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diff --git a/41479-0.txt b/41479-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..411f965 --- /dev/null +++ b/41479-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14323 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41479 *** + +[Illustration: VISCOUNT MILNER + +The new British War Secretary in succession to Lord Derby. He had been a +member of the War Cabinet since its creation in December, 1916 + +(_Central News_)] + +[Illustration: GENERAL SIR W. R. MARSHALL + +Commander in Chief of the British forces in Mesopotamia + +(_Central News_)] + +[Illustration] + + 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. + Part I. + + No. 3 + + June, 1918 + + 25 Cents a Copy + $3.00 a Year + +[Illustration] + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + PAGE + + CURRENT HISTORY CHRONICLED 381 + + BATTLES IN PICARDY AND FLANDERS 389 + + THE GREATEST BATTLE OF THE WAR, By Philip Gibbs 398 + America's Sacrifice, By Harold Begbie 410 + + AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN BATTLE 411 + Overseas Forces More Than Half a Million 413 + American Troops in Central France, By Laurence Jerrold 415 + American Shipbuilders Break All Records 418 + + THIRD LIBERTY LOAN OVERSUBSCRIBED 419 + Former War Loans of the United States 421 + + AMERICAN LABOR MISSION IN EUROPE 424 + + PROGRESS OF THE WAR 426 + + GERMAN LOSSES ON ALL FRONTS 431 + + GREAT BRITAIN'S FINANCES 432 + + TRADE AFTER THE WAR 434 + + FINLAND UNDER GERMAN CONTROL 438 + Peace Treaty Between Finland and Germany 445 + + GERMAN AGGRESSION IN RUSSIA 449 + + MORE BOLSHEVIST LEGISLATION, By Abraham Yarmolinsky 455 + + LITHUANIA'S EFFORTS TOWARD AUTONOMY, By A. M. Martus 458 + + THE RAID ON ZEEBRUGGE AND OSTEND 460 + + GERMAN U-BOAT CLAIMS: Address by Admiral von Capelle 467 + The Admiral's Statements Attacked 469 + The Month's Submarine Record 470 + A Secret Chapter of U-Boat History 471 + + SEA-RAIDER WOLF AND ITS VICTIMS 473 + Career and Fate of the Raider Seeadler 476 + + TREATMENT OF BRITISH PRISONERS: Official Report 479 + American Prisoners Exploited 484 + + THE TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF RHEIMS, By G. H. Perris 485 + The Abomination of Desolation, By Dr. Norman Maclean 486 + + LLOYD GEORGE AND GENERAL MAURICE 488 + + THE NEW BRITISH SERVICE ACT 491 + British Aid to Italy: General Plumer's Report 492 + + EMPEROR CHARLES'S "DEAR SIXTUS" LETTER 494 + + THE ISSUES IN IRELAND: Report of the Irish Convention 496 + Greatest Gas Attack of the War 504 + + PLUCKY DUNKIRK By Anna Milo Upjohn 505 + + GERMANY'S ATTEMPT TO DIVIDE BELGIUM 511 + + STRIPPING BELGIAN INDUSTRIES: The Rathenau Plan 516 + Spoliation of Belgian Churches: Cardinal Mercier's Protest 523 + Belgium's Appeal to the Bolsheviki 525 + + SERBIA'S HOPES AND RUSSIA'S DEFECTION By Nicholas Pashitch 526 + + RUMANIA'S PEACE TREATY 529 + Summary of the Peace of Bucharest 531 + Bessarabia Voluntarily United to Rumania 535 + + THE WAR AND THE BAGDAD RAILWAY By Dr. Morris Jastrow 536 + + LICHNOWSKY'S MEMORANDUM 539 + Full Text of von Jagow's Reply 541 + German Comments on von Jagow's Views 545 + Germany's Long Plotting for Domination By H. Charles Woods 548 + + THE EUROPEAN WAR AS SEEN BY CARTOONISTS: 31 Cartoons 551 + + + + + ROTOGRAVURE ILLUSTRATIONS + + VISCOUNT MILNER _Frontis_ + + GENERAL SIR W. R. MARSHALL " + + CHARLES M. SCHWAB 394 + + JOHN D. RYAN 395 + + STAFF OFFICERS WITH PERSHING 410 + + LEADERS IN WAR ACTIVITIES 411 + + BARON STEPHAN BURIAN 426 + + LEADERS IN IRISH CONTROVERSY 427 + + BRITISH WAR LEADERS 458 + + FRENCH AND AMERICAN TANKS 459 + + AMERICAN REGIMENT IN FRANCE 474 + + FRENCH CHATEAU IN RUINS 475 + + MARCHING TO THE FRONT 506 + + HARVARD REGIMENT IN BOSTON 507 + + TRAFALGAR SQUARE IN WARTIME 522 + + TYPICAL SCENE IN FLANDERS 523 + + + + +CURRENT HISTORY CHRONICLED + +[PERIOD ENDED MAY 19, 1918.] + + +SUMMARY OF WAR ACTIVITIES + +Four weeks of comparative calm on the western front intervened after the +furious fighting that had continued throughout the preceding month. The +Germans made several desperate efforts to smash their way through the +British lines to the channel ports, but they failed. The British and +French lines stood firm as granite, and the enemy suffered frightful +losses. The battle lines remained practically unchanged. + +From the English Channel to the Adriatic there was complete union of the +British, French, American, and Italian forces under a single command; +these forces, including reserves, were estimated at 6,000,000 men. No +military event of importance occurred on the other fronts, though the +British made some further advances in Palestine and Mesopotamia. + +In political matters the month brought events of more importance, chief +of which was the renewal of an alliance between Germany and Austria; +this was accomplished at a meeting of the Emperors. + +The acceleration of troop movements from the United States to France was +a feature of the month, the estimate for the four weeks running as high +as 150,000; it was semi-officially stated that in April, 1918, more than +500,000 American soldiers were in France, and that by Jan. 1, 1919, +there would be 1,500,000 of our fighting men at the front, with 500,000 +more at transportation, supply, and civil work; the speeding up of +shipbuilding and other war work was significant. The Third Liberty Loan +aggregated more than $4,000,000,000, with 17,000,000 subscribers, +proving a brilliant success. The President by proclamation extended +enemy alien restrictions to women also. A bill was passed enabling the +President to consolidate and co-ordinate executive bureaus, thus giving +him extraordinary executive powers. The sedition law was strengthened. A +new commercial agreement was made with Norway. + +In Great Britain the chief event was the triumph of the Premier over a +military group that tried to overthrow his Ministry. There was a +recrudescence of the spirit of rebellion in Ireland. In France the +conviction of the Bonnet Rouge editors on a charge of treason deepened +confidence in the stability of the Government. The German penetration of +Russia continued, and all the evidence indicated that the country was +coming under Teutonic control, economically, industrially, and +financially. The humiliating peace forced on Rumania was ratified, and +the country passed practically under German and Austrian domination. + +The month's record of enemy U-boat losses strengthened faith that this +menace was being eliminated and that new allied tonnage would exceed +losses in increasing ratio from May 1, 1918. + +The chief naval event was the daring British raid on the German +submarine bases at Zeebrugge and Ostend; the channel at the first named +port was blocked, and the harbor entrance at Ostend, by means of a +second raid, was partially blocked, resulting in a serious hampering of +submarine operations. The Italians penetrated Pola Harbor, May 14, with +a small torpedo boat and sank a 20,000-ton Austrian dreadnought. + + +SINN FEIN PLOT FRUSTRATED + +During the night of May 18 the British authorities in Ireland suddenly +arrested at their homes about 500 of the leading Sinn Feiners on the +charge of having treasonable communication with the German enemy. Among +those arrested were the Sinn Fein members of Parliament, also the +conspicuous Irish agitators and irreconcilables, both men and women. A +proclamation was issued by the Lord Lieutenant declaring that a +conspiracy with Germany had been discovered, calling upon all loyal +Irishmen to assist in suppressing it, and urging voluntary enlistments. +It was believed that this prompt action had prevented a contemplated +uprising, which was being aided by German spies. Comparative calm +followed the arrests. + + +FOCH'S ARMY COMPRISES ALL RACES OF EARTH + +It seems certain that never in the world's history were so many +different races, peoples, and tongues united under the command of a +single man as are now gathered together in the army of Generalissimo +Foch. If we divide the human races into White, Yellow, Red, and Black, +all four are largely represented. Among the white races there are +Frenchmen, Italians, Portuguese, English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, +Canadians, Australians, South Africans, (of both British and Dutch +descent,) New Zealanders; in the American Army, probably every other +European nation is represented, with additional contingents from those +already named, so that every branch of the white race figures in the +ethnological total. There are representatives of many Asiatic races, +including not only the volunteers from the native States of India, but +elements from the French colony in Cochin China, with Annam, Cambodia, +Tonkin, Laos, and Kwang Chau Wan. England and France both contribute +many African tribes, including Arabs from Algeria and Tunis, Senegalese, +Saharans, and many of the South African races. The red races of North +America are represented in the armies of both Canada and the United +States, while the Maoris, Samoans, and other Polynesian races are +likewise represented. And as, in the American Army, there are men of +German, Austrian, and Hungarian descent, and, in all probability, +contingents also of Bulgarian and Turkish blood, it may be said that +Foch commands an army representing the whole human race, united in +defense of the ideals of the Allies. The presence, among Foch's +strategic reserves, of 250,000 Italian soldiers is peculiarly +interesting, as no Italian force at all comparable to this in numbers +seems ever to have operated on French soil, though French armies have +again and again fought in Italy. During the early wars of Napoleon this +was the case, and again in 1859, when the battles of Magenta and +Solferino gave names to two new shades of red. In 1870 also there were +French troops in Rome; their withdrawal, in the Summer of that year, +opened the way for the final union of Italy. + + +MEETING OF THE GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN EMPERORS + +The German and Austrian Emperors held a consultation at German Great +Headquarters on May 12 to discuss future relations between the two +empires. Emperor Karl was accompanied by Foreign Minister Burian, Field +Marshal von Arz, Chief of the General Staff, and Prince Hohenlohe, +Austrian Ambassador at Berlin. Germany was represented by Imperial +Chancellor von Hertling, Field Marshal von Hindenburg, General +Ludendorff, Foreign Secretary von Kuehlmann, and Count von Wedel, +Ambassador at Vienna. + +According to an official statement issued in Berlin, all the fundamental +political, economic, and military questions affecting present and future +relations were thoroughly discussed, and "there was complete accord on +all these questions, tending to deepen the existing alliance." In many +quarters the impression prevailed that the result of the meeting +was to define and recognize formally the subservient relations of +Austria-Hungary toward the German Empire. The State Department at +Washington made public a report based upon indications given by the +Berlin newspapers that the agreement made at the meeting concerned three +points: + + 1. The duration of the alliance was fixed for twenty-five years. + + 2. Germany and Austria-Hungary are to sign a military convention + imposing upon each much stricter military obligations than did the + preceding treaty. + + 3. The economic relations will be regulated so as to realize the + plan of Mitteleuropa. + +A solution of the Polish question was also arrived at, according to a +newspaper statement published in Berlin, on the lines of complete union +between Austria-Hungary and Poland. Another message said that the German +and Austrian Emperors had selected monarchs for Poland, Lithuania, +Courland, and Esthonia. It was officially stated that no actual treaty +was signed. + +One of the most interesting subsequent revelations was that King Ludwig +of Bavaria and King Frederick August of Saxony were also present at the +meeting at German Great Headquarters. Some of the reports represented +these two monarchs as having been present uninvited. + + +THE PRINCE SIXTUS LETTER + +Arthur J. Balfour, British Secretary of Foreign Affairs, replying to +inquiries in the House of Commons, May 16, stated that Emperor Karl's +peace letter to Prince Sixtus, which had been received while Mr. Balfour +was in America, was + + a private letter written by Emperor Charles to a relative (Prince + Sixtus of Bourbon) and conveyed by him to President Poincaré and the + French Premier under seal of the strictest secrecy, but with no + permission to communicate it to any one except the Sovereign and + Premier of this country, [Great Britain.] The letter was + communicated to the French and English Premiers under these pledges. + +He stated that he had no secrets from President Wilson, and added: +"Every thought I have on the war or on the diplomacy connected with the +war is as open to President Wilson as to any other human being." He +declared that he regarded the Sixtus letter as not a peace effort, but a +manoeuvre to divide the Allies. He declared that they were not fighting +for "a bigger Alsace-Lorraine than in 1870," and added: + + If any representative of any belligerent country desires seriously + to lay before us any proposals we are ready to listen to them. + + +Lord Robert Cecil, Minister of Blockade, in the same debate, after +indorsing the preceding statement of Mr. Balfour, added this reference +to Russia: + + We have no quarrel with Russia at all. On the contrary, with the + Russian people we have always desired to be on the closest possible + terms of friendship. We are anxious to do all we can to support and + assist the Russian people to preserve Russia as a great country, not + only now, but in the period after the war. + +Lord Robert denied that Great Britain had any quarrel with the +Bolsheviki over their domestic policy, saying: + + That is a matter for Russia, and Russia alone; we have no other + desire than to see Russia great, powerful, and non-German. + + +ATTACKS ON HOSPITAL SHIPS + +The British Admiralty issued an official announcement on May 1, stating +that it was considered proved conclusively that the British hospital +ship Guildford Castle was attacked by a German submarine in the Bristol +Channel, March 10, and narrowly escaped destruction. At the time the +Guilford Castle was carrying 438 wounded soldiers and flying a Red +Cross flag of the largest size with distinguishing marks distinctly +illuminated. The attack occurred at 5:35 P. M., in clear weather. Two +torpedoes were fired. In evidence of attacks on hospital ships the +British Admiralty quotes the following extracts from the German official +message, sent through the German wireless stations on April 24, 1918: + + With respect to the results of the submarine war for the month of + march, the Deutsche Tageszeitung says: "Lloyd George and Geddes + falsify the losses of ships plying in the military service (? + ignoring) so-called naval losses, auxiliary cruisers, guard ships, + _hospital ships_, and very probably also troop transports and + munition steamers, that is to say, precisely that shipping space + _which is particularly exposed to and attacked by the U-boats_. + + +TWO MORE LATIN-AMERICAN REPUBLICS ALIGNED AGAINST GERMANY + +On April 22, 1918, the National Assembly of Guatemala declared that that +republic occupied the same position toward the European belligerents as +did the United States. Guatemala had broken off diplomatic relations +with Germany in April, 1917. On May 7 Nicaragua declared war against +Germany and her allies. The declaration was in the form of a +recommendation of President Chamorro, which the Nicaraguan Congress +adopted with only four dissenting votes. A further declaration was +adopted of solidarity with the United States and the other American +republics at war with Germany and Austria-Hungary. Nicaragua was the +twentieth nation to declare war against Germany. Uruguay remains a +neutral at this writing. On April 12 the Government asked Berlin, +through Switzerland, whether Germany considered that a state of war +existed with Uruguay, as stated by the commander of a submarine who had +captured a Uruguayan military commission bound for France. The German +Government replied on May 16 that it did not consider that a state of +war existed. Chile refused to ask free passage of Spain for a commission +of Chileans who sought to reach Germany, thereby indicating partiality +to the Germans. Argentina in the President's message, delivered May 18, +1918, reaffirmed its neutrality. + + +FRANCE'S SECOND TREASON TRIAL. + +Duval, who was director of the suppressed Germanophile newspaper, Bonnet +Rouge, was condemned to death May 15 by court-martial for treason, and +six other defendants were sentenced to imprisonment: Marion, assistant +manager, for ten years; Landau, a reporter, eight years; Goldsky, a +reporter, eight years; Joucla, a reporter, five years; Vercasson, two +years and $1,000 fine; Leymarie, former director of the Ministry of the +Interior, two years' imprisonment and $200 fine. + +The Bonnet Rouge was an evening paper of decided pacifist tendency, +which lost no occasion of belittling the military and political leaders +and policy, not only of France, but also of England. The attention of +the Government was drawn to it early in 1917, and its editor, Almeyreda, +and its manager, Duval, were under lock and key by August, 1917. + +The police investigations showed that the Bonnet Rouge was to a great +extent dependent for its capital upon men whose ardor in the allied +cause had not been notable, and revealed the astonishing fact that M. +Malvy, as Minister of the Interior, had thought fit to subsidize the +paper to the extent of $1,200 a month and to encourage it in other ways. +It also became known to the public that Almeyreda before the war had +been in the closest contact with M. Caillaux and that he had received +from that politician, at the moment when Mme. Caillaux was being tried +for the murder of M. Calmette, the editor of the Figaro, the sum of +$8,000. + +Duval, whose journeys to Switzerland had aroused the misgivings of the +Government, was detained at the French frontier station, searched, and +found to be in possession of a check for $32,800 drawn to the order of a +Mannheim banking firm, the business relations of which will appear in +subsequent trials. This check was photographed and was handed back to +Duval by some one of the French military or civil secret service +officials. + +Almeyreda had hardly reached prison when he fell seriously ill and was +removed to the infirmary prison at Fresnes. There he died. The official +doctors first of all declared that he had been strangled, and then gave +it as their opinion that he had committed suicide. + +Louis J. Malvy, who was at the time Under Secretary of the Interior, and +was Minister of the Interior under Ribot, will be tried by a +parliamentary court on the charge of having been in personal relations +with Duval and of having delivered to the Germans the scheme of the +abruptly ended French offensive in the Champagne in April, 1917. + + +THE CITY OF AMIENS. + +Amiens, the old capital city of Picardy, goes far back into the military +history of Europe. Probably deriving its name from the Belgic tribe of +Ambiani, it was the centre of Julius Caesar's campaigns against those +warlike tribes. Several Roman Emperors had military headquarters there, +and it early gained importance as a bishopric. Evrard de Fouilloy, the +forty-fifth Bishop, began the great Gothic cathedral of Amiens, one of +the finest in the world, in the year 1220, the plans being made by René +de Luzarches, while the work was completed by Thomas de Cormont and his +son Renault in the year 1288, though the two great towers were not +finished until a century later. Because it is intersected by eleven +canals Louis XI. called Amiens "the little Venice." + +Only second to the great cathedral in fame is the Hôtel de Ville, built +between 1660 and 1760, in which, on May 25, 1802, was signed the famous +treaty of Amiens, Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte, being +plenipotentiary for France. The parties to the Peace of Amiens were +France, England, Holland, and Spain. To Holland were restored the Cape +of Good Hope, Guiana, and other colonies; France received Martinique and +Guadeloupe; Spain received Minorca; Malta went to the Knights of Saint +John of Jerusalem, while Egypt was restored to Turkey. England was +secured in the control of India, and received Ceylon, (which had been +first Portuguese and later Dutch,) and the island of Trinidad. But many +of these dispositions were greatly modified thirteen years later, at the +close of the Napoleonic wars. + +In Amiens there is a famous Napoleonic Museum, which has many fine +paintings by Puvis de Chavannes, including "War," "Peace," "Work," and +"Rest." When, on Nov. 28, 1876, Amiens was captured by the army of the +Prussians all religious monuments, including the cathedral, were +scrupulously guarded against any possible damage, and the rights of +private property were respected. Another of the titles of Amiens to fame +is the fact that Peter the Hermit, leader of the First Crusade, was born +there in 1050. + + +THE RUMANIAN NATION + +Of the Emperor Hadrian's colony of Roman veterans at the mouth of the +Danube there remain many architectural monuments, including parts of two +fine bridges across the great river, a language largely Latin in +substance, and the name Romania. The Roman colony spread through the +Carpathians along the Roman road into Transylvania. It was in part +submerged by Hun and Magyar waves of invasion, and the western part of +the Rumanian people, west of the Carpathians, is still under Magyar +rule, while a small number of Rumanians inhabit the Austrian crownland +of Bukowina, once Rumanian soil. The Turks, following in the track of +the Huns and Magyars, once more swept over Rumania and on toward Vienna +and Russia, completely submerging the Balkan Peninsula, with the +exception of the Black Mountain, Montenegro, held by Serbs. + +In the nineteenth century the Balkan nations began to extricate +themselves: Greece, with the aid of France, England, and Russia; Serbia, +with the aid of Russia; and the two principalities of Wallachia and +Moldavia, which were later to become Rumania. In the wars of Catherine +the Great and Suvoroff, which Byron has embodied in his comedy epic, +making Don Juan take part in the siege of Ismail, Russia took from +Turkey the Province of Bessarabia, named from an old Rumanian princely +house and largely populated by Rumanians. + +The western half of Bessarabia was taken back from Russia and restored +to Turkey after the Crimean War, immediately after which, in 1861, the +two principalities were united in the single principality of Rumania, +under Colonel Cuza, a Rumanian, as Hospodar, or Lord, Turkish suzerainty +being acknowledged. In this way the strip of Bessarabia which had been +Russian for half a century became not Turkish, but Rumanian. When Russia +declared war against Turkey in 1877 she announced to Rumania that she +sought the restoration of her strip of Bessarabian land; and, knowing +this, Rumania became Russia's ally in the war against Turkey, with +Prince Carol as commander of her forces, he being of the Roman Catholic +branch of the Hohenzollerns. In 1881 he took the title of King, to which +his nephew Ferdinand succeeded in 1914. + + +THE HETMAN OF THE UKRAINE + +Writing in 1818, Byron described Mazeppa as "the Ukraine Hetman, calm +and bold," and it is to the period of Mazeppa and even earlier that this +title and office goes back. The word Hetman is of uncertain origin, but +is probably derived from the Bohemian Heitman, a modification of +Hauptmann or Headman. When the Ukraine, the "borderland," was under +Polish suzerainty, in the period from 1592 to 1654, the epoch of "Fire +and Sword," "Pan Michael," and "The Deluge," the Hetman of the +Cossacks, (a Tartar word, kazak, meaning warrior,) was a +semi-independent viceroy. + +After the acceptance of Russian suzerainty by the Ukraine under the +great Hetman, Khmelnitski, in 1654, the title and authority of the +Hetman were at first continued, but his power and privileges were +gradually curtailed and finally abolished. It is not certain whether the +word Ataman is a modification of Hetman or a Tartar title; at any rate, +we find the title, "Ataman of all the Cossacks," coming into use as an +appanage of the Czarevitch, or heir apparent of Russia, somewhat as the +title of Prince of Wales is an appanage of the heir apparent of England. +The Czarevitch was represented by Hetmans by delegation, for each +division of the Cossacks, these divisions being military colonies +westward as far as the Caspian, like that described by Tolstoy in his +novel, "The Cossacks." + +Writing in 1799, W. Tooke, in his "View of the Russian Empire," +described the insignia of the Hetman as being the truncheon, the +national standard, the horsetail, kettledrums and signet, a group of +emblems strongly suggesting Tartar influence; the dress of the Cossacks +was, likewise, borrowed from that of the Caucasus Mohammedan tribes, and +in this Caucasian dress the new Hetman of the Ukraine, Skoropadski, took +office at Kiev. His name indicates that he is not a Ruthenian, (Little +Russian,) but a Pole. It has been a consistent element of Austrian +policy to favor the Poles at the expense of the Ruthenians, with the +result that many Poles are strongly pro-Austrian, and hold high office +under the Austrian crown. + + +PRECEDENTS FOR A SEPARATE ULSTER. + +When the Dominion of Canada was formed by the British North America act +of 1867, it included only four provinces, Upper and Lower Canada, +(Ontario and Quebec,) Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Provision was made +in the act for the voluntary admission of Prince Edward's Island, the +Northwest Territories and Newfoundland into the Dominion. While the +Northwest Territories took advantage of this provision, and are now +organized as the Provinces of Manitoba, British Columbia, Alberta, +Saskatchewan, Yukon and the Northwest Territories, Newfoundland, with +Labrador, the latter 120,000 square miles in area, preferred to remain +outside the Dominion of Canada, and has a wholly distinct Constitution +and administration, as independent of Canada as is that, for example, of +British Guiana. Compulsion was never suggested to bring Newfoundland and +Labrador within the Dominion of Canada, though Labrador is +geographically a part of the Canadian mainland. + +In Australia likewise the union of the colonies was entirely voluntary. +Five of these, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, +and Tasmania, by legislative enactments, approved by the direct vote of +the electors, declared their desire for a federal union, and the +Imperial Parliament gave effect to this by the act of July 9, 1900. This +act provided for the inclusion of Western Australia in the Australian +Commonwealth, if that colony so desired; and Western Australia shortly +expressed and carried out that desire. + +The population of Ulster in 1911 was 1,581,696, (that of Belfast being +386,947;) the population of Newfoundland with Labrador in 1914 was +251,726; the population of Western Australia when it exercised the +option of inclusion in the Commonwealth of Australia was 184,114; it has +since nearly doubled. A similar case of separate treatment, this time +within the United States, is that of West Virginia, which, in 1862, +determined to remain within the Union when the rest of Virginia seceded. +West Virginia became a State on Dec. 31, 1862, and was not re-integrated +in the Old Dominion at the close of the civil war. + + +COURT-MARTIAL IN ITALY. + +Four principal Directors of the Genoese Electrical Power Company, named +Königsheim, Ampt, Martelli, and Hess, early in April were sentenced to +death by court-martial at Milan by being "shot in the spine," and a +decoy girl was doomed to twenty years' imprisonment, while three +associates were relegated to the galleys for life. It was proved that +the condemned men received from Germany wireless messages, to be +forwarded to North and South America for the purposes of its underseas +campaign, and incriminating letters of their treasonable acts were +discovered. Ampt and his three co-Directors received a decoration from +the Imperial Government, but were so successful in deceiving the Italian +Government that they were subsequently decorated as Cavalieres of the +Crown of Italy. + + +AMERICAN TRADE PACT WITH NORWAY. + +The signing of a general commercial agreement between the United States +and Norway--the first agreement of the kind to be entered into by +America with one of the North European neutrals--was announced by the +War Trade Board on May 3, 1918. It was signed by Vance McCormick, +Chairman of the War Trade Board, and Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, the famous +explorer, who was sent to the United States at the head of a special +mission. + +Under the agreement Norway is assured of supplies to cover her estimated +needs so far as they can be furnished without detriment to the war needs +of the United States and its allies, and Norway, on her part, agrees to +permit the exportation to America and its allies of all Norwegian +products not needed for home consumption. It is provided that none of +the supplies imported from the United States or its allies or forwarded +with the aid of American bunker coal shall go directly or indirectly to +the Central Powers or be used to replace commodities exported to those +countries. This applies to anything produced by any auxiliaries to +production obtained under the agreement. In consequence of the agreement +the War Trade Board announced on May 9 that exports to Norway were about +to be resumed. + +Another result of the improved relations between the two countries was +the chartering by the United States Shipping Board of 400,000 tons of +Norwegian sailing ships, to be put in non-hazardous trades, thereby +releasing other ships for traffic in the danger zones. This was one of +the most substantial increases which the American-controlled merchant +fleet has received since its inception. + + +BRITISH SHIPPING LOSSES + +In the May issue of the Fortnightly Review of London appears the +following analysis of the gains and losses of the British merchant navy +since the outbreak of the war: + + 1914 (August to December.) + + Tons. Tons. + + Built 675,010? Total losses 468,728 + + Captured from + enemy 753,500 Total gains 1,429,110 + --------- --------- + Total gains. 1,429,110 Balance +960,382 + + 1915. + + Built 650,919 Total losses 1,103,379 + + Captured from Total gains 662,419 + enemy 11,500 --------- + ------- Balance in + Total gains. 662,419 1915 -440,000 + + Brought down + from 1914 +960,382 + --------- + Balance at + end of 1915 +519,422 + + 1916. + + Built 541,552 Total losses 1,497,848 + + Captured from Total gains 545,052 + enemy 3,500 --------- + ------- Balance in + Total gains. 545,052 1916 -952,796 + + Brought down + from 1915 +519,422 + --------- + Balance at + end of 1916 -433,374 + + 1917. + + Built 1,163,474 Total losses 4,000,537 + + Captured from Total gains 1,174,974 + enemy 11,500 --------- + + --------- Balance in + Total gains 1,174,974 1917 -2,834,563 + + Brought down + from 1916 -433,374 + --------- + Balance at + end of 1917 -3,267,937 + +During the first three months of 1918 the net losses were 367,296 tons; +320,280 tons were built and 687,576 were lost, bringing the adverse +balance on April 1, 1918, to 3,635,233 tons. + + +GREAT BRITAIN'S WAR EXPENSES + +The British Government has issued a White Paper estimating the cost of +the war for Great Britain in the year ending March 31, 1919, at +$12,750,000,000, of which $9,305,000,000 is allocated to navy, army, air +service, munition and ordnance factories, $205,000,000 to pensions, +$750,000 to National War Aims Committee; services not specified, +(presumed to include shipping,) $500,000,000; Treasury loans, +$1,750,000,000; Board of Trade, $265,000,000; wheat supplies, +$230,000,000, of which $200,000,000 is the estimated loss on the sale of +the 18-cent loaf of bread. Subsidies toward the sale of potatoes are +estimated at $25,000,000; purchases of wool and other raw materials are +put at $40,000,000, payment to railways at $175,000,000, and $25,000,000 +for timber. + + +HATRED BETWEEN ITALIANS AND AUSTRIANS + +THE implacable hatred which has developed between Italians and Austrians +is illustrated by the following Italian _communiqué_, issued in Rome on +Feb. 11, in reply to the Austrian Supreme Command's denial that the +Austro-Germans were first to bombard cities from airplanes. It points +out that the Austro-Germans first bombarded Udine, Treviso, Padua, +Verona, Venice, Ravenna, &c., massacring defenseless and innocent +populations and ruining valuable art treasures, and adds: + + The Italians went to Trieste not to bombard citizens and private + houses, but the hydroplane stations in which are sheltered the + assassins of Venice, and the two vessels of the Monarch type which + were kept by the Imperial and Royal Navy behind the dyke, in the + hope that the Italian elements of the city would help to protect + them and afterward enable them to set out on some heroic enterprise + against the defenseless localities on the Adriatic Coast. + Immediately the hydroplanes, yielding to the indignation of the + whole world, ceased bombarding Venice, and immediately the two + vessels of the Monarch type were removed from Trieste, our aerial + raids ceased, since an understanding was proposed. + + We wage war against the enemy's armed forces, and not against women, + children, monuments, and hospitals. In spite of the most solemn + denial issued by the Austrians of the acts which, after the first + bombardments of Padua, Treviso, and Vicenza at the end of December + and the beginning of January, they declared to be a question of + reprisals for bombardments, carried out by Franco-British aviators + on + + German towns, the Germans, in substance, gave to be understood what + the Austrians hypocritically wished to hide, that is, that the + pretext of reprisals enabled them to persevere with their nameless + atrocities, which had been imposed upon them by some of their + leaders having yielded to the impulses of a criminal mentality. Thus + it happened that the Austrian Catholic command, bowing to the orders + of the German Lutheran pastors, bombarded Catholic churches in the + Italian cities. And so we see the Austro-Hungarian Government--so + solicitous for peace and love between nations--sowing hatred which + nothing can quench. + + +THE ORIGIN OF THE IRISH + +Perhaps some light may be shed on the internal divisions which make the +solution of the Irish question so nearly impossible by a realization of +the fact that the population of Ireland consists of an unassimilated +congeries of races, every element of which except one represents foreign +invasion and conquest. + +The earliest race, short, round-headed, dark, appears to be akin to the +Ligurian race of the Mediterranean; this race hunted the huge Irish elks +with flint arrows and axes, and may claim to be the real indigenous +stock, still surviving in the west. The second race, tall, dark, +long-headed, was akin to the Iberians (Basques) of Spain, who also +invaded Western France, and who probably built the cromlechs and stone +circles, since these are also found in Iberian Spain and Western France, +as at Carnac in Brittany. The third race, tall, golden-haired, +blue-eyed, came from the Baltic, bringing amber beads, and building +chambered pyramids, such as are also found in Denmark. The fourth race +to arrive included the Gaels, tall, round-headed, with red hair and gray +eyes; they came from Central Europe, probably by way of France. + +Each new arrival was followed by wars of conquest, the Gaels finally +making themselves predominant, but not exterminating the older +races, examples of whom may still be found, with unchanged race +characteristics. In 1169 Norman French and Welsh came, as mercenaries in +the army of the King of Leinster. The Burkes are descended from the +Normans, the Fitzgeralds from the Welsh. + + + + +Battles in Picardy and Flanders + + +Military Review of All Fronts from April 17 to May 18, 1918. + + +In order to obtain a view of the situation of the German offensive on +April 17, which forms a background for the events to be related in this +review, it is necessary to point out a few controlling facts and +conditions--some long obvious, some recently revealed. + +Ludendorff's major plan, based on the assumed shortness of vision on the +part of the Allies, to separate the British from the French and, by +isolating the former in the north and driving the latter toward their +bases in the south, thereby reach the mouth of the Somme, had failed. It +had failed, just as did the plan of Napoleon at Charleroi in 1815 to +separate the English from the Prussians. It failed because the military +genius of the British General Carey and the French General Fayolle on +two separate occasions had closed up gaps in the line of the Allies, and +because the vast masses of German troops were incapable, on account of +their demoralization, of making the fractures permanent. + +It is now evident that the demoralization of General Gough's 5th Army, +which began on March 23, not only threatened his junction with Byng's 3d +Army, by forming an eight-mile gap between the two--into which, as has +already been related, Carey moved his hastily gathered nondescript +detachment--but as the 5th Army retreated another gap, gradually +lengthening to nearly thirty miles, was opened between its right wing +and the 6th French Army. Here General Fayolle, who had just appeared on +the field from Italy, did with organized divisions what Carey had done +with his scratch volunteers further north. + +From statements made before the Reichstag Main Committee, but more +especially from letters and diaries found on captured German officers, +it appears that both Carey and Fayolle stopped an armed mob, utterly +incapable of taking advantage of the situation it had created as a +disciplined force. Regiments thrown together, officers separated from +their commands, detachments without control, all due to the impetuous +rush forward, could not recover in time to prevent Carey and Fayolle +from completing their work. + +[Illustration: DIAGRAM SHOWING 8-MILE GAP, MARCH 23, WHICH WAS FILLED BY +CAREY'S "SCRATCH DIVISION," WHO HELD THE BREACH FOR SIX DAYS] + +But Ludendorff's major plan, having failed in the first month of his +offensive, could not be repeated in the second. Since April 30 there has +been no French, British, Belgian, Portuguese, or American front in +Flanders or Picardy--only the front of the Allies, with the troops of +their several nations used wherever needed by the supreme commander, +Foch. + +During the first month of the offensive two angles had been developed by +Ludendorff: The first, the great one, in the south, from a base of sixty +miles with a forty-mile perpendicular and its vertex near the Somme; the +second in the north, from a base of twenty miles with a fifteen-mile +perpendicular and its vertex on the edge of the Forest of Nieppe. +Between these two angles the original front of Lens, from Bailleul north +to Givenchy, still held, fifteen miles in length. There had been +voluntary or forced changes made by the Allies east of Ypres and east of +Arras. + +[Illustration: DIAGRAM OF CRITICAL SITUATION, MARCH 24, 1918, WHERE +GENERAL FAYOLLE SAVED THE DAY BY THROWING HIS DIVISIONS INTO THE +THIRTY-MILE GAP LEFT BY RETIREMENT OF BRITISH 5TH ARMY] + +The corollary in Flanders, unless it could be demonstrated, would be +as great a failure as the main proposition in Picardy. And the still +possible successful issue of the latter depended absolutely, as we shall +see, on a complete demonstration of the former. Both have been so far +handicapped by the augmenting mobility of the Allies, their growing +numbers, their centralized command, and their successful insistence to +control the air. + +Such was the situation in Flanders and Picardy which confronted +Ludendorff at the dawn of the second month of the German offensive. The +whole problem to be solved was just as apparent to the Allies as it was +to him--to gain the barriers which threatened his angles of penetration, +in order again to utilize his preponderant forces of men and guns on a +broad front. To attempt to extend the vertices without broadening the +sides would mean to court danger, even destruction, at their weakest +points. + +His frontal attacks upon Ypres and Arras, respectively from the +Passchendaele Ridge and against the Vimy Ridge, having failed, it became +necessary to attempt to flank the Allies by the occupation of their +defensive ridges. This explains his successful assaults upon Mont +Kemmel, 325 feet high, and his desire to envelop Mont Rouge, 423 feet +high, and his persistent attacks along the La Bassée Canal against the +heights of Béthune, 141 feet, all preceded by diversions between the +Somme and Avre, with concentrations at Villers-Bretonneux, Hangard, and +elsewhere. + +[Illustration: PERSPECTIVE MAP SHOWING LOCATION OF OPPOSING FORCES IN +PICARDY AND FLANDERS. THE BLACK ARROW LINE ON THE RIGHT SHOULD NOT BE +MISTAKEN FOR THE OLD BATTLELINE, WHICH IS NOT INDICATED AT ALL. GENERAL +SIXT VON ARNIM'S FORCE, EAST OF YPRES, WAS INADVERTENTLY OMITTED] + +On April 18 the French made a feint on both banks of the Avre River +south of Hangard, drove in a mile, and picked up some prisoners; +simultaneously the Germans, with a force of 137,000, made a heavy +assault upon the allied front lying across the La Bassée Canal, with a +diversion on the Lys River near St. Venant. Before the day was done +they had switched their attack to the Kemmel sector. In all three places +the Germans suffered repulse, with the loss of a few hundred prisoners. +Four days later the British advanced their lines on the Lys, just as the +French had on the Avre. Then on the 24th came the great enemy diversion +at Villers-Bretonneux, nine miles southeast of Amiens. Here the Germans +used tanks for the first time. The village, lost to the British on the +first day, was recovered on the second, when just to the south the +French and American troops were hotly contesting with the Germans the +possession of Hangard. The sharp salient at this place made it difficult +for the Allies to hold, while its retention, except as a site from which +losses could be inflicted on the Germans, was unnecessary. Consequently +it was evacuated, after the attacking detachment of the Prussian Guards +had been annihilated. + +[Illustration: SCENE OF THE MONTH'S HEAVIEST FIGHTING IN FLANDERS, +ESPECIALLY ABOUT MOUNT KEMMEL] + + +BATTLE FOR MONT KEMMEL + +Meanwhile the Germans had been preparing for a decisive assault against +Mont Kemmel with ever-augmenting artillery fire and with the +concentration of vast numbers of troops on the sidings of the railroad +between the villages of Messines and Wytschaete. These troops numbered +nine divisions, or about 120,000 men. From the 24th till the 27th they +incessantly swung around Mont Kemmel in massed front and flank attacks, +until the French and British were forced to give up the height, together +with the village of the same name and the village of Dranoutre, retiring +on La Clytte and Scherpenberg. + +The occupation of Mont Kemmel, however, did not, as Ludendorff had +anticipated, force the British out of the Ypres salient, for their +voluntary retirement from part of the Passchendaele Ridge on April 17-19 +had strengthened the salient, which could hold as long as the line of +hills west of Kemmel held--Mont Rouge, Mont Diviagne, Mont des Cats, &c. + +The Berlin publicity bureau advertised the fact that a direct thrust at +Ypres had brought the Germans to within three miles of the town--an +achievement of no particular military value--while it quite ignored the +capture of Mont Kemmel, for the simple reason that its value was now +discovered to repose in their ability to carry their occupation +throughout the entire range. + +[Illustration: REGION OF HANGARD AND VILLERS-BRETONNEUX, WHERE GERMANS +USED TANKS FOR THE FIRST TIME] + +This they have since been vainly, except for local advances, trying to +do, often employing great forces of men in mass for two or three days at +a time--striving vainly to broaden the salient in three places: between +Dickebusch and Voormezeele, due south from Ypres; by an envelopment of +Mont Rouge to the southwest; on the south by an advance in the direction +of Béthune. + + +VON ARNIM'S EFFORTS + +In the northern part of the salient the attacks reached their climax on +Monday, April 29, when General Sixt von Arnim's army was hurled in wave +after wave between Voormezeele and Scherpenberg and on the latter and +Mont Rouge, only to end in a repulse, which, on account of the number of +men believed to have been lost by the enemy, may be considered a +disastrous defeat. All this time a heavy bombardment had been going on +in the Béthune region in preparation for an infantry attack there; yet +on account of the defeat further north, it could not be delivered. + +Henceforth, until May 16, von Arnim was obviously placed on the +defensive, whereas the Allies were locally on the offensive, either +recovering lost strategic points or consolidating their lines. On May 5, +between Locre and Dranoutre, the Franco-British forces advanced on a +1,000-yard front to the depth of 500 yards. On the 8th the Germans made +a half-hearted attack on the sector south of Dickebusch Lake and +entered British trenches, only to be repulsed with heavy loss. A similar +attack the next day between La Clytte and Voormezeele not only met with +a similar repulse, but was followed up by a strong British counterattack +which won considerable ground. On the 12th the French captured Hill 44 +on the north flank of Kemmel, between La Clytte and Vierstraat. + +On May 13 renewed enemy artillery activity on the lines back of Béthune +seemed to presage that an infantry attack was intended there. Nothing of +this nature ensued, however. On the 15th the Germans made a sudden +attack against Hill 44 but were hurled back by the French. On the +16th-17th they maintained a concentrated fire north of Kemmel. + + +GERMAN ATTACKS ON THE LYS + +All these operations on the German northern salient, which is gradually +coming to be called the Lys salient, have shown no indication of being +intended to pave the way for a renewal of the general offensive in +Flanders. Their success might, and probably would, have forced the +evacuation of Ypres and affected the Picardy salient with its vertex +near Amiens, forcing the evacuation of Arras. But, as we have seen, the +operations on the Lys salient, meeting with an overwhelming obstruction +on April 29, did not achieve these results. Throughout the next three +weeks the manoeuvres of the enemy in Picardy afforded excellent +opportunities for counterattacks on the part of the Allies, whose object +here has been to punish the enemy as much as possible and to consolidate +every strategic position on a broad front in anticipation of a renewal +of Germany's original scheme to isolate the allied armies north of the +Somme by a dash to the mouth of that river via Amiens. + +In these circumstances, the enemy on April 30 launched heavy attacks on +the French lines in the region of Hangard and Noyon. These fell down, +and on May 2 the French made distinct gains in Hangard Wood and near +Mailly-Raineval. The next day the French advanced their lines between +Hailles and Castel, south of the Avre, and captured Hill 82. On the 6th +the British advanced their lines between the Somme and the Ancre, +southwest of Morlancourt, and in the neighborhood of Locon and the Lawe +River, taking prisoners in both places. On the 11th skirmishes southwest +of Mailly-Raineval, between Hangard and Montdidier, developed into a +pitched battle, in which the French at first lost ground and then +recovered it. On May 14 the Germans, after an intense local bombardment, +delivered a spirited attack on a mile front of the British southwest of +Morlancourt, gaining a footing in their first trenches. Instantly some +Australian troops counterattacked and completely re-established the +British positions. On the 16th and 17th the enemy showed impressive and +portentous artillery activity along the Avre and at Rollott, on the +Abbéville road, south of Montdidier, similar in character to that +observed north of Kemmel, on the Lys salient. + +There are now believed to be over half a million American rifles on the +western front, either at definite places or available as reserves. On +April 20 a battalion of Germans made a raid on our eight-mile sector +south of the Woeuvre, and succeeded in reaching the front-line trenches +and taking the village of Seicheprey. Our losses were between 200 and +300; 300 German dead were counted. A detachment of our army, principally +artillery, holds a sector of five miles with the French infantry east of +Montdidier, on the Picardy front, protecting the Beauvais-Amiens road. +Here their fire is principally employed in breaking up German +concentrations and transport in and around Montdidier. + + +THE ZEEBRUGGE RAID + +The German submarine bases at Zeebrugge and Ostend on the Belgian coast +have been repeatedly bombed from the sea and shelled by British monitors +with indifferent results. With the adding of super-U-boats to the German +submarine fleet and the increased transatlantic traffic of the Allies +the necessity for effectually sealing these bases has long been +apparent. Theoretically the nature of the entrance to the harbors of +both places, resembling the neck of a bottle, about 250 feet wide, made +such a task easy by the sinking of block ships. Practically it was most +difficult, on account of both sea obstructions and the shore batteries. + +On the night of April 22-23 British naval forces, commanded by Vice +Admiral Keyes, with the co-operation of French destroyers, and hidden by +a newly devised smoke-screen, invented and here employed by +Wing-Commander Brock, attempted to seal up the harbors. At Zeebrugge the +enterprise was entirely successful. The Intrepid and Iphigenia were sunk +well within and across the narrow channel, the Thetis at the entrance. +All three were loaded with cement, which became solid concrete after +contact with the water and can be removed only by submarine blasting. A +detachment of troops was also landed on the mole from the Vindictive and +engaged the crews of the German machine gun batteries stationed there. +An old submarine was placed under the bridge of the mole and detonated. +A German destroyer and some small craft were sunk. Before the blockships +were placed a torpedo had been driven against the lock gates which lead +from the channel into the inner harbors. The expedition retired with the +loss of fifty officers and 538 men, of whom sixteen officers and 144 men +had been killed. + +At Ostend, the entrance to whose harbor is protected by no mole, the +block ships Sirius and Brilliant were not effectively placed. Against +this port the experiment was, therefore, repeated on the night of May +9-10. The Vindictive, with a cargo of concrete, was planted and sunk at +the entrance to the channel, but not entirely blocking it. + + +ITALIAN RAID AT POLA + +Another naval exploit of the month worthy of record was the sinking in +the Austrian Harbor of Pola of a dreadnought of the Viribus Unitis class +(20,000 tons) by Italian naval forces, in the morning of May 15. The +achievement was similar to that performed by the President of the +Anaconda Copper Company, who has been appointed Director of Aircraft +Production for the United States Army] Italians on the night of Dec. +9-10, when a destroyer sawed her way through the steel net protecting +the Harbor of Trieste and torpedoed the predreadnoughts Wien and +Monarch, (5,000 tons each,) sinking the former. The Harbor of Pola, +however, is much more difficult to penetrate. It is three miles deep and +entered by a two-mile channel, at certain places less than half a mile +wide, and protected along its entire course by strong defenses. A mole +covers its mouth, making the channel here less than 1,000 yards wide. +Forts Cristo and Musil guard the entrance. + +[Illustration: CHARLES M. SCHWAB + +Head of the Bethlehem Steel Works, who has been appointed Director +General of the Emergency Fleet Corporation to carry out the Government's +shipbuilding program + +(© _Harris & Ewing_)] + +[Illustration: JOHN D. RYAN + +TEUTONIZING THE BLACK SEA] + +Save for the reports which have come to hand denoting the steady +progress of the British forces in Palestine and Mesopotamia, little of +importance has occurred in the Near East. Still the Teutonizing of the +Black Sea goes steadily on. On May 2 it was announced that a German +force had occupied the great Russian fortress of Sebastopol, famous for +its protracted siege by the British and French in 1855, and until then +considered impregnable. On May 12 part of the Russian Black Sea fleet +was taken possession of by the Germans at that place, while the +remainder escaped to Novorossysk. Among the captured vessels only the +battleship Volga and the protected cruiser Pamiat Merkuria were in +serviceable condition. At Odessa a new dreadnought and two protected +cruisers had already been seized by the Germans as they lay in their +slips. + +In Macedonia the huge allied forces under the French General, +Guillaumat, are still waiting on events. The Greek Army is still in +process of reconstruction under the Venizelos Administration. The month, +however, has not been barren of engagements on this battleline. On April +28 the Serbians beat back attempts of the Bulgars to capture fortified +positions in the Vetrenik region; the French and British did the same in +regard to German attacks aimed at points west of Makovo and south of +Lake Doiran. So it has been all the month, the monotony only varied on +April 27, when there was intense artillery fire by the allied guns in +the neighborhood of Monastir, on the Cerna, and, in the Vetrenik region, +a Serbian assault annihilated a Bulgar section. + + +[Illustration: MAP OF PALESTINE AND MESOPOTAMIA, WHERE TWO BRITISH +ARMIES ARE AIMING AT BAGDAD RAILWAY] + +IN THE NEAR EAST + +There has been no serious attempt on the part of the Turks during the +month to oppose the expansion of General Allenby's front beyond +Jerusalem or the triumphant march of General Marshall up the Euphrates +and the Tigris--on the latter river now sixty miles below Mosul, +Marshall's obvious objective. The objective of Allenby is Aleppo, where +there is said to be a single division of German troops in addition to +the Turks, who have been forced north from Jerusalem. Allenby and +Marshall are advancing along parallel lines with a desert space of about +400 miles between. The Turks and their ally still have possession of the +caravan trail and the partly built and entirely surveyed Bagdad Railway, +which intersect the prospective parallel paths of Allenby and Marshall, +whose lines of communication already reach hundreds of miles to the +rear. But while Allenby has a lateral sea communication with Syrian +ports, no such advantage is enjoyed by Marshall, who must get all his +supplies from the head of the Persian Gulf, 450 miles to the south. +Whatever be the force at the disposition of the enemy, it is evident +that he will continue to possess a predominating tactical and strategic +advantage until he has been decisively defeated at both Aleppo and Mosul +or a junction has been established between Allenby and Marshall, or +both. + +[Illustration: SCENE OF LATEST ITALIAN FIGHTING IN THE ALPS] + +The former's line, which is a sixty-mile front, extending from Arsuf el +Haram on the Mediterranean east to the Jordan, took Es-Salt with +thirty-three German and 317 Turkish prisoners on May 1--twenty miles +north of Jerusalem--which was first occupied by Allenby early in +December. + +Marshall's advance has been much more rapid. In the week of May 1 his +cavalry, in pursuit of the fleeing Turks, advanced twenty miles and +captured 1,000 prisoners. On May 7 he was 80 miles from Mosul; on May 10 +he was within 60 miles. Allenby is 300 miles from Aleppo and 110 miles +from Damascus. + + +ON THE ITALIAN FRONT + +Without any large movements of troops taking place, several things have +occurred since April 18 to invite attention to the Italian front, and +much speculation by military men has been indulged in as to whether the +resumption of the Teutonic offensive would be from the Piave or south +from the Astico-Piave line lying across the Sette Comuni and the Brenta, +or from the west of the Adige and the Lago di Garda, in an attempt to +reach Brescia and the metallurgic centre of Italy. + +And most of the things in question which have occurred have served to +restore and augment the confidence of the Italians in their position. A +new 2d Army has taken the place of the old, annihilated in the +Capporetto campaign. All the lost guns have been replaced and new +heavies added. Revolution is, at any moment, expected to break out in +Austria-Hungary, while the Congress of Jugoslavs in Rome on April 9-11 +has secured the adhesion to the Allies of the subjects of the Hapsburgs +and enabled the Italian Government to make use of them as a fighting +force. There are now believed to be no German divisions on the Italian +front, where the entire enemy strength, not measurably increased since +the snows have disappeared in the north, consists of 800 +Austro-Hungarian battalions, or less than 1,000,000 men. + +But what has promoted most satisfaction in the Italian Government and +people was the decree issued by the Interallied Supreme Council of War +at Abbéville on May 3, giving General Foch authority to include the +Italian front under his supreme command, that front thereby becoming the +right wing of the allied battle line in Europe--now "one army, one +front, and one supreme command." + +That is the way Bonaparte fought his victorious battles in the days of +the First Republic, alternately on the Rhine and the Adige. Moreau could +not win without Bonaparte, nor Bonaparte without Moreau, while Carnot, +in the centre, was the vehicle of transit. + +Before the snows made manoeuvres impossible the Italians had closed two +gates which threatened the plains of Veneto from the north--one at the +junction of the front with the Piave, one at the angle of the Frenzela +Torrent and the Brenta River. + +Gunfire had been steadily augmenting on the front when, on May 10, they +closed another, and on May 15 still another. The first of these was the +capture of Monte Corno, which commanded the part up the Vallarsa, the +second was a partial recovery of Monte Asolone, between the Brenta and +the Piave, sufficient to cover the path up the Val San Lorenzo. Both +mountains are really plateaus of about two square miles area each, whose +irregular summits the enemy had strongly fortified in order to clear the +valleys below. In both places subsequent Austrian counterattacks were +broken up. + +Meanwhile, Italian aircraft dominate from above. On May 14 the enemy +lost eleven airplanes with no losses to the Italians and the British, +who were assisting them. + + + + +Premier Lloyd George on German Autocracy + + +Premier Lloyd George wrote the following preface for a volume containing +extracts from speeches he delivered during the war: + + I have never believed that the war would be a short war, or that in + some mysterious way, by negotiation or compromise, we would free + Europe from the malignant military autocracy which is endeavoring to + trample it into submission and moral death. I have always believed + that the machine which has established its despotic control over the + minds and the bodies of its victims and then organized and driven + them to slaughter in order to extend that control over the rest of + the world, would only be destroyed if the free peoples proved + themselves strong and steadfast enough to defeat its attempt in + arms. The events of the last few weeks must have made it plain to + every thinking man that there is no longer room for compromise + between the ideals for which we and our enemies stood. Democracy and + autocracy have come to death grips. One or the other will fasten its + hold on mankind. It is a clear realization of this issue which will + be our strength in the trials to come. I have no doubt that freedom + will triumph. But whether it will triumph soon or late, after a + final supreme effort in the next few months or a long-drawn agony, + depends on the vigor and self-sacrifice with which the children of + liberty, and especially those behind the lines, dedicate themselves + to the struggle. There is no time for ease or delay or debate. The + call is imperative. The choice is clear. It is for each free citizen + to do his part. + + + + +The Greatest Battle of the War + +Second Month of the Desperate Fighting in Flanders and Picardy + + By Philip Gibbs + + _Special Correspondent With the British Armies_ [Copyrighted in United + States of America] + + +_The May issue of Current History Magazine contained Philip Gibbs's +story of the great German offensive up to April 18, 1918. At that time +the Germans were seeking to break the British lines in front of Ypres, +as part of their drive for Amiens and the British Channel ports, +generally known as the battle of Picardy. The pages here presented are a +continuation of his eyewitness narrative of the most sanguinary battle +in history._ + +April 18.