions, including La Vacquerie and the northeastern
+corner of Havrincourt Wood. Behind it, and at distances respectively
+varying from a little less to rather more than a mile, and from three
+and a half to four and a half miles, lay the second and third main
+German systems, known as the Hindenburg reserve line, and the
+Beaurevoir, Masni�res, Marquion lines.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">The Attack Begun</div>
+
+<p>3. All necessary preparations were completed in time, and with a secrecy
+reflecting the greatest credit on all concerned. At 6:20 A. M. on Nov
+20, without any previous artillery bombardment, tanks and infantry
+attacked on a front of about six miles from east of Gonnelieu to the
+Canal du Nord opposite Hermies.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span>
+<a href="images/i590.png"><img src="images/i590-t.png" width="168" height="250" alt="MAP OF THE BATTLE OF CAMBRAI, SHOWING FURTHEST BRITISH
+ADVANCE AND GROUND LOST AFTER GERMAN ATTACK. (SEE KEY ABOVE.)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />MAP OF THE BATTLE OF CAMBRAI, SHOWING FURTHEST BRITISH
+ADVANCE AND GROUND LOST AFTER GERMAN ATTACK. (SEE KEY ABOVE.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>At the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span> hour demonstrations with gas, smoke, and artillery took
+place on practically the whole of the British front south of the Scarpe,
+and subsidiary attacks were launched east of Ep�hy and between
+Bullecourt and Fontaine les Croisilles.</p>
+
+<p>On the principal front of attack the tanks moved forward in advance of
+the infantry, crushing down the enemy's wire and forming great lanes
+through which our infantry could pass. Protected by smoke barrages from
+the view of the enemy's artillery, they rolled on across the German
+trenches, smashing up the enemy's machine guns and driving his infantry
+to ground. Close behind our tanks our own infantry followed, and, while
+the tanks patrolled the line of hostile trenches, cleared the German
+infantry from their dugouts and shelters.</p>
+
+<p>In this way, both the main system of the Hindenburg line and its outer
+defenses were rapidly overrun, and tanks and infantry proceeded in
+accordance with program to the attack upon the Hindenburg reserve line.</p>
+
+<p>In this advance the 12th (Eastern) Division moved along the Bonavis
+Ridge on the right of our attack, encountered obstinate resistance at
+Lateau Wood, which sheltered a number of German batteries. Fierce
+fighting, in which infantry and tank crews displayed the greatest
+gallantry, continued throughout the morning at this point, and ended in
+the capture of the position, together with the enemy's guns.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the 20th (Light) Division, which had captured La Vacquerie at
+the opening of its attack, stormed the powerful defenses of Welsh Ridge.
+The 6th Division carried the village of Ribecourt, after sharp fighting
+among the streets and houses, while the 62d (West Riding) Division (T.)
+stormed Havrincourt, where also parties of the enemy held out for a
+time.</p>
+
+<p>The capture of these two villages secured the flanks of the 51st
+(Highland) Division (T.) advancing on the left centre of our attack up
+the slopes of Flesqui�res Hill against the German trench lines on the
+southern side of Flesqui�res village. Here very heavy fighting took
+place. The stout brick wall skirting the ch�teau grounds opposed a
+formidable obstacle to our advance, while German machine guns swept the
+approaches. A number of tanks were knocked out by direct hits from
+German field batteries in position beyond the crest of the hill. None
+the less, with the exception of the village itself, our second
+objectives in this area were gained before midday.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the hits upon our tanks at Flesqui�res were obtained by a German
+artillery officer who, remaining alone at his battery, served a field
+gun single-handed until killed at his gun. The great bravery of this
+officer aroused the admiration of all ranks.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Capture of Marcoing</div>
+
+<p>On the left of our attack, west of the Canal du Nord, the 36th (Ulster)
+Division captured a German strong point on the spoil bank of the canal
+and pushed northward in touch with the West Riding troops, who, as the
+first stage in a most gallant and remarkably successful advance, had
+taken Havrincourt. By 10:30 A. M. the general advance beyond the
+Hindenburg reserve line to our final objectives had begun, and cavalry
+were moving up behind our infantry.</p>
+
+<p>In this period of the attack tanks and British infantry battalions of
+the 29th Division entered Masni�res and captured Marcoing and Neuf Wood,
+securing the passages of the Canal de l'Escaut at both villages.</p>
+
+<p>At Marcoing the tanks arrived at the moment when a party of the enemy
+were in the act of running out an electrical connection to blow up one
+of the bridges. This party was fired on by a tank and the bridge secured
+intact. At Masni�res, however, the retreating enemy succeeded in
+destroying partially the bridge carrying the main road. In consequence
+the first tank which endeavored to cross at this point fell through the
+bridge, completing its destruction.</p>
+
+<p>The advance of a number of our guns had been unavoidably delayed in the
+sunken roads which served this part of the battlefield, and though our
+infantry continued their progress beyond Masni�res, without the
+assistance of tanks and artillery, they were not able at first to clear
+the enemy entirely from the northern portion of the village. Here
+parties of Germans held out during the afternoon, and gave the enemy
+time to occupy Rumilly and the section of the Beaurevoir-Masni�res line
+south of it; while the destruction of the bridge also prevented the
+cavalry from crossing the canal in sufficient strength to overcome his
+resistance.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of this difficulty, a squadron of the Fort Garry Horse,
+Canadian cavalry brigade, succeeded during the afternoon in crossing the
+canal by a temporary bridge constructed during the day. This squadron
+passed through the Beaurevoir-Masni�res line and charged and captured a
+German battery in position to the east of it. Continuing its advance, it
+dispersed a body of about 300 German infantry, and did not cease its
+progress until the greater part of its horses had been killed or
+wounded. The squadron thereupon took up a position in a sunken road,
+where it maintained itself until night fell. It then withdrew to our
+lines, bringing with it several prisoners taken in the course of a most
+gallant exploit.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Brilliant Cavalry Work</div>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, west of the canal de l'Escaut patrols of the 6th Division
+during the afternoon entered Noyelles-sur-l'Escaut, where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span> they were
+reinforced by cavalry, and other cavalry units pushed out toward
+Cantaing. West of Flesqui�res, the 62d Division, operating northward
+from Havrincourt, made important progress. Having carried the Hindenburg
+reserve line north of that village, it rapidly continued its attack and
+captured Graincourt, where two anti-tank guns were destroyed by the
+tanks accompanying our infantry. Before nightfall infantry and cavalry
+had entered Anneux, though the enemy's resistance in this village does
+not appear to have been entirely overcome until the following morning.</p>
+
+<p>This attack of the 62d (West Riding) Division constitutes a brilliant
+achievement, in which the troops concerned completed an advance of four
+and a half miles from their original front, overrunning two German
+systems of defense and gaining possession of three villages.</p>
+
+<p>On the left flank of our attack Ulster battalions pushed northward along
+the Hindenburg line and its forward defenses, maintaining touch with the
+West Riding troops, and carried the whole of the German trench systems
+west of the Canal du Nord as far north as the Bapaume-Cambrai road.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the first day of the attack, therefore, three German
+systems of defense had been broken through to a depth of some four and a
+half miles on a wide front, and over 5,000 prisoners had already been
+brought in. But for the wrecking of the bridge at Masni�res and the
+check at Flesqui�res still greater results might have been attained.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout these operations the value of the services rendered by the
+tanks was very great, and the utmost gallantry, enterprise, and
+resolution were displayed by both officers and crews. In combination
+with the other arms, they helped to make possible a remarkable success.
+Without their aid in opening a way through the German wire, success
+could only have been attained by methods which would have given the
+enemy ample warning of our attack and have allowed him time to mass
+troops to oppose it. As has been pointed out above, to enable me to
+undertake such an operation with the troops at my disposal secrecy to
+the last moment was essential. The tanks alone made it possible to
+dispense with artillery preparation, and so to conceal our intentions
+from the enemy up to the actual moment of attack.</p>
+
+<p>Great credit is due also to the Royal Flying Corps for very gallant and
+most valuable work carried out under conditions of the greatest
+difficulty from low clouds and driving mist.</p>
+
+<p>In the subsidiary attack at Bullecourt battalions of the 3d Division and
+the 16th (Irish) Division successfully completed the work begun by our
+operations in this area in May and June, 1917, capturing the remainder
+of the Hindenburg support trench on their front, with some 700
+prisoners. A number of counterattacks against our new positions at
+Bullecourt on this and the following day were repulsed, with great loss
+to the enemy.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">The Advance Continued</div>
+
+<p>4. On the morning of Nov. 21 the attack on Flesqui�res was resumed, and
+by 8 A. M. the village had been turned from the northwest and captured.
+The obstacle which more than anything else had limited the results of
+Nov. 20 was thereby removed, and later in the morning the advance once
+more became general.</p>
+
+<p>Masni�res had been cleared of the enemy during the previous evening, and
+at 11 A. M. our troops attacked the Beaurevoir-Masni�res line and
+established themselves in the portion to the east and north of
+Masni�res. Heavy fighting took place, and a counterattack from the
+direction of Rumilly was beaten off. At the same hour we attacked and
+captured Les Rues des Vignes, but later in the morning the enemy
+counterattacked and compelled our troops to fall back from this
+position. Progress was also made toward Cr�vecoeur; but though the canal
+was crossed during the afternoon, it was found impossible to force the
+passage of the river in face of the enemy's machine-gun fire.</p>
+
+<p>That evening orders were issued by the 3d Army to secure the ground
+already gained in this area of the battle, and to capture Rumilly on the
+morrow; but in consequence of the exhaustion of the troops engaged it
+was found necessary later in the night to cancel the orders for this
+attack.</p>
+
+<p>West of the Canal de l'Escaut infantry of the 29th Division and
+dismounted regiments of the 1st and 5th Cavalry Divisions, including the
+Ambala Brigade, were heavily engaged throughout the day in Noyelles, and
+beat off all attacks in continuous fighting.</p>
+
+<p>Following upon the capture of Flesqui�res, the 51st and 62d Divisions,
+in co-operation with a number of tanks and squadrons of the 1st Cavalry
+Division, attacked at 10:30 A. M. in the direction of
+Fontaine-notre-Dame and Bourlon.</p>
+
+<p>In this attack the capture of Anneux was completed, and early in the
+afternoon Cantaing was seized, with some hundreds of prisoners. Progress
+was made on the outskirts of Bourlon Wood, and late in the afternoon
+Fontaine-notre-Dame was taken by troops of the 51st Division and tanks.
+The attack on Bourlon Wood itself was checked by machine-gun fire,
+though tanks advanced some distance into the wood.</p>
+
+<p>Further west, the 36th Division advanced north of the Bapaume-Cambrai
+road, and reached the southern outskirts of Moeuvres, where strong
+opposition was encountered.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Position on Nov. 21</div>
+
+<p>5. On the evening of the second day of the attack, therefore, our troops
+held a line which ran approximately as follows:</p>
+
+<p>From our old front line east of Gonnelieu the right flank of our new
+positions lay along the eastern slopes of the Bonavis Ridge, passing
+east of Lateau Wood and striking the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span> Masni�res-Beaurevoir line north of
+the Canal de l'Escaut at a point about half way between Cr�vecoeur and
+Masni�res. From this point our line ran roughly northwest, past and
+including Masni�res, Noyelles, and Cantaing, to Fontaine, also
+inclusive. Thence it bent back to the south for a short distance, making
+a sharp salient round the latter village, and ran in a general westerly
+direction along the southern edge of Bourlon Wood and across the
+southern face of the spur to the west of the wood, to the Canal du Nord,
+southeast of the village of Moeuvres. From Moeuvres the line linked up
+once more with our old front at a point about midway between Bourcies
+and Pronville.</p>
+
+<p>The forty-eight hours after which it had been calculated that the
+enemy's reserves would begin to arrive had in effect expired, and the
+high ground at Bourlon Village and Wood, as well as certain important
+tactical features to the east and west of the wood, still remained in
+the enemy's possession. It now became necessary to decide whether to
+continue the operation offensively or to take up a defensive attitude
+and rest content with what had been attained.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">The Decision to Go On</div>
+
+<p>6. It was not possible, however, to let matters stand as they were. The
+positions captured by us north of Flesqui�res were completely commanded
+by the Bourlon Ridge, and unless this ridge were gained it would be
+impossible to hold them, except at excessive cost. If I decided not to
+go on a withdrawal to the Flesqui�res Ridge would be necessary, and
+would have to be carried out at once.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, the enemy showed certain signs of an intention to
+withdraw. Craters had been formed at road junctions, and troops could be
+seen ready to move east. The possession of Bourlon Ridge would enable
+our troops to obtain observation over the ground to the north, which
+sloped gently down to the Sens�e River. The enemy's defensive lines
+south of the Scarpe and Sens�e Rivers would thereby be turned, his
+communications exposed to the observed fire of our artillery, and his
+positions in this sector jeopardized. In short, so great was the
+importance of the ridge to the enemy that its loss would probably cause
+the abandonment by the Germans of their carefully prepared defense
+systems for a considerable distance to the north of it.</p>
+
+<p>The successive days of constant marching and fighting had placed a very
+severe strain upon the endurance of the troops, and, before a further
+advance could be undertaken, some time would have to be spent in resting
+and relieving them. This need for delay was regrettable, as the enemy's
+forces were increasing, and fresh German divisions were known to be
+arriving, but, with the limited number of troops at my command, it was
+unavoidable.</p>
+
+<p>It was to be remembered, however, that the hostile reinforcements coming
+up at this stage could at first be no more than enough to replace the
+enemy's losses; and although the right of our advance had definitely
+been stayed, the enemy had not yet developed such strength about Bourlon
+as it seemed might not be overcome by the numbers at my disposal. As has
+already been pointed out, on the Cambrai side of the battlefield I had
+only aimed at securing a defensive flank to enable the advance to be
+pushed northward and northwestward, and this part of my task had been to
+a large extent achieved.</p>
+
+<p>An additional and very important argument in favor of proceeding with my
+attack was supplied by the situation in Italy, upon which a continuance
+of pressure on the Cambrai front might reasonably be expected to
+exercise an important effect, no matter what measure of success attended
+my efforts. Moreover, two divisions previously under orders for Italy
+had on this day been placed at my disposal, and with this accession of
+strength the prospect of securing Bourlon seemed good.</p>
+
+<p>After weighing these various considerations, therefore, I decided to
+continue the operations to gain the Bourlon position.</p>
+
+<p>Nov. 22 was spent in organizing the captured ground, in carrying out
+certain reliefs, and in giving other troops the rest they greatly
+needed. Soon after midday the enemy regained Fontaine-notre-Dame; but
+with our troops already on the outskirts of Bourlon Wood and Cantaing
+held by us, it was thought that the recapture of Fontaine should not
+prove very difficult. The necessary arrangements for renewing the attack
+were therefore pushed on, and our plans were extended to include the
+recapture of Fontaine-notre-Dame.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, early in the night of Nov. 22, a battalion of the Queen's
+Westminsters stormed a commanding tactical point in the Hindenburg line
+west of Moeuvres known as Tadpole Copse, the possession of which would
+be of value in connection with the left flank of the Bourlon position
+when the latter had been secured.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Struggle for Bourlon Ridge</div>
+
+<p>7. On the morning of Nov. 23, the 51st Division, supported by tanks,
+attacked Fontaine-notre-Dame, but was unable to force an entrance. Early
+in the afternoon this division repeated its attack from the west, and a
+number of tanks entered Fontaine, where they remained till dusk,
+inflicting considerable loss on the enemy. We did not succeed, however,
+in clearing the village, and at the end of the day no progress had been
+made on this part of our front.</p>
+
+<p>At 10:30 A. M. the 40th Division attacked Bourlon Wood, and after four
+and a half hours of hard fighting, in which tanks again rendered
+valuable assistance to our infantry,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span> captured the whole of the wood and
+entered Bourlon village. Here hostile counterattacks prevented our
+further progress, and though the village was at one time reported to
+have been taken by us, this proved later to be erroneous. A heavy
+hostile attack upon our positions in the wood, in which all three
+battalions of the 9th Grenadier Regiment appear to have been employed,
+was completely repulsed.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout this day, also, the 36th Division and troops of the 56th
+(London) Division (T.) were engaged in stubborn fighting in the
+neighborhood of Moeuvres and Tadpole Copse, and made some progress.</p>
+
+<p>This struggle for Bourlon resulted in several days of fiercely contested
+fighting, in which English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish battalions,
+together with dismounted cavalry, performed most gallant service and
+inflicted heavy loss on the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>During the morning of Nov. 24 the enemy twice attacked, and at his
+second attempt pressed back our troops in the northeastern corner of the
+wood. An immediate counterattack delivered by the 14th Battalion, Argyll
+and Sutherland Highlanders, the 15th Hussars, dismounted, and the
+remnants of the 119th Infantry Brigade, drove back the enemy in turn,
+and by noon our line had been re-established. Meanwhile, dismounted
+cavalry had repulsed an attack on the high ground west of Bourlon Wood,
+and in the afternoon a third hostile attack upon the wood was stopped by
+our artillery and rifle fire.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Bourlon Village Captured</div>
+
+<p>On this afternoon our infantry again attacked Bourlon village, and
+captured the whole of it. Later in the evening a fourth attack upon our
+positions in the wood was beaten off after fierce fighting. Further
+progress was made on this day in the Hindenburg line west of Moeuvres,
+but the enemy's resistance in the whole of this area was very strong. On
+the evening of Nov. 25 a fresh attack by the enemy regained Bourlon
+village, though our troops offered vigorous resistance, and parties of
+the 13th Battalion East Surrey Regiment held out in the southeast corner
+of the village until touch was re-established with them two days later.
+The continual fighting and the strength of the enemy's attacks, however,
+had told heavily on the 40th Division, which had borne the brunt of the
+struggle. This division was accordingly withdrawn, and on the following
+day our troops were again pressed back slightly in the northern
+outskirts of Bourlon Wood.</p>
+
+<p>With the enemy in possession of the shoulder of the ridge above
+Fontaine-notre-Dame, as well as of part of the high ground west of
+Bourlon Wood, our position in the wood itself was a difficult one, and
+much of the ground to the south of it was still exposed to the enemy's
+observation. It was decided, therefore, to make another effort on Nov.
+27 to capture Fontaine-notre-Dame and Bourlon village and to gain
+possession of the whole of the Bourlon Ridge.</p>
+
+<p>In this attack, in which tanks co-operated, British Guards temporarily
+regained possession of Fontaine-notre-Dame, taking some hundreds of
+prisoners, and troops of the 62d Division once more entered Bourlon
+village. Later in the morning, however, heavy counterattacks developed
+in both localities, and our troops were unable to maintain the ground
+they had gained. During the afternoon the enemy also attacked our
+positions at Tadpole Copse, but was repulsed.</p>
+
+<p>As the result of five days of constant fighting, therefore, we held a
+strong position on the Bourlon Hill and in the wood, but had not yet
+succeeded in gaining all the ground required for the security of this
+important feature. The two following days passed comparatively quietly,
+while the troops engaged were relieved and steps were undertaken to
+prepare for a deliberate attack which might give us the tactical points
+we sought.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, on other parts of the front, the organization of our new
+positions was proceeding as rapidly as conditions would allow. In
+particular, troops of the 12th Division had effected some improvement on
+the right flank of our advance opposite Banteux, and the 16th Division
+had made further progress in the Hindenburg line northwest of
+Bullecourt.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of November the number of prisoners taken in our operations
+southwest of Cambrai exceeded 10,500. We had also captured 142 guns,
+some 350 machine guns, and 70 trench mortars, with great quantities of
+ammunition, material, and stores of all kinds.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">The German Attack</div>
+
+<p>8. During the last days of November increased registration of hostile
+artillery, the movements of troops and transport observed behind the
+German lines, together with other indications of a like nature, pointed
+to further efforts by the enemy to regain the positions we had wrested
+from him.</p>
+
+<p>The front affected by this increased activity included that of our
+advance, as well as the ground to Vendhuille and beyond. The massing of
+the enemy's infantry, however, his obvious anxiety concerning the
+security of his defenses south of the Sens�e River, the tactical
+importance of the high ground about Bourlon, and the fact that we were
+still only in partial possession of it, all pointed to the principal
+attack being delivered in the Bourlon sector.</p>
+
+<p>9. Measures were accordingly taken, both by the 3d Army and by the lower
+formations concerned, to prepare for eventualities. Arrangements had
+been made after our last attack to relieve the troops holding the
+Bourlon positions by such fresh divisions as were available, and when
+these reliefs had been satisfactorily completed I felt confident that
+the defense of this sector could be considered secure.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Covering our right flank from Cantaing to the Banteux Ravine, a distance
+of about 16,000 yards, five British divisions were disposed, and, though
+these had been fighting for several days and were consequently tired, I
+felt confident that they would prove equal to stopping any attack the
+enemy could make on them.</p>
+
+<p>From the Banteux Ravine southward the divisions in line were weak and
+held very extended fronts. On the other hand, the line held by us in
+this southern sector had been in our possession for some months. Its
+defenses were for this reason more complete and better organized than
+those of the ground gained by us in our attack. Moreover, the capture of
+the Bonavis Ridge had added to the security of our position further
+south.</p>
+
+<p>The reserve divisions immediately available in the area consisted of the
+Guards and 2d Cavalry Divisions, both of which had been engaged in the
+recent fighting at Fontaine and Bourlon Wood. These were located behind
+the La Vacquerie-Villers Guislain front, while another division, the
+62d, which had also been recently engaged, was placed further to the
+northwest in the direction of the Bapaume-Cambrai road. A fresh South
+Midland Division was assembling further back, two other cavalry
+divisions were within from two to three hours' march of the battle area,
+and another cavalry division but a little further distant.</p>
+
+<p>In view of the symptoms of activity observed on the enemy's front,
+special precautions were taken by local commanders, especially from
+Villers Guislain to the south. Troops were warned to expect attack,
+additional machine guns were placed to secure supporting points, and
+divisional reserves were closed up. Special patrols were also sent out
+to watch for signs of any hostile advance.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">The Battle Reopened</div>
+
+<p>10. Between the hours of 7 and 8 A. M. on the last day of November the
+enemy attacked, after a short but intense artillery preparation, on the
+greater part of a front of some ten miles from Vendhuille to Masni�res
+inclusive. From Masni�res to Banteux, both inclusive, four German
+divisions would seem to have been employed against the three British
+divisions holding this area. Between Banteux exclusive and Vendhuille
+one German division and portions of two others were employed against the
+northern half of the British division holding that front.</p>
+
+<p>On the Masni�res front the 29th Division, composed of English, Scottish,
+Welsh, Irish, Guernsey, and Newfoundland battalions, although seriously
+threatened as the day wore on by the progress made by the enemy further
+south, where their battery positions had been taken in reverse, most
+gallantly beat off a succession of powerful assaults and maintained
+their line intact.</p>
+
+<p>At the northern end of the Bonavis Ridge and in the Gonnelieu sector the
+swiftness with which the advance of the enemy's infantry followed the
+opening of his bombardment appears to have overwhelmed our troops, both
+in line and in immediate support, almost before they had realized that
+the attack had begun.</p>
+
+<p>The nature of the bombardment, which seems to have been heavy enough to
+keep our men under cover without at first seriously alarming them,
+contributed to the success of the enemy's plans. No steadily advancing
+barrage gave warning of the approach of the German assault columns,
+whose secret assembly was assisted by the many deep folds and hollows
+typical of a chalk formation, and shielded from observation from the air
+by an early morning mist. Only when the attack was upon them great
+numbers of low-flying German airplanes rained machine-gun fire upon our
+infantry, while an extensive use of smoke shell and bombs made it
+extremely difficult for our troops to see what was happening on other
+parts of the battlefield, or to follow the movements of the enemy. In
+short, there is little doubt that, although an attack was expected
+generally, yet in these areas of the battle at the moment of delivery
+the assault effected a local surprise.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Stubborn British Resistance</div>
+
+<p>None the less, stubborn resistance was offered during the morning by
+isolated parties of our troops and by machine-gun detachments in the
+neighborhood of Lateau Wood and southeast of La Vacquerie, as well as at
+other points. In more than one instance heavy losses are known to have
+been inflicted on the enemy by machine-gun fire at short range.
+Northeast of La Vacquerie the 92d Field Artillery Brigade repulsed four
+attacks, in some of which the enemy's infantry approached to within 200
+yards of our guns before the surviving gunners were finally compelled to
+withdraw, after removing the breechblocks from their pieces. East of
+Villers-Guislain the troops holding our forward positions on the high
+ground were still offering a strenuous resistance to the enemy's attack
+on their front at a time when large forces of German infantry had
+already advanced up the valley between them and Villers-Guislain. South
+of this village a single strong point known as Limerick Post, garrisoned
+by troops of the 1st and 5th Battalions, (King's Own,) Royal Lancaster
+Regiment, and the 1st and 10th Battalions, Liverpool Regiment, held out
+with great gallantry throughout the day, though heavily attacked.</p>
+
+<p>The progress made by the enemy, however, across the northern end of the
+Bonavis Ridge and up the deep gully between Villers-Guislain and
+Gonnelieu, known as 22 Ravine, turned our positions on the ridge as well
+as in both villages. Taking in flank and rear, the defenses of
+Villers-Guislain, Gonnelieu, and Bonavis were rapidly overrun.
+Gouzeaucourt was captured about 9 A. M., the outer defenses of La
+Vacquerie were reached,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span> and a number of guns which had been brought up
+close to the line in order to enable them to cover the battle front
+about Masni�res and Marcoing fell into the hands of the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>At this point the enemy's advance was checked by the action of our local
+reserves, and meanwhile measures had been taken with all possible speed
+to bring up additional troops. About midday the Guards came into action
+west of Gouzeaucourt, while cavalry moved up to close the gap on their
+right and made progress toward Villers-Guislain from the south and
+southwest.</p>
+
+<p>The attack of the Guards, which was delivered with the greatest
+gallantry and resolution, drove the enemy out of Gouzeaucourt and made
+progress on the high ground known as the St. Quentin Ridge, east of the
+village. In this operation the Guards were materially assisted by the
+gallant action of a party of the 29th Division, who, with a company of
+North Midland Royal Engineers, held on throughout the day to a position
+in an old trench near Gouzeaucourt. Valuable work was also done by a
+brigade of field artillery of the 47th Division, which moved direct into
+action from the line of march.</p>
+
+<p>During the afternoon three battalions of tanks which, when they received
+news of the attack, were preparing to move away from the battlefield to
+refit, arrived at Gouzeaucourt and aided the infantry to hold the
+recaptured ground. Great credit is due to the officers and men of the
+tank brigade concerned for the speed with which they brought their tanks
+into action.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the defense of La Vacquerie had been successfully maintained,
+and our line had been established to the north of that village, in touch
+with our troops in Masni�res.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">The Northern Attack</div>
+
+<p>11. In the northern area, from Fontaine-notre-Dame to Tadpole Copse, the
+German attack was not launched until some two hours later. This was the
+enemy's main attack, and was carried out with large forces and great
+resolution.</p>
+
+<p>After a heavy preliminary bombardment, and covered by an artillery
+barrage, the enemy's infantry advanced shortly after 9 A. M. in dense
+waves, in the manner of his attacks in the first battle of Ypres. In the
+course of the morning and afternoon no less than five principal attacks
+were made in this area, and on one portion of the attack as many as
+eleven waves of German infantry advanced successively to the assault. On
+the whole of this front a resolute endeavor was made to break down by
+sheer weight of numbers the defense of the London Territorials and other
+English battalions holding the sector.</p>
+
+<p>In this fighting the 47th (London) Division (T.), the 2d Division, and
+the 56th (London) Division (T.) greatly distinguished themselves, and
+there were accomplished many deeds of great heroism.</p>
+
+<p>Under the fury of the enemy's bombardment a company of the 17th
+Battalion Royal Fusiliers were in the course of being withdrawn from an
+exposed position in a saphead in advance of our line between Bourlon
+Wood and Moeuvres when the German attack burst upon them. The officer in
+command sent three of his platoons back, and with a rearguard composed
+of the remainder of his company held off the enemy's infantry until the
+main position had been organized. Having faithfully accomplished their
+task, this rearguard died fighting to the end with their faces to the
+enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Somewhat later in the morning an attack in force between the Canal du
+Nord and Moeuvres broke into our foremost positions and isolated a
+company of the 13th Battalion, Essex Regiment, in a trench just west of
+the canal. After maintaining a splendid and successful resistance
+throughout the day, whereby the pressure upon our main line was greatly
+relieved, at 4 P. M. this company held a council of war, at which the
+two remaining company officers, the company Sergeant Major, and the
+platoon Sergeants were present, and unanimously determined to fight to
+the last and have "no surrender." Two runners who were sent to notify
+this decision to battalion headquarters succeeded in getting through to
+our lines and delivered their message. During the remainder of the
+afternoon and far into the following night this gallant company were
+heard fighting, and there is little room for doubt that they carried out
+to a man their heroic resolution.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Enormous German Losses</div>
+
+<p>Early in the afternoon large masses of the enemy again attacked west of
+Bourlon Wood, and, though beaten off with great loss at most points,
+succeeded in overwhelming three out of a line of posts held by a company
+of the 1st Battalion, Royal Berks Regiment, on the right of the 2d
+Division. Though repeatedly attacked by vastly superior numbers, the
+remainder of these posts stood firm, and when, two days later, the three
+posts which had been overpowered were regained, such a heap of German
+dead lay in and around them that the bodies of our own men were hidden.</p>
+
+<p>All accounts go to show that the enemy's losses in the whole of his
+constantly repeated attacks on this sector of the battle front were
+enormous. One battery of eight machine guns fired 70,000 rounds of
+ammunition into ten successive waves of Germans. Long lines of attacking
+infantry were caught by our machine-gun fire in enfilade, and were shot
+down in line as they advanced. Great execution also was done by our
+field artillery, and in the course of the battle guns were brought up to
+the crest line and fired direct upon the enemy at short range.</p>
+
+<p>At one point west of Bourlon the momentum of his first advance carried
+the enemy through our front line and a short way down the southern
+slopes of the ridge. There,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span> however, the German masses came under
+direct fire from our field artillery at short range and were broken up.
+Our local reserves at once counterattacked and succeeded in closing the
+gap that had been made in our line. Early in the afternoon the enemy
+again forced his way into our foremost positions in this locality,
+opening a gap between the 1st and 6th Battalions and the 1st and 15th
+Battalions, London regiments. Counterattacks led by the two battalion
+commanders, with all available men, including the personnel of their
+headquarters, once more restored the situation. All other attacks were
+beaten off with the heaviest losses to the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest credit is due to the troops at Masni�res, Bourlon, and
+Moeuvres for the very gallant service performed by them on this day. But
+for their steady courage and stanchness in defense, the success gained
+by the enemy on the right of our battle front might have had serious
+consequences.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot close the account of this day's fighting without recording my
+obligation to the Commander in Chief of the French Armies for the prompt
+way in which he placed French troops within reach for employment in case
+of need at the unfettered discretion of the 3d Army commander. Part of
+the artillery of this force actually came into action, rendering
+valuable service, and though the remainder of the troops were not called
+upon, the knowledge that they were available should occasion arise was a
+great assistance.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">At Gonnelieu and Masni�res</div>
+
+<p>12. On Dec. 1 fighting continued fiercely on the whole front.</p>
+
+<p>The Guards completed the capture of the St. Quentin Ridge and entered
+Gonnelieu, where they captured over 350 prisoners and a large number of
+machine guns. Tanks took an effective part in the fighting for the
+ridge. At one point, where our infantry were held up by fire from a
+hostile trench, a single tank attacked and operated up and down the
+trench, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy's garrison. Our infantry
+were then able to advance and secure the trench, which was found full of
+dead Germans. In it were also found fifteen machine guns that had been
+silenced by the tank. In the whole of this fighting splendid targets
+were obtained by all tank crews and the German casualties were seen to
+be very great.</p>
+
+<p>Further south a number of tanks co-operated with dismounted Indian
+cavalry of the 5th Cavalry Division and with the Guards in the attacks
+upon Villers-Guislain and Gauche Wood, and were in great measure
+responsible for the capture of the wood. Heavy fighting took place for
+this position, which it is clear that the enemy had decided to hold at
+all costs. When the infantry and cavalry finally took possession of the
+wood, great numbers of German dead and smashed machine guns were found.
+In one spot four German machine guns, with dead crews lying round, were
+discovered within a radius of twenty yards. Three German field guns,
+complete with teams, were also captured in this wood.</p>
+
+<p>Other tanks proceeded to Villers-Guislain, and, in spite of heavy direct
+artillery fire, three reached the outskirts of the village, but the fire
+of the enemy's machine guns prevented our troops advancing from the
+south from supporting them, and the tanks ultimately withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>Severe fighting took place, also, at Masni�res. During the afternoon and
+evening at least nine separate attacks were beaten off by the 29th
+Division on this front, and other hostile attacks were repulsed in the
+neighborhood of Marcoing, Fontaine-notre-Dame, and Bourlon. With the
+Bonavis Ridge in the enemy's hands, however, Masni�res was exposed to
+attack on three sides, and on the night of Dec. 1-2 our troops were
+withdrawn under orders to a line west of the village.</p>
+
+<p>On the afternoon of Dec. 2 a series of heavy attacks developed against
+Welsh Ridge in the neighborhood of La Vacquerie, and further assaults
+were made on our positions in the neighborhood of Masni�res and Bourlon.
+These attacks were broken in succession by our machine-gun fire, but the
+enemy persisted in his attempts against Welsh Ridge, and gradually
+gained ground. By nightfall our line had been pushed back to a position
+west and north of Gonnelieu.</p>
+
+<p>Next day the enemy renewed his attacks in great force on the whole front
+from Gonnelieu to Marcoing, and ultimately gained possession of La
+Vacquerie. North of La Vacquerie repeated attacks made about Masni�res
+and Marcoing were repulsed in severe fighting, but the positions still
+retained by us beyond the Canal de l'Escaut were extremely exposed, and
+during the night our troops were withdrawn under orders to the west bank
+of the canal.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Withdrawal From Bourlon</div>
+
+<p>13. By this time the enemy had evidently become exhausted by the efforts
+he had made and the severity of his losses, and Dec. 4 passed
+comparatively quietly. For some days, however, local fighting continued
+in the neighborhood of La Vacquerie, and his attitude remained
+aggressive. Local attacks in this sector were repulsed on Dec. 5, and on
+this and the following two days further fierce fighting took place, in
+which the enemy again endeavored without success to drive us from our
+positions on Welsh Ridge.</p>
+
+<p>The strength which the enemy had shown himself able to develop in his
+attacks made it evident that only by prolonged and severe fighting could
+I hope to re-establish my right flank on the Bonavis Ridge. Unless this
+was done, the situation of my troops in the salient north of Flesqui�res
+would be difficult and dangerous, even if our hold on Bourlon Hill were
+extended.</p>
+
+<p>I had therefore to decide either to embark<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span> on another offensive battle
+on a large scale, or to withdraw to a more compact line on the
+Flesqui�res Ridge.</p>
+
+<p>Although this decision involved giving up important positions most
+gallantly won, I had no doubt as to the correct course under the
+conditions. Accordingly, on the night of Dec. 4-5 the evacuation of the
+position held by us north of the Flesqui�res Ridge was commenced. On the
+morning of Dec. 7 this withdrawal was completed successfully, without
+interference from the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Before withdrawing, the more important of the enemy's field defenses
+were destroyed, and those of his guns which we had been unable to remove
+were rendered useless. The enemy did not discover our withdrawal for
+some time, and when, on the afternoon of Dec. 5, he began to feel his
+way forward, he did so with great caution. In spite of his care, on more
+than one occasion bodies of his infantry were caught in the open by our
+artillery.</p>
+
+<p>Much skill and courage were shown by our covering troops in this
+withdrawal, and an incident which occurred on the afternoon of Dec. 6 in
+the neighborhood of Graincourt deserves special notice. A covering
+party, consisting of two companies of the 1st and 15th Battalions,
+London Regiment, 47th Division, much reduced in strength by the fighting
+at Bourlon Wood, found their flank exposed by a hostile attack further
+east, and were enveloped and practically cut off. These companies
+successfully cut their way through to our advanced line of resistance,
+where they arrived in good order, after having inflicted serious
+casualties on the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>The new line taken up by us corresponded roughly to the old Hindenburg
+reserve line, and ran from a point about one and a half miles north by
+east of La Vacquerie, north of Ribecourt and Flesqui�res to the Canal du
+Nord, about one and a half miles north of Havrincourt&mdash;i. e., between
+two and two and a half miles in front of the line held by us prior to
+the attack of Nov. 20. We therefore retained in our possession an
+important section of the Hindenburg trench system, with its excellent
+dugouts and other advantages.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Results of the Battle</div>
+
+<p>14. The material results of the three weeks' fighting described above
+can be stated in general terms very shortly.</p>
+
+<p>We had captured and retained in our possession over 12,000 yards of the
+former German front line from La Vacquerie to a point opposite Boursies,
+together with between 10,000 and 11,000 yards of the Hindenburg line and
+Hindenburg reserve line and the village of Ribecourt, Flesqui�res, and
+Havrincourt. A total of 145 German guns were taken or destroyed by us in
+the course of the operations, and 11,100 German prisoners were captured.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, the enemy had occupied an unimportant section of our
+front line between Vendhuille and Gonnelieu.</p>
+
+<p>There is little doubt that our operations were of considerable indirect
+assistance to the allied forces in Italy. Large demands were made upon
+the available German reserves at a time when a great concentration of
+German divisions was still being maintained in Flanders. There is
+evidence that German divisions intended for the Italian theatre were
+diverted to the Cambrai front, and it is probable that the further
+concentration of German forces against Italy was suspended for at least
+two weeks at a most critical period, when our allies were making their
+first stand on the Piave line.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">General Review</div>
+
+<p>15. I have already summarized in the opening paragraphs of this dispatch
+both the reasons which decided me to undertake the Cambrai operations
+and the limitations to which these operations were subject.</p>
+
+<p>In view of the strength of the German forces on the front of my attack
+and the success with which secrecy was maintained during our
+preparations, I had calculated that the enemy's prepared defenses would
+be captured in the first rush. I had good hope that his resisting power
+behind these defenses would then be so enfeebled for a period that we
+should be able on the same day to establish ourselves quickly and
+completely on the dominating Bourlon Ridge from Fontaine-notre-Dame to
+Moeuvres and to secure our right flank along a line including the
+Bonavis Ridge, Cr�vecour, and Rumilly to Fontaine-notre-Dame. Even if
+this did not prove possible within the first twenty-four hours, a second
+day would be at our disposal before the enemy's reserves could begin to
+arrive in any formidable numbers.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, with no wire and no prepared defenses to hamper them, it was
+reasonable to hope that masses of cavalry would find it possible to pass
+through, whose task would be thoroughly to disorganize the enemy's
+systems of command and intercommunication in the whole area between the
+Canal de l'Escaut, the River Sens�e, and the Canal du Nord, as well as
+to the east and northeast of Cambrai.</p>
+
+<p>My intentions as regards subsequent exploitation were to push westward
+and northwestward, taking the Hindenburg line in reverse from Moeuvres
+to the River Scarpe, and capturing all the enemy's defenses and probably
+most of his garrisons lying west of a line from Cambrai northward to the
+Sens�e, and south of that river and the Scarpe.</p>
+
+<p>Time would have been required to enable us to develop and complete the
+operation; but the prospects of gaining the necessary time, by the use
+of cavalry in the manner outlined above, were in my opinion good enough
+to justify the attempt to execute the plan. I am of opinion that on Nov.
+20 and 21 we went<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span> very near to a success sufficiently complete to bring
+the realization of our full program within our power.</p>
+
+<p>The reasons for my decision to continue the fight after Nov. 21 have
+already been explained. Though in the event no advantage was gained
+thereby, I still consider that, as the problem presented itself at the
+time, the more cautious course would have been difficult to justify. It
+must be remembered that it was not a question of remaining where we
+stood, but of abandoning tactical positions of value, gained with great
+gallantry, the retention of which seemed not only to be within our
+power, but likely even yet to lead to further success.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever may be the final decision on this point, as well as on the
+original decision to undertake the enterprise at all with the forces
+available, the continuation of our efforts against Fontaine-notre-Dame
+gave rise to severe fighting, in which our troops more than held their
+own.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">Risks Voluntarily Accepted</div>
+
+<p>On Nov. 30 risks were accepted by us at some points in order to increase
+our strength at others. Our fresh reserves had been thrown in on the
+Bourlon front, where the enemy brought against us a total force of seven
+divisions to three and failed. I do not consider that it would have been
+justifiable on the indications to have allotted a smaller garrison to
+this front.</p>
+
+<p>Between Masni�res and Vendhuille the enemy's superiority in infantry
+over our divisions in line was in the proportion of about four to three,
+and we were sufficiently provided with artillery. That his attack was
+partially successful may tend to show that the garrison allotted to this
+front was insufficient, either owing to want of numbers, lack of
+training, or exhaustion from previous fighting.</p>
+
+<p>Captured maps and orders have made it clear that the enemy aimed at far
+more considerable results than were actually achieved by him. Three
+convergent attacks were to be made on the salient formed by our advance;
+two of them delivered approximately simultaneously about Gonnelieu and
+Masni�res, followed later by a still more powerful attack on the Bourlon
+front. The objectives of these attacks extended to the high ground at
+Beaucamp and Trescault, and the enemy's hope was to capture and destroy
+the whole of the British forces in the Cambrai salient.</p>
+
+<p>This bold and ambitious plan was foiled on the greater part of our front
+by the splendid defense of the British divisions engaged; and, though
+the defense broke down for a time in one area, the recovery made by the
+weak forces still left and those within immediate reach is worthy of the
+highest praise. Numberless instances of great gallantry, promptitude,
+and skill were shown, some few which have been recounted.</p>
+
+<p>I desire to acknowledge the skill and resource displayed by General Byng
+throughout the Cambrai operations and to express my appreciation of the
+manner in which they were conducted by him as well as by his staff and
+the subordinate commanders.</p>
+
+<p>In conclusion, I would point out that the sudden breaking through by our
+troops of an immense system of defense has had a most inspiring moral
+effect on the armies I command and must have a correspondingly
+depressing influence upon the enemy. The great value of the tanks in the
+offensive has been conclusively proved. In view of this experience, the
+enemy may well hesitate to deplete any portion of his front, as he did
+last Summer, in order to set free troops to concentrate for decisive
+action at some other point.</p>
+
+<p>
+I have the honor to be, my Lord, your obedient servant,
+</p>
+
+<div class="right">D. HAIG,<br />
+<i>Field Marshal, Commanding in Chief, British<br />
+Armies in France</i>.<br /><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="center">Millions of Horses Used by the Armies</div>
+
+<p>Figures compiled by the Red Star Animal Relief Society show that at the
+beginning of 1918 there were 4,500,000 horses in use by all the armies
+in the war, and that the losses on the western front alone averaged
+47,000 a month. About 1,500,000 horses had been bought by the Allies in
+America; 33,000 of these had died before they could be embarked, and
+6,000 died in the ships. The value of horses shipped to Europe in 1917
+was more than $50,000,000, and the loss in a heavy month of fighting is
+about $1,500,000. The United States Army in France will need 750,000
+horses for draft purposes and mounts, with several hundred thousands
+more to fill losses. Experience on both sides has proved that a shortage
+of horses means a corresponding loss of guns in battle and the
+impossibility of rapid advance. Only well animals can be used, and there
+are always thousands in the hospitals. Behind the British lines there is
+a horse hospital within four miles of any point, and eight miles away
+from each is another. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
+Animals has hospitals for 10,000 horses and mules, with well-designed
+buildings, complete operating equipments, ambulances, forage barns,
+cooking kitchens, quarters for the staff, and every detail for curing
+the wounded animals. The veterinary surgeons of this society are saving
+80 per cent. of the injured horses and sending them back to the
+batteries.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span></p>
+<h2>THE EUROPEAN WAR AS SEEN BY CARTOONISTS</h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i610.jpg"><img src="images/i610-t.jpg" width="218" height="250"
+alt="[American Cartoon]
+In the Hands of His Friends
+&mdash;From The San Francisco Chronicle." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[American Cartoon]<br />
+In the Hands of His Friends<br />
+&mdash;<i>From The San Francisco Chronicle</i>.</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span>
+<a href="images/i611a.jpg"><img src="images/i611a-t.jpg" width="250" height="185"
+alt="[American Cartoons]
+&quot;Vorw�rts Mit Gott!&quot;
+Sacrificing the Manhood and Youth of a Nation to Save a Throne." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[American Cartoons]<br />
+&quot;Vorw�rts Mit Gott!&quot;<br />
+Sacrificing the Manhood and Youth of a Nation to Save a Throne.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i611b.jpg"><img src="images/i611b-t.jpg" width="250" height="176" alt="&mdash;From The New York Times.
+&quot;Hold the line! We&#39;re coming ten million strong!&quot;" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />&mdash;From The New York Times.<br />
+&quot;Hold the line! We&#39;re coming ten million strong!&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span><br />
+<a href="images/i612.png"><img src="images/i612-t.png" width="181" height="250" alt="[Italian Cartoon]
+In Danger of Shipwreck
+&mdash;From Il 420, Florence.
+President Wilson&#39;s war aims threaten to bring disaster to the Central
+Powers&#39; peace boat." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[Italian Cartoon]<br />
+In Danger of Shipwreck<br />
+&mdash;From Il 420, Florence.<br />
+President Wilson&#39;s war aims threaten to bring disaster to the Central
+Powers&#39; peace boat.</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span><br />
+<a href="images/i613.png"><img src="images/i613-t.png" width="181" height="250" alt="[English Cartoon
+If They Had Been Rationed
+&mdash;From London Opinion.
+How certain great historical personages might have looked if they had
+lived in the days of bread cards." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[English Cartoon]<br />
+If They Had Been Rationed<br />
+&mdash;From London Opinion.<br />
+How certain great historical personages might have looked if they had
+lived in the days of bread cards.</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span><br />
+<a href="images/i614.jpg"><img src="images/i614-t.jpg" width="216" height="250" alt="[German Cartoon]
+Smoking the Peace Pipe
+&mdash;From Der Brummer, Berlin.
+The Entente: &quot;What a pity we are excluded!&quot;" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[German Cartoon]<br />
+Smoking the Peace Pipe<br />
+&mdash;From Der Brummer, Berlin.<br />
+The Entente: &quot;What a pity we are excluded!&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span><br />
+<a href="images/i615.jpg"><img src="images/i615-t.jpg" width="178" height="250" alt="[English Cartoon]
+The Rescuer&#39;s Usual Fate!
+&mdash;From London Opinion.
+Policeman John Bull: &quot;But I only came on the scene because he had
+started to knock you about!&quot;
+Mrs. Russia: &quot;Never mind about that. Go on, Bill, teach &#39;im to
+interfere&mdash;hit me again.&quot;" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[English Cartoon]<br />
+The Rescuer&#39;s Usual Fate!<br />
+&mdash;From London Opinion.<br />
+Policeman John Bull: &quot;But I only came on the scene because he had
+started to knock you about!&quot;<br />
+Mrs. Russia: &quot;Never mind about that. Go on, Bill, teach &#39;im to
+interfere&mdash;hit me again.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span><br />
+<a href="images/i616.jpg"><img src="images/i616-t.jpg" width="197" height="250" alt="[American Cartoon]
+Proving a Fallacy
+&mdash;From The Chicago Herald.
+Russia&#39;s faith in Socialist pacifism, and what came of it." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[American Cartoon]<br />
+Proving a Fallacy<br />
+&mdash;From The Chicago Herald.<br />
+Russia&#39;s faith in Socialist pacifism, and what came of it.</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span><br />
+<a href="images/i617.png"><img src="images/i617-t.png" width="174" height="250" alt="[English Cartoon]
+A Threatened Interruption
+&mdash;From London Opinion.
+[&quot;Japan will take steps of the most decided and most adequate character
+to meet the occasion.&quot;&mdash;Viscount Motono, Minister for Foreign
+Affairs.]" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[English Cartoon]<br />
+A Threatened Interruption<br />
+&mdash;From London Opinion.<br />
+[&quot;Japan will take steps of the most decided and most adequate character
+to meet the occasion.&quot;&mdash;Viscount Motono, Minister for Foreign
+Affairs.]</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span><br />
+<a href="images/i618.jpg"><img src="images/i618-t.jpg" width="198" height="250" alt="[English Cartoon]
+Russia&#39;s Fate
+&mdash;From The Passing Show, London.
+If he would go fooling around with him what could they do?" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[English Cartoon]<br />
+Russia&#39;s Fate<br />
+&mdash;From The Passing Show, London.<br />
+If he would go fooling around with him what could they do?</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span><br />
+<a href="images/i619.jpg"><img src="images/i619-t.jpg" width="183" height="250" alt="[English Cartoon]
+Futurist Art in Russia
+&mdash;From The National News, London.
+Sturdy Old Burgess: &quot;And what, Sir, may your picture represent?&quot;
+Pluperfect Futurist Trotzky: &quot;The mental state of a Bolshevik
+contemplating &#39;German capitalists, bankers, and landlords, supported by
+the silent co-operation of English and French bourgeoisie.&#39;&quot;
+Sturdy Old Burgess: &quot;Sir, you have produced a priceless masterpiece&mdash;and
+if it is true that you have sold it for �22,000 you have given it
+away!&quot;" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[English Cartoon]<br />
+Futurist Art in Russia<br />
+&mdash;From The National News, London.<br />
+Sturdy Old Burgess: &quot;And what, Sir, may your picture represent?&quot;<br />
+Pluperfect Futurist Trotzky: &quot;The mental state of a Bolshevik
+contemplating &#39;German capitalists, bankers, and landlords, supported by
+the silent co-operation of English and French bourgeoisie.&#39;&quot;<br />
+Sturdy Old Burgess: &quot;Sir, you have produced a priceless masterpiece&mdash;and
+if it is true that you have sold it for �22,000 you have given it
+away!&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 600px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span>
+<a href="images/i620a.jpg"><img src="images/i620a-t.jpg" width="243" height="250"
+alt="[American Cartoons]
+The Wurst Is Yet to Come
+&mdash;San Francisco Call-Post." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[American Cartoons]<br />
+The Wurst Is Yet to Come<br />
+&mdash;San Francisco Call-Post.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i620b.jpg"><img src="images/i620b-t.jpg" width="217" height="250" alt="His New Trousers
+&mdash;San Francisco Call-Post." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />His New Trousers<br />
+&mdash;San Francisco Call-Post.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i620c.jpg"><img src="images/i620c-t.jpg" width="203" height="250" alt="The Kaiser&#39;s God
+&mdash;San Francisco Chronicle." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />The Kaiser&#39;s God<br />
+&mdash;San Francisco Chronicle.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i620d.jpg"><img src="images/i620d-t.jpg" width="225" height="250" alt="Tougher Than Bear Meat
+&mdash;San Francisco Chronicle." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Tougher Than Bear Meat<br />
+&mdash;San Francisco Chronicle.</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 600px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span>
+<a href="images/i621a.jpg"><img src="images/i621a-t.jpg" width="143" height="600"
+alt="[American Cartoons]
+Judging the Landslide by a Pebble
+&mdash;From Collier&#39;s." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[American Cartoons]<br />
+Judging the Landslide by a Pebble<br />
+&mdash;From Collier&#39;s.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i621b.jpg"><img src="images/i621b-t.jpg" width="234" height="250" alt="&quot;That&#39;s My Fight Too!&quot;
+&mdash;New York World." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />&quot;That&#39;s My Fight Too!&quot;<br />
+&mdash;New York World.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i621c.jpg"><img src="images/i621c-t.jpg" width="234" height="250" alt="Dealing With Gas Attacks
+&mdash;Dallas News." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Dealing With Gas Attacks<br />
+&mdash;Dallas News.</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span>
+<a href="images/i622.jpg"><img src="images/i622-t.jpg" width="214" height="250"
+alt="[German Cartoon]
+Italy&#39;s Troubles
+&mdash;From Der Brummer, Berlin.
+Italy: &quot;Hang it all! I have been at this window for nearly three
+years!&quot;" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[German Cartoon]<br />Italy&#39;s Troubles<br />
+&mdash;From Der Brummer, Berlin.<br />
+Italy: &quot;Hang it all! I have been at this window for nearly three
+years!&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><br /><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span>
+<a href="images/i623.jpg"><img src="images/i623-t.jpg" width="250" height="171" alt="[Dutch Cartoon]
+Austria and America
+&mdash;From De Amsterdammer, Amsterdam.
+German Drill Sergeant: &quot;Now, Austrians! Eyes front! Mark time! Keep your
+eyes on me!&quot;" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[Dutch Cartoon]<br />
+Austria and America<br />
+&mdash;From De Amsterdammer, Amsterdam.<br />
+German Drill Sergeant: &quot;Now, Austrians! Eyes front! Mark time! Keep your
+eyes on me!&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 600px;"><br /><br />
+<a href="images/i623b.jpg"><img src="images/i623b-t.jpg" width="235" height="250" alt="[Italian Cartoon]
+That Dinner in Paris
+&mdash;From Il 420, Florence.
+Wilhelm: &quot;Now that we have settled Russia, prepare that Paris feast.&quot;
+Chef: &quot;For Paris, Sire? I am afraid the food will turn bad, as it did
+the other time.&quot;" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[Italian Cartoon]<br />
+That Dinner in Paris<br />
+&mdash;From Il 420, Florence.<br />
+Wilhelm: &quot;Now that we have settled Russia, prepare that Paris feast.&quot;<br />
+Chef: &quot;For Paris, Sire? I am afraid the food will turn bad, as it did
+the other time.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 600px;"><br />
+<a href="images/i623c.jpg"><img src="images/i623c-t.jpg" width="185" height="250" alt="[American Cartoon]
+The Hohenzollern Fingerprints
+&mdash;Macauley in Butterfield Syndicate." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[American Cartoon]<br />
+The Hohenzollern Fingerprints<br />
+&mdash;Macauley in Butterfield Syndicate.</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 600px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span>
+<a href="images/i624a.jpg"><img src="images/i624a-t.jpg" width="196" height="250"
+alt="[English Cartoon]
+&quot;Here&#39;s to Dear Old Trotzky!&quot;
+&mdash;Passing Show, London." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[English Cartoon]<br />
+&quot;Here&#39;s to Dear Old Trotzky!&quot;<br />
+&mdash;Passing Show, London.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i624b.jpg"><img src="images/i624b-t.jpg" width="216" height="250" alt="[American Cartoon]
+In the Lion&#39;s Mouth
+&mdash;Knickerbocker Press, Albany." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[American Cartoon]<br />
+In the Lion&#39;s Mouth<br />
+&mdash;Knickerbocker Press, Albany.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i624c.jpg"><img src="images/i624c-t.jpg" width="250" height="163" alt="[French Cartoon]
+The Russian Campaign
+&quot;Where are you running?&quot;
+&quot;To kill our General before he commits suicide.&quot;
+&mdash;From La Victoire, Paris." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[French Cartoon]<br />
+The Russian Campaign<br />
+&quot;Where are you running?&quot;<br />
+&quot;To kill our General before he commits suicide.&quot;<br />
+&mdash;From La Victoire, Paris.</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span>
+<a href="images/i625.jpg"><img src="images/i625-t.jpg" width="236" height="250" alt="[American Cartoon]
+The Progress of Kultur
+&mdash;From The New York World." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[American Cartoon]<br />
+The Progress of Kultur<br />
+&mdash;From The New York World.</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 600px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span>
+<a href="images/i626a.jpg"><img src="images/i626a-t.jpg" width="215" height="250"
+alt="[American Cartoons]
+Under His New Colonel&mdash;R. E. Morse
+&mdash;Bushnell for Central Press Association.]" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[American Cartoons]<br />
+Under His New Colonel&mdash;R. E. Morse<br />
+&mdash;<i>Bushnell for Central Press Association.</i>
+</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i626b.jpg"><img src="images/i626b-t.jpg" width="215" height="250" alt="A Tail of Camouflage
+&mdash;Bushnell for Central Press Association." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />A Tail of Camouflage<br />
+&mdash;Bushnell for Central Press Association.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i626c.jpg"><img src="images/i626c-t.jpg" width="214" height="250" alt="Anxious Moments
+&mdash;Bushnell for Central Press Association." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Anxious Moments<br />
+&mdash;Bushnell for Central Press Association.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i626d.jpg"><img src="images/i626d-t.jpg" width="225" height="250" alt="But Can He Get Out?
+&mdash;Bushnell for Central Press Association." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />But Can He Get Out?<br />
+&mdash;Bushnell for Central Press Association.</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 600px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span>
+<a href="images/i627a.jpg"><img src="images/i627a-t.jpg" width="191" height="250"
+alt="[American Cartoons]
+&quot;Sire, Ve Haf Located die Sammies!&quot;
+&mdash;Baltimore American." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[American Cartoons]<br />
+&quot;Sire, Ve Haf Located die Sammies!&quot;<br />
+&mdash;Baltimore American.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i627b.jpg"><img src="images/i627b-t.jpg" width="192" height="250" alt="Putting All Their Punch in One Glove
+&mdash;Baltimore American." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Putting All Their Punch in One Glove<br />
+&mdash;Baltimore American.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i627c.jpg"><img src="images/i627c-t.jpg" width="186" height="250" alt="Bringing the War Home to Us
+&mdash;Baltimore American." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Bringing the War Home to Us<br />
+&mdash;Baltimore American.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i627d.jpg"><img src="images/i627d-t.jpg" width="185" height="250" alt="Stuck
+&mdash;Baltimore American." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Stuck<br />
+&mdash;Baltimore American.</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 600px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span>
+<a href="images/i628a.jpg"><img src="images/i628a-t.jpg" width="175" height="250" alt="[American Cartoons]
+Another German Substitute
+&mdash;Dayton Daily News." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[American Cartoons]<br />
+Another German Substitute<br />
+&mdash;Dayton Daily News.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i628b.jpg"><img src="images/i628b-t.jpg" width="177" height="250" alt="Back to Earth
+&mdash;St. Louis Post-Dispatch." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Back to Earth<br />
+&mdash;St. Louis Post-Dispatch.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i628c.jpg"><img src="images/i628c-t.jpg" width="234" height="250" alt="It Shoots Further Than He Dreams
+&mdash;Dallas News." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />It Shoots Further Than He Dreams<br />
+&mdash;Dallas News.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i628d.jpg"><img src="images/i628d-t.jpg" width="225" height="250" alt="&quot;Whither Are We Going?&quot;
+&mdash;Satterfield Syndicate." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />&quot;Whither Are We Going?&quot;<br />
+&mdash;Satterfield Syndicate.</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 600px;">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span>
+<a href="images/i629a.jpg"><img src="images/i629a-t.jpg" width="192" height="250" alt="[Russian Cartoons]
+The Bolsheviki as Art Collectors
+&mdash;From Novi Satirikon, Petrograd." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />[Russian Cartoons]<br />
+The Bolsheviki as Art Collectors<br />
+&mdash;From Novi Satirikon, Petrograd.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i629b.jpg"><img src="images/i629b-t.jpg" width="220" height="250" alt="Thus It Was&mdash;Thus It Is
+&mdash;From Novi Satirikon, Petrograd." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />Thus It Was&mdash;Thus It Is<br />
+&mdash;From Novi Satirikon, Petrograd.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i629c.jpg"><img src="images/i629c-t.jpg" width="189" height="250" alt="The Bolsheviki Even Brought the English to Their Knees
+[Russian papers state that prayers for Russia were held in England,
+beginning, &quot;Save Russia from the Bolsheviki.&quot;]" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />The Bolsheviki Even Brought the English to Their Knees<br />
+[Russian papers state that prayers for Russia were held in England,
+beginning, &quot;Save Russia from the Bolsheviki.&quot;]<br />
+&mdash;<i>From Novi Satirikon, Petrograd.</i></span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/i629d.jpg"><img src="images/i629d-t.jpg" width="194" height="250" alt="The Feast
+&mdash;From Novi Satirikon, Petrograd." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><br />The Feast<br />
+&mdash;From Novi Satirikon, Petrograd.</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span class="u"><i>SUPPLEMENT TO MAY CURRENT HISTORY</i></span></p>
+
+<h2>LICHNOWSKY'S MEMORANDUM</h2>
+
+<h3>Full Text of the Suppressed Document in Which the Former German
+Ambassador at London Reveals Germany's Guilt in Starting the War</h3>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>The full text of the memorandum of Prince Lichnowsky, who was
+German Ambassador in London at the outbreak of the war, was
+obtained in this country in installments, which had appeared in
+various European newspapers, chiefly the Politiken of Stockholm,
+the Vorwaerts of Berlin, and the Muenchener Neueste Nachrichten.
+The earlier installments to reach America were translated and
+summarized in the regular pages of this issue of Current History
+Magazine, beginning on Page <a href="#Page_314">314</a>. After the issue had gone to
+press the complete text became procurable. In order to give its
+readers the immediate benefit of this opportunity, Current
+History Magazine herewith presents the entire document&mdash;one of
+the most important of the war&mdash;in the form of a special
+supplement, despite the fact that some parts of it are
+duplicated in the abridged version on Page <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Prince Lichnowsky's now famous memorandum bears the title "My
+London Mission, 1912-1914" and is dated "Kuchelna, (his country
+seat,) 16 August, 1916." It became public in March, 1918, and
+created a profound sensation in Germany as well as in the
+Entente countries.</i> </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="right"><i>Kuchelna, 16 August, 1916.</i></div>
+
+<p>Baron Marschall died in September, 1912, having held his post in London
+for a few months only. His appointment, which was due mainly to his age
+and the plotting of a younger man to get to London, was one of the many
+mistakes made by our Foreign Office. In spite of his imposing
+personality and great reputation, he was too old and tired to be able to
+adapt himself to a purely foreign and Anglo-Saxon milieu. He was more of
+a bureaucrat and a lawyer than a diplomat or statesman. He set to work
+to convince Englishmen of the harmless character of our fleet, and
+naturally succeeded in strengthening an entirely opposite impression.</p>
+
+<p>To my great surprise I was offered the post in October. After many
+years' work I had withdrawn to the country, as no suitable post had been
+found for me, and I spent my time on my farm and in my garden, on
+horseback and in the fields, but I read industriously and published
+occasional political articles. Thus eight years passed, and thirteen
+since I had left Vienna as Ambassador. That was actually my last
+political employment. I do not know to whom my appointment in London was
+due. At all events, not to his Majesty, as I did not belong to his
+immediate set, although he was always gracious to me. I know by
+experience that his candidates were frequently successfully opposed. As
+a matter of fact, Herr von Kiderlen-W�chter wanted to send Baron von
+Stumm to London. He met me at once with undisguised ill-will, and tried
+to frighten me by rudeness. Herr von Bethmann Hollweg was amiable to me,
+and had visited me shortly before at Gr�tz. I am, therefore, inclined to
+think that they settled on me, as no other candidate was available. Had
+Baron von Marschall not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span> died, it is unlikely that I should have been
+dug out any more than in previous years. The moment was obviously
+favorable for an attempt to come to a better understanding with England.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE MOROCCO QUESTION</div>
+
+<p>Our obscure policy in Morocco had repeatedly caused distrust of our
+peaceful intention, or, at least, had raised doubts as to whether we
+knew what we wanted or whether our intention was to keep Europe in a
+state of suspense and, on occasion, to humiliate the French. An Austrian
+colleague, who was a long time in Paris, said to me: "The French had
+begun to forget la r�vanche. You have regularly reminded them of it by
+tramping on their toes." After we had declined Delcass�'s offer to come
+to an agreement regarding Morocco, and then solemnly declared that we
+had no political interest there&mdash;an attitude which agreed with
+Bismarckian political conditions&mdash;we suddenly discovered in Abdul Aziz a
+Kruger Number Two. To him also, as to the Boers, we promised the
+protection of the mighty German Empire, and with the same result. Both
+manifestations concluded, as they were bound to conclude, with a
+retraction, if we were not prepared to start a world war. The pitiable
+conference of Algeciras could alter nothing, and still less cause
+Delcass�'s fall. Our attitude furthered the Russo-Japanese and
+Russo-British rapprochement. In face of "the German peril" all other
+considerations faded into the background. The possibility of another
+Franco-German war had been patent, and, as had not been the case in
+1870, such a war could not leave out Russia or England.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">WORTHLESS AGREEMENTS</div>
+
+<p>The valuelessness of the Triple Alliance had already been demonstrated
+at Algeciras, and, immediately afterward, the equal worthlessness of the
+agreements made there when the Sultanate fell to pieces, which was, of
+course, unavoidable. Meanwhile, the belief was spreading among the
+Russian people that our foreign policy was weak and was breaking down
+under "encirclement," and that cowardly surrender followed on haughty
+gestures. It is to the credit of von Kiderlen-W�chter, though otherwise
+overrated as a statesman, that he cleared up the Moroccan situation and
+adapted himself to circumstances which could not be altered. Whether the
+world had to be upset by the Agadir coup is a question I do not touch.
+This event was hailed with joy in Germany, but in England caused all the
+more uneasiness in that the British Government waited in vain for three
+weeks for a statement of our intentions. Mr. Lloyd George's Mansion
+House speech, intended to warn us, was a consequence. Before Delcass�'s
+fall and before the Algeciras conference we could have obtained harbors
+and bases on the West Coast, but that was no longer possible.</p>
+
+<p>When I came to London in November, 1912, people had become easier about
+the question of Morocco, especially since an agreement had been reached
+with France and Berlin. Lord Haldane's mission had failed, it is true,
+as we demanded promises of neutrality instead of contenting ourselves
+with a treaty which would insure us against a British attack or any
+attack with British support. Sir Edward Grey had not, meanwhile, given
+up the idea of coming to an understanding with us, and made such an
+attempt first on economic and colonial grounds. Through the agency of
+that qualified and expert Councilor of Embassy, von K�hlmann, an
+exchange of opinions had taken place with regard to the renewal of the
+Portuguese colonial treaty and the Bagdad Railway, which thus carried
+out the unexpected aim of dividing into spheres of interest both the
+above-mentioned colonies and Asia Minor. The British statesman, old
+points in dispute both with France and Russia having been settled,
+wished to come to a similar agreement with us. His intention was not to
+isolate us but to make us in so far as possible partners in a working
+concern. Just as he had succeeded in bridging Franco-British and
+Russo-British difficulties, so he wished as far as possible to remove
+German-British difficulties, and by a network of treaties&mdash;which would
+finally include an agreement on the miserable fleet question&mdash;to secure
+the peace of the world,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span> as our earlier policy had lent itself to a
+co-operation with the Entente, which contained a mutual assurance
+against the danger of war.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">GREY'S DESIRES</div>
+
+<p>This was Sir Edward Grey's program in his own words: "Without infringing
+on the existing friendly relations with France and Russia, which in
+themselves contained no aggressive elements, and no binding obligations
+for England; to seek to achieve a more friendly rapprochement with
+Germany, and to bring the two groups nearer together."</p>
+
+<p>In England, as with us, there were two opinions, that of the optimists,
+who believed in an understanding, and that of the pessimists, who
+considered war inevitable sooner or later. Among the former were Mr.
+Asquith, Sir Edward Grey, Lord Haldane, and most of the Ministers in the
+Radical Cabinet, as well as leading Liberal organs, such as The
+Westminster Gazette, The Manchester Guardian, and The Daily Chronicle.
+To the pessimists belong especially Conservative politicians like Mr.
+Balfour, who repeatedly made his meaning clear to me; leading soldiers
+such as Lord Roberts, who insisted on the necessity of conscription, and
+on "the writing on the wall," and, further, the Northcliffe press, and
+that leading English journalist, Mr. Garvin of The Observer. During my
+term of office they abstained from all attacks and took up, personally
+and politically, a friendly attitude. Our naval policy and our attitude
+in the years 1905, 1908, and 1911 had, nevertheless, caused them to
+think that it might one day come to war. Just as with us, the former are
+now dubbed shortsighted and simple-minded, while the latter are
+regarded as the true prophets.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">BALKAN QUESTIONS</div>
+
+<p>The first Balkan war led to the collapse of Turkey and with it the
+defeat of our policy, which had been identified with Turkey for many
+years. Since the salvation of Turkey in Europe was no longer feasible,
+only two possibilities for settling the question remained. Either we
+declared we had no longer any interest in the definition of boundaries
+in the Balkan Peninsula, and left the settlement of the question to the
+Balkan peoples themselves, or we supported our allies and carried out a
+Triple Alliance policy in the East, thereby giving up the r�le of
+mediator.</p>
+
+<p>I urged the former course from the beginning, but the German Foreign
+Office very much preferred the latter. The chief question was Albania.
+Our allies desired the establishment of an independent State of Albania,
+as Austria would not allow Serbia to reach the Adriatic, and Italy did
+not wish the Greeks to reach Valona or even the territory north of
+Corfu. On the other hand, Russia, as is known, favored Serbian, and
+France Greek, desires. My advice was now to consider the question as
+outside the alliance, and to support, neither Austrian nor Italian
+wishes. Without our support the establishment of Albania, whose
+incapability of existence might have been foreseen, was an
+impossibility. Serbia would have pushed forward to the coast; then the
+present world war would have been avoided. France and Italy would have
+remained definitely divided as to Greece, and the Italians, had they not
+wished to fight France, alone, would have been obliged to consent to the
+expansion of Greece to the district north of Durazzo. The greater part
+of civilized Albania is Greek. The southern towns are entirely Greek,
+and, at the time of the conference of Ambassadors, deputations from the
+larger towns came to London to carry through the annexation to Greece.</p>
+
+<p>In Greece today whole groups are Albanian, and the so-called Greek
+national dress is of Albanian origin. The amalgamation of the
+preponderating Orthodox and Islamic Albanians with the Greek State was,
+therefore, the best solution and the most natural, if one leaves out of
+account Scutari and the northern part of Serbia and Montenegro. His
+Majesty was also in favor of this solution on dynastic grounds. When I
+encouraged the monarch by letter to this effect, I received violent
+reproaches from the Chancellor for supporting Austria's opponents, and
+he forbade all such interference in the future, and even direct<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span>
+correspondence. We had eventually, however, to abandon the tradition of
+carrying out the Triple Alliance policy in the East and to acknowledge
+our mistake, which consisted in identifying ourselves with the Turks in
+the south and the Austro-Magyars in the north; for the continuance of
+that policy, which we began at the Congress in Berlin and subsequently
+carried on zealously, was bound in time, should the necessary skill in
+conducting it fail, to lead to a collision with Russia and a world war.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">TURKEY, RUSSIA, ITALY</div>
+
+<p>Instead of uniting with Russia on the basis of the independence of the
+Sultan, whom the Russians also did not wish to drive out of
+Constantinople, and confining ourselves to economic interests in the
+East, while at the same time refraining from all military and political
+interference and being satisfied with a division of Asia Minor into
+spheres of interest, the goal of our political ambition was to dominate
+in the Bosporus. In Russia, therefore, the opinion arose that the way to
+Constantinople and to the Mediterranean lay through Berlin. Instead of
+encouraging a powerful development in the Balkan States, which were once
+free and are very different from the Russians, of which fact we have
+already had experience, we placed ourselves on the side of the Turkish
+and Magyar oppressors. The dire mistake of our Triple Alliance and our
+Eastern policies, which drove Russia&mdash;our natural friend and best
+neighbor&mdash;into the arms of France and England, and kept her from her
+policy of Asiatic expansion, was the more evident, as a Franco-Russian
+attack, the only hypothesis justifying a Triple Alliance policy, had to
+be eliminated from our calculations.</p>
+
+<p>As to the value of the alliance with Italy, one word only. Italy needs
+our money and our tourists after the war, with or without our alliance.
+That our alliance would go by the board in the event of war was to be
+foreseen. The alliance, consequently, was worthless.</p>
+
+<p>Austria, however, needed our protection both in war and peace, and had
+no other point d'appui. This dependence on us is based on political,
+national, and economic grounds, and is all the greater in proportion to
+the intimacy of our relations with Russia. This was proved in the
+Bosnian crisis. Since Count Beust, no Vienna Minister had been so
+self-conscious with us as Count Aehrenthal was during the last years of
+his life. Under the influence of a properly conducted German policy
+which would keep us in touch with Russia, Austria-Hungary is our vassal,
+and is tied to us even without an alliance and without reciprocal
+services; under the influence of a misguided policy, however, we are
+tied to Austria-Hungary. An alliance would therefore be purposeless.</p>
+
+<p>I know Austria far too well not to know that a return to the policy of
+Count Felix Schwarzenberg or to that of Count Moritz Esterhazy was
+unthinkable. Little as the Slavs living there love us, they wish just as
+little for a return to the German Kaiserdom, even with a
+Hapsburg-Lorraine at its head. They are striving for an internal
+Austrian federation on a national basis, a condition which is even less
+likely of realization within the German Empire than under the Double
+Eagle. Austro-Germans look on Berlin as the centre of German power and
+Kultur, and they know that Austria can never be a leading power. They
+desire as close a connection as possible with the empire, but not to the
+extent of an anti-German policy.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">BALKAN QUARRELS</div>
+
+<p>Since the seventies the conditions have changed fundamentally in
+Austria, and also, perhaps, in Bavaria. Just as here a return to
+Pan-German particularism and the old Bavarian policy is not to be
+feared, so there a revival of the policy of Prince Kaunitz and Prince
+Schwarzenberg is not to be contemplated. But by a constitutional union
+with Austria, which even without Galicia and Dalmatia is inhabited at
+least to the extent of one-half by non-Germans, our interests would
+suffer; while, on the other hand, by the subordination of our policy to
+the point of view of Vienna and Budapest, we should have to "�pouser les
+querelles de l'Autriche."</p>
+
+<p>We,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span> therefore, had no need to heed the desires of our allies. They were
+not only unnecessary but dangerous, inasmuch as they would lead to a
+collision with Russia if we looked at Eastern questions through Austrian
+eyes. The transformation of our alliance with its single original
+purpose into a complete alliance, involving a complexity of common
+interests, was calculated to call forth the very state of things which
+the constitutional negotiations were designed to prevent, namely, war.
+Such a policy of alliances would, moreover, entail the loss of the
+sympathies of the young, strong, and growing communities in the Balkan
+Peninsula, which were ready to turn to us and open their market to us.
+The contrast between dynastic and democratic ideas had to be given clear
+expression, and, as usual, we stood on the wrong side. King Carol told
+one of our representatives that he had made an alliance with us on
+condition that we retained control of affairs, but that if that control
+passed to Austria it would entirely change the basis of affairs, and
+under those conditions he could no longer participate. Matters stood in
+the same position in Serbia, where against our own economic interests we
+were supporting an Austrian policy of strangulation.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">BACKED WRONG HORSES</div>
+
+<p>We had always backed horses which, it was evident, would lose, such as
+Kruger, Abdul Aziz, Abdul Hamid, Wilhelm of Wied, and finally&mdash;and this
+was the most miserable mistake of all&mdash;Count Berchtold.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after my arrival in London, in 1912, Sir Edward Grey proposed an
+informal exchange of views in order to prevent a European war developing
+out of the Balkan war, since, at the outbreak of that war, we had
+unfortunately declined the proposal of the French Government to join in
+a declaration of disinterestedness and impartiality on the part of the
+powers. The British statesman maintained from the beginning that England
+had no interest in Albania, and would, therefore, not go to war on the
+subject. In his r�le of "honest broker" he would confine his efforts to
+mediation and an attempt to smooth away difficulties between the two
+groups. He, therefore, by no means placed himself on the side of the
+Entente Powers, and during the negotiations, which lasted about eight
+months, he lent his good-will and powerful influence toward the
+establishment of an understanding. Instead of adopting the English point
+of view, we accepted that dictated to us by Vienna. Count Mensdorff led
+the Triple Alliance in London and I was his second.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">GREY ALWAYS CONCILIATORY</div>
+
+<p>My duty was to support his proposals. The clever and experienced Count
+Szogyenyi was at the helm in Berlin. His refrain was "casus foederis,"
+and when once I dared to doubt the justice of this phrase I was
+seriously warned against Austrophobism. Referring to my father, it was
+even said that I had inherited it. On every point, including Albania,
+the Serbian harbors in the Adriatic, Scutari, and in the definition of
+the Albanian frontiers, we were on the side of Austria and Italy, while
+Sir Edward Grey hardly ever took the French or Russian point of view. On
+the contrary, he nearly always took our part in order to give no pretext
+for war&mdash;which was afterward brought about by a dead Archduke. It was
+with his help that King Nicholas was induced to leave Scutari. Otherwise
+there would have been war over this matter, as we should never have
+dared to ask "our allies" to make concessions.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Edward Grey conducted the negotiations with care, calm, and tact.
+When a question threatened to become involved he proposed a formula
+which met the case and always secured consent. He acquired the full
+confidence of all the representatives.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">AUSTRIA AND RUSSIA</div>
+
+<p>Once again we had successfully withstood one of the many threats against
+the strength characterizing our policy. Russia had been obliged to give
+way to us all along the line, as she never got an opportunity to advance
+Serbian wishes. Albania was set up as an Austrian vassal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span> State, and
+Serbia was driven away from the sea. The conference was thus a fresh
+humiliation for Russia.</p>
+
+<p>As in 1878 and 1908, we had opposed the Russian program without German
+interests being brought into play. Bismarck had to minimize the mistake
+of the Congress by a secret treaty, and his attitude in the Battenberg
+question&mdash;the downward incline being taken by us in the Bosnian
+question&mdash;was followed up in London, and was not given up, with the
+result that it led to the abyss.</p>
+
+<p>The dissatisfaction then prevalent in Russia was given vent to during
+the London Conference by an attack in the Russian press on my Russian
+colleague and on Russian diplomacy.</p>
+
+<p>His German origin and Catholic faith, his reputation as a friend of
+Germany, and the accident that he was related both to Count Mensdorff
+and to myself were all made use of by dissatisfied parties. Although not
+a particularly important personality, Count Benckendorff possessed many
+qualities of a good diplomat&mdash;tact, worldly knowledge, experience, an
+agreeable personality, and a natural eye for men and things. He sought
+always to avoid provocative attitudes, and was supported by the attitude
+of England and France.</p>
+
+<p>I once said: "The feeling in Russia is very anti-German." He replied:
+"There are also many strong influential pro-German circles there. But
+the people generally are anti-Austrian."</p>
+
+<p>It only remains to be added that our exaggerated Austrophilism is not
+exactly likely to break up the Entente and turn Russia's attention to
+her Asiatic interests.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">PRE-WAR DIPLOMACY</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>[The next passages, which had formerly been suppressed by the
+Swedish Government, appeared in the Politiken of Stockholm on
+March 26:] </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>At the same time (1913) the Balkan Conference met in London, and I had
+the opportunity of meeting the leading men of the Balkan States. The
+most important personage among them was M. Venizelos. He was anything
+but anti-German, and particularly prized the Order of the Red Eagle,
+which he even wore at the French Embassy. With his winning amiability
+and savoir faire he could always win sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>Next to him a great r�le was played by Daneff, the then Bulgarian Prime
+Minister and Count Berchtold's confidant. He gave the impression of
+being a capable and energetic man, and even the influence of his friends
+at Vienna and Budapest, at which he sometimes laughed, was attributable
+to the fact that he had let himself be drawn into the second Balkan war
+and had declined Russian intervention.</p>
+
+<p>M. Take Jonescu was often in London, too, and visited me regularly. I
+had known him since the time when I was Secretary at Bucharest. He was
+also one of Herr von Kiderlen-W�chter's friends. His aim in London was
+to secure concessions for Rumania by negotiations with M. Daneff. In
+this he was supported by the most capable Rumanian Minister, M. Misu.
+That these negotiations were stranded by the Bulgarian opposition is
+known. Count Berchtold&mdash;and naturally we with him&mdash;was entirely on the
+side of Bulgaria; otherwise we should have succeeded by pressure on M.
+Daneff in obtaining the desired satisfaction for the Rumanians and have
+bound Rumania to us, as she was by Austria's attitude in the second
+Balkan war, while afterward she was estranged from the Central Powers.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">AUSTRIA'S PRESTIGE INJURED</div>
+
+<p>Bulgaria's defeat in the second Balkan war and Serbia's victory, as well
+as the Rumanian advance, naturally constituted a reproach to Austria.
+The idea of equalizing this by military intervention in Serbia seems to
+have gained ground rapidly in Vienna. This is proved by the Italian
+disclosure, and it may be presumed that the Marquis di San Giuliano, who
+described the plan as a "pericolossissima adventura," (an extremely
+risky adventure,) saved us from a European war as far back as the Summer
+of 1912. Intimate as Russo-Italian relations were, the aspiration of
+Vienna must have been known in St. Petersburg. In any event, M. Take
+Jonescu told me that M. Sazonoff had said in Constanza that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span> an attack
+on Serbia on the part of Austria meant war with Russia.</p>
+
+<p>In the Spring of 1914 one of my Secretaries, on returning from leave in
+Vienna, said that Herr von Tschirsohky (German Ambassador in Vienna) had
+declared that war must soon come. But as I was always kept in the dark
+regarding important things, I considered his pessimism unfounded.</p>
+
+<p>Ever since the peace of Bucharest it seems to have been the opinion in
+Vienna that the revision of this treaty should be undertaken
+independently, and only a favorable opportunity was awaited. The
+statesmen in Vienna and Bucharest could naturally count upon our
+support. This they knew, for already they had been reproached several
+times for their slackness. Berlin even insisted on the "rehabilitation"
+of Austria.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">ANGLO-GERMAN RELATIONS</div>
+
+<p>When I returned to London in December, 1913, after a long holiday, the
+Liman von Sanders question had led to our relations with Russia becoming
+acute. Sir Edward Grey called my attention with some uneasiness to the
+consequent unrest in St. Petersburg, saying: "I have never seen them so
+excited." Berlin instructed me to beg the Minister to urge calm in St.
+Petersburg and help to solve the difficulty. Sir Edward was quite
+willing, and his intervention contributed not inconsiderably to
+smoothing matters over. My good relations with Sir Edward and his great
+influence in St. Petersburg served in a like manner on several occasions
+when it was a question of carrying through something of which our
+representative there was completely incapable.</p>
+
+<p>During the critical days of July, 1914, Sir Edward said to me: "If ever
+you want something done in St. Petersburg you come to me regularly, but
+if ever I appeal for your influence in Vienna you refuse your support."
+The good and dependable relations I was fortunate in making not only in
+society and among influential people, such as Sir Edward Grey and Mr.
+Asquith, but also with others at public dinners, had brought about a
+noticeable improvement in our relations with England. Sir Edward
+devoted himself honestly to further this rapprochement, and his
+intentions were especially noticeable in two questions&mdash;the Colonial
+Treaty and the treaty regarding the Bagdad Railway.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE AFRICAN AGREEMENT</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>[This portion is translated from the Muenchener Neueste
+Nachrichten.] </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the year 1898 a secret treaty had been signed by Count Hatzfeldt
+[then German Ambassador in London] and Mr. Balfour, which divided the
+Portuguese colonies in Africa into economic-political spheres of
+interest between us and England. As the Portuguese Government possessed
+neither the power nor the means to open up or adequately to administer
+its extensive possessions, the Portuguese Government had already at an
+earlier date thought of selling these possessions and thereby putting
+their finances in order.</p>
+
+<p>Between us and England an agreement had been reached which defined the
+interests of the two parties and which was of all the greater value
+because Portugal, as is well known, is completely dependent upon
+England. This treaty was no doubt to secure outwardly the integrity and
+independence of the Portuguese Empire, and it only expressed the
+intention of giving financial and economic assistance to the Portuguese.
+Consequently it did not, according to the text, conflict with the old
+Anglo-Portuguese alliance, dating from the fifteenth century, which was
+last renewed under Charles II. and which guaranteed the territories of
+the two parties. Nevertheless, at the instance of the Marquis Soveral,
+who presumably was not ignorant of the Anglo-German agreement, a new
+treaty&mdash;the so-called Windsor treaty&mdash;which confirmed the old
+agreements, was concluded in 1899 between England and Portugal.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">ENGLAND'S GENEROUS ATTITUDE</div>
+
+<p>The object of the negotiations between us and England, which had begun
+before my arrival, was to alter and amend our treaty of 1898, which
+contained many impossible features&mdash;for example, with regard to the
+geographical delimitation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span> Thanks to the conciliatory attitude of the
+British Government, I succeeded in giving to the new treaty a form which
+entirely accorded with our wishes and interests. All Angola, as far as
+the 20th degree of longitude, was allotted to us, so that we reached the
+Congo territory from the south. Moreover, the valuable islands of San
+Thom� and Principe, which lie north of the equator, and therefore really
+belonged to the French sphere of interest, were allotted to us&mdash;a fact
+which caused my French colleague to make lively, although vain,
+representations. Further, we obtained the northern part of Mozambique;
+the frontier was formed by the Likungo.</p>
+
+<p>The British Government showed the utmost readiness to meet out interests
+and wishes. Sir Edward Grey intended to prove his good-will to us, but
+he also desired to promote our colonial development, because England
+hoped to divert Germany's development of strength from the North Sea and
+Western Europe to the world-sea and Africa. "We don't want to grudge
+Germany her colonial development," a member of the Cabinet said to me.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE CONGO STATE</div>
+
+<p>Originally, at the British suggestion, the Congo State was to be
+included in the treaty, which would have given us a right of pre-emption
+and a possibility of economic penetration in the Congo State. But we
+refused this offer, out of alleged respect for Belgian sensibilities!
+Perhaps the idea was to economize our successes? With regard also to the
+practical realization of the real but unexpressed object of the
+treaty&mdash;the actual partition at a later date of the Portuguese colonial
+possessions&mdash;the new formulation showed considerable advantages and
+progress as compared with the old. Thus the treaty contemplated
+circumstances which would enable us to enter the territories ascribed to
+us, for the protection of our interests.</p>
+
+<p>These conditional clauses were so wide that it was really left to us to
+decide when really "vital" interests were concerned, so that, in view of
+the complete dependence of Portugal upon England we merely needed to go
+on cultivating our relations with England in order, later on, with
+English assent, to realize our mutual intentions.</p>
+
+<p>The sincerity of the English Government in its effort to respect our
+rights was proved by the fact that Sir Edward Grey, before ever the
+treaty was completed or signed, called our attention to English men of
+business who were seeking opportunities to invest capital in the
+territories allotted to us by the new treaty, and who desired British
+support. In doing so he remarked that the undertakings in question
+belonged to our sphere of interest.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">WILHELMSTRASSE INTRIGUES</div>
+
+<p>The treaty was practically complete at the time of the King's visit to
+Berlin in May, 1913. A conversation then took place in Berlin under the
+Presidency of the Imperial Chancellor, (Herr von Bethmann Hollweg,) in
+which I took part, and at which special wishes were laid down. On my
+return to London I succeeded, with the help of my Counselor of Embassy,
+von K�hlmann, who was working upon the details of the treaty with Mr.
+Parker, in putting through our last proposals also. It was possible for
+the whole treaty to be initialed by Sir Edward Grey and myself in
+August, 1913, before I went on leave. Now, however, new difficulties
+were to arise, which prevented the signature, and it was only a year
+later, shortly before the outbreak of war, that I was able to obtain
+authorization for the final settlement. Signature, however, never took
+place.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Edward Grey was willing to sign only if the treaty was published,
+together with the two treaties of 1898 and 1899; England has no other
+secret treaties, and it is contrary to her existing principles that she
+should conceal binding agreements. He said, however, that he was ready
+to take account of our wishes concerning the time and manner of
+publication, provided that publication took place within one year, at
+latest, after the signature. In the [Berlin] Foreign Office, however,
+where my London successes aroused increasing dissatisfaction, and where
+an influential personage, [the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span> reference is apparently to Herr von
+Stumm,] who played the part of Herr von Holstein, was claiming the
+London Embassy for himself, it was stated that the publication would
+imperil our interests in the colonies, because the Portuguese would show
+their gratitude by giving us no more concessions. The accuracy of this
+excuse is illuminated by the fact that the old treaty was most probably
+just as much long known to the Portuguese as our new agreements must
+have been, in view of the intimacy of relations between Portugal and
+England; it was illuminated also by the fact that, in view of the
+influence which England possesses at Lisbon, the Portuguese Government
+is completely powerless in face of an Anglo-German understanding.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">WRECKING THE TREATY</div>
+
+<p>Consequently, it was necessary to find another excuse for wrecking the
+treaty. It was said that the publication of the Windsor Treaty, which
+was concluded in the time of Prince Hohenlohe, and which was merely a
+renewal of the treaty of Charles II., which had never lapsed, might
+imperil the position of Herr von Bethmann Hollweg, as being a proof of
+British hypocrisy and perfidy! On this I pointed out that the preamble
+to our treaties said exactly the same thing as the Windsor Treaty and
+other similar treaties&mdash;namely, that we desired to protect the sovereign
+rights of Portugal and the integrity of its possessions!</p>
+
+<p>In spite of repeated conversations with Sir Edward Grey, in which the
+Minister made ever fresh proposals concerning publication, the [Berlin]
+Foreign Office remained obstinate, and finally agreed with Sir Edward
+Goschen [British Ambassador in Berlin] that everything should remain as
+it was before. So the treaty, which gave us extraordinary advantages,
+the result of more than one year's work, had collapsed because it would
+have been a public success for me.</p>
+
+<p>When in the Spring of 1914 I happened, at a dinner in the embassy, at
+which Mr. Harcourt [then Colonial Secretary] was present, to mention the
+matter, the Colonial Secretary said that he was embarrassed and did not
+know how to behave. He said that the present state of affairs was
+intolerable, because he [Mr. Harcourt] wanted to respect our rights,
+but, on the other hand, was in doubt as to whether he should follow the
+old treaty or the new. He said that it was therefore extremely desirable
+to clear matters up, and to bring to a conclusion an affair which had
+been hanging on for so long.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">"A DISASTROUS MISTAKE"</div>
+
+<p>When I reported to this effect I received a rude and excited order,
+telling me to refrain from any further interference in the matter.</p>
+
+<p>I now regret that I did not go to Berlin in order to offer his Majesty
+my resignation, and that I still did not lose my belief in the
+possibility of an agreement between me and the leading [German]
+personages. That was a disastrous mistake, which was to be tragically
+avenged some months later.</p>
+
+<p>Slight though was the extent to which I then still possessed the
+good-will of the Imperial Chancellor&mdash;because he feared that I was
+aiming at his office&mdash;I must do him the justice to say that at the end
+of June, 1914, in our last conversation before the outbreak of war, he
+gave his consent to the signature and publication. Nevertheless, it
+required further repeated suggestions on my part, which were supported
+by Dr. Solf, [German Colonial Secretary,] in order at last to obtain
+official consent at the end of July. Then the Serbian crisis was already
+threatening the peace of Europe, and so the completion of the treaty had
+to be postponed. The treaty is now one of the victims of the war.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">BAGDAD RAILWAY TREATY</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>[This portion is translated from the Stockholm Politiken of
+March 26.] </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>At the same time, while the African agreement was under discussion, I
+was negotiating, with the effective co-operation of Herr von K�hlmann,
+the so-called Bagdad Railway Treaty. This aimed, in fact, at the
+division of Asia Minor into spheres of interest, although this
+expression was carefully avoided in consideration of the Sultan's
+rights. Sir Edward<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span> Grey declared repeatedly that there was no agreement
+between England and France aiming at a division of Asia Minor.</p>
+
+<p>In the presence of the Turkish representative, Hakki Pasha, all economic
+questions in connection with the German treaty were settled mainly in
+accordance with the wishes of the Ottoman Bank. The greatest concession
+Sir Edward Grey made me personally was the continuation of the line to
+Basra. We had not insisted on this terminus in order to establish
+connection with Alexandretta. Hitherto Bagdad had been the terminus of
+the line. The shipping on the Shatt el Arab was to be in the hands of an
+international commission. We also obtained a share in the harbor works
+at Basra, and even acquired shipping rights on the Tigris, hitherto the
+monopoly of the firm of Lynch.</p>
+
+<p>By this treaty the whole of Mesopotamia up to Basra became our zone of
+interest, whereby the whole British rights, the question of shipping on
+the Tigris, and the Wilcox establishments were left untouched, as well
+as all the district of Bagdad and the Anatolian railways.</p>
+
+<p>The British economic territories included the coasts of the Persian Gulf
+and the Smyrna-Aidin railway, the French Syria, and the Russian Armenia.
+Had both treaties been concluded and published, an agreement would have
+been reached with England which would have finally ended all doubt of
+the possibility of an Anglo-German co-operation.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">GERMAN NAVAL DEVELOPMENT</div>
+
+<p>Most difficult of all, there remained the question of the fleet. It was
+never quite rightly judged. The creation of a mighty fleet on the other
+shore of the North Sea and the simultaneous development of the
+Continent's most important military power into its most important naval
+power had at least to be recognized by England as uncomfortable. This
+presumably cannot be doubted. To maintain the necessary lead and not to
+become dependent, to preserve the supremacy of the sea, which Britain
+must have in order not to go down, she had to undertake preparations
+and expenses which weighed heavily on the taxpayer. A threat against the
+British world position was made in that our policy allowed the
+possibility of warlike development to appear. This possibility was
+obviously near during the Morocco crisis and the Bosnian question.</p>
+
+<p>People had become reconciled to our fleet in its definite strength.
+Obviously it was not welcome to the British and constituted one of the
+motives, but neither the only nor the most important motive, for
+England's joining hands with Russia and France. On account of our fleet
+alone, however, England would have drawn the sword as little as on
+account of our trade, which it is pretended called forth her jealousy
+and ultimately brought about war.</p>
+
+<p>From the beginning I adopted the standpoint that in spite of the fleet
+it would be possible to come to a friendly understanding and
+reapprochement if we did not propose new votes of credit, and, above
+all, if we carried out an indisputable peace policy. I also avoided all
+mention of the fleet, and between me and Sir Edward Grey the word was
+never uttered. Sir Edward Grey declared on one occasion at a Cabinet
+meeting: "The present German Ambassador has never mentioned the fleet to
+me."</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">UNDERSTANDING POSSIBLE.</div>
+
+<p>During my term of office the then First Lord, Mr. Churchill, raised the
+question of a so-called naval holiday, and proposed, for financial
+reasons as much as on account of the pacifist inclinations of his party,
+a one year's pause in armaments. Officially the suggestion was not
+supported by Sir Edward Grey. He never spoke of it to me, but Mr.
+Churchill spoke to me on repeated occasions.</p>
+
+<p>I am convinced that his initiative was honest, cunning in general not
+being part of the Englishman's constitution. It would have been a great
+success for Mr. Churchill to secure economies for the country and to
+lighten the burden of armament, which was weighing heavily on the
+people.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I maintain that it would have been difficult to support his intention.
+How about the workmen employed for this purpose? How about the technical
+personnel? Our naval program was settled, and it would be difficult to
+alter it. Nor, on the other hand, did we intend exceeding it. But he
+pointed out that the means spent on portentous armaments could equally
+be used for other purposes. I maintain that such expenditure would have
+benefited home industries.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">NO TRADE JEALOUSY</div>
+
+<p>I also succeeded, in conversation with Sir William Tyrrell, Sir Edward
+Grey's private secretary, in keeping away that subject without raising
+suspicion, although it came up in Parliament, and preventing the
+Government's proposal from being made. But it was Mr. Churchill's and
+the Government's favorite idea that by supporting his initiative in the
+matter of large ships we should give proof of our good-will and
+considerably strengthen and increase the tendency on the part of the
+Government to get in closer contact with us. But, as I have said, it was
+possible in spite of our fleet and without naval holidays to come to an
+understanding.</p>
+
+<p>In that spirit I had carried out my mission from the beginning, and had
+even succeeded in realizing my program when the war broke out and
+destroyed everything.</p>
+
+<p>Trade jealousy, so much talked about among us, rests on faulty judgment
+of circumstances. It is a fact that Germany's progress as a trading
+country after the war of 1870 and during the following decades
+threatened the interests of British trade circles, constituting a form
+of monopoly with its industry and export houses. But the growing
+interchange of merchandise with Germany, which was first on the list of
+all European exporting countries, a fact I always referred to in my
+public speeches, had allowed the desire to mature to preserve good
+relations with England's best client and business friend, and had
+gradually suppressed all other thoughts and motives. The Englishman, as
+a matter of fact, adapts himself to circumstances and does not tilt
+against windmills. In commercial circles I found the greatest good-will
+and desire to further our common economic interests.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">AMIABLY RECEIVED</div>
+
+<p>In other circles I had a most amiable reception, and enjoyed the cordial
+good-will of the Court, society, and the Government. No one there
+interested himself in the Russian, Italian, Austrian, or even the French
+representative, in spite of the imposing personality and political
+success of the last named. Only the German and American Ambassadors
+attracted public attention.</p>
+
+<p>In order to get in touch with the most important business circles I
+accepted invitations from the United Chambers of Commerce, the London
+and Bradford Chambers, and those of the great cities of Newcastle and
+Liverpool. I had a hearty reception everywhere. Glasgow and Edinburgh
+had also invited me, and I promised them visits. People who did not
+understand English conditions and did not appreciate the value of public
+dinners, and others who disliked my success, reproached me with having
+done harm by my speeches. I, on the contrary, believe that my public
+appearances and my discussion of common economic interests contributed
+considerably toward the improvement of conditions, apart from the fact
+that it would have been impolitic and impolite to refuse invitations.</p>
+
+<p>In other circles I had a most amiable reception and enjoyed the cordial
+good-will of the Court, society, and the Government.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">INFLUENCE OF THE CROWN</div>
+
+<p>The King, very amiable and well meaning and possessed of sound
+understanding and common sense, was invariably well disposed toward me
+and desired honestly to facilitate my mission. In spite of the small
+amount of power which the British Constitution gives the Crown, the King
+can, by virtue of his position, greatly influence the tone both of
+society and the Government. The Crown is the apex of society from which
+the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span> tone emanates. Society, which is overwhelmingly Unionist, is
+largely occupied by ladies connected with politics. It is represented in
+the Lords and the Commons, consequently also in the Cabinet.</p>
+
+<p>The Englishman either belongs to society or ought to belong to it. His
+aim is, and always will be, to be a distinguished man and a gentleman,
+and even men of modest origin, such as Mr. Asquith, prefer to be in
+society, with its elegant women.</p>
+
+<p>British gentlemen of both parties enjoy the same education, go to the
+same colleges and university, and engage in the same sports&mdash;golf,
+cricket, lawn tennis, and polo. All have played cricket and football in
+their youth, all have the same habits, and all spend the week-end in the
+country. No social cleavage divides the parties, only political
+cleavage. To some extent of late years the politicians in the two camps
+have avoided one another in society. Not even on the ground of a neutral
+mission could the two camps be amalgamated, for since the Home Rule and
+Veto bills the Unionists have despised the Radicals. A few months after
+my arrival the King and Queen dined with me, and Lord Londonderry left
+the house after dinner in order not to be together with Sir Edward Grey.
+But there is no opposition from difference in caste and education as in
+France. There are not two worlds, but the same world, and their opinion
+of a foreigner is common and not without influence on his political
+standing, whether a Lansdowne or an Asquith is at the helm.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">POLITICS AND SOCIETY</div>
+
+<p>The difference of caste no longer exists in England since the time of
+the Stuarts and since the Whig oligarchy (in contradistinction to the
+Tory county families) allowed the bourgeoisie in the towns to rise in
+society. There is greater difference in political opinions on
+constitutional or Church questions than on financial or political
+questions. Aristocrats who have joined the popular party, Radicals such
+as Grey, Churchill, Harcourt, and Crewe, are most hated by the Unionist
+aristocracy. None of these gentlemen have I ever met in great
+aristocratic houses, only in the houses of party friends.</p>
+
+<p>We were received in London with open arms and both parties outdid one
+another in amiability.</p>
+
+<p>It would be a mistake to undervalue social connections in view of the
+close connection in England between society and politics, even though
+the majority of the upper ten thousand are in opposition to the
+Government. Between an Asquith and a Devonshire there is no such deep
+cleft as between a Briand and a Duc de Doudeauville, for example. In
+times of political tension they do not foregather. They belong to two
+separate social groups, but are part of the same society, if on
+different levels, the centre of which is the Court. They have friends
+and habits in common, they are often related or connected. A phenomenon
+like Lloyd George, a man of the people, a small solicitor and a
+self-made man, is an exception. Even John Burns, a Socialist Labor
+leader and a self-taught man, seeks society relations. On the ground of
+a general striving to be considered gentlemen of social weight and
+position such men must not be undervalued.</p>
+
+<p>In no place, consequently, is an envoy's social circle of greater
+consequence than in England. A hospitable house with friendly guests is
+worth more than the profoundest scientific knowledge, and a learned man
+of insignificant appearance and too small means would, in spite of all
+his learning, acquire no influence. The Briton hates a bore and a
+pedant. He loves a good fellow.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">SIR EDWARD GREY'S SOCIALISM</div>
+
+<p>Sir Edward Grey's influence in all questions of foreign policy was
+almost unlimited. True, he used to say on important occasions: "I must
+lay that before the Cabinet"; but it is equally true that the latter
+invariably took his view. Although he did not know foreign countries
+and, with the exception of one short visit to Paris, had never left
+England, he was closely informed on all important questions, owing to
+many years' Parliamentary experience and natural grasp. He understood
+French without speaking it. Elected at an early age to Parliament,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span> he
+began immediately to occupy himself with foreign affairs. Parliamentary
+Under Secretary of State at the Foreign Office under Lord Rosebery, he
+became in 1906 Secretary of State under Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman,
+and filled the post for ten years.</p>
+
+<p>Sprung from an old North of England family of landowners, from whom the
+statesman, Earl Grey, is also descended, he joined the left wing of his
+party and sympathized with the Socialists and pacifists. He can be
+called a Socialist in the ideal sense, for he applied his theories even
+in private life, which is characterized by great simplicity and
+unpretentiousness, although he is possessed of considerable means. All
+display is foreign to him. He had a small residence in London and never
+gave dinners, except officially, at the Foreign Office on the King's
+birthday.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">SIMPLE MODE OF LIFE</div>
+
+<p>If, exceptionally, he asked a few guests to his house, it was to a
+simple dinner or luncheon in a small circle with parlor maids for
+service. The week-ends he spent regularly in the country, like his
+colleagues, but not at large country house parties. He lives mostly in
+his cottage in the New Forest, taking long walks, and is passionately
+fond of nature and ornithology. Or he journeyed to his property in the
+north and tamed squirrels. In his youth he was a noted cricket and
+tennis player. His chief sport is now salmon and trout fishing in the
+Scotch lakes with Lord Glenconner, Mr. Asquith's brother-in-law. Once,
+when spending his week-ends with Lord Glenconner, he came thirty miles
+on a bicycle and returned in the same way. His simple, upright manner
+insured him the esteem even of his opponents, who were more easily to be
+found in home than in foreign political circles.</p>
+
+<p>Lies and intrigue were foreign to his nature. His wife, whom he loved
+and from whom he was never separated, died as the result of an accident
+to the carriage driven by him. As is known, one brother was killed by a
+lion.</p>
+
+<p>Wordsworth was his favorite poet, and he could quote him by the hour.
+His British calm did not lack a sense of humor. When breakfasting with
+us and the children and he heard their German conversation, he would
+say, "I cannot help admiring the way they talk German," and laughed at
+his joke. This is the man who was called "the Liar Grey" and the
+"originator of the world war."</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">ASQUITH AND HIS FAMILY</div>
+
+<p>Asquith is a man of quite different mold. A jovial, sociable fellow, a
+friend of the ladies, especially young and beautiful ones, he loves
+cheery surroundings and a good cook, and is supported by a cheery young
+wife. He was formerly a well-known lawyer, with a large income and many
+years' Parliamentary experience. Later he was known as a Minister under
+Gladstone, a pacifist like his friend Grey, and friendly to an
+understanding with Germany. He treated all questions with an experienced
+business man's calm and certainty, and enjoyed good health and excellent
+nerves, steeled by assiduous golf.</p>
+
+<p>His daughters went to a German boarding school and speak fluent German.
+We quickly became good friends with him and his family, and were guests
+at his little house on the Thames.</p>
+
+<p>He only rarely occupied himself with foreign affairs. When important
+questions cropped up, with him lay the ultimate decision. During the
+critical days of July Asquith often came to warn us, and he was
+ultimately in despair over the tragic turn of events. On Aug. 2, when I
+saw Asquith in order to make a final attempt, he was completely broken,
+and, although quite calm, tears ran down his face.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">NICOLSON AND TYRRELL</div>
+
+<p>Sir Arthur Nicolson and Sir William Tyrrell had the greatest influence
+in the Foreign Office. The former was not our friend, but his attitude
+toward me was consistently correct and obliging. Our personal relations
+were of the best. Neither did he wish for war, but when we [moved?]
+against France he undoubtedly worked for immediate intervention. He was
+the confidant of my French colleague, and was in constant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</a></span> touch with
+him, and was destined to succeed Lord Bertie in Paris. As is known, Sir
+Arthur was formerly Ambassador in St. Petersburg, and had concluded the
+treaty of 1907 which enabled Russia to turn again to the West and the
+Near East.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Edward Grey's private secretary, Sir William Tyrrell, had far
+greater influence than the Permanent Under Secretary of State. This
+unusually intelligent man had been at a school in Germany, and had then
+entered the Diplomatic Service, but he was abroad only a short time. At
+first he belonged to the modern anti-German school of young English
+diplomats, but later he became a determined supporter of an
+understanding. To this aim and object he even influenced Sir Edward
+Grey, with whom he was very intimate. After the outbreak of war he left
+the department, and went to the Home Office, probably in consequence of
+criticism of him for his Germanophile leanings.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">CABALS AGAINST LICHNOWSKY</div>
+
+<p>The rage of certain gentlemen over my success in London and the position
+I had achieved was indescribable. Schemes were set on foot to impede my
+carrying out my duties, I was left in complete ignorance of most
+important things, and had to confine myself to sending in unimportant
+and dull reports. Secret reports from agents about things of which I
+could know nothing without spies and necessary funds were never
+available for me, and it was only in the last days of July, 1914, that I
+heard accidentally from the Naval Attach� of the secret Anglo-French
+agreement for joint action of the two fleets in case of war. Soon after
+my arrival I became convinced that in no circumstances need we fear a
+British attack or British support of a foreign attack, but that under
+all conditions England would protect France. I advanced this opinion in
+repeated reports with detailed reasoning and insistence, but without
+gaining credence, although Lord Haldane's refusing of the formula of
+neutrality and England's attitude during the Morocco crisis were clear
+indications. In addition, the above-mentioned secret agreements were
+known to the department. I repeatedly urged that England, as a
+commercial State, would suffer greatly in any war between the European
+great powers, and would therefore prevent such a war by all available
+means; but, on the other hand, in the interest of the European balance
+of power, and to prevent Germany's overlordship, would never tolerate
+the weakening or destruction of France. Lord Haldane told me this
+shortly after my arrival. All influential people spoke in the same way.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">THE ARCHDUKE'S DEATH</div>
+
+<p>At the end of June I went to Kiel by the royal orders a few weeks after
+I had received the honorary degree of Doctor at Oxford, an honor no
+German Ambassador since Herr von Bunsen had received. On board the
+Meteor we received the news of the death of the Archduke, the heir to
+the throne. His Majesty complained that his attempts to win the noble
+Archduke over to his ideas were thereby rendered fruitless. How far
+plans for an active policy against Serbia had already been made at
+Konopischt I am not in a position to judge. As I was not informed about
+intentions and events in Vienna I attached no further importance to the
+matter. I could only observe that the feeling of relief outweighed the
+other feelings of the Austrian aristocrats. One of the guests on board
+the Meteor was the Austrian Count Felix Thun. In spite of glorious
+weather seasickness had kept him to his cabin. After receiving the news
+he became well. Shock or joy had cured him.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching Berlin I visited the Chancellor, and said I considered the
+situation of our foreign policy very satisfactory, as we were on better
+terms with England than we had been for a long time. In France a
+pacifist Government was at the helm. Herr von Bethmann Hollweg did not
+seem to share my optimism, and complained of the Russian armaments. I
+tried to calm him, and pointed out especially that Russia had absolutely
+no interest in attacking us, and that such an attack would not receive
+Anglo-French support, as both countries, England and France, desired<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[xv]</a></span>
+peace. Then I called on Dr. Zimmermann, who represented von Jagow, and
+learned from him that Russia was about to mobilize 900,000 new troops.