--The arrival of French troops on our northern front is the +most important act that has happened during the last three or four days, +and it was with deep satisfaction that we met these troops on the roads +and knew that at last our poor, tired men would get support and help +against their overwhelming odds. + +Beside the khaki army of the British has grown very quickly an army in +blue, the cornflower blue of the French poilus. They are splendid men, +hard and solid fellows, who have been war-worn and weather-worn during +these three and a half years past, and look the great fighting men who +have gone many times into battle and know all that war can teach them in +endurance and cunning and quick attack. + +As they came marching up the roads to the front they were like a +streaming river of blue--blue helmets and coats and blue carts and blue +lorries, all blending into one tone through these April mists as they +went winding over the countryside and through French market towns, where +their own people waved to them, and then through the villages on the +edge of the Flanders battlefields, where they waited to go into action +under shell-broken walls or under hedges above which British shellfire +traveled, or in fields where they made their bivouacs, and fragrant +steams arose to one's nostrils as cuistots lifted the lids of stewpans +and hungry men gathered around after a long march. + +The attack this morning from Robecq, below St. Venant, down to Givenchy, +is a serious effort to gain La Bassée Canal and form a strong defensive +flank for the enemy while he proceeds with his battles further north and +also to get more elbow room from the salient in which he is narrowly +wedged below Merville. + +For this purpose he brought up several more divisions, including the +239th, which was in the Somme fighting of March, but not heavily +engaged. This one attacked the British at Robecq and was repulsed with +heavy losses. It was at a place called La Bacquerolles Farm, near +Robecq, where after heavy shelling last night the enemy rushed one of +the outposts at 10 o'clock. In order to facilitate the attack this +morning of German divisions north and south at 4 o'clock the German guns +began a heavy bombardment of the British lines as far down as Givenchy +and maintained it for five hours, using large numbers of gas shells, on +account of the east wind, which was in their favor. + +His guns shelled the bridges across the canal in the hope of preventing +the British supports going up. Then his troops came forward in waves on +a wide front. They were in immense numbers as usual, with many mixed +battalions. One of the British units today took prisoners from ten +different regiments. There were some ten German divisions facing four +British ones north of Béthune, and all along the line the troops were +much outnumbered; nevertheless, the enemy was repulsed at all but a few +points of attack and beaten back bloodily. + + +THE GHASTLY LOSSES + +In this battle one regiment of the 42d German Division has lost over 50 +per cent. of its strength, and other losses are on a similar scale. +These ghastly casualties have been piling up along this line between +Merville and Béthune since the 13th of this month, when the Germans made +a series of small attacks as a prelude to today's battle, owing, it +seems, to battalion officers taking the initiative without orders from +the High Command, in order to push forward and break the British lines +if they could find weakness there. + +On the 13th and 14th some of the South Country troops were attacked by +strong forces repeatedly, and on the second day for five hours at a +stretch the enemy endeavored to come across from houses and inclosures +west of Merville toward St. Venant. For those five hours the South +Country lads fired with rifles, Lewis guns, and machine guns into solid +bodies of Germans, and their field guns tore gaps in the enemy's +formations and broke up their assemblies before the attacks could +proceed. One advance in five waves was mown down before it could make +any progress, and others were dealt with in the same way. + +_Mr. Gibbs describes the German repulse between Robecq and Givenchy as a +"black day for the enemy," and continues:_ + +April 19.--At the end of the day all the enemy's efforts ended in bloody +failure, in spite of the daring and courage of his troops, who +sacrificed themselves under the British fire, but were only able to gain +a few bits of trench work and one or two outposts below the fortified +works at Givenchy, which are quite useless to them for immediate or +future use. + +It was a big attack, for which they had prepared in a formidable way. +After the shock of their repulse by the Lancashire men of the 55th +Division they increased their strength of heavy artillery by three times +bringing up large numbers of howitzers, including eleven-inch monsters. +They were massed in divisions in front of us and determined to smash +through in the wake of a tremendous bombardment. + + +BRITISH UNDER FIRE + +For five hours, as I said, this storm went on with high explosives and +gas, and the devoted British had to suffer this infernal thing, the +worst ordeal human beings may be called upon to bear, this standing to +while all the earth upheaved and the air was thick with shell splinters. + +But when the bombardment had passed and the German infantry came forward +the British received them with blasts of machine-gun fire, incessant +volleys of rifle fire, and a trench mortar bombardment that burst with +the deadliest effect among the attacking troops. + +This trench mortar barrage of the British was one of the most awful +means of slaughter yesterday, especially when the enemy tried to cross +La Bassée Canal further north, and in that sector the infantry and +gunner officers say more Germans were killed yesterday along the canal +bank than on any other day since the fighting in this neighborhood. One +battery of trench mortars did most deadly execution until their pits +were surrounded, and only two of their crews were able to escape. + +The machine gunners fought out in the open after some of their positions +had been wiped out by gunfire, caught the enemy waves at fifty yards' +range, and mowed them down; but the enemy was not checked for a long +time, despite his losses, and when one body fell another came up to fill +its place and press on into any gap that had been made by their +artillery or their own machine-gun sections. + +There was one such momentary gap between a body of the Black Watch, who +had been weakened by shellfire, and some of their comrades further +north, and into this the enemy tried to force a way. Other Scottish +troops were in reserve, and when it became clear that a portion of the +line was endangered by this turning movement they came forward with grim +intent, and by a fierce counterattack swept through the gap and flung +back the enemy, so that the position was restored. + +Further north some Gloucesters were fighting the enemy both ways, as +once before in history, when they fought back to back, thereby winning +the honor of wearing their cap badge back and front, which they do to +this day. The Germans had worked behind them as well as in front of +them, and they were in a tight corner, but did not yield, and finally, +after hard fighting, cleared the ground about them. + +Meanwhile further south some Lancashire troops on the canal lost some +parts of their front line under an intense bombardment, but still fought +on in the open, repulsing every effort to drive them back and smashing +the enemy out of their positions, so that only remnants of the German +outposts clung on until late last night, up to which time there was +savage strife on both sides. + + +FIGHTING FOR THE CANAL + +Extraordinary scenes took place on the canal bank when the enemy tried +to cross. In the twilight of early dawn a party came out of a wood and +tried to get across the water, but was seen by the British machine +gunners and shot down. + +Then another body of men advanced and carried with them a floating +bridge, but when those who were not hit reached the water's edge they +found the bridge as fixed did not reach to the other side. Some of them +walked on it, expecting perhaps to jump the gap, but were shot off, and +other men on the bank also were caught under British fire. + +A Corporal went down to the canal edge and flung hand grenades at the +Germans still struggling to fix the bridge, and then a Lieutenant and a +few men rushed down and pulled the bridge on to their side of the bank. + +Later this young officer saw one of the British pontoons drifting down +and swam to it and made it fast beyond the enemy's reach, but in a +position so that some of his men ran across and caught the enemy under +their fire on his side of the canal. + +At 7 o'clock yesterday morning, while a handkerchief was hoisted by the +enemy, three hundred of them made signs of surrender. Some of them +changed their minds at the last moment and ran away, but 150 gave +themselves up, and some of them swam the canal in order to reach our +side for this purpose. They were shivering in their wet clothes and in +the northeast wind, which lashed over the battle lines yesterday, and +they were very miserable men. + + +THE BELGIAN VICTORY + +_Mr. Gibbs declares that had the Germans been able to pass Givenchy or +cross the canal north of Béthune on the 18th and 19th the result would +have proved disastrous. He gives credit for the repulse to the British +and French combined lines. He thus describes the achievement of the +Belgians on April 17_: + +The Germans on the 17th pressed the attack in force against the +Belgians. Besides three regiments of the 1st Landwehr Division usually +holding this sector, between the Ypres-Staden railway and Kippe, they +brought up from Dixmude--poor Dixmude, into whose flaming ruins I went +when it was first bombarded in October, 1914--two regiments of the 6th +Bavarian Division, and from the coast the 5th Matrosen Regiment of the +2d Naval Division, with a regiment of the 58th Saxons. It was a heavy +force, and they hoped to surprise and annihilate the Belgian resistance +by their weight and quickness of attack. + +The Belgians were waiting for them, standing, too, in those swampy +fields which they have held against the enemy for three and a half +years, always shelled, always paying daily a toll of life and limb, not +getting much glory or recognition because of the great battles +elsewhere, but patient and enduring as when I knew them on the Yser in +the first dreadful Winter of the war, and their little regular army +fought to a finish. + +Even before the battle the German marines, Saxon troops, and Landwehr +suffered misery and lost many men. They lay out in the flat, wet fields +two nights previously, and were very cold, and scared by the Belgian +gunfire which burst among them. They had no great artillery behind them, +and the Saxons and German sailors now prisoners of the Belgians curse +bitterly because they were expected to get through easily in spite of +this. + + +Germans Cut Off + +The enemy's intention was to take Bixschoote and advance across the Yser +Canal, driving south to Poperinghe. What they did by their massed +attacks was to penetrate to a point near Hoekske, southeast of Merckem, +the main weight of their pressure being directed along the Bixschoote +road. The Belgians delivered a quick counterattack, with wonderful +enthusiasm among officers and men. They had perfect knowledge of the +country, and used this fully by striking up from a place called Luyghem +in such a way that the enemy was driven toward the swamp, where any who +went in sank up to his neck in the ice-cold water. + +The Germans were cut off from their own lines and trapped. Seven hundred +of them surrendered, men of all the regiments I have mentioned, and they +seemed to think themselves lucky at getting off so cheaply, though they +quailed when they were brought back through the towns behind the lines, +and the Belgian women, remembering many things, raised a cry as these +men passed. It was not a pleasant sound. I heard it once in France when +a German officer passed through with an escort. It was a cry which made +my blood run cold. But there is gladness among the Belgian troops, for +they had long waited for their chance of striking, and made good. + + +Heroism of the Doctors + +As heroic a story as anything in all this history of the last four weeks +is that of the medical officers, nurses, orderlies, and ambulance men +belonging to these casualty clearing stations, who were not far behind +the fighting lines when the battle began on March 21. + +And then in a few hours they were on the very edge of the enemy's +advancing tide, so that they were almost caught by it and had to make +brave efforts to rescue the wounded, save their equipment, and get away +to a place where for a little while again they could go on with their +noble work until the red edge of war swept up with its fire again and +they had to retreat still further. + +I used to pass very often the outer ring of those casualty clearing +stations on the right of the British line beyond Bapaume, in the Cambrai +salient, and away toward St. Quentin. + +They were almost caught on that day of March 21 when the infernal +bombardment was flung over a wide belt of the British lines, and the +enemy stormed the defenses and the British fought back in heroic +rearguard actions. It became a question of only a few hours, sometimes +of the last quarter of an hour, when these brave medical officers with +the nurses and orderlies could get away. + +It is always the rule of patients first, and at Ham there were 1,200 +wounded, and many others in other places. The railways were choked with +military transport or destroyed by shellfire. On the roads refugees were +mixed up with the transport and guns and troops. It was a frightful +problem, but the medical staffs did not lose their nerve, and set about +the business of removal with fine skill and discipline. + + +Caring for the Wounded + +What wounded could walk were gathered together and sent on to the roads +to make their way back as far as their strength would carry them. The +badly wounded were packed into all the available ambulances and sent +away. The equipment had sometimes to be put on any train, regardless of +its destination. It was gathered in afterward from whatever place it +went to. + +A casualty clearing station of 1,000 beds needs 100 lorries to move it, +but nine lorries take a full kit for 200 beds, and always nine lorries +moved off first after the wounded to take up a new station further back +and carry on. The medical officers looked after the surgical instruments +and trundled them along the roads on wheeled stretchers. One officer +went twenty-five miles this way and another seventeen miles. The +sisters, after the wounded had left, were put on any vehicle going back +from the battleline. + +During these days I saw them squeezed between drivers and men on motor +lorries, sitting among the Tommies in transport wagons, one at least on +a gun limber, and others perched on top of forage, still merry and +bright in spite of all the tragedy about them, because that is their +training and their faith. + +In this retreat one poor sister was killed and another wounded. Many of +them, with the medical officers, lost their kits. At Achiet le Grand, on +March 21, a shell killed eight orderlies and blew out the back of the +operating theatre, and at another village on a second night, three +ambulances were smashed up by bombs. Two drivers, with some of their +patients, were killed, but all the wounded were brought away from the +outer ring of casualty clearing stations safely, and then from the +second ring through Roye and Marincourt, Dernacourt, and Aveluy. + +At Roye there was no time to spare, owing to the enemy's rapid advance, +and seventy patients remained with a medical officer and twelve +orderlies until they could be rescued, if there was any possible +chance. There seemed at first no chance, but on the way back to +Villers-Bretonneux the medical officer in command of the first convoy +met some motor ambulances and begged the drivers to go into Roye and +rescue those who had been left behind. They went bravely and brought +away all the wounded and the staff, and had no time to spare, because +the last ambulance came under the German rifle fire. + +It is a strange and wonderful thing that the patients do not seem to be +harmed in any way by this excitement and fatigue, and one of the chiefs +who made a tour of inspection of all his clearing stations at this time +tells us he found all the wounded in good condition and apparently no +worse for their experience. + + +Fall of Villers-Bretonneux + +_ On April 24 the Germans attacked the important village of +Villers-Bretonneux, near Amiens; it is on a hill above the Somme, and +was used as a corps headquarters and administrative office by the +British. The attack was in great force, including tanks, the first time +they had been used by the Germans._ + +_The initial assault was a success and the Germans took the village and +advanced nearly a mile beyond--but let Mr. Gibbs tell the rest:_ + +During the night they were driven out by Australian troops, who, by a +most skillful and daring piece of generalship, were sent forward in the +darkness without preliminary artillery preparation, and, relying +absolutely on the weapons they carried to regain this important portion, +which gave the enemy full observation of the British positions on both +sides of the Somme Valley beyond Amiens. + +The splendid courage of the Australian troops, the cunning of their +machine gunners, and the fine leadership of their officers achieved +success, and, in conjunction with English battalions, they spent the +night clearing out the enemy from the village, where he made a desperate +resistance, and brought back altogether something like 700 or 800 +prisoners. + +It was a complete reversal of fortune for the enemy, and in this +twenty-four hours of fighting he has lost great numbers of men, whose +bodies lie in heaps between Villers-Bretonneux and Warfusee and all +about the ruins and fields in that neighborhood. + + +First German Tanks + +The attack on Villers-Bretonneux was made by four divisions. They were +the 4th Guards, the 77th, quite new to this phase of the war, the 228th, +and the 243d. They were in the full strength of divisions, twelve +regiments in each, and a great weight of men on such a narrow front +against one British division, whose men had already been under frightful +fire and had been living in clouds of poison gas with masks on. + +An officer of the Middlesex was in a bit of a trench when the first +German tank attacked his men on the east side of the village, and it +went right over him as he lay crouched, and traveled on, accompanied by +bodies of troops. + +The Middlesex and West Yorks put up a great fight but had to give ground +to superior numbers. The East Lancashires, who were the garrison of +Villers-Bretonneux, were also attacked with great odds, and after a +brave resistance fell back with the general line, which took up a +position toward the end of this first phase of the battle west of +Villers-Bretonneux and in the edge of Bois Abbé to the left of it. Into +this wood in the course of the day a German patrol of one officer and +forty men made their way and stayed there out of touch with their own +men, and were taken prisoners last night. + + +The Night Battle + +The attack by the Australians was made after 10 o'clock at night. It was +difficult to attack suddenly like this. There was no artillery +preparation. There should have been a moon, but by bad luck it was +veiled in a thick, wet mist. + +It was decided by the Australian General that his men should go straight +into the attack with bayonet and machine gun, not waiting for artillery +protection which would tell the enemy what was coming. + +The plan of attack was to push forward in two bodies and to encircle +Villers-Bretonneux, while some Northamptons and others were in the +centre with the order to fight through the village from the north. This +manoeuvre was carried out owing to the magnificent courage of each +Australian soldier and the gallantry of the officers. + +The Germans fought desperately when they found themselves in danger of +being trapped. They had nests of machine guns along the railway +embankment below the village, and these fired fiercely, sweeping the +attackers who tried to advance upon them. + +Those who worked around north and east of the village also came under a +burst of machine-gun fire from weapons hidden among the ruins and +trenches, but they rounded up the enemy and fought him from one bit of +ruin to another in streets which used to be filled with civilian life +only a few weeks ago and crowded with staff officers and staff cars, but +now were littered with dead bodies and raked by bullets. + +The Australians captured two light field guns, which the enemy had +brought up in the morning, according to his present habit of advancing +guns behind his third wave of men, and several minenwerfer and many +machine guns. + + +Great Piles of Dead + +During the night they and the English troops seized over 500 men as +prisoners and sent them back, and several hundred seem to have been +routed out. Today, [the 25th,] judging from these I saw myself, the +living were not so many as the dead. + +It was fierce fighting in Villers-Bretonneux and around it last night +and this morning the enemy fought until put out by bayonet, rifle +bullet, or machine gun. The Australian officers say that they have never +seen such piles of dead, not even outside of Bullecourt or Lagnicourt +last year, as those who lie about this village of frightful strife. + +The German tanks, which were first seen in this battle, though heavier +than the British, with bigger guns, have now beaten a retreat, leaving +one of their type in No Man's Land. The tank has a high turret and thick +armor plates, and is steered and worked on a different system from the +British. One of them was "killed" by a tank of the old British class, +and then the British put in some of the newer, faster, and smaller +types, which can steer almost as easily as a motor car, as I know, +because I have traveled in one at great pace over rough ground. + +These set out to attack bodies of German infantry of the 77th Division +forming up near Cachy. It was a terrible encounter, and when they +returned this morning their flanks were red with blood. They slew +Germans not by dozens nor by scores, but by platoons and companies. They +got right among the masses of men and swept them with fire, and those +they did not kill with their guns they crushed beneath them, manoeuvring +about and trampling them down as they fell. It seems to have been as +bloody a slaughter as anything in this war. + + +Battle for Kemmel Hill + +_The furious battle for the possession of Kemmel Hill, an eminence of +strategic importance in the Ypres region, occurred April 25, 26, and 27, +and was as sanguinary as any in Flanders. Although the Germans won the +hill, their victory involved such colossal sacrifices that this deadly +thrust ended their serious offensive for the time. Mr. Gibbs's +description of this battle in part follows:_ + +After several attempts against Kemmel had been frustrated the enemy all +went out, April 25, to capture this position. Four divisions at least, +including the Alpine Corps, the 11th Bavarians, and the 5th, 6th, and +107th, were moved against Kemmel in the early morning fog after a +tremendous bombardment of the Franco-British positions. It was a +bombardment that begun before the first glimmer of dawn, like one of +those which the British used to arrange in the days of their great +Flanders battles last year. It came down swamping Kemmel Hill so that it +was like a volcano, and stretched away on to the British lines on the +left of the French by Maedelstede Farm and Grand Bois down to +Vierstraat. + +Then the German infantry attacked in depth, battalion behind battalion, +division behind division, and their mountain troops of Alpine Corps and +Jägers and Bavarians came on first in the assault of Kemmel Hill, which +was not much more than a hillock, though it looms large in Flanders, and +in this war. The French had suffered a terrible ordeal of fire, and the +main thrust of the German strength was against them. + + +Foe Strikes in Two Directions + +The enemy struck in two directions to encircle the hill and village of +Kemmel, one arrowhead striking to Dranoutre and the other at the point +of junction between the French and British northward. + +In each case they were favored by fog and the effect of their gunfire. +They were able to drive in a wedge which they pushed forward until they +had caused gaps. The French on Kemmel Hill became isolated and there was +a gulf between the British and the French and between the French left +and right. + +On the hill the French garrison fought with splendid heroism. These men, +when quite surrounded, would not yield, but served their machine guns +and rifles for many hours, determined to hold their positions at all +costs, and to the death. Small parties of them on the west of the hill +held out until midday or beyond, according to the reports of the airmen, +who flew low over them, but by 9 o'clock this morning, owing to the gaps +made by the enemy, the French main line was compelled to draw back from +Kemmel. + +They inflicted severe losses on the enemy as they fell back and thwarted +his efforts to break their line on the new defensive positions. +Meanwhile a body of Scottish troops were seriously involved. Some of +their officers whom I saw today tell me the fog was so thick, as on +March 21, that after a terrific bombardment the first thing known at +some points a little way behind the line was when the Germans were all +around them. + + +Germans Under Von Arnim + +The German army of assault upon Kemmel and the surrounding country was +under command of General Sixt von Arnim, who was the leading opponent of +the Allies in the long struggle of the first Somme battles, and whose +clear and ruthless intelligence was revealed in the famous document +summing up the first phase of that fighting, when he frankly confessed +to many failures of organization and supply, but with acute criticism +which was not that of a weak or indecisive man. + +Under his command as corps commanders were Generals Seiger and von +Eberhardt, and they had picked troops, including the Alpine Corps and +strong Bavarian and Prussian divisions specially trained for assault in +such country as that of Kemmel. Their plan of attack to strike at the +points of junction between the French and British east of Kemmel, and +also at the French troops south of it, near Dranoutre, proved for the +time successful, and by driving in wedges they were able to make the +Allies fall back on the flanks and encircle Kemmel Hill after furious +and heroic fighting by the French and British troops. + +The British now were in weak numbers compared with the strength brought +against them. Their withdrawal to the new lines of defense by Vierstraat +and the furious attacks across the Ypres-Comines Canal gave the enemy +some ground in the region of St. Eloi and the bluff and the spoil bank +of the canal itself. It is villainous ground there, foul with wreckage +of the old fighting. + +British troops and Canadian troops were put to the supreme test of +courage to take and hold these places. The glorious old 3d Division, +commanded in those days of 1915 and 1916 by General Haldane, fought from +St. Eloi to the bluff, month in and month out, and lost many gallant +officers and men there after acts of courage which belong to history. + +German storm troops made three violent attacks on Locre, which were +flung back by the French, with heavy casualties among the enemy, and it +was only at the fourth attempt with fresh reserves that they were able +to enter the ruins of the village, from which the French then fell back +in order to reorganize for a counterattack. This they launched today at +an early hour, and now Locre is in their hands after close fighting, in +which they slew numbers of the enemy. + +After their success on April 25, when they captured Kemmel, the Germans +have made little progress, and, though there was fierce fighting all day +yesterday, they failed to gain their objectives, and were raked by fire +hour after hour, so that large numbers of their dead lie on the field of +battle. At 4 in the afternoon they engaged in fresh assaults upon the +positions near Ridge Wood, to which the line had fallen back, but +English and Scottish troops repulsed them and scattered their waves. It +was a bad day for them because of their great losses. The British have +broken the fighting quality of some of the enemy's most renowned +regiments. + + +The Country Devastated + +All the roads and camps around Ypres are under a heavy, harassing fire +once more, Ypres itself being savagely bombarded by high-explosive and +gas shells, so that after some months of respite those poor ruins are +again under that black spell which makes them the most sinister place in +the world. Suicide Corner has come into its own again, and the old +unhealthy plague spots up by the canal are under fire. + +The enemy's guns are reaching out to fields and villages hitherto +untouched by fire, and these harassing shots, intended, perhaps, to +catch traffic on the roads or soldiers' camps, often serve the enemy no +more than by the death of innocent women and children. A day or two ago +a monstrous shell fell just outside a little Flemish cottage tucked away +in an angle of a road which I often pass. It scooped out a deep pit in +the garden without even scarring the cottage walls, but two children +were playing in the garden and were laid dead beside a flower bed. + +Yesterday a small boy I know went grubbing about this plot of earth and +brought back a great chunk of shell bigger than his head. Those are the +games children play in this merry century of ours. They are astoundingly +indifferent to the perils about them, and sleep o' nights to the thunder +of gunfire not very far away, or slip their heads under the bedclothes +when bombs fall near. + +But older folk find this gradual creeping up of the war a nervous strain +and a mental agony which keeps them on the rack. It is pitiful to watch +their doubts and perplexities and their clinging on to their homes and +property. Shells smash outlying cottages to dust with their people +inside them, but still the people in the village itself stay on, hoping +against hope that the Germans' guns have reached their furthest range. + +"I shall not go till the first shell falls in the middle of the square," +said a girl. + +Another woman said: + +"If I go I lose all I have in life, so I will risk another day." + +They take extraordinary risks, and our officers and men find some of +them on the very battlefields and in farmyards where they unlimber their +guns. + + +Heavy German Losses + +The enemy's losses in this continual fighting have been severe. We have +been able to get actual figures of some of their casualties, which are +typical of the more general effect of the British fire. Of one company +of the 7th German Division which fought at St. Eloi on Friday only 40 +men remained out of its full strength of 120. + +The 4th Ersatz Division lost most heavily, and a prisoner of the 279th +Pioneer Company, which relieved the 360th Regiment of that division, +says the average company strength was fifteen men. + +The entire regimental staff was killed by a direct hit of a British +shell on their headquarters dugout near Cantieux. The same thing +happened to the battalion headquarters of the 223d Regiment, which is +now in a state of low morale, having been fearfully cut up. + +The 1st Guards Reserve Regiment of the 1st Guards Division, which was +much weakened in the fighting on the Somme and afterward was sent to La +Bassée, lost thirty-six officers, including a regimental commander and +one battalion commander. These losses are affecting inevitably the +outlook of the German troops on the prospects of their continued +offensive. + +Prisoners from divisions which suffered most confess they have no +further enthusiasm for fighting, and that their regiments can only be +made to attack by stern discipline and the knowledge that they must +fight on or be shot for desertion. + +On the other hand, the best German troops, especially those now +attacking in Flanders, like the Alpine Corps and 11th Bavarian Division, +are elated and full of warlike spirit. + +Even their prisoners profess to believe they are winning the war and +will have a German peace before the year is out. + + +Desperate Fighting for Ypres + +_The Germans vainly launched desperate attacks of unexampled fury +against the British and French lines in the Ypres region on April 29. +Mr. Gibbs in his cable dispatch of that date thus refers to these +assaults:_ + +It becomes clearer every hour that the enemy suffered a disastrous +defeat today. Attack after attack was smashed up by the British +artillery and infantry, and he has not made a foot of ground on the +British front. + +The Border Regiment this morning repulsed four heavy assaults on the +Kemmel-La Clytte road, where there was extremely hard fighting, and +destroyed the enemy each time. + +One of the enemy's main thrusts was between Scherpenberg and Mont Rouge, +where they made a wedge for a time and captured the crossroads, and it +was here that a gallant French counterattack swept them back. + +The British had no more than a post or two in Voormezeele this morning, +and the enemy was there in greater strength, and sent his storm troops +through this place, but was never able to advance against the fire of +the British battalions. + +His losses began yesterday, when his troops were seen massing on the +road between Zillebeke and Ypres in a dense fog, through which he +attempted to make a surprise attack. This was observed by low-flying +planes, and his assembly was shattered by gunfire. After a fierce +shelling all night, so tremendous along the whole northern front that +the countryside was shaken by its tumult, German troops again assembled +in the early morning mist, but were caught once more in the British +bombardment. + +At 3 o'clock a tremendous barrage was flung down by the German gunners +from Ypres to Bailleul, and later they began the battle by launching +first an attack between Zillebeke Lake and Meteren. South of Ypres they +crossed the Yser Canal by Lock 8, near Voormezeele, which was their +direction of attack against the British, while they tried to drive up +past Locre against the French on the three hills. + +The successful defense has made the day most bloody for many German +regiments. + + +Enemy's Attacks Futile + +In order to turn them if frontal attacks failed against the French, +German storm troops--they are now called grosskampf, or great offensive +troops--were to break the British lines on the French left between Locre +and Voormezeele and on the French right near Merris and Meteren. That +obviously was the intention of the German High Command this morning, +judging from their direction of assault. + +So far they have failed utterly. They failed to break or bend the +British wings on the French centre, and they failed to capture the +hills, or any one of them, defended by the French divisions. + +They have attacked again and again since this morning's dawn, heavy +forces of German infantry being sent forward after their first waves +against Scherpenberg and Voormezeele, which lies to the east of +Dickebusch Lake, but these men have been slaughtered by the French and +British fire and made no important progress at any point. + +For a time the situation seemed critical at one or two points, and it +was reported that the Germans had been storming the slopes of Mont Rouge +and Mont Noir, but one of the British airmen flew over these hills at +200 feet above their crests, and could see no German infantry near them. + +Round about Voormezeele, North Country and other English battalions had +to sustain determined and furious efforts of Alpine and Bavarian troops +to drive through them by weight of numbers, after hours of intense +bombardment, but the men held their ground and inflicted severe +punishment upon the enemy. + +All through the day the German losses have been heavy under field-gun +and machine-gun fire, and the British batteries, alongside the French +seventy-fives, swept down the enemy's advancing waves and his masses +assembled in support at short range. + +There is no doubt that the French guarding the three hills have fought +with extreme valor and skill. For a brief period the Germans apparently +were able to draw near and take some of the ground near Locre, but an +immediate counterattack was organized by the French General, and the +line of French troops swung forward and swept the enemy back. Further +attacks by the Germans north of Ypres and on the Belgian front were +repulsed easily, and again the enemy lost many men. + + +French and British Valor + +_On April 30 Mr. Gibbs confirmed the details of the disastrous German +defeats on the two preceding days and gave these further particulars:_ + +It was the valor of Frenchmen as well as Englishmen which yesterday +inflicted defeat upon many German divisions, and the Allies fought side +by side, and their batteries fired from the same fields and their +wounded came back along the same roads, and the khaki and blue lay out +upon the same brown earth. + +I have already given an outline of yesterday's battle, how, after a +colossal bombardment, the German attack early in the morning from north +of Ypres to south of Voormezeele, where English battalions held the +lines, and from La Clytte past the three hills of Scherpenberg, Mont +Rouge, and Mont Noir, which French troops held to the north of Meteren, +where the English joined them; again, how the English Tommies held firm +against desperate assaults until late in the evening; how the enemy made +a great thrust against the French, driving in for a time between +Scherpenberg and Mont Noir until they were flung back by a French +counterattack. + +In the night the French, who had now regained all the ground that had +been temporarily in the enemy's hands, made a general counterattack and +succeeded in advancing their line to a depth of about fifteen hundred +yards beyond the line of the three hills, which thereby was made more +secure against future assaults. + + +Deadly Machine-Gun Work + +Meanwhile throughout the day the English battalions had been sustaining +heavy assaults, breaking the enemy against their front. The Leicesters, +especially, had fierce fighting about Voormezeele, where, as I told +yesterday, the enemy was in the centre of the village. German storm +troops advanced against our men here and along other parts of the line +with fixed bayonets, but in most places, except Voormezeele, where there +was close fighting, they were mowed down by Lewis-gun fire before they +could get near. Line after line of them came on, but lost heavily and +fell back. + +Over the ground east of Dickebusch Lake some Yorkshire troops saw these +groups of field gray men advancing upon them, and the glint of their +bayonets, wet in the morning mist, and swept them with bullets from the +Lewis guns and rifles until heaps of bodies were lying out there on the +mud flats in the old Ypres salient. The most determined assaults were +concentrated upon the 25th Division, but it held firm and would not +budge, though the men had been under fearful fire in the night +bombardment, and their machine gunners kept their triggers pressed, and +bullets played upon the advancing Germans like a stream from a garden +hose. + +The troops in the whole division yielded no yard of ground and they hold +that they killed as many Germans as any battalion in this battle. It was +a black day for Germany. More than ten German divisions, probably +thirteen, seem to have been engaged in this attempt to smash our lines +and encircle the three hills. They included some of the enemy's finest +divisions, so they lost quality as well as quantity in this futile +sacrifice of man-power--man-power which seems to mean nothing in flesh +and blood and heart and soul to men like Ludendorff, but is treated as a +material force like guns and ammunition and used as cannon fodder. + + +Brilliant French Fighters + +_Referring to the French troops in this battle, Mr. Gibbs wrote:_ + +Today again I have been among the thousands of French soldiers. It is +splendid to see them because of their fine bearing. They are men in the +prime of life, not so young as some of the British and with a graver +look than one sees on British faces, when they have not yet reached the +zone of fire. They are men who have seen all that war means during these +years of agony and hope and boredom and death. They have no illusions. +They stare into the face of death unflinchingly and shrug their +shoulders at its worst menace and still have faith in victory. + +So I read them, if any man may read the thoughts that lie behind those +bronzed faces with the dark eyes and upturned mustaches under the blue +painted helmets or the black Tam o' Shanters. + +They are not gay or boisterous in their humor, and they do not sing like +the British as they march, but they seem to have been born to this war, +and its life is their life, and they are professionals. + +The Tricolor passes along the roads of France and Flanders, and French +trumpets ring out across the flat fields below Scherpenberg, and all the +spirit of the French fighting men, who have proved themselves great +soldiers in this war, as for thousands of years of history, is mingled +with our own battalions. Together yesterday they gave the German Army a +hard knock. + + +The British Guards + +_In his cable of May 1 Mr. Gibbs gave details of the extraordinary +heroism of the British Guards. He related incidents which had occurred +April 11 to 14, after the Germans had broken through the Portuguese in +their efforts to widen the gap between Armentières and Merville by +gaining the crossings of the Lys._ + +The Grenadier, Irish, and Coldstream Guards were sent forward along the +Hazebrouck-Estaires road when the situation was at its worst, when the +men of the 15th Division and other units had fought themselves out in +continual rearguard and holding actions, so that some of those still in +the line could hardly walk or stand, and when it was utterly necessary +to keep the Germans in check until a body of Australian troops had time +to arrive. The Guards were asked to hold back the enemy until those +Australians came and to fight at all costs for forty-eight hours against +the German tide of men and guns which was attempting to flow around the +other hard pressed men, and that is what the Guards did, fighting in +separate bodies with the enemy pressing in on both flanks. + +Greatly outnumbered, they beat back attack after attack, and gained +precious hours, vital hours, by the most noble self-sacrifice. A party +of Grenadiers were so closely surrounded that their officer sent back a +message saying: + +"My men are standing back to back and shooting on all sides." + +The Germans swung around them, circling them with machine guns and +rifles and pouring a fire into them until only eighteen men were left. +Those eighteen, standing among their wounded and their dead, did not +surrender. The army wanted forty-eight hours. They fixed bayonets and +went out against the enemy and drove through him. A wounded Corporal of +Grenadiers, who afterward got back to the British lines, lay in a ditch, +and the last he saw of his comrades was when fourteen men of them were +still fighting in a swarm of Germans. + + +Fought Back to Back + +The Coldstream Guards were surrounded in the same way and fought in the +same way. The army had asked for forty-eight hours until the Australians +could come, and many of the Coldstreamers eked out the time with their +lives. The enemy filtered in on their flanks, came crawling around them +with machine guns, sniped them from short range and raked them from +ditches and upheaved earth. + +The Coldstream Guards had to fall back, but they fought back in small +groups, facing all ways and making gaps in the enemy's ranks, not firing +wildly, but using every round of small-arms ammunition to keep a German +back and gain a little more time. + +Forty-eight hours is a long time in a war like this. For two days and +nights the Irish Guards, who had come up to support the Grenadiers and +Coldstreamers, tried to make a defensive flank, but the enemy worked +past their right and attacked them on two sides. The Irish Guards were +gaining time. They knew that was all they could do, just drag out the +hours by buying each minute with their blood. One man fell and then +another; but minutes were gained, and quarters of hours and hours. + +Small parties of them lowered their bayonets and went out among the gray +wolves swarming around them, and killed a number of them until they also +fell. First one party and then another of these Irish Guards made those +bayonet charges against men with machine guns and volleys of rifle fire. +They bought time at a high price, but they did not stint themselves nor +stop their bidding because of its costliness. + +The brigade of Guards here and near Vieux Berquin held out for those +forty-eight hours, and some of them were fighting still when the +Australians arrived, according to the timetable. + + +Carnage Near Locre + +_Mr. Gibbs, in a dispatch dated May 3, gave these vivid descriptions of +the fighting in the Locre-Dranoutre-Kemmel region:_ + +On April 24 the German bombardment was intensified and spread over a +deep area, destroying villages, tearing up roads, and making a black +vomit of the harrowed fields. Dranoutre, Locre, Westoutre, and other +small towns were violently bombarded. That night the French discovered +that the Germans were preparing an attack for the next morning, to be +preceded by a gas bombardment. The officers warned all their men, and +they stood on the alert with gas masks when at 3:30 in the morning +thousands of gas shells fell over them, mixed with high explosives of +all calibres up to the monster twelve-inch, which burst like volcanic +eruptions. + +In the intensity of bombardment several officers who fought at Fleury +said: "This is the most frightful thing we have seen. Verdun was nothing +to it." + +All the French troops jammed on gas masks, and on one day put them on +fifty times, only removing them when the wind, which was fairly strong, +blew away the poison fumes until other storms of shells came. For nearly +a week they wore them constantly, sleeping in them, officers giving +orders in them, and the men fighting and dying in them and charging with +the bayonet in them. It was worth the trouble and suffering, for this +French regiment between Locre and Dranoutre had only twelve gas +casualties. + +That morning the German attack fell first on Kemmel Hill, which they +turned from the north, and two hours later, the bombardment continuing +all along the line, they developed a strong attack against Dranoutre in +the south in order to take Locre and turn the French right. Until +evening the troops on Kemmel Hill, with a small body of British, still +held out with great devotion in isolated positions, but by 8 o'clock +that morning Kemmel Hill was entirely cut off. + + +Other British Units in Danger + +This was a severe menace to their comrades at Locre and southward, +because both their flanks were threatened. They did heroic things to +safeguard their right and left, which again and again the enemy tried to +pass. I have already told in a previous message how a gallant French +officer and a small company of men made a counterattack at Dranoutre and +held the post there against all odds. + +Up by Locre the commandant of the left battalion found machine-gun fire +sweeping his left flank, and his men had to face left to defend their +line. Small parties of Germans with machine guns kept filtering down +from the north and established themselves on the railway in order to +rake the French with an enfilade fire. + +One French company, led by devoted officers, counterattacked there five +times with the bayonet into the sweep of those bullets, and by this +sacrifice saved their flank. Another company advanced to hold the +hospice. There was desperate fighting day after day, so that its ruins, +if any bits of wall are left, will be as historic as the château at +Vermelles, or other famous houses of the battlefields. + +French and Germans took it turn and turn about, and although the enemy +sent great numbers of men to garrison this place they never were able to +hold it long, because always some young French Lieutenant and a handful +of men stormed it again and routed the enemy. When it was taken last on +April 29, the day of the enemy's severe defeat, the French captured 100 +prisoners in the cellars there, and they belonged to fourteen battalions +of four regiments of three divisions, showing the amazing way in which +the enemy's divisions have been flung into confusion by the French fire. + + +Under Constant Shellfire + +On the morning of April 26 French companies made six attacks, and in the +afternoon two more, and though their losses were heavy, that evening +both the village and hospice of Locre stayed in their hands. That night, +their men being exhausted for a time after so many hours under fire, +they withdrew their line a little to the Locre-Bailleul road by the +Château of Locre and west of Dranoutre in order to reorganize a stronger +defense. The German bombardment slackened on the morning of April 28 +owing to fog, and those few hours on that day and one other were the +only respite these French troops had from the incessant and infernal +gunfire when, owing to open warfare, "en rase campagne," as the French +call it, as in 1914, without a complete system of trenches or dugouts or +other artificial cover, they were much exposed. + +"There were ten big shells a second," one of these officers told me, +"and that lasted, with only two short pauses, for six days all through +the battle, and other shells were uncountable." + +The enemy had brought up light artillery and trench mortars almost to +his front lines in Dranoutre Wood and other places and attempted to take +the French in an enfilade fire from Kemmel, but by this time many French +guns were in position, reinforcing the British artillery, and on the +28th they opened up and killed great numbers of the enemy. + +Allied aviators saw long columns of Germans on the roads by Neuve Eglise +and in Dranoutre Wood, and signaled to the guns to range on these human +targets. The guns answered. Masses of Germans were smashed by the fire +and panicstricken groups were seen running out of Dranoutre Wood. + + +Night of Horror for Germans + +That night the Germans seemed to be relieving their troops, and again +the French and British guns flung shells into them, and for the enemy it +was a night of death and horror; but the next day, the 29th, the enemy +made reply by a prolonged bombardment, more intense even than before, +and then attacked with new troops all along the line. But the French +also had many fresh troops in line--not those I met yesterday--who at 2 +o'clock in the morning went forward into attack and took back the +village. This defeated the enemy's plan of turning the French left. + +All through that day the enemy's desperate efforts to break through +were shattered, and that night the French held exactly the same ground +as before and had caused enormous losses to the German divisions, at +least 40 per cent. of their strength, as it is reckoned on close +evidence. + +That night even the German guns stopped their drumfire, as though Sixt +von Arnim's army was in mourning for its dead. It was a night of strange +and uncanny silence after the stupendous tumult, but for those French +regiments who had been holding the line for nearly a week it had been a +day of supreme ordeal. + + +Preparing for Another Advance + +_There were no general engagements during the preceding five days nor up +to May 18, but incessant artillery fire was kept up and raids were +constantly made. On May 5 Mr. Gibbs described the difficulties +encountered by the Germans in preparing for a new advance:_ + +The enemy has many divisions, both up in the Flemish fields and on the +Somme, divisions in line and divisions in reserve--divisions crowded in +reserve--and there are few roads for them down which to march. There is +not much elbow room for such masses to assemble, and not much cover in +trenches or dugouts from high explosives or shrapnel. So we pound them +to death, many of them to death and many of them to stretcher cases, and +relief comes up, gets wildly mixed with the divisions coming down, and +at night there is mad confusion in the ranks of marching men and +transport columns, which gallop past dead horses and splintered wagons +and wrecks of transport columns, and among the regimental and divisional +staffs, trying to keep order in the German way when things are being +smashed into chaos, while the Red Cross convoys are over-loaded with +wounded and unable to cope with all the bodies that lie about. + +This is what is happening behind the German lines--I have not overdrawn +the picture, believe me--and it is upsetting somewhat the plans of the +high German officers who are arranging things from afar through +telephones, down which they shout their orders. + + +"The Drums of Death" + +_In his dispatch of May 9 the following was written to describe the +difficulties of the Germans in reorganizing their battered forces:_ + +From many points the British have complete observation of the enemy's +positions there, as he has of theirs from the other side of the way, +and, needless to say, they are making use of this direct view by +flinging over storms of shells whenever his transport is seen crawling +along the tracks of the old Somme battlefields or his troops are seen +massing among their shell craters. + +The town of Albert itself, where once until recent history the golden +Virgin used to lean downward with her babe outstretched above the ruins, +is now a death trap for the German garrisons there and for any German +gunners who try to hide their batteries among the red brick houses. By +day and night their positions are pounded with high explosives and +soaked in asphyxiating gas. + +I went within 2,000 yards of it yesterday, and saw the heaviest work of +the British upon it. It was a wonderful May day, as today is, and the +sun shone through a golden haze upon the town. As I looked into Albert +and saw the shells smashing through, and then away up the Albert-Bapaume +road, past the white rim of the great mine crater of La Boiselle to the +treeless slopes of Posières, and over all that ground of hills and +ditches to the high, wooded distant right, with its few dead stumps of +trees, it was hard to believe that all this was in the area of the +German Army, that the white, winding lines freshly marked upon this +bleak landscape were new German trenches, and that the enemy's outposts +were less than 2,000 yards from where I stood. + + +Fritz Having a "Thin Time" + +Some siege gunners were lying on their stomachs and observing the +enemy's lines for some monsters I had seen on my way up, monsters that +raised their snouts slowly, like elephants' trunks, before bellowing out +with an earthquake roar, annihilating all one's senses for a second. +Some of the men passed the remark to me that "Albert isn't the town it +was" and that "Fritz must be having a thin time there." They also +expressed the opinion that the Albert-Bapaume road was not a pleasant +walk for Germans on a sunny afternoon. + +I did not dispute these points with them, for they were beyond argument. +Big shells were smashing into Albert and its neighborhood from many +heavy batteries, raising volcanic explosions there, and shrapnel was +bursting over the tracks in white splashes. + +_In describing the artillery fire which broke up a threatened assault on +May 5, Mr. Gibbs wrote:_ + +A new German division, the 52d Reserve, and the 56th German Division +prepared an assault on Ridge Wood. All these men were crowded into +narrow assembly grounds and did not have quiet hours before the moment +of attack. They had hours of carnage in the darkness. British and French +guns were answering back the German bombardment with their heaviest +fire. French howitzers, long-muzzled fellows, which during recent weeks +I had seen crawling through Flanders with the cornflowers, as the French +soldiers call themselves, crowded about them on the gun limbers and +transport wagons and muddy horses, and which had traveled long +kilometers, were now in action from their emplacements between the +ruined villages of the Flemish war zone, and with their little +brothers, the soixante-quinzes, their blood-thirsty little brothers, +were savage in their destruction and harassing fire. + +I have seen the soixante-quinze at work and have heard the rafale des +tambours de la mort--the ruffle of the drums of death--as the sound of +their fire is described by all soldier writers of France. It was that +fire, that slashing and sweeping fire, which helped to break up any big +plan of attack against the French troops yesterday morning, and from +those assembly places a great part of the German infantry never moved +all day, but spent their time, it seems, in carrying back their wounded. + + +Tragic Desolation of Arras + +_Mr. Gibbs on May 11 described a visit to Arras, as follows:_ + +Since the beginning of these great battles in bleak, cold weather Spring +has come, and almost Summer, changing all the aspect of the old +battlefields and of the woods behind craterland and of the cities under +fire. + +I went into one of those cities the other day, Arras, which to me and to +many of us out here is a queerly enchanted place because of its beauty, +which survives even three years of bombardment, and because of the many +great memories which it holds in its old houses and streets and the +sense of romance which lurks in its courtyards and squares, reaching +back to ancient history before its death. For Arras is dead and but the +beautiful corpse of the city that was once very fair and noble. + +During the recent weeks the enemy has flung many big explosive shells +into it, so that its ruins have become more ruined and many houses +hardly touched before have now been destroyed. It was sad to see this +change, the fresh mangling of stones that had already been scarred, the +heaps of masonry that lay piled about these streets that were utterly +deserted. I walked down many of them and saw no living soul, only a few +lean cats which prowled about, slinking close to the walls and crouching +when a German shell came over with a rending noise. + +Bright sunlight shone down these streets, putting a lazy glamour upon +their broken frontages and flinging back shadows from high walls, except +where shell holes let in the light. The cathedral and the great Palace +of the Bishops were unroofed, with tall pillars broken off below the +vaulting and an avalanche of white masonry about them. They were +clear-cut and dazzling under the blue sky, and one was hushed by the +tragic grandeur of these ruins. + +One of the British airplanes flew low over the city, and its engine sang +loudly with a vibrant humming, and now and again the crash of a gun or a +shell loosened some stones or plaster below its wings. Other birds were +singing. Spring birds, who are not out for war but sweethearting in the +gardens of Arras. + + + + +America's Sacrifice + +By Harold Begbie + +[By arrangement with The London Chronicle.] + + +One of the finest moral actions in this war has been done by America. It +is action on a gigantic scale, and yet of a directly personal character. +Insufficient publicity, I think, has been given to this action. + +Is it realized by the people of this country that America has already +saved us from capitulating to the enemy? Either we should have been +forced into this surrender (with our armies unbroken and our munitions +of war unexhausted) or we should at this moment be struggling to live +and work and fight on one-third of our present rations. + +America is sending to these islands almost two-thirds of our food +supplies. Sixty-five per cent. of the essential foodstuffs eaten by the +British citizen comes to him from the American Continent. This in itself +is something which calls for our lively gratitude. But there is a +quality in the action of America which should intensify our gratitude. +For these American supplies, essential to our health and safety, +represent in very large measure the personal and voluntary +self-sacrifice of the individual American citizen. They are not crumbs +from the table of Dives. They are not the commandeered supplies of an +autocratic Government. They represent, rather, the kindly, difficult, +and entirely willing self-sacrifice of a whole nation, the vast majority +of whom are working people. + +There is only one altar for this act of sacrifice--it is the table of +the American working classes. And the rite is performed by men, women, +and children, at every meal of the day, day after day, week after week. + +This act of self-sacrifice, let us remember, is made in the midst of +plenty. Well might the American housewife ask why she should deprive her +children of food, why she should institute wheatless and meatless days, +when all about her there is a visible superabundance of these things. +Questions such as this are natural enough on the other side of the +Atlantic, and on the other side of the American continent, 5,000 miles +away from the battlefields of France. + +But the citizens of America do not ask such questions. With a +cheerfulness and a courage which are as vigorous as their industry, and +with a moral earnestness which is by far the greatest demonstration +America has yet given to the world of American character, these people +so far away from us on the other side of the Atlantic have willingly and +with no coercion by the State denied themselves for the sake of the +Entente. They are going short, they are going hungry, for our sakes. +They are practicing an intimate self-sacrifice in order that we may hold +our own till their sons come to fight at our side. All over America the +individual American citizen is making this self-sacrifice, and making it +without a murmur. He is feeding, by his personal self-sacrifice, not +only these islands, but France, Italy, and many of the neutrals. + +This great demonstration of character has had no other impetus than the +simple declaration of the facts by Herbert Hoover, the man who fed +Belgium. Hoover has told his countrymen how things stand. That is all. +The Winter of 1918, he declared to them, will prove to mankind whether +or not the American Nation "is capable of individual self-sacrifice to +save the world." His propaganda has never descended to unworthy levels. +He has appealed always to the conscience of his countrymen. He has +spoken of "a personal obligation upon every one of us toward some +individual abroad who will suffer privation to the extent of our own +individual negligence." + +America has answered this appeal in a manner which marks her out as one +of the greatest moral forces in the world. It should be known out there, +in the farmhouses and cottages of the American Continent, that the +people of this country are mindful of America's self-sacrifice, and are +grateful. + +GENERAL STAFF OFFICERS WITH PERSHING + +[Illustration: + + Brig. Gen. Benjamin Alvord, + _Adjutant_ + (© _Harris & Ewing_)] + +[Illustration: + + Brig. Gen. Andre W. Brewster, + _Inspector_ + (© _Harris & Ewing_)] + +[Illustration: + + Brig. Gen. Edgar Russell, + _Signal Officer_ + (_Underwood from Buck_)] + +[Illustration: + + Brig. Gen. Harry L. Rogers, + _Quartermaster_ + (© _Harris & Ewing_)] + + +PROMINENT IN WAR ACTIVITIES + +[Illustration: + + Brig. Gen. B. D. Foulois, + _Aviation Officer on Pershing's Staff_ + _(Press Illustrating Service)_] + +[Illustration: + + Dr. F. P. Keppel, + _Recently appointed Assistant Secretary + of War_ + _(© Harris & Ewing)_] + +[Illustration: + + W. C. Potter, + _Chief of Equipment Division of + Signal Corps_ + _(© Harris & Ewing)_] + +[Illustration: + + Brig. Gen. C. B. Wheeler, + Ordnance Officer on Pershing's Staff + _(© Harris & Ewing)_] + + + + +American Soldiers in Battle + +How They Repelled an Attack at Seicheprey and Fought in Picardy + +[MONTH ENDED MAY 20, 1918] + + +Seicheprey, in the Toul sector, was the scene on April 20, 1918, of the +most determined attack launched against the American forces in France up +to that time. A German regiment, reinforced by storm troops, a total of +1,500, was hurled against the American positions on a one-mile front +west of Remières Forest, northwest of Toul, after a severe bombardment +of gas and high explosive shells. The Germans succeeded in penetrating +the front-line trenches and taking the village of Seicheprey, but after +furious hand-to-hand fighting the American troops recaptured the village +and most of the ground lost in the early fighting. + +Next morning, after a brief bombardment, the Americans attacked and +drove the enemy out of the old outposts, which they had gained, and thus +broke down an offensive which, it was believed, was intended as the +beginning of a German plan to separate the Americans and the French. The +French lines also were attacked, but the Germans were repulsed and the +lines re-established. + +The losses were the heaviest sustained by Americans since they began +active warfare in France. In a dispatch to the War Department General +Pershing indicated that the losses among his men were between 200 and +300. According to the German official statement 183 Americans were taken +prisoner, so that the American casualties apparently came mostly under +the heading of captured. Official reports of the German losses, +according to a prisoner captured later, gave 600 killed, wounded, and +missing. + + +IN THE PICARDY BATTLE + +"Franco-American positions south of the Somme and on the Avre" were +officially mentioned for the first time in the French War Office report +of April 24, indicating that forces of the United States were there on +the battlefront resisting the great German offensive. The report stated +that an intense bombardment of the positions all along this front was +followed by an attack directed against Hangard-en-Santerre, the region +of Hailles, and Senecat Wood. The Germans were repulsed almost +everywhere. + +Formal announcement that American troops sent to reinforce the allied +armies had taken part in the fighting was made by the War Department in +its weekly review of the situation issued on April 29. "Our own forces," +the statement read, "have taken part in the battle. American units are +in the area east of Amiens. During the engagements which have raged in +this area they have acquitted themselves well." + + +UNDER INTENSE FIRE + +Another heavy attack was launched by the Germans against the Americans +in the vicinity of Villers-Bretonneux on April 30. It was repulsed with +heavy losses for the enemy. The German bombardment opened at 5 o'clock +in the afternoon and was directed especially against the Americans, who +were supported on the north and south by the French. The fire was +intense, and at the end of two hours the German commander sent forward +three battalions of infantry. There was hand-to-hand fighting all along +the line, as a result of which the enemy was thrust back, his dead and +wounded lying on the ground in all directions. The French troops were +full of praise for the manner in which the Americans conducted +themselves under trying circumstances, especially in view of the fact +that they are fighting at one of the most difficult points on the +battlefront. The American losses were rather severe. + +The gallantry of the 300 American engineers who were caught in the +opening of the German offensive on March 21 was the subject of a +dispatch from General Pershing made public by the War Department on +April 19. The engineers were among the forces hastily gathered by Major +Gen. Sanderson Carey, the British commander, who stopped the gap in the +line when General Gough's army was driven back. [See diagram on Page +389.] During the period of thirteen days covered by General Pershing's +report, the engineers were almost continuously in action. They were in +the very thick of the hardest days of the great German drive in Picardy. + +General Pershing embodied in his report a communication from General +Rawlinson, commander of the British 5th Army, in which the latter +declared that "it has been largely due to your assistance that the enemy +is checked." The report covered the fighting period from March 21 to +April 3. The former date marked the beginning of the Ludendorff +offensive along the whole front from La Fère to Croisilles. It showed +that while under shellfire the American engineers destroyed material +dumps at Chaulnes, that they fell back with the British forces to +Moreuil, where the commands laid out trench work, and were then assigned +to a sector of the defensive line at Demuin, and to a position near +Warfusee-Abancourt. + +During the period of thirteen days covered by the report the American +engineers had two officers killed and three wounded, while twenty men +were killed, fifty-two wounded, and forty-five reported missing. + + +STORY OF CAREY EPISODE + +A correspondent of The Associated Press at the front gave this account +of the part played by Americans in the historic episode under General +Carey: + + A disastrous-looking gap appeared In the 5th Army south of Hamel in + the later stages of the opening battle. The Germans had crossed the + Somme at Hamel and had a clear path for a sweep southwestward. + + No troops were available to throw into the opening. A certain + Brigadier General was commissioned by Major Gen. Gough, commander + of the 5th Army, to gather up every man he could find and to "hold + the gap at any cost." The General called upon the American and + Canadian engineers, cooks, chauffeurs, road workmen, anybody he + could find; gave them guns, pistols, any available weapon, and + rushed them into the gap in trucks, on horseback, or on mule-drawn + limbers. + + A large number of machine guns from a machine-gun school near by + were confiscated. Only a few men, however, knew how to operate the + weapons, and they had to be worked by amateurs with one "instructor" + for every ten or twelve guns. The Americans did especially well in + handling this arm. + + For two days the detachment held the mile and a half gap. At the end + of the second day the commander, having gone forty-eight hours + without sleep, collapsed. The situation of the detachment looked + desperate. + + While all were wondering what would happen next, a dusty automobile + came bounding along the road from the north. It contained Brig. Gen. + Carey, who had been home on leave and who was trying to find his + headquarters. + + The General was commandeered by the detachment and he was found to + be just the commander needed. He is an old South African soldier of + the daredevil type. He is famous among his men for the scrapes and + escapades of his school-boy life as well as for his daring exploits + in South Africa. + + Carey took the detachment in hand and led it in a series of attacks + and counterattacks which left no time for sleeping and little for + eating. He gave neither his men nor the enemy a rest, attacking + first on the north, then in the centre, then on the south--harassing + the enemy unceasingly with the idea of convincing the Germans that a + large force opposed them. + + Whenever the Germans tried to feel him out with an attack at one + point, Carey parried with a thrust somewhere else, even if it took + his last available man, and threw the Germans on the defensive. + + The spirit of Carey's troops was wonderful. The work they did was + almost super-natural. It would have been impossible with any body of + men not physical giants, but the Americans and Canadians gloried in + it. They crammed every hour of the day full of fighting. It was a + constantly changing battle, kaleidoscopic, free-for-all, + catch-as-catch-can. The Germans gained ground. Carey and his men + were back at them, hungry for more punishment. At the end of the + sixth day, dog-tired and battle-worn, but still full of fight, the + detachment was relieved by a fresh battalion which had come up from + the rear. + + +STAFF CHANGES + +Major Gen. James W. McAndrew, it was announced on May 3, was appointed +Chief of Staff of the American expeditionary force in succession to +Brig. Gen. James G. Harbord, who was assigned to a command in the field. +Other changes on General Pershing's staff included the appointment of +Lieut. Col. Robert C. Davis as Adjutant General, and Colonel Merritte W. +Ireland as Surgeon General. + +The General Staff of the American expeditionary forces in France, as the +result of several changes in personnel, consisted on May 14, 1918, of +the following: + + Commander: General John J. Pershing + Aid de Camp: Colonel James L. Collins + Aid de Camp: Colonel Carl Boyd + Aid de Camp: Colonel M. C. Shallenberger + Chief of Staff: Major Gen. J. W. McAndrew + Adjutant: Lieut. Col. Robert C. Davis + Inspector: Brig. Gen. Andre W. Brewster + Judge Advocate: Brig. Gen. Walter A. Bethel + Quartermaster: Brig. Gen. Harry L. Rogers + Surgeon: Colonel Merritte W. Ireland + Engineer: Brig. Gen. Harry Taylor + Ordnance Officer: Brig. Gen. C. B. Wheeler + Signal Officer: Brig. Gen. Edgar Russell + Aviation Officer: Brig. Gen. B. D. Foulois + +President Wilson on May 4 pardoned two soldiers of the American +expeditionary force who had been condemned to death by a military +court-martial in France for sleeping on sentry duty and commuted to +nominal prison terms the death sentences imposed on two others for +disobeying orders. + + +HEALTH OF THE SOLDIERS + +Major Hugh H. Young, director of the work of dealing with communicable +blood diseases in our army in France, made this striking statement on +May 12 regarding the freedom of the American expeditionary force from +such diseases: + + In making plans for this department of medical work in France it + had been calculated by the medical authorities in Washington to + have ten 1,000-bed hospitals, in which a million men could receive + treatment, but with 500,000 Americans in France there is not one of + the five allotted Americans in any of the hospitals now running, + and only 500 cases of this type of disease needing hospital + treatment, instead of the expected 5,000. + + In other words, instead of having 1 per cent. of our soldiers in + hospitals from social diseases, as had been expected, the actual + number is only one-tenth of 1 per cent. There is no reason to doubt + that this record will be maintained. The hospitals prepared for + this special treatment are to be used for other cases. + +This means that the American Army is the cleanest in the world. The +results, according to Major Young, have been achieved by preventive +steps taken by the American medical directors, coupled with the +co-operation of the men. + + + + +Overseas Forces More Than Half a Million + +Preparing for an Army of 3,000,000 + + +The overseas fighting forces of the United States have been increasing +at a much more rapid rate than the public was aware of. Early in May the +number of our men in France was in excess of 500,000. A great increase +in the ultimate size of the army was further indicated when the War +Department asked the House Military Affairs Committee for a new +appropriation of $15,000,000,000. + +Mr. Baker, Secretary of War, appeared before the committee on April 23 +and, after describing the results of his inspection of the army in +France, said that the size of the army that the United States would send +abroad was entirely dependent upon the shipping situation. Troops were +already moving to France at an accelerated rate. + +President Wilson, through Mr. Baker, presented the House Military +Affairs Committee on May 2 with proposals for increasing the army. The +President asked that all limits be removed on the number of men to be +drafted for service. Mr. Baker said that he declined to discuss the +numbers of the proposed army "for the double reason that any number +implies a limit, and the only possible limit is our ability to equip and +transport men, which is constantly on the increase." + +The Administration's plans were submitted in detail on May 3, when the +committee began the preparation of the army appropriation bill carrying +$15,000,000,000 to finance the army during the fiscal year ending June +30, 1919. Mr. Baker again refused to go into the question of figures, +but it became known at the Capitol that the estimates he submitted were +based on a force of not fewer than 3,000,000 men and 160,000 officers in +the field by July 1, 1919. The plan contemplated having 130,000 officers +and 2,168,000 men, or a total of 2,298,000, in the field and in camps by +July 1, 1918, and approximately an additional million in the field +before June 30, 1919. + +Mr. Baker said that all the army camps and cantonments were to be +materially enlarged, to take care of the training of the men to be +raised in the next twelve months. The General Staff had this question +under careful consideration, and the idea was to increase the size of +existing training camps rather than to establish new camps. These camps, +it was estimated, already had facilities for training close to a million +men at one time. + +The Secretary of War also made it clear that the total of +$15,000,000,000 involved in the estimates as revised for the new army +bill did not cover the whole cost of the army for the next fiscal year. +The $15,000,000,000, he explained, was in addition to the large sums +that would be carried in the Fortifications Appropriation bill, which +covers the cost of heavy ordnance both in the United States and +overseas. Nor did it include the Military Academy bill. It was +emphasized that, although estimates were submitted on the basis of an +army of a certain size, Congress was being asked for blanket authority +for the President to raise all the men needed, and the approximate +figures of $15,000,000,000 could be increased by deficiency +appropriations. + +It was brought out in the committee that the transportation service had +improved and that the War Department was able to send more men to France +each month. It was estimated that if transport facilities continued to +improve, close to 1,500,000 fighting men would be on the western front +by Dec. 31, 1918. The United States had now in camp and in the field, +it was explained to the committee, the following enlisted men and +officers: + + Enlisted men 1,765,000 + Officers 120,000 + + Total 1,885,000 + +Provost Marshal General Crowder announced on May 8 that 1,227,000 +Americans had been called to the colors under the Selective Draft act, +thereby indicating approximately the strength of the national army. +Additional calls during May for men to be in camp by June 2 affected +something like 366,600 registrants under the draft law. These men were +largely intended to fill up the camps at home, replacing the seasoned +personnel from the divisions previously training there. With the +increase of the number of divisions in France, the flow of replacement +troops was increasing proportionately. + +In regard to the number of men in France, Mr. Baker on May 8 made the +following important announcement: + + In January I told the Senate committee that there was strong + likelihood that early in the present year 500,000 American troops + would be dispatched to France. I cannot either now or perhaps later + discuss the number of American troops in France, but I am glad to be + able to say that the forecast I made in January has been surpassed. + +This was the first official utterance indicating even indirectly the +number of men sent abroad. The first force to go was never described +except as a division, although as a matter of fact it was constituted +into two divisions soon after its arrival in France. + +An Associated Press dispatch dated May 17 announced that troops of the +new American Army had arrived within the zone of the British forces in +Northern France and were completing their training in the area occupied +by the armies which were blocking the path of the Germans to the Channel +ports. The British officers who were training the Americans stated that +the men from overseas were of the finest material. The newcomers were +warmly greeted by the British troops and were reported to be full of +enthusiasm. + + + + +American Troops in Central France + +By Laurence Jerrold + +_This friendly British view of our soldiers in France is from the pen of +a noted war correspondent of The London Morning Post_ + + +I have recently visited the miniature America now installed in France, +and installed in the most French part of Central France. There is +nothing more French than these ancient towns with historic castles, +moats, dungeons, and torture chambers, these old villages, where farms +are sometimes still battlemented like small castles, and this +countryside where living is easy and pleasant. On to this heart of +France has descended a whole people from across the ocean, a people that +hails from New England and California, from Virginia and Illinois. The +American Army has taken over this heart of France, and is teaching it to +"go some". Townsfolk and villagers enjoy being taught. The arrival of +the American Army is a revelation to them. + +I was surprised at first to find how fresh a novelty an allied army was +in this part of France. Then I remembered that these little towns and +villages have in the last few months for the first time seen allies of +France. The ports where the American troops land have seen many other +allies; they saw, indeed, in August, 1914, some of the first British +troops land, whose reception remains in the recollection of the +inhabitants as a scene of such fervor and loving enthusiasm as had never +been known before and probably will not be known again. In fact, to put +it brutally, French ports are blasé. But this Central France for the +first time welcomes allied troops. It is true they had seen some +Russians, but the least said of them now the better. Some of the +Russians are still there, hewing wood for three francs a day per head, +and behaving quite peaceably. + +These old towns and villages look upon the American Army in their midst +as the greatest miracle they have ever known, and a greater one than +they ever could have dreamed of. One motors through scores of little +towns and villages where the American soldier, in his khaki, his soft +hat, (which I am told is soon to be abolished,) and his white gaiters, +swarms. The villagers put up bunting, calico signs, flags, and have +stocks of American "canned goods" to show in their shop windows. The +children, when bold, play with the American soldiers, and the children +that are more shy just venture to go up and touch an American soldier's +leg. Very old peasant ladies put on their Sunday black and go out +walking and in some mysterious way talking with American soldiers. The +village Mayor turns out and makes a speech utterly incomprehensible to +the American soldier, whenever a fresh contingent of the latter arrives. +The 1919 class, just called up, plays bugles and shouts "Good morning" +when an American car comes by. + +Vice versa, this Central France is perhaps even more of a miracle to the +American troops than the American troops are to it. To watch the +American trooper from Arkansas or Chicago being shown over a castle +which is not only older than the United States, but was in its prime +under Louis XII., and dates back to a Roman fortress now beneath it, is +a wonderful sight. Here the American soldier shows himself a charming +child. There is nothing of the "Innocents Abroad" about him. I heard +scarcely anything (except about telephones and railways) of any American +brag of modernism in this ancient part of France. On the contrary, the +soldier is learning with open eyes, and trying to learn with open ears, +all these wonders of the past among which he has been suddenly put. The +officer, too, even the educated officer, is beautifully astonished at +all this past, which he had read about, but which, quite possibly, he +didn't really believe to exist. The American officers who speak +French--and there are some of them, coming chiefly from the Southern +States--are, of course, heroes in every town, and sought after in cafés +at recreation hours by every French officer and man. Those who do not +know French are learning it, and I remember a picturesque sight, that of +a very elderly, prim French governess in black, teaching French to +American subalterns in a Y.M.C.A. canteen. + +A great French preacher the other day, in his sermon in a Paris church, +said that this coming to France of millions of English troops and future +millions of American troops may mean eventually one of the greatest +changes in Continental Europe the world has ever known. His words never +seemed to me so full of meaning as they did when I was among the +Americans in the heart of France. There, of course, the contrast is +infinitely greater than it can be in the France which our own troops are +occupying and defending. These young, fresh, hustling, keen Americans, +building up numerous works of all kinds to prepare for defending France, +have brought with them Chinese labor and negro labor; and Chinese and +negroes and German and Austrian prisoners all work in these American +camps under American officers' orders. Imagine what an experience, what +a miracle, indeed, this spectacle seems to the country-folk of this old +French soil, who have always lived very quietly, who never wanted to go +anywhere else, and who knew, indeed, that France had allies fighting and +working for her, but had never seen any of them until these Americans +came across three thousand miles of ocean. + +Something of a miracle, also, is what our new allies are accomplishing. +They are doing everything on a huge scale. I saw aviation camps, +training camps, aviation schools, vast tracts where barracks were being +put up, railways built, telegraphs and telephones installed by Chinese +labor, negro labor, German prisoners' labor, under the direction of +American skilled workmen, who are in France by the thousand. There are +Y.M.C.A. canteens, Red Cross canteens, clubs for officers and for men, +theatres and cinemas for the army, and a prodigious amount of food--all +come from America. The hams alone I saw strung up in one canteen would +astonish the boches. American canned goods, meat, fruit, condensed milk, +meal, &c., have arrived in France in stupendous quantities. No body of +American troops land in France until what is required for their +sustenance several weeks ahead is already stored in France. Only the +smallest necessaries are bought on the spot, and troops passing through +England on their way to France are strictly forbidden, both officers and +men, to buy any article of food whatsoever in England. As for the +quality, the American has nothing to complain of, so far as I could see. +All pastry, cakes, sweets are henceforth prohibited throughout civilian +France, but the American troops rightly have all these things in plenty. +I saw marvelous cakes and tarts, which would create a run on any Paris +or London teashop, and the lady who manages one American Red Cross +canteen (by the way, she is an Englishwoman, and is looked up to by the +American military authorities as one of the best organizers they have +met) explained to me wonderful recipes they have for making jam with +honey and preserved fruit. The bread, of course, they make themselves, +and, as is right, it is pure white flour bread, such as no civilian +knows nowadays. + +One motors through scores of villages and more, and every little old +French spot swarms with American Tommies billeted in cottages and +farmhouses. Many of them marched straight to their billets from their +landing port, and the experience is as wonderful for them, just spirited +over from the wilds of America, as it is for the villagers who welcome +these almost fabulous allies. But it is the engineering, building, and +machinery works the Americans are putting up which are the most +astonishing. Gangs of workers have come over in thousands. Many of these +young chaps are college men, Harvard or Princeton graduates. They dig +and toil as efficiently as any laborer, and perhaps with more zeal. One +American Major told me with glee how a party of these young workers +arrived straight from America at 3:30 P. M., and started digging at 5 +A. M. next morning. "And they liked it; it tickled them to death." Many +of these drafts, in fact, were sick and tired of inaction in ports +before their departure from America, and they welcomed work in France as +if it were some great game. + +Perhaps the biggest work of all the Americans are doing is a certain +aviation camp and school. In a few months it has neared completion, and +when it is finished it will, I believe, be the biggest of its kind in +the world. There pilots are trained, and trained in numbers which I may +not say, but which are comforting. The number of airplanes they use +merely for training, which also I must not state, is in itself +remarkable. "Training pilots is the one essential thing," I was told by +the C.O. These flying men--or boys--who have, of course, already been +broken in in America, do an additional course in France, and when they +leave the aviation camp I saw they are absolutely ready for air fighting +at the front. This is the finishing school. The aviators go through +eight distinct courses in this school. They are perfected in flying, in +observation, in bombing, in machine-gun firing. On even a cloudy and +windy day the air overhead buzzes with these young American fliers, all +getting into the pink of condition to do their stunts at the front. They +seemed to me as keen as our own flying men, and as well disciplined. +They live in the camp, and it requires moving heaven and earth for one +of them to get leave to go even to the nearest little quiet old town. + +The impression is the same of the American bases in France as of the +American front in France. I found there and here one distinctive +characteristic, the total absence of bluff. I was never once told that +we were going to be shown how to win the war. I was never once told that +America is going to win the war. I never heard that American men and +machines are better than ours, but I did hear almost apologies from +American soldiers because they had not come into the war sooner. They +are, I believe, spending now more money than we are--indeed, the pay of +their officers is about double that of ours. I said something about the +cost. "Yes, but you see we must make up for lost time," was all the +American General said. And he told me about the splendid training work +that is being done now in the States by British and French officers who +have gone out there knowing what war is, and who teach American officers +and men from first-hand experience. This particular General hoped that +by this means in a very short time American troops arriving in France +may be sent much more quickly to the front than is now the case. + +An impression of complete, businesslike determination is what one gets +when visiting the Americans in France. A discipline even stricter than +that which applies in British and French troops is enforced. In towns, +officers, for instance, are not allowed out after 9 P. M. Some towns +where subalterns discovered the wine of the country have instantly been +put "out of bounds." No officer, on any pretext whatsoever, is allowed +to go to Paris, except on official business. From the camps they are not +even allowed to go to the neighboring towns. They have, to put it quite +frankly, a reputation of wild Americanism to live down, and they +sometimes surprise the French by their seriousness. It is a striking +sight to see American officers and men flocking into tiny little French +Protestant churches on Sundays in this Catholic heart of France. The +congregation is a handful of old French Huguenots, and the ancient, +rigid French pasteur never in his life preached to so many, and +certainly never to soldiers from so far. They come from so far, and from +such various parts, these Americans, and for France, as well as for +themselves, it is a wonderful experience. I was told that the postal +censors who read the letters of the American expeditionary force are +required to know forty-seven languages. Of these languages the two least +used are Chinese and German. + + + + +American Shipbuilders Break All Records + +Charles M. Schwab Speeds the Work + +[MONTH ENDED MAY 15, 1918] + + +All shipbuilding records have been broken by American builders in the +last month. On May 14 it was announced that the first million tons of +ships had been completed and delivered to the United States Government +under the direction of the Shipping Board. The actual figures on May 11 +showed the number of ships to be 159, aggregating 1,108,621 tons. More +than half of this tonnage was delivered since Jan. 1, 1918. Most of +these ships were requisitioned on the ways or in contract form when the +United States entered the war. This result had been anticipated in the +monthly records, which showed a steady increase in the tonnage launched: + + Number of + Ships Aggregate + Month. Launched. Tonnage. + + January 11 91,541 + February 16 123,100 + March 21 166,700 + +The rapidity with which ships are being produced was shown by the +breaking of the world's record on April 20 and in turn the breaking of +this record on May 5. On the former date the 8,800-ton steel steamship +West Lianga was launched at Seattle, Wash., fifty-five working days from +the date the keel was laid. This was then the world's record. But on May +5 at Camden, N. J., the steel freight steamship Tuckahoe, of 5,548 tons, +was launched twenty-seven days after the keel was laid. + +Ten days after this extraordinary achievement the Tuckahoe was finished +and furnished and ready for sea--another record feat. + +Charles M. Schwab, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bethlehem +Steel Corporation, was on April 16, 1918, appointed Director General of +the Emergency Fleet Corporation to speed up the Government's +shipbuilding program. He was invested with practically unlimited powers +over all construction work in shipyards producing vessels for the +Emergency Fleet Corporation. Charles Piez in consequence ceased to be +General Manager of the Corporation, remaining, however, as Vice +President to supervise administrative details of construction and +placing contracts. + +Mr. Schwab, who was the fifth man to be put in charge of the +shipbuilding program, was not desirous of accepting the position when +first approached because he considered his work in producing steel of +first importance in the carrying out of the nation's war program. But +after a conference with President Wilson, Edward N. Hurley, Chairman of +the Shipping Board; Bainbridge Colby, another member of the board, and +Charles Piez, he decided to accept the new position. + +Almost the first thing Mr. Schwab did was to move his headquarters to +Philadelphia as the centre of the steel-shipbuilding region, taking with +him all the division chiefs of the Fleet Corporation directly connected +with construction work and about 2,000 employes. The Shipping Board and +Mr. Piez retained their offices in Washington with 1,500 subordinates +and employes. As a further step toward decentralization it was arranged +to move the operating department, including agencies such as the +Interallied Ship Control Committee, headed by P. A. S. Franklin, to New +York City. + +The original "cost-plus" contract under which the Submarine Boat +Corporation of Newark was to build 160 ships of 5,000 tons for the +Government was canceled by Mr. Schwab as an experiment to determine +whether shipyards operating under lump-sum contracts and accepting all +responsibility for providing materials could make greater speed in +construction than those operating with Government money, such as the Hog +Island yards. The result was to increase the cost of each of the 160 +ships from $787,500 to $960,000. + +A request for an appropriation of $2,223,835,000 for the 1919 program +was presented by Mr. Hurley and Mr. Schwab to the House Appropriations +Committee on May 8. + +Of this total $1,386,100,000 was for construction of ships and +$652,000,000 for the purchasing and requisitioning of plants and +material in connection with the building program. + + + + +Third Liberty Loan Oversubscribed + +Approximately 17,000,000 Buyers + + +When the Third Liberty Loan, raised to finance America's war needs, +closed on May 4, 1918, the subscriptions were well over $4,000,000,000, +a billion in excess of the amount called for. The total was announced on +May 17 as $4,170,019,650. Secretary McAdoo stated that he would allot +bonds in full on all subscriptions. + +The loan was regarded as the most successful ever floated by any nation, +not so much because of the volume of sales, but because of the wide +distribution of the loan. Approximately 17,000,000 individuals +subscribed, that is, about one person in every six in the United States. +The number of buyers in the Third Loan exceeded those in the Second by +7,000,000 and those in the First by 12,500,000. + +The campaign throughout the country was conducted with all the +thoroughness of a great political struggle, with the difference that +there were no contending parties and all forces were marshaled to make +the loan a success. Nor was the campaign merely a display of efficient +organization and vigorous propaganda. It had many features of dramatic +and picturesque interest, not only in the large cities, but in almost +every smaller centre of the nation. A noonday rally of 50,000 men and +women in Wall Street, New York, on the closing day, was typical. An +eyewitness described it thus: + + The Police Department Band appeared and the band of the 15th Coast + Artillery from Fort Hamilton. Taking advantage of the occasion, + James Montgomery Flagg now appeared in his studio van on the + southern fringe of the Broad Street crowd. A girl with him played + something on the cornet. It was a good deal like a show on the + Midway at a Western county fair. But this was no faker--one of the + most famous artists in America, throwing in a signed sketch of + whoever bought Liberty bonds. Those near him began pushing and + crowding to take advantage of the offer. + + And now, suddenly, a tremendous racket up the street toward + Broadway. Who comes? + + Cheer on cheer, now. It is the "Anzacs." Twelve long, rangy fellows, + officers all, six or seven of them with the little brass "A" on the + shoulder, which signifies service at Gallipoli and in Flanders. They + are members of the contingent of 500 which arrived here yesterday on + its way to the battlefields of France. They run lightly up the + Sub-Treasury steps and take their stand in a group beside the + soldier band. + + And now they all come--all the actors in the drama of the day. + Governor Whitman, bareheaded, solemn-faced; Rabbi Stephen Wise, with + his rugged face and his shock of blue-black hair; Mme. + Schumann-Heink, panting a little with excitement; Auguste Bouilliz, + baritone of the Royal Opera of Brussels, who later is to thrill them + all with his singing of the "Marseillaise"; Cecil Arden, in a + shining helmet and draped in the Union Jack, come to sing "God Save + the King," while the sunburned Australian officers stand like + statues at salute; Oscar Straus, and then-- + + "Yee-ee-ee-eee." + + Oh, how they cheered! For the "Blue Devils" of France had poured out + of the door of the Sub-Treasury and, with the fitful sun shining + once more and gleaming on their bayonets, were running down the + steps in two lines, past the "Anzacs," past the soldier band, to + draw up in ranks at the bottom. + + Lieutenant de Moal speaks. What does he say? Who knows? But he is + widely cheered, just the same, as he gives way to Governor Whitman. + + "There are gatherings like this, though not so large, all over our + land today," cries the Governor. "In every town and city we + Americans are gathered together at this moment to demonstrate that + we are behind our army, behind our navy, behind our President." + + The cheers that acclaimed his mention of the President drowned his + voice for several moments. + + "Here are the Australians," he cries, pointing to the "Anzac" + officers. "They have brought us a message, but we are going to give + them a message, too." + + As the Governor stepped back to cheers that rocked the street, + Lieutenant de Moal barked a sharp order, and the "Blue Devils" + shouldered their guns with fixed bayonets, the six trumpeters + ta-ra-ta-raed, and the soldiers of France moved off up the sidewalk + lane to the side door of the Stock Exchange, where all business was + suspended during the fifteen minutes of their visit on the floor. + + Four of the "Anzacs" meanwhile were taken from their ranks on the + steps of the building up to the pedestal of the statue of + Washington, which was used as speaker's platform, and Captain Frank + McCallam made a brief address. + + "We haven't many men left," he said simply. "And it is up to you + people to help us out to the best of your ability." + + More cheers, and then Cecil Arden sang "God Save the King." The + American regular fired a blank volley over the heads of the crowd, + and the kids scrambled for the empty shells. + + Following Wise and Straus, Bouilliz, the Belgian baritone, sang the + "Marseillaise," and then, after the soldier band had played "Where + Do We Go from Here, Boys?" Mme. Schumann-Heink advanced and sang the + national anthem, following it up with an appeal that was the climax + to the play. + +Less exciting but more impressive was the parade on April 26, when +thousands of mothers who had sent their sons to the front marched in a +column of 35,000 men and women in the Liberty Day parade in New York +City. This day had been proclaimed as such by President Wilson for "the +people of the United States to assemble in their respective communities +and liberally pledge anew their financial support to sustain the +nation's cause, and to hold patriotic demonstrations in every city, +town, and hamlet throughout the land." + +The challenge of the mothers was inscribed on one of the banners they +carried: "We give our sons--they give their lives--what do you give?" + +Remarkable as was the appearance of these mothers with the little +service flags over their shoulders, many of them so old that they +marched with difficulty, the spectators who flanked the line of march +along Fifth Avenue from Washington Square to Fifty-ninth Street found it +even more thrilling to note that so very many of them, whether they were +mothers or young wives, or just young girls proud of the brothers that +had gone forth to service--so very many of them carried service flags +with three and four and five and even six stars, and occasionally a +glint of the sun would even carry the eye to a gold star, which meant, +whenever it appeared, a veil of mourning for a wooden cross somewhere in +France. + +Among the minor but ingenious forms of publicity was the Liberty Loan +ball which was rolled from Buffalo to New York, a distance of 470 miles, +and which ended its journey of three weeks on May 4 at the City Hall. +The ball was a large steel shell covered with canvas. + +Every community that reached or exceeded its quota to the loan was +entitled to raise a flag of honor specially designed for the purpose. At +least 32,000 communities gained the honor and raised the flag. + +To strengthen the financial basis of the nation's war industries and use +monetary resources to the best advantage the War Finance Corporation +bill was passed by Congress and approved by President Wilson on April 5, +1918. The two main purposes of the act are to provide credits for +industries and enterprises necessary or contributory to the prosecution +of the war and to supervise new issues of capital. The act creates the +War Finance Corporation, consisting of the Secretary and four additional +persons, with $500,000,000 capital stock, all subscribed by the United +States. Banks and trust companies financing war industries or +enterprises may receive advances from the corporation. + + + + +Former War Loans of the United States + +A Historical Retrospect + +_The United States Government asked for $2,000,000,000 on the First +Liberty Loan in the Spring of 1917, and $3,034,000,000 was subscribed by +over 4,000,000 subscribers. For the Second Loan, near the end of 1917, +$3,000,000,000 was sought, and $4,617,532,300 was subscribed by +9,420,000 subscribers._ + +_The Guaranty Trust Company of New York in a recent brochure reviewed +the history of the various war loans of the United States, beginning +with the Revolutionary loans, as follows:_ + + +When the patriots at Lexington "fired the shot heard 'round the world," +the thirteen Colonies found themselves suddenly in the midst of war, but +with practically no funds in their Treasuries. The Continental Congress +was without power to raise money by taxation, and had to depend upon +credit bills and requisitions drawn against the several Colonies. France +was the first foreign country to come to the aid of struggling America, +the King of France himself advancing us our first loan. All told, +France's loan was $6,352,500; Holland loaned us $1,304,000; and Spain +assisted us with $174,017. Our loan from France was repaid between 1791 +and 1795 to the Revolutionary Government of France; the Holland loan +during the same period in five annual installments, and the Spanish loan +in 1792-3. + +Our first domestic war loan of £6,000 was made in 1775, and the loan was +taken at par. A year and a half later found Congress laboring under +unusual difficulties. Boston and New York were held by the enemy, the +patriot forces were retreating, and the people were as little inclined +to submit to domestic taxation as they had formerly been to "taxation +without representation." To raise funds even a lottery was attempted. In +October, 1776, Congress authorized a second loan for $5,000,000. It was +not a pronounced success, only $3,787,000 being raised in twelve months. +In 1778 fourteen issues of paper money were authorized as the only way +to meet the expenses of the army. By the end of the year 1779 Congress +had issued $200,000,000 in paper money, while a like amount had been +issued by the several States. In 1781, as a result of this financing and +of the general situation, Continental bills of credit had fallen 99 per +cent. + +Then came Robert Morris, that genius of finance, who found ways to raise +the money which assured the triumph of the American cause. By straining +his personal credit, which was higher than that of the Government, he +borrowed upon his own individual security on every hand. On one occasion +he borrowed from the commander of the French fleet, securing the latter +with his personal obligation. If Morris and other patriotic citizens had +not rendered such assistance to the Government, some of the most +important campaigns of the Revolutionary War would have been impossible. +Following came the Bank of Pennsylvania, which issued its notes--in +effect, loans--to provide rations and equipment for Washington's army at +Valley Forge. These notes were secured by bills of exchange drawn +against our envoys abroad, but it was never seriously intended that they +should be presented for payment. The bank was a tremendous success in +securing the money necessary to carry out its patriotic purposes, and +was practically the first bank of issue in this country. + +With the actual establishment of the United States and the adoption of +the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton came forward with a funding scheme +by which the various debts owed to foreign countries, to private +creditors, and to the several States were combined. In 1791, on a specie +basis, our total debt was $75,000,000. The paper dollar was practically +valueless and the people were forced to give the Government adequate +powers to raise money and to impose taxes. Between that date and 1812 +thirteen tariff bills were passed to raise money to meet public +expenditures and pay off the national debt. + + +THE WAR OF 1812. + +For some time previous to the actual outbreak of the War of 1812 +hostilities had been predicted. In a measure, this enabled Congress to +prepare for it. And although the war did not begin until June of 1812, +as early as March of that year a loan of $11,000,000, bearing 6 per +cent. at par, to be paid off within 12 years from the beginning of 1813, +was authorized. Of this, however, only $2,150,000 was issued, and all +was redeemed by 1817. The next year a loan of $16,000,000 was authorized +and subscribed. This was followed, in August, by a loan of $7,500,000 +which sold at 88-1/4 per cent. + +At the end of the war the total loans negotiated by the Government +aggregated $88,000,000. The nation's public debt, as a result of this +war, was increased to $127,334,933 in 1816. By 1835, either by +redemptions or maturity, it was all paid. + + +MEXICAN WAR LOANS + +The Mexican War net debt incurred by the United States was approximately +$49,000,000 and was financed by loans in the form of Treasury notes and +Government stock. The Treasury notes, under the act of 1846, totaled +$7,687,800 and the stock $4,999,149. The latter paid 6 per cent. +interest. By act of 1847 Treasury notes to the amount of $26,122,100 +were issued, bearing interest in the discretion of the Secretary of the +Treasury, reimbursable one and two years after date, and convertible +into United States stock at 6 per cent. They were redeemable after Dec. +31, 1867. Economic developments following this war led to a period of +extraordinary industrial prosperity which lasted for several years. A +change in the fiscal policy of the Government, with overexpansion of +industry, however, resulted in a panic in 1857 and a Treasury deficit in +1858. The debt contracted in consequence of the Mexican War was redeemed +in full by 1874. + +The situation had not improved to any great extent when Lincoln took +office on March 4, 1861, and by mid-November of that year a panic was +in full swing. The outbreak of the civil war found the Treasury empty +and the financial machinery of the Government seriously disorganized. +Public credit was low, the public mind was disturbed, and raising money +was difficult. In 1862 the Legal Tender act was passed, authorizing an +issue of $150,000,000 of legal-tender notes, and an issue of bonds in +the amount of $500,000,000 was authorized. + +This proved to be a most popular loan. The bonds were subject to +redemption after five years and were payable in twenty years. They bore +interest at 6 per cent., payable semi-annually, and were issued in +denominations of $50, $100, $500, and $1,000. Through one agent, Jay +Cooke, a genius at distribution, who employed 2,850 sub-agents and +advertised extensively, this loan was placed directly with the people at +par in currency. Altogether the aggregate of this loan was $514,771,600. +Later in that year Congress authorized a second issue of Treasury notes +in the amount of $150,000,000 at par, with interest at 6 per cent.; in +January, 1863, a third issue of $100,000,000 was authorized, which was +increased in March to $150,000,000, at 5 per cent. interest. These +issues were referred to as the "one and two year issues of 1863." + + +DEFICIT IN 1862 + +In December, 1862, Congress had to face a deficit of $277,000,000 and +unpaid requisitions amounting to $47,000,000. By the close of 1863 +nearly $400,000,000 had been raised by bond sales. A further loan act, +passed March 3, 1864, provided for an issue of $200,000,000 of 5 per +cent. bonds known as "ten-fortys," but of this total only $73,337,000 +was disposed of. Subsequently, on June 30, 1864, a great public loan of +$200,000,000 was authorized. This was an issue of Treasury notes, +payable at any time not exceeding three years, and bearing interest at +7-3/10 per cent. Notes amounting to $828,800,000 were sold. The +aggregate of Government loans during the civil war footed up a total of +$2,600,700,000; and on Sept. 1, 1865, the public debt closely +approached $3,000,000,000, less than one-half of which was funded. + +Civil war loans, with one exception, which sold at 89-3/10, were all +placed at par in currency, subject to commissions ranging from an eighth +to one per cent. to distributing bankers. The average interest nominally +paid by the Government on its bonds during the war was slightly under 6 +per cent. Owing to payment being made in currency, however, the rate +was, in reality, much higher. With the conclusion of the war, the +reduction of the public debt was undertaken, and it has continued with +but two interruptions to date. + +Heavy tax receipts for several years after the close of the war +potentially enabled the Government to reduce its debt. Indeed, from 1866 +to 1891, each year's ordinary receipts exceeded disbursements, and +enabled the Government to lighten its financial burdens. In 1866 the +decrease in the net debt was $120,395,408; in 1867, $127,884,952; in +1868, $27,297,798; in 1869, $48,081,540; in 1870, $101,601,917; in 1871, +$84,175,888; in 1872, $97,213,538, and in 1873, $44,318,470. + +Through refunding operations--in addition to bonds and short-time +obligations redeemed with surplus revenues--the Government paid off, up +to 1879, $535,000,000 bonds bearing interest at from 5 to 6 per cent. In +this year the credit of the Government was on a 4 per cent. basis, and a +year later on a 3-1/4 per cent. basis, against a maximum basis of 15-1/2 +per cent. in 1864. + +Between 1881 and 1887 the Governzment paid off, either with surplus +revenues or by conversion, $618,000,000 of interest-bearing debt. In +1891 all bonds then redeemable were retired, and on July 1, 1893, the +public debt amounted to less than one-third of the maximum outstanding +in 1865. In 1900 the Government converted $445,900,000 bonds out of an +aggregate of $839,000,000 convertible under the refunding act passed by +Congress in that year. And further conversions in 1903, 1905, and 1907 +brought the grand total up to $647,250,150--a result which earned for +the Government a net annual saving in interest account of $16,551,037. + + +SPANISH WAR LOANS + +The United States is a debt-paying nation. Hence, America's credit, +despite occasional fluctuations, has steadily risen, and our national +debt has sold on a lower income basis than that of any other nation in +the world. + +Following the sinking of the Maine in Havana Harbor, in 1898, Congress +authorized an issue of $200,000,000 3 per cent. ten-twenty-year bonds. +Of this aggregate $198,792,660 were sold by the Government at par. So +popular was this loan, it was oversubscribed seven times. During the +year 1898, following the allotment to the public, this issue sold at a +premium, the price going to 107-3/4, and, during the next year, to +110-3/4. After the war ended, the Government, in accordance with its +unvarying custom, began to pay off this debt; but, despite the Secretary +of the Treasury's offer to buy these bonds, he succeeded in purchasing +only about $20,000,000 of them. + +[Illustration] + + + + +American Labor Mission in Europe + +War Aims of Organized Workers Conveyed to English and French Labor +Unions + + +An American Labor Mission visited England and France in April, 1918, to +present the views of American workingmen regarding the war. The +delegation numbered eighteen, headed by James Wilson, President of the +Patternmakers' League of North America. In his first address at London, +April 28, before the British and Foreign Press Association, Mr. Wilson +said: + + We recognize as a fundamental truth that there can be no democracy + with the triumph of the Imperial German Government. The principle of + democracy or the principle of Prussian military autocracy will + prevail as a result of the world war. There can be no middle course + nor compromise. The contest must be carried on to its finality. + + The Central Powers have staked everything on the result of this + struggle. Their defeat means the destruction of a machine which has + been built with remarkable efficiency and embodies the very life of + the German race. + + On the other hand, every free man instinctively appreciates that if + we are to maintain the standard of civilization as worked out by the + free men of the world, and if posterity is to be guaranteed + political and industrial freedom, the war must be won by the allied + countries. Peace now would be the fulfillment of the Prussian dream, + for they have within their grasp the very heart of Continental + Europe and resources which would make sure further conquest upon the + other nations of the world. + + The American labor movement, in whose behalf my colleagues and + myself have been authorized to speak, declare most emphatically that + they will not agree to a peace conference with the enemies of + civilization, irrespective of what cloak they wear, until Prussian + militarism has withdrawn within its own boundaries, and then not + until the Germans have, through proper representatives, proved to + our satisfaction that they recognize the right of peoples and + civilized nations to determine for themselves what shall be their + standard. + + Unless reconstruction shall soon come from the German workers within + that country, it is now plain that the opportunity to uproot the + agencies of force will only come when democracy has defeated + autocracy in the military field and wins the right to reconstruct + the relations between nations and men. + + German freedom is ultimately the problem of the German people, but + the defeat of Prussian autocracy in the field will bring the + opportunity for German liberty at home. + + +BRITISH SEAMEN'S ATTITUDE + +J. Havelock Wilson, President of the British Seamen's Union, conferred +with the American Mission at London, April 30, and informed it of the +decision of his union to transport no pacifists to any peace conference. +He made the following statement: + + On Sept. 21, 1917, we formed what we called a Merchant Seamen's + League, and declared that if German terrorism on the sea continued + we would enforce a boycott against Germany for two years after the + war, and that for every new crime from that time on we would add one + month to the length of the boycott. The length of the boycott now + stands at five years seven months. We have reliable information that + this action is making a very profound impression on German + manufacturers and shippers. + + The British seamen got their first intimation of German treachery + when the international transport strike was first proposed by German + delegates ostensibly to pledge support. But the British learned + later that the German delegates had in their pockets as they talked + contracts signed with employers. + + After that we watched the German Social Democrats in the Socialists' + international. But we never could get the Germans to face the issue. + Always they had excuses and evasions. We never had confidence in + them. When war came we felt it our duty to take care of the men on + our ships who could no longer sail, and also to set a good example. + + Here were Germans on our ships who had been in England so long that + they had forgotten their language. On Aug. 20, 1914--you see we + acted quickly--we bought an estate of thirty-nine acres and built + the model internment camp of Great Britain. We asked the Government + to give us charge of all interned German sailors, and, let it be + known to the credit of Great Britain, that was done. The Government + allowed us all 10s. per week per man for upkeep. The camp became a + great success. There were 1,000 German sailors interned in it. + + Until May, 1915, all went well. On May 1 the interned men celebrated + May Day, their international revolutionary holiday. They had their + banners, "Workers of the World, Unite," "World Brotherhood," and so + on. We had planned a great fête to be held later and I had secured + the consent of several well-known persons to attend and help make it + a success. On May 7 the Lusitania was sunk. I called the Germans in + camp together and told them the terrible thing that had