+From his manner of speaking he was evidently annoyed with Russia, who
+was everywhere in our way. There was also the question of the
+difficulties of commercial politics. Of course, I was not told that
+General von Moltke was working eagerly for war. But I learned that Herr
+von Tschirschky had received a rebuff for having reported that he had
+advised moderation in Vienna toward Serbia.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">AUSTRIA'S WAR PLOT</div>
+
+<p>On my return journey from Silesia I only remained a few hours in Berlin,
+but I heard there that Austria intended to take steps against Serbia to
+put an end to this intolerable situation. Unfortunately I undervalued
+the importance of the information. I thought nothing would come of it,
+and that it would be easy to settle the matter if Russia threatened. I
+now regret that I did not stop in Berlin, and at once declare that I
+could not agree to such a policy.</p>
+
+<p>I have since learned that the inquiries and appeals from Vienna won
+unconditional assent from all the influential men at a decisive
+consultation at Potsdam on July 5, with the addition that it would not
+matter if war with Russia resulted. This is what was stated, anyhow, in
+the Austrian protocol which Count Mensdorff received in London. Shortly
+afterward Herr von Jagow arrived in Vienna to discuss the whole question
+with Count Berchtold.</p>
+
+<p>Subsequently, I received instructions to work to obtain a friendly
+attitude on the part of the English press, if Austria dealt Serbia a
+deathblow, and by my influence to prevent so far as possible public
+opinion from becoming opposed to Austria. Remembering England's attitude
+during the annexation crisis, when public opinion sympathized with
+Serbian rights to Bosnia and her kindly favoring of national movements
+in the time of Lord Byron and that of Garibaldi, one thing and another
+indicated so strongly the improbability of British support of the
+proposed punitive expedition against the Archduke's murderers, that I
+felt bound to issue a serious warning. I also sent a warning against the
+whole project, which I characterized as adventurous and dangerous, and
+advised moderation being urged on the Austrians, as I did not believe in
+the localization of the conflict.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">JAGOW'S MISTAKEN BLUFF</div>
+
+<p>Herr von Jagow answered that Russia was not ready, that there would be
+some fuss, but that the more firmly we held to Austria the sooner would
+Russia give way. Austria, he said, had already accused us of flabbiness,
+(flaumacherei,) and so we must not get into a mess. Opinion in Russia,
+he added, was becoming more and more pro-German, so we must just take
+the risks. In view of this attitude, which, as I subsequently found out,
+was the result of Count Pourtal�s's reports that Russia would in no
+circumstances move, and caused us to urge Count Berchtold to the
+greatest possible energy, I hoped for salvation in English intervention,
+as I knew Sir Edward Grey's influence with St. Petersburg in the
+direction of peace could prevail. I availed myself, therefore, of my
+good relations with the British Foreign Minister to beg him
+confidentially to advise moderation on the part of Russia in case
+Austria, as appeared probable, should demand satisfaction from the
+Serbians.</p>
+
+<p>In the beginning the attitude of the English press toward the Austrians
+was quiet and friendly, as the murder was condemned. Little by little,
+however, voices increased in number insisting that, however necessary
+the punishment of a crime might be, no elaboration of it for a political
+purpose could be justified. Austria was urgently called upon to act with
+moderation. The whole world outside Berlin and Vienna understood that it
+meant war, and world war. The British fleet, which happened to be
+assembled for review, was not demobilized.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">GERMANY FORCES WAR</div>
+
+<p>The Serbian answer corresponded with British efforts, for actually M.
+Pashitch had accepted all but two points, about which he was prepared to
+negotiate. Had England and Russia wanted war in order<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[xvi]</a></span> to fall upon us,
+a hint to Belgrade would have been given, and the unspeakable note would
+have remained unanswered. Sir Edward Grey went through the Serbian
+answer with me, and pointed out the conciliatory attitude of the
+Belgrade Government. We even discussed his proposal for intervention,
+which should insure an interpretation of these two points acceptable to
+both parties. With Sir Edward Grey presiding, M. Cambon, the Marquis
+Imperiali, and I were to meet, and it would have been easy to find an
+acceptable form for the points under discussion, which were mainly
+concerned with the part to be taken by Austrian officials in the
+inquiries at Belgrade. With good-will all could have been cleared up in
+two or three sittings, and a simple acknowledgment of the British
+proposal would have brought about a d�tente and further improved our
+relations with England. I therefore urged it forcibly, as otherwise a
+world war stood at our gates.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>In vain. It would be, I was told, wounding to Austria's dignity, nor
+would we mix ourselves up in that Serbian matter. We left it to our
+allies. I was to work for the localization of the conflict. It naturally
+only needed a hint from Berlin to induce Count Berchtold to content
+himself with a diplomatic success and put up with the Serbian reply. But
+this hint was not given. On the contrary, we pressed for war. What a
+fine success it would have been!</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">INTOLERABLE CONDITIONS</div>
+
+<p>After our refusal Sir Edward asked us to come forward with a proposal of
+our own. We insisted upon war. I could get no other answer [from Berlin]
+than that it was an enormous "concession" on the part of Austria to
+contemplate no annexation of territory.</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon Sir Edward justly pointed out that even without annexations of
+territory a country can be humiliated and subjected, and that Russia
+would regard this as a humiliation which she would not stand.</p>
+
+<p>The impression became ever stronger that we desired war in all
+circumstances. Otherwise our attitude in a question which, after all,
+did not directly concern us was unintelligible. The urgent appeals and
+definite declarations of M. Sazonoff, [Russian Foreign Minister,] later
+on the positively humble telegrams of the Czar, the repeated proposals
+of Sir Edward, the warnings of San Giuliano [Italian Foreign Minister]
+and of Bollati, [Italian Ambassador in Berlin,] my urgent advice&mdash;it was
+all of no use, for Berlin went on insisting that Serbia must be
+massacred.</p>
+
+<p>The more I pressed, the less willing they were to alter their course, if
+only because I was not to have the success of saving peace in the
+company of Sir Edward Grey.</p>
+
+<p>So Grey on July 29 resolved upon his well-known warning. I replied that
+I had always reported that we should have to reckon upon English
+hostility if it came to war with France. The Minister said to me
+repeatedly: "If war breaks out it will be the greatest catastrophe the
+world has ever seen."</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">GREY STILL SOUGHT PEACE</div>
+
+<p>After that events moved rapidly. When Count Berchtold, who hitherto had
+played the strong man on instructions from Berlin, at last decided to
+change his course, we answered the Russian mobilization&mdash;after Russia
+had for a whole week negotiated and waited in vain&mdash;with our ultimatum
+and declaration of war.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Edward Grey still looked for new ways of escape. In the morning of
+Aug. 1, Sir W. Tyrrell came to me to say that his chief still hoped to
+find a way out. Should we remain neutral if France did the same? I
+understood him to mean that we should then be ready to spare France, but
+his meaning was that we should remain absolutely neutral&mdash;neutral
+therefore even toward Russia. That was the well-known misunderstanding.
+Sir Edward had given me an appointment for the afternoon, but as he was
+then at a meeting of the Cabinet, he called me up on the telephone,
+after Sir W. Tyrrell had hurried straight to him. But in the afternoon
+he spoke no longer of anything but Belgian neutrality, and of the
+possibility that we and France<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[xvii]</a></span> should face one another armed, without
+attacking one another.</p>
+
+<p>Thus there was no proposal whatever, but a question without any
+obligation, because our conversation, as I have already explained, was
+to take place soon afterward. In Berlin, however&mdash;without waiting for
+the conversation&mdash;this news was used as the foundation for a
+far-reaching act. Then came Poincar�'s letter, Bonar Law's letter, and
+the telegram from the King of the Belgians. The hesitating members of
+the Cabinet were converted, with the exception of three members, who
+resigned.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">PEACE HOPES DESTROYED</div>
+
+<p>Up to the last moment I had hoped for a waiting attitude on the part of
+England. My French colleague also felt himself by no means secure, as I
+learned from a private source. As late as Aug. 1 the King replied
+evasively to the French President. But in the telegram from Berlin,
+which announced the threatening danger of war, England was already
+mentioned as an opponent. In Berlin, therefore, one already reckoned
+upon war with England.</p>
+
+<p>Before my departure Sir Edward Grey received me on Aug. 5 at his house.
+I had gone there at his desire. He was deeply moved. He said to me that
+he would always be ready to mediate, and, "We don't want to crush
+Germany." Unfortunately, this confidential conversation was published.
+Thereby Herr von Bethmann Hollweg destroyed the last possibility of
+reaching peace via England.</p>
+
+<p>Our departure was thoroughly dignified and calm. Before we left, the
+King had sent his equerry, Sir E. Ponsonby, to me, to express his regret
+at my departure and that he could not see me personally. Princess Louise
+wrote to me that the whole family lamented our going. Mrs. Asquith and
+other friends came to the embassy to say good-bye.</p>
+
+<p>A special train took us to Harwich, where a guard of honor was drawn up
+for me. I was treated like a departing sovereign. Thus ended my London
+mission. It was wrecked, not by the perfidy of the British, but by the
+perfidy of our policy.</p>
+
+<p>At the railway station in London Count Mensdorff [Austrian Ambassador]
+appeared with his staff. He was cheerful, and gave me to understand that
+perhaps he would remain in London. But to the English he said that it
+was not Austria, but we, who had wanted the war.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">A BITTER RETROSPECT</div>
+
+<p>When now, after two years, I realize everything in retrospect, I say to
+myself that I realized too late that there was no place for me in a
+system which for years has lived only on tradition and routine, and
+which tolerates only representatives who report what one wants to read.
+Absence of prejudice and an independent judgment are combated, want of
+ability and of character are extolled and esteemed, but successes arouse
+hostility and uneasiness.</p>
+
+<p>I had abandoned opposition to our mad Triple Alliance policy, because I
+saw that it was useless and that my warnings were represented as
+Austrophobia and an id�e fixe. In a policy which is not mere gymnastics,
+or playing with documents, but the conduct of the business of the firm,
+there is no such thing as likes and dislikes; there is nothing but the
+interest of the community; but a policy which is based merely upon
+Austrians, Magyars, and Turks must end in hostility to Russia, and
+ultimately lead to a catastrophe.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of former aberrations, everything was still possible in July,
+1914. Agreement with England had been reached. We should have had to
+send to Petersburg a representative who, at any rate, reached the
+average standard of political ability, and we should have had to give
+Russia the certainty that we desired neither to dominate the Starits nor
+to throttle the Serbs. M. Sazonoff was saying to us: "L�chez l'Autriche
+et nous l�cherons les Fran�ais," and M. Cambon [French Ambassador in
+Berlin] said to Herr von Jagow: "Vous n'avez [pas] besoin de suivre
+l'Autriche partout."</p>
+
+<p>We needed neither alliances nor wars, but merely treaties which would
+protect us and others, and which would guarantee us an economic
+development for which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[xviii]</a></span> there had been no precedent in history. And if
+Russia had been relieved of trouble in the west, she would have been
+able to turn again to the east, and then the Anglo-Russian antagonism
+would have arisen automatically without our interference&mdash;and the
+Russo-Japanese antagonism no less than the Anglo-Russian.</p>
+
+<p>We could also have approached the question of limitation of armaments,
+and should have had no further need to bother about the confusions of
+Austria. Austria-Hungary would then become the vassal of the German
+Empire&mdash;without an alliance, and, above all, without sentimental
+services on our part, leading ultimately to war for the liberation of
+Poland and the destruction of Serbia, although German interests demanded
+exactly the contrary.</p>
+
+<p>I had to support in London a policy which I knew to be fallacious. I was
+punished for it, for it was a sin against the Holy Ghost.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">ARRIVAL AT BERLIN</div>
+
+<p>On my arrival in Berlin I saw at once that I was to be made the
+scapegoat for the catastrophe of which our Government had made itself
+guilty in opposition to my advice and my warnings.</p>
+
+<p>The report was persistently circulated by official quarters that I had
+let myself be deceived by Sir Edward Grey, because if he had not wanted
+war Russia would not have mobilized. Count Pourtal�s, whose reports
+could be relied upon, was to be spared, if only because of his family
+connections. He was said to have behaved "splendidly," and he was
+enthusiastically praised, while I was all the more sharply blamed.</p>
+
+<p>"What has Russia got to do with Serbia?" this statesman said to me after
+eight years of official activity in Petersburg. It was made out that the
+whole business was a perfidious British trick which I had not
+understood. In the Foreign Office I was told that in 1916 it would in
+any case have come to war. But then Russia would have been "ready," and
+so it was better now.</p>
+
+<p>As appears from all official publications, without the facts being
+controverted by our own White Book, which, owing to its poverty and
+gaps, constitutes a grave self-accusation:</p>
+
+<p>1. We encouraged Count Berchtold to attack Serbia, although no German
+interest was involved, and the danger of a world war must have been
+known to us&mdash;whether we knew the text of the ultimatum is a question of
+complete indifference.</p>
+
+<p>2. In the days between July 23 and July 30, 1914, when M. Sazonoff
+emphatically declared that Russia could not tolerate an attack upon
+Serbia, we rejected the British proposals of mediation, although Serbia,
+under Russian and British pressure, had accepted almost the whole
+ultimatum, and although an agreement about the two points in question
+could easily have been reached, and Count Berchtold was even ready to
+satisfy himself with the Serbian reply.</p>
+
+<p>3. On July 30, when Count Berchtold wanted to give way, we, without
+Austria having been attacked, replied to Russia's mere mobilization by
+sending an ultimatum to Petersburg, and on July 31 we declared war on
+the Russians, although the Czar had pledged his word that as long as
+negotiations continued not a man should march&mdash;so that we deliberately
+destroyed the possibility of a peaceful settlement.</p>
+
+<p>In view of these indisputable facts, it is not surprising that the whole
+civilized world outside Germany attributes to us the sole guilt for the
+world war.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">GERMANY'S WAR SPIRIT</div>
+
+<p>Is it not intelligible that our enemies declare that they will not rest
+until a system is destroyed which constitutes a permanent threatening of
+our neighbors? Must they not otherwise fear that in a few years they
+will again have to take up arms, and again see their provinces overrun
+and their towns and villages destroyed? Were these people not right who
+prophesied that the spirit of Treitschke and Bernhardi dominated the
+German people&mdash;the spirit which glorifies war as an aim in itself and
+does not abhor it as an evil; that among us it is still the feudal
+knights and Junkers and the caste of warriors who rule and who fix our
+ideals and our values&mdash;not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[xix]</a></span> the civilian gentleman; that the love of
+dueling, which inspires our youth at the universities, lives on in those
+who guide the fortunes of the people? Had not the events at Zabern and
+the Parliamentary debates on that case shown foreign countries how civil
+rights and freedoms are valued among us, when questions of military
+power are on the other side?</p>
+
+<p>Cramb, a historian who has since died, an admirer of Germany, put the
+German point of view into the words of Euphorion:</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+Tr�umt Ihr den Friedenstag?<br />
+Tr�ume, wer tr�umen mag!<br />
+Krieg ist das Losungswort!<br />
+Sieg, und so klingt es fort.<br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Militarism, really a school for the nation and an instrument of policy,
+makes policy into the instrument of military power, if the patriarchal
+absolutism of a soldier-kingdom renders possible an attitude which would
+not be permitted by a democracy which had disengaged itself from
+military-junker influences.</p>
+
+<p>That is what our enemies think, and that is what they are bound to
+think, when they see that, in spite of capitalistic industrialization,
+and in spite of socialistic organization, the living, as Friedrich
+Nietzsche says, are still governed by the dead. The principal war aim of
+our enemies, the democratization of Germany, will be achieved.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">JEOPARDIZING THE FUTURE</div>
+
+<p>Today, after two years of the war, there can be no further doubt that we
+cannot hope for an unconditional victory over Russians, English, French,
+Italians, Rumanians, and Americans, and that we cannot reckon upon the
+overthrow of our enemies. But we can reach a compromised peace only upon
+the basis of the evacuation of the occupied territories, the possession
+of which in any case signifies for us a burden and weakness and the
+peril of new wars. Consequently, everything should be avoided which
+hinders a change of course on the part of those enemy groups which might
+perhaps still be won over to the idea of compromise&mdash;the British
+Radicals and the Russian Reactionaries. Even from this point of view our
+Polish project is just as objectionable as any interference with
+Belgian rights, or the execution of British citizens&mdash;to say nothing of
+the mad submarine war scheme.</p>
+
+<p>Our future lies upon the water. True, but it therefore does not lie in
+Poland and Belgium, in France and Serbia. That is a reversion to the
+Holy Roman Empire, to the aberrations of the Hohenstaufens and
+Hapsburgs. It is the policy of the Plantagenets, not the policy of Drake
+and Raleigh, Nelson and Rhodes.</p>
+
+<p>Triple Alliance policy is a relapse into the past, a revolt from the
+future, from imperialism, from world policy. Central Europe is
+mediaevalism; Berlin-Bagdad is a cul de sac, and not a road into the
+open, to unlimited possibilities, and to the world mission of the German
+people.</p>
+
+<p>I am no enemy of Austria, or Hungary, or Italy, or Serbia, or any other
+State; I am only an enemy of the Triple Alliance policy, which was bound
+to divert us from our aims, and to bring us on to the sloping plane of
+Continental policy. It was not German policy, but Austrian dynastic
+policy. The Austrians had accustomed themselves to regard the alliance
+as a shield, under whose protection they could make excursions at
+pleasure into the East.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">RUINOUS RESULTS</div>
+
+<p>And what result have we to expect from the struggle of peoples? The
+United States of Africa will be British, like the United States of
+America, of Australia, and of Oceania, and the Latin States of Europe,
+as I said years ago, will fall into the same relationship to the United
+Kingdom as the Latin sisters of America to the United States. They will
+be dominated by the Anglo-Saxon; France, exhausted by the war, will link
+herself still more closely to Great Britain. In the long run, Spain also
+will not resist.</p>
+
+<p>In Asia, the Russian and Japanese will expand their borders and their
+customs, and the south will remain to the British.</p>
+
+<p>The world will belong to the Anglo-Saxon, the Russian, and the Japanese,
+and the German will remain alone with Austria and Hungary. His sphere of
+power will be that of thought and of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">[xx]</a></span> trade, not that of the bureaucrats
+and the soldiers. The German appeared too late, and the world war has
+destroyed the last possibility of catching up the lost ground, of
+founding a colonial empire.</p>
+
+<p>For we shall not supplant the sons of Japheth; the program of the great
+Rhodes, who saw the salvation of mankind in British expansion and
+British imperialism, will be realized.</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+Tu regere imperio populos Romano, memento.<br />
+Hae tibi erunt artes: pacisquqe imponere morem,<br />
+Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos.<br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>Krupp Director Confirms Prince Lichnowsky's Indictment</h2>
+
+<p>Coincident with the publication in Germany of the famous memorandum of
+Prince Lichnowsky squarely putting the blame for the outbreak of the
+world war upon the Kaiser and the German militarists, there also
+appeared in circular form in Germany a letter written by a certain Dr.
+M�hlon, a former member of the Krupp Directorate now living in
+Switzerland, corroborating the charges made by the Prince. The M�hlon
+letter was briefly referred to in an official dispatch from Switzerland
+received in Washington on March 29 as having produced an animated
+discussion throughout the empire.</p>
+
+<p>A copy of the Leipziger Volkszeitung of March 20 tells how, in a
+discussion of the Lichnowsky and M�hlon memoranda before the Main
+Committee of the Reichstag on March 16, Vice Chancellor von Payer tried
+to minimize the value of Dr. M�hlon's statements by asserting that the
+former Krupp Director was a sick, nervous man who no doubt did not
+intend to injure his country's cause, but who was hardly responsible for
+his actions because of his many nervous breakdowns. Later, the Berliner
+Tageblatt printed the text of Dr. M�hlon's letter, which was evidently
+written before the resignation of Dr. Karl Helfferich as Vice Chancellor
+last November. As translated by The London Times, Dr. M�hlon's
+memorandum reads:</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">TALK WITH HELFFERICH</div>
+
+<p>"In the middle of July, 1914, I had, as I frequently had, a conversation
+with Dr. Helfferich, then Director of the Deutsche Bank in Berlin, and
+now Vice Chancellor. The Deutsche Bank had adopted a negative attitude
+toward certain large transactions in Bulgaria and Turkey, in which the
+firm of Krupp, for business reasons&mdash;delivery of war material&mdash;had a
+lively interest. As one of the reasons to justify the attitude of the
+Deutsche Bank, Dr. Helfferich finally gave me the following reason:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"The political situation has become very menacing. The Deutsche
+Bank must in any case wait before entering into any further
+engagements abroad. The Austrians have just been with the
+Kaiser. In a week's time Vienna will send a very severe
+ultimatum to Serbia, with a very short interval for the answer.
+The ultimatum will contain demands such as punishment of a
+number of officers, dissolution of political associations,
+criminal investigation in Serbia by Austrian officials, and, in
+fact, a whole series of definite satisfactions will be demanded
+at once; otherwise Austria-Hungary will declare war on Serbia. </p>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Dr. Helfferich added that the Kaiser had expressed his decided approval
+of this procedure on the part of Austria-Hungary. He had said that he
+regarded a conflict with Serbia as an internal affair between these two
+countries, in which he would permit no other State to interfere. If
+Russia mobilized, he would mobilize also. But in his case mobilization
+meant immediate war. This time there would be no oscillation. Helfferich
+said that the Austrians were extremely well satisfied at this determined
+attitude on the part of the Kaiser.</p>
+
+<p>"When I thereupon said to Dr. Helfferich that this uncanny communication
+converted my fears of a world war, which were already strong, into
+absolute<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi">[xxi]</a></span> certainty, he replied that it certainly looked like that. But
+perhaps France and Russia would reconsider the matter. In any case, the
+Serbs deserved a lesson which they would remember. This was the first
+intimation that I had received about the Kaiser's discussions with our
+allies. I knew Dr. Helfferich's particularly intimate relations with the
+personages who were sure to be initiated, and I knew that his
+communication was trustworthy.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">KAISER FOR WAR</div>
+
+<p>"After my return from Berlin I informed Herr Krupp von B�hlen and
+Halbach, one of whose Directors I then was at Essen. Dr. Helfferich had
+given me permission and at that time the intention was to make him a
+Director of Krupps. Herr von B�hlen seemed disturbed that Dr. Helfferich
+was in possession of such information, and he made a remark to the
+effect that the Government people can never keep their mouths shut. He
+then told me the following. He said that he had himself been with the
+Kaiser in the last few days. The Kaiser had spoken to him also of his
+conversation with the Austrians, and of its result; but he had described
+the matter as so secret that he [Krupp] would not even have dared to
+inform his own Directors. As, however, I already knew, he could tell me
+that Helfferich's statements were accurate. Indeed, Helfferich seemed to
+know more details than he did. He said that the situation was really
+very serious. The Kaiser had told him that he would declare war
+immediately if Russia mobilized, and that this time people would see
+that he did not turn about. The Kaiser's repeated insistence that this
+time nobody would be able to accuse him of indecision had, he said, been
+almost comic in its effect.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">GERMAN DUPLICITY</div>
+
+<p>"On the very day indicated to me by Helfferich the Austrian ultimatum to
+Serbia appeared. At this time I was again in Berlin, and I told
+Helfferich that I regarded the tone and contents of the ultimatum as
+simply monstrous. Dr. Helfferich, however, said that the note only had
+that ring in the German translation. He had seen the ultimatum in
+French, and in French it really could not be regarded as overdone. On
+this occasion Helfferich also said to me that the Kaiser had gone on his
+northern cruise only as a 'blind'; he had not arranged the cruise on the
+usual extensive scale, but was remaining close at hand and keeping in
+constant touch. Now one must simply wait and see what would happen. The
+Austrians, who, of course, did not expect the ultimatum to be accepted,
+were really acting rapidly before the other powers could find time to
+interfere. The Deutsche Bank had already made its arrangements, so as to
+be prepared for all eventualities. For example, it was no longer paying
+out the gold which came in. That could easily be done without attracting
+notice, and the amount day by day reached considerable sums.</p>
+
+<p>"Immediately after the Vienna ultimatum to Serbia the German Government
+issued declarations to the effect that Austria-Hungary had acted all
+alone, without Germany's previous knowledge. When one attempted to
+reconcile these declarations with the events mentioned above, the only
+possible explanation was that the Kaiser had tied himself down without
+inviting the co-operation of his Government, and that, in the
+conversations with the Austrians, the Germans took care not to agree
+upon the text of the ultimatum. For I have already shown that the
+contents of the ultimatum were pretty accurately known in Germany.</p>
+
+<p>"Herr Krupp von B�hlen, with whom I spoke about these German
+declarations&mdash;which, at any rate in their effect, were lies&mdash;was also by
+no means edified. For, as he said, Germany ought not, in such a
+tremendous affair, to have given a blank check to a State like Austria;
+and it was the duty of the leading statesmen to demand, both of the
+Kaiser and of our allies, that the Austrian claims and the ultimatum to
+Serbia should be discussed in minute detail and definitely decided upon,
+and also that we should decide upon the precise program of our further
+proceedings. He said that, whatever point of view one took, we ought not
+to give ourselves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxii" id="Page_xxii">[xxii]</a></span> into the hands of the Austrians and expose ourselves
+to eventualities which had not been reckoned out in advance. One ought
+to have connected appropriate conditions with our obligations. In short,
+Herr von B�hlen regarded the German denial of previous knowledge, if
+there was any trace of truth in it, as an offense against the elementary
+principles of diplomacy; and he told me that he intended to speak in
+this sense to Herr von Jagow, then Foreign Secretary, who was a special
+friend of his.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">GERMAN GOVERNMENT BLAMED</div>
+
+<p>"As a result of this conversation Herr von B�hlen told me that Herr von
+Jagow stuck firmly to his assertion that he had had nothing to do with
+the text of the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum, and that Germany had never
+made any such demands. In reply to the objection that this was
+inconceivable, Herr von Jagow replied that he, as a diplomatist, had
+naturally thought of making such a demand. When, however, Herr von Jagow
+was occupying himself with the matter and was called in, the Kaiser had
+so committed himself that it was too late for any procedure according to
+diplomatic custom, and there was nothing more to be done. The situation
+was such that it would have been impossible to intervene with drafting
+proposals. In the end, he [Jagow] had thought that non-interference
+would have its advantages&mdash;namely, the good impression which could be
+made in Petersburg and Paris with the German declaration that Germany
+had not co-operated in the preparation of the Vienna ultimatum."</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">A REMARKABLE LETTER</div>
+
+<p>Herr M�hlon authorized the Humanit�, a Paris Socialist paper, through
+its Swiss correspondent, to publish the following remarkable letter
+which he addressed from Berne, on May 7, 1917, to Herr von Bethmann
+Hollweg, then Imperial Chancellor:</p>
+
+<p>"However great the number and weight of the mistakes accumulated on the
+German side since the beginning of the war, I nevertheless persisted for
+a long time in the belief that a belated foresight would at last dawn
+upon the minds of our Directors. It was with this hope that I put myself
+to a certain extent at your disposal, in order to collaborate with you
+in Rumania, and that I indicated to you that I was disposed to help in
+Switzerland, where I am living at present, if the object of our efforts
+was to be rapprochement of the enemy parties. That I was, and that I
+remain, hostile to any activity other than reconciliation and
+restoration I proved soon after the opening of hostilities by the
+definite resignation of my Directorship of Krupps' works.</p>
+
+<p>"But since the first days of 1917 I have abandoned all hope as regards
+the present Directors of Germany. Our offer of peace without indication
+of our war aims, the accentuation of the submarine war, the deportations
+of Belgians, the systematic destruction in France, and the torpedoing of
+English hospital ships have so degraded the Governors of the German
+Empire that I am profoundly convinced that they are disqualified forever
+for the elaboration and conclusion of a sincere and just agreement. The
+personalities may change, but they cannot remain the representatives of
+the German cause.</p>
+
+<p>"The German people will not be able to repair the grievous crimes
+committed against its own present and future, and against that of Europe
+and the whole human race until it is represented by different men with a
+different mentality. To tell the truth, it is mere justice that its
+reputation throughout the whole world is as bad as it is. The triumph of
+its methods&mdash;the methods by which it has hitherto conducted the war both
+militarily and politically&mdash;would constitute a defeat for the ideas and
+the supreme hopes of mankind. One has only to imagine that a people
+exhausted, demoralized, or hating violence, should consent to a peace
+with a Government which has conducted such a war, in order to understand
+how the general level and the chances of life of the peoples would
+remain black and deceptive.</p>
+
+<p>"As a man and as a German who desires nothing but the welfare of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxiii" id="Page_xxiii">[xxiii]</a></span>
+deceived and tortured German people, I turn away definitely from the
+present representatives of the German r�gime. And I have only one
+wish&mdash;that all independent men may do the same and that many Germans may
+understand and act.</p>
+
+<p>"In view of the fact that it is impossible for me at present to make any
+manifestation before German public opinion, I have thought it to be my
+absolute duty to inform your Excellency of my point of view."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>Reichstag Debate on Lichnowsky</h2>
+
+
+<p>The Main Committee of the Reichstag dealt with Prince Lichnowsky's
+memorandum on March 16. Herr von Payer, Vice Chancellor, stated that
+Prince Lichnowsky himself on March 15 made a statement to the Imperial
+Chancellor, in which he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Your Excellency knows that the purely private notes which I wrote down
+in the Summer of 1916 found their way into wider circles by an
+unprecedented breach of confidence. It was mainly a question of
+subjective considerations about our entire foreign policy since the
+Berlin Congress. I perceived in the policy hitherto pursued of repelling
+(in der seitherigen Abkehr) Russia and in the extension of the policy of
+alliances to Oriental questions the real roots of the world war. I then
+submitted our Morocco naval policy to a brief examination. My London
+mission could at the same time not remain out of consideration,
+especially as I felt the need in regard to the future and with a view to
+my own justification of noting the details of my experiences and
+impressions there before they vanished from my memory. These notes were
+intended in a certain degree only for family archives, and I wrote them
+down without documentary material or notes from the period of my
+official activity. I considered I might show them, on the assurance of
+absolute secrecy, to a very few political friends in whose judgment as
+well as trustworthiness I had equal confidence."</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">LICHNOWSKY RESIGNS RANK</div>
+
+<p>Prince Lichnowsky then described in his letter how the memorandum, owing
+to an indiscretion, got into circulation, and finally expressed lively
+regret at such an extremely vexatious incident.</p>
+
+<p>Herr von Payer said that Prince Lichnowsky had meanwhile tendered his
+resignation of his present rank, which had been accepted, and as he had
+doubtless no bad intention, but had simply been guilty of imprudence, no
+further steps would be taken against him. The Vice Chancellor proceeded:</p>
+
+<p>"Some assertions in his documents must, however, be contradicted,
+especially his assertions about political events in the last months
+preceding the war. Prince Lichnowsky was not of his own knowledge
+acquainted with these events, but he apparently received from a third,
+and wrongly informed quarter, inaccurate information. The key to the
+mistakes and false conclusions may also be the Prince's overestimation
+of his own services, which are accompanied by hatred against those who
+do not recognize his achievements as he expected. The entire memorandum
+is penetrated by a striking veneration for foreign diplomats, especially
+the British, who are described in a truly affectionate manner, and, on
+the other hand, by an equally striking irritation against almost all
+German statesmen. The result was that the Prince frequently regarded
+Germany's most zealous enemy as her best friend because they were
+personally on good terms with him.</p>
+
+<p>"The fact that, as he admits, he attached at first no great importance
+to the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne, and was
+displeased that the situation was judged otherwise in Berlin, makes it
+plain that the Prince had no clear judgment for the events that followed
+and their import."</p>
+
+<p>The Vice Chancellor then characterized as false all Prince Lichnowsky's
+assertions about General von Moltke's urging<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxiv" id="Page_xxiv">[xxiv]</a></span> war at the Potsdam Crown
+Council of June 5, 1914, and the dispatch of the Austrian protocol on
+"this alleged Crown Council" to Count Mensdorff, containing the
+postscript that it would be no great harm even if war with Russia arose
+out of it.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">PAYER'S DEFENSE</div>
+
+<p>Herr von Payer also denied the statement that the then Foreign Secretary
+was in Vienna in 1914, as well as the statement that Count von
+Pourtal�s, the German Ambassador in Petrograd, had reported that Russia
+would in no circumstances move. The Sukhomlinoff trial had shown how
+unfounded were Prince Lichnowsky's reproaches against Germany for
+replying to the Russian mobilization by an ultimatum and a declaration
+of war. It was also false to assert that the German Government rejected
+all Great Britain's mediation proposals. Lord Grey's last mediation
+proposal was very urgently supported in Vienna by Berlin. The aim of the
+memorandum was obvious. It was to show the reader how much better and
+more intelligent Prince Lichnowsky's policy was, and how he could have
+assured the peace of the empire if his advice had been followed.</p>
+
+<p>The Vice Chancellor continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody will reproach the Prince with this belief in himself. He was
+also free to make notes about events, and his attitude toward them, but
+he should then have considered it a duty that his views should not have
+become known to the public, and, no matter how small his circle of
+readers was, it was his duty to state nothing contradicting facts which
+he knew. As things now are, the memorandum will cause enough harm among
+malevolent and superficial people. The memorandum has no historical
+value whatever."</p>
+
+<p>Referring to a manifolded copy of a letter from Dr. M�hlon, who is at
+present in Switzerland, and at the outbreak of war was on Krupps' Board
+of Directors, Herr von Payer said that the letter related to the
+utterances of two highly placed gentlemen from which he drew the
+conclusion that the German Government in July, 1914, lacked a desire
+for peace. Both these gentlemen had stated in writing that Dr. M�hlon
+had suffered from nerves, and he (Herr von Payer) also took the view
+that his statements were those of a man of diseased mind.</p>
+
+<p>In the discussion that followed, Herr Scheidemann said that the
+Socialist Party regarded imperialism as the fundamental cause of the
+war. Prince Lichnowsky's memorandum, in which he attempted to put the
+blame for the war on Germany, could, in his opinion, only make an
+impression on so-called out-and-out pacifists.</p>
+
+<p>Herr M�ller-Meiningen said that, notwithstanding what Dr. M�hlon and
+Prince Lichnowsky had said, he was absolutely convinced that the
+overwhelming majority of the German people, the Chancellor, and the
+representatives of the Foreign Office, and, above all, the German
+Emperor, always desired peace.</p>
+
+<p>Herr Stresemann expressed a desire to see the last White Book
+supplemented. Prince Lichnowsky's memorandum could not be taken
+seriously.</p>
+
+<p>Herr von Payer, intervening, said that the question as to whether
+criminal or disciplinary action might be taken against Prince Lichnowsky
+was considered by the Imperial Department of Justice. The result was
+that, on various legal grounds, neither a prosecution of the Prince for
+diplomatic high treason in the sense of Paragraph 92 of the Penal Code,
+nor proceedings under Paragraph 89 or Paragraph 353, the so-called Arnim
+paragraph, would have offered any chance of success. After the Prince's
+retirement, there was no longer any question of disciplinary proceedings
+against him. The Prince has been prohibited by the Foreign Office from
+publishing articles in the press.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">LICHNOWSKY'S "OPTIMISM"</div>
+
+<p>Herr von Stumm, Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, replying to a
+question as to who was responsible for Prince Lichnowsky's appointment
+in London, said that the appointment was made by the Kaiser, in
+agreement with the responsible Imperial Chancellor. While in London the
+Prince had devoted himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxv" id="Page_xxv">[xxv]</a></span> zealously to his task. His views, it was
+true, had frequently not agreed with those of the German Foreign Office.
+That was especially the case regarding his strong optimism in reference
+to German-English relations. When his hopes aiming at a German-English
+understanding were destroyed by the war, the Prince returned to Germany
+greatly excited, and even then did not restrain his criticism of
+Germany's policy.</p>
+
+<p>Herr von Stumm continued:</p>
+
+<p>"His excitement increased owing to attacks against him in the German
+press. All these circumstances must be taken into consideration when
+gauging the value of his memorandum. It was unjustifiable to draw
+conclusions from it regarding the Ambassador's activity in London and
+blame the Government for it. Regarding the German White Book, the Under
+Secretary admitted that it was not very voluminous, but it had to be
+compiled quickly, so as to present to the Reichstag at the opening a
+clear picture of the question of guilt. The Blue Books of other States,
+it was true, were much more voluminous. The German White Book, however,
+differed from them in so far to its advantage as it contained no
+falsification. A new edition of the German White Book is in
+preparation."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Payer then discussed the revelations of Dr. M�hlon, at present in
+Switzerland. Dr. M�hlon, an ex-Director of Krupps, had made a statement
+according to which he had a conference with two exalted personages in
+the latter half of July, 1914, from which it appeared that it was not
+the intention of the German Government to maintain peace. The Vice
+Chancellor alleged that Dr. M�hlon was suffering from neurasthenia at
+the time, and that no importance could be attached to his revelations,
+since the two gentlemen referred to had denied making the statements
+attributed to them.</p>
+
+<p>In the subsequent discussion disapproval of Prince Lichnowsky's attitude
+was expressed, but some speakers urged the need for the reorganization
+of Germany's diplomatic service.</p>
+
+<p>According to the report of the debate published by the Neues Wiener
+Journal, Herr von Payer himself acknowledged that prior to the war
+German diplomacy had made some bad blunders, and that reform was
+urgently needed. Herr M�ller (Progressive) sharply criticised Herr von
+Flotow, who was German Ambassador in Rome at the beginning of the war,
+and charged him with having declared to the Marquis di San Giuliano,
+then Italian Foreign Minister, that there existed for Italy no casus
+foederis. Prince B�low also came in for severe criticism.</p>
+
+<p>A bill indicting Prince Lichnowsky for treason has been introduced into
+the Reichstag and is still pending at this writing. A dispatch from
+Geneva on April 21 stated that he was virtually a prisoner in his
+ch�teau in Silesia. According to the D�sseldorfer Tageblatt the Prince
+was under police surveillance because of the discovery of a plan for his
+escape to Switzerland.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>Comments of German Publicists</h2>
+
+
+<p>Immediately following the sending out by the semi-official Wolff
+Telegraph Bureau on March 19 of an account of the discussion in the Main
+Committee of the Reichstag on March 16 of the Lichnowsky memorandum,
+together with excerpts from that document, the editorial writers of the
+German newspapers began emptying vials of wrath upon the head of the
+former Ambassador in London. With the exception of the Socialist and a
+few Liberal newspapers, the press was practically a unit in condemning
+the Prince for his "treasonable and indiscreet acts" and in asserting
+that, although his "revelations" might be welcomed with shouts of joy in
+the allied countries, they would have no serious effect upon the
+fighting spirit of the German Nation.</p>
+
+<p>In trying to explain what prompted Prince Lichnowsky to write his
+memorandum for "the family archives," nearly all the German editors lay
+great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxvi" id="Page_xxvi">[xxvi]</a></span> stress upon his alleged personal vanity and his resentment at
+seeing his efforts toward strengthening the bonds between England and
+Germany made a grim joke by the outbreak of the world war. The Prince is
+also called a simple-minded person, completely taken in by the deceptive
+courtesy of the British diplomats and possessing none of the
+qualifications necessary to make him a profitable representative of the
+Kaiser at the Court of St. James's. All through the comments, from
+extreme Pan-German to socialistic, runs a vein of sarcastic criticism of
+the peculiar "ability" shown by the German Foreign Office in picking its
+Ambassadors.</p>
+
+<p>All the Pan-German and annexationist papers take occasion to link up
+Prince Lichnowsky with Dr. von Bethmann Hollweg, the former Imperial
+Chancellor, and make the latter responsible for the appointment of the
+"pacifist" Prince. In doing this they renew all their old charges of
+weakness and pacifism against the ex-Chancellor, and intimate that he
+may be the next German formerly occupying a high place in the Government
+to write memoranda for his family archives. Some of the papers did not
+wait to write regular editorials about the memorandum, but interlarded
+their reports of the meeting of the Reichstag Committee with sarcastic
+comment and explanations. This was notably the case with the Vossische
+Zeitung, the leading exponent of reconciliation with Russia at the
+expense of Great Britain.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">REVENTLOW FURIOUS</div>
+
+<p>Although it has since been cabled that the Imperial Government was
+considering taking action against Prince Lichnowsky, and that Captain
+Beerfelde, a member of the German General Staff, was under arrest for
+having aided in the distribution of manifolded copies of the memorandum,
+there was no general demand in the German press for the trial of the
+Prince on a charge of high treason. The exceptions were a few extreme
+Pan-German organs, led by Count zu Reventlow's Deutsche Tageszeitung. On
+the other hand, a few of the Socialist and Liberal papers cautiously
+remarked that, after all, although what the Prince said about the
+responsibility for the war was altogether too pro-Entente, it might help
+the movement in Germany for a negotiated peace.</p>
+
+<p>Count zu Reventlow's article in the Deutsche Tageszeitung read, in part,
+as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"When a former Ambassador, and an experienced diplomat and official
+besides, writes an article and gives it to some one else in these times,
+there is, in our opinion, no excuse. It is a case of high treason and it
+makes little difference if here one might perhaps admit the view of its
+being high treason through negligence, because certainly no former
+diplomat and official ought to allow himself to be so negligent, and
+furthermore he must have known the great danger of his action, which, as
+has been said, was exclusively meant to be to his personal interest.
+Therefore, we cannot very well understand for what reasons the proper
+steps have not been taken already against Prince Lichnowsky. We use the
+characterization 'high treason' after due deliberation.</p>
+
+<p>"Prince Lichnowsky should not have allowed a single piece of his article
+to have left his hands, for he was very well able to judge that its
+publication outside of the German Empire was bound to have the effect of
+a treasonable act. The German cause will not be made any worse because a
+former diplomat, completely enchanted by English ways and never in touch
+with the essence of the English policy, places himself on the side of
+the enemies of the German Empire."</p>
+
+<p>The K�lnische Volkszeitung, the organ of the annexationist faction of
+the Centre Party, concluded its editorial thus:</p>
+
+<p>"One thing must be emphasized, Liebknecht, Dittmann, and other traitors
+have been jailed because of their high treason. Lichnowsky wanted to
+show to the whole world with his memorandum that Germany had sought,
+wanted, and begun the war because some persons did not wish to have him,
+Prince Lichnowsky, enjoy the success of the Anglo-German friendship.
+And, in so doing, Lichnowsky furnished our enemies with weapons, worked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxvii" id="Page_xxvii">[xxvii]</a></span>
+to our enemies' advantage. In time of war this is treason. The excuse
+that the fourteen copies that he had prepared were only written for his
+friends is ridiculous. Theodore Wolff of the Berliner Tageblatt is known
+to be one of Lichnowsky's most intimate friends. Who knows who the
+others may be! If a Social Democrat or an anarchist writes an inciting
+pamphlet in the form of a memorandum and doesn't distribute it himself,
+but has his friends do it, is he then exempt from punishment? If a
+person commits high treason and does not circulate the document himself,
+but lets others do it, or at least does not take precautions to see that
+it is not distributed, does he go free? The German people will hardly
+understand the decision of the Imperial Department of Justice as just
+rendered in favor of Lichnowsky. Even at the last session of the
+Prussian House of Lords Prince Lichnowsky sat beside his friend
+Dernberg. Will he appear in the House of Lords again?"</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">GERMANIA WAXED SARCASTIC</div>
+
+<p>Germania, speaking for the so-called moderate section of the Centre
+Party, called the Lichnowsky case "one of the most disturbing political
+events that we have experienced in the course of the war," and hoped
+that the courts would still have a chance to decide as to the Prince's
+guilt. The newspaper comment was in general spiced with much sarcastic
+comparison of the Lichnowsky case with the cases of Dr. Karl Liebknecht
+and Deputy Wilhelm Dittmann, and many remarks were passed regarding the
+difference between the treatment accorded to a member of the Prussian
+nobility and that suffered by commoners and representatives of the
+German working class. The Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, in ending its comment
+as to the paeans of joy with which the enemy press would be sure to
+welcome the publication of the Lichnowsky indictment, added the
+following item of news:</p>
+
+<p>"We learn on good authority, in the matter of the distribution of the
+Lichnowsky pamphlet, that in the beginning of February the police
+succeeded in seizing 2,000 copies of this pamphlet which the Neues
+Vaterland Society had had sent to it from South Germany through its
+business manager, Else Bruck. She, together with Henke, a bookseller,
+was placed under charges, but was acquitted by the court-martial,
+presumably because the court was not able to foresee the far-reaching
+result of the document."</p>
+
+<p>Under the heading "The Blind Argus" the Bremer Nachrichten opined that
+the man who should have been using a thousand eyes in London in the
+interest of Germany was blind, and it referred to the Lichnowsky case as
+"the most gloomy chapter in the history of German diplomacy."</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">PAN-GERMANS CAUSTIC</div>
+
+<p>Prince Lichnowsky's aversion to the old Triple Alliance drew much
+caustic criticism, especially from the Pan-German press, and excerpts
+from the semi-official Vienna Fremdenblatt and other Austrian papers,
+indignantly repudiating the Prince's charge that the Dual Monarchy had
+always regarded Germany as a shield under which it could make raids upon
+the Near East and otherwise stir up trouble, were eagerly reprinted in
+Germany.</p>
+
+<p>The Berlin Vorw�rts, speaking for the pro-Government Socialists, said:</p>
+
+<p>"The Ambassador returned with the feeling of a man who had seen his life
+work knocked to pieces. No doubt he felt at that time not very different
+from us German Socialists who had also worked for reconciliation with
+France and England and now, in the face of the unchained elemental
+forces, had to recognize our impotence with gnashing of teeth. In
+Germany, Prince Lichnowsky, who had believed in the possibility of
+agreement as every toiler must believe in his work, was greeted with the
+scorn of the Pan-Germans, who asserted that he had allowed himself to be
+softsoaped by the English and had never recognized their real
+intentions. * * *</p>
+
+<p>"And who can deny that this pamphlet casts a deep shadow upon the German
+foreign policy before the war? They can say that everything that
+Lichnowsky writes is the result of a diseased imagination<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxviii" id="Page_xxviii">[xxviii]</a></span> and that all
+is distorted and badly drawn. But this would merely mean that the most
+important Ambassadorial post that Germany had at her disposal was
+occupied by a fool and a blockhead. So, if one wishes to spare the
+German policy this compromising implication, the only thing to do is to
+take the memorandum and its author seriously and argue the points with
+him in an expert manner."</p>
+
+<p>The Vorw�rts concluded its comment by saying that, no matter how the war
+started, the German people were now determined to see that Germany was
+not defeated, but if Prince Lichnowsky's article would help the people
+of Germany to adopt a more conciliatory attitude toward England and thus
+hasten a negotiated peace, it was worth reading. Comment of other
+Socialist papers was along the same lines.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>Comment of an English Editor</h2>
+
+
+<p><i>Valentine Chirol, former foreign editor of The London Times, published
+the following in that newspaper on March 26, 1918:</i></p>
+
+<p>The publication of Prince Lichnowsky's memorandum furnishes evidence
+which even the most skeptical Englishman can hardly question of the
+peculiar system of dualism practiced by the German Foreign Office in the
+conduct of its diplomacy abroad. To those who had opportunities of
+observing its methods at close quarters this is no new revelation. The
+German Foreign Office has almost invariably conducted its diplomatic
+work abroad through two or more different channels, for it was always
+too tortuous and complicated to be intrusted to any single agent. There
+was the public policy directed toward more or less avowable ends to be
+propounded in official dispatches and conversations, and there was "the
+higher policy" to be promoted by means of discreet propaganda in the
+press and in society, and especially by appropriate appeals to the
+prejudices or interests of political and financial and commercial
+circles. Hence in the more important posts abroad it was the habit of
+the Wilhelmstrasse to rely mainly upon the Councilor of Embassy both to
+check the proceedings of the Ambassador and to manipulate all the
+complicated threads of its diplomatic network in which, for various
+reasons, it was deemed inexpedient for the Ambassador to get himself
+entangled, sometimes lest inconvenient disclosures might impair his
+influence with the Government to which he was accredited, and
+sometimes&mdash;as in the case of Prince Lichnowsky in London, and of the
+late Prince Radolin in Paris&mdash;because the Ambassador's personal sense of
+honor or his belief in the superiority of honorable statesmanship
+recoiled from the duplicity of "the higher policy." * * *</p>
+
+<p>I gained an insight into this complex machinery when I went to Berlin as
+correspondent of The Times, in the early years of the present Emperor's
+reign, through Baron Holstein, who was then known as the "eminence
+Grise" of the German Foreign Office from the commanding influence he
+wielded without the slightest ostentation of power. Owing to accidental
+circumstances, I came into much closer intimacy with him than he was
+wont to allow, not merely to journalists, but even to the chief foreign
+diplomatists in Berlin; and, subject to occasional intermittences when
+he resented somewhat ferociously my expositions of German policy, I
+maintained friendly relations with him long after I had ceased to reside
+in Berlin and he had himself outlived the Emperor's favor, for which he
+lacked the courtier's obsequiousness. He had been bred in the
+Bismarckian tradition; he had been a member of the old Chancellor's
+staff throughout the Franco-Prussian war, and had acted as his
+confidential agent when he was Councilor of Embassy in Paris under Count
+Harry von Arnim, whose sensational downfall he helped to bring about at
+Bismarck's behest. Although in other respects a man of great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxix" id="Page_xxix">[xxix]</a></span> integrity
+and with many admirable qualities, including, besides a certain rather
+cynical frankness, a thoroughly un-Prussian contempt for the gewgaws of
+official life, he was so saturated with the Wilhelmstrasse tradition
+that he was rather proud than otherwise of the unsavory part he had
+played toward his Paris chief, and had, therefore, the less hesitation
+in disclosing to me, when he thought it served his purpose, the
+existence of equally peculiar relations between Count Wolf-Metternich,
+then Councilor of Embassy in London, and the then Ambassador, Count
+Hatzfeld.</p>
+
+<p>In the face of such a confession as Prince Lichnowsky's, it would be
+amusing, were it not so pitiful, to see the same British politicians who
+were so egregiously duped by Germany's "secret" diplomacy before the war
+still venting their chagrin in the House of Commons, not on their German
+"friends," by whom they were constantly fooled, and are apparently quite
+prepared to be fooled again tomorrow, but upon the British Foreign
+Office, whose timely appreciation of the German menace they invariably
+derided and whose endeavors to forearm the country against it they did
+their utmost to defeat.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>Dr. Liebknecht's Indictment of Germany</h2>
+
+
+<p>A copy has been received of an open letter by Dr. Karl Liebknecht, the
+German Socialist, which proved an important factor in his
+imprisonment&mdash;which still continues. It bears date May 3, 1916, and was
+addressed to the Berlin District Court-Martial. The German authorities
+suppressed it, and made it a criminal offense for any one to be found in
+possession of it.</p>
+
+<p>After stating his view of the war as a struggle of the masses against
+the classes throughout the world, Dr. Liebknecht wrote:</p>
+
+<p>"The German Government is in its very social and political being an
+instrument for the exploitation and suppression of the laboring masses.
+It serves at home and abroad the interests of Junkerdom, capitalism, and
+militarism. It is the reckless representative of world political
+expansion, the strongest driver of competition in armaments, and
+therewith one of the weightiest exponents in the creation of the causes
+for the present war. It plotted this war in conjunction with the
+Austrian Government, and so burdened itself with the chief
+responsibility for its outbreak. It arranged this war while misleading
+the masses of the people and even the Reichstag.</p>
+
+<p>"Compare, for instance, the keeping silent about the ultimatum to
+Belgium, the making up of the German White Book, the alteration of the
+Czar's telegram of July 29, 1914, &amp;c. It seeks to maintain the war
+feeling in the nation by the most blameworthy means. It carries on the
+war by methods which, even regarded from the hitherto customary level,
+are monstrous. Such, for instance, are the invasion of Belgium and
+Luxemburg, poison gases, the Zeppelins, which are designed to destroy
+everything living, combatant or noncombatant, in a wide circle below
+them; the submarine trade war; the torpedoing of the Lusitania; the
+system of hostages and contributions, especially in the beginning, in
+Belgium; the systematic trapping of Ukrainian, Polish, Irish,
+Mohammedan, and other war prisoners in German prison camps for purposes
+of a traitorous war service and traitorous espionage in the interests of
+the Central Powers; the treaty of Under Secretary Zimmermann with Sir
+Roger Casement of December, 1914, as to the formation, equipment, and
+training of British soldiers from among the prisoners to form an Irish
+brigade in the German prison camps; the attempts to use civilian
+subjects of hostile States who were in Germany, by threatening them with
+forced internment, for war services of a treacherous character against
+their country; the dictum necessity knows no law, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxx" id="Page_xxx">[xxx]</a></span>&amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>"The German Government has tremendously increased the want of political
+rights and the exploitation of the masses of the people by the
+conditions it imposed under a state of siege. It refuses all serious
+political and social reforms, while by phrases about the supposed
+equality of all parties, about the supposed reform of political and
+social treatment, about the supposed 'neuorientierung,' &amp;c., it tries to
+maintain its hold on the masses of the people for the purposes of its
+imperialistic war policy. Because of its regard for the agragrians and
+the capitalists it has entirely failed in the economic provisioning of
+the population during the war, and it has prepared the road for making
+usury out of the people and their very needs. Today still it holds fast
+to its war objects of conquest, and therewith forms the chief hindrance
+to immediate peace negotiations on the ground of no annexations and no
+force of any kind. By the maintenance of the illegal state of siege,
+censorship, and so on, it smothers public knowledge of uncomfortable
+facts and criticism of its methods.</p>
+
+<p>"The present war is not a war for the defense of the national
+inviolability or for the liberty of small nations. From the standpoint
+of the proletariat it signifies only the most extreme concentration and
+increase of the political suppression, their economic draining, and
+militaristic slaughter of the life of the working classes for
+capitalistic and absolutist advantage. To this there is only one answer
+of the laboring classes of all countries, namely, a sharpened
+international class fight against the capitalistic Governments and
+dominating classes of all countries, for the removal of every form of
+suppression and exploitation, and for ending the war by a peace in the
+Socialistic sense. As a Socialist I am on principle an opponent of this
+war, as of the existing military system. The fight against militarism is
+a life question for the working classes. The war demands that the
+anti-militarism struggle shall be carried on with redoubled energy."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>Why the German Strike Failed</h2>
+
+
+<p>The attempt of the German workingmen last Winter to force a genuine
+peace movement by means of a general strike was promptly suppressed by
+the Government, which proclaimed a state of siege and threatened to
+force the strikers into military service. The underlying causes of this
+failure were explained in an instructive article in the Arbeiter
+Zeitung, the leading Austrian labor organ, from which the following is
+taken:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>The most important reason is undoubtedly the lack of unity among
+the German working classes. Even in Berlin the strike was not
+general; in many factories only part of the men went out, while
+the rest continued their work. In many cities, such as Munich,
+the workmen divided according to party; the Independent
+Socialists struck, members of the old party went on with their
+work. The most important industrial districts were only slightly
+affected. On the Rhine, in Westphalia, in Upper Silesia, even in
+Saxony, where lie the chief fortresses of independent socialism,
+only a small section struck. And even where they struck there
+was no kind of uniform action; in many towns, like N�rnberg, for
+instance, only a demonstrative strike of limited duration was
+decided upon, while elsewhere the intention was to hold out
+until the demands were obtained. In Berlin the pressmen struck,
+but not the compositors; one newspaper could appear, another
+not.</p>
+
+<p>It was always the weakness of German Social Democracy that it
+had least influence on the very sections of the working class
+whose strike would involve the greatest economic danger. The
+railway men now take the first place in the movement in England,
+America, France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, and now in Russia,
+too; only in Germany have they always stood outside the ranks of
+the class-conscious workmen. Of the miners and iron founders,
+too, only part is Socialist; a very considerable part follows
+the Centre and the Polish Nationalists. These facts explain the
+weakness of the movement, and also the energy of the Prussian
+authorities. The German Government would have hesitated to take
+violent measures if it had had reason to fear that such measures
+would provoke an extension of the movement to the railways,
+mines, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxi" id="Page_xxxi">[xxxi]</a></span> foundries. <i>The weakness of the movement is not a
+result of the energy of the authorities; on the contrary, only
+its weakness made that energy possible.</i></p>
+
+<p>How is it, then, that the German working classes, after three
+and a half years of unheard-of sacrifice and deprivation, are
+not capable of carrying through a struggle for peace with the
+same unanimity and clearness of aim as in many former struggles?
+This is, at least, partially due to the unfortunate development
+of German Social Democracy during the war. It has united with
+the Centre and the Liberals in the Reichstag bloc. It has thus
+scored various successes&mdash;the inclusion of progressive
+parliamentarians in the Government; the Reichstag resolution in
+favor of peace by understanding; the Reform bill in the Prussian
+Parliament. But this policy, which made Social Democracy the
+ally of bourgeois parties and the support of the Government, was
+fiercely attacked by the Opposition, which finally constituted
+itself as a separate party. * * * The bloc policy and action of
+the masses are mutually exclusive policies; those who themselves
+belong in the Reichstag to the majority which supports the
+Government cannot create the atmosphere in which alone a united
+action of the masses is possible. Nor, indeed, was that the
+intention of the German Social Democratic majority; <i>the
+mass-strike came without any act on its part and against its
+will</i>. When the strike was there, the leaders (of the majority)
+none the less placed themselves at its head; but the masses,
+having been educated for three and a half years to trust the
+Government's intentions, were naturally not willing to make
+heavy sacrifices in a struggle against this very Government.</p>
+
+<p>In other democratic lands such a situation can hardly arise.
+There the parliamentary majority decides the policy of the
+Government, and if the Socialists form part of that majority,
+they can effectively influence policy, and so there can be no
+idea of the working classes having to conduct a political
+mass-strike against this Government. In Germany it is different.
+Here the voting of the imperial budget and of the war credits is
+not much more than a theoretical confession of faith in the
+Fatherland; to belong to the Reichstag majority is not a
+guarantee of real political power. A few Generals, a few
+influential bank directors and big manufacturers can, under
+given circumstances, influence policy more effectually than the
+whole Reichstag majority. Thus, indeed, it can happen that the
+Government's policy seems very little influenced by socialism,
+though this latter supports the Government; that, consequently,
+a considerable part of the working classes decides upon a
+political strike against the Government which for three and a
+half years has enjoyed the support of the majority of working
+class Deputies in the Reichstag. And only thus can we explain
+the strange spectacle, inexplicable to any other country, that a
+Government in whose formation Social Democracy has had a share,
+and which at every division is supported by the Socialists,
+knows no other means of meeting a strike save by forbidding
+meetings, introducing a state of siege and militarizing! The
+bloc policy is dangerous everywhere; but these dangers are
+incomparably greater in the classic land of Government by
+authority (Obrigkeitsregierung) than in the democratic
+countries. The unedifying picture which German Social Democracy
+presents today is at bottom the result of German sham democracy,
+of the poverty and backwardness of German political life.</p>
+
+<p>But, in spite of all, we hope that even the German strike will
+not have an unfavorable effect on future development. Many a
+struggle which had to end without tangible success has, later
+on, proved fruitful after all! So it will be this time. The
+German Government did not have to give the workmen any definite
+assurances; but it had learned that every extension of the war
+provokes the gravest social dangers; and if this time it still
+found it easy to dispose of the strike, because a large section
+of the working classes still trusts in it, all its force
+(Machtmittel) would avail it nothing, if the whole German
+working class once acquired the conviction that the Government
+is prolonging the war for the sake of Pan-German lust of
+conquest. </p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;">
+<a href="images/i701.png"><img src="images/i701-t.png" width="250" height="120" alt="" title="" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxii" id="Page_xxxii">[xxxii]</a></span></p>
+<h2>Last Fight of the Mary Rose</h2>
+
+<h3>A British Naval Episode</h3>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>The following story of how the little Mary Rose, a British
+destroyer, went down with colors flying, when, in October, 1917,
+she fought against overwhelming enemy forces, has been compiled
+from official sources:</i> </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The Mary Rose left a Norwegian port in charge of a westbound convoy of
+merchant ships in the afternoon of Oct. 16, 1917. At dawn on the 17th
+flashes of gunfire were sighted astern. The Captain of the Mary Rose,
+Lieut. Commander Charles Fox, who was on the bridge at the time,
+remarked that he supposed it was a submarine shelling the convoy, and
+promptly turned his ship to investigate. All hands were called to action
+stations. The Mary Rose had increased to full speed, and in a short time
+three light cruisers were sighted coming toward them at high speed out
+of the morning mist. The Mary Rose promptly challenged, and, receiving
+no reply, opened fire with every gun that would bear at a range of about
+four miles. The German light cruisers appeared to be nonplused by this
+determined single-handed onslaught, as they did not return the fire
+until the range had closed to three miles.</p>
+
+<p>They then opened fire, and the Mary Rose held gallantly on through a
+barrage of bursting shell until only a mile separated her from the
+enemy. Up to this point the German marksmanship was poor, but as the
+British destroyer turned to bring her torpedo tubes to bear a salvo
+struck her, bursting in the engine room and leaving her disabled, a log
+on the water. All guns, with the exception of the after one, were out of
+action and their crews killed or wounded, but the after gun continued in
+action, under the direction of Sub-Lieutenant Marsh, R. N. V. R., as
+long as it would bear. The Captain came down from the wrecked bridge and
+passed aft, encouraging and cheering his defeated men. He stopped beside
+the wrecked remains of the midship gun and shouted to the survivors of
+its crew: "God bless my heart, lads, get her going again; we're not
+done yet!" The enemy was now pouring a concentrated fire into the
+motionless vessel. One of the boilers, struck by a shell, exploded, and
+through the inferno of escaping steam, smoke, and the vapor of bursting
+shell came that familiar, cheery voice: "We're not done yet."</p>
+
+<p>As the German light cruisers sped past, two able seamen, (French and
+Bailey,) who alone had survived among the torpedo tubes' crews, on their
+own initiative laid and fired the remaining torpedo. French was killed
+immediately and Bailey badly wounded. Realizing that the enemy had
+passed ahead, and that the four-inch gun could no longer be brought to
+bear on them, the Captain went below and set about destroying his
+ciphers. The First Lieutenant, (Lieutenant Bavin,) seeing one of the
+light cruisers returning toward them, called the gunner (Mr. Handcock)
+and bade him sink the ship. The Captain then came on deck and gave the
+order "Abandon ship." All the boats had been shattered by shellfire at
+their davits, but the survivors launched a Carley raft and paddled clear
+of the ship. The German light cruiser detailed to administer the coup de
+grace then approached to within 300 yards and poured a succession of
+salvos into the already riddled hull.</p>
+
+<p>The Mary Rose sank at 7:15 A. M. with colors flying. The Captain, First
+Lieutenant, and gunner were lost with the ship, but the handful of
+survivors, in charge of Sub-Lieutenant J. R. D. Freeman, on the Carley
+raft, fell in some hours later with a lifeboat belonging to one of the
+ships of the convoy. Sailing and rowing, they made the Norwegian coast
+some forty-eight hours later, and were tended with the utmost kindness
+by the Norwegian authorities.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3>
+
+<p>The images are small "thumbnails". Click on an image
+to see a large, high-resolution version.</p>
+
+<p>Obvious errors of punctuation and diacritics repaired.</p>
+
+<p>Hyphen removed: breech[-]blocks (p. 356).</p>
+
+<p>Hyphen added: ocean[-]going (p. 346).</p>
+
+<p>Contents: CHRCHMAN's changed to CHURCHMAN's (GERMAN CHURCHMAN'S DEFENSE
+OF POISON GAS).</p>
+
+<p>p. 200: "hyopthetical" changed to "hypothetical" (a hypothetical
+straight line of fifty miles).</p>
+
+<p>p. 201: "Grivenes" changed to "Grivesnes" (two villages near Grivesnes,
+driving out the French).</p>
+
+<p>p. 205: "Friedrichafen" changed to "Friedrichshafen" (airdrome at
+Friedrichshafen on April 15).</p>
+
+<p>p. 207: "self-sacrifce" changed to "self-sacrifice" (self-sacrifice of
+our troops).</p>
+
+<p>p. 227: "Mauvitz" changed to "Marvitz" (von Below, von der Marwitz, and
+von Hutier).</p>
+
+<p>p. 229: "wringled" changed to "wrinkled" (of age, with her white,
+wrinkled face).</p>
+
+<p>p. 233: "inititative" changed to "initiative" (on his own initiative).</p>
+
+<p>p. 234: "Conmmander" changed to "Commander" (his appointment as
+Commander in Chief).</p>
+
+<p>p. 242: "asumed" changed to "assumed" (he assumed command of the group).</p>
+
+<p>p. 256: "Sugeon" changed to "Surgeon" (Surgeon General's office).</p>
+
+<p>p. 263: "inportant" changed to "important" (delivered an important
+address).</p>
+
+<p>p. 266: "reinforecements" changed to "reinforcements" (to hurry up
+reinforcements).</p>
+
+<p>p. 273: "indepedent" changed to "independent" (a great self-conscious
+nation independent).</p>
+
+<p>p. 279: "writen" changed to "written" (a book written since the
+beginning of the war).</p>
+
+<p>p. 279: "goverment" changed to "government" (system of government).</p>
+
+<p>p. 280: "determinined" changed to "determined" (we are determined).</p>
+
+<p>p. 280: "consclusive" changed to "conclusive" (as clear and conclusive).</p>
+
+<p>p. 291: "thown" changed to "thrown" (a line was thrown to a raft).</p>
+
+<p>p. 307: "centrail" changed to "central" (the central railway station).</p>
+
+<p>p. 315: Duplicate line removed: (In his own words, "Without prejudice
+to").</p>
+
+<p>p. 316: "forseen" changed to "foreseen" (whose collapse could be
+foreseen).</p>
+
+<p>p. 330: "worrried" changed to "worried" (worried the Governments).</p>
+
+<p>p. 334: "carrrying" changed to "carrying" (carrying only four heavy guns
+each).</p>
+
+<p>p. 346: "thee" changed to "three" (the construction of three new
+national shipyards).</p>
+
+<p>p. 348: "114" changed to "1914" (Since 1914 the community).</p>
+
+<p>p. 353: "essentual" changed to "essential" (to the last moment was
+essential).</p>
+
+<p>p. 354: "threfore" changed to "therefore" (therefore, I decided to
+continue the operations).</p>
+
+<p>p. 354: "Burlon" changed to "Bourlon" (on the outskirts of Bourlon
+Wood).</p>
+
+<p>p. 354: "Fontaine-notre-Dane" changed to "Fontaine-notre-Dame" (to
+include the recapture of Fontaine-notre-Dame).</p>
+
+<p>p. 354: "know" changed to "known" (known as Tadpole Copse).</p>
+
+<p>p. i: "Her" changed to "Herr" (Herr von Bethmann Hollweg).</p>
+
+<p>p. v: Lines rearranged in the last paragraph of the section "BACKED
+WRONG HORSES".</p>
+
+<p>p. vii: "by" changed to "my" (begun before my arrival).</p>
+
+<p>p. viii: "or" changed to "of" (the valuable islands of San Thom� and
+Principe).</p>
+
+<p>p. x: "burder" changed to "burden" (lighten the burden of armament).</p>
+
+<p>p. xi: "Eir" changed to "Sir" (Sir Edward Grey's).</p>
+
+<p>p. xiii: The brackets and question mark are in the original:
+"when we [moved?] against France".</p>
+
+<p>p. xv: "protocal" changed to "protocol" (in the Austrian protocol).</p>
+
+<p>p. xvi: "me" changed to "we" (would we mix ourselves up).</p>
+
+<p>p. xxv: "Her" changed to "Herr" (Herr von Payer).</p>
+
+<p>p. xxv: "nwspapers" changed to "newspapers" (a few Liberal
+newspapers).</p>
+
+<p>p. xxvii: "anrachist" changed to "anarchist" (If a Social Democrat or
+an anarchist).</p>
+
+<p>p. xxx: "oconomic" changed to "economic" (in the economic
+provisioning).</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Current History: A Monthly Magazine of
+the New York Times, May 1918, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CURRENT HISTORY: NY TIMES, MAY 1918 ***
+
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+</body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,16310 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Current History: A Monthly Magazine of the
+New York Times, May 1918, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Current History: A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times, May 1918
+       Vol. VIII, Part I, No. 2
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: February 2, 2012 [EBook #38750]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CURRENT HISTORY: NY TIMES, MAY 1918 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Moti Ben-Ari and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: PRESIDENT WILSON
+The first portrait of President Wilson since America entered the war,
+taken at the White House March 19, 1918
+((C) _Sun Printing and Publishing Association_)]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: FERDINAND FOCH
+Generalissimo of the allied armies on the western front]
+
+
+
+
+CURRENT HISTORY
+
+_A Monthly Magazine of_ =The New York Times=
+
+Published by The New York Times Company, Times Square, New York, N. Y.
+
+    Vol. VIII.} No. 2                               25 Cents a Copy
+    Part I.   }                 May, 1918           $3.00 a Year
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+                                                                    PAGE
+    CURRENT HISTORY CHRONICLED                                       191
+
+    THE BATTLE OF PICARDY: A Military Review                         197
+       The British Reverses and Their Causes By a Military Observer  205
+
+    FOUR EPIC WEEKS OF CARNAGE                      By Philip Gibbs  209
+      How General Carey Saved Amiens                                 219
+      Battle Viewed From the French Front           By G. H. Perris  221
+      Caring for Thousands of Refugees                               228
+
+    PROGRESS OF THE WAR: Chronology to April 18                      231
+
+    RUSSIA UNDER GERMAN DOMINATION                                   235
+      The Czar's Loyalty to the Allies: An Autograph Letter          239
+
+    PERSHING'S ARMY UNDER GENERAL FOCH                               240
+      Our War Machine in New Phases                                  243
+      Shortage in Aircraft Production                                245
+
+    AMERICA'S FIRST YEAR OF WAR                                      247
+      War Department's Improved System          By Benedict Crowell  254
+      The Surgeon General's Great Organization   By Caswell A. Mayo  256
+
+    WAR WORK OF THE AMERICAN RED CROSS                               258
+
+    GREAT BRITAIN FACES A CRISIS              By David Lloyd George  263
+
+    RUSSIA AND THE ALLIES                      By Arthur J. Balfour  272
+
+    PRESIDENT WILSON ON THE RUSSIAN TREATIES                         275
+
+    AMERICAN LIBERTY'S CRUCIAL HOUR             By William E. Borah  278
+
+_Contents Continued on Next Page_
+
+Copyright, 1918, by The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.
+Entered at the Post Offices in New York and in Canada as Second Class
+Matter.
+
+    DEFENDING THE WORLD'S RIGHT TO DEMOCRACY   By J. Hamilton Lewis  281
+       Messenger Dogs in the German Army                             283
+
+    FULL RECORD OF SINKINGS BY U-BOATS           By Sir Eric Geddes  284
+        Admiralty Summary of Shipping Losses                         286
+        The Month's Submarine Record                                 289
+
+    TYPICAL U-BOAT METHODS: British Admiralty Records                290
+        The Story of an Indomitable Captain        By Joseph Conrad  292
+
+    THE NAVAL DEFENSE OF VENICE                                      293
+        Venice Under the Grim Shadow                                 299
+
+    TAKING OVER THE DUTCH SHIPS                                      303
+
+    AIR RAIDS ON PARIS AND LONDON                                    305
+        The Tale of Zeppelin Disasters                               309
+
+    PARIS BOMBARDED BY LONG-RANGE GUNS                               310
+
+    THE IRISH GUARDS                             By Rudyard Kipling  313
+
+    THE GUILT OF GERMANY: Prince Lichnowsky's Memorandum             314
+        Reply of Former Foreign Minister von Jagow                   320
+
+    COUNT CZERNIN ON PEACE TERMS                                     323
+        Great Britain's Reply to Count Czernin                       327
+
+    AUSTRO-FRENCH "PEACE INITIATIVE" CONTROVERSY                     328
+
+    A REVIEW OF THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND      By Thomas G. Frothingham  334
+        Charts of Battle of Jutland                                  332
+
+    GERMAN CHURCHMAN'S DEFENSE OF POISON GAS                         343
+
+    GREAT BRITAIN'S WAR WORK IN 1917                                 344
+
+    THE BATTLE OF CAMBRAI: Official Report    By Field Marshal Haig  349
+
+    THE EUROPEAN WAR AS SEEN BY CARTOONISTS: 42 Cartoons             361
+
+ROTOGRAVURE ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                           PAGE
+    PRESIDENT WILSON                  _Frontis_
+    FERDINAND FOCH, GENERALISSIMO         "
+    BENEDICT CROWELL                        204
+    AMERICAN ARMY CHIEFS                    205
+    BRITISH COMMANDERS IN FRANCE            220
+    GERMAN COMMANDERS IN FRANCE             221
+    UNITED STATES CONGRESS                  236
+    AMERICAN FIRST AID STATION              237
+    REPRESENTATIVES OF CENTRAL POWERS       268
+    PANORAMA OF VENICE                      269
+    HENRY P. DAVISON                        284
+    ACTUAL SURRENDER OF JERUSALEM           285
+    CAMP ZACHARY TAYLOR                     316
+    VIEW OF CAMP SHERMAN                    317
+    GRAVES OF TUSCANIA VICTIMS              332
+    LIBERTY LOAN POSTER                     333
+
+
+
+
+CURRENT HISTORY CHRONICLED
+
+[PERIOD ENDED APRIL 19, 1918.]
+
+AN EPOCH-MAKING MONTH
+
+
+The month covered by this issue of CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE was the most
+fateful in a military way since the beginning of the war. The most
+desperate and sanguinary battle in history, begun with the great German
+offensive in France March 21, 1918, was at its most furious phase when
+these pages were printed. No less than 4,000,000 men were engaged in
+deadly combat on a front of 150 miles.
+
+General Foch, by agreement of the Allies, was made Commander in Chief of
+the allied armies in France, March 28. This decision, long regarded as
+of supreme importance, was hastened by the new emergency. The United
+States on April 16 officially approved the appointment. The result of
+the change was to co-ordinate all the allied forces in France into one
+army. Early fruits of this new unity were apparent in the news of April
+19, when it was announced that heavy French reinforcements had come that
+day to the relief of the hard-pressed and weary British troops in
+Flanders, and had halted the Germans; the same day the French
+counterattacked in the Amiens region and thrust the Germans back, thus
+giving a brighter aspect to the entire situation in France. The story of
+the battle of Picardy up to April 18 is told elsewhere in detail.
+
+The separation of Russian provinces from the old Russian Empire
+continued during the month; the resistance of the Bolsheviki in Finland,
+the Ukraine, Lithuania, the Caucasus, and other provinces that had been
+alienated either by secession or by German acquisition grew feebler as
+the weeks elapsed, and the stability of the new republics under German
+suzerainty was correspondingly strengthened.
+
+The chief political events were the exposure by France of Austria's
+duplicity in seeking a separate peace, which caused the downfall of the
+Austrian Premier, and the application of conscription to Ireland, to be
+followed by home rule. On April 18 Lord Derby was appointed British
+Ambassador to France, succeeding Lord Bertie, and was succeeded as
+Secretary of State for War by Viscount Milner. Austen Chamberlain, son
+of the late Joseph Chamberlain, was made a member of the War Cabinet.
+
+Secretary of War Baker, who had left for England, France, and Italy
+early in March, returned on April 17 and spoke in enthusiastic terms of
+the American forces abroad. He expressed firm confidence in the ultimate
+defeat of Germany.
+
+General Pershing offered all his available forces to General Foch when
+the storm of the German offensive broke, and many American units were at
+once brigaded with British and French forces. The appeals of France and
+Great Britain for man power met with instant response on this side of
+the Atlantic, and every ton of available shipping was employed in the
+transport of American troops. Developments in this regard gave promise
+of fulfilling the War Department's expressed intention of having an
+American Army of 1,500,000 in France by the end of 1918.
+
+All American war preparations were visibly speeded up as the situation
+grew more serious for the Allies, and the spirit of the nation became
+one of widespread determination to win, even though it should require
+years of warfare and the entire physical and financial resources of the
+United States.
+
+
+EXECUTION OF BOLO PACHA
+
+Bolo Pacha, who was convicted by a French court-martial of treason, was
+executed at Vincennes April 17 by a firing squad. The chaplain, after
+the execution, found lying over Bolo's heart two embroidered
+handkerchiefs, which had been pierced by the bullets. One was given to
+Bolo's brother and the other to his widow.
+
+A few days before the execution the condemned man sent for the public
+prosecutor, and, it is stated, made important revelations regarding
+former Premier Caillaux and Senator Humbert, against whom similar
+charges are pending.
+
+It was proved that Bolo Pacha, whose real name was Paul Bolo, was a poor
+man before the war, a pensioner of his brother, Mgr. Bolo, a prominent
+French prelate. The testimony revealed that $1,683,000 had been
+transferred by the Deutsche Bank at Berlin on the recommendation of
+Ambassador Bernstorff to Bolo's credit in New York for the purchase of
+Senator Humbert's newspaper, the Paris Journal; Bolo made an offer of
+$400,000 for Le Figaro, bought 1,500 shares in Le Rappel for $34,000,
+and even approached Clemenceau's Homme Enchaine. Papers he got control
+over included Paris-Midi, Le Cri de Paris, a satirical weekly, and La
+Revue, of which Jean Finot is editor. The curious thing about the method
+employed to make these newspapers serve German interests was that under
+Bolo's control they became exponents of "defeatism" carried to the
+extreme of ultra-French militarism. The explanation is that the German
+war party could use quotations from the Bolo papers to persuade the
+German people that their existence was threatened by the French, thereby
+justifying the German Government and rekindling in the people the war
+fervor which was fast oozing out of them. Then, when the opportune
+moment came, the same ultra-patriotic papers, so it was expected, would
+suddenly turn pacifist and thereby stir up dissension in the nation and
+destroy the efficiency of its war measures.
+
+
+THE NUMBERS IN THE WORLD'S GREATEST BATTLES
+
+THE stupendous character of the battle of Picardy is realized when the
+numbers engaged in previous noted battles of history are considered.
+Setting aside the mythical five millions of the army of Xerxes and the
+ten thousand of Xenophon, accurate figures in Greece are recorded for
+the campaigns of Philip of Macedon and his more famous son. At
+Cheronaea, fought in B. C. 338, Philip had 30,000 infantry and 2,000
+cavalry, the latter led by Alexander, then 18 years old. Alexander's
+cavalry attack on the flank won the battle, driving back the Athenians
+and Thebans, who were slightly outnumbered. At Arbela, in October, 331,
+Alexander the Great, with 47,000 Macedonians, defeated a Persian force
+three or four times as great, piercing between the Persian left and
+centre. Pyrrhus of Epirus had, at Asculum, in the year 279, 45,000
+infantry against an equal number of Romans, but he had elephants,
+practically equivalent to artillery.
+
+Hannibal at Cannae, in 216, had 50,000 veterans against Varro's 50,000
+Romans, who were drawn up with their backs to the sea, and were thus
+unable to withdraw before Hannibal's overwhelming onslaught. Julius
+Caesar at Alesia had 50,000 Romans against 80,000 Gallic infantry and
+15,000 cavalry. At Pharsalus, in the civil war, the Pompeians, with
+60,000, were routed by the Caesareans with 25,000, losing 15,000, while
+Julius Caesar lost only 200. Augustus Caesar formed a standing army of
+300,000, his legions consisting of 3,000 heavy infantry, 1,200 light
+infantry, and 300 cavalry each.
+
+Genghiz Khan began with a small force of 6,000, with which he fought and
+conquered his father-in-law, who had 10,000. At the Battle of the Indus,
+Genghiz Khan commanded a huge army of 300,000 Tartars. At the battle of
+Karakin, in 1218, he led 700,000 Tartars against 400,000 Kharismians,
+completely defeating them. Oliver Cromwell's army, in its most complete
+form, numbered about 80,000. The army of Frederick the Great, at its
+highest point of efficiency, numbered 200,000, while the army of Louis
+XIV. numbered 240,000 men.
+
+In 1793, when Republican France was threatened with invasion, and Carnot
+was "organizing victory," the effective French forces probably numbered
+300,000, though the total number available under the newly introduced
+system of conscription was four times as many, about a million and a
+quarter. At the battle of Auerstadt-Jena, on Oct. 14, 1806, Napoleon had
+a French Army of 160,000, against some 140,000 Prussians. About this
+time Napoleon made the army corps the practical unit instead of the
+division, as formerly. The Grand Army, which invaded Russia in 1812,
+totaled 467,000, but this included 280,000 foreign troops. At the battle
+of Leipsic, a year after the retreat from Moscow, Napoleon, with
+155,000, faced 160,000 Austrians, 60,000 Prussians, and 60,000 Swedes
+under the recreant Frenchman Bernadotte, the ancestor of the present
+King of Sweden.
+
+At Waterloo, the French Army is said to have numbered 72,000, against
+whom were drawn up, at the beginning of the battle, 24,000 British and
+43,500 Dutch and Belgian troops. The Dutch and Belgians withdrew before
+the end of the battle, their place being taken by Bluecher's contingent.
+
+The forces commanded by George Washington were always numerically small,
+a few thousand only, and were in ceaseless flux. In 1790, the American
+Army consisted of 1,216 men. In the war of 1812, the invading force,
+which burned the national capital, numbered 3,500 men. At the beginning
+of the American civil war, the regular army numbered 15,300. Between
+April, 1861, and April, 1865, the total Federal forces enrolled amounted
+to 2,759,049, while the Confederates enrolled about 1,100,000, making a
+total of practically 4,000,000 from a population of 32,000,000; this
+would be equivalent to an army of from 12,000,000 to 15,000,000 with the
+present population of the United States. The total furnished for the war
+with Spain was 10,017 officers and 213,218 men.
+
+The Austrian Army at Sadowa numbered 200,000; the French Army at Sedan
+some 120,000. At the battle of Mukden, Russians and Japanese each had a
+force of about 300,000, the largest number in any modern battle up to
+that time, though greatly outnumbered by Genghiz Khan.
+
+
+EMPEROR CHARLES'S SEPARATE PEACE PLAN
+
+The disclosures regarding Austria's efforts to make a separate peace
+with France, which are dealt with elsewhere in this issue of CURRENT
+HISTORY MAGAZINE, took a more sensational turn April 11, 1918, when the
+following official note was issued by the French Government:
+
+_Once caught in the cogwheels of lying, there is no means of stopping.
+Emperor Charles, under Berlin's eye, is taking on himself the lying
+denials of Count Czernin, and thus compels the French Government to
+supply the proof. Herewith is the text of an autograph letter
+communicated on March 31, 1917, by Prince Sixtus de Bourbon, the Emperor
+of Austria's brother-in-law, to President Poincare, and communicated
+immediately, with the Prince's consent, to the French Premier:_
+
+    MY DEAR SIXTUS: The end of the third year of this war, which has
+    brought so much mourning and grief into the world, approaches.
+    All the peoples of my empire are more closely united than ever
+    in the common determination to safeguard the integrity of the
+    monarchy at the cost even of the heaviest sacrifices.
+
+    Thanks to their union, with the generous co-operation of all
+    nationalities, my empire and monarchy have succeeded in
+    resisting the gravest assaults for nearly three years. Nobody
+    can question the military advantages secured by my troops,
+    particularly in the Balkans.
+
+    France, on her side, has shown force, resistance, and dashing
+    courage which are magnificent. We all unreservedly admire the
+    admirable bravery, which is traditional to her army, and the
+    spirit of sacrifice of the entire French people.
+
+    Therefore it is a special pleasure to me to note that, although
+    for the moment adversaries, no real divergence of views or
+    aspirations separates many of my empire from France, and that I
+    am justified in hoping that my keen sympathy for France, joined
+    to that which prevails in the whole monarchy, will forever avoid
+    a return of the state of war, for which no responsibility can
+    fall on me.
+
+    With this in mind, and to show in a definite manner the reality
+    of these feelings, I beg you to convey privately and
+    unofficially to President Poincare that I will support by every
+    means, and by exerting all my personal influence with my allies,
+    France's just claims regarding Alsace-Lorraine.
+
+    Belgium should be entirely re-established in her sovereignty,
+    retaining entirely her African possessions without prejudice to
+    the compensations she should receive for the losses she has
+    undergone.
+
+    Serbia should be re-established in her sovereignty, and, as a
+    pledge of our good-will, we are ready to assure her equitable
+    natural access to the Adriatic, and also wide economic
+    concessions in Austria-Hungary. On her side, we will demand, as
+    primordial and essential conditions, that Serbia cease in the
+    future all relation with and suppress every association or group
+    whose political object aims at the disintegration of the
+    monarchy, particularly the Serbian political society, Narodni
+    Ochrana; that Serbia loyally and by every means in her power
+    prevent any kind of political agitation, either in Serbia or
+    beyond her frontiers, in the foregoing direction, and give
+    assurances thereof under the guarantee of the Entente Powers.
+
+    The events in Russia compel me to reserve my ideas with regard
+    to that country until a legal definite Government is established
+    there.
+
+    Having thus laid my ideas clearly before you, I would ask you in
+    turn, after consulting with these two powers, to lay before me
+    the opinion first of France and England, with a view thus to
+    preparing the ground for an understanding on the basis of which
+    official preliminary negotiations could be taken up and reach a
+    result satisfactory to all.
+
+    Hoping that thus we will soon be able together to put a limit to
+    the sufferings of so many millions of men and families now
+    plunged in sadness and anxiety, I beg to assure you of my
+    warmest and most brotherly affection.
+
+    CHARLES.
+
+The reply of Emperor Charles to the foregoing letter was in the form of
+the following telegram to Emperor William:
+
+    Clemenceau's accusations against me are so low that I have no
+    intention to discuss longer this affair with France. My cannon
+    in the west is our last reply.
+
+    In faithful friendship,
+
+    CHARLES.
+
+As a result of the publication of the letter, whose existence it is
+claimed was unknown to him, Count Czernin on April 15 resigned his
+portfolio as Foreign Minister and Premier, and accepted appointment as a
+Major General in the Austrian Army. He was succeeded by Baron Burian,
+who was Minister of Foreign Affairs from Sept. 15, 1914, to Dec. 23,
+1916, when he was succeeded by Count Czernin.
+
+It was authoritatively announced that the letter was communicated to the
+British, French, and Italian Premiers at a meeting which took place at
+St. Jean de Maurienne, April 19, 1917, and unanimously judged as
+insincere and intended to mask some subtle manoeuvre for stirring up
+friction between the Allies.
+
+The day before the letter was published Emperor Charles sent a telegram
+to Emperor William, in which he said:
+
+    I accuse M. Clemenceau of piling up lies to escape the web of
+    lies in which he is involved, making the false assertion that I
+    in some manner recognized France's claim to Alsace-Lorraine as
+    just. I indignantly repel the assertion.
+
+To this the German Emperor replied as follows:
+
+    Accept my heartiest thanks for the letter in which you repudiate
+    the assertion of the French Premier regarding your attitude
+    toward the French claims on Alsace-Lorraine as entirely baseless
+    and once again accentuate the solidarity of the interests which
+    exist between us and our empires. I hasten to tell you that in
+    my eyes there is no need whatever for such assurance on your
+    part, for I have not for a moment been in doubt. You have made
+    our cause your own; in like measure we stand for the rights of
+    your monarchy.
+
+    The heavy battles in these years clearly demonstrate this for
+    every one who will see. They have only drawn the bond closer.
+    Our enemies, who are unable to do anything against us in
+    honorable battle, do not recoil from the most sordid and lowest
+    means. We must put up with that, but all the more it is our duty
+    ruthlessly to grapple with and beat the enemy in all the war
+    theatres.
+
+After the publication of the letter the Austrian Government announced
+that it was "garbled" and intimated that portions of it were forged
+before it reached Prince Sixtus. The German press accepted the letter as
+genuine with caustic and hostile criticism. It was announced April 18
+that the original letter of the Emperor was in the possession of Prince
+Sixtus, who sent a copy of it to President Poincare.
+
+
+WHEN AUSTRIA RULED PRUSSIA
+
+Emperor Karl's effort to make a separate peace recalls the period,
+beginning with the Summer of 1849, when Austria and Prussia were
+literally at daggers drawn. Twenty-eight North German States had just
+formed a Prussian League, under the leadership of Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
+of Prussia. Austria, under the leadership of Franz Josef, organized a
+counterleague of South German States, and had the support of Nicholas
+I. of Russia, who had helped Austria to subdue Hungary. Schwarzenberg,
+the fighting man of the Austrian Confederation, announced his policy:
+"First humiliate Prussia, then destroy her." The practical collision
+between Prussian North Germany and Austrian South Germany came when the
+Elector of Hesse quarreled with his people. The Hessians appealed to the
+Council of the Prussian League, of which Hesse was a member, while the
+Elector of Hesse appealed to the Emperor of Austria. Austria and Prussia
+both set armies in movement, the Austrian force being mainly composed of
+Bavarian troops, and a kind of half-battle was fought on the frontier of
+Bavaria. But the Prussian Army was weak and inefficient, while Nicholas
+I. of Russia was open in his support of Austria. Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
+of Prussia met Schwarzenberg in a conference at Olmuetz on Nov. 28, 1850,
+and offered Prussia's submission to Austria. Austria then restored the
+old Diet and reorganized the German Confederation upon the basis of
+1815, the Federal act creating this confederation having actually
+antedated the battle of Waterloo by a week. In this confederation, which
+was composed of sovereigns, not of peoples, (thirty-four sovereign
+Princes and the four "free cities" of Hamburg, Bremen, Luebeck, and
+Frankfort,) and which met in the Federal Diet at Frankfort, the Austrian
+representatives presided, and Austria's pre-eminence lasted until the
+battle of Sadowa, in 1866, when the simultaneous attacks of Prussia and
+Italy brought about Austria's defeat.
+
+
+A UNION OF THE JUGO-SLAVS
+
+A public meeting held at Rome March 14, 1918, was addressed by Professor
+Salvemini, a distinguished historian, who advocated the policy of
+Mazzini that the Italians should ally themselves with the Balkan peoples
+in order to free them from Austrian and Turkish domination. The speaker
+opposed the teaching of Cesare Balbo, who advocated a free hand for
+Austria in the Balkans in return for the cession of the Italian
+provinces. The leading Serbians and numerous influential Jugo-Slav
+exiles from Austria-Hungary have indorsed Professor Salvemini's
+proposition, and a number of Italian Deputies and publicists have joined
+the movement.
+
+A conference under the auspices of the Serbian Society of Great Britain
+was held in London March 13, 1918, which was attended by the Executive
+Committees of the British-Italian League, the Anglo-Hellenic Society,
+and the Anglo-Rumanian Society. The following resolutions were
+unanimously passed:
+
+    1. This conference learns with gratification of the present
+    understanding between representative Italians and the
+    Jugo-Slavs, convinced as it is that it is in the vital interest
+    of both races that they should unite on the basis, as far as
+    practicable, of the principle of self-determination and in a
+    spirit of mutual toleration and friendliness as allies against
+    German and Austro-Magyar military domination.
+
+    2. The conference confidently hopes that such an understanding
+    will not weaken but strengthen the bonds of alliance which exist
+    between Serbia and Greece, and that it will be followed by a
+    similar amicable settlement of all outstanding questions between
+    Italy and Greece, so that the Eastern Mediterranean may present
+    a solid bulwark against the German Drang nach Osten.
+
+    3. The conference sends fraternal greetings to Rumania and
+    assures the Rumanian people that, whatever terms Rumania is
+    forced to accept from the enemy by the cruel exigencies of the
+    war, the British people will not cease to regard her as an ally
+    in spirit, and will not cease to strive for the attainment of
+    her national unity as one of the essential factors of a lasting
+    peace.
+
+A convention of Bohemians, Slavs, Jugo-Slavs, Rumanians, Serbians,
+Italians, and Poles met at Rome on April 10 under the Presidency of
+former Senator Ruffini, with prominent Italians and Frenchmen present,
+among them former Ministers Martini, Barzilai, Franklin, Bouillon, and
+Albert Thomas. Dr. Trumbitch, President of the Jugo-Slav Committee in
+Great Britain, also attended. It was the first assemblage of
+representatives of the nationalities that are opposed to Austrian
+dominion. The Mayor of Rome was a participant. The Italian and Polish
+representatives for the first time gave their adhesion to the Jugo-Slav
+aspiration. The following declaration was adopted:
+
+    1. Every people proclaims it to be its right to determine its
+    own nationality and national unity and complete independence.
+
+    2. Every people knows that the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy is an
+    instrument of German domination and a fundamental obstacle to
+    the realization of its rights to free development and
+    self-government.
+
+    3. The Congress recognizes the necessity of fighting against the
+    common oppressors.
+
+    The representatives of the Jugo-Slavs agree:
+
+    That the unity and independence of the Jugo-Slav Nation is
+    considered of vital importance by Italy.
+
+    That the deliverance of the Adriatic Sea and its defense from
+    any enemy is of capital interest to the two peoples.
+
+    That territorial controversies will be amicably settled on the
+    principle of nationality and in such a manner as not to injure
+    the vital interests of the two nations; interests which will be
+    taken into account at the peace conferences.
+
+The Polish delegates added their declaration that they consider Germany
+as the principal enemy of Poland, and that they believe that the
+disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is the only way through
+which they can obtain their independence from Germany.
+
+
+CAN A NATION BE WIPED OUT?
+
+If we pass by the ancient epoch when it was the custom of the conqueror
+to "take the city, and slay the people therein, and beat down the city,
+and sow it with salt," and come to more modern times, we shall find
+cause to question whether any people has been actually exterminated by
+war.
+
+Probably the worst devastation in modern Europe was that caused by the
+Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) when the Germans were fighting among
+themselves. Season by season, says the historian, armies of ruthless
+freebooters harried the land with fire and sword. The peasant, who found
+that he toiled only to feed robbers and to draw them to outrage and
+torture his family, ceased to labor and became himself robber and camp
+follower. Half the population and two-thirds of the movable property of
+Germany were swept away. In many large districts the facts were worse
+than this average. The Duchy of Wuerttemberg had 50,000 people left out
+of 500,000. Populous cities had become hamlets; and for miles upon
+miles, former hamlets were the lairs of wolf packs. Not until 1850 did
+some sections of Germany again contain as many homesteads and cattle as
+in 1618. So there is justification for the belief that Montenegro,
+Serbia, and Armenia will come back again to health and strength.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On March 21 an order was issued, applying to all of Great Britain,
+requiring all entertainments, including theatres, to close at 10:30 P.
+M., and forbidding any shop window lighting. No public meals were
+allowed after 9:30 P. M. at hotels, restaurants, clubs, and boarding
+houses, and the tube and train services were reduced; also, by
+one-sixth, the amount of gas or electricity allowance.
+
+
+BRITISH MAN-POWER BILL.
+
+The British Man-Power bill, which provides for conscription in Ireland
+and was described in the important address by Premier Lloyd George,
+(Page 263,) passed its third reading in the House of Commons April 16 by
+a vote of 301 to 103. The Government announced that a bill giving home
+rule to Ireland would be introduced, and if it failed of passage the
+Government would resign. The Man-Power bill was passed in record time by
+the House of Lords and became a law by the King's signature April 19.
+Meetings of protest were held by Nationalists, who joined with Sinn
+Feiners, O'Brienites, Laborites, and Clericals in denouncing the
+measure.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An increase of 1,426,000 in the number of women employed since 1914 is
+shown in figures announced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The
+greatest increase was in industries, which took in 530,000 more women,
+but the largest proportionate increase was 214,000 additional women
+taken into Government service. Women have replaced 1,413,000 men since
+1914. Industrial and Government work has taken 400,000 women formerly
+employed in domestic service or in dressmaking.
+
+
+
+
+THE BATTLE OF PICARDY
+
+Military Review of the Greatest Battle in History From March 21 to April
+17, 1918 On March 21 the Germans began the great battle which military
+experts of both sides believe may decide the war. What was indicated in
+broad lines was that they wished to reach the Channel by way of the
+Somme and thereby isolate most of the British Army and the entire
+Belgian and Portuguese Armies in the north. A corollary to such an
+isolation would have been a movement south on Paris.
+
+As to the narrower lines of the German military plan, however, they
+became clear. The Germans struck from points where their railways
+allowed them the greatest possible concentration of troops and at points
+where the lines of the Allies, owing to the uncompleted battles of
+Flanders and Cambrai and the failures at Lens, St. Quentin, and La Fere
+last year, were relatively weak or could be out-manoeuvred with superior
+force of men and material.
+
+In the first phase of the battle, which carried the enemy down the Somme
+and its southern tributary, the Avre, to within six miles of Amiens, and
+to within forty-six miles of the Channel, they first eliminated the
+Cambrai salient so as to protect their northern flank and then
+concentrated their attack between St. Quentin and La Fere, near the
+point where the French and the British Armies joined. The flanks of the
+great salient thereby developed, however, made dangerous further
+progress down the Somme. On the north it was threatened by the Arras
+salient with its protecting ridge of Vimy; on the south by the watershed
+of the Oise and Aisne.
+
+Frontal attacks to eliminate the Arras salient and the, Oise-Aisne
+watershed having failed, a flanking movement against the former, which
+should also have strategic ramifications further north, followed as a
+matter of military expediency. Thus on April 9 the second phase began.
+Again they sought the line of cleavage between two armies, where
+differences of language and tactics made military cohesion
+difficult--between the British and the Portuguese on the Lille front. A
+successful penetration of this front for a distance of ten miles would
+have placed the enemy on the left-rear of Vimy Ridge in the south, and
+in the north on the right-rear of Messines Ridge, which protects Ypres,
+the capture of which by the British a year ago had made the subsequent
+battle of Flanders and their occupation of Passchendaele in the
+direction of Roulers possible.
+
+In other words, Vimy Ridge bears the same relation to Arras that
+Messines and its contiguous hills do to Ypres, but while the former
+ridge also flanks the great German salient stretching down to the Oise,
+the latter ridge flanks from the southeast the British salient at Ypres
+developed by the battle of Flanders.
+
+In this second phase of the great battle the German penetration, through
+military design or expediency, has so far been developed in the
+direction of Ypres; not in the direction of Arras.
+
+
+NUMBER OF MEN ENGAGED
+
+As to the number of men engaged on each side, experts at the front have
+been wide apart. It has been understood that Great Britain has in France
+3,500,000 rifles, and that of these 675,000 were on the front when the
+attack began, thus (if these figures are correct) leaving an army of
+reserve and manoeuvre of 2,850,000, minus 150,000 men on leave in
+England. It was understood that the number of French rifles available on
+the Continent is between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000, of which 1,575,000
+were at the front on March 21, leaving 2,425,000 for reserve and
+manoeuvre, which to the extent of 500,000 may have been available in the
+present battle, with the constant deploying of the French line in the
+south and the taking over of ten miles of the British line.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF THE BATTLE OF PICARDY. THE CHAIN LINE ON THE EAST
+SHOWS BATTLE FRONT MARCH 21, 1918. SHADED SPACE INDICATES GERMAN GAINS
+UP TO APRIL 17. BROKEN LINE SHOWS NEW FRONT AT THAT DATE. INTERVENING
+LINES INDICATE GERMAN POSITIONS MARCH 24 AND 26.]
+
+The potential strength of the Germans in the western theatre before the
+Russian revolution was estimated at 4,500,000 rifles, more than half of
+which were on the front. According to Sir Aukland Geddes, the British
+Minister of National Service, the secession of Russia added to the
+enemy's potential strength on the western front possibly as many as
+1,600,000 men, of whom 950,000 were Germans. If we add 1,000,000 to the
+4,500,000 German rifles in the west we have the 5,500,000 thus produced
+opposing, at least, 8,500,000 Allies, consisting of French, British,
+American, Belgian, Portuguese, Russian, and Polish troops. [The British
+official estimates on April 17 appear on Page 207.]
+
+Nevertheless, in nearly all the engagements of the battle thus far, the
+Allies appear to have been measurably outnumbered in a ratio varying
+from three to one to five to three. Up to March 26, aside from the
+French being constantly forced to augment their forces in the south,
+only the British 3d, 4th, and 5th Armies had been engaged, approximately
+numbering 600,000 rifles. Against these, up to the same date, the
+Germans had been able to concentrate ninety-seven divisions, or
+1,164,000 rifles, with special concentrations of 120,000 rifles against
+Bucquoy, on April 6, and 180,000 against the French between Lassigny and
+Noyon, on March 27 and April 3. On the subsequent development of the
+Lille front the Germans seemed to have been able to concentrate their
+forces, where they outnumber the British and Portuguese three to two.
+
+
+ENORMOUS GERMAN LOSSES
+
+It was inevitable, in the retreat forced on the British from their
+static positions, that a large number of men and guns should have been
+captured by the enemy--during the first rush the Germans claimed 75,000
+and 600 respectively. But the German casualties, owing to their massed
+formation, must, according to all accounts, be staggering, having
+probably already reached the Verdun maximum of 600,000. The attrition of
+their war material must also be enormous. And just as the entire armies
+of the Allies outnumber the enemy eight to five, it may be estimated
+that their material, actual and immediately available, is 30 per cent.
+greater.
+
+The most useful guide to the development of the plans of the enemy,
+their modification, transformation, and failure, either transitory or
+permanent, is physical geography. The initial impetus of the assault
+carried the Germans with "shock" and alternating forces beyond a
+hypothetical straight line of fifty miles extending from the Scarpe on
+the north to the junction of the Ailette and the Oise on the south. This
+was done without their moving their heavy guns, probably not even their
+mid-calibre guns, from their emplacements.
+
+
+FIRST DAYS' RESULTS
+
+By March 25 they had covered an area of about 500 square miles and had
+penetrated beyond Croisilles, Bapaume, Peronne, Brie, Nesle, and the
+forest northeast of Noyon. In the two following days they recovered the
+entire battlefield of the Somme, occupied the British railway junction
+and supply depot at Albert, drove the British four miles down the Somme,
+and took Roye and Noyon from the French, driving the latter across the
+Oise. On the 29th the French counterattacked and recovered eight square
+miles between Lassigny and Noyon, but west of this position the enemy,
+on a twelve-mile front with a penetration of seven miles, enveloped
+Montdidier. The next day the Germans gained some ground north of the
+Scarpe before Vimy Ridge and obliterated an ally salient with its vertex
+at Vrely by straightening their line between the Somme and Montdidier.
+
+From March 29 until April 8 the enemy consolidated his positions on a
+front which had been expanded from seventy-five miles, including two
+large salients, to 125 miles, including innumerable small ones,
+embracing a terrain of about 800 square miles west of the front as it
+was on March 20.
+
+On April 3 the enemy was strongly counterattacked by the British at
+Ayette and by the French at Plemont, near Lassigny. Similar
+counterattacks recovered Hebuterne for the British and Cantigny for the
+French on April 5; Beaumont Hamel and a strong position west of Albert
+for the British and a flanking position north of Aubvillers for the
+French on April 7.
+
+[Illustration: FLANDERS SECTOR OF THE GREAT BATTLE OF PICARDY. THE CHAIN
+LINE SHOWS BATTLEFRONT, MARCH 21, 1918. SHADED SPACE INDICATES GERMAN
+GAINS UP TO APRIL 17.]
+
+Meanwhile, April 4, the Germans had occupied Hamel and two villages near
+Grivesnes, driving out the French, and had made a furious assault upon
+the positions of the latter between the Luce rivulet and the Avre River,
+but without success. On the 5th they had made similar attacks at five
+points: they were successful against the British at Dernancourt, against
+the French at Casel; they were driven back with heavy losses by the
+British at Moyenneville and Villers-Bertonneux and by the French at
+Cantigny. On the 6th the enemy had made concentrated attacks at six
+points: south of Albert, beyond the Vaire Wood, between Hailles and
+Rouvrel, and on the Oise east of Chauny he gained ground, but his
+attempt to take Mesnil beyond Montdidier and Mount Renaud beyond Noyon
+were costly failures. On the 7th he attacked the British strategic
+position at Eucquoy and the French position east of Chauny. At the
+former place he was repulsed with heavy loss; at the latter his official
+chronicler asserted that he gained ground.
+
+
+ON THE LILLE FRONT
+
+Then north of the great salient just occupied, the Germans struck, on
+April 9, between the important British depots of Arras and Ypres, forty
+miles apart, concentrating on a twelve-mile front between Givenchy and
+Fleurbaix. During the two following days the concentration moved north
+five miles, penetrating between Armentieres and Messines. On the 11th it
+had developed as far north as Hollebeke, four miles southeast of Ypres,
+had partly enveloped Messines Ridge and entirely Armentieres and the
+town of Estaires on the Lys River. By the 12th it had swelled beyond
+Merville and Lestrem in the south, was threatening the railway junction
+of Bailleul in the middle ground, had gained a footing on Messines
+Ridge, and was investing the neighboring heights of Neuve Eglise and
+Kemmel in the north. By the morning of the 17th the German penetration
+had reached Locon in the south, the Nieppe Forest in the middle ground,
+and had occupied Bailleul and the eastern heights of the ridge in the
+north and threatened the western and more elevated heights of Mont Rouge
+and Mont Kemmel. Thus in eight days the Germans had developed a sector
+on the Lille front of originally twenty-two miles, a salient embracing
+an area of about 825 square miles with a new front of about thirty-five
+miles.
+
+
+SUMMARY OF THE FIGHTING
+
+The initial bombardment which preceded the first infantry advance
+against the Cambrai salient, at 8 o'clock on the morning of March 21,
+was widely distributed--as far north as Ypres and as far south as the
+Oise. It consisted mainly of gas and high explosive shells. The first
+infantry attack, which penetrated the first and second lines on a
+sixteen-mile front extending from Lagnicourt to Gauche Wood just south
+of Gouseaucourt, caused a retreat from the salient which had been left
+exposed to any superior attack since last December. In rapid succession
+the British positions, now indefinitely exposed on the north, were then
+attacked between Arras and La Fere, with tremendous concentration
+between the latter and St. Quentin. According to the German report of
+the 22d: "After powerful fire by our artillery and mine throwers our
+infantry stormed in broad sectors and everywhere captured the first
+enemy line."
+
+From the 22d until the 25th the Germans kept up a heavy fire upon the
+French front, mingled with raids, both land and air, evidently with the
+intention of preventing a movement of the French behind the lines as
+long as the German intentions remained uncertain.
+
+By the 24th, however, these intentions had been measurably revealed,
+both by documents found on prisoners and by the general tendency of the
+battle. On that day the enemy succeeded in crossing the Somme south of
+Peronne, while north of it he forced the British to retire from the line
+of the River Torille. On the same day Chauny and Ham were captured, the
+British 3d and 4th Armies were pressed behind Peronne and Ham, and the
+5th Army almost lost contact with the French. Here began that wonderful
+feat which has made the name of General Carey famous. On the 25th the
+enemy, by a series of drives en masse, managed to envelop Bapaume, while
+south of Peronne he made still further progress, "west of the Somme."
+
+[Illustration: DETAIL MAP OF NORTHERN SECTOR OF BATTLE OF PICARDY, WHERE
+HEAVY BLOWS WERE STRUCK BY THE GERMANS IN THEIR DRIVE TOWARD AMIENS AND
+THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. THE FIGHTING WAS ESPECIALLY HEAVY AROUND PERONNE
+AND ALBERT]
+
+[Illustration: DETAIL MAP OF SOUTHERN PORTION OF BATTLEFIELD, SHOWING LA
+FERE AND TERGNIER. WHERE GERMANS TRIED TO DRVE A WEDGE BETWEEN BRITISH
+AND FRENCH ARMIES. THE BATTLE SWEPT WESTWARD PAST ROYE AND MONTDIDIER]
+
+Nesle was lost and recovered several times by the French troops, who had
+already begun to relieve certain portions of the British right, with its
+unlucky 5th Army, as early as the 23d. In the engagements between
+Bapaume and Peronne the German armies of von Below, who had just
+returned from Italy, and von der Marwitz were personally directed by
+Crown Prince Rupprecht, and outnumbered the British three to two.
+
+[Illustration: DETAIL MAP OF THE STRUGGLE FOR ARRAS]
+
+
+THE STRUGGLE FOR ALBERT
+
+From the 25th to the 27th there was a lull in the north, evidently
+conceived by the Germans for bringing their heavier guns up to new
+emplacements, but in the south during this time the enemy heavily
+concentrated against the new French troops that were appearing upon the
+lengthening line and forced them to give up Lihons and Noyon. When the
+German pressure was renewed in the north Albert became the obvious
+objective, on account of the massed attacks made upon Ablainville near
+by. In the battle of the Somme, Albert, as a junction and depot,
+performed for the British in a minor degree what Cambrai later performed
+for the Germans in the present battle. On March 27 the British began a
+retreat on a wide front on both sides of the Somme, and in the evening
+Albert was evacuated. The next day came the great French counterattack
+between Lassigny and Noyon, already mentioned in connection with the
+geographical development of the battle.
+
+On the 28th the German attack was renewed on the Somme, where it pressed
+back the British near the Chippily crossing, and before Arras, where a
+frontal attack was repulsed with great enemy loss. This attack was
+renewed for three successive days. Then on April 3 the French again won
+near Lassigny and repulsed heavy German attacks around Moreuil.
+
+[Illustration: DETAIL MAP OF FLANDERS SECTOR AND BATTLE AROUND
+ARMENTIERES]
+
+On April 4 a frightful battle developed, where on a narrow ten-mile
+front, between Grivesnes, near the vertex of the Montdidier salient, and
+the Roye-Amiens road, the Germans sacrificed thousands of men in a vain
+attempt to drive a wedge between the newly discovered junction of the
+French and British Armies.
+
+From the 4th until the 7th, with the exception of the check the enemy
+met with at Bucquoy on the latter date, he made a reconsolidation of his
+lines, partially digging in on the sector before Amiens. The British
+positions around Arras, to the north of the great salient, which had
+again and again repelled frontal attacks, and the French positions on
+the Montdidier salient and the Oise-Aisne watershed on the south, now
+warned him of the danger of further progress west without augmented
+protection of his flanks.