happened. I + told them they were not to blame, but that the celebration could not + be held. And they made no protest to me. + + Now here were 1,000 Germans not under control of the Kaiser. Some of + them had been among us twenty or thirty years. As soon as I had got + out of the place they sang and cheered and rejoiced over the + Lusitania disaster. They kept this up for four hours. They made me + conclude that the camp must be handed over to the military as soon + as possible, and this was done. Six months after that came the + U-boat campaign, and, what made that worse, the fact that the + U-boats always turned their guns on open boats. + + I have got hundreds of cases of boys whose arms and legs have been + blown off by U-boat guns while trying to get away from sinking ships + in open boats. I wrote the Secretary of the International Transport + Workers' Union protesting against these crimes. His reply attempted + to justify every crime. That showed us that not only was the Kaiser + responsible, but that the organized trade union movement of Germany + was also responsible. + + On June 1, 1917, a Socialist congress was convened at Leeds. It was + advertised as the greatest conference ever held. We sent two men + there to tell our story. Our men found that small bodies of only a + handful of members had been delegated, who got the floor easily for + the pacifist cause. Our men could not secure anything like a fair + chance. + + In this conference MacDonald, Fairchild, and Jowett were elected + delegates to Stockholm. We at once resolved that no delegates should + leave this country. And none did. + + That is the history of the seamen's determination to bottle up such + British pacifists as may desire to go abroad spreading their + doctrine. Mingled with it is the grim, sad story of 12,000 members + of the Seamen's Union who have lost their lives on merchant ships + through Germany's criminal conduct on the seas. + + And while there is here and there one in England who resembles a + leader of labor who is a pacifist, the determination of the British + seamen to go through with the war to the finish is scarcely more + than a reflection of the rank-and-file spirit that is to be found + throughout the whole of British labor. + + +NO PARLEYS WITH ENEMY LABOR + +The American delegates met the representatives of labor in London and in +Paris. In England they found the sentiment almost unanimous in approval +of their decision to favor no conferences with German labor +representatives until a victory had been achieved. In France, however, +they encountered a group that favored contact with the German and +Austrian Socialists. On May 6 there was a conference in Paris between +the American labor delegates and the members of the Confederation +Générale de Travail, the great French revolutionary labor organization. +M. Jouhaux, General Secretary of the confederation, made the proposed +international conference practically the sole note of his speech. +France, he asserted, had no hatred for the German workers themselves, +and he pointed out that if the conference took place it could have only +one of two results. Either the workers in the enemy countries would +refuse to join in the efforts of the workers of the allied countries for +the liberation of the world's peoples, in which case the war must +continue, or they would accept the allied view of what was right and +would act with the allied peoples for the good of humanity. + +The American reply was in these definite words: + +"We don't hate the German workers any more than you do, but to give them +our hand now would be looked upon by them only as a sign of weakness." + +After reminding the congress of the hypocritical professions of the +German Socialist Party before the war, the delegation declared itself in +entire agreement with Samuel Gompers that American labor men would +refuse to meet the German delegates under any circumstances so long as +Germany was ruled by an Imperialistic Government. This declaration left +Albert Thomas, former Cabinet officer and leader of the group, +practically without a word to say. M. Thomas urged the same arguments +as Jouhaux, but all the satisfaction the French labor men got was a +promise from James Wilson, President of the American delegation, to +report the matter to the American workers when he returned home. + +Chairman Wilson reaffirmed at a luncheon given at the Foreign Office May +10 that American labor would not discuss the war with representatives of +German labor until victory was won, because German labor, which was +permitting the war, must do something itself in its own country toward +ending the conflict justly before it could debate with labor +representatives of the allied countries on what ought to be. + +The luncheon was given by Stephen Pichon, Foreign Minister, on behalf of +the French Government. With the exception of Premier Clemenceau, all the +members of the Cabinet were present as well as other men notable in +French public life. Ambassador Sharp was also in attendance. + +The mission visited the fighting front and returned to London May 11 to +hold mass meetings at English industrial centres. The members were +received by the King and dined by the London Chamber of Commerce May +15. + + + + +Progress of the War + +Recording Campaigns on All Fronts and Collateral Events From April 18, +1918, Up to and Including May 17, 1918 + + +UNITED STATES + +The campaign for the Third Liberty Loan of $3,000,000,000 ended on May +4. The total subscription was $4,170,019,650, as announced by the +Treasury Department on May 17. + +On April 20 President Wilson issued a proclamation extending to women +enemy aliens the restrictions imposed on men. + +The Overman bill, giving the President power to consolidate and +co-ordinate executive bureaus and agencies as a war emergency measure, +was passed by the Senate on April 28 and by the House on May 14. + +The War Trade Board announced on May 3 that a general commercial +agreement with Norway had been signed. On May 12 it announced that in +order to conserve materials and labor and to add tonnage to the fleet +carrying men and munitions to Europe, arrangements had been made to have +Great Britain, France, Italy, and Belgium pass upon the advisability of +releasing proposed exports before granting licenses to shippers. On May +14 an agreement was reached between the United States and the allied +nations providing that all imports to the United States should be +forbidden unless sanctioned by the War Trade Board. + +A conference report on the Sedition bill, giving the Government broad +new powers to punish disloyal acts and utterances, was adopted by the +Senate on May 4, and by the House of Representatives on May 7, and sent +to the President for his signature. + +As a result of charges of graft, inefficiency, and pro-German tendencies +directed against the military aircraft administration by Gutzon Borglum, +President Wilson, on May 15, asked Charles Evans Hughes to aid Attorney +General Gregory in making a thorough investigation. Mr. Hughes accepted +the invitation. The President also wrote a letter to Senator Martin +denouncing the Chamberlain resolution for an investigation of the +conduct of the war by the Committee on Military Affairs of the Senate, +and on the same day the Senate Committee on Audit and Expenses, to which +the resolution had been referred, ordered a favorable report on it, +modifying it so as to provide for a limited inquiry. + + +SUBMARINE BLOCKADE + +The American steamship Lake Moor was reported sunk on April 11. + +Forty-four Americans were killed when the Old Dominion liner Tyler was +sunk off the French coast on May 2. + +The British liner Oronsa was sunk on April 28. All on board except three +members of the crew were saved. The British sloop Cowslip was torpedoed +on April 25. Five officers and one man were missing. + +The British Admiralty announced on April 24 the cessation of the weekly +return of shipping losses and the substitution of a monthly report. + +In a statement made in the Chamber of Deputies on May 11, Georges +Leygues, the French Minister of Marine, declared that the total of +allied tonnage sunk by German submarines in five months was 1,648,622, +less than half the amount alleged by Germany to have been destroyed. He +announced that the number of submarines sunk by the Allies was greater +than Germany's output. + +[Illustration: BARON STEPHAN BURIAN + +Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister in succession to Czernin] + +LEADERS IN THE IRISH CONTROVERSY + +[Illustration: John Dillon, M. P., + +_Leader of the Nationalist Party_ + +(_Press Illustrating Service_)] + +[Illustration: Joseph Devlin, + +_Nationalist M. P. for West Belfast_ + +(_Press Illustrating Service_)] + +[Illustration: Sir Edward Carson, M. P., + +_Leader of the Ulster Unionists_ + +(_Central News_)] + +[Illustration: Sir Horace Plunkett, + +_Chairman of the Irish Convention_ + +(_Bain News Service_)] + + +Twelve German submarines were officially reported captured or sunk in +British waters by American or British destroyers during the month of +April, and two others were known to have been destroyed. + +Ten passengers were killed when the French steamship Atlantique was +torpedoed in the Mediterranean early in May. The ship managed to reach +port. + + +CAMPAIGN IN WESTERN EUROPE + +April 18--French advance on both banks of the Avre River between Thanne +and Mailly-Raineval; Germans deliver terrific assaults upon the British +front from Givenchy to the neighborhood of St. Venant. + +April 19--Italian troops reach France; British beat off assaults on Mont +Kemmel and recover ground west of Robecq; bombardment of Paris resumed. + +April 20--Germans hurl force against American and French troops at +Seicheprey and get a grip on the town, but are driven out; Belgians give +ground temporarily near the Passchendaele Canal, but regain it; British +re-establish their positions in Givenchy-Festubert region. + +April 21--British drive Germans from some of their advanced positions +near Robecq; Americans retake Seicheprey outposts. + +April 23--British gain ground east of Robecq and in the neighborhood of +Meteren. + +April 24--Germans take Villers-Bretonneux, but are repulsed at other +places south of the Somme; Franco-American positions at Hangard shelled. + +April 25--British recover Villers-Bretonneux; French and British lose +ground in the Lys salient before terrific German assaults from +Wytschaete to Bailleul, aiming at Mont Kemmel; Germans take Hangard. + +April 26--Germans take Mont Kemmel and the villages of Kemmel and +Dranoutre and push on to St. Eloi; French recover part of Hangard. + +April 27--British and French troops recover some of the ground lost in +the Bailleul-Wytschaete sector; Germans repulsed at Voormezeele after +hard fight. + +April 28--Germans take Voormezeele, but are driven out by counterattack; +Locre changes hands five times. + +April 29--Germans make heavy attacks upon the entire Franco-British +front from Zillebeke Lake to Meteren; British hold their line intact; +French yield some ground around Scherpenberg and Mont Rouge, but later +regain it; Belgians repulse attacks north of Ypres; Americans take over +a sector of the French line at the tip of the Somme salient. + +April 30--French recover ground on the slope of Scherpenberg and +advance their line astride the Dranoutre road; positions of the allied +forces push forward between La Clytte and Kemmel. + +May 1--Americans repulse attacks in the Villers-Bretonneux region; +Béthune region bombarded. + +May 3--French and British improve their positions along the Somme River +southward to below the Avre; French take Hill 82, near Castel, and the +wood near by. + +May 4--Germans repulsed at Locon; French make progress near Locre, and +British advance near Meteren; Americans in the Lorraine sector raid +German positions south of Halloville and penetrate to third line; French +shell disables last of German guns that have been bombarding Paris. + +May 5--Franco-British forces, in operation between Locre and Dranoutre, +advance their positions on a 1,000-yard front to an average depth of 500 +yards; Germans foiled in attempt to occupy former American trenches in +the Bois Brûlé. + +May 6--Germans launch heavy gas attacks against American troops on the +Picardy front. + +May 8--Germans gain a foothold at several points midway between La +Clytte and Voormezeele, but are repulsed at other points along the line; +Australians advance 500 yards near Sailly and 300 yards west of +Morlancourt. + +May 9--British re-establish their lines and drive Germans out of British +trenches between La Clytte and Voormezeele; Germans occupy British +advanced positions at Albert on a front of about 150 yards. + +May 10--British restore their line at Albert; German artillery fire +active in the Vimy and Robecq sectors of the British front, and south of +Dickebusch. + +May 11--Berlin reports heavy losses inflicted on American troops +southwest of Apremont; Germans gain small portion of territory southwest +of Mailly-Raineval, but are driven out by French; French gain ground in +Mareuil Wood. + +May 12--French troops north of Kemmel capture Hill 44 and an adjoining +farm; Germans bombard Albert, Loos, and Ypres sectors, and lines +southeast of Amiens, but are repulsed by the French near +Orvillers-Sorel. + +May 13--Americans blow up enemy ammunition dump and start fires in +Cantigny, with explosions; Germans resume firing north of Kemmel. + +May 14--Hill 44, north of Kemmel, changes hands several times; French +advance in Hangard region; British carry out successful raid near +Robecq. + +May 15--Germans repulsed by the British southwest of Morlancourt and by +the French north of Kemmel. May 16--Heavy gunfire in the Lys and Avre +areas. + +May 17--Official announcement that American troops have taken their +place in the British war zone in Northern France; German gunfire +increases in the Lys and Hailles region. + + +ITALIAN CAMPAIGN. + +May 3--Heavy fighting reported along the entire front between the +Adriatic and the Giudicaria Valley. + +May 5--Increase in artillery fire, notably in the Lagarina and Astico +Valleys. + +May 11--Italians penetrate advanced Austrian positions on Monte Carno. + +May 12--Italians wipe out a Coll dell' Orso garrison. + +May 14--Austrian attempts to renew attacks on Monte Carno and to +approach Italian lines at Dosso Casina and in the Balcino and Ornic +Valleys fail. + +May 16--Italians enter Austrian lines at two points on Monte Asolone; +British make successful raid at Canove. + + +CAMPAIGN IN ASIA MINOR. + +April 21--Armenians retake Van. + +April 27--British in Mesopotamia advance north of Bagdad and Kifra. + +April 28--British cavalry forces a passage of the Aqsu at a point +southwest of Tuzhurmatl. + +April 29--British take Tuzhurmatl. + +April 30--British advance as far as the Tauk River, and occupy Mezreh. + +May 1--Es-Salt taken by the British. + +May 7--British enter Kerkuk. + +May 12--Arabs of Hedjaz raid Jadi Jerdun station and a post on the +Hedjaz Railway, taking many prisoners and destroying tracks and bridges. + + +AERIAL RECORD. + +Trent, Trieste, and Pola were raided by Italian scouts on May 10. + +Carlshutte, Germany, was bombed by the British May 3. Saarbrucken was +bombed on May 16, and five German machines were brought down. + +British aviators raided the aviation grounds at Campo Maggiore on May 4 +and brought down fourteen Austrian planes. + +German airmen attacked Dutch fishing vessels in the North Sea May 5. + +Ostend, Westende, and Zeebrugge were attacked by British seaplanes on +May 6. + +Many notable air battles occurred on the western front in connection +with the fighting in Picardy and Flanders. In one day, May 15, +fifty-five German airplanes were brought down by British and French +aviators, and on May 16 forty-six German machines were brought down by +the British. + + +NAVAL RECORD. + +Early in the morning of April 23 British naval forces, in co-operation +with French destroyers, carried out a raid against Zeebrugge and +Ostend, with the object of bottling up German submarine bases. Five +obsolete British cruisers, which had been filled with concrete, were run +aground, blown up, and abandoned by their crews, and two old submarines +were loaded with explosives for the destruction of the Zeebrugge mole. A +German destroyer was sunk and other ships were shelled. Twenty yards of +the Zeebrugge mole were blown up, and the harbor was blocked completely. +On May 10 the obsolete cruiser Vindictive was sunk at the entrance to +Ostend Harbor, practically completing the work. + +An Austrian dreadnought of the Viribus Unitis type was torpedoed by +Italian naval forces in Pola Harbor on the morning of May 14. + + +RUSSIA. + +On April 20, Japan ordered reinforcements sent to Vladivostok, as the +Bolsheviki had directed the removal of munitions westward. On the same +day diplomatic representatives of the allied powers were formally +informed by the Siberian Provincial Duma of the formation--by +representatives of the Zemstvos and other public organizations--of the +Government of Autonomous Siberia. + +The Bolshevist Foreign Minister, George Tchitcherin, on April 26, +addressed representatives in Moscow of the United States, England, and +France, requesting the speedy recall of their Consuls from Vladivostok +and the investigation of their alleged participation in negotiations +said to have been conducted between their Peking embassies and the +Siberian Autonomous Government. He also asked them to explain their +attitude toward the Soviet Government and the alleged attempts of their +representatives to interfere with the internal life of Russia. Japan was +asked to explain the participation of Japanese officials in the +counter-revolutionary movement. An official report of the demand for the +removal of John K. Caldwell, the American Consul at Vladivostok, was +received by the American State Department on May 6, from Ambassador +Francis. The State Department announced that Mr. Caldwell had done +nothing wrong and that he would not be removed. On the same day a report +was received that the Russian authorities at Irkutsk had arrested the +Japanese Vice Consul and the President of the Japanese Association on +the charge of being military spies. + +At a meeting of several thousand peasants of the Ukraine, held on April +29, a resolution was passed calling for the overthrow of the Government, +the closing of the Central Rada, the cancellation of the Constituent +Assembly convoked for May 12, and the abandonment of land socialization. +General Skoropauski was proclaimed Hetman and was recognized by +Germany. + +The German advance into the Ukraine continued, military rule was +established in Kiev, and several members of the Government, including +the Minister of War, were removed on the ground that the Government had +proved too weak to maintain law and order. Vice Chancellor von Payer, +speaking before the Main Committee of the German Reichstag on May 4, +attempted to justify Germany's use of the iron hand by declaring that +grain had been withheld and that prominent Ukrainians, members of the +Committee of Safety, had been caught planning the assassination of +German officers. + +Rostov-on-the-Don was occupied by Germans on May 9, but was recaptured +by the Russians the next day. + +M. Tchitcherin, on May 12, sent a wireless message to Ambassador Joffe, +at Berlin, instructing him to try to obtain from Berlin cessation of +every kind of hostility, and declared that captures of Russian territory +violated the terms of the treaty of peace. He also gave assurances that +the Black Sea Fleet would not attack the port of Novorossysk, which the +Germans threatened to capture. In an evasive reply the Commander in +Chief of the German troops in the East said he could only agree to the +cessation of naval operations against the Black Sea Fleet, provided that +all ships returned to Sebastopol and were retained there, thus leaving +the port of Novorossysk free for navigation. + +A Swedish report of May 14 told of a German ultimatum to the Bolshevist +Government demanding the occupation of Moscow and other Russian cities, +the abolishment of armaments, and the effecting of certain financial +measures which would practically make Russia a German colony. + +Professor H. C. Emery, the American who was seized when the Germans +landed in the Aland Islands, was freed from prison, but was still +detained in Germany, according to a report received on May 5. + +The British Foreign Minister, A. J. Balfour, announced in Commons on May +5 that Great Britain was ready to grant temporary recognition to the +Esthonian National Council. + +Transcaucasia proclaimed its independence on April 26, and a +conservative Government was formed, headed by M. Chkemkeli. + +Ciscaucasia proclaimed itself an independent State on May 14. + +The Caucasus proposed peace negotiations with Turkey May 10. + +Russian Bolshevist troops crossed the Caspian Sea in gunboats and +recaptured Baku from the Mussulmans May 17. + +Emperor William issued a proclamation, May 14, recognizing the +independence of Lithuania, allied with the German Empire, and saying +that it was assumed that Lithuania would participate in the war burdens +of Germany. + + +FINLAND. + +Hostilities between the Finnish White Guards and the Germans and the Red +Guards continued. Germany protested to the Bolshevist Foreign Minister +on April 23 against the landing of allied troops at Murmansk, declaring +that such landing was a violation of the Brest-Litovsk treaty. Germany +also denied that Germans had participated in the raid of the Finnish +White Guards upon Kem. + +The White Guards, on April 26, demanded the surrender of a fort on the +Finnish coast ceded to Russia by the Finnish Bolshevist Government, +constituting part of the Kronstadt defenses. The Kronstadt Council of +Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates refused to comply with the demand, and +organized resistance. + +Viborg was taken by the White Guards on April 30. On May 3, the Germans +in the southwest defeated the Red Guards after a five days' battle near +Lakhti and Tevastus. The Finnish flag was raised on the fortress of +Sveaborg on May 13. On May 15 the White Guards entered Helsingfors, and +on May 17 they seized Boris-Gleb on the Norwegian border from the +Russian troops, thus gaining access to the Arctic Ocean. + + +RUMANIA. + +A peace treaty between Rumania and the Central Powers was signed May 6, +and supplementary legal, economic, and political treaties were later +concluded. + +The Rumanian Parliament was dissolved on May 10 by royal decree and new +elections were ordered. + + +POLAND. + +The Lausanne Gazette announced on May 12 that Poland was handed over to +Germany economically, politically, and militarily, according to a secret +treaty arranged at Brest-Litovsk between a Russian delegation, headed by +Trotzky, and German representatives. At a conference between the +Emperors of Germany and Austria-Hungary, Germany agreed to the solution +of the Polish question desired by Austria, in return for certain +concessions from Austria. + + +MISCELLANEOUS. + +The Guatemalan Assembly, on April 22, declared the country to be in the +same position as the United States in the war, and the following day the +Guatemalan Minister at Washington announced that the declaration was +meant as a declaration of war against Germany and her allies. + +In response to a request from Uruguay for a definition of the relations +between the two countries, Germany replied, according to an +announcement made public May 16, that she did not consider that a state +of war existed. + +Nicaragua declared war on Germany and her allies on May 7. + +Royal assent to the British man-power bill, providing for conscription +in Ireland, was given on April 18. An Order in Council was issued on May +1 postponing the Conscription act. + +Lord Wimborne, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Henry E. Duke, Chief +Secretary, resigned on April 24. Edward Shortt was appointed Chief +Secretary and Viscount French succeeded Lord Wimborne as Lord +Lieutenant. + +James Ian MacPherson announced in the House of Commons on May 9 that a +German submarine had recently landed an associate of Sir Roger Casement +on the Irish coast, where he was arrested by Government officials, and +that he was now in the Tower of London and would be tried by +court-martial. A dispatch dated May 15 revealed that two Germans +accompanied him, and that all three were imprisoned. + +All the Sinn Fein leaders, including De Valera and the Countess +Markievicz, were arrested in Belfast, Dublin, and other cities, on May +17, as the result of the discovery of treasonable relations with +Germany. Lord Lieutenant French issued a proclamation dealing with the +situation, calling on all loyalists to aid in blocking the German plans +and asking for volunteers to provide Ireland's share of the army. + +Sir Arthur Roberts, financial adviser to the British Air Minister, +resigned on April 24 as a result of a disagreement with Lord Rothermere. +The next day Lord Rothermere resigned. He was succeeded by Sir William +Weir. Baron Rhondda resigned as Food Controller and Lord Northcliffe +resigned as Chairman of London headquarters of the British Mission to +the United States and Director of Propaganda in Enemy Countries. + +Representatives of the allied nations met at Versailles on May 1 and May +2. + +On May 6 Major Gen. Frederick Barton Maurice, formerly Director General +of British Military Operations, addressed a letter to The London Daily +Chronicle challenging the statements made in the House of Commons by +Premier Lloyd George and Andrew Bonar Law with regard to the military +situation and demanding a Parliamentary investigation. On May 7 +ex-Premier Asquith moved for an inquiry in Commons. After a speech by +Lloyd George in Commons in his own defense, May 9, the House, by a vote +of 293 to 106, upheld him and the Government and rejected Mr. Asquith's +motion. + +The Austrian Premier was empowered by Emperor Charles, on May 4, to +adjourn Parliament and to inaugurate measures to render impossible the +resumption of its activities. + +A growing resentment against the domination of Austria-Hungary by +Germany was manifested by Austria's Slavic peoples. A dispatch from +Switzerland dated May 8 told of serious disturbances in the fleet, +caused by seamen of Slavic and Italian stock, which resulted in several +changes in the high command. A new Hungarian Cabinet, headed by Dr. +Wekerle, was formed on May 10. On May 13 Vienna papers published a +declaration by the Czech members of the Austrian House of Lords in which +an independent State was demanded. + +As a result of a conference between Emperor William and Emperor Charles +at German Headquarters on May 10, Austria-Hungary concluded a new +convention with Germany. + +M. Duval, manager of the Bonnet Rouge, and his associates, Leymarie and +Marion, directors of the paper; Goldsky and Landau, journalists, and two +minor men named Joucla and Vercasson, were placed on trial in Paris on +charges of treason and espionage, on April 29. On May 15, Duval was +sentenced to death for treason, and the six other defendants were +sentenced to imprisonment for terms ranging from two to ten years. + +The British Government replied to the note of the Netherlands Government +concerning the taking over of Dutch ships on May 1, and asserted the +full legality of the seizure. + +A London dispatch, dated April 24, announced that Germany had sent an +ultimatum to Holland demanding the right of transit for civilian +supplies and sand and gravel. Holland yielded to these demands on April +28, with the stipulation that the sand and gravel should not be used for +war purposes. On May 5, Foreign Minister Loudon announced in the Dutch +Chamber that Germany had promised to transport no troops or military +supplies and to limit the amount of sand and gravel. + +Persia informed Holland, on May 3, that it regarded as null and void all +treaties imposed upon Persia in recent years, and especially the +Russo-British treaty of 1907 regarding the spheres of influence. + +[Illustration] + + + + +German Losses On All Fronts + +One Estimate Reaches 5,600,000 + + +Karl Bleibtreu, the German military statistician, writing in Das Neue +Europa of April 22, gives the German losses from Aug. 2, 1914, to Jan. +31, 1918, as 4,456,961 men. His figures deal exclusively with those +killed in action or taken prisoner. They are official from Aug. 2, 1914, +till July 31, 1917, and are then estimated to Jan. 31, 1918. His figures +and comment read: + +WESTERN FRONT + + 1914 + + August 172,500 November 93,000 + September 214,500 December 50,200 + October 139,600 + -------- + Total 669,800 + + 1915 + + Jan. and Feb 66,000 August 105,400 + March (?)61 Sept. and Oct 119,450 + April 42,500 November 57,500 + May 112,500 December 57,750 + June and July 152,300 + -------- + Total 713,461 + + 1916 + + January 18,100 July 86,650 + February 17,800 August 148,000 + March 51,300 September 119,800 + April 72,650 October 125,000 + May 64,000 November 87,100 + June 54,850 December 56,000 + -------- + Total 901,250 + + 1917 + + January 48,000 April 59,000 + February 39,000 May, June and + March 39,600 July 134,850 + -------- + Total, (7 months) 320,450 + +These figures give, on the western front, +from Aug. 2, 1914, to July 31, 1917, an aggregate +of 2,604,961 casualties. + +EASTERN FRONT + + 1914 163,900 1916 359,800 + 1915 699,600 1917 261,200 + +This gives a total from Aug. 2, 1914, to July 31, 1917, of 1,484,550, +and for the two fronts combined of 4,089,511. + +From Aug. 1, 1917, to Jan. 31, 1918, Herr Bleibtreu estimates the total +losses on both fronts at 367,450, making in all 4,456,961 men. + +In adding those who died from illness or wounds, the losses resulting +from the colonial and maritime fighting, as well as in the noncombatant +and auxiliary services, not comprised in the preceding enumeration, the +grand total considerably exceeds 5,000,000. + +Estimates of German losses from Jan. 31, 1918, to May 20, 1918, range +from 400,000 to 600,000. If the above figures are correct, the total +German loss in the forty-six months of the war exceeds 5,600,000. The +London Telegraph, in analyzing these figures, said: + + With regard to the figures given by Herr Bleibtreu, it may be + remarked that they are enormously in excess over those compiled in + well-informed quarters from the official casualty lists published by + the German Government, and issued periodically. Down to July 31, + 1918, these lists had contained a grand total of 4,624,256 names, + but did not include naval or Colonial troop losses. Of the above + figure the following are the permanent losses: + + Killed and died of wounds 1,056,975 + Died of sickness 75,988 + Prisoners 335,269 + Missing 267,237 + --------- + Total 1,735,469 + +These statistics are merely the names published down to July 31, 1917, +and are not to be taken as the actual total casualties, as the lists are +always at least several weeks behindhand. But even allowing for this +fact, Bleibtreu's estimate for the killed in action and prisoners alone +is considerably more than double those officially acknowledged by +Berlin, and nearly equal to the total casualties admitted in the +official lists from all causes. Of this remarkable discrepancy there can +be only two possible explanations. Either the German Government has +throughout the war systematically falsified its casualty lists--and +there is good reason to believe that this is the case--or else Bleibtreu +has been put up by the German Staff to publish a set of statistics +intended deliberately to mislead the Allies. + + + + +Great Britain's Finances + +Heavy War Taxes Levied + + +The new British budget for 1918-19 was introduced in the House of +Commons April 23. It included some sweeping changes in taxes and gave +important data of expenses. The estimate for 1918 in round numbers is +$15,000,000,000; the estimated revenue is $4,200,000,000, leaving a +balance to be covered by loans of $10,800,000,000. The actual +expenditures in 1917-18 were $13,481,105,000; the revenue was +$3,536,175,000; the deficit met by loans was $9,944,930,000. + +Under the new budget the tax on incomes is increased from $1.25 in $5 to +$1.50 in $5. Under the new rate the increased tax begins at an income of +$2,500 a year. On an income that is wholly earned--such as a salary--the +tax is as follows: + + Income. Tax. + Income. Tax + $2,000 a year $157 + 2,500 a year 225 + 3,000 a year 375 + 4,000 a year 600 + 5,000 a year 750 + 10,000 a year 2,250 + +Where the income is wholly unearned the tax is as follows: + + TAXES ON UNEARNED INCOME + + Income. Tax + $2,000 a year $210 + 2,500 a year 300 + 3,000 a year 455 + 5,000 a year 947 + 10,000 a year 2,635 + +The super tax in the new law begins at an income of $13,750, and the +total taxes paid on the following incomes, including income tax and +super tax, are as follows: + + TOTAL INCOME AND SUPER TAX + + Income. Tax + $15,000 a year $4,802 + 20,000 a year 6,812 + 25,000 a year 8,937 + 30,000 a year 11,187 + 40,000 a year 15,937 + 50,000 a year 20,937 + 100,000 a year 47,187 + 500,000 a year 255,187 + +The tax on $500,000 incomes is a little over 50 per cent. In the case +of a tax-payer whose total income does not exceed $4,000 an allowance of +$125 is granted in respect of his wife and an allowance of a like amount +in respect of any dependent relatives whom he maintains; also an +allowance of $125 in respect of children under 16 years of age. + + +TAXES ON COMMODITIES + +Checks require a stamp of 4 cents, also promissory notes. The +excess-profit rate remains at 80 per cent. The tax on spirits is raised +to $7.50 a gallon; on beer to $12.50 a barrel; on tobacco to $2.04 a +pound, the effect of which will increase the price 4 cents an ounce, +while the cheapest cigarette, now 6 cents for ten, will be 7 cents for +ten. The tax on matches is increased so that they will be sold at 2 +cents a box instead of 1-1/2 cents. An additional duty of $3 a +hundredweight is levied on sugar, so that sugar heretofore selling at +11-1/2 cents a pound will now have to be sold at 14 cents a pound. + +A tax of 16-2/3 per cent, is levied on the sale of luxuries, including +jewelry, and of articles above a certain price when they become articles +of luxury; also on hotel and restaurant bills. This tax will be +collected by means of stamps. The new postage rate is raised to 3 cents +an ounce; on book packages exceeding one ounce an extra charge of 1 cent +will be levied. Letters to the United States will cost 3 cents instead +of 2 cents. Post-cards in England will be 2 cents instead of 1 cent, and +the parcel rate, under seven pounds, 18 cents, and between seven and +eleven pounds, 25 cents. + + +LUXURIES HEAVILY TAXED + +The tax on luxuries is a new tax in England, and is following the method +adopted in France Dec. 31, 1917. The tax on luxuries in France is levied +at the rate of 10 per cent. on the retail selling price of the scheduled +articles. All payments of less than 20 cents are exempted. The schedule +consists of two lists, one comprising articles taxed irrespective of +price at 10 per cent., and the other, articles taxed when the retail +price exceeds certain specified amounts, as follows: + + _Taxed Irrespective of Price._--Photographic appliances, gold or + platinum jewelry, billiard tables, silk hosiery and underwear, + artistic bronze and iron work, horses and ponies for pleasure + purposes, curiosities and antiques, sporting guns, books, servants' + liveries, gold watches, perfumery, soaps and dentifrices, paintings + and sculpture, pianos, (other than cottage pianos,) tapestry, + truffles, pleasure boats, and yachts. + + _Taxed Above Specified Prices, (approximately shown in U.S. + money.)_--Pet dogs, $8; other pets, $2; smokers' requisites, $2; + bicycles, $50; silver jewelry, $2; picture frames, $2; walking + sticks, $2; chinaware table service, $40; single pieces, 39c to $3; + men's headwear, $4; women's hats, $8; women's footwear, $8; men's + footwear, $10; chocolates, 75c per pound; corsets, $10; men's suits, + $35; women's costumes or mantles, $50; scissors, $2; lace and + embroidery machine made, 35c per yard; handmade, $1.83 per yard; + artificial flowers, $2; furs, $20; gloves, $1.58; furniture, $300 + per suite; mirrors, $4; motor cycles, $400; watches, $10; + handkerchiefs, $3.66 per dozen; umbrellas, $5; feathers, $5; clocks, + $20; photographs, $8 per dozen; cottage pianos, $240; curtains, $20; + carpets, $3.62 per yard; pajamas and dressing gowns, $16; horse + carriages, $200; bird cages, $2. + +Payments for goods bought before Jan. 1, 1918, are exempt from the tax. + + +AMERICA'S ASSISTANCE + +In presenting the budget the Chancellor of the Exchequer stated that the +expenditures in the past year exceeded the estimate by $2,030,000,000. +He referred to America's assistance as follows: + + The extent of the assistance of the United States and our advances + to the Allies last year amounted to $2,525,000,000. In addition to + this the United States have advanced to all the Allies no less a sum + during the year than $4,750,000,000. Of this sum approximately + $2,500,000,000 was advanced to us and $2,250,000,000 to the Allies. + + The House will see, therefore, that, whereas this year we advanced + to the Allies approximately the same amount as last year, + $2,525,000,000 as against $2,700,000,000, the United States advanced + in addition $2,250,000,000; that is to say, the total advances by us + and by the Government of the United States are $4,775,000,000, as + against $2,700,000,000 by us alone last year. + + The House would notice that our advances to the Allies are + approximately the same amount as the advances made to us by the + Government of the United States. This is satisfactory. It means that + it is only necessary for us to lean on the United States to the + extent that the other Allies lean upon us, or that, in other words, + after nearly four years of war we are self-supporting. + + But it is almost absurd that we should be borrowing with one hand + while we are lending with the other. The result is that our accounts + are inflated apparently, and in fact to that extent our credit is + weakened. I have therefore been in communication with Mr. McAdoo, + the Financial Minister of America, and Mr. Crossley, the head of the + United States Financial Mission, and I suggested as regards advances + to the Allies a course which, if adopted, will have the effect of + lessening to a considerable extent our burden, while in no way + increasing the total obligations of the United States. + + +THE TOTAL BRITISH DEBT + +In referring to the total debt the Chancellor of the Exchequer made the +following statement: + + The national debt, on the estimates which I have submitted to the + House, will at the end of the present year, (March 31, 1919,) amount + to $39,900,000,000. Previously, in counting our liabilities, I have + deducted altogether advances to Allies and Dominions. I do not + propose to adopt that course today. We cannot ignore what is + happening in Russia; though, even yet, I do not admit--I do not + believe--that we should regard the debt of Russia as a bad debt, + because, sooner or later, in spite of what is happening now, there + will be an ordered Government in that country. + + By the end of this year the total amount due by the Allies to us + will be $8,110,000,000, and I should hope that we should be able to + deduct Dominion and obligation debts, making a total of + $5,920,000,000. The amount of our national debt at the end of last + year was $29,250,000,000. The amount of our liability on the basis I + have stated is $34,280,000,000, and, taking 5 per cent. on this + amount as the rate of interest, the total comes to $1,900,000,000. + This, added to the normal expenditure, makes a total amount of + $3,400,000,000. + + Now, how is that to be met? Taking the Inland Revenue taxation + alone, it amounts to $2,700,000,000. The Inland Revenue officials + have assured me that they have made a very careful and a very + conservative estimate. Taking this estimate, there remains a + deficit on the full year of $550,000,000. + + To make good this $550,000,000 I shall impose new taxation which, on + the full year, will bring in $570,000,000. The Inland Revenue, in + their estimate of result of existing taxation, take no account + whatever of the excess profits duty, but that duty, as I have + pointed out, is expected to yield $1,500,000,000. + + Assuming--an assumption that may last for half an hour + [laughter]--that the income tax remains at 5s, that should reach + $375,000,000. Of course, that must be supplemented. It depends upon + the state of trade and credit, but I think I am quite safe in saying + that this amount, which they have left out of their reckoning, is + more than sufficient to counter-balance any error made with regard + to existing taxation. + + +GERMANY'S WAR DEBT + +He followed this with a statement contrasting the financial condition of +Great Britain with that of Germany, as follows: + + Up to June, 1916, according to the statement of the German Financial + Minister, the monthly German expenditure was $500,000,000; it is now + admitted to be $937,500,000, which means a daily expenditure of + $31,250,000, which is almost the same as ours. But it does not + include such matters as separation allowances. As to the war debt, + the German votes of credit up to July amounted to $31,000,000,000. + Up to 1916 they imposed no new taxation at all, and in that year + they proposed a war increment levy. Assuming that their estimates + were realized, the total amount of taxation levied by the German + Government was $1,825,000,000, as against our own amount. + + This amount is not enough to pay the interest of the war debt which + Germany has accumulated up to the end of the year. The German + balance sheet, reckoned on the same basis as ours, will, with + interest, sinking fund, pensions, and pre-war expenditures, be a + year hence $3,600,000,000; and with additional permanent imperial + revenue of $600,000,000 they will make their total additional + revenue $925,000,000 per annum, and this amount, added to the + pre-war revenue, makes a total of $1,675,000,000, showing a deficit + at the end of the year of $1,925,000,000. + + If that were our position I should say that bankruptcy was not far + from the British Nation. + + The German taxes have been almost exclusively indirect, imposed on + commodities paid for by the mass of the people and not upon the + wealthier classes, who control the Government and on whom the + Government is afraid to put extra taxation. + + + + +Trade After the War + +Important Report by a Commission of British Experts and Economists + + +Great Britain's policy with reference to future trade is outlined in the +final report of the Committee on Commercial and Industrial Policy After +the War, of which Lord Balfour of Burleigh was Chairman, and which +included in its membership Arthur Balfour, (ex-Master Cutler of +Sheffield,) also the heads of the various Boards of Trade, the textile +trades, with representatives of the shipping and shipbuilding +industries, finance, engineering, metal trades, coal, electrical, iron +and steel associations, national transport workers, and distinguished +economists. + +Shipping policy after the war is not dealt with in the report, but, in +view of the world shortage of tonnage, the committee express the +opinion that, while it may be desirable to impose for a limited period +some restriction on the use of British ports by enemy vessels, any +policy which might tend to check the use of English ports by foreign +shipping generally would be inexpedient. They, however, urge that, in +accordance with the Paris Conference resolutions, the exaction of +reparation in kind from enemy countries should, in the interests of the +reconstruction of industry and the mercantile marine, be carried out as +fully as may be practicable. + +In a general survey of the position of British industry and overseas +trade in 1913, prior to the war, the committee found that the United +Kingdom had taken only a limited share in the more modern branches of +industrial production, and that certain branches had come to be +entirely, or very largely, under German control, and in numerous +branches foreign manufacturers had secured a "strong, or even +predominant, position." They found that British merchants and +manufacturers had also been encountering successful competition in +overseas trade. They believe that the knowledge gained during the war +will be a valuable asset in the development of British industry. + +As to the measures which should be adopted during the transitional +period, the committee reaffirm the main recommendations of their interim +report, namely: + + Transition Period + + (a) The prohibition of the importation of goods from enemy origin + should be continued, subject to license in exceptional cases, for at + least twelve months after the conclusion of the war, and + subsequently for such further period as may be deemed expedient. + + (b) The Paris resolutions relating to the supply of the Allies for + the restoration of their industries can be carried into effect if a + policy of joint control of certain important commodities can be + agreed upon between the British Empire and the Allies. Any measures + should aim at securing to the British Empire and the allied + countries priority for their requirements, and should be applied + only to materials which are mainly derived from those countries and + will be required by them. This policy should be applied as regards + the United Kingdom by legislation empowering the Government to + prohibit the export, except under license, of such articles as may + be deemed expedient, and, as regards the British Empire and the + allied countries, the Government should, without delay, enter into + negotiations with the various Governments concerned, with a view to + the adoption of suitable joint measures in the case of selected + commodities of importance. + + The Government should consider, in consultation with the Allies, the + expediency of establishing after the war a joint organization on the + lines of Commission Internationale de Ravitaillement for dealing + with the orders of the allied Governments for reconstruction + purposes, and with such private orders as they may find it expedient + to centralize. + +It is pointed out that the prolongation of the war and the entry into it +of the United States have increased the importance of a considered +policy directed toward assuring to the British Empire and the Allies +adequate supplies of essential raw materials during the period +immediately following the conclusion of peace, and that the extent to +which the Paris resolutions which bear upon this vital question can be +carried into effect depends upon the co-operation of the Governments +concerned. + + +PROBLEM OF RAW MATERIALS + +The committee reports that it will be necessary to continue for a +considerable period after the war some portion of the control of home +and foreign trade in order to secure adequate supplies of foodstuffs and +raw material. It does not regard it as practical to attempt to make the +empire self-supporting in respect of numerous raw materials. It notes +that the Board of Trade already has set up a committee to investigate +the question of the supply of cotton and it recommends special inquiries +as regards each commodity. "The object to be kept in view should be +that the empire may be capable in an emergency of being independent in +respect of the supply of every essential commodity of any single +foreign country." + +The committee advises against the exclusion of foreign (other than +present enemy) capital from sharing in the development of the empire's +resources, but recommends: + + (a) Complete disclosure, as far as is practicable, of the extent of + foreign holdings in any particular case. + + (b) That mineral and other properties are not secured by foreign + concerns in order to prevent the development of those properties, + and to check competition in supply; and + + (c) That in the case of commodities of great imperial importance, + the local Government concerned should have some measure of control + over the working of the properties. + + These principles, if accepted, should be brought to the notice of + the Governments of other parts of the empire, with a view to the + adoption of a uniform policy. + + +ALIENS IN BUSINESS + +The committee expresses the opinion that it would not be desirable to +impose special restrictions against the participation of aliens in +commercial and industrial occupations. It recommends, however, that +such occupations as pilot and patent agent should be confined to +British-born subjects, and suggests that foreign commercial travelers +operating in the United Kingdom should be registered and hold licenses, +that the registration of title to property should be compulsory, and +that such registration should involve a declaration of the nationality +of the owner. + +The committee deems it unwise to restrain the establishment or the +continuance of agencies or branches of foreign banks or insurance +companies in the United Kingdom, but foreign insurance companies should +be required to make a deposit proportionate to the business done. +Foreign banks should be required to pay the income tax. + +The committee considers it necessary to impose special restrictions on +the subjects of enemy countries, and that this can best be done by means +of stringent permit and police regulations, but it does not believe that +attempts should be made to prevent enemy subjects from establishing +agencies or holding interests in commercial or industrial undertakings. + +A plan for the maintenance and development of industries essential to +national safety, called "Key Industries," is proposed, as follows: + + Synthetic dyes, spelter, tungsten, magnetos, optical and chemical + glass, hosiery needles, thorium nitrate, limit and screw gauges, and + certain drugs. + + +SPECIAL INDUSTRIES BOARD + +The committee recommends the creation of a permanent special industries +board, charged with the duty of watching the course of industrial +development and recommending plans for the promotion and assistance of +the industries enumerated above. With reference to industries generally +the committee thinks that the individualist methods hitherto adopted +should be supplemented by co-operation and co-ordination of effort in +respect of + + 1. The securing of supplies of materials. + + 2. Production, in which we include standardization and scientific + and industrial research; and + + 3. Marketing. + +The report recommends the formation of combinations of manufacturers, +strong, well organized associations and combinations, to secure supplies +of materials, especially the control of mineral deposits in foreign +countries. In order to facilitate increased production it recommends: + + That an authority should be set up which should have the right, + after inquiry, to grant compulsory powers for the acquisition of + land for industrial purposes and the diversion or abolition of roads + or footpaths. + + That there should be a judicial body with compulsory powers to deal + with the question of wayleaves required for the development of + mineral royalties and the economical working of collieries and + mines. + +The committee believes in the formation of organizations for marketing +the manufactured products of the country and deems it inexpedient for +the Government to enter into any policy aiming at positive control of +combinations (trusts) in the United Kingdom. It recommends that +combinations be legalized, so as to be enforceable between members. It +welcomes the establishment of the British Trade Corporation to +co-ordinate and supplement existing financial facilities for trading +purposes. As a general rule the members think it would be undesirable +that the State should attempt to provide capital for industrial +purposes, but as the re-establishment of industry on a peace basis will +be profoundly affected by taxation, currency, and foreign exchanges, +they recommend that these matters be taken up by the Treasury, in +consultation with the banking and commercial interests. + + +TARIFF REGULATIONS + +With reference to tariff the committee recommends a protective tariff +only on industries "which can show that, in spite of the adoption of the +most efficient technical methods and business organization, they cannot +maintain themselves against foreign competition, or that they are +hindered from adopting these methods by such competition." + +The general fiscal policy as finally adopted by the committee is as +follows: + + 1. The producers of this country are entitled to require from the + Government that they should be protected in their home market + against "dumping" and against the introduction of "sweated" goods, + by which term we understand goods produced by labor which is not + paid at trade union rates of wages, where such rates exist in the + country of origin of the goods, or the current rates of that country + where there are no trade union rates. We recommend that action be + taken in regard to "dumping" on the lines (though not necessarily in + the precise form) adopted in Canada. + + 2. Those industries which we have described as "key" or "pivotal" + should be maintained in this country at all hazards and at any + expense. + + 3. As regards other industries, protection by means of customs + duties or Government assistance in other forms should be afforded + only to carefully selected branches of industry, which must be + maintained either for reasons of national safety or on the general + ground that it is undesirable that any industry of real importance + to our economic strength and well-being should be allowed to be + weakened by foreign competition or brought to any serious extent + under alien domination or control. + + 4. Preferential treatment should be accorded to the British oversea + dominions and possessions in respect of any customs duties now or + hereafter to be imposed in the United Kingdom, and consideration + should be given to other forms of imperial preference. + + 5. As regards our commercial relations with our present allies and + neutrals, the denunciation of existing commercial treaties is + unnecessary and inexpedient, but the present opportunity should be + taken to endeavor to promote our trade with our allies, and + consideration should be given to the possibility of utilizing for + purposes of negotiation with them and present neutrals any duties + which may be imposed in accordance with the principles laid down + above. + + +LIMITING PROTECTIVE PRINCIPLES + +In view of the danger that the admission of the principle of protection, +even to a limited extent, may give rise to a widespread demand for +similar assistance from other industries, and consequently to an amount +of political pressure which it may be very difficult to resist, the +committee further recommends: + + That a strong and competent board, with an independent status, + should be established to examine into all applications from + industries for State assistance, to advise his Majesty's Government + upon such applications, and, where a case is made out, to frame + proposals as to the precise nature and extent of the assistance to + be given. + + Before recommending tariff protection for any particular industry it + should be the duty of the board to consider forms of State + assistance other than, or concurrent with, protective duties, such + as bounties on production, preferential treatment (subject to an + adequate standard of quality and security against price rings) in + respect of Government and other public authority contracts, State + financial assistance, and also whether the position of the industry + could not be improved by internal reorganization. + + The board should also have constantly in mind the safeguarding of + the interests of consumers and of labor, and should make + recommendations as to the conditions which for these purposes should + be attached to any form of Government assistance, whether by means + of a tariff or otherwise. + +The committee reports adversely on the changing of weights, measures, +and coinage to the metric system. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: BANK OF FINLAND, AT HELSINGFORS, WHERE THE RED GUARDS, +ATTEMPTING TO BREAK INTO THE BUILDING, WERE REPULSED BY THE WHITE +GUARDS] + + + + +Finland Under German Control + +Events of the Period of Chaos and Foreign Invasion Preceding the Fall of +Viborg + + +Civil war, later complicated by the German invasion, has been the +central fact in the history of Finland since the declaration of its +independence in December, 1917. The internecine strife was precipitated +by the coup d'état which the Finnish Socialists effected in January, +1918. It so happened that the representatives of the propertied classes +had the majority in the Diet which severed the century-old connection +between Finland and Russia. As for the Government which this Diet has +set up to rule the independent republic, all its members belong to +middle-class parties. Headed by Mr. Svinhufud, a Young-Finn leader, it +includes one Svekoman, two Agrarians, three Old-Finns, and six +Young-Finns. + +The dissatisfaction of the Socialist elements, which are very strong in +Finland, with this régime soon grew so intense that they decided to +overthrow it by armed force. The Red Guard, that is, detachments of +armed workmen organized by the Finnish Labor Party, seized Helsingfors, +dissolved the "bourgeois" Government, and formed a Socialist Cabinet +under the leadership of Senator Kullervo Manner. The revolutionists did +not, however, succeed in capturing Mr. Svinhufud and his associates. +These fled north and established their headquarters at Vasa, +(Nikolaystadt,) on the Gulf of Bothnia. Since then the half-starved +country has been the arena of bloody clashes between the Red troops and +the forces supporting the Vasa Government, which consist largely of +middle-class elements and are known as the White Guards. + +It is an open secret that Russia rendered substantial assistance to the +Finnish revolutionists. Most of the weapons in their possession are from +Russian arsenals, and Russian soldiers who lingered on in Finland even +after the Bolsheviki had agreed to withdraw the Russian troops stationed +there have been fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Finnish Red +Guards. It is reported that on several occasions the Finnish Red Guards +were reinforced by Red Guards from Petrograd. Moreover, in its +organization the Finnish Socialist Workmen's Republic is a copy of the +Russian Soviet Republic. The Red Finns have the same hierarchy of +Soviets, and they affect the administrative terminology of the +Bolsheviki. + + +RED FINLAND + +The Finnish Socialists should not, however, be treated as identical with +the Russian Bolsheviki. The difference between them is probably due to a +difference of civilization, for culturally the dissimilarity between a +Russian and a Finn is as great as it is linguistically and ethnically. +It is noteworthy that unlike the Bolsheviki they regard their own rule +as a transitional, provisional régime. Speaking on Feb. 14, 1918, at the +first meeting of the Finnish Central Soviet, Kullervo Manner, President +of the Commissariat of the People of Finland, said among other things: + + One of the foremost aims of the great revolution of Finland's + workers is to build the proud edifice of a political democracy on + the ruins of the fallen power of the Junkers. * * * As soon as the + enemy of the people has been defeated throughout the country shall + the people of Finland be given an opportunity through referendum to + accept a new Constitution. The People's Commissariat intends shortly + to put before the Central Soviet a proposal for a fundamental law + through which will be laid the ground for a real representation by + the people and a firm foundation for the future of the working + class. + +Although the Finnish Socialists are united with Russia by co-operation +and common aspirations, they do not desire to join the Russian +Federation. Finnish socialism identifies itself with the cause of +Finnish nationalism. It was the Socialists that were the stanchest +advocates of Finland's secession from Russia, and it was they that, by +calling a general strike, forced the Diet to adopt immediately the +Independence bill in November, 1917. + +The notion of Finland's complete sovereignty forms the basis of the +peace concluded early in March, 1918, between the Russian Socialist +Federative Soviet Republic and the Finnish Socialist Workmen's +Republic, "in order to strengthen the friendship and fraternity between +the above-mentioned free republics." According to this pact, published +on March 10, Russia hands over to the Independent Finnish Socialist +Republic all its possessions in Finland, including real estate, +telegraphs, railways, fortresses, lighthouses, and also Finnish ships +which had been requisitioned by the Russian Government before or during +the war. Article IX. provides for "free and unimpeded access for the +merchant ships of the Russian and Finnish Socialist Republics to all +seas, lakes and rivers, harbors, anchoring places, and channels" within +their territories. The next article establishes uninterrupted +communication, without trans-shipment, between the Russian and Finnish +railways. Article XIII. contains the provision that "Finnish citizens in +Russia as well as Russian citizens in Finland shall enjoy the same +rights as the citizens of the respective countries." + +[Illustration: SKETCH MAP SHOWING FINLAND'S RELATION TO SWEDEN, NORWAY, +AND RUSSIA] + + +GERMAN HAND IN FINLAND + +If "Red" Finland has had the support of the Russian Bolsheviki, "White" +Finland has found a most enterprising ally in Germany. The Vasa +Government has been working in direct and now open contact with +Berlin. It is overwhelmingly pro-German. The relation between the two +Governments early assumed the character of vassalage on the part of the +Finns. This is evidenced by the peace agreement which official Finland +concluded with Germany on March 7. Its full text will be found elsewhere +in this issue. + +[Illustration: THE OLD CASTLE OF VIBORG, FINLAND, WHICH THE WHITE GUARDS +USED AS A FORT] + +Since the beginning of the war the Germans have been conducting in +Finland an active campaign of espionage and propaganda through a host of +agents and sympathizers. The propaganda found a favorable soil among the +propertied classes, and especially among the landed gentry of Swedish +extraction. On the other hand, the persecutions which the Czar's +bureaucracy inflicted upon the nation, and against which neither the +French nor the British press uttered any adequate protest, drove some of +the patriotic Finns into the arms of Russia's enemies. A number of +Finnish youths escaped to Germany and entered the ranks of the German +Army. The University of Helsingfors played a prominent part in this +movement. In 1915 an entire battalion made up exclusively of Finns +fought under the German colors, while no Finns served in the Russian +Army, exemption from military service being one of the ancient Finnish +privileges respected by the Imperial Russian Government. + +After the March revolution, and especially after the fall of Riga, the +efforts of the German agents, with whom Finland now fairly swarmed, were +directed toward fomenting Finnish separatism. In fact, the Swedish press +asserted that from the very beginning of the war the Germans had spent +large sums of money in trying to fan the Finns' smoldering discontent +with Russia. At the same time Germany endeavored to enlist the +sympathies of the White Guards, (skudshär,) which the middle classes +were hastily organizing, ostensibly for the purpose of assisting the +militia and protecting the population from robbers. Berlin was so +successful in its task that as early as October, 1917, the head of the +Russian Bureau of Counterespionage in Finland spoke of the skudskär as +"the vanguard of the German Army." The Finns who served in Wilhelm's +army and were thoroughly indoctrinated with German military science and +German ideals were returned to their native country, and it was they +that took upon themselves to officer the White Guards. Some of the +weapons and munitions used by the latter were secured from Sweden, but +most of them came from Germany and were probably a part of the Russian +booty. The above-mentioned Russian official declared, in an interview +published in a Petrograd daily in October, 1917, that German submarines +appeared regularly off the Finnish coast and delivered arms and +ammunition to Finnish vessels. + + +ATROCITIES ON BOTH SIDES + +The White Guards, commanded by General Mannerheim, fought the +revolutionists with varying success but without achieving a decisive +victory. Several towns in the south were the scene of prolonged battles +in which many lives were lost, notably Tammerfors, the important +industrial centre, where fierce fighting raged throughout the second +half of March. The factory districts in the north were also the scene of +stubborn fighting. A number of women were seen in the ranks of the Red +Guards. + +The two warring factions created a reign of "Red" and "White" terror in +the country. Both committed frightful atrocities. On April 17, Oskari +Tokoi, the Commissionary for Foreign Affairs in the Socialist Cabinet, +protested to all the powers against the manner in which General +Mannerheim treated his Red Guard prisoners. He pointed out that, while +the Red Guards regarded the captured White Guards as prisoners of war, +the Government troops, having taken a number of prisoners, shot all the +officers and every fifteenth man of the rank and file. On the other +hand, the corpses of many White Guards were found unspeakably mutilated. + +Immediately after the outbreak of the Socialist rebellion, the official +Government conceived the idea of appealing for foreign military aid +against the revolutionists. On Jan. 30 such an appeal was reported to +have been sent to Sweden. The cause of White Finland had many +sympathizers in that country. The Finnish White Guards had a recruiting +office in Stockholm, and a number of Swedish volunteers fought in their +ranks. A considerable portion (12 per cent.) of the Finnish population +are Swedes, mostly members of the higher classes. In addition, the two +countries have common historical memories, for Finland was a Swedish +province for six centuries, from the time of Erik VIII., King of Sweden, +till the Russian annexation in 1809. + +The Swedish Government did not, however, elect to intervene. It is not +certain whether Stockholm refused its assistance because Finland refused +to cede the Aland Islands to the Swedes as a compensation for their +services, or because, as Mr. Branting asserts, Sweden was to intervene +"as the creature and ally of Germany." The only step the Swedes took was +to send a military expedition to the Aland Islands, in response to +several appeals from their population, which is mostly Swedish. This +measure was decided upon by the Swedish Parliament on Feb. 16 and was +effected two or three days later. + +The Aland Archipelago, consisting of about ninety inhabited islets and +situated between Abo on the Finnish coast and Stockholm, belongs to +Finland. Its strategic importance for Sweden is aptly characterized by +an old phrase which describes it as "a revolver aimed at the heart of +Sweden." The mission of Sweden's troops was to clear the islands, by +moral suasion if possible, from the bands of Russian soldiers and +Finnish White and Red Guards which for some time had been terrorizing +the population. The Bolshevist garrison offered stubborn resistance to +the landing of the Swedish forces. + + +THE GERMAN INVASION + +At noon on March 2 a German detachment occupied the Aland Islands. The +next day the German Minister at Stockholm informed the Swedish +Government that Germany intended to use these islands as a halting place +for the German military expedition into Finland, undertaken at the +request of the Finnish Government for the purpose of suppressing the +revolution. He gave assurances that Germany sought no territorial gains +in effecting the occupation and would not hinder the humanitarian work +of the Swedish Supervision Corps in the islands. On March 22 the Main +Committee of the Reichstag rejected, by 12 votes against 10, the motion +of the Independent Social Democrats to evacuate the Aland Islands and +cease interfering with the internal affairs of Finland. + +[Illustration: VIEW OF ULEABORG, WHERE THE WHITE GUARDS FOUGHT A +SANGUINARY ENGAGEMENT WITH THE BOLSHEVIST RED GUARDS] + +Mr. Branting, the Swedish political leader, denounced the talk that +Finland, deserted by Sweden, turned to Germany in despair, as "gross +hypocrisy." He is convinced that a secret agreement existed between +Finland and Germany long before the outbreak of the civil war, and that +Finland wants to be a dependency under Germany rather than a member of a +Scandinavian federation of States. Some members of the Diplomatic Corps +in Washington were also reported to believe that the civil war was +merely a specious pretext for inviting Germany to restore order in the +country, and that the negotiations which brought about the German +intervention had been going on secretly for months. + +March passed in preparations for the expedition. On the morning of April +3 the Russian icebreaker Volinetz, which had been captured by the White +Guards, piloted a German naval squadron, consisting of thirty-six ships, +into the Finnish waters of Hangö, which is the extreme southwestern +point of the Finnish coast, within a few hours of Helsingfors. During +the afternoon the Germans landed on the peninsula of Hangö a force +which, according to an official German statement, comprised 40,000 men +under General Sasnitz, 300 guns, and 2,000 machine guns. The next day +the Berlin War Office issued the following statement: "Eastern +Theatre--In agreement with the Finnish Government, German troops have +landed on the Finnish mainland." Later more German detachments were +landed at Abo. + +According to one report, the Germans, upon their landing, opened +negotiations with the Finnish Socialists, but their overtures were +apparently rejected. The Russian Government immediately protested to +Germany against the landing in Finland. The German Government replied by +demanding that the Russian war vessels in Finnish territorial waters +should either leave for Russian ports or disarm, according to Article 5 +of the Brest-Litovsk treaty, on or before midday, April 12. The +Bolsheviki ordered the commander of the Baltic fleet to carry out this +demand. Four Russian submarines were fired upon and sunk by the Germans +at Hangö during the landing and several other Russian warships were +blown up by their own crews for fear of being captured by the Germans. + +[Illustration: VIEW OF FINNISH LAKE REGION NEAR FAVASTELLIUS] + +On April 13 the Finnish Official News Bureau gave out a statement to the +effect that all German troops landed in Finland had been dispatched at +the request of the Finnish Government. On April 17 the Germans landed +40,000 men at Helsingfors. Their naval squadron stationed in the harbor +of the Finnish capital consisted of twelve vessels. + + +FALL OF VIBORG + +The Red Guards offered a stubborn resistance to the invaders, but it +soon became apparent that their cause was lost. Upon the landing of the +Germans, the Socialist Government escaped from Helsingfors and +established itself at Viborg, seventy-five miles northwest of Petrograd. +On April 13 the German troops, aided by naval detachments, entered +Helsingfors, "after a vigorous encounter with armed bands," as the +German official announcements read. According to a Reuter dispatch, a +three days' battle preceded the capture of the Finnish capital. It was +taken by storm after fierce fighting in the streets. About the same time +the City of Abo was taken by the White Guards. The Germans then +proceeded to move on Viborg. On April 23 the Finnish Socialist +Government protested to the allied representatives, including the +American Ambassador to Russia, against the German interference. It +declared that the Finnish Socialists would continue for the cause of +freedom, with "a profound hatred and contempt for the executioners of +nations and of the labor movement." + +Viborg fell into the hands of the White Guards on April 30, after nearly +all its defenders, 6,000 in all, were slaughtered. Among the prisoners +taken was Kullerwo Manner, the President of the Socialist Government. On +May 4 Berlin was able to announce complete victory in Finland. The +official report follows: + + Finland has been cleared of the enemy. German troops, in + co-operation with Finnish battalions, attacked the enemy between + Lakhti and Tevasthus in an encircling movement, and in a five days' + battle, in spite of a bitter defense and desperate attempts to break + through, we have overwhelmingly defeated him. The Finnish forces cut + off his retreat in a northerly direction. The enemy is closed in on + every side, and, after the heaviest losses, is laying down his arms. + We took 20,000 prisoners. Thousands of vehicles and horses were + captured. + +A dispatch dated May 8 reported, however, that the country was far from +pacified, and that the Red Guards continued to offer resistance at many +points. + +Speaking before the Main Committee of the Reichstag, on May 8, Friedrich +von Payer, the German Imperial Vice Chancellor, defended Germany's +intervention in Finland. The fundamental aim of this step was "to +create in North Finland a final condition of peace, both military and +political." He stated that the entire staff of the 43d Russian Army +Corps was recently captured in Finland. He denied that Germany intended +further to interfere in the inner affairs of Finland, and added that +Germany had concluded economic and political treaties with Finland +whereby both parties would profit. + + +UNDER GERMAN DOMINATION + +While these military operations were being carried on, Finland was +becoming a German province. Late in March an American and an English +officer, visiting General Mannerheim at Vasa upon orders from their +legations, were threatened by Finnish White Guard officers with personal +violence and turned out of the dining room of the chief hotel. This +incident was described as characteristic of the feeling existing among +the majority of Finns. On April 1 Vasabladet, the chief Vasa newspaper, +wrote: "No military or other similar persons from any of the countries +at war with Germany ought to be allowed to stay within the borders of +our country so long as we, with the help of God and Germany, are +fighting our hard fight for liberty, order, and justice against the +barbarous ally of the western powers." It appears from a case reported +on April 26 that the viséing of foreign passports by Finnish officials +depends now upon the consent of the Berlin authorities. + +Finland was proclaimed a republic in December, 1917. It has always been +one of the most democratic countries in Europe. It is asserted, +nevertheless, that the experiences through which the former grand duchy +has passed in the last six months have converted many classes of the +population to monarchism. A Stockholm dispatch dated May 8 declared that +a monarchy would probably be proclaimed in Finland, and that Duke Adolph +Frederick of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, uncle of the Crown Princess of +Germany, would be appointed King. + + +GREATER FINLAND + +In the middle of April it became known that the Finnish statesmen had an +ambitious plan for the territorial aggrandizement and political +expansion of their country at the expense of Russia, and possibly also +of Norway. A Stockholm paper published a statement that Germany had +agreed to the establishment of a Greater Finland, to include the +territory of the Petrograd-Murman railway to the arctic. The newspaper +added that the Finnish railway system was to be enlarged with a view to +establishing direct connection from North Cape to Budapest and +Constantinople. Thus Finland would become the cornerstone of a +"Mitteleuropa" stretching from the arctic coast to Asia Minor and +beyond. A well-known Finnish painter stated in an interview that the +Finnish troops, co-operating with the Germans, would take Petrograd as +well as the south coast of the Gulf of Finland, which is ethnically +Finnish. An announcement was made on May 8, before the Main Committee of +the Reichstag, that no Germans were participating or would participate +in the advance of Finnish troops on Petrograd. + +A movement has been set afoot among Karelians, presumably by Finns, in +favor of the Finnish annexation of Russian Karelia, on the basis of the +principle of self-determination. Karelia includes parts of the +Governments of Petrograd, Olonetz, and Archangel; its aboriginal +population belongs to the Finnish race. + +[Illustration] + + + + +Peace Treaty Between Finland and Germany + +Full Text of the Document + + +The Imperial Government of Berlin announced on March 7, 1918, that a +treaty of peace between Germany and Finland had been signed. Two days +later the full text was transmitted from Berlin to London through the +wireless stations of the German Government. This treaty with Germany was +made by the element in the Republic of Finland represented in a military +way by the White Guards, who were pro-German and co-operated with the +German army sent immediately afterward to make war in Finland against +the Red Guards, who represented the Bolshevist element of the Finnish +population. During April an armed conflict between the Reds and the +Germans raged around Helsingfors, where the Bolshevist forces fought to +annul this treaty, though with steadily diminishing prospects of +success. + +The full text of the treaty follows: + + The Royal German Government and the Finnish Government, inspired by + the wish, after the declaration of the independence of Finland and + its recognition through Germany, to bring about a condition of peace + and friendship between both countries on a lasting basis, have + resolved to conclude a peace, and for this purpose they have + appointed the following plenipotentiaries: For the Royal German + Government, the Chancellor of the German Empire, Dr. Count von + Hertling; for the Finnish Government, Dr. Phil Edvard Immanuel + Hjelt, State Adviser, Vice Councilor of the University of + Helsingfors, and Rafael Waldemar Erich, LL.D., Professor of State + Law and of the Law of Nations at the University of Helsingfors, who, + after the mutual setting forth in good order and form of their + plenipotentiary powers, have come to an agreement on the following + provisions: + + _CHAPTER I.--Friendship Between Germany and Finland and the Assuring + of the Independence of Finland_ + + Article 1. The contracting parties declare that between Germany and + Finland no state of war exists and that they are resolved henceforth + to live in peace and friendship with each other. Germany will do + what she can to bring about the recognition of the independence of + Finland by all the powers. On the other hand, Finland will not cede + any part of her possessions to any foreign power nor constitute a + charge on her sovereign territory to any such power before first + having come to an understanding with Germany on the matter. + + Article 2. Diplomatic and consular relations between the contracting + parties will be resumed immediately after the confirmation of the + peace treaty. The freest possible admission of Consuls on both sides + is to be provided for by arrangements in special treaties. + + Article 3. Each of the contracting parties will replace the damage + which has been caused in its own territory by the war, or which the + States or populations have brought about by actions contrary to + international law, or which has been caused by the consular + officials of the other party either to life, liberty, health, or + property. + + _CHAPTER II.--War Indemnities_ + + Article 4. The contracting parties renounce mutually the making good + of war costs; that is to say, State expenses for the carrying on of + the war as well as the payment of war indemnities; that is to say, + of those prejudices which have arisen for them and their subjects in + the war zones by reason of the military measures connected with all + the requisitions undertaken in enemy country. + + _CHAPTER III.--The Re-entry Into Force of State Treaties_ + + Article 5. The treaties which lapsed as a consequence of the war + between Germany and Russia shall be replaced as soon as possible by + new treaties for relations between the contracting parties, and they + shall be made to correspond to the new outlook and conditions which + have now arisen. Especially the contracting parties shall at once + enter into negotiations in order to draw up a treaty for the + settlement of trade and shipping relations between the two + countries, to be signed at the same time as the peace treaty. + + Article 6. Treaties in which, apart from Germany and Russia, also a + third power takes part, and in which Finland appears together with + Russia or in the place of the latter, come into force between the + contracting parties on the ratification of peace treaty or, in case + the entry takes place later, at that moment. In connection with + collective treaties of political contents, in which other + belligerent powers are also involved, the two parties reserve their + attitude until after the conclusion of a general peace. + + _CHAPTER IV.--Re-establishment of Private Rights_ + + Article 7. All stipulations existing in the territory of either of + the contracting parties, according to which, in view of the state of + war, subjects of the other party are subjected to any special + regulation whatever in the observation of their private rights, + cease to be of force on the confirmation of this treaty. Subjects of + either of the contracting parties are such legal persons and + societies as have their domicile in the respective territories. + Furthermore, subjects of either of the parties, legal persons and + societies which do not have their domicile in the territory, must be + regarded as on the same level in so far as in the territory of the + other party they were submitted to the stipulations applying to such + subjects. + + Article 8. With regard to the civil debt conditions which have been + influenced by war laws, the following has been agreed: + + 1. The debt conditions will be re-established in so far as the + stipulations in Articles 8 to 12 do not decide otherwise. + + 2. The stipulation in Paragraph 1 does not prejudice the question as + to what extent the conditions created by the war (especially the + impossibility of settlement of debt owing to the obstacles in + traffic or commercial prohibitions in the territory of either of the + contracting parties) shall be taken into account in the + determination of claims of subjects of either party in accordance + with the laws applying thereto in the respective territories. In + this connection subjects of the other party who have been prevented + by the measures of that party, are not to be dealt with more + unfavorably than the subjects of their own State, who have been + prevented by the measures of that State. + + A person who by the war has been prevented from carrying out in good + time a payment shall not be obliged to make good the damage which + has occurred owing thereto. + + 3. Demands of money, whose payment could be refused during the war + on the strength of war laws, need not be paid until after the + expiration of three months after the confirmation of the peace + treaty. In so far as nothing else has been stipulated in the + supplementary treaty, an interest of 5 per cent. per annum must be + paid on such debts from the original date on which they were due, + for the duration of the war and the further three months, regardless + of moratoriums. Up to the day on which they were originally due, the + interests agreed upon, if any, must be paid. In the case of bills or + checks submission for payment as well as protests against nonpayment + must take place within the fourth month after the confirmation of + this treaty. + + 4. For the settlement of outstanding affairs and other civil + obligations, officially recognized unions for the protection of + debtors and for the examination of claims of lay and legal persons + belonging to the union, as well as their plenipotentiaries, are to + be mutually recognized and permitted. + + Article 9. Each contracting party will immediately after the + confirmation of the peace treaty resume payment of its obligations, + especially the public debt duties to subjects of the other party. + The obligations which became due before the confirmation of the + treaty will be paid within three months after the confirmation. + + Article 10. Copyrights, trade protective rights, concessions and + privileges, as well as similar claims on public legal foundations, + which have been influenced by war laws, shall be re-established, in + so far as nothing else has been stipulated in Article 12. + + Each contracting party will grant subjects of the other party who on + account of the war have neglected the legal period in which to + undertake an action necessary for the establishment or maintenance + of a trade protective right, without prejudice to the justly + obtained rights of third parties, a period of at least one year in + which to recover the action. Trade protective rights of subjects of + one party which were in force on the outbreak of war, shall not + expire in the territory of the other party, owing to their + non-application, till after the termination of four years from the + confirmation of this treaty. If in the territory of one of the + contracting parties a trade protective right, which in accordance + with the war laws could not be applied for, is applied for by an + agent who during the war has taken protective measures in the + territory of the other party in accordance with the rules, such + right, if claimed within six months after the confirmation of the + treaty, shall, with the reservation of the rights of third parties, + have priority over all applications submitted in the meantime, and + cannot be made ineffective by facts which have arisen in the + meantime. + + Article 11. Periods for the superannuation of rights shall, in the + territory of each of the contracting parties, toward subjects of the + other party, expire at the earliest one year after the confirmation + of the peace treaty in so far as they had not expired at the time of + the outbreak of war. The same applies to periods for the submission + of dividend-warrants or warrants for shares in profit, as well as to + bills which have become redeemable or have become otherwise payable. + + Article 12. The activities of authorities who on the strength of war + laws have become occupied with the supervision, custody, + administration, or liquidation of property or with the receiving of + payments, are without prejudice to the stipulations of Article 13, + to be wound up in accordance with the following principles: + + 1. Properties under supervision, in custody or under administration, + are to be set free immediately on the demand of the parties entitled + to them. Until the moment of transfer to the entitled party care + must be taken for the safeguarding of his interests. + + 2. The provisions of Paragraph 1 shall not modify the properly + acquired right of a third party. Payments and other obligations of a + debtor which, as mentioned at the beginning of the article, have + been received or caused to be received at the places mentioned, + shall, in the territories of the contracting parties, have the same + effect as if the creditor himself had received them. + + Civil dispositions which have been made at the places mentioned at + the instigation of the parties or by them will have full effect and + are to be maintained by the parties. + + 3. Regarding the operations of the places mentioned at the beginning + of this article, especially those for receipts and payments, details + shall at once be given to the authorized parties immediately upon + demand. Claims which have been lodged to be dealt with at these + places can only be dealt with in accordance with the stipulations of + Article 14. + + Article 13. Land or rights in land or in mines as well as rights in + the use or exploitation of lands, or undertakings, or claims for + participation in an undertaking, especially those represented by + shares, which have been forcibly alienated from the persons entitled + to them by reason of war laws, shall be transferred to the former + owner within a period of one year after the confirmation of the + peace treaty, and there shall be returned to him any profits which + have accrued on such property during the alienation or deprivation, + and this shall be done free from all rights of third parties which + may have arisen in the meantime. + + _CHAPTER VI.--Indemnity for Civil Damages_ + + Article 14. Subjects of one of the contracting parties resident in + the territory of the other contracting party who, by reason of war + laws, have suffered damage either by the temporary or lasting + privation of concessions, privileges, and similar claims, or by the + supervision, trusteeship, administration or alienation of property, + are to be appropriately indemnified so far as the damage by the war + cannot be replaced by the actual re-establishment of their former + conditions. This also applies to shareholders who, on account of + their character as foreign enemies, are excluded from certain + rights. + + Article 15. Each of the contracting parties will indemnify the + civilian subjects of the other party for damages which have been + caused to them in its territory during the war by the State + officials or the population there through breaches of international + law and acts of violence against life, health, or property. + + Article 16. Each of the contracting parties will at once pay to the + subjects of the other party their just claims so far as this has not + already been done. + + Article 17. For the fixing of the damages, according to Articles 14 + and 15, there shall meet in Berlin a commission immediately after + the confirmation of this treaty which shall consist of one-third of + each of the contracting parties and one-third of neutrals. The + President of the Swiss Bundesrat shall be asked to nominate the + neutral members, from whom the Chairman shall be chosen. The + commission shall fix the principles, on which it is to work, and it + shall decide as to what procedure it shall follow. Its decisions + shall be carried out by sub-commissions, which shall consist of one + representative from each of the contracting parties and a neutral + umpire. The amounts fixed by the sub-commissions are to be paid + within one month of the decision being made. + + _CHAPTER VII.--The Exchange of Prisoners of War and Interned + Civilians_ + + Article 18. Finnish prisoners of war in Germany and German prisoners + of war in Finland shall, as soon as practicable, be exchanged within + the times fixed by a German-Finnish Commission, and subject to the + payment of the costs entailed in such exchange in so far as those + prisoners do not wish to stay in the country where they happen to + be, with its consent, or to go to another country. The commission + will also have to settle the further details of such exchange and to + supervise their execution. + + Article 19. The deported or interned civilians on both sides will be + sent home as soon as practicable free of charge so far as, subject + to the consent of the country on whose territory they are staying, + they do not wish to remain there or wish to go to another country. + The settlement of the details and the supervision of their execution + shall be carried out by the commission mentioned in Article 18. The + Finnish Government will endeavor to obtain from the Russian + Government the release of those Germans who were captured in Finnish + territory and who at the present time are outside Finnish on Russian + territory. + + Article 20. Subjects of one party who at the outbreak of war had + their domicile or commercial establishments in the territory of the + other party and who did not remain in that territory may return + there as soon as the other party is not in a state of war. Their + return can only be refused on the ground of the endangering of the + internal or foreign safety of the State. It would suffice that a + pass be made out by the authorities of the home Government in which + it is to be stated that the bearer is one of those persons as + stipulated in Item 1. No visé is to be necessary on these passes. + + Article 21. Each of the Contracting Parties undertakes to respect + and to tend the several burial places of subjects of the other party + who fell in the war as well as those who died during internment or + deportation and the persons intrusted by each party with care and + proper decoration of the burial places may attend to these duties in + accord with the authorities of each country. Questions connected + with the care of such burial places are reserved for further + agreements. + + _CHAPTER VIII.--Amnesty._ + + Article 22. Each of the contracting parties concedes amnesty from + penalties to the subjects of the other party who are prisoners of + war for all criminal acts committed by them and further to all + civilian interned or deported subjects of the other party for all + punishable acts committed by them during their internment or + deportation period, and lastly to all subjects of the other party + for crimes against all exceptional laws made to the disadvantage of + enemy foreigners. The amnesty will not apply to actions committed + after the confirmation of the peace treaty. + + Article 23. Each party concedes complete amnesty to all its own + subjects in view of the work which they have done in the territory + of the other party as prisoners of war, interned civilians, or + deported civilians. + + Article 24. The contracting parties reserve to themselves the right + to make further agreements according to which each party may grant + an amnesty of penalties decreed on account of actions committed to + its disadvantage. + + _CHAPTER IX.--The Treatment of Mercantile Vessels and Cargoes Which + Have Fallen Into the Hands of the Enemy._ + + Article 25. Mercantile ships of one contracting party which lay in + the ports of the other contracting party on the outbreak of the war, + as well as their cargoes, are to be given back to their owners, or + in so far as this is not possible they are to be paid for in money. + For the use of such embargoed vessels during the war the usual daily + freight is to be paid. + + Article 26. German mercantile ships and their cargoes which are in + the power of Finland, except in cases foreseen in Article 25 at the + signing of this treaty or which may arrive there later, are to be + given back if on the outbreak of war they were in an enemy port or + were interned in neutral waters by enemy forces. + + Article 27. The mercantile vessels of either of the contracting + parties captured as prizes in the zone of power of the other party + shall be regarded as definitely confiscated if they have been + legally condemned as prizes, and if they do not come under the + provisions of Articles 25 and 26. Otherwise they are to be given + back, or, in so far as they are no longer available, they are to be + paid for. The provisions of Paragraph 1 are to apply also to ships' + cargoes taken as prizes belonging to subjects of the contracting + parties, but goods belonging to subjects of one of the contracting + parties on board ships flying enemy flags which have fallen into the + hands of the other contracting party are in all cases to be handed + over to their rightful owners, or, so far as this is not possible, + they are to be paid for. + + Article 28. The carrying out of the provisions contained in Articles + 25 to 27, especially the fixing of the damages to be paid, shall be + decided by a mixed commission, which shall consist of one + representative from each of the contracting parties with a neutral + umpire, and shall sit in Stettin within three months after the date + of confirmation of the peace treaty. The President of the Swiss + Bundesrat shall be requested to nominate the umpire. + + Article 29. The contracting parties will do all in their power to + facilitate the free return of the mercantile ships and their cargoes + to their homes as set forth in Articles 25 to 27. The contracting + parties will also give their support to each other in the + re-establishment of the mutual commercial intercourse, after the + assuring of safe shipping routes, which had been disturbed by the + war. + + _CHAPTER X.--Adjustment of the Aland Question._ + + Article 30. The contracting parties are agreed that the Forts put + upon the Aland Islands are to be removed as soon as possible, and + that the lasting non-fortified character of these Islands and also + their treatment in a military and technical sense for purposes of + shipping, shall be settled by agreement between Germany, Finland, + Russia and Sweden; and to these agreements, at the wish of Germany, + the other States lying in the Baltic Sea shall be invited to assent. + + _CHAPTER XI.--Final Provisions._ + + Article 31. The Peace Treaty shall be confirmed. The confirmatory + documents shall be exchanged as soon as practicable in Berlin. + + Article 32. The Peace Treaty, so far as is not otherwise stipulated, + shall come into force with its confirmation. For the making of + supplementary additions to the Treaty the representatives of the + contracting parties shall meet in Berlin within four months of its + confirmation. + + + + +German Aggression in Russia + +Record of Events Placing Finland and the Ukraine More Fully Under +Teutonic Control + + +During the month ended May 15, 1918, the German advance in the territory +of the former Russian Empire continued uninterruptedly. While minor +military operations were conducted in the Province of Kursk, in Russia +proper, the main body of the invading army occupied the Crimea and +penetrated into the Donetz coal basin. On April 24 the German troops, +under General Kosch, reached the City of Simferopol, in the Crimea. A +week later they occupied Sebastopol, the great military and commercial +seaport, famous in Russian history. A portion of the Russian Black Sea +fleet fell into the hands of the Germans. On May 3 the invaders seized +Taganrog, on the Sea of Azov. On May 9 they took Rostov, at the mouth of +the River Don, but two days later the city was again in Russian hands. +The Germans are apparently intent on occupying the seacoast from +Bessarabia, on the west, to the Caucasus, on the east. + +The Bolshevist régime gave signs of undergoing a process of +reorganization. It sought to enlist the services of officials who had +served under the Provisional Government and of Generals of the old army. +A new War Department was formed. Trotzky, the Minister of War and +Marine, advocated universal conscription of labor. The Central Executive +Committee, at his suggestion, decreed compulsory military service. +Workmen and peasants from 18 to 40 years old were to be trained for +eight consecutive weeks, for a weekly minimum of eight hours. Women were +accepted into the army as volunteers. + +The Bolshevist authorities made several attempts to suppress rioting and +street looting. Early in May the Red Guards fought a pitched battle with +the Moscow anarchists, who refused to surrender their munitions, and +stamped out their organization. The Soviets passed resolutions and took +measures against the anti-Jewish massacres which occurred in numerous +cities. Disorder and mob rule, however, continued to prevail in Russia, +while hunger and unemployment were daily increasing. + + +INDUSTRY CRIPPLED + +On April 16 M. Gukovsky, the Commissary for Finance, reported to the +Central Executive Committee of the Soviets on Russia's financial and +industrial condition. He said that the semi-yearly expenditure would +amount to 4,000,000,000 rubles, while the income expected was only +3,300,000,000 rubles. The railroads had lost 70 per cent. of their +freight capacity, and the cost of operation had increased ten times, +(120,000 against 11,600 rubles per versta.) The Central Government, he +stated, derived no revenue from taxes, as the local Soviets used the +sums they collected for their own purposes. To illustrate the industrial +conditions the Commissary cited the example of the Sormov locomotive +works, whose daily output is two locomotives, instead of eighteen as +formerly. M. Gukovsky recommended strict economy in expenditures and +urged the necessity of securing the services of financial and industrial +experts for the purpose of organizing an efficient State machinery. + +Among the recent legislative measures of the Moscow Government must be +mentioned the nationalization of foreign trade, which is a part of the +general Bolshevist scheme of Socialist reforms. A special board has been +created to regulate the prices of all exports and imports. + +In the middle of April hostilities were reopened between the newly +collected troops of General Korniloff, former Russian Commander in +Chief, and the Bolshevist forces. It was reported that the Bolsheviki +heavily defeated the anti-Soviet troops, capturing Novocherkask and +wounding the Cossack General. It was also stated that General Dutoff, +another anti-Bolshevist leader, was captured by the Soviet troops, and +that General Semyonov, the leader of the Cossack movement against the +Bolsheviki in Siberia, was killed. + +The incident of the Japanese landing at Vladivostok was near closing, +when further interest in the Far Eastern situation was aroused in Russia +by a number of documents seized on the person of a member of the +anti-Soviet "Siberian Government." According to a note addressed on +April 26 by M. Chicherin to diplomatic representatives in Moscow, these +documents proved that the Consuls of Great Britain, France, and +America--and the diplomatic representatives of these powers in +Peking--sought to interfere in the internal affairs of Russia by +participating in the counter-revolutionary movement for an autonomous +Government in Siberia. A similar charge was laid to the Japanese +officials. The Russian Government, therefore, demanded the recall of the +allied Consular officers at Vladivostok, also asking the Allies to +define their attitude toward the Soviet Government. Neither Ambassador +Francis nor the French Ambassador, M. Noulens, made any official reply +to the Russian charges. M. Noulens had previously drawn upon himself the +wrath of the Bolsheviki by declaring that the armed intervention of the +Allies in Russia would be an act of friendly assistance. Mr. Francis +informally notified the Moscow Government that, in his opinion, the +documents failed to involve the American officials. On May 9 Secretary +Lansing instructed him to present informally to the Russian Foreign +Office a denial of its charge against the American Consul at +Vladivostok. + + +ENEMY PROPAGANDA + +In a speech on April 27 Baron Shimpei Goto, the new Japanese Foreign +Minister, referred to the malevolent propaganda which is being conducted +in Russia with a view to creating an estrangement between Japan and +Russia. He expressed the view that "Russia is a power endeavoring to +reorganize a machine temporarily out of order," adding: "Japan must +give encouragement, assistance, and support to the work of +reorganization in Russia. We trust the sound sense of the Russian people +will not be misled by reports calculated to keep the two neighbors +apart." + +Shortly after the capture of Sebastopol the Russian Government protested +to Germany against the seizure of the Black Sea fleet and the invasion +of the Crimea. The Russian note pointed out that these acts were in +contravention of the Brest treaty and that they might endanger the +peaceful relations between the two countries. The Germans did not seem +to be concerned to maintain these relations. They treated the population +of the occupied territories with harshness. Starving refugees were not +admitted into the regions under their domination. It was reported that +in the Government of Minsk able-bodied persons were seized in the +streets and sent to Germany in locked cars. Constant food requisitioning +was another feature of the German rule in Russia. + + +RUSSIA'S PROTEST + +On April 15 M. Chicherin, Russian Commissary for Foreign Affairs, +protested to Berlin against the outrages committed by the German troops +in Russia. The text of the note follows: + + The Central Soviet institutions receive many complaints with regard + to German troops burning Russian villages and using violence against + Russian inhabitants. An eyewitness well known to us and absolutely + trustworthy states that at Lepel, northwest of Mogileff, German + soldiers killed a whole family, not sparing women and children, on + the plea that one of the family belonged to a partisan detachment. + The local military authorities state that at the village of + Novoselki, Mogileff, on April 5, there appeared an officer and + soldiers of the 346th Regiment and took oats from the inhabitants by + force. The officer was killed by the peasants, and the soldiers + fled. After this the village was surrounded by the soldiers, fired + on by machine guns, and burned. + + The following day the German commander sent a notice to the Russian + military authorities at Orsha saying that the inhabitants of + Novoselki had been ejected, and the village burned owing to a German + officer's being killed. + +[Illustration: MAP OF THE UKRAINE AND OTHER REGIONS OF RUSSIA NOW UNDER +GERMAN DOMINATION] + +Observers of Russian life agree that feelings of resentment and +animosity on the part of the Russian population for the German oppressor +are steadily growing throughout the country. At the same time good +feeling between the Russians and the Allies, especially the Americans, +is on the increase. British and French troops are co-operating with +Bolshevist forces in defending against Finns and Germans the Murman +seacoast and the railway from the interior of Russia to the arctic ports +of Alexandrovsk and Archangel, where large supplies of valuable war +materials are stored up. The War Council attached to the Murman local +Soviet consists of one Russian, one Englishman, and one Frenchman. The +landing of the allied troops at Alexandrovsk the Germans regarded as a +violation of the Brest treaty, which provides for peace with Finland, +and protested to the Moscow Government against the act. + +The constant exchange of protests between Berlin and Moscow is partly +caused by the ambiguous wording of the Brest treaty. On April 24 Adolf +Joffe, the Bolshevist Ambassador in Berlin, telegraphed to Moscow that +the Russian translation of the treaty was considered by the German +authorities incorrect, and that the publication of the final draft of +the document was postponed until the receipt of an authentic version. + + +DISMEMBERING RUSSIA + +It appears that Germany has been making further attempts to encourage +the separatist tendency in Russia, in contravention of the Brest +treaty. The German Government is reported to have inquired of the local +Crimean authorities concerning the nationalization of their flag. The +Bolsheviki interpreted this step as indicative of the German desire to +separate the Taurida Republic from the Russian Federation. + +According to a communication issued by the Rumanian Chargé d'Affaires, +the National Assembly of Bessarabia voted, on April 9, the union of the +province to Rumania by 86 against 3. Thereupon, the Rumanian Premier, +amid enthusiastic acclamation, proclaimed the union to be "definitive +and indissoluble," and a delegation was sent to Jassy to present the +homage of the people of Bessarabia to the King. Rumania seems to have +acted at the suggestion of Germany. It is known that the latter proposed +to Rumania to annex a part of Bessarabia and thus compensate herself for +Rumanian territory taken by Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria. It is also +known that (on March 22?) Russia signed a treaty with Rumania regarding +Bessarabia. The province was to be evacuated by the Rumanian troops, +which had occupied it at the request of the population, and the guarding +of Bessarabia was to pass into the hands of local militia, while all +evacuated places were to be immediately occupied by Russian troops. +Russia undertook to leave Rumania the surplus of Bessarabian grain +remaining after the local population and Russian troops had been +provided for. The Ukrainian Government refused to recognize the step +taken by Bessarabia. + +According to the terms of the Brest treaty the Baltic Provinces Esthonia +and Livonia were to remain under Russian sovereignty, but three weeks +later Germany began intriguing for a union of these countries with the +Kingdom of Russia. The falsity of the assertion that the people of +Esthonia favored a Baltic monarchy was exposed by the following protest +of the Esthonian Provisional Government, published April 22: + + Regarding the communication from Berlin that the joint Landtag of + Esthonia, Livonia, Riga, and Oesel has decided upon the separation + of Baltic provinces from Russia and the creation of a Baltic + monarchy in personal union with Prussia, I declare, as + representative of the Esthonian Republic, that this resolution does + not constitute an expression of opinion of the Esthonian people, but + only that of a German nobility minority and its adherents. + +On May 5 the British Government informally recognized the Esthonian +Provisional Government and, in the words of Mr. Balfour's communication, +"reaffirmed their readiness to grant provisional recognition to the +Esthonian National Council as a de facto independent body until the +peace conference, when the future status of Esthonia ought to be settled +as far as possible in accordance with the wishes of the population." + +On April 26 Transcaucasia declared its independence under a conservative +Government, headed by M. Chkhemkeli. + +Count von Mirbach, the Royal German Ambassador to Russia, accompanied by +a Turkish representative, arrived in Moscow on April 23. He was welcomed +by the Chairman of the Central Executive Committee as "a representative +of a power with which a peace treaty has been concluded at +Brest-Litovsk, as a result of which peace, so needed by the people, was +established between the two States." Pravda, the official Bolshevist +daily, greeted the Royal German Ambassador as "the plenipotentiary of an +armed band which with limitless audacity oppresses and robs wherever it +is able to thrust in with a bloody imperialistic bayonet." + + +ULTIMATUM ON PRISONERS + +Germany has shown eagerness to obtain the release and the use of the +able-bodied German prisoners who are now in Russia. It is believed that +there are at present upward of 1,000,000 German prisoners of war in +European Russia and Siberia. It was reported on April 27 that a special +German commission had arrived in Moscow to take charge of the exchange +of prisoners with Russia, and that exchanges of invalids had already +begun. The number of Russians in German hands is estimated at 3,000,000. +An earlier official German communication explained the delay in +repatriating Russians by the lack of transportation facilities. On +April 29 the State Department at Washington gave out the following +statement: + + The Department of State has learned that there will shortly leave + for Russia a German commission, consisting of 115 members, which + will take up the question of the exchange of Russian and German + prisoners. It is reported that it is the purpose of the commission + merely to present to the Russian authorities an ultimatum from + Germany requiring, first, the immediate release of all German + prisoners who are in good health; second, that those who are ill + will remain in Russia under the care of neutral physicians, and, + third, that the Germans on their side will release only those + Russian prisoners in Germany who are invalids or who are + incapacitated. In the event of a refusal on the part of Russia, + Germany will order that Petrograd be taken. + +Upon the heels of this ultimatum came another one, served on the Council +of the People's Commissaries by the German Ambassador, Count von +Mirbach. According to a dispatch, the new ultimatum, too, dated May 10, +had a bearing on the prisoner question, but in addition demanded +complete cessation of arming troops and the disbandment of units already +formed. This demand produced an unusual stir in Russia. The Commissaries +held an extraordinary session at which the situation created by the +ultimatum was discussed. The Bolsheviki showed no intention of complying +with the German ultimatum. + +On May 12 Foreign Minister Chicherin instructed the Russian Ambassador, +M. Joffe, at Berlin to "try to obtain from Berlin cessation of every +kind of hostility." The Germans had announced their intention to capture +Novorossiysk, on the Caucasian coast of the Black Sea, under the pretext +that the Russian warships, which had escaped seizure at Sebastopol and +which are stationed at Novorossiysk, constituted a danger for the German +vessels. The instruction added that the German invasion of Russian +territory was causing much unrest in the country. + + +COUP IN THE UKRAINE + +On April 18 the State Department at Washington announced that, according +to an authentic report, the Teutons intended to dissolve the Ukrainian +Rada and set up a Government of their own. On April 24 a Ukrainian +financier prominent in aiding the Germans was arrested in the name of +"the Committee of Ukrainian Safety." The German Vice Chancellor, +Friedrich von Payer, in his speech before the Main Committee of the +Reichstag, said that this secret organization aimed at driving the +Germans out of the country and was even planning the assassination of +all German officers. It included a number of prominent Ukrainians, +several Ministers of State among them, and held its meetings at the +house of the Minister of War. An investigation was demanded by the +German Ambassador, but the Rada took no action. + +Two days later General von Eichhorn, Commander of the German Army in the +Ukraine, proclaimed "a state of enhanced protection," making all +offenders of order subject to the jurisdiction of German court-martial. +He had previously issued a field-sowing decree, necessitated, as the +Germans explained, by the fact that the Rada had taken no measures +concerning the field sowing, without which the country could not meet +its treaty obligations relative to the delivery of grain to Germany. On +April 28, while the Rada was in session, German troops entered the hall +and arrested a number of its members, the Minister of War among them. +The next day a number of landowners and rich peasants who were holding a +convention in Kiev declared its sessions permanent, voted the +dissolution of the Rada as well as the cancellation of the order +convoking the Constituent Assembly on May 12, and proclaimed General +Skoropadsky Hetman (Supreme Military Chief) of the Ukraine. + +The Rada ceased to exist. It had but scant support in the country. A +creature of the Teutons, it was supported by their armed forces. It +proved unable to secure the delivery of the promised foodstuffs to the +Central Powers. Owing to the resistance of the population only 3,000,000 +poods (pood, 36 pounds) were delivered to the Teutons, instead of +30,000,000 poods, which the Rada undertook to supply. The Germans then +withdrew their support. According to various reports, the German agents +took an active part in the overthrowing of the Rada. + +Speaking of the fall of the Rada, the German Vice Chancellor said that +"stubborn adherence to communistic theories that have gained no sympathy +among the peasant population, which is attached to the soil, seems to +have been principally responsible for bringing about its end." One of +the first acts of the new Government was the restoration of private +ownership of land. The new régime has many features of an autocratic +rule. The following information regarding the extent of the Hetman's +powers is furnished by the German Service of Propaganda: + + The Government power in its entire capacity belongs to the Hetman + for all the territory of the State. The Hetman ratifies the laws, he + appoints the President of the Council of Ministers, he is chief + director of the relations of foreign affairs of the Ukrainian State, + he is Generalissimo of the army and of the navy, he declares war, + proclaims martial law and exceptional laws. In the administration of + justice he has the right of pardon and commutation of sentence. + +It has been pointed out that, while the reconstructed Ukrainian +Government is emphatically and avowedly pro-German, some of its leading +spirits are Russian patriots and advocates of a union with Russia. Grand +Duke Dmitry Pavlovich is said to have taken an active part in the coup +d'état. A dispatch, dated May 10, announced the beginning of peace +negotiations between Russia and the Ukraine. + + +GERMAN PENETRATION + +United States Minister Morris at Stockholm cabled to the State +Department on May 14: + + Swedish press reports from Moscow state that Count von Mirbach + recently transmitted to the Commissariat of the People a note + formulated as an ultimatum and demanding the immediate effecting of + certain financial measures which would practically make Russia a + German colony. The chief points of the note were the immediate + solution of the question regarding the exchange of prisoners, the + complete abolishment of armaments, and the dissolution of units + formed recently; also the occupation of Moscow and some other large + Russian cities. + +On the same date it was reported from Moscow that the Germans had +captured Rostov-on-Don, thus gaining control of the Caucasus, the grain +districts in the Donnetz Basin, and the coal, iron, and oil fields. +Northern Russia was thus cut off from the Caucasus, excepting for a +single railroad running through Tsaritsin, in the southern part of the +Government of Saratov, which the Germans were threatening. + +The dispatch continued as follows: + + The Governmental power in its entire Government, with which it had + made peace, is regarded by North Russia as a step toward its + occupation. Within a few weeks the future of Petrograd and Moscow + probably will be determined, as it is considered that the Soviet + Government either must submit to German domination or retreat + eastward and prepare for a defense against the invaders. Effective + resistance will be difficult without outside assistance, because of + the lack of technical experts and supplies. The bitter feeling + against Germany is intensified by the ruthless seizures in Ukraine, + and a growing disposition to accept allied aid if the Entente Allies + will recognize the Bolshevist Government is evident. + + +RUSSIA'S LOSSES + +The Commissariat of Commerce on April 10 gave the following summary of +what Russia lost by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: + + Inhabitants 56,000,000 + (About one-third total European Russia.) + Territory 300,000 square miles + (About one-sixth total European area.) + Railways 13,000 miles + (About one-third total mileage.) + Coal 89 per cent. + Iron 73 " + Machinery 1,073 factories. + Textiles 918 " + Paper 615 " + Chemicals 244 " + Tobacco 133 " + Spirits 1,685 distilleries. + Beer 574 breweries. + Sugar 268 refineries. + +The lost territories used to yield an annual revenue of nearly +$425,000,000 and boasted 1,800 savings banks. + + + + +More Bolshevist Legislation + +By Abraham Yarmolinsky + + +Speaking on Dec. 5, 1917, before the Central Executive Committee of the +Soviets on the subject of the right of constituents to recall their +representatives, Nikolai Lenine, the head of the proletarian Government +of Russia, made the following remark: "The State is an institution for +coercion. Formerly it was a handful of money-bags that outraged the +whole nation. We, on the contrary, wish to transform the State into an +institution of coercion which must do the will of the people. We desire +to organize violence in the name of the interests of the toilers." The +April issue of CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE contained a general outline of +the manner in which the makers of the social revolution applied this +principle of Statehood to the solution of various problems of home +government. The present article will deal more in detail with some of +the acts of the Bolshevist legislators. There is no better way of +gaining an insight into the views and intentions of the present rulers +of Russia than to study the abundant output of their legislative +machinery. + + +CONTROLLING PRODUCTION + +Lenine's Government has worked out an elaborate scheme of State control +over national production and distribution as a preliminary step toward +the complete socialization of the country's industry and commerce. The +semi-legislative, semi-executive organs created for that purpose form an +intricate hierarchy of affiliated elective bodies and corporations of a +large and ill-defined jurisdiction. + +In