+
+[Illustration: BENEDICT CROWELL
+Assistant Secretary of War and, during Mr. Baker's absence in Europe,
+Acting Secretary of War
+((C) _Harris & Ewing_)]
+
+[Illustration: AMERICAN ARMY CHIEFS AND EXPERTS
+Maj. Gen. George O. Squier,
+_Chief of Signal Corps_]
+
+[Illustration: Lieut. Col. Edward A. Kreger,
+_Judge Advocate General in France_
+((C) _Harris & Ewing_)]
+
+[Illustration: Col. Palmer E. Pierce,
+_Director of Purchases for the War Department_
+((C) _Harris & Ewing_)]
+
+[Illustration: Maj. Gen. Evan M. Johnston,
+_Temporary Commander at Camp Upton, N. Y._
+(_Press Illustrating Service_)]
+
+Hence, on April 9, the reason for his sudden concentration and attack on
+the Lille front, and particularly upon the junction of the British and
+Portuguese lines near La Bassee Canal to a point east of Armentieres,
+which is still in progress. The geographical as well as the strategic
+features of this phase of the battle have already been described.
+Complete success had marked the German efforts on this sector up to
+April 17.
+
+During the entire period covered the airplanes employed on the
+battlefront were in the ratio of seven to five in favor of the Allies,
+whose killings have been in the ratio of five to two. This, taken in
+connection with the destruction of a great German plant and airdrome at
+Friedrichshafen on April 15, is believed to place the dominance of the
+air with all it includes as to observation and the bombing of transport
+and arsenal in the hands of the Allies.
+
+
+
+
+The British Reverses and Their Causes
+
+By a Military Observer
+
+
+Premier Lloyd George in his speech of April 9 [printed on Page 263]
+compared the operations in Picardy with the battle of Cambrai. In fact,
+the best way to understand what happened in the initial stage of the
+great German drive is to remember the sequence of events in the German
+attacks on the positions near Cambrai in 1917. At Cambrai there was a
+mistaken confidence in the ability to hold the terrain, although German
+attacks were expected. When these German assaults came, one was a
+surprise, because there had been an unexpected concentration of German
+troops; and this attack broke through the defense to such an extent that
+it forced the abandonment of other positions, with losses of prisoners
+and guns. All these tactical elements were present at the beginning of
+the German drive in March, but on a much larger scale, because in this
+case the German assaults were made on a front of some fifty miles.
+
+The difficult problem for the Allies, in preparing to defend their long
+front against the expected German offensive, was to provide against the
+well-known German tactics of assembling superior numbers at the place of
+battle. In this war the German "massed attacks" have not been so much a
+matter of formation as of delivering streams of troops at the chosen
+point of contact to overwhelm their opponents with superior numbers at
+that point. These German tactics were again used in the attacks, begun
+on March 21, against the British front from southeast of Arras as far as
+La Fere.
+
+
+FIFTH ARMY'S DISASTER
+
+Here were in position the 3d British Army (General Byng) in the section
+toward Arras, and, on the right to the south, the 5th British Army
+(General Gough) in the region west of St. Quentin. On March 21 there was
+a tremendous bombardment followed by infantry attacks all along the
+line, which resulted in winning many first-line positions. This was
+nothing more than had been expected, and provision had been made against
+it; but, unfortunately, as at Cambrai, the Germans had been enabled to
+make an unexpected concentration of superior numbers against positions
+of the 5th British Army.[1] The assault of this overwhelming force broke
+through the British lines, even to the extent of involving engineers and
+laborers behind the lines, as at Cambrai, with the same disastrous
+results. This breakdown of the defense forced a retreat from the British
+positions far different from the retirement that had been planned--and
+it brought about the withdrawal of the whole 5th Army, resulting in what
+the British Premier called "crippling one of our great armies."
+
+After such a disaster, it was found necessary to abandon a great amount
+of terrain to maintain a junction between the two British armies.
+Peronne and Bapaume were soon captured by the Germans, and on March 27
+the Germans reported the occupation of Albert. On the same day Roye and
+Noyon were taken. On the next day the Germans had pushed as far west as
+Pierrepont and taken possession of Montdidier. As was to be expected in
+such a retreat, there soon was a large toll of British guns and
+prisoners. On March 29 the Germans claimed 1,100 guns and 70,000
+prisoners. They had also captured great quantities of material and 100
+tanks.
+
+These were heavy losses, but such losses were not the really serious
+element in the situation. A study of the map will show that, as the 5th
+Army retreated toward the west, there was left an increasingly long
+sector south of Noyon and curving north, west of Montdidier to the Avre
+River--and it was necessary that this dangerous opening should be
+protected by the French reserves. With extraordinary rapidity and
+efficiency French troops were rushed to this region, and the almost
+impossible task was accomplished of repairing the defense. But the drain
+on the French reserves had been heavy, and the necessity to use them for
+this purpose had neutralized a force that had been prepared for a
+different object against such a German drive.
+
+That these reserves were being held as a mobile army was so generally
+known that, it will be remembered, there was daily expectation of a
+counterattack by this force. There is no need to point out how great
+might have been the results of an assault upon an enemy exhausted by
+days of fighting; but any such plan was rendered impossible at the time
+by the need to use these troops to defend the new line, which was nearly
+as long as the original battle line at the time of the attacks on March
+21.
+
+
+FOCH MADE GENERALISSIMO
+
+Yet, on the other hand, from this battle's costly object lesson in the
+weakness of divided commands, came at last the appointment of the French
+General, Foch, (March 28,) to absolute command over all the armies of
+the Allies on the western front. For a long time a single command has
+been the one great need to insure military efficiency, and obtaining
+this is an offset against the losses in the battle which brought such a
+command into being.
+
+Throughout the war the great outstanding element of failure for the
+Allies has been lack of co-ordination. The varying aims of the different
+nations in the war have accounted for this to a great degree, but on the
+battlefields of France there should have been no delay in giving the
+command to the chosen General of the nation which had everything at
+stake. All the influence of the United States had been exerted for a
+long time in favor of a single command, and at once the unrestricted use
+of the American force in France was offered to General Foch.
+
+From what has been said of the course of the battle of Picardy, it can
+readily be seen that the task of the new Commander in Chief was one of
+the hardest ever given to a General on taking command of an army. After
+a disaster that had greatly impaired the availability of the troops of
+the Allies, General Foch was obliged to face the culminating effort of
+the greatest military machine in all history with a force placed under
+his command made up of armies that had never been in co-ordination--and
+after the collapse of one of these armies.
+
+Another serious element in the battle in Flanders is the fact that it
+has been necessary to send to this front also French troops from General
+Foch's reserves, making another drain upon these forces. The appointment
+of General Foch to the chief command literally on the battlefield was
+formally confirmed by the British and French Governments in the
+following notice which appeared in Le Temps April 14:
+
+    The British Government and the French Government have agreed to
+    give General Foch the title of Commander in Chief of the allied
+    armies operating in France.
+
+The United States, after having greatly helped to bring about General
+Foch's command, has given a large part of the American force in France
+to be brigaded with the allied troops wherever there are weak spots.
+These factors in the military situation may make it possible for General
+Foch again to assemble a mobile army for a counterstroke against the
+German offensive.
+
+
+PHASES OF THE BATTLE
+
+The first days of April saw the end of the initial phase of the great
+drive. There were other gains that brought the Germans uncomfortably
+near Amiens, but the character of the fighting was similar to that of
+the last three years on the western front. The new line of battle
+extended southwest from Arras, beyond Albert, to the west of Moreuil,
+about nine miles south of Amiens. It lay to the west of Pierrepont and
+Montdidier, curving to the south of Noyon and to the region of the Oise.
+The greatest penetration into the terrain of the Allies had been about
+thirty-five miles. The Berlin War Office announced the capture of 90,000
+prisoners and 1,300 guns in this first phase of the German offensive.
+
+Through the first week of April there was sharp fighting at different
+points in the line, north of Albert, east of Amiens, and on the River
+Oise. In this last region the French, in rectifying their new defense,
+lost 2,000 prisoners, but there was nothing accomplished in any combat
+that meant a tactical change in the general situation. Suddenly, on
+April 8, there were heavy bombardments in the region of La Bassee and
+Armentieres, which were followed by strong attacks on this front; and on
+April 9 General Haig reported: "Favored by a thick mist which made
+observation impossible, the enemy succeeded in forcing his way into the
+Allies' positions in the neighborhood of Neuve Chapelle." These attacks
+developed into a second stage of the great German offensive, and, as
+before, the shock of the initial surprise attack seriously impaired the
+British positions. Portuguese troops were reported as fighting with the
+British troops on this sector. On April 10 General Haig reported that
+the Germans had also forced back his line north of Armentieres. These
+reverses resulted in the capture of Armentieres on April 11 by the
+Germans, as the city was encircled from the north and south. The Germans
+claimed the capture of the garrison of 3,000 and forty-five guns. The
+battle had spread to a front of about twenty-five miles on April 12,
+with the Germans penetrating to Merville, eleven miles southwest of
+Armentieres. On this day the German official report claimed 20,000
+prisoners and 200 guns.
+
+
+A HISTORIC ORDER
+
+General Haig issued the following proclamation to his troops on April
+12:
+
+    Three weeks ago today the enemy began his terrific attacks
+    against us on a fifty-mile front. His objects are to separate us
+    from the French, to take the Channel ports, and to destroy the
+    British Army.
+
+    In spite of throwing already 106 divisions into the battle, and
+    enduring the most reckless sacrifice of human life, he has yet
+    made little progress toward his goals.
+
+    We owe this to the determined fighting and self-sacrifice of our
+    troops. Words fail me to express the admiration which I feel for
+    the splendid resistance offered by all ranks of our army under
+    the most trying circumstances.
+
+    Many among us now are tired. To those I would say that victory
+    will belong to the side which holds out the longest. The French
+    Army is moving rapidly and in great force to our support. There
+    is no other course open to us but to fight it out.
+
+    Every position must be held to the last man. There must be no
+    retirement. With our backs to the wall, and believing in the
+    justice of our cause, each one of us must fight to the end. The
+    safety of our homes and the freedom of mankind depend alike upon
+    the conduct of each one of us at this critical moment.
+
+The situation on April 17 was summed up by General Maurice, Director of
+War Operations in the British War Office, in these words:
+
+    The British Army is playing the role which it often has played
+    before. It is fighting a Waterloo while Bluecher is marching to
+    the battlefield.
+
+    The British Army is under a terrible hammering, but, providing
+    we stand that hammering without breaking down, and providing
+    Bluecher is marching to the battlefield, there is no reason for
+    discouragement.
+
+    The enormous task which the British Army has performed and still
+    is performing may be shown by a few figures. In this battle of
+    Armentieres the Germans thus far have engaged twenty-eight
+    divisions (392,000 men) and since March 21 they have engaged 126
+    divisions, (1,764,000 men.)
+
+    Of these the British Army alone has engaged seventy-nine,
+    (1,106,000 men,) the French alone have engaged twenty-four,
+    (336,000 men,) and the remainder, twenty-three, (322,000 men,)
+    have been engaged by the British and French together.
+
+    Of the German divisions which the British engaged, twenty-eight
+    have been fought twice and one thrice. Of the German divisions
+    which the French engaged, four have fought twice. Of the German
+    divisions which the French and British engaged together, fifteen
+    have been fought twice and one thrice.
+
+    It is unpleasant business standing the hammering, but so long as
+    we can stand it the only question to be asked is, What is
+    happening to Bluecher--what has become of the reserves?
+
+Thus the perilous situation stood at the time when this magazine went to
+press--April 19--with the British fighting fiercely in Flanders and
+waiting for Foch to strike with his reserve forces and relieve the
+strain.
+
+
+The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps
+
+By JOHN OXENHAM
+
+
+    _Great work! State work!--willingly done and well,
+    For the men who are doing so much for us
+    Ay--more than words can tell!
+    Right work! White work! faithfully, skillfully done,
+    But the whole of the soul of it will not be known
+    Till the war is properly won._
+
+    They mend the men; they tend the men;
+    They help them carry on;
+    They drop a little veil upon
+    The woes they've undergone.
+
+    They feed the men; they speed the men;
+    They make their daily bread;
+    They mend them while they're living,
+    And they tend them when they're dead.
+
+    There's many a lonely man out there
+    They've saved from black despair;
+    There's many a lowly grave out there
+    Made gracious by their care.
+
+    They toil for them; they moil for them;
+    Help lame dogs over stiles,
+    And do their best to buck them up
+    With cheery words and smiles.
+
+    They're just a little bit of home,
+    Come out to lend a hand.
+    They're gleams of warm bright sunshine
+    In a dreary, weary land.
+
+    They are sweet as pinks and daisies,
+    Just the sight of them is good,
+    When you've lived for eighteen months or so
+    In a sink of Flanders mud.
+
+    _New work, true work, gallantly, patiently done,
+    For the men who are giving their all for us--
+    Your brother, your lover, your son.
+    High work! Thy work, if truly to Thee it's done!--
+    But we never shall know all the debt we owe
+    Till the war is really won._
+
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[1] "And the Germans were actually in some parts within a few yards of
+our front line before any one knew of their approach."--Lloyd George.
+
+
+
+
+Four Epic Weeks of Carnage
+
+By Philip Gibbs
+
+_Special Correspondent with the British Armies_
+
+[Copyrighted in U. S. A.]
+
+    _The first phase of the battle of Picardy, which began March 21,
+    1918, was a vain attempt of the German forces to drive a wedge
+    between the French and British Armies at their point of
+    juncture; the second was an equally unsuccessful attempt to
+    wrest Arras and Vimy Ridge from the British; the third sought to
+    annihilate the British armies in Flanders and break through to
+    the English Channel. The last-named phase was still undecided
+    when this magazine went to press, (April 19.) All three phases
+    were vividly described from day to day by Philip Gibbs. The
+    following narrative is compiled from his dispatches to The New
+    York Times, which are available for Current History Magazine as
+    an affiliated publication of the Times:_
+
+
+Thursday, March 21.--A German offensive against the British front has
+begun. At about 5 o'clock this morning the enemy began an intense
+bombardment of the lines and batteries on a very wide front--something
+like sixty miles, from the country south of the Scarpe and to the west
+of Bullecourt in the neighborhood of Croisilles, as far south as the
+positions between St. Quentin and the British right flank.
+
+After several hours of this hurricane shelling, in which a great deal of
+gas was used, the German infantry advanced and developed attacks against
+a number of strategical points on a very wide front.
+
+Among the places against which they have directed their chief efforts
+are Bullecourt, Lagnecourt, and Noreuil, both west of Cambrai, where
+they once before penetrated the British lines and were slaughtered in
+great numbers; the St. Quentin Ridge, which was on the right of the
+Cambrai fighting, and the villages of Roussoy and Hargicourt, south of
+the Cambrai salient.
+
+_Friday, March 22._--The enemy flung the full weight of his great army
+against the British yesterday. Nearly forty divisions are identified,
+and it is certain that as many as fifty must be engaged. In proportions
+of men, the British are much outnumbered, therefore the obstinacy of
+the resistance of the troops is wonderful. Nine German divisions were
+hurled against three British at one part of the line, and eight against
+two at another. All the storm troops, including the guards, were in
+brand-new uniforms. They advanced in dense masses, and never faltered
+until shattered by the machine-gun fire.
+
+The enemy introduced no new frightfulness, no tanks and no specially
+invented gas, but relied on the power of his artillery and the weight of
+the infantry assault. The supporting waves advanced over the bodies of
+the dead and wounded. The German commanders were ruthless in the
+sacrifice of life, in the hope of overwhelming the defense by the sheer
+weight of numbers.
+
+They had exceeding power in guns. Opposite three of the British
+divisions they had a thousand, and at most parts of the line one to
+every twelve or fifteen yards. They had brought a number of long-range
+guns, probably naval, and their shellfire was scattered as far back as
+twenty-eight miles behind the lines. During the last hour of the
+bombardment they poured out gas shells, and continued to send
+concentrated gas about the British batteries and reserve trenches. The
+atmosphere was filled with poisonous clouds.
+
+_Saturday, March 23._--The enemy has been continuing his attacks all
+day along the whole battlefront and has made further progress at various
+points in spite of the heroic resistance of the British troops, greatly
+outnumbered owing to the enormous concentration of the enemy divisions,
+which are constantly reinforced and passing through one another, so that
+fresh regiments may pursue the assaults.
+
+
+ATTACK AT ST. QUENTIN
+
+The St. Quentin attack began along the whole sweep of the front with six
+hours' bombardment and intense gas shelling of the British batteries,
+and afterward an attack was launched by overwhelming numbers of German
+storm troops. The British battleline was held by some three divisions,
+from a point south of Pontruet to Itancourt, south of the St. Quentin
+Canal. Along this sector the enemy line had been held before the attack
+by three divisions also, but the night before the battle they were
+reinforced until eight German divisions [upward of 100,000 men] were
+massed for assault on a front of some 2,000 yards. I believe this is a
+greater strength than has ever been brought into battle on such a narrow
+front during the whole of this war.
+
+On this sector, the front north and south of St. Quentin, and opposite
+the British line further south, the enemy's intention, as is known from
+prisoners, was to reach the line of the St. Quentin Canal--or the Crozat
+Canal, as it is sometimes called--on the first day, and then advance in
+quick stages westward. The rate of progress was to be eight miles on the
+first day, twelve on the second, and twenty on the third.
+
+In spite of their intense gunfire of massed batteries, supported by
+Austrian howitzers and large numbers of heavy trench mortars, the
+Germans' plans were thwarted so far as this rapidity of progress was
+concerned.
+
+The heavy fog of the early morning on Thursday threw their assault
+troops at some points into wild confusion. The first line of assault,
+each division apparently advancing with two regiments in line, with two
+battalions in line, with the other strength of the divisions following
+in depth, with light machine-gun companies at intervals of 100 yards,
+and then heavy machine guns and field artillery, sometimes became
+hopelessly mixed up with the third and fourth lines, while right
+battalions were confused with left battalions.
+
+This fog and the British machine-gun fire, which caught the German
+waves, checked the pace of their onslaught and caused heavy losses.
+
+The German high command relied entirely on weight of guns and man power
+to break the British resistance, and the driving power of the whole
+monstrous machine was set in movement. The British line was not strong
+enough to hold all the old positions against such a tide of brute force.
+The men served their guns and rifles, but as attack followed attack and
+column followed column, and their own losses increased as the hours
+passed, they were ordered at certain points to give ground and fall
+back, fighting heroic rearguard actions from one position to another.
+
+
+BRITISH LINE BENDS
+
+The main attack, just south of St. Quentin, was directed against
+Urvillers and Essigny, and the enemy forced his way through these places
+by great drives. The British garrison there was partly destroyed by his
+stupendous gunfire. He gained possession of Essigny before midday, March
+21, and captured Contescourt, on the edge of the canal. This gave him
+important high ground, of which he made full use.
+
+He succeeded by this movement in bending in the British line at the
+right flank of the Ulster division, north of the canal, which he crossed
+hereabout, and by advancing his field artillery was able to bombard the
+line to which the main body of the British troops had been withdrawn.
+Down from Maissemy and Holnon Wood to Savy and Roupy he pressed forward
+against this line.
+
+The enemy was so densely massed that there was a division on about a
+kilometer of front. None of them spread out on more than two kilometers
+for a division, with a battalion for every 500 yards.
+
+German storm troops were able to force their way to Vendeuil,
+Lyfontaine, and Benay, south of Essigny, and to strike against Jussy and
+Tergnier, on the St. Quentin Canal, on the evening of the first day.
+
+They brought up two more divisions, and that night, owing to the
+pressure of their attacks, it was decided that the British withdraw to a
+prepared line further west, which was the best defense. This was done
+during the darkness, the retirement being covered by gallant rearguards.
+
+This morning the Germans followed up our withdrawal by clearing up all
+the ground in the bend formed by the acute angle of the St. Quentin
+Canal, which has its apex at Ugny, six kilometers east of Ham, and it
+was reported that their patrols had entered the town of Ham itself.
+
+
+CROSSING THE SOMME
+
+_Monday, March 25._--The enemy fought fiercely yesterday to gain a
+crossing over the Somme south of Peronne. He flung across a pontoon
+bridge and rafts, and his men tried to cross, but the British field
+artillery, firing at short range, smashed up many of these bridges and
+killed his engineers and infantry. Gallant counterattacks by some of the
+British flung him back across the river at several points, but elsewhere
+he held his crossing long enough to put over some of his forces.
+
+All the fighting in this part of the country since March 21 has been a
+continuous battle, in which the British divisions holding the front line
+below Gouzeaucourt to Maissemy have shown magnificent powers of
+endurance, as indeed have all the others engaged, and have only yielded
+ground under pressure of overwhelming numbers and great gunfire.
+
+There was a bloody struggle in some old chalk quarries, where many
+German dead now lie, and after the enemy had come some way forward ten
+British tanks drove into him and shattered some of his battalions with
+their machine-gun fire, dispersing groups of his advancing units. The
+tanks manoeuvred about, firing continually on each flank and causing
+terror among the enemy's foremost assault troops. The British fought a
+number of rearguard actions and made many counterattacks in the
+neighborhood of Roisel, and fell back to the line of the Somme only when
+new masses of Germans passed through those battalions which they had met
+and beaten.
+
+
+SLAUGHTER OF GERMANS
+
+The British gunners were firing hour after hour at large bodies of
+Germans moving so close to them that the guns were laid directly on to
+their targets, and caused deadly losses in these ranks of field-gray men
+who never ceased to come forward in a living tide at whatever cost of
+life and bore down on the defensive lines. Under this ceaseless tide
+some of the British guns had to be abandoned, but many of them were
+withdrawn to the other side of the Somme, and the gunners were wonderful
+in the skill and courage with which they made this passage, took up new
+positions, and went into action again like exhibition batteries at Earls
+Court.
+
+By Saturday morning the German troops were exhausted and spent, and in
+some parts of the line made no further effort for a time, but halted to
+gain some sleep and await fresh rations. On Saturday and Sunday the
+British, who had had no rest from fighting, were reinforced and given
+some relief, though many of them were again engaged, and, weary as they
+were, put up gallant fights against the enemy, who also had been
+reinforced by great numbers and came on again in an unending onslaught.
+
+
+FIGHTING AGAINST ODDS
+
+_Tuesday, March 26._--Since yesterday morning the enemy has continued
+his violent thrusts against the British line westward from Bapaume and
+Peronne, and his massed troops, mostly Brandenburgers and picked troops,
+are now advancing in the direction of Roye and Nesle, where French
+troops are heavily engaged.
+
+At the same time he is passing on over the old Somme battlefields down
+from Delville Wood, High Wood, and Maurepas toward the old lines the
+British held before the beginning of the Somme battles in 1916.
+
+The enemy has paused since he began the great offensive, on Thursday
+last, only to bring up new divisions and pass them through and beyond
+those divisions exhausted by attack or shattered under the British fire
+while they reform and rest and then come on again, relieved once more by
+reserves and continually crowding over the captured ground. By this
+means, and owing to the enormous forces at the disposal of the German
+command, they are able to pursue any advantage gained with fresh troops
+against the hard-pressed British, who have been fighting without respite
+since the beginning of the battle, six days ago, except where on the
+right some of them have now been replaced in the front line by French
+battalions.
+
+In spite of the gravity of these hours and the progress made by the
+enemy, there never has been a more glorious spirit shown by British
+troops throughout history, and when one day all the details of this
+battle may be written it will be an epic of heroism more wonderful than
+the world now realizes, for the British troops and their officers have
+withstood an onslaught of enormous forces which have never been less
+than two to one, and in most parts of the line have been four to one and
+six to one and eight to one, nine divisions against three around
+Croisilles, eight divisions against two from the Cambrai sector
+westward, and in many places one division against one battalion.
+
+
+WEARIED BY ENDLESS BATTLE
+
+Our men have been fighting for six days and nights like this, after the
+first storm of shells and gas, until their beards have grown long and
+their faces haggard and worn for lack of sleep, and their clothes have
+become torn on wire and covered with dust of mud and chalk. I saw a
+small party of them today so weary with this endless battle they could
+hardly walk, and they were holding hands like tired children and leaning
+against each other like drunken men, but for the most part they hold
+their heads up gamely, because so far luck has been against them.
+
+The whole movement of the army under the necessity of withdrawal from
+fixed positions is as orderly as though on manoeuvres in England. I can
+say honestly I have seen no officer show sign of being flurried.
+
+It is all an amazing drama, because this open warfare is a new thing to
+the army, and the menace of the enemy is strong and serious, and
+retirement under the terrific pressure of the human avalanche now hurled
+against the defenders is by no means pleasant. But in the inevitable
+turmoil of this situation, in roads crowded with traffic of men and
+guns, in villages seething with troops rushed up toward the battle line,
+on the field of battle itself, the British Army retains its
+self-control, its will power, and its supreme, inspired courage.
+
+
+THE ATTACK AT ALBERT
+
+_Wednesday, March 27._--The enemy has not made further advances on a big
+scale between the Arras-Bapaume road on the left of the battlefront and
+the village of Bray, on the Somme, but has paused in his massed attacks
+in order to reorganize his line and bring up artillery.
+
+There are heavy concentrations of German storm troops behind Maurepas,
+Ginchy, and Beugnatre, and the roads around Bapaume have been crowded
+with men and guns and transport passing down through Le Sars, with
+German cavalry along the Bapaume-Gudecourt road and a steady drift
+downward to the town of Albert.
+
+That poor, stricken city of the golden Virgin, head downward, with her
+babe in her outstretched arms, which I described so often in accounts of
+the battles of the Somme in 1916, when that falling statue was lit up by
+shellfire, was yesterday in the centre of the fighting north of the
+Somme. [The golden Virgin and tower were destroyed later.] The night
+before their assault yesterday they bombed it heavily from the air,
+using the brilliant moonlight, which lay white over all the battlefields
+and these roofs, to fly low and pick their targets wherever they saw
+men moving or horses tethered.
+
+In several cases it was not men they hit, but women and children who,
+when the war seemed to have passed from this place a year ago, crept
+back to their homes and built little wooden booths in which they sold
+papers and picture postcards to the troops. Now suddenly the war has
+flamed over them again and they were caught, before they could escape,
+by thunderbolts out of the shining moonlight, terribly clear and
+revealing dead horses about the ruined streets.
+
+
+TRYING TO TAKE ARRAS
+
+_Friday, March 29._--The enemy's pressure has for the time being relaxed
+a little across the Somme, east of Corbie, and whatever effort he has
+made during the last day and night has been repulsed with the most heavy
+losses.
+
+Yesterday the most exciting situation and the fiercest struggle was on
+the left of the British battleline, from Gavrelle southward to below the
+Scarpe. It was a deliberate, resolute effort by the enemy to capture
+Arras. Three divisions of special storm troops, the 184th, 12th, and
+27th Reserve, had been brought up for this purpose, though one of them
+had been engaged before and roughly handled. They were ordered to take
+Arras yesterday at all costs, and before their advance very heavy
+bombardment was flung over the British lines from about 5 o'clock in the
+morning for several hours.
+
+Their main thrust was toward Roeux, that frightful little village, with
+its chemical works, which I used to write about so much in April and May
+last. Once again yesterday it became a shambles. The British had machine
+guns well placed with a wide field of fire, and as the Germans came down
+the slopes they were swept with streams of bullets, which cut swaths in
+their formations, but once again, as on March 21, the enemy was reckless
+of life, theirs as well as the British, and always his tide of men
+flowed forward, passing over dead and wounded, and creeping forward like
+flowing water. The British field guns raked them while the heavies
+pulled further back to avoid being blown up or captured.
+
+
+FIGHT FOR ORANGE HILL
+
+On and about Orange Hill and Telegraph Hill British battalions who know
+this ground of old fought tenaciously under murderous machine-gun fire,
+the enemy's screen of infantry covering machine-gun batteries which were
+rushed forward very quickly and took up positions in shell holes and
+behind bits of broken wall and any kind of cover, in ditches and sunken
+roads.
+
+A footing gained by the enemy on part of Orange Hill and Infantry Hill
+rendered it necessary to fall back yesterday toward the old German
+support lines before that battle in April, 1917. The British fought like
+tigers, and would not retire until the pressure on them made it
+impossible to resist the continual thrust of new attacks by fresh
+troops. There were heroic actions by small groups of men struggling to
+hold up the front line, and some of them stayed so long after the enemy
+had broken beyond them that they were cut off.
+
+Frightful fighting was happening not far from Neuville, Vitasse, and
+Mercatel and in this neighborhood the British held out with wonderful
+determination until exhausted by battle and until only a poor remnant of
+men had strength to stand against these massed attacks.
+
+By the end of the day the enemy's assaults weakened, and then died out
+because his losses were enormous and the spirit of his attack was broken
+by such stubborn resistance.
+
+
+ENEMY FAILS AT ARRAS
+
+_Sunday, March 31._--We now have knowledge that the attack on Arras was
+prepared on a scale of enormous strength by divisions arranged in depth,
+preceded by a bombardment as great as that which fell upon any part of
+the British line on the morning of March 21, and that the enemy had
+determined to capture not only Arras itself but Vimy Ridge.
+
+It was the heroic resistance of the British troops that defeated this
+furious onslaught and destroyed by enormous losses to the German troops
+this dark scheme of their high command. Seven German divisions were in
+position north of the Scarpe and twelve south, in an arc around the
+defenses of Arras.
+
+The brunt of this attack, preceded by colossal gunfire, fell upon London
+troops, and against these the German tides dashed and broke. By
+artillery fire, machine-gun fire, and rifle fire, the enemy's advancing
+waves of men were swept to pieces, and though they came on again and
+again this massacre continued until at last it must have sickened even
+the high German officers directing the operations from behind. The
+attacks died out and the night was quiet around Arras while the enemy
+collected his wounded. It was an utter defeat which will at least check
+German efforts around Arras.
+
+On this Easter Sunday, under bright sunshine which is breaking through
+the storm clouds, the fields of France are strewn with death. A year ago
+it was the same around the old City of Artois, for it was on Easter
+Sunday, April 2, that we began the battle of Arras and fought over that
+ground which is again our battlefield, and it was a great anthem of
+gunfire which rose up to the sky on Easter morn.
+
+Apart from all regrets at having had to fall back at all and at having
+suffered losses for which there is mourning in our hearts, because so
+many splendid men have fallen on the field of honor--that terrible field
+of honor which will be watered with tears for all time--we may at least
+rejoice that by the skill of our fighting officers and the steady
+courage of our men our line was brought back unbroken.
+
+
+Heroic Cavalry Charge
+
+_Monday, April 1._--The battle of which I have been trying to give a
+daily narrative has been on so vast a scale, filled with so many
+episodes of terrific adventure and with so many hundreds of thousands of
+men moving along its lines of fire that I find it impossible to give a
+picture of the emotion and spirit of it. We out here, who knew this
+thing was coming upon us, creeping nearer every day with its monstrous
+menace, held our breath and waited. When at last the thing broke it was
+more frightful in its loosing of overwhelming powers than even we had
+guessed. Since then all our armies have lived with an intense
+understanding of the greatness of these days, of their meaning to the
+destiny of the world, and every private soldier, or transport driver, or
+linesman, or laborer, has been exalted by an emotion stronger than the
+effect of drugs.
+
+In the wood of Moreuil this morning British cavalry performed a feat as
+fine as the Balaklava charge, and this also should be made into a ballad
+and learned by heart.
+
+Twelve hundred men who had been riding through the night went forward in
+three waves and charged that dark wood next morning at a hard gallop.
+The first wave rode to the edge of the wood, and the second to the
+centre, and the third wave went right through to the other side, riding
+through the enemy and over his machine guns and in the face of a hail of
+bullets from hidden machines. They cleared the wood of Moreuil and
+brought back prisoners and thirteen machine guns, but there were many
+empty saddles, and many men and horses fell.
+
+That was the finest exploit of the British 'Cavalry, but elsewhere it
+did splendid work, and everywhere the men were gallant and cool, as when
+some of the dragoons came under a heavy shrapnel fire near Gentille, and
+many men had to shoot their wounded horses to put them out of their
+agony.
+
+
+Dashing Canadians
+
+Away from Arras and down on the south of the line a certain body of
+Canadians have been having some of the most astounding adventures in all
+this battle, and fighting with valor and heroic audacity. They are
+officers and men of a machine gun detachment organized in the early days
+of the war by a French Canadian officer.
+
+For ten days these Canadians have fought running fights with the German
+artillery, have engaged German cavalry and smashed them, have checked
+enemy columns crossing bridges and pouring onward, have scattered large
+bodies of men surrounding British troops, and in ten days of crowded
+life have destroyed many German storm troops and helped to hold up the
+tide of their advance. Their own losses have not been light, for these
+Canadians have been filled with a grim passion of determination, and
+when the supreme test came they fought and died.
+
+Sometimes they fought in long gray open cars, and sometimes they fought
+dismounted, with machine guns on the ground; but always they fought
+through the ten days and nights, with less than twenty hours' sleep all
+that time. These cars near Maricourt gathered together 150 men who had
+been cut off and held the enemy at bay, covering the withdrawal of some
+of the British heavy guns and tanks. At that time they fought
+dismounted, with Vickers guns, in front of the barbed wire. The
+Canadians had many casualties, and a Captain's arm was torn away by an
+explosive bullet, and at last only a Sergeant and two men of the battery
+were left unwounded. One of them mounted a motor cycle and brought back
+cars and took back the wounded. Two cars found the enemy massing up a
+road, and their machine guns enfiladed the field-gray men and killed
+them in large numbers.
+
+Near La Motte they fought heavy bodies of German cavalry, killed a
+number, and put the rest to flight. They have not been seen since. At
+Cerisy a battalion of Germans, 600 strong, was encountered at a
+crossroads by one car, which brought them to a standstill and dispersed
+them with heavy losses. Everywhere they have been these Canadian armored
+cars have helped to steady the line and give confidence to the infantry.
+
+
+British Airmen at Work
+
+_Thursday, April 4._--It has been raining hard these two nights past and
+this morning. For the German gunners trying to drag up field artillery
+or long-range guns there is now sticky bog and slime to come through. It
+is hard work for the German field companies, pressed furiously, to lay
+narrow-gauge lines over these deserts. All that spells delay in their
+plans and loss of life.
+
+There is terror for the enemy over these fields in daylight and
+darkness, for the British flying men have gone out in squadrons to
+scatter death and destruction among them. This work has reached
+fantastic heights of horror for the German troops under the menace of
+it. There have been times when, I believe, the British have had as many
+as 300 airplanes up at one time. One squadron alone on one night dropped
+six tons of bombs over enemy concentrations, and each man went out six
+times. Another squadron went out four times in one night, and was
+bombing for eleven hours.
+
+When the enemy was advancing in masses the British flying men flew as
+low as 100 feet, dropping bombs among them and firing into them with
+machine guns. They attacked German patrols of cavalry and scattered them
+and machine-gunned trenches full of men, batteries in action and
+transport crowding down narrow roads. They fought German scouts and
+crushed them, and there are several cases in which they fought German
+airplanes at night, so that it was like a fight between vampire bats up
+there where the clouds were touched by moonlight.
+
+
+North of the Somme
+
+_Friday, April 5._--Heavy attacks by the enemy are in progress north of
+the Somme, from Albert to Aveluy Wood. Further north there is separate
+fighting in progress round about the village of Ayette--such a wretched
+little place of brickdust and broken walls when I saw it last on the way
+from Arras to Bapaume--and the enemy is trying to recapture this, his
+fire reaching to villages several thousand yards behind the British
+front.
+
+The British troops in this district are defending their positions
+resolutely, and the first reports indicate that the German storm troops
+are suffering under their machine-gun fire, after being shelled in their
+assembly places by heavy and field artillery.
+
+
+A Valley of Death
+
+_Sunday, April 7._--Since the heavy fights on Friday, when the enemy
+made a series of vain attacks against the British north of Albert, there
+has been no battle. The Germans are still struggling hard to get their
+guns, especially the heavy guns, further forward and to reorganize their
+divisions.
+
+They have no peace or quiet, for they are under a harassing fire, and
+along the valley of the Ancre, above Albert, in that stinking ditch
+between Bouzeincourt and Aveluy and Mesnil and Thiepval, where foul
+water lies stagnant below rows of dead, lopped trees and frightful
+smells arise from the relics of battles two weeks ago, their men are
+very wretched. Here in this valley of death, for it was that, and behind
+in the old fields of the Somme, the German troops have no cover from
+storms or shellfire.
+
+
+Battle of Armentieres
+
+_Tuesday, April 9._--A heavy and determined attack was begun against us
+this morning a considerable distance north of our recent battles on
+about eleven miles of front between Armentieres and La Bassee Canal.
+This new attack was preceded by a long, concentrated bombardment, which
+had gradually been increasing during the last day or two, until it
+reached great heights of fury last night and early this morning. The
+enemy used poison gas in immense quantities; during the night he flung
+over 60,000 gas shells in order to create a wide zone of this evil vapor
+and stupefy the gunners, transport, and infantry.
+
+His gunfire reached out to many towns and villages behind the allied
+lines, like Bethune and Armentieres, Vermelles and Philosophe, Merville
+and Estaires, and this did not cease around Armentieres until 11:30 this
+morning, though further south from Fleurbaix his infantry attack was in
+progress at an early hour, certainly by 8 o'clock, and his barrage
+lifted in order to let his troops advance.
+
+Part of the line was held by Portuguese troops, who for a long time have
+been between Laventie and Neuve Chapelle, holding positions which were
+subject to severe raids from time to time. They are now in the thick of
+this battle, most fiercely beset and fighting gallantly.
+
+
+Formidable New Offensive
+
+_Wednesday, April 10._--It is now clear that the attack between
+Armentieres and Givenchy is a new and formidable offensive. It also is
+made certain by this new thrust that the German high command have
+decided to throw the full weight of their armies against the British in
+an endeavor to destroy their forces in Northern France instead of
+dividing their efforts by striking also at the French. It is a menace
+which calls for a supreme effort of the armies of Great Britain and her
+allies.
+
+Yesterday the enemy struck north on the British left, beginning in the
+flat grounds opposite Neuve Chapelle as the centre of the thrust, with
+Fleurbaix to the north and Givenchy to the south, and extending this
+morning further north still above Armentieres, and including the ridge
+of Messines.
+
+An enormous gunfire was directed against the British positions along all
+this line last night again after yesterday morning's bombardment, and
+continued without pause through a very unquiet night, when all through
+the hours this tumult of great guns beat upon one's ears with continued
+drumfire, and all the sky was full of flame and light.
+
+This morning again when I went up into French Flanders and through the
+villages which the enemy had been shelling regardless of the women and
+children there, this frightful, unceasing thunder was as loud as ever
+and told one without further news that the battle was still going on and
+that the Germans were extending its zone.
+
+
+Portuguese Are Hard Hit
+
+It was a tragedy for the Portuguese that the heaviest bombardment in the
+storm of gunfire, as terrible in its fury as anything of the kind since
+March 21, was directed against the centre, which they held. It was
+annihilating to their outposts and smashed their front-line defenses,
+which were stoutly held. It beat backward and forward in waves of high
+explosives from the trench line opposite Neuve Chapelle to the second
+line, opposite Fauquissart and Richebourg St. Vaast. Large numbers of
+heavy guns also searched behind these defense systems for crossroads,
+ammunition dumps, railways, villages, and headquarters or units, while
+the Portuguese batteries were assailed with gas shells and flying steel.
+
+The Portuguese front line was overwhelmed by the intensity of the
+bombardment, and, although some of their outposts held on, fighting
+gallantly to the last man, their line had to fall back to the second
+system. This was attacked by enemy assault troops and between 6 and 7 in
+the morning they had reached Fauquissart. The barrage lifted at 7
+o'clock for a general attack on the second line. Here the strongest body
+of Portuguese troops fought stubbornly, but by 11 o'clock the Germans
+forced their way through to Laventie and the position round Fleurbaix
+was threatened.
+
+The Portuguese field artillery served their guns as long as possible and
+destroyed the breechblocks whenever it became inevitable that they would
+have to leave a gun behind. The Portuguese gunners were attached to the
+British heavy batteries and behaved with special courage.
+
+
+Bloody Valley of the Lys
+
+_Thursday, April 11._--Yesterday afternoon and today the enemy exerted
+all his strength in men and guns in the battle now raging from the River
+Lys to Wytschaete. Once again the British are outnumbered, and it is
+only by the courage and stubborn will of battalions weakened by losses
+and of individual soldiers animating their comrades by acts of brave
+example that the enemy has been unable to make rapid progress and, as at
+Wytschaete and Messines, has been flung back with most bloody losses.
+
+The British had to give ground along the Lys Canal south of Armentieres,
+blowing bridges behind them and the railway bridge at Armentieres, and
+the enemy is now trying to thrust forward south of Merville by bending
+back the British line from Lestrem and getting his guns across the Lys.
+
+This morning there was a ceaseless tumult of gunfire, loud and terrible,
+over all this countryside. There were strange and terrible scenes on all
+the roads leading to the battle zone where British infantry and gunners
+were going forward to stem the tide. Masses of transport moved and
+civilians passed them in retreat to villages outside the wide area of
+shell range, and wounded men came staggering down afoot, if they could
+walk, or were brought down by ambulances, threading their way through
+all this surge and swell of war.
+
+Here and there stretcher bearers waited with their burdens on the
+roadsides. Among them were men of the Black Watch, with the red hackle
+in their bonnets, calm and grave like statues beside their wounded
+comrades lying there with white, upturned faces and never a murmur or
+groan. They were the heroes who yesterday, with gallant hearts, came up
+at a great pace when the enemy was in Wytschaete and Messines, and in a
+fierce counterattack drove him off the crest of the ridge and dealt him
+a deadly blow there on that high ground, which was won in the battle of
+last June, when English, Irish, and New Zealand troops stormed the ridge
+and captured thousands of prisoners.
+
+The enemy yesterday fell in great numbers and his dead lie thick, and
+though he came on wave after wave, after all his day's agony and
+struggle he had not gained a yard of the crest, but was beaten back.
+
+
+English in Death Struggle
+
+_Friday, April 12._--The enemy is playing a great game in which he is
+flinging all he has into the hazard of war. He has, of course, a
+stupendous number of men, and, while holding his lines across the Somme
+after his drive down from St. Quentin and playing a defensive part
+against the French on the British right, he has moved up to the north
+with secrecy and rapidity a large concentration of troops and guns for
+new and tremendous blows against Haig's forces. This is continuing his
+now determined policy to crush England before either France or America
+is able to draw off his divisions by counteroffensives.
+
+So now the British troops in the north are faced by enormous forces.
+Nearly thirty German divisions are against them from Wytschaete to La
+Bassee Canal, and with those troops are innumerable machine guns, trench
+mortars, and massed batteries of field guns, very quick to get forward
+in support of their infantry.
+
+This northern offensive is as menacing as that which began to the
+southward on March 21, and the gallant men among these little red brick
+villages in French Flanders and in the flat fields between Bailleul and
+Bethune are greatly outnumbered and can hold back the enemy only by
+fighting with supreme courage.
+
+
+Horrors Amid Beauty
+
+The scene today along the line of this hostile invasion was most tragic,
+because all the cruelty of war was surrounded by beauty so intense that
+the contrast was horrible. The sky was of Summer blue, with sunshine
+glittering on the red-tiled roofs of the cottages and on their
+whitewashed walls and little windowpanes. All the hedges were clothed
+with green and flaked by snow-white thorn blossoms.
+
+In a night, as it seems, all the orchards of France have flowered, and
+cherry and apple trees are in full splendor of bloom, fields are
+powdered with close-growing daisies, and the shadows of trees are long
+across the grass as the sun is setting. But over all this and in the
+midst of all this is agony and blood. On the roads are fugitives,
+wounded soldiers, dead horses, guns, and transports.
+
+There are fires burning on the hillsides. I saw their flames and their
+great, rolling clouds of smoke rise this morning from places where the
+day before I had seen French peasants plowing as though no war were
+near, and young girls scattering grain over the fields harrowed by their
+small brothers, and old women bending to the soil in the small
+farmsteads where all their life was centred, until suddenly the
+frightful truth touched them and they had to leave their homes.
+
+Sometimes today I wished to God the sun would not shine like this nor
+nature mock at me with its thrilling-beauty of life. However, the
+British are full of confidence. If they were forced back they are glad
+to know that they made the enemy pay heavy prices and that their line is
+still unbroken. They are full of faith that against all odds they shall
+hold their own in the last battle of all.
+
+
+Men Utterly Weary
+
+_Sunday, April 14._--The Commander in Chief's order of the day should
+reveal to the British people and to the world what is happening out here
+in France--the enemy's object to seize the Channel ports and destroy the
+British Army, and the frightful forces he has brought against it to
+achieve that plan, and the call that has come to the troops to hold
+every position to the last man. "Many among us now are tired. * * * With
+our back to the wall each one of us must fight to the end."
+
+Yes, the men are tired, so tired after weeks of fighting, after these
+last days and nights, that they can hardly stagger up to resist another
+attack, yet they do so because their spirit wakes again above their
+bodily fatigue; so tired that they go on fighting like sleep-walkers,
+and in any respite lie in ditches and under hedges and in open fields
+under fire in deep slumber until the shouts of their Sergeants stir them
+again. Some of these men have been fighting since March 21 with only a
+few days' rest.
+
+To people living in the villages of Flanders, from which one can see the
+whole sweep of the battleline, Friday night was full of terror, and from
+the windows they watched the burning of places from which they had
+escaped and the bonfires of their homes, and these refugees while
+sleeping with children at their breast wept.
+
+Yesterday it was a drama of noise, beating against one's ears and
+against one's heart, and it was a strange, terrible thing to stand
+there, blind, as it were, listening to the infernal tumult of gunfire
+south of Bailleul, with knockings and sledgehammer strokes, loud and
+shocking, above the incessant drumfire of field artillery.
+
+The German shells came howling over into fields and villages beyond
+Bailleul, bursting with gruff coughs, and there was an evil snarl of
+shrapnel in the mist. It was the noise of the greatest battle in
+history.
+
+
+Fall of Neuve Eglise
+
+_Monday, April 15._--In the attempt to surround Bailleul two heavy
+attacks were made--one on the west toward Meteren, and one on the east
+at Neuve Eglise. Near Meteren the enemy failed utterly and suffered
+immense losses. There has been fierce fighting around a place called the
+Steam Mill, near Meteren, the enemy having been ordered to capture the
+Meteren road and the high ground beyond it at whatever sacrifice. They
+made the sacrifice, but did not get the ground.
+
+Neuve Eglise, however, is now theirs. Last night the British troops who
+had held it through three days and nights of intense strife withdrew,
+unknown to the enemy, to a line a short distance back from the village,
+in order to avoid remaining a target for unceasing shellfire.
+
+It is now the enemy's soldiers who this morning are in the ruins under
+the great bombardment. This battle at Neuve Eglise has been filled with
+grim episodes, for the village changed hands several times. Each side
+fought most fiercely, with any kind of weapon, small bodies of men
+attacking and counterattacking among the broken walls and bits of houses
+and under the stump of the church tower deathtrap, as it now is for
+them. Without yielding to the direct assaults, the British obeyed
+orders, stumbled out of the place, silently and unknown to the enemy,
+and took up a line further back.
+
+On the night before last the British line fell back from near La Cheche
+and swung around in a loop south of Neuve Eglise toward Ravelsberg Farm.
+It was then that Neuve Eglise itself became a place of hellish battle.
+
+The enemy broke through into its ruined streets, and small parties of
+Wiltshires, Worcesters, and others sprang on the Germans or were killed.
+They fought desperately in backyards, over broken walls, and in
+shell-pierced houses, wherever they could find Germans or hear the
+tattoo of machine guns.
+
+Several times the enemy was cleared out of most of the town, and the
+British held a hollow square containing most of the streets and defended
+it as a kind of fortress, though with dwindling numbers, under a heavy
+fire of shells and trench mortars and machine guns.
+
+
+Capture of Bailleul
+
+_Tuesday, April 16._--It seemed inevitable after the British loss of
+Neuve Eglise that the enemy should make a quick and strong effort to
+capture Bailleul, and this he did last night by putting into the battle
+three divisions of fresh assaulting troops not previously used, and thus
+encircling that city by fierce attacks on ground southeast and east,
+including the ridge of Le Ravetsberg and Mont de Lille. His troops
+included his Alpine corps of Jaegers and possibly a Bavarian division
+and the 117th Division. Among the men defending the city against these
+heavy forces were the Staffords and Notts and Derbies.
+
+Yesterday when I was in the country around Bailleul the enemy's guns
+were working up for this new attack, and there was a continual
+bombardment spreading up to Wytschaete Ridge. Heavy shells were being
+flung into Bailleul itself, and the smoke of fires was rising like mist
+from small towns and villages like Meteren and Morbecque down to
+Merville.
+
+The British guns were also pounding the enemy's positions, and through
+that the concentrations of Germany--infantry, guns, transport, and
+cavalry--were moving up the roads in and north of Merville. The enemy
+must have lost severely again, for the British were stubborn in defense,
+but their machine-gun fire must have been of a deadly nature owing to
+their positions along the railway and on the ridge; but the enemy
+advanced upon them in waves, striking upon both sides of Bailleul, so
+that after great resistance the line was withdrawn beyond the town.
+
+The capture of this city belongs to the third great attack which has
+been delivered by the enemy since March 21. Always he has massed his
+strength opposite the British lines and struck with full weight against
+their troops. In the first phase down from St. Quentin and the Cambrai
+salient the French came to their help and relieved them by their gallant
+aid, but the Germans then edged away from the French to strike the
+British again, this time at Arras, where they failed.
+
+A third phase has now followed in this northern blow and once again the
+British have had to sustain the abominable pressure of German divisions
+constantly relieved and supported by fresh divisions passing through
+them, while the British troops fight on and on, killing the enemy in
+large numbers, but having to withdraw to new lines of defense. Under
+these enormous odds their heroism and their sacrifices are beyond words
+that may be uttered except in the silence of one's heart.
+
+
+Wonderful Panorama
+
+_Wednesday, April 17._--Yesterday morning the fortune of war seemed
+again in favor of the enemy by the capture of Wytschaete Ridge down to
+Spanbroekmolen and by the entry of Meteren, west of Bailleul. The
+hard-pressed British troops were forced to give ground at both these
+places, after a grand resistance which cost the enemy many lives, but in
+the evening counterattacks hurled the enemy back from Wytschaete
+village, that pile of brick dust above stumps of dead trees which were
+Wytschaete Wood, and in a separate battle west of Bailluel the British
+regained, at least for a time, a part of Meteren. This morning renewed
+counterattacks gave them back all of Meteren and the enemy garrison
+there was destroyed.
+
+I watched the battle last night and again this morning from the centre
+of the arc of fire, which was like a loop flung around from Wytschaete
+to Bailleul and in a sharp curve around to Merris and the country about
+Merville, so that the great gunfire and whole sweep of battle were close
+about on three sides.
+
+It was an astounding panorama of open warfare, such as I never dreamed
+of seeing on this western front, where for so long both sides were
+hemmed in by trenches. Bailleul was still blazing. In the early evening,
+after a wet, misty day which filled all this battlefield with a whitish
+fog, one could only see that city under a cloud, but as the sky darkened
+and the wind blew some mist away enormous flames burned redly in the
+poor dead heart of Bailleul, and in their glare there were dark masses
+of walls and broken roofs outlined jaggedly by fire.
+
+To the left the village of Locre was aflame under a storm of high
+explosives, and the enemy's guns were putting heavy shells down the
+roads which lead out to that place.
+
+There were fires of burning farms and hamlets as far southward as
+Merville behind one, as one stood looking out to Bailleul, and lesser
+fires of single cottages and haystacks, and the wind drifted all the
+smoke of them across the sky in long white ribbons.
+
+
+Drumfire Rocks Earth
+
+It was just before dusk when the counterattacks began northward from
+Wytschaete and southward from Meteren, and although before then there
+had been a steady slogging of guns and howling of shells, at that time
+this volume of dreadful noise increased tremendously, and drumfire broke
+out in fury, so that the sky and earth trembled with it. It was like the
+beating of all the drums of the world in muffled tattoo, above which and
+through which there were enormous clangoring hammer strokes from the
+British and German heavies.
+
+It went on till evening, with a few pale gleams of sun through storm
+clouds and the smoke of guns, and for miles all this panorama of battle
+was boiling and seething with bursting shells and curling wreaths of
+smoke from the batteries in action.
+
+When darkness came each battery was revealed by its flashes, and all the
+fields around were filled with red winkings and sharp stabs of flame.
+There was no real darkness of night, for every second the sky was
+crossed by rushes of light and burning beacons in many places, and gun
+flashes etched outlines of trees and cottages.
+
+The general situation today is in our favor for the time being by the
+recapture of Wytschaete and Meteren and the repulse of many German
+attacks, but it is with natural regret one hears of the withdrawal from
+the heights east of Ypres in order to straighten the line and economize
+men. There was one other regret today, though only sentimental. The
+enemy knocked down the Albert church tower, the tower of the golden
+Virgin, who had bent head downward over that ruined city with her babe
+outstretched. It was a great landmark bound up with all our memories.
+
+
+
+
+How General Carey Saved Amiens
+
+A Pivotal Episode in the Great Battle
+
+
+One of the most dramatic episodes of the battle of Picardy was the
+disaster which befell the 5th British Army, under General Gough, and the
+brilliant way in which it was retrieved by Brig. Gen. Sandeman Carey,
+who was warmly complimented by Premier Lloyd George in his man-power
+speech, (Page 263.)
+
+Sir Hubert Gough's army was sent down in January to take over from the
+French a sector forty to fifty miles long. Clearly such a line as this
+could be held only if it were strongly located and cunningly
+constructed, and there is no doubt that it was. Three lines were
+designed: First, an outpost line, then a "line of resistance," and then
+a "battleline." The outpost line was designed with special care. It
+consisted of a number of separate posts so located as to provide for a
+cross-fire on any enemy that penetrated them. It was intended to be held
+until the last gasp, and it was presumed that the Germans might pass
+through it, but that they would be terribly punished by the garrisons of
+the isolated posts.
+
+In one way the attack was not a surprise. General Gough had known for
+days that it was imminent, and had moved his men up to their positions
+and made every preparation possible. But one thing he could not foresee
+or guard against--the mist and fog. Under cover of the mist, which
+prevented sight for more than thirty yards, the Germans crept forward,
+and the outpost line was overrun before the alarm could be given. It was
+simply swamped, and the cross-fire on which so much depended was never
+delivered.
+
+Consequently the fight began at the line of resistance instead, and
+before many hours had passed by sheer weight of numbers the Germans had
+forced the British back on the battleline. Then the fewness of numbers
+began to tell, and, as always at points of junction between divisions,
+the Germans got through between the 7th and 19th, the 19th and 18th, and
+the 3d and 18th. The whole line was broken up, and it seemed as if the
+road was open to Amiens.
+
+Meanwhile it was impossible for the French reinforcements to come up as
+quickly as was necessary, and the retreat began. Bridges were not blown
+up for the simple reason that the parties of engineers were all killed.
+Every kind of soldier that could be collected was hastily thrown into
+action to fill the gap--including a strong contingent of American
+engineers.
+
+Close to where the gap occurred was a training school for machine
+gunners. Of course, the men in training had long since been hurried into
+action, but a large supply of machine guns remained. It is not every
+soldier, however, who understands how to use these weapons, and the
+officer found himself with a large supply of them which at all costs he
+must prevent from being captured, and very few men able to handle them.
+Those who could were put in charge of squads, and whenever they had a
+moment's respite from turning them on the Germans they set to work to
+give hurried instructions.
+
+Orders came to General Carey at 2 A. M., March 26, to hold the gap. He
+went to work at once to develop the plans that had been hurriedly laid
+out. He organized a scratch force by telephone, messengers, and flag
+signals. Every available man--laborer, raw recruit, sapper,
+engineer--was rounded up. By the middle of the next morning Carey had
+found a considerable number of men, and by the early part of the
+afternoon he had organized them into some sort of force and had selected
+and marked out the position it must hold.
+
+For a time he had some guns, but these were hurried away to another
+point that was even more seriously threatened. He had fifty cavalrymen
+to do a little scouting, but in the main he had to depend entirely on
+the sheer grit of his scratch force, who lay in their shallow trenches,
+firing almost point blank at the gray hordes of Germans, and at every
+moment of respite seized their shovels to improve their shelters.
+
+For nearly six days they stuck to it, and, as Lloyd George said, "they
+held the German Army and closed that gap on the way to Amiens."
+
+After a time they got some artillery behind them and things were easier,
+but at first it was just a ding-dong fight, with soldiers taking orders
+from strange officers, officers learning the ground by having to defend
+it, and every man from enlisted man to Brigadier jumping at each job as
+it came along and putting it through with all his might.
+
+During all that six days General Carey was the life and inspiration of
+the entire force. Careless of danger, he rode along the hastily
+intrenched line, giving an order here and shouting words of
+encouragement there to his weary and hard-pressed men.
+
+His staff was as hastily recruited as his men. He had no knowledge of
+how long he must hold out. He was not even certain of getting supplies
+of ammunition and provisions.
+
+All he had to do was to hang on, and hang on he did against an almost
+endless series of formidable attacks. He never lost heart or wavered.
+The gap to Amiens was closed and held.
+
+Three companies of an engineering regiment were caught in the early
+bombardment and ordered to fall back. To one of the American companies,
+which had been consolidated with the British Royal Engineers, was
+delegated the task of guaranteeing the destruction of an engineers'
+dump, which it had been decided to abandon. This detachment destroyed
+all the material, made a rapid retreat, caught up with the larger group,
+and immediately resumed work, laying out trenches. These operations
+lasted from March 22 to 27. As the German attack became more intense,
+the engineers were joined by cooks, orderlies, and railway men as a part
+of General Carey's forces. The commanding officer of an American
+regiment took charge of an infantry sub-sector and directed the action
+of his troops for one week, until the emergency passed at that point. To
+this officer General Rawlinson, commanding the British Army engaged in
+that sector, sent the following letter:
+
+    The army commander wishes to record officially his appreciation
+    of the excellent work your regiment has done in assisting the
+    British Army to resist the enemy's powerful offensive during the
+    last ten days. I fully realize that it has been largely due to
+    your assistance that the enemy has been checked, and I rely on
+    you to assist us still further during the few days which are
+    still to come before I shall be able to relieve you in the line.
+
+    I consider your work in the line to be greatly enhanced by the
+    fact that, for six weeks previous to taking your place in the
+    front line, your men had been working at such high pressure
+    erecting heavy bridges on the Somme. My best congratulations and
+    warm thanks to all.
+
+    RAWLINSON.
+
+[Illustration: Gen. Sir H. S. Horne]
+
+[Illustration: Gen. Sir Julian Byng
+(_Underwood_)]
+
+[Illustration: Gen. Sir H. C. O. Plumer
+(_Bain News Service_)]
+
+[Illustration: Gen. Sir H. S. Rawlinson]
+
+[Illustration: GERMAN COMMANDERS IN FRANCE
+Gen. Ludendorff,
+_Quartermaster General of the Army_]
+
+[Illustration: Gen. Otto von Below
+(_Press Illustrating Service_)]
+
+[Illustration: Gen. von Kathen]
+
+[Illustration: Gen. von Gallwitz]
+
+
+
+
+Battle Viewed From the French Front
+
+By G. H. Perris
+
+_Special Correspondent with the French Armies_
+
+    _George H. Perris was with the French Armies in Picardy
+    throughout the German offensive. The aim of the Germans was to
+    drive a wedge between the British and French Armies at the point
+    of juncture near La Fere, and Mr. Perris was admirably situated
+    to obtain not only the story of the fighting on the allied
+    right, but a good general view of the whole great battle and of
+    the strategic methods adopted by the German command._ CURRENT
+    HISTORY MAGAZINE, _through its connection with_ THE NEW YORK
+    TIMES, _has full use of these important dispatches, which are
+    copyrighted._
+
+[See Map on Page 198.]
+
+
+A little before 5 A. M. on March 21, between the Scarpe and the Oise,
+there began an extremely violent artillery preparation, including
+barrages largely composed of gas shells, especially near Cambrai, and
+toward the Oise a strong counterbattery fire and a plentiful bombardment
+of the allied rear and communications.
+
+At 9:45 A. M. an infantry attack began. Each German division engaged had
+a front of attack of about a mile and a half, and seems to have been
+disposed as follows: Two regiments, less a battalion of each, were in
+the first line, and one regiment was in reserve. Battalions were
+echeloned in a depth of two companies, each with six light machine guns,
+constituting the first wave. The second wave of two companies, carrying
+heavier machine guns, followed at an interval of 100 yards. These were
+followed at 200 or 300 yards' distance by light bomb-throwers and the
+battalion staff. Finally there came one-inch and other very light field
+guns, called "artillery of accompaniment," which deployed as required.
+The divisional reserves consisted of five infantry battalions. No new
+gas was used, and although the enemy has tanks they were not brought
+into action.
+
+
+FIFTY GERMAN DIVISIONS
+
+The first attack was made by perhaps fifty divisions, or about 750,000
+men. Of these at least ten divisions, and perhaps thirteen or fourteen,
+were thrown into the corner of the field between St. Quentin, La Fere,
+and Noyon. They were divided into six columns.
+
+The first consisted of a division with three battalions of chasseurs,
+which, debouching from La Fere, quickly took Tergnier, and on the
+evening of March 22 came to a stop before Vouel, the next village
+westward, and a division which came into action on the evening of the
+22d passed the first, and on the following day pushed on toward Chauny.
+
+The second column consisted of two divisions. The former advanced from
+the old line near Moy, on the Oise, through La Fontaine and Remigny and
+to the southwest. It stopped at Liez, on the Crosat Canal, on the 22d.
+That night it was passed by the other division, which, on the 23d,
+captured Villequier-Aumont, on the St. Quentin-Chauny road. To the right
+of this was the third column, composed of two divisions. The first
+attacked through Cerizy to Benay and Hinacourt, and was stopped on the
+evening of the 22d at Lamontagne. It was passed that evening by the
+other division on the canal, which, after occupying Genlis Wood, closed
+up to the second column.
+
+The fourth column included the 1st and 10th Divisions, of which the
+former attacked through Essigny to Jussy, and on the 23d was at the
+north of Ugny, while the latter on its right passed the canal and
+reached Ugny and Beaumont.
+
+Of the fifth column, which occupied the region of Villeselve, and the
+sixth, in the Ham-Noyon sector, my information is slighter, owing to the
+severity of the trial of the British contingents there before the French
+took over the front.
+
+One division of the sixth column attacked at Le Plessis, north of
+Guiscard, on the 24th, and on the following day took Muirancourt,
+Rimbercourt and Croisilles. Its right was then prolonged by a division
+at Freniches.
+
+
+BRITISH FRONT BROKEN
+
+On the evening of the 22d the front of the British Army ran along the
+Crozat Canal from Tergnier, through Jussy, to the east of St. Simon.
+
+Very well do I remember the bridgehead of Jussy as I saw it after the
+German retreat a year ago. The town, built almost wholly of brick, was
+absolutely leveled to the ground, not a single wall standing. I saw it
+again last Summer, when General X., a fine soldier and an enlightened
+gentleman, had set up a camp hospital and swimming bath, and the bridge
+had been decorated to celebrate the entry of America into the war. It
+was seven miles behind the front, and I confess we never thought to see
+the boche there again.
+
+At 6 P. M. on the 22d General ----received the news that the British
+front had been broken between Beauvois and Vaux, nine miles due west of
+St. Quentin, and that his corps must fall back to Ham and the villages
+of Sancourt and Matigny, immediately north of it. At 8 or 9 o'clock next
+morning the news came in that the enemy was just debouching from the
+south of Ham toward Esmery-Hallon. The British 5th Corps was then in the
+region of Guiscard-Beaumont-Guivry ready for relief.
+
+On the morning of the 24th two German divisions, the first and second
+columns, continued their movements in the Oise Valley, while the third
+and fourth columns took Ugny and Genlis Wood. On the 25th one division
+reached Croisilles, while another attacked Baroeuf on the north of the
+Oise, half way between Noyon and Chauny.
+
+On the 26th one division was near Noyon, another at Larbroye, southwest
+of that town, and a third at Suzoy, two miles west of it. Clemenceau's
+classic phrase, "Remember that the Germans are at Noyon," had
+unexpectedly come alive again.
+
+
+ALLIED TEAMWORK
+
+Noyon, unlike Chauny, Ham, and other neighboring places, was not greatly
+damaged by the Germans before their retreat last year. South of the town
+rises a conical hill called Mont Renaud, which is capped with a wood
+hiding the chateau built on the site of an ancient abbey. On Thursday,
+when the Germans were ensconced on Mont Renaud, a French General
+expressed in the presence of the English General commanding a cavalry
+division his intention of retaking it. The British commander at once
+asked that his own troops should have the honor of making the attack.
+This was agreed to, and the British cavalry, dismounted, carried the
+hill by assault in face of a stubborn defense by the enemy.
+
+I am assured that along the line where the French relieved the British
+troops, or where they have been acting together, the best relations have
+prevailed, and that the co-operation of the staffs and field officers
+has been most cordial.
+
+The French, like the British, aviators, by the boldness of their bombing
+and their machine-gun work on the line of the German advance, have done
+much to compensate for the allied losses and the unavoidable delay in
+getting the French batteries into their new positions. Prisoners say the
+German 88th Division was nearly wiped out, and that the 206th suffered
+almost as badly.
+
+
+VON HUTIER'S METHODS
+
+Details of the first advance from St. Quentin to Noyon illustrate the
+new method pursued in this offensive in the particular way in which one
+large unit passes through another in order to carry the movement forward
+as rapidly as possible.
+
+Another feature is its readiness to change the direction of march when
+great difficulty is found by the Germans or a marked weakness on the
+allied side invites such a change. Of the divisions named above, six
+disappeared from that front in the course of the concentration toward
+Noyon. They had been diverted westward when it was recognized that the
+Oise could not be forced, and Amiens became the chief objective.
+
+It is certain that General von Hutier's plans were based upon his
+experience in the capture of Riga. * * * Western resistance, whether
+French or British, is a very different thing from that which the
+Russians put up at Riga. Enormous as are the forces the enemy put into
+this blow, though for the last week they outnumbered and generally
+overwhelmed those hurried up to meet them, they had to pay terribly for
+their success. German war doctrine recognizes this as inevitable in what
+is intended for a decisive operation against great antagonists. Against
+soldiers less experienced, disciplined, and inspired than those of the
+western Allies Hindenburg would have succeeded.
+
+The adaptability of direction of attack which I have indicated is
+remarkable, but the same adaptability in the attack upon Verdun, where
+the right and left banks of the Meuse were alternately tried, gave no
+result. This time the main direction has been thrice changed. It began
+with the wings at St. Quentin and Croisilles; it then moved to the right
+centre from Bapaume to Albert; finally it is concentrated on the left
+centre on both sides of Montdidier.
+
+Because of its methods and speed the battle thus far has been mainly one
+of artillery. German cavalry has been met in small numbers, but it has
+not taken a brilliant part. The enemy's aviation service has been
+notably inferior to that of the Allies. Only light guns with a few
+four-inch pieces have been able to keep up with the advance, and trench
+mortars do not seem to have been brought up quickly. On the other hand,
+groups of allied machine gunners and machine riflemen, taking advantage
+of the depressions of the ground, have everywhere taken heavy toll of
+their adversaries. By the time they can transport their heavier guns the
+Allies will have their former superiority ready to answer them.
+
+
+FAILED TO BREAK THROUGH
+
+March 26.--A full third of the German forces on the western front have
+been engaged on one-eighth of its extent. It is not impossible that a
+secondary offensive may be declared, but it may be taken that we now
+know the worst, and that the utmost possible strength has been put into
+the first blow.
+
+The choice suggests the need of obtaining a rapid decision and the hope
+of shaking the will of our people. If it resulted in a break-through it
+would be justified as good strategy; if not, a number of prisoners and
+miles of ravaged territory have been taken, with no compensation for the
+costs.
+
+So far there is nothing like a break-through. The French are holding
+strongly in the Oise Valley, in safe connection with the British on the
+Somme.
+
+
+FRENCH SOLDIERS CONFIDENT
+
+March 27.--I have been along the French front today, and the news is
+that, although the battle broke with extraordinary violence, it found
+the French prepared, and all is well.
+
+As I watched the sun set in a crimson flood yesterday behind the Noyon
+hills there seemed to be a pause in the struggle. At least, the
+bombardment had slackened, and at one of the headquarters of the French
+Army on the Oise there was no news of an attack then proceeding.
+
+The result of this momentary lull was to enhance the impression of calm
+order and confidence which is one's usual experience in passing from the
+rear to the front. One goes up in a state of suppressed agitation over
+the latest reports and rumors, and finds himself suddenly wrapped around
+by an atmosphere of businesslike quietude that extends nearly to the
+front trenches. Even in the firing line the stoical silence of the men
+and their immobility, except in spasmodic crises, seem to dominate the
+hellish roar of bursting shells.
+
+From this point backward the machine works with a smoothness that
+rebukes our anxieties. In a circuit of forty miles, ending on the hills
+overlooking the left bank of the Oise, between Noyon and Chauny, I did
+not see a single sign of confusion, and there were many signs of
+satisfaction that the war had entered upon a decisive stage.
+
+This is not strange. Very few soldiers hear as much of the latest news
+as one does in Paris or London; but all soldiers know more of the
+strength of their army than civilians can know. They may rarely see
+their General and understand little of military science; they may be
+unable to tell you exactly how the battle line stands, but they have a
+thousand ways of learning the quality of their chiefs and of knowing far
+in advance of the official bulletins whether things are going well or
+ill.
+
+So far as my information goes there is good reason for this equitable
+state of mind. The German advance is remarkable, but it has been
+adequately paid for. Along the successive lines of heights southwest of
+St. Quentin the British, and afterward the French, who took this sector,
+had excellent firing positions, and retired from one to another in good
+order. The enemy came on wave upon wave, reckless of losses, as though
+certain points must be reached at any cost at certain hours. The allied
+troops fired upon them continuously, often exhausting their ammunition
+before the moment came for falling back. The Crown Prince's troops were
+at some points literally mown down. One machine gunner with a good
+target got through 30,000 cartridges, and could have fired twice that
+number had they been at hand. A Bavarian regiment lost half of its
+effectives in this drive toward the Oise.
+
+
+NEW METHOD OF ASSAULT
+
+The new method of assault by which the Germans obtained their first
+successes--new in its intensity, though not in its elements
+combined--seems to be as follows: After a short but heavy bombardment,
+in which gas shells play a larger part than ever, masses of troops
+brought up at the last moment are sent forward, wave after wave. The
+first wave must reach its objective at any cost, and, leaving the still
+resisting groups to be dealt with by bodies of grenadiers and flame
+pumpers, at once begins to throw heavy machine-gun and rifle fire upon
+the rear of the next line to be attacked, so as to prevent reserves
+from coming up. It is then passed by a second wave, which installs
+itself in the next position, engages it, and is in turn passed by a
+third wave, and so on.
+
+Even when, as in this case, the method has been rehearsed with Teutonic
+thoroughness, it is one that involves losses which other than German
+armies could not be asked to bear.
+
+
+THE GERMAN STRENGTH
+
+March 29.--On the front of fifty miles, where the enemy had had only
+sixteen divisions, he commenced his great gamble with about thirty-eight
+divisions. It was already a heavy superiority, but there had been
+recognized up to last night a total of about eighty-seven divisions
+engaged, that is to say over a million men have been poured into this
+space, which forms only about an eighth of the western front, the
+greater part of these being new reserves, brought up after the operation
+was launched. They include many of the best imperial troops, the 1st,
+2d, and 5th Guard Divisions, for instance, and two crack Bavarian
+divisions.
+
+Three of the army commanders are reckoned among the most successful of
+the German Generals--von Below, who directed the Italian offensive; von
+der Marwitz, who did so much with his cavalry corps in the battle of the
+Marne to check pursuit and has done so well since in higher positions,
+and von Hutier, who tried new infantry tactics in the capture of Riga.
+The last named represents the army and the prestige of the Imperial
+Crown Prince. The other two serve the Crown Prince of Bavaria, and the
+enterprise received a special blessing from the Emperor.
+
+Their whole design points to an intention of making this a singly
+decisive operation. Consider again the figures given above. Before the
+offensive the enemy had on this front from the sea to the Alps about 109
+divisions in line and seventy-six in reserve. By calling the reserves
+they have been able (and it has been necessary) by the eighth day of the
+battle to put about eighty-seven divisions, 1,044,000 men, into the
+combat. Good observers consider that at the most they can hardly bring
+up more than forty more divisions.
+
+
+LINE ALMOST BROKEN
+
+March 30.--Immediately west of Noyon, Mont Renaud and some neighboring
+hills have been recovered and are strongly held. The bridges over the
+Oise between Point l'Eveque and Chauny have been broken, and the river
+there is so well covered by artillery and infantry that there is no
+danger of a passage being forced.
+
+This was the first fruit of the French northward movement on the evening
+of March 21. Several divisions of the neighboring French Army were
+rushed up in motor wagons to the aid of the British right wing, which
+was thus enabled to draw north along the Crozat Canal. Their guns and
+supply columns followed. On the next day a further force was placed
+opposite Chauny, and other French troops were ordered to extend their
+lines northwestward, keeping in touch with the retiring British right.
+The constant displacement required in this delicate task and the fact
+that the French were gradually drawing upon themselves an increasing
+part of the German onset explain the delay in making considerable
+counterattacks.
+
+On the 24th the French repelled repeated attempts to cross the Oise, and
+their lines, which already stretched to Evricourt, more than half way
+from Noyon to Lassigny, were extended to the neighborhood of the latter
+town.
+
+The difficulties inevitable in so rapid a movement of reserves were met
+everywhere with splendid cheerfulness and energy. One of the artillery
+regiments, brought up by motor wagon, had no horses with it, but got its
+pieces into action, and, having to retreat, dragged them back three
+miles by hand.
+
+Meanwhile, definitely checked on the south, and feeling all the time for
+the line of least resistance, the German host was gravitating rapidly
+westward between Roye and Chaulnes. Now that the danger has completely
+passed, it may be said that it came very near breaking through the
+allied front in this region on the 25th. The 26th and 27th saw an
+accentuation of pressure at the point of junction, but, while the front
+was pushed back on the first day to l'Echelle-St. Aurin on the Avre, and
+on the next to Montdidier, other French troops had been brought up to
+strengthen the British right, and yesterday, after several hard combats,
+it seemed that the offensive was definitely contained.
+
+
+BATTLE FOR MONTDIDIER
+
+April 1.--Montdidier, quaintly seated on a steep hill beside the
+Amiens-Clermont railway, is an important crossroads. On Friday the enemy
+had pulled himself together and delivered along twenty-five miles of
+broken country from Demuin to near Lassigny a new mass attack, supported
+with a considerable number of field guns. On the French left the British
+held Demuin, but were driven out of Mezieres. The French bore the main
+shock heroically. Step by step they fell back, leaving masses of German
+dead and wounded before their lines.
+
+The combat continued throughout Sunday, spreading out a little at both
+ends, and it is impossible for me to piece together the fragmentary and
+often incoherent reports from the field so as adequately to represent
+its wild fluctuations.
+
+Savagely set upon breaking through to Amiens and the Amiens-Paris
+railway, von Hutier's columns succeeded in reaching the Avre at Moreuil.
+Between Montdidier and Lassigny, where the front curves to the
+southeast, the enemy put no less strength into his outward thrust.
+Hand-to-hand fighting continued for hours in the villages of Orvillers
+on the west and Plessis de Roye, near Lassigny, and the neighboring
+hamlet of Plemont, all of which repeatedly changed hands. The German
+troops which got into Plemont and part of Plessis were driven out by a
+magnificent charge of the French, some units flying in disorder. The
+slaughter of yesterday's fighting is said to exceed anything seen in the
+preceding days of the battle.
+
+On the ninth day a new chapter of the tragic story was opened. The
+Allies, their lines unbroken, were standing with clenched teeth on good
+positions and were hourly adding to their strength in men and guns.
+Amiens appeared to the enemy like a mirage on the western horizon, and
+the two Crown Princes may have reflected that there would be accounts to
+pay at home if this time, after sacrifices such as can only be
+paralleled in rare episodes of military history like the retreat from
+Moscow, they did not bring back a victorious peace.
+
+
+BLOW AT JUNCTION POINT
+
+A smashing blow at the Franco-British junction was then to be decisive.
+It was begun with means believed to be adequate to this aim and was
+directed westward on both sides of Montdidier toward the Beauvais-Amiens
+railway, with a supporting thrust from the threatened flank west of
+Lassigny.
+
+Further south, toward Montdidier, which they already held, the Germans
+crossed the river, again suffering very heavy losses, but were arrested
+on the hills of the western bank. In the evening the struggle, despite
+the exhaustion of both sides, attained its fiercest intensity. Moreuil
+was recaptured on Saturday night by a mixed Canadian and French force,
+lost again during the night, and once more carried by storm in the
+old-fashioned way yesterday morning. No Stosstruppen, (shock troops,) no
+expert grenadiers or flame pumpers this time. Mixed in the same ranks,
+the British colonials in khaki and the French in light blue went forward
+irresistibly with the bayonet.
+
+"The Canadians," says one of my informants, "performed prodigies of
+valor, and when the boches fell back they had lost half their
+effectives."
+
+Full of their success, our troops turned northward and would not be
+satisfied till they had been firmly set on the wooded heights near the
+town. Later in the day several violent enemy attacks were made south of
+the Somme, but they seem to have been of rather a local and scattered
+kind, as though, at least for the moment, fresh efforts of the
+dimensions of those of Friday and Saturday were impossible.
+
+The British have made some progress in the valley of the Luce, and two
+strong German attacks were repulsed between Marcelcave and the Somme,
+as were others in the British sphere on the north of the river. On the
+other hand, the British line was beaten back to the village of Hangard,
+[Hangard was lost and finally retaken and held by the French,] on the
+north bank of the Luce, nearly opposite Demuin.
+
+Like the actions of the preceding days, this battle has been in the main
+a conflict of infantry. On neither side has it been possible to get
+heavy artillery in position in time, but on the allied side French and
+British guns, freshly detrained, gave support of moral as well as
+material importance. When the 75 has a target of masses advancing in
+close, deep waves, its effects are terrible beyond words. In the open
+country the air squadrons of the Allies have also worked havoc in the
+enemy's ranks, besides bursting tons of explosives on his camps and
+lines of communication.
+
+
+AGAINST ENORMOUS ODDS
+
+April 8.--It is evident that the German onslaught has failed to break
+through. What the Allies have lost in ground they have saved in men;
+and, on the other hand, the enemy, who wanted not these miles of
+desolate territory, but a final decision, has paid inordinately without
+getting any nearer the desired result.
+
+For five days his advance, though somewhat behind his ambitious program,
+was not seriously interrupted. On March 25 a certain General reached the
+region of Montdidier and began to build a human barrier. On March 23
+began what may be called a four days' battle of arrest. Three French
+divisions had to meet and did meet the onset of fifteen German
+divisions. There were smaller units that fought one against ten.
+
+The main German effort was against the Moreuil-Grivesnes-Montchel line,
+the object being (with 150,000 men in play there could be no less
+ambitious aim) to break right through to the south of Amiens and
+completely separate the French and British Armies. It culminated on the
+31st with a suicidal assault by the pick of the Prussian Guards and
+other chosen divisions at Grivesnes, when a certain gallant Colonel,
+rifle in hand, directed the barricading of the windows of the chateau,
+and with not more than 500 men kept off three or four times as many
+assailants and had strength enough left at last to sweep those who
+remained out of the park.
+
+I need not measure again the trivial gain for the enemy of this four
+days' battle. Perhaps the most significant fact about it is that while,
+overwhelming as was his original force, the enemy had repeatedly to
+withdraw and renew his units, not one French unit was relieved in that
+time. At Mesnil St. Georges one infantry battalion, with some groups of
+chasseurs, drove off five successive attacks by a whole German division.
+I might multiply such instances, but space would fail me to make them
+real with detail.
+
+A pause of four days followed this failure. Then, on April 4, twelve
+divisions were again launched in the northern part of the same narrow
+field--10,000 men per mile of front. They won at great cost the ruins of
+two hamlets and a slice of fields beside them.
+
+
+FIRST PHASE REVIEWED
+
+April 14.--The first phase or act of the offensive, launched with
+unprecedented masses of troops, completely failed to reach its aim and
+entailed losses that no lesser success could warrant. Begun on March 21,
+with three armies--those of von Below, von der Marwitz, and von
+Hutier--counting nearly fifty divisions, about forty more had to be
+brought in before the first week was out.
+
+By that time the French armies had been pushed northwestward with
+admirable rapidity and characteristically splendid spirit, and by the
+last day of the month the host of the Prussian Crown Prince, including
+the Guard and others of the best German units, had been fought to a
+standstill from Noyon and Lassigny to the Avre and the Somme.
+
+Several hard combats in the last fortnight, the latest ending in the
+French recovering the village of Hangard on Friday and their useful
+advance yesterday near Arvillers, do but confirm this result. That the
+German losses are fully commensurate with the ambition of their aims and
+the prodigal method pursued is shown by another fact unprecedented in
+the history of war.
+
+At the end of three weeks of the offensive about 1,500,000 men have been
+cast into the battle, and seventy-five divisions have become so
+dislocated as to have to be withdrawn for reorganization. It is
+therefore probable that the total German casualties up to date approach
+500,000.
+
+
+SECOND PHASE SUMMARIZED
+
+The second phase may be regarded as having opened March 28 with the
+entry of General von Below's right wing into action east of Arras, and
+as culminating with the battle of Armentieres, involving the army of
+General von Quest and the left wing of General von Arnim's army at
+Ypres, while a subsidiary operation by General von Boehm's army
+threatened the French between the Oise and St. Gobain Forest.
+
+This northern battle began in a much smaller way than the original
+offensive, with about twenty divisions on a twenty-mile front, and it
+may have been its initial success that determined its prompt extension.
+
+While it may fairly be said to have constituted a confession of failure
+in the earlier adventure, its development not only creates a new danger,
+but strengthens the German position athwart the Somme. The situation,
+therefore, must be looked at straightforwardly and spoken of without
+mincing words.
+
+In the middle of March the German armies consisted of 4,000,000 men at
+the front, 1,300,000 on the lines of communication and in the interior,
+and others who can be added to the present effectiveness.
+
+From the village of Hangard to Abbeville is about forty miles; from
+Merville to Calais is the same distance; to Boulogne a little more; from
+the Ypres front to Dunkirk is about thirty miles; to Nieuport a little
+less. These are the limits of the allied power of manoeuvre for the
+defense of the Channel.
+
+
+
+
+Caring for Thousands of Refugees
+
+
+Long processions of civilian refugees lined the roadsides in the invaded
+area during the days of battle--the pitiful hosts of those fleeing from
+the German guns and the terrors of German occupation. Many thousands of
+villagers and farmers whose little homes had been devastated by the
+first German occupation and by the battle of the Somme had been trying
+bravely to restore their ruined houses and cultivate the tortured soil
+again. With the aid of American friends hundreds of cottages had been
+built, heaps of shattered masonry cleared away, shops and schools
+opened, and French, British, and American committees had formed a
+nucleus around which new life was gradually growing up. No less than
+5,500 acres of the devastated land evacuated by the Germans a year ago
+were again under cultivation--enough to feed 16,000 persons a year.
+
+All this work of the stricken inhabitants, with their replanted fruit
+trees and scanty stores of new implements, had to be abandoned almost at
+a moment's notice. Many of the peasants, stunned by the new catastrophe,
+had to be aroused to flight by the friendly orders of the retreating
+British officers. The Red Cross workers, the Dames de France, and a
+group of courageous American women--the Smith College girls--aided the
+refugees day and night in their retreat from town to town until the
+German advance was checked a few miles short of Amiens.
+
+The American Red Cross transported thousands from the towns and villages
+behind the British lines, working thirty automobiles night and day, and
+carrying 2,000 to friends in Paris in the first few days. These were
+mostly women, children, and aged persons who had been awakened by the
+Red Cross workers on the morning of the 25th, taken to the railroad in
+trucks, and thence transported by rail in special trains. Most of the
+refugees were able to save only a few of their belongings, which were
+wrapped up in shawls and bed sheets, or carried in baskets or handbags.
+One woman, 81 years old, carried only a basket of live chickens, and
+cried because she had been unable to save two rabbits. Another woman
+carried a few cooking utensils under her arm. Many women and children
+were crying because they had been separated from relatives and friends.
+Children only a month old and people who had reached the age of 90 were
+alike numbered among the unfortunates.
+
+
+TRAGIC SCENES
+
+"I saw the first tide of these poor people when the Germans came near to
+Ham and Peronne and Roye," wrote Philip Gibbs on March 29. "Some of them
+had been once in the hands of the Germans, and at this second menace
+they left their homes and their fields and their shops, and came
+trekking westward and southward.
+
+"One's heart bleeds to see these refugees, and it is the most tragic
+aspect of these days. There are many old people among them, old women in
+black gowns and caps who come hobbling very slowly down the highway of
+war, and old men with bent backs who lean heavily on their gnarled
+sticks as the guns go by, and the fighting men.
+
+"I saw one old man near Ham who was trundling along a wheelbarrow, and
+on this was spread a mattress, and on that was his wife. She looked 90
+years of age, with her white, wrinkled face, and she was fast asleep,
+like a little child. Many children are on the roads, packed tight into
+farm carts with household furniture and bundles of clothing, and poultry
+and pigs and new-born lambs. The noise of the gunfire is behind them,
+and they move faster when it grows louder. They are very brave, these
+boys and girls and these old people. There is hardly any weeping or any
+look on their faces of grudge against this unkind turn of fate. They
+seem to accept it with stoical resignation, with most matter-of-fact
+courage, and their only answer to pity is a smile and the words, 'C'est
+la guerre.' Those are words I first heard in the early weeks of the war
+and hoped never to hear again.
+
+"Many of these people trek in family groups and gatherings of families
+from one village. Small boys and girls drag tired cows after them. The
+other day one of these cows leaned against every tree she passed and
+then sat down, and the girl with her looked around helplessly, not
+knowing what to do. This morning I saw the girl wearing a veil and
+dressed in an elegant way, taking the cow with her. She was quite alone
+on the road. It is queer and touching that most of these fugitives wear
+their best clothes, as though on a fete day. It is because they are
+clothes they want to save and can only have by wearing them in their
+flight.
+
+"In one small town the fear of the German entry came at night, a bright,
+moonlight night into which there came many German bombing squadrons. The
+citizens had shut up their shops and stood about talking anxiously. Then
+fear and rumor spread among them, and all through the night there was an
+exodus of small families and solitary girls and comrades in misfortune,
+stealing away like shadows from homes they loved, from little fortunes
+or their shops, from all their normal life into the open country, where
+the moonlight lay white and cold on the fields. Behind them bombs were
+being dropped, and some of their houses were destroyed.
+
+"C'est la guerre!"
+
+
+WORK OF AMERICAN GIRLS
+
+The heroic work of the Smith College girls was described by a
+correspondent at the French front under date of March 29:
+
+"Working unceasingly under a constant shellfire, for days without sleep,
+the girls demonstrated admirable initiative and ability and the extreme
+coolness of the tried soldier. They are still in the field today,
+ministering to old men, women, and children. I have talked to the first
+persons to come in from the front, who saw them last Saturday, when
+shells were falling at Grecourt, the tiny Somme village where the unit
+has been quartered for months, aiding the folks of a dozen surrounding
+villages.
+
+"When it became evident that the Germans were coming the girls worked
+frantically with auto trucks, gathering together all the people in
+their territory. In one village they went three times to try to persuade
+an aged woman to leave, but she refused to move unless the ancestral
+bedstead on which she lay could be transported with her. In final
+desperation the girls brought a big supply wagon and loaded the bedstead
+and the woman into it, leaving the village fifteen minutes before the
+first of the Uhlans arrived.
+
+"The girls organized themselves into small units and each unit was
+charged with the evacuation of a single village. Cavalcades of refugees,
+generaled by the Smith girls, marched or rode from their abandoned homes
+to Roye, where a special train was waiting to carry them westward. Even
+cows, chickens, dogs, and cats helped to form the cavalcade which
+reached Roye on Saturday morning. Here the refugees vainly tried to
+crowd the animals into the train.
+
+"The girls of the Smith College unit then proceeded to Montdidier.
+There, with W. B. Jackson of Washington, a former Red Cross delegate at
+Ham, assisted by a group of American Quakers and Red Cross workers, they
+organized a canteen and began giving out blankets and other comforts and
+making a marvelous bean soup and a special food for babies, the basis of
+which was condensed milk. As the refugee trains, some containing as many
+as 1,000 men, women, and children, poured into Montdidier the arriving
+refugees were fed until the supply of food was exhausted.
+
+"Then Montdidier became too hot under the increasing shellfire and the
+workers were forced to split, some going to Amiens and others to
+Beauvais, where they continued their work. Since then practically all
+the Smith College girls and some other workers have gone to Amiens,
+where they are weathering the enemy bombardment in cellars, but carrying
+on their work as usual."
+
+
+FLEEING IN BEST CLOTHES
+
+An Associated Press correspondent added this further bit of eyewitness
+testimony under date of March 27:
+
+"The French refugees of the better class departing from the zones of
+actual operations are coming out clad in all their finery, which
+represents the styles of four or five years ago. Then there are sturdy
+peasants with wooden shoes and clumsily constructed clothes, riding in
+vehicles drawn by horses or donkeys or in carts pushed by men, and some
+are even in wheelbarrows. Upon these queer transports are stacked
+strange assortments of personal belongings.
+
+"There is deep pathos in all this, but none struck the correspondent
+more forcibly than the appearance of a tiny girl who trudged in her
+wooden shoes along a hard, dusty road, her eyes fastened anxiously upon
+a dirty rag doll perched precariously at the top of household effects
+which were being pushed along by an old man. This child was perhaps
+representative of all the refugees--she was coming away with her most
+cherished possession, her baby doll, and was prepared to guard it at all
+costs; her aching feet were as nothing, so long as the doll was safe.
+
+"These refugees are from the towns within the Somme battlefield and
+adjoining it. All these villages have been emptied of their inhabitants.
+So far as possible everything which might be of use to the Germans has
+been removed. In particular, large numbers of cattle have been taken
+away by the owners, who patiently drive the beasts on ahead of them
+along the roads.
+
+"There are few tears or hysterical outbreaks among the refugees, most of
+whom are of the peasant class. They know they must go, and they seem to
+be trusting implicitly in the British, but the misery in their eyes as
+they turn from all they love to a world they do not know is touching.
+Aged women clinging to the hands of little grandchildren, men stooped
+with years, youths and maidens--all fall into a picture such as only a
+catastrophe can produce."
+
+Fifty members of the American Friends' unit of the Red Cross were in the
+region of the great battle, at Ham, Liancourt, Esmery-Hallon,
+Golancourt, and Gruny on the Somme and Aisne. These devoted workers,
+with the aid of many Red Cross trucks that were rushed to them, helped
+thousands of refugees to safety.
+
+The French Government had several hundred tractor plows at work on the
+stricken lands. The American relief units also had a few tractor plows
+and other agricultural materials, all of which had to be abandoned to
+the enemy. All members of relief units were reported safe.
+
+
+Castor Oil for Airplanes
+
+How an important agricultural enterprise was initiated to meet one of
+the requirements of the Aviation Section of the American Army is
+disclosed in the minority report of the Senate Military Affairs
+Committee, presented on April 12, 1918. In the course of a description
+of the initial difficulties encountered in producing battle planes, the
+report says:
+
+"Remember again that when these combat planes were contracted for the
+only known lubricating oil adapted to their delicate parts was an oil
+made from the castor bean. There were not enough beans in this country
+to make anywhere near the amount of oil required. Neither were there
+enough seeds with which to grow the needed quantity of beans. The Signal
+Corps had to search the globe for seeds, and finally secured a shipload
+from distant India. Then the corps had to contract for the planting of
+the seeds in this country, and has succeeded in having about 110,000
+acres planted. It is now claimed that a form of petroleum has been
+developed that will answer the same purpose. This, however, is still in
+the experimental stage, while the oil from the castor bean is known to
+be entirely adequate and reliable."
+
+
+
+
+Progress of the War
+
+Recording Campaigns on All Fronts and Collateral Events From March 18,
+1918, Up to and Including April 17, 1918
+
+
+UNITED STATES
+
+The German Government announced on March 18 that American property in
+Germany would be seized in reprisal for the seizure of German property
+in the United States.
+
+Drastic restrictions were placed by the War Trade Board upon the
+importation of many nonessential commodities, the regulations to become
+effective April 15.
+
+The terms of the Third Liberty Loan were announced by Secretary McAdoo
+on March 25. The bill authorizing it was completed by Congress and
+signed by President Wilson on April 4, and on April 6 the drive began.
+
+Secretary Daniels, in a speech in Cleveland on April 6, disclosed the
+fact that a great fleet of American vessels, including battleships, was
+operating in the war zone.
+
+Announcement was made in Tokio on March 28 that an agreement had been
+concluded under which Japan promised to turn over to the United States
+450,000 tons of shipping.
+
+President Wilson issued a proclamation on April 11, giving Secretary
+McAdoo control of the principal coastwise steamship lines.
+
+Charles M. Schwab was appointed Director General of the Emergency Fleet
+Corporation April 16.
+
+
+SUBMARINE BLOCKADE
+
+Sir Eric Geddes gave in the House of Commons on March 19 figures of
+shipping losses which are given in detail elsewhere in this number of
+CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE, also figures made public by the British
+Admiralty on March 21 are given elsewhere.
+
+The Royal Mail steamer Amazon and the Norwegian steamship Stolt-Neilson,
+commandeered by the British, were sunk March 19.
+
+The steamship Conargo was torpedoed in the Irish Sea March 31, and the
+lifeboats were shelled.
+
+The armed boarding steamer Tithonus was sunk March 28, and the sinking
+of the steamship Carlisle Castle was reported April 2.
+
+On April 1 the Celtic was torpedoed off the Irish coast, but reached
+port in safety.
+
+The American steamer Chattahoochee, formerly the German Sachsen, was
+sunk off the English coast on March 25.
+
+The Spanish steamers Arpillao and Begona were sunk March 25.
+
+The Italian steamer Alessandra was sunk off the Island of Madeira April
+2.
+
+The Ministre de Smet de Naeyer, a Belgian relief ship, was sunk in the
+North Sea on April 6, and twelve members of the crew were lost.
+
+As a result of the commercial agreement between Spain and the United
+States, German submarines began a blockade of Spanish ports, April 11.
+
+Because a German submarine had captured a Uruguayan military commission
+bound for France, the Government of Uruguay on April 11 asked Berlin,
+through Switzerland, whether it considered that a state of war existed
+with Uruguay.
+
+
+CAMPAIGN IN WESTERN EUROPE
+
+March 18--Belgians repulse German raids in the region of Nieuport,
+Dixmude, and Mercken.
+
+March 19--French penetrate German line near Rheims; British carry out
+successful raids in the neighborhood of Villers-Guislain, La Vacquerie,
+and Bois Gienier.
+
+March 20--German airplane drops balls of liquefied mustard gas on
+American lines northwest of Toul; Americans shell Lahayville, causing a
+heavy explosion and forcing the Germans to retreat; French repulse
+violent raids in the Souain sector of Champagne.
+
+March 21--Germans open terrific drive on British lines on a fifty-mile
+front from southeast of Arras as far as La Fere; French lines bombarded
+north and southeast of Rheims as well as on the Champagne front; Paris
+bombarded by long-range guns.
+
+March 22--Germans claim 16,000 prisoners in big drive; General Haig
+reports them gaining at some points and repulsed at others; American
+artillery fire destroys German first and second line trenches east of
+Luneville; violent gun duels in the Aisne and Champagne sectors; French
+repulse three German raids near Souain.
+
+March 23--Germans smash British front, win victories near Monchy,
+Cambrai, St. Quentin, and La Fere, and penetrate into second British
+positions between Fontaine les Croisilles and Moeuvres; British evacuate
+positions in the bend southwest of Cambrai; Germans penetrate third
+British position between the Omignon stream and the Somme; Paris again
+shelled by gun seventy-five miles away; ten persons killed and fifteen
+or more wounded; fierce artillery fire on the French front from the
+Oise River to the Vosges Mountains.
+
+March 24--Germans capture Peronne, Chauny, and Ham, and cross the River
+Somme at certain points south of Peronne; assaults further north
+repulsed; Paris again bombarded by gun located in the Forest of St.
+Gobain.
+
+March 25--Germans take Bapaume, Nesle, Guiscard, Biaches, Barleux, and
+Etalon; French take over sector of British battlefront south of St.
+Quentin and around Noyon; General Pershing announces that two regiments
+of American engineers are on the Somme battlefield; long-range
+bombardment of Paris continues; one long-range gun explodes, killing ten
+men; American gunners shell St. Bausant and the billets north of
+Boquetau.
+
+March 26--Germans take Noyon, Roye, and Lihon, and cross the battleline
+of 1916 at many points; Americans in the Toul sector drive Germans out
+of Richecourt.
+
+March 27--British, reinforced, beat back German attacks, capture
+Morlaincourt and Chipilly, north of the Somme, and to the south of the
+river advance their lines to the village of Proyart; Germans announce
+the capture of Albert and the crossing of the Ancre north and south of
+the city; French forced to yield ground east of Montdidier, but check
+assaults near Lassigny and Noyon.
+
+March 28--British repulse all-day attacks at Arras; Germans capture
+Montdidier and push their lines as far as Pierrepont, and regain some
+ground south of the Somme which they lost in 1914; French advance at
+Noyon for a mile and a quarter on a six-mile front.
+
+March 29--British line south of the Somme pushed back to a line running
+west of Hamel, Marcelcave, and Demuin; German drive slackens in the
+north; French in the Oise Valley retake Monchel; seventy-five persons
+killed and ninety wounded in church near Paris by shell from long-range
+gun.
+
+March 30--Paris again bombarded by long-range guns; eight killed,
+thirty-seven wounded; Germans wrest six villages in the Montdidier
+sector from the French, and Demuin and Mezieres from the British, but
+are repulsed in the Boiry-Boyelles region.
+
+March 31--Germans lose ground near Feuchy; British advance near Serre;
+French recapture Ayencourt and Monchel and gain considerable ground near
+Orvillers; American Army starts for the battlefront; Paris again
+bombarded; one person killed, six injured.
+
+April 1--French repulse German attacks against Grivesnes; Germans mass
+troops near Albert for renewed drive; bombardment of Paris resumed.
+
+April 2--British carry on successful minor operations between the Avre
+and the Luce Rivers and in the neighborhood of Hebuterne; French
+repulse Germans southwest of La Fere and shell enemy concentrations east
+of Cantigny.
+
+April 3--British occupy Ayette, check Germans near Moreuil; French
+extend their lines north of Plemont and take over another sector of the
+line, extending their holdings northward to Thennes; Americans heavily
+gassed in a sector other than Toul.
+
+April 4--Germans deliver terrific attack against the French along a
+front of nearly nine miles, from Grivesnes to north of the Amiens-Royes
+road, and occupy the villages of Mailly-Raineval and Morisel; British
+lose ground north of Hamel and in the direction of Vaire Wood.
+
+April 5--French forces, by vigorous counterattacks, improve their
+positions in the region of Mailly-Raineval and Cantigny; Germans attack
+British lines from the Somme northward to a point above Bucquoy and
+reach the Albert-Amiens railway, but are driven back.
+
+April 6--Germans attack at several points along the French front from
+the region of Montdidier eastward to the east and south of Chauny, but
+are repulsed everywhere except on the left bank of the Oise in the
+Chauny sector.
+
+April 7--Germans push on south of the Oise and take Coucy Wood and
+Pierremande and Folembray; British retake Aveluy Wood and repel attacks
+opposite Albert and south of Hebuterne.
+
+April 8--British lines around Bucquoy heavily shelled; Germans drive
+French back to the western bank of the Ailette River and take Verneuil
+and the heights east of Coucy-le-Chateau; Americans rout German patrol
+northwest of Toul; French airmen locate and bombard the gun that fired
+on Paris.
+
+April 9--Germans force back the British-Portuguese centre on the River
+Lys between Estaires and Bac St. Maur, and take Richeboucq-St. Vaast and
+Laventie; British repulse attacks at Givenchy and Fleurbaix.
+
+April 10--Germans cross the River Lys at several points between
+Armentieres and Estaires; British forced back north and south of
+Armentieres; French repulse Germans in the Hangard region; first
+American troops reach the British front.
+
+April 11--Germans hurl troops at British front from La Bassee to the
+Ypres-Comines Canal, and force the British to give ground at some
+points, notably at Estaires and Steenwerck.
+
+April 12--Germans launch heavy attacks against the French in the
+Hangard-en-Santerre sector, penetrate Hangard, but later lose half of
+the village to the French; Americans help to repel an attack in the
+Apremont Forest; British forced back west and northwest of Armentieres
+to Neuve Eglise; Merville lost.
+
+April 13--French advance northwest of Orvilles-Sorel and repulse attack
+near Noyon; British regain Neuve Eglise, but beat off German attacks
+southeast of Bailleul; Americans repulse two attacks in force in the
+Toul sector, winning the first all-day battle in which they have been
+engaged.
+
+April 14--British hold Neuve Eglise against repeated German assaults;
+Germans attack near Bailleul and Merris; Americans repulse attacks north
+of St. Mihiel; bombardment of Paris by long-range gun continues.
+
+April 15--Germans take Neuve Eglise, and hurl huge forces toward
+Bailleul and Wulverghem; British straighten out their salient around
+Wytschaete; definite announcement made of the appointment of General
+Foch as Commander in Chief of the allied armies in France, with enlarged
+powers.
+
+April 16--Germans take Wytschaete and Spanbroekmolen, after forcing the
+British out of Bailleul; sixteen killed, forty-five wounded in
+long-range bombardment of Paris.
+
+April 17--British re-enter Wytschaete and Meteren, but are forced out;
+Germans occupy Poelcappelle, Langemarck, and Passchendaele.
+
+
+CAMPAIGN IN ASIA MINOR
+
+March 21--British advance in Palestine, taking Beit Rima, Kefrut, and
+Elowsallabeh.
+
+March 22-23--British advance nine miles on the left bank of the Jordan;
+Arabs destroy Turkish camel corps company near Jedahah.
+
+March 26--British carry Turkish main positions north of Khan-Baghdadi;
+entire Turkish force in the Hit area captured or destroyed.
+
+April 1--British advance seventy-three miles beyond Anah and menace
+Aleppo.
+
+April 4--Armenians recapture Erzerum from the Turks.
+
+April 7--Turks take Ardahan from the Armenians.
+
+April 11--British in Palestine advance their line to a depth of one and
+a half miles on a front of five miles, and capture the villages of El
+Kefr and Rafat.
+
+April 17--Turks capture Batum.
+
+
+ITALIAN CAMPAIGN
+
+March 22--Fighting becomes more active along the entire front; Italians
+drive back patrols on the Trentino front and eject an Austrian
+detachment from an advanced post in the Frenzela Valley sector.
+
+March 28--Artillery engagements east of Badeneoche; forty Austrian
+divisions transferred to the Italian front.
+
+
+AERIAL RECORD
+
+James Ian Macpherson, Parliamentary Secretary of the British War Office,
+announced in the British Commons on March 19 that 255 flights into
+Germany, constituting 38 raids, had been made since last October, and
+that forty-eight tons of bombs had been dropped.
+
+Italians bombed Metz on the nights of March 17 and March 23 and the
+railway station at Thionville on March 24.
+
+Paris was raided on the night of April 12 and twenty-six were persons
+killed and seventy-two wounded.
+
+Bombs were dropped on the east coast of England on the night of April
+12. Five persons were killed and fifteen injured.
+
+
+NAVAL RECORD
+
+Ostend was bombarded by British monitors on March 21. On the same day
+two German destroyers and two torpedo boats were sunk off Dunkirk by
+British and French destroyers.
+
+The Alexander Agassiz, a small boat formerly of American registry, which
+was outfitted by the Germans at Mazatlan for service as a raider, was
+captured in the Pacific Ocean by an American cruiser on March 19.
+
+The Belgian relief ship Flandres was sunk by a mine on April 11.
+
+The German transport Frankland struck a mine and sank at Noorland, March
+22, and all on board, including Admiral von Meyrer, were drowned.
+
+Ten German trawlers were sunk by the British in the Cattegat on April
+15.
+
+
+RUSSIA, RUMANIA, AND POLAND
+
+Leon Trotzky asked the American military mission for ten American
+officers to aid as inspectors in organizing and training a new volunteer
+army, and requested the aid of American railway engineers and
+transportation experts in the reorganization of the railways, March 20.
+The same day he addressed the Moscow Soviet, calling for a new army of
+from 300,000 to 750,000, commanded by trained officers.
+
+Japanese and British marines were landed at Vladivostok on April 5,
+following the invasion of a Japanese office by five armed Russians, who
+killed one Japanese and wounded two others. The Siberian Council of
+Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates protested to the Consular Corps, but
+the Japanese representatives at Vologda explained that the landing was
+only a local incident and that Admiral Kato had acted on his own
+initiative.
+
+The Trans-Caucasian Constituent Assembly, in session at Tiflis on March
+21, refused to ratify the peace treaty with Germany, and urged immediate
+war. On March 29 the Caucasus Diet approved the basis of a separate
+peace agreement with Turkey, including autonomy for Armenia and the
+restoration of old frontiers.
+
+The Armenians and Georgians refused to recognize the cession of
+territory made under the Brest-Litovsk treaty, and on April 3 fierce
+fighting broke out in the districts of Batum, Kars, and Ardahan, as the
+Turks began military occupation. The Georgians seized most of the
+Russian warships in the Harbor of Batum and took them into the Black
+Sea. On April 4 the Armenians recaptured Erzerum from the Turks, and on
+April 7 the Turks took Ardahan from the Armenian forces.
+
+Alexander Marghiloman, leader of the Conservatives, was appointed
+Premier of Rumania March 20. On the same day Germany announced the
+extension of the armistice until March 22.
+
+On March 21 Germany increased her demands on Rumania, calling for the
+surrender of all war munitions. Austria demanded the surrender of all
+territory west of a line extending from a point east of Red Tower Pass
+to a point on the Danube near Ghilramar, and also a strip of country
+eighty miles long and ten miles wide in the region of Predeal. On March
+23 Germany again extended the armistice because of a delay in the
+formation of the Rumanian Cabinet. On March 29 Germany demanded that the
+Rumanian oil wells be turned over to a German-controlled corporation.
+
+German forces continued their advance in Ukraine, taking Kherson on
+March 21 and burning Poltava on March 31. The Ukrainian Rada protested
+against the German demand for 85 per cent. of the country's grain supply
+and practically all of the sugar supply, March 27. On April 5 the
+Bolshevist Government protested against the invasion by German and
+Ukrainian troops of Kursk Province.
+
+Finland protested to the German Government, March 29, against the arrest
+of Major Henry Crosby Emery, representative of the Guaranty Trust
+Company of New York, and his detention on the Aland Islands.
+
+British and French troops were reported on March 31 to be co-operating
+with the Bolshevist troops in the defense of the Kola and Mourmansk
+troops against the Finnish White Guards. German troops were landed in
+Finland April 3, and on the same day the Finnish White Guards captured
+Tammerfors. The Russian fleet escaped from Helsingfors on April 7. On
+April 8 Germany sent an ultimatum demanding the removal or disarmament
+of all Russian warships in Finnish waters by April 12, and on April 11 a
+German squadron, with several transports, arrived at Lovisa.
+
+On April 14 German troops took Hyving and Finnish White Guards took
+Bjoerneborg. Helsingfors was occupied by the Germans on April 15.
+
+Abo was evacuated by the Red Guards on April 16.
+
+
+MISCELLANEOUS
+
+President Poincare refused to pardon Bolo Pacha, April 7, and the next
+day the condemned man made a statement concerning other treason cases,
+thus gaining a reprieve. He was executed on the morning of April 17.
+
+Holland refused the Allies' terms for the transfer of Dutch ships and
+demanded guarantees that they would not be used for troops or munitions.
+On March 20 President Wilson issued a proclamation ordering their
+seizure. The Netherlands Government protested in a statement which
+appeared in the Official Gazette March 30. On April 1 President Wilson
+issued an order authorizing the Navy Department to take possession of
+all equipment and cargoes. Secretary Lansing replied to the Netherlands
+Government in a statement issued on April 13.
+
+Premier Lloyd George addressed the British House of Commons on April 9
+on the military situation and the man-power problem. He asked that the
+services of every able-bodied man between the ages of 18 and 50 be
+placed at the disposal of the Government and advocated conscription in
+Ireland. Leave to introduce the man-power bill was carried in the House.
+The next day the second reading was carried, and on April 12 the bill
+was passed. On the same day Sir Horace Plunkett submitted to Lloyd
+George his report on the Irish Convention's plan for home rule. The
+third reading of the man-power bill was passed by the House of Lords
+April 17.
+
+Mme. Despina Davidovitch Storch, a woman of Turkish birth; Baron Henri
+de Beville, Mrs. Elizabeth Charlotte Nix, and a man who called himself
+Count Robert de Clairmont were arrested in New York City on March 18 on
+suspicion of being members of an international spy system working in the
+interests of Germany. President Wilson ordered their deportation to
+France. Mme. Storch died of pneumonia at Ellis Island on March 30.
+
+Lieutenants Calamaras and Hodjopoulos, who landed in Greece from a
+German submarine to act as agents of ex-King Constantine, and who
+planned to arrange a spy system and establish a naval base, were
+executed on March 30.