the first place, there have been instituted so-called Soviets of +Workmen's Control, (decree of Nov. 27, 1917.) These are made up of +representatives of trade unions, factory committees, and productive +co-operatives, and aim at regulating the economic life of industrial +plants using hired labor, the control in each enterprise being effected +through the elective bodies of the workmen, together with the +representatives of the salaried employes. The executive organs of the +Soviets of Workmen's Control have the right to fix the minimum output +of a given firm, to determine the cost of the articles produced, to +inspect the books and accounts, and, in general, to supervise the +production and the various business transactions. Commercial secrecy, +like diplomatic secrecy, is abolished. The owners and controlling +agencies are responsible to the State for the safety of the property and +for the strictest order and discipline within the precincts of the +establishments. The local Soviets are subordinated to provincial Soviets +of Workmen's Control, which issue local regulations, take up the +complaints of the owners against the controlling agencies, and settle +the conflicts between the latter. + +The Central All-Russian Soviet of Workmen's Control issues general +instructions and co-ordinates the activities of this controlling system +with the efforts of the other administrative organs regulating the +economic life of the country. + +The members of this central institution of control, together with +representatives from each Commissariat (Ministry of State) and also +expert advisers, form the Supreme Soviet (Council) of National Economy, +instituted by the decree of Dec. 18, 1917. This body directs and unifies +the work of regulating the national economy and the State finances. It +is empowered to confiscate, requisition, sequestrate, and syndicate +various establishments in the field of production, distribution, and +State finances. The Supreme Council is divided into several sections, +each of which deals with a separate economic phase. Among other tasks +devolving upon these sections is the drafting of the law projects for +the respective Commissariats. Bills affecting national economy in its +entirety are brought before the Council of the People's Commissaries +through the Supreme Council of National Economy. + + +ECONOMIC REGULATION + +On Jan. 5, 1918, the Institute of Local Soviets of National Economy was +created, "for the purpose of organizing and regulating the economic life +of each industrial section in accordance with the national and local +interests." Affiliated with the local Soviets of Workmen's and Soldiers' +Delegates, they are subject to the authority of the Supreme Council of +National Economy. They are made up of representatives from trade unions, +factory committees, workmen's co-operatives, land committees, and the +technical personnel of industrial and commercial establishments. The +inner organization of these bodies is elaborate. There are sections, +divisions, (of organization, supply and distribution, labor, and +statistics,) and business offices. + +Here are some of the functions of these Soviets. They must: + + 1. Manage the private enterprises confiscated by the State and given + over to the workmen, such as, for instance, a number of factories in + the Ural mining district. + + 2. Determine the amount of fuel, raw materials, machinery, means of + transportation, labor, &c., needed by the given industrial section, + and the amount available in it. + + 3. Provide for the economic needs of the section. + + 4. Distribute the orders for goods among the individual enterprises + and work out the basis for the distribution of labor, raw material, + machinery, &c. + + 5. Regulate transportation in the section. + + 6. See to it that all the productive forces should be fully utilized + both in industry and agriculture. + + 7. Improve the sanitary conditions of labor. + + +LAND COMMITTEES + +The activity of the Soviets of National Economy is restricted to the +field of industry. Their counterpart in agriculture are the so-called +land committees. + +The decree relating to agrarian socialization, voted by the Bolsheviki +at 2 A. M., Nov. 8, 1917, recommends the use of a certain _nakaz_, +(mandate,) based on 242 resolutions passed by village communities, as a +guide in putting the land reform into practice. Article 8 of this +_nakaz_, which is a paraphrase of the agrarian program of the Social +Revolutionists, reads thus: "All the land, upon confiscation, forms a +national agrarian fund. The distribution of the land among the toilers +is taken care of by local and central self-governing bodies. * * * The +land is periodically redistributed, with the growth of population and +the rise of the productivity of agricultural labor." + +For the purpose of putting this program into operation and regulating +the economic life of the village generally there have been instituted +land committees, (decree of Nov. 16,) one for each volost, (rural +district including several villages.) They are to be elected by the +population of the district and exist as separate institutions, or +function as an organ of the volost zemstvo, wherever this is found. The +duties of a land committee are many and complex. It takes inventory of +all the land in the district and allots to each village its share of +plow land, meadows, and pastures, seeing to it that the land should be +equitably distributed among the individual toilers and correctly tilled. +It grants lease of lands and waters, not subject to distribution, +receives the rent and turns it over to the national fund. It regulates +the supply and demand of agricultural labor, takes charge of the +forests, fixes prices of timber, receives and fills orders for fuel from +the State, and takes the necessary measures to preserve the large, +scientifically conducted agricultural establishments. + +The delegates of a number of volost land committees, together with +representatives of the local zemstvo and the Soviet of Workmen's and +Soldier's Delegates, form a county committee. The latter, in its turn, +sends a delegate to the Provincial Land Committee. The Main Land +Committee, which heads the whole system, is an independent institution +on a par with the central State organizations. It is a large group of +people, consisting of the Commissariat of Agriculture, together with +representatives from the following bodies: The Commissariats of Finance, +Justice, and Internal Affairs, the provincial Land Committees, the +All-Russian Soviet of Peasants' Deputies, the All-Russian Soviet of +Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates, and the political parties. + + +NO MORE LANDLORDS + +The Bolsheviki have been careful to extend the abolition of private land +ownership to city real estate. By a special decree they abrogated the +property rights in city land and in those of the city buildings whose +value, together with that of the ground they occupy, exceeds a certain +minimum, fixed in each municipality by the local authorities, or which +are regularly let for rent, although their value does not exceed the +minimum. The land and the buildings are declared public property. The +dispossessed owners retain the right to use the apartment they occupy in +their former property, provided the apartment is worth no more than 800 +rubles of rent per annum. In case the value of the apartment exceeds +this maximum the former owner pays the difference to the local Soviet of +Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates. All the rent which formerly went to +the landlord is now paid to that institution or to the Municipal +Council. Not more than one-third of the sum thus collected is to be used +to meet the various needs of the community; 10 per cent. of it goes to +the national housing fund; the rest forms the local housing fund for +erecting new buildings, laying out streets, and making other +improvements. + + +COMPULSORY INSURANCE + +Municipal socialization of land values, while manifestly intended to +benefit the poorer classes, directly affects all the elements of the +city population. Other measures enacted by the Bolsheviki are restricted +to the proletariat, and properly belong to the field of specific labor +legislation. Thus, a law has been passed limiting the working day in +both industrial and commercial establishments to eight hours, and +further regulating the work of women and children. Furthermore, a +minimum wage of the hired workers has been fixed in each section of the +country. But by far the most radical and characteristic innovations +launched by the Bolshevist Government in this line of legislation are +those relating to compulsory insurance of workmen. + +On Dec. 29 there was created the Institute of Insurance Soviets, with an +executive organ in the form of a Chamber of Insurance. It is the +intention of the Government to introduce compulsory insurance for +laborers against sickness, unemployment, invalidism, and accidents. The +regulations published so far relate only to the first two forms of +insurance. The respective decrees rule that throughout the territory of +the Russian Republic all hired workers, without distinction of sex, age, +religion, nationality, race, and allegiance, are to be insured against +sickness and unemployment, irrespective of the character and duration of +their work. Salaried employes and members of liberal professions are not +subject to this regulation. + +At the moment the workman is hired by the employer he automatically +becomes a member of two fraternities. In the event of his illness, one +furnishes him free medical aid and a weekly allowance equal to his +wages; the other assures him the equivalent of his wages if he loses his +employment and becomes an unemployed workman. The latter term the law +defines as "any able-bodied person depending for subsistence chiefly +upon the wages of his (or her) labor, who is unable to find work at the +normal rate of remuneration fixed by the proper trade union, and who is +registered in a local labor exchange or trade union." The workmen +contribute no dues to the fraternities. The income of the latter +consists mainly of the payments made by the employers. The owner of an +establishment using hired labor must contribute each week to the health +insurance fraternity 10 per cent. of the sum he pays out as wages, and +at least 3 per cent. of the same sum to the unemployment insurance +fraternity. The administrative machinery of this novel form of insurance +is worked out with much detail. + +It is natural to ask how the various institutions described above are +working, if they are functioning at all. It is clear that the smooth +working of a great number of cumbersome and wholly novel administrative +agencies in a body politic torn by an unprecedented social upheaval amid +the horrors of a twofold war would be little short of a miracle. +Moreover, it appears that the Bolsheviki have already grown disappointed +in some of their political dogmas, notably in the unrestrained and +ubiquitous application of the elective principle. Nevertheless, the +query, in its entirety, can hardly be adequately answered at present. +The time is not far off, however, when it will be possible to say +whether the measures decreed in the name of the dictatorial will of the +Russian proletariat have taken root or--and this alternative is more +probable--whether they have remained merely codified day-dreams. + + + + +Lithuania's Efforts Toward Autonomy + +By A. M. Martus + + +In the press of the United States on May 4, 1918, there appeared a +notice that President Wilson had given audience to the Lithuanian +delegation, recognizing the Lithuanians as a distinctively separate race +having rights of self-determination. + +At the time of the upheavals in Russia, during the Russo-Japanese war in +1905, Lithuanians, irrespective of political affiliations, held a +convention in their capital, Vilna, over 2,000 delegates participating, +where they unanimously asserted their right of self-government; also +expressing a strong desire to form one political body with their +half-brothers, the Letts. + +Again in October, 1917, a convention was held in Vilna with about 250 +delegates from those parts of Lithuania occupied by German forces, to +press their claim of independence for Lithuania. In January, 1918, +representative Lithuanians assembled in the same city proclaimed +independent Lithuania. Another convention of Lithuanian representatives +from Russia and from Lithuanian communities in the United States, +England, and Argentina, held in the same month in Stockholm, Sweden, +approved the act of their countrymen under German domination. On March +13 and 14 American Lithuanians held a convention in New York City, +giving their unanimous approval to the proclaiming of an Independent +Lithuanian Republic; here a unanimous resolution was passed protesting +against any Polish aspirations or claims to Lithuania, and demanding +the inclusion of the Lithuanian part of East Prussia, with the old +Lithuanian city of Karaliauchus (Königsberg,) in the Lithuanian +Republic. + +Lithuanians claim those parts of the neighboring provinces where their +language is spoken and where the inhabitants consider themselves +Lithuanians. They claim the eastern part of East Prussia--about 13,500 +square miles, with 700,000 or 800,000 inhabitants--and parts of the +provinces of Minsk and Vitebsk; thus the Lithuanian-Lettish Republic +would stretch over 131,000 square miles and have a population of over +11,500,000, inhabiting five centres--Karaliauchus, (Königsberg,) +Klaipeda, (Memel,) Libau, Windau, and Riga. + +The country is very rich for agriculture, though it contains much +undeveloped land, with many rivers, lakes, and large forests. Along the +River Nieman in Druskeniki, Government of Goodns, and in Birchtany, +Government of Vilna, there are salt springs of high healing qualities, +but on account of a corrupt Russian Government they remain undeveloped +and unexploited. The seabeach around Palanga, a little distance above +Germany's border on the Baltic, could be turned into another Atlantic +City, according to the opinion of experts, but the place remains +neglected. Lithuania's soil is very rich in aluminium and in material +for manufacturing glass. During my last visit to Lithuania, in 1914, the +discovery of radium was reported in the vicinity of the mineral springs +at Birchtany, but the war came on very soon and nothing further was +heard of it. + + + + +BRITISH LEADERS ON LAND AND SEA + + +[Illustration: Gen. F. B. Maurice + +_Formerly Director of Operations at the British War Office, now holding +a high position abroad_ + +(_Press Illustrating Service_)] + + +[Illustration: Maj. Gen. S. C. Mewburn, + +_Canadian Minister of Militia and Defense_ + +(_Press Illustrating Service_)] + + +[Illustration: Vice Admiral Roger Keyes + +_Who directed the British attack on Zeebrugge_ + +(_Central News_)] + + +[Illustration: Brig. Gen. Sandeman Carey, + +_Who stopped the gap in the British line before Amiens_ (© +_Underwood_)] + +[Illustration: A new type of tank made for the French Army + +(© _Underwood_)] + + +[Illustration: First American tank just completed at Boston + +(_Paul Thompson_)] + +In March, 1918, Lithuanians demanded that Germany recognize their +Provisional Government. The Tevyne of New York, official organ of the +Lithuanian Alliance of America, received the following from its +correspondent in Russia, relayed from Yokohama, March 26: + + In Lithuania there has been formed a Provisional Government + consisting of the following: A. Smetona, Premier; P. Dovydailis, + Minister of Education; J. Shaulys, Minister of Foreign Affairs; M. + Smilgevichus, Minister of Finances; M. Birzhishka, Minister of + Justice; J. Vileishis, Minister of Public Works; D. Malinauskas, + Minister of Public Safety. Dr. J. Shlupas, well known among American + Lithuanians, has been appointed Envoy Plenipotentiary to the United + States; J. Aukshtuolis, President of the Lithuanian Committee in + Stockholm, is made Ambassador to the Scandinavian countries; M. + Ychas, member of the last Russian Duma, Ambassador to England and + France; J. Gabrys, manager of the Lithuanian Information Bureau in + Switzerland, Ambassador to the Central Powers. A national army is + being organized. Lithuania's absolute neutrality was proclaimed. + Drafted a political and economic treaty with Sweden. + +Lithuanians fought in the Russian Army against the Germans, and now +large numbers of them are joining the military and naval forces of the +United States to fight the common foe; some are already in the English +Army. Lithuania has suffered not for her own faults, but because she was +situated between two belligerents. In the Government of Suvalki the +German and Russian Armies chased each other nine times backward and +forward; one may imagine how much is left there. Nothing but +excavations, trenches, heaps of ruins, crumbling chimneys indicate where +previously were large and prosperous villages. The world is yet to hear +more about German requisitions, German devastations, and German rapine +in Lithuania. Not only forests were denuded, but even fruit trees on the +farms were cut down and shipped to Germany. The remaining inhabitants +are forced to raise crops for the invaders, and for their various +products they must accept, under penalty, specially printed money for +local use--money that Germans themselves would not accept. + +Notwithstanding reports to the contrary, the Lithuanians were with the +Allies all the time, and will stand by them to the end. They have faith +that the Allies, when the proper time comes, will recognize their just +claims. + + + + +Germany to Impose "War Burdens" on Lithuania + + +Emperor William on May 12, 1918, issued the following proclamation +regarding Lithuania: + + We, Wilhelm, by God's grace German Emperor, King of Prussia, &c., + hereby make known that, whereas the Lithuanian Landsrat, as the + recognized representative of the Lithuanian people, on Dec. 12 + announced the restoration of Lithuania as an independent State + allied to the German Empire by an eternal, steadfast alliance, and + by conventions chiefly regarding military matters, traffic, customs, + and coinage, and solicited the help of the German Empire; and, + + Whereas, further, Previous political connections in Lithuania are + dissolved, we command our Imperial Chancellor to declare Lithuania + on the basis of the aforementioned declarations of the Lithuanian + Landsrat, in the name of the German Empire, as a free and + independent State, and we are prepared to accord the Lithuanian + State the solicited help and assistance in its restoration. + + We assume that the conventions to be concluded will take the + interests of the German Empire into account equally with those of + Lithuania, and that Lithuania will participate in the war burdens of + Germany, which secured her liberation. + +The Lithuanian National Council, with headquarters at Washington, +replied to the foregoing proclamation on May 14 as follows: + + The assumption that Lithuania "will participate in the war burdens + of Germany" means a contribution of three things: Money, munitions, + and men. The first we have not, as Germany has already impoverished + us; the second, we have no means of supplying, because we lack the + first. Therefore, Germany can have reference only to men. Men from a + self-declared democracy to fight in the ranks of autocracy? + Unthinkable. Lithuania would not consent. Are her citizens to be + dragooned into the ranks of the Kaiser? This would be an abridgment + of the sovereignty which Germany has already recognized, for + Chancellor von Hertling's reply stated, "We hereby recognize + Lithuania as free and independent." + + Germany knows that ultimate defeat is unavoidable, but she would + compensate losses in the west with gains in the east, among which + Lithuania is gambled on as an asset. No recognition of Lithuanian + independence can be sincere when coupled with the von Hertling + terms, but if this sop will add to Prussian man power it may + postpone somewhat the inevitable day of reckoning and give her more + time to Germanize in the east with a view of confederating the new + republics under Junker rule. + +[Illustration: THE BRITISH CRUISER VINDICTIVE AS IT LOOKED AFTER THE +FIGHT AT ZEEBRUGGE; LATER IT WAS SUNK IN THE HARBOR AT OSTEND TO BLOCK +THE CHANNEL] + + + + +The Raid on Zeebrugge and Ostend + +British Naval Exploit That Damaged Two German U-Boat Bases on the North +Sea Coast + + +The little Belgian port of Zeebrugge fell into German hands in the +Autumn of 1914, and, with the neighboring port of Ostend, became a thorn +in the side of the Entente by reason of its increasing use as a base for +enemy destroyers, submarines, and aircraft. The Germans, having seized +the shipbuilding plants at Antwerp, began building submarines and small +war craft, which could be sent by way of Bruges down the canals that +connect the latter city with Zeebrugge and Ostend. Especially useful to +them was the maritime canal whose mouth at Zeebrugge was protected by a +crescent-shaped mole, thirty feet high, inclosing the harbor. + +On the night of April 22-23, 1918, a British naval expedition under Vice +Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, commanding at Dover, aided by French +destroyers, undertook to wreck the stone mole at Zeebrugge and to block +the entrances to the canals both at Zeebrugge and at Ostend by sinking +the hulks of old ships in the channels. The episode, marked as it was by +heroic fighting, proved to be one of the most thrilling and picturesque +in the naval operations of the war. To Americans it recalled Hobson's +exploit with the Merrimac at Santiago, while to Englishmen it brought +back memories of Sir Francis Drake and his fireships in the Harbor of +Cadiz. + +Though the fighting at Zeebrugge lasted only an hour, the British lost +588 men, officially reported as follows: Officers--Killed, 16; died of +wounds, 3; missing, 2; wounded, 29. Men--Killed, 144; died of wounds, +25; missing, 14; wounded, 355. + +Six obsolete British cruisers took part in the attack. They were the +Brilliant, Iphigenia, Sirius, Intrepid, Thetis, and Vindictive. The +first five of these were filled with concrete and were to be sunk in the +entrances of the two ports. The Vindictive, working with the two Mersey +ferryboats Daffodil and Iris, carried storming and demolition parties to +the Zeebrugge mole. The object was to attack the enemy forces and guns +on the mole, along with the destroyer and submarine depots and the large +seaplane base upon it, and thus to divert the enemy's attention from the +work of the block ships. As the attack on the mole accomplished this, +the main object of the operation was successful. + +The attacking forces were composed of bluejackets and Royal Marines +picked from the Grand Fleet and from naval and marine depots. Sir Eric +Geddes stated in Parliament the next morning that light forces belonging +to the Dover command and Harwich forces under Admiral Tyrwhitte covered +the operation from the south. A large force of monitors, together with +many motor launches and small, fast craft took part. One of the +essentials of success was the creation of a heavy veil of artificial fog +or smoke. The officer who developed this phase of the attack was killed +in action. The general plan was to attack the guns and works on the +Zeebrugge mole with storming parties, while the concrete-laden cruisers +were being sunk in the channel. Two old and valueless submarines filled +with explosives were to be blown up against the viaduct connecting the +mole with the shore. + + +STORY OF THE FIGHTING + +A detailed narrative of the affair was issued by the British Admiralty +on the 25th, the essential passages of which are as follows: + + The night was overcast and there was a drifting haze. Down the coast + a great searchlight swung its beam to and fro in the small wind and + short sea. From the Vindictive's bridge, as she headed in toward + the mole, with the faithful ferryboats at her heels, there was + scarcely a glimmer of light to be seen shoreward. Ahead, as she + drove through the water, rolled the smoke screen, her cloak of + invisibility, wrapped about her by small craft. This was the device + of Wing Commander Brock, without which, acknowledges the Admiral in + command, the operation could not have been conducted. + + A northeast wind moved the volume of it shoreward ahead of the + ships. Beyond it was the distant town, its defenders unsuspicious. + It was not until the Vindictive, with bluejackets and marines + standing ready for landing, was close upon the mole that the wind + lulled and came away again from the southeast, sweeping back the + smoke screen and laying her bare to eyes that looked seaward. + + There was a moment immediately afterward when it seemed to those on + the ships as if the dim, coast-hidden harbor exploded into light. A + star shell soared aloft, then a score of star shells. The wavering + beams of the searchlights swung around and settled into a glare. A + wild fire of gun flashes leaped against the sky, strings of luminous + green beads shot aloft, hung and sank. The darkness of the night was + supplemented by a nightmare daylight of battle-fired guns and + machine guns along the mole. The batteries ashore awoke to life. + + + Landing on the Mole + + It was in a gale of shelling that the Vindictive laid her nose + against the thirty-foot high concrete side of the mole, let go her + anchor and signaled to the Daffodil to shove her stern in. + + The Iris went ahead and endeavored to get alongside likewise. The + fire was intense, while the ships plunged and rolled beside the mole + in the seas, the Vindictive with her greater draught jarring against + the foundations of the mole with every lunge. They were swept + diagonally by machine-gun fire from both ends of the mole and by the + heavy batteries on shore. + + Commander (now Captain) Carpenter conned the Vindictive from the + open bridge until her stern was laid in, when he took up his + position in the flame thrower hut on the port side. It is marvelous + that any occupant should have survived a minute in this hut, so + riddled and shattered is it. + + The officers of the Iris, which was in trouble ahead of the + Vindictive, describe Captain Carpenter as handling her like a picket + boat. The Vindictive was fitted along her port side with a high + false deck, from which ran eighteen brows or gangways by which the + storming and demolition parties were to land. + +[Illustration: MAP SHOWING RELATION OF ZEEBRUGGE AND OSTEND TO THE +ENGLISH COAST] + + The men gathered in readiness on the main lower decks, while + Colonel Elliott, who was to lead the marines, waited on the false + deck just abaft the bridge. Captain Halahan, who commanded the + bluejackets, was amidships. The gangways were lowered, and they + scraped and rebounded upon the high parapet of the mole as the + Vindictive rolled in the sea-way. + + The word for the assault had not yet been given when both leaders + were killed, Colonel Elliott by a shell and Captain Halahan by + machine-gun fire which swept the decks. The same shell that killed + Colonel Elliott also did fearful execution in the forward Stokes + mortar battery. The men were magnificent; every officer bears the + same testimony. + + The mere landing on the mole was a perilous business. It involved a + passage across the crashing and splintering gangways, a drop over + the parapet into the field of fire of the German machine guns which + swept its length, and a further drop of some sixteen feet to the + surface of the mole itself. Many were killed and more wounded as + they crowded up the gangways, but nothing hindered the orderly and + speedy landing by every gangway. + + Lieutenant H. T. C. Walker had his arm shot away by shell on the + upper deck, and lay in darkness while the storming parties trod him + under. He was recognized and dragged aside by the commander. He + raised his remaining arm in greetings. "Good luck to you," he called + as the rest of the stormers hastened by. "Good luck." + + The lower deck was a shambles as the commander made the rounds of + the ship, yet those wounded and dying raised themselves to cheer as + he made his tour. * * * + + + Heroic Work on the Iris + + The Iris had troubles of her own. Her first attempts to make fast to + the mole ahead of the Vindictive failed, as her grapnels were not + large enough to span the parapet. Two officers, Lieut. Commander + Bradford and Lieutenant Hawkins, climbed ashore and sat astride the + parapet trying to make the grapnels fast till each was killed and + fell down between the ship and the wall. Commander Valentine Gibbs + had both legs shot away and died next morning. Lieutenant Spencer, + though wounded, took command and refused to be relieved. + + The Iris was obliged at last to change her position and fall in + astern of the Vindictive, and suffered very heavily from fire. A + single big shell plunged through the upper deck and burst below at a + point where fifty-six marines were waiting for the order to go to + the gangways. Forty-nine were killed. The remaining seven were + wounded. Another shell in the ward-room, which was serving as a sick + bay, killed four officers and twenty-six men. Her total casualties + were eight officers and sixty-nine men killed and three officers and + 103 men wounded. + + Storming and demolition parties upon the mole met with no resistance + from the Germans other than intense and unremitting fire. One after + another buildings burst into flame or split and crumbled as dynamite + went off. A bombing party working up toward the mole extension in + search of the enemy destroyed several machine-gun emplacements, but + not a single prisoner rewarded them. It appears that upon the + approach of the ships and with the opening of fire the enemy simply + retired and contented themselves with bringing machine guns to the + short end of the mole. + + +BLOCKING THE CANAL + +Describing operations of the three +block ships, the official narrative says: + + The Thetis came first, steaming into a tornado of shells from great + batteries ashore. All her crew, save a remnant who remained to + steam her in and sink her, already had been taken off her by a + ubiquitous motor launch, but the remnant spared hands enough to keep + her four guns going. It was hers to show the road to the Intrepid + and the Iphigenia, which followed. She cleared a string of armed + barges which defends the channel from the tip of the mole, but had + the ill-fortune to foul one of her propellers upon a net defense + which flanks it on the shore side. + +[Illustration: PLAN ILLUSTRATING THE FIGHT AT THE ZEEBRUGGE MOLE, THE +BLOCKING OF THE BRUGES CANAL, AND THE LOCATION OF SUNKEN SHIPS] + + The propeller gathered in the net, and it rendered her practically + unmanageable. Shore batteries found her and pounded her + unremittingly. She bumped into the bank, edged off, and found + herself in the channel again still some hundreds of yards from the + mouth of the canal in practically a sinking condition. As she lay + she signaled invaluable directions to others, and her commander, R. + S. Sneyd, also accordingly blew charges and sank her. Motor launches + under Lieutenant H. Littleton raced alongside and took off her crew. + Her losses were five killed and five wounded. + + The Intrepid, smoking like a volcano and with all her guns blazing, + followed. Her motor launch had failed to get alongside outside the + harbor, and she had men enough for anything. Straight into the canal + she steered, her smoke blowing back from her into the Iphigenia's + eyes, so that the latter was blinded, and, going a little wild, + rammed a dredger, with her barge moored beside it, which lay at the + western arm of the canal. She was not clear, though, and entered the + canal pushing the barge before her. It was then that a shell hit the + steam connections of her whistle, and the escape of steam which + followed drove off some of the smoke and let her see what she was + doing. + +[Illustration: PERSPECTIVE MAP OF OSTEND HARBOR, WITH ZEEBRUGGE IN THE +DISTANCE] + + + Main Object Attained + + Lieutenant Stuart Bonham Carter, commanding the Intrepid, placed the + nose of his ship neatly on the mud of the western bank, ordered his + crew away, and blew up his ship by switches in the chart room. Four + dull bumps were all that could be heard, and immediately afterward + there arrived on deck the engineer, who had been in the engine room + during the explosion, and reported that all was as it should be. + + Lieutenant E. W. Bullyard Leake, commanding the Iphigenia, beached + her according to arrangement on the eastern side, blew her up, saw + her drop nicely across the canal, and left her with her engines + still going, to hold her in position till she should have bedded + well down on the bottom. According to the latest reports from air + observation, two old ships, with their holds full of concrete, are + lying across the canal in a V position, and it is probable that the + work they set out to do has been accomplished and that the canal is + effectively blocked. A motor launch, under Lieutenant P. T. Deane, + had followed them in to bring away the crews and waited further up + the canal toward the mouth against the western bank. + + Lieutenant Bonham Carter, having sent away his boats, was reduced to + a Carley float, an apparatus like an exaggerated lifebuoy with the + floor of a grating. Upon contact with the water it ignited a calcium + flare and he was adrift in the uncanny illumination with a German + machine gun a few hundred yards away giving him its undivided + attention. What saved him was possibly the fact that the defunct + Intrepid still was emitting huge clouds of smoke which it had been + worth nobody's while to turn. He managed to catch a rope, as the + motor launch started, and was towed for awhile till he was observed + and taken on board. + + +THE VINDICTIVE'S STORY + +Commander Alfred F. B. Carpenter, who commanded the Vindictive and who +was made Captain for his successful work, gave an Associated Press +correspondent an interesting description of the episode. During the +attack he was at the end of the bridge in a small steel box or cabin +which had been specially constructed to house a flame thrower. The +Captain, with his arm in a sling, standing on the shell-battered deck of +the Vindictive, said: + + Exactly according to plan we ran alongside the mole, approached it + on the port side, where we were equipped with specially built + buffers of wood two feet wide. As there was nothing for us to tie up + to, we merely dropped anchor there, while the Daffodil kept us + against the mole with her nose against the opposite side of our + ship. In the fairly heavy sea two of our three gangways were + smashed, but the third held, and 500 men swarmed up this on to the + mole. This gangway was two feet wide and thirty feet long. The men + who went up it included 300 marines and 150 storming seamen from the + Vindictive, and fifty or so from the Daffodil. They swarmed up the + steel gangway, carrying hand grenades and Lewis guns. No Germans + succeeded in approaching the gangway, but a hard hand-to-hand fight + took place about 200 yards up the mole toward the shore. + + The Vindictive's bow was pointed toward the shore, so the bridge got + the full effect of enemy fire from the shore batteries. One shell + exploded against the pilot house, killing nearly all its ten + occupants. Another burst in the fighting top, killing a Lieutenant + and eight men, who were doing excellent work with two pompoms and + four machine guns. + + The battery of eleven-inch guns at the end of the mole was only 300 + yards away, and it kept trying to reach us. The shore batteries also + were diligent. Only a few German shells hit our hull, because it was + well protected by the wall of the mole, but the upper structure, + mast, stacks, and ventilators showed above the wall and were + riddled. A considerable proportion of our casualties were caused by + splinters from these upper works. + + Meanwhile the Daffodil continued to push us against the wall as if + no battle was on, and if she had failed to do this none of the + members of the landing party would have been able to return to the + ship. + + Twenty-five minutes after the Vindictive had reached the wall the + first block ship passed in and headed for the canal. Two others + followed in leisurely fashion while we kept up the fight on the + mole. One of the block ships stranded outside of the canal, but the + two others got two or three hundred yards inside, where they were + successfully sunk across the entrance. + + Fifteen minutes after the Vindictive arrived alongside the mole our + submarine exploded under the viaduct connecting the mole with the + mainland. The Germans had sent a considerable force to this viaduct + as soon as the submarine arrived, and these men were gathered on the + viaduct, attacking our submersible with machine guns. When the + explosion occurred the viaduct and Germans were blown up together. + The crew of the submarine, consisting of six men, escaped on board a + dinghy to a motor launch. + + Early in the fighting a German shell knocked out our howitzer, which + had been getting in some good shots on a big German seaplane station + on the mole half a mile away. This is the largest seaplane station + in Belgium. Unfortunately, our other guns could not be brought to + bear effectively upon it. The shell which disabled the howitzer + killed all the members of the gun crew. Many men were also killed by + a German shell which hit the mole close to our ship and scattered + fragments of steel and stone among the marines assembling on the + deck around the gangway. + + Half an hour after the block ships went in, we received the signal + to withdraw. The Vindictive's siren was blown, and the men returned + from all parts of the mole and thronged down the gangway. We put off + after having lain alongside just about an hour. The Germans made no + effort to interfere with our getaway other than to continue their + heavy firing. + + +RESCUE FROM BLOCK SHIPS + +One of the most thrilling incidents was the rescue by two American-built +motor launches of nearly 200 members of the crews of two block ships +sunk at the entrance to the Bruges Canal. The feat was accomplished +under a heavy fire and the actual transfer was made in less than five +minutes. One launch delivered ninety-nine men to the destroyer. + +The dead and wounded could not all be brought away, but the loss of +personnel in this way was declared to be remarkably small. + +Stoker Bendall of the submarine which blew up the Zeebrugge mole said: + + It was silent and heavy business. We were going full tilt when we + hit the viaduct. It was a good jolt, and we ran right into the + middle of the viaduct and stuck there, as we intended to do. I don't + think anybody said anything except, "Well, we are here all right." + + We lowered a skiff and stood by while the commander touched off the + fuse and then tumbled into the skiff and pushed off. By bad luck the + propeller fouled the exhaust pipe and left us with only two oars and + two minutes to get away. The enemy lights were on us, and the + machine guns were firing from the shore. + + Before we made 200 yards the submarine went up, and there was a + tremendous flash and roar, and lots of concrete from the mole fell + around us. Luckily, we were not struck. + +Photographs taken from an airplane a few days later showed that the +effort to block the canal entrance had been successful. The Intrepid and +Iphigenia had reached the precise positions in which they were intended +to be sunk, while the exploded submarine had blown a gap of sixty to a +hundred feet in the shore end of the mole. The Frankfurter Zeitung, in +commenting on the affair, said: "It would be foolish to deny that the +British fleet scored a great success through a fantastically audacious +stroke in penetrating into one of the most important strongholds over +which the German flag floats." + + +ATTACKS AT OSTEND + +At Ostend the operations on the same night were unsuccessful, largely +owing to a shift of wind. Small craft with smoke apparatus ran in +according to program, set up a screen, and lit two large flares to mark +the entrance to the harbor for the two concrete-laden cruisers that were +to be sunk in the channel. Before the cruisers could arrive, however, +the wind shifted and blew away the smoke screen, after which the German +gunfire quickly destroyed the flares. The cruisers tried to proceed by +guesswork under heavy fire, but their efforts were in vain. One of the +block ships was sunk, but not in a position to obstruct the channel. + +A second attempt to close the Ostend harbor was made on the night of +May 9-10, when the battered old Vindictive, which had borne the brunt of +the shellfire at the Zeebrugge mole, was sunk in the channel with her +inside full of concrete. A member of the expedition gave this account: + + As the Vindictive neared Ostend it became apparent that the Germans + had got wind of our presence, for suddenly there was a regular + pyrotechnic display of star shells. The effect was brilliant, but + quite undesirable from our point of view. Immediately guns of all + sizes opened fire on us, and there was a terrific din. + + The Vindictive and one or two other vessels received hits, and a few + casualties were caused by this gunfire. The firing was heavily + returned by our ships. Most of the crew of the Vindictive were taken + off when the ship was at a little distance from the Ostend piers, + only a few officers and men being left to navigate her between the + piers and sink her there. A motor launch which was assisting in + picking up the crew was hit several times by shellfire, and was in a + sinking condition when it came alongside the Admiral's vessel, the + destroyer Warwick, to which they were transferred. The motor launch + had extensive damage in the fore part, and by order of the Admiral + was sunk, as it was apparent that it could not get back to Dover. + There was a heavy explosion when the Vindictive sank between the + piers. + +The casualties in the second Ostend raid were forty-seven, of whom +eighteen were killed or missing, the rest wounded. + + * * * * * + +The British Admiralty, in its official report of the second Ostend +action, issued May 14, stated that the Vindictive was "lying at an angle +of about 40 degrees to the pier, and seemed to be hard fast." Commander +Godsal, who was on deck during the critical moments, was missing and was +believed to have been killed; Lieutenant Crutchley blew up the auxiliary +charges in the forward 6-inch magazine from the conning tower. Lieut. +Commander William A. Bury, who blew up the main charges by a switch +installed aft, was severely wounded. The Admiralty reported that the +sunken ship would make the harbor impracticable for any but small craft +and difficult for dredging operations. + + + + +German U-Boat Claims + +Address by Admiral von Capelle + +_German Naval Secretary_ + + +Admiral Von Capelle, the German Secretary of the Navy, delivered an +address before the Reichstag, April 17, 1918, in which he asserted that +the submarine warfare of Germany was a success. In the course of his +speech he said: + +"The main question is, What do the western powers need for the carrying +on of the war and the supply of their homelands, and what amount of +tonnage is still at their disposal for that purpose? All statistical +calculations regarding tonnage are today almost superfluous, as the +visible successes of the U-boat war speak clearly enough. The robbery of +Dutch tonnage, by which the Anglo-Saxons have incurred odium of the +worst kind for decades to come, is the best proof of how far the +shipping shortage has already been felt by our opponents. In addition to +the sinkings there must be added a great amount of wear and tear of +ships and an enormous increase of marine accidents, which Sir J. +Ellerman, speaking in the Chamber of Shipping recently, calculated at +three times the peace losses. Will the position of the western powers +improve or deteriorate? That depends upon their military achievements +and the replacing of sunken ships by new construction." + +Dealing briefly with Sir Eric Geddes's recent speech on the occasion of +the debate on the naval estimates, Admiral von Capelle declared: + +"The assertion of the First Lord of the Admiralty that an unwillingness +to put to sea prevailed among the German U-boat crews is a base +calumny." + + +LOSSES AND CONSTRUCTION + +As regards the assertions of British statesmen concerning the +extraordinarily great losses of U-boats, Admiral von Capelle said: + +"The statements in the foreign press are very greatly exaggerated. Now, +as before, our new construction surpasses our losses. The number of +U-boats, both from the point of view of quality and quantity, is +constantly rising. We can also continue absolutely to reckon on our +military achievements hitherto attained. Whether Lloyd George can +continue the naval war with prospects of success depends, not upon his +will but upon the position of the U-boats as against shipbuilding. +According to Lloyd's Register, something over 22,000,000 gross register +tons were built in the last ten years before the war in the whole +world--that is, inclusive of the construction of ourselves, our allies, +and foreign countries. The entire output today can in no case be more, +for difficulties of all kinds and the shortage of workmen and material +have grown during the war. In the last ten years--that is, in peace +time--800,000 gross register tons of the world's shipping was destroyed +annually by natural causes. Now in wartime the losses, as already +mentioned, are considerably greater. Thus, 1,400,000 gross register tons +was the annual net increase for the entire world. That gives, at any +rate, a standard for the present position. America's and Japan's new +construction is to a certain extent destined for the necessities of +these countries. + +"In the main, therefore, only the figures of British shipbuilding come +into question. About the middle of 1917 there was talk of 3,000,000 tons +in official quarters in Great Britain. Then Lloyd George dropped to +2,000,000, and now, according to Bonar Law's statement, the output is +1,160,000 tons. As against, therefore, about 100,000 tons monthly put +into service there are sinkings amounting to 600,000 tons, or six times +as much. In brief, if the figures given are regarded as too favorable +and new construction at the rate of 150,000 tons monthly--that is, 50 +per cent. higher--be assumed, and the sinkings be reduced to 450,000 +tons, then the sinkings are still three times as large as the amount of +new construction. + + +THE COMING MONTHS + +"One other thing must especially be taken into consideration for the +coming months. Today every ship sunk strikes at the vital nerve of our +opponents. Today, when only the absolutely necessary cargoes of +foodstuffs and war necessities can still be transported, the sinking of +even one small ship has quite a different significance as compared with +the beginning of the U-boat war. Moreover, the loss of one ship means a +falling out of four to five cargoes. In these circumstances even the +greatest pessimist must say that the position of our opponents is +deteriorating in a considerably increasing extent and with rapid +strides, and that any doubt regarding the final success of the U-boat +war is unjustified." + +Replying to a question of the reporter, Admiral von Capelle said: + +"Our opponents have been busily endeavoring to strengthen their +anti-submarine measures by all the means at their disposal, and, +naturally, they have attained a certain success. But they have at no +time had any decisive influence on the U-boat war, and, according to +human reckoning, they will not do so in the future. The American +submarine destroyers which have been so much talked about have failed. +The convoy system, which, it is true, offers ships a certain measure of +protection, has, on the other hand, also the great disadvantage of +reducing their transport capabilities. The statements oscillate from 25 +to 60 per cent. + +"For the rest, our commanders are specially trained for attacks on +convoys, and no day goes by when one or more ships are not struck out of +convoys. Experienced commanders manage to sink three to four ships in +succession belonging to the same convoy." + + +THE STEEL QUESTION + +Admiral von Capelle then dealt with the steel question as regards +shipbuilding, which, he said, "is practically the determinative factor +for shipbuilding." He continued: + +"Great Britain's steel imports in 1916 amounted to 763,000 tons, and in +1917 only amounted to 497,000 tons. That means that already a reduction +of 37 per cent. has been effected, a reduction which will presumably be +further considerably increased during 1918. Restriction of imports of +ore from other countries, such as America, caused by the U-boat war will +also have a hampering effect on shipbuilding in Great Britain. It is +true that Sir Eric Geddes denied that there was a lack of material, but +expert circles in England give the scarcity of steel as the main reason +for the small shipbuilding output. + +"American help in men and airplanes and American participation in the +war are comparatively small. If later on America wants to maintain +500,000 troops in France, shipping to the amount of about 2,000,000 tons +would be permanently needed. This shipping would have to be withdrawn +from the supply service of the Allies. + +"Moreover, according to statements made in the United States and Great +Britain, the intervention in the present campaign of such a big army no +longer comes into consideration. After America's entry into the war +material help for the Entente has not only not increased, but has even +decreased considerably. President Wilson's gigantic armament program has +brought about such economic difficulties that America, the export +country, must now begin to ration instead of, as it was hoped, +increasingly to help the Entente. To sum up, it can be stated that the +economic difficulties of our enemies have been increased by America's +entry into the war." + + +"ENGLAND'S DANGER POINT" + +Later in the debate Admiral von Capelle said: "The salient point of the +discussion is the economic internal and political results of the U-boat +war during the coming months. The danger point for England has already +been reached, and the situation of the western powers grows worse from +day to day." + +Admiral von Capelle then briefly dealt with that calculation of the +world tonnage made by a Deputy which received some attention in the +Summer of last year. "This calculation," he said, "shows a difference of +9,000,000 tons from the calculation of the Admiralty Staff. In my +opinion, the calculation of the Admiralty Staff is correct. Whence +otherwise comes the Entente's lack of tonnage, which, in view of the +facts, cannot be argued away? The Admiralty Staff in its calculation +adapted itself to the fluctuating situation of the world shipping. At +first each of the enemy States looked after itself. Later, under Great +Britain's leadership, common control of tonnage was established." + +Admiral von Capelle quoted the calculation of the American Shipping +Department, according to which the world tonnage in the Autumn of 1917 +amounted to 32,000,000, of which 21,000,000 were given as transoceanic. +He insisted, however, that so much attention must not be paid to all +these calculations, but exhorted the people rather to dwell on the +joyful fact that the danger point for the western powers had been +reached. + +At the close of the sitting Admiral von Capelle stated that all orders +for the construction of U-boats had been given independently by the +Naval Department and that the Naval Administration had never been +instructed to give orders for more U-boats by the Chancellor or the +Supreme Army Command. Every possible means, he said, for the development +of U-boat warfare had been done by the Naval Department. + +Admiral von Capelle in a supplemental statement before the Reichstag, +May 11, in discussing the naval estimates, said: + + The reports for April are favorable. Naturally, losses occur, but + the main thing is that the increase in submarines exceeds the + losses. Our naval offensive is stronger today than at the beginning + of unrestricted submarine warfare. That gives us an assured prospect + of final success. + + The submarine war is developing more and more into a struggle + between U-boat action and new construction of ships. Thus far the + monthly figures of destruction have continued to be several times as + large as those of new construction. Even the British Ministry and + the entire British press admit that. + + The latest appeal to British shipyard workers appears to be + especially significant. For the present the appeal does not appear + to have had great success. According to the latest statements + British shipbuilding fell from 192,000 tons in March to 112,000 in + April; or, reckoned in ships, from 32 to 22. That means a decline of + 80,000 tons, or about 40 per cent. [The British Admiralty stated + that the April new tonnage was reduced on account of the vast amount + of repairing to merchantmen.