+
+The Supreme War Council of the Allies issued a statement on March 18
+condemning German political crimes against the Russian and Rumanian
+peoples, refusing to acknowledge Germany's peace treaties with them, and
+announcing their purpose to establish a reign of organized justice.
+
+General Ferdinand Foch was made Generalissimo of all the allied forces
+on the western front on March 28. A definite official announcement of
+his appointment as Commander in Chief, with enlarged powers, was made on
+April 15.
+
+
+
+
+Russia Under German Domination
+
+Record of a Month's Events The Russo-German peace treaty, signed by the
+Bolshevist plenipotentiaries on March 3, 1918, and ratified at a session
+of the All-Russian Soviet Congress held in Moscow on March 14-16, was
+approved, after a prolonged discussion, by the Main Committee of the
+German Reichstag on March 22.
+
+Discussing the situation created in Russia by the Brest-Litovsk pact, a
+Petrograd daily remarks that, while the rest of the world has secret
+diplomacy and open war, Russia has open diplomacy and secret war. In
+fact, the final ratification of the "peace" instrument by both sides did
+not put an end to the military operations of the Central Powers in
+Russia. Nor did the Russians cease to make feeble and sporadic attempts
+at resistance.
+
+In the third week of March the fall of Petrograd seemed imminent, but
+the transfer of the Government to Moscow and the partial evacuation of
+the northern capital by the civil population apparently changed the
+objective of the invading German troops to the ancient Russian
+metropolis. They began to march on Moscow from northwest, west, and
+southwest, but stopped within the distance of approximately 150 miles
+from that city. For the last three weeks practically no fighting has
+been going on in the north of Russia, except occasional guerrilla
+skirmishes and punitive expeditions, conducted by the Germans and the
+propertied classes. On the other hand, in the south the Austro-German
+invaders have been vigorously pushing on, ostensibly under the pretext
+of assisting the friendly Ukrainian nation in its struggle against the
+Soviet power.
+
+By March 20 the Teutons were in possession of the whole of Western
+Ukraine west of the Dnieper. Among other cities they held Zhitomir,
+Kiev, Nikolayev, and Odessa. The latter city, the most important
+commercial seaport in Russia, was reported to have been occupied by
+four Austro-German regiments without a shot. Kherson was taken March 21.
+On March 27, the semi-official Russian news agency announced that the
+Soviet and Ukrainian troops, assisted by naval forces, recaptured
+Odessa. According to an earlier report, Kherson, Nikolayev, and Znamenka
+were also recaptured by Red Guards and armed civilians. The retaking of
+Odessa was officially denied by Vienna, and the city is apparently in
+the hands of the Teutons at this writing (April 18). They are reported
+to have seized large stores of war materials at Odessa, and 2,500 ships
+at Nikolayev, which is a port on the Black Sea, with vast docks for
+building warships. The Austro-Germans also took Poltava, situated midway
+between the Dnieper and Donetz, and set it on fire. The capture of
+Poltava was followed (April 8) by that of Yekaterinoslav and Kharkov,
+the former seat of the Bolshevist Rada.
+
+On April 11 the invaders occupied the small city of Lgov, 130 miles
+northwest of Kharkov, and an ultimatum was sent to the City of Kursk,
+demanding its surrender. Both towns are situated in the province of
+Kursk, which lies beyond the Russo-Ukrainian border as defined by the
+Central Powers.
+
+The march of the Teutons, coupled with their requisitions of food
+products, seemed to arouse a good deal of dissatisfaction among the
+peasants and workmen in the Ukraine. It is reported that the Rada, which
+had invited the Germans, requested them to stop the advance of their
+troops, but their request was not heeded. The behavior of the Teutons in
+Kiev led to a clash between the Ukrainian authorities and the German
+commandant. The demand of the Austro-Germans that the Ukraine should
+furnish them 85 per cent. of its grain and all its sugar except that
+needed for local consumption was particularly resented. On April 7 the
+Bolshevist Foreign Minister Chicherin signified to the German
+Government his willingness to open peace negotiations with the Ukraine.
+According to some advices the Rada wished to form a federated alliance
+with the Russian Republic.
+
+
+IN THE CAUCASUS
+
+Article 4 of the Russo-German treaty provides for the evacuation by the
+Russian troops of the districts of Erivan, Kars, and Batum, (in the
+Caucasus,) and the reorganization of these districts in agreement with
+Turkey. The Transcaucasion Constituent Assembly, meeting in Tiflis,
+refused to recognize the peace with the Central Powers and pronounced
+itself in favor of a war against them. On March 29 it was reported that
+the local Diet declared the independence of the Caucasus and approved
+the project of a separate peace with Turkey. But when, several days
+later, the Turks began the military occupation of the Caucasian
+districts mentioned in the Brest-Litovsk treaty, the Armenians and
+Georgians rose against the invaders. On April 4 the Armenians were said
+to have recaptured Erzerum, in Turkish Armenia, which Russia evacuated
+after the conclusion of peace. Before the Caucasian uprising Turkey
+officially announced its intention to send troops to restore order in
+the Crimea. It was reported that massacres of Armenians were resumed by
+the Turks and that many thousand women and children had been butchered.
+
+On April 14 the Russian Government forwarded to Germany a protest of the
+Armenian National Council, addressed to the German Ministry of Foreign
+Affairs and the President of the Reichstag. The document reads in part:
+
+    Following upon the withdrawal of the Russian troops Turkish
+    troops already have invaded the undefended country and are not
+    only killing every Turkish Armenian, but also every Russian in
+    Armenia.
+
+    In spite of the terms of the peace treaty, which recognizes the
+    right of self-determination for these Caucasian regions, the
+    Turkish Army is advancing toward Kars and Ardahan, destroying
+    the country and killing the Christian population. The
+    responsibility for the future destiny of the Armenians lies
+    entirely with Germany because it was Germany's insistence that
+    resulted in the withdrawal of the Russian troops from the
+    Armenian regions, and at the moment it rests with Germany to
+    prevent the habitual excesses of the Turkish troops, increased
+    by revengefulness and anger.
+
+
+INTERNAL SITUATION
+
+The internal situation in Russia proper remains uncertain, nor have any
+definite changes taken place in the mood of the people or in the
+Governmental policies of the Bolsheviki. It is charged that the
+Bolshevist Government suppressed the full text of the Brest-Litovsk
+Treaty. On April 10 the Commissioner of Commerce of the Bolsheviki
+announced that under the terms of the peace treaty Russia had suffered
+the following losses:
+
+    Seven hundred and eighty thousand square kilometers (301,000
+    square miles) of territory.
+
+    Fifty-six million inhabitants, constituting 32 per cent, of the
+    entire population of the country.
+
+    One-third of Russia's total mileage of railways, amounting to
+    21,530 kilometers, (13,350 miles.)
+
+    Seventy-three per cent. of the total iron production.
+
+    Eighty-nine per cent. of the total coal production.
+
+    Two hundred and sixty-eight sugar refineries, 918 textile
+    factories, 574 breweries, 133 tobacco factories, 1,685
+    distilleries, 244 chemical factories, 615 paper mills, 1,073
+    machine factories.
+
+    These territories, which now become German, formerly brought in
+    annual revenue amounting to 845,238 rubles, and had 1,800
+    savings banks.
+
+The alarming sweep of the Teutonic invasion, together with the growing
+realization of what the Brest-Litovsk agreement really means to Russia,
+seemed finally to arouse some spirit of resistance in the Russian
+masses. Patriarch Tikhon declared that the Russian Church could not
+recognize a peace dismembering the country and subjecting it to a
+foreign power. Since the ratification the spokesmen of the Bolshevist
+Government have not ceased talking of organizing a large army for a new
+war. The prevalent Bolshevist opinion is that the new revolutionary army
+should be used, in the words of the semi-official Bolshevist organ
+Pravda, "not to strengthen, as the imperialists calculate, this or that
+bourgeois front, but to turn the front of the world war into a front of
+the workers' and soldiers' revolution."
+
+[Illustration: The United States Congress in wartime, including nearly
+all the members of the House, on the steps of the Capitol
+((C) _Harris & Ewing_)]
+
+[Illustration: An American first aid station in the trenches in France
+((C) _Committee on Public Information_)]
+
+
+TALK OF NEW ARMY
+
+In March it was reported that four of the People's Commissaries had gone
+south to organize troops for guerrilla warfare. This idea, however, was
+soon abandoned. Trotzky insisted upon the necessity of having a strictly
+disciplined army of 300,000 to 750,000 men, under regular officers. "We
+cannot," he said, "preserve the illusion that European capital will
+patiently suffer the fact that in Russia the power is in the hands of
+the working class. * * * We are surrounded by enemies on all sides. If
+it were proposed to France to return Alsace, the French Bourse would
+sell Russia tomorrow." On April 2 M. Podvoisky, Assistant Commissary of
+War, stated that Russia would form an army of 1,500,000 men, and that
+the Red Army of Volunteers was steadily growing. The army organization
+has been changed with a view to limiting the application of the elective
+principle. According to some reports the Bolsheviki are hoping to have
+an army of 500,000 by the Fall. Some of the leaders went so far as to
+advocate compulsory military service. On April 10 Leon Trotzky was
+appointed joint Minister of War and Marine.
+
+On the previous day the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets
+unanimously passed a resolution ruling that henceforth Russia's national
+flag would be a red banner bearing the inscription: "_Rossiyskaya,
+Sotzialisticheskaya Federativnaya Sovetskaya Respublika_," (Russian
+Socialist Federative Soviet Republic.) Proposing the measure, the
+Chairman said: "The Russian flag will have to wave over the embassies in
+Berlin and Vienna and we cannot have the old tricolor, so I think it
+most proper to adopt the red flag under which we fought and gained
+victory."
+
+
+BESSARABIA AND RUMANIA
+
+An important event has taken place in the southwestern corner of the
+former Russian Empire, in the rich province of Bessarabia, where
+separatist tendencies have recently made themselves strongly felt. A
+Berlin dispatch, dated April 11, announced that the Bessarabian Diet
+had voted, 86 against 5, that Bessarabia should join the Kingdom of
+Rumania. Thereupon, the Ukrainian Premier filed a protest in Russia
+against this act, stating that the Ukraine must have her say in the
+settlement of Bessarabia's fate in view of the fact that this province
+has a large Ukrainian population and that the Ukraine is controlling an
+important region on the Black Sea adjacent to Bessarabia.
+
+The Council of the People's Commissaries was notified on April 9 that
+the Province of Kazan, situated in the east of European Russia and
+having a population of 2,000,000, had been proclaimed an independent
+republic by the Congress of Peasants of that region.
+
+
+RUSSIA AND THE ALLIES
+
+The Entente did not acknowledge the Russo-German peace. In a statement
+issued March 18 through the British Foreign Office the Governments of
+Great Britain, France, and Italy voiced their protest against "the
+political crimes which, under the name of a German peace, have been
+committed against the Russian people." Ambassador David R. Francis, when
+asked whether he would leave Russia in consequence of the ratification
+of the peace treaty, gave the following reply:
+
+    I shall not leave Russia until compelled by force. The American
+    Government and people are too deeply interested in the
+    prosperity of the Russian people for them to abandon Russia to
+    the Germans. America is sincerely interested in the liberty of
+    the Russian people and will do everything possible to safeguard
+    the real interests of the country.
+
+    If the brave and patriotic Russian people will forget political
+    differences for the time being and act resolutely and
+    vigorously, they will be able to drive the enemy from their
+    territory, and by the end of 1918 bring a lasting peace for
+    themselves and the whole world. America still counts itself an
+    ally of the Russian people, and we shall be ready to help any
+    Government which organizes a vigorous resistance to the German
+    invasion.
+
+The French, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Serbian, Belgian, Brazilian,
+Greek, Portuguese, and Siamese representatives, who left Russia when the
+treaty with Germany was signed, joined the American Ambassador (who did
+not leave the country) at Vologda, 300 miles northeast of Moscow, late
+in March. A dispatch dated March 20 says: "There has been a marked
+change in the attitude of the Allies toward the Soviet Government. * * *
+There are many signs of renewed co-operation between Russia and the
+Allies." The dispatch also quotes M. Chicherin, the Bolshevist Foreign
+Minister, as saying that "Russia's relations with the Entente are
+unchanged."
+
+At the same time Trotzky approached the American military mission,
+established in Moscow, asking it to assist Russia in organizing a
+volunteer army and in improving the country's transportation. On March
+27 the Petit Parisien published a statement to the effect that Trotzky
+had also asked the French to assist him in organizing military
+resistance to the Germans. A leading article in Premier Clemenceau's
+L'Homme Libre contained the following statement: "The Entente, as long
+as the war lasts, will regard Russia, the one and indivisible Russia
+which signed the pact of London, as an ally."
+
+Russia also reckons on the Allies, especially America, for support in
+rehabilitating her industries and developing her resources. A large
+order for agricultural machinery has been placed in the United States,
+and the shipping of the goods has already begun. According to a London
+dispatch the Bolsheviki are sending a commission to the United States to
+settle Russia's accounts with American firms and make arrangements for
+future trade relations.
+
+
+THE JAPANESE LANDING
+
+After Russia's collapse, and especially after her capitulation, Japan's
+intervention in Siberia was a subject of lively discussion in the allied
+countries. Persistent rumors were circulated by the press to the effect
+that large masses of armed and organized Teuton prisoners, numbering at
+least 150,000 men, were ready to seize the Trans-Siberian railroad and
+menace the military stores accumulated in Vladivostok. These rumors were
+declared by the Bolshevist authorities to be a part of the propaganda to
+bring disrepute on the Soviet power and encourage Japanese
+intervention, which Lenine's Government regards as an encroachment of
+world imperialism upon Socialist Russia.
+
+On Friday, April 5, two companies of Japanese sailors landed at
+Vladivostok. According to the report of the President of the Vladivostok
+Soviet, the landing was effected in the presence of the Japanese Consul
+and Admiral Kato, Japanese Marine Minister, without the consent of the
+other allied Consuls. Later in the day fifty British armed sailors were
+landed. There was also an unconfirmed report that American marines, too,
+were landed. On the next day 250 more Japanese sailors entered the city.
+In a proclamation issued at Vladivostok Admiral Kato explained that the
+step was taken because of the murder of a Japanese soldier and in order
+to protect the life and property of Japanese and allied subjects. The
+Vladivostok Soviet protested to the Consular Corps. Resolutions of
+protest were also passed by the Municipal Council and the local Zemstvo.
+
+The news of the landing produced much excitement in the Bolshevist
+headquarters in Moscow. In spite of the statement of the allied
+diplomats that the act was a purely local affair of no political
+importance, the Bolsheviki construed it as the beginning of the rumored
+Japanese invasion. A statement issued by the Commissaries on April 6
+declared that the killing of the Japanese soldier was part of a
+prearranged scheme, and that "Japan had started a campaign against the
+Soviet Republic." The following day the Izvestia spoke of the invasion
+as the continuation of "the crusade against revolutionary Russia" begun
+by imperialistic Germany. In a speech at Moscow on April 8 Premier
+Lenine said: "It is possible that after a short time, perhaps even
+within a few days, we shall have to declare war on Japan." Two days
+later it was reported that the Russian Government had requested Germany
+to permit the postponement of the demobilization of the Russian Army in
+view of the Japanese landing at Vladivostok.
+
+On April 11 the Consular Corps of Vladivostok officially informed the
+local Zemstvo that the landing of allied sailors had been made necessary
+by conditions of anarchy in the port, and that the troops would be
+withdrawn as soon as order had been restored.
+
+On March 16 the American Ambassador, Mr. Francis, made the following
+statement:
+
+    The Soviet Government and the Soviet press are giving too much
+    importance to the landing of these marines, which has no
+    political significance, but merely was a police precaution taken
+    by the Japanese Admiral on his own responsibility for the
+    protection of Japanese life and property in Vladivostok, and the
+    Japanese Admiral, Kato, so informed the American Admiral,
+    Knight, and the American Consul, Caldwell, in Vladivostok. My
+    impression is that the landing of the British marines was
+    pursuant to the request of the British Consul for the protection
+    of the British Consulate and British subjects in Vladivostok,
+    which he anticipated would possibly be jeopardized by the unrest
+    which might result from the Japanese landing.
+
+    The American Consul did not ask protection from the American
+    cruiser in Vladivostok Harbor, and consequently no American
+    marines were landed. This, together with the fact that the
+    French Consul at Vladivostok made no request for protection from
+    the British, American, or Japanese cruisers in the harbor,
+    unquestionably demonstrates that the landing of allied troops is
+    not a concerted action between the Allies.
+
+
+
+
+The Czar's Loyalty to the Allies
+
+An Autograph Letter
+
+A letter written by Nicholas II. to President Poincare in the Spring of
+1916 has recently been made public. Its interest lies in its expression
+of absolute loyalty to the Allies. It is as follows:
+
+    DEAR AND EXALTED FRIEND: At a moment when France and Russia are
+    more closely bound than ever in the unprecedented struggle of
+    which they are supporting the weight with their faithful allies,
+    it has been a great pleasure to me to see the arrival of members
+    of the French Government in Russia. I have had much pleasure in
+    once again meeting M. Viviani, whom I already know, and in
+    recalling the last interview that I had with you. At the time
+    our one idea was to insure the peaceful development of our two
+    countries, while the enemy was already preparing his attack
+    against the peace of Europe in the hope of securing the hegemony
+    of the world. It also gives me great pleasure to meet M. Albert
+    Thomas, the Minister of Munitions, whose talents have rendered
+    such great services to his country and to the cause of the
+    Allies.
+
+    Having always attached great importance to an intimate
+    collaboration between the two Governments, I attach even greater
+    importance to this collaboration at the present time, now that
+    we are thoroughly determined only to disarm by common agreement
+    after gaining the final victory. It is therefore more necessary
+    to co-ordinate our effort in order that our common action may be
+    more effective. It is unquestionable that each of the Allies is
+    animated by a single desire--that of placing its fullest effort
+    at the disposal of the common cause.
+
+    It is with this desire that my Government and my officers have
+    devotedly studied, in association with members of the French
+    Government, the methods that should be taken to insure that the
+    greatest possible assistance should be given to our various
+    allies. I hope, consequently, that M. Viviani and M. Thomas will
+    leave here with the absolute conviction that so far as it is
+    materially possible Russia will hesitate before no sacrifice to
+    insure the triumph of the allied cause at the earliest possible
+    moment. My warmest wishes are that our united efforts may soon
+    be crowned with the most striking success, and I am anxious to
+    express to you my admiration of France, which has covered itself
+    with fresh glory in the heroic defense of Verdun.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+Pershing's Army Under General Foch
+
+American Troops in France Brigaded With French and British Units for the
+Great Battle in Picardy
+
+
+General Pershing, in a cablegram to General March, Acting Chief of
+Staff, announced on March 29, 1918, that the American expeditionary
+force in France had been placed at the disposal of General Foch, the
+allied Generalissimo. The message read:
+
+    _Have made all our resources available, and our divisions will
+    be used if and when needed. French are in fine spirits, and both
+    armies seem confident._
+
+    (_Signed_) _PERSHING._
+
+General Pershing had called on General Foch at Headquarters on the
+previous day, March 28, and made the offer of American troops. His words
+were reported by the Paris newspaper, L'Information, as follows:
+
+"I come to say to you that the American people would hold it a great
+honor for our troops were they engaged in the present battle. I ask it
+of you, in my name and in that of the American people. There is at this
+moment no other question than that of fighting. Infantry, artillery,
+aviation--all that we have are yours to dispose of as you will. Others
+are coming which are as numerous as will be necessary. I have come to
+say to you that the American people would be proud to be engaged in the
+greatest battle in history."
+
+In a statement given out at the American Headquarters in France on March
+30, Secretary Baker said:
+
+"I am delighted at General Pershing's prompt and effective action in
+placing all the American troops and facilities at the disposal of the
+Allies in the present situation. It will meet with hearty approval in
+the United States, where the people desire their expeditionary forces to
+be of the utmost service in the common cause. I have visited all the
+American troops in France, some of them recently, and had an
+opportunity to observe the enthusiasm with which officers and men
+received the announcement that they would be used in the present
+conflict. One regiment to which the announcement was made spontaneously
+broke into cheers."
+
+
+THE OFFER ACCEPTED
+
+General Foch placed General Pershing's offer before the French war
+council at the front, which included Premier Clemenceau, French
+Commander Petain, and Louis Loucheur, Minister of Munitions. An official
+note, issued in Paris on March 31, dealing with the operation of
+American troops with the French and British, said:
+
+    _The French Government has decided to accede to the desire
+    expressed by General Pershing in the name of the United States
+    Government. The American troops will fight side by side with the
+    British and French troops and the Star-Spangled Banner will
+    float beside the French and English flags in the plains of
+    Picardy._
+
+Further information showing that the time had come for the active
+participation of the American Army in the new campaign was contained in
+the following British official announcement, issued in London on April
+1:
+
+    As a result of communications which have passed between the
+    Prime Minister [Lloyd George] and President Wilson; of
+    deliberations between Secretary Baker, who visited London a few
+    days ago, and the Prime Minister, Mr. Balfour, and Lord Derby,
+    and consultations in France, in which General Pershing and
+    General Bliss participated, important decisions have been come
+    to by which large forces of trained men in the American Army can
+    be brought to the assistance of the Allies in the present
+    struggle.
+
+    The Government of our great Western ally is not only sending
+    large numbers of American battalions to Europe during the
+    coming critical months, but has agreed to such of its regiments
+    as cannot be used in divisions of their own being brigaded with
+    French and British units so long as the necessity lasts.
+
+    By this means troops which are not yet sufficiently trained to
+    fight as divisions and army corps will form part of seasoned
+    divisions until such time as they have completed their training
+    and General Pershing wishes to withdraw them in order to build
+    up the American Army.
+
+    Arrangements for the transportation of these additional forces
+    are now being completed.
+
+    Throughout these discussions President Wilson has shown the
+    greatest anxiety to do everything possible to assist the Allies
+    and has left nothing undone which could contribute thereto.
+
+    This decision, however, of vital importance as it will be to the
+    maintenance of the allied strength in the next few months, will
+    in no way diminish the need for those further measures for
+    raising fresh troops at home, to which reference already has
+    been made. It is announced at once because the Prime Minister
+    feels that the singleness of purpose with which the United
+    States have made this immediate and, indeed, indispensable
+    contribution toward the triumph of the allied cause should be
+    clearly recognized by the British people.
+
+    The action of the United States in thus merging its troops with
+    the other armies was hailed with gratitude and praise by the
+    press and official spokesmen of all the Entente nations.
+
+The first mention of Americans in the battle of Picardy was contained in
+the War Department's weekly review of the war situation, issued on April
+7. American transport sections, it said, had taken an active part in the
+battle, and the American Aviation Section was co-operating with the
+British.
+
+
+THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS
+
+American engineers also took part in the battle, particularly during the
+first days of the German offensive. Three companies belonging to two
+regiments of the American Railway Engineers were reported in the German
+War Office statement as operating in the areas of Chauny and the Crozat
+Canal. This statement was confirmed in a report from General Pershing to
+the Acting Chief of Staff at Washington. The Americans had been working
+in the rear lines with Canadian engineers, under Canadian command. When
+the German attack came, they threw down their tools and seized the
+weapons with which they had been armed for some months, and formed
+themselves into a fighting unit. The Germans came on, and finally
+reached the positions where the Americans were waiting. The number of
+the engineers was comparatively small. They had no intention of
+retreating, however, and were bent upon killing all the Germans
+possible.
+
+As the first enemy wave advanced, the American forces let them come
+until they were within certain range: then opened fire, pouring in a
+storm of bullets. Gaps appeared in the advancing lines at many places,
+but the German waves came on, without firing a single shot. The
+Americans were unable to understand these tactics. By this time their
+weapons were so hot that they could not be used effectively, and the
+enemy was close, so that the engineers retired, fighting, took up
+another position, then turned and began operations again. A British
+officer who witnessed the engagement is reported to have said: "They
+held on by their teeth until the last moment, inflicting terrific
+casualties on the enemy. Then they moved back and waited for the
+Germans, and repeated the performance." By the time the engineers
+reached a place somewhere near Noyon they were nearly exhausted and
+almost without equipment. There they had a chance to rest and re-equip.
+
+On the sectors where American troops had been stationed before the
+decision to place them at the disposal of General Foch intensive
+training operations in the front-line trenches, with artillery fire and
+raiding of the enemy's positions, had been proceeding along much the
+same lines as during the previous month. A dispatch dated April 3
+reported that American troops on a certain sector other than that in the
+region of Toul had been subjected to an extraordinarily heavy gas
+attack.
+
+With the acceptance of the American offer to join in the battle of
+Picardy, troops began to be withdrawn from the sectors thus far occupied
+and from the American training camps in France, and hurried as rapidly
+as possible to points where the French and British required
+reinforcements.
+
+Casualty lists showed that the Rainbow Division, (composed of troops
+from nearly every State in the Union,) the first of the National Guard
+divisions to cross the Atlantic, had been engaged in the fighting. The
+150th Machine Gun Battalion, made up of guardsmen from the old 2d
+Wisconsin Infantry, had suffered heavily; of the sixty-eight men named
+as severely wounded in one list fifty-six were identified as members of
+the Wisconsin machine-gun unit.
+
+
+AMERICAN WAR CROSSES
+
+General Pershing approved, according to an announcement on March 19, the
+awarding of the first American military crosses for extraordinary
+heroism. The recipients were Lieutenant John O. Green, Sergeant William
+Norton, and Sergeant Patrick Walsh. The crosses were awarded for
+"extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an
+armed enemy." The exploits of these men were described by the General
+commanding their division as follows:
+
+    I recommend that the Distinguished Service Cross be awarded to
+    the officer and men named hereafter, who distinguished
+    themselves by acts of extraordinary heroism.
+
+    Lieutenant Green, while in a dugout, having been wounded by an
+    enemy hand grenade, was summoned to surrender. He refused to do
+    so. Returning the fire of the enemy, he wounded one and pursued
+    the hostile party.
+
+    Sergeant Norton, finding himself in a dugout surrounded by the
+    enemy, into which a grenade had just been thrown, refused to
+    surrender, and made a bold dash outside, killing one of his
+    assailants. By so doing he saved the company's log book.
+
+    Sergeant Walsh followed his company commander to the first lines
+    in spite of a severe barrage. The Captain being killed, he
+    assumed command of the group and attacked a superior force of
+    the enemy, inflicting severe loss upon them. Though of advanced
+    age he refused to leave the front.
+
+To these recommendations General Pershing appended his approval.
+Lieutenant Green and Sergeants Norton and Walsh had all previously
+received the French War Cross, Norton and Walsh being decorated
+personally by Premier Clemenceau on March 3.
+
+Mr. Baker, Secretary of War, during a visit to the front-line trenches
+held by American troops, insisted upon going through a sap to a
+listening post. Peeping over the parapet into No Man's Land, he
+expressed his sensations in the words: "Now I am on the frontier of
+freedom." On the return journey from the trenches a German shell burst
+within less than fifty yards of Mr. Baker's motor car, hit a roadside
+dugout, and tore out a large crater.
+
+
+TOTAL CASUALTIES
+
+For nearly a week in the beginning of April no casualty lists were
+issued by the War Department, owing to a cablegram from the Secretary of
+War prescribing the following rules for handling publicity of matters
+pertaining to troops and operations:
+
+    First--All matters pertaining to events, persons, policies, or
+    operations abroad will only be officially given out from the
+    headquarters, American Expeditionary Force in France.
+
+    Second--Similar matters affecting forces at home will be given
+    out from the War Department.
+
+Suppression of the casualty lists aroused criticism throughout the
+country, and on April 9 the War Department, acting on cabled
+instructions from Mr. Baker, resumed issuing the daily list. The
+summarized totals up to April 11 were:
+
+    DEATHS
+
+    Killed in action                        228
+    Killed or prisoner                        1
+    Killed by accident                      181
+    Died of disease                         867
+    Lost at sea                             237
+    Died of wounds                           69
+    Civilians                                 7
+    Gas attack, suicide, executed, unknown
+    causes                                   42
+                                          -----
+      Total deaths                        1,632
+
+    Wounded                               1,606
+    Captured                                 43
+    Missing                                  30
+                                          -----
+      Total of all casualties             3,311
+
+
+
+
+Our War Machine in New Phases
+
+Month Ended April 18, 1918
+
+
+The outstanding feature of America's part in the war during the past
+month has been the placing at the disposal of General Foch, the allied
+Generalissimo, all the men and resources of the United States now
+available in France. At home preparations were hastened to call up at
+least another 150,000 men under the draft law to replace those sent from
+the training camps to France.
+
+The navy is now represented in the war zone by 150 vessels, including
+battleships, under the command of Admiral Sims.
+
+Drastic changes have been made in various branches of the War
+Department. The Ordnance Department and Quartermaster Corps have been
+brought more into line with the requirements of supplying the armies at
+home and abroad. The Senate Military Affairs Committee has investigated
+the serious delay in aircraft production, and in a majority report
+severely criticised the work of the Signal Corps, under which the
+Aviation Section is organized. The War Industries Board has been
+reshaped, and its Chairman, Mr. Baruch, has been given very extensive
+powers.
+
+The crisis which arose out of the shipbuilding program has been passed,
+and our 150 shipyards are accelerating the rate of production of new
+ships. Dutch ships in American ports aggregating 500,000 tons have been
+seized, and 200,000 tons of Japanese shipping has been received by
+agreement.
+
+The railroads under Government control are becoming more closely adapted
+to the needs of wartime distribution. Several important coastwise
+steamship lines have been taken over and placed under the Director
+General of Railroads.
+
+The food situation still demands strict conservation, and it is
+recognized that America will have to submit to greater sacrifices in
+view of the ever-growing world shortage.
+
+Labor questions have been engaging the serious attention of the
+Government and Congress. The diversion of working people to industries
+where they are most needed for war purposes, and legislation to prevent
+strikes have been under consideration. In addition to the different war
+industries properly so-called, a large amount of labor is now necessary
+for agriculture, so as to plant the largest possible crop and to harvest
+it in the Fall.
+
+To finance the war, and incidentally mark the beginning of the nation's
+second year in the war, subscriptions were opened on April 6 for the
+Third Liberty Loan of $3,000,000,000 at 41/4 per cent. These bonds are
+nonconvertible and will mature in ten years.
+
+
+WAR DEPARTMENT'S GROWTH
+
+The experience gained by officers who have been serving with General
+Pershing's army in France is becoming an influence in every one of the
+widely ramified branches of the War Department, while Secretary Baker's
+visit abroad to get first-hand knowledge of the requirements of the
+American expeditionary force has been fertile in new ideas.
+
+One of the signs of the growth of the War Department is the appointment
+of a third Assistant Secretary of War. For this position Frederick P.
+Keppel, Dean of Columbia University, New York, was selected by the
+President. On April 12 the appointment was unanimously recommended by
+the Senate Military Committee. The nomination of E. R. Stettinius as an
+Assistant Secretary had already been confirmed. Dr. Keppel's duties
+include the supervision of the nonmilitary activities of the soldiers,
+their personal welfare and comfort, both at home and abroad.
+
+To improve the work of the General Staff at Washington General Pershing,
+it was announced on April 12, is sending home certain officers who have
+become familiar with staff work at the front, and also some practical
+aviation experts to aid in solving the difficulties which have arisen in
+the production of aircraft. Other officers include representatives of
+the Quartermaster Corps who have acquired experience under modern war
+conditions in France. In this way a greater measure of co-ordination
+with the army in France is being obtained.
+
+An order issued by General March, Acting Chief of Staff, on April 12,
+consolidated the Division of Storage and Traffic with the Division of
+Purchases and Supplies, the one division to be known as the Division of
+Purchase, Storage, and Traffic. The division was placed under Major Gen.
+Goethals, who continued to serve as Assistant Chief of Staff and Acting
+Quartermaster General. Brig. Gen. Palmer E. Pierce, who has been a
+member of the War Industries Board and of the War Council created by
+Secretary Baker, was made Director of Purchases in January, 1918, but
+under this scheme of reorganization it was announced that while
+remaining on duty with the War Industries Board he would give up his
+post as Director of Purchases and Supplies. His successor, under Major
+Gen. Goethals, was Colonel Hugh S. Johnston, who has been General
+Crowder's right-hand man in the office of the Provost Marshal General.
+
+
+TWO BILLIONS FOR GUNS
+
+There have also been important changes in the Ordnance Department, it
+being announced on April 8 that Brig. Gen. Charles B. Wheeler, who
+recently succeeded Major Gen. William Crozier as head of the Ordnance
+Department of the Army with the title of Acting Chief of Ordnance, had
+been succeeded by Brig. Gen. C. C. Williams, Chief Ordnance Officer with
+the American expeditionary force in France. General Williams was ordered
+to return to Washington to take up the duties of Active Chief of
+Ordnance.
+
+A summary of the work of the Gun Division, Bureau of Ordnance, prepared
+for the Secretary of War, shows that it has been necessary to equip
+sixteen large plants for the manufacture of mobile artillery and that
+the total program of the Gun Division calls for an expenditure of
+approximately $2,000,000,000. At the outbreak of the war the Gun
+Division was composed of three officers and seven civilians. At the end
+of 1917 it had approximately 500 officers and 3,500 civilians, since
+increased to 1,500 officers and more than 10,000 civilians. The Ordnance
+Department has also established a comprehensive repair service for
+artillery, motor vehicles, and other equipment.
+
+With the creation of a Construction Division in the War Department on
+March 16, to handle the largest single building program in history,
+aggregating $1,084,000,000, a board of eminent experts appointed by
+Acting Secretary Crowell took over the work of the Cantonment Division,
+which did the preliminary work of building national army camps. The
+building program, involving hundreds of thousands of workmen and
+extensive structures for the army throughout the country, is under the
+immediate direction of the Chief of Staff. Headed by Professor A. N.
+Talbot of the University of Illinois, President of the American Society
+of Civil Engineers, the board includes representatives of leading
+architectural, engineering, business, and labor organizations.
+
+
+OUR GROWING ARMY
+
+The year of intensive recruiting for the regular army by volunteer
+enlistment ended on March 30, 1918. A year previously the enlisted
+strength of the regular army was 121,797 men, and to bring it to full
+war strength 183,898 additional soldiers were required. These men were
+obtained some months ago. The recruiting campaign, however, was
+continued, and on March 30 the regular army was about 501,000 strong,
+which represented about one-third of all the men serving under the War
+Department.
+
+Major Gen. Enoch Crowder, the Provost Marshal General, on April 6 sent
+out a call to all the States for a total of 150,000 men in the second
+draft. Instructions were given for the movement of these men to begin on
+April 26, and for their mobilization to be complete five days later.
+They were selected from Class Al of the registration lists and were to
+replace the men who have been sent abroad from the training camps.
+
+A resolution providing that all young men who have reached the age of 21
+years since June 5, 1917, the first draft registration day, shall be
+subject to military service was passed by the Senate on March 29. About
+58,000 men thus become available each month, and in the year since June
+5, 1917, about 700,000 will have been brought under the selective draft
+law. The Senate rejected a proposal for universal military training for
+all males between 19 and 21 by a vote of 36 against 26.
+
+The number of colored citizens registered on June 5, 1917, was 737,626.
+Of these 208,953 have so far been called up, and 133,256 rejected,
+exempted, or discharged, leaving 75,697 certified for service and
+inducted into the national army.
+
+
+
+
+Shortage in Aircraft Production
+
+Senate Committee's Report
+
+
+The shortage of aircraft for the American Army in France has been the
+subject of investigation by the Military Affairs Committee of the
+Senate, following the sensational disclosures regarding German control
+of the air in the sector held by the Americans, [see CURRENT HISTORY
+MAGAZINE, April, 1918, Pp. 12-14.] The Senate Committee was not
+unanimous, and two reports were presented on April 12, 1918, differing
+as to the causes of delay in the execution of the airplane program.
+
+The substance of the majority report is contained in the following
+extracts:
+
+    The Signal Corps has established and is now conducting twenty
+    aviation training schools in the United States. Four additional
+    schools are in process of construction and are expected to be
+    finished in June next.
+
+    The aggregate capacity of the schools now in operation is
+    something over 3,000 cadets; 1,926 have thus far been graduated
+    from this primary training course and commissioned as reserve
+    military aviators. Very few of these have received their
+    advanced training in this country.
+
+    In addition to the above, the Signal Corps, acting upon the
+    invitation of the several Entente Governments, dispatched some
+    1,200 cadets to England, France, and Italy last year, who were
+    to receive primary and advanced training in aviation schools of
+    those countries. The experience of a great many of these men has
+    been most unfortunate in that at some of the schools a very
+    serious delay has occurred in providing them with the training
+    planes, which it was expected would be manufactured in foreign
+    factories in sufficient numbers. As a result, several hundred of
+    the American cadets have been practically idle and have made no
+    progress. About 450 of them are reported as having completed the
+    primary training, after long delay.
+
+    The Signal Corps is giving serious consideration to the
+    advisability of bringing the remainder back to the United States
+    to be trained. With the exception of this severe disappointment,
+    the primary training of our aviators, according to the testimony
+    of the aviation officials, appears to be progressing favorably.
+
+    For some time after the inception of the work the output of
+    primary training planes in this country for use in our schools
+    gave ground for grave concern. In recent weeks, however, the
+    output has been greatly increased, and there seems to be no
+    doubt of the Signal Corps having an amply sufficient number in
+    the future. On April 1, 1918, 3,458 primary training planes had
+    been completed. The advanced training planes are being turned
+    out in accordance with the schedule and estimates laid down at
+    the inception of their manufacture. In advanced training planes
+    four types are being made, the total number up to date
+    manufactured being 342. In these planes three types of engines
+    will be used, of which 965 have been completed. The Liberty
+    motor is not suitable for use in these planes.
+
+    It is apparent from the evidence that the twelve-cylinder
+    Liberty motor is just emerging from the development or
+    experimental stage. Since the original design and the setting up
+    of the first completed motor in July, 1917, a large number of
+    changes have been found necessary, many of them causing delay in
+    reaching quantity production. Within the last two months changes
+    of considerable importance have been made which, it is hoped,
+    will make the motor serviceable for combat planes of the
+    defensive type and for bombing and observation planes.
+
+    Twenty-two thousand five hundred Liberty motors have been
+    ordered, 122 have been completed for the army, and 142 for the
+    navy. Four have been shipped overseas. Some of those already
+    delivered are being altered to overcome the defects ascertained
+    during the last few weeks. It is understood, however, that these
+    alterations will consume but a very short time.
+
+    The production of Liberty motors to date is, of course, gravely
+    disappointing. The Government officials having the manufacture
+    of the Liberty motor in charge have made the mistake of leading
+    the public and the allied nations to the belief that many
+    thousands of these motors would be completed in the Spring of
+    1918.
+
+    The production of combat planes in the United States for use in
+    actual warfare has thus far been a substantial failure and
+    constitutes a most serious disappointment in our war
+    preparations. We had no design of our own; neither did we adopt
+    any one of the European designs until months after we entered
+    the war. In all, five types, at one time or another, have been
+    adopted. Two of them have been abandoned after the expenditure
+    of much time and money. The three remaining types still left
+    upon our program are now in the course of manufacture. Of these
+    the largest and most powerful is the Handley-Page heavy bombing
+    machine, designed to carry as many as six men, eight machine
+    guns, and a heavy load of bombs, and to be driven by two Liberty
+    motors. The testimony before your committee shows that the
+    Signal Corps finally decided upon the manufacture of a number of
+    sets of parts of this machine about Jan. 1, 1918. Officials of
+    the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps testify that they do
+    not expect the completion of the first set of parts in this
+    country before June, 1918.
+
+    Another type of combat plane, known as the De Haviland, is
+    included in our program. This machine habitually carries two
+    men, four machine guns, a moderate load of bombs and other
+    apparatus and is driven by one Liberty motor. Fifteen have been
+    completed; one has been shipped to France; the remaining
+    fourteen have been very recently completed in this country.
+
+    The third type upon the program is known as the Bristol fighter.
+    This machine is lighter and faster than the De Haviland. Its
+    speed is expected to be in the neighborhood of 125 miles per
+    hour. It is what is known as a reconnoissance machine. Another
+    term which might be properly applied to it is "defensive
+    fighter." It carries two men, four machine guns, and is driven
+    by one Liberty motor. The decision to make this type was reached
+    on Nov. 7, 1917. The manufacturers completed the first of these
+    machines during the week ended March 30, 1918. The machine was
+    tested once during that week with a Liberty motor, and,
+    according to the testimony of the aviation officials, met its
+    preliminary test successfully. This machine, a few hours after
+    its flight, caught fire while standing upon the aviation ground
+    and was entirely destroyed. The officials of the Signal Corps
+    assured the committee that another machine would soon be
+    finished by the manufacturer, and that if it met the tests
+    satisfactorily quantity production might be expected within a
+    reasonable period.
+
+    In addition to the American production of engines and airplanes
+    as herein set forth, considerable orders for combat airplanes
+    and engines were last Summer placed with European manufacturers
+    by General Pershing, and we have furnished quantities of
+    material and numbers of mechanics to aid in their construction.
+
+    Your committee is convinced that much of the delay in producing
+    completed combat airplanes is due to ignorance of the art and to
+    failure to organize the effort in such a way as to centralize
+    authority and bring about quick decision.
+
+Further light is thrown on the production of aircraft for the American
+Army by the minority report. One passage reads:
+
+    Soon after the war began the Signal Corps arranged with the
+    French Government for the making of 6,100 combat planes at a
+    total cost of $127,000,000, the planes to be produced as rapidly
+    as American fliers could be trained to operate them. As the
+    American aero squadrons reach the front ready for duty, battle
+    planes are being supplied them under this arrangement. To aid in
+    this foreign manufacture of planes for American fliers, the
+    Signal Corps has shipped to France 11,000 tons of various
+    materials and has sent 7,000 mechanics to release, for French
+    factories making planes for our American fliers, the French
+    workers on motor transports. The Signal Corps then arranged for
+    the making of about 11,500 combat planes in the United States,
+    the term combat plane being here used to embrace all kinds of
+    planes, both offensive and defensive, except training planes.
+
+    Let it be said here that when the war began the United States
+    Government had purchased altogether less than 200 airplanes in
+    its entire history, and that of the few airplane factories in
+    this country probably not one was making over five or six a
+    month. It is hardly possible to grasp the magnitude of the task
+    the factories contracting to make the 11,500 combat planes found
+    before them.
+
+
+
+
+America's First Year of War
+
+An Anniversary Summary
+
+
+April 6, 1918, marked the first anniversary of the participation of the
+United States in the European War. The period was primarily one of
+preparation. If America did little actual fighting in the first year, it
+nevertheless achieved a great deal both in strengthening the cause of
+the Allies and in getting ready to play its own part on the battlefields
+of Europe. The increase in the war strength of the army is shown in the
+following figures:
+
+    APRIL, 1917
+                          Officers.      Men.
+    Regulars              5,791          121,797
+    National Guard        3,733           76,713
+    Reserve Corps                          4,000
+    National Army
+                          -----          -------
+    Total                 9,524          202,510
+
+    APRIL, 1918
+                         Officers.       Men.
+    Regulars             10,698          503,142
+    National Guard       16,893          431,583
+    Reserve Corps        96,210           77,360
+    National Army                        516,839
+                        -------        ---------
+    Total               123,801        1,528,924
+
+Of these 1,652,725 officers and men, several hundred thousand were
+already in Europe in April, either in training camps or on the battle
+front. "Over 100,000" was the figure given by General Pershing when he
+announced the number of adequately trained, fully equipped American
+troops that were immediately available for use in the battle of Picardy.
+The War Department had announced its expectation of having 1,500,000
+American soldiers in the war zone before the end of 1918. The progress
+of training in the camps in the United States was unexpectedly rapid,
+and at the close of the first twelve months our troops were going across
+the Atlantic as fast as transportation could be provided.
+
+General Pershing and his staff arrived in France on June 15, 1917, and
+less than a month later the first division of American troops followed
+him. Exactly 187 days after the United States declared war the first
+American soldiers were in the trenches. The first contingents were
+ordered abroad well in advance of the time intended, or expected, when
+war was declared.
+
+
+LABORS IN FRANCE
+
+The preliminary labors in France necessitated by the presence of an
+ever-increasing army were both diverse and herculean. Docks had to be
+constructed, railways built and equipped and cantonments, hospitals, and
+a base constructed. American engineers went into the French forests and
+there did the work of the pioneers of the American Northwest, cutting
+down trees to build the permanent camps which were to replace the
+temporary cities. They built a railroad 600 miles long from the points
+of disembarkation to the operating base. The rolling stock it carried
+was all shipped across the ocean from the United States.
+
+All this was accomplished with great rapidity. An army locomotive, for
+example, was built in twenty-one days and shipped to the expeditionary
+forces. In a few weeks after the first departures there were urgent
+calls for other locomotives, for cars, trucks, logging trains, sectional
+buildings to be assembled on arrival. All these took many ships and
+appreciably delayed the transport of men. There was sent everything from
+fabricated ironwork for buildings and trestles to nails and crossties
+for the railroads. Among the items of construction is an ordnance base
+costing $25,000,000. Most of this preliminary work was approaching
+completion as the first year ended. Much of it is finished.
+
+American troops occupy trench sectors of their own in the line northwest
+of Toul, and in the neighborhood of Verdun. They have taken up positions
+also in other sectors, and the main body is operating with the Allies in
+opposing the German advance. Casualties in the first year of war
+reached a total of 2,368, distributed as follows:
+
+    Killed in battle                        163
+    Died of disease or accident             957
+    Lost at sea                             237
+    Died of wounds                           52
+    Other causes                             47
+    Missing and prisoners                    63
+    Wounded                                 829
+                                          -----
+    Total                                 2,368
+
+
+RAISING THE NEW ARMIES
+
+Most remarkable in the preparations for the struggle was the method of
+raising the new armies, namely, conscription. With comparatively little
+opposition the selective draft law was passed by Congress barely five
+weeks after the declaration of war, and three weeks later 9,600,000
+young men were registered for military service. By June 30 the 4,000
+local draft boards were ready to begin the task of examination and
+exemption. Sixteen cantonments, small cities in themselves, were already
+under construction in various parts of the country for the reception of
+the drafted men. Ninety days after this work began the initial groups of
+the first national army were on their way to these camps. In a steady
+stream since then the men have been called up, organized into military
+formations, and put under intensive training.
+
+The first half million are now ready and are being sent across the
+ocean, to complete their training within the war zone and take their
+place on the battle front. As fast as the camps are emptied new men are
+being summoned to refill them, new battalions formed, and new forces
+sent forward. Another 800,000 unmarried men without direct dependents
+are under notice to report for duty.
+
+The cost of raising the army under the selective draft law has been only
+54 cents per registrant, $1.69 per man called up, and $4.93 per man
+accepted for service.
+
+With the national army there have also been made available the 450,000
+men of the National Guard, who meantime have been mustered into the
+Federal service and trained under their own officers. Of these three
+divisions, the Rainbow, (so called because almost every State in the
+Union is represented in its composition,) the New England, and the
+Sunset (Far Western) Divisions have already gone abroad, and the first
+two have won honorable mention in the battle zone.
+
+
+TRAINING NEW OFFICERS
+
+The National Guard had its own officers. There was none, however, to
+spare for the national army. The regular military establishment could
+provide only a handful. Two classes at West Point were graduated in
+advance of the usual time, but they were not enough to affect the
+situation. The new army was, therefore, provided with carefully
+selected, specially trained officers, chosen by merit rather than on the
+old system of political appointments, by the general adoption of the
+Plattsburg training camp system, initiated in 1915. When war was
+declared there were already in the United States some 20,000 graduates
+of the Plattsburg, Fort Oglethorpe, and other training camps, who had
+undergone at least one month's intensive military training, supplemented
+by military studies when out of camp.
+
+The Plattsburg organization was taken over by the War Department, and a
+series of sixteen training camps for officers, in which most of the
+earlier Plattsburg graduates were commissioned as subaltern and company
+officers, was opened at advantageous points, and continued until the
+middle of August, 1917. Of 40,203 candidates enrolled in these camps
+27,341 qualified for commissions. Sufficient officers were thus at the
+cantonments to receive and command the national army when the men
+arrived. A second series of officers' training camps was begun in
+August, to add to the line and staff. Approximately 23,000 candidates
+attended, of whom 17,237 obtained commissions. Many who failed have
+since been enlisted and appointed noncommissioned officers in the
+national army. A third series was instituted in January, 1918, to create
+an officers' reserve force. Only enlisted men were admitted, except for
+a limited number of students who had received military training in
+schools under army officers during the last ten years. About 18,000 are
+in attendance, and the problem of officering the new armies has
+practically been solved.
+
+
+PROVIDING THE GUNS
+
+When war was declared, the Army Ordnance Department had ninety-seven
+officers. It now has 5,000 in America and abroad, and in the first year
+of the war had spent $4,756,500,000. To its peace-time task of
+administering eleven small Government arsenals has been added the
+problem of getting quick production of shells of all calibres, rifles,
+ammunition, grenades, and bombs from some 1,400 private manufacturing
+establishments. It has acquired a total of 2,475,219 square feet of
+storage space, has 2,701,880 square feet more under construction, and
+requires 23,000,000 square feet altogether to store its supplies. It has
+miles of railroad sidings, all inclosed, including 50 miles of track
+especially built, and it handles 10,000 carloads of explosives a month,
+with the total steadily increasing. The complexity of the Ordnance
+Department's task may be seen in the fact that the number of items made
+and supplied to the troops totals about 100,000, ranging from the small
+firing pin of a rifle to a complete 16-inch gun and emplacement, or a
+motor truck or tractor. Reserves of all these spare parts must be
+maintained and ready for distribution.
+
+The Ordnance Department has had to create organizations, build new
+plants, finance them and to design as well as to manufacture not only
+the weapons themselves, but thousands of tools, gauges, and jigs
+required for their manufacture. For instance, the French Government
+offered the secret of the recoil mechanism in the carriages of its
+famous .75 guns. To manufacture these it was necessary to machine steel
+castings so accurately that they will not be off two-thousandths of an
+inch in a distance of more than six feet.
+
+
+BUILDING NEW PLANTS
+
+Never had machinery been built in the United States to work on so large
+a scale with such a degree of accuracy. The Ordnance Department had to
+persuade manufacturers to undertake this difficult work, to assist them
+financially to build a thirteen-acre plant, to purchase and manufacture
+$6,000,000 worth of special tools, and develop an organization to do
+this. The contract was signed on Nov. 1, 1917, and today the plant is
+completed and is turning out the recoil mechanisms.
+
+The Nitrate Division has under construction two plants for the
+manufacture of powder, costing $45,000,000 each.
+
+The Ordnance Department itself has provided for the army 1,400,000
+rifles, has brought the production of them up to 45,000 a week, or
+enough to equip three army divisions; has secured deliveries on 17,000
+machine guns and brought the rate of production of them from 20,000 to
+225,000 a year. It has increased the rate of production of field guns,
+heavy and light, from 1,500 to 15,000 a year, and is manufacturing
+35,000 motor trucks and tractors to haul them and their ammunition. It
+has remodeled the British Enfield rifle so that it can be produced in
+quantities to take American ammunition and adopted two new types of
+machine guns, the Browning, heavy and light.
+
+The United States entered the war resolved to win supremacy in the air.
+Congress adopted an appropriation of $640,000,000, in addition to
+$15,000,000 already granted, to provide the best airplane service
+possible. The best motor engineers in the country combined their talents
+to provide a motor, and the result of their efforts was the Liberty
+motor, asserted to be superior to anything used by any army air corps.
+Delivery of the new motors in quantity has been delayed by various
+causes. But the initial difficulties have been solved and quantity
+production of battle planes, as well as of training planes, is expected
+during the Summer of 1918. While there are more than seventy different
+types of airplane motors on the western allied front, the United States
+is relying on a single standardized type, greatly reducing the ratio of
+forty-seven men required on the ground by foreign service for every man
+in the air.
+
+Colossal work has been done by the Quartermaster Corps, which supplies
+almost everything that a soldier needs, except ammunition; which
+transports those supplies as well as the soldier, feeds him, clothes
+him, and provides him with shelter. The war found the Quartermaster
+General's office without funds, Congress having adjourned without voting
+the Army Appropriation bill. But it tided over the interval until money
+was forthcoming. It has since spent $2,789,684,778, has clothed the
+draft armies and fed them, supplied the oversea forces with the million
+things they need, and there are at present few complaints of its work.
+The details are seen in columns of figures all running into millions.
+
+In this first year the Quartermaster Corps has spent $60,000,000 for
+horse-drawn vehicles and harness, more than $50,000,000 for horses,
+mules, and harness, and now estimates it will need for fuel and forage
+alone more than half a billion dollars.
+
+
+ARMY MEDICAL CORPS
+
+In preparation for large numbers of wounded and invalided men, the
+Medical Corps of the army has enlisted doctors and nurses by the
+thousand. In addition to the work being done for the Red Cross, which is
+a separate institution, the Army Medical Corps has enlarged its
+personnel from 8,000 to 106,000, including orderlies, stretcher bearers,
+and ambulance drivers. Its 900 doctors before the war are now increased
+to 18,000. It had 375 army nurses a year ago; now it has 7,000. It had
+no ambulance service; now it has 6,000 drivers in training.
+Reconstruction institutions are being provided in the United States on a
+more comprehensive scale than any other nation at war has attempted.
+Already a few wounded soldiers are being reconstructed at Medical Corps
+hospitals so as to be able to support themselves now that they are blind
+or crippled. Professional men, nurses, and attendants from our most
+noted civil reconstruction hospitals have been added to the personnel of
+the Medical Corps for this work.
+
+The hundreds of thousands of men taken from civil life into the army are
+now showing a death rate from disease below that of men of military age
+in civil life.
+
+
+WORK OF THE NAVY
+
+The navy was ready and began to take part in the war even before the
+formal declaration, for as early as March 12, 1917, in response to the
+President's order, it began arming American merchantmen and fighting
+their battles. Meantime, the navy gathered in recruits and set about
+building ships and getting in supplies ready for the more important work
+which followed when the nation was actually at war. At present there are
+150 warships, including battleships, with 35,000 personnel, in the war
+zone.
+
+In a year the navy has more than trebled its personnel. As a beginning
+it called up its own reserves and also the National Naval Volunteers and
+the Coast Guard. The following figures show the increased personnel:
+
+    APRIL, 1917
+                     Officers.  Men.
+    Regular Navy     4,366      64,680
+    *Naval Reserves   ----      10,000
+    Naval Volunteers  ----      10,069
+    *Coast Guard      ----       4,500
+    Marine Corps       426      13,266
+    Total            4,792     102,515
+
+    APRIL, 1918
+                  Officers.     Men.
+    Regular Navy      7,798    192,385
+    *Naval Reserves  10,033     79,069
+    Naval Volunteers    805     15,000
+    *Coast Guard        639      4,250
+    Marine Corps      1,389     38,629
+    Total            20,664    329,333
+
+    *Approximately.
+
+On May 4, twenty-eight days after the declaration of war, United States
+destroyers arrived at a British port to assist in patrolling European
+waters, and on the following day Admiral Sims attended an allied war
+conference at Paris. The first of the regular armed forces of the United
+States to land in France were units of the naval aeronautic corps. They
+arrived on June 8. The first contingent of the army transported and
+convoyed by the navy was landed safely at a French port early in July.
+Night and day since then American warships have convoyed transports and
+supplies across the Atlantic and brought the ships safely back. Only
+one empty transport in its care has succumbed to an enemy attack, and
+only two naval vessels have been sunk by enemy U-boats--the destroyer
+Jacob Jones, torpedoed Dec. 6, and the patrol vessel Alcedo, a converted
+yacht, sunk Nov. 5, 1917. The small destroyer Chauncey was sunk in
+collision with a British transport. The Cassin was torpedoed, but
+reached port under her own steam, was repaired, and returned to service.
+Casualties in the navy have been 144 killed or died and 10 wounded;
+total, 154.
+
+
+NAVAL AUXILIARIES
+
+At first there was a shortage of the small vessels required for minor
+naval duties. Some 800 craft of various kinds have been taken over and
+converted into the types needed, thus providing the large number of
+vessels required for transports, patrol service, submarine chasers, mine
+sweepers, mine layers, tugs, and other auxiliaries. Hundreds of
+submarine chasers have been built besides the new destroyers put into
+service. There are now four times as many vessels in the naval service
+as there were a year ago. The destroyer fleet now building in record
+time is at least as large a fleet of this type of craft as England is
+believed to have.
+
+The United States battle fleet has grown to twice the size of the
+peace-time fleet. As schools in gunnery and engineering they are
+training thousands of gunners and engineers required for the hundreds of
+vessels added to the navy and the many merchantmen furnished with arms
+and gun crews. Target practice in past years had been devoted mainly to
+practice with the big guns. Special attention during the past year has
+been devoted to the guns of smaller calibre, effective against
+submarines.
+
+When war was declared there were under construction, or about to be
+started, 123 new naval vessels:
+
+    Battleships             15
+    Battle cruisers          6
+    Scout cruisers           7
+    Destroyers              27
+    Submarines              61
+    Fuel ships               2
+    Supply ship              1
+    Transport                1
+    Gunboat                  1
+    Hospital ship            1
+    Ammunition ship          1
+
+Most of these have now been completed and the few remaining are well
+under way. Meantime contracts have been placed for 949 new vessels,
+including submarine chasers designed here which have done good service.
+Altogether there have been added to the navy since April 6, 1917,
+vessels to the number of 1,275, aggregating 1,055,116 tons.
+
+When the Government seized the 109 German-owned ships lying in American
+ports, the German engineers believed that their vessels had been damaged
+beyond repair for a year at least. Within six months the ships were in
+running order and have since carried numbers of American troops and huge
+quantities of supplies to the fighting lines in France. The damage was
+repaired by navy artificers and engineers under the jurisdiction of
+naval officers.
+
+
+BUILDING NEW SHIPS
+
+The vital question of shipping was assigned early in the year to the
+United States Shipping Board, now headed by E. N. Hurley, while the
+Emergency Fleet Corporation, since made subordinate to the board, was
+intrusted with the execution of the building program. Congress
+appropriated $1,135,000,000 for this purpose, and on March 1, 1918,
+$353,247,000 of this sum had been spent. Friction and consequent delay,
+however, at the outset caused vital changes in the composition of the
+Shipping Board. General Goethals, manager of the Emergency Fleet
+Corporation, resigned after a controversy with Mr. Denman, the first
+Chairman of the Shipping Board, over the comparative merits of wooden
+and steel ships. There have been other causes--labor troubles, lack of
+material, and of building facilities, of which America had few.
+
+Meantime the seized German ships, with an aggregate of more than 700,000
+tons dead weight to manage, have been put in service, vessels under
+construction in private shipyards have been commandeered and completed,
+and at least three new ships planned and constructed by the Shipping
+Board have been finished and are now at sea. The seizure of 150,000 tons
+of Dutch shipping in American ports has further added to the
+Government's immediate resources, while an agreement with Japan has made
+another 200,000 tons of shipping available.
+
+America's shipping industry had run down, until in the year before war
+was declared the total output of shipyards in the United States was only
+250,000 tons. The Shipping Board drew up a program to construct
+8,164,508 tons of steel ships, 1,145 ships in all, and 490 wooden ships,
+with a total tonnage of 1,715,000. Only a small part of this enormous
+total could be constructed in the first year of the war with the
+shipyard facilities available, and it has been necessary to build new
+shipyards on an enormous scale. Volunteer shipworkers have been enlisted
+from all quarters, and in April, 1918, work was proceeding at 150
+shipyards in various parts of the country.
+
+The following figures show the actual number of ships put into the water
+since the Shipping Board took control of the situation:
+
+    Steel ships requisitioned on ways, completed
+    by Emergency Fleet Corporation
+    and now in service                          85
+
+    Steel ships requisitioned on ways, turned
+    back to former owners and now
+    completed and in service                    15
+
+    Steel ships requisitioned on ways, hulls
+    of which have been launched                 65
+
+    Steel ships contracted for by Emergency
+    Fleet Corporation which have
+    been completed and put into service          3
+
+    Steel ships contracted for by Emergency
+    Fleet Corporation, hulls of
+    which have been launched                     9
+
+    Wooden ships contracted for by Emergency
+    Fleet Corporation, hulls of
+    which have been launched                    11
+                                               ---
+    Total                                      188
+
+    Steel ships requisitioned which are now
+    actually in service                        100
+
+    Steel ships contracted for by Emergency
+    Fleet Corporation now actually
+    in service                                   3
+                                               ---
+    Total                                      103
+
+By April, 1918, the Government has been able to put 2,762,605 tons of
+shipping into the transatlantic service to carry men and munitions to
+France.
+
+
+FINANCING THE WAR
+
+The United States has been a great financial factor since entering the
+war. The Government lent to the Allies on the security of their bonds
+$4,436,329,750. For America's own expenses Congress has already
+authorized $2,034,000,000, of which one item alone, merchant shipping,
+accounted for more than $1,000,000,000. The total expenses in the first
+year were more than $9,800,000,000, but about $800,000,000 of this went
+for normal activities not connected with the war, so that its total cost
+has been about $9,000,000,000, of which more than $4,000,000,000 has
+been in loans to the Allies. Expenditures for aircraft alone have
+amounted to more than $600,000,000. Naval appropriations, made and
+pending, are more than $3,000,000,000; the War Department has taken
+$7,464,771,756. The army's annual payroll now exceeds $500,000,000 and
+the navy's $125,000,000, and these items are trifling compared with the
+cost of ships, ordnance, munitions, airplanes, motor trucks, and
+supplies of every kind, to say nothing of food. Allotments and
+allowances to soldiers' and sailors' dependents paid by the Government
+in the month of February alone amounted to $19,976,543.
+
+Bonds, certificates of indebtedness, War Savings Certificates, and
+Thrift Stamps issued by the Treasury up to March 12 totaled
+$8,560,802,052.96. To meet expenses the Government has successfully
+floated two Liberty Loans with total subscriptions of $6,616,532,300,
+and on April 6, 1918, the first anniversary of America's entrance into
+the war, a third loan campaign for $3,000,000,000 was begun.
+
+
+TAXES AND PRICES
+
+The income tax has been greatly increased and the exemption limit
+lowered. New taxes have been imposed on corporate and individual
+profits, all profits arising out of the war have been penalized, and the
+old levies greatly increased. War taxes, customs duties, and internal
+revenue collections have brought in nearly $1,500,000,000. While the
+greater part of the war income and excess profits taxes are not due
+until June, the Treasury had collected in internal revenue taxes a
+total of $566,267,000 to March 12, 1918, and had sold $1,255,000,000 in
+certificates of indebtedness, which are receivable in payment of
+internal revenue taxes.
+
+The Government has taken possession of and is operating all enemy-owned
+enterprises. At the same time, through a Federal Farm Loan Bureau,
+assistance is being given to farmers at reasonable rates of interest in
+providing the means for raising crops, needed in greater abundance than
+ever to feed the army and navy and civilian population and the peoples
+of the allied countries.
+
+One of the first acts of the Administration after the declaration of war
+was aimed at putting a curb on the rising prices of the necessities of
+life. Herbert C. Hoover was appointed National Food Administrator, and
+after long delay his appointment was confirmed by the Senate. It was
+criticised, but Mr. Hoover has succeeded not only in bringing down the
+price of such necessaries as wheat, flour, sugar, coffee, meat, and
+lard, but by various devices and appeals to public sentiment has brought
+about a voluntary reduction of consumption and a consequent great
+increase in the amounts of food which America has been able to send
+abroad.
+
+
+FOOD PROBLEMS
+
+When the present Food Administration was created in August, 1917, the
+1917 crop, in so far as productiveness was concerned, had already been
+planted and partly harvested. The available foodstuffs it produced were
+not sufficient, on the basis of normal consumption, to feed the people
+dependent on it, and the question of conservation became paramount. So
+far, "wheatless days," "meatless days," and appeals for food
+conservation have tided the nation over a dangerous period. The fixing
+of prices under a Presidential proclamation has greatly aided,
+speculation in wheat has been wholly eliminated, and the prices of flour
+and bread have been stabilized at a reasonable level.
+
+Hand in hand with food conservation has gone the gradual control of
+industry of all kinds in order to concentrate the nation's resources for
+the purposes of war. The prices of metals necessary to war industries
+have been brought down by negotiation. Coal and fuel oil are controlled
+by Government agents, and it is not believed that the suffering caused
+by the fuel scarcity during the Winter of 1917-18 can be repeated.
+
+The Government has taken over control of the railways and a number of
+coastwise steamship lines. It now operates 260,000 miles of railway,
+employing 1,000,600 men, and representing investments of
+$17,500,000,000.
+
+The War Trade Board, created for the purpose of cutting off supplies to
+Germany through the adjacent neutrals, has developed into a powerful
+economic weapon in the execution of the nation's war policy.
+
+
+Five Million Soldiers' Garments Made by American Women
+
+A recent bulletin of the American Red Cross contains a report showing
+that up to Feb. 1, 1918, this organization had supplied 3,431,067
+sweaters, mufflers, wristlets, helmets, and socks to the soldiers and
+sailors of the United States. Of this total 1,189,469 articles were
+delivered to the fighting services in January of this year. Though
+official figures were not available for later months, it was estimated
+that the total to the end of March was in excess of 5,000,000 garments,
+all knit by American women for the Red Cross. The same bulletin reported
+the distribution of 5,000,000 francs contributed by Americans for the
+relief of those French soldier families which have suffered most from
+the war.
+
+
+
+
+War Department's Improved System
+
+Summary by Benedict Crowell
+
+_Assistant Secretary of War_
+
+    _A year of war has changed the United States War Department from
+    a military group to a closely organized business concern. The
+    vast difference between its methods at the time of our entry
+    into the war and at the beginning of our second year of
+    hostilities is summarized in the appended statement and chart,
+    which were given to THE NEW YORK TIMES by Benedict Crowell, the
+    Assistant Secretary of War, in March, 1918. Mr. Crowell is one
+    of the business experts called into the department last Autumn
+    to reorganize it. In describing the changes made he said:_
+
+
+A year ago there were eleven officers, all strictly military men, and
+about 1,000 privates in the aircraft work. Now in that branch of the war
+business we have thousands of officers and 100,000 men. But 96 per cent.
+of those officers are trained business men and engineers from big civil
+enterprises. Most of them are in military uniform, but that is merely a
+matter of form that does not go to the substance of the business.
+
+The great military work of America, the work of the soldiers, is being
+done in France. In this country we have settled down to the purely
+business undertaking of producing men and material out of which to form
+the armies.
+
+This chart (here reproduced) shows the latest readjustment of General
+Staff functions and activities. A very significant change from what used
+to be is indicated in that line of rectangles under the Chief of Staff,
+each one representing an Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of a major
+division of the war work. These divisions, indicated on the chart by the
+words "storage and traffic," "purchases and supplies," &c., used to be
+committees, in which every vital question had to be settled by a vote,
+with lesser officers having as much power in the matter as their chiefs.
+Now the Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of one of those divisions,
+which is no longer a committee, has power to act on his own initiative.
+His subordinates in the division are his expert advisers on the various
+problems which he must decide, thus eliminating criticisms in the
+earlier period of the war that too much time was lost in getting
+decisions.
+
+One of the modifications that may be made in this chart of the General
+Staff in the near future will have to do with that division now in
+charge of General Pierce, the Assistant Chief of Staff, who is director
+of purchases and supplies and has authority over manufacturing
+priorities, purchases, and production based on estimates and
+requirements. That division, which now leads direct into the office of
+the Chief of Staff, may later on be short-circuited around the Chief of
+Staff direct to the office of a new Assistant Secretary of War in so far
+as its problems have to do with purchases or industrial facilities.
+
+A bill creating two additional Secretaries of War has been passed by
+Congress. One of these assistants will have to do with social and
+welfare activities for the benefit of the troops. The other will deal
+exclusively with purchases and supplies, and the division of the General
+Staff now under General Pierce will be made a part of it.
+
+The direct lines of connection on this chart are as interesting and as
+promising as anything else about it. They indicate smooth-working
+co-ordination and perfected team work. For example, the line of liaison
+from the division of purchases and supplies is to all supply bureaus and
+purchasing agencies of the army, to the War Industries Board, and all
+related Government agencies.
+
+Further co-operation of the War Department, reorganized on a business
+basis, with those organizations vital to the movement of all equipment
+to troops here and abroad, is shown by the liaison line from the
+Director of Storage and Traffic. That line connects the storage and
+traffic business of the War Department directly with the Shipping Board,
+the Director General of Railways, and the Quartermaster General.
+
+[Illustration: CHART OF UNITED STATES WAR DEPARTMENT'S SYSTEM OF
+ORGANIZATION FOR WAR ACTIVITIES.]
+
+Major Gen. Goethals is the Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of storage
+and traffic, and, as such, has full control over all priority of both
+storage and traffic at and to inland, embarkation, and overseas points.
+General Goethals is also still acting as Quartermaster General, a place
+now not so vital under the reorganization as his office of Assistant
+Chief of Staff in charge of storage and traffic.
+
+The War Council was created because it was necessary to have a group of
+experts in the War Department who would have time to study. Up to the
+time of its organization there had been little time to think about big
+problems and do nothing else. Everybody was rushed with some form of
+executive or administrative work.
+
+This council is in session every day and is one of the most effective
+war agencies that the Government has. There is no man on it who does not
+bring to its deliberations and conclusions some vital contribution to
+the welfare of the country and the army. It consists of the Secretary of
+War, the Assistant Secretary of War, General March, Acting Chief of the
+General Staff; General Crowder, Judge Advocate General and Provost
+Marshal General of the Army, one of the nation's great lawyers, who is
+devoting his life to the military welfare of his country; Generals
+Crozier, Sharpe, Weaver, and Pierce, and Charles Day, an able engineer
+drafted from the Shipping Board to render expert counsel to the War
+Department as a member of its War Council.
+
+
+
+
+The Surgeon General's Great Organization
+
+By Caswell A. Mayo
+
+    [This account of the first year's work of the United States War
+    Department in mobilizing the medical talent of the nation was
+    prepared in March, 1918, for THE NEW YORK TIMES, publishers of
+    CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE]
+
+
+In April, 1917, the executive offices of the Surgeon General of the
+United States Army occupied four rooms in the great War, State and Navy
+Building at Washington, and the functions of the office were performed
+by six officers and twenty clerks. Now there are attached to the Surgeon
+General's office 165 officers, who employ 545 clerks, and the staff
+fills five entire buildings and parts of other buildings, exclusive of
+the Surgeon General's library, the Army Medical Museum, and the Army
+Medical School. Within a day 6,000 telegrams and 5,000 other
+communications have been received, replied to, and filed. The latest and
+most approved systems of filing records and correspondence have been
+installed under expert supervision, for the Surgeon General has called
+to his aid specialists in other fields as well as in the field of
+medicine. He has called chemists and statisticians, bankers and
+efficiency engineers, sanitarians and electrical experts, architects and
+engineers, and assigned them to duty in his office.
+
+The Surgeon General himself, Major Gen. W. C. Gorgas, was appointed to
+the office in recognition of the invaluable services rendered by him as
+Chief Sanitary Officer of the Panama Canal Zone. The story of his work
+there in protecting the laborers in the Panama Canal from infectious
+diseases is one of the most brilliant chapters in the history of
+American medicine. Without that work the efforts of Goethals would have
+been as fruitless and as costly in lives and money as those of De
+Lesseps. The Surgeon General's still greater task now is to provide
+against every emergency which may affect the health and lives of
+millions of men taken from the fields, the farms, the factories, and the
+counting houses of the country, gathered into camps for organization and
+sent across 3,000 miles of ocean. He must know how many men will be
+taken sick, and where. He must know how many men will be wounded, and
+where, and he must have at those points adequate provision of expert
+surgeons and enlisted men, of medical and of surgical supplies, of food
+and of clothing, of housing and of transportation, so that at no time
+will any American soldier be sick without succor, or lie wounded without
+aid.
+
+In carrying out this gigantic task the Surgeon General has mobilized the
+medical forces of the country, calling into his office the leaders in
+every specialty of medicine and of surgery. At their desks as early as 7
+o'clock in the morning will be found medical specialists whose
+professional incomes are written in five and six figures, but who have
+abandoned these incomes for the modest pay of a Major, who have given up
+their luxurious homes for a Washington boarding house, and who, instead
+of enjoying a well-earned leisure, toil ceaselessly from early morning
+until late at night in their efforts to co-ordinate most effectively the
+work of the doctors in the war. It is for the purpose of doing justice
+to the attainments of these men that General Gorgas is advocating scores
+of new commissions of high rank in the national army.
+
+Every morning at 7:30 the Surgeon General's truck delivers his mail at
+the Mills Building, at Seventeenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue,
+Washington, in which are situated the central executive offices. The
+mail is distributed and on the desks of the officers for final
+disposition not later than 9:15. Within twelve working hours practically
+every communication received will have been acted upon and returned to
+permanent files. Here, as in every other phase of the work, a specialist
+has been employed, Captain J. L. Gooch having been called from his
+position as subscription manager for the Butterick Company to organize
+the office routine. The most approved mechanical devices, including
+statistical machines, have been installed under Captain Gooch's
+direction.
+
+A complete medical history is kept of every soldier and of every officer
+from the time he enters the service until he retires, resigns, or dies.
+A special fireproof building is now being erected which will be devoted
+exclusively to the care of these records, the preservation of which may
+be a matter of vital importance fifty years hence.
+
+Attached to the Surgeon General's office are three representatives of
+the Royal Army Medical Corps of Great Britain--Colonel T. H. Goodwin, C.
+M. G., D. S. O.; Captain John Gilmour of the Royal Army Medical Corps,
+and Lieut. Col. J. J. Aitken of the Royal Veterinary Corps--and two
+representatives of the French Army Medical Service--Colonel C. U. Dercle
+and Major Edouard Rist. These four surgeons act as liaison officers,
+keeping the Medical Department of the United States Army in touch with
+the medical services of Great Britain and France. They have made many
+informing addresses to medical societies all over the United States and
+have given lectures at the Army Medical School.
+
+The immediate staff of the Surgeon General comprises his personal aid,
+Major M. C. Furbush, M. R. C., of Philadelphia; Colonel George E.
+Bushnell, M. C., (Medical Corps of the regular army;) Colonel Deane C.
+Howard, M. C., and Lieut. Col. James V. Van Dusen, M. C. Colonel
+Bushnell, besides being chief assistant to the Surgeon General, has
+devoted his special attention to the field in which he has won a unique
+reputation, that of the treatment of tuberculosis.
+
+General Gorgas has enlisted the co-operation of the leading surgeons of
+the United States as members of the "Rotary Surgical Staff." Among those
+Medical Reserve Corps officers who have already served for a period at
+the Surgeon General's office and who are still subject to call from time
+to time as occasion requires are Major William J. Mayo, former
+President, and his brother, Major Charles H. Mayo, now President of the
+American Medical Association.
+
+The work of the Surgeon General's office is divided up among seventeen
+general main divisions. The work of each division is practically
+independent of the others, though the work of all is co-ordinated. At
+the head of each of these divisions is an expert in that particular
+field, usually a medical officer of the regular army, who has around
+him a group of expert associates, many of whom are drawn from civil
+life.
+
+On April 1, 1917, there were 700 medical officers and about 10,000
+enlisted men in the Medical Department of the United States Army. There
+are now more than 17,000 medical officers in active service and about
+150,000 enlisted men in the Medical Department.
+
+
+
+
+War Work of the American Red Cross
+
+Summary of a Year's Activities
+
+[Data Furnished by Red Cross Headquarters, Washington, D. C.]
+
+
+President Wilson, as President of the American Red Cross, on May 10,
+1917, appointed a War Council of seven members to direct the work of the
+organization in the extraordinary emergency created by the entrance of
+the United States into the war. The original appointees were Henry P.
+Davison, Chairman, of J. P. Morgan & Co., New York; Charles D. Norton,
+Vice President First National Bank, New York; Major Grayson M. P.
+Murphy, Vice President Guaranty Company, New York; Cornelius N. Bliss,
+Jr., of Bliss, Fabyan & Co., New York, and Edward N. Hurley, Chicago.
+
+Mr. Hurley resigned from the War Council when he was appointed Chairman
+of the Shipping Board, and was succeeded by John D. Ryan, President of
+the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Major Murphy, after organizing the
+Red Cross work in Europe, resigned to re-enter the United States Army,
+and was succeeded on the council by Harvey D. Gibson, President of the
+Liberty National Bank of New York, who has been the General Manager of
+the Red Cross since it began its war activities. Mr. Norton resigned in
+the Spring of 1918, and was succeeded by George B. Case of the law firm
+of White and Case, New York, who previously had been legal adviser to
+the War Council.
+
+The first war fund campaign took place the week of June 18, 1917, which
+was designated "Red Cross Week" by a proclamation of President Wilson.
+The Finance Committee, which had charge of the campaign, was headed by
+Cleveland H. Dodge of New York; Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo was the
+fund Treasurer. One hundred million dollars was the mark set, and the
+week's contributions ran slightly above that figure.
+
+At the establishment of the Red Cross organization on a war basis its
+membership was approximately 500,000. Six months later there were, in
+round numbers, 5,000,000 members, and the number of chapters had
+increased from 562 to 3,287. The "Christmas Membership Drive," during
+the week ended with Christmas Eve, 1917, swelled the membership rolls to
+more than 23,000,000.
+
+In the period between the birthday anniversaries of Lincoln and
+Washington--Feb. 12-22, 1918--the school children of the country were
+brought into the Junior Red Cross organization.
+
+Immediately following the war organization and the raising of the first
+war fund commissions were sent to the various countries in Europe where
+war was in progress. Major Grayson M. P. Murphy was appointed General
+Commissioner for Europe and assumed direct charge of the commission to
+France, where the greater burden of American Red Cross work has fallen.
+The commission to France reached Paris during June. Eighteen men
+constituted the original working force. From this nucleus there
+developed before the end of the year an organization that operated all
+the way from Sicily up the whole western front and into Great Britain.
+
+
+MILLIONS FOR FRENCH RELIEF
+
+Appropriations from the Red Cross war fund to March 1, 1918, including
+those to cover budgets to April 30, totaled $77,721,918.22. Of this
+amount sums aggregating $30,936,103.04 were for relief work in France. A
+chain of warehouses has been established behind the lines all the way
+across France, from the coast to Switzerland. The greatest motor
+transport organization there is in the world, outside of those actually
+operated by the armies, also has been developed. The workers actually
+engaged in the organization in France number more than 3,000, a large
+percentage of them being volunteers who are serving without financial
+compensation, and most of them paying their own expenses as well.
+
+Relief work in France is divided between a Department of Military
+Affairs and a Department of Civil Affairs. The former department, in
+addition to maintaining a hospital supply service that provides for
+3,800 hospitals, a surgical dressings service that turns out and
+distributes hundreds of thousands of dressings every week, and three
+American Red Cross military hospitals, has concentrated a large amount
+of attention on canteen work, in the interest of both the American and
+French Armies.
+
+Twelve canteens at the front have been in operation for the French Army,
+and recently the same service was installed to supply coffee and
+refreshments to American soldiers in the trenches. It is likely that the
+twelve canteens will be increased to forty. The record of the front line
+canteens for a five month period was 700,000 soldiers served. In line of
+communication canteens, located at railroad junction points,
+eighty-eight American women workers have served an average of 20,000
+soldiers daily. At the metropolitan canteens, in Paris, more than
+3,000,000 soldiers have been served since the American Red Cross entered
+this field of work.
+
+Preliminary to the arrival of the American expeditionary force in
+France, the American Red Cross did important work in improving the
+sanitary conditions in the zone which the United States troops were to
+occupy. This work is constantly kept up to meet the situation as the
+army abroad increases in size.
+
+
+CIVILIAN RELIEF WORK
+
+Civilian relief work in France has embraced a campaign against
+tuberculosis, care of refugees and repatries, care of children,
+reconstruction and repair work in devastated areas and home service
+among the families of French soldiers. While much of the work in behalf
+of refugees has been done in the zones of comparative safety to which
+people have fled from the war areas, the German offensive launched in
+March found American Red Cross men in large numbers performing actual
+rescue work in villages that were under fire of the enemy. With the aid
+of the motor transport service, hundreds of noncombatants were removed
+to places of safety.
+
+At Evian, on the Swiss border, a corps of workers has been maintained
+for several months, together with a children's hospital, disinfecting
+plant, &c., for the care and relief of the children and aged and infirm
+persons who have been sent back by the Germans from the occupied
+portions of France and Belgium at the rate of 1,000 or more a day.
+
+Relief for the families of French soldiers has had for its object the
+double purpose of providing for the wants of the sick and destitute, and
+strengthening the morale of men at the front. In respect to the latter
+objective a success has been achieved which has called forth many
+expressions of praise from the highest French military and civil
+authorities. A gift of a lump sum of $1,000,000 for distribution among
+50,000 needy families was one of the initial acts in this particular
+line of relief.
+
+
+FOR WOUNDED AND PRISONERS
+
+Minor Red Cross activities in France have included assistance in the
+care of mutilated soldiers, aid in re-educational work and care of the
+blind, and maintenance of plants for the manufacture of splints,
+anaesthetic, &c. An important work in connection with the prosecution
+of medical research has been the carrying on of experiments to ascertain
+the cause of trench fever, which in point of wastage is responsible for
+more than any other sickness.
+
+Since air raids on Paris and other French cities have become a regular
+feature, the American Red Cross has established a day-and-night service
+to respond to air raid alarms, perform rescue work, and remove the
+injured to the hospitals. On many occasions the effectiveness of this
+work has commanded widespread interest.
+
+Among the newer developments is the establishment of a casualty service,
+for the gathering of detail information regarding American soldiers who
+are killed in battle, sick or wounded in the hospitals or taken prisoner
+by the enemy. The information collected is transmitted to relatives at
+home.
+
+Prisoner relief is administered through a central office at Berne,
+Switzerland, where ample supplies of food are stored for shipment to
+German prison camps as the need requires. Recently plans were started to
+have emergency rations stored in prison camps, so that American
+prisoners could have the benefit of them on their arrival there. Through
+the arrangements made all prisoners in enemy camps will receive rations
+in plenty at frequent intervals, and special rations will be provided
+for invalids.
+
+
+IMPORTANT WORK IN ITALY
+
+Appropriations for relief work in Italy have totaled $3,588,826.
+Emergency relief work, rendered at a time when no permanent commission
+had been established in Italy, stands among the most notable of the Red
+Cross achievements of the first year of the war. When the Teuton hordes
+swept into the plains of Northern Italy in October, 1917, driving
+thousands of panic-stricken men, women, and children before them,
+American Red Cross veterans from France rushed into the breach, helped
+to stop the rout, relieved the acute distress, and contributed in no
+small measure to the saving of the country from complete subjugation.
+What the American Red Cross did for Italy in this crisis was made the
+subject of official commendation on various occasions, and elicited
+thanks from the King, Prime Minister, and other dignitaries. A most
+important result accomplished was the cementing of friendship for
+America on the part of the Italian people, who previously, largely
+through German propaganda, had been skeptical of the good faith of the
+United States in the war.
+
+At the outset the American Consuls throughout Italy were supplied with
+money to afford emergency relief. Forty-eight carloads of supplies were
+dispatched to the scene from storehouses in France. Several sections of
+ambulances also were started from France. Soup kitchens were opened,
+from which the refugees were given the first food they had received
+since the flight from their homes. Transportation for the refugees was
+arranged from the north, warehouses were opened at central points,
+manufacture of surgical dressings was undertaken on a mammoth scale,
+hospitals for the concentration of contagious diseases were opened, and
+then, four days after the United States declared war against Austria,
+the first Red Cross ambulances left Milan for the Italian front, cheered
+by thousands of persons there and at all towns through which they
+passed.
+
+By the time the permanent commission reached Rome, in the early Winter,
+a complete survey of the whole Italian situation had been made by
+experts and all the more serious emergencies had been met. The American
+Red Cross was able to supply great quantities of equipment to replace
+the stores that were lost when the Teuton drive destroyed upward of a
+hundred hospitals. The present relief work is being continued along the
+lines of the work in France.
+
+
+BELGIAN RELIEF WORK
+
+Belgian relief work has called for appropriations aggregating
+$2,086,131. There has been a program for improving conditions among the
+Belgian troops, and to provide recreation and medical service outside
+the scope of the Belgian war budget. The initial Red Cross gift was half
+a million francs to the Belgian Red Cross, to be applied for the cost
+of the military hospital at Wolveringham. Contributions also have been
+made to the active field service of the army, in the form of surgical
+and medical equipment.
+
+In civilian relief work in Belgium the American Red Cross placed its
+resources at the command of organizations already in the field to care
+for children and feeble persons, and get them away from the places of
+greatest danger. In order to have supplies ready at hand for emergencies
+twenty barrack warehouses were contracted for last Fall.
+
+Special aid has been given to the schools and colonies for children.
+Establishment of health centres and a 250-bed hospital for the Belgian
+colony at Havre are among the other activities. A gift of 600,000 francs
+was made for the construction of a temporary village for refugees near
+Havre.
+
+
+AIDING BRITISH WOUNDED
+
+American Red Cross appropriations on account of work in Great Britain
+have amounted to $3,078,875. This includes two gifts of $953,000 and
+$1,193,125, respectively, to the British Red Cross and a gift of
+$500,000 to the Canadian Red Cross. The gifts to the British Red Cross
+will be used for relief and comforts to sick and wounded in hospitals,
+for the maintenance of auxiliary hospitals and convalescent homes in
+England, and for institutions for orthopedic and facial treatment and
+for general restorative work for disabled British soldiers. The British
+orthopedic hospitals serve as training schools for American surgeons.
+The gift to the Canadian Red Cross was given in recognition of the part
+Canada has played in the war. The money will be used to alleviate the
+suffering of wounded and sick Canadian soldiers.
+
+The regular work of the American Red Cross in England includes the
+maintenance of a hospital at an English port for sick American soldiers
+and sailors, and support of a hospital at South Devon and of another for
+officers at Lancaster Gate, London.
+
+Commissions have been maintained in Serbia, Rumania, and Russia, where
+relief has been administered according to the needs of the situation in
+each instance. In Rumania the active relief work was abandoned only when
+the Red Cross representatives were forced to leave the country following
+the Ukraine peace. At the present writing [April, 1918] a special
+commission, accompanied by several medical units, is on its way to take
+up relief work in Palestine.
+
+The appropriations for Serbian relief have totaled $875,180.76; for
+Rumania, $2,676,368.76, and for Russia $1,243,845.07. All other foreign
+relief work, miscellaneous in character, has involved appropriations
+amounting to $3,576,300.
+
+
+IN THE UNITED STATES
+
+For camp service in the United States there was appropriated, up to
+March 1, a total of $6,451,150.86. The sweaters, helmets, socks, and
+other supplies and comforts for distribution to the army and navy had a
+value of $5,653,435.86.
+
+There had been appropriated for Red Cross convalescent houses at camps
+and cantonments throughout the United States $512,000, and plans for
+additional houses and nurses' homes at the various camps will call for
+aggregate expenditures of about $1,750,000.
+
+More than 19,000 graduate nurses have been supplied to the United States
+Army for service in this country and abroad by the Red Cross Nursing
+Service. A total of 25,000 must be supplied before the end of the
+present year to meet the needs of the growing army and the greater
+activities of the forces in France.
+
+Fifty base hospital units have been organized, each unit consisting of
+twenty-two surgeons and dentists, sixty-five nurses, and 152 men of the
+enlisted reserve corps. Nineteen of these units are now in service in
+France. The Red Cross has supplied the personnel for ten other units.
+
+Red Cross chapters have organized and are maintaining more than a
+thousand canteens at railroad stations to serve troops passing to and
+from camps and to ports of embarkation. In nearly every city, also,
+women's motor corps service has been established by volunteer workers.
+Throughout the country plans have been made on an extensive scale to
+carry on home service in the interest of the families of soldiers who
+may need assistance, material or otherwise.
+
+
+OTHER ACTIVITIES
+
+Although war activities required its greatest energies, the American Red
+Cross rendered prompt relief in cases of overwhelming disaster outside
+the war zones during the year. There were three major disasters, widely
+separated, in 1917. They were, respectively, the Tientsin flood, which
+made 1,000,000 people homeless and caused a crop and property loss
+amounting to $100,000,000; the Halifax explosion, which wrecked a large
+part of the city and resulted in the killing and maiming of thousands of
+persons, and the Guatemala earthquake, which caused destitution and
+disease, in addition to the property damage and the toll of death and
+injury.
+
+In the case of the flood in China, the Red Cross cabled to the American
+Minister to draw for sums sufficient to meet emergency needs, and later
+assisted the Chinese Government in providing labor for 10,000 refugees
+for a period of several months. The appropriations for relief in
+connection with this disaster totaled $125,000.
+
+Within a few hours after the extent of the Halifax disaster was known,
+special Red Cross trains left New York, Providence, and Boston for the
+scene, carrying tons of bedding, clothing, food, and medical supplies,
+as well as doctors, nurses, and experts in relief administration. Every
+anticipated need was provided for, and unlimited resources were pledged
+to the stricken city.
+
+Urgent relief needs following the earthquake in Guatemala were met
+through the Guatemala Red Cross chapter, which purchased $100,000 worth
+of supplies from the Government stores in the Canal Zone. A shipload of
+medical, food, and other supplies was sent from New Orleans at the
+earliest possible moment, and a Medical Director was appointed to take
+charge of work on the ground. Expert workers and sanitary engineers also
+were dispatched from the United States to look after special phases of
+the situation.
+
+
+An Example of U-Boat Brutality
+
+One day in the first week of March, 1918, a small Belgian fishing smack
+was sighted by a German U-boat and was fired upon without the slightest
+warning. Her masts and sails were shot away, and the skipper was
+severely wounded. The smack carried a crew of only four men, three of
+whom entered their small boat and endeavored to persuade the skipper to
+come with them; but he was so badly injured that he refused to leave.
+He, however, urged his men to save their own lives. Meanwhile the
+submarine had come closer to its prey, and a German officer called to
+the men in the small boat to convey a couple of German sailors on board
+the smack, in order that they might sink her with bombs. The Germans
+proceeded to board the smack, and then, finding the wounded skipper, one
+of them drew his revolver and shot the helpless man dead through the
+head. The dastardly act was committed in full view of the Belgian
+fishermen, one of whom was the unfortunate skipper's son. Having placed
+their bombs in position, the Germans returned to the submarine and cast
+the remaining three Belgians adrift in their cockleshell of a boat
+without food or water, and with no means of reaching land, from the
+nearest point of which they were twenty miles distant. The unfortunate
+men suffered severely from cold and hunger before they were picked up by
+a British patrol boat.
+
+
+
+
+Great Britain Faces a Crisis
+
+Historic Speech by Premier Lloyd George on the Picardy Battle and Its
+Fateful Consequences
+
+    _The British Government introduced a bill April 9, 1918, to
+    raise the military age up to 50, and in special cases to 55, and
+    to provide for conscription in Ireland. Premier David Lloyd
+    George, in introducing the measure in the House of Commons,
+    delivered an important address, in which he reviewed the battle
+    of Picardy up to that time and gave interesting details of the
+    conduct of the war in the preceding months. The address opened a
+    new phase in the world conflict as affected by the posture of
+    affairs in Great Britain. The full speech was sent by special
+    cable to The New York Times and is reproduced herewith as a
+    historic document of the war:_
+
+
+We have now entered the most critical phase of this terrible war. There
+is a lull in the storm, but the hurricane is not over. Doubtless we must
+expect more fierce outbreaks, and ere it is finally exhausted there will
+be many more. The fate of the empire, the fate of Europe, and the fate
+of liberty throughout the world may depend on the success with which the
+very last of these attacks is resisted and countered.
+
+The Government, therefore, propose to submit to Parliament today certain
+recommendations, in order to assist this country and the Allies to
+weather the storm. They will involve, I regret, extreme sacrifices on
+the part of large classes of the population, and nothing would justify
+them but the most extreme necessity and the fact that we are fighting
+for all that is essential and most sacred in our national life.
+
+Before I come to the circumstances which led up to our submitting these
+proposals to Parliament, I ought to say one word as to why Parliament
+was not immediately summoned. Since the battle began the Government have
+been engaged almost every hour in concerting with the Allies the
+necessary measures to assist the armies to deal with the emergency.
+
+The proposals which we intend submitting to Parliament required very
+close and careful examination, and I think there is this advantage in
+our meeting today, rather than immediately after the impact of the
+German attack, that we shall be considering these proposals under
+conditions which will be far removed from any suggestion of panic.
+
+
+THE BATTLE OF PICARDY
+
+I shall now come to the circumstances which have led to the present
+military position. It is very difficult at this time to present a clear,
+connected, and reliable narrative of what happened. There has been a
+great battle on a front of fifty miles--the greatest battle ever fought
+in the history of the world. Enormous forces have been engaged; there
+was a considerable retirement on the part of the British forces, and
+under these conditions it is not always easy for some time to ascertain
+what actually happened.
+
+The House will recollect the difficulty we experienced with regard to
+Cambrai. It was difficult to piece together the story of the event for
+some time, and Cambrai was a very trivial event compared with this
+gigantic battle.
+
+The Generals and their staffs are, naturally, engaged and have to
+concentrate their attention upon the operations of the enemy, and until
+the strain relaxes it would be very difficult to institute the necessary
+inquiries to find out exactly what happened, and to furnish an adequate
+explanation of the battle.
+
+However, there are two or three facts which stand out, and in stating
+them I should like to call attention to two things which I think above
+all must be avoided. The first is that nothing should be said which
+could give information to the enemy; nothing should be said which would
+give encouragement to the enemy, and nothing should be said which would
+give discouragement to our own troops, who are fighting so gallantly at
+this very hour. And the second question is that all recrimination at
+this hour must be shut out.
+
+
+GERMANS SLIGHTLY WEAKER
+
+What was the position at the beginning of the battle? Notwithstanding
+the heavy casualties in 1917 the army in France was considerably
+stronger on Jan. 1, 1918, than on Jan. 1, 1917. Up to the end of
+1917--up to, say, about October or November--the German combatant
+strength in France was as two to the Allies' three. Then came the
+military collapse of Russia, and the Germans hurried up their released
+divisions from the eastern front and brought them to the west. They had
+a certain measure of Austrian support, which had been accorded to them.
+
+Owing to the growth of the strength of our armies in 1917 when this
+battle began the combatant strength of the whole of the German Army on
+the western front was only approximately, though not quite, equal to the
+total combatant strength of the Allies in infantry. They were slightly
+inferior in artillery. They were considerably inferior in cavalry, and,
+what is very important, they were undoubtedly inferior in aircraft.
+
+The Germans, therefore, organized their troops so as to produce a larger
+number of divisions out of the slightly smaller number of infantry and
+slightly smaller number of guns. They had fewer battalions in a division
+and fewer men in a battalion. That is entirely a question of
+organization, and it yet remains to be seen that their organization is
+better than ours. It is necessary to explain that, in order that the
+House should realize why, with approximately the same number of men, the
+Germans have a larger number of divisions on that front.
+
+According to all the facts which have come to hand as to the losses of
+the battle, that roughly represents the relative strength of the
+combatants on both sides at this moment. The Germans had, however, one
+or two important advantages. The first, the initial advantage, which is
+always commanded by the offensive, is that they know where they mean to
+attack. They choose the ground, they choose the location, they know the
+width of the attack, they know the dimensions of the attack, they know
+the time of the attack, they know the method of the attack. All that
+invariably gives the initial advantage to the offensive.
+
+
+Concentrated on the British
+
+The defense has a general advantage, as, owing to air observation,
+concealment is difficult. At the same time, in spite of all that, owing
+to the power of moving troops at night, which the Germans exercised in a
+very large extent, there was a large margin for surprise, even in spite
+of air observation, and of this the enemy took full advantage.
+
+I should like to say one word here as to the difficulty which the allied
+Generals were confronted with in this respect. Before the battle the
+greatest German concentration was in front of our troops. That was no
+proof that the full weight of the attack would fall on us. There was a
+very large concentration opposite the French lines. There was a very
+considerable concentration--I am referring now to the German
+reserves--on the northern part of our line.
+
+After the battle began, or immediately before the battle, the Germans by
+night brought their divisions from the northern part to the point where
+the attack took place. They also took several divisions from opposite
+the French in the same way and brought them to our front. But it would
+have been equally easy for them, while concentrating troops opposite our
+front, to manoeuvre them in the same way opposite the French. I am only
+referring to that in order to show how exceedingly difficult it is for
+Generals on the defensive to decide exactly where, in their judgment,
+the attack is coming and where they ought to concentrate their reserves.
+
+
+General Wilson's Forecast
+
+I may just say a word here. This problem was considered very closely by
+the military staff at Versailles, and I think it right, in justice to
+them, to point out that after a very close study of the German position
+and of the probabilities of the case, they came to the conclusion, and
+they stated their conclusion to the military representatives and to the
+Ministers in the month of January, or the beginning of February, that
+the attack would come south of Arras; that it would be an attack on the
+widest front ever yet assailed; that the Germans would accumulate
+ninety-five divisions for the purpose of making that attack; that they
+would throw the whole of their resources and their strength into
+breaking the British line at that point, and that their objective would
+be the capture of Amiens and the severance of the British and French
+forces.
+
+That was the conclusion which Sir Henry Wilson, Chief of the Imperial
+Staff, came to, and which was submitted at that time, two or three
+months ago, and I think that it was one of the most remarkable forecasts
+of enemy intentions ever made.
+
+As a matter of fact, the attack was made up, I think, by about
+ninety-seven divisions. It was an attack on the widest front that had
+ever been engaged. Its object undoubtedly was the capture of Amiens and
+the severance of the British and French forces. So that, almost in every
+detail, that very remarkable forecast has been verified in the event.
+
+Another remarkable prediction was that it might probably succeed in
+penetrating the British line to the extent of half the distance of the
+front attacked. They came to the conclusion from a close examination of
+the offensives of the war.
+
+
+Advantage of United Command
+
+There was another advantage. There was, first of all, the advantage
+which the Germans had from having the initiative. There was a further
+advantage they had, and this undoubtedly was the greatest advantage,
+from having a united command opposed to a dual one. The Germans
+undoubtedly relied on this to a very large extent for their success.
+They owe much of the success of this attack to this.
+
+It was reported to me on good authority that the Kaiser informed ex-King
+Constantine: "I shall beat them, for they have no united command." Which
+shows that that was what they were relying in the main upon; that,
+although their numbers were slightly inferior, they knew the importance
+that was to be attached to the fact that they had a perfectly united
+command.
+
+And that is an obvious advantage, for if the risks in one particular
+part of the line are great, and in another part of the line are great,
+but substantially less than in the former, with one command there is no
+hesitation in the mind of the Commander in Chief as to which risk he
+will make the greatest provision against.
+
+With two separate commands the problem is a different one. It is more
+difficult to adjust the balance of risk, and the General is always
+naturally inclined to give himself and his army the benefit of any
+doubt. That may be because if anything goes wrong there he alone is to
+be held responsible to his own countrymen for the safety of his army.
+
+
+Weather Favored Germans
+
+The enemy had another incidental but, as it turned out, very important
+advantage--that of the weather. Exceptional weather favored his designs.
+It was both dry and misty. The attack which succeeded was made on that
+part of the line where under ordinary Spring conditions the ground would
+have been almost impassable.
+
+A wounded officer told a friend of mine today, a General, that under
+ordinary conditions no one could walk across the part which was
+traversed by the Germans at this time of the year. But it just happened
+to be absolutely dry and firm, and they walked across ground which no
+one had any right to expect at this time of the year would be in that
+condition.
+
+Not only that, but the fact that it was warm increased the mist, and the
+Germans were actually in some parts within a few yards of our front line
+before any one knew of their approach. It was quite impossible to
+observe them. This was a special disadvantage to us, inasmuch as our
+scheme of organization in that particular part of the line depended
+largely upon the cross-line fire of machine guns and artillery. They
+had, therefore, a very special advantage, of which they made the fullest
+use.
+
+
+Closed Up Gap in Armies
+
+With regard to the battle itself, as I have already stated, it will take
+some time to ascertain the whole facts. At one time it was undoubtedly
+very critical. The enemy broke through between our 3d and 5th Armies,
+and there was a serious gap, and the situation was retrieved owing to
+the magnificent conduct of our troops. They retired in perfectly good
+order, re-establishing the junction between the two armies and
+frustrating the enemy's purpose.
+
+The House can hardly realize, and certainly cannot sufficiently
+thank--nor can the country--our troops for their superb valor and the
+grim tenacity with which they faced overwhelming hordes of the enemy and
+clung to their positions. They retired, but were never routed, and once
+more the cool pluck of the British soldier, that refuses to acknowledge
+defeat, saved Europe.
+
+I am referring to the whole army, Generals, officers, and soldiers. I
+mean the whole army, and I draw no distinction. Their conduct has been
+one of incredible courage and great coolness under the most trying
+conditions. I do not think that any distinction can be drawn between
+officers and men. I am referring to the British Army, and that means
+all.
+
+
+Praises General Carey's Feat
+
+And I specially refer to what one Brigadier General did. Some reference
+has been made in the press already to it, where at one point there was a
+serious gap, which might have let the enemy into Calais.
+
+[At this point the Prime Minister spoke of the critical situation which
+developed when the German attack began. He said the gap on the way to
+Amiens was held by Brig. Gen. Carey, who for six days stood off the
+enemy with engineers, laborers, signalers, and anybody who could hold a
+rifle. The Premier continued:]
+
+Until the whole circumstances which led to the retirement of the 5th
+Army and its failure to hold the line of the Somme, at least till the
+Germans brought out their guns, and perhaps the failure adequately to
+destroy the bridges--until all these are explained it would be unfair to
+censure the General in command of the army, General Gough. But until
+those circumstances are cleared up it would be equally unfair to the
+British Army to retain his services in the field. It is necessary to
+recall him until the facts have been fully ascertained and laid before
+the Government by their military advisers.
+
+After the retirement of the 5th Army the French reserves came up with
+remarkable rapidity, when their position before the battle is borne in
+mind. In fact, the speed with which, when the final decision was taken
+as to the real designs of the enemy, the French reserves were brought up
+is one of the most remarkable feats of organization in this war, and
+between the courage of our troops and the handling of the army--the way
+the 3d Army held, never giving way a hundred yards to the attack of the
+enemy--I think it right that it should be said about the army commanded
+by General Byng--that between the efforts of our soldiers and the loyal
+assistance given in true spirit of comradeship by the French Army, the
+position is for the moment stabilized. But it is clear that the Germans,
+having gained an initial success, are preparing another, and perhaps an
+even greater, attack on the allied armies.
+
+
+Teutons Fail in Main Objects
+
+Up to the present the enemy has undoubtedly obtained a great initial
+success. There is no good in not accepting the facts. It is from that
+basis we must begin to build. But he has failed so far in his main
+objects. He failed to capture Amiens. He failed to separate the French
+and British armies. But we should be guilty of great, it might be fatal,
+error if we were to underestimate the gravity of the prospect.
+
+The enemy has captured valuable ground, which is too near Amiens for
+comfort or security, and he has succeeded for the time being in
+crippling one of our great armies.
+
+I will now tell the House something of the measures adopted by the
+Cabinet to meet the emergency. I have already explained what was done
+about the French reserves. The Cabinet took every step to hurry up
+reinforcements in order to fill up the gap in our armies. No such large
+numbers of men ever passed across the Channel in so short a time.
+
+As the emergency was great it was impossible to allow those who were
+summoned to France the usual leave to visit their relatives. It was with
+the greatest regret that we found it necessary to cancel this
+permission, and nothing but the gravity of the position would have
+justified so harsh a proceeding. But the troops accepted the position in
+a manner which is worthy of the fortitude, courage, and patriotism they
+have shown throughout.
+
+There was an understanding that boys under 19 years would only be used
+in case of emergency. We felt that the emergency had arisen, and in so
+far as those who were over 18 were concerned, those who had already
+received six months' training, we felt it necessary that they should be
+sent to France.
+
+As to the guns and machine guns which were lost, the numbers are grossly
+exaggerated by the enemy. I am assured that they have also exaggerated
+very considerably the number of prisoners they have taken. The Commander
+in Chief assured me last week that it was a gross exaggeration.
+
+I am very glad to be able to say that the Ministry of Munitions were
+able not merely to replace those guns and machine guns, but that they
+still have got a very substantial reserve. The same thing applies to
+ammunition. There is an ample reserve of ammunition both in this country
+and in France.
+
+Our aircraft strength is greater now than before the battle, and we all
+know what brilliant service our airmen rendered in this battle. Until
+the whole story of the battle is told it will be almost impossible to
+estimate the services they rendered in retarding the advance of the
+enemy, in destroying his machinery, and in making it difficult for him
+to bring up his guns and ammunition. We feel confident that our armies,
+Generals, and soldiers will be quite equal to the next encounter
+whenever it comes.
+
+
+America's Dramatic Assistance
+
+The next step to which I should like to call the attention of the House
+is the material and dramatic assistance rendered by President Wilson in
+this emergency--one of the most important decisions in the war. In fact,
+the issue of the battle might very well be determined by this decision.
+
+In America there is a very considerable number of men in the course of
+training, and the Allies looked forward to having a large American army
+in France in the Spring. It has taken longer than was anticipated to
+turn those soldiers into the necessary divisional organizations. If
+America waited to complete these divisional organizations it would not
+be possible for these fine troops in any large numbers to take part in
+this battle in this campaign, although it might be very well the
+decisive battle of the war.
+
+This was, of course, one of the most serious disappointments from which
+the Allies had suffered. It is no use pretending it was not one of our
+chief causes of anxiety. We depend upon it largely to make up the
+defection of Russia.
+
+For many reasons--reasons, perhaps of transport, reasons connected with
+the time it takes, not merely to train troops and their officers, but to
+complete the necessary organization--it was quite impossible to put into
+France the number of divisions every one had confidently expected would
+be there. Under the circumstances we, therefore, submitted to the
+President of the United States a definite proposal. We had the
+advantage of having the Secretary of State for War in this country
+within two or three days after the battle had commenced. Mr. Balfour and
+I had a long conversation with him upon the whole situation, and we
+submitted to him certain recommendations which we had been advised to
+make to Mr. Baker and the American Government.
+
+
+Proposal of Earl of Reading
+
+On the strength of the conversation we submitted proposals to President
+Wilson, with the strong support of Premier Clemenceau, to enable the
+combatant strength of the American Army to come into action during this
+battle, inasmuch as there was no hope of it coming in as a strong
+separate army. By this decision American battalions will be brigaded
+with those of the Allies.
+
+This proposal was submitted by the Earl of Reading on behalf of the
+British Government to President Wilson, and President Wilson assented to
+the proposal without any hesitation, with the result that arrangements
+are now being made for the fighting strength of the American Army to be
+immediately brought to bear in this struggle--a struggle which is only
+now beginning--to this extent, and it is no mere small extent, that the
+German attack has been held up. It has stirred up the resolution and
+energy of America beyond anything which has yet occurred.
+
+Another important decision taken by the allied Governments I must also
+call the attention of the House to. It became more obvious after the
+battle than ever before that the allied armies were suffering from the
+fact that they were fighting as two separate armies and had to negotiate
+support with each other. Valuable time was thus lost. Some of us had
+been deeply impressed by this peril for some time and had done our best
+to avert it.
+
+But the inherent difficulties to be overcome are tremendous. There are
+national prejudices, national interests, professional prejudices and
+traditions. The inherent difficulties of getting two or three separate
+armies to fight as one are almost insurmountable, and it can only be
+done if public opinion in all these countries insists upon it as one
+condition of success.
+
+The Versailles conference was an effort at a remedy. How were the
+Versailles decisions carried out, and the extent to which they were not
+carried out? This is not the time to inquire.
+
+
+Foch Made Generalissimo
+
+I respectfully suggest to the House that no good would come at this
+stage in discussing this question. But if any one needed conviction as
+to the wisdom of that policy, this battle must have supplied it. The
+peril we passed through, by establishing the conviction without
+challenge, may, I think, be worth the price we paid for it.
+
+A few days after the battle commenced there were present not merely the
+Government, but the commanders in the field. We had not merely Field
+Marshals but army commanders present. We were so convinced--and the same
+thing applied to the French--of the importance of more complete
+strategic unity that they agreed to the appointment of General Foch to
+the supreme direction of the strategy of all the allied armies on the
+western front.
+
+May I not say just one word about General Foch? It is not merely that he
+is one of the most brilliant soldiers in Europe, but there is this to be
+said about him: Foch is the man who, when we were attacked and were in a
+similar plight at the first battle of Ypres, rushed the French Army
+there by every conceivable expedient--buses, cabs, lorries, anything he
+could lay his hands upon. He crowded French divisions through, and
+undoubtedly helped to win the great battle.
+
+There is no doubt about the loyalty and comradeship of General Foch. I
+have no doubt that this arrangement will be carried out not merely in
+the letter but in the spirit. But it is the most important decision that
+has been taken in reference to the coming battle. This strategic unity
+is, I submit to the House, the fundamental condition of victory. It can
+only be maintained by complete co-operation between the Governments and
+the Generals and by something more than that--the unmistakable public
+opinion behind it.
+
+
+Asks Support for Foch
+
+Why do I say that? For this reason: A Generalissimo in the ordinary and
+full sense of the term may be impracticable. There are three functions
+which a General wields--strategical, tactical, and administrative. What
+does administrative mean? It means control of organization, the
+appointment and dismissal of officers and Generals, and that is a power
+which it is difficult or almost impossible to give to Generals of
+another country with a national army.
+
+Therefore, in spite of all the arrangements made, unless there be not
+merely good-will, but the knowledge that the public of France, Great
+Britain, and America will assist in co-ordination and in supporting the
+authority in the supreme strategical plans chosen by the Governments,
+and in supporting the Governments in any action they may take to assert
+their authority, any arrangements made will be futile and mischievous. I
+make no apology for dwelling at some length upon this point. I have
+always felt that we were losing value and efficiency in the allied
+armies through lack of co-ordination and concentration.
+
+We have sustained many disasters already through this, and we shall
+encounter more unless this defect in our machinery is put right.
+Hitherto, I regret, every effort at amendment led to rather prolonged
+and very bitter controversy, and these great inherent difficulties were
+themselves accentuated and aggravated. There were difficulties of
+carrying out plans and other obstacles, and, what is worse, valuable
+time is lost.
+
+I entreat the nation as a whole to stand united for the united control
+of the strategical operations of our armies at the front. We know how
+much depends upon unity of concentration. We are fighting a very
+powerful foe, who, in so far as he has triumphed, has triumphed mainly
+because of superior unity and the concentration of his strategic plans.
+
+
+BRITISH FORCES IN ASIA
+
+There is another matter to which I should like to refer, and it is the
+suggestion that our forces have been dissipated on a subsidiary
+enterprise. Not a single division was sent from France to the East. With
+regard to Italy, had it not been for the fact that there are battalions
+of French and British divisions there, the Austrian Army would have been
+free to throw the whole of its strength on the western front. If there
+were not some there now the Austrian Army would be more powerfully
+represented than it is on the western front.
+
+With regard to Saloniki, the only thing the present Government did was
+to reduce the forces there by two divisions. In Mesopotamia there is
+only one white division in all, and in Egypt and Palestine together
+there are only two white divisions, and the rest are either Indians or
+mixed with a very small proportion of British troops. I am referring to
+infantry divisions.
+
+I want the House really to consider what that means. There is a menace
+to our Eastern empire through Persia, because through Persia you
+approach Afghanistan, and through Afghanistan you menace the whole of
+India. Had it not been for the blows inflicted upon the Turks, what
+would have happened? Before these attacks there were Turkish divisions
+helping the Germans in Russia. They would have been there helping the
+Germans on the west, exactly as they helped them on the east.
+
+
+Germans Sent to Help Turks
+
+But what has happened? They were attacked in Palestine and Mesopotamia
+and two Turkish armies were destroyed. If we had remained in Egypt and
+defended Egypt by remaining there on the canal and allowing the Turks to
+hold us with a small force while they were putting the whole of their
+force in Mesopotamia and menacing our position in India by that means,
+the Turks could now have been assisting the Germans in the west as they
+did in the east.
+
+What is happening now? German battalions at this moment have been sent
+to assist the Turks instead of the Turks sending divisions to help the
+Germans. The Germans now have sent battalions to help the Turks in
+Palestine. After all, if you have a great empire you must defend it.
+
+There was a great empire which withdrew its legions from the outlying
+provinces of the empire to defend its heart against the Goths and those
+legions never went back. The British Empire has not been reduced to that
+plight yet. We can defend ourselves successfully in France, and we can
+also hold our empire against any one who assails it in any part of the
+world at the same time.
+
+May I, before I leave this topic, say how much gratitude we owe to India
+for the magnificent way in which she has come to the aid of the empire
+in this emergency?
+
+It is not the fact that we have got three British divisions in Egypt and
+Palestine and one in Mesopotamia that has enabled us to hold our own,
+but it is the fact that we have had these splendid troops from India.
+Many of them volunteered since the war, and they have been more than a
+match for their Turkish adversaries on many a stricken field.
+
+
+Great Losses in France
+
+It is too early to state yet with accuracy our losses, because in the
+case of a battle over such a wide front, fought with such intensity for
+over a fortnight, with vast numbers of men engaged, the losses sustained
+must be considerable. The claims of the enemy as to prisoners have been
+grossly exaggerated, and Field Marshal Haig has assured me that they
+were quite impossible from the figures at his disposal, and which he
+showed me, and the enemy's claims seem quite preposterous from the
+statement he made to me.
+
+But still our losses are very great and our reserves have been called
+upon to a considerable extent to make up the wastage and refit the
+units, and if the drain continues on this scale, a drain on the
+resources of reserves and of man power, it must cause the deepest
+anxiety, unless we take immediate steps to replenish it.
+
+The immediate necessity is relieved by the splendid and generous way and
+promptitude with which America has come to our aid, but they are simply
+lent to receive their training, with a view to their incorporation at
+the first suitable moment in the American Army in France, and even if
+they remain with the British right through the battle, the time will
+come when we shall need large reinforcements, if this battle continues.
+
+I want the House to consider for a moment what the plans of the enemy
+may be as they are now revealed. It was never certain he would take this
+plunge, because he knows what it means if it fails. But he has taken it.
+The battle proves that the enemy has definitely decided to seek a
+military decision this year, whatever the consequences to himself.
+
+
+Reasons for German Effort
+
+There is no doubt he has overwhelming reasons. There is the economic
+condition of his country and the critical economic condition of his
+allies. He is now at the height of his power, and Russia is at the
+least, while America has not yet come in in its strength. So this year
+the enemy may put forth something which approaches his full strength.
+But soon he will grow feebler and weaker in comparison with the allied
+forces.
+
+[Illustration: Representatives of the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk
+(from left to right): Gen. Hoffmann of the German Army; Count Czernin,
+Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, Talaat Pasha, Turkish Grand Vizier,
+and von Kuehlmann, German Foreign Minister
+(_International Film Service_)]
+
+[Illustration: Panorama of Venice as seen from an airplane in wartime]
+
+Everything, therefore, points to the definite determination of Germany
+to put the whole of her resources into seeking a military decision this
+year, and this means a prolonged battle from the North Sea to the
+Adriatic, with Germany and Austria throwing in the whole of their
+strength.
+
+There are still seven or eight months within which the fighting can
+continue, and everything depends upon keeping our strength right to the
+end, whatever the strain upon our resources may be.
+
+With American aid we can do it. But, even with American help, we cannot
+feel secure unless we are prepared ourselves to make even greater
+sacrifices than we have hitherto made. I know what the Government wish.
+I know also what will happen if the demand which the Government is
+putting forward is not responded to.
+
+It is idle to imagine, as some people very lightheartedly seem to think,
+that you have got an unlimited reservoir of man power in this or in any
+belligerent country. We have already raised in this country for military
+and naval purposes very nearly six million men. We cannot raise here the
+same proportion of men per population as you can in other belligerent
+countries. I have repeatedly emphasized that in the House of Commons.
+
+We have the greatest navy in the world, the command of the seas depends
+not merely for ourselves, but for our allies, upon the efforts we put
+forward. That is not only a question of manning the fleet: it is also a
+question of building, of adding to the numbers of ships, and of
+repairing the ships. Then you have got a mercantile marine, without
+which the Allies could not continue the struggle for a single month.
+
+
+Navy and Shipping First
+
+All that must be borne in mind, and whatever happens and whatever
+proposals we put forward today, it would be folly to do anything which
+would interfere with the one fundamental condition of success to the
+Allies--that the navy and shipping must be first.
+
+We have also got to supply coal largely to our allies, as well as steel.
+But, owing largely to improved organizations in the various industries,
+to the way they are adapting themselves from day to day to new
+conditions, and to the increased numbers and greatly increased
+efficiency of woman labor, there is a reserve of men which, consistent
+with the discharge of these obligations, may yet be withdrawn in great
+emergency for our battle line; not without damage to industry--I do not
+forget that--and not without, to a certain extent, weakening the
+economic strength of the country, and not without imposing restrictions
+and perhaps privations, but without impairment to the striking power of
+the country for war. Nothing could justify such drastic action except an
+overwhelming emergency precipitated by a great military crisis.
+
+I want to point out especially why the steps taken now are steps which
+will be useful in this battle. First of all, it is a battle which may
+last for months. The decision may be taken not now or next month, but
+may be months hence. But, beyond that, the Allies at the present moment
+have the same reserves of man power to reinforce their armies as Germany
+has, without taking into account those great reserves in America.
+
+
+The German Age Limit
+
+The Germans, however, are calling up another class, which will produce
+550,000 efficient young men. These will be prepared to be thrown into
+the battle line. This is the 1920 class, aged 181/2. These can be thrown
+into the battle line before this fight is over, and we must be prepared
+for their advent in this struggle this year.
+
+Therefore, I have to submit to Parliament the totals for increasing, and
+increasing very materially, the reserves which will be available for
+reinforcing our armies in the field during this prolonged battle, upon
+which we are only just entering. I will now give roughly some of the
+proposals we intend to make in order to increase the number of men
+available.
+
+We already have raised for armed forces during the first quarter of the
+year more than the quarter's proportion of the original number of men
+which it was estimated was the minimum required for the present year. We
+are also effecting a very strict comb-out of some of the essential
+industries. Very large levies have been taken from munition works. They
+will amount, I think, to something like 100,000 grade 1 men.
+
+
+New Call on the Miners
+
+That has been done already this year, and it will, of course, involve
+the utilization of other labor to a very large extent in munition works.
+A call for 500,000 has been made already on the coal industry, and these
+men have been rapidly recruited. I regret to say that military needs
+will necessitate the calling up of another 150,000 men from this
+industry. These men can be spared, we are convinced, after entering into
+the matter very carefully, without endangering the essential output of
+coal for national industries.
+
+No one is likely to forget the fine response made by the miners at the
+beginning of the war, or the splendid part they have taken in hundreds
+of battles since then. They have been loyal in meeting the present
+demand of 50,000 men, and I am confident they would meet a further call
+upon them in the same spirit, in view of this great national emergency
+under which we are making it. The transport services also have been
+called upon to release the greatest possible number of fit men.
+
+
+Combing Out Civil Service Under 25
+
+Further calls are to be made upon the civil service. I do not think it
+is realized how much the civil service has done already. On one hand, it
+has had to release a large number of men for the army, and, on the
+other, it has to meet and is meeting the increased strain of work. But
+even at the risk of some dislocation we must call upon it to do more,
+and a clean cut of young, fit men must be made.
+
+It is proposed that no fit men below the age of 25 should be retained.
+That is the clean-out. We comb out beyond that. I shall explain it
+later. It is proposed that it should be applied to other industries as
+well.
+
+When we are adding to the age and when we are extending the military
+age, it should not be said that there are fit young men of 25 who are
+employed in the various industries of the country. This will bring the
+civil service into line, and on a general level, so far as a clean-out
+is concerned, with the munitions industries.
+
+Under an act passed in January of this year, we are issuing orders
+canceling all occupational exemptions by age blocks in specified
+occupations. That is the clean-out. The first of these orders is being
+laid on the table in the House today and other orders of the same power
+will follow.
+
+I know that the House will appreciate that it is not merely necessary to
+have men, but to have them quickly. It is no use raising them unless
+they are raised in time to take part in the struggle this year, when we
+shall be short of drafts, if the battle is a prolonged one.
+
+The Government, therefore, has shortened the length of the calling up
+notice from fourteen days to seven and have authorized the sending of
+notice by whatever method is the most expeditious and convenient. It may
+be necessary even to curtail the rights of appeal on medical grounds,
+but for the moment it is not proposed to do so. We have had a good many
+frivolous appeals, which have wasted a good deal of time, and if that
+goes on, it will be absolutely necessary, in the interest of the
+security of the country, that the rights of appeal should be curtailed
+in this respect.
+
+
+Military Age Raised to 50
+
+There is another consideration. The strain upon the medical profession
+has been great already. We are very short of medical men, and we may be
+driven to do it by the hard necessities of the case.
+
+I now turn to the new proposal embodied in the bill, which I beg leave
+to introduce today. Our first proposal is to raise the military age up
+to 50, and in certain specified cases we ask for powers to raise it to
+55, but that only when a man with special qualifications is needed.
+
+For instance, it may be necessary to do it, in the case of medical men,
+in order to secure their services. It may be necessary in certain
+special classes, with special training and special experience, to secure
+their services for the army. When you come to the question of raising
+the age to 50, it does not mean that men between 42 and 50 are
+necessarily to be taken in order to put them into the fighting line. It
+may be that there are men of that age who are just as fit as men of 25,
+but I am sorry to say that that is the exception, and we cannot,
+therefore, depend upon men of that age altogether to make the finest
+fighting material.
+
+There are a good many services in the army which do not require the very
+best physical material, and it would be very helpful to get men of this
+age to fill those services, in order to release younger and fitter men
+to enter the fighting line. There is also to be borne in mind the fact
+that we have to prepare for our home defense, so as to be able to
+release men from this country and fill their places by men between 42
+and 50, who, I have no doubt, would fight very tenaciously for their own
+homes if there were an invasion.
+
+The proportion of men from 42 to 50 years of age whom we expect to be
+available is not very high--something like 7 per cent. That is only 7
+per cent. of men from 42 to 50 will be available for the army.
+
+I only want to reassure people between 42 and 50 that all the men of
+that age are not going to be called up to the fighting line. I gave a
+sort of rough estimate that it would be only a small percentage of men
+of this age who would be likely to come under the provisions of the
+bill.
+
+[The Premier then took up the system of exemptions, which is revised in
+the bill. He explained that the King, under the provisions of the bill,
+could cancel former exemptions, and that men would be exempted on
+medical grounds only, with provisions also for speeding up the procedure
+of appeal tribunals. He continued:]
+
+We have to choose between either submitting to defeat or taking the
+necessary measures to avert it. We will never submit to accepting
+defeat.
+
+I need hardly say that this provision will not be used to set aside the
+pledges given to discharged soldiers. They will be carefully observed.
+
+
+CONSCRIPTION IN IRELAND
+
+I now come to the question of Ireland. When an emergency has arisen
+which makes it necessary to put men of 50 and boys of 18 into the army
+in the fight for liberty and independence--[Joseph Devlin here
+interrupted]--"and small nationalities," the Premier resumed: Especially
+as I am reminded, to fight for liberty and independence and small
+nationalities, I am perfectly certain it is not possible to justify any
+longer the exclusion of Ireland.
+
+John Dillon--You will not get any men from Ireland by compulsion, not a
+man.
+
+The Premier--What is the position? No home rule proposal ever submitted
+in this House proposed to deprive the Imperial Parliament of the power
+of dealing with all questions in relation to the army and navy. These
+invariably are in every home rule bill I have ever seen and are purely
+questions for the Imperial Parliament, so that I am claiming no more as
+a national right than was ever claimed in the House. The Defense of the
+Realm act also was extended to Ireland.
+
+The character of the quarrel in which we are engaged is just as much
+Irish as English. May I say it is more so? It is more Irish, Scotch, and
+Welsh than it is even English. Ireland, through its representatives at
+the beginning of the war, assented to it.
+
+Mr. Devlin--Because it was a war for small nationalities.
+
+The Prime Minister--Ireland, through its representatives, assented to
+the war, voted for the war, supported the war. Irish representatives and
+Ireland, through its representatives, without a dissenting voice
+committed the empire to this war. They are as responsible for it as any
+part of the United Kingdom. May I just read the declaration issued by
+the Irish Party on Dec. 17, 1914, shortly after the war began?
+
+Mr. Byrne--We have had a revolution since then.
+
+The Prime Minister--This is the Declaration of the Irish Party:
+
+    A test to search men's souls has arisen. The empire is engaged
+    in the most serious war in history. It is a just war, provoked
+    by the intolerable military despotism of Germany. It is a war
+    for the defense of the sacred rights and liberties of small
+    nations and the respect and enlargement of the great principles
+    of nationality. Involved in it is the fate of France, our
+    kindred country and the chief nation of that powerful Celtic
+    race to which we belong; the fate of Belgium, to whom we are
+    attached by the same great ties of race and by the common desire
+    of small nations to assert their freedom, and the fate of
+    Poland, whose sufferings and struggles bear so marked a
+    resemblance to our own.
+
+    It is a war for the high ideals of human government and
+    international relations, and Ireland would be false to her
+    history and to every consideration of honor, good faith, and
+    self-interest did she not willingly bear her share in its
+    burdens and its sacrifices.
+
+It is not merely illogical that Ireland should not help, it is unjust.
+If it were merely England's battle, the young men of Ireland might
+regard that fact with indifference, but it is not. They are just as much
+concerned as the young men of England. Therefore, it is proposed to
+extend conscription on the same conditions as in Great Britain.
+
+As there is no machinery in existence and no register has as yet been
+completed in Ireland, it may take some weeks before active enrollments
+begin. As soon as arrangements are complete the Government will put the
+act into immediate operation.
+
+
+Irish Members Raise Uproar
+
+[When Mr. Lloyd George referred to Ireland, Alfred Byrne, Nationalist
+member from Dublin, shouted: "We won't have conscription in Ireland!" An
+uproar followed. The Premier said the report of the Irish Convention was
+adopted by a majority only, and therefore the Government would take the
+responsibility for such proposals for self-government as were just and
+could be carried out without violent controversy. It would be some weeks
+before enrollment in Ireland began, the Premier continued. One
+Nationalist cried out: "It will never begin." Michael Flavin,
+Nationalist member from Kerry, said: "You come across and try to take
+us." Another Nationalist exclaimed: "It is a declaration of war against
+Ireland."]
+
+When the Premier was referring to Ireland, John Dillon, the successor of
+the late John Redmond as leader of the Irish Nationalists in Parliament,
+said: "If Irish liberty were at stake I would not hesitate to support
+that policy. I never challenged the justice of war. I don't challenge it
+now."
+
+Mr. Lloyd George began: "I don't want to cause trouble--"
+
+"You will get plenty," interrupted an Irish member.
+
+Resuming, Lloyd George said "While we have one ship afloat we should not
+accept a German peace. The men being taken now may be the means of a
+decisive issue."
+
+Mr. Asquith said he would suspend judgment until he saw the bill in
+print. He invited every one to keep his mind and ears accessible to
+reasonable argument. At the conclusion of Mr. Asquith's speech, Joseph
+Devlin moved an adjournment and warned the Government that it was
+entering upon a course of madness if it endeavored to inforce
+conscription on Ireland. His motion was defeated later by a vote of 323
+to 80.
+
+Mr. Dillon said he hoped for the sake of the war and for the sake of the
+empire that the methods of the War Cabinet in dealing with the war were
+different from its methods in dealing with Ireland. A bill applying
+conscription to Ireland, Mr. Dillon continued, would plunge the country
+into bloodshed and confusion and would open a new war front in addition
+to the western front. He urged the War Cabinet to inform itself as to
+the state of Irish feeling before proposing conscription to Ireland.
+
+Leave to introduce the Government's Man-Power bill was carried after
+further hot debate by 299 to 80.
+
+
+
+
+Russia and the Allies
+
+The Russian and the French Revolution Compared--The Gloomy Outlook of
+Russia
+
+By Arthur J. Balfour
+
+_British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs_
+
+[FROM AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN PARLIAMENT MARCH 14, 1918]
+
+
+The inference that Russia would have been kept in the war if we had
+announced that we proposed to go in for the status quo ante and
+readjustments is wrong. Pronouncements made by Russian statesmen always
+included self-determination. Self-determination can never be squared
+with mere adjustments. It may be that self-determination might
+conceivably receive a large measure of fulfillment, I agree, up to a
+certain point, but that Russian statesmen by their declarations have
+materially limited the scope of the war I believe to be inaccurate. But
+whether accurate or not, one is entirely misrepresenting the political
+and social forces of Russia if he thinks that the reason Russia went out
+of the war was that our war aims were not publicly or semi-publicly
+reconsidered in concert with the Allies.
+
+I do not profess to have a remedy for the misfortunes that have
+occurred--as I think to civilization itself--from the fact that the
+Russian revolution occurred in the middle of a European war. I welcome
+the change from autocracy to what we hoped and still hope, what we
+believed and still believe, is going to be a reign of ordered liberty.
+But the revolution, unfortunately, came at a time when Russia was weary
+with the sacrifices of a great war, and it was mixed up and almost
+overshadowed on its political side by the pacifist influences which were
+allowed to reign uncontrolled in the army and navy and all the other
+forces which might and should have been co-ordinated to resist the
+common enemy.
+
+There are resemblances between the Russian revolution and the French
+Revolution, but from our point of view, and from the point of view of
+the war and of how we are to secure in the future the freedom of small
+nationalities, and how we are to save the world from the domination of
+one overgreedy power, from that point of view no greater misfortune
+could have occurred than the coincidence between the Russian revolution
+and the fact that a war was being conducted in which Russia was one of
+the great Allies. I personally am an optimist about Russia, but I am not
+an optimist about the immediate future of Russia, because it seems to me
+that difficulties are thrown in Russia's way by the fact that the war
+raged before the revolution. Russia is only nominally out of the war at
+the present time, but is still suffering from the invasion of her
+enemies. The French Revolution was associated with great military
+operations. It ended in the production of an army whose fiery efficiency
+was the wonder of Europe and which overturned all the decrepit
+monarchies in the Central European States. Contrast that with what has
+happened in Russia since the revolution. There is not a single fighting
+instrument possessed by Russia which the Russian revolutionaries have
+not deliberately but absolutely and completely destroyed.
+
+
+RESULTS OF THE REVOLUTION
+
+The Russian Army no longer exists and the Russian Navy no longer exists.
+The Rumanian Army--that most gallant and most unfortunate body, which
+might have and would have co-operated to preserve both Russia and
+Rumania from the tyranny of the Central Powers--had been betrayed by
+Russia itself. The unhappy results of the revolution from the military
+point of view are quite plain and obvious to the most casual observer.
+The actual course pursued by the Bolsheviki has rendered them completely
+helpless in the face of German aggression. Now they express the
+desire--I am sure they express it genuinely and earnestly--that they
+should reconstitute the Russian Army for the purpose of Russian defense,
+and they would welcome our assistance, doubtless, in carrying out this
+object. But can you reconstitute it for purposes of national defense?
+Can you improvise a new instrument when fragments of the old instrument
+are lying shattered around you? It cannot be done in a day.
+
+Had Russia not been at war I believe it would have taken many years to
+complete what I hope and believe is to be the beneficent course of the
+Russian revolution. Autocracy--and it is very difficult to see how the
+Russia we know could have been created without it--showed itself quite
+incapable of bringing into existence that frame of mind which makes a
+great self-conscious nation independent of the particular form which its
+institutions may have at the moment. Autocracy was destroyed, and
+immediately Russia fell into chaos.
+
+I am not sure that it was not my honorable friend (Mr. MacCallum Scott)
+who said exactly the same thing happened in France. The same thing
+really did not happen in France. I do not say we cannot find in this or
+that episode parallels to the French Revolution, but the total effect of
+the Revolution was not the disintegration of France but its integration.
+The units out of which modern France was constructed were no doubt
+compacted into a nation under the old monarchy, but the divisions
+between these units were still obvious; they still remained in the
+institutions of the country, and it was not until the Revolution that
+France became homogeneous from end to end and all the old provincial
+distinctions were swept away.
+
+Precisely the opposite has happened in Russia. The revolution comes and
+immediately all the old divisions between populations, between different
+regions, between different creeds, suddenly become marked and
+prominent. First this body and then that body threatens to fall way, and
+it must inevitably take time before we see the end of that process and
+know clearly how much of the old Russia, if any, ought to cease to form
+part of the new Russia and how the new Russia will be constituted. A
+very difficult process in time of peace, a very difficult process in
+time of prosperity, but how are you going to carry it out in time of war
+when you have at your gates an enemy remorseless, persevering, quite
+unscrupulous, like that which is dealing at its own sweet will with
+Russia at the present moment? That is the real difficulty which we have
+always had to deal with and to think over to the best of our ability
+when we consider some of the problems raised by the honorable gentleman
+who initiated this debate.
+
+
+JAPAN AND SIBERIA
+
+[The speaker then took up an inquiry regarding a suggestion of Japanese
+intervention in Siberia. He said the hypothesis that whenever one
+country sends troops into another country those troops invariably stay
+where they are sent, and annexation is the result, was false; if such
+were the case there would be a bad outlook for the north of France. He
+argued that if the Japanese did intervene it would be as friends of
+Russia and enemies of Germany, to preserve the country from German
+domination, and he proceeded thus:]
+
+Russia lies absolutely derelict upon the waters, and now it has no power
+of resistance at all; there can be a German penetration from end to end
+of Russia, which, I think, will be absolutely disastrous for Russia
+itself, and certainly will be very injurious to the future of the
+Allies. I suspect that at this moment a German officer is much safer
+traveling at large through Russia than an allied officer. Why? Not
+because the Russians love the Germans, but because, as a matter of fact,
+the German penetration has really struck at the root of Russian power. I
+was informed the other day that only one bank was allowed at Moscow.
+That bank is a German bank.
+
+The Bolshevist Government, I believe, sincerely desire--I hope not too
+late, though I fear it may be so--to resist this German penetration. How
+can they resist it when they themselves or their predecessors have
+destroyed every instrument which makes resistance possible?
+
+Inevitably Russia's allies have to ask themselves whether, if Russia
+herself has destroyed every instrument of self-protection which she once
+possessed, they cannot themselves among themselves supply that which she
+now lacks. We do that in Russia's own interests and for Russia's own
+sake, if it is done. It is not done to satisfy the greed of this or that
+power. That is the Allies' point of view. May I ask the House to
+consider the question from the Russian point of view? It is impossible
+to penetrate the future. Russia has always been a country of surprises,
+and that she remains at the present moment. What are the things which
+most of us fear for Russia when we look to the future? Frankly, I tell
+the House what I myself fear for Russia is this: Under the impulse,
+under the shadow of the great revolution, the cataclysm of social order
+has been shaken to its foundations, and many disasters, and I fear many
+crimes, have been committed.
+
+
+DIVIDE AND GOVERN
+
+It is Germany's interest, I believe, to foster and continue and promote
+that condition of disorder. Those who watch her methods throughout the
+world know that she always wishes to encourage disorder in every other
+country but her own. If the country is a republic she wishes to
+introduce absolutism; if it is an absolutist Government then she seeks
+to encourage republicanism. She counts it her gain that other
+Governments should be weak, and she knows that there is no better way of
+making other countries weak than by making them divided--a house divided
+against itself. Therefore I believe that Germany unchecked will do her
+best to continue those disorders which have unhappily stained the path
+of the Russian revolution.
+
+What must be the result? The result must be--especially in a country
+where the sense of national unity appears, at all events, for the
+moment to be singularly weak compared with that which prevails in other
+civilized countries--that men will at last look around and say to
+themselves, "This disorder is intolerable; it makes life impossible;
+human effort cannot go on; something must be done, good or bad, to put
+an end to mere chaos." There will therefore be classes in Russia, some
+with patriotic motives, but some with personal and selfish motives, who
+will welcome anything in the world which gives them the semblance of a
+stable, orderly, and civilized Government.
+
+When that time comes, then I can see Germany will say, Now we will step
+in; we will, by both the open and subterranean methods which we have
+developed and cultivated, now exercise our power in the country. We will
+re-establish, possibly in the same form, possibly in some new form, the
+autocracy which we in this House hoped had gone forever; and you will
+have in a Russia shorn of some of its fairest provinces set up again an
+autocracy far worse than the old autocracy, because it will lean upon a
+foreign power to continue its existence. Then, indeed, if that prophecy
+came to pass--and I most earnestly hope I am in this a false
+prophet--all our dreams of Russian development and Russian liberty would
+be gone. Russia under this Government would be a mere echo of the
+Central Powers; she would cease to be a make-weight in any sense to
+German militarism. She would have lost all that initiative, all that
+power for self-development that we so earnestly hoped the revolution had
+given her.
+
+
+A GLOOMY HOROSCOPE
+
+I admit that this picture is dark and sombre. Will anybody have the
+courage to say he can draw a horoscope for the future more likely to be
+fulfilled, if Russia remains, as I fear she is at this moment,
+absolutely helpless in face of the German penetration? It all turns upon
+that. If Russia could only rouse herself now and offer effective
+resistance to the German invader, that might give her a national spirit
+and sense of unity, and make her future far more splendid than her
+past. Therefore the question will inevitably be asked: Can any of the
+Allies give to Russia in her extremity that help and that sympathy of
+which she so sorely stands in need? It is help and sympathy which the
+Allies desire to give, and not invasion and plunder. I agree that there
+may be circumstances, prejudices, and feelings which render assistance
+in the East by the only country which can give it in the East a question
+of difficulty and doubt--a question which must be weighed in every
+balance and looked at from every point of view; but that the
+Allies--America, Britain, France, Italy, and Japan--should do what they
+can at this moment to help Russia, if she fails to help herself, through
+the great crisis of her destiny appears to me to be beyond doubt, and I
+will not reject, a priori, any suggestion which seems to offer the
+slightest solution of our doing any good in that direction.
+
+
+THE LOYALTY OF JAPAN
+
+I do not think this debate should finish without repudiating the
+suggestion made that Japan is moved by selfish and dishonorable motives
+in any course which may have been discussed in Japan, either among her
+own statesmen or the Allies. Japan has maintained perfect loyalty. She
+has kept all the promises made to the Allies. I hope I have said enough
+to indicate the general problems as they present themselves to this
+Government, and at the same time also to show that we recognize to the
+full how difficult this problem is, how hard it is to help a nation
+which is utterly incapable for the moment of helping itself. The House
+will feel, I think, that the decisions which the Allies may have to give
+are not without difficulty, and the principles upon which those
+decisions will be come to are neither ungenerous, unfair, nor hostile to
+Russia or the Russian revolution; but on the contrary that our one
+object is to see Russia strong, intact, secure, and free. If these
+objects can be attained, then, indeed, and then only, will the Russian
+revolution bring forth all the fruits which Russia's best friends desire
+to see.
+
+
+
+
+President on the Russian Treaties
+
+Declares Germany Has Repudiated Her Peace Avowals and Will Be Met With
+"Force to the Utmost"
+
+    _President Wilson delivered an address at Baltimore on April 6,
+    1918, in which he denounced the terms which the Central Powers
+    had exacted from Russia and Rumania, and defined the attitude of
+    the United States toward all peace proposals offered on such a
+    basis. The text of his speech in full is as follows:_
+
+
+Fellow-citizens: This is the anniversary of our acceptance of Germany's
+challenge to fight for our right to live and be free, and for the sacred
+rights of freemen everywhere. The nation is awake. There is no need to
+call to it. We know what the war must cost, our utmost sacrifice, the
+lives of our fittest men, and, if need be, all that we possess.
+
+The loan we are met to discuss is one of the least parts of what we are
+called upon to give and to do, though in itself imperative. The people
+of the whole country are alive to the necessity of it and are ready to
+lend to the utmost, even where it involves a sharp skimping and daily
+sacrifice to lend out of meagre earnings. They will look with
+reprobation and contempt upon those who can and will not, upon those who
+demand a higher rate of interest, upon those who think of it as a mere
+commercial transaction. I have not come, therefore, to urge the loan. I
+have come only to give you, if I can, a more vivid conception of what it
+is for.
+
+The reasons for this great war, the reason why it had to come, the need
+to fight it through, and the issues that hang upon its outcome, are more
+clearly disclosed now than ever before. It is easy to see just what this
+particular loan means, because the cause we are fighting for stands more
+sharply revealed than at any previous crisis of the momentous struggle.
+The man who knows least can now see plainly how the cause of justice
+stands, and what the imperishable thing he is asked to invest in. Men in
+America may be more sure than they ever were before that the cause is
+their own, and that, if it should be lost, their own great nation's
+place and mission in the world would be lost with it.
+
+
+OUR VERDICT DELIBERATE
+
+I call you to witness, my fellow-countrymen, that at no stage of this
+terrible business have I judged the purposes of Germany intemperately. I
+should be ashamed in the presence of affairs so grave, so fraught with
+the destinies of mankind throughout all the world, to speak with
+truculence, to use the weak language of hatred or vindictive purpose. We
+must judge as we would be judged. I have sought to learn the objects
+Germany has in this war from the mouths of her own spokesmen, and to
+deal as frankly with them as I wished them to deal with me. I have laid
+bare our own ideals, our own purposes, without reserve or doubtful
+phrase, and have asked them to say as plainly what it is that they seek.
+
+We have ourselves proposed no injustice, no aggression. We are ready,
+whenever the final reckoning is made, to be just to the German people,
+deal fairly with the German power, as with all others. There can be no
+difference between peoples in the final judgment, if it is indeed to be
+a righteous judgment. To propose anything but justice, even-handed and
+dispassionate justice, to Germany at any time, whatever the outcome of
+the war, would be to renounce and dishonor our own cause, for we ask
+nothing that we are not willing to accord.
+
+It has been with this thought that I have sought to learn from those who
+spoke for Germany whether it was justice or dominion and the execution
+of their own will upon the other nations of the world that the German
+leaders were seeking. They have answered--answered in unmistakable
+terms. They have avowed that it was not justice, but dominion and the
+unhindered execution of their own will.
+
+
+GERMANY'S REAL RULERS
+
+The avowal has not come from Germany's statesmen. It has come from her
+military leaders, who are her real rulers. Her statesmen have said that
+they wished peace, and were ready to discuss its terms whenever their
+opponents were willing to sit down at the conference table with them.
+Her present Chancellor has said--in indefinite and uncertain terms,
+indeed, and in phrases that often seem to deny their own meaning, but
+with as much plainness as he thought prudent--that he believed that
+peace should be based upon the principles which we had declared would be
+our own in the final settlement.
+
+At Brest-Litovsk her civilian delegates spoke in similar terms;
+professed their desire to conclude a fair peace and accord to the
+peoples with whose fortunes they were dealing the right to choose their
+own allegiances. But action accompanied and followed the profession.
+Their military masters, the men who act for Germany and exhibit her
+purpose in execution, proclaimed a very different conclusion. We cannot
+mistake what they have done--in Russia, in Finland, in the Ukraine, in
+Rumania. The real test of their justice and fair play has come. From
+this we may judge the rest.
+
+They are enjoying in Russia a cheap triumph in which no brave or gallant
+nation can long take pride. A great people, helpless by their own act,
+lies for the time at their mercy. Their fair professions are forgotten.
+They nowhere set up justice, but everywhere impose their power and
+exploit everything for their own use and aggrandizement, and the peoples
+of conquered provinces are invited to be free under their dominion!
+
+Are we not justified in believing that they would do the same things at
+their western front if they were not there face to face with armies whom
+even their countless divisions cannot overcome? If, when they have felt
+their check to be final, they should propose favorable and equitable
+terms with regard to Belgium and France and Italy, could they blame us
+if we concluded that they did so only to assure themselves of a free
+hand in Russia and the East?
+
+Their purpose is, undoubtedly, to make all the Slavic peoples, all the
+free and ambitious nations of the Baltic Peninsula, all the lands that
+Turkey has dominated and misruled, subject to their will and ambition,
+and build upon that dominion an empire of force upon which they fancy
+that they can then erect an empire of gain and commercial supremacy--an
+empire as hostile to the Americas as to the Europe which it will
+overawe--an empire which will ultimately master Persia, India, and the
+peoples of the Far East.
+
+
+DEMOCRATIC IDEALS FLOUTED
+
+In such a program our ideals, the ideals of justice and humanity and
+liberty, the principle of the free self-determination of nations, upon
+which all the modern world insists, can play no part. They are rejected
+for the ideals of power, for the principle that the strong must rule the
+weak, that trade must follow the flag, whether those to whom it is taken
+welcome it or not, that the peoples of the world are to be made subject
+to the patronage and overlordship of those who have the power to enforce
+it.
+
+That program once carried out, America and all who care or dare to stand
+with her must arm and prepare themselves to contest the mastery of the
+world--a mastery in which the rights of common men, the rights of women
+and of all who are weak, must for the time being be trodden underfoot
+and disregarded and the old, age-long struggle for freedom and right
+begin again at its beginning. Everything that America has lived for and
+loved and grown great to vindicate and bring to a glorious realization
+will have fallen in utter ruin and the gates of mercy once more
+pitilessly shut upon mankind!
+
+The thing is preposterous and impossible; and yet is not that what the
+whole course and action of the German armies have meant wherever they
+have moved? I do not wish, even in this moment of utter disillusionment,
+to judge harshly or unrighteously. I judge only what the German arms
+have accomplished with unpitying thoroughness throughout every fair
+region they have touched.
+
+
+AMERICA ACCEPTS CHALLENGE
+
+What, then, are we to do? For myself, I am ready, ready still, ready
+even now, to discuss a fair and just and honest peace at any time that
+it is sincerely purposed--a peace in which the strong and the weak shall
+fare alike. But the answer, when I proposed such a peace, came from the
+German commanders in Russia, and I cannot mistake the meaning of the
+answer.
+
+I accept the challenge. I know that you accept it. All the world shall
+know that you accept it. It shall appear in the utter sacrifice and
+self-forgetfulness with which we shall give all that we love and all
+that we have to redeem the world and make it fit for free men like
+ourselves to live in. This now is the meaning of all that we do. Let
+everything that we say, my fellow-countrymen, everything that we
+henceforth plan and accomplish, ring true to this response till the
+majesty and might of our concerted power shall fill the thought and
+utterly defeat the force of those who flout and misprize what we honor
+and hold dear.
+
+Germany has once more said that force, and force alone, shall decide
+whether justice and peace shall reign in the affairs of men, whether
+right as America conceives it or dominion as she conceives it shall
+determine the destinies of mankind. There is, therefore, but one
+response possible from us: Force, force to the utmost, force without
+stint or limit, the righteous and triumphant force which shall make
+right the law of the world and cast every selfish dominion down in the
+dust.
+
+
+
+
+American Liberty's Crucial Hour
+
+By William E. Borah
+
+_United States Senator From Idaho_
+
+[DELIVERED IN THE SENATE, MARCH 18, 1918, AT THE CLIMAX OF A DEBATE OVER
+THE FIXING OF WHEAT PRICES]
+
+
+Mr. President: The German historian, Professor Meyer, in a book written
+since the beginning of the war, in which he sums up the issues involved,
+or rather the issue, because it all resolves itself into one, uses this
+language: "The truth of the whole matter undoubtedly is that the time
+has arrived when two distinct forms of State organization must face each
+other in a life-and-death struggle."
+
+That is undoubtedly the understanding and belief of those who are
+responsible for this war. It is coming to be the understanding and
+belief of those who have had the war forced upon them. We have finally
+put aside the tragedy at the Bosnian capital and the wrongs inflicted
+upon Belgium as the moving causes of the war. They were but the prologue
+to the imperial theme. We now see and understand clearly and
+unmistakably the cause at all times lying back of these things. Upon the
+one hand are Magna Charta, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of
+Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the principles
+of human liberty which they embody and preserve. Upon the other hand is
+that peculiar form of State organization which, in the language of the
+Emperor, rests alone upon the strength of the army and whose highest
+creed finds expression in the words of one of its greatest advocates
+that war is a part of the eternal order instituted by God. We go back to
+Runnymede, where fearless men wrenched from the hands of power habeas
+corpus and the trial by jury. They point us to Breslau and Molwitz,
+where Frederick the Great, in violation of his plighted word,
+inaugurated the rule of fraud and force and laid the foundation for that
+mighty structure whose central and dominating principle is that of
+power.
+
+[Illustration: SENATOR WILLIAM E. BORAH]
+
+It is that power with which we are at war today. Shall men, shall the
+people, be governed by some remorseless and soulless entity softly
+called the "State" or shall the instrumentalities of government yield
+alone and at all times to the wants and necessities, the hopes and
+aspirations, of the masses? That is now the issue. Nothing should longer
+conceal it. It is but another and more stupendous phase of the old
+struggle, a struggle as ancient and as inevitable as the thirst for
+power and the love of liberty, a struggle in which men have fought and
+sacrificed all the way from Marathon to Verdun.
+
+It seems strange now, and it will seem more extraordinary to those who
+come after us, that we did not recognize from the beginning that this
+was the issue. But, obscured by the debris of European life, confused
+with the dynastic quarrels and racial bitterness of the Old World, it
+was difficult to discern, and still more difficult to realize, that the
+very life of our institutions was at stake, that the scheme of the
+enemy, amazing and astounding, was not alone to control territory and
+dominate commerce, but to change the drift of human progress and to
+readjust the standards of the world's civilization. Perhaps, too, our
+love of peace, our traditional friendship for all nations, lulled
+suspicion and discouraged inquiry. Be that as it may, there can be no
+doubt now.
+
+Whatever the cause, however perverse the fates which bring us to this
+crisis, we are called upon not to settle questions of territory or
+establish new spheres of national activity, but to defend the
+institutions under which we live. Who doubts should we fail that the
+whole theory and system of government for which we have labored and
+struggled, our whole conception of civilization, would be discredited
+utterly? Who but believes that, should we lose, militarism would be the
+searching test of all Governments and that the world would be an armed
+camp harried and tortured and decimated by endless wars?
+
+No; we can no longer doubt the issue, and, notwithstanding some
+discouraging facts, we must not doubt the result. We are simply meeting
+the test which brave men have met before, for this issue has been fought
+over and over again for 3,000 years. Islam's fanaticism was grounded in
+the same design and made of the same stuff, but it broke upon the valor
+of Charles Martel's men at Tours. But the conflict was not conclusive.
+The elder Napoleon was obsessed by the same dream of world dominion, the
+same passion for military glory, that now obsesses those against whom we
+war. But he, too, saw his universal sceptre depart when chance and
+fate, which sometimes war on the side of liberty, turned from him on the
+field of Waterloo. And now the issue is again made up, and again this
+dream of world dominion, this passion for military glory, torments the
+souls of our would-be masters. And now again somewhere on the
+battlefields of Europe the same fate awaits the hosts of irresponsible
+power. In such a contest and with such an issue we cannot lose; it would
+not harmonize with the law of human progress.
+
+It has been the proud belief of some that not only would this war result
+in greater prestige and greater security for free institutions, but that
+it would effectuate the spread of democracy throughout Europe. We all
+hope for great things, for we believe in the ultimate triumph of free
+institutions, but we must not expect these things out of hand. The
+broken sobs of nations struggling to be independent and free so often
+heard in that part of the world and then heard no more, the story of
+Russia just now being written in contention and blood, admonishes anew
+that the republican road to safety and stability is encompassed by all
+kinds of trials and beset by countless perils. Democracy is the severest
+test of character which can be put upon a people, and must be learned
+and acquired in the rigid school of experience. It cannot be handed
+whole and complete to any people, though every member of the community
+were a Socrates.
+
+But what we have determined in this crisis, as I understand it, is that
+we will keep the road of democracy open. No one shall close it. If any
+nation shall hereafter rise to the sublime requirement of
+self-government and choose to go that way, it shall have the right to do
+so. Above all things we have determined, cost what it may in treasure
+and blood, that this experiment here upon this Western Continent shall
+justify the faith of its builders, that there shall remain here in all
+the integrity of its powers neither wrenched nor marred by the passions
+of war from within nor humbled nor dishonored by military power from
+without, the Republic of the fathers; that since the challenge has been
+thrown down that this is a war unto death between two opposing theories
+of government we are determined that whatever else happens as a result
+of this war this form of organization, this theory of state, this last
+great hope, this fruition of 130 years of struggle and toil, "shall not
+perish from the earth."
+
+So, Sir, stripped of all incidental and confusing things, the problem
+which our soldiers will help to solve is whether the theory of
+government exemplified in the dynasty of the Hohenzollerns or the theory
+of government exemplified in the faith of Abraham Lincoln shall prevail.
+It is after all a war of ideals, a clash of systems, a death struggle of
+ideals.
+
+Amid the sacrilege of war it is our belief that the old order passeth.
+In such a contest there is little room for compromise. We can no more
+quit than Washington could have quit at Valley Forge. We can no more
+compromise than Lincoln could have compromised after Chancellorsville.
+
+We can and should keep the issue clear of all selfish and imperialistic
+ambitions, but the issue itself cannot be compromised. Cost what it may
+in treasure and blood, the burden, as if by fate, has been laid upon us,
+and we must meet it manfully and successfully. To compromise is to
+acknowledge defeat. The policies of Frederick the Great, which would
+make of all human souls mere cogs in a vast military machine, and the
+policies of Washington, which would make government the expression and
+the instrument of popular power, are contending for supremacy on the
+battlefield of Europe. Just that single, simple, stupendous issue,
+beside which all other issues in this war are trivial, must have a
+settlement as clear and conclusive as the settlement at Runnymede or
+Yorktown. To lose sight of this fact is to miss the supreme purpose of
+the war, and to permit it to be embarrassed or belittled by questions of
+territory is to betray the cause of civilization. And to fail to settle
+it clearly and conclusively is to fail in the most vital and sublime
+task ever laid upon a people.
+
+We need not prophesy now when victory will come. Neither is it
+profitable to speculate how it will come. If it is a real and not a
+sham peace, we will have no trouble in recognizing it when it does come.
+Whether it shall come in the bloody and visible triumph of arms or, as
+we hope, through the overthrow and destruction of militarism by the
+people of the respective countries, we do not know. But that it will
+come we confidently believe. Indeed, if the principles of right and the
+precepts of liberty are not a myth, we know it will come.
+
+It has been said by some one that it was not possible for Napoleon to
+win at Waterloo, not on account of Wellington, not on account of
+Bluecher, but on account of the unchanging laws of liberty and justice.
+Let us call something of this faith to our own contest. Let us go
+forward in the belief that it is not possible in the morning of the
+twentieth century of the Christian civilization for militarism, for
+brute force, to triumph. It would be in contravention to every law,
+human and Divine, upon which rests the happiness and preservation of the
+human family. It would be to place brute force first in the Divine
+economy of things. It would be to place might over right, and in the
+last and final struggle that cannot be done.
+
+No; we cannot lose. We must win. The only question is whether we shall,
+through efficiency and concerted and united action, win without
+unnecessary loss of life, unnecessary waste of treasure, or whether we
+shall, through lack of unity in spirit and purpose, win only after
+fearful and unnecessary sacrifices.
+
+It has often been said since the war began, Mr. President, that a
+republic cannot make war. I trample the doctrine under my feet. I scorn
+the faithless creed as the creed of cowards and traitors. If a republic
+cannot make war, if it cannot stand the ordeal of conflict, why in the
+name of the living God are our boys on the western front? Are they there
+to suffer and die for a miserable craft that can only float in the
+serene breeze of the Summer seas and must sink or drive for port at the
+first coming on of the storm? No; they are there to defend a craft which
+is equal to every conflict and superior to every foe--the triumph and
+the pride of all the barks that have battled with the ocean of time.
+
+A republic can make war. It can make war successfully and triumphantly
+and remain a republic every hour of the conflict. The genius who
+presided over the organization of this Republic, whose impressive force
+was knit into every fibre of our national organization, was the greatest
+soldier, save one, of the modern world; and the most far-visioned leader
+and statesman of all time. He knew that though devoted to peace the time
+would come when the Republic would have to make war. Over and over again
+he solemnly warned his countrymen to be ever ready and always prepared.
+He intended, therefore, that this Republic should make war and make war
+effectively, and the Republic which Washington framed and baptized with
+his love can make war. Let these faithless recreants cease to preach
+their pernicious doctrine.
+
+Sir, this theory, this belief that a self-governing people cannot make
+war without forfeiting their freedom and their form of government is
+vicious enough to have been kenneled in some foreign clime. A hundred
+million people knit together by the ties of a common patriotism, united
+in spirit and purpose, conscious of the fact that their freedom is
+imperiled, and exerting their energies and asserting their powers
+through the avenues and machinery of a representative Republic is the
+most masterful enginery of war yet devised by man. It has in it a power,
+an element of strength, which no military power of itself can bring into
+effect.
+
+The American soldier, a part of the life of his nation, imbued with
+devotion to his country, has something in him that no system or mere
+military training and discipline as applied to automatons of an absolute
+Government can ever give. The most priceless heritage which this war
+will leave to a war-torn and weary world is the demonstrated fact that a
+free people of a free Government can make war successfully and
+triumphantly, can defy and defeat militarism and preserve through it all
+their independence, their freedom, and the integrity of their
+institutions.
+
+
+
+
+Defending the World's Right to Democracy
+
+By James Hamilton Lewis
+
+_United States Senator from Illinois_
+
+[FROM A RECENT SPEECH IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE]
+
+
+No democracy was ever founded in any Government of earth that did not
+have to fight to continue its existence or maintain its ideals. Hear
+Goethe proclaim to Prussia, "Those who have liberty must fight to keep
+it." The test of every free land that tries out its worthiness or
+unworthiness to exist as a Government of freedom has been its
+willingness or refusal to fight and die for its faith. No Government
+that has not exhibited a capacity to sacrifice all it has for the theory
+for which it was founded, and to prove its ability to protect and
+perpetuate the institutions it has created, has ever yet existed for a
+length of time sufficient to be recorded in history as having fostered
+liberty or transmitted democracy to men. No Government has yet been
+accorded by civilization a place among the nations of the earth until it
+had first demonstrated its worthiness to administer justice by doing
+justice to itself, and then to prove its power in conflict to overcome
+its natural enemies, whether from within or without. * * *
+
+Our United States, too, must pass under the rod. America's institutions
+of freedom, inspiring mankind to her example and awakening oppressed
+lands to follow her course if they would know liberty, inflamed the
+souls of the royal rulers of Prussia with fear and fired them to war of
+destruction upon all that America stood for and was living for. * * *
+
+[Illustration: SENATOR J. HAMILTON LEWIS]
+
+Whatever riches America has amassed from her industry, whatever wealth
+gathered from her commerce, what harvests garnered from her fields, are
+all as but the least of offering compared to that which she brings to
+civilization in the growth of liberty, the perfection of justice, and
+the expansion of freedom with which she has been able by her example and
+her power, through her religion and her generosities, to endow mankind.
+Other nations have risen in triumph of power and lived for a while in
+the glory of arms, but by selfish achievement--conquest through the
+slash of swords--they have fallen. As these wrenched victory by strength
+and success by power, they but showed the way to the rival wherein to
+multiply and by these same standards prevail. That which was victor
+yesterday was the conquered of today, and thus one after the other the
+powerful nations of the world, resting only upon the achievement of
+riches, the multiplication of wealth, and the power of the sword, have
+broken and melted away, leaving nothing enduring to which mankind
+appeals as example to follow or the children of men turn to as gods to
+be worshipped or praised. Hear Ruskin echoing this truth:
+
+    Riches of Tyre, Thebes, and Carthage; yea, I say also the once
+    Rome and great Persia are left for our beholding in the periods
+    of their decline. They are ghosts upon the sands of the sea.
+    Theirs was power, riches, grandeur; much for a country--nothing
+    for man. They rose; they shined, yea glowed, laughed,
+    persecuted, and oppressed, and then they died, and man asks not,
+    where are they? nor cares that they live not among nations. As
+    among men, there is to nations a justice of God and the
+    vengeance of time.
+
+Mr. President, refined civilization as it increases in its purpose of
+equality among men and justice to all peoples scorns the suggestion of
+accepting these dead nations of the past as models of national education
+or guides of personal conduct. The people of the modern world shun them
+and hold as their boast before earth how they disdain to pattern after
+them, and turning the face of all those that are new and hopeful to the
+one standard, approach the United States of America, and bowing in
+admiration, ask but to follow her past growth, hold her guiding hand,
+and walk beside her in the light of approving heaven.
+
+Then who are they who misrepresent the purpose of democracy under Wilson
+that they may defeat all democracy to all men? These charge that
+America, under Wilson, would continue war to force Governments and
+people of foreign lands to take our form of government. Let the world
+know that as George Washington fought for democracy as a right to
+America and Thomas Jefferson proclaimed it as a necessity to mankind,
+while Lincoln made it his creed of emancipation for all color and all
+climes--so, too, Wilson fights for democracy as a right of the whole
+world. The promise of Wilson to "make the world safe for democracy" is
+no threat to make the world take democracy. It is but the assurance of
+the effort to give to the world its chance to take democracy. This war
+of America is the announcement that we, by our entrance into the
+conflict, will prevent any despot from depriving any people of the right
+to exercise their free will in rejecting despotism and choosing
+democracy. The United States does not fight to force any Government to
+adopt the theory of our Government, nor does the United States fight to
+force any foreign people to take our form of government against any form
+of government they may choose for themselves. But America does fight to
+prevent any foreign Government from thwarting any land from enjoying
+democracy if it so wills by the voice of its own people. And this United
+States fights now and will ever fight to the expenditure of its last
+dollar and the sacrifice of every son, rather than submit to any monarch
+wresting our democracy from us, to the death of our liberty and the end
+of our Republic.
+
+Messenger Dogs in the German Army
+
+How They Are Trained
+
+Through captures made in the battle of the Chemin des Dames the French
+General Staff has obtained precise information regarding the German
+Army's use of dogs as war couriers. The training of the animals is
+divided into two periods--the training at school and that at the front.
+At school the men receive detailed instructions as to the care and
+treatment of dogs, after which they begin a rigorous drill, training
+each dog to run daily over a longer and longer course, accompanied by
+his masters; then the dogs must run over the same courses alone, while
+the two trainers are posted one at each end. The longest course is about
+three miles.
+
+On the battle line there is similar training. On Sept. 1, 1917, for
+instance, the 52d Meldehundetrupp left the school at Wiegnehies to join
+the 52d Infantry Division, near the Hurtebise Farm, in Champagne. The
+troup consisted of one officer, six sub-officers, thirty-six men, and
+twenty-one dogs. It was divided at once among the units of the division,
+the level sectors receiving a larger contingent than the hilly sectors,
+where communications are less difficult. Marshy ground, where human
+messengers might be mired, and positions heavily pounded by artillery
+also were favored.
+
+In their respective sectors the dogs are subjected to local training.
+Little by little they are drilled to run as couriers between the company
+and the battalion, on the one hand, and the battalion and the regiment
+on the other. Thus the courier that has to keep up connection between
+the company and the battalion is sent by one trainer, who stays with the
+company commander, to the other, who is quartered with the chief of the
+battalion. In twenty or thirty days, it appears, the dogs are broken to
+their work as couriers, and have become familiarized with the tunnels,
+trenches, shelters, and officers' posts, as well as with the roar of
+cannonade and the rat-tat-tat of machine guns.
+
+As for the practical results of all this training and ingenious
+organization, the French officers say these are still in doubt. They
+indicate the nature of the doubt by citing the case of two trained dogs
+at Pinon. When the French attacked with a heavy bombardment, one dog
+disappeared in terror and the other was made sick and useless by a
+French gas bomb. The fact remains, nevertheless, that canine messengers
+are doing useful work in dangerous places on both sides of No Man's
+Land, and to some extent conserving human lives.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+Full Record of Sinkings by U-Boats
+
+Statement by Sir Eric Geddes
+
+_First Lord of the British Admiralty_
+
+    _Sir Eric Geddes in a speech before the House of Commons on
+    March 20, 1918, for the first time revealed the total shipping
+    losses of Great Britain and the other Allies and neutrals from
+    the beginning of the war up to Jan. 1, 1918. His summary was
+    followed next day by a statement from the Admiralty Office
+    giving the figures in fuller detail. This was made public
+    simultaneously at London and Washington. The essential portions
+    of both utterances are presented below. Sir Eric Geddes said:_
+
+
+The world's tonnage from the commencement of the war until Dec. 31,
+1917, exclusive of enemy-owned tonnage, has fallen by a net figure of,
+roughly, 2,500,000 gross tons. This is out of 33,000,000 estimated
+allied and neutral ocean-going tonnage, which is arrived at after
+deducting small craft, river and estuary craft, and a considerable
+amount of lake tonnage, tugs, &c., so that with a net loss of 2,500,000
+tons we, the allied and neutral world, have suffered about 8 per cent.
+reduction in ocean-going tonnage of the world, excluding enemy
+countries. The total world's tonnage, exclusive of enemy tonnage, is
+42,000,000, and the deduction is made after careful consideration and
+investigation. The percentage of net loss in British tonnage alone is
+higher than this, and reaches 20 per cent. for British tonnage, the more
+favorable allied and neutral tonnage percentage being, of course, due
+largely to a credit brought in by the United States of interned German
+ships.
+
+The main submarine attack is upon us. It was to starve these islands
+that the enemy instituted this form of warfare. In 1915-16 the output of
+new tonnage was very low--it was lowest in 1916. In fact, before the
+intense submarine warfare commenced we were over 1,300,000 tons to the
+bad from all causes since the beginning of the war. Then our shipping
+has been in the war zone to a far greater extent and far longer than has
+that of some of our allies, and our navigational risks and losses, which
+are included, are greater, because of the absence of lights in the
+waters around our coast and elsewhere.
+
+With regard to enemy exaggeration: For the twelve months of
+unrestricted submarine warfare, from Feb. 1, 1917, to Jan. 31, 1918, the
+enemy has proclaimed in his public notifications that he has sunk over
+9,500,000 tons of British, allied, and neutral shipping. The actual
+figures of vessels sunk by submarine action, including those damaged and
+ultimately abandoned, amount roughly to 6,000,000 tons, so that we have
+an exaggeration of 3,500,000 tons in twelve months, or well over 58 per
+cent. In January the exaggeration was 113 per cent. It is rather amusing
+that since I publicly showed up this grossly false declaration of
+results the usual return of submarine sinkings for February has not been
+issued by Berlin. It is now overdue. I think, if any proof of the
+failure of the campaign is needed, this exaggeration and Berlin's
+reticence would show it.
+
+
+TO THE SHIPBUILDING TASK
+
+For the first two years of the war or more the shipyards of the country
+had lost their men and the work had become dislocated. Hulls had been on
+the slips for very long periods and there was no material in existence
+to finish them. Vessels were lying in the yards awaiting engines, but
+the engines had never been built, because up to 1917 the Admiralty had
+made use of the engine shops for naval work. There was great confusion
+in the shipbuilding industry, not due to the fault of the industry, not
+really due to any one's fault, but due to war conditions. The output had
+been checked by urgent work being placed in the same works by different
+departments. With the introduction of the Controller's Department it was
+immediately realized that this policy was bad for output as a whole.
+It was accordingly arranged to allocate yards or separate sections of
+yards, so that one class of tonnage only would be produced. The result
+is that forty-seven large shipyards, containing 209 berths, are wholly
+engaged on ocean-going merchant vessels. That is entirely apart from the
+large private warship building establishments, which are obviously most
+suited for naval work. But there are in addition eleven--and only
+eleven--other yards suitable for large merchant tonnage which have at
+the present time naval craft on the stocks.
+
+[Illustration: HENRY P. DAVISON
+Chairman of the War Council of the American Red Cross Society
+((C) _Harris & Ewing_)]
+
+[Illustration: The actual surrender of Jerusalem, Dec. 9, 1917, when two
+British outposts met the Mayor (carrying a cane) and his party with the
+white flag. The formal surrender took place next day.
+((C) _American Colony Photographers_)]
+
+I now give the figures of output in the yards. In the fourth quarter of
+1914 the merchant tonnage produced in the United Kingdom was 420,000.
+From that date it steadily fell, and it must be noted that the fall was
+concurrent with our great munitions effort. In the fourth quarter of
+1915 it had fallen to 92,000. It then began to rise, and the rise is as
+follows:
+
+    1916
+                  Tons.                Tons.
+    1st quarter  95,000  3d quarter  125,000
+    2d quarter  108,000  4th quarter 213,000
+
+    1917
+                  Tons.                Tons.
+    1st quarter 246,000   3d quarter 248,000
+    2d quarter  249,000  4th quarter 420,000
+
+These figures refer to the British Isles alone. In the fourth quarter of
+1917 foreign construction was 512,000 tons, giving a total output for
+the world, exclusive of enemy countries, of 932,000 tons for the last
+quarter of last year. Against that we have the losses due to enemy
+action and to maritime risk.
+
+
+THE MONTHLY DEFICIENCY
+
+These losses amounted for the last quarter of last year to 1,200,000
+tons. That was by far the lowest quarter of sinkings we have had since
+unrestricted submarine warfare began, and it looks as if this quarter
+was going to be lower still. So that we have the fact that by increase
+in output and decrease in sinkings for the last quarter of last year the
+Allies were within 100,000 tons, on the average per month, of making
+good the loss due to enemy action and marine risks. Considering British
+losses and output alone, the proportionate deficiency is somewhat
+higher. We lost on the average 260,000 tons per month during the last
+quarter of 1917, and we built 140,000 tons per month, an average
+deficiency of 120,000 tons per month. We must all regret that the
+British position has suffered most among the Allies, but we have
+contributed the greatest naval effort, and have sustained the greatest
+attacks, and I do not think we, as a nation, will bemoan our stars or
+our naval efforts in this great war.
+
+The net result of maritime risk and enemy action, whether by surface,
+air or submarine craft, from the beginning of the war until the end of
+last year is a reduction of 2,500,000 tons of shipping, and from the
+last quarter of last year the Allies and neutrals are replacing 75 per
+cent. of the lost tonnage, or only 100,000 tons a month below the losses
+from all causes.
+
+It is well within the capacity of the allied yards, or even our own
+yards, before very long, with a proper supply of material and man power
+entirely to make good the world losses.
+
+
+SUMMARY OF PROGRESS
+
+I do not think I am divulging information which should not be made
+public when I say that the output of guns and ammunition of all calibres
+in 1917 is not far short of twice the output in 1916. I need not remind
+the House of the special effort being made in the output of airplanes.
+These, I understand, are nearly two and a half times the output of 1916,
+and arrangements for labor and material to secure a still greater output
+this year were in progress during the later months of 1917. We have been
+able to accomplish what I think must be admitted as an enormous
+development in the shipbuilding industry. We have reached in 1917 a
+total warship and merchant tonnage output practically equal to the
+biggest shipbuilding year this country has ever known. We have
+multiplied by ten the number of naval craft repaired and refitted, and
+in six months we have increased the merchant ship repaired tonnage by
+80 per cent.--an increase of 237,000 tons per week. I would ask the
+House to notice this fact, that, notwithstanding all these great
+extensions of work in many directions, and notwithstanding all these
+great extensions of power of the country, we ended 1917 with an output
+of new merchant tonnage of 420,000 for the last quarter, against 213,000
+for the last quarter of 1916. That was done, moreover, with a dislocated
+industry, with yards only gradually being cleared of unfinished work,
+and with large numbers of unskilled personnel in the yards.
+
+
+
+
+Admiralty Summary of Shipping Losses
+
+Record of Three Years
+
+    _The British Board of Admiralty, with the sanction of the War
+    Cabinet and the concurrence of the Allies, on March 21 published
+    a memorandum revealing the world's total shipping losses from
+    the beginning of the war to Jan. 1, 1918. The essential portions
+    are as follows:_
+
+
+In the Spring of 1917 the full menace of the submarine campaign was
+first disclosed. Since that date we have steadily increased our
+knowledge and our material resources for this novel warfare. Three
+statements are attached, showing for the United Kingdom and for the
+world, for the period August, 1914, to December, 1917:
+
+1. Losses by enemy action and marine risk.
+
+2. Mercantile shipbuilding output.
+
+3. Enemy vessels captured and brought into service.
+
+Diagrams showing in graphic form the losses and shipbuilding output for
+the United Kingdom and for the world are also attached. The situation
+should be viewed from the standpoint of the world's tonnage, as in these
+problems the mercantile navies of the whole world, excluding the enemy,
+may be regarded as one. It will be noticed that the diagrams record
+facts, and that nothing has been included in the nature of an estimate.
+
+The results of the last year have shown the ability of our seamen to get
+upon terms with the submarine menace and gradually to gain the upper
+hand. This has been achieved in spite of an imperfect knowledge of a new
+and barbarous method of warfare and of a scarcity of suitable material.
+Our material resources for this warfare are already improved and are
+being rapidly augmented, while science is placing at our disposal means
+of offense and defense of which we have been in need.
+
+[Illustration: WORLD'S SHIPPING LOSSES IN 1917. THE BLACK EXTENSION OF
+EACH COLUMN SHOWS THE GERMAN EXAGGERATION. THE AVERAGE EXAGGERATION FOR
+THE 12 MONTHS IS 58 PER CENT.]
+
+With regard to the other factor, a rapid and continuous increase in the
+output of merchant tonnage will inevitably follow the united efforts of
+all engaged in merchant shipbuilding in this country. * * * During the
+critical period that confronts us we must rely to a large extent on our
+own shipyards and on ourselves. Our partners in the war are making every
+effort to increase their production of ships, but a considerable time
+must elapse before the desired output is secured.
+
+[Illustration: WORLD'S LOSSES OF SHIPPING IN COMPARISON WITH WORLD'S
+TOTAL SHIP CONSTRUCTION]
+
+To produce in the United Kingdom 1,800,000 tons in 1918, and to reach an
+ultimate production at the rate of 3,000,000 tons per annum, is well
+within the present and prospective capacity of our shipyards and our
+marine engineering shops. But the ranks of the skilled men must be
+enlarged without delay by the introduction of men and women at present
+unskilled. The education of these newcomers, upgrading, and
+interchangeability of work are essential, and must be pressed on with
+the good-will of employers, foremen, and men.
+
+It is to insure the vigorous co-operation of all concerned that the
+Admiralty has recommended the publication of the facts.
+
+[Illustration: SHIPPING LOSSES OF UNITED KINGDOM AS COMPARED WITH OUTPUT
+OF NEW SHIPS]
+
+
+POSITION AT THE END OF 1917
+
+The following table summarizes the position at the end of 1917:
+
+                              British.  Foreign.   World.
+
+    Losses                   7,079,492  4,748,080 11,827,572
+    Gains:
+      New construction       3,031,555  3,574,720  6,606,275
+      Enemy tonnage captured   780,000  1,809,000  2,589,000
+                             ---------  ---------  ---------
+    Total gains              3,811,555  5,383,720  9,195,275
+    Net loss (world)                               2,632,297
+
+
+RECORD OF THREE YEARS
+
+The following statement shows United Kingdom and world's merchant
+tonnage lost through enemy action and marine risks since the outbreak of
+war:
+
+                            United             Total for
+      Period.              Kingdom.  Foreign.   World.
+                            Gross     Gross     Gross
+                            Tons.     Tons.     Tons.
+       1914.
+    August and September    314,000   85,947   *399,947
+    4th Quarter             154,728   126,688   281,416
+       1915.
+    1st Quarter             215,905   104,542   320,447
+    2d Quarter              223,676   156,743   380,419
+    3d Quarter              356,659   172,822   529,481
+    4th Quarter             307,139   187,234   494,373
+       1916.
+    1st Quarter             325,237   198,958   524,195
+    2d Quarter              270,690   251,599   522,289
+    3d Quarter              284,358   307,681   592,939
+    4th Quarter             617,563   541,780 1,159,343
+       1917.
+    1st Quarter             911,840   707,533  1,619,373
+    2d Quarter            1,361,870   875,064  2,236,934
+    3d Quarter              952,938   541,535  1,494,473
+    4th Quarter             782,889   489,954  1,272,843
+                           --------   -------  ---------
+    Totals                7,079,492 4,748,080 11,827,572
+
+    * This figure includes 182,839 gross tonnage interned in enemy ports.
+
+The next statement shows output of merchant shipbuilding of the United
+Kingdom and the world (excluding enemy countries) since the outbreak of
+war:
+
+                     United                   Total for
+    Period.         Kingdom.      Foreign.     World.
+                     Gross         Gross       Gross
+                     Tons.         Tons.       Tons.
+       1914.
+    August and
+    September       253,290}
+    4th Quarter     422,320}      337,310     1,012,920
+
+       1915.
+    1st Quarter     266,267}
+    2d Quarter      146,870}
+    3d Quarter      145,070}      551,081     1,202,000
+    4th Quarter      92,712}
+
+       1916.
+    1st Quarter      95,566}
+    2d Quarter      107,693}
+    3d Quarter      124,961}    1,146,448     1,688,000
+    4th Quarter     213,332}
+
+       1917.
+    1st Quarter     246,239       282,200       528,439
+    2d Quarter      249,331       377,109       626,440
+    3d Quarter      248,283       368,170       616,453
+    4th Quarter     419,621       512,402       932,023
+                  ---------     ---------     ---------
+       Total      3,031,555     3,574,720     6,606,275
+
+
+ENEMY TONNAGE CAPTURED
+
+A further statement shows the enemy tonnage captured and brought into
+service by United Kingdom and by Allies since the outbreak of war:
+
+                     United
+                    Kingdom.      Allies.      Total.
+    Period.          Gross         Gross       Gross
+                     Tons.         Tons.       Tons.
+
+       1914.
+    August and
+    September       725,500       453,000     1,178,500
+    4th Quarter      28,000         5,000        38,000
+
+       1915.
+    1st Quarter       5,000         1,000         6,000
+    2d Quarter          500           500         1,000
+    3d Quarter        3,500         6,000         9,500
+    4th Quarter       2,500           ...         2,500
+
+       1916.
+    1st Quarter         ...       241,000       241,000
+    2d Quarter        3,500         8,000        11,500
+    3d Quarter          ...        47,500        47,500
+    4th Quarter         ...           ...           ...
+
+       1917.
+    1st Quarter         ...           ...           ...
+    2d Quarter        7,000       702,500       709,500
+    3d Quarter        4,500       266,500       271,000
+    4th Quarter         ...        78,000        78,000
+                    -------     ---------     ---------
+    Total           780,000     1,809,000     2,589,000
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+The Month's Submarine Record
+
+British merchant ships sunk during the month ended April 7, 1918, were
+fewer than in the preceding month, the weekly official reports showing a
+sharp increase followed by an unusually low record, resulting in a
+considerably decreased total. The British Admiralty figures were:
+
+                                  Over 1,600   Under 1,600  Fishing
+                                     Tons.        Tons.     Vessels.
+    Week ended March 17, 1918         11            6           2
+    Week ended March 24               16           12           1
+    Week ended March 31                6            7           5
+    Week ended April 7                 4            2           2
+                                      --           --          --
+    Total for four weeks              37           27          10
+
+    Total previous 4 weeks            53           16           9
+
+One of the largest vessels sunk was the British steamship Minnetonka,
+13,528 gross tons, formerly in the New York-London service of the
+Atlantic Transport Line. This happened in the Mediterranean in February,
+1918, while the Minnetonka was in the service of the British Admiralty.
+The Minnetonka was the last of the four passenger ships of the line,
+aggregating 55,099 gross tons, to remain afloat. The others all have
+been sunk since the war began. The three others were the Minneapolis,
+sunk March 22, 1916; Minnehaha, sunk Sept. 7, 1917, and the Minnewaska,
+sunk Nov. 29, 1917.
+
+Incomplete French records show the loss of three vessels of over 1,600
+tons and five under 1,600 tons. Italian losses included seven steamships
+of over 1,500 tons, three sailing vessels of over 100 tons, and fifteen
+smaller sailing craft.
+
+Official dispatches from Barcelona reported the sinking by German
+submarines of two Spanish vessels, one in the Mediterranean and the
+other off the Canary Islands. These reports confirmed the statement that
+Germany had commenced a blockade of the Spanish coast to prevent the use
+of Spanish shipping to help the Allies.
+
+A German submarine of the largest seagoing type on April 10 appeared in
+the port of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, on the west coast of
+Africa, and bombarded the wireless and cable stations there. The
+submarine threw scores of shells from her deck guns into the wireless
+station, causing extensive damage. She had just turned her attention to
+the cable offices when a steamer was sighted passing the harbor mouth.
+The submarine left in chase and did not return. Liberia declared war on
+Germany Aug. 4, 1917.
+
+Some indication of the losses sustained by the German U-boat fleet is
+contained in the following reports:
+
+Nine members of the crew of a German submarine which was sunk by an
+American liner on March 10, when two days out from a French port, were
+taken prisoners. The rest of the crew perished, the Captain committing
+suicide when he saw that his submarine was doomed.
+
+Under a heavy attack from three German submarines and three German
+destroyers, a British seaplane persisted in its efforts against another
+enemy U-boat and succeeded in sinking it before being damaged by the
+fire of the other enemy warships. Seaplanes also accounted for three
+other submarines.
+
+A German U-boat while laying mines on the British coast struck one of
+them and was blown in two. The only survivor was the Captain, who was
+taken prisoner. The remainder of the crew, numbering seventeen, were
+drowned in the submarine.
+
+The German submarine, it is stated in the report of the British War
+Cabinet, has a surface speed up to 18 knots and a submerged speed of 10
+to 11 knots. She carries from fifteen to twenty torpedoes; she can
+travel 100 miles completely submerged; and she can remain under water on
+the bottom for a period up to forty-eight hours. A submarine attacking
+with a torpedo only shows about three inches of periscope at intervals,
+with the result that few ships which are torpedoed ever see the
+submarine which has carried out the attack. The range of the torpedoes
+fired by a submarine is anything up to five miles, and the speed of the
+torpedo is as high as 40 knots.
+
+
+
+
+Typical U-Boat Methods
+
+From British Admiralty Records
+
+    _The British Admiralty on March 17, 1918, permitted publication
+    of the logs of a number of vessels that had been sunk by German
+    submarines. These records reveal many stories of heroism and
+    sacrifice. Some of the incidents recorded are as follows:_
+
+
+In the case of one ship, on which there were forty-seven hands, the
+boatswain was standing abreast of the mainmast when he saw the wake of a
+torpedo as it approached, and he had no time to report before the vessel
+was struck. After the explosion all hands were sent on deck. The ship
+sank stern first. There was no time to lower the boats, and practically
+the whole crew had lifebelts on when thrown into the water. When the
+submarine came to the surface a line was thrown to a raft which the crew
+had managed to launch, and it was hauled alongside the enemy vessel. A
+colored man was ordered on board, and as soon as he stepped on the
+submarine both his wrists were seized, and he was firmly held while
+being interrogated. The enemy took a photograph of him and also of a man
+on the raft. When the interrogation was completed the colored sailor
+dived from the submarine and swam to the raft. As the ship was sinking
+the master dived off the bridge; he was not seen later. A number of men
+were rescued after being in the water for four hours.
+
+Robbery was reported in connection with another attack. After the vessel
+had been shelled many times, the master and crew abandoned the ship,
+lowered the lifeboat, and rowed toward the submarine. Eight shots were
+fired at the lifeboat, followed by four revolver shots. It was only then
+that the crew saw the submarine, which was about 500 yards away. The
+Captain and his men were taken on board; and the commander of the
+submarine boarded the vessel, removed the clothes, provisions, and
+papers, and left bombs on board which afterward blew her up. The master
+was searched, and L22 5s., with his watch and chain, was taken from
+him. The commander of the enemy vessel said that there was no food left
+in the submarine, which had been six weeks out, and he also mentioned
+that food in Germany was very short. During the night the crew were
+picked up by a destroyer.
+
+"Torpedoed, and on her beam ends, but not actually seen to sink," is the
+description given by a Captain of an attack on his vessel. She was
+struck between the stokehold and No. 2 hold, both of which were blown
+in. The crew had time to take to the boats. The German Captain, speaking
+perfect English, asked for the name of the ship and her tonnage, and
+verified the particulars given to him by reference to _Lloyd's
+Register_. The master's boat, with twenty-three men, reached shore the
+following day, and the mate's boat, with the remainder of the crew, was
+picked up. It was reported by the master that the officers and men of
+the submarine were "quite friendly and polite."
+
+One night a vessel was struck by a torpedo. The engines were stopped,
+and all hands went to the boat stations. The port boat was lowered
+safely, but within three minutes the ship sank and the davit caught it
+and capsized it, all hands being thrown into the water. The second
+officer went down with the ship, but seized hold of the capsized boat
+and climbed on top of it. The boatswain also was taken down, and he,
+too, as well as a seaman, got on the boat. After they had been on the
+upturned boat for some minutes a submarine appeared and hailed them to
+come on board. They explained that it was impossible. The submarine went
+ahead, and about a quarter of an hour later returned, and the men were
+again asked, in a rough voice, to come on board. The same answer was
+given, whereupon the submarine again went ahead, putting her helm over,
+and the men were thrown into the water. Those on the submarine must have
+known that there was a man under the boat, as they could easily have
+heard him knocking. His comrades, however, pulled out the plug and gave
+him air, and eventually the boat was righted and he was rescued.
+
+One of a group of other ships was torpedoed and the crew took to the
+boats, one of which capsized, and seven of the men managed to reach the
+lifeboat. The submarine came close, flashed her searchlight on the boat
+and on the men in the water, and, after jeering at them, made off. The
+survivors were picked up by a French torpedo boat next morning.
+
+Attacked by a U-boat, which fired two shots, the master got out the
+boats, left the ship, and pulled toward the enemy vessel. The commander
+took four or five of his own men in the ship's boat and put some bombs
+on board. As these failed to explode he went back for more explosives,
+taking with him everything out of the ship that could be carried--food,
+clothing, compass, and all the metal that the enemy could lay hands on.
+The vessel was then blown up, the crew in the meantime being on the deck
+of the submarine. They were treated very badly, their clothes being
+thrown out of the boat into the sea. Only one oar was left them, five
+having been flung overboard. The master begged for another, but he could
+not get any more.
+
+Two submarines were sighted at a distance of about six miles attacking a
+bark. The master of the observing vessel altered his course and lit a
+smoke cowl to screen his ship, but it was not very effective. Shortly
+afterward he was attacked by one of the submarines. Being armed, the
+vessel opened fire, but the U-boat was not within range, and a shot from
+the submarine struck the ship. Orders were given to haul down the
+ensign, and steps were taken to abandon her. The boats were lowered and
+the ship was abandoned, the enemy still firing. The ship was hit
+nineteen times before the crew was properly clear. When the submarine
+came up the vessel was "generally looted," everything the enemy could
+lay their hands on being taken, including the spirits in the bonded
+room. Some of the Germans were seen drinking on the bridge. The enemy
+were alongside for about an hour, and "treated our men quite fairly,
+even returning some of their personal gear which they had looted." The
+enemy crew were very particular in getting all the leather they possibly
+could, even going so far as to take old boots which were long past
+usage. Soap was also in great request, and a tin of lard was considered
+a prize.
+
+In another instance a vessel struck on the port side in the engine room
+went down at once, the crew having only time to launch the boats. About
+ten minutes before the ship was torpedoed a floating object was sighted,
+which appeared like a small vessel bottom upward. This was reported by
+flag code to another vessel close by, but no reply was received before
+the ship was hit. The master was of opinion that this object must have
+been placed there as a decoy by the submarine to draw the attention of
+the lookouts away from herself.
+
+When a motor schooner was struck the ship's boat was rowed to the
+submarine and the master and one man were taken aboard. The submarine
+then towed the boat to the disabled ship, and sent two men on her with
+bombs. An officer asked the master, "What was the cargo? Where from?
+Where bound? Why did the ship not come with convoy?" The officer spoke
+very good English, being prompted in German by the Captain of the
+U-boat. The master and crew were much struck by the pallid appearance of
+the officers and crew of the submarine and by their nervous and excited
+manner. The commander was continually urging haste, and the officer who
+was placing the bombs on board could hardly hold them, owing to his
+nervous tension. One of the crew of the submarine who had lived long in
+England, speaking to the ship's crew, cursed the war and said that he
+wished it was over, exclaiming that it was not their fault, but that
+they had to do their duty. "You won't believe it in England," he added,
+"but it's true." The submarine appeared to be of an old type and to have
+been a long time at sea.
+
+
+
+
+The Story of an Indomitable Captain
+
+Told by Joseph Conrad
+
+    _The story of a certain British steamship traveling from Lerwick to
+    Iceland and torpedoed on the way has been told in The London Daily
+    Mail by the British novelist, Joseph Conrad, in these words:_
+
+The ship went down in less than four minutes. The Captain was the last
+man on board, going down with her, and was sucked under. On coming up he
+was caught under an upturned boat to which five hands were clinging.
+
+"One lifeboat," says the chief engineer, "which was floating empty in
+the distance, was cleverly manoeuvred to our assistance by the steward,
+who swam off to her pluckily. Our next endeavor was to release the
+Captain, who was entangled under the boat. As it was impossible to right
+her, we set to to split her side open with the boat hook, because by
+awful bad luck the head of the axe we had flew off at the first blow and
+was lost. The work took thirty minutes, and the extricated Captain was
+in a pitiable condition, being badly bruised and having swallowed a lot
+of salt water. He was unconscious. While at that work the submarine came
+to the surface quite close and made a complete circle round us, the
+seven men which we counted on the conning tower laughing at our efforts.
+
+"There were eighteen of us saved. I deeply regret the loss of the chief
+officer, a fine fellow and a kind shipmate showing splendid promise. The
+other men lost--one A. B., one greaser, and two firemen--were quiet,
+conscientious good fellows."
+
+With no restoratives in the boat, they endeavored to bring the Captain
+around by means of massage. Meantime the oars were got out in order to
+reach the Faroes, which were about thirty miles dead to windward, but
+after about nine hours' hard work they had to desist, and, putting out
+the sea anchor, they took shelter under the canvas boat cover from the
+cold wind and torrential rain. Says the narrator:
+
+"We were all very wet and miserable, and decided to have two biscuits
+all around. The effects of this and being under the shelter of the
+canvas warmed us up and made us feel pretty well contented. At about
+sunrise the Captain showed signs of recovery, and by the time the sun
+was up he was looking a lot better, much to our relief."
+
+After being informed of what had been done, the revived Captain "dropped
+a bombshell in our midst" by proposing to make for the Shetlands, which
+were "only 150 miles off." "The wind is in our favor," he said. "I will
+take you there. Are you all willing?" This--comments the chief
+engineer--from a man who but a few hours previously had been hauled back
+from the grave! The Captain's confident manner inspired them, and they
+all agreed.
+
+Under the best possible conditions a boat run of 150 miles in the North
+Atlantic and in Winter weather would have been a feat of no mean merit,
+but in the circumstances it required a man of uncommon nerve and skill
+to make such a proposal. With an oar for a mast and the boat cover cut
+down for a sail, they started on their dangerous journey, with the boat
+compass and the stars for their guide. The Captain's undaunted serenity
+buoyed them all up against despondency. He told them what point he was
+making for. It was Ronas Hill--"and we struck it as straight as a die."
+
+"And there was our captain, just his usual self, as if nothing had
+happened, as if bringing the boat that hazardous journey and being the
+means of saving 18 souls was to him an everyday occurrence."
+
+
+
+
+The Naval Defense of Venice
+
+By E. M. B.
+
+[FROM INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY ITALIAN NAVY DEPARTMENT]
+
+    _The Italian Navy and the Italian 3d Army divided the honor of
+    holding back the Austro-German forces during the retreat of
+    October, 1917, thus enabling the main army to reorganize for
+    defense on the line of the Piave. The navy's work was
+    particularly difficult, as it had no means at hand to meet the
+    attack of land forces. It was obliged, therefore, to improvise
+    the necessary troops and material in order to hold back the
+    invasion, to make swift and skillful use of the lighter naval
+    craft, and to adapt all available means to the end in view. How
+    the task was achieved is related herewith:_
+
+
+The enemy advance guards met a stubborn resistance from the Italian Navy
+on the lower Tagliamento line. Here a small body of sailors contested
+the passage of the lower course of the river. Hydroplanes bombed the
+bridges which the Austrians were endeavoring to construct near Latisana
+and the troops which were gathering on the opposite bank from Latisana
+to the sea. Submarine chasers ascended the Tagliamento several times, as
+well as the Lemene and the Livenga, in order to engage and disperse the
+patrols which the enemy was sending out along the coast in the hope of
+reaching Venice before the Italian Army could construct a solid
+protecting ring to the north of the city. Detachments of marines opened
+fire at each stage of the retreat along the interior canals of the
+Tagliamento to Caorle, and from Caorle to the Venetian lagoons, thus
+helping to check the oncoming forces of Boroevic and to give time for
+the necessary clearing of that region. In spite of an exceptionally
+difficult sea, barred by mine fields and shoals, the Italian torpedo
+boats were finally able not only to cover the flank of all the moving
+forces but also to escort and protect the numerous convoys laden with
+war material which had been forced to go out in the Adriatic to prevent
+capture by the enemy.
+
+
+HARD TASKS OF MARINES
+
+The retreat was accomplished by stages. Each stopping place, where the
+land and marine forces were gathered and rearranged before carrying out
+the established plan, had to be protected during the counterattacks of
+the Italian rear guards, which became more frequent and vigorous with
+the increasing accuracy of the enemy fire. These attacks were made more
+difficult by the swampy nature of the ground. This flat and marshy land
+offers no points of defense and has no traversable and continuous roads.
+The marines were outnumbered by the regiments confronting them.
+
+Every difficulty was overcome by the valor and self-sacrifice of the
+Italian sailors. Aviators were seen flying for several consecutive days
+without resting--attacking the moving enemy columns with machine guns;
+defending themselves against numerous enemy airplanes, or dropping
+messages under fire at the points of reunion of the Italian troops in
+order to insure co-operation between the navy and the army; and
+continually alternating flights of observation with those of bombardment
+under the most adverse conditions.
+
+Platoons of marines stood in the mud behind guns corroded by the
+inundations, holding back entire companies of enemy troops for days and
+nights without the possibility of obtaining relief or food. Some of the
+gun crews dragged not only the mounts and the guns by hand across very
+swampy ground, with the water up to their knees, but also the munition
+cases, without taking time for sleeping or eating.
+
+Armed submarine chasers threaded their way up winding and narrow canals,
+in which they could not even have turned around in case of a forced
+retreat, and hammered a Hungarian battalion for hours, until it had to
+retire in disorder before the determination of a handful of men with a
+few cannons and machine guns. Batteries of marines prolonged the defense
+of Caorle, a few hundred meters from the enemy advance guards, and did
+not cease firing until every civilian and everything movable had been
+placed in security. After this they succeeded in reaching the line of
+the Piave with their efficiency unimpaired.
+
+Some companies of sailors clad in gray-green held off a big group of
+"Honveds," [Hungarian guards,] forced back the boats which were
+attempting to cross the river, made prisoners of men who had succeeded
+in crossing with machine guns, captured their arms, defended their own
+flank from the continuous encircling movements of other enemy troops who
+had crossed the Piave further up stream, and finally formed a firm
+pillar of defense for the right flank of the army where it made its
+final stand.
+
+This is a short summary of the work carried out by the Italian Navy
+during the two weeks following the evacuation of Monfalcone and Grado.
+When the navy was called upon not only to co-operate and to protect but
+to constitute an important part of the line of resistance on the lower
+Piave, its duties were multiplied and assumed the character of a direct
+participation in the land war. Its special mission was to defend the
+Lagoons of Venice. The work of forming the principal ring of defense
+around the City of the Doges was confided to the machine gunners of the
+navy. The duty of defending the approaches along the seacoast was given
+to the sailors, and that of observing the battlefields on the lagoons to
+the aviators. The torpedo boats were asked to guarantee the extreme
+right wing against surprise from the sea.
+
+
+BATTERIES ON THE LAGOONS
+
+The artillery employed by the navy in the defense of the lower Piave and
+of Venice may be divided into three groups: Floating batteries on
+pontoons, batteries set up on the ground, and armed ships. Most of the
+floating pontoons came from Monfalcone on the lower Isonzo and from the
+marine defense of Grado. The crews working these guns had given
+magnificent proof of their valor during all the battles of the Carso,
+fighting in the open in almost impossible positions. The sailors
+suffered great fatigue and difficulties during the retreat in
+transporting these floating batteries along the waterways to their
+present position in stormy weather; but still greater were the
+sacrifices the naval gunners had to undergo in order to transform the
+intricate canals and muddy ground into solid positions. This life in the
+midst of swamps is a melancholy one. The officers and men working the
+guns have to live and sleep inside the pontoons between the depots of
+powder and projectiles. The tides and currents are continuously
+displacing the floating batteries, and constant work, day and night, is
+necessary to maintain the defense.
+
+It is due to the Italian sailors to recognize that this gigantic work,
+so rapidly undertaken, saved Venice and gave the army, its retreat
+having been accomplished, a strong support on its right wing. They
+helped to repel all the Hungarian attacks around Zenson. At the side of
+these floating batteries the British monitors held the bridges which the
+Austro-Hungarians were obstinately throwing across the new Piave under
+the fire of their guns, and destroyed them with surprising accuracy.
+
+
+ENEMY BRIDGES DESTROYED
+
+When the enemy succeeded in landing troops on the point of the island,
+which was mostly inundated, between the new and the old Piave, they
+tried to augment this advance guard by using a bridge of boats at
+Grisolera. But the float was shattered, the boats sunk. Enemy forces
+higher up the river then threw a floating bridge across at Ca' Sacco.
+Italy's naval guns shattered this bridge also. The enemy then ascended
+higher up the Piave and built three massive bridges at Agenzia Trezze.
+These were likewise destroyed. The Austrians descended the river and
+built another bridge at Tombolino; but they were also prevented from
+crossing here. They then endeavored to establish communication at San
+Dona, but here also the shells from the big guns on the floats reached
+them. There is now [April, 1918] a daily struggle between the enemy
+desiring to force their way across the river and the great guns on the
+lagoons impeding the passage, defending the approach, and ruining the
+work they accomplish.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING LAGOONS AND MARSHES BETWEEN VENICE AND THE
+PIAVE, WHERE THE ITALIAN NAVY IS HELPING TO HOLD BACK THE INVADERS]
+
+The Italian armed ships sometimes participate in actions against the
+enemy infantry. Recently one evening the ship Captain Sauro went up the
+old Piave, wending its way into an artificial canal which divided the
+Italian first line of defense from the enemy line. The sailors of the
+Sauro replied steadily to the rifle fire of Hungarian advance posts in
+the houses along the canals and landed on the shore occupied by the
+enemy patrols, forcing them to flee and firing the abandoned shelters
+after taking out the captured munitions. They then returned to the ship
+and, though harassed by enemy fire, succeeded in returning safely to
+their point of departure.
+
+
+WORK OF LAND BATTERIES
+
+Some of the land batteries had equally hard tasks. In the middle of last
+November many batteries had to withstand continual attacks from the sea
+by Austrian battleships of the Monarch type, escorted by destroyers,
+which had been sent to the Venetian shore with the purpose of rendering
+the Piave untenable. One naval battery of medium-calibre guns, commanded
+successively by two brothers, fired ceaselessly, without resting, though
+subjected to the fire of enemy artillery and machine guns, not only from
+the front and side, but also from the Adriatic in the rear. During the
+last days of the retreat, while the defense line of the Lagoons of
+Venice was not yet consolidated, that battery was for a long time
+isolated from every communication, without food, reinforcements, or
+support, yet it did not cede one inch, it never slackened fire, and it
+never asked for help. It was one of the heroic deeds of the Italian
+defense between Cavazuccherina and the sea. In the afternoon of Nov. 16,
+though attacked by the Austrian battleships Budapest and Wien, not only
+did these same batteries protect the return of two Italian submarine
+chasers which had gone out to attack the Austrian naval division, but
+they effectively counterattacked the battleships and their twelve
+destroyers until their return in the direction of Istria. The
+battleships never attempted this attack again.
+
+
+NAVAL AVIATION
+
+The plain extending from Zenson to the sea does not offer any elevated
+points for observation and the control of artillery fire. Therefore, the
+task of directing the shellfire had to be confided to the airplanes, and
+in the lagoons to the seaplanes. But in order that the seaplanes may
+fulfill their work of observation with safety they must be defended from
+enemy airplanes and must, therefore, be escorted by chasing machines.
+
+The Italian seaplanes and their escorts did not spare themselves. The
+aviators of one squadron accomplished seventy-nine bombarding and
+observation flights in the first twenty days of November during a total
+of ninety-two hours of flight--not counting practice flights.
+
+
+THE SUBMARINE CHASERS
+
+Every one now knows, at least by reputation, the M. A. S., [Motoscafi
+Antisommergibili di Scorta,] the Italian little armored boats that are
+doing effective work in the Tyrrhenean and the Adriatic, but few
+understand the great assistance they have given in their support of the
+army in the marshy Venetian plain covered with watercourses.
+
+The M. A. S. were not built to fight on rivers, but to scour the seas;
+yet they are frequently seen engaging some enemy advance post. Where
+the enemy lines border on a river or a canal the menacing prow of an M.
+A. S. will now and then rise under the barbed wire of the Hungarian
+trenches. These swift motor boats have become the cavalry of the
+marshes. They are slaves to their fragility, but they have the advantage
+of speed and surprise.
+
+The M. A. S. attacked the moving enemy companies across the lagoons with
+machine guns and their little guns. They were bombarded in turn; but
+their bravery and their size made them often very fortunate. At
+Bevazzano a big column of Honveds marching along the shore was put to
+flight by them. Again they shelled a cyclist corps, killing a large
+number. They landed a few men on ground already occupied by the enemy
+and succeeded in destroying or in capturing various machine-gun
+outposts. Elsewhere they supported isolated companies of sailors,
+protecting the lagoons, with their small guns. With great daring they
+pushed up to Porto Gruaro, which had already been invaded from Lemene.
+Shortly after, while the present line of Intestadure-Capo
+Sile-Cavazuccherina-Cortelazzo was being organized, the M. A. S. ran up
+and down for entire days through the Piave, the old Piave, and the
+Cavetta Canal, undertaking frequent sporadic fights with the machine
+gunners and the picked shooters of Boroevic.
+
+The armed motor boats by themselves insured the liaison between the
+lines for several days, and today, when the line of resistance from the
+lagoons is safe, the tactical use of the M. A. S. in the interior canals
+is still frequent and efficacious.
+
+
+FIGHTING LARGER CRAFT
+
+These armored motor boats also held the Adriatic coast, especially
+between the mouth of the Piave and the Venetian estuary. Nor were
+opportunities lacking for the little craft to fight against superior
+forces, as was the case on Nov. 16, 1917. The battleships of the Monarch
+type--Wien and Budapest--escorted by a division of torpedo boats and
+destroyers, appeared that morning before Cortelazzo and opened a violent
+bombardment against the Italian lines, attacking them from the flank.
+Assailed by seaplanes, counterattacked by Italian coast artillery, and
+threatened by approaching destroyers, they retired, but in the afternoon
+they returned and reopened fire at the mouth of the Piave.
+
+[Illustration: ONE OF THE MANY SMALL NAVAL BATTERIES THAT ARE DEFENDING
+VENICE IN THE NEIGHBORING LAGOONS.]
+
+Thereupon, the M. A. S. appeared from the open sea and plunged into the
+enemy formation. They intervened where the duel between the coast
+artillery and the battleships was most intense. When the motor boats had
+approached within less than a mile, the guns of the Monarch, ceasing to
+fire on land, turned a violent fire against the audacious newcomers. The
+enemy destroyers threw themselves on the two Italian chasers, shooting
+with every gun on board, while the battleships were manoeuvring to
+retire eastward. The M. A. S. approached the large ships within a few
+hundred meters, fired their torpedoes, and reversed their course. The
+Monarchs were able to avoid the torpedoes by rapid evolutions and
+returned toward the Istrian coast, while even the turret guns continued
+their fire against the minute Italian chasers.
+
+The battleships having withdrawn, the chasers found themselves
+surrounded by five adversary torpedo boats, which were attempting to
+cut off their retreat. They gave a good account of themselves, however,
+meanwhile gaining the protection of the coast batteries; the enemy
+destroyers retired, while the M. A. S. returned to their base with
+insignificant damage and with crews unhurt.
+
+
+THE NAVAL BATTALIONS
+
+When the news of the Austro-German invasion first spread through the
+Italian naval bases, the Captains of the battleships saw an unusual
+procession passing before their cabins, all asking the same thing--to be
+moved into the infantry and sent to the front. Special orders of the day
+were necessary to make the rank and file understand that each man could
+best play his part by remaining at his own post. It was announced,
+however, that those whose services were not absolutely necessary at
+their bases would be given full satisfaction. The first naval infantry
+companies were thus formed in a few days. Sections of the navy belonging
+to the defense of Monfalcone and Grado were under fire on foot from the
+first days of the resistance between the Tagliamento and the Livenza,
+and many others wished to join these gray-green companies.
+
+The first battalion of sailors, perfectly equipped and organized for
+trench warfare, went into the front line the 1st of November. Most of
+these men were not experiencing land firing for the first time, as they
+had participated with small groups in the defense of Monfalcone and
+Grado, but they had never before been used as real naval infantry. The
+lower Piave, where it forms a zigzag before flowing into the Adriatic,
+was assigned to the naval battalion as its line of defense. At dawn on
+Nov. 13 the battalion underwent a tremendous shock from the advance
+guard of the left flank of Boroevic's army. The attack was definitely
+repulsed. However, a few kilometers to the west, where the line of the
+Piave was held by battalions of territorials, the enemy succeeded in
+throwing a bridge of boats across the river near Grisolera and getting
+an armed patrol with machine guns to the opposite shore.
+
+The territorials withdrew to Case Molinato, in the direction of
+Cavazuccherina, and groups of Honveds crossed the large watery island
+between the old and new Piave. The naval battalion, therefore, found its
+left flank suddenly exposed and had to face both front and lateral
+attacks. The Italians were commanded by an officer of great strength of
+character, Lieut. Commander Starita, who decided to hold and to
+counterattack in spite of the difficult position. The enemy was
+therefore unable to enlarge the breach and was energetically held in the
+delta of the river.
+
+
+"ARDITI" OF THE NAVY
+
+In the meantime the Hungarian machine gunners who had crossed the Piave
+fortified themselves in the houses, barricaded the doors and windows
+with sandbags, and, supported by these machine gunners, other enemy
+patrols crept over, especially at night, through the dense vegetation of
+the delta, and with riflefire and bombs tormented the sailors, who had
+remained without any contact with the army. Lieut. Commander Starita,
+though having only a few hundred men at his disposal, held a front of
+several kilometers on three sides and organized a special corps of
+"braves" to clean out the infested zone. He improvised the "Arditi" of
+the navy and led them into action. Near Case Allegri a platoon of
+Hungarians had established themselves in an old guardhouse and had made
+a small fort with several machine guns. A patrol led by Captain Starita
+was able to surround them and to penetrate and kill the commanding
+officer despite the heavy fire of the machine gunners. The twenty
+surviving Hungarians, as soon as they saw their leader fall, raised
+their hands and called out "Kamerad!" The marines disarmed them, bound
+them with their puttees, captured the machine guns, and conducted them
+to the main battalion.
+
+The same day, near Revedoli, a boat full of enemy soldiers attempted to
+cross the river and to outflank the marines on the right, aided by a
+bend in the river. The outlook post discovered what was happening and
+another Italian patrol came to the rescue and engaged the Honveds. The
+Hungarians were almost all captured and the boat taken. The following
+day the Starita battalion, which in the meantime had remained isolated
+from the rest of the army with a dismounted squadron of cavalry and with
+a company of Alpine machine gunners, was put under a hard strain, as the
+left flank of Boroevic's army was renewing the attack with great
+strength. The enemy was repulsed, and the marine patrols took new
+prisoners and fresh booty. As these operations had produced appreciable
+losses, the line of the battalion was withdrawn on the evening of Nov.
+14 from Case Allegri to the mouth of the river, without any
+communication with the rest of the front.
+
+The Italian troops of the lagoon section also had established a definite
+line on the Sile and the old Piave, covering Cavazuccherina with a
+bridgehead. The retirement of the naval battalion to the new line of the
+Cavetta Canal from Cavazuccherina to the sea was then decided upon.
+Lieut. Commander Starita received orders to reach the final positions on
+the night of the 15th. It would have been an unnecessary sacrifice to
+continue an isolated fight on the new Piave, as the sailors wished to
+do. Therefore, the battalion made an orderly retirement with their
+booty and all their prisoners to the line of Cavetta.
+
+Between the 16th and 17th the enemy succeeded in sending some chosen
+fighters with machine guns and hand grenades to the houses of
+Cortelazza, north of the bend of the river. As the distance between the
+two banks is only a few yards, the sailors opened a heavy fire on the
+enemy advance guards, intensifying it at night. The battalion did not
+have sufficient material to undertake a strong counterattack and to
+repulse the advance guards beyond Cortelazza. On the 18th the necessary
+material and hand grenades began to arrive. The counterattack was
+immediately opened with great energy, the houses were retaken, and so
+the marines were able to throw a bridgehead beyond the Cavetta Canal and
+Cortelazza, which, consolidated, represents the extreme point of the
+land resistance toward the sea.
+
+This first naval company, which did so much to arrest the progress of
+the Austro-Hungarians toward the Lagoon of St. Mark, now gives a
+veteran's greeting to every new group of marines that comes to add its
+strength to the ring around Venice.
+
+[Illustration: DWELLING HOUSES IN VENICE RUINED BY AIR-RAID BOMBS]
+
+
+
+
+Venice Under the Grim Shadow
+
+The City's Wartime Aspects
+
+[A Rotogravure Etching of Venice Appears in This Issue Opposite Page
+269]
+
+
+When the Austro-German armies swept down through the Venetian plain last
+October and November, leaving ruin in their wake, they were stopped at
+the Piave River, whose waters flow into the lagoon a few miles east of
+Venice. Though the Italian Army and Navy made a ring of steel around
+the City of the Doges, and have held the enemy at bay from that time to
+the present, the sounds of battle have been constantly in the ears of
+the inhabitants, and frequent air raids have left jagged scars on many
+buildings and even in the pavement of the Piazza San Marco.
+
+[Illustration: ST. MARK'S CATHEDRAL IN WAR GARB: THE BRONZE HORSES HAVE
+BEEN REMOVED FROM OVER THE MAIN ENTRANCE, AND PARTS OF THE FACADE ARE
+PROTECTED]
+
+Throughout the Winter of 1917-18 Venice remained a city without
+tourists, its population dwindling from 150,000 to about 40,000, its
+canals silent and almost empty of life, yet full of a new and wistful
+beauty. The first days of peril had brought the enemy within twelve or
+thirteen miles of Venice. From the Fondamento Nuovo, at the northern end
+of the city, the people could see the flash of guns and the bursting of
+shells. The roar of guns disturbed their work by day and their sleep by
+night.
+
+
+EVACUATING THE CITY
+
+The civilian population was a hindrance rather than a help to the
+defenders, so the Admiral in command (for Venice is under naval, not
+military authority) thought it well to arrange for the partial
+evacuation of the city. In conjunction with the Syndic, Count Erimani,
+he first asked all foreigners to remove themselves to places of safety.
+Then offices were opened in each of the thirty parishes, and the people
+were ordered to report within forty-eight hours. This census was taken,
+so that railway facilities for traveling might be provided for all, and
+that places of safety might be found for those who were too poor to go
+away at their own expense, and pay their way afterward.
+
+In a few days nearly half the population, some 70,000, had gone, the
+majority to Florence, Rome, and other places in Central and Southern
+Italy, and the others to Genoa and the Riviera. Some were sent by sea to
+the Ancona coast. After this first rush the exodus went on more
+leisurely, some 3,000 leaving each day. Institutions of all kinds,
+offices, shops, restaurants, and cafes, closed their doors, even the
+Cafe Florian, which had been open day and night continuously for over
+100 years. Banks and offices transferred their businesses to other
+towns.
+
+There are no cellars in Venice, nor can the inhabitants have any dugouts
+in which to conceal valuables, for at a depth of two or three feet below
+the ground floors of all buildings water is reached. Accordingly the
+authorities at the Municipal Building, at St. Mark's Library, at the
+Ducal Palace, at the Archives, as well as at banks and insurance
+offices, had their documents and valuables conveyed to places of
+security by boat and rail.
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF ST. MARK'S: CHAPEL OF THE CRUCIFIX PROTECTED
+BY SANDBAGS AND MATTRESS-LIKE SHEATHS]
+
+When Italy first went into the war precautions had been taken to protect
+the public monuments of Venice against aerial bombardment. The Doges'
+Palace and the Church of St. Mark were protected by barricades of
+sandbags, as were all the more valuable statues throughout the city. St.
+Mark's gilded copper horses, beaten out by hand, the only example extant
+of a Roman Quadriga--
+
+        The four steeds divine,
+    That strike the ground resounding with their feet,
+    And from their nostrils snort ethereal flame--
+
+were removed at that time from their pedestals above the main entrance
+to the church, and stabled under an archway on the ground floor of the
+Doges' Palace. When the new peril came with the invasion, however, they
+were conveyed by a battleship to a safer refuge in Rome. The precious
+equestrian statue of Colleoni, so much admired by Ruskin, with other
+treasures familiar to the tourist, also has been removed to a place of
+security. The bells of St. Mark's campanile and those of every church in
+the city have been taken away.
+
+By the first weeks of 1918 the population had shrunk to less than
+60,000, and at night one could walk through miles and miles of stilled
+and empty streets, darkened against the peril of air raids, or could
+travel by gondola along lonely canals rippled only by the Winter wind,
+with the cold moonlight silvering a deserted fairyland. Two months later
+the population was further reduced by sending away 20,000 women,
+children, and old men with a view to eliminating useless mouths to feed
+and preventing unnecessary slaughter. By that time Austro-German
+ingenuity had invented a new system of dropping bombs; instead of
+scattering them over the city the missiles were grouped in large numbers
+in a very limited space so that the destruction on that area was
+complete.
+
+
+LIKE A DEAD CITY
+
+An English war correspondent who visited Venice in the Winter drew this
+word picture:
+
+"Shuttered palaces face each other across silent canals. A footstep
+ringing down those narrow alleys, which are like deep, dark slits in a
+close-crowded mass of many-storied houses, starts echoes that die
+undisturbed away. The black gondola glides through a dead city more
+beautiful in the silence and stillness of this war trance of hers than
+ever in the fullness of her vivacious life. At each corner of the
+narrow water lane the white-haired gondolier raises his mournful cry,
+but by long habit, for he knows that no answer will ring out from beyond
+the angle of the dark stone wall, and no tapering prow glide out to be
+avoided by a turn of his skillful oar.
+
+"The Grand Canal is a green and gleaming vista of desertion. The scream
+of seagulls, beating its tranquil surface with their wings, is the only
+sound that disturbs the quiet of its reverie. A pleasing melancholy
+invests the deserted quays, and in remote corners of little lost canals
+you can almost hear the whispering of innumerable spirits of the Venice
+of long ago who have been drawn back to their old home by this strange
+peace that lies upon the city.
+
+"Venice, without tourists, without guides, without postcard sellers and
+hotel touts, is a close preserve of beauty for the few who have the
+fortune to be here. The atmosphere and the dignity of the days when she
+was a ruling city are here as they have never been before in modern
+times, nor ever will be again."
+
+
+THE WORST AIR RAID
+
+The greatest air raid of all the forty-five which Venice had endured
+since the war's beginning was that of the night of Feb. 26-27, 1918. It
+lasted eight hours--from 10:20 to 6:15 A. M.--and there was not a single
+interval of more than half an hour during all that time of brilliant
+moonlight in which bombs were not falling on the city. There were 300 in
+all. Thirty-eight houses were smashed, the Royal Palace was struck, one
+wing of an old people's home was blown to pieces, and three churches
+were damaged, including that of St. Chrysostom, in which an altar with
+one of Cellini's last landscapes was wrecked. Fifteen bombs fell near
+the Doges' Palace, one barely missing the Bridge of Sighs and falling
+into the narrow canal which it spans. Ten bombs fell around the Rialto
+Bridge. About fifteen civilians were wounded seriously, including two
+women. Only one man was killed, thanks to the promptness with which the
+Venetians now take shelter.
+
+According to the official account at least fifty airplanes took part in
+the raid, and some of these returned again and again, bringing fresh
+cargoes of bombs throughout the night. The Austrian lines are so near
+that the trip to the bomb bases and back again requires only twenty-five
+minutes, and this was the average length of the intervals between the
+bombardments. G. Ward Price, a war correspondent, in describing the
+experiences of that night, wrote:
+
+"Suddenly another crash re-echoed throughout the city, and the din of
+the bombardment started once more. I followed the quickly vanishing
+throng through an archway, where a green light marked a place of
+shelter. For two hours I was part of a close-packed throng in the dark
+vaulted room. There were women and wide-eyed children there in plenty,
+tired out with the long standing, which for them lasted until dawn, but
+none showing alarm, though, in addition to the nerve trying din outside,
+a constant shower of pieces of shell and flying bits of masonry whirred
+and pelted and pattered down incessantly outside.
+
+
+BRAVE WOMEN'S LAUGHTER
+
+"Toward 2 o'clock I made another move toward the centre of the city. I
+heard the drone of an attacking airplane drawing nearer over the still
+lagoon, and a policeman beckoned me into the vestibule of a high palazzo
+in one of those narrow Venetian alleys between tall black rows of houses
+which are like a communication trench of masonry. All was cheerfulness
+in this marble anteroom, a family of young daughters laughing and
+chattering with their mother while the noisy night crept slowly on.
+Taking advantage of another lull, I reached my hotel, but not until 6
+o'clock, when the dawn was well advanced, did the tumult of this
+eight-hour-long bombardment cease.
+
+"And yet this morning, as one went about in the warm sunshine seeing the
+places which the bombs had destroyed, the people seemed untroubled
+enough. Troops of black-shawled girls went chattering by, and the boys
+were playing a sort of 'shove-halfpenny' game, using as counters the
+shell splinters they had found scattered about the city ways."