--Editor.] + + America thus far has built little, and has fallen far below + expectations. Even if an increase is to be reckoned with in the + future, it will be used up completely by America herself. + + In addition to the sinkings by U-boats, there is a large decline in + cargo space owing to marine losses and to ships becoming + unserviceable. One of the best-known big British ship owners + declared at a meeting of shipping men that the losses of the British + merchant fleet through marine accidents, owing to conditions created + by the war, were three times as large as in peace. + + + + +The Admiral's Statements Attacked + + +The British authorities asserted that Admiral von Capelle's figures were +misleading and untrue. The losses published in the White Paper include +marine risk and all losses by enemy action. They include all losses, and +not merely the losses of food ships, as suggested in the German wireless +message dated April 16. Even in the figures of the world's output of +shipbuilding von Capelle seems to have been misled. He states that +"something over 2,000,000 gross tons were built annually in the last ten +years, including allied and enemy countries." The actual figures are +2,530,351 gross tons. He further states that the entire output today can +in no case be more, owing to difficulties in regard to labor and +material. The actual world's output, as shown in the Parliamentary White +Paper, excluding enemy countries, amounted to 2,703,000 gross tons, and +the output is rapidly rising. Von Capelle tried to raise confusion with +regard to the figures 3,000,000 and 2,000,000 tons and the actual output +for 1917. The Admiralty says no forecast was ever given that 3,000,000 +tons, or even 2,000,000 tons, would be completed in that year. Three +million tons is the ultimate rate of production, which, as the First +Lord stated in the House of Commons, is well within the present and +prospective capacity of United Kingdom shipyards and marine engineering +works. The exaggerated figures of losses are still relied on by the +enemy. The average loss per month of British ships during 1917, +including marine risk, was 333,000 gross tons, whereas Secretary von +Capelle in his statement bases his argument on an average loss from +submarine attacks alone of 600,000 tons per month. The figures for the +quarter ended March 31, 1918, showed British losses to be 687,576 tons, +and for the month of March 216,003 tons, the lowest during any month, +with one exception, since January, 1917. With regard to steel, the First +Lord has already assured the House of Commons that arrangements have +been made for the supply of steel to give the output aimed at, and at +the present time the shipyards are in every case fully supplied with the +material. + +The American production of new tonnage reached its stride in May, and +the estimate of over 4,000,000 tons per annum was regarded as +conservative. It was estimated that the total British and American new +tonnage in the year ending May, 1919, would exceed 6,000,000, as against +total U-boat sinkings, based on the record of the first quarter of 1918, +of 4,500,000. + + +OFFICIAL RETURNS OF LOSSES + +The following was the official report of losses of British, allied, and +neutral merchant tonnage due to enemy action and marine risk: + + Allied + Period. British. and Neutral. Total. + 1917. Month. Month. Month. + January 193,045 216,787 409,832 + February 343,486 231,370 574,856 + March 375,309 259,376 634,685 + -------- -------- ---------- + Quarter 911,840 707,533 1,619,373 + + April 555,056 338,821 893,877 + May 374,419 255,917 630,336 + June 432,395 280,326 712,721 + -------- -------- ---------- + Quarter 1,361,870 875,064 2,236,934 + + July 383,430 192,519 575,949 + August 360,296 189,067 519,363 + September 209,212 159,949 369,161 + -------- -------- --------- + Quarter 952,938 541,535 1,494,473 + + October 289,973 197,364 487,337 + November 196,560 136,883 333,443 + December 296,356 155,707 452,063 + -------- -------- --------- + Quarter 782,889 489,954 1,272,843 + + 1918. + January 217,270 136,187 353,457 + February 254,303 134,119 388,422 + March 216,003 165,628 381,631 + -------- -------- --------- + Quarter 687,576 435,934 1,123,510 + + The Secretary of the Ministry of Shipping stated that the tonnage of + steamships of 500 gross tons and over entering and clearing United + Kingdom ports from and to ports overseas was as under: + + Period. Period. + 1917. Gross Tons. 1918. Gross Tons. + October 6,908,189 January 6,336,663 + November 6,818,564 February 6,326,965 + December 6,665,413 March 7,295,620 + + This statement embraces all United Kingdom seaborne traffic other + than coastwise and cross Channel. + + + + +The Month's Submarine Record + + +The British Admiralty, in April, 1918, discontinued its weekly report of +merchant ships destroyed by submarines or mines, and announced that it +would publish a monthly report in terms of tonnage. These figures are +shown in the table above. The last weekly report was for the period +ended April 14, and showed that eleven merchantmen over 1,600 tons, four +under 1,600 tons, and one fishing vessel had been sunk. + +In regard to the sinkings in April, French official figures showed that +the total losses of allied and neutral ships, including those from +accidents at sea during the month, aggregated 381,631 tons. + +Norway's losses from the beginning of the war to the end of April, 1918, +amounted to 755 vessels, aggregating 1,115,519 tons, and the lives of +1,006 seamen, in addition to about 700 men on fifty-three vessels +missing, two-thirds of which were declared to be war losses. + +The American steamship Lake Moor, manned by naval reserves, was sunk by +a German submarine in European waters about midnight on April 11, with a +loss of five officers and thirty-nine men. Five officers and twelve +enlisted men were landed at an English port. Eleven men, including five +navy gunners, were lost when the Old Dominion liner Tyler was sunk off +the French coast on May 3. The Canadian Pacific Company's steamer Medora +also was sunk off the French coast. The Florence H. was wrecked in a +French port by an internal explosion on the night of April 17. Out of +the crew of fifty-six men, twenty-nine were listed as dead or missing, +twelve were sent to hospital badly burned, two were slightly injured, +and only thirteen escaped injury. Of the twenty-three men of the naval +guard only six were reported as survivors. + +Six officers and thirteen men were reported missing as the result of two +naval disasters reported on May 1 by the British Admiralty. They formed +part of the crews of the sloop Cowslip, which was torpedoed and sunk on +April 25, and of Torpedo Boat 90, which foundered. + +According to Archibald Hurd, a British authority on naval matters, the +area in the North Sea which was proclaimed by the British Government as +dangerous to shipping and therefore prohibited after May 15 is the +greatest mine field ever laid for the special purpose of foiling +submarines. It embraces 121,782 square miles, the base forming a line +between Norway and Scotland, and the peak extending northward into the +Arctic Circle. + + + + +A Secret Chapter of U-Boat History + +How Ruthless Policy Was Adopted + +_The causes that led to Germany's adoption of the policy of unrestricted +submarine warfare on Feb. 1, 1917, were revealed a year later by the +Handelsblad, an Amsterdam newspaper, whose correspondent had secured +secret access to "a number of highly interesting and important +documents" long enough to read them and make notes of their contents. +The Dutch paper vouched for the accuracy of the following information:_ + + +At the close of the year 1915 the German Admiralty Staff prepared a +semi-official memorandum to prove that an unrestricted submarine +campaign would compel Great Britain to sue for peace "in six months at +the most." The character of the argument conveys the impression that the +chiefs of the German Admiralty Staff had already made up their minds to +adopt the most drastic measures in regard to submarine warfare, but that +they wished to convince the Kaiser, the Imperial Chancellor, and the +German diplomatists of the certainty of good results on economic and +general, rather than merely military, grounds. To this end the +memorandum based its arguments on statistics of food prices, freight, +and insurance rates in Great Britain. It pointed out that the effects on +the prices of essential commodities, on the balance of trade, and, +above all, on the morale of the chief enemy, had been such, even with +the restricted submarine campaign of 1915, that, if an unrestricted +submarine war were decided upon, England could not possibly hold out for +more than a short period. + +The memorandum was submitted to the Imperial Chancellor, who passed it +on to Dr. Helfferich, the Secretary of State for Finance. He, however, +rejected the document on the ground that, in the absence of authentic +estimates of stocks, it was impossible to set a time-limit to England's +staying power, and also that he was exceedingly doubtful as to what line +would be taken by neutrals, especially the United States. Dr. Helfferich +maintained that so desperate a remedy should only be employed as a last +resource. The authors of the memorandum then sent a reply, in which they +developed their former arguments, and pointed to the gravity of the +internal situation in Germany. They emphasized the importance of using +the nearest and sharpest weapons of offense if a national collapse was +to be avoided. They reinforced their argument by adducing the evidence +of ten experts, representing finance, commerce, the mining industry, and +agriculture. They were Herr Waldemar Müller, the President of the +Dresdner Bank; Dr. Salomonsohn of the Disconto Gesellschaft; Dr. Paul +Reusch of Oberhausen, Royal Prussian Councilor of Commerce; Dr. +Springorum of Dortmund, Chancellor of Commerce, member of the Prussian +Upper House, (Herren Haus,) General Director of Railways and Tramways at +Hoesch, an ironmaster, and a great expert in railways; Herr Max Schinkel +of Hamburg, President of the Norddeutsche Bank in Hamburg and of the +Disconto Gesellschaft in Berlin; Herr Zuckschwerdt of Madgeburg, +Councilor of Commerce, late member of the Prussian Upper House; Herr +Wilhelm von Finck of Munich, Privy Councilor, chief of the banking house +of Merck, Finck & Co., Munich; Councilor of Economics R. Schmidt of +Platzhof, member of the Württemberg Upper Chamber and of the German +Agricultural Council; Herr Engelhard of Mannheim, Councilor of Commerce, +President of the Chamber of Commerce and member of the Baden Upper +Chamber. + +These experts were invited to send answers in writing to the three +following questions: (1) What would be the effect on England of +unrestricted submarine warfare? (2) What would be its effect on +Germany's relations with the United States and other neutrals? (3) To +what extent does the internal situation in Germany demand the use of +this drastic weapon? + +The reader will do well to remember that the replies were written in +February, 1916--nearly two years ago. All agreed on the first point--the +effect on Great Britain. The effect of unrestricted submarine warfare on +England would be that she would have to sue for peace in six months at +the most. Herr Müller, who seemed to be in a position to confirm the +statistics given in the memorandum, pointed out that the supply of +indispensable foodstuffs was, at the time of writing, less than the +normal supply in peace time. He held that the submarine war, if +relentlessly and vigorously pursued, would accomplish its purpose in +less time than calculated in the memorandum--in fact, three months +should do it. Dr. Salomonsohn also thought that six months was an +excessive estimate, and that less time would suffice. + +On the question of the effect on neutrals the experts were divided. Dr. +Reusch suggested that the neutrals despised the restricted submarine +warfare of 1915, and held that every ship in British waters, whether +enemy or neutral, should be torpedoed without warning. According to him, +the world only respects those who, in a great crisis, know how to make +the most unscrupulous use of their power. + +Herr Müller predicted that ruthless submarine war would cause a +wholesale flight of neutrals from the war zone. Their newspapers might +abuse Germany at first, but they would soon get tired. The danger was +from the United States, but that would become less in proportion as +Germany operated more decisively and ruthlessly. Dr. Salomonsohn adopted +the same attitude. He recognized the possibility of war with the United +States, but was loath to throw away so desirable a weapon on that +account. + +As to the third point, all the experts agreed that the internal +situation in Germany demanded that the most drastic methods of submarine +warfare should be employed. Herr Zuckschwerdt urged the advisability of +the most drastic measures owing to the feeling of the nation. The nation +would stand by the Government, but not if it yielded to threats from +America. Such weakness would lead to serious consequences. Herr Schmidt +admitted the possibility of Germany not being able to hold out, and +emphasized the importance of taking drastic steps before disorder and +unrest arose in the agricultural districts. + + + + +Sea-Raider Wolf and Its Victims + +Story of Its Operations + +_A third chapter of sea-raider history similar to those of the Möwe and +Seeadler was revealed when the Spanish steamship Igotz Mendi, navigated +by a German prize crew, ran aground on the Danish coast, Feb. 24, 1918, +while trying to reach the Kiel Canal with a cargo of prisoners and +booty. The next day the German Government announced that the sea-raider +Wolf, which had captured the Igotz Mendi and ten other merchant vessels, +with 400 prisoners, had successfully returned after fifteen months in +the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. The story of the Wolf's +operations, as gleaned by Danish and English correspondents from the +narratives of released prisoners, is told below. Some of the most +interesting passages were furnished by Australian medical officers who +had been captured on the British steamer Matunga:_ + + +The Wolf, a vessel of about 6,000 gross tonnage, armed with several guns +and torpedo tubes, carried a seaplane, known as the Wolfchen, which was +frequently used in the operations of the sea raider. On some days the +seaplane made as many as three flights. The Wolf, apparently, proceeded +from Germany to the Indian Ocean, laying minefields off the Cape, +Bombay, and Colombo. Early in February, 1917, she captured the British +steamship Turritella, taking off all the officers and putting on board a +prize crew which worked the vessel with her own men. In every case of +capture, when the vessel was not sunk at once, this procedure was +adopted. + +The Wolf transferred a number of mines to the Turritella, with +instructions that they should be laid off Aden. A few days later the +Turritella encountered a British warship, whereupon the prize crew, +numbering twenty-seven, sank the Turritella, and were themselves taken +prisoner. + +Three weeks later the Wolf overhauled the British steamer Jumna. The +Wolf thought that the British vessel was about to ram her, and the port +after-gun was fired before it was properly trained, killing five of the +raider's crew and wounding about twenty-three others. The Jumna remained +with the Wolf for several days, after which her coal and stores were +transferred to the raider, and she was sunk with bombs. The next vessels +to be captured and sunk were the British steamships Wordsworth and Dee. + +Early in June the Wolf, while at anchor under the lee of an island in +the Pacific, sighted the British steamship Wairuna, bound from Auckland, +N. Z., to San Francisco with coal, Kauri gum, pelts, and copra. The Wolf +sent over the seaplane which, flying low, dropped a canvas bag on the +Wairuna's deck, containing the message, "Stop immediately; take orders +from German cruiser. Do not use your wireless or I will bomb you." The +Wairuna eased down, but did not stop until the seaplane dropped a bomb +just ahead of her. By this time the Wolf had weighed anchor and +proceeded to head off the Wairuna. A prize crew was put on board with +orders to bring the ship under the lee of the island and anchor. All the +officers, except the master, were sent on board the Wolf. The following +day possibly a thousand tons of cargo were transferred. + + +CAPTURE OF THE MATUNGA + +While the two vessels were anchored, the chief officer and second +engineer of the Turritella let themselves over the side of the Wolf with +the intention of swimming ashore. Later, the Wairuna was taken out and +sunk by gunfire, the bombs which had been placed on board having failed +to accomplish their purpose. The next captures were the American +vessels, Winslow, Beluga, and Encore, which were either burned or sunk. + +For nearly a week following this the Wolf hove to, sending the seaplane +up several times each day for scouting purposes. Apparently she had +picked up some information by her wireless apparatus and was on the +lookout for a vessel. On the third day the Wolfchen went up three times, +and, on returning from its last flight, dropped lights. Early the next +morning none of the prisoners was allowed on deck. A gun was fired by +the Wolf, and it was afterward found that it was to stop the British +steamer Matunga, with general cargo and passengers, including a number +of military officers and men. + + +BETRAYED BY WIRELESS + +It was on the morning of Aug. 5, when the Matunga was nearing the coast +of the territory formerly known as German New Guinea, that she fell in +with the Wolf, which was mistaken for an ordinary tramp steamer, as the +two vessels ran parallel to each other for about two miles. Then the +Wolf suddenly revealed her true character by running up the German flag, +dropping a portion of her forward bulwarks, exposing the muzzles of her +guns, and firing a shot across the bows of the Matunga. At the same time +the Wolf sent a seaplane to circle over the Matunga at a low altitude +for the obvious purpose of ascertaining whether the latter was armed. +Apparently satisfied with the seaplane's report, the German Captain sent +a prize crew, armed with bayonets and pistols, to take possession of the +British ship. Before their arrival, however, all the Matunga's code +books, log books, and other papers were thrown overboard. During the +time the prize crew, all of whom spoke English well, were overhauling +the Matunga, it was learned that the Germans had been lying in wait for +her for five days, as they had somehow learned that she was carrying 500 +tons of coal, which they needed badly, and that the German wireless +operator had been following her course from the time of her departure +from Sydney toward the end of July. + +The two ships, now both under German command, proceeded together to a +very secluded natural harbor on the north coast of Dutch New Guinea, the +entrance to which was watched by two German guard boats, while a +wireless plant was set up on a neighboring hill and the Wolf's seaplane +patrolled the sea around for about 100 miles on the lookout for any +threatened danger. The two ships remained in the Dutch harbor for nearly +a fortnight, during which time the Wolf was careened and her hull +scraped of barnacles and weeds in the most thorough and methodical +manner, after which the coal was transferred from the Matunga's bunkers. +The latter vessel was then taken ten miles out to sea, where everything +lying loose was thrown into the hold and the hatches battened down to +obviate the possibility of any floating wreckage remaining after she was +sunk. Bombs were then placed on board and exploded, and the Matunga went +down in five or six minutes without leaving a trace. + +Before the Matunga was sunk all her crew and passengers were transferred +to the Wolf, which then pursued a zigzag course across the Pacific Ocean +and through the China Sea to the vicinity of Singapore, where she sowed +her last remaining mines. According to stories told by the crew, they +had sown most of their mines off Cape Town, Bombay, Colombo, the +Australian coast, and in the Tasman Sea, between Australia and New +Zealand. They also boasted that on one occasion, when off the coast of +New South Wales, their seaplane made an early morning expedition over +Sydney Harbor (the headquarters of the British Navy in the Pacific) and +noted the disposition of the shipping in that port. They also claimed +that the seaplane was the means of saving the Wolf from capture off the +Australian coast on one occasion, when she was successful in sighting a +warship in sufficient time to enable the Wolf to make good her escape. + +A week or more was spent by the Wolf in the China Sea and off Singapore, +whence she worked her way to the Indian Ocean for the supposed purpose +of picking up wireless instructions from Berlin and Constantinople. + +[Illustration: An American regiment marching through a French village + +(_American Official Photograph_)] + +[Illustration: American troops, with full equipment, on parade in London + +(© _Western Newspaper Union_)] + +[Illustration: A French château shelled by the Germans after they had +been driven from the village by Canadians + +(© _Western Newspaper Union_)] + +On Sept. 26, while still dodging about in the Indian Ocean, the Wolf +met and captured a Japanese ship, the Hitachi-maru, with thirty +passengers, a crew of about 100, and a valuable cargo of silk, copper, +rubber, and other goods, for Colombo. During the previous day the +Germans had been boasting that they were about to take a big prize, and +it afterward transpired that they based their anticipations on the terms +of a wireless message which they had intercepted on that day. When first +called upon by signal to stop, the Japanese commander took no notice of +the order, and held on his way even after a shot had been fired across +his ship's bow. Thereupon the Wolf deliberately shelled her, destroying +the wireless apparatus, which had been sending out S O S signals, and +killing several members of the crew. While the shelling was going on, a +rush was made by the Japanese to lower the boats, and a number of both +crew and passengers jumped into the sea to escape the gunfire. The +Germans afterward admitted to the slaughter of fifteen, but the Matunga +people assert that the death roll must have been much heavier. The +steamer's funnels were shot away, the poop was riddled with shot, and +the decks were like a shambles. All this time the Wolf's seaplane +hovered over the Japanese ship ready to drop bombs upon her and sink her +in the event of any hostile ship coming in sight. + +After transferring the passengers and crew and as much of the cargo as +they could conveniently remove from the Hitachi-maru to the Wolf, her +decks were cleared of the wreckage their gunfire had caused, and a prize +crew was put in charge of her with a view of taking her to Germany. Some +weeks later, however, that intention was abandoned for reasons known +only to the Germans themselves, and on Nov. 5 the Hitachi-maru was sunk. + + +IGOTZ MENDI TAKEN + +The Wolf then proceeded on her voyage, and on Nov. 10 captured the +Spanish steamship Igotz Mendi, with a cargo of 5,500 tons of coal, of +which the Wolf was in sore need. The raider returned with this steamer +to the island off which the Hitachi-maru had been sunk, and one evening +all the married people, a few neutrals and others, and some sick men +were transferred from the Wolf to the Igotz Mendi. The raider took +aboard a large quantity of coal, and, after the Spanish vessel had been +painted gray, the two vessels parted company. The Wolf reappeared on +several occasions and reported that she had captured and sunk the +American sailing vessel John H. Kirby and the French sailing vessel +Maréchal Davout. On Boxing Day the Wolf attempted to coal from the Igotz +Mendi in mid-Atlantic, but, owing to a heavy swell, the vessels bumped +badly. It was afterward stated that the Wolf had been so badly damaged +that she was making water. + +A few days later two large steamships were sighted, and both the Wolf +and the Igotz Mendi hastily made preparations to escape. The officers +and crew changed their clothes to ordinary seamen's attire, packed up +their kitbags, and sent all the prisoners below. + +Among the latter was the first officer of the Spanish ship, who saw a +German lay a number of bombs between the decks of the Igotz Mendi ready +to be exploded if it became necessary to sink that ship with all her +prisoners while the Wolf looked after her own safety. These bombs were +temporarily left in the charge of the German wireless operator to whom +the Spanish officer found an opportunity of communicating a message to +the effect that he was wanted immediately on the bridge. The ruse was +successful, for the operator promptly obeyed the instruction, and in his +temporary absence all the bombs were thrown overboard. The German +commander, Lieutenant Rose, was furious. He held an investigation next +day and asked each prisoner if he knew anything about the bombs. When +the Spanish Chief Officer's turn came he answered: + +"Yes; I threw them overboard. I'll tell you why. It was not for me, +Captain Rose, but for the women and little children. I am not afraid of +you. You can shoot me if you want to, but you can't drown the little +children." + +Rose confined him to his room, and the next time the Igotz Mendi met the +Wolf, Commander Nerger sentenced him to three years in a German military +prison. + +Coaling having finished, the vessels proceeded north in company. During +the first week of January the Wolf sank the Norwegian bark Storkbror, on +the ground that the vessel had been British-owned before the war. This +was the Wolf's last prize. The last time the two raiders were together +was on Feb. 6, when the Wolf was supplied with coal and other +requirements from the Igotz Mendi. Thereafter, each pursued her own +course to Germany. + + +RAIDER MEETS DISASTER + +About Feb. 7 the Igotz Mendi crossed the Arctic Circle, and, +encountering much ice, was forced back. Two attempts were made at the +Northern Passage, but as the ship was bumping badly against the ice +floes a course was shaped between Iceland and the Faroes for the +Norwegian coast. On the night of the 18th a wireless from Berlin +announced that the Wolf had arrived safely. At 3:30 P. M. on Feb. 24 the +Igotz Mendi ran aground near the Skaw, having mistaken the lighthouse +for the lightship in the foggy weather. Three hours later a boat came +off from the shore. The Igotz Mendi was boarded at 8 o'clock by the +commander of a Danish gunboat, who discovered the true character of the +ship, which the Germans were endeavoring to conceal. + +Next day twenty-two persons, including nine women, two children, and two +Americans, were landed in lifeboats and were cared for by the British +Consul. Many of them had suffered from inadequate nourishment in the +last five weeks. There had been an epidemic of beri-beri and scurvy on +board the vessel. + +The Danish authorities interned the German commander of the Igotz Mendi. +The German prize crew refused to leave the ship. + +The Berlin authorities on Feb. 25, 1918, issued an official announcement +containing these statements: + + The auxiliary cruiser Wolf has returned home after fifteen months in + the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. The Kaiser has telegraphed + his welcome to the commander and conferred the Order Pour le Mérite, + together with a number of iron crosses, on the officers and crew. + The Wolf was commanded by Frigate Captain Nerger and inflicted the + greatest damage on the enemy's shipping by the destruction of cargo + space and cargo. She brought home more than four hundred members of + crews of sunken ships of various nationalities, especially numerous + colored and white British soldiers, besides several guns captured + from armed steamers and great quantities of valuable raw materials, + including rubber, copper, brass, zinc, cocoa beans, copra, &c., to + the value of many million marks. + + + + +Career and Fate of the Raider Seeadler + +A German Adventure in the Pacific + +_Fitted out as a motor schooner under command of Count von Luckner, with +a crew of sixty-eight men, half of whom spoke Norwegian, the German +commerce raider Seeadler (Sea Eagle) slipped out from Bremerhaven in +December, 1916, encountered a British cruiser, passed inspection, and +later proceeded, with the aid of two four-inch guns that had been hidden +under a cargo of lumber, to capture and destroy thirteen merchant +vessels in the Atlantic before rounding the Horn into the Pacific and +there sinking three American schooners before meeting a picturesque fate +in the South Sea Islands. The narrative of the Seeadler's career as here +told by CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE is believed to be the most complete yet +published._ + + +On Christmas Day, 1916, the British patrol vessel Highland Scot met and +hailed a sailing vessel which declared itself without ceremony to be the +three-masted Norwegian schooner Irma, bound from Christiania to Sydney +with a cargo of lumber. As nothing was more natural, the vessel was +allowed to pass, and soon disappeared on the horizon. + +A few days later, in the Atlantic, running before a northerly gale, this +neat-looking, long-distance freighter threw its deck load of planks +and beams into the ocean, brought from their hiding places two four-inch +guns, six machine guns, two gasoline launches, and a motor powerful +enough to propel the vessel without the use of sails on occasion. Then a +wireless dispatch sent in cipher from aerials concealed in the rigging +announced that the German raider Seeadler was ready for business. On the +bow the legend, "Irma, Christiania," and at the masthead the flag of +Norway remained to lure the raider's victims to destruction. + +The Seeadler had formerly been the American ship Pass of Balmaha, 2,800 +tons, belonging to the Boston Lumber Company. In August, 1915, while on +its way from New York to Archangel, it was captured by a German's +submarine and sent to Bremen, where it was fitted out as a raider. Under +the name of the Seeadler it left Bremerhaven on Dec. 21, 1916, in +company with the Möwe, ran the British blockade by the ruse indicated +above, and began its career of destruction on two oceans. While the Möwe +waylaid its twenty-two victims along the African coast, the Seeadler +turned southwest and preyed on South American trade. + +One by one the Seeadler sent to the bottom the British ships Gladis +Royle, Lady Island, British Yeoman, Pinmore, Perse, Horngarth; the +French vessels Dupleix, Antonin, La Rochefoucauld, Charles Gounod, and +the Italian ship Buenos Aires. On March 7, 1917, it encountered the +French bark Cambronne two-thirds of the way between Rio de Janeiro and +the African coast and forced it to take on board 277 men from the crews +of the eleven vessels previously captured. The Cambronne was compelled +to carry these to Rio de Janeiro, where it landed them on March 20, thus +first revealing the work of the Seeadler to the world. On March 22 the +German Government announced the safe completion of the second voyage of +the Möwe. (See CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE for May, 1917, p. 298.) + +Having thus ended its operations in the Atlantic, the Seeadler rounded +Cape Horn with the intention of scouring the Pacific. In June it +sank two American schooners in that ocean, the A. B. Johnson and R. C. +Slade, adding another, the Manila, on July 8, and making prisoners of +all the crews. Captain Smith of the Slade afterward told the story of +his experiences. His ship had been attacked on June 17, and he had at +first tried to escape by outsailing the raider; but after the ninth +shell dropped near his ship he surrendered. He continued: + + They took all our men aboard the raider except the cook. Next + morning I went back on board with all my men and packed up. We left + the ship with our belongings June 18. We were put on board the + raider again. Shortly after I saw from the raider that they cut + holes in the masts and placed dynamite bombs in each mast, and put + fire to both ends of the ship and left her. I saw the masts go over + the side and the ship was burning from end to end, and the raider + steamed away. + +After six months of hard life at sea the raider was in need of repairs +and the crew longed for a rest on solid land. Casting about for an +island sufficiently isolated for his purpose, the Captain, Count von +Luckner, decided upon the French atoll of Mopeha, 265 miles west of +Tahiti; he believed the little island to be uninhabited. The Seeadler +dropped anchor near its jagged coral reefs July 31, 1917. On Aug. 1 +Captain von Luckner took possession of the islet and raised the German +flag over what he called the Kaiser's last colony. But the next day, +during a picnic which he had organized "to entertain his crew and +prisoners," leaving only a few men on board the Seeadler, a heavy swell +dropped the ship across an uncharted blade of the reef, breaking the +vessel's back. The Germans were prisoners themselves on their own +conquered islet! + +Von Luckner had been incorrect in believing the island entirely +uninhabited. Three Tahitians lived there to make copra (dried cocoanut) +and to raise pigs and chickens for the firm of Grand, Miller & Co. of +Papeete; this firm was shortly to send a vessel to take away its +employes, a fact which the Germans learned with mixed emotions. + +They brought ashore everything they could from their wrecked ship, +including planks and beams, of which they constructed barracks; also +provisions, machine guns, and wireless apparatus. The heavy guns were +put out of commission--likewise the ship's motor. The wireless plant, a +very powerful one, was set up between two cocoanut trees. It was +equipped with sending and receiving apparatus, and without difficulty +its operator could hear Pago-Pago, Tahiti, and Honolulu. + +On Aug. 23 Count von Luckner and five men set out in an armed motor +sloop for the Cook Islands, which they reached in seven days. There they +succeeded in deceiving the local authorities, but a few days later they +and their boat were captured in the Fiji Islands by the local +constabulary and handed over to the British authorities. Thus ended the +Captain's hope of seizing an American ship and returning to Mopeha for +his crew. + +On Sept. 5 the French schooner Lutece from Papeete arrived at Mopeha to +get the three Tahitians and their crops. First Lieutenant Kling took a +motor boat and a machine gun and captured the schooner, which had a +large cargo of flour, salmon, and beef, with a supply of fresh water. +Kling and the rest of the Germans, after dismantling the wireless, left +the island that night, abandoning forty-eight prisoners, including the +Americans, the crew of the Lutece, and four natives. Before going they +destroyed what they could not take with them, cut down many trees to get +the cocoanuts more easily, and left to the prisoners very scant +provisions, and bad at that. The few cocoanuts that remained were +largely destroyed by the great number of rats on the island. There was +plenty of fish and turtles. + +After the flight of the Germans the French flag was hoisted on the +island and the twentieth-century Robinson Crusoes organized themselves +under Captain Southard of the Manila and M. Fain, one of the owners of +the Lutece. The camp was rebuilt, the supplies rationed out, the +catching of fish and turtles arranged, and the question of going in +search of help discussed. On Sept. 8 Pedro Miller, one of the owners of +the Lutece, set sail in an open boat with Captains Southard and Porutu, +a mate, Captain Williams, and three sailors, hoping to reach the Island +of Maupiti, eighty-five miles to the east; but after struggling eight +days against head winds and a high sea he returned to Mopeha with his +exhausted companions. Two days later, Sept. 19, Captain Smith of the +Slade, with two mates and a sailor, left the island in a leaky whaleboat +dubbed the Deliverer of Mopeha and shaped their course toward the west; +in ten days they covered 1,080 miles and landed at Tutuila, one of the +Samoan Islands, where the American authorities informed Tahiti by +wireless of the serious plight of the men marooned on Mopeha. The +British Governor at Apia--Robert Louis Stevenson's last home--also +offered to send a relief ship; but the Governor of the French +Establishments of Oceania, declining this offer with thanks, dispatched +the French schooner Tiare-Taporo from Papeete on Oct. 4. + +Two days later the relief expedition sighted Mopeha by means of a column +of smoke that rose from the island, for the Robinson Crusoes had +organized a permanent signal system to attract the attention of passing +vessels. The arrival of the rescuers was greeted with frantic +acclamations. By evening the last boatload of refugees was aboard the +Tiare-Taporo, and on the morning of Oct. 10 the schooner reached +Papeete, where the prisoners at last were free. + +The fate of the Lutece with the main body of the Seeadler's crew was +indicated, though not fully explained, by a cable dispatch from +Valparaiso, Chile, March 5, 1918, stating that the Chilean schooner +Falcon had arrived there from the Easter Islands with fifty-eight +sailors formerly belonging to the crew of the Seeadler. The sailors were +interned by the Chilean Government. Count Felix von Luckner, commander +of the Seeadler, who, with five of his men, had been captured by the +local constabulary of the Fiji Islands, was interned by the British in a +camp near Auckland, New Zealand. In December he and other interned +Germans escaped to sea in an open boat and traveled nearly 500 miles, +suffering from lack of food and water, but were recaptured after a two +weeks' chase. + + + + +Treatment of British Prisoners + +Shocking Brutalities in German War Prisons Revealed in an Official +Report + + +A report issued by an official British Investigating Committee, known as +the Justice Younger Committee, appointed to investigate the treatment of +British soldiers by their German captors, made public in April, 1918, +presents a shocking record of barbarities. The commission reported as +follows: + + There is now no doubt in the minds of the committee that as early, + at the latest, as the month of August, 1916, the German Command were + systematically employing their British as well as other prisoners in + forced labor close behind the western firing line, thereby + deliberately exposing them to the fire of the guns of their own and + allied armies. This fact has never been acknowledged by the German + Government. On the contrary, it has always been studiously + concealed. But that the Germans are chargeable, even from that early + date, with inflicting the physical cruelty and the mental torture + inherent in such a practice can no longer be doubted. + + Characteristically the excuse put forward was that this treatment, + not apparently suggested to be otherwise defensible, was forced upon + the German Command as a reprisal for what was asserted to be the + fact, namely, that German prisoners in British hands had at some + time or other been kept less than thirty kilometers (how much less + does not appear) behind the British firing line in France. This + statement was quite unfounded. + + Furthermore, at the end of April, 1917, an agreement was definitely + concluded between the British and German Governments that prisoners + of war should not on either side be employed within thirty + kilometers of the firing line. Nevertheless, the German Command + continued without intermission so to employ their British prisoners, + under the inhuman conditions stated in the report. And that + certainly until the end of 1917--it may be even until now--although + it has never even been suggested by the German authorities, so far + as the committee are aware, that the thirty kilometers limit agreed + upon has not been scrupulously observed by the British Command in + the letter as well as in the spirit. + + + "Prisoners of Respite" + + The German excuse is embodied in different official documents, some + of which enter into detailed descriptions of the reprisals alleged + to be in contemplation because of it. These descriptions are in + substantial accord with treatment which the committee, from the + information in their possession, now know to have been in regular + operation for months before either the threat or the so-called + excuse for it, and to have continued in regular operation after the + solemn promise of April that it should cease. These documents + definitely commit the German Command to at least a threatened + course of conduct for which the committee would have been slow to + fix them with conscious responsibility. Incidentally they + corroborate in advance the accuracy, in its incidents, of the + information, appalling as it is, which has independently reached + the committee from so many sides. + + As a typical example, the committee set forth a transcript in + German-English of one of these pronouncements, of which extensive + use was made. It is a notice, entitled, "Conditions of Respite to + German Prisoners." As here given, it was handed to a British + noncommissioned officer to read out, and it was read out to his + fellow-prisoners at Lille on April 15, 1917: + + Upon the German request to withdraw the German prisoners of war to + a distance of not less than thirty kilometers from the front line, + the British Government has not replied; therefore it has been + decided that all prisoners of war who are captured in future will + be kept as prisoners of respite. Very short of food, bad lighting, + bad lodgings, no beds, and hard work beside the German guns, under + heavy shellfire. No pay, no soap for washing or shaving, no towels + or boots, &c. The English prisoners of respite are all to write to + their relations or persons of influence in England how badly they + are treated, and that no alteration in the ill-treatment will occur + until the English Government has consented to the German request; + it is therefore in the interest of all English prisoners of respite + to do their best to enable the German Government to remove all + English prisoners of respite to camps in Germany, where they will + be properly treated, with good food, good clothing, and you will + succeed by writing as mentioned above, and then surely the English + Government will consent to Germany's request, for the sake of their + own countrymen. You will be supplied with postcard, note paper, and + envelope, and all this correspondence in which you will explain + your hardships will be sent as express mail to England. + + + Starved to Death + + It seems that the prisoners, from as early as August, 1916, were + kept in large numbers at certain places in the west--Cambrai and + Lille are frequently referred to in the evidence--but in smaller + numbers they were placed all along the line. Their normal work was + making roads, repairing railways, constructing light railways, + digging trenches, erecting wire entanglements, making gun-pits, + loading ammunition, filling munition wagons, carrying trench + mortars, and doing general fatigue work, which under the pain of + death the noncommissioned officers were compelled to supervise. + + This work was not only forbidden by the laws of war, it was also + excessively hard. In many cases it lasted from eight to nine hours a + day, with long walks to and fro, sometimes of ten kilometers in each + direction, and for long periods was carried on within range of the + shellfire of the allied armies. One witness was for nine months kept + at work within the range of British guns; another for many months; + others for shorter periods. Many were killed by these guns; more + were wounded; deaths from starvation and overwork were constant. One + instance of the allied shellfire may be given. In May, 1917, a + British or French shell burst among a number of British and French + prisoners working behind the lines in Belgium. Seven were killed; + four were wounded. + + But there is much more to tell. The men were half starved. Two + instances are given in the evidence of men who weighed 180 pounds + when captured. One was sent back from the firing line too weak to + walk, weighing only 112 pounds; the other escaped to the British + lines weighing no more. Another man lost twenty-eight pounds in six + weeks. Parcels did not reach these prisoners. In consequence they + were famished. Such was their hunger, indeed, that we hear of them + picking up for food potato peelings that had been trampled under + foot. One instance is given of an Australian private who, starving, + had fallen out to pick up a piece of bread left on the roadside by + Belgian women for the prisoners. He was shot and killed by the guard + for so doing. + + + Some Merciful Guards + + It was considered, so it would seem, to be no less than a stroke of + luck for prisoners to chance upon guards who were more merciful. For + instance, one of them speaking of food at Cambrai says: + + If it had not been for the French civilians giving us food as we + went along the roads to and from work we should most certainly have + starved. If the sentries saw us make a movement out of the ranks to + get food they would immediately make a jab at us with their rifles, + but conditions here were not so bad as at Moretz, where if a man + stepped out of the ranks he was immediately shot. I heard about + this from men who had themselves been working at Moretz, and had + with their own eyes seen comrades of theirs shot for moving from + the ranks. + + At Ervillers in February, 1917, a prisoner's allowance for the day + consisted of a quarter of a loaf of German black bread, (about a + quarter of a pound,) with coffee in the morning; then soup at + midday, and at 4:30 coffee again, without sugar or milk. On this a + man had to carry on heavy work for over nine hours. The ration of + the German soldier at the same time and place consisted of a whole + loaf of bread per day, good, thick soup, with beans and meat in it, + coffee, jam, and sugar; two cigars and three cigarettes. The food + conditions at Marquion a little later are thus described: + + We used to beg the sentries to allow us to pick stinging nettles + and dandelions to eat, we were so hungry; in fact, we were always + hungry, and I should say we were semi-starved all the time. While + we were here our Sergeants put in for more rations, but the answer + they got was that we were prisoners of war now "and had no rights + of any kind; that the Germans could work us right up behind their + front lines if they liked, and put us on half the rations we were + then getting." + + + Flogged with Dog Whip + + The ration was coffee and a slice of bread at 4:45 A. M., soup of + barley and horseflesh at 2 P. M., eight pounds of barley and ten + pounds of meat between 240 men. And they were compelled to work hard + for eight or nine hours a day on this diet. The frequent cruelty of + the guards generally is a matter constantly referred to: + + The German Sergeant in charge at Ervillers (says one prisoner) was + very harsh. Twice I saw him (this prisoner was there for a month + only) using a dog whip, and heard of him doing so on another + occasion. He used it mostly on men who were slow in getting out to + work owing to weakness. + + The description by a body of these men on their arrival at a camp in + Germany, after being withdrawn from the front, may be taken as + another example of this: + + We were forced to work; we were given hardly any food, and when we + fell down from sheer exhaustion we were kicked until we got up + again, and it was not until we absolutely could not get about that + we were sent back. + + To add to their miseries, the accommodation provided for these + prisoners was in many cases pathetically inadequate. The witnesses + recur to this again and again. One sleeping place, for instance, for + a large party was a barn with no roof. The rain poured in upon the + men. They had to sleep in their wet clothes and work in the same + clothes. They had no change of any kind. And some of these + prisoners, if they survived so long, were kept behind these enemy + lines for over a year. Their quarters at Cambrai are thus described + by two of the men: + + our uniforms, without either greatcoats or blankets. There was no + fire, and it was very cold. We lay on loose straw, which was full + of vermin, and we consequently became verminous. We could only + wash in a bucket of cold water, without either soap or towels. + + The Germans did not supply us with any clothing, and as we had to + work in all weathers, conditions were very hard. Our clothes used + to get drenched through, but still we had to go back to barracks + and sleep in them. It was terribly cold also, especially without + our fur coats. We asked for clothing, but never got any. + + No Parcels or Letters + + But, added to all these hardships, it was the total absence of + parcels and the fact that letters or communications from their + friends rarely reached them that placed these prisoners, for misery, + in a class apart. Instances are on record where the very existence + of some of them was undisclosed by their captors for many months. In + March, 1917, for example, a body of these prisoners who had been + captured as long before as August, 1916, and had been kept at work + by the Germans behind their lines ever since, were returned to a + parent camp in Germany weak and emaciated. On arrival there they + found a number of their own names in the lists of missing men that + had been sent from our War Office through Switzerland and posted in + the camp. * * * + + It seems almost incredible, but the committee do not doubt it to be + the fact, that as late as November, 1917, there were at + Limburg-am-Lahn undelivered between 18,000 and 20,000 parcels for + British prisoners on the German western front. In July, 1917, the + German delegates at The Hague plainly recognized that no distinction + in respect of the receipt of parcels could be properly made between + prisoners of war in occupied territories and others. The agreement + then concluded contains provisions on that subject. Having regard to + the condition of things at Limburg as late as November, 1917, the + committee can only regret that the effect of that agreement was + certainly at that date not so manifest as it ought to have been. The + matter, they add, is of tragic importance to the prisoners + concerned. It made and makes just the difference between starvation + and existence to the unfortunate sufferers. + + + Extracts from Evidence + + The committee extract from the great mass of evidence now in their + possession statements as to the impression produced upon those who + actually saw our men upon their escape to the British lines or after + their transfer to camps in Germany. These statements, they believe, + must convince every impartial mind that it is impossible in terms of + exaggeration to describe the sufferings these prisoners had + undergone. + + In April, 1917, three of them escaped over "No Man's Land." They + were received by a British General Staff officer, a Major in the 1st + Anzac Corps. This is what he says of them, under date April 18, + 1917: + + Three men escaped from behind the German lines to us the other day. + They had been prisoners three months, and were literally nearly dead + with ill-treatment and starvation. One of them could hardly walk, + and was just a skeleton. He had gone down from 182 pounds to less + than 112 pounds in three months. I fetched him back from the line, + and it almost made me cry. All that awful January and February out + all day in the wet and cold; no overcoat, and at night no blanket, + in a shelter where the clothes froze stiff on him; no change of + underclothing in three months, and he was one mass of vermin, no + chance of washing. The bodies of all of them were covered with + sores. "Beaten and starved," one of them said, "sooner than go + through it again I'd just put my head under the first railway." + + The following is the substance of statements by two witnesses from a + German camp: + + About June, 1917, a party of about twenty English soldiers came in + who had been working behind the German lines on the western front. I + became friends with one of them. He was so weak that I have several + times seen him faint on parade. Another of them told me that he was + one of a party of 100 working behind the lines on the western front + digging trenches and carrying up supplies. He said they were all + very badly treated and starved. They were knocked about by the + Germans if they did not march as fast as they wanted them to, + although they were all so weak. He was only sent to Germany when he + became so weak as to be useless for work. When I left he did not + look as if he could lift a shovelful of sand. There was another whom + I knew. He had also been working behind the lines. They had to work + in clogs and no socks. He said they used to tie rags round their + feet. He was employed on road making. I never could have believed + the things I was told but for the terrible state the men were in, + which caused me to feel that no horror I was told was impossible. + + Many were brought into the camp who had returned from working behind + the lines; they were in a shocking state, literally skin and bones, + hardly able to walk, and quite worn out physically and mentally; + their clothes threadbare and in rags, without boots, wearing old rag + slippers. They told me that the conditions of work behind the lines, + where some of them had been for months, were terrible; they had to + work eight hours a day, and generally were made to walk ten + kilometers out to their work, and the only food they were given was + one cup of coffee, a slice of bread, and some soup a day--a day's + ration. + + + "Shot at Sight" + + From another camp comes the following testimony: + + In May of this year a large party of British came into the camp, who + had returned from behind the German lines. They were ravenous + through being starved, and half savages. I spoke to several of them. + * * * Men were shot at sight for a slight cause, such as dropping + out to get bread from Belgian civilians. The state in which they + returned was the worst sight I have seen in my life. Their clothes + were ragged, they were half shaven, verminous, suffering from skin + diseases, and were half savage with hunger and bad treatment. After + their arrival the commandant in the camp issued an order (which I + saw) that no more of these parties should be taken through the main + street of the town, but should go by the byways on account of the + feeling that had been caused among the population. I am told that + the population showed a great deal of sympathy, tears, &c. + + About May 1, 1917, about 300 prisoners of all nationalities were + brought from behind the western lines. I spoke to those who came + into the lazaret. All were starving, and had been kept there until + they collapsed from overwork. Fifteen Russians died as soon as they + were brought in. One man told me that on a march of eleven + kilometers a man fell out ill, the guard gave him so many minutes to + fall in again, and told him he would shoot him if he was not up by + then; he could not go on, and the guard shot him. + + From a third camp: + + I knew two of our men who had been working behind the German lines + in the west for five months. One was 29 years old, the other 25. The + first weighed 180 pounds when captured. He left the firing line too + weak to walk, and weighed 110 pounds. He was badly treated and + knocked about. When I saw him in camp he was black and blue. The + other man had the same treatment. They were both starved, and both + were gray-headed with the five months' treatment. These men said our + men were dying there every day through hardship and exposure. The + food behind the lines was about half the camp rations. + + + "Worked to the Bone" + + From a fourth camp: + + In September, 1917, seventy-five noncommissioned officers, who had + been behind the lines, were brought into our camp. They were in a + bad physical condition, hungry, lousy, and worked out. One month + after, a large body, all privates from behind the lines, captured + since May, came in. They were in a terrible condition, famished + beyond words. They had been worked to the bone, and were in a filthy + condition. They made our camp lousy. The camp doctor said they were + the worst cases he had seen, and said they could stay in bed for a + week. They were so famished that two died of eating the food we gave + them. They had been working on the Hindenburg line, and the railway + Cambrai to Lille, and repairing it under fire. They said they were + on very small rations and compelled to work. They told us that + Frenchwomen who out of compassion gave them any trifling gift of + fruit were knocked down by the sentries. + + From the same camp: + + I spoke to men who had been kept at work behind the German lines on + the western front. The majority of these were there about twelve + months, and they came into camp about the end of November or the + beginning of December, 1917. They told me that they had been + employed close up to the lines. They had been employed cutting + trees, and had been under our own shellfire. They were half starved + and in a terrible condition. On one occasion about 300 came in, + about forty of whom had British clothes, the rest being dressed in + odds and ends of French and German clothing--in fact, anything they + could get hold of. We collected bread for them and cut it up in + readiness for their arrival so as to save all possible time, but + their hunger was so great they could not help raiding us and + fighting for it. It was terrible to see them. I do not think many of + them had been wounded, but their condition was so terrible that I + cannot describe it. + + They were absolutely the worst bunch of men I had ever seen. They + were terribly thin and weak, and fell down as soon as they started + to eat, as they were in an absolutely exhausted state. Their + underclothing was in a dreadful state, and they were covered with + vermin, and had been like that for about twelve months. This is the + party which I mentioned as coming to the camp about the end of + November or the beginning of December, 1917. About a fortnight after + their arrival, and after their clothes had been fumigated and they + had baths two or three times a week, they picked up wonderfully. + + From a fifth camp: + + In March, 1917, I saw fifty English prisoners come in to camp who + had been working behind the lines near Cambrai digging trenches; + they had been there three or four months. All of them were in a + shocking condition, absolutely starved, with boils and sores all + over them. We used to share our parcels with these men. During the + whole time I was in camp--that is, up to December last--men were + drifting in who had been working behind the lines on the western + front; they always arrived in the same shocking condition. I + remember particularly one, in November, 1917, coming back from + Cambrai district. He was very bad and starved; he told me they had + been very badly treated; all huddled together in barns, no sanitary + arrangements, no blankets, and he said he had seen a native woman + shot for giving them food; that they were well within range of guns, + and within six kilometers of the lines, shells frequently falling + about them, and that he had seen many of his own comrades wounded + while working, that they were knocked about by their guards, and, + generally, his account of their treatment was appalling. To my + knowledge from conversation with them, men were coming in who had + been working close up behind the lines right down to the time I left + Germany in December, 1917. + + From an army Chaplain: + + On Feb. 16, 1917, there arrived in Minden Hospital sixteen men who + had been working behind the western front, attached to Camp E.K. 5. + The thermometer registered 10 degrees, Fahrenheit, below zero. They + had walked seven kilometers from the station. Their clothing + consisted of tunic, trousers, and thin shirt, boots and socks, and + an old hat--no coat and no underclothes. They had been two days and + two nights in the cold train with very little to eat. * * * Two of + these men died later of consumption in Minden. They had all been + captured in November (this was February) and their relatives did not + know that they were even alive. These men report, too, that they are + brutally treated; human life is not worth so much as horseflesh, + because the latter can be eaten. They are worked until they either + die or so completely collapse that they are useless. I believe this + was the first party that arrived from the western front. I had the + names of the men in a notebook, but it was taken from me. They said + it was nothing to wake up in the morning and find the man sleeping + beside you dead. I got the names of several who had died, and wrote + to their people to inform them. + + + Lives Made Unbearable + + The committee close these statements with the following striking + extract from the evidence of a young wounded British officer who was + placed in a ward in a German hospital in France, filled with + prisoners of all nationalities: + + The German in charge of the ward was a + university professor, and, seeing several of our men, also Russians + and Rumanians, come on to the hospital in an emaciated condition, I + asked him the cause, and where they came from, when, without giving + me details, he told me they came from working camps behind the + lines. There, he said, the conditions were frightful, so much so + that he himself was ashamed of them--the men were overworked, under + shellfire, very much underfed, had not much clothing, and slept in + sheds and shelters in the snow under filthy conditions. I + ascertained from him and from some of our own men that many died + behind the lines; all were thoroughly ill-treated by the Germans, + and the lives of those who did not die were made quite unbearable. + + I am sure the German who informed me had no personal grounds which + made him complain against the system, it was merely on humanitarian + grounds that he told me he was shocked; and the independent stories + I received from our own soldiers simply bore out the fact that the + Germans were ill-treating their prisoners behind the lines at this + time. While I was in hospital the German I have mentioned above did + his best to get the men from the hospital marked unfit for work + behind the lines; and I must in fairness add that as a result very + few, if any, went back to work there once they had been sent to + hospital, and they seemed to be marked for camps in Germany + instead. + + The report concludes: "The committee in their survey of the evidence + dealt with in this report have failed to find a trace even of lip + service either to the obligations so solemnly undertaken by the + German Government in time of peace for regulating their conduct in + time of war or to these principles from their War Book which that + Government professed as their own. Further comment appears to the + committee to be superfluous. The facts speak for themselves." + + + + +American Prisoners Exploited + +_A correspondent sent the following from The Hague, April 20, 1918, +regarding the German treatment of American prisoners:_ + + +From irrefutable evidence obtained by your correspondent, it is +impossible to close one's eyes to what is going on in the hospitals and +prisoners' camps in Germany. It is a mistake to believe that the +treatment of prisoners and wounded in Germany has improved. On the +contrary, it is as bad as it ever was, even worse. + +The punishments inflicted are cruel and inhuman. As is well known, +prisoners are absolutely dependent upon parcels for food and clothing. A +favorite punishment is to withhold these from a whole camp or from large +bodies of prisoners. It has been established beyond doubt that prisoners +are employed behind the front and are under shellfire, in defiance of +The Hague agreement of 1917. + +Some prisoners never reach a camp in Germany for six months, meanwhile +receiving no parcels of food. Their condition on arrival at camp, broken +down and starving, is pitiable. + +The evidence doesn't tend to show that American prisoners are receiving +any preferential treatment. It is reported that the first American +prisoners taken were hawked about the country, presumably to show them +off to the populace. At Giessen, where, it would seem, American +prisoners were kept on two separate occasions, they were prohibited any +intercourse, even by sign language, with other prisoners and were not +allowed to receive parcels or gifts from them. + +British prisoners at Giessen asked if they could give parcels to +Americans, and finally received permission to do so the following day. +But the next day the American prisoners were moved away early in the +morning. + +British prisoners were able to detect Americans who had been captured +any length of time by their appearance and by the state of their +clothes. Until parcels for them arrived from Berne their state was +deplorable. + +A British noncommissioned officer recently obtained the signatures of +the first ten Americans captured and talked with them. These men signed +the scrap of paper in the hope that some news of them would reach the +outside world. They were in poor physical health and somewhat +despondent. + +A few recent examples from a large amount of sworn evidence follow: + +In February, 1918, 4,000 men were sent from a Westphalian camp to within +thirty kilometers behind the front. Their guards ran away to escape the +British shrapnel fire. + +The state of prisoners coming from the big Somme battle in the first +week of the present month was deplorable. Their wounds had not been +dressed in many cases for more than ten days. Owing to the lack of +dressing, British comrades bandaged their wounds with old towels and +shirts. + +It was formally announced by the German authorities in Camp Bonn on +April 13 last that two British soldiers, R. and B., had been shot near +Minden for not stopping talking when ordered to do so. + +In November, 1917, men were brought into the hospital at M. continually, +having been wounded by shrapnel from behind the lines. Wounded men lay +for three or four weeks unattended and grossly neglected. + +Much of the sworn evidence is so repugnant that it could not be +published. There has been talk of reprisals on American prisoners, and +even foreigners born in America are included in these threatened +reprisals. + + + + +Total Destruction of Rheims + +By G. H. Perris + +_With the French Armies, April 20, 1918_ + + +The great fire at Rheims has nearly burned itself out. Having thrown in +a week 50,000 explosive and an unknown number of incendiary and gas +shells, the German gunners ceased as suddenly and inexplicably as they +had begun, and when I entered the city this morning the silence of death +brooded over it. + +The written word is powerless to describe such a spectacle, and it is no +more adequate for being unmeasured. But when men of faith, men who love +the old and beautiful, write under the fresh, stunning impression of +such a sight, is it strange that some loose phrases escape them? + +I am very familiar with the ruins of Rheims. From the first bombardment, +which destroyed the exquisite sculptures of the north tower and the +façade of the cathedral three and a half years ago, I have been able to +watch the mischief extending step by cruel step. At first, with normal +British reluctance to credit the outrageous or incomprehensible, one was +chiefly concerned to find out whether, after all, there was not some +sort of military excuse. I severely cross-examined every one who could +be supposed to know anything about the matter. There never was any +shadow of excuse. + +It remained only to