+
+Since then there have been many other raids, but none so prolonged. The
+black-shawled women whose laughter defied the nightly peril have gone
+for the most part, taking with them the alert "bambini," who at that
+period still shouted at play in the streets. Only armed defenders are
+left, with those who are absolutely necessary to aid them. The muffled
+echo of distant guns is heard by day and the crash of bombs by night.
+Just outside the city is a little cemetery where are gathered the bodies
+of the Italian and French aviators who have died defending these shores.
+The marble pavement of the Piazza and Piazzetta is torn in places, and
+the swarming pigeons of other days have dwindled sadly, for no tourists
+come to feed them. In the sky over the lagoon, where the gulls once
+reigned supreme, airplanes now keep watch against the ceaseless threat
+in the direction of the Piave.
+
+
+
+
+Taking Over the Dutch Ships
+
+The United States Seizes for the War Period 500,000 Tons of Dutch
+Shipping
+
+
+The April issue of CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE contained a brief reference
+to the intention of the United States and British Governments to seize
+the Dutch shipping in their ports on account of Holland's refusal to
+carry food cargoes for fear of offending Germany. The two Governments
+took action March 20, 1918, when all Dutch shipping in American and
+British harbors was seized by the naval authorities of the two
+countries. The total of shipping acquired is estimated at 750,000 tons,
+500,000 being in American waters. The largest Dutch steamship, the Nieuw
+Amsterdam, which was in New York Harbor at the time, was not seized, but
+was permitted to return to Holland with a cargo of food, as it had been
+agreed when she made her outward voyage, during the pending of the
+negotiations, that, whatever the result, she would be immune; moreover,
+all Dutch shipping outward bound to American waters at the date of the
+seizure which had not yet reached port were also to be permitted to
+return to their home ports.
+
+President Wilson's proclamation directing the seizure stated that "the
+law "and practice of nations accords to a "belligerent power the right
+in times of "military exigency and for purposes "essential to the
+prosecution of war, to take over and utilize neutral vessels lying
+within its jurisdiction." The President also made a formal statement in
+which he reviewed the negotiations with Holland for the restoration of
+her merchant marine lying idle in American ports to a normal condition
+of activity for the transportation of foodstuffs. He had sought to have
+these Dutch ships carry food for Switzerland, for Belgian relief, and
+for Holland as well. He stated that on Jan. 25, 1918, the Dutch Minister
+proposed that
+
+    one hundred and fifty thousand tons of Dutch shipping should at
+    the discretion of the United States be employed partly in the
+    service of Belgian relief and partly for Switzerland on safe
+    conduct to Cette, France, and that for each ship sent to Holland
+    in the service of Belgian relief a corresponding vessel should
+    leave Holland for the United States. Two Dutch ships in the
+    United States ports with cargoes of foodstuffs were to proceed
+    to Holland, similar tonnage being sent in exchange from Holland
+    to the United States for charter as in the case of other Dutch
+    ships lying in the United States ports.
+
+The President stated that shortly afterward Holland rejected her own
+proposals, presumably through fear of German submarines, every
+suggestion thereafter was postponed, and answers were delayed, until
+finally, on March 7, it became clear that Holland was prevented by
+German coercion from fulfilling any agreement to put her ships into
+service; it was then concluded to exercise the sovereign rights of a
+belligerent under the international law of "angary," and to place the
+Dutch ships under American jurisdiction. The President concluded as
+follows:
+
+    We have informed the Dutch Government that her colonial trade
+    will be facilitated and that she may at once send ships from
+    Holland to secure the bread cereals which her people require.
+    These ships will be freely bunkered and will be immune from
+    detention on our part. The liner Nieuw Amsterdam, which came
+    within our jurisdiction under an agreement for her return, will,
+    of course, be permitted at once to return to Holland. Not only
+    so, but she will be authorized to carry back with her the two
+    cargoes of foodstuffs which Holland would have secured under the
+    temporary chartering agreement had not Germany prevented. Ample
+    compensation will be paid to the Dutch owners of the ships which
+    will be put into our service and suitable provision will be made
+    to meet the possibility of ships being lost through enemy
+    action.
+
+    It is our earnest desire to safeguard to the fullest extent the
+    interests of Holland and of her nationals. By exercising in this
+    crisis our admitted right to control all property within our
+    territory we do no wrong to Holland. The manner in which we
+    proposed to exercise this right and our proposals made to
+    Holland concurrently therewith, cannot, I believe, fail to
+    evidence to Holland the sincerity of our friendship toward her.
+
+The seizure of the Dutch ships was accomplished without friction on
+March 20 by manning them with American naval officers, with the
+co-operation of the United States Shipping Board. The Dutch crews were
+released, and many of the officers and sailors returned to Holland a few
+days later.
+
+The action of the American and British authorities produced much
+agitation in Holland; the Dutch newspapers bitterly denounced the action
+as unwarranted. A statement appeared in the Official Gazette of the
+Netherlands Government on March 30 in which the seizure was
+characterized as an act of violence. The statement asserted that the act
+was "indefensible from the viewpoint of international law and
+unjustifiable." Denial was made that an agreement failed through German
+pressure. The Dutch official statement ended as follows:
+
+    The powers in question, owing to the loss of ships, felt
+    constrained to replace the tonnage by obtaining the disposal of
+    a very large number of ships which belonged not to them but to
+    the Netherlands. They became aware that the Netherlands
+    Government could not permit the ships to sail in the interest of
+    the associated Governments except on the conditions imposed by
+    neutrality, but which were, in the judgment of the Governments,
+    not sufficiently in accordance with their interests. Therefore,
+    they decided to seize the Dutch merchant fleet in so far as it
+    lay within their power.
+
+    The Netherlands Government deems it its duty, especially in
+    serious times such as the present, to speak with complete
+    candor. It voices the sentiments of the entire Dutch Nation,
+    which sees in the seizure an act of violence which it will
+    oppose with all the energy of its conviction and its wounded
+    national feeling.
+
+    According to the Presidential statement, this procedure offers
+    Holland ample opportunity to obtain bread grain. This is so only
+    apparently; for would it not be an irresponsible act, after the
+    experiences of Dutch ships in American and British ports, to
+    permit other ships to sail to these ports without adequate
+    guarantees that these experiences shall not occur?
+
+    The American Government has always appealed to right and
+    justice, has always come forward as the champion of small
+    nations. That it now co-operates in an act diametrically opposed
+    to those principles is a proceeding which can find no
+    counterweight in the manifestations of friendship or assurances
+    of lenient application of the wrong committed.
+
+The United States Government proceeded at once to put the commandeered
+ships into service. On April 12 Secretary Lansing issued a statement
+answering the Dutch protest in detail. After pointing out that the
+Netherlands Government had not questioned the legality of the action
+taken by the United States, Secretary Lansing showed that it had
+involved no element of unfriendliness and was justified by the evidence
+in the case. Events had proved that to have granted bunker coal and food
+cargoes on ordinary terms would have released foodstuffs in Holland for
+sale to Germany and "would in fact have been an act beneficial to the
+enemy and having no relation to our friendship to the Netherlands."
+
+
+
+
+Air Raids on Paris and London
+
+A Historical Summary
+
+Paris experienced one of the most disastrous air raids of the war on the
+night of March 11, 1918, when nine squadrons of German airplanes,
+aggregating nearly sixty units, took part in an attack on the city and
+suburbs. Several buildings were demolished and set on fire. The number
+of persons killed was 34, and there were in addition 79 injured, 88 of
+these casualties being in Paris.
+
+In addition to the bomb victims, 66 persons were suffocated through
+crowding in a panic into a Metropolitan (subway) Railway entrance to
+take refuge from the raiders. These were for the most part women and
+children.
+
+A fog which had covered the city in the morning settled down again in
+the early evening. It was thick enough to cause the general belief that
+there was little chance that the Germans would attempt an air raid. This
+belief, however, was shattered at 9:10 o'clock, when the warning was
+sounded of the approach of hostile aircraft. The raid ended shortly
+after midnight, with a loss to the Germans of four machines, which were
+brought down by the French anti-aircraft defenses.
+
+Mr. Baker, the United States Secretary of War, was in conference with
+General Tasker H. Bliss, the American Chief of Staff, in a hotel suite
+when the air alarm was sounded. Secretary Baker was not disturbed by the
+noise of the sirens or the barrage of the anti-aircraft guns, but the
+hotel management, fearing for the safety of himself and his party,
+persuaded the members to descend to the wine cellar, where later they
+were joined by Major Gen. William M. Black.
+
+Mr. Baker, in the course of a statement the following day, said: "It was
+my first experience of the actualities of war and a revelation of the
+methods inaugurated by an enemy who wages the same war against women and
+children as against soldiers. If his object is to damage property, the
+results are trifling when compared with his efforts. If his object is to
+weaken the people's morale, the reply is given by the superb conduct of
+the people of Paris. Moreover, aerial raids on towns, which are
+counterpart of the pitiless submarine war and the attacks against
+American rights, are the very explanation of the reasons why America
+entered the war. We are sending our soldiers to Europe to fight until
+the world is delivered from these horrors."
+
+
+THE ENEMY MACHINES
+
+George Prade, a leading French authority on aircraft, told a newspaper
+correspondent that the German airplanes used in the attack on Paris were
+the result of a construction program decided on by the German Staff last
+Summer to meet in advance what is generally known in France as the
+American aviation program.
+
+When it was announced that the Americans had decided to construct an
+enormous air fleet for service on the western front, the German War
+Staff developed plans for much more powerful machines. In June and July,
+1917, they began the construction in series of more than 2,000 engines
+much higher powered than those in previous use. These consisted of
+Mercedes engines of 260 horse power with six cylinders and Maybach and
+Benz, both 250 horse power, and with six cylinders. These engines took
+the place of heavier but less powerful six and eight cylinder engines,
+ranging from 225 to 235 horse power. The Germans thus not only gained in
+power, but definitely adopted a plan for planes with two motors and two
+independent propellers. Each new machine was built with three chasses, a
+middle one carrying the crew, and two outside, each carrying an engine
+and a propeller. Three distinct types were developed, known,
+respectively, as Gothas, Friedrichshafens, and A. E. G.'s.
+
+The length of wings ranges from 721/2 to 86 feet. The propellers in
+earlier machines were placed at the rear, but now they are on the front
+of the cars. Machines of all three types carry either three or four men,
+and are fitted with three appliances for launching bombs. The
+projectiles vary enormously, ranging from aerial torpedoes, the smallest
+of which weighs two hundredweight, down to small shrapnel bombs. Each of
+these machines carries a minimum of 153 gallons of petrol and 15 gallons
+of oil, sufficient for at least a four hours' flight. Their average
+speed is between 80 and 90 miles an hour.
+
+Referring to the question of hitting any given target, M. Prade said it
+was practically impossible to strike any particular objective when a
+plane was traveling at a rate of thirty-eight to forty yards a second. A
+bomb must be dropped more or less at random, which is the reason why
+such form of warfare is simply criminal. It is impossible to tell where
+the bomb will fall. Three men are generally sufficient to handle a
+machine, one for each engine and a third to drop bombs. The fourth man
+carried is generally a pilot, who is able from his knowledge of Paris
+districts to direct the airplane more or less accurately toward
+objectives.
+
+Big raiding machines generally are accompanied by a large number of
+smaller two-seated, single-motor planes of 180 to 260 horse power, such
+as are generally used for reconnoissance purposes. These planes, of
+which the Hanover is the newest type, are usually of only thirty-eight
+to forty feet wing spread, but can get up to 20,000 feet carrying four
+small bombs.
+
+The raid of March 11 was preceded on March 8 by an almost equally
+formidable attack on Paris, the casualties being 13 killed and 50
+injured. One of the raiding machines, an airplane of the Gotha type, was
+found in the Forest of Compiegne, where it had fallen while returning
+from the raid. All four of its occupants were killed. They included
+Captain Fritz Eckstein, the commander of the raiding squadrons, and an
+officer of the Kaiser's White Cuirassiers from Potsdam. Three other
+machines were brought down. Altogether, fifteen trained aviators,
+mechanics, and pilots were either killed or made prisoner.
+
+
+BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH
+
+Bombardment in 1917 played a more and more important part in aerial
+operations. The Germans had for some time expended their principal
+efforts upon aviation on the battlefield; besides, up to 1916 they were
+averse to night flying. But by the beginning of 1918 they had brought
+into existence a system of aerial bombardment supplied with powerful
+machines, and had developed an increasing series of attacks on the
+French troops, on the camps at the rear, and, alas! on the cities of
+France. Nancy and Dunkirk are sad examples of their work.
+
+The German squadrons known as Kampfgeschwader, furnished with special
+trains that transport them to any desired point and placed under the
+direct authority of the Quartermaster General, make use of great
+triplanes armed with machine guns and supplied with automatic bomb
+throwers; the Gothas, which, with their two Mercedes motors of 260 horse
+power each, can carry 1,200 pounds of explosives and gasoline for five
+hours, and the Friedrichshafens, whose two Benz motors of 225 horse
+power each can carry enough gasoline for four hours and twelve bombs
+totaling half a ton in weight.
+
+It was with these machines--employed in mass formation--that the Germans
+attempted their great bombing operations in the Autumn of 1917, notably
+the expedition in November, when in a single night seven groups of
+airplanes made successive attacks on English cities; also the raid of
+Dec. 19 on London, when twenty machines took part in the attack on
+London and caused serious damage, including the work of an incendiary
+bomb that set fire to a factory and burned it to the ground. It is with
+these machines which they are still improving, and which they are
+multiplying by the bold creation of series, that the Germans have vainly
+sought to hold command of the air during their offensive in Picardy.
+
+The example and threat of the enemy had their effect in France. The
+French bombarding groups, which, born at the end of 1914, had in 1915
+achieved famous flights into the heart of Germany, were compelled, with
+the advent of aerial combats, to renounce daylight operations, as these
+had become impossible or too uncertain for their slow and heavy
+machines, insufficiently armed, and had turned their attention to
+perilous night expeditions. But, despite successful raids and effective
+destruction, the French bombing operations remained more or less
+unsatisfactory.
+
+In the course of 1917 the use of the flying squadrons was finally
+adapted to the diverse needs of the battle front. In the French
+offensive at Verdun, while tactical aviation guided the waves of
+assault, regulated the artillery fire, and furnished information to the
+General Staff, while the swift airplane chasers, by a vigilant barrage,
+prevented all observation by enemy machines, the bombarding groups daily
+took part also in the action by hurling flames and destruction on
+railway stations, munition depots, storehouses at the rear, and sowing
+panic among the troops that were preparing to attack.
+
+Equipped at length with machines that combined the indispensable
+characteristics of speed, power, and armament, enabling them to hold the
+air in daytime, the French bombardiers attacked arsenals in the interior
+of Germany, and the British war dispatches of Dec. 25 mentioned a
+daylight raid of allied air squadrons upon Mannheim, where several fires
+followed, with heavy explosions at the central railway station and in
+the factories.
+
+The night groups, which had long made their raids only by moonlight, at
+length grew accustomed to flying in complete darkness. They multiplied
+their expeditions against enemy cantonments, railways, aviation fields,
+factories, and military and industrial centres. The task that remained
+at the opening of the Spring of 1918 was the fuller co-ordination of the
+groups of bombardiers.
+
+By that time the French had an excellent daylight airplane as well as
+successful night machines, and announced the early completion of still
+better ones. Their projectiles were not inferior to those of the
+Germans, and their supply was up to the demand. Thus they faced the
+German offensive fully equipped to hold their own so far as air
+supremacy was concerned.
+
+
+RAIDS ON LONDON
+
+London, as well as Paris, received frequent visits from enemy airplanes
+in February and March, 1918. On the three successive nights of Feb. 16,
+17, and 18 German raiders attacked the British metropolis. Twenty-seven
+persons were killed and forty-one were injured. Many of the German
+machines failed to reach the city owing to the great improvement which
+had been effected in the aerial defenses both on the coast and around
+London itself. Both the anti-aircraft guns and the airmen helped to
+diminish the casualties. The third night's raid resulted in an entire
+absence of both casualties and damage to property.
+
+Seven or eight German airplanes made a raid over England on the night of
+March 7. Two of them reached London and dropped bombs in various
+districts. Eleven persons were killed and forty-six injured in the
+metropolitan area. In addition a certain amount of damage was done to
+dwellings and some people buried under the wreckage.
+
+Zeppelins were again employed by the Germans in a raid on the east coast
+of England on March 12. One of them dropped bombs on Hull, while the two
+others wandered for some hours over remote country districts at great
+altitudes, unloading their bombs in open country before proceeding out
+to sea again. This was the first Zeppelin raid on England since Oct. 19,
+1917. The Germans had sustained such heavy losses in Zeppelins that they
+had substituted airplanes. [An account of the fate of the Zeppelins is
+included elsewhere in this issue.]
+
+
+BRITISH REPRISALS
+
+Reprisals by British aviators have been frequent and drastic. The
+British Air Ministry, in one of the detailed statements which it issues
+from time to time, presented the following list of raids into Germany
+from Dec. 1, 1917, and Feb. 19, 1918, a period of eleven weeks:
+
+    Date.                                                  Wt. of
+    1917.                                                   b'mbs
+    Dec.        Objective.     Locality.    Population.    in lbs.
+    5         Rly. sidings.    Zweibrucken.     14,700      1,344
+    5         Works          [B]Burbach                     1,096
+    6         Works          [B]Burbach                     2,216
+    11        Boot factory     Pirmasens        34,000      1,594
+    24        Factories        Mannheim        290,000      2,252
+    1918.
+    Jan.
+    3-4       Railways         Nr. Metz        100,000        760
+    4-5       Railways         Nr. Metz        100,000      2,940
+    5-6       Town          [A]Courcelles                   1,344
+    5-6       Town & rlys.  [A]Conflans                     2,180
+    14        Munition factory
+              & rlys.          Karlsruhe       140,000      2,800
+    14-15     Steelworks       Thionville       13,000      2,105
+    14-15     Railways         Metz            100,000        524
+    14-15     Railways      [A]Eringen                        280
+    16-17     Railways         Benadorf                       280
+    16-17     Town             Ormy                           255
+    16-17     Searchlight      Vigny                           26
+    21-22     Steelworks       Thionville       13,000      1,220
+    21-22     Rly. sidings     Bensdorf                     2,210
+      "       Rly. junction    Arnaville                    1,344
+    24-25     Steelworks, rlys. and barracks.
+                               Thionville       13,000      1,120
+                    "          Treves           48,000        809
+    24-25     Railway          Oberbilig                      280
+    24-25     Factory          Mannheim        290,000        672
+    24-25     Railway          Saarburg          9,800        280
+    24-25     Steelworks       Thionville       13,000      1,344
+    25        Barracks and
+              station          Treves           48,000      1,350
+    27        Barracks and
+              station          Treves           48,000        230
+    Feb.
+    9-10      Railway       [A]Courcelles        1,844
+    12        Town             Offenburg        15,400      2,838
+    16-17     Rly. station  [A]Conflans          1,488
+    17-18     Rly. sidings  [A]Conflans          2,240
+    18        Steelworks       Thionville       13,000        936
+    18        Barracks and
+              station          Treves           48,000      1,250
+    18-19     Barracks and
+              station          Treves          48,000       2,206
+    18-19     Rly. and gas
+              works            Thionville      13,000         650
+    19  Station  Treves  48,000 2,400
+
+    A See Metz.
+    B See Saarbrucken.
+
+James I. Macpherson, Parliamentary Secretary of the War Office, stated
+in the House of Commons on March 19 that British airmen had made 255
+flights into German territory since October, 1917. The 255 flights
+constituted 38 raids, and only 10 machines were lost. The aviators
+dropped 48 tons of bombs.
+
+According to a dispatch from The Hague dated April 3, the damage caused
+by raids in the Rhenish cities was much more extensive than had been
+admitted. Places where bombs actually fell were described as
+"unrecognizable." Of the bombs dropped at Coblenz in the most recent
+raid, eight did considerable damage. One fell upon a station, one fell
+amid a company of soldiers going to get food, and others practically
+destroyed half of the barracks where French prisoners were confined in
+1870. In Cologne a branch factory of the Baden Aniline Works was partly
+destroyed and a number of people were killed and wounded. Great damage
+also was done at Mainz. It was also reported that much damage was done
+at Duesseldorf. After the raids the authorities made every effort to
+clear up the wreckage as rapidly as possible, and the town was made to
+resume normal life immediately.
+
+In connection with military operations on the western front, official
+reports showed that the Allies had gained great successes in destroying
+enemy airplanes. The enemy losses in January, 1918, were 292; in
+February, 273, and in the first seventeen days of March 278. For the
+week ended March 17 the British Royal Flying Corps alone destroyed 99
+German airplanes and drove down 42, losing 23 of its own machines.
+
+One of the most surprising air raids was that of March 11 on Naples, in
+Southern Italy, far from enemy lines, when a dirigible dropped bombs on
+the city. Private houses, asylums, and churches were damaged or
+destroyed and 16 persons killed and 40 injured.
+
+Among the most savage attacks on Paris by aircraft was that in the night
+of April 12, when two hostile machines got through the anti-aircraft
+barrage and succeeded in killing 26 persons and injuring 72. One of the
+torpedoes burst a gas main in the street where it fell, but firemen
+promptly extinguished the fire that ensued. The American Red Cross was
+first on the scene of the explosion, and in a very short time had the
+victims safely removed to a hospital.
+
+
+The Tale of Zeppelin Disasters
+
+What has become of the German airship fleet initiated by the late Count
+Zeppelin is now known to the Intelligence Department of the French Army,
+which has given out a complete list of the 100 or more dirigibles
+constructed since the first one was launched over Lake Constance.
+
+Up to August, 1914, the total of Zeppelin airships built numbered
+twenty-five, while since the war the two great works at Friedrichshafen
+and Staaken have produced between seventy-five and eighty. As the mean
+period for the building of a Zeppelin is known with certainty to be two
+months, there must always have been four new airships on the stocks at
+the same time.
+
+Most of the Zeppelins launched into the air before the war came to
+grief, thus leaving in the service of the German Army and Navy a fleet
+of less than a dozen when fighting began. Since then nearly all the
+dirigibles, old and new, have been handed over to the German Navy, which
+has used them for many kinds of work, such as bombing expeditions,
+protection of mine layers and small torpedo boats at sea, chasing
+submarines, searching for mine fields, and, last and most important,
+reconnoitring for the High Seas Fleet.
+
+Disaster has attended the flight of an overwhelming majority of these
+air monsters, no fewer than thirty of which are known to have been
+destroyed in one way or another, as is shown by the following list:
+
+    L-1--Destroyed just before the war, when it fell in the North
+    Sea near Heligoland.
+
+    L-2--Burned at Buhlsbuettel just before the war.
+
+    L-3--Descended at Famoe in Denmark at beginning of the war, and
+    was burned by its crew.
+
+    L-4--Descended at Blaavands Huk, Denmark, at beginning of the
+    war, and was burned by its crew.
+
+    L-5--Brought down on the Belgian front in 1915; part of crew saved.
+
+    L-6--Burned at Buhlsbuettel in its hangar in September, 1916.
+
+    L-7--Brought down by British destroyers off Portland, crew being
+    drowned, in 1915.
+
+    L-8--Brought down by machine guns in Belgium, part of crew being
+    killed, in 1915.
+
+    L-9--Burned at Buhlfriettel in its hangar at same time as L-6.
+
+    L-10--Struck by lightning near Cuxhaven during its initial
+    flights, and lost with its crew.
+
+    L-12--Destroyed at Ostend in 1915 when returning from a raid on
+    England.
+
+    L-15--Brought down in the Thames, England, in 1916.
+
+    L-16--Destroyed on Oct. 19, 1917.
+
+    L-18--Burned in a hangar at Tondern in 1916.
+
+    L-19--Fell in the Baltic while returning from a raid on England.
+
+    L-22--Burned accidentally while coming out of its hangar at
+    Tondern.
+
+    L-23--Fell on the English coast.
+
+    L-25--Destroyed while being employed as a training balloon at
+    Wildpark.
+
+    L-31--Fell in London in 1916.
+
+    L-32--Brought down in London in 1916, (Sept. 23-24.)
+
+    L-33--Brought down in England, Sept. 23, 1916, and crew interned.
+
+    L-35--Brought down in England.
+
+    L-39--Brought down at Compiegne, France, March, 1917.
+
+    L-40--Fell in the woods near Emden.
+
+    L-43--Brought down in July, 1917, at Terscheling.
+
+    L-44--Brought down afire at Saint-Clement, Oct. 20, 1917.
+
+    L-45--Brought down and burned at Silteron, Oct. 20, 1917.
+
+    L-48--Brought down in England, June, 1917.
+
+    L-49--Brought down at Bourbonne-les-Bains, Oct. 20, 1917.
+
+    L-50--Fell at Dommartin, Oct. 20, 1917.
+
+    L-57--Broke up on its first voyage.
+
+The last named is the highest number believed to have been in the
+service. Missing numbers in the list given above are accounted for as
+follows:
+
+    L-11--Put out of service in 1917 and believed to be in shed at Hage.
+
+    L-13--In the shed at Hage since May, 1917.
+
+    L-14--School airship at Northolz.
+
+    L-17--Believed to have been destroyed at sea.
+
+    L-20--Dismantled.
+
+    L-21--Dismantled; believed burned at Tondern.
+
+    L-24--Dismantled.
+
+    L-26--Planned, but never constructed.
+
+    L-27, L-28, L-29, and L-30--Planned, but never constructed.
+
+    L-34--Believed destroyed off England.
+
+    L-37--Attached to Baltic squadron, but believed destroyed.
+
+    L-38--Whereabout unknown.
+
+    L-41, L-42, L-46, L-47, L-51, L-52, L-53, L-54, L-55, and L-56--In
+    service in the North Sea.
+
+No information is obtainable as to the fate of the remainder of the
+Zeppelins, nor as to whether their construction was ever completed, but
+the few other types of dirigible airships used by the Germans have not
+been better served by fate than their more renowned sisters.
+
+The Schuette-Lanz dirigible is something like a Zeppelin, but with a
+framework of bamboo instead of aluminium. There have been eight of these
+in use since the beginning of the war, and their fate or present
+condition is shown in the following list:
+
+    S L-3--Long since out of service.
+
+    S L-4--Struck by lightning in the Baltic.
+
+    S L-6--Believed to have fallen into the Baltic.
+
+    S L-8--In service in the Baltic.
+
+    S L-9--Burned at Stolp.
+
+    S L-14--In service in the Baltic.
+
+    S L-16--Believed to be still in service.
+
+    S L-20--In service.
+
+There was also one Gross semi-rigid dirigible, which was put out of
+service at the end of February, 1915, and three Parseval non-rigid
+airships, one of which was destroyed in Russia, the second used as a
+schoolship, and the third understood to be still in service.
+
+
+
+
+Paris Bombarded by Long-Range Guns
+
+The Disaster on Good Friday
+
+Paris, though accustomed to the perils of German air raids, was amazed
+on the morning of March 23, 1918, to find itself bombarded by one or
+more guns of unprecedented range, which were dropping 9-inch shells into
+the city and its suburbs at intervals of twenty minutes. The nearest
+German line was more than sixty-two miles away, and the possibility of
+artillery bombardment at such a range was at first doubted in all the
+allied countries, but by the following day the fact was established that
+the shells were actually coming from the region of the Forest of St.
+Gobain, seven miles back of the French trenches near Laon, and about
+seventy-five miles from Paris. The French artillery at the front at once
+took measures to locate and destroy the guns, but without immediate
+results.
+
+The first day's casualties from the long-distance shells were stated to
+be ten killed and fifteen wounded. The second day, which was Palm
+Sunday, was ushered in by loud explosions from the new missiles, but by
+church time the Parisians had already discounted the new sensation and
+thronged the streets on their way to the churches. The women who sell
+palm leaves on that day did their usual thriving business. During the
+early morning hours the street traffic was partly suspended, but by noon
+both the subway and the tramway cars were running again.
+
+The shells were found to be doing comparatively little damage in
+proportion to their size. The municipal authorities announced on the
+second day that the German bombardment should not be allowed to
+interrupt the normal life of the city, and that the people would be
+warned by special signals, differing from those for air raids, and
+consisting of the beating of drums and blowing of whistles by the
+policemen. On Monday, when the police began to use the new system of
+alarm, they were the object of much good-natured chaffing on account of
+their awkwardness with the drumsticks.
+
+Twenty-four shells reached Paris the first day, twenty-seven the second,
+fewer the third, and thus the bombardment went on daily, with occasional
+casualties and little effect on the habitual life of the city. The
+famous palace of the Tuileries was damaged by one of the shells, and
+other public buildings were struck. The damage was largely confined to
+the Montmartre district, the amusement centre of Paris, and nearly all
+the shells fell within a section about a mile square, indicating that
+the gun was immovable. One shell dropped in front of the Gare de l'Oest,
+a railway terminal, killing six men.
+
+The casualties, however, were comparatively few until March 29, when a
+shell struck the Church of St. Gervais at the hour of the Good Friday
+service, killing seventy-five persons and wounding ninety, some of whom
+died later. Fifty-four of those killed were women, five being Americans.
+The shell had struck the church in such a way as to cause a portion of
+it to collapse and fall upon the worshippers at the moment of the
+elevation of the Host.
+
+
+PROTEST FROM THE POPE
+
+The intense indignation of all France at this new outrage on
+noncombatants was voiced at once through the press and in speeches in
+the Chamber of Deputies. The authorities of the Catholic Church were
+deeply stirred, and Pope Benedict sent a protest to Berlin against the
+bombardment of Paris, and especially against the destruction of churches
+and the wholesale massacre of civilians. Cardinal Amette, Archbishop of
+Paris, arriving at the scene of the catastrophe a few moments after the
+explosion, expressed the general feeling when he exclaimed: "The beasts!
+To have chosen the day of our Lord's death for committing such a crime!"
+The Vatican sent Cardinal Amette the following dispatch:
+
+    The Holy Father, deploring the fact that the bloody conflict,
+    which already has caused everywhere so much suffering, has
+    again, on the very day of the Saviour's Passion, found more
+    innocent victims, who are still dearer to his heart owing to
+    their faith and piety, expresses his deepest sympathy. He sends
+    the apostolic blessing to all the faithful in Paris, and desires
+    to know if it is necessary to send material aid to the families
+    in mourning.
+
+The Cardinal also received the following letter from Grand Rabbi Israel
+Levi on behalf of those of the Jewish faith:
+
+    Your Eminence, I am the interpreter of the feelings of all my
+    French co-religionists in saying that I share in the mourning
+    which has come to so many families devastated by sacrilegious
+    barbarism. We are one in pious indignation at the crime, which
+    seems to have been intended as an insult to what humanity holds
+    most sacred.
+
+Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York, voiced the sentiments of New
+York Catholics in this message to the Archbishop of Paris:
+
+    Shocked by the brutal killing of innocent victims gathered at
+    religious services to commemorate the passing of our blessed
+    Saviour on Good Friday, the Catholics of New York join your
+    noble protest against this outrage of the sanctuary on such a
+    day and at such an hour and, expressing their sympathy to the
+    bereaved relatives of the dead and injured, pledge their
+    unfaltering allegiance in support of the common cause that
+    unites our two great republics. May God bless the brave officers
+    and men of the allied armies in their splendid defense of
+    liberty and justice!
+
+Among those killed in this disaster was H. Stroehlin, Secretary of the
+Swiss Legation. The German Foreign Office later made an indirect
+expression of regret to Switzerland for this act, but sought to justify
+the bombardment on the ground that Paris is a fortress. The Kaiser sent
+a special note of congratulation to the managers of the Krupp works
+regarding the success of the weapon.
+
+
+AMBASSADOR SHARP'S REPORT
+
+William G. Sharp, the American Ambassador to France, visited the wrecked
+church shortly after the disaster and sent a detailed report to
+Secretary Lansing at Washington. The State Department, on April 3,
+issued the following:
+
+    The Secretary of State has received from Ambassador Sharp in
+    Paris a graphic report of his visit to the scene of the horrible
+    tragedy which occurred on the afternoon of Good Friday in a
+    church by the explosion of a German shell projected from far
+    back of the enemy lines a distance of more than seventy miles.
+    The appalling destruction wrought by this shell is, as the
+    Ambassador remarked, probably not equaled by any single
+    discharge of any hostile gun in the cruelty and horrors of its
+    results.
+
+    In no other one spot in Paris, even where poverty had gathered
+    on that holy day to worship, could destruction of life have been
+    so great. Nearly a hundred mangled corpses lying in the morgues,
+    with almost as many seriously wounded, attested to the measure
+    of the toll exacted. Far up to the high, vaulted arches, between
+    the flying buttresses well to the front of the church, is a
+    great gap in the wall, from which fell upon the heads of the
+    devoted worshippers many tons of solid masonry. It was this that
+    caused such a great loss of life.
+
+    As the Ambassador entered the church, where but a few hours
+    before had been gathered the worshippers, he could easily
+    picture the scene that followed the explosion. The amount of
+    debris, remaining just as it fell on the floor, covered the
+    entire space between the lofty columns supporting the arches at
+    each side. Only a miracle could have saved from death or serious
+    injury those who escaped the falling mass. The scene was that of
+    some horrible shambles, and it was not until well into the night
+    that all the bodies were recovered. Upon the floor in many
+    places could still be seen the blood of the victims, among whom
+    were many prominent and well-to-do people.
+
+    The Ambassador called to express his sympathy to his Swiss
+    colleague, whose lifelong friend, the Secretary of the Swiss
+    Legation, was killed while leaving the church. The Minister was
+    deeply affected as he spoke of the great loss to him through the
+    Secretary's death. The Secretary was well known in Washington,
+    where he served with the Swiss Legation from 1902 to 1904, and
+    was very highly esteemed by all who knew him.
+
+    In conclusion, Mr. Sharp says that the exceptional circumstances
+    under which this tragedy occurred, both as to the sacred
+    character of the day and the place, have greatly aroused the
+    indignation of the people of Paris toward an enemy who seeks to
+    destroy human life without regard to the immunities prescribed
+    by the laws of civilization and humanity, and, instead of
+    terrorizing the people, shells of the great cannons, as well as
+    the bombs dropped from the German airplanes, only serve to
+    strengthen the resolve of the French to resist, to the last man,
+    if necessary, the invasion of such a foe.
+
+
+CHARACTER OF THE GUN
+
+Portions of exploded shells examined in the Municipal Laboratory of
+Paris indicated that the calibre of the new German gun was a trifle less
+than nine inches, and that the projectiles, weighing perhaps 200 pounds,
+contained a comparatively weak charge of high explosives, arranged in
+two chambers connected by a fuse, often causing two distinct explosions
+a minute or more apart. It was stated later by German military
+scientists that it took each shell more than three minutes to travel
+from the mouth of the gun to Paris, and that on its way it had to rise
+to a height of more than twenty miles from the earth. Three Paris
+experts found that at least two of these great guns were being used.
+According to German prisoners, one of the guns exploded on March 29,
+killing a German Lieutenant and nine men.
+
+In their jubilation over the new weapon the German newspapers stated
+that the first bombardment of Paris had been witnessed by the Kaiser and
+by the builder of the long-range gun, Professor Fritz Rausenberger, who
+is an artillerist, manager of the Krupp Works, and builder of the famous
+42-centimeter (161/2-inch) gun used to demolish the Belgian forts at the
+beginning of the war.
+
+The violence of the concussion of the new weapon was indicated by the
+statement of American scientists that every shot was found to be
+recorded by seismographs all over the United States; in other words, the
+shock of each discharge caused the needles of earthquake detectors three
+or four thousand miles away to record small dots on the smoked paper
+used in these instruments.
+
+Paris, though embittered by the new form of attack, refused to be
+frightened by the long-range shells. The attendance at the churches on
+Easter Sunday was even larger than usual. The police authorities issued
+an order on April 4 that theatre matinees and afternoon entertainments
+of all kinds should be temporarily discontinued; but, owing to numerous
+protests, this order was modified next day, and the usual daytime
+performances in the theatres were allowed on condition that the
+bombardment had not begun at the hour of assembly, and that the place of
+amusement be evacuated immediately if the shelling began during the
+performance. In the weeks that followed the bombardment became more and
+more desultory and ineffectual.
+
+It was recorded on April 9 that French aviators had discovered the
+location of the new guns at Crepy-en-Laonnais, near the road from La
+Fere to Laon, and that continual bombardment of the spot was causing the
+increasingly intermittent nature of the German long-range fire. The
+French had learned the location to a yard, and from a powerful battery
+ten miles away they were dropping enormous shells weighing half a ton
+each into the low hills where the German monsters were hidden. There
+were three of the supercannon, and a few days later an air photograph
+showed that two French shells had fallen on the barrel of one of them,
+putting it out of commission. Tremendous craters had been made around
+the others, and one French shell had fallen on a main railway line,
+blocking it a whole day. A correspondent who visited the French battery
+engaged in this work wrote on April 13:
+
+"It is stated that these German guns are ninety-six feet long. At the
+moment of firing, other big guns let fly simultaneously, to confuse the
+French, and a smoke screen is emitted in the vicinity to hide the pieces
+from aircraft. Up to yesterday there had been no firing at night, lest
+the flashes show the position of the cannon. How necessary this
+precaution is may be illustrated by my experience last night, when I saw
+the whole northern sky constantly lit up by the guns on the eighty-mile
+front of the German offensive."
+
+After April 13, when the Germans knew that their secret was fully known,
+they began bombarding Paris by night, though without any increase in
+effectiveness. Up to the middle of April a total of 150 long-distance
+shells had fallen in Paris, and the only ones that had caused any
+notable casualties were those which struck the Church of St. Gervais, an
+infant asylum, and an old man's bowling green.
+
+
+
+
+The Irish Guards
+
+By RUDYARD KIPLING
+
+[Read at a matinee in London in aid of the Irish Guards' War Fund, for
+which it was written by Mr. Kipling.]
+
+    We're not so old in the Army List,
+      But we're not so young at our trade,
+    For we had the honor at Fontenoy
+      Of meeting the Guards Brigade.
+    'Twas Lally, Dillon, Bulkeley, Clare,
+      And Lee that led us then,
+    And after a hundred and seventy years
+      We're fighting for France again!
+        _Old Days! The wild geese are flighting,
+          Head to the storm as they faced it before!
+        For where there are Irish there's bound to be fighting,
+          And when there's no fighting, it's Ireland no more!
+              Ireland no more!_
+
+    The fashion's all for khaki now,
+      But once through France we went
+    Full-dressed in scarlet Army cloth--
+      The English--left at Ghent.
+    They're fighting on our side today,
+      But before they changed their clothes
+    The half of Europe knew our fame
+      As all of Ireland knows!
+        _Old days! The wild geese are flying,
+          Head to the storm as they faced it before!
+        For where there are Irish there's memory undying,
+          And when we forget, it is Ireland no more!
+               Ireland no more!_
+
+    From Barry Wood to Gouzeaucourt,
+      From Boyne to Pilkem Ridge,
+    The ancient days come back no more
+      Than water under the bridge.
+    But the bridge it stands and the water runs
+      As red as yesterday,
+    And the Irish move to the sound of the guns
+      Like salmon to the sea!
+        _Old days! The wild geese are ranging,
+          Head to the storm as they faced it before!
+        For where there are Irish their hearts are unchanging,
+          And when they are changeful, it is Ireland no more!
+                Ireland no more!_
+
+    We're not so old in the Army List,
+      But we're not so new in the ring,
+    For we carried our packs with Marshal Saxe
+      When Louis was our King.
+    But Douglas Haig's our Marshal now
+      And we're King George's men,
+    And after one hundred and seventy years
+      We're fighting for France again!
+        _Ah, France! And did we stand by you
+      When life was made splendid with gifts and rewards?
+        Ah, France! And will we deny you
+          In the hour of your agony, Mother of Swords?
+      Old Days! The wild geese are flighting,
+        Head to the storm as they faced it before!
+      For where there are Irish there's loving and fighting,
+        And when we stop either, it's Ireland no more!
+                Ireland no more!_
+
+
+
+
+The Guilt of Germany
+
+German Ambassador to Great Britain in 1914 Proves That His Country
+Forced the War
+
+Prince Lichnowsky, who was the German Ambassador to Great Britain when
+the war began, is the author of an extremely interesting and important
+historical document which became public in March, 1918. It is in the
+form of a private memorandum written by the Prince, in which he frankly
+and definitely admits that the guilt for starting the world conflict
+rests upon his own country. The document, through some unrevealed
+agency, reached the Stockholm newspaper Politiken, the influential
+mouthpiece of the Swedish Socialists, and was printed in installments.
+
+The publication created a profound sensation throughout Europe. It
+evoked passionate rebukes of the Prince in the Reichstag and drew forth
+an important utterance from the former German Foreign Minister, who
+failed to refute its supremely important revelations. It was reported
+early in April that the German Government had taken steps to institute
+proceedings against the Prince on the charges of revealing State secrets
+and of treason to the State.
+
+The memorandum was written by Prince Lichnowsky about eighteen months
+ago for the purpose of explaining and justifying his position to his
+personal friends, and only half a dozen typewritten copies were made.
+One of these copies, through a betrayal, reached the Wilhelmstrasse, and
+caused a great scandal, and another was communicated to some members of
+the Minority Socialist Party. But how it happened that a copy got across
+the German frontier remains a mystery. Internal evidence, however,
+leaves no doubt in regard to the authenticity of the document. It is
+entitled "My London Mission, 1912-1914," and is dated "Kuchelna, (Prince
+Lichnowsky's country seat,) August, 1916."
+
+Prince Lichnowsky begins with a recital of the circumstances which led
+to his being appointed to London after many years of retirement from
+diplomacy, and a description of the European position as he then found
+it. The moment, he believes,
+
+    was undoubtedly favorable for a new attempt to get on a better
+    footing with England. Our enigmatical Moroccan policy had
+    repeatedly shaken confidence in our peaceful disposition and
+    aroused the suspicion that we were not quite sure what we
+    wanted, or that our intention was to keep Europe in suspense,
+    and, when occasion served, to humiliate the French. An Austrian
+    colleague, who was long in Paris, said to me, "If the French
+    begin to forget revanche, you regularly remind them of it by
+    treading heavily on their toes."
+
+    After rejecting M. Delcasse's attempt to come to an agreement
+    with us in regard to Morocco, and declaring that we had no
+    political interests there, an attitude which was in full
+    accordance with the traditions of the Bismarckian policy, we
+    suddenly recognized in Abdul Aziz a Kruger No. 2. To him, also,
+    like the Boers, we promised the powerful support of the German
+    Empire--at the same cost and with the same result. For both
+    affairs ended, as they had to end, unless we were already then
+    resolved to undertake a world war--namely, in withdrawal.
+
+    Our attitude promoted the Russo-Japanese and the Russo-British
+    rapprochements. In face of the German peril all other conflicts
+    fell into the background. The possibility of a new Franco-German
+    war had become evident.
+
+
+THE BRITISH PROGRAM
+
+After describing the futility of Germany's Moroccan policy, Prince
+Lichnowsky goes on:
+
+    When I arrived in London, in November, 1912, public opinion had
+    calmed about the Morocco question. Mr. Haldane's mission had
+    certainly failed, since we had demanded a promise of neutrality
+    instead of satisfying ourselves with a compact which would
+    secure us against a British attack or an attack with British
+    support. Sir Edward Grey, however, had not given up the idea of
+    reaching an agreement with us and, as a beginning, made an
+    attempt in this direction in the economic and colonial spheres.
+    With Herr von Kuehlmann as expert intermediary, an exchange of
+    views took place concerning the renewal of the Portuguese
+    Colonial Agreement and the Bagdad Railway, the object of which
+    was to divide the aforesaid colonies, as well as Asia Minor,
+    into spheres of interest. The British statesman desired, since
+    the old disputes with France and Russia were settled, to reach a
+    corresponding agreement with us. His aim was not to isolate us,
+    but to get us to take part in the already established concert.
+    Having succeeded in throwing a bridge across the Franco-British
+    and Russo-British divisions, he wished also, as far as possible,
+    to remove the causes of friction between England and Germany,
+    and, by a network of agreements--to which might well eventually
+    have been added an agreement on the unfortunate naval
+    question--to secure the peace of the world.
+
+    This was Sir Edward Grey's program. In his own words "Without
+    prejudice to the existing friendly understandings with France
+    and Russia, which pursued no aggressive aims, and involved in
+    themselves for England no binding obligations, to reach a
+    friendly rapprochement and understanding with Germany." In
+    short, to bring the two groups nearer together.
+
+    In this connection two schools of opinion--the optimists, who
+    believed in the possibility of an understanding; the pessimists,
+    who considered that war was sooner or later unavoidable. To the
+    former belonged Mr. Asquith, Sir Edward Grey, Mr. Haldane, and
+    most of the members of the Liberal Cabinet, as well as the
+    leading Liberal organs, like The Westminster, The Chronicle, and
+    The (Manchester) Guardian. To the pessimists belonged,
+    primarily, Conservative politicians like Mr. Balfour, who on
+    repeated occasions allowed me to know his opinion, and leading
+    soldiers like Lord Roberts, who preached the necessity for the
+    introduction of compulsory service; also the Northcliffe press,
+    and the important English journalist, Mr. Garvin. During my time
+    in office, however, this party refrained from all attacks, and
+    maintained, both personally and politically, a friendly
+    attitude. But our naval policy and our conduct in 1905, 1908,
+    and 1911 had created among them the belief that some day it
+    would come to war. The first school, exactly as among us in
+    Germany, are now accused of foolishness and short-sightedness,
+    while the second are regarded as true prophets.
+
+Prince Lichnowsky goes on to describe the situation during the Balkan
+war. There were two policies, he says, open to Germany--to act as an
+impartial mediator and seek a stable settlement in accordance with the
+wishes of the Balkan peoples, or to conduct a strict Triple Alliance
+policy. He himself recommended the former, but the Wilhelmstrasse
+determined on the latter. Austria wished to keep Serbia from the
+Adriatic; Italy wished to prevent the Greeks from reaching Avlona;
+Russia supported the Serbs, France supported the Greeks. Germany had no
+motive whatever for supporting her allies, and thus bringing about a bad
+settlement, except the desire to consolidate what, in Prince
+Lichnowsky's opinion, was a palpably worthless alliance--worthless
+because it was obvious that Italy would break from the alliance in the
+event of war, while Austria was absolutely dependent on Germany in peace
+and war without an alliance.
+
+The best way to increase Austria's dependence was to cultivate friendly
+relations between Germany and Russia. The Kaiser, for dynastic reasons,
+was in favor of the division of Albania between Greece and Serbia, but
+"when I, in a letter to him, urged this solution, I received from the
+Chancellor a severe reprimand to the effect that I was supporting
+Austria's enemies, and should refrain from direct correspondence with
+the Emperor."
+
+Thus Germany decided to take her stand on the side of the Turkish and
+Magyar oppressors for the sake of the Triple Alliance--a fatal blunder,
+which Prince Lichnowsky describes as "all the more striking since a
+sudden Franco-Russian assault--the only hypothesis which could justify
+the Triple Alliance policy--could, in fact, be ruled out of our
+calculations."
+
+
+DANGEROUS BALKAN POLICY
+
+It was not only unnecessary, he declares, but dangerous, to pay
+attention to Austria's wishes, since to look at the Eastern question
+through Austrian spectacles must lead to a collision with Russia and a
+world war.
+
+    Such a policy, moreover, was bound to alienate sympathy among
+    the young, strong, and aspiring communities of the Balkan
+    Peninsula, who were ready to turn to us and to open their
+    markets to us. The opposition between courts and peoples,
+    between the dynastic and the democratic idea of the State, was
+    clearly defined, and, as usual, we stood on the wrong side. * *
+    * In Serbia, against our own economic interests, we supported
+    the Austrian policy of strangulation. We have always ridden
+    horses whose collapse could be foreseen--Kruger, Abdul Aziz,
+    Abdul Hamid, and William of Wied--and finally we came to grief
+    in Berchtold's stable.
+
+Prince Lichnowsky proceeds to describe the Conference of Ambassadors in
+London in 1913, and the influential and conciliatory part played there
+by Sir Edward Grey, who always, he says, found a way out of every
+apparent deadlock.
+
+    But we, instead of taking up a position analogous to that of
+    England, invariably espoused the standpoint of Vienna. Count
+    Mensdorff led the Triple Alliance in London; I was his second.
+    My task consisted in supporting his proposals. In Berlin the
+    prudent and experienced Count Szoegyeny was in control. "Here the
+    casus foederis arises," was his constant refrain, and when I
+    once ventured to question the correctness of this conclusion I
+    was seriously warned for Austrophobia. At all points we accepted
+    and supported the views of Austria and Italy. Sir Edward Grey,
+    on the other hand, practically never sided with Russia or
+    France. Usually, indeed, he took the side of our group, so as
+    not to provide any pretext for conflict. That pretext was
+    supplied later by a dead Archduke.
+
+
+THE GUILT ESTABLISHED
+
+Lichnowsky states that a few days after the Serajevo murder of June 28,
+1914, he was in Berlin, and from interviews with Chancellor von Bethmann
+Hollweg he found that the latter did not share the Prince's belief that
+peace might be maintained, and complained of Russian armaments. The
+memorandum continues:
+
+    I then went to Dr. Zimmermann, who was representing Herr von
+    Jagow, [Foreign Secretary,] and from him learned that Russia was
+    about to raise 900,000 fresh troops. His words showed an
+    unmistakable animosity toward Russia, which, he said, was
+    everywhere in our way. Of course, I was not told that General
+    von Moltke was pressing for war. I learned, however, that Herr
+    von Tschereschky [the German Ambassador in Vienna] had received
+    a rebuke because he reported that he had advised moderation in
+    Vienna toward Serbia.
+
+    Subsequently I learned that at a decisive conversation in
+    Potsdam July 5 an inquiry addressed to us by Vienna found
+    positive assent among all personages in authority. Indeed, they
+    added that there would be no harm if war with Russia were to
+    result. I received instruction that I was to induce the English
+    press to take up a friendly attitude if Austria gave the
+    deathblow to the Great Serbian movement, and as far as possible
+    I was, by my influence, to prevent public opinion opposing
+    Austria.
+
+    I gave warning against the whole project, which I described as
+    adventurous and dangerous, and I advised that moderation be
+    recommended to the Austrians because I did not believe in
+    localization of conflict.
+
+    Herr von Jagow answered me that Russia was not ready, that there
+    doubtless would be a certain amount of bluster, but that the
+    more firmly we stood by Austria the more would Russia draw back.
+    He said Austria already was accusing us of want of spirit and we
+    must not squeeze her; and that, on the other hand, feeling in
+    Russia was becoming ever more anti-German and so we must simply
+    risk it.
+
+    I knew that Sir Edward Grey's influence in Petrograd could be
+    turned to use in favor of peace, so I used my friendly relations
+    with Sir Edward, [British Foreign Secretary,] and in confidence
+    begged him to advise moderation in Russia if Austria demanded
+    satisfaction from Serbia.
+
+    At first the attitude of the English press was calm and friendly
+    to the Austrians because the murder was condemned, but gradually
+    more and more voices were heard to insist that, however
+    necessary it was to punish the crime, exploitation of crime for
+    political purposes could not be justified. Austria was strongly
+    urged to show moderation.
+
+    When the ultimatum appeared, all the papers, except The
+    Standard, which was always like slow water and apparently was
+    paid by the Austrians, were as one in their condemnation. The
+    whole world, except in Berlin and Vienna, understood that it
+    meant war, and indeed a world war.
+
+    The British fleet, which chanced to be assembled for review, was
+    not demobilized.
+
+
+    England and Russia for Peace
+
+    At first I pressed for a conciliatory answer as far as possible
+    on the part of Serbia, since the attitude of the Russian
+    Government left no further doubt of the seriousness of the
+    situation. The Serbian reply was in accordance with the British
+    efforts, and everything actually had been accepted except two
+    points, about which a readiness to negotiate had been expressed.
+
+[Illustration: Panoramic view of Camp Zachary Taylor, Louisville, Ky.,
+where the 84th (National Army) Division is in training
+((C) _Caulfield & Shook_)]
+
+[Illustration: Panoramic view of Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio, where
+the 83d (National Army) Division is in training
+(_Photo R. K. Wagner & Co._)]
+
+    If Russia and England had wanted war in order to fall upon us a
+    hint to Belgrade would have been sufficient, and the unheard of
+    [Austrian] note would have remained unanswered. Sir Edward Grey
+    went through the Serbian reply with me and pointed to the
+    conciliatory attitude of the Government at Belgrade. We then
+    discussed his mediation proposal, which was to arrange an
+    interpretation of the two points acceptable to both parties.
+
+    Cambon, [French Ambassador in London,] Marquis Imperiali,
+    [Italian Ambassador in London,] and I should have met under Sir
+    Edward Grey's presidency, and it would have been easy to find an
+    acceptable form for the disputed points which, in the main,
+    concerned the participation of Austrian officials in the
+    investigation at Belgrade.
+
+    Given good will, everything could have been settled in one or
+    two sittings, and mere acceptance of the British proposal would
+    have relieved the tension and would further have improved our
+    relations to England. I urgently recommended the proposal,
+    saying that otherwise a world war was imminent, in which we had
+    everything to lose and nothing to gain.
+
+    In vain! I was told that it was against the dignity of Austria
+    and that we did not want to interfere in the Serbian business
+    but left it to our ally. I was told to work for localization of
+    conflict. Of course, it would only have needed a hint from
+    Berlin to make Count Berchtold, Austrian Foreign Minister,
+    satisfy himself with a diplomatic success and put up with the
+    Serbian reply, but this hint was not given.
+
+
+    Germany Forced the War
+
+    On the contrary, we pressed for war. What a fine success it
+    would have been! After our refusal Sir Edward asked us to come
+    forward with a proposal of our own. We insisted upon war. I
+    could get no other answer from Berlin than that it was enormous
+    conciliation on the part of Austria to contemplate no annexation
+    of territory.
+
+    Thereupon Sir Edward justly pointed out that even without
+    annexations of territory a country can be humiliated and
+    subjected, and that Russia would regard this as a humiliation
+    which she would not stand. The impression became ever stronger
+    that we desired war in all circumstances, otherwise our attitude
+    on the question, which after all did not directly concern us,
+    was unintelligible.
+
+    The urgent appeals and definite declarations of Sazonoff
+    [Russian Foreign Minister] later on the positively humble
+    telegrams of the Czar, the repeated proposals of Sir Edward, the
+    warnings of San Giuliano, [Italian Foreign Minister,] my own
+    urgent advice--all were of no use, for Berlin went on insisting
+    that Serbia must be massacred. The more I pressed the less
+    willing they were to alter their course, if only because I was
+    not to have the success of saving peace in company with Sir
+    Edward Grey.
+
+    So Grey on July 29 resolved upon his well-known warning. I
+    replied I had always reported that we should have to reckon upon
+    English hostility if it came to war with France. The Minister
+    said to me repeatedly, "If war breaks out it will be the
+    greatest catastrophe the world has ever seen." After that events
+    moved rapidly.
+
+    When Count Berchtold, who hitherto had played strong man on
+    instructions from Berlin, at last decided to change his course,
+    we answered Russian mobilization--after Russia had waited and
+    negotiated in vain for a whole week--with our ultimatum and
+    declaration of war.
+
+    Up to the last moment I had hoped for a waiting attitude on the
+    part of England. As late as August the King of England replied
+    evasively to the French President, but in a telegram from
+    Berlin, which announced the threatening danger of war, England
+    already was mentioned as an opponent. In Berlin, therefore, one
+    already reckoned upon war with England.
+
+    Before my departure Sir Edward Grey received me on Aug. 5 at his
+    house. I went there at his desire. He was deeply moved. He said
+    to me that he would always be ready to mediate, and "We do not
+    want to crush Germany." Unfortunately this confidential
+    conversation was published, and thereby von Bethmann Hollweg
+    destroyed the last possibility of reaching a peace via England.
+
+
+    Questions of Guilt
+
+    As it appears from all official publications without the facts
+    being controverted by our own White Book, which, owing to its
+    poverty and gaps, constitutes a grave self-accusation:
+
+    1. We encouraged Count Berchtold to attack Serbia, although no
+    German interest was involved and the danger of a world war must
+    have been known to us; whether we knew the text of the ultimatum
+    is a question of complete indifference.
+
+    2. In the days between July 23 and 30, 1914, when Sazonoff
+    emphatically declared that Russia could not tolerate an attack
+    on Serbia, we rejected the British proposals of mediation,
+    although Serbia, under Russian and British pressure, had
+    accepted almost the whole ultimatum, and although an agreement
+    about the two points in question could easily have been reached
+    and Berchtold was even ready to satisfy himself with the Serbian
+    reply.
+
+    3. On July 30, when Berchtold wanted to give way, we, without
+    Austria having been attacked, replied to Russia's mere
+    mobilization by sending an ultimatum to St. Petersburg, and on
+    July 31 we declared war on the Russians, although the Czar had
+    pledged his word that as long as negotiations continued not a
+    man should march--so that we deliberately destroyed the
+    possibility of a peaceful settlement.
+
+    [Illustration: PRINCE LICHNOWSKY]
+
+    In view of these indisputable facts, it is not surprising that
+    the whole world outside of Germany attributes to us sole guilt
+    for the world war.
+
+
+THE BAGDAD RAILWAY
+
+Anglo-German negotiations concerning the Berlin-Bagdad Railway and
+German naval and commercial jealousy of Great Britain are touched upon
+in further sections of the personal memorandum.
+
+Prince Lichnowsky says that the Bagdad Railway treaty aimed in fact at a
+division of Asia Minor into spheres of interest, although this
+expression was carefully avoided in consideration of the rights of the
+Sultan of Turkey. Sir Edward Grey asserted repeatedly that there was no
+agreement between England and France aiming at a division of Asia Minor.
+The greatest concession that Sir Edward made to Prince Lichnowsky
+personally was for the continuation of the railway line to Basra.
+
+By this treaty the whole of Mesopotamia up to Basra became a German zone
+of interest by which all British rights and the question of shipping on
+the Tigris were left untouched. The British economic territories, the
+Prince adds, included the coasts of the Persian Gulf and the Smyrna-Aden
+Railway, the French territory was Syria, and the Russian Armenia. Had
+the treaty been concluded and published, he continues, an agreement
+would have been reached with Great Britain which would have finally
+ended all doubt of the possibility of Anglo-German co-operation.
+
+
+GERMANY'S NAVAL THREAT
+
+Referring to the difficult question of German naval activity, Prince
+Lichnowsky says that the creation of a mighty fleet on the other shore
+of the North Sea and the simultaneous development of the Continent's
+most important military power into a most important naval power had at
+least to be recognized by Great Britain as uncomfortable. To preserve
+the supremacy of the seas which Great Britain must have in order not to
+go down, the Prince adds, she had to undertake preparations and expenses
+which weighed heavily on the taxpayers. Nevertheless, the powers become
+reconciled to the German fleet in its definite strength. Obviously it
+was not welcome to Great Britain and, the Prince says, constituted one
+of the motives, but neither the only nor the most important motive, for
+England to join hands with Russia and France.
+
+On account of the German fleet alone, Prince Lichnowsky says, Great
+Britain would have drawn the sword as little as on account of German
+trade, "which, it is pretended, called forth her jealousy and finally
+brought about war."
+
+
+"NAVAL HOLIDAY"
+
+During Prince Lichnowsky's term of office Winston Spencer Churchill,
+then First Lord of the Admiralty, raised the question of the so-called
+naval holiday, proposing it for financial reasons as much as on account
+of the pacifist inclinations of his party. Churchill wanted a pause of
+one year in building ships. Prince Lichnowsky maintains it would have
+been difficult to support this plan on account of the workmen employed
+and the technical personnel. The German naval program was settled, and
+it would have been difficult to alter it. The Prince asserts that it was
+possible, in spite of the German fleet and without a naval holiday, to
+come to an understanding. In that spirit he had carried out his mission
+and had almost succeeded in realizing his program when the war broke out
+and destroyed everything.
+
+Discussing the question of trade jealousy, Prince Lichnowsky says it
+rested on a faulty judgment of circumstances. In British commercial
+circles, he says, he found the greatest good-will and the desire for
+further economic interests in common. In order to get in touch with the
+most important business circles he accepted invitations from the
+Chambers of Commerce in London, Bradford, Newcastle, and Liverpool, and
+he had a hearty reception everywhere.
+
+In conclusion Prince Lichnowsky gives his impressions of English
+society. King George he describes as very amiable and well-meaning, with
+sound understanding and common sense, and invariably well disposed
+toward the German Ambassador.
+
+
+LICHNOWSKY EXPLAINS
+
+The German Vice Chancellor, Friedrich von Payer, announced in the
+Reichstag late in March that on account of the disclosures Prince
+Lichnowsky had resigned his rank and expressed regrets. Herr von Payer
+stated that Prince Lichnowsky himself, on March 15, made a statement to
+the Imperial Chancellor in which he said:
+
+    Your Excellency knows that the purely private notes which I
+    wrote down in the Summer of 1916 found their way into wider
+    circles by an unprecedented breach of confidence. It was mainly
+    a question of subjective considerations about our entire foreign
+    policy since the Berlin Congress. I perceived in the policy
+    hitherto pursued of repelling Russia and in the extension of the
+    policy of alliances to Oriental questions the real roots of the
+    world war. I then submitted our Morocco naval policy to a brief
+    examination. My London mission could at the same time not
+    remain out of consideration, especially as I felt need in regard
+    to the future and with a view to my own justification of noting
+    the details of my experiences and impressions there before they
+    vanished from my memory.
+
+Prince Lichnowsky then described how the memorandum, which he had shown
+to a few political friends, got into wider circulation owing to an
+indiscretion, and finally expressed lively regret at such an extremely
+vexatious incident.
+
+
+VICE CHANCELLOR'S REPLY
+
+Herr von Payer said that Prince Lichnowsky had meanwhile tendered his
+resignation of his present rank, which had been accepted, and, as he had
+doubtless no bad intention, but had simply been guilty of imprudence, no
+further steps would be taken against him. The Vice Chancellor proceeded:
+
+    Some assertions in his document must, however, be contradicted,
+    especially his assertions about political events in the last
+    months preceding the war. Prince Lichnowsky was not of his own
+    knowledge acquainted with these events, but he apparently
+    received from a third and wrongly informed quarter inaccurate
+    information. The key to mistakes and false conclusions may also
+    be the Prince's overestimation of his own services, which are
+    accompanied by hatred against those who do not recognize his
+    achievements as he expected. The entire memorandum is penetrated
+    by a striking veneration for foreign diplomats, especially the
+    British, who are described in a truly affectionate manner, and
+    on the other hand by an equally striking irritation against
+    almost all German statesmen. The result was that the Prince
+    frequently regarded Germany's most zealous enemies as her best
+    friends because they were personally on good terms with him. The
+    fact that, as he admits, he attached at first no great
+    importance to the assassination of the heir to the Austrian
+    throne, and was displeased that the situation was judged
+    otherwise in Berlin, makes it plain that the Prince had no clear
+    judgment for the events that followed and their import.
+
+
+VON PAYER'S DENIALS
+
+The Vice Chancellor then characterized as false all Prince Lichnowsky's
+assertions about General von Moltke's urging war at the Potsdam Crown
+Council of July 5, 1914, and the dispatch of the Austrian protocol by
+"this alleged Crown Council" to Count Mensdorff with the postscript
+that it would be no great harm even if war with Russia arose out of it.
+
+Herr von Payer also denied the statement that the then Foreign Secretary
+was in Vienna in 1914, as well as the statement that Count von
+Pourtales, the German Ambassador in Petrograd, had reported that Russia
+would in no circumstances move. The Sukhomlinoff trial had shown how
+unfounded were Prince Lichnowsky's reproaches against Germany for
+replying to the Russian mobilization by an ultimatum and a declaration
+of war. It was also false to assert that the German Government rejected
+all Great Britain's mediation proposals. Lord Grey's last mediation
+proposal was very urgently supported in Vienna by Berlin. The aim of the
+memorandum was obvious. It was to show the reader how much better and
+more intelligent Prince Lichnowsky's policy was and how he could have
+assured the peace of the empire if his advice had been followed. The
+Vice Chancellor added: "The memorandum will cause enough harm among
+malevolent and superficial people; it has no historical value whatever."
+
+Dr. Payer then discussed the revelations of Dr. Muehlon, at present in
+Switzerland. Dr. Muehlon, an ex-Director of Krupps, had made a statement
+according to which he had a conference with two exalted personages in
+the latter half of July, 1914, from which it appeared that it was not
+the intention of the German Government to maintain peace. The Vice
+Chancellor alleged that Dr. Muehlon was suffering from neurasthenia at
+the time, and that no importance could be attached to his revelations,
+since the two gentlemen referred to had denied making the statements
+attributed to them.
+
+
+VON STUMM'S STATEMENT
+
+Herr von Stumm, Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, said that while in
+London the Prince devoted himself zealously to his task. His views had
+frequently not agreed with those of the German Foreign Office,
+especially regarding his strong optimism in reference to Anglo-German
+relations. When his hopes, aiming at an Anglo-German understanding, were
+destroyed by the war, the Prince returned to Germany "greatly excited,"
+and even then did not restrain his criticism of German policy. His
+excitement increased owing to attacks against him in the German press.
+All these circumstances, said von Stumm, must be taken into
+consideration when gauging the value of the memorandum.
+
+In the subsequent discussion disapproval of Prince Lichnowsky's attitude
+was expressed, but some speakers urged the need for the reorganization
+of Germany's diplomatic service.
+
+According to the report of the debate published by the Neues Wiener
+Journal, Herr von Payer himself acknowledged that prior to the war
+German diplomacy had made some bad blunders, and that reform was
+urgently needed. Herr Mueller (Progressive) sharply criticised Herr von
+Flotow, who was German Ambassador in Rome at the beginning of the war,
+and charged him with having declared to the Marquis di San Giuliano,
+then Italian Foreign Minister, that there existed for Italy no casus
+foederis. Prince Buelow also came in for severe criticism.
+
+
+
+
+The Former Foreign Minister's Reply
+
+
+The former Foreign Minister of Germany, Herr von Jagow, published a
+reply to Prince Lichnowsky in the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, in
+which he virtually confirmed the Prince's main assertions. He applied
+such phrases as "an unheard-of assertion," "a mass of inaccuracies and
+perversions," to Lichnowsky's memorandum, but he did not meet the former
+Ambassador's charges with any new evidence, merely referring his readers
+to former publications of the German Government.
+
+Von Jagow's reply bears out the assertion that in 1913 England was
+prepared to enter into friendly agreements with Germany. She was "ready
+to meet us." A Bagdad railway agreement was almost completed when
+Germany drew the sword. Negotiations about the future of the African
+colonies of Portugal in certain contingencies had been resumed, and the
+German Foreign Secretary looked forward to further agreements in the Far
+East and elsewhere.
+
+The former Foreign Minister refuses to adopt the Pan-German view that
+"England laid all the mines which caused the war." On the contrary, he
+bears witness with former Ambassador Lichnowsky to Sir Edward Grey's
+"love of peace and his serious wish to reach an agreement with us." He
+says that it is true that Sir Edward could have prevented war, but he is
+careful not to indicate how. Presumably he means he could have done it
+by following Germany's example and treating England's engagements as
+"scraps of paper."
+
+He agrees that the war was not popular with the British people, and that
+Belgium had to serve as a battlecry. Germany, on the other hand, had to
+maintain her prestige. It had been damaged by her political defeat in
+Morocco. A fresh diminution of it would have been, he remarks,
+"intolerable for our position in Europe and in the world."
+
+In one point of fact he corrects Prince Lichnowsky. He denies that he
+himself visited Vienna at any time between the Spring of 1913 and the
+outbreak of the war. He confirms, as far as he remembers, all the
+expressions attributed to him by Lichnowsky.
+
+His only reference to the Potsdam Council of July 5, 1914, (when, it is
+asserted, the Teuton leaders made the final decision for war,) is not a
+denial that the meeting took place, but a single sentence: "On July 5 I
+was absent from Berlin."
+
+In regard to Lichnowsky's main charges, Herr von Jagow talks of
+"unheard-of" assertions and "inaccuracies and perversions," but he does
+not bring forward any fresh arguments to meet the charges, and merely
+refers to the publications of the German Government concerning the
+conversations which took place in June, 1914, between the Kaiser and
+Archduke Francis Ferdinand. Herr von Jagow says:
+
+    At Konopischt no plan was laid down (festgelegt) for an active
+    policy against Serbia. Archduke Francis Ferdinand was not at all
+    an advocate of a policy leading to war, although he was often
+    reckoned as such. During the London conference he advised
+    moderation and avoidance of war.
+
+Herr van Jagow here avoids the issue raised by Lichnowsky, who did not
+say that a definite scheme was arranged at Konopischt, but that the
+indication was, not that Archduke Francis Ferdinand was in favor of war,
+but that his death was a positive relief to the advocates of war.
+
+In the course of his statement Herr von Jagow, who remained Foreign
+Secretary until late in 1916, says:
+
+    When I was appointed State Secretary in January, 1913, it seemed
+    to me that a German-English rapprochement was desirable, and an
+    understanding upon those points where our interests touched and
+    sometimes even crossed, and this I deemed feasible. At least, it
+    was my intention to work on this.
+
+With regard to the Bagdad question Herr von Jagow says:
+
+    If England insisted upon excluding us from Mesopotamia, it
+    appeared to me that a conflict would be avoided with difficulty.
+    We were met in a conciliatory manner by the English Government,
+    and an agreement had almost been reached just previous to the
+    outbreak of the world war.
+
+He meets Lichnowsky's assertion that Germany drove Russia "into the arms
+of France and England by our Oriental and Balkan policy" with the
+contention that the Pan-Slavism which governed Russian politics was
+directly anti-German. Upon the London conference on Algeciras he says:
+
+    We no more desired war on Albania's account than did Sir Edward
+    Grey. That is why, in spite of our former experiences at
+    Algeciras, we consented to the conference. The merit of a
+    conciliatory attitude at the conference must not be denied to
+    Sir Edward Grey, but it is going a little too far to say that he
+    in nowise took up his stand on the side of the Entente. He
+    certainly often urged St. Petersburg to give way, and found
+    principles of accord (Einigungs Formeln) suitable to this end.
+    But outwardly he represented the Entente, as he could no more
+    leave his associates in the lurch than could we. Nor did he wish
+    to do so.
+
+    On the other hand, the assertion that we adopted without
+    exception the standpoint prescribed for us by Vienna is
+    absolutely untrue. We played, as England did, a conciliatory
+    role, and urged moderation upon Vienna far more than Lichnowsky
+    seems to be aware of, or at any rate admits. Vienna thereupon
+    made a variety of the most far-reaching concessions, Dibra and
+    Djakowa.
+
+
+ENGLAND EXONERATED
+
+Mentioning the Serajevo murders as the climax of the continued Russian
+provocations against Austria, von Jagow says:
+
+    The prestige and existence of the Danube monarchy were at stake.
+    We could not agree to the English proposal concerning a
+    conference of Ministers, as it would doubtless have led to a
+    serious diplomatic defeat for us.
+
+    I do not intend to adopt the theory now widespread among us that
+    England was the originator of all the intrigues leading to the
+    war. On the contrary, I believe in Sir Edward Grey's love of
+    peace and his genuine desire to arrive at an understanding with
+    us, but he had allowed himself to become too hopelessly
+    entangled in the network of Franco-Russian policy. He could find
+    no way out, and therefore failed to do that which had been in
+    his power to prevent the world war. War was not popular among
+    the English people, therefore Belgium had to serve as a battle
+    cry.
+
+At the end of his observations von Jagow restates his policy as follows:
+
+    I also pursued a policy which aimed at an agreement with England
+    because I was of the opinion that this was the only road by
+    which we could get out of the unfavorable situation into which
+    the unequal distribution of strength and weakness of the Triple
+    Alliance had brought us. Political marriages "until death us do
+    part" are, as Prince Lichnowsky says, impossible in
+    international relations, but in the existing state of affairs in
+    Europe isolations are equally impossible. The history of Europe
+    is composed of coalitions, some of which have led to avoidance
+    of wars and some to violent conflicts. A loosening and final
+    dissolution of old unions, which no longer satisfy all
+    conditions, cannot be recommended until new constellations are
+    within reach. That was the aim of our policy of rapprochement
+    with England. As long as this policy did not provide trustworthy
+    guarantees we could not abandon the old securities and
+    obligations which they involved.
+
+    Our Morocco policy led to political defeat. Happily, this had
+    been avoided in the Bosnian crisis and at the London conference.
+    Fresh diminution of our prestige was intolerable for our
+    position in Europe and in the world. Prosperity of States and
+    their political and economic successes depend upon the prestige
+    which they enjoy in the world.
+
+
+A FURTHER ACKNOWLEDGMENT
+
+Captain Persius, the military editor of the Berlin Tageblatt, in
+discussing the revelations of Prince Lichnowsky and the reply of Herr
+von Jagow in their relation to a possible peace by agreement, used these
+words:
+
+"An understanding ought to be easier, now that we have heard from two
+opposing sources, from von Jagow and Lichnowsky, that England was not
+responsible for the war, as has been believed hitherto in wide circles
+in Germany."
+
+
+Decrease of Birth Rate in Hungary
+
+_The following statistics were read by the Karolyist Deputy, Lodovico
+Hollo, to the Hungarian Chamber of Deputies, at the session of Jan. 16,
+1918: _
+
+(1) Births.--Before the war 765,000 children a year were born in
+Hungary. In the first year of the war, 1914, the number of births was
+reduced by 18,000; in 1915 only 481,000 children were born--that is,
+284,000 less than in time of peace. In 1916 the number of births was
+333,000--that is, a reduction of 432,000. In 1917 the births amounted to
+328,000--that is, the reduction was 438,000. Therefore our losses (in
+Hungary alone) behind the front reach the number of 1,172,866
+individuals.
+
+(2) Deaths.--Whereas in time of peace infant mortality for a period of
+seven years was 34 per cent., in 1915 the proportion was increased to 48
+per cent. and in 1916 to 50 per cent.
+
+These facts prove what sacrifices Hungary is making, to the prejudice of
+her own people, to continue the war.
+
+
+
+
+Count Czernin on Peace Terms
+
+A Reply to President Wilson and a Survey of Results of the Russian Peace
+Treaties
+
+    _Count Czernin, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, delivered
+    an address April 2, 1918, to a deputation of the Vienna City
+    Council, in the nature of a reply to President Wilson's address
+    of Feb. 11 on "Peace Aims," the text of which appeared in the
+    March issue of Current History Magazine. Count Czernin spoke as
+    follows:_
+
+
+GENTLEMEN: I am quite ready to reply to the questions put by the
+Burgomaster and thereby to give both you and the wider public a full
+view of political conditions as I see them at the moment. I had hoped to
+speak before the competent forum, but the fact that one of our
+commissions cannot meet at present makes this impossible, so I take this
+opportunity of affording in brief a review of the international
+situation.
+
+With the signing of peace with Rumania the war in the east is ended.
+Three treaties of peace have been signed--with Petrograd, Ukraine, and
+Rumania. One principal section of the war is thus ended.
+
+Before discussing the separate peaces which have been signed, and before
+going into details, I wish to return to the statements of the President
+of the United States wherein he replied to the speech I made before the
+delegations on Jan. 24. In many parts of the world Mr. Wilson's speech
+was regarded as an attempt to drive a wedge between Vienna and Berlin. I
+do not believe that, because I have much too high an opinion of Mr.
+Wilson's statesmanship to suspect him of such a train of thought.
+
+According to my impressions, Mr. Wilson does not want to separate Vienna
+from Berlin. He does not desire that, and knows that it is impossible.
+
+He perhaps thinks, however, that Vienna presents more favorable soil for
+sowing the seeds of a general peace. He has perhaps said to himself that
+the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy has the good fortune to have a monarch who
+genuinely and honorably desires a general peace, but that this monarch
+will never be guilty of a breach of faith; that he will never make a
+shameful peace, and that behind this monarch stand 55,000,000 souls.
+
+I imagine that Mr. Wilson says to himself that this closely knit mass of
+people represents a force which is not to be disregarded and that this
+honorable and firm will to peace with which the monarch is imbued and
+which binds him to the peoples of both States is capable of carrying a
+great idea in the service of which Mr. Wilson has also placed himself.
+
+Before I discuss Mr. Wilson's last utterances I would like to clear up
+one misunderstanding. In my last speech which I delivered before the
+Austrian delegations I replied to an inquiry in this connection that
+probably Mr. Wilson was already in possession of my utterances. Later
+Mr. Wilson corrected this, and pointed out that there must be some
+mistake. I had prepared my speech beforehand, so as to avoid any
+possibility of its being incorrectly or incompletely transmitted, and at
+the moment I made my speech I supposed that it had already reached
+Washington. Apparently, however, it only arrived there some days later.
+
+This does not affect the matter itself. My object was to assure that the
+President of the United States should get the exact text of my speech,
+and this object was attained and the trifling delay of a few days was a
+matter of indifference.
+
+With regard to Mr. Wilson's reply, I can only say that I consider it
+very important that the German Chancellor, in his admirable speech of
+Feb. 25, took the answer out of my mouth and declared that the four
+points developed by Mr. Wilson in his speech of Feb. 11 are the basis
+upon which a general peace can be discussed. I entirely agree with him
+in this.
+
+President Wilson's four points are a suitable basis upon which to begin
+negotiating about a general peace. The question is whether or not Mr.
+Wilson will succeed in uniting his allies upon this basis.
+
+
+SAYS FRANCE ASKED TERMS
+
+God is my witness that we have tried everything possible to avoid a new
+offensive. The Entente would not have it. A short time before the
+beginning of the offensive in the west M. Clemenceau inquired of me
+whether and upon what basis I was prepared to negotiate. I immediately
+replied, in agreement with Berlin, that I was ready to negotiate, and
+that as regards France I saw no other obstacle for peace than France's
+desire for Alsace-Lorraine.
+
+The reply from Paris was that France was willing to negotiate only on
+that basis. There was then no choice left.
+
+The gigantic struggle in the west has already begun. Austro-Hungarian
+and German troops are fighting shoulder to shoulder as they did in
+Russia, Serbia, Rumania, and Italy. We are fighting united for the
+defense of Austria-Hungary and Germany. Our armies will show the Entente
+that French and Italian aspirations to portions of our territory are
+Utopias which will be terribly avenged.
+
+The explanation of this attitude of the Entente Powers, which verges on
+lunacy, is to a great extent to be sought in certain domestic events
+here, to which I shall return later. Whatever may happen, we shall not
+sacrifice German interests any more than Germany will desert us. Loyalty
+on the Danube is not less than German loyalty. We are not fighting for
+imperialist or annexationist ends, either for ourselves or for Germany,
+but we shall act together to the end for our defense, for our political
+existence and for our future.
+
+The first breach in the determination of our enemies to war has been
+driven by the peace negotiations with Russia. That was a break-through
+by the idea of peace.
+
+It is a symptom of childish dilettantism to overlook the close
+relationship of the various peace signatures with each other. The
+constellation of enemy powers in the east was like a net. When one mesh
+was cut through the remaining meshes loosened of their own accord.
+
+We first gave international recognition to the separation of Ukraine
+from Russia, which had to be accomplished as an internal affair of
+Russia. Profiting from resultant circumstances which were favorable to
+our aims, we concluded with the Ukraine the peace sought by that
+country.
+
+This gave the lead to peace with Petrograd, whereby Rumania was left
+standing alone, so that she also had to conclude peace. So one peace
+brought another, and the desired success, namely, the end of the war in
+the east, was achieved.
+
+The peace concluded with Rumania, it is calculated, will be the starting
+point of friendly relations. The slight frontier rectifications which we
+receive are not annexations. Wholly uninhabited regions, they serve
+solely for military protection. To those who insist that these
+rectifications fall under the category of annexations and accuse me of
+inconsistency, I reply that I have publicly protested against holding
+out a license to our enemies which would assure them against the dangers
+of further adventures.
+
+
+ROBBING RUMANIA
+
+From Russia I did not demand a single meter, but Rumania neglected the
+favorable moment. The protection of mercantile shipping in the lower
+Danube and the guarding of the Iron Gate are guaranteed by the extension
+of the frontier to the heights of Turnu-Severin, by leasing for thirty
+years a valuable wharf near this town, together with a strip along the
+river bank at an annual rental of 1,000 lei, and, finally, by obtaining
+the leasing rights to the islands of Ostrovo, Marecorbu, and Simearu,
+and the transfer of the frontier several kilometers southward in the
+region of the Petroseny coal mine, which better safeguards our
+possessions in the Szurdok Pass coal basin.
+
+Nagy-Szeben and Fogaras will receive a new security frontier of an
+average width of from 15 to 18 kilometers at all passes of importance,
+as, for instance, Predeal, Bodz, Gyimes, Bekas, and Tolgyes. The new
+frontier has been so far removed to Rumanian ground as military reasons
+require.
+
+The rectification east of Czernowitz has protected that city against
+future attacks.
+
+At the moment when we are successfully endeavoring to renew friendly and
+neighborly relations with Rumania, it is unlikely that we would open old
+wounds, but every one knows the history of Rumania's entrance into the
+war and will admit that it was my duty to protect the monarchy against
+future surprises of a similar kind.
+
+
+BURDENS OF THE FUTURE
+
+I consider the safest guarantee for the future, international agreements
+to prevent war. In such agreements, if they are framed in binding form,
+I should see much stronger guarantees against surprise attacks by
+neighbors than in frontier rectifications, but thus far, except in the
+case of President Wilson, I have been unable to discover among any of
+our enemies serious inclination to accept this idea. However, despite
+the small degree of approval this idea receives, I consider that it will
+be realized.
+
+Calculating the burdens with which the States of the world will emerge
+from the war, I vainly ask myself how they will cover military
+expenditures if competition in armaments remains unrestricted. I do not
+believe that it will be possible for the States after this war
+adequately to meet the increased requirements due to the war. I think,
+rather, that financial conditions will compel the States to enter into a
+compromise regarding the limitation of armaments.
+
+This calculation of mine is neither idealistic nor fantastic, but is
+based upon reality in politics in the most literal sense of the word. I,
+for my part, would consider it a great disaster if in the end there
+should be failure to achieve general agreements regarding the
+diminution of armaments.
+
+It is obvious that in the peace with Rumania we shall take precautions
+to have our interests in the questions of grain, food supply, and
+petroleum fully protected. We shall further take precautions that the
+Catholic Church and our schools receive the state of protection they
+need, and we shall solve the Jewish question. The Jew shall henceforth
+be a citizen with equal rights in Rumania.
+
+
+MAKING RUMANIA PAY
+
+The irredentist propaganda, which has produced so much evil in Hungary,
+will be restrained and, finally, precautions will be taken to obtain
+indemnification for the injustice innocently suffered by many of our
+countrymen owing to the war.
+
+We shall strive by means of a new commercial treaty and appropriate
+settlement of the railway and shipping questions to protect our economic
+interests in Rumania.
+
+Rumania's future lies in the east. Large portions of Bessarabia are
+inhabited by Rumanians, and there are many indications that the Rumanian
+population there desires close union with Rumania. If Rumania will adopt
+a frank, cordial, friendly attitude toward us we will have no objections
+to meeting those tendencies in Bessarabia. Rumania can gain much more in
+Bessarabia than she lost in the war.
+
+[Count Czernin said that he was anxious that the rectifications of the
+frontier should not leave any embitterment behind, and expressed the
+opinion that Rumania in her own interest must turn to the Central
+Powers.]
+
+In concluding peace with Rumania and Ukraine, it has been my first
+thought to furnish the monarchy with foodstuffs and raw materials.
+Russia did not come into consideration in this connection owing to the
+disorganization there.
+
+We agreed with Ukraine that the quantity of grain to be delivered to the
+Central Powers should be at least 1,000,000 tons. Thirty cars of grain
+and peas are now en route, 600 cars are ready to be transported, and
+these transports will be continued until the imports are organized and
+can begin regularly. Larger transports are rendered possible by the
+peace with Rumania, which enables goods to be sent from Odessa to Danube
+ports.
+
+We hope during May to undertake the first large transport from Ukraine.
+While I admit that the imports from Ukraine are still small and must be
+increased, nevertheless our food situation would have been considerably
+worse had this agreement not been concluded.
+
+From Rumania we will obtain a considerable surplus of last year's
+harvest. Moreover, about 400,000 tons of grain, peas, beans, and fodder
+must be transported via the Danube. Rumania must also immediately
+provide us with 800,000 sheep and pigs, which will improve our meat
+supply slightly.
+
+It is clear from this that everything will be done to obtain from the
+exploitation of the regions which peace has opened for us in the east
+whatever is obtainable. The difficulties of obtaining these supplies
+from Ukraine are still considerable, as no state of order exists there.
+But with the good-will of the Ukrainian Government and our organization
+we will succeed in overcoming the difficulties.
+
+An immediate general peace would not give us further advantages, as all
+Europe today is suffering from lack of foodstuffs. While the lack of
+cargo space prevents other nations from supplying themselves, the
+granaries of Ukraine and Rumania remain open to the Central Powers.
+
+[Replying to the annexationists, Count Czernin said:]
+
+The forcible annexation of foreign peoples would place difficulties in
+the way of a general peace, and such an extension of territories would
+not strengthen the empire. On the contrary, considering the grouping of
+the monarchy, they would weaken us. What we require are not territorial
+annexations, but economic safeguards for the future.
+
+We wish to do everything to create in the Balkans a situation of
+lasting calm. Not until the collapse of Russia did there cease to exist
+the factor which hitherto made it impossible for us to bring about a
+definite state of internal peace in the Balkans.
+
+We know that the desire for peace is very great in Serbia, but Serbia
+has been prevented by the Entente Powers from concluding it. Bulgaria
+must receive from Serbia certain districts inhabited by Bulgarians. We,
+however, have no desire to destroy Serbia. We will enable Serbia to
+develop, and we would welcome closer economic relations with her.
+
+We do not desire to influence the future relations between the monarchy
+and Serbia and Montenegro by motives conflicting with friendly,
+neighborly relations. The best state of egoism is to come to terms with
+a beaten neighbor, which leads to this: My egoism regarding
+Austria-Hungary is that after being conquered militarily our enemies
+must be conquered morally. Only then is victory complete, and in this
+respect diplomacy must finish the work of the armies.
+
+
+THE DESIRE FOR PEACE
+
+Since I came into office I have striven only after one aim, namely, to
+secure an honorable peace for the monarchy and to create a situation
+which will secure to Austria-Hungary future free development, and,
+moreover, to do everything possible to insure that this terrible war
+shall be the last one for time out of mind. I have never spoken
+differently. I do not intend to go begging for peace, or to obtain it by
+entreaties or lamentations, but to enforce it by our moral right and
+physical strength. Any other tactics, I consider, would contribute to
+the prolongation of the war.
+
+I must say, to my regret, that during the last few weeks and months much
+has been spoken and done in Austria that prolongs the war. Those who are
+prolonging the war are divided into various groups, according to their
+motives and tactics. There are, first, those who continuously beg for
+peace. They are despicable and foolish. To endeavor to conclude peace at
+any price is despicable, for it is unmanly, and it is foolish because
+it continuously feeds the already dying aggressive spirit of the enemy.
+The desire for peace of the great masses is natural as well as
+comprehensible, but the leaders of the people must consider that certain
+utterances produce abroad just the opposite effect from what they
+desire.
+
+Firmly relying on our strength and the justice of our cause, I have
+already concluded three moderate but honorable peace treaties. The rest
+of our enemies also begin to understand that we have no other desire
+than to secure the future of the monarchy and of our allies, and that we
+intend to enforce this and can and will enforce it. I shall unswervingly
+prosecute this course and join issue with any one who opposes me.
+
+The second group of war prolongers are the annexationists. It is a
+distortion of fact to assert that Germany has made conquests in the
+east. Lenine's anarchy drove the border people into the arms of Germany.
+Is Germany to refuse this involuntary choice of foreign border States?
+
+The German Government has as little desire for oppressions as we, and I
+am perfectly convinced that neither annexationists nor weaklings can
+prevent forever a moderate and honorable peace. They delay it, but they
+cannot prevent it.
+
+The hopes of our enemies of final victory are not merely based on
+military expectations and the blockade. They are based to a great extent
+on our interior political conditions and on certain political leaders,
+not forgetting the Czechs. Recently we were almost on the point of
+entering into negotiations with the Western Powers, when the wind
+suddenly veered round and, as we know with certainty, the Entente
+decided it had better wait, as parliamentary and political events in our
+country justified the hope that the monarchy would soon be defenseless.
+
+[Count Czernin attacked the Czech leaders and Czech troops, who, he
+declared, "criminally fight against their own country," and appealed to
+the people to be united against this "high treason." The Government, he
+said, was quite ready to proceed to the revision of the Constitution,
+but this would not be helped by those who hoped through the victory of
+the Entente to gain their ends. "If we expel this poison," he declared,
+"a general honorable peace is nearer than the public imagines, but no
+one has the right to remain aside in this last decisive struggle."]
+
+
+
+
+Great Britain's Reply to Count Czernin
+
+_Lord Robert Cecil, Parliamentary Under Secretary of Foreign Affairs,
+made the following statement in answer to Count Czernin_:
+
+
+Whatever doubt about Count Czernin might have existed before his latest
+declaration, there can be no doubt now that he stands for Prussian
+ideals and Prussian policy. I must confess that I prefer Prussian
+brutality to Austrian hypocrisy. If you are going to rob and strangle
+your neighbor it is better not to talk of your moderation.
+
+Count Czernin claims with the greatest audacity that he and his allies
+have just made proposals that are moderate, and even guided by the
+principles of self-determination, no annexations, and no indemnities. As
+far as self-determination is concerned, in every one of the new States
+they have set up they have done so without the slightest regard to the
+wishes of the peoples and no serious attempt was made even to follow
+racial boundaries or racial antecedents.
+
+The province of Dobrudja, (Rumania,) which has been handed over to
+Bulgaria, has only 18 per cent. Bulgarians and 50 per cent. Rumanians,
+and Southern Bessarabia, which apparently is offered to Rumania, is the
+part of Bessarabia having the fewest Rumanians. As for no annexations,
+Count Czernin claims that all he has done is to carry out slight
+frontier rectifications. What he really has done is to take an important
+part of the Danube and all the passes between Austria-Hungary and
+Rumania. Not only this, he has driven back the Carpathian frontier eight
+or ten miles.
+
+But the most hypocritical part of Czernin's peace terms, while affecting
+not to demand a war indemnity for the Central Powers, is the fact that
+they have imposed one of the heaviest war indemnities ever levied. It is
+a curious provision which applies to the new States that they are to be
+under no obligation whatever toward Russia arising from former relations
+with her. The result is to concentrate on the remainder of Russia the
+debt which hitherto was spread over the whole of Russia.
+
+No wonder that Count Czernin, in a moment of candor, says that in the
+conclusion of peace with the Ukraine and Rumania the first thought was
+to furnish Austria with necessary foodstuffs and material. That has been
+the object of this peace, and it has been accomplished by giving to
+Austria-Hungary such economic and strategic advantages as to place these
+two countries at the mercy of the Central Powers.
+
+From the Ukraine particularly Czernin claims there is to be secured all
+food obtainable. No doubt this will be not a question of purchase, but
+of seizure. All the cost of requisitions made by the Central Powers will
+be written off in Rumania.
+
+It will amount to L50,000,000. Beyond that they claim the exclusive
+right to exploit the petroleum fields, and any disputes arising from
+this are to be settled by a tribunal set up in Leipsic.
+
+
+
+
+Austro-French "Peace Initiative" Controversy
+
+Clemenceau Flatly Contradicts Czernin
+
+
+Count Czernin's assertion in his speech of April 2 that Premier
+Clemenceau of France had initiated a peace parley with Austria-Hungary
+was immediately denied by the French Premier with the curt declaration:
+"The statement is a lie." There followed a somewhat extended controversy
+on the subject, which Count Czernin sought to utilize for his own
+purposes of war diplomacy, and which is placed on record here for the
+side lights it sheds on a hitherto secret chapter of the continuous
+peace intrigues of the Central Powers.
+
+Premier Clemenceau's curt "dementi" was followed on April 6 by this
+official statement from the French Government:
+
+    Premier Clemenceau, upon assuming the duties of President of the
+    Council, found that conversations had been entered into in
+    Switzerland upon Austria's initiative between the Count
+    Revertata, a personal friend of Emperor Charles, and Commandant
+    Armand of the Second Bureau, French General Staff, designated
+    for that purpose by the French Minister at the time.
+
+    M. Clemenceau did not wish to assume the responsibility of
+    interrupting conferences which had yielded no results, but which
+    might furnish useful sources of information. Commandant Armand
+    thus was allowed to continue his journey in Switzerland, upon
+    the request of Count Revertata. Instructions were given M.
+    Armand in the presence of his chief by M. Clemenceau as follows:
+    "Listen and say nothing."
+
+    Count Revertata, becoming convinced that his attempt to bring
+    about a German peace was doomed to failure, in order fully to
+    characterize his mission, gave Commandant Armand a letter
+    written in his own hand, dated Feb. 25, 1918, the first sentence
+    of which reads: "During the month of August, 1917, with a view
+    to obtaining from the French Government a proposition to Austria
+    which might lead to future peace and be of such a nature as to
+    be susceptible of being indorsed by Austria and presented to the
+    German Government, conferences have been entered upon."
+
+    Count Revertata, being himself the solicitor, acknowledges it in
+    the following terms: "That the purpose was to obtain from the
+    French Government propositions of peace, under cover of Austria,
+    for transmission to Berlin."
+
+    Such is the fact established by an authenticated document which
+    Count Czernin has dared to refer to in the following terms:
+    "Clemenceau, shortly before the beginning of the offensive on
+    the western front, had me asked whether I was ready to enter
+    upon negotiations, and upon what basis." In speaking thus he
+    not only did not tell the truth, but told the opposite of truth,
+    which in France is termed "lying."
+
+    It is but natural that Premier Clemenceau should be unable to
+    restrain his indignation when Count Czernin, justly anxious as
+    to the final consequences of the western offensive, reversed the
+    roles with such audacity, representing the French Government as
+    begging for peace at the very moment when, with our allies, we
+    were preparing for the infliction of a supreme defeat upon the
+    Central Empires.
+
+    It would be too easy to recall to what extent Austria has
+    importuned Rome, Washington, and London with solicitations for
+    an alleged separate peace which had no other aim than to slip
+    upon us the yoke which she professes to find to her taste. Who
+    does not know the story of a recent meeting (in Switzerland, of
+    course) of a former Austrian Ambassador and a figure high in the
+    councils of the Entente Allies? The conferences lasted only a
+    few minutes. Here again it was not our ally who sought the
+    interview. It was the Austrian Government.
+
+    Does not Count Czernin remember another attempt of the same sort
+    made in Paris and London only two months before that of Count
+    Revertata by a person of much higher rank? That again, as in the
+    present case, is authentic, but much more significant proof
+    exists.
+
+
+CONFIRMED BY PAINLEVE
+
+Professor Paul Painleve, who preceded M. Clemenceau as Premier, issued
+the following explanatory statement:
+
+    During the year 1917 Austria made several attempts to open
+    semi-official negotiations with the Entente Allies. Notably in
+    June, 1917, I was advised by the Second Bureau that Austria,
+    through the person of Count Revertata, had several times asked,
+    through a Swiss intermediary, for an interview with the officer
+    attached to the Second Bureau, Major Armand, a distant relative.
+
+    Alexander Ribot, then Premier, having been consulted, Major
+    Armand and Count Revertata met in August, 1917. The matter
+    stopped there, and no interview took place from August until
+    November, when I left office.
+
+    The events which occurred afterward naturally are unknown to me,
+    but I presume, from the statement made by Premier Clemenceau,
+    that Count Revertata returned to the charge.
+
+
+AUSTRIA'S OFFICIAL STATEMENT
+
+The following official statement regarding the matter was issued the
+same day at Vienna by the Imperial Government:
+
+    On instructions from the Foreign Minister Count Revertata,
+    Counselor of the Legation in Switzerland, repeatedly had
+    discussions in Switzerland with a confidential agent of M.
+    Clemenceau, Count Armand, attached to the French War Ministry,
+    who was sent to Switzerland to interview Count Revertata. As a
+    result of the interview of these two gentlemen in Freiburg,
+    Switzerland, on Feb. 2, the question was discussed whether and
+    on what basis a discussion concerning the bringing about of a
+    general peace would be possible between the Foreign Ministers of
+    Austria-Hungary and France, or between official representatives
+    of these Ministers.
+
+    Thereupon Count Revertata, after obtaining instructions from the
+    Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, toward the close of February
+    declared on behalf of the Minister to Count Armand, for
+    communication to M. Clemenceau, that Count Czernin was prepared
+    for a discussion with a representative of France, and regarded
+    it as possible to hold a conversation with the prospect of
+    success as soon as France renounced its plan for the conquest of
+    Alsace-Lorraine.
+
+    Count Revertata received a reply in the name of M. Clemenceau to
+    the effect that the latter was not in a position to accept the
+    proposed renunciation by France of this disannexation, so that a
+    meeting of the representatives at that time would, in the view
+    of both parties, be useless.
+
+
+GENERAL SMUTS'S TESTIMONY
+
+The Paris Matin on April 7 stated that General Smuts, South African
+representative in the British Cabinet, was the "figure high in the
+councils of the Entente Allies" referred to by the French Government in
+the statement of April 5 denying the assertion of Count Czernin that the
+French Prime Minister had sought to open peace negotiations with
+Austria-Hungary. The representative of the Dual Monarchy who met General
+Smuts in Switzerland was Count Mensdorff-Pouilly-Dietrichstein,
+Austro-Hungarian Ambassador at London when the war broke out.
+Immediately upon being introduced to Count Mensdorff, says the
+newspaper, General Smuts, taking the initiative in the conversation,
+bluntly said:
+
+"Is it true that you wish to make a separate peace?"
+
+This direct query was too much for the trained diplomat, and the Count
+began a long, evasive reply.
+
+"Yes or no?" reiterated the British representative.
+
+Obtaining no direct reply General Smuts said:
+
+"Then--good-night!"
+
+The interview lasted barely three minutes. Vienna was shocked, Le Matin
+says, at the boorish manner of the "old Transvaal warrior."
+
+
+VIENNA'S SECOND STATEMENT
+
+Further elaboration of Count Czernin's version of the case was proffered
+on April 8 in a second official statement issued at Vienna by the
+Austro-Hungarian Foreign Office, as follows:
+
+    In contrast to the first brief declaration of Premier
+    Clemenceau, in which he gave the lie to Foreign Minister
+    Czernin, it is observed with satisfaction that M. Clemenceau's
+    statement of April 6 admits that discussions in regard to the
+    question of peace took place between two confidential agents of
+    Austria-Hungary and France. The account given by M. Clemenceau
+    of the initiation and course of these negotiations, and likewise
+    the statement by M. Painleve on the same subject, however,
+    deviate in many important particulars and to such a degree from
+    the facts that a detailed correction of the French communication
+    appears to be necessary.
+
+    In July, 1917, Count Revertata was requested by an intermediary
+    in the name of the French Government to state whether he was in
+    a position to receive a communication from that Government to
+    the Government of Austria-Hungary. When Count Revertata, after
+    having obtained the sanction of the Austro-Hungarian Government,
+    replied in the affirmative to this inquiry, in the same
+    month--July, 1917--Major Armand was charged with such
+    communication by the then French Premier, Ribot. He arrived on
+    Aug. 7, 1917, at Count Revertata's private residence in
+    Freiburg, the Count being distantly related to him.
+
+    Major Armand then addressed to Count Revertata a question as to
+    whether discussions between France and Austria-Hungary were
+    possible. Thus the initiative for these discussions was taken
+    from the French side.
+
+    Count Revertata reported to the Austro-Hungarian Foreign
+    Minister that this question had been put on instructions of the
+    French Government, and the Minister thereupon requested Count
+    Revertata to enter into discussions with the French confidential
+    agent, and in the course of these discussions to establish
+    whether by this means a basis for bringing about a general peace
+    could be secured.
+
+    On Aug. 22 and 23 Count Revertata entered into discussions with
+    Major Armand, which, however, as Premier Clemenceau quite
+    correctly declares, yielded no result. The negotiations
+    thereupon were broken off.
+
+
+    Parleys Resumed in January
+
+    The Clemenceau version that the discussions between Revertata
+    and Armand were proceeding on his entry into office is
+    incorrect. Not until January, 1918, did Armand, this time on
+    instructions from Clemenceau, again get in touch with Revertata.
+    The thread had been broken in August, 1917, and was therefore
+    again taken up by Clemenceau himself in January, 1918.
+
+    From this fresh contact there resulted the discussions referred
+    to in the official communique of April 4, 1918. It is, however,
+    correct that Count Revertata handed to Major Armand on Feb. 23,
+    1918, the memorandum regarding which Premier Clemenceau only
+    cites the first sentence and which confirms that in the
+    discussions with Armand, which had taken place in August, 1917,
+    Revertata was charged with the task of finding out whether
+    proposals were obtainable from the French Government, which had
+    addressed to Austria-Hungary an offer of a basis for a general
+    peace, and also whether they would be such as Austria-Hungary
+    could bring to the knowledge of her allies.
+
+    It, therefore, entirely corresponded with the facts when Count
+    Czernin in his speech on April 2 last declared that Premier
+    Clemenceau, some time before the beginning of the western
+    offensive, had inquired of me whether I was prepared for
+    negotiations and on what basis.
+
+    The accusation of lying brought against Count Czernin by M.
+    Clemenceau cannot therefore be maintained, even in the
+    restricted sense made by the present communique of the French
+    Government.
+
+
+    Admits Other Peace Manoeuvres
+
+    Nothing is known to the Austro-Hungarian Government of
+    entreaties for an alleged separate peace with which the
+    Austro-Hungarian Government worried the Governments of Rome,
+    Washington, and London. When M. Clemenceau asks the
+    Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister whether he remembers that two
+    months before the Revertata affair--that is, about a year
+    ago--an attempt of a like nature was made by a personage of far
+    higher rank, Count Czernin does not hesitate to reply in the
+    affirmative. But for the sake of completeness and entire
+    correctness it should be added that this attempt also led to no
+    result.
+
+    So much for the establishment of the facts. For the rest, it
+    need only be remarked that Count Czernin for his part would see
+    no reason to deny it if, in this or any similar case, he had
+    taken the initiative, because, in contrast to M. Clemenceau, he
+    believes that it cannot be a matter for reproach for a
+    Government to make attempts to bring about an honorable peace,
+    which would liberate all peoples from the terrors of the present
+    war.
+
+    The dispute raised by M. Clemenceau has, moreover, diverted
+    attention from the real kernel of Count Czernin's statement. The
+    essence of this statement was not so much who suggested the
+    discussions undertaken before the beginning of the western
+    offensive, but who caused their collapse. And M. Clemenceau up
+    to the present has not denied that he refused to enter upon
+    negotiations on the basis of the renunciation of the
+    reacquisition of Alsace-Lorraine.
+
+
+RETORT BY CLEMENCEAU
+
+Premier Clemenceau replied to this Vienna statement on the same day by
+issuing the following:
+
+    A diluted lie is still a lie. Count Czernin told a lie when he
+    said that some time before the German offensive began Premier
+    Clemenceau caused him to be asked "if he was ready to open
+    negotiations and upon what basis."
+
+    As to the passage in the manuscript note of Count Revertata,
+    where he says he acted for Austria to obtain peace proposals
+    from France, the solicitant's text is authentic, and Count
+    Czernin has not dared to dispute it.
+
+    To hide his confusion he tries to maintain that the conversation
+    was resumed at the request of M. Clemenceau. Unfortunately for
+    him, there is a fact which reduces his allegation to nothing,
+    namely, that Clemenceau was apprised of the matter on Nov. 18,
+    1917, (that is to say, the day after he took over the Ministry
+    of War,) by communication from the intermediary dated Nov. 10,
+    and intended for his predecessors. For Count Czernin's
+    contention to be true, M. Clemenceau would have had to take the
+    initiative in question before he was Premier. Thus Count Czernin
+    is categorically contradicted by facts.
+
+    He is reduced to maintaining that Major Armand was M.
+    Clemenceau's confidential man. Well, until this incident M.
+    Clemenceau had seen this officer of the Intelligence Department
+    only once, for five minutes at a riding school fifteen or twenty
+    years ago.
+
+    Finally, Count Czernin, as a last resource, says that what he
+    attributes to M. Clemenceau is unimportant. "What is really
+    important," he affirms, "is not to know who took the initiative
+    for the conversations before the offensive, but who caused them
+    to fail." Then why all this fuss? To demonstrate that every
+    French Government, like France itself, is immovable on the
+    question of Alsace-Lorraine?
+
+    Who could have thought it would have been necessary for Count
+    Revertata to elucidate for Count Czernin a question upon which
+    the Emperor of Austria himself has said the last word? It was no
+    other than Emperor Charles who, in a letter dated March, 1917,
+    put on record in his own writing his adhesion to "France's just
+    claim relative to Alsace-Lorraine." A second imperial letter
+    stated that the Emperor was "in agreement with his Minister." It
+    only remained for Czernin to contradict himself.
+
+Ex-Premier Ribot stated on April 9 that during his Premiership "France
+never directly or through a neutral intermediary took the initiative in
+any such proceeding as the Austrian official communication asserted."
+
+
+German Designs on Madeira
+
+Colonel Lord Denbigh, in an address before the Royal Colonial Institute,
+London, recently told how German designs upon the Island of Madeira were
+checkmated by Great Britain in 1906. He said it was more or less a piece
+of secret history outside diplomatic and naval circles. At Madeira, he
+said, the Germans first took a hotel. Then they wanted a convalescent
+home, and, finally, desired to establish certain vested interests. They
+demanded certain concessions from Portugal. The German Ambassador, early
+in 1906, called on the Portuguese Government, and said that, if the
+concessions asked for were not granted, the Kaiser would send his navy
+up the Tagus to Lisbon. The Portuguese Government telegraphed to
+England, and that night the British Admiralty were on the point of
+mobilizing the whole resources of the British fleet. They thought of
+another way of meeting the situation, however, and sent the Atlantic
+fleet close up against the Portuguese coast. They let the Kaiser know
+what had happened through an undiplomatic source, with the result that
+next day the German Ambassador had to call again on the Portuguese
+Government and explain that he had exceeded his instructions.
+
+
+
+
+I.--Battle of Jutland: First Phase
+
+
+[Illustration:
+This diagram indicates the courses and ranges during the first stage of
+the battle, from the establishment of contact by the battle cruiser
+squadrons at 3:30 P. M. until the arrival of the German battle fleet
+about 5 P. M.
+
+The British battle cruisers, and, presumably, those of Hipper also, were
+formed in _bow and quarter line_; or _line of bearing_--the ships on
+parallel courses but diagonally astern of the leader. During the
+approach the light cruisers and destroyers on each side--the position of
+which is not indicated--were spread out ahead of the main squadrons. The
+British second light cruiser squadron later took station ahead of Beatty
+and at 4:38 gave warning of the approach of the German battle fleet.
+
+At 4:42 the British battle cruisers turned _in succession_, (squadron
+right countermarch,) the rear ships following the course of the leader.
+According to the diagram published with the official British reports in
+The London Times, Admiral Hipper's turn at 4:52 was _to the left_; but
+the German charts and some later British diagrams indicate the direction
+as above.]
+
+[Illustration: Graves of American soldiers who perished in the sinking
+of the Tuscania, at Port Charlotte, Island of Islay, Scotland
+(_Times Photo Service_)]
+
+[Illustration: County volunteers of Islay firing a volley at the funeral
+of Tuscania victims at Kilnaughton, to the accompaniment of bagpipe
+lament
+(_Times Photo Service_)]
+
+[Illustration: One of the many artistic posters used by the United
+States Government in the Third Liberty Loan campaign, April 6 to May 4,
+1918]
+
+
+
+
+II.--Battle of Jutland: Main Engagement
+
+
+[Illustration:
+This diagram covers the main engagement, from the approach of the German
+battle fleet about 5 P. M. until the British fleet assumed a southerly
+course at 9 P. M. At various points in the action German units are
+reported to have been disabled or driven out of the line. Owing to
+uncertainty as to exact time and place, these losses are not indicated.
+During the opening stage of the action (Chart I.) the visibility was at
+first "good," but after 4:18 "considerably obscured" toward the
+northeast. On the northward course, between 5 and 6, the British
+squadrons were "silhouetted against a clear horizon to westward, while
+the enemy were for the most part obscured by mist." After 6 P. M.
+visibility, though reduced, was favorable to the British. The sea was
+calm and the wind light throughout the action.]
+
+
+
+
+A Review of the Battle of Jutland
+
+By Thomas G. Frothingham
+
+_Member of Military Historical Society of Massachusetts and of the
+United States Naval Institute_
+
+    NOTE--_The reader of this review will be greatly helped in
+    following the movements of the opposing fleets by the two charts
+    on the preceding pages. These have been ably prepared by Allan
+    Westcott of the United States Naval Academy, and they should be
+    carefully studied._
+
+
+Sufficient time has now passed since the battle of Jutland (May 31,
+1916) to eliminate the early distorted versions of the action and to
+give a proper perspective of the tactics of the opposing fleets. To
+understand the battle, it is necessary to realize that it had become the
+custom of the British fleet to leave its safeguarded bases in the north
+of the British Isles and make periodical sweeps through the North Sea.
+At the beginning of his report of the battle Admiral Jellicoe describes
+this practice:
+
+    The ships of the Grand Fleet, in pursuance of the general policy
+    of periodical sweeps through the North Sea, had left its base on
+    the previous day in accordance with instructions issued by me.
+    In the early afternoon of Wednesday, May 31, the first and
+    second battle cruiser squadrons, the first, second, and third
+    light cruiser squadrons, and destroyers from the first, ninth,
+    tenth, and thirteenth flotillas, supported by the fifth battle
+    squadron, were, in accordance with my directions, scouting to
+    the southward of the battle fleet.
+
+With the object of engaging a fleet that had been usually so disposed
+and so employed, the Germans came out from their bases. For some time
+after the battle there were tales of other objectives--to cover the
+escape of raiders, to get ships through the Baltic, &c. But all these
+theories have been abandoned, and it is now agreed that the Germans
+planned to fight the superior British fleet under conditions
+advantageous to themselves. All the German manoeuvres indicate that this
+was their design, and no other.
+
+The opposing forces in the battle of Jutland were as follows:
+
+1. An advance British force under Vice Admiral Beatty, consisting of six
+battle cruisers, (four Lions of 28.5 knots speed, each carrying eight
+13.5-inch guns, and two Indefatigables of 25 knots speed, each carrying
+eight 12-inch guns,) supported by the fifth battle squadron, under Rear
+Admiral Evan-Thomas, (four 25-knot battleships of the Queen Elizabeth
+class, each carrying eight 15-inch guns.)
+
+The fleet speed of this advance force was 25 knots.
+
+2. The main body of the British Grand Fleet, under Admiral Jellicoe,
+flying his flag in the Iron Duke--consisting of a fast wing under Rear
+Admiral Hood, (three 26-knot battle cruisers of Invincible class, each
+carrying eight 12-inch guns,) a division of four armored cruisers under
+Rear Admiral Arbuthnot, and twenty-five dreadnoughts in three squadrons
+commanded by Vice Admirals Burney, Jerram, and Sturdee.
+
+The fleet speed of this main body was 20 knots, and its formidable
+armament will be found in the table on Page 338.
+
+3. About twenty light cruisers and 160 destroyers, divided between the
+advance force and the main body.
+
+The German strength comprised:
+
+1. An advance force under Vice Admiral Hipper, consisting of five battle
+cruisers, (three Derfflingers of probably 27 knots speed, each carrying
+eight 12-inch guns, and two Moltkes of probably 28 knots speed, each
+carrying ten 11-inch guns.)
+
+The fleet speed of this advance force was 27 knots.
+
+2. The main body of the German High Seas Fleet, under Admiral Scheer,
+consisting of sixteen dreadnoughts and six predreadnought battleships.
+
+[Illustration: CHART SHOWING POSITIONS IN BATTLE OF JUTLAND IN RELATION
+TO SURROUNDINGS OF THE NORTH SEA. (1) SCENE OF BATTLE. (2) POSITION OF
+BRITISH FLEET AT 3 A. M., JUNE 1, 1916, BEFORE RETRACING ITS COURSE TO
+THE BATTLEFIELD.]
+
+The fleet speed of this main body was 17 knots, because the German
+dreadnoughts had been eked out with predreadnought battleships of less
+speed. Four dreadnoughts carried twelve 11-inch guns each, four twelve
+12-inch guns each, the rest ten 12-inch guns each. The six old German
+battleships were very inferior, carrying only four heavy guns each.
+
+3. About twenty light cruisers and eighty or ninety destroyers, divided
+between the advance force and the main body.
+
+The above-described makeup of the opposing fleets must be kept in mind
+when studying the course of the action. The day of the battle was
+cloudy, but the sun shone through the clouds most of the time. At no
+time was there anything approaching a sea. Visibility was reported as
+good in the first stages of the action, but late in the afternoon, there
+being little wind, mist and smoke hung heavy over the surface of the
+sea. These conditions must also be remembered.
+
+
+DISPOSITION OF BRITISH FLEET
+
+First of all, it should be said that any criticism of Admiral Jellicoe
+as to the makeup of the British advance force is not justified. The
+Queen Elizabeth class of dreadnoughts had been designed with the great
+speed of 25 knots for the purpose of working with battle cruisers on
+such service. This gave them a speed that was uniform with the fleet
+speed of Vice Admiral Beatty's battle cruiser squadrons, although the
+individual ships of the Lion class were faster. The name ship of this
+battleship class, the Queen Elizabeth, had been through a long, racking
+service in the Dardanelles operations, and was not with the fleet. The
+other four ships of the class made up the fifth battle squadron under
+Rear Admiral Evan-Thomas, which was under Vice Admiral Beatty's command.
+
+This disposition of Admiral Jellicoe's fleet, with the advance force
+flung out ahead, seems sound from every tactical point of view, with the
+assumption that the advance was to be in touch with the main fleet, or,
+if out of touch, tactical possibilities had been provided for and plans
+of action prearranged.
+
+In the sweep through the North Sea, with the main body of the British
+Grand Fleet some fifty miles astern, Vice Admiral Beatty's advance force
+was cruising to southward of Admiral Jellicoe May 31, 1916, when, at
+2:20 P. M., the presence of enemy ships was reported by a light cruiser.
+Admiral Beatty altered course "to the eastward and subsequently to
+northeastward, the enemy being sighted at 3:31 P. M. Their force
+consisted of five battle cruisers."[2]
+
+
+BEGINNING OF THE ACTION
+
+It is stated in Vice Admiral Beatty's report that it was over an hour
+after the first news of the vicinity of enemy ships before he increased
+speed to 25 knots to engage ("at 3:30 P. M."[2]). Yet Vice Admiral
+Beatty reports that Rear Admiral Evan-Thomas's fifth battle squadron
+(the four Queen Elizabeths) was still 10,000 yards away when he made
+this move to engage the enemy with his battle cruisers. This forces us
+to the conclusion that Admiral Beatty thought his six battle cruisers
+would be able to take care of the situation. His confidence is explained
+by the fact that all previous sorties of the Germans had been made by
+battle cruisers or small craft.
+
+Both sides threw out screens of light cruisers, which clashed, and at
+3:48 "the action commenced at a range of 18,500 yards, both sides
+opening fire practically simultaneously."[3] The British battle cruisers
+fought on a course curving to the southeast, and then on a straight
+south-southeast course, and the five German battle cruisers fought them
+on a parallel course, instead of edging away from the superior British
+force. It is now easy to see that the trend of the action was absolutely
+in the direction of the approaching main body of the German High Seas
+Fleet, but this very naturally was not apparent at the time to Admiral
+Beatty.
+
+The first phase of the battle may properly be studied as a fight
+between the British and German battle cruisers, in consequence of the
+before-stated gap separating the two parts of Admiral Beatty's command.
+This interval of 10,000 yards prevented the fifth battle squadron of
+Queen Elizabeth dreadnoughts from being a factor at the time. Vice
+Admiral Beatty reports that this squadron "opened fire at a range of
+20,000 yards," and he continues: "The fifth battle squadron was engaging
+the enemy's rear ships, unfortunately at very long range." (It is
+interesting to note this comment on a range of 20,000 yards, in view of
+the fantastic distances at which the Queen Elizabeth had been depicted
+by alarmists as shelling our coast cities.)
+
+In this part of the action came the first of the many upsets of pre-war
+calculations. Comparing the given strength of the two opposing squadrons
+in action, it will be seen that the British battle cruisers were greatly
+superior; in fact, the odds would have been considered prohibitive
+before this battle. Yet it was the British squadron that suffered,
+losing one-third of its ships. Ten minutes after the beginning of the
+action the Indefatigable was sunk, and at 4:30 the Queen Mary met the
+same fate. In each case it is said that there was a great explosion up
+through the turrets, suggesting that a weak turret construction is
+really a conductor of fire to the magazine in case of a heavy hit, and
+pointing to the need of better separation of the supply of ammunition
+from the magazine.
+
+
+DESTROYERS TAKE PART
+
+At 4:15 there was an attack "simultaneously"[4] by British and German
+destroyers which resulted in a lively fight, but no damage to any of the
+capital ships. Yet the possibilities of such torpedo attacks were so
+evident, here and later in the battle, that the destroyer at once
+attained a greater value as an auxiliary of the battleship. It should
+also be noted that German submarines were reported present at this
+stage, but they accomplished nothing against the screened fighting
+ships. A British airplane had been sent up from a mother ship just
+before the engagement, though Admiral Beatty reports that it was forced
+to fly low on account of the clouds, and had a hard task "to identify
+four enemy light cruisers." There was apparently no chance of a wide
+observation that would have warned Admiral Beatty of the approaching
+German High Seas Fleet. In this short hour were concentrated many new
+problems of naval warfare.
+
+The advancing German High Seas Fleet was reported at 4:38 by a light
+cruiser, and sighted at 4:42 by the British battle cruisers. A few
+minutes later Vice Admiral Beatty's ships turned right about (180
+degrees) in succession. The German battle cruisers also turned to a
+northwesterly course, closely followed up by the van of the German High
+Seas Fleet, and the action was continued on this course.
+
+The report of Admiral Beatty and his conduct in this part of the action
+show that he had not suspected the presence of the German High Seas
+Fleet, but the lavish criticism of his turn in succession is without
+reason. In the first place, his ships met no disaster at the turn, and
+the manoeuvre is absolutely justified by the fact that it brought the
+four Queen Elizabeth battleships into position to fight a rearguard
+action against the greatly strengthened enemy. Any other disposition of
+Admiral Beatty's command would have been a mistake.
+
+It also follows that, against the turn made in this way, it would have
+been an error for Vice Admiral Hipper to try for a capping position,
+with the object of smothering Admiral Beatty's cruisers in detail at
+their pivoting point. Such an attempt would have exposed his own battle
+cruisers to the 15-inch guns of the approaching dreadnoughts of Admiral
+Evan-Thomas's squadron. Admiral Hipper's conduct in turning to the
+northwest ahead of the van of the German High Seas Fleet seems the best
+thing he could have done at the time. The leading German battleships,
+which were of the Koenig class, fell into line, closely following Admiral
+Hipper's battle cruisers, and the battle was continued at 14,000 yards
+on a northwest course.
+
+On the British side the brunt of the action was sustained by Admiral
+Evan-Thomas's fifth battle squadron, which from this time was in line
+astern of Admiral Beatty's battle cruisers. The German battle cruisers
+could not stand up with the same effectiveness against the heavy guns of
+the fifth battle squadron, and this, with an increase to full speed,
+enabled Admiral Beatty to draw ahead. He again opened up a gap between
+his battle cruisers and the fifth battle squadron, taking a course that
+curved to the north and northeast, in search of Admiral Jellicoe's
+battle fleet, which was hastening to his assistance. The leading ships
+of the Grand Fleet were sighted at 5:56, and Admiral Beatty altered his
+course to the east at extreme speed. The German van also turned to
+eastward.
+
+In the meantime from the north the British Grand Fleet had been closing
+at utmost fleet speed on a southeast by south course. Ahead of the
+battle fleet was the squadron of three battle cruisers under Rear
+Admiral Hood. This squadron, well in advance of the main body, took
+position ahead of Admiral Beatty's battle cruisers, which had turned to
+their southerly course, as shown by the diagram.
+
+In the second phase of the action, which has just been described, there
+were clashes of light cruisers and isolated torpedo attacks, none of
+which had any tactical effect on the battle. It is now evident from the
+conduct of the German command that the German fleet was not led into a
+trap, and that Admiral Scheer deliberately chose to engage the British
+Grand Fleet, thinking the conditions favorable, although his course
+necessarily curved away to the southwestward and left the British Grand
+Fleet between the German fleet and all its bases. It is also evident
+that the ships of the German van had not been damaged by the fifth
+British battle squadron to the extent of demoralizing the German
+gunfire. The immediate damage inflicted on the advance of the British
+Grand Fleet is proof enough of this.
+
+[Illustration: Make-Up and Armament of British Grand Fleet
+In addition the Grand Fleet comprised Rear Admiral Hood's squadron of
+three battle cruisers and Rear Admiral Arbuthnot's squadron of four
+armored cruisers.]
+
+
+HOOD'S FLAGSHIP SUNK
+
+As stated, Rear Admiral Hood took station ahead of Vice Admiral Beatty's
+battle cruisers, with his advance squadron of battle cruisers (6:21)
+closing to a range of 8,000 yards, (6:25.) A few minutes later his
+flagship, the Invincible, was sunk by gunfire. Almost at the same time
+three of Rear Admiral Arbuthnot's armored cruisers, Black Prince,
+Warrior, and Defense, "not aware of the approach of the enemy's heavy
+ships,"[5] were put out of action. (Defense was sunk; Warrior sank while
+attempt was being made to tow her home; Black Prince was sunk later,
+probably by gunfire.)
+
+At this stage the British Grand Fleet formed in battle line astern of
+the battle cruisers, and engaged the enemy on a course to the southwest,
+the German fleet now being to the westward, as shown on the diagram. The
+fifth battle squadron then took position astern of Admiral Jellicoe's
+main body. It was here that the Warspite, a dreadnought of the Queen
+Elizabeth class, jammed her helm, and was out of control for a time, as
+described by her Captain after the action. The battleship was, however,
+extricated from her predicament. The battle cruiser Luetzow, the flagship
+of the German advance force, had become totally disabled, and Vice
+Admiral Hipper had trans-shipped his flag to another battle cruiser.
+
+By this time smoke and mist hung over the sea, and the Germans took
+advantage of these conditions, also using smoke screens, to fight the
+only action possible for their fleet against the overwhelming force now
+in line against them. The German ships would appear and disappear in the
+smoke and mist. Admiral Jellicoe reports of this stage of the action:
+
+    Owing principally to the mist, but partly to the smoke, it was
+    possible to see only a few ships at a time in the enemy's battle
+    line. Toward the van only some four or five ships were ever
+    visible at once. More could be seen from the rear squadron, but
+    never more than eight to twelve. * * * The action between the
+    battle fleets lasted intermittently from 6:17 P. M. to 8:20 P.
+    M., at ranges between 9,000 yards and 12,000 yards. During this
+    time the British fleet made alterations of course from southeast
+    by east to west (1683/4 degrees) in the endeavor to close, but the
+    enemy constantly turned away and opened the range under cover of
+    destroyer attacks and smoke screens. The alterations of course
+    had the effect of bringing the British fleet (which commenced
+    the action in a position of advantage on the bow of the enemy)
+    to a quarterly bearing from the enemy's battle line, but at the
+    same time placed us between the enemy and his bases.
+
+
+JELLICOE'S NIGHT MANOEUVRE
+
+As the darkness came on, it is evident that these tactics on the part of
+the Germans, with increasing threats of torpedo attacks, became more and
+more baffling to the British command, and then came the crucial decision
+which ended the battle. Admiral Jellicoe reports:
+
+    At 9 P. M. the enemy was entirely out of sight, and the threat
+    of torpedo boat destroyer attacks during the rapidly approaching
+    darkness made it necessary for me to dispose of the fleet for
+    the night, with a view to its safety from such attacks, while
+    providing for a renewal of action at daylight. I accordingly
+    manoeuvred to remain between the enemy and his bases, placing
+    our flotillas in a position in which they would afford
+    protection to the fleet from destroyer attack and at the same
+    time be favorably situated for attacking the enemy's heavy
+    ships.
+
+Concerning this stage of the action Admiral Jellicoe in his report
+quotes Vice Admiral Beatty as follows:
+
+    In view of the gathering darkness and the fact that our
+    strategical position was such as to make it appear certain that
+    we should locate the enemy at daylight under most favorable
+    circumstances, I did not consider it desirable or proper to
+    close the enemy battle fleet during the dark hours.
+
+Here the British Admiral and his second in command were in accord, but
+the responsibility for the resultant movement of the British fleet must
+rest with Admiral Jellicoe as chief in command. By his order the British
+fleet steamed through the dark hours at moderate speed on southerly
+courses some ninety miles from the battlefield. Although the British
+fleet was thus placed in the general direction of Heligoland, this meant
+that Admiral Jellicoe had relinquished all touch with the German fleet,
+and this left the German fleet practically free to proceed to its bases,
+which was done without any interference, bringing in their damaged
+ships. The Germans even attempted to tow the wreck of the Luetzow into
+port, but she sank on the way in.
+
+This move to the southward by the British fleet ended the battle of
+Jutland. In the night there were isolated clashes of small fry, the
+adventures of lame ducks, &c., but there was nothing that affected the
+tactical results, and nothing that was in any sense a part of a battle
+of fleets. None of these encounters even indicated the location of the
+German fleet.
+
+
+DEPARTURE OF GERMAN FLEET
+
+At the early coming of light in these latitudes (about 3 A. M., June 1)
+the British fleet was to the southward and westward of the Horn Reef,
+about ninety miles from the battlefield. The British fleet then retraced
+its course to the battlefield. This return of the British fleet, by the
+same lane it followed in the night, did not give much opportunity to
+regain touch with the German fleet. Admiral Jellicoe reports that he
+remained in the vicinity of the battlefield until 11 A. M. when he was
+"reluctantly compelled to the conclusion that the High Seas Fleet had
+returned into port." Soon afterward the British fleet proceeded to its
+bases.
+
+In the early accounts of the battle there were fanciful tales of pursuit
+of the German ships through the night, and even after Admiral Jellicoe's
+report, the British public did not at first realize the situation at the
+end of the action. But, after a time, when this was better understood,
+there arose one of the greatest naval controversies that have ever
+agitated Great Britain, centred around the alleged "defensive" naval
+policy for maintaining the supremacy of Great Britain on the seas--the
+pros and cons as to closing the Germans while there was light, and
+keeping in touch through the dark hours. With that discussion this
+article has nothing to do, but the tactical situation at the end of the
+battle should be stated.
+
+At 9 o'clock the German fleet was to the westward. The British fleet was
+between it and all its bases. The British fleet was superior in speed,
+and had such an overwhelming superiority in ships and guns that it could
+afford to discard its damaged ships without impairing this superiority.
+The British Admiral had plenty of light cruisers and destroyers to throw
+out a screen and to maintain touch with the German fleet. There
+undoubtedly was a proportion of damaged ships in the German fleet; and
+this, with its original inferior fleet speed, would have made it a hard
+task for the German fleet to attempt to ease around the British fleet
+and reach its bases. These conditions were in favor of keeping in touch
+with the German fleet--and it is needless to point out the great results
+that would have come from a successful action with the German fleet in
+the morning.
+
+On the other hand, one should state the elements which influenced
+Admiral Jellicoe's decision, first of all to safeguard his ships, and
+yet remain at a distance in the direction of a German base. Upon his
+fleet depended the established British control of the seas. Many of his
+ships had received hard knocks--and many were short of ammunition and
+fuel. Above all, there was the ominous threat of torpedo attacks in the
+night.
+
+These were the conditions of the problem that confronted the British
+Admiral, brought about by the culminating tactics of the battle. Admiral
+Jellicoe's decision was that the situation did not justify him in
+imperiling his fleet and with it the naval supremacy of Great Britain.
+
+In this greatest of all naval actions it is interesting to study the
+course of the battle in comparison with pre-war calculations. The
+outstanding feature, the collapse of the three British battle cruisers,
+was not entirely unexpected by naval opinion. The battle cruiser had
+found a great vogue, especially in England, but before this battle a
+reaction had already set in, aided by the fact that the Lion had been
+put out by weaker gunfire in the Dogger Bank chase. Many naval men had
+come to believe that the battle cruiser was only a cruiser after
+all--though a valuable cruiser--and not up to taking a place in a real
+line of battle.
+
+More surprising was the fact that at no stage of the action did the
+heavier British guns dominate the German guns. This was evident in the
+first phase, when Admiral Beatty's six battle cruisers were fighting on
+parallel courses with Admiral Hipper's five battle cruisers. The British
+ships carried thirty-two 13.5-inch and sixteen 12-inch guns, against
+their enemy's twenty-four 12-inch guns and twenty 11-inch guns.
+
+In the second stage of the action on northerly courses, when Admiral
+Beatty's command was engaging the van of the German fleet, the four
+Queen Elizabeths, with their thirty-two 15-inch guns, were in position,
+and there was nothing heavier than a 12-inch gun in the German fleet.
+
+In the third phase, after Vice Admiral Beatty's command had joined the
+main body of Admiral Jellicoe's fleet, the superiority of the British in
+heavy guns was enormous, as can be seen from the table on Page 338. It
+is true that the Germans took advantage of the mist and smoke as
+described. Yet, from Admiral Jellicoe's report, it is evident that there
+were many chances to let off salvos at the enemy ships, and he reports
+the ranges as very moderate, ("between 9,000 and 12,000 yards.")
+
+
+WEIGHT OF METAL HURLED
+
+As to the shooting on both sides, it is evident that there must be a
+great deal of hard thinking going on in the navies of the world as to
+improvement in this respect. The weight of metal hurled into the sea was
+prodigious. "In the first and second phases it is estimated that each
+of the ships under Vice Admiral Beatty and Rear Admiral Evan-Thomas
+fired about 600 tons and the Germans quite as much if not more."[6]
+
+The battleships stood up well, and everything in the battle confirmed
+the judgment of those who had pinned their faith to the battleships as
+the essential of naval power.
+
+The two most revolutionary elements in naval warfare were present, but
+they cannot be said to have exerted any tactical effect on the battle.
+The limited use of the airplane has been told, and a Zeppelin was
+reported at about 4 A. M. June 1, which may have observed the location
+of the British fleet. U-boats were reported early in the action, but
+there is no hint that they took any real part in the battle. Yet this
+does not mean that they are not to be considered. With the great
+improvements in the type, it is probable that in many conditions the
+U-boat will be a factor in battles of fleets, and such contingencies
+should be safeguarded in advance.
+
+The destroyer came to its own in the battle of Jutland as an auxiliary
+of the battle fleet, both for offense and defense. The whole course of
+the action proved that a screen of destroyers was absolutely necessary.
+For offense, it might be argued truthfully that, of the great number of
+torpedoes used, very few hit anything. The Marlborough was the only
+capital ship reported struck in the real action, and she was able
+afterward to take some part in the battle, and then get back to her
+base. It is supposed that the damaged Pommern may have been so destroyed
+later, and torpedoes may have struck other scattered marks. But above
+all things stands out the fact that it was the threat of night torpedo
+attacks by destroyers which made the British fleet withdraw from the
+battlefield.
+
+There is no question of the fact that this withdrawal of the British
+fleet had a great moral effect on Germany. The announcement to the
+people and to the Reichstag had a heartening effect on the Germans at
+just the time they needed some such stimulant. But the actual tactical
+result of the battle was indecisive. It may be said the Germans had so
+manoeuvred their fleet that a detached part of the superior British
+force was cut up, but the damage was not enough to impair the
+established superiority of the British fleet, and the end of the battle
+left the British control of the sea absolutely unchanged.
+
+The following is the British statement of losses:
+
+    BATTLE CRUISERS
+                            Tonnage Armor  Main
+                                    Belt. Battery.  Sp'd.  Men. C'p'd
+    Queen Mary              27,000  9 in. 8 13.5-in. 28   1,000   '13
+    Indefatigable           18,750  8 in. 8 12-in.   26     899   '11
+    Invincible              17,250  7 in. 8 12-in.   26     750   '08
+
+    ARMORED CRUISERS
+    Defense                 14,600  6 in. 4 9.2-in.  23     755   '08
+    Black Prince            13,550  6 in. 6 9.2-in.  20.5   704   '06
+    Warrior                 13,550  6 in. 6 9.2-in.  22.9   704   '08
+
+    DESTROYERS
+    Tipperary                1,900  ...   ...        31     160   '14
+    Turbulent                  ...  ...   ...        ..     ...    ..
+    Fortune                    920  ...   ...        29.50  100   '12
+    Sp'w Hawk                  950  ...   3 4-in.    31.32  100   '12
+    Ardent                     950  ...   3 4-in.    31.32  100   '12
+    Nomad                      ...  ...   ...        ...    ...    ..
+    Nestor                     ...  ...   ...        ...    ...    ..
+    Shark                      950  ...   3 4-in.    31.32  100   '12
+
+The losses admitted by the German Admiralty are:
+
+    BATTLESHIP
+                              Tonnage.  Armament.             Date
+                                                   Sp'd.   Completion.
+    Pommern                   13,040     4 11-in.   19         1907
+                                        14 6.7-in.
+
+    BATTLE CRUISER
+    Luetzow                   28,000     8 12-in.   27         1915
+                                        12 6-in.
+
+    LIGHT CRUISERS
+    Rostock                    4,820    12 4.1-in.  27.3       1914
+    Frauenlob                  2,656    10 4.1-in.  21.5       1903
+
+    NEW LIGHT CRUISERS
+    Elbing                     ...      ...         ...        ...
+    Wiesbaden                  ...      ...         ...        ...
+
+    DESTROYERS
+    Five                       ...      ...         ...        ...
+
+    TOTAL TONNAGE LOST
+    British                                                117,150
+    German                                                  60,720
+
+    TOTAL PERSONNEL LOST
+    British                                                  6,105
+    German                                                   2,414
+
+NOTE BY EDITOR.--No official confirmation of the German losses was
+published. The British Admiralty maintains that the losses, including
+only German vessels "seen to sink," aggregated 109,220 tons. Other
+Admiralty claims were that the Germans lost one dreadnought of the
+Kronprinz type, 25,480 tons; one of the Heligoland type, 22,440 tons;
+battleship Pommern, 13,000 tons; battle cruiser Luetzow, 28,000 tons;
+five Rostocks, 24,500 tons; destroyers, 4,000 tons; submarines, 800
+tons; total, 117,220 tons.
+
+
+British Analysis of the Jutland Battle
+
+Expert British Admiralty writers do not concur in all the conclusions of
+our contributor, Mr. Frothingham, especially where he refers to the
+withdrawal of the British fleet.
+
+The official report of Admiral Jellicoe states that "German vessels were
+entirely out of the fight at 9 o'clock," and that "the withdrawal of the
+British fleet was a 'manoeuvre' so as to remain between the Germans and
+their bases."
+
+Sir Cyprian Bridge, a British naval expert, in referring to the
+situation of the German fleet when darkness fell after the battle,
+writes: "It was a beaten and a broken fleet that escaped from the trap,"
+(referring to the British Battle Fleet at the north and the battle
+cruisers at the south, acting in strategic harmony.) "Many of its units
+had been lost. Its gunnery had become demoralized, and no one can blame
+its discretion in making for home at its top-most speed and leaving the
+British fleet once more in undisputed command of the North Sea. For
+this, in a word, was the result of the battle. * * * Whatever their
+effort signified, it failed to shake our hold upon the sea. * * * We
+have fought many indecisive actions, * * * few which have more fully
+freed us of all fear of what the enemy fleet might be able to
+accomplish. By such standards the battle off Jutland will well hold its
+own against all but a few of our most famous victories."
+
+John Buchan published a description of the battle of Jutland by
+authority of the British Government. He, a historical authority, says:
+"The result of the battle of Jutland was that Britain was more confirmed
+than ever in her mastery of the sea. * * * From a technical point of
+view the battle appears as an example of a tactical division of the
+fleet, undertaken in order to coax a laggard enemy to battle. * * * It
+defeated, utterly defeated, the German plan. If it was not--as with two
+hours more daylight it would have been--a complete destruction of
+Germany's sea power, it was a complete demonstration of Britain's
+crushing superiority."
+
+Arthur Pollen, an expert naval writer in British periodicals, referred
+to the results of the battle in these words: "Thus the Germans, who had
+entered the North Sea, according to their own account, to engage and
+destroy the British ships that have been systematically sweeping the
+waters north and east of the Horn Reef, attained the first part of their
+objective only. They did succeed in engaging. But the consequences were
+disastrous. The plan of overwhelming the British fast division with
+superior numbers was defeated by the masterly handling of the British
+force, combined with the effective use that force made of its artillery.
+So far from Sir David Beatty having been overwhelmed, he succeeded
+admirably in his main object, which was to draw the German fleet into a
+position where Sir John Jellicoe's squadrons could engage it. The enemy
+was only saved from total destruction by mist and by the approach of
+night. Not only did his whole plan miscarry, but he was driven
+ignominiously from the field, and with a very heavy loss in ships and
+men."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[2] Report of Vice Admiral Beatty.
+
+[3] Report of Vice Admiral Beatty.
+
+[4] Report of Vice Admiral Beatty.
+
+[5] Report of Admiral Jellicoe.
+
+[6] "Naval Power in the War." Lieut. Commander Charles C. Gill, U. S. N.
+
+
+
+
+A Leading German Churchman Defends Poison Gas
+
+The International Committee of the Red Cross at Geneva early in 1918
+issued an appeal against the use of poisonous gases. The Rev. Dr. Balan,
+President of the Consistory for the Prussian Province of Posen and head
+of the Protestant Church in that province, refused, "after
+conscientiously examining it before God," to indorse or circulate the
+appeal, and wrote as follows to the President of the International
+Committee:
+
+    The first question that occurred to me on reading your appeal
+    was, Is it really a more inhumane method of waging war when
+    Germany, in defending herself against an immensely superior
+    force of enemies in a fight for existence forced upon her, makes
+    use also of poisonous gas, than when her enemies pour over our
+    armies, so much weaker in numbers, devastating and
+    disintegrating showers of iron, lasting days and weeks, and to
+    which we cannot reply in such volume because we have not so many
+    human hands at our disposal for the manufacture of munitions as
+    our enemies have? I say, No. I ask further, Is it more humane to
+    set the whole world in motion in order by starving it to prevent
+    a great nation that, with its noble, chivalrous Kaiser at its
+    head, has manifested clearly enough its unbounded love of peace,
+    from taking the place to which it is entitled by the side of
+    other nations than when this nation uses every means of defense
+    that its enlightened scientists have discovered? I say again,
+    No.
+
+Dr. Balan maintains in the further course of his letter that the enemies
+of Germany cannot expect to be treated humanely in any special manner,
+for all war is inhumane, because they have from the outset persistently
+and constantly utterly disregarded the laws of nations and the "sacred
+sign of the Red Cross." In conclusion this Prussian church dignitary
+informs the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross
+that if he and his friends really wish to render the whole suffering
+population of Europe a truly great service, they should do their utmost
+to bring home to the French people, who are so deeply to be pitied, the
+fact that the phantom which, deluded by the lies of their and England's
+rulers, they still pursue is dragging them every day to deeper and more
+hopeless misery. At the very moment that France realizes this, Dr. Balan
+asserts, there will be peace. He explains that the phantom pursued by
+the French is "the recovery of two provinces that have been German from
+time immemorial, and of which we were once robbed against all right and
+justice."
+
+
+
+
+Great Britain's War Work in 1917
+
+War Cabinet's Official Survey of Military Events and Far-Reaching
+Economic Changes
+
+    _A report issued by the British War Cabinet on March 18, 1918,
+    in the form of a Blue Book of 200 pages or more, presents a
+    historical review of what Great Britain accomplished in 1917,
+    with a survey of the changes that came over the character of the
+    war in that year, and of the far-reaching Governmental and
+    economic developments that took place in the British Nation. As
+    the introductory chapter is in itself a comprehensive summary,
+    the main portions of it are here presented._
+
+
+The year 1917 saw two marked developments. On the one hand there was a
+profound change in the character of the war itself. The inauguration of
+a general attack upon the sea communications of the Allies through the
+unrestricted use of the submarine greatly widened the scope of warlike
+operations and forced the people of the British Isles to expend an
+immense amount of time and energy on counterpreparations of all kinds.
+The Russian revolution completely upset the allied plan for a concerted
+offensive against the Central Powers on all fronts during the Spring and
+Summer of 1917, and eventually led to such a disintegration of the
+Russian Army as enabled the German Government to transfer the greater
+part of its military resources from the eastern to the western theatre
+of war. Finally, the overthrow of the Russian autocracy, coupled with
+the entry of the United States into the war and the adhesion of Greece,
+Brazil, China, and other neutrals to the allied cause, widened the war
+itself from a battle for the liberty of small nations and the defense of
+public right in Europe into a world-wide struggle for the triumph of a
+free civilization and democratic government.
+
+The year brought a gradual growth of inter-ally co-operation and
+creation of the Imperial War Cabinet. This development and the sessions
+of the Imperial War Conference were the natural outcome of the spirit of
+unity and self-sacrifice which has enabled the peoples of the British
+Commonwealth to produce no less than 7,500,000 men to fight for freedom
+in addition to vast quantities of munitions and supplies of all kinds.
+So successful was this experiment in the opinion of its members that it
+was decided unanimously that there ought to be an annual meeting of the
+Imperial Cabinet and that the Prime Ministers of the empire or their
+specially delegated representatives, together with the Ministers in
+charge of the great imperial offices, should be its _ex officio_
+members.
+
+
+War Cabinet Reorganization
+
+Another sphere in which reorganization and expansion were necessary was
+that of home affairs. The period began with a reconstruction of the
+administrative machinery at the centre. It had become increasingly
+evident that the older system under which the supreme direction of the
+war rested, with a Cabinet consisting of the departmental chiefs under
+the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister, was not sufficiently prompt and
+elastic for the conduct of a war which involved the mobilization and
+direction of the resources not only of the United Kingdom but of the
+British Empire. Even the formation of a smaller Cabinet committee of the
+departmental Ministers chiefly concerned in the war did not meet the
+needs of the case. With the advent of the new Government a modification
+was introduced whereby the supreme direction of the war was intrusted to
+a small War Cabinet, freed from all administrative duties, and yet in
+the closest touch with all departmental Ministers, while administrative
+responsibility was placed in the hands of Ministers who were left free
+to devote their whole time to this aspect of Governmental work.
+
+By this arrangement the War Cabinet was able to give all its attention
+to the task of co-ordination and direction, and so make more effective
+use of the immense resources which the empire had gradually produced
+during the preceding years. It also made it easier to create a number of
+much-needed new administrative departments. The most important of these
+were the Ministry of Shipping, the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of
+Food, and the Ministry of Pensions, to which were added at later dates
+the Ministry of Reconstruction, the Ministry of National Service, and
+the Ministry of the Air. * * *
+
+
+The Man-Power Problem
+
+The first problem was that of man power. During the preceding year all
+sources which could be tapped without trenching upon the essential
+supplies of the allied armies and the nation had been exhausted, and the
+question had narrowed itself down to that of finding substitutes for fit
+men of military age still engaged in industry. An attempt was,
+therefore, made to enroll a large army of volunteers to take the place
+of the men called to the army. Partly owing to difficulties in
+withdrawing labor from the great war industries and partly owing to the
+limited supply of labor, great obstacles presented themselves in the
+execution of this scheme. But though the plan of enrolling an army of
+industrial volunteers had eventually to be abandoned the system of
+dilution and substitution was steadily carried out, and 820,646 men of
+all categories were taken for the service of the army during the year.
+
+The needs of the army, however, were not the only drain. A large amount
+of additional labor was required for agriculture, timber production, and
+iron ore mining, as well as for industrial purposes. The needs in these
+respects also were gradually supplied by reducing unessential industries
+and by organizing supplies of soldier, civilian, and foreign labor.
+Investigations were carried out as to the use of labor in different
+trades, and trade committees representing employers and employed were
+organized to deal with economy of man-power in particular industries.
+The evidence so obtained, while it demonstrated clearly the complexity
+and difficulty of a system of compulsory national service in industry,
+made it clear that in order to effect the best strategic use of the man
+power of the country, the National Service Department required extension
+rather than restriction. Accordingly, in August, 1917, the department
+was reorganized as a Ministry, recruiting was transferred from the War
+Office, and arrangements were made to insure effective co-operation
+between the Ministry and the employment exchanges for the period of the
+war.
+
+
+Munitions
+
+Notwithstanding the tremendous calls upon the man power of the country
+for the ever-increasing needs of the army, the supply of munitions has
+steadily increased. In addition to large consignments to other fronts of
+the war, there has been an increase of 30 per cent. in all kinds of
+guns and howitzers, and of over 100 per cent. in heavy guns and
+howitzers in the recent offensive in France, as compared with those of
+last year. The weight of shell filled per month has been more than
+doubled since 1916. The output of high explosives has been sufficient to
+meet the increased demands of our armies, to build up stocks, and to
+supply part of the needs of the Allies. There has been a steady
+improvement in the detonating value of gun ammunition and a continuous
+reduction in the number of premature explosions. In addition to guns,
+shells, and rifles, the demands of the military and naval forces during
+the year for aircraft, tanks, mechanical transport, railway material,
+and equipment of every sort and kind have been endless. Despite the
+immensity of the demand, it has, on the whole, been supplied. The
+British Army is now probably the best provided of all the armies in the
+field, not only in technical equipment but in clothing, food, and
+similar provision.
+
+
+Fighting the Submarine
+
+The most difficult problems which confronted the Administration in the
+early part of 1917 were those which arose from the growing inadequacy of
+the overseas communications of the Allies--problems which were
+aggravated by the introduction of the unlimited submarine campaign on
+Feb. 1. The expansion of the armies, the ever-increasing demand for
+warlike material, the fall in production, especially of foodstuffs in
+all allied countries through the calling of men to the colors, and the
+decline in cultivation, coupled with the diversion of a large part of
+the shipping of the Allies to purely military and naval transportation,
+had already put a severe strain on the shipping resources of the
+country. The immediate effect of the new campaign was to double the rate
+of losses which had been incurred during 1916, and these losses rose
+rapidly to a climax in March and April.
+
+The countermeasures which were adopted by the navy, however, were
+successful in reducing the attack to manageable proportions, though they
+involved a drain upon the national resources both in man power and
+material which is often not fully recognized, and which is by no means
+the least important of the contributions of the British Empire to the
+war. The number of men engaged either in the navy or in supplying naval
+needs now exceeds a million. Unfortunately it is not possible to set
+forth in detail the immense scope of the Admiralty operations. But they
+include a very great addition to the armed craft in the service of the
+navy from torpedo boat destroyers to mine-sweepers, airships, and
+airplanes, and the organization of a vast system of patrols and
+mine-sweepers. As a result of the self-sacrificing devotion on the part
+of the men of the navy and the auxiliary services, and the steadfast
+performance in all weathers and seasons of their monotonous and
+dangerous duties, the enemy never succeeded in interfering to any vital
+degree with the sea communications of the Allies.
+
+
+The Shipping Problem
+
+The naval preparations, however, were only part of the measures which
+were necessary to deal with the shipping situation. The second step was
+to create the Ministry of Shipping. At the end of 1916 the tonnage
+requisitioned by the State was less than one-half of the whole, and this
+was mainly used on purely military and naval services for the British
+Government or the Allies. During 1917 practically the whole of the
+remainder of the British ocean-going mercantile marine was brought under
+requisition at Blue Book rates and organized as a national war service.
+The Dominion Government also liberated much overseas shipping for war
+purposes, and neutral shipping was brought as far as possible into
+allied service. A close scrutiny was then made of the countries from
+which the necessary imports could be derived, and shipping was
+concentrated on the shortest routes, thereby multiplying the number of
+voyages the ships could make in the year. Leading regulations were
+revised, which increased the carrying capacity from the 1913 figure of
+106 to 150 tons per 100 tons net of shipping entering our ports, and
+arrangements were made for shortening the time occupied in the turn
+round of ships at the ports. In the latter part of the year the convoy
+system was introduced, which reduced the shipping losses, though it
+involved certain delays to individual ships.
+
+In addition to these improvements in the methods of using shipping, a
+large program of shipbuilding was put into operation, not only in
+British yards but in all the available yards in neutral countries as
+well. To insure greater speed in building a large number of the new
+ships were ordered to a standard design. In spite of the difficulties of
+all kinds which have confronted the production of ships, notably the
+shortage in the supply of steel plates and of labor, the output has
+steadily mounted. During 1917 1,163,500 tons of new ships were built, as
+against 542,000 tons in 1916, and by the end of 1918 the rate of output
+of all ships, war and merchant, ought to be double that of any previous
+year in British history. In order to make possible this increase
+forty-five new berths have been provided in private shipyards, and the
+construction of three new national shipyards, containing thirty-four
+berths, has been begun. Besides this effort at home 175,000 tons of
+shipping were purchased abroad, an amount which would have been very
+greatly exceeded if the United States had not taken over the whole
+program of ships being constructed on British account when they entered
+the war.
+
+The third step in dealing with the shipping problem was a drastic
+reduction of imports. In 1916 imports were cut down by 1,600,000 tons.
+Early in 1917 a committee was appointed which recommended a preliminary
+program of reductions amounting to 6,000,000 tons. This was approved and
+came into operation on March 1. The program was shortly afterward
+increased by further severe restrictions of the imports of timber. The
+outcome of this policy has been that practically all cargo space is now
+reserved for goods carried directly or indirectly on Government account,
+and consists almost entirely of essential foodstuffs, raw materials
+required for the manufacture of national necessities and military needs
+or of munitions of war. The chief reductions were in timber, paper,
+feeding stuffs, and brewing materials. The unfortunate but inevitable
+consequence of the restriction of imports and of the diversion of
+shipping from trading to war routes has been a large diminution in
+exports.
+
+The fourth step was to secure a large increase in the production of food
+and raw materials at home. There is now good reason to expect that in
+1918 the tillage area in the United Kingdom will exceed that of 1916 by
+over 3,000,000 acres. These satisfactory results have only been possible
+through the public-spirited activity of large numbers of people
+throughout the country, including farmers, workers, and organizers, to
+whom the nation has good reason to be grateful.
+
+
+Control of Food Consumption
+
+The fifth step in meeting the shipping shortage was to expand Government
+control over the distribution of all the chief national supplies, partly
+in order to secure that the best use was made of what was available and
+partly in order to prevent waste. The most important measure in this
+sphere was the creation of the Ministry of Food. Its first step was to
+insure an adequate supply of breadstuffs. This was accomplished by
+raising the percentage of milling of wheat, by requiring the dilution of
+wheat with other cereals and by an increased program of imports. At the
+same time a scale of voluntary rations was announced and an active
+campaign was started in order to secure observance of them. The use of
+wheat, oats, barley, and maize for animal food was also restricted or
+prohibited. As a result, at the beginning of the Winter of 1917 the
+national reserve of breadstuffs was in a more satisfactory position than
+any time since the outbreak of war, the wheat stocks alone being
+3,000,000 quarters in excess of the stocks in the corresponding period
+of 1916. A serious shortage, however, in the French and Italian harvests
+and the needs of our other allies placed a heavy demand upon our
+supplies of wheat, and toward the end of the year considerable
+quantities were diverted to their use. During the year the control of
+the Ministry was extended to cover all imported foodstuffs, practically
+all of which are now purchased on the national account, and an
+increasing measure of control has been established over home-grown
+cereals, meat, and dairy produce. In order to prevent the artificial
+raising of prices through competition, these purchases are now carried
+out in concert with our allies through inter-ally committees. As the
+year progressed the need for greater economy in consumption than was
+apparently attainable by voluntary means and the difficulties in
+distributing equitably the restricted supplies compelled the
+introduction of a system of rationing. The system began with sugar, and
+at the end of the year was gradually being extended to cover other
+staple foodstuffs.
+
+
+Beer and Other Articles
+
+Another large economy was effected early in the year by a reduction of
+the manufacture of beer from the 1914 total of about 36,000,000 barrels
+and the 1916 total of 26,000,000 barrels to a total of some 14,000,000
+standard barrels. The manufacture of spirits for human consumption has
+been stopped. Strong measures have also been taken to restrict the
+consumption of coal, oils, timber, cotton, and other articles. At the
+beginning of the year the coal mines and iron mines were taken over for
+the period of the war, and Government control over the available
+supplies was established. A system of distribution of coal was then
+brought into operation, which has not only insured all necessary
+supplies, but has effected economy in railway transportation. It is
+estimated that this reform will result in an economy of no less than
+700,000,000 railway ton miles in the carriage of coal. A Timber
+Controller was appointed to ration the greatly restricted supplies of
+wood. The consumption of petrol for private use was gradually curtailed
+until it was finally forbidden. Much has also been done to economize
+labor and material through the more active control in the national
+interest both of railway and canal transportation.
+
+
+Naval and Military Results
+
+The result of these drastic measures has been that, despite all the
+enemy efforts to win a victory by the destruction of the merchant
+shipping of the world, the British people have been able to prosecute
+the war with the utmost vigor during the whole year. The navy has
+continued to hold its predominant position at sea, has denied the oceans
+to the enemy for the purpose of transporting troops or supplies and has
+exercised an ever-growing pressure upon him through the blockade. At the
+same time, though the submarine menace has not yet been mastered, the
+supply both of the military expeditions in all parts of the world and of
+the civilian population at home has been maintained. It may, indeed, be
+said with confidence that as the result of the work of the navy, of the
+merchant marine, and of many civilian sections of the community the
+German attempt to win the war by the destruction of the merchant
+shipping of the world has been definitely baffled.
+
+In the military sphere, though no decision has been reached, great
+results have also been achieved. At the outset of the year the military
+prospects before the Allies were good. Their plans, however, for a
+converging attack on the Central Empires on all fronts were upset by the
+disorganization of the Russian armies which followed the revolution--a
+disorganization which ended in such complete dissolution that the
+Germans were enabled to transfer a large part of their eastern forces to
+the western front by the end of the year. None the less, during the
+whole of 1917 the German forces have been steadily pressed back from one
+highly fortified position to another in face of the systematic assaults
+of the allied armies. The enemy, indeed, has consistently borne tribute
+to the terrible power of the British attacks and to the heavy losses,
+both on land and in the air, which they have inflicted upon him. The
+chief successes have been gained at Arras, Messines, and in Flanders.
+
+
+Non-European Theatres
+
+On the other hand, there has been a complete transformation of the scene
+in the non-European theatres of the war. After a long period of
+comparative stagnation and failure, British arms have once more advanced
+to victory. The last of the German colonies--German East Africa--has
+been cleared of the enemy; Mesopotamia, with its capital, Bagdad, has
+been rescued from the devastating rule of the Turk, and Southern
+Palestine, including Jerusalem, after many centuries of effort, has been
+liberated by Christian hands. British prestige, indeed, in the East,
+which had fallen to a low ebb, has been completely restored; Germanic
+hopes of southeastern conquest have been rudely shattered through the
+withdrawal of over 100,000 square miles of territory from German
+control, and the capacity of Turkey to continue the war has been gravely
+impaired. The military results of the year are thus very considerable.
+British armies have fought not in France alone, but in Italy, Macedonia,
+Mesopotamia, Palestine, and East Africa, and from being a combination of
+peaceful communities the empire stands forth as the most powerful of all
+the Commonwealths which are withstanding Prussian aggression. The extent
+of this effort, the unfailing courage and morale of the British armies,
+and the clear determination of all the British peoples to accept no
+peace which does not restore national liberty and public right afford
+ground for confidence that the Allies will eventually secure the purpose
+for which they entered the war.
+
+
+Social and Economic Changes
+
+There is a nonmilitary aspect of the administrative developments of the
+year which it is important to note. In themselves these developments
+have been the result of the determination of the people to leave
+nothing undone which could contribute to the winning of the war. None
+the less they are bound to produce lasting and far-reaching effects on
+the social and economic life of the community. No record of the year
+would be complete which did not point out the changes which have been
+wrought in the structure of society by the experiences of the war.
+
+In the first place, the organic life of the community has been greatly
+strengthened. On the one hand, not only have enormous numbers of men,
+and latterly of women also, been mobilized for military and naval
+purposes, but the vast majority of the people are now working directly
+or indirectly on public service. If they are not in the army, the navy,
+or the civil service, they are growing food, or making munitions, or
+engaged in the work of organizing, transporting, or distributing the
+national supplies.
+
+On the other hand the State has taken control for the period of the war
+over certain national industries, such as the railways, shipping, coal,
+and iron mines, and the great majority of engineering businesses. It has
+also made itself responsible for the securing of adequate quantities of
+certain staple commodities and services, such as food, coal, timber, and
+other raw materials, railroad and sea transportation, and for
+distributing the available supplies justly as between individual and
+individual in the national interest.
+
+
+Regulating Prices
+
+The Government has further had to regulate prices and prevent
+profiteering. It has done so partly by controlling freights, fixing
+maximum prices to the home producer, and regulating wholesale and retail
+charges, and partly by its monopoly of imported supplies. The
+information which the Government has obtained as to sources of supply,
+consumption, and cost of production, and the relations it has entered
+into with other Governments as to the mutual purchase of essential
+products which they jointly control, have, for the first time, brought
+within the sphere of practical politics the possibility of fixing
+relatively stable world prices for fundamental staples. The State has
+even taken the drastic step of fixing the price of the four-pound loaf
+at 9d., at a considerable loss to itself.
+
+Thus the war, and especially the year 1917, has brought about a
+transformation of the social and administrative structure of the State,
+much of which is bound to be permanent. Owing to the imperative
+importance of speed there has perhaps been an undue expansion of the
+function of the Central Government. But a very large amount of work has
+been devolved on to local authorities and to new bodies, such as the War
+Agricultural Executive Committees or the Local Food Control Committees.
+Taking the year as a whole the Administration has been brought into far
+closer contact with every aspect of the life of the people, the
+provinces and the metropolis have been linked more closely together, and
+the whole community has received an education in the problems of
+practical democracy such as it has never had before.
+
+
+The Industrial Problem
+
+In the second place, the war has profoundly altered the conditions of
+the industrial problem. Since 1914 the community itself has become by
+far the greatest employer of labor. It has assumed control for the
+duration of the war over a great number of the larger private
+undertakings, it has limited profits by imposing an 80 per cent. excess
+profits tax, and it has intervened to prevent profiteering in the
+essential requirements of the nation. Further, the regulation of the
+trade unions have been suspended for the duration of the war, industry
+has been diluted throughout, new methods and new industries have been
+introduced, labor-saving machinery has been everywhere installed, and
+the speed of production and the number and skill of workers has greatly
+risen. The nation today is far better organized and far more productive
+than it has ever been before.
+
+With the advent of the new Government at the end of 1916 a Ministry of
+Labor was created to deal with labor questions. It is still early to
+speak of the results of its work, but an important step toward the
+creation of better conditions in the industrial world has been taken in
+the adoption by the Government of the report of the Whitley Committee,
+which recommended the development of machinery in the shape of
+industrial councils, representatives of employers and employed
+throughout the country, whereby it should be possible to solve the
+difficulties which will arise by the process of peaceful conference and
+negotiation in place of the methods of industrial war. Despite all
+difficulties and the recent increase in industrial unrest, it is
+probably true to say that as the result of the war there is now a better
+understanding both by capital and labor of their mutual problems than at
+any previous time.
+
+
+1917 in Retrospect
+
+Looked at as a whole, 1917 has been a remarkable year. During it the war
+has assumed more and more the character of a struggle on the part of all
+the free nations for the final destruction of militarism and the
+establishment of an international order which will give real securities
+for liberty and public right throughout the world. The nations of which
+the British Commonwealth is composed have been drawn together in their
+joint effort for the common cause. And within the United Kingdom there
+has been a growth in the sense of public service and of the power to
+improve and adapt economic and social and administrative methods which
+will make it far easier to build up a healthier and more equitably
+organized society in future.
+
+
+
+
+THE BATTLE OF CAMBRAI
+
+Full Text of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig's Report of a Victory and
+Reverse
+
+    _The battle of Cambrai began on Nov. 20, 1917, with the
+    successful surprise attack of the British Third Army under Sir
+    Julian Byng, and came to an end on the night of Dec. 4-5 with
+    the withdrawal of British troops from Bourlon Wood to "a more
+    compact line on the Flesquieres Ridge." A German attack, which
+    began on Nov. 30, had succeeded in wresting away a large portion
+    of the British gains. This reverse was later the subject of
+    British Parliamentary inquiry, but the commission found no
+    serious military errors to censure. Sir Douglas Haig's official
+    report to the Secretary of War is printed below in full. It
+    acquires a fresh interest from the fact that the terrain fought
+    over is in part the same as that across which the Germans have
+    since swept in their Spring offensive of 1918._
+
+
+    _General Headquarters,
+    British Armies in the Field,
+    Feb. 20, 1918._
+
+My Lord: I have the honor to submit the following report on the
+operations on the Cambrai front during November and December, 1917:
+
+1. As pointed out in my last dispatch, the object of these operations
+was to gain a local success by a sudden attack at a point where the
+enemy did not expect it. Our repeated attacks in Flanders and those of
+our allies elsewhere had brought about large concentrations of the
+enemy's forces on the threatened fronts, with a consequent reduction in
+the garrisons of certain other sectors of his line.
+
+Of these weakened sectors the Cambrai front had been selected as the
+most suitable for the surprise operation in contemplation. The ground
+there was, on the whole, favorable for the employment of tanks, which
+were to play an important part in the enterprise, and facilities existed
+for the concealment of the necessary preparations for the attack.
+
+If, after breaking through the German defense systems on this front, we
+could secure Bourlon to the north, and establish a good flank position
+to the east, in the direction of Cambrai, we should be well placed to
+exploit the situation locally between Bourlon and the Sensee River and
+to the northwest. The capture of Cambrai itself was subsidiary to this
+operation, the object of our advance toward that town being primarily to
+cover our flank and puzzle the enemy regarding our intentions.
+
+The enemy was laying out fresh lines of defense behind those which he
+had already completed on the Cambrai front; and it was to be expected
+that his troops would be redistributed as soon as our pressure in
+Flanders was relaxed. He had already brought large forces from Russia in
+exchange for divisions exhausted in the struggle in the western theatre,
+and it was practically certain that heavy reinforcements would be
+brought from east to west during the Winter. Moreover, his tired
+divisions, after a Winter's rest, would recover their efficiency.
+
+For all these reasons, if the existing opportunity for a surprise attack
+were allowed to lapse, it would probably be many months before an
+equally favorable one would again offer itself. Furthermore, having
+regard to the future, it was desirable to show the enemy that he could
+not with impunity reduce his garrisons beyond a certain point without
+incurring grave risks.
+
+Against these arguments in favor of immediate action I had to weigh the
+fact that my own troops had been engaged for many months in heavy
+fighting, and that, though their efforts had been uniformly successful,
+the conditions of the struggle had greatly taxed their strength. Only
+part of the losses in my divisions had been replaced, and many recently
+arrived drafts, still far from being fully trained, were included in the
+ranks of the armies. Under these conditions it was a serious matter to
+make a further heavy call on my troops at the end of such a strenuous
+year.
+
+On the other hand, from the nature of the operation, the size of the
+force which could be employed was bound, in any case, to be
+comparatively small, since success depended so much on secrecy, and it
+is impossible to keep secret the concentration of very large forces. The
+demand made upon my resources, therefore, should not be a great one.
+
+While considering these different factors, preparations were quietly
+carried on, so that all might be ready for the attack if I found it
+possible to carry it out. The success of the enemy's offensive in Italy
+subsequently added great force to the arguments in favor of undertaking
+the operation, although the means at my disposal for the purpose were
+further reduced as a consequence of the Italian situation.
+
+Eventually I decided that, despite the various limiting factors, I could
+muster enough force to make a first success sufficiently sure to justify
+undertaking the attack, but that the degree to which this success could
+be followed up must depend on circumstances.
+
+It was calculated that, provided secrecy could be maintained to the last
+moment, no large hostile reinforcements were likely to reach the scene
+of action for forty-eight hours after the commencement of the attack. I
+informed General the Hon. Sir Julian Byng, K. C. B., K. C. M. G., M. V.
+O., to whom the execution of the plans in connection with the Cambrai
+operations was intrusted, that the advance would be stopped by me after
+that time, or sooner if necessary, unless the results then gained and
+the general situation justified its continuance.
+
+
+Plan of Attack
+
+The general plan of attack was to dispense with previous artillery
+preparation, and to depend instead on tanks to smash through the enemy's
+wire, of which there was a great quantity protecting his trenches.
+
+As soon as the advance of the tanks and infantry, working in close
+co-operation, began, the artillery was to assist with counter battery
+and barrage work; but no previous registration of guns for this purpose
+could be permitted, as it would rouse the enemy's suspicions. The
+artillery of our new armies was therefore necessarily subjected to a
+severe test in this operation, and proved itself entirely worthy of the
+confidence placed in it.
+
+The infantry, tanks, and artillery thus working in combination were to
+endeavor to break through all the enemy's lines of defense on the first
+day. If this were successfully accomplished and the situation developed
+favorably, cavalry were then to be passed through to raid the enemy's
+communications, disorganize his system of command, damage his railways,
+and interfere as much as possible with the arrival of his
+reinforcements. It was explained to all commanders that everything
+depended on secrecy up to the moment of starting, and after that on
+bold, determined, and rapid action. Unless opposition could be beaten
+down quickly, no great results could be looked for.
+
+The Commander in Chief of the French Armies, to whom I secretly
+communicated my plans, most readily agreed to afford me every
+assistance. In addition to the steps taken by him to engage the enemy's
+attention elsewhere, he arranged for a strong force of French infantry
+and cavalry to be in a position whence they could be moved forward
+rapidly to take part in the exploitation of our success, if the
+situation should render it possible to bring them into action. On Nov.
+20 certain of these French units were actually put in motion. The course
+of events, however, did not open out the required opportunity for their
+employment, but the French forces were held in readiness and within easy
+reach so long as there appeared to be any hope of it. Had the situation
+on Nov. 20 developed somewhat more favorably in certain directions, the
+nature of which will become apparent in the course of this report, the
+presence and co-operation of these French troops would have been of the
+greatest value.
+
+
+The Enemy's Defenses
+
+2. The German defenses on this front had been greatly improved and
+extended since the opening of our offensive in April, and comprised
+three main systems of resistance.
+
+The first of these three trench systems, constituting part of the
+Hindenburg line proper, ran in a general northwesterly direction for a
+distance of six miles from the Canal de l'Escaut at Banteux to
+Havrincourt. There it turned abruptly north along the line of the Canal
+du Nord for a distance of four miles to Moeuvres, thus forming a
+pronounced salient in the German front.
+
+In advance of the Hindenburg line the enemy had constructed a series of
+strong forward positions, including La Vacquerie and the northeastern
+corner of Havrincourt Wood. Behind it, and at distances respectively
+varying from a little less to rather more than a mile, and from three
+and a half to four and a half miles, lay the second and third main
+German systems, known as the Hindenburg reserve line, and the
+Beaurevoir, Masnieres, Marquion lines.
+
+
+The Attack Begun
+
+3. All necessary preparations were completed in time, and with a secrecy
+reflecting the greatest credit on all concerned. At 6:20 A. M. on Nov
+20, without any previous artillery bombardment, tanks and infantry
+attacked on a front of about six miles from east of Gonnelieu to the
+Canal du Nord opposite Hermies.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF THE BATTLE OF CAMBRAI, SHOWING FURTHEST BRITISH
+ADVANCE AND GROUND LOST AFTER GERMAN ATTACK. (SEE KEY ABOVE.)]
+
+At the same hour demonstrations with gas, smoke, and artillery took
+place on practically the whole of the British front south of the Scarpe,
+and subsidiary attacks were launched east of Epehy and between
+Bullecourt and Fontaine les Croisilles.
+
+On the principal front of attack the tanks moved forward in advance of
+the infantry, crushing down the enemy's wire and forming great lanes
+through which our infantry could pass. Protected by smoke barrages from
+the view of the enemy's artillery, they rolled on across the German
+trenches, smashing up the enemy's machine guns and driving his infantry
+to ground. Close behind our tanks our own infantry followed, and, while
+the tanks patrolled the line of hostile trenches, cleared the German
+infantry from their dugouts and shelters.
+
+In this way, both the main system of the Hindenburg line and its outer
+defenses were rapidly overrun, and tanks and infantry proceeded in
+accordance with program to the attack upon the Hindenburg reserve line.
+
+In this advance the 12th (Eastern) Division moved along the Bonavis
+Ridge on the right of our attack, encountered obstinate resistance at
+Lateau Wood, which sheltered a number of German batteries. Fierce
+fighting, in which infantry and tank crews displayed the greatest
+gallantry, continued throughout the morning at this point, and ended in
+the capture of the position, together with the enemy's guns.
+
+Meanwhile the 20th (Light) Division, which had captured La Vacquerie at
+the opening of its attack, stormed the powerful defenses of Welsh Ridge.
+The 6th Division carried the village of Ribecourt, after sharp fighting
+among the streets and houses, while the 62d (West Riding) Division (T.)
+stormed Havrincourt, where also parties of the enemy held out for a
+time.
+
+The capture of these two villages secured the flanks of the 51st
+(Highland) Division (T.) advancing on the left centre of our attack up
+the slopes of Flesquieres Hill against the German trench lines on the
+southern side of Flesquieres village. Here very heavy fighting took
+place. The stout brick wall skirting the chateau grounds opposed a
+formidable obstacle to our advance, while German machine guns swept the
+approaches. A number of tanks were knocked out by direct hits from
+German field batteries in position beyond the crest of the hill. None
+the less, with the exception of the village itself, our second
+objectives in this area were gained before midday.
+
+Many of the hits upon our tanks at Flesquieres were obtained by a German
+artillery officer who, remaining alone at his battery, served a field
+gun single-handed until killed at his gun. The great bravery of this
+officer aroused the admiration of all ranks.
+
+
+Capture of Marcoing
+
+On the left of our attack, west of the Canal du Nord, the 36th (Ulster)
+Division captured a German strong point on the spoil bank of the canal
+and pushed northward in touch with the West Riding troops, who, as the
+first stage in a most gallant and remarkably successful advance, had
+taken Havrincourt. By 10:30 A. M. the general advance beyond the
+Hindenburg reserve line to our final objectives had begun, and cavalry
+were moving up behind our infantry.
+
+In this period of the attack tanks and British infantry battalions of
+the 29th Division entered Masnieres and captured Marcoing and Neuf Wood,
+securing the passages of the Canal de l'Escaut at both villages.
+
+At Marcoing the tanks arrived at the moment when a party of the enemy
+were in the act of running out an electrical connection to blow up one
+of the bridges. This party was fired on by a tank and the bridge secured
+intact. At Masnieres, however, the retreating enemy succeeded in
+destroying partially the bridge carrying the main road. In consequence
+the first tank which endeavored to cross at this point fell through the
+bridge, completing its destruction.
+
+The advance of a number of our guns had been unavoidably delayed in the
+sunken roads which served this part of the battlefield, and though our
+infantry continued their progress beyond Masnieres, without the
+assistance of tanks and artillery, they were not able at first to clear
+the enemy entirely from the northern portion of the village. Here
+parties of Germans held out during the afternoon, and gave the enemy
+time to occupy Rumilly and the section of the Beaurevoir-Masnieres line
+south of it; while the destruction of the bridge also prevented the
+cavalry from crossing the canal in sufficient strength to overcome his
+resistance.
+
+In spite of this difficulty, a squadron of the Fort Garry Horse,
+Canadian cavalry brigade, succeeded during the afternoon in crossing the
+canal by a temporary bridge constructed during the day. This squadron
+passed through the Beaurevoir-Masnieres line and charged and captured a
+German battery in position to the east of it. Continuing its advance, it
+dispersed a body of about 300 German infantry, and did not cease its
+progress until the greater part of its horses had been killed or
+wounded. The squadron thereupon took up a position in a sunken road,
+where it maintained itself until night fell. It then withdrew to our
+lines, bringing with it several prisoners taken in the course of a most
+gallant exploit.
+
+
+Brilliant Cavalry Work
+
+Meanwhile, west of the canal de l'Escaut patrols of the 6th Division
+during the afternoon entered Noyelles-sur-l'Escaut, where they were
+reinforced by cavalry, and other cavalry units pushed out toward
+Cantaing. West of Flesquieres, the 62d Division, operating northward
+from Havrincourt, made important progress. Having carried the Hindenburg
+reserve line north of that village, it rapidly continued its attack and
+captured Graincourt, where two anti-tank guns were destroyed by the
+tanks accompanying our infantry. Before nightfall infantry and cavalry
+had entered Anneux, though the enemy's resistance in this village does
+not appear to have been entirely overcome until the following morning.
+
+This attack of the 62d (West Riding) Division constitutes a brilliant
+achievement, in which the troops concerned completed an advance of four
+and a half miles from their original front, overrunning two German
+systems of defense and gaining possession of three villages.
+
+On the left flank of our attack Ulster battalions pushed northward along
+the Hindenburg line and its forward defenses, maintaining touch with the
+West Riding troops, and carried the whole of the German trench systems
+west of the Canal du Nord as far north as the Bapaume-Cambrai road.
+
+At the end of the first day of the attack, therefore, three German
+systems of defense had been broken through to a depth of some four and a
+half miles on a wide front, and over 5,000 prisoners had already been
+brought in. But for the wrecking of the bridge at Masnieres and the
+check at Flesquieres still greater results might have been attained.
+
+Throughout these operations the value of the services rendered by the
+tanks was very great, and the utmost gallantry, enterprise, and
+resolution were displayed by both officers and crews. In combination
+with the other arms, they helped to make possible a remarkable success.
+Without their aid in opening a way through the German wire, success
+could only have been attained by methods which would have given the
+enemy ample warning of our attack and have allowed him time to mass
+troops to oppose it. As has been pointed out above, to enable me to
+undertake such an operation with the troops at my disposal secrecy to
+the last moment was essential. The tanks alone made it possible to
+dispense with artillery preparation, and so to conceal our intentions
+from the enemy up to the actual moment of attack.
+
+Great credit is due also to the Royal Flying Corps for very gallant and
+most valuable work carried out under conditions of the greatest
+difficulty from low clouds and driving mist.
+
+In the subsidiary attack at Bullecourt battalions of the 3d Division and
+the 16th (Irish) Division successfully completed the work begun by our
+operations in this area in May and June, 1917, capturing the remainder
+of the Hindenburg support trench on their front, with some 700
+prisoners. A number of counterattacks against our new positions at
+Bullecourt on this and the following day were repulsed, with great loss
+to the enemy.
+
+
+The Advance Continued
+
+4. On the morning of Nov. 21 the attack on Flesquieres was resumed, and
+by 8 A. M. the village had been turned from the northwest and captured.
+The obstacle which more than anything else had limited the results of
+Nov. 20 was thereby removed, and later in the morning the advance once
+more became general.
+
+Masnieres had been cleared of the enemy during the previous evening, and
+at 11 A. M. our troops attacked the Beaurevoir-Masnieres line and
+established themselves in the portion to the east and north of
+Masnieres. Heavy fighting took place, and a counterattack from the
+direction of Rumilly was beaten off. At the same hour we attacked and
+captured Les Rues des Vignes, but later in the morning the enemy
+counterattacked and compelled our troops to fall back from this
+position. Progress was also made toward Crevecoeur; but though the canal
+was crossed during the afternoon, it was found impossible to force the
+passage of the river in face of the enemy's machine-gun fire.
+
+That evening orders were issued by the 3d Army to secure the ground
+already gained in this area of the battle, and to capture Rumilly on the
+morrow; but in consequence of the exhaustion of the troops engaged it
+was found necessary later in the night to cancel the orders for this
+attack.
+
+West of the Canal de l'Escaut infantry of the 29th Division and
+dismounted regiments of the 1st and 5th Cavalry Divisions, including the
+Ambala Brigade, were heavily engaged throughout the day in Noyelles, and
+beat off all attacks in continuous fighting.
+
+Following upon the capture of Flesquieres, the 51st and 62d Divisions,
+in co-operation with a number of tanks and squadrons of the 1st Cavalry
+Division, attacked at 10:30 A. M. in the direction of
+Fontaine-notre-Dame and Bourlon.
+
+In this attack the capture of Anneux was completed, and early in the
+afternoon Cantaing was seized, with some hundreds of prisoners. Progress
+was made on the outskirts of Bourlon Wood, and late in the afternoon
+Fontaine-notre-Dame was taken by troops of the 51st Division and tanks.
+The attack on Bourlon Wood itself was checked by machine-gun fire,
+though tanks advanced some distance into the wood.
+
+Further west, the 36th Division advanced north of the Bapaume-Cambrai
+road, and reached the southern outskirts of Moeuvres, where strong
+opposition was encountered.
+
+
+Position on Nov. 21
+
+5. On the evening of the second day of the attack, therefore, our troops
+held a line which ran approximately as follows:
+
+From our old front line east of Gonnelieu the right flank of our new
+positions lay along the eastern slopes of the Bonavis Ridge, passing
+east of Lateau Wood and striking the Masnieres-Beaurevoir line north of
+the Canal de l'Escaut at a point about half way between Crevecoeur and
+Masnieres. From this point our line ran roughly northwest, past and
+including Masnieres, Noyelles, and Cantaing, to Fontaine, also
+inclusive. Thence it bent back to the south for a short distance, making
+a sharp salient round the latter village, and ran in a general westerly
+direction along the southern edge of Bourlon Wood and across the
+southern face of the spur to the west of the wood, to the Canal du Nord,
+southeast of the village of Moeuvres. From Moeuvres the line linked up
+once more with our old front at a point about midway between Bourcies
+and Pronville.
+
+The forty-eight hours after which it had been calculated that the
+enemy's reserves would begin to arrive had in effect expired, and the
+high ground at Bourlon Village and Wood, as well as certain important
+tactical features to the east and west of the wood, still remained in
+the enemy's possession. It now became necessary to decide whether to
+continue the operation offensively or to take up a defensive attitude
+and rest content with what had been attained.
+
+
+The Decision to Go On
+
+6. It was not possible, however, to let matters stand as they were. The
+positions captured by us north of Flesquieres were completely commanded
+by the Bourlon Ridge, and unless this ridge were gained it would be
+impossible to hold them, except at excessive cost. If I decided not to
+go on a withdrawal to the Flesquieres Ridge would be necessary, and
+would have to be carried out at once.
+
+On the other hand, the enemy showed certain signs of an intention to
+withdraw. Craters had been formed at road junctions, and troops could be
+seen ready to move east. The possession of Bourlon Ridge would enable
+our troops to obtain observation over the ground to the north, which
+sloped gently down to the Sensee River. The enemy's defensive lines
+south of the Scarpe and Sensee Rivers would thereby be turned, his
+communications exposed to the observed fire of our artillery, and his
+positions in this sector jeopardized. In short, so great was the
+importance of the ridge to the enemy that its loss would probably cause
+the abandonment by the Germans of their carefully prepared defense
+systems for a considerable distance to the north of it.
+
+The successive days of constant marching and fighting had placed a very
+severe strain upon the endurance of the troops, and, before a further
+advance could be undertaken, some time would have to be spent in resting
+and relieving them. This need for delay was regrettable, as the enemy's
+forces were increasing, and fresh German divisions were known to be
+arriving, but, with the limited number of troops at my command, it was
+unavoidable.
+
+It was to be remembered, however, that the hostile reinforcements coming
+up at this stage could at first be no more than enough to replace the
+enemy's losses; and although the right of our advance had definitely
+been stayed, the enemy had not yet developed such strength about Bourlon
+as it seemed might not be overcome by the numbers at my disposal. As has
+already been pointed out, on the Cambrai side of the battlefield I had
+only aimed at securing a defensive flank to enable the advance to be
+pushed northward and northwestward, and this part of my task had been to
+a large extent achieved.
+
+An additional and very important argument in favor of proceeding with my
+attack was supplied by the situation in Italy, upon which a continuance
+of pressure on the Cambrai front might reasonably be expected to
+exercise an important effect, no matter what measure of success attended
+my efforts. Moreover, two divisions previously under orders for Italy
+had on this day been placed at my disposal, and with this accession of
+strength the prospect of securing Bourlon seemed good.
+
+After weighing these various considerations, therefore, I decided to
+continue the operations to gain the Bourlon position.
+
+Nov. 22 was spent in organizing the captured ground, in carrying out
+certain reliefs, and in giving other troops the rest they greatly
+needed. Soon after midday the enemy regained Fontaine-notre-Dame; but
+with our troops already on the outskirts of Bourlon Wood and Cantaing
+held by us, it was thought that the recapture of Fontaine should not
+prove very difficult. The necessary arrangements for renewing the attack
+were therefore pushed on, and our plans were extended to include the
+recapture of Fontaine-notre-Dame.
+
+Meanwhile, early in the night of Nov. 22, a battalion of the Queen's
+Westminsters stormed a commanding tactical point in the Hindenburg line
+west of Moeuvres known as Tadpole Copse, the possession of which would
+be of value in connection with the left flank of the Bourlon position
+when the latter had been secured.
+
+
+Struggle for Bourlon Ridge
+
+7. On the morning of Nov. 23, the 51st Division, supported by tanks,
+attacked Fontaine-notre-Dame, but was unable to force an entrance. Early
+in the afternoon this division repeated its attack from the west, and a
+number of tanks entered Fontaine, where they remained till dusk,
+inflicting considerable loss on the enemy. We did not succeed, however,
+in clearing the village, and at the end of the day no progress had been
+made on this part of our front.
+
+At 10:30 A. M. the 40th Division attacked Bourlon Wood, and after four
+and a half hours of hard fighting, in which tanks again rendered
+valuable assistance to our infantry, captured the whole of the wood and
+entered Bourlon village. Here hostile counterattacks prevented our
+further progress, and though the village was at one time reported to
+have been taken by us, this proved later to be erroneous. A heavy
+hostile attack upon our positions in the wood, in which all three
+battalions of the 9th Grenadier Regiment appear to have been employed,
+was completely repulsed.
+
+Throughout this day, also, the 36th Division and troops of the 56th
+(London) Division (T.) were engaged in stubborn fighting in the
+neighborhood of Moeuvres and Tadpole Copse, and made some progress.
+
+This struggle for Bourlon resulted in several days of fiercely contested
+fighting, in which English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish battalions,
+together with dismounted cavalry, performed most gallant service and
+inflicted heavy loss on the enemy.
+
+During the morning of Nov. 24 the enemy twice attacked, and at his
+second attempt pressed back our troops in the northeastern corner of the
+wood. An immediate counterattack delivered by the 14th Battalion, Argyll
+and Sutherland Highlanders, the 15th Hussars, dismounted, and the
+remnants of the 119th Infantry Brigade, drove back the enemy in turn,
+and by noon our line had been re-established. Meanwhile, dismounted
+cavalry had repulsed an attack on the high ground west of Bourlon Wood,
+and in the afternoon a third hostile attack upon the wood was stopped by
+our artillery and rifle fire.
+
+
+Bourlon Village Captured
+
+On this afternoon our infantry again attacked Bourlon village, and
+captured the whole of it. Later in the evening a fourth attack upon our
+positions in the wood was beaten off after fierce fighting. Further
+progress was made on this day in the Hindenburg line west of Moeuvres,
+but the enemy's resistance in the whole of this area was very strong. On
+the evening of Nov. 25 a fresh attack by the enemy regained Bourlon
+village, though our troops offered vigorous resistance, and parties of
+the 13th Battalion East Surrey Regiment held out in the southeast corner
+of the village until touch was re-established with them two days later.
+The continual fighting and the strength of the enemy's attacks, however,
+had told heavily on the 40th Division, which had borne the brunt of the
+struggle. This division was accordingly withdrawn, and on the following
+day our troops were again pressed back slightly in the northern
+outskirts of Bourlon Wood.
+
+With the enemy in possession of the shoulder of the ridge above
+Fontaine-notre-Dame, as well as of part of the high ground west of
+Bourlon Wood, our position in the wood itself was a difficult one, and
+much of the ground to the south of it was still exposed to the enemy's
+observation. It was decided, therefore, to make another effort on Nov.
+27 to capture Fontaine-notre-Dame and Bourlon village and to gain
+possession of the whole of the Bourlon Ridge.
+
+In this attack, in which tanks co-operated, British Guards temporarily
+regained possession of Fontaine-notre-Dame, taking some hundreds of
+prisoners, and troops of the 62d Division once more entered Bourlon
+village. Later in the morning, however, heavy counterattacks developed
+in both localities, and our troops were unable to maintain the ground
+they had gained. During the afternoon the enemy also attacked our
+positions at Tadpole Copse, but was repulsed.
+
+As the result of five days of constant fighting, therefore, we held a
+strong position on the Bourlon Hill and in the wood, but had not yet
+succeeded in gaining all the ground required for the security of this
+important feature. The two following days passed comparatively quietly,
+while the troops engaged were relieved and steps were undertaken to
+prepare for a deliberate attack which might give us the tactical points
+we sought.
+
+Meanwhile, on other parts of the front, the organization of our new
+positions was proceeding as rapidly as conditions would allow. In
+particular, troops of the 12th Division had effected some improvement on
+the right flank of our advance opposite Banteux, and the 16th Division
+had made further progress in the Hindenburg line northwest of
+Bullecourt.
+
+At the end of November the number of prisoners taken in our operations
+southwest of Cambrai exceeded 10,500. We had also captured 142 guns,
+some 350 machine guns, and 70 trench mortars, with great quantities of
+ammunition, material, and stores of all kinds.
+
+
+The German Attack
+
+8. During the last days of November increased registration of hostile
+artillery, the movements of troops and transport observed behind the
+German lines, together with other indications of a like nature, pointed
+to further efforts by the enemy to regain the positions we had wrested
+from him.
+
+The front affected by this increased activity included that of our
+advance, as well as the ground to Vendhuille and beyond. The massing of
+the enemy's infantry, however, his obvious anxiety concerning the
+security of his defenses south of the Sensee River, the tactical
+importance of the high ground about Bourlon, and the fact that we were
+still only in partial possession of it, all pointed to the principal
+attack being delivered in the Bourlon sector.
+
+9. Measures were accordingly taken, both by the 3d Army and by the lower
+formations concerned, to prepare for eventualities. Arrangements had
+been made after our last attack to relieve the troops holding the
+Bourlon positions by such fresh divisions as were available, and when
+these reliefs had been satisfactorily completed I felt confident that
+the defense of this sector could be considered secure.
+
+Covering our right flank from Cantaing to the Banteux Ravine, a distance
+of about 16,000 yards, five British divisions were disposed, and, though
+these had been fighting for several days and were consequently tired, I
+felt confident that they would prove equal to stopping any attack the
+enemy could make on them.
+
+From the Banteux Ravine southward the divisions in line were weak and
+held very extended fronts. On the other hand, the line held by us in
+this southern sector had been in our possession for some months. Its
+defenses were for this reason more complete and better organized than
+those of the ground gained by us in our attack. Moreover, the capture of
+the Bonavis Ridge had added to the security of our position further
+south.
+
+The reserve divisions immediately available in the area consisted of the
+Guards and 2d Cavalry Divisions, both of which had been engaged in the
+recent fighting at Fontaine and Bourlon Wood. These were located behind
+the La Vacquerie-Villers Guislain front, while another division, the
+62d, which had also been recently engaged, was placed further to the
+northwest in the direction of the Bapaume-Cambrai road. A fresh South
+Midland Division was assembling further back, two other cavalry
+divisions were within from two to three hours' march of the battle area,
+and another cavalry division but a little further distant.
+
+In view of the symptoms of activity observed on the enemy's front,
+special precautions were taken by local commanders, especially from
+Villers Guislain to the south. Troops were warned to expect attack,
+additional machine guns were placed to secure supporting points, and
+divisional reserves were closed up. Special patrols were also sent out
+to watch for signs of any hostile advance.
+
+
+The Battle Reopened
+
+10. Between the hours of 7 and 8 A. M. on the last day of November the
+enemy attacked, after a short but intense artillery preparation, on the
+greater part of a front of some ten miles from Vendhuille to Masnieres
+inclusive. From Masnieres to Banteux, both inclusive, four German
+divisions would seem to have been employed against the three British
+divisions holding this area. Between Banteux exclusive and Vendhuille
+one German division and portions of two others were employed against the
+northern half of the British division holding that front.
+
+On the Masnieres front the 29th Division, composed of English, Scottish,
+Welsh, Irish, Guernsey, and Newfoundland battalions, although seriously
+threatened as the day wore on by the progress made by the enemy further
+south, where their battery positions had been taken in reverse, most
+gallantly beat off a succession of powerful assaults and maintained
+their line intact.
+
+At the northern end of the Bonavis Ridge and in the Gonnelieu sector the
+swiftness with which the advance of the enemy's infantry followed the
+opening of his bombardment appears to have overwhelmed our troops, both
+in line and in immediate support, almost before they had realized that
+the attack had begun.
+
+The nature of the bombardment, which seems to have been heavy enough to
+keep our men under cover without at first seriously alarming them,
+contributed to the success of the enemy's plans. No steadily advancing
+barrage gave warning of the approach of the German assault columns,
+whose secret assembly was assisted by the many deep folds and hollows
+typical of a chalk formation, and shielded from observation from the air
+by an early morning mist. Only when the attack was upon them great
+numbers of low-flying German airplanes rained machine-gun fire upon our
+infantry, while an extensive use of smoke shell and bombs made it
+extremely difficult for our troops to see what was happening on other
+parts of the battlefield, or to follow the movements of the enemy. In
+short, there is little doubt that, although an attack was expected
+generally, yet in these areas of the battle at the moment of delivery
+the assault effected a local surprise.
+
+
+Stubborn British Resistance
+
+None the less, stubborn resistance was offered during the morning by
+isolated parties of our troops and by machine-gun detachments in the
+neighborhood of Lateau Wood and southeast of La Vacquerie, as well as at
+other points. In more than one instance heavy losses are known to have
+been inflicted on the enemy by machine-gun fire at short range.
+Northeast of La Vacquerie the 92d Field Artillery Brigade repulsed four
+attacks, in some of which the enemy's infantry approached to within 200
+yards of our guns before the surviving gunners were finally compelled to
+withdraw, after removing the breechblocks from their pieces. East of
+Villers-Guislain the troops holding our forward positions on the high
+ground were still offering a strenuous resistance to the enemy's attack
+on their front at a time when large forces of German infantry had
+already advanced up the valley between them and Villers-Guislain. South
+of this village a single strong point known as Limerick Post, garrisoned
+by troops of the 1st and 5th Battalions, (King's Own,) Royal Lancaster
+Regiment, and the 1st and 10th Battalions, Liverpool Regiment, held out
+with great gallantry throughout the day, though heavily attacked.
+
+The progress made by the enemy, however, across the northern end of the
+Bonavis Ridge and up the deep gully between Villers-Guislain and
+Gonnelieu, known as 22 Ravine, turned our positions on the ridge as well
+as in both villages. Taking in flank and rear, the defenses of
+Villers-Guislain, Gonnelieu, and Bonavis were rapidly overrun.
+Gouzeaucourt was captured about 9 A. M., the outer defenses of La
+Vacquerie were reached, and a number of guns which had been brought up
+close to the line in order to enable them to cover the battle front
+about Masnieres and Marcoing fell into the hands of the enemy.
+
+At this point the enemy's advance was checked by the action of our local
+reserves, and meanwhile measures had been taken with all possible speed
+to bring up additional troops. About midday the Guards came into action
+west of Gouzeaucourt, while cavalry moved up to close the gap on their
+right and made progress toward Villers-Guislain from the south and
+southwest.
+
+The attack of the Guards, which was delivered with the greatest
+gallantry and resolution, drove the enemy out of Gouzeaucourt and made
+progress on the high ground known as the St. Quentin Ridge, east of the
+village. In this operation the Guards were materially assisted by the
+gallant action of a party of the 29th Division, who, with a company of
+North Midland Royal Engineers, held on throughout the day to a position
+in an old trench near Gouzeaucourt. Valuable work was also done by a
+brigade of field artillery of the 47th Division, which moved direct into
+action from the line of march.
+
+During the afternoon three battalions of tanks which, when they received
+news of the attack, were preparing to move away from the battlefield to
+refit, arrived at Gouzeaucourt and aided the infantry to hold the
+recaptured ground. Great credit is due to the officers and men of the
+tank brigade concerned for the speed with which they brought their tanks
+into action.
+
+Meanwhile, the defense of La Vacquerie had been successfully maintained,
+and our line had been established to the north of that village, in touch
+with our troops in Masnieres.
+
+
+The Northern Attack
+
+11. In the northern area, from Fontaine-notre-Dame to Tadpole Copse, the
+German attack was not launched until some two hours later. This was the
+enemy's main attack, and was carried out with large forces and great
+resolution.
+
+After a heavy preliminary bombardment, and covered by an artillery
+barrage, the enemy's infantry advanced shortly after 9 A. M. in dense
+waves, in the manner of his attacks in the first battle of Ypres. In the
+course of the morning and afternoon no less than five principal attacks
+were made in this area, and on one portion of the attack as many as
+eleven waves of German infantry advanced successively to the assault. On
+the whole of this front a resolute endeavor was made to break down by
+sheer weight of numbers the defense of the London Territorials and other
+English battalions holding the sector.
+
+In this fighting the 47th (London) Division (T.), the 2d Division, and
+the 56th (London) Division (T.) greatly distinguished themselves, and
+there were accomplished many deeds of great heroism.
+
+Under the fury of the enemy's bombardment a company of the 17th
+Battalion Royal Fusiliers were in the course of being withdrawn from an
+exposed position in a saphead in advance of our line between Bourlon
+Wood and Moeuvres when the German attack burst upon them. The officer in
+command sent three of his platoons back, and with a rearguard composed
+of the remainder of his company held off the enemy's infantry until the
+main position had been organized. Having faithfully accomplished their
+task, this rearguard died fighting to the end with their faces to the
+enemy.
+
+Somewhat later in the morning an attack in force between the Canal du
+Nord and Moeuvres broke into our foremost positions and isolated a
+company of the 13th Battalion, Essex Regiment, in a trench just west of
+the canal. After maintaining a splendid and successful resistance
+throughout the day, whereby the pressure upon our main line was greatly
+relieved, at 4 P. M. this company held a council of war, at which the
+two remaining company officers, the company Sergeant Major, and the
+platoon Sergeants were present, and unanimously determined to fight to
+the last and have "no surrender." Two runners who were sent to notify
+this decision to battalion headquarters succeeded in getting through to
+our lines and delivered their message. During the remainder of the
+afternoon and far into the following night this gallant company were
+heard fighting, and there is little room for doubt that they carried out
+to a man their heroic resolution.
+
+
+Enormous German Losses
+
+Early in the afternoon large masses of the enemy again attacked west of
+Bourlon Wood, and, though beaten off with great loss at most points,
+succeeded in overwhelming three out of a line of posts held by a company
+of the 1st Battalion, Royal Berks Regiment, on the right of the 2d
+Division. Though repeatedly attacked by vastly superior numbers, the
+remainder of these posts stood firm, and when, two days later, the three
+posts which had been overpowered were regained, such a heap of German
+dead lay in and around them that the bodies of our own men were hidden.
+
+All accounts go to show that the enemy's losses in the whole of his
+constantly repeated attacks on this sector of the battle front were
+enormous. One battery of eight machine guns fired 70,000 rounds of
+ammunition into ten successive waves of Germans. Long lines of attacking
+infantry were caught by our machine-gun fire in enfilade, and were shot
+down in line as they advanced. Great execution also was done by our
+field artillery, and in the course of the battle guns were brought up to
+the crest line and fired direct upon the enemy at short range.
+
+At one point west of Bourlon the momentum of his first advance carried
+the enemy through our front line and a short way down the southern
+slopes of the ridge. There, however, the German masses came under
+direct fire from our field artillery at short range and were broken up.
+Our local reserves at once counterattacked and succeeded in closing the
+gap that had been made in our line. Early in the afternoon the enemy
+again forced his way into our foremost positions in this locality,
+opening a gap between the 1st and 6th Battalions and the 1st and 15th
+Battalions, London regiments. Counterattacks led by the two battalion
+commanders, with all available men, including the personnel of their
+headquarters, once more restored the situation. All other attacks were
+beaten off with the heaviest losses to the enemy.
+
+The greatest credit is due to the troops at Masnieres, Bourlon, and
+Moeuvres for the very gallant service performed by them on this day. But
+for their steady courage and stanchness in defense, the success gained
+by the enemy on the right of our battle front might have had serious
+consequences.
+
+I cannot close the account of this day's fighting without recording my
+obligation to the Commander in Chief of the French Armies for the prompt
+way in which he placed French troops within reach for employment in case
+of need at the unfettered discretion of the 3d Army commander. Part of
+the artillery of this force actually came into action, rendering
+valuable service, and though the remainder of the troops were not called
+upon, the knowledge that they were available should occasion arise was a
+great assistance.
+
+
+At Gonnelieu and Masnieres
+
+12. On Dec. 1 fighting continued fiercely on the whole front.
+
+The Guards completed the capture of the St. Quentin Ridge and entered
+Gonnelieu, where they captured over 350 prisoners and a large number of
+machine guns. Tanks took an effective part in the fighting for the
+ridge. At one point, where our infantry were held up by fire from a
+hostile trench, a single tank attacked and operated up and down the
+trench, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy's garrison. Our infantry
+were then able to advance and secure the trench, which was found full of
+dead Germans. In it were also found fifteen machine guns that had been
+silenced by the tank. In the whole of this fighting splendid targets
+were obtained by all tank crews and the German casualties were seen to
+be very great.
+
+Further south a number of tanks co-operated with dismounted Indian
+cavalry of the 5th Cavalry Division and with the Guards in the attacks
+upon Villers-Guislain and Gauche Wood, and were in great measure
+responsible for the capture of the wood. Heavy fighting took place for
+this position, which it is clear that the enemy had decided to hold at
+all costs. When the infantry and cavalry finally took possession of the
+wood, great numbers of German dead and smashed machine guns were found.
+In one spot four German machine guns, with dead crews lying round, were
+discovered within a radius of twenty yards. Three German field guns,
+complete with teams, were also captured in this wood.
+
+Other tanks proceeded to Villers-Guislain, and, in spite of heavy direct
+artillery fire, three reached the outskirts of the village, but the fire
+of the enemy's machine guns prevented our troops advancing from the
+south from supporting them, and the tanks ultimately withdrew.
+
+Severe fighting took place, also, at Masnieres. During the afternoon and
+evening at least nine separate attacks were beaten off by the 29th
+Division on this front, and other hostile attacks were repulsed in the
+neighborhood of Marcoing, Fontaine-notre-Dame, and Bourlon. With the
+Bonavis Ridge in the enemy's hands, however, Masnieres was exposed to
+attack on three sides, and on the night of Dec. 1-2 our troops were
+withdrawn under orders to a line west of the village.
+
+On the afternoon of Dec. 2 a series of heavy attacks developed against
+Welsh Ridge in the neighborhood of La Vacquerie, and further assaults
+were made on our positions in the neighborhood of Masnieres and Bourlon.
+These attacks were broken in succession by our machine-gun fire, but the
+enemy persisted in his attempts against Welsh Ridge, and gradually
+gained ground. By nightfall our line had been pushed back to a position
+west and north of Gonnelieu.
+
+Next day the enemy renewed his attacks in great force on the whole front
+from Gonnelieu to Marcoing, and ultimately gained possession of La
+Vacquerie. North of La Vacquerie repeated attacks made about Masnieres
+and Marcoing were repulsed in severe fighting, but the positions still
+retained by us beyond the Canal de l'Escaut were extremely exposed, and
+during the night our troops were withdrawn under orders to the west bank
+of the canal.
+
+
+Withdrawal From Bourlon
+
+13. By this time the enemy had evidently become exhausted by the efforts
+he had made and the severity of his losses, and Dec. 4 passed
+comparatively quietly. For some days, however, local fighting continued
+in the neighborhood of La Vacquerie, and his attitude remained
+aggressive. Local attacks in this sector were repulsed on Dec. 5, and on
+this and the following two days further fierce fighting took place, in
+which the enemy again endeavored without success to drive us from our
+positions on Welsh Ridge.
+
+The strength which the enemy had shown himself able to develop in his
+attacks made it evident that only by prolonged and severe fighting could
+I hope to re-establish my right flank on the Bonavis Ridge. Unless this
+was done, the situation of my troops in the salient north of Flesquieres
+would be difficult and dangerous, even if our hold on Bourlon Hill were
+extended.
+
+I had therefore to decide either to embark on another offensive battle
+on a large scale, or to withdraw to a more compact line on the
+Flesquieres Ridge.
+
+Although this decision involved giving up important positions most
+gallantly won, I had no doubt as to the correct course under the
+conditions. Accordingly, on the night of Dec. 4-5 the evacuation of the
+position held by us north of the Flesquieres Ridge was commenced. On the
+morning of Dec. 7 this withdrawal was completed successfully, without
+interference from the enemy.
+
+Before withdrawing, the more important of the enemy's field defenses
+were destroyed, and those of his guns which we had been unable to remove
+were rendered useless. The enemy did not discover our withdrawal for
+some time, and when, on the afternoon of Dec. 5, he began to feel his
+way forward, he did so with great caution. In spite of his care, on more
+than one occasion bodies of his infantry were caught in the open by our
+artillery.
+
+Much skill and courage were shown by our covering troops in this
+withdrawal, and an incident which occurred on the afternoon of Dec. 6 in
+the neighborhood of Graincourt deserves special notice. A covering
+party, consisting of two companies of the 1st and 15th Battalions,
+London Regiment, 47th Division, much reduced in strength by the fighting
+at Bourlon Wood, found their flank exposed by a hostile attack further
+east, and were enveloped and practically cut off. These companies
+successfully cut their way through to our advanced line of resistance,
+where they arrived in good order, after having inflicted serious
+casualties on the enemy.
+
+The new line taken up by us corresponded roughly to the old Hindenburg
+reserve line, and ran from a point about one and a half miles north by
+east of La Vacquerie, north of Ribecourt and Flesquieres to the Canal du
+Nord, about one and a half miles north of Havrincourt--i. e., between
+two and two and a half miles in front of the line held by us prior to
+the attack of Nov. 20. We therefore retained in our possession an
+important section of the Hindenburg trench system, with its excellent
+dugouts and other advantages.
+
+
+Results of the Battle
+
+14. The material results of the three weeks' fighting described above
+can be stated in general terms very shortly.
+
+We had captured and retained in our possession over 12,000 yards of the
+former German front line from La Vacquerie to a point opposite Boursies,
+together with between 10,000 and 11,000 yards of the Hindenburg line and
+Hindenburg reserve line and the village of Ribecourt, Flesquieres, and
+Havrincourt. A total of 145 German guns were taken or destroyed by us in
+the course of the operations, and 11,100 German prisoners were captured.
+
+On the other hand, the enemy had occupied an unimportant section of our
+front line between Vendhuille and Gonnelieu.
+
+There is little doubt that our operations were of considerable indirect
+assistance to the allied forces in Italy. Large demands were made upon
+the available German reserves at a time when a great concentration of
+German divisions was still being maintained in Flanders. There is
+evidence that German divisions intended for the Italian theatre were
+diverted to the Cambrai front, and it is probable that the further
+concentration of German forces against Italy was suspended for at least
+two weeks at a most critical period, when our allies were making their
+first stand on the Piave line.
+
+
+General Review
+
+15. I have already summarized in the opening paragraphs of this dispatch
+both the reasons which decided me to undertake the Cambrai operations
+and the limitations to which these operations were subject.
+
+In view of the strength of the German forces on the front of my attack
+and the success with which secrecy was maintained during our
+preparations, I had calculated that the enemy's prepared defenses would
+be captured in the first rush. I had good hope that his resisting power
+behind these defenses would then be so enfeebled for a period that we
+should be able on the same day to establish ourselves quickly and
+completely on the dominating Bourlon Ridge from Fontaine-notre-Dame to
+Moeuvres and to secure our right flank along a line including the
+Bonavis Ridge, Crevecour, and Rumilly to Fontaine-notre-Dame. Even if
+this did not prove possible within the first twenty-four hours, a second
+day would be at our disposal before the enemy's reserves could begin to
+arrive in any formidable numbers.
+
+Meanwhile, with no wire and no prepared defenses to hamper them, it was
+reasonable to hope that masses of cavalry would find it possible to pass
+through, whose task would be thoroughly to disorganize the enemy's
+systems of command and intercommunication in the whole area between the
+Canal de l'Escaut, the River Sensee, and the Canal du Nord, as well as
+to the east and northeast of Cambrai.
+
+My intentions as regards subsequent exploitation were to push westward
+and northwestward, taking the Hindenburg line in reverse from Moeuvres
+to the River Scarpe, and capturing all the enemy's defenses and probably
+most of his garrisons lying west of a line from Cambrai northward to the
+Sensee, and south of that river and the Scarpe.
+
+Time would have been required to enable us to develop and complete the
+operation; but the prospects of gaining the necessary time, by the use
+of cavalry in the manner outlined above, were in my opinion good enough
+to justify the attempt to execute the plan. I am of opinion that on Nov.
+20 and 21 we went very near to a success sufficiently complete to bring
+the realization of our full program within our power.
+
+The reasons for my decision to continue the fight after Nov. 21 have
+already been explained. Though in the event no advantage was gained
+thereby, I still consider that, as the problem presented itself at the
+time, the more cautious course would have been difficult to justify. It
+must be remembered that it was not a question of remaining where we
+stood, but of abandoning tactical positions of value, gained with great
+gallantry, the retention of which seemed not only to be within our
+power, but likely even yet to lead to further success.
+
+Whatever may be the final decision on this point, as well as on the
+original decision to undertake the enterprise at all with the forces
+available, the continuation of our efforts against Fontaine-notre-Dame
+gave rise to severe fighting, in which our troops more than held their
+own.
+
+
+Risks Voluntarily Accepted
+
+On Nov. 30 risks were accepted by us at some points in order to increase
+our strength at others. Our fresh reserves had been thrown in on the
+Bourlon front, where the enemy brought against us a total force of seven
+divisions to three and failed. I do not consider that it would have been
+justifiable on the indications to have allotted a smaller garrison to
+this front.
+
+Between Masnieres and Vendhuille the enemy's superiority in infantry
+over our divisions in line was in the proportion of about four to three,
+and we were sufficiently provided with artillery. That his attack was
+partially successful may tend to show that the garrison allotted to this
+front was insufficient, either owing to want of numbers, lack of
+training, or exhaustion from previous fighting.
+
+Captured maps and orders have made it clear that the enemy aimed at far
+more considerable results than were actually achieved by him. Three
+convergent attacks were to be made on the salient formed by our advance;
+two of them delivered approximately simultaneously about Gonnelieu and
+Masnieres, followed later by a still more powerful attack on the Bourlon
+front. The objectives of these attacks extended to the high ground at
+Beaucamp and Trescault, and the enemy's hope was to capture and destroy
+the whole of the British forces in the Cambrai salient.
+
+This bold and ambitious plan was foiled on the greater part of our front
+by the splendid defense of the British divisions engaged; and, though
+the defense broke down for a time in one area, the recovery made by the
+weak forces still left and those within immediate reach is worthy of the
+highest praise. Numberless instances of great gallantry, promptitude,
+and skill were shown, some few which have been recounted.
+
+I desire to acknowledge the skill and resource displayed by General Byng
+throughout the Cambrai operations and to express my appreciation of the
+manner in which they were conducted by him as well as by his staff and
+the subordinate commanders.
+
+In conclusion, I would point out that the sudden breaking through by our
+troops of an immense system of defense has had a most inspiring moral
+effect on the armies I command and must have a correspondingly
+depressing influence upon the enemy. The great value of the tanks in the
+offensive has been conclusively proved. In view of this experience, the
+enemy may well hesitate to deplete any portion of his front, as he did
+last Summer, in order to set free troops to concentrate for decisive
+action at some other point.
+
+    I have the honor to be, my Lord, your obedient servant,
+        D. HAIG,
+    _Field Marshal, Commanding in Chief, British Armies in France_.
+
+
+Millions of Horses Used by the Armies
+
+Figures compiled by the Red Star Animal Relief Society show that at the
+beginning of 1918 there were 4,500,000 horses in use by all the armies
+in the war, and that the losses on the western front alone averaged
+47,000 a month. About 1,500,000 horses had been bought by the Allies in
+America; 33,000 of these had died before they could be embarked, and
+6,000 died in the ships. The value of horses shipped to Europe in 1917
+was more than $50,000,000, and the loss in a heavy month of fighting is
+about $1,500,000. The United States Army in France will need 750,000
+horses for draft purposes and mounts, with several hundred thousands
+more to fill losses. Experience on both sides has proved that a shortage
+of horses means a corresponding loss of guns in battle and the
+impossibility of rapid advance. Only well animals can be used, and there
+are always thousands in the hospitals. Behind the British lines there is
+a horse hospital within four miles of any point, and eight miles away
+from each is another. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
+Animals has hospitals for 10,000 horses and mules, with well-designed
+buildings, complete operating equipments, ambulances, forage barns,
+cooking kitchens, quarters for the staff, and every detail for curing
+the wounded animals. The veterinary surgeons of this society are saving
+80 per cent. of the injured horses and sending them back to the
+batteries.
+
+
+
+
+THE EUROPEAN WAR AS SEEN BY CARTOONISTS
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoon]
+In the Hands of His Friends
+--_From The San Francisco Chronicle_.]
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoons]
+"Vorwaerts Mit Gott!"
+Sacrificing the Manhood and Youth of a Nation to Save a Throne.]
+
+[Illustration:
+--_From The New York Times._
+"Hold the line! We're coming ten million strong!"]
+
+[Illustration: [Italian Cartoon]
+In Danger of Shipwreck
+--_From Il 420, Florence._
+President Wilson's war aims threaten to bring disaster to the Central
+Powers' peace boat.]
+
+[Illustration: [English Cartoon]
+If They Had Been Rationed
+--_From London Opinion._
+How certain great historical personages might have looked if they had
+lived in the days of bread cards.]
+
+[Illustration: [German Cartoon]
+Smoking the Peace Pipe
+--_From Der Brummer, Berlin._
+THE ENTENTE: "What a pity we are excluded!"]
+
+[Illustration: [English Cartoon]
+The Rescuer's Usual Fate!
+--_From London Opinion._
+POLICEMAN JOHN BULL: "But I only came on the scene because he had
+started to knock you about!"
+MRS. RUSSIA: "Never mind about that. Go on, Bill, teach 'im to
+interfere--hit me again."]
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoon]
+Proving a Fallacy
+--_From The Chicago Herald._
+Russia's faith in Socialist pacifism, and what came of it.]
+
+[Illustration: [English Cartoon]
+A Threatened Interruption
+--_From London Opinion._
+["Japan will take steps of the most decided and most adequate character
+to meet the occasion."--VISCOUNT MOTONO, Minister for Foreign
+Affairs.]]
+
+[Illustration: [English Cartoon]
+Russia's Fate
+--_From The Passing Show, London._
+If he _would_ go fooling around with him what could they do?]
+
+[Illustration: [English Cartoon]
+Futurist Art in Russia
+--_From The National News, London._
+STURDY OLD BURGESS: "And what, Sir, may your picture represent?"
+PLUPERFECT FUTURIST TROTZKY: "The mental state of a Bolshevik
+contemplating 'German capitalists, bankers, and landlords, supported by
+the silent co-operation of English and French bourgeoisie.'"
+STURDY OLD BURGESS: "Sir, you have produced a priceless masterpiece--and
+if it is true that you have sold it for L22,000 you have given it
+away!"]
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoons]
+The Wurst Is Yet to Come
+--_San Francisco Call-Post._]
+
+[Illustration: His New Trousers
+--_San Francisco Call-Post._]
+
+[Illustration: The Kaiser's God
+--_San Francisco Chronicle._]
+
+[Illustration: Tougher Than Bear Meat
+--_San Francisco Chronicle._]
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoons]
+Judging the Landslide by a Pebble
+--_From Collier's._]
+
+[Illustration: "That's My Fight Too!"
+--_New York World._]
+
+[Illustration: Dealing With Gas Attacks
+--_Dallas News._]
+
+[Illustration: [German Cartoon]
+Italy's Troubles
+--_From Der Brummer, Berlin._
+ITALY: "Hang it all! I have been at this window for nearly three
+years!"]
+
+[Illustration: [Dutch Cartoon]
+Austria and America
+--_From De Amsterdammer, Amsterdam._
+GERMAN DRILL SERGEANT: "Now, Austrians! Eyes front! Mark time! Keep your
+eyes on me!"]
+
+[Illustration: [Italian Cartoon]
+That Dinner in Paris
+--_From Il 420, Florence._
+WILHELM: "Now that we have settled Russia, prepare that Paris feast."
+CHEF: "For Paris, Sire? I am afraid the food will turn bad, as it did
+the other time."]
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoon]
+The Hohenzollern Fingerprints
+--_Macauley in Butterfield Syndicate._]
+
+[Illustration: [English Cartoon]
+"Here's to Dear Old Trotzky!"
+--_Passing Show, London._]
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoon]
+In the Lion's Mouth
+--_Knickerbocker Press, Albany._]
+
+[Illustration: [French Cartoon]
+The Russian Campaign
+"Where are you running?"
+"To kill our General before he commits suicide."
+--_From La Victoire, Paris._]
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoon]
+The Progress of Kultur
+--_From The New York World._]
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoons]
+Under His New Colonel--R. E. Morse
+--_Bushnell for Central Press Association._]
+
+[Illustration: Anxious Moments
+--_Bushnell for Central Press Association._]
+
+[Illustration: A Tail of Camouflage
+--_Bushnell for Central Press Association._]
+
+[Illustration: But Can He Get Out?
+--_Bushnell for Central Press Association._]
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoons]
+"Sire, Ve Haf Located die Sammies!"
+--_Baltimore American._]
+
+[Illustration: Putting All Their Punch in One Glove
+--_Baltimore American._]
+
+[Illustration: Bringing the War Home to Us
+--_Baltimore American._]
+
+[Illustration: Stuck
+--_Baltimore American._]
+
+[Illustration: [American Cartoons]
+Another German Substitute
+--_Dayton Daily News._]
+
+[Illustration: Back to Earth
+--_St. Louis Post-Dispatch._]
+
+[Illustration: It Shoots Further Than He Dreams
+--_Dallas News._]
+
+[Illustration: "Whither Are We Going?"
+--_Satterfield Syndicate._]
+
+[Illustration: [Russian Cartoons]
+The Bolsheviki as Art Collectors
+--_From Novi Satirikon, Petrograd._]
+
+[Illustration: Thus It Was--Thus It Is
+--_From Novi Satirikon, Petrograd._]
+
+[Illustration: The Bolsheviki Even Brought the English to Their Knees
+[Russian papers state that prayers for Russia were held in England,
+beginning, "Save Russia from the Bolsheviki."]
+--_From Novi Satirikon, Petrograd._]
+
+[Illustration: The Feast
+--_From Novi Satirikon, Petrograd._]
+
+
+
+
+_SUPPLEMENT TO MAY CURRENT HISTORY_
+
+LICHNOWSKY'S MEMORANDUM
+
+Full Text of the Suppressed Document in Which the Former German
+Ambassador at London Reveals Germany's Guilt in Starting the War
+
+    _The full text of the memorandum of Prince Lichnowsky, who was
+    German Ambassador in London at the outbreak of the war, was
+    obtained in this country in installments, which had appeared in
+    various European newspapers, chiefly the Politiken of Stockholm,
+    the Vorwaerts of Berlin, and the Muenchener Neueste Nachrichten.
+    The earlier installments to reach America were translated and
+    summarized in the regular pages of this issue of Current History
+    Magazine, beginning on Page 314. After the issue had gone to
+    press the complete text became procurable. In order to give its
+    readers the immediate benefit of this opportunity, Current
+    History Magazine herewith presents the entire document--one of
+    the most important of the war--in the form of a special
+    supplement, despite the fact that some parts of it are
+    duplicated in the abridged version on Page 314._
+
+    _Prince Lichnowsky's now famous memorandum bears the title "My
+    London Mission, 1912-1914" and is dated "Kuchelna, (his country
+    seat,) 16 August, 1916." It became public in March, 1918, and
+    created a profound sensation in Germany as well as in the
+    Entente countries._
+
+
+_Kuchelna, 16 August, 1916._
+
+Baron Marschall died in September, 1912, having held his post in London
+for a few months only. His appointment, which was due mainly to his age
+and the plotting of a younger man to get to London, was one of the many
+mistakes made by our Foreign Office. In spite of his imposing
+personality and great reputation, he was too old and tired to be able to
+adapt himself to a purely foreign and Anglo-Saxon milieu. He was more of
+a bureaucrat and a lawyer than a diplomat or statesman. He set to work
+to convince Englishmen of the harmless character of our fleet, and
+naturally succeeded in strengthening an entirely opposite impression.
+
+To my great surprise I was offered the post in October. After many
+years' work I had withdrawn to the country, as no suitable post had been
+found for me, and I spent my time on my farm and in my garden, on
+horseback and in the fields, but I read industriously and published
+occasional political articles. Thus eight years passed, and thirteen
+since I had left Vienna as Ambassador. That was actually my last
+political employment. I do not know to whom my appointment in London was
+due. At all events, not to his Majesty, as I did not belong to his
+immediate set, although he was always gracious to me. I know by
+experience that his candidates were frequently successfully opposed. As
+a matter of fact, Herr von Kiderlen-Waechter wanted to send Baron von
+Stumm to London. He met me at once with undisguised ill-will, and tried
+to frighten me by rudeness. Herr von Bethmann Hollweg was amiable to me,
+and had visited me shortly before at Graetz. I am, therefore, inclined to
+think that they settled on me, as no other candidate was available. Had
+Baron von Marschall not died, it is unlikely that I should have been
+dug out any more than in previous years. The moment was obviously
+favorable for an attempt to come to a better understanding with England.
+
+
+THE MOROCCO QUESTION
+
+Our obscure policy in Morocco had repeatedly caused distrust of our
+peaceful intention, or, at least, had raised doubts as to whether we
+knew what we wanted or whether our intention was to keep Europe in a
+state of suspense and, on occasion, to humiliate the French. An Austrian
+colleague, who was a long time in Paris, said to me: "The French had
+begun to forget la revanche. You have regularly reminded them of it by
+tramping on their toes." After we had declined Delcasse's offer to come
+to an agreement regarding Morocco, and then solemnly declared that we
+had no political interest there--an attitude which agreed with
+Bismarckian political conditions--we suddenly discovered in Abdul Aziz a
+Kruger Number Two. To him also, as to the Boers, we promised the
+protection of the mighty German Empire, and with the same result. Both
+manifestations concluded, as they were bound to conclude, with a
+retraction, if we were not prepared to start a world war. The pitiable
+conference of Algeciras could alter nothing, and still less cause
+Delcasse's fall. Our attitude furthered the Russo-Japanese and
+Russo-British rapprochement. In face of "the German peril" all other
+considerations faded into the background. The possibility of another
+Franco-German war had been patent, and, as had not been the case in
+1870, such a war could not leave out Russia or England.
+
+
+WORTHLESS AGREEMENTS
+
+The valuelessness of the Triple Alliance had already been demonstrated
+at Algeciras, and, immediately afterward, the equal worthlessness of the
+agreements made there when the Sultanate fell to pieces, which was, of
+course, unavoidable. Meanwhile, the belief was spreading among the
+Russian people that our foreign policy was weak and was breaking down
+under "encirclement," and that cowardly surrender followed on haughty
+gestures. It is to the credit of von Kiderlen-Waechter, though otherwise
+overrated as a statesman, that he cleared up the Moroccan situation and
+adapted himself to circumstances which could not be altered. Whether the
+world had to be upset by the Agadir coup is a question I do not touch.
+This event was hailed with joy in Germany, but in England caused all the
+more uneasiness in that the British Government waited in vain for three
+weeks for a statement of our intentions. Mr. Lloyd George's Mansion
+House speech, intended to warn us, was a consequence. Before Delcasse's
+fall and before the Algeciras conference we could have obtained harbors
+and bases on the West Coast, but that was no longer possible.
+
+When I came to London in November, 1912, people had become easier about
+the question of Morocco, especially since an agreement had been reached
+with France and Berlin. Lord Haldane's mission had failed, it is true,
+as we demanded promises of neutrality instead of contenting ourselves
+with a treaty which would insure us against a British attack or any
+attack with British support. Sir Edward Grey had not, meanwhile, given
+up the idea of coming to an understanding with us, and made such an
+attempt first on economic and colonial grounds. Through the agency of
+that qualified and expert Councilor of Embassy, von Kuehlmann, an
+exchange of opinions had taken place with regard to the renewal of the
+Portuguese colonial treaty and the Bagdad Railway, which thus carried
+out the unexpected aim of dividing into spheres of interest both the
+above-mentioned colonies and Asia Minor. The British statesman, old
+points in dispute both with France and Russia having been settled,
+wished to come to a similar agreement with us. His intention was not to
+isolate us but to make us in so far as possible partners in a working
+concern. Just as he had succeeded in bridging Franco-British and
+Russo-British difficulties, so he wished as far as possible to remove
+German-British difficulties, and by a network of treaties--which would
+finally include an agreement on the miserable fleet question--to secure
+the peace of the world, as our earlier policy had lent itself to a
+co-operation with the Entente, which contained a mutual assurance
+against the danger of war.
+
+
+GREY'S DESIRES
+
+This was Sir Edward Grey's program in his own words: "Without infringing
+on the existing friendly relations with France and Russia, which in
+themselves contained no aggressive elements, and no binding obligations
+for England; to seek to achieve a more friendly rapprochement with
+Germany, and to bring the two groups nearer together."
+
+In England, as with us, there were two opinions, that of the optimists,
+who believed in an understanding, and that of the pessimists, who
+considered war inevitable sooner or later. Among the former were Mr.
+Asquith, Sir Edward Grey, Lord Haldane, and most of the Ministers in the
+Radical Cabinet, as well as leading Liberal organs, such as The
+Westminster Gazette, The Manchester Guardian, and The Daily Chronicle.
+To the pessimists belong especially Conservative politicians like Mr.
+Balfour, who repeatedly made his meaning clear to me; leading soldiers
+such as Lord Roberts, who insisted on the necessity of conscription, and
+on "the writing on the wall," and, further, the Northcliffe press, and
+that leading English journalist, Mr. Garvin of The Observer. During my
+term of office they abstained from all attacks and took up, personally
+and politically, a friendly attitude. Our naval policy and our attitude
+in the years 1905, 1908, and 1911 had, nevertheless, caused them to
+think that it might one day come to war. Just as with us, the former are
+now dubbed shortsighted and simple-minded, while the latter are
+regarded as the true prophets.
+
+
+BALKAN QUESTIONS
+
+The first Balkan war led to the collapse of Turkey and with it the
+defeat of our policy, which had been identified with Turkey for many
+years. Since the salvation of Turkey in Europe was no longer feasible,
+only two possibilities for settling the question remained. Either we
+declared we had no longer any interest in the definition of boundaries
+in the Balkan Peninsula, and left the settlement of the question to the
+Balkan peoples themselves, or we supported our allies and carried out a
+Triple Alliance policy in the East, thereby giving up the role of
+mediator.
+
+I urged the former course from the beginning, but the German Foreign
+Office very much preferred the latter. The chief question was Albania.
+Our allies desired the establishment of an independent State of Albania,
+as Austria would not allow Serbia to reach the Adriatic, and Italy did
+not wish the Greeks to reach Valona or even the territory north of
+Corfu. On the other hand, Russia, as is known, favored Serbian, and
+France Greek, desires. My advice was now to consider the question as
+outside the alliance, and to support, neither Austrian nor Italian
+wishes. Without our support the establishment of Albania, whose
+incapability of existence might have been foreseen, was an
+impossibility. Serbia would have pushed forward to the coast; then the
+present world war would have been avoided. France and Italy would have
+remained definitely divided as to Greece, and the Italians, had they not
+wished to fight France, alone, would have been obliged to consent to the
+expansion of Greece to the district north of Durazzo. The greater part
+of civilized Albania is Greek. The southern towns are entirely Greek,
+and, at the time of the conference of Ambassadors, deputations from the
+larger towns came to London to carry through the annexation to Greece.
+
+In Greece today whole groups are Albanian, and the so-called Greek
+national dress is of Albanian origin. The amalgamation of the
+preponderating Orthodox and Islamic Albanians with the Greek State was,
+therefore, the best solution and the most natural, if one leaves out of
+account Scutari and the northern part of Serbia and Montenegro. His
+Majesty was also in favor of this solution on dynastic grounds. When I
+encouraged the monarch by letter to this effect, I received violent
+reproaches from the Chancellor for supporting Austria's opponents, and
+he forbade all such interference in the future, and even direct
+correspondence. We had eventually, however, to abandon the tradition of
+carrying out the Triple Alliance policy in the East and to acknowledge
+our mistake, which consisted in identifying ourselves with the Turks in
+the south and the Austro-Magyars in the north; for the continuance of
+that policy, which we began at the Congress in Berlin and subsequently
+carried on zealously, was bound in time, should the necessary skill in
+conducting it fail, to lead to a collision with Russia and a world war.
+
+
+TURKEY, RUSSIA, ITALY
+
+Instead of uniting with Russia on the basis of the independence of the
+Sultan, whom the Russians also did not wish to drive out of
+Constantinople, and confining ourselves to economic interests in the
+East, while at the same time refraining from all military and political
+interference and being satisfied with a division of Asia Minor into
+spheres of interest, the goal of our political ambition was to dominate
+in the Bosporus. In Russia, therefore, the opinion arose that the way to
+Constantinople and to the Mediterranean lay through Berlin. Instead of
+encouraging a powerful development in the Balkan States, which were once
+free and are very different from the Russians, of which fact we have
+already had experience, we placed ourselves on the side of the Turkish
+and Magyar oppressors. The dire mistake of our Triple Alliance and our
+Eastern policies, which drove Russia--our natural friend and best
+neighbor--into the arms of France and England, and kept her from her
+policy of Asiatic expansion, was the more evident, as a Franco-Russian
+attack, the only hypothesis justifying a Triple Alliance policy, had to
+be eliminated from our calculations.
+
+As to the value of the alliance with Italy, one word only. Italy needs
+our money and our tourists after the war, with or without our alliance.
+That our alliance would go by the board in the event of war was to be
+foreseen. The alliance, consequently, was worthless.
+
+Austria, however, needed our protection both in war and peace, and had
+no other point d'appui. This dependence on us is based on political,
+national, and economic grounds, and is all the greater in proportion to
+the intimacy of our relations with Russia. This was proved in the
+Bosnian crisis. Since Count Beust, no Vienna Minister had been so
+self-conscious with us as Count Aehrenthal was during the last years of
+his life. Under the influence of a properly conducted German policy
+which would keep us in touch with Russia, Austria-Hungary is our vassal,
+and is tied to us even without an alliance and without reciprocal
+services; under the influence of a misguided policy, however, we are
+tied to Austria-Hungary. An alliance would therefore be purposeless.
+
+I know Austria far too well not to know that a return to the policy of
+Count Felix Schwarzenberg or to that of Count Moritz Esterhazy was
+unthinkable. Little as the Slavs living there love us, they wish just as
+little for a return to the German Kaiserdom, even with a
+Hapsburg-Lorraine at its head. They are striving for an internal
+Austrian federation on a national basis, a condition which is even less
+likely of realization within the German Empire than under the Double
+Eagle. Austro-Germans look on Berlin as the centre of German power and
+Kultur, and they know that Austria can never be a leading power. They
+desire as close a connection as possible with the empire, but not to the
+extent of an anti-German policy.
+
+
+BALKAN QUARRELS
+
+Since the seventies the conditions have changed fundamentally in
+Austria, and also, perhaps, in Bavaria. Just as here a return to
+Pan-German particularism and the old Bavarian policy is not to be
+feared, so there a revival of the policy of Prince Kaunitz and Prince
+Schwarzenberg is not to be contemplated. But by a constitutional union
+with Austria, which even without Galicia and Dalmatia is inhabited at
+least to the extent of one-half by non-Germans, our interests would
+suffer; while, on the other hand, by the subordination of our policy to
+the point of view of Vienna and Budapest, we should have to "epouser les
+querelles de l'Autriche."
+
+We, therefore, had no need to heed the desires of our allies. They were
+not only unnecessary but dangerous, inasmuch as they would lead to a
+collision with Russia if we looked at Eastern questions through Austrian
+eyes. The transformation of our alliance with its single original
+purpose into a complete alliance, involving a complexity of common
+interests, was calculated to call forth the very state of things which
+the constitutional negotiations were designed to prevent, namely, war.
+Such a policy of alliances would, moreover, entail the loss of the
+sympathies of the young, strong, and growing communities in the Balkan
+Peninsula, which were ready to turn to us and open their market to us.
+The contrast between dynastic and democratic ideas had to be given clear
+expression, and, as usual, we stood on the wrong side. King Carol told
+one of our representatives that he had made an alliance with us on
+condition that we retained control of affairs, but that if that control
+passed to Austria it would entirely change the basis of affairs, and
+under those conditions he could no longer participate. Matters stood in
+the same position in Serbia, where against our own economic interests we
+were supporting an Austrian policy of strangulation.
+
+
+BACKED WRONG HORSES
+
+We had always backed horses which, it was evident, would lose, such as
+Kruger, Abdul Aziz, Abdul Hamid, Wilhelm of Wied, and finally--and this
+was the most miserable mistake of all--Count Berchtold.
+
+Shortly after my arrival in London, in 1912, Sir Edward Grey proposed an
+informal exchange of views in order to prevent a European war developing
+out of the Balkan war, since, at the outbreak of that war, we had
+unfortunately declined the proposal of the French Government to join in
+a declaration of disinterestedness and impartiality on the part of the
+powers. The British statesman maintained from the beginning that England
+had no interest in Albania, and would, therefore, not go to war on the
+subject. In his role of "honest broker" he would confine his efforts to
+mediation and an attempt to smooth away difficulties between the two
+groups. He, therefore, by no means placed himself on the side of the
+Entente Powers, and during the negotiations, which lasted about eight
+months, he lent his good-will and powerful influence toward the
+establishment of an understanding. Instead of adopting the English point
+of view, we accepted that dictated to us by Vienna. Count Mensdorff led
+the Triple Alliance in London and I was his second.
+
+
+GREY ALWAYS CONCILIATORY
+
+My duty was to support his proposals. The clever and experienced Count
+Szogyenyi was at the helm in Berlin. His refrain was "casus foederis,"
+and when once I dared to doubt the justice of this phrase I was
+seriously warned against Austrophobism. Referring to my father, it was
+even said that I had inherited it. On every point, including Albania,
+the Serbian harbors in the Adriatic, Scutari, and in the definition of
+the Albanian frontiers, we were on the side of Austria and Italy, while
+Sir Edward Grey hardly ever took the French or Russian point of view. On
+the contrary, he nearly always took our part in order to give no pretext
+for war--which was afterward brought about by a dead Archduke. It was
+with his help that King Nicholas was induced to leave Scutari. Otherwise
+there would have been war over this matter, as we should never have
+dared to ask "our allies" to make concessions.
+
+Sir Edward Grey conducted the negotiations with care, calm, and tact.
+When a question threatened to become involved he proposed a formula
+which met the case and always secured consent. He acquired the full
+confidence of all the representatives.
+
+
+AUSTRIA AND RUSSIA
+
+Once again we had successfully withstood one of the many threats against
+the strength characterizing our policy. Russia had been obliged to give
+way to us all along the line, as she never got an opportunity to advance
+Serbian wishes. Albania was set up as an Austrian vassal State, and
+Serbia was driven away from the sea. The conference was thus a fresh
+humiliation for Russia.
+
+As in 1878 and 1908, we had opposed the Russian program without German
+interests being brought into play. Bismarck had to minimize the mistake
+of the Congress by a secret treaty, and his attitude in the Battenberg
+question--the downward incline being taken by us in the Bosnian
+question--was followed up in London, and was not given up, with the
+result that it led to the abyss.
+
+The dissatisfaction then prevalent in Russia was given vent to during
+the London Conference by an attack in the Russian press on my Russian
+colleague and on Russian diplomacy.
+
+His German origin and Catholic faith, his reputation as a friend of
+Germany, and the accident that he was related both to Count Mensdorff
+and to myself were all made use of by dissatisfied parties. Although not
+a particularly important personality, Count Benckendorff possessed many
+qualities of a good diplomat--tact, worldly knowledge, experience, an
+agreeable personality, and a natural eye for men and things. He sought
+always to avoid provocative attitudes, and was supported by the attitude
+of England and France.
+
+I once said: "The feeling in Russia is very anti-German." He replied:
+"There are also many strong influential pro-German circles there. But
+the people generally are anti-Austrian."
+
+It only remains to be added that our exaggerated Austrophilism is not
+exactly likely to break up the Entente and turn Russia's attention to
+her Asiatic interests.
+
+
+PRE-WAR DIPLOMACY
+
+    [The next passages, which had formerly been suppressed by the
+    Swedish Government, appeared in the Politiken of Stockholm on
+    March 26:]
+
+At the same time (1913) the Balkan Conference met in London, and I had
+the opportunity of meeting the leading men of the Balkan States. The
+most important personage among them was M. Venizelos. He was anything
+but anti-German, and particularly prized the Order of the Red Eagle,
+which he even wore at the French Embassy. With his winning amiability
+and savoir faire he could always win sympathy.
+
+Next to him a great role was played by Daneff, the then Bulgarian Prime
+Minister and Count Berchtold's confidant. He gave the impression of
+being a capable and energetic man, and even the influence of his friends
+at Vienna and Budapest, at which he sometimes laughed, was attributable
+to the fact that he had let himself be drawn into the second Balkan war
+and had declined Russian intervention.
+
+M. Take Jonescu was often in London, too, and visited me regularly. I
+had known him since the time when I was Secretary at Bucharest. He was
+also one of Herr von Kiderlen-Waechter's friends. His aim in London was
+to secure concessions for Rumania by negotiations with M. Daneff. In
+this he was supported by the most capable Rumanian Minister, M. Misu.
+That these negotiations were stranded by the Bulgarian opposition is
+known. Count Berchtold--and naturally we with him--was entirely on the
+side of Bulgaria; otherwise we should have succeeded by pressure on M.
+Daneff in obtaining the desired satisfaction for the Rumanians and have
+bound Rumania to us, as she was by Austria's attitude in the second
+Balkan war, while afterward she was estranged from the Central Powers.
+
+
+AUSTRIA'S PRESTIGE INJURED
+
+Bulgaria's defeat in the second Balkan war and Serbia's victory, as well
+as the Rumanian advance, naturally constituted a reproach to Austria.
+The idea of equalizing this by military intervention in Serbia seems to
+have gained ground rapidly in Vienna. This is proved by the Italian
+disclosure, and it may be presumed that the Marquis di San Giuliano, who
+described the plan as a "pericolossissima adventura," (an extremely
+risky adventure,) saved us from a European war as far back as the Summer
+of 1912. Intimate as Russo-Italian relations were, the aspiration of
+Vienna must have been known in St. Petersburg. In any event, M. Take
+Jonescu told me that M. Sazonoff had said in Constanza that an attack
+on Serbia on the part of Austria meant war with Russia.
+
+In the Spring of 1914 one of my Secretaries, on returning from leave in
+Vienna, said that Herr von Tschirsohky (German Ambassador in Vienna) had
+declared that war must soon come. But as I was always kept in the dark
+regarding important things, I considered his pessimism unfounded.
+
+Ever since the peace of Bucharest it seems to have been the opinion in
+Vienna that the revision of this treaty should be undertaken
+independently, and only a favorable opportunity was awaited. The
+statesmen in Vienna and Bucharest could naturally count upon our
+support. This they knew, for already they had been reproached several
+times for their slackness. Berlin even insisted on the "rehabilitation"
+of Austria.
+
+
+ANGLO-GERMAN RELATIONS
+
+When I returned to London in December, 1913, after a long holiday, the
+Liman von Sanders question had led to our relations with Russia becoming
+acute. Sir Edward Grey called my attention with some uneasiness to the
+consequent unrest in St. Petersburg, saying: "I have never seen them so
+excited." Berlin instructed me to beg the Minister to urge calm in St.
+Petersburg and help to solve the difficulty. Sir Edward was quite
+willing, and his intervention contributed not inconsiderably to
+smoothing matters over. My good relations with Sir Edward and his great
+influence in St. Petersburg served in a like manner on several occasions
+when it was a question of carrying through something of which our
+representative there was completely incapable.
+
+During the critical days of July, 1914, Sir Edward said to me: "If ever
+you want something done in St. Petersburg you come to me regularly, but
+if ever I appeal for your influence in Vienna you refuse your support."
+The good and dependable relations I was fortunate in making not only in
+society and among influential people, such as Sir Edward Grey and Mr.
+Asquith, but also with others at public dinners, had brought about a
+noticeable improvement in our relations with England. Sir Edward
+devoted himself honestly to further this rapprochement, and his
+intentions were especially noticeable in two questions--the Colonial
+Treaty and the treaty regarding the Bagdad Railway.
+
+
+THE AFRICAN AGREEMENT
+
+    [This portion is translated from the Muenchener Neueste
+    Nachrichten.]
+
+In the year 1898 a secret treaty had been signed by Count Hatzfeldt
+[then German Ambassador in London] and Mr. Balfour, which divided the
+Portuguese colonies in Africa into economic-political spheres of
+interest between us and England. As the Portuguese Government possessed
+neither the power nor the means to open up or adequately to administer
+its extensive possessions, the Portuguese Government had already at an
+earlier date thought of selling these possessions and thereby putting
+their finances in order.
+
+Between us and England an agreement had been reached which defined the
+interests of the two parties and which was of all the greater value
+because Portugal, as is well known, is completely dependent upon
+England. This treaty was no doubt to secure outwardly the integrity and
+independence of the Portuguese Empire, and it only expressed the
+intention of giving financial and economic assistance to the Portuguese.
+Consequently it did not, according to the text, conflict with the old
+Anglo-Portuguese alliance, dating from the fifteenth century, which was
+last renewed under Charles II. and which guaranteed the territories of
+the two parties. Nevertheless, at the instance of the Marquis Soveral,
+who presumably was not ignorant of the Anglo-German agreement, a new
+treaty--the so-called Windsor treaty--which confirmed the old
+agreements, was concluded in 1899 between England and Portugal.
+
+
+ENGLAND'S GENEROUS ATTITUDE
+
+The object of the negotiations between us and England, which had begun
+before my arrival, was to alter and amend our treaty of 1898, which
+contained many impossible features--for example, with regard to the
+geographical delimitation. Thanks to the conciliatory attitude of the
+British Government, I succeeded in giving to the new treaty a form which
+entirely accorded with our wishes and interests. All Angola, as far as
+the 20th degree of longitude, was allotted to us, so that we reached the
+Congo territory from the south. Moreover, the valuable islands of San
+Thome and Principe, which lie north of the equator, and therefore really
+belonged to the French sphere of interest, were allotted to us--a fact
+which caused my French colleague to make lively, although vain,
+representations. Further, we obtained the northern part of Mozambique;
+the frontier was formed by the Likungo.
+
+The British Government showed the utmost readiness to meet out interests
+and wishes. Sir Edward Grey intended to prove his good-will to us, but
+he also desired to promote our colonial development, because England
+hoped to divert Germany's development of strength from the North Sea and
+Western Europe to the world-sea and Africa. "We don't want to grudge
+Germany her colonial development," a member of the Cabinet said to me.
+
+
+THE CONGO STATE
+
+Originally, at the British suggestion, the Congo State was to be
+included in the treaty, which would have given us a right of pre-emption
+and a possibility of economic penetration in the Congo State. But we
+refused this offer, out of alleged respect for Belgian sensibilities!
+Perhaps the idea was to economize our successes? With regard also to the
+practical realization of the real but unexpressed object of the
+treaty--the actual partition at a later date of the Portuguese colonial
+possessions--the new formulation showed considerable advantages and
+progress as compared with the old. Thus the treaty contemplated
+circumstances which would enable us to enter the territories ascribed to
+us, for the protection of our interests.
+
+These conditional clauses were so wide that it was really left to us to
+decide when really "vital" interests were concerned, so that, in view of
+the complete dependence of Portugal upon England we merely needed to go
+on cultivating our relations with England in order, later on, with
+English assent, to realize our mutual intentions.
+
+The sincerity of the English Government in its effort to respect our
+rights was proved by the fact that Sir Edward Grey, before ever the
+treaty was completed or signed, called our attention to English men of
+business who were seeking opportunities to invest capital in the
+territories allotted to us by the new treaty, and who desired British
+support. In doing so he remarked that the undertakings in question
+belonged to our sphere of interest.
+
+
+WILHELMSTRASSE INTRIGUES
+
+The treaty was practically complete at the time of the King's visit to
+Berlin in May, 1913. A conversation then took place in Berlin under the
+Presidency of the Imperial Chancellor, (Herr von Bethmann Hollweg,) in
+which I took part, and at which special wishes were laid down. On my
+return to London I succeeded, with the help of my Counselor of Embassy,
+von Kuehlmann, who was working upon the details of the treaty with Mr.
+Parker, in putting through our last proposals also. It was possible for
+the whole treaty to be initialed by Sir Edward Grey and myself in
+August, 1913, before I went on leave. Now, however, new difficulties
+were to arise, which prevented the signature, and it was only a year
+later, shortly before the outbreak of war, that I was able to obtain
+authorization for the final settlement. Signature, however, never took
+place.
+
+Sir Edward Grey was willing to sign only if the treaty was published,
+together with the two treaties of 1898 and 1899; England has no other
+secret treaties, and it is contrary to her existing principles that she
+should conceal binding agreements. He said, however, that he was ready
+to take account of our wishes concerning the time and manner of
+publication, provided that publication took place within one year, at
+latest, after the signature. In the [Berlin] Foreign Office, however,
+where my London successes aroused increasing dissatisfaction, and where
+an influential personage, [the reference is apparently to Herr von
+Stumm,] who played the part of Herr von Holstein, was claiming the
+London Embassy for himself, it was stated that the publication would
+imperil our interests in the colonies, because the Portuguese would show
+their gratitude by giving us no more concessions. The accuracy of this
+excuse is illuminated by the fact that the old treaty was most probably
+just as much long known to the Portuguese as our new agreements must
+have been, in view of the intimacy of relations between Portugal and
+England; it was illuminated also by the fact that, in view of the
+influence which England possesses at Lisbon, the Portuguese Government
+is completely powerless in face of an Anglo-German understanding.
+
+
+WRECKING THE TREATY
+
+Consequently, it was necessary to find another excuse for wrecking the
+treaty. It was said that the publication of the Windsor Treaty, which
+was concluded in the time of Prince Hohenlohe, and which was merely a
+renewal of the treaty of Charles II., which had never lapsed, might
+imperil the position of Herr von Bethmann Hollweg, as being a proof of
+British hypocrisy and perfidy! On this I pointed out that the preamble
+to our treaties said exactly the same thing as the Windsor Treaty and
+other similar treaties--namely, that we desired to protect the sovereign
+rights of Portugal and the integrity of its possessions!
+
+In spite of repeated conversations with Sir Edward Grey, in which the
+Minister made ever fresh proposals concerning publication, the [Berlin]
+Foreign Office remained obstinate, and finally agreed with Sir Edward
+Goschen [British Ambassador in Berlin] that everything should remain as
+it was before. So the treaty, which gave us extraordinary advantages,
+the result of more than one year's work, had collapsed because it would
+have been a public success for me.
+
+When in the Spring of 1914 I happened, at a dinner in the embassy, at
+which Mr. Harcourt [then Colonial Secretary] was present, to mention the
+matter, the Colonial Secretary said that he was embarrassed and did not
+know how to behave. He said that the present state of affairs was
+intolerable, because he [Mr. Harcourt] wanted to respect our rights,
+but, on the other hand, was in doubt as to whether he should follow the
+old treaty or the new. He said that it was therefore extremely desirable
+to clear matters up, and to bring to a conclusion an affair which had
+been hanging on for so long.
+
+
+"A DISASTROUS MISTAKE"
+
+When I reported to this effect I received a rude and excited order,
+telling me to refrain from any further interference in the matter.
+
+I now regret that I did not go to Berlin in order to offer his Majesty
+my resignation, and that I still did not lose my belief in the
+possibility of an agreement between me and the leading [German]
+personages. That was a disastrous mistake, which was to be tragically
+avenged some months later.
+
+Slight though was the extent to which I then still possessed the
+good-will of the Imperial Chancellor--because he feared that I was
+aiming at his office--I must do him the justice to say that at the end
+of June, 1914, in our last conversation before the outbreak of war, he
+gave his consent to the signature and publication. Nevertheless, it
+required further repeated suggestions on my part, which were supported
+by Dr. Solf, [German Colonial Secretary,] in order at last to obtain
+official consent at the end of July. Then the Serbian crisis was already
+threatening the peace of Europe, and so the completion of the treaty had
+to be postponed. The treaty is now one of the victims of the war.
+
+
+BAGDAD RAILWAY TREATY
+
+    [This portion is translated from the Stockholm Politiken of
+    March 26.]
+
+At the same time, while the African agreement was under discussion, I
+was negotiating, with the effective co-operation of Herr von Kuehlmann,
+the so-called Bagdad Railway Treaty. This aimed, in fact, at the
+division of Asia Minor into spheres of interest, although this
+expression was carefully avoided in consideration of the Sultan's
+rights. Sir Edward Grey declared repeatedly that there was no agreement
+between England and France aiming at a division of Asia Minor.
+
+In the presence of the Turkish representative, Hakki Pasha, all economic
+questions in connection with the German treaty were settled mainly in
+accordance with the wishes of the Ottoman Bank. The greatest concession
+Sir Edward Grey made me personally was the continuation of the line to
+Basra. We had not insisted on this terminus in order to establish
+connection with Alexandretta. Hitherto Bagdad had been the terminus of
+the line. The shipping on the Shatt el Arab was to be in the hands of an
+international commission. We also obtained a share in the harbor works
+at Basra, and even acquired shipping rights on the Tigris, hitherto the
+monopoly of the firm of Lynch.
+
+By this treaty the whole of Mesopotamia up to Basra became our zone of
+interest, whereby the whole British rights, the question of shipping on
+the Tigris, and the Wilcox establishments were left untouched, as well
+as all the district of Bagdad and the Anatolian railways.
+
+The British economic territories included the coasts of the Persian Gulf
+and the Smyrna-Aidin railway, the French Syria, and the Russian Armenia.
+Had both treaties been concluded and published, an agreement would have
+been reached with England which would have finally ended all doubt of
+the possibility of an Anglo-German co-operation.
+
+
+GERMAN NAVAL DEVELOPMENT
+
+Most difficult of all, there remained the question of the fleet. It was
+never quite rightly judged. The creation of a mighty fleet on the other
+shore of the North Sea and the simultaneous development of the
+Continent's most important military power into its most important naval
+power had at least to be recognized by England as uncomfortable. This
+presumably cannot be doubted. To maintain the necessary lead and not to
+become dependent, to preserve the supremacy of the sea, which Britain
+must have in order not to go down, she had to undertake preparations
+and expenses which weighed heavily on the taxpayer. A threat against the
+British world position was made in that our policy allowed the
+possibility of warlike development to appear. This possibility was
+obviously near during the Morocco crisis and the Bosnian question.
+
+People had become reconciled to our fleet in its definite strength.
+Obviously it was not welcome to the British and constituted one of the
+motives, but neither the only nor the most important motive, for
+England's joining hands with Russia and France. On account of our fleet
+alone, however, England would have drawn the sword as little as on
+account of our trade, which it is pretended called forth her jealousy
+and ultimately brought about war.
+
+From the beginning I adopted the standpoint that in spite of the fleet
+it would be possible to come to a friendly understanding and
+reapprochement if we did not propose new votes of credit, and, above
+all, if we carried out an indisputable peace policy. I also avoided all
+mention of the fleet, and between me and Sir Edward Grey the word was
+never uttered. Sir Edward Grey declared on one occasion at a Cabinet
+meeting: "The present German Ambassador has never mentioned the fleet to
+me."
+
+
+UNDERSTANDING POSSIBLE.
+
+During my term of office the then First Lord, Mr. Churchill, raised the
+question of a so-called naval holiday, and proposed, for financial
+reasons as much as on account of the pacifist inclinations of his party,
+a one year's pause in armaments. Officially the suggestion was not
+supported by Sir Edward Grey. He never spoke of it to me, but Mr.
+Churchill spoke to me on repeated occasions.
+
+I am convinced that his initiative was honest, cunning in general not
+being part of the Englishman's constitution. It would have been a great
+success for Mr. Churchill to secure economies for the country and to
+lighten the burden of armament, which was weighing heavily on the
+people.
+
+I maintain that it would have been difficult to support his intention.
+How about the workmen employed for this purpose? How about the technical
+personnel? Our naval program was settled, and it would be difficult to
+alter it. Nor, on the other hand, did we intend exceeding it. But he
+pointed out that the means spent on portentous armaments could equally
+be used for other purposes. I maintain that such expenditure would have
+benefited home industries.
+
+
+NO TRADE JEALOUSY
+
+I also succeeded, in conversation with Sir William Tyrrell, Sir Edward
+Grey's private secretary, in keeping away that subject without raising
+suspicion, although it came up in Parliament, and preventing the
+Government's proposal from being made. But it was Mr. Churchill's and
+the Government's favorite idea that by supporting his initiative in the
+matter of large ships we should give proof of our good-will and
+considerably strengthen and increase the tendency on the part of the
+Government to get in closer contact with us. But, as I have said, it was
+possible in spite of our fleet and without naval holidays to come to an
+understanding.
+
+In that spirit I had carried out my mission from the beginning, and had
+even succeeded in realizing my program when the war broke out and
+destroyed everything.
+
+Trade jealousy, so much talked about among us, rests on faulty judgment
+of circumstances. It is a fact that Germany's progress as a trading
+country after the war of 1870 and during the following decades
+threatened the interests of British trade circles, constituting a form
+of monopoly with its industry and export houses. But the growing
+interchange of merchandise with Germany, which was first on the list of
+all European exporting countries, a fact I always referred to in my
+public speeches, had allowed the desire to mature to preserve good
+relations with England's best client and business friend, and had
+gradually suppressed all other thoughts and motives. The Englishman, as
+a matter of fact, adapts himself to circumstances and does not tilt
+against windmills. In commercial circles I found the greatest good-will
+and desire to further our common economic interests.
+
+
+AMIABLY RECEIVED
+
+In other circles I had a most amiable reception, and enjoyed the cordial
+good-will of the Court, society, and the Government. No one there
+interested himself in the Russian, Italian, Austrian, or even the French
+representative, in spite of the imposing personality and political
+success of the last named. Only the German and American Ambassadors
+attracted public attention.
+
+In order to get in touch with the most important business circles I
+accepted invitations from the United Chambers of Commerce, the London
+and Bradford Chambers, and those of the great cities of Newcastle and
+Liverpool. I had a hearty reception everywhere. Glasgow and Edinburgh
+had also invited me, and I promised them visits. People who did not
+understand English conditions and did not appreciate the value of public
+dinners, and others who disliked my success, reproached me with having
+done harm by my speeches. I, on the contrary, believe that my public
+appearances and my discussion of common economic interests contributed
+considerably toward the improvement of conditions, apart from the fact
+that it would have been impolitic and impolite to refuse invitations.
+
+In other circles I had a most amiable reception and enjoyed the cordial
+good-will of the Court, society, and the Government.
+
+
+INFLUENCE OF THE CROWN
+
+The King, very amiable and well meaning and possessed of sound
+understanding and common sense, was invariably well disposed toward me
+and desired honestly to facilitate my mission. In spite of the small
+amount of power which the British Constitution gives the Crown, the King
+can, by virtue of his position, greatly influence the tone both of
+society and the Government. The Crown is the apex of society from which
+the tone emanates. Society, which is overwhelmingly Unionist, is
+largely occupied by ladies connected with politics. It is represented in
+the Lords and the Commons, consequently also in the Cabinet.
+
+The Englishman either belongs to society or ought to belong to it. His
+aim is, and always will be, to be a distinguished man and a gentleman,
+and even men of modest origin, such as Mr. Asquith, prefer to be in
+society, with its elegant women.
+
+British gentlemen of both parties enjoy the same education, go to the
+same colleges and university, and engage in the same sports--golf,
+cricket, lawn tennis, and polo. All have played cricket and football in
+their youth, all have the same habits, and all spend the week-end in the
+country. No social cleavage divides the parties, only political
+cleavage. To some extent of late years the politicians in the two camps
+have avoided one another in society. Not even on the ground of a neutral
+mission could the two camps be amalgamated, for since the Home Rule and
+Veto bills the Unionists have despised the Radicals. A few months after
+my arrival the King and Queen dined with me, and Lord Londonderry left
+the house after dinner in order not to be together with Sir Edward Grey.
+But there is no opposition from difference in caste and education as in
+France. There are not two worlds, but the same world, and their opinion
+of a foreigner is common and not without influence on his political
+standing, whether a Lansdowne or an Asquith is at the helm.
+
+
+POLITICS AND SOCIETY
+
+The difference of caste no longer exists in England since the time of
+the Stuarts and since the Whig oligarchy (in contradistinction to the
+Tory county families) allowed the bourgeoisie in the towns to rise in
+society. There is greater difference in political opinions on
+constitutional or Church questions than on financial or political
+questions. Aristocrats who have joined the popular party, Radicals such
+as Grey, Churchill, Harcourt, and Crewe, are most hated by the Unionist
+aristocracy. None of these gentlemen have I ever met in great
+aristocratic houses, only in the houses of party friends.
+
+We were received in London with open arms and both parties outdid one
+another in amiability.
+
+It would be a mistake to undervalue social connections in view of the
+close connection in England between society and politics, even though
+the majority of the upper ten thousand are in opposition to the
+Government. Between an Asquith and a Devonshire there is no such deep
+cleft as between a Briand and a Duc de Doudeauville, for example. In
+times of political tension they do not foregather. They belong to two
+separate social groups, but are part of the same society, if on
+different levels, the centre of which is the Court. They have friends
+and habits in common, they are often related or connected. A phenomenon
+like Lloyd George, a man of the people, a small solicitor and a
+self-made man, is an exception. Even John Burns, a Socialist Labor
+leader and a self-taught man, seeks society relations. On the ground of
+a general striving to be considered gentlemen of social weight and
+position such men must not be undervalued.
+
+In no place, consequently, is an envoy's social circle of greater
+consequence than in England. A hospitable house with friendly guests is
+worth more than the profoundest scientific knowledge, and a learned man
+of insignificant appearance and too small means would, in spite of all
+his learning, acquire no influence. The Briton hates a bore and a
+pedant. He loves a good fellow.
+
+
+SIR EDWARD GREY'S SOCIALISM
+
+Sir Edward Grey's influence in all questions of foreign policy was
+almost unlimited. True, he used to say on important occasions: "I must
+lay that before the Cabinet"; but it is equally true that the latter
+invariably took his view. Although he did not know foreign countries
+and, with the exception of one short visit to Paris, had never left
+England, he was closely informed on all important questions, owing to
+many years' Parliamentary experience and natural grasp. He understood
+French without speaking it. Elected at an early age to Parliament, he
+began immediately to occupy himself with foreign affairs. Parliamentary
+Under Secretary of State at the Foreign Office under Lord Rosebery, he
+became in 1906 Secretary of State under Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman,
+and filled the post for ten years.
+
+Sprung from an old North of England family of landowners, from whom the
+statesman, Earl Grey, is also descended, he joined the left wing of his
+party and sympathized with the Socialists and pacifists. He can be
+called a Socialist in the ideal sense, for he applied his theories even
+in private life, which is characterized by great simplicity and
+unpretentiousness, although he is possessed of considerable means. All
+display is foreign to him. He had a small residence in London and never
+gave dinners, except officially, at the Foreign Office on the King's
+birthday.
+
+
+SIMPLE MODE OF LIFE
+
+If, exceptionally, he asked a few guests to his house, it was to a
+simple dinner or luncheon in a small circle with parlor maids for
+service. The week-ends he spent regularly in the country, like his
+colleagues, but not at large country house parties. He lives mostly in
+his cottage in the New Forest, taking long walks, and is passionately
+fond of nature and ornithology. Or he journeyed to his property in the
+north and tamed squirrels. In his youth he was a noted cricket and
+tennis player. His chief sport is now salmon and trout fishing in the
+Scotch lakes with Lord Glenconner, Mr. Asquith's brother-in-law. Once,
+when spending his week-ends with Lord Glenconner, he came thirty miles
+on a bicycle and returned in the same way. His simple, upright manner
+insured him the esteem even of his opponents, who were more easily to be
+found in home than in foreign political circles.
+
+Lies and intrigue were foreign to his nature. His wife, whom he loved
+and from whom he was never separated, died as the result of an accident
+to the carriage driven by him. As is known, one brother was killed by a
+lion.
+
+Wordsworth was his favorite poet, and he could quote him by the hour.
+His British calm did not lack a sense of humor. When breakfasting with
+us and the children and he heard their German conversation, he would
+say, "I cannot help admiring the way they talk German," and laughed at
+his joke. This is the man who was called "the Liar Grey" and the
+"originator of the world war."
+
+
+ASQUITH AND HIS FAMILY
+
+Asquith is a man of quite different mold. A jovial, sociable fellow, a
+friend of the ladies, especially young and beautiful ones, he loves
+cheery surroundings and a good cook, and is supported by a cheery young
+wife. He was formerly a well-known lawyer, with a large income and many
+years' Parliamentary experience. Later he was known as a Minister under
+Gladstone, a pacifist like his friend Grey, and friendly to an
+understanding with Germany. He treated all questions with an experienced
+business man's calm and certainty, and enjoyed good health and excellent
+nerves, steeled by assiduous golf.
+
+His daughters went to a German boarding school and speak fluent German.
+We quickly became good friends with him and his family, and were guests
+at his little house on the Thames.
+
+He only rarely occupied himself with foreign affairs. When important
+questions cropped up, with him lay the ultimate decision. During the
+critical days of July Asquith often came to warn us, and he was
+ultimately in despair over the tragic turn of events. On Aug. 2, when I
+saw Asquith in order to make a final attempt, he was completely broken,
+and, although quite calm, tears ran down his face.
+
+
+NICOLSON AND TYRRELL
+
+Sir Arthur Nicolson and Sir William Tyrrell had the greatest influence
+in the Foreign Office. The former was not our friend, but his attitude
+toward me was consistently correct and obliging. Our personal relations
+were of the best. Neither did he wish for war, but when we [moved?]
+against France he undoubtedly worked for immediate intervention. He was
+the confidant of my French colleague, and was in constant touch with
+him, and was destined to succeed Lord Bertie in Paris. As is known, Sir
+Arthur was formerly Ambassador in St. Petersburg, and had concluded the
+treaty of 1907 which enabled Russia to turn again to the West and the
+Near East.
+
+Sir Edward Grey's private secretary, Sir William Tyrrell, had far
+greater influence than the Permanent Under Secretary of State. This
+unusually intelligent man had been at a school in Germany, and had then
+entered the Diplomatic Service, but he was abroad only a short time. At
+first he belonged to the modern anti-German school of young English
+diplomats, but later he became a determined supporter of an
+understanding. To this aim and object he even influenced Sir Edward
+Grey, with whom he was very intimate. After the outbreak of war he left
+the department, and went to the Home Office, probably in consequence of
+criticism of him for his Germanophile leanings.
+
+
+CABALS AGAINST LICHNOWSKY
+
+The rage of certain gentlemen over my success in London and the position
+I had achieved was indescribable. Schemes were set on foot to impede my
+carrying out my duties, I was left in complete ignorance of most
+important things, and had to confine myself to sending in unimportant
+and dull reports. Secret reports from agents about things of which I
+could know nothing without spies and necessary funds were never
+available for me, and it was only in the last days of July, 1914, that I
+heard accidentally from the Naval Attache of the secret Anglo-French
+agreement for joint action of the two fleets in case of war. Soon after
+my arrival I became convinced that in no circumstances need we fear a
+British attack or British support of a foreign attack, but that under
+all conditions England would protect France. I advanced this opinion in
+repeated reports with detailed reasoning and insistence, but without
+gaining credence, although Lord Haldane's refusing of the formula of
+neutrality and England's attitude during the Morocco crisis were clear
+indications. In addition, the above-mentioned secret agreements were
+known to the department. I repeatedly urged that England, as a
+commercial State, would suffer greatly in any war between the European
+great powers, and would therefore prevent such a war by all available
+means; but, on the other hand, in the interest of the European balance
+of power, and to prevent Germany's overlordship, would never tolerate
+the weakening or destruction of France. Lord Haldane told me this
+shortly after my arrival. All influential people spoke in the same way.
+
+
+THE ARCHDUKE'S DEATH
+
+At the end of June I went to Kiel by the royal orders a few weeks after
+I had received the honorary degree of Doctor at Oxford, an honor no
+German Ambassador since Herr von Bunsen had received. On board the
+Meteor we received the news of the death of the Archduke, the heir to
+the throne. His Majesty complained that his attempts to win the noble
+Archduke over to his ideas were thereby rendered fruitless. How far
+plans for an active policy against Serbia had already been made at
+Konopischt I am not in a position to judge. As I was not informed about
+intentions and events in Vienna I attached no further importance to the
+matter. I could only observe that the feeling of relief outweighed the
+other feelings of the Austrian aristocrats. One of the guests on board
+the Meteor was the Austrian Count Felix Thun. In spite of glorious
+weather seasickness had kept him to his cabin. After receiving the news
+he became well. Shock or joy had cured him.
+
+On reaching Berlin I visited the Chancellor, and said I considered the
+situation of our foreign policy very satisfactory, as we were on better
+terms with England than we had been for a long time. In France a
+pacifist Government was at the helm. Herr von Bethmann Hollweg did not
+seem to share my optimism, and complained of the Russian armaments. I
+tried to calm him, and pointed out especially that Russia had absolutely
+no interest in attacking us, and that such an attack would not receive
+Anglo-French support, as both countries, England and France, desired
+peace. Then I called on Dr. Zimmermann, who represented von Jagow, and
+learned from him that Russia was about to mobilize 900,000 new troops.
+From his manner of speaking he was evidently annoyed with Russia, who
+was everywhere in our way. There was also the question of the
+difficulties of commercial politics. Of course, I was not told that
+General von Moltke was working eagerly for war. But I learned that Herr
+von Tschirschky had received a rebuff for having reported that he had
+advised moderation in Vienna toward Serbia.
+
+
+AUSTRIA'S WAR PLOT
+
+On my return journey from Silesia I only remained a few hours in Berlin,
+but I heard there that Austria intended to take steps against Serbia to
+put an end to this intolerable situation. Unfortunately I undervalued
+the importance of the information. I thought nothing would come of it,
+and that it would be easy to settle the matter if Russia threatened. I
+now regret that I did not stop in Berlin, and at once declare that I
+could not agree to such a policy.
+
+I have since learned that the inquiries and appeals from Vienna won
+unconditional assent from all the influential men at a decisive
+consultation at Potsdam on July 5, with the addition that it would not
+matter if war with Russia resulted. This is what was stated, anyhow, in
+the Austrian protocol which Count Mensdorff received in London. Shortly
+afterward Herr von Jagow arrived in Vienna to discuss the whole question
+with Count Berchtold.
+
+Subsequently, I received instructions to work to obtain a friendly
+attitude on the part of the English press, if Austria dealt Serbia a
+deathblow, and by my influence to prevent so far as possible public
+opinion from becoming opposed to Austria. Remembering England's attitude
+during the annexation crisis, when public opinion sympathized with
+Serbian rights to Bosnia and her kindly favoring of national movements
+in the time of Lord Byron and that of Garibaldi, one thing and another
+indicated so strongly the improbability of British support of the
+proposed punitive expedition against the Archduke's murderers, that I
+felt bound to issue a serious warning. I also sent a warning against the
+whole project, which I characterized as adventurous and dangerous, and
+advised moderation being urged on the Austrians, as I did not believe in
+the localization of the conflict.
+
+
+JAGOW'S MISTAKEN BLUFF
+
+Herr von Jagow answered that Russia was not ready, that there would be
+some fuss, but that the more firmly we held to Austria the sooner would
+Russia give way. Austria, he said, had already accused us of flabbiness,
+(flaumacherei,) and so we must not get into a mess. Opinion in Russia,
+he added, was becoming more and more pro-German, so we must just take
+the risks. In view of this attitude, which, as I subsequently found out,
+was the result of Count Pourtales's reports that Russia would in no
+circumstances move, and caused us to urge Count Berchtold to the
+greatest possible energy, I hoped for salvation in English intervention,
+as I knew Sir Edward Grey's influence with St. Petersburg in the
+direction of peace could prevail. I availed myself, therefore, of my
+good relations with the British Foreign Minister to beg him
+confidentially to advise moderation on the part of Russia in case
+Austria, as appeared probable, should demand satisfaction from the
+Serbians.
+
+In the beginning the attitude of the English press toward the Austrians
+was quiet and friendly, as the murder was condemned. Little by little,
+however, voices increased in number insisting that, however necessary
+the punishment of a crime might be, no elaboration of it for a political
+purpose could be justified. Austria was urgently called upon to act with
+moderation. The whole world outside Berlin and Vienna understood that it
+meant war, and world war. The British fleet, which happened to be
+assembled for review, was not demobilized.
+
+
+GERMANY FORCES WAR
+
+The Serbian answer corresponded with British efforts, for actually M.
+Pashitch had accepted all but two points, about which he was prepared to
+negotiate. Had England and Russia wanted war in order to fall upon us,
+a hint to Belgrade would have been given, and the unspeakable note would
+have remained unanswered. Sir Edward Grey went through the Serbian
+answer with me, and pointed out the conciliatory attitude of the
+Belgrade Government. We even discussed his proposal for intervention,
+which should insure an interpretation of these two points acceptable to
+both parties. With Sir Edward Grey presiding, M. Cambon, the Marquis
+Imperiali, and I were to meet, and it would have been easy to find an
+acceptable form for the points under discussion, which were mainly
+concerned with the part to be taken by Austrian officials in the
+inquiries at Belgrade. With good-will all could have been cleared up in
+two or three sittings, and a simple acknowledgment of the British
+proposal would have brought about a detente and further improved our
+relations with England. I therefore urged it forcibly, as otherwise a
+world war stood at our gates.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In vain. It would be, I was told, wounding to Austria's dignity, nor
+would we mix ourselves up in that Serbian matter. We left it to our
+allies. I was to work for the localization of the conflict. It naturally
+only needed a hint from Berlin to induce Count Berchtold to content
+himself with a diplomatic success and put up with the Serbian reply. But
+this hint was not given. On the contrary, we pressed for war. What a
+fine success it would have been!
+
+
+INTOLERABLE CONDITIONS
+
+After our refusal Sir Edward asked us to come forward with a proposal of
+our own. We insisted upon war. I could get no other answer [from Berlin]
+than that it was an enormous "concession" on the part of Austria to
+contemplate no annexation of territory.
+
+Thereupon Sir Edward justly pointed out that even without annexations of
+territory a country can be humiliated and subjected, and that Russia
+would regard this as a humiliation which she would not stand.
+
+The impression became ever stronger that we desired war in all
+circumstances. Otherwise our attitude in a question which, after all,
+did not directly concern us was unintelligible. The urgent appeals and
+definite declarations of M. Sazonoff, [Russian Foreign Minister,] later
+on the positively humble telegrams of the Czar, the repeated proposals
+of Sir Edward, the warnings of San Giuliano [Italian Foreign Minister]
+and of Bollati, [Italian Ambassador in Berlin,] my urgent advice--it was
+all of no use, for Berlin went on insisting that Serbia must be
+massacred.
+
+The more I pressed, the less willing they were to alter their course, if
+only because I was not to have the success of saving peace in the
+company of Sir Edward Grey.
+
+So Grey on July 29 resolved upon his well-known warning. I replied that
+I had always reported that we should have to reckon upon English
+hostility if it came to war with France. The Minister said to me
+repeatedly: "If war breaks out it will be the greatest catastrophe the
+world has ever seen."
+
+
+GREY STILL SOUGHT PEACE
+
+After that events moved rapidly. When Count Berchtold, who hitherto had
+played the strong man on instructions from Berlin, at last decided to
+change his course, we answered the Russian mobilization--after Russia
+had for a whole week negotiated and waited in vain--with our ultimatum
+and declaration of war.
+
+Sir Edward Grey still looked for new ways of escape. In the morning of
+Aug. 1, Sir W. Tyrrell came to me to say that his chief still hoped to
+find a way out. Should we remain neutral if France did the same? I
+understood him to mean that we should then be ready to spare France, but
+his meaning was that we should remain absolutely neutral--neutral
+therefore even toward Russia. That was the well-known misunderstanding.
+Sir Edward had given me an appointment for the afternoon, but as he was
+then at a meeting of the Cabinet, he called me up on the telephone,
+after Sir W. Tyrrell had hurried straight to him. But in the afternoon
+he spoke no longer of anything but Belgian neutrality, and of the
+possibility that we and France should face one another armed, without
+attacking one another.
+
+Thus there was no proposal whatever, but a question without any
+obligation, because our conversation, as I have already explained, was
+to take place soon afterward. In Berlin, however--without waiting for
+the conversation--this news was used as the foundation for a
+far-reaching act. Then came Poincare's letter, Bonar Law's letter, and
+the telegram from the King of the Belgians. The hesitating members of
+the Cabinet were converted, with the exception of three members, who
+resigned.
+
+
+PEACE HOPES DESTROYED
+
+Up to the last moment I had hoped for a waiting attitude on the part of
+England. My French colleague also felt himself by no means secure, as I
+learned from a private source. As late as Aug. 1 the King replied
+evasively to the French President. But in the telegram from Berlin,
+which announced the threatening danger of war, England was already
+mentioned as an opponent. In Berlin, therefore, one already reckoned
+upon war with England.
+
+Before my departure Sir Edward Grey received me on Aug. 5 at his house.
+I had gone there at his desire. He was deeply moved. He said to me that
+he would always be ready to mediate, and, "We don't want to crush
+Germany." Unfortunately, this confidential conversation was published.
+Thereby Herr von Bethmann Hollweg destroyed the last possibility of
+reaching peace via England.
+
+Our departure was thoroughly dignified and calm. Before we left, the
+King had sent his equerry, Sir E. Ponsonby, to me, to express his regret
+at my departure and that he could not see me personally. Princess Louise
+wrote to me that the whole family lamented our going. Mrs. Asquith and
+other friends came to the embassy to say good-bye.
+
+A special train took us to Harwich, where a guard of honor was drawn up
+for me. I was treated like a departing sovereign. Thus ended my London
+mission. It was wrecked, not by the perfidy of the British, but by the
+perfidy of our policy.
+
+At the railway station in London Count Mensdorff [Austrian Ambassador]
+appeared with his staff. He was cheerful, and gave me to understand that
+perhaps he would remain in London. But to the English he said that it
+was not Austria, but we, who had wanted the war.
+
+
+A BITTER RETROSPECT
+
+When now, after two years, I realize everything in retrospect, I say to
+myself that I realized too late that there was no place for me in a
+system which for years has lived only on tradition and routine, and
+which tolerates only representatives who report what one wants to read.
+Absence of prejudice and an independent judgment are combated, want of
+ability and of character are extolled and esteemed, but successes arouse
+hostility and uneasiness.
+
+I had abandoned opposition to our mad Triple Alliance policy, because I
+saw that it was useless and that my warnings were represented as
+Austrophobia and an idee fixe. In a policy which is not mere gymnastics,
+or playing with documents, but the conduct of the business of the firm,
+there is no such thing as likes and dislikes; there is nothing but the
+interest of the community; but a policy which is based merely upon
+Austrians, Magyars, and Turks must end in hostility to Russia, and
+ultimately lead to a catastrophe.
+
+In spite of former aberrations, everything was still possible in July,
+1914. Agreement with England had been reached. We should have had to
+send to Petersburg a representative who, at any rate, reached the
+average standard of political ability, and we should have had to give
+Russia the certainty that we desired neither to dominate the Starits nor
+to throttle the Serbs. M. Sazonoff was saying to us: "Lachez l'Autriche
+et nous lacherons les Francais," and M. Cambon [French Ambassador in
+Berlin] said to Herr von Jagow: "Vous n'avez [pas] besoin de suivre
+l'Autriche partout."
+
+We needed neither alliances nor wars, but merely treaties which would
+protect us and others, and which would guarantee us an economic
+development for which there had been no precedent in history. And if
+Russia had been relieved of trouble in the west, she would have been
+able to turn again to the east, and then the Anglo-Russian antagonism
+would have arisen automatically without our interference--and the
+Russo-Japanese antagonism no less than the Anglo-Russian.
+
+We could also have approached the question of limitation of armaments,
+and should have had no further need to bother about the confusions of
+Austria. Austria-Hungary would then become the vassal of the German
+Empire--without an alliance, and, above all, without sentimental
+services on our part, leading ultimately to war for the liberation of
+Poland and the destruction of Serbia, although German interests demanded
+exactly the contrary.
+
+I had to support in London a policy which I knew to be fallacious. I was
+punished for it, for it was a sin against the Holy Ghost.
+
+
+ARRIVAL AT BERLIN
+
+On my arrival in Berlin I saw at once that I was to be made the
+scapegoat for the catastrophe of which our Government had made itself
+guilty in opposition to my advice and my warnings.
+
+The report was persistently circulated by official quarters that I had
+let myself be deceived by Sir Edward Grey, because if he had not wanted
+war Russia would not have mobilized. Count Pourtales, whose reports
+could be relied upon, was to be spared, if only because of his family
+connections. He was said to have behaved "splendidly," and he was
+enthusiastically praised, while I was all the more sharply blamed.
+
+"What has Russia got to do with Serbia?" this statesman said to me after
+eight years of official activity in Petersburg. It was made out that the
+whole business was a perfidious British trick which I had not
+understood. In the Foreign Office I was told that in 1916 it would in
+any case have come to war. But then Russia would have been "ready," and
+so it was better now.
+
+As appears from all official publications, without the facts being
+controverted by our own White Book, which, owing to its poverty and
+gaps, constitutes a grave self-accusation:
+
+1. We encouraged Count Berchtold to attack Serbia, although no German
+interest was involved, and the danger of a world war must have been
+known to us--whether we knew the text of the ultimatum is a question of
+complete indifference.
+
+2. In the days between July 23 and July 30, 1914, when M. Sazonoff
+emphatically declared that Russia could not tolerate an attack upon
+Serbia, we rejected the British proposals of mediation, although Serbia,
+under Russian and British pressure, had accepted almost the whole
+ultimatum, and although an agreement about the two points in question
+could easily have been reached, and Count Berchtold was even ready to
+satisfy himself with the Serbian reply.
+
+3. On July 30, when Count Berchtold wanted to give way, we, without
+Austria having been attacked, replied to Russia's mere mobilization by
+sending an ultimatum to Petersburg, and on July 31 we declared war on
+the Russians, although the Czar had pledged his word that as long as
+negotiations continued not a man should march--so that we deliberately
+destroyed the possibility of a peaceful settlement.
+
+In view of these indisputable facts, it is not surprising that the whole
+civilized world outside Germany attributes to us the sole guilt for the
+world war.
+
+
+GERMANY'S WAR SPIRIT
+
+Is it not intelligible that our enemies declare that they will not rest
+until a system is destroyed which constitutes a permanent threatening of
+our neighbors? Must they not otherwise fear that in a few years they
+will again have to take up arms, and again see their provinces overrun
+and their towns and villages destroyed? Were these people not right who
+prophesied that the spirit of Treitschke and Bernhardi dominated the
+German people--the spirit which glorifies war as an aim in itself and
+does not abhor it as an evil; that among us it is still the feudal
+knights and Junkers and the caste of warriors who rule and who fix our
+ideals and our values--not the civilian gentleman; that the love of
+dueling, which inspires our youth at the universities, lives on in those
+who guide the fortunes of the people? Had not the events at Zabern and
+the Parliamentary debates on that case shown foreign countries how civil
+rights and freedoms are valued among us, when questions of military
+power are on the other side?
+
+Cramb, a historian who has since died, an admirer of Germany, put the
+German point of view into the words of Euphorion:
+
+    Traeumt Ihr den Friedenstag?
+    Traeume, wer traeumen mag!
+    Krieg ist das Losungswort!
+    Sieg, und so klingt es fort.
+
+Militarism, really a school for the nation and an instrument of policy,
+makes policy into the instrument of military power, if the patriarchal
+absolutism of a soldier-kingdom renders possible an attitude which would
+not be permitted by a democracy which had disengaged itself from
+military-junker influences.
+
+That is what our enemies think, and that is what they are bound to
+think, when they see that, in spite of capitalistic industrialization,
+and in spite of socialistic organization, the living, as Friedrich
+Nietzsche says, are still governed by the dead. The principal war aim of
+our enemies, the democratization of Germany, will be achieved.
+
+
+JEOPARDIZING THE FUTURE
+
+Today, after two years of the war, there can be no further doubt that we
+cannot hope for an unconditional victory over Russians, English, French,
+Italians, Rumanians, and Americans, and that we cannot reckon upon the
+overthrow of our enemies. But we can reach a compromised peace only upon
+the basis of the evacuation of the occupied territories, the possession
+of which in any case signifies for us a burden and weakness and the
+peril of new wars. Consequently, everything should be avoided which
+hinders a change of course on the part of those enemy groups which might
+perhaps still be won over to the idea of compromise--the British
+Radicals and the Russian Reactionaries. Even from this point of view our
+Polish project is just as objectionable as any interference with
+Belgian rights, or the execution of British citizens--to say nothing of
+the mad submarine war scheme.
+
+Our future lies upon the water. True, but it therefore does not lie in
+Poland and Belgium, in France and Serbia. That is a reversion to the
+Holy Roman Empire, to the aberrations of the Hohenstaufens and
+Hapsburgs. It is the policy of the Plantagenets, not the policy of Drake
+and Raleigh, Nelson and Rhodes.
+
+Triple Alliance policy is a relapse into the past, a revolt from the
+future, from imperialism, from world policy. Central Europe is
+mediaevalism; Berlin-Bagdad is a cul de sac, and not a road into the
+open, to unlimited possibilities, and to the world mission of the German
+people.
+
+I am no enemy of Austria, or Hungary, or Italy, or Serbia, or any other
+State; I am only an enemy of the Triple Alliance policy, which was bound
+to divert us from our aims, and to bring us on to the sloping plane of
+Continental policy. It was not German policy, but Austrian dynastic
+policy. The Austrians had accustomed themselves to regard the alliance
+as a shield, under whose protection they could make excursions at
+pleasure into the East.
+
+
+RUINOUS RESULTS
+
+And what result have we to expect from the struggle of peoples? The
+United States of Africa will be British, like the United States of
+America, of Australia, and of Oceania, and the Latin States of Europe,
+as I said years ago, will fall into the same relationship to the United
+Kingdom as the Latin sisters of America to the United States. They will
+be dominated by the Anglo-Saxon; France, exhausted by the war, will link
+herself still more closely to Great Britain. In the long run, Spain also
+will not resist.
+
+In Asia, the Russian and Japanese will expand their borders and their
+customs, and the south will remain to the British.
+
+The world will belong to the Anglo-Saxon, the Russian, and the Japanese,
+and the German will remain alone with Austria and Hungary. His sphere of
+power will be that of thought and of trade, not that of the bureaucrats
+and the soldiers. The German appeared too late, and the world war has
+destroyed the last possibility of catching up the lost ground, of
+founding a colonial empire.
+
+For we shall not supplant the sons of Japheth; the program of the great
+Rhodes, who saw the salvation of mankind in British expansion and
+British imperialism, will be realized.
+
+    Tu regere imperio populos Romano, memento.
+    Hae tibi erunt artes: pacisquqe imponere morem,
+    Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos.
+
+
+
+
+Krupp Director Confirms Prince Lichnowsky's Indictment
+
+Coincident with the publication in Germany of the famous memorandum of
+Prince Lichnowsky squarely putting the blame for the outbreak of the
+world war upon the Kaiser and the German militarists, there also
+appeared in circular form in Germany a letter written by a certain Dr.
+Muehlon, a former member of the Krupp Directorate now living in
+Switzerland, corroborating the charges made by the Prince. The Muehlon
+letter was briefly referred to in an official dispatch from Switzerland
+received in Washington on March 29 as having produced an animated
+discussion throughout the empire.
+
+A copy of the Leipziger Volkszeitung of March 20 tells how, in a
+discussion of the Lichnowsky and Muehlon memoranda before the Main
+Committee of the Reichstag on March 16, Vice Chancellor von Payer tried
+to minimize the value of Dr. Muehlon's statements by asserting that the
+former Krupp Director was a sick, nervous man who no doubt did not
+intend to injure his country's cause, but who was hardly responsible for
+his actions because of his many nervous breakdowns. Later, the Berliner
+Tageblatt printed the text of Dr. Muehlon's letter, which was evidently
+written before the resignation of Dr. Karl Helfferich as Vice Chancellor
+last November. As translated by The London Times, Dr. Muehlon's
+memorandum reads:
+
+
+TALK WITH HELFFERICH
+
+"In the middle of July, 1914, I had, as I frequently had, a conversation
+with Dr. Helfferich, then Director of the Deutsche Bank in Berlin, and
+now Vice Chancellor. The Deutsche Bank had adopted a negative attitude
+toward certain large transactions in Bulgaria and Turkey, in which the
+firm of Krupp, for business reasons--delivery of war material--had a
+lively interest. As one of the reasons to justify the attitude of the
+Deutsche Bank, Dr. Helfferich finally gave me the following reason:
+
+    "The political situation has become very menacing. The Deutsche
+    Bank must in any case wait before entering into any further
+    engagements abroad. The Austrians have just been with the
+    Kaiser. In a week's time Vienna will send a very severe
+    ultimatum to Serbia, with a very short interval for the answer.
+    The ultimatum will contain demands such as punishment of a
+    number of officers, dissolution of political associations,
+    criminal investigation in Serbia by Austrian officials, and, in
+    fact, a whole series of definite satisfactions will be demanded
+    at once; otherwise Austria-Hungary will declare war on Serbia.
+
+"Dr. Helfferich added that the Kaiser had expressed his decided approval
+of this procedure on the part of Austria-Hungary. He had said that he
+regarded a conflict with Serbia as an internal affair between these two
+countries, in which he would permit no other State to interfere. If
+Russia mobilized, he would mobilize also. But in his case mobilization
+meant immediate war. This time there would be no oscillation. Helfferich
+said that the Austrians were extremely well satisfied at this determined
+attitude on the part of the Kaiser.
+
+"When I thereupon said to Dr. Helfferich that this uncanny communication
+converted my fears of a world war, which were already strong, into
+absolute certainty, he replied that it certainly looked like that. But
+perhaps France and Russia would reconsider the matter. In any case, the
+Serbs deserved a lesson which they would remember. This was the first
+intimation that I had received about the Kaiser's discussions with our
+allies. I knew Dr. Helfferich's particularly intimate relations with the
+personages who were sure to be initiated, and I knew that his
+communication was trustworthy.
+
+
+KAISER FOR WAR
+
+"After my return from Berlin I informed Herr Krupp von Boehlen and
+Halbach, one of whose Directors I then was at Essen. Dr. Helfferich had
+given me permission and at that time the intention was to make him a
+Director of Krupps. Herr von Boehlen seemed disturbed that Dr. Helfferich
+was in possession of such information, and he made a remark to the
+effect that the Government people can never keep their mouths shut. He
+then told me the following. He said that he had himself been with the
+Kaiser in the last few days. The Kaiser had spoken to him also of his
+conversation with the Austrians, and of its result; but he had described
+the matter as so secret that he [Krupp] would not even have dared to
+inform his own Directors. As, however, I already knew, he could tell me
+that Helfferich's statements were accurate. Indeed, Helfferich seemed to
+know more details than he did. He said that the situation was really
+very serious. The Kaiser had told him that he would declare war
+immediately if Russia mobilized, and that this time people would see
+that he did not turn about. The Kaiser's repeated insistence that this
+time nobody would be able to accuse him of indecision had, he said, been
+almost comic in its effect.
+
+
+GERMAN DUPLICITY
+
+"On the very day indicated to me by Helfferich the Austrian ultimatum to
+Serbia appeared. At this time I was again in Berlin, and I told
+Helfferich that I regarded the tone and contents of the ultimatum as
+simply monstrous. Dr. Helfferich, however, said that the note only had
+that ring in the German translation. He had seen the ultimatum in
+French, and in French it really could not be regarded as overdone. On
+this occasion Helfferich also said to me that the Kaiser had gone on his
+northern cruise only as a 'blind'; he had not arranged the cruise on the
+usual extensive scale, but was remaining close at hand and keeping in
+constant touch. Now one must simply wait and see what would happen. The
+Austrians, who, of course, did not expect the ultimatum to be accepted,
+were really acting rapidly before the other powers could find time to
+interfere. The Deutsche Bank had already made its arrangements, so as to
+be prepared for all eventualities. For example, it was no longer paying
+out the gold which came in. That could easily be done without attracting
+notice, and the amount day by day reached considerable sums.
+
+"Immediately after the Vienna ultimatum to Serbia the German Government
+issued declarations to the effect that Austria-Hungary had acted all
+alone, without Germany's previous knowledge. When one attempted to
+reconcile these declarations with the events mentioned above, the only
+possible explanation was that the Kaiser had tied himself down without
+inviting the co-operation of his Government, and that, in the
+conversations with the Austrians, the Germans took care not to agree
+upon the text of the ultimatum. For I have already shown that the
+contents of the ultimatum were pretty accurately known in Germany.
+
+"Herr Krupp von Boehlen, with whom I spoke about these German
+declarations--which, at any rate in their effect, were lies--was also by
+no means edified. For, as he said, Germany ought not, in such a
+tremendous affair, to have given a blank check to a State like Austria;
+and it was the duty of the leading statesmen to demand, both of the
+Kaiser and of our allies, that the Austrian claims and the ultimatum to
+Serbia should be discussed in minute detail and definitely decided upon,
+and also that we should decide upon the precise program of our further
+proceedings. He said that, whatever point of view one took, we ought not
+to give ourselves into the hands of the Austrians and expose ourselves
+to eventualities which had not been reckoned out in advance. One ought
+to have connected appropriate conditions with our obligations. In short,
+Herr von Boehlen regarded the German denial of previous knowledge, if
+there was any trace of truth in it, as an offense against the elementary
+principles of diplomacy; and he told me that he intended to speak in
+this sense to Herr von Jagow, then Foreign Secretary, who was a special
+friend of his.
+
+
+GERMAN GOVERNMENT BLAMED
+
+"As a result of this conversation Herr von Boehlen told me that Herr von
+Jagow stuck firmly to his assertion that he had had nothing to do with
+the text of the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum, and that Germany had never
+made any such demands. In reply to the objection that this was
+inconceivable, Herr von Jagow replied that he, as a diplomatist, had
+naturally thought of making such a demand. When, however, Herr von Jagow
+was occupying himself with the matter and was called in, the Kaiser had
+so committed himself that it was too late for any procedure according to
+diplomatic custom, and there was nothing more to be done. The situation
+was such that it would have been impossible to intervene with drafting
+proposals. In the end, he [Jagow] had thought that non-interference
+would have its advantages--namely, the good impression which could be
+made in Petersburg and Paris with the German declaration that Germany
+had not co-operated in the preparation of the Vienna ultimatum."
+
+
+A REMARKABLE LETTER
+
+Herr Muehlon authorized the Humanite, a Paris Socialist paper, through
+its Swiss correspondent, to publish the following remarkable letter
+which he addressed from Berne, on May 7, 1917, to Herr von Bethmann
+Hollweg, then Imperial Chancellor:
+
+"However great the number and weight of the mistakes accumulated on the
+German side since the beginning of the war, I nevertheless persisted for
+a long time in the belief that a belated foresight would at last dawn
+upon the minds of our Directors. It was with this hope that I put myself
+to a certain extent at your disposal, in order to collaborate with you
+in Rumania, and that I indicated to you that I was disposed to help in
+Switzerland, where I am living at present, if the object of our efforts
+was to be rapprochement of the enemy parties. That I was, and that I
+remain, hostile to any activity other than reconciliation and
+restoration I proved soon after the opening of hostilities by the
+definite resignation of my Directorship of Krupps' works.
+
+"But since the first days of 1917 I have abandoned all hope as regards
+the present Directors of Germany. Our offer of peace without indication
+of our war aims, the accentuation of the submarine war, the deportations
+of Belgians, the systematic destruction in France, and the torpedoing of
+English hospital ships have so degraded the Governors of the German
+Empire that I am profoundly convinced that they are disqualified forever
+for the elaboration and conclusion of a sincere and just agreement. The
+personalities may change, but they cannot remain the representatives of
+the German cause.
+
+"The German people will not be able to repair the grievous crimes
+committed against its own present and future, and against that of Europe
+and the whole human race until it is represented by different men with a
+different mentality. To tell the truth, it is mere justice that its
+reputation throughout the whole world is as bad as it is. The triumph of
+its methods--the methods by which it has hitherto conducted the war both
+militarily and politically--would constitute a defeat for the ideas and
+the supreme hopes of mankind. One has only to imagine that a people
+exhausted, demoralized, or hating violence, should consent to a peace
+with a Government which has conducted such a war, in order to understand
+how the general level and the chances of life of the peoples would
+remain black and deceptive.
+
+"As a man and as a German who desires nothing but the welfare of the
+deceived and tortured German people, I turn away definitely from the
+present representatives of the German regime. And I have only one
+wish--that all independent men may do the same and that many Germans may
+understand and act.
+
+"In view of the fact that it is impossible for me at present to make any
+manifestation before German public opinion, I have thought it to be my
+absolute duty to inform your Excellency of my point of view."
+
+
+
+
+Reichstag Debate on Lichnowsky
+
+
+The Main Committee of the Reichstag dealt with Prince Lichnowsky's
+memorandum on March 16. Herr von Payer, Vice Chancellor, stated that
+Prince Lichnowsky himself on March 15 made a statement to the Imperial
+Chancellor, in which he said:
+
+"Your Excellency knows that the purely private notes which I wrote down
+in the Summer of 1916 found their way into wider circles by an
+unprecedented breach of confidence. It was mainly a question of
+subjective considerations about our entire foreign policy since the
+Berlin Congress. I perceived in the policy hitherto pursued of repelling
+(in der seitherigen Abkehr) Russia and in the extension of the policy of
+alliances to Oriental questions the real roots of the world war. I then
+submitted our Morocco naval policy to a brief examination. My London
+mission could at the same time not remain out of consideration,
+especially as I felt the need in regard to the future and with a view to
+my own justification of noting the details of my experiences and
+impressions there before they vanished from my memory. These notes were
+intended in a certain degree only for family archives, and I wrote them
+down without documentary material or notes from the period of my
+official activity. I considered I might show them, on the assurance of
+absolute secrecy, to a very few political friends in whose judgment as
+well as trustworthiness I had equal confidence."
+
+
+LICHNOWSKY RESIGNS RANK
+
+Prince Lichnowsky then described in his letter how the memorandum, owing
+to an indiscretion, got into circulation, and finally expressed lively
+regret at such an extremely vexatious incident.
+
+Herr von Payer said that Prince Lichnowsky had meanwhile tendered his
+resignation of his present rank, which had been accepted, and as he had
+doubtless no bad intention, but had simply been guilty of imprudence, no
+further steps would be taken against him. The Vice Chancellor proceeded:
+
+"Some assertions in his documents must, however, be contradicted,
+especially his assertions about political events in the last months
+preceding the war. Prince Lichnowsky was not of his own knowledge
+acquainted with these events, but he apparently received from a third,
+and wrongly informed quarter, inaccurate information. The key to the
+mistakes and false conclusions may also be the Prince's overestimation
+of his own services, which are accompanied by hatred against those who
+do not recognize his achievements as he expected. The entire memorandum
+is penetrated by a striking veneration for foreign diplomats, especially
+the British, who are described in a truly affectionate manner, and, on
+the other hand, by an equally striking irritation against almost all
+German statesmen. The result was that the Prince frequently regarded
+Germany's most zealous enemy as her best friend because they were
+personally on good terms with him.
+
+"The fact that, as he admits, he attached at first no great importance
+to the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne, and was
+displeased that the situation was judged otherwise in Berlin, makes it
+plain that the Prince had no clear judgment for the events that followed
+and their import."
+
+The Vice Chancellor then characterized as false all Prince Lichnowsky's
+assertions about General von Moltke's urging war at the Potsdam Crown
+Council of June 5, 1914, and the dispatch of the Austrian protocol on
+"this alleged Crown Council" to Count Mensdorff, containing the
+postscript that it would be no great harm even if war with Russia arose
+out of it.
+
+
+PAYER'S DEFENSE
+
+Herr von Payer also denied the statement that the then Foreign Secretary
+was in Vienna in 1914, as well as the statement that Count von
+Pourtales, the German Ambassador in Petrograd, had reported that Russia
+would in no circumstances move. The Sukhomlinoff trial had shown how
+unfounded were Prince Lichnowsky's reproaches against Germany for
+replying to the Russian mobilization by an ultimatum and a declaration
+of war. It was also false to assert that the German Government rejected
+all Great Britain's mediation proposals. Lord Grey's last mediation
+proposal was very urgently supported in Vienna by Berlin. The aim of the
+memorandum was obvious. It was to show the reader how much better and
+more intelligent Prince Lichnowsky's policy was, and how he could have
+assured the peace of the empire if his advice had been followed.
+
+The Vice Chancellor continued:
+
+"Nobody will reproach the Prince with this belief in himself. He was
+also free to make notes about events, and his attitude toward them, but
+he should then have considered it a duty that his views should not have
+become known to the public, and, no matter how small his circle of
+readers was, it was his duty to state nothing contradicting facts which
+he knew. As things now are, the memorandum will cause enough harm among
+malevolent and superficial people. The memorandum has no historical
+value whatever."
+
+Referring to a manifolded copy of a letter from Dr. Muehlon, who is at
+present in Switzerland, and at the outbreak of war was on Krupps' Board
+of Directors, Herr von Payer said that the letter related to the
+utterances of two highly placed gentlemen from which he drew the
+conclusion that the German Government in July, 1914, lacked a desire
+for peace. Both these gentlemen had stated in writing that Dr. Muehlon
+had suffered from nerves, and he (Herr von Payer) also took the view
+that his statements were those of a man of diseased mind.
+
+In the discussion that followed, Herr Scheidemann said that the
+Socialist Party regarded imperialism as the fundamental cause of the
+war. Prince Lichnowsky's memorandum, in which he attempted to put the
+blame for the war on Germany, could, in his opinion, only make an
+impression on so-called out-and-out pacifists.
+
+Herr Mueller-Meiningen said that, notwithstanding what Dr. Muehlon and
+Prince Lichnowsky had said, he was absolutely convinced that the
+overwhelming majority of the German people, the Chancellor, and the
+representatives of the Foreign Office, and, above all, the German
+Emperor, always desired peace.
+
+Herr Stresemann expressed a desire to see the last White Book
+supplemented. Prince Lichnowsky's memorandum could not be taken
+seriously.
+
+Herr von Payer, intervening, said that the question as to whether
+criminal or disciplinary action might be taken against Prince Lichnowsky
+was considered by the Imperial Department of Justice. The result was
+that, on various legal grounds, neither a prosecution of the Prince for
+diplomatic high treason in the sense of Paragraph 92 of the Penal Code,
+nor proceedings under Paragraph 89 or Paragraph 353, the so-called Arnim
+paragraph, would have offered any chance of success. After the Prince's
+retirement, there was no longer any question of disciplinary proceedings
+against him. The Prince has been prohibited by the Foreign Office from
+publishing articles in the press.
+
+
+LICHNOWSKY'S "OPTIMISM"
+
+Herr von Stumm, Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, replying to a
+question as to who was responsible for Prince Lichnowsky's appointment
+in London, said that the appointment was made by the Kaiser, in
+agreement with the responsible Imperial Chancellor. While in London the
+Prince had devoted himself zealously to his task. His views, it was
+true, had frequently not agreed with those of the German Foreign Office.
+That was especially the case regarding his strong optimism in reference
+to German-English relations. When his hopes aiming at a German-English
+understanding were destroyed by the war, the Prince returned to Germany
+greatly excited, and even then did not restrain his criticism of
+Germany's policy.
+
+Herr von Stumm continued:
+
+"His excitement increased owing to attacks against him in the German
+press. All these circumstances must be taken into consideration when
+gauging the value of his memorandum. It was unjustifiable to draw
+conclusions from it regarding the Ambassador's activity in London and
+blame the Government for it. Regarding the German White Book, the Under
+Secretary admitted that it was not very voluminous, but it had to be
+compiled quickly, so as to present to the Reichstag at the opening a
+clear picture of the question of guilt. The Blue Books of other States,
+it was true, were much more voluminous. The German White Book, however,
+differed from them in so far to its advantage as it contained no
+falsification. A new edition of the German White Book is in
+preparation."
+
+Dr. Payer then discussed the revelations of Dr. Muehlon, at present in
+Switzerland. Dr. Muehlon, an ex-Director of Krupps, had made a statement
+according to which he had a conference with two exalted personages in
+the latter half of July, 1914, from which it appeared that it was not
+the intention of the German Government to maintain peace. The Vice
+Chancellor alleged that Dr. Muehlon was suffering from neurasthenia at
+the time, and that no importance could be attached to his revelations,
+since the two gentlemen referred to had denied making the statements
+attributed to them.
+
+In the subsequent discussion disapproval of Prince Lichnowsky's attitude
+was expressed, but some speakers urged the need for the reorganization
+of Germany's diplomatic service.
+
+According to the report of the debate published by the Neues Wiener
+Journal, Herr von Payer himself acknowledged that prior to the war
+German diplomacy had made some bad blunders, and that reform was
+urgently needed. Herr Mueller (Progressive) sharply criticised Herr von
+Flotow, who was German Ambassador in Rome at the beginning of the war,
+and charged him with having declared to the Marquis di San Giuliano,
+then Italian Foreign Minister, that there existed for Italy no casus
+foederis. Prince Buelow also came in for severe criticism.
+
+A bill indicting Prince Lichnowsky for treason has been introduced into
+the Reichstag and is still pending at this writing. A dispatch from
+Geneva on April 21 stated that he was virtually a prisoner in his
+chateau in Silesia. According to the Duesseldorfer Tageblatt the Prince
+was under police surveillance because of the discovery of a plan for his
+escape to Switzerland.
+
+
+
+
+Comments of German Publicists
+
+
+Immediately following the sending out by the semi-official Wolff
+Telegraph Bureau on March 19 of an account of the discussion in the Main
+Committee of the Reichstag on March 16 of the Lichnowsky memorandum,
+together with excerpts from that document, the editorial writers of the
+German newspapers began emptying vials of wrath upon the head of the
+former Ambassador in London. With the exception of the Socialist and a
+few Liberal newspapers, the press was practically a unit in condemning
+the Prince for his "treasonable and indiscreet acts" and in asserting
+that, although his "revelations" might be welcomed with shouts of joy in
+the allied countries, they would have no serious effect upon the
+fighting spirit of the German Nation.
+
+In trying to explain what prompted Prince Lichnowsky to write his
+memorandum for "the family archives," nearly all the German editors lay
+great stress upon his alleged personal vanity and his resentment at
+seeing his efforts toward strengthening the bonds between England and
+Germany made a grim joke by the outbreak of the world war. The Prince is
+also called a simple-minded person, completely taken in by the deceptive
+courtesy of the British diplomats and possessing none of the
+qualifications necessary to make him a profitable representative of the
+Kaiser at the Court of St. James's. All through the comments, from
+extreme Pan-German to socialistic, runs a vein of sarcastic criticism of
+the peculiar "ability" shown by the German Foreign Office in picking its
+Ambassadors.
+
+All the Pan-German and annexationist papers take occasion to link up
+Prince Lichnowsky with Dr. von Bethmann Hollweg, the former Imperial
+Chancellor, and make the latter responsible for the appointment of the
+"pacifist" Prince. In doing this they renew all their old charges of
+weakness and pacifism against the ex-Chancellor, and intimate that he
+may be the next German formerly occupying a high place in the Government
+to write memoranda for his family archives. Some of the papers did not
+wait to write regular editorials about the memorandum, but interlarded
+their reports of the meeting of the Reichstag Committee with sarcastic
+comment and explanations. This was notably the case with the Vossische
+Zeitung, the leading exponent of reconciliation with Russia at the
+expense of Great Britain.
+
+
+REVENTLOW FURIOUS
+
+Although it has since been cabled that the Imperial Government was
+considering taking action against Prince Lichnowsky, and that Captain
+Beerfelde, a member of the German General Staff, was under arrest for
+having aided in the distribution of manifolded copies of the memorandum,
+there was no general demand in the German press for the trial of the
+Prince on a charge of high treason. The exceptions were a few extreme
+Pan-German organs, led by Count zu Reventlow's Deutsche Tageszeitung. On
+the other hand, a few of the Socialist and Liberal papers cautiously
+remarked that, after all, although what the Prince said about the
+responsibility for the war was altogether too pro-Entente, it might help
+the movement in Germany for a negotiated peace.
+
+Count zu Reventlow's article in the Deutsche Tageszeitung read, in part,
+as follows:
+
+"When a former Ambassador, and an experienced diplomat and official
+besides, writes an article and gives it to some one else in these times,
+there is, in our opinion, no excuse. It is a case of high treason and it
+makes little difference if here one might perhaps admit the view of its
+being high treason through negligence, because certainly no former
+diplomat and official ought to allow himself to be so negligent, and
+furthermore he must have known the great danger of his action, which, as
+has been said, was exclusively meant to be to his personal interest.
+Therefore, we cannot very well understand for what reasons the proper
+steps have not been taken already against Prince Lichnowsky. We use the
+characterization 'high treason' after due deliberation.
+
+"Prince Lichnowsky should not have allowed a single piece of his article
+to have left his hands, for he was very well able to judge that its
+publication outside of the German Empire was bound to have the effect of
+a treasonable act. The German cause will not be made any worse because a
+former diplomat, completely enchanted by English ways and never in touch
+with the essence of the English policy, places himself on the side of
+the enemies of the German Empire."
+
+The Koelnische Volkszeitung, the organ of the annexationist faction of
+the Centre Party, concluded its editorial thus:
+
+"One thing must be emphasized, Liebknecht, Dittmann, and other traitors
+have been jailed because of their high treason. Lichnowsky wanted to
+show to the whole world with his memorandum that Germany had sought,
+wanted, and begun the war because some persons did not wish to have him,
+Prince Lichnowsky, enjoy the success of the Anglo-German friendship.
+And, in so doing, Lichnowsky furnished our enemies with weapons, worked
+to our enemies' advantage. In time of war this is treason. The excuse
+that the fourteen copies that he had prepared were only written for his
+friends is ridiculous. Theodore Wolff of the Berliner Tageblatt is known
+to be one of Lichnowsky's most intimate friends. Who knows who the
+others may be! If a Social Democrat or an anarchist writes an inciting
+pamphlet in the form of a memorandum and doesn't distribute it himself,
+but has his friends do it, is he then exempt from punishment? If a
+person commits high treason and does not circulate the document himself,
+but lets others do it, or at least does not take precautions to see that
+it is not distributed, does he go free? The German people will hardly
+understand the decision of the Imperial Department of Justice as just
+rendered in favor of Lichnowsky. Even at the last session of the
+Prussian House of Lords Prince Lichnowsky sat beside his friend
+Dernberg. Will he appear in the House of Lords again?"
+
+
+GERMANIA WAXED SARCASTIC
+
+Germania, speaking for the so-called moderate section of the Centre
+Party, called the Lichnowsky case "one of the most disturbing political
+events that we have experienced in the course of the war," and hoped
+that the courts would still have a chance to decide as to the Prince's
+guilt. The newspaper comment was in general spiced with much sarcastic
+comparison of the Lichnowsky case with the cases of Dr. Karl Liebknecht
+and Deputy Wilhelm Dittmann, and many remarks were passed regarding the
+difference between the treatment accorded to a member of the Prussian
+nobility and that suffered by commoners and representatives of the
+German working class. The Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, in ending its comment
+as to the paeans of joy with which the enemy press would be sure to
+welcome the publication of the Lichnowsky indictment, added the
+following item of news:
+
+"We learn on good authority, in the matter of the distribution of the
+Lichnowsky pamphlet, that in the beginning of February the police
+succeeded in seizing 2,000 copies of this pamphlet which the Neues
+Vaterland Society had had sent to it from South Germany through its
+business manager, Else Bruck. She, together with Henke, a bookseller,
+was placed under charges, but was acquitted by the court-martial,
+presumably because the court was not able to foresee the far-reaching
+result of the document."
+
+Under the heading "The Blind Argus" the Bremer Nachrichten opined that
+the man who should have been using a thousand eyes in London in the
+interest of Germany was blind, and it referred to the Lichnowsky case as
+"the most gloomy chapter in the history of German diplomacy."
+
+
+PAN-GERMANS CAUSTIC
+
+Prince Lichnowsky's aversion to the old Triple Alliance drew much
+caustic criticism, especially from the Pan-German press, and excerpts
+from the semi-official Vienna Fremdenblatt and other Austrian papers,
+indignantly repudiating the Prince's charge that the Dual Monarchy had
+always regarded Germany as a shield under which it could make raids upon
+the Near East and otherwise stir up trouble, were eagerly reprinted in
+Germany.
+
+The Berlin Vorwaerts, speaking for the pro-Government Socialists, said:
+
+"The Ambassador returned with the feeling of a man who had seen his life
+work knocked to pieces. No doubt he felt at that time not very different
+from us German Socialists who had also worked for reconciliation with
+France and England and now, in the face of the unchained elemental
+forces, had to recognize our impotence with gnashing of teeth. In
+Germany, Prince Lichnowsky, who had believed in the possibility of
+agreement as every toiler must believe in his work, was greeted with the
+scorn of the Pan-Germans, who asserted that he had allowed himself to be
+softsoaped by the English and had never recognized their real
+intentions. * * *
+
+"And who can deny that this pamphlet casts a deep shadow upon the German
+foreign policy before the war? They can say that everything that
+Lichnowsky writes is the result of a diseased imagination and that all
+is distorted and badly drawn. But this would merely mean that the most
+important Ambassadorial post that Germany had at her disposal was
+occupied by a fool and a blockhead. So, if one wishes to spare the
+German policy this compromising implication, the only thing to do is to
+take the memorandum and its author seriously and argue the points with
+him in an expert manner."
+
+The Vorwaerts concluded its comment by saying that, no matter how the war
+started, the German people were now determined to see that Germany was
+not defeated, but if Prince Lichnowsky's article would help the people
+of Germany to adopt a more conciliatory attitude toward England and thus
+hasten a negotiated peace, it was worth reading. Comment of other
+Socialist papers was along the same lines.
+
+
+
+
+Comment of an English Editor
+
+    _Valentine Chirol, former foreign editor of The London Times,
+    published the following in that newspaper on March 26, 1918:_
+
+
+The publication of Prince Lichnowsky's memorandum furnishes evidence
+which even the most skeptical Englishman can hardly question of the
+peculiar system of dualism practiced by the German Foreign Office in the
+conduct of its diplomacy abroad. To those who had opportunities of
+observing its methods at close quarters this is no new revelation. The
+German Foreign Office has almost invariably conducted its diplomatic
+work abroad through two or more different channels, for it was always
+too tortuous and complicated to be intrusted to any single agent. There
+was the public policy directed toward more or less avowable ends to be
+propounded in official dispatches and conversations, and there was "the
+higher policy" to be promoted by means of discreet propaganda in the
+press and in society, and especially by appropriate appeals to the
+prejudices or interests of political and financial and commercial
+circles. Hence in the more important posts abroad it was the habit of
+the Wilhelmstrasse to rely mainly upon the Councilor of Embassy both to
+check the proceedings of the Ambassador and to manipulate all the
+complicated threads of its diplomatic network in which, for various
+reasons, it was deemed inexpedient for the Ambassador to get himself
+entangled, sometimes lest inconvenient disclosures might impair his
+influence with the Government to which he was accredited, and
+sometimes--as in the case of Prince Lichnowsky in London, and of the
+late Prince Radolin in Paris--because the Ambassador's personal sense of
+honor or his belief in the superiority of honorable statesmanship
+recoiled from the duplicity of "the higher policy." * * *
+
+I gained an insight into this complex machinery when I went to Berlin as
+correspondent of The Times, in the early years of the present Emperor's
+reign, through Baron Holstein, who was then known as the "eminence
+Grise" of the German Foreign Office from the commanding influence he
+wielded without the slightest ostentation of power. Owing to accidental
+circumstances, I came into much closer intimacy with him than he was
+wont to allow, not merely to journalists, but even to the chief foreign
+diplomatists in Berlin; and, subject to occasional intermittences when
+he resented somewhat ferociously my expositions of German policy, I
+maintained friendly relations with him long after I had ceased to reside
+in Berlin and he had himself outlived the Emperor's favor, for which he
+lacked the courtier's obsequiousness. He had been bred in the
+Bismarckian tradition; he had been a member of the old Chancellor's
+staff throughout the Franco-Prussian war, and had acted as his
+confidential agent when he was Councilor of Embassy in Paris under Count
+Harry von Arnim, whose sensational downfall he helped to bring about at
+Bismarck's behest. Although in other respects a man of great integrity
+and with many admirable qualities, including, besides a certain rather
+cynical frankness, a thoroughly un-Prussian contempt for the gewgaws of
+official life, he was so saturated with the Wilhelmstrasse tradition
+that he was rather proud than otherwise of the unsavory part he had
+played toward his Paris chief, and had, therefore, the less hesitation
+in disclosing to me, when he thought it served his purpose, the
+existence of equally peculiar relations between Count Wolf-Metternich,
+then Councilor of Embassy in London, and the then Ambassador, Count
+Hatzfeld.
+
+In the face of such a confession as Prince Lichnowsky's, it would be
+amusing, were it not so pitiful, to see the same British politicians who
+were so egregiously duped by Germany's "secret" diplomacy before the war
+still venting their chagrin in the House of Commons, not on their German
+"friends," by whom they were constantly fooled, and are apparently quite
+prepared to be fooled again tomorrow, but upon the British Foreign
+Office, whose timely appreciation of the German menace they invariably
+derided and whose endeavors to forearm the country against it they did
+their utmost to defeat.
+
+
+
+
+Dr. Liebknecht's Indictment of Germany
+
+
+A copy has been received of an open letter by Dr. Karl Liebknecht, the
+German Socialist, which proved an important factor in his
+imprisonment--which still continues. It bears date May 3, 1916, and was
+addressed to the Berlin District Court-Martial. The German authorities
+suppressed it, and made it a criminal offense for any one to be found in
+possession of it.
+
+After stating his view of the war as a struggle of the masses against
+the classes throughout the world, Dr. Liebknecht wrote:
+
+"The German Government is in its very social and political being an
+instrument for the exploitation and suppression of the laboring masses.
+It serves at home and abroad the interests of Junkerdom, capitalism, and
+militarism. It is the reckless representative of world political
+expansion, the strongest driver of competition in armaments, and
+therewith one of the weightiest exponents in the creation of the causes
+for the present war. It plotted this war in conjunction with the
+Austrian Government, and so burdened itself with the chief
+responsibility for its outbreak. It arranged this war while misleading
+the masses of the people and even the Reichstag.
+
+"Compare, for instance, the keeping silent about the ultimatum to
+Belgium, the making up of the German White Book, the alteration of the
+Czar's telegram of July 29, 1914, &c. It seeks to maintain the war
+feeling in the nation by the most blameworthy means. It carries on the
+war by methods which, even regarded from the hitherto customary level,
+are monstrous. Such, for instance, are the invasion of Belgium and
+Luxemburg, poison gases, the Zeppelins, which are designed to destroy
+everything living, combatant or noncombatant, in a wide circle below
+them; the submarine trade war; the torpedoing of the Lusitania; the
+system of hostages and contributions, especially in the beginning, in
+Belgium; the systematic trapping of Ukrainian, Polish, Irish,
+Mohammedan, and other war prisoners in German prison camps for purposes
+of a traitorous war service and traitorous espionage in the interests of
+the Central Powers; the treaty of Under Secretary Zimmermann with Sir
+Roger Casement of December, 1914, as to the formation, equipment, and
+training of British soldiers from among the prisoners to form an Irish
+brigade in the German prison camps; the attempts to use civilian
+subjects of hostile States who were in Germany, by threatening them with
+forced internment, for war services of a treacherous character against
+their country; the dictum necessity knows no law, &c.
+
+"The German Government has tremendously increased the want of political
+rights and the exploitation of the masses of the people by the
+conditions it imposed under a state of siege. It refuses all serious
+political and social reforms, while by phrases about the supposed
+equality of all parties, about the supposed reform of political and
+social treatment, about the supposed 'neuorientierung,' &c., it tries to
+maintain its hold on the masses of the people for the purposes of its
+imperialistic war policy. Because of its regard for the agragrians and
+the capitalists it has entirely failed in the economic provisioning of
+the population during the war, and it has prepared the road for making
+usury out of the people and their very needs. Today still it holds fast
+to its war objects of conquest, and therewith forms the chief hindrance
+to immediate peace negotiations on the ground of no annexations and no
+force of any kind. By the maintenance of the illegal state of siege,
+censorship, and so on, it smothers public knowledge of uncomfortable
+facts and criticism of its methods.
+
+"The present war is not a war for the defense of the national
+inviolability or for the liberty of small nations. From the standpoint
+of the proletariat it signifies only the most extreme concentration and
+increase of the political suppression, their economic draining, and
+militaristic slaughter of the life of the working classes for
+capitalistic and absolutist advantage. To this there is only one answer
+of the laboring classes of all countries, namely, a sharpened
+international class fight against the capitalistic Governments and
+dominating classes of all countries, for the removal of every form of
+suppression and exploitation, and for ending the war by a peace in the
+Socialistic sense. As a Socialist I am on principle an opponent of this
+war, as of the existing military system. The fight against militarism is
+a life question for the working classes. The war demands that the
+anti-militarism struggle shall be carried on with redoubled energy."
+
+
+
+
+Why the German Strike Failed
+
+
+The attempt of the German workingmen last Winter to force a genuine
+peace movement by means of a general strike was promptly suppressed by
+the Government, which proclaimed a state of siege and threatened to
+force the strikers into military service. The underlying causes of this
+failure were explained in an instructive article in the Arbeiter
+Zeitung, the leading Austrian labor organ, from which the following is
+taken:
+
+    The most important reason is undoubtedly the lack of unity among
+    the German working classes. Even in Berlin the strike was not
+    general; in many factories only part of the men went out, while
+    the rest continued their work. In many cities, such as Munich,
+    the workmen divided according to party; the Independent
+    Socialists struck, members of the old party went on with their
+    work. The most important industrial districts were only slightly
+    affected. On the Rhine, in Westphalia, in Upper Silesia, even in
+    Saxony, where lie the chief fortresses of independent socialism,
+    only a small section struck. And even where they struck there
+    was no kind of uniform action; in many towns, like Nuernberg, for
+    instance, only a demonstrative strike of limited duration was
+    decided upon, while elsewhere the intention was to hold out
+    until the demands were obtained. In Berlin the pressmen struck,
+    but not the compositors; one newspaper could appear, another
+    not.
+
+    It was always the weakness of German Social Democracy that it
+    had least influence on the very sections of the working class
+    whose strike would involve the greatest economic danger. The
+    railway men now take the first place in the movement in England,
+    America, France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, and now in Russia,
+    too; only in Germany have they always stood outside the ranks of
+    the class-conscious workmen. Of the miners and iron founders,
+    too, only part is Socialist; a very considerable part follows
+    the Centre and the Polish Nationalists. These facts explain the
+    weakness of the movement, and also the energy of the Prussian
+    authorities. The German Government would have hesitated to take
+    violent measures if it had had reason to fear that such measures
+    would provoke an extension of the movement to the railways,
+    mines, and foundries. _The weakness of the movement is not a
+    result of the energy of the authorities; on the contrary, only
+    its weakness made that energy possible._
+
+    How is it, then, that the German working classes, after three
+    and a half years of unheard-of sacrifice and deprivation, are
+    not capable of carrying through a struggle for peace with the
+    same unanimity and clearness of aim as in many former struggles?
+    This is, at least, partially due to the unfortunate development
+    of German Social Democracy during the war. It has united with
+    the Centre and the Liberals in the Reichstag bloc. It has thus
+    scored various successes--the inclusion of progressive
+    parliamentarians in the Government; the Reichstag resolution in
+    favor of peace by understanding; the Reform bill in the Prussian
+    Parliament. But this policy, which made Social Democracy the
+    ally of bourgeois parties and the support of the Government, was
+    fiercely attacked by the Opposition, which finally constituted
+    itself as a separate party. * * * The bloc policy and action of
+    the masses are mutually exclusive policies; those who themselves
+    belong in the Reichstag to the majority which supports the
+    Government cannot create the atmosphere in which alone a united
+    action of the masses is possible. Nor, indeed, was that the
+    intention of the German Social Democratic majority; _the
+    mass-strike came without any act on its part and against its
+    will_. When the strike was there, the leaders (of the majority)
+    none the less placed themselves at its head; but the masses,
+    having been educated for three and a half years to trust the
+    Government's intentions, were naturally not willing to make
+    heavy sacrifices in a struggle against this very Government.
+
+    In other democratic lands such a situation can hardly arise.
+    There the parliamentary majority decides the policy of the
+    Government, and if the Socialists form part of that majority,
+    they can effectively influence policy, and so there can be no
+    idea of the working classes having to conduct a political
+    mass-strike against this Government. In Germany it is different.
+    Here the voting of the imperial budget and of the war credits is
+    not much more than a theoretical confession of faith in the
+    Fatherland; to belong to the Reichstag majority is not a
+    guarantee of real political power. A few Generals, a few
+    influential bank directors and big manufacturers can, under
+    given circumstances, influence policy more effectually than the
+    whole Reichstag majority. Thus, indeed, it can happen that the
+    Government's policy seems very little influenced by socialism,
+    though this latter supports the Government; that, consequently,
+    a considerable part of the working classes decides upon a
+    political strike against the Government which for three and a
+    half years has enjoyed the support of the majority of working
+    class Deputies in the Reichstag. And only thus can we explain
+    the strange spectacle, inexplicable to any other country, that a
+    Government in whose formation Social Democracy has had a share,
+    and which at every division is supported by the Socialists,
+    knows no other means of meeting a strike save by forbidding
+    meetings, introducing a state of siege and militarizing! The
+    bloc policy is dangerous everywhere; but these dangers are
+    incomparably greater in the classic land of Government by
+    authority (Obrigkeitsregierung) than in the democratic
+    countries. The unedifying picture which German Social Democracy
+    presents today is at bottom the result of German sham democracy,
+    of the poverty and backwardness of German political life.
+
+    But, in spite of all, we hope that even the German strike will
+    not have an unfavorable effect on future development. Many a
+    struggle which had to end without tangible success has, later
+    on, proved fruitful after all! So it will be this time. The
+    German Government did not have to give the workmen any definite
+    assurances; but it had learned that every extension of the war
+    provokes the gravest social dangers; and if this time it still
+    found it easy to dispose of the strike, because a large section
+    of the working classes still trusts in it, all its force
+    (Machtmittel) would avail it nothing, if the whole German
+    working class once acquired the conviction that the Government
+    is prolonging the war for the sake of Pan-German lust of
+    conquest.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+Last Fight of the Mary Rose
+
+A British Naval Episode
+
+    _The following story of how the little Mary Rose, a British
+    destroyer, went down with colors flying, when, in October, 1917,
+    she fought against overwhelming enemy forces, has been compiled
+    from official sources:_
+
+
+The Mary Rose left a Norwegian port in charge of a westbound convoy of
+merchant ships in the afternoon of Oct. 16, 1917. At dawn on the 17th
+flashes of gunfire were sighted astern. The Captain of the Mary Rose,
+Lieut. Commander Charles Fox, who was on the bridge at the time,
+remarked that he supposed it was a submarine shelling the convoy, and
+promptly turned his ship to investigate. All hands were called to action
+stations. The Mary Rose had increased to full speed, and in a short time
+three light cruisers were sighted coming toward them at high speed out
+of the morning mist. The Mary Rose promptly challenged, and, receiving
+no reply, opened fire with every gun that would bear at a range of about
+four miles. The German light cruisers appeared to be nonplused by this
+determined single-handed onslaught, as they did not return the fire
+until the range had closed to three miles.
+
+They then opened fire, and the Mary Rose held gallantly on through a
+barrage of bursting shell until only a mile separated her from the
+enemy. Up to this point the German marksmanship was poor, but as the
+British destroyer turned to bring her torpedo tubes to bear a salvo
+struck her, bursting in the engine room and leaving her disabled, a log
+on the water. All guns, with the exception of the after one, were out of
+action and their crews killed or wounded, but the after gun continued in
+action, under the direction of Sub-Lieutenant Marsh, R. N. V. R., as
+long as it would bear. The Captain came down from the wrecked bridge and
+passed aft, encouraging and cheering his defeated men. He stopped beside
+the wrecked remains of the midship gun and shouted to the survivors of
+its crew: "God bless my heart, lads, get her going again; we're not
+done yet!" The enemy was now pouring a concentrated fire into the
+motionless vessel. One of the boilers, struck by a shell, exploded, and
+through the inferno of escaping steam, smoke, and the vapor of bursting
+shell came that familiar, cheery voice: "We're not done yet."
+
+As the German light cruisers sped past, two able seamen, (French and
+Bailey,) who alone had survived among the torpedo tubes' crews, on their
+own initiative laid and fired the remaining torpedo. French was killed
+immediately and Bailey badly wounded. Realizing that the enemy had
+passed ahead, and that the four-inch gun could no longer be brought to
+bear on them, the Captain went below and set about destroying his
+ciphers. The First Lieutenant, (Lieutenant Bavin,) seeing one of the
+light cruisers returning toward them, called the gunner (Mr. Handcock)
+and bade him sink the ship. The Captain then came on deck and gave the
+order "Abandon ship." All the boats had been shattered by shellfire at
+their davits, but the survivors launched a Carley raft and paddled clear
+of the ship. The German light cruiser detailed to administer the coup de
+grace then approached to within 300 yards and poured a succession of
+salvos into the already riddled hull.
+
+The Mary Rose sank at 7:15 A. M. with colors flying. The Captain, First
+Lieutenant, and gunner were lost with the ship, but the handful of
+survivors, in charge of Sub-Lieutenant J. R. D. Freeman, on the Carley
+raft, fell in some hours later with a lifeboat belonging to one of the
+ships of the convoy. Sailing and rowing, they made the Norwegian coast
+some forty-eight hours later, and were tended with the utmost kindness
+by the Norwegian authorities.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes
+
+Obvious errors of punctuation and diacritics repaired.
+
+Hyphen removed: breech[-]blocks (p. 356).
+
+Hyphen added: ocean[-]going (p. 346).
+
+Contents: CHRCHMAN's changed to CHURCHMAN's (GERMAN CHURCHMAN'S DEFENSE
+OF POISON GAS).
+
+p. 200: "hyopthetical" changed to "hypothetical" (a hypothetical
+straight line of fifty miles).
+
+p. 201: "Grivenes" changed to "Grivesnes" (two villages near Grivesnes,
+driving out the French).
+
+p. 205: "Friedrichafen" changed to "Friedrichshafen" (airdrome at
+Friedrichshafen on April 15).
+
+p. 207: "self-sacrifce" changed to "self-sacrifice" (self-sacrifice of
+our troops).
+
+p. 227: "Mauvitz" changed to "Marvitz" (von Below, von der Marwitz, and
+von Hutier).
+
+p. 229: "wringled" changed to "wrinkled" (of age, with her white,
+wrinkled face).
+
+p. 233: "inititative" changed to "initiative" (on his own initiative).
+
+p. 234: "Conmmander" changed to "Commander" (his appointment as
+Commander in Chief).
+
+p. 242: "asumed" changed to "assumed" (he assumed command of the group).
+
+p. 256: "Sugeon" changed to "Surgeon" (Surgeon General's office).
+
+p. 263: "inportant" changed to "important" (delivered an important
+address).
+
+p. 266: "reinforecements" changed to "reinforcements" (to hurry up
+reinforcements).
+
+p. 273: "indepedent" changed to "independent" (a great self-conscious
+nation independent).
+
+p. 279: "writen" changed to "written" (a book written since the
+beginning of the war).
+
+p. 279: "goverment" changed to "government" (system of government).
+
+p. 280: "determinined" changed to "determined" (we are determined).
+
+p. 280: "consclusive" changed to "conclusive" (as clear and conclusive).
+
+p. 291: "thown" changed to "thrown" (a line was thrown to a raft).
+
+p. 307: "centrail" changed to "central" (the central railway station).
+
+p. 315: Duplicate line removed: (In his own words, "Without prejudice
+to").
+
+p. 316: "forseen" changed to "foreseen" (whose collapse could be
+foreseen).
+
+p. 330: "worrried" changed to "worried" (worried the Governments).
+
+p. 334: "carrrying" changed to "carrying" (carrying only four heavy guns
+each).
+
+p. 346: "thee" changed to "three" (the construction of three new
+national shipyards).
+
+p. 348: "114" changed to "1914" (Since 1914 the community).
+
+p. 353: "essentual" changed to "essential" (to the last moment was
+essential).
+
+p. 354: "threfore" changed to "therefore" (therefore, I decided to
+continue the operations).
+
+p. 354: "Burlon" changed to "Bourlon" (on the outskirts of Bourlon
+Wood).
+
+p. 354: "Fontaine-notre-Dane" changed to "Fontaine-notre-Dame" (to
+include the recapture of Fontaine-notre-Dame).
+
+p. 354: "know" changed to "known" (known as Tadpole Copse).
+
+p. i: "Her" changed to "Herr" (Herr von Bethmann Hollweg).
+
+p. v: Lines rearranged in the last paragraph of the section "BACKED
+WRONG HORSES".
+
+p. vii: "by" changed to "my" (begun before my arrival).
+
+p. viii: "or" changed to "of" (the valuable islands of San Thome and
+Principe).
+
+p. x: "burder" changed to "burden" (lighten the burden of armament).
+
+p. xi: "Eir" changed to "Sir" (Sir Edward Grey's).
+
+p. xiii: The brackets and question mark are in the original:
+"when we [moved?] against France".
+
+p. xv: "protocal" changed to "protocol" (in the Austrian protocol).
+
+p. xvi: "me" changed to "we" (would we mix ourselves up).
+
+p. xxv: "Her" changed to "Herr" (Herr von Payer).
+
+p. xxv: "nwspapers" changed to "newspapers" (a few Liberal
+newspapers).
+
+p. xxvii: "anrachist" changed to "anarchist" (If a Social Democrat or
+an anarchist).
+
+p. xxx: "oconomic" changed to "economic" (in the economic
+provisioning).
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Current History: A Monthly Magazine of
+the New York Times, May 1918, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CURRENT HISTORY: NY TIMES, MAY 1918 ***
+
+***** This file should be named 38750.txt or 38750.zip *****
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