record from time to time the progress of a crime as +deliberate as any in the annals of the war, and in its own kind +particularly damnable--a blackhearted crime such as a Comanche chief or +a Congo cannibal would not have had the wickedness to conceive. + +And if there be still any rationalist obstinate enough to ask for the +reason why of this last outburst of vandalism, I can only hazard the +guess that it may have been planned, like the long-distance bombardments +of Paris, as a terroristic accompaniment of the Hindenburg offensive. It +may have been supposed that the tales of the refugees would help to +demoralize Paris and the rest of the country. So little after these +terrible years has the boche learned of the people he set out to +conquer. + +Well, the Cathedral of St. Louis is not falling. Wonderful was the work +of the builders. More buttresses, pinnacles, gargoyles, and stone +railings have been shattered, more statues chipped, and rain, entering +freely by a large rent in the roof, has worked invisible damage since my +last visit in November. The cathedral has been struck again. The +uplifted sword of Joan of Arc in the bronze equestrian statue before the +cathedral has been cut in half. + +If this were all, we should have after the war at least a worthy +memorial to leave to posterity. It is said that it would now cost a +million sterling to restore the finest Gothic fane in France. I hope +nothing of the kind will be attempted, nothing more, that is, than the +construction of a new roof, new windows, doors, and furnishings, and the +necessary strengthening of the structure. + +For as it stands, gashed and discolored, the vast shell has a strange +magnificence and a piteous loveliness like that of some of the broken +splendors that remain to us from the ancient world. Let Rheims speak to +the future generations as the ruins of the Acropolis and the Forum have +spoken to our fathers and us. + +But the city itself raises a different and a more difficult problem. It +is now no exaggeration to say that as a whole it is destroyed beyond +hope. Till a fortnight ago large parts of it were not beyond the +possibility of repair. Remember that Rheims was not a small town like +Ypres or Arras, but a wealthy and dignified community of 120,000 souls, +occupying a space equal to one-fifth of that of Paris. + +There is now from end to end probably not a single house whose walls are +not more or less broken. The northern and eastern quarters were already +in ruins. Now the centre of the city is gutted. Of the public buildings +the central squares built in the time or after the Counts of Champagne, +the cloth warehouses and workshops, the private residences, bazaars and +shops, nothing stands but rows of smoking walls, half buried in fallen +rafters and masonry. + + + + +The Abomination of Desolation + +An Episode in France + +_Dr. Norman Maclean, an eminent Scottish scholar, whose articles from +the front have appeared in The Scotsman of Edinburgh, penned this +touching picture of the war-devastated Somme region a few days before +the Germans again swept over it in March, 1918:_ + + +They stood side by side on a heap of rubbish inside the door of the +ruined church in the midst of the ruined town--a man and woman garbed in +humble, rusty black. The survivors of the erstwhile population were +being brought back as shelters were prepared and work provided for them; +these had obviously just returned, and had come straight to the church. +When they fled before the flood of death, the church stood scatheless, +built immovably upon the rock of the centuries. It was a shrine of +beauty and a haunt of peace. But as they now stood on the mound of +fallen masonwork inside the west door, what they saw was this--the roof +lying in an undulating ridge piled on the floor, the sacred pictures +torn and tattered; the pillars shattered; the altar buried under a great +mass of débris, and a figure of the Christ, uninjured, looking out +through the broken arches on the dead town, and on the land beyond, +where the white crosses gleam o'er the multitudinous dead. + +The man stood motionless, with a face like a mask. But in a moment the +woman shook as if stricken by an ague. She turned and stumbled toward +the doorway, where there is no door, the tears coursing down her cheeks +and a sob in her throat. The man turned and followed her. He took her +hand in his, and they walked away with bowed heads in silence. It is +strange how the human heart is moved. It was the tremulous face of that +black-robed woman, and the lifting of her hands as if to hide the +abomination of desolation from her sight, and the stumbling flight from +a scene intolerable, that made me feel the horror spread before me. For +I saw it with her eyes. + +What she saw was infinitely more than what I could see. She had +experienced in her own soul that this was holy ground. In happy days of +childhood heaven seemed to lie here; she had come hither to be received, +in white, into the holy fellowship; hither to be married; hither to +dedicate her children at the sacred font. And when the burden of life +was heavier than could be borne, how often had she come hither; and as +she fell on her knees at the elevation of the Host, the very God seemed +to fold her in the Eternal Embrace, and her troubles fled as morning +mists before the sun. + +And when the war came, and the men went forth, and with them her sons, +how often did she come softly to this sanctuary and dip her hand in the +holy water at the door and cross herself, and bow toward the altar, and +kneel and pray that they might be saved. In and out all day they came +then, men and women, and they prayed for their own, and for France, and +their prayers were as the moaning of the winds. * * * And now this! +Nothing is left. Home and town and children and sanctuary are all +overwhelmed in the one flood. And the Christ from the broken pillar +gazes upon a perishing world. It is with her as with those of old, who +fell under the heel of the oppressor and who cried: "Zion is a +wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation; our holy and our beautiful house +where our fathers praised Thee is burned with fire, and all our pleasant +things are laid waste." + +There is that in man which enables him to meet every blow of fate with +unblanched face--save one. When the blow is aimed at his soul, then he +shrivels. It was in her soul that this woman was smitten, as she saw the +house of her God thus. And that is why there in the land of death the +churches and cathedrals are all in ruins. To make the altars of Arras +gaze on the clouds and the stars, and make the winds wail through the +colonnades of Rheims, was deemed the surest and swiftest way of +spreading terror and affright. So the devotées of Odin declared war upon +God. For a little while the tribal deity and the belligerent dynast +reign supreme. The homeless and bereft, the great multitude who are as +those standing on the rubble-heap, are verily left with nothing but +their eyes to weep with. + +It is amazing how soon one gets assimilated to the most horrifying +environment. In a few days one can walk through a town which has been +turned into heaps without even a shock of wonder, just as at home one +reads the war news and the list of the dead without any realization. In +these days we need to be stung broad awake now and then. A city in ruins +becomes deadly monotonous--until one is wakened. + +One day, when the sun broke forth heralding the Spring, the promise of +green on a clump of tangled rose bushes tempted me to turn into the +garden of a shattered villa. It was as thousands of others: the +hearthstones looked upward to the clouds, and the household goods lay +piled tier on tier of rotting lumber as floor fell on floor. In the +centre of the green a shell hole took my eye, and I picked my way toward +it. Out of the earth at the bottom of the hole there obtruded the bones +of a man's arm. In haste, the dead had been thrown into the shell hole +and lightly covered. And the rains had washed so much of the earth away. +And that bone brought the realization that I stood in the midst of one +vast cemetery. + +Everywhere and all around under the feet are the nameless dead--men, +women, and little children. These last are the nightmare of this horror. +Formerly nations recovered from war swiftly; the cradles filled up the +gaps. But here the children are dead. To the eye of faith the Star of +the East shines still with splendor over every spot where a babe lies. +But that Star has been extinguished in this region of doom. The altar is +buried, the hearthstone is in the rain, and amid the welter of rubbish +you can see the children's cots twisted and rusting and woeful. A woman +breaking into sobs inside a ruined church door; a body in a shell hole +in a garden, a child's cot rusting on a rubbish heap--these open the +eyes and make them see. + +These things did not come by the arbitrament of war. It wasn't shrapnel +and high explosives that wrought the desolation. From the battlements of +the old citadel one can see the dead town lie spread, and the houses hit +by shells are few and far between. The houses destroyed wantonly by the +enemy ere they retreated are easily recognized, for the walls fell +outward by the internal explosions. Ninety-five per cent. have fallen +outward, and the wall of the church is likewise. This ancient sanctuary +was wantonly destroyed by the retreating enemy. What amazes one is the +appalling stupidity of such a crime. If the Germans destroyed the town, +that was their right, the might of the sword, and their act could +perhaps be justified. But to destroy the church is to destroy what even +Attila spared, and so outrage the conscience and instinct of the world. +There is never an excuse to seek when an outrage is perpetrated by the +enemy. A hospital ship is sunk--but, of course, it is carrying +munitions! A church is turned into a ruin, but its towers are used as +observation posts! Poor little towers in a land of airplanes and captive +balloons! If the churches had been spared, as they were spared in the +world's darkest ages, humanity would know that the German soul was still +alive. But now the world knows that it is up against an enemy that +threatens body and soul alike--an enemy that not only kills the body, +but destroys the soul! What an amazing stupidity!--but it is through +such stupidity that God lays up judgment against the day of wrath. + + + + +Lloyd George and General Maurice + +A Speech in Which the Premier Routed His Enemies and Revealed Some +Inside Facts + + +A flurry arose in British Parliamentary circles early in May which for a +day or so threatened to wreck the Lloyd George Government, but which +resulted in a new triumph for the Premier and a humiliating defeat for +those who had intrigued against him. It was precipitated by Major Gen. +Sir Frederick Barton Maurice, who had been Director of Military +Operations until April, 1918, when he was succeeded by Brig. Gen. +Radcliffe. His removal had been due to a public utterance in which he +had criticised General Foch for not coming sooner to the assistance of +the British after the beginning of the German offensive. + +On May 7 General Maurice published a letter in which he definitely +asserted that the Premier had made a misleading statement to the House +of Commons April 9, when he asserted that the British Army in France on +Jan. 1, 1918, was considerably stronger than on Jan. 1, 1917; that he +misstated the facts regarding the number of white divisions in Egypt and +Palestine; also that Bonar Law, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had +made a misstatement in denying that the extension of the British front +in France had been ordered by the Versailles War Council. + +A resolution was introduced by former Premier Asquith for the +appointment of a committee to investigate the charges. The Lloyd George +Government accepted the challenge and announced that they would regard +the passage of the resolution as a vote of censure and would resign if +it was carried. The debate on the resolution occurred May 9 and resulted +in an overwhelming victory for the Government, the vote to uphold the +Lloyd George Ministry being 293 to 106; the Irish members were not +present. + +In his address the Premier took up the charges in detail. Regarding the +figures of the British strength he quoted from a report from General +Maurice's own department, initialed by his deputy, dated April 27, +1918, which concluded with these words: + + From the statement included, it will be seen that the combatant + strength of the British Army was greater on Jan. 1, 1918, than on + Jan. 1, 1917. + +He also showed that his statements regarding the relative strength of +the opposing forces in France and the number of white divisions in Egypt +were based on figures furnished by General Maurice's department. + +Regarding the extension of the British front in France the Premier made +some interesting disclosures showing that the extension was made by +agreement of Field Marshal Haig and General Pétain, and not by the +Versailles Council. He said: + + Before the council had met it had been agreed between Field Marshal + Haig and General Pétain, and the extension was an accomplished fact. + Field Marshal Haig reported to the council that the extension had + taken place. There was not a single yard taken over as a result of + the Versailles conference--not a single yard of extension. + +In discussing this phase Lloyd George proceeded as follows: + + + Extending the British Line + + Of course, the Field Marshal was not anxious to extend his line. No + one would be, having regard to the great accumulation of strength + against him, and the War Cabinet were just as reluctant. + + There was not a single meeting between the French Generals and + ourselves when we did not state facts against the extension, but the + pressure from the French Government and French Army was enormous, + and what was done was not done in response to pressure from the War + Cabinet. It was done in response to very great pressure which Sir + Douglas Haig could not resist and which we could not resist. We are + not suggesting that our French allies are asking unfairly. That is + certainly not my intention. + + There was a considerable ferment in France on the subject of the + length of the line held by the French Army as compared with our + army. The French losses had been enormous. They had practically + borne the brunt of the fighting for three years. There was a larger + proportion of their young manhood put into the line than in any + belligerent country in the world. They held 336 miles. We held a + front of 100 miles. + + That is not the whole statement, because the Germans were much more + densely massed in front of ourselves. Not only that, but the line we + held was much more vulnerable. Practically the defense of Paris was + left to us, and the defense of some of the most important centres, + but there was the fact that you had this enormous front held by the + French Army, as compared with what looked like the comparatively + small front of ours. + + + Shortage of Farm Labor + + In addition to that, the French Army at that time was holding, I + think, a two-division front on our line in order to enable us to + accumulate the necessary reserves for the purposes of the attack in + Flanders. That was part of the line which, I believe, was held + before by the British and French. + + The French were pressing in order to withdraw men from the army for + purposes of agriculture. I ought to explain that their agricultural + output had fallen enormously, owing to the fact that they had + withdrawn a very large proportion of their men from the cultivation + of the fields, and they felt it essential that they should withdraw + part of their army for the purpose of cultivating the soil, and they + were pressing us upon these topics. + + The Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Sir William Robertson, and + the Cabinet felt that it was inevitable that during the Winter + months there should be some extension, and we acknowledged that + something had to be done to meet the French demands, and to that + extent we accepted the principle that there must be some extension + of the line. + + At that time the Field Marshal was under the impression that the + Cabinet had taken a decision without his consent. The Chief of the + Imperial Staff upon that sent the following memorandum to the War + Cabinet. I will read it, but first, with reference to the Boulogne + Conference, I may, perhaps, say that that was the first time we had + a discussion with the French Ministers. The subject of discussion + was a rather important foreign office. It was not summoned in the + least to discuss an extension of the lines. We never knew that was + to be raised. Sir William Robertson and I represented the British + Government, and M. Painlevé, the Prime Minister, and General Foch + represented the French Government. + + When Sir William Robertson discovered that the Field Marshal was + under the impression that we had come to a decision without his + consent he sent the War Cabinet a memorandum, in which he says: + + "At the recent Boulogne Conference the question of extending our + front was raised by the French representatives. The reply given was + that, while in principle we were, of course, ready to do whatever + could be done, the matter was one which could not be discussed in + the absence of Sir Douglas Haig, or during the continuance of the + present operations, and that due regard must also be had to the plan + of operations for next year. + + "It was suggested that it would be best for the Field Marshal to + come to an arrangement with General Pétain, when this could be done. + So far as I am aware no formal discussion has taken place, and the + matter cannot be regarded as decided. Further, I feel sure that the + War Cabinet would not think of deciding such a question without + first obtaining Sir Douglas Haig's views. I am replying to him in + the above sense." + + That, I think, was on the 19th of October. The War Cabinet fully + approved of the communication. Sir Douglas Haig communicated, and + said that it threw a new light on the Boulogne position. I think + that we have a right to complain of the way in which it has been + rumored about that Sir Douglas Haig protested. + + + The War Cabinet's Decision + + The fact that Sir William Robertson had explained and Sir Douglas + Haig had stated that the explanation threw new light has never been + repeated. That is how mischief is done. + + On Oct. 24 this question was first formally discussed by the War + Cabinet. There was further pressure from the French Government, and + Sir William Robertson gave his views as to the time which the + British Government ought to take, and this conclusion is recorded in + the minutes of the War Cabinet as follows: + + "The War Cabinet approve of the suggestion of the Chief of the + Imperial Staff that he should reply to Field Marshal Sir Douglas + Haig in the following sense: The War Cabinet are of the opinion that + in deciding to what extent the British troops can take over the line + from the French regard must be had to the necessity of giving them a + reasonable opportunity for leave, rest, and training during the + Winter months and to the plan of operations for the next year, and, + further, while the present offensive continues it will not be + possible to commence taking over more line. + + "Under these circumstances the War Cabinet fear that until this + policy is settled it will be premature to decide finally whether the + British front is to be extended by four divisions or to greater or + lesser extent." + + The resolution was communicated to Sir Douglas Haig by Sir William + Robertson, and we never departed from it. After that came the + Cambrai incident and the Italian disaster, which necessitated our + sending troops to Italy. That made it difficult for the Field + Marshal to carry out the promise he made to General Pétain for a + certain extension of the front. Then the present French Prime + Minister came in, and he is not a very easy gentleman to refuse. He + was very insistent that the British Army should take over the line. + + + Clemenceau Suggested Versailles + + We stood by the position that that was a matter to be discussed by + the two Commanders in Chief. We never swerved from that position. At + last M. Clemenceau suggested that the question should be discussed + by the military representatives at Versailles, and that the + Versailles Council should decide if there was any difference of + opinion. The military representatives discussed the question, and + the only interference of the War Cabinet was to this extent. We + communicated with the Chief of Staff, who was then in France, and + with Sir Douglas Haig to urge on them the importance of preparing + their case for the other side so as to make the strongest possible + case for the British view. + + The military representatives at Versailles suggested a compromise, + but coupled with it recommendations as to steps which ought to be + taken by the French Army to assist the British if they were + attacked, and by the British to assist the French if they were + attacked, which was even a more important question than the + extension of the front. + + That recommendation came up for discussion at the Versailles Council + of Feb. 1. Before that meeting Sir Douglas Haig and General Pétain + met and entered into an agreement as to the extension of the front + to Brissy, and Sir Douglas Haig reported that to the Versailles + Council. When the discussion took place there no further extension + of the line was taken at all as a result of the discussion. + + That is the whole story. I was to make it perfectly clear that in + the action Sir Douglas Haig took for the extension of the line he + had the full approval of the British Cabinet, having regard to the + pressure of the French Government and military authorities. Sir + Douglas Haig had no option except to make the extension. He was in + our judgment absolutely right in the course he took. Naturally, he + would have preferred not to have done it, but the British Government + fully approved of the action he took. + + The real lesson of the discussion is the importance of unity of + command. It would never have arisen if you had had that. Instead of + one army and one commander responsible for one part of the line, and + another army and another commander responsible for another part of + the line, we have one united command responsible for the whole and + every part. It was the only method of safety, and I am glad we have + it at last. + + It was not so much a question of the length of the line held by one + force or the length held by another. It was a question of reserves + massed behind. + +The Premier ended with a plea for a truce to political "sniping." On May +13 it was announced that as a disciplinary measure General Maurice had +been placed on "the retired list." + +[Illustration] + + + + +The New British Service Act + +Provisions of Law Which Raises Military Age + + +The new British Military Service act became effective in April, 1918, +having passed both houses of Parliament by large majorities; it +immediately received the royal assent. The provision applying +conscription to Ireland was suspended temporarily, on the assumption +that it would not be enforced until a measure of home rule for Ireland +was agreed upon. The main provisions of the new service measure are as +follows, as analyzed by The London Times: + + RAISING OF MILITARY AGE + + Men Up to 50.--Obligation to military service imposed upon every + male British subject: + + 1. Who has at any time since Aug. 14, 1915, or who for the time + being is in Great Britain, and + + 2. Who on April 18, 1918, had attained the age of 18 years and had + not attained the age of 51 years or who at any subsequent date + attains the age of 18 years. + + Men Up to 55.--If it appears necessary at any time for the defense + of the realm, his Majesty may, by Order in Council, declare the + extension of the obligation to military service to men generally or + to any class of men up to any age not exceeding 56 years. The draft + of any such order is to be presented to each house of Parliament, + and will not be submitted to his Majesty in Council unless each + house presents an address, praying that the order may be made. + + Doctors.--Duly qualified medical practitioners, who have not + attained the age of 56 years, are made immediately liable to + military service. + + + FORMER PRISONERS OF WAR + + The clause in the act of May, 1916, excepting from military service + any person who has been "a prisoner of war, captured or interned by + the enemy, and has been released or exchanged," is to cease to have + effect. It is, however, provided that the change shall be without + prejudice to any undertaking, recognized by the Government, and for + the time being in force, that any released or exchanged prisoner of + war shall not serve in his Majesty's forces during the present war. + + + TIME-EXPIRED MEN + + The act of May, 1916, provided that the service should not be + prolonged of men who, when their times for discharge occurred, had + served a period of twelve years or more and had attained the age of + 41 years. This section is to cease to have effect. + + + EXTENSION TO IRELAND + + Method of Procedure.--His Majesty may, by Order in Council, extend + the act to Ireland, with the necessary modifications and + adaptations. + + Legal Proceedings.--An Order in Council may be issued to make + special provision for the constitution of the civil court before + which proceedings for any offenses punishable on summary conviction + under the Reserve Forces act, the Army act, and the Military Service + acts are to be brought in Ireland. The order may also assign any + such proceedings to a specified civil court or courts. + + + WITHDRAWAL OF EXEMPTIONS + + His Majesty may, by proclamation declaring that a national emergency + has arisen, direct that any certificates of exemption other than + those granted on the grounds of ill-health or of conscientious + objection shall cease to have effect. + + + THE TRIBUNALS + + The Local Government Board or the Secretary for Scotland may make + regulations for the following purposes: + + 1. For providing for applications for certificates of exemption, + including appeals, being made to such tribunals, constituted in such + manner and for such areas as may be authorized. + + 2. For establishing special tribunals, committees, or panels for + dealing with particular classes of cases. + + 3. For regulating and limiting the making of applications. + + 4. For making other provision to secure the expeditious making and + disposal of applications. + + It is provided that such regulations shall not alter the four + grounds for applications for certificates of exemption--the + expediency, in the national interests, that a man should be engaged + in other work, business or domestic reasons, ill-health, and + conscientious objection. + + + PENALTIES + + Any person making a false statement with a view to preventing or + postponing the calling up of himself or any other person, or for any + medical examination, is to be liable to six months' imprisonment. + + It is to be the duty of any man whose certificate has been + withdrawn, or who no longer satisfies the conditions on which it was + granted, to transmit it forthwith to the local office of the + Ministry of National Service. If he fails without reasonable cause + to do so, he will be liable to a fine of £50. + + + MEDICAL EXAMINATION + + Any man holding a certificate of exemption (other than one from + combatant service only) or applying for its renewal may at any time + be required to present himself for medical examination or + re-examination. + + + VOLUNTEER OBLIGATION + + Every man granted a certificate of exemption is to join the + Volunteer Force for the perid of the war, unless the tribunal + dealing with the case orders to the contrary. + + + CONVENTIONS WITH ALLIED STATES + + The act is to be read with previous acts in relation to the act of + 1917, which confirmed conventions with allied States making subjects + of those States in this country liable for military service. That + act is also to apply to Ireland, if the act is extended to Ireland. + + + EXCEPTIONS + + The exceptions from the act are the following: + + 1. Men ordinarily resident in the Dominions. + + 2. Members of the regular or reserve forces or of the Dominion + forces, and territorials liable to foreign service. + + 3. Men serving in the navy, the Royal Marines, or the air force. + + 4. Certain categories of officers and men who have left or been + discharged from the forces in consequence of disablement or + ill-health; and men medically rejected, if, on further medical + examination after April 5, 1917, they have been certified to be + totally and permanently unfit for any form of military service. + + 5. Men in holy orders or regular ministers of any religious + denomination. + + + + +British Aid to Italy + +General Plumer's Dispatch + + +The report was published May 10, 1918, that 250,000 Italian troops had +been concentrated in France to swell the reserves of the allied armies +against the German offensive, and that this had been accomplished +without weakening the Italian front, which was preparing for a +threatened Austrian attack. No statement was made regarding the British +troops that had gone to Italy's aid during the disaster to the Italian +armies in 1917. + +General Sir Herbert Plumer, who took over the command of the British +troops in Italy after their arrival there, Nov. 10, 1917, submitted his +official report March 9, 1918. He stated that he found on his arrival +that the situation in Italy was disquieting, the Italian Army having +received a severe blow, and the aid that the British and French might +give could not be immediate owing to difficulties of transport. As it +was then uncertain whether the Italians could hold the Piave line, it +was arranged that two British divisions in conjunction with the French +should move to the hills north and south of Vicenza. By the time the +troops had reached this position the situation had improved and an offer +was made by the British in conjunction with the French to take over a +sector of the foothills of the Asiago Plateau. But as snow was imminent +and special mountain equipment was difficult to provide, the suggestion +was made by the Italians that the British should take over the Montsello +sector, with the French on their left. This was agreed to. + +Sir Herbert considers that the entrance of the French and British had an +excellent moral effect and enabled the Italians to withdraw and +reorganize. The Montsello sector, which was taken over on Dec. 4 and +work immediately begun on its defense, is described by Sir Herbert as a +hinge to the whole Italian line, joining the mountain portion facing +north, from Mount Tomba to Lake Garda, to the Piave line held by the 3d +Italian Army. + +December was an anxious month. Several German divisions were east of the +Piave, and an attempt to force the river and capture Venice was +considered likely. Local attacks grew more and more severe, and, though +the progress of the enemy was not great and Italian counterattacks were +constantly made, the danger of a break-through increased. The Austrians +were being encouraged to persevere in the hope of getting down to +the plains for the Winter. + +Rear lines of defense were constructed, and as time passed and the +preparations were well forward the feeling of security grew, and was +further increased by the recapture by the Italians of the slopes of +Monte Asolone on Dec. 22. The following day Mount Melago and Col del +Rosso, on the Asiago Plateau, were lost, but the Italians regained the +former by a counterattack. Though Christmas Day found the situation +still serious, especially on the Asiago, where the Italians, while +fighting stubbornly, suffered from strain and cold, the situation showed +signs of improvement. This outlook was brightened still further by the +capture of Mount Tomba, with 1,500 prisoners, by the French. In this +action British artillery assisted. + +"During all this period," the dispatch continues, "we had carried out +continuous patrol work across the River Piave and much successful +counterbattery work. The Piave is a very serious obstacle, especially at +this season of the year, the breadth opposite the British front being +considerably over 1,000 yards, and the current 14 knots. Every form of +raft and boat has been used, but wading has proved the most successful, +though the icy cold water made the difficulties even greater. In spite +of this there has never been any lack of volunteers for these +enterprises. + +"On Jan. 1 our biggest raid was carried out by the Middlesex Regiment. +This was a most difficult and well-planned operation, which had for its +objective the capture and surrounding of several buildings held by the +enemy to a depth of 2,000 yards inland, provided a surprise could be +effected. Two hundred and fifty men were passed across by wading and +some prisoners were captured, but, unfortunately, the alarm was given by +a party of fifty of the enemy that was encountered in an advanced post, +and the progress inland had therefore, in accordance with orders, to be +curtailed. The recrossing of the river was successfully effected, and +our casualties were very few. An operation of this nature requires much +forethought and arrangement, even to wrapping every man in hot blankets +immediately on emerging from the icy water. + +"The 3d Italian Army also opened the year well by clearing the Austrians +from the west bank of the Piave about Zenson. This was followed on Jan. +14 by the attack of the 4th Italian Army on Mount Asolone, which, +although not entirely successful, resulted in capturing over 400 +Austrian prisoners. The situation had by this time so far improved that +I offered to take over another sector of defense on my right in order to +assist the Italians. This was agreed to, and was completed by Jan. 28. +On this day and the following the 1st Italian Army carried out +successful operations on the Col del Rosso--Mont Val Bella front, on the +Asiago Plateau. The infantry attacked with great spirit, and captured +2,500 Austrians. British artillery took part in the above operation." + +General Plumer states that in February the weather was bad, much snow +having fallen, and operations were hampered. Although the British had +not taken part in serious fighting, yet they had some share in the +improvement which, he says, had taken place. + +The work of the R. F. C., under Brig. Gen. Webb-Bowen, during the period +under review (says Sir Herbert) has been quite brilliant. From the +moment of arrival they made their presence felt, and very soon overcame +the difficulties of the mountains. They have taken part in all +operations, and rendered much assistance to the Italians in the air. +They have carried out a large number of successful raids on enemy +aerodromes, railway junctions, &c., and have during the period destroyed +sixty-four hostile machines, a large proportion of which were German, +and nine balloons, our losses to the enemy during the period being +twelve machines and three balloons. + +A comparison of the photographs of hostile battery positions when our +artillery entered the line with the positions now occupied shows that +the enemy batteries have been successfully forced back almost throughout +the whole front. Some British artillery assisted both in French and +Italian operations, and a frequent interchange of British and Italian +batteries was made, together with counterbattery staff officers, in +order that experience of each other's methods might be gained. Every +effort was made to illustrate the value of counterbattery work, the +value of which we had learned by experience in France, but which the +Italians had not hitherto fully appreciated. + +"The Italians were only too anxious to profit by any experience we could +give them, and this was done not only by frequent interchange of visits +of commanders and staffs to the various sectors of defense, but by the +establishment of schools of instruction, at which a large number of +Italian officers actually underwent the courses. About 100 Italian +officers attended the courses at the various schools, together with some +French officers. Similarly, British officers underwent courses at French +and Italian schools." + +Sir Herbert thanks the Italian authorities for their assistance, +especially General Diaz, Chief of the Staff, and expresses indebtedness +to Generals Fayolle and Maistre, in command of the French troops. + + + + +Emperor Charles's "Dear Sixtus" Letter + +French Supplemental Statement Corroborates Its Authenticity + + +The publication of the letter of Emperor Charles of Austria to his +brother-in-law, Prince Sixtus, in which he sought a separate peace with +France, referring to the "just claims" of France to Alsace-Lorraine, and +which caused the downfall of Count Czernin, the Austrian Foreign +Secretary, was followed by this official denial by the Austrian +Government: + + The letter by his Apostolic Majesty, published by the French Premier + in his communiqué of April 12, 1918, is falsified, (verfaelscht.) + First of all, it may be declared that the personality of far higher + rank than the Foreign Minister, who, as admitted in the official + statement of April 7, undertook peace efforts in the Spring of 1917, + must be understood to be not his Apostolic Majesty but Prince Sixte + of Bourbon, who in the Spring of 1917 was occupied with bringing + about a rapprochement between the belligerent States. As regards the + text of the letter published by M. Clemenceau, the Foreign Minister + declares by All Highest command that his Apostolic Majesty wrote a + purely personal private letter in the Spring of 1917 to his + brother-in-law, Prince Sixte of Bourbon, which contained no + instructions to the Prince to initiate mediation with the President + of the French Republic or any one else, to hand on communications + which might be made to him, or to evoke and receive replies. This + letter, moreover, made no mention of the Belgian question, and + contained, relative to Alsace-Lorraine, the following-passage: "I + would have used all my personal influence in favor of the French + claims for the return of Alsace-Lorraine, if these claims were just. + They are not, however." The second letter of the Emperor mentioned + in the French Premier's communique of April 9, in which his + Apostolic Majesty is said to have declared that he was "in accord + with his Minister," is significantly not mentioned by the French + communiqué. + +This statement drew forth from the French Government the following +reply: + + There are rotten consciences. The Emperor Charles, finding it + impossible to save his face, falls into the stammerings of a man + confounded. He is now reduced to accusing his brother-in-law of + forgery, by fabricating with his own hand a lying text. The original + document, the text of which has been published by the French + Government, was communicated in the presence of M. Jules Cambon, + Secretary General of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and delegated + for this purpose by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, to the + President of the Republic, who, with the authorization of the + Prince, handed a copy of it to the President of the Council. + + The Prince spoke of the matter to M. Ribot himself in terms which + would have been devoid of sense if the text had not been that + published by the French Government, is it not evidence that no + conversation could have been opened, and that the President of the + Republic would not even have received the Prince a second time, if + the latter, at Austria's instance, had been the bearer of a document + which contested our rights instead of affirming them? + + The Emperor Charles's letter, as we have quoted it, was shown by + Prince Sixte himself to the Chief of State. Moreover, two friends of + the Prince can attest the authenticity of the letter, especially the + one who received it from the Prince to copy it. + +The Serbian Government, moreover, gave the lie direct to Count Czernin's +statement in reference to offering peace to Serbia. Premier Pashitch was +asked in the Skupshtina at Corfu by Deputy Marco Trifcovitch whether +Count Czernin's statement was true. He replied that he had denied Count +Czernin's statements as soon as he had received the text of the speech +from Amsterdam, and that he welcomed this fresh opportunity of declaring +before Parliament that, so far as Serbia was concerned, the statements +were totally inaccurate. (Exclamations from the right, "Czernin lied!") +The Premier then proceeded to say that Count Czernin had never made +peace overtures to Serbia, and that, if he had, such proposals would not +have been accepted. "All the statements of Count Czernin," continued M. +Pashitch, "are only the result of Austro-Hungarian intrigues." + +Premier Clemenceau explained in detail before three committees of the +French Chamber, the Committees on Foreign Affairs, the Army, and the +Navy, which represented practically one-fourth of the total membership, +the circumstances connected with the letters; it was unanimously agreed +that there was nothing in the situation to justify any further +consideration than had been given them. The Paris Temps gave the +following details concerning their receipt: + + The Emperor's two letters, and the conversations arising out of + them, will form an essential part of the proceedings before the + committees today. The letter from the Emperor to Prince Sixte of + Bourbon-Parma was communicated to M. Poincaré on March 31 last year, + but it remained in the possession of the Prince, who gave a copy of + it to M. Ribot, by whom it was placed in the archives of the French + Foreign Office. "Let us add," says the Temps, "that in the course + of the interview which he had with Lloyd George at Folkestone a few + days after the copy of the letter came into his possession that M. + Ribot handed a copy of this copy to the British Premier. A little + later in the interview which took place at St. Jean de Maurienne, in + Savoy, between the chiefs of the British, French, and Italian + Cabinets the question was raised as to what should be done in case + the Austro-Hungarian Cabinet took steps toward peace negotiations. + An agreement was come to without difficulty between the Allies as to + the line of conduct to be adopted in such an eventuality. Let us add + that this first letter sent to Prince Sixte had determined the + Allies to ask for further explanations, as the result of which + Prince Sixte received from his imperial brother-in-law a second + letter, which was also communicated to M. Poincaré and M. Ribot. We + have no right to give any indication on this subject, but we believe + we can state that this second letter was regarded unanimously by the + Allies as of such a nature that it would not permit them to pursue + the conversations further." + +Kaiser Wilhelm in the following telegram accepted without reserve +Emperor Charles's statement that the Sixtus letter had been distorted: + + Accept my heartiest thanks for your telegram, in which you repudiate + as entirely baseless the assertion of the French Premier regarding + your attitude toward French claims to Alsace-Lorraine, and in which + you once again accentuate the solidarity of interest existing + between us and our respective empires. I hasten to inform you that + in my eyes there was no need whatever for any such assurance on your + part, for I was not for a moment in doubt that you have made our + cause your own, in the same measure as we stand for the rights of + your monarchy. The heavy but successful battles of these years have + clearly demonstrated this fact to every one who wants to see. They + have only drawn the bonds close together. Our enemies, who are + unable to do anything against us in honorable warfare, do not recoil + from the most sordid and the lowest methods. We must, therefore, put + up with it, but all the more is it our duty ruthlessly to grapple + with and beat the enemy in all the theatres of war. In true + friendship, WILHELM. + +As a sequel to the matter it was reported from Vienna that the mother of +Empress Zita and Prince Sixtus had been compelled to leave Vienna and +live in retirement at her estates, remote from the Austrian capital. + + + + +THE ISSUES IN IRELAND + +Official Report of the Irish Convention--Full Text of the Chairman's +Summary of the Proceedings + + +The Irish home-rule question, in consequence of the failure of the Irish +Convention to agree, became an important war issue in the Spring of 1918 +on account of its effect upon Great Britain's man-power measures. + +Premier Lloyd George, on May 21, 1917, announced the Government's +decision to summon a convention of Irishmen representing all parties and +interests to endeavor to reach an agreement on the home-rule question. +The Sinn Feiners refused to send representatives, but all other factions +were represented in the convention, which met July 25, 1917, at Dublin +and elected Sir Horace Plunkett Chairman. The report of its +recommendations was made public April 13, 1918, in three separate +documents--the proposals for a scheme of Irish self-government, adopted +by vote of 44 to 29 in a total membership of 90; a protest by the Ulster +Unionist delegates, who dissented from any agreement, and the report of +22 Nationalist delegates, who were unable to agree to the fiscal +proposals. The majority proposals were accepted by practically all the +Nationalists, all the Southern Unionists, and 5 out of 7 of the Labor +representatives. + +The summary of the proceedings, presented by Sir Horace Plunkett, and +the scheme of government as agreed upon by the majority, are of +importance historically for a comparison with subsequent measures of +home rule, which the British Government announces it intends to +introduce before putting into force conscription in Ireland. + + +THE CHAIRMAN'S SUMMARY + +Sir Horace Plunkett's letter reads: + + Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith the report of the + proceedings of the Irish Convention. For the immediate object of the + Government the report tells all that needs to be told: + + It shows that in the convention, while it was not found possible to + overcome the objections of the Ulster Unionists, a majority of + Nationalists, all the Southern Unionists, and five out of the seven + Labor representatives were agreed that the scheme of Irish + self-government set out in Paragraph 42 of the report should be + immediately passed into law. A minority of Nationalists propose a + scheme which differs in only one important particular from that of + the majority. The convention has, therefore, laid a foundation of + Irish agreement unprecedented in history. + + I recognize that action in Parliament upon the result of our + deliberations must largely depend upon public opinion. Without a + knowledge of the circumstances which, at the termination of our + proceedings, compelled us to adopt an unusual method of presenting + the results of our deliberations, the public might be misled as to + what has actually been achieved. It is, therefore, necessary to + explain our procedure. + + + Adopting the Report + + We had every reason to believe that the Government contemplated + immediate legislation upon the results of our labors. The work of an + Irish settlement, suspended at the outbreak of the war, is now felt + to admit of no further postponement. In the dominions and in the + United States, as well as in other allied countries, the unsettled + Irish question is a disturbing factor both in regard to war effort + and peace aims. Nevertheless, urgent as our task was, we could not + complete it until every possibility of agreement had been explored. + The moment this point was reached--and you will not be surprised + that it took us eight months to reach it--we decided to issue our + report with the least possible delay. To do this we had to avoid + further controversy and protracted debate. I was, therefore, on + March 22, instructed to draft a report which should be a mere + narrative of the convention's proceedings, with a statement, for the + information of the Government, of the conclusions adopted, whether + unanimously or by majorities. + + It was hoped that this report might be unanimously signed; and it + was understood that any groups or individuals would be free to + append to it such statements as they deemed necessary to give + expression to their views. The draft report was circulated on March + 30, and discussed and amended on April 4 and 5. The accuracy of the + narrative was not challenged, though there was considerable + difference of opinion as to the relative prominence which should be + given to some parts of the proceedings. As time pressed, it was + decided not to have any discussion upon a majority report, nor upon + any minority reports or other statements which might be submitted. + The draft report was adopted by a majority, and the Chairman and + Secretary were ordered to sign it and forward it to the Government. + A limit of twenty-four hours was, by agreement, put upon the + reception of any other reports or statements, and in the afternoon + of April 5 the convention adjourned sine die. + + The public is thus provided with no majority report, in the sense of + a reasoned statement in favor of the conclusions upon which the + majority are agreed, but is left to gather from the narrative of + proceedings what the contents of such a report would have been. On + the other hand, both the Ulster Unionists and a minority of the + Nationalists have presented minority reports covering the whole + field of the convention's inquiry. The result of this procedure is + to minimize the agreement reached, and to emphasize the + disagreement. In these circumstances I conceive it to be my duty as + Chairman to submit such explanatory observations as are required to + enable the reader of the report and the accompanying documents to + gain a clear idea of the real effect and significance of the + convention's achievement. + + I may assume a knowledge of the broad facts of the Irish question. + It will be agreed that of recent years the greatest obstacle to its + settlement has been the Ulster difficulty. There seemed to be two + possible issues to our deliberations. If a scheme of Irish + self-government could be framed to which the Ulster Unionists would + give their adherence, then the convention might produce a unanimous + report. Failing such a consummation, we might secure agreement, + either complete or substantial, between the Nationalist, the + Southern Unionist, and the Labor representatives. Many entertained + the hope that the effect of such a striking and wholly new + development would be to induce Ulster to reconsider its position. + + + Ulster Issue Unsolved + + Perhaps unanimity was too much to expect. Be this as it may, neither + time nor effort was spared in striving for that goal, and there were + moments when its attainment seemed possible. There was, however, a + portion of Ulster where a majority claimed that, if Ireland had the + right to separate herself from the rest of the United Kingdom, they + had the same right to separation from the rest of Ireland. But the + time had gone by when any other section of the Irish people would + accept the partition of their country, even as a temporary + expedient. Hence, the Ulster Unionist members in the convention + remained there only in the hope that some form of home rule would be + proposed which might modify the determination of those they + represented to have neither part nor lot in an Irish Parliament. The + Nationalists strove to win them by concessions, but they found + themselves unable to accept any of the schemes discussed, and the + only scheme of Irish government they presented to the convention was + confined to the exclusion of their entire province. + + Long before the hope of complete unanimity had passed, the majority + of the convention were considering the possibilities of agreement + between the Nationalists and the Southern Unionists. Lord Midleton + was the first to make a concrete proposal to this end. The report + shows that in November he outlined to the Grand Committee and in + December brought before the convention what looked like a workable + compromise. It accepted self-government for Ireland. In return for + special minority representation in the Irish Parliament, already + conceded by the Nationalists, it offered to that Parliament complete + power over internal legislation and administration, and, in matters + of finance, over direct taxation and excise. But, although they + agreed that the customs revenue should be paid in to the Irish + Exchequer, the Southern Unionists insisted upon the permanent + reservation to the Imperial Parliament of the power to fix the rates + of customs duties. By far the greater part of our time and attention + was occupied by this one question, whether the imposition of customs + duties should or should not be under the control of the Irish + Parliament. The difficulties of the Irish Convention may be summed + up in two words--Ulster and Customs. + + + Customs and Excise Problem + + The Ulster difficulty the whole world knows; but how the customs + question came to be one of vital principle, upon the decision of + which depended the amount of agreement that could be reached in the + convention, needs to be told. The tendency of recent political + thought among constitutional Nationalists has been toward a form of + government resembling as closely as possible that of the dominions, + and, since the geographical position of Ireland imposes obvious + restrictions in respect of naval and military affairs, the claim for + dominion home rule was concentrated upon a demand for unrestricted + fiscal powers. Without separate customs and excise Ireland would, + according to this view, fail to attain a national status like that + enjoyed by the dominions. + + Upon this issue the Nationalists made a strong case, and were able + to prove that a considerable number of leading commercial men had + come to favor fiscal autonomy as part of an Irish settlement. In the + present state of public opinion in Ireland it was feared that + without customs no scheme the convention recommended would receive a + sufficient measure of popular support to secure legislation. To + obviate any serious disturbance of the trade of the United Kingdom + the Nationalists were prepared to agree to a free-trade arrangement + between the two countries. But this did not overcome the + difficulties of the Southern Unionists, who on this point agreed + with the Ulster Unionists. They were apprehensive that a separate + system of customs control, however guarded, might impair the + authority of the United Kingdom over its external trade policy. + Neither could they consent to any settlement which was, in their + judgment, incompatible with Ireland's full participation in a scheme + of United Kingdom federation, should that come to pass. + + It was clear that by means of mutual concessions agreement between + the Nationalists and the Southern Unionists could be reached on all + other points. On this important point, however, a section of the + Nationalists, who have embodied their views in a separate report, + held that no compromise was possible. On the other hand, a majority + of the Nationalists and the whole body of Southern Unionists felt + that nothing effective could result from their work in the + convention unless some understanding was reached upon customs which + would render an agreement on a complete scheme attainable. Neither + side was willing to surrender the principle; but both sides were + willing, in order that a Parliament should be at once established, + to postpone a legislative decision upon the ultimate control of + customs and excise. At the same time each party has put on record, + in separate notes subjoined to the report, its claim respecting the + final settlement of this question. A decision having been reached + upon the cardinal issue, the majority of the convention carried a + series of resolutions which together form a complete scheme of + self-government. + + + Parliament for All Ireland + + This scheme provides for the establishment of a Parliament for the + whole of Ireland, with an Executive responsible to it, and with full + powers over all internal legislation, administration, and direct + taxation. Pending a decision of the fiscal question, it is provided + that the imposition of duties of customs and excise shall remain + with the Imperial Parliament, but that the whole of the proceeds of + these taxes shall be paid into the Irish Exchequer. A joint + Exchequer Board is to be set up to determine the Irish true revenue, + and Ireland is to be represented upon the Board of Customs and + Excise of the United Kingdom. + + The principle of representation in the Imperial Parliament was + insisted upon from the first by the Southern Unionists, and the + Nationalists conceded it. It was felt, however, that there were + strong reasons for providing that the Irish representatives at + Westminster should be elected by the Irish Parliament rather than + directly by the constituencies, and this was the arrangement + adopted. + + It was accepted in principle that there should be an Irish + contribution to the cost of imperial services, but owing to lack of + data it was not found possible in the convention to fix any definite + sum. + + It was agreed that the Irish Parliament should consist of two + houses--a Senate of sixty-four members and a House of Commons of + 200. The principle underlying the composition of the Senate is the + representation of interests. This is effected by giving + representation to commerce, industry, and labor, the County + Councils, the Churches, learned institutions, and the peerage. In + constituting the House of Commons the Nationalists offered to + guarantee 40 per cent. of its membership to the Unionists. It was + agreed that, in the south, adequate representation for Unionists + could only be secured by nomination; but, as the Ulster + representatives had informed the convention that those for whom they + spoke could not accept the principle of nomination, provision was + made in the scheme for an extra representation of Ulster by direct + election. + + The majority of the Labor representatives associated themselves with + the Nationalists and Southern Unionists in building up the + Constitution, with the provisions of which they found themselves in + general agreement. They frankly objected, however, to the principle + of nomination and to what they regarded as the inadequate + representation of Labor in the upper house. Throughout our + proceedings they helped in every way toward the attainment of + agreement. Nor did they press their own special claims in such a + manner as to make more difficult the work, already difficult enough, + of agreeing upon a Constitution. + + + Knottiest Question in History + + I trust I have said enough to enable the reader of this report and + the accompanying documents to form an accurate judgment upon the + nature and difficulties of the task before the convention and upon + its actual achievement. While, technically, it was our function to + draft a Constitution for our country, it would be more correct to + say that we had to find a way out of the most complex and anomalous + political situation to be found in history--I might almost say in + fiction. We are living under a system of government which survives + only because the act abolishing it cannot, consistently with + Ministerial pledges, be put into operation without further + legislation no less difficult and controversial than that which it + has to amend. While the responsibility for a solution to our problem + rests primarily with the Government, the convention found itself in + full accord with your insistence that the most hopeful path to a + settlement was to be found in Irish agreement. In seeking this--in + attempting to find a compromise which Ireland might accept and + Parliament pass into law--it has been recognized that the full + program of no party could be adopted. The convention was also bound + to give due weight to your opinion that to press for a settlement + at Westminster, during the war, of the question which, as I have + shown, had been a formidable obstacle to agreement would be to + imperil the prospect of the early establishment of self-government + in Ireland. + + Notwithstanding the difficulties with which we were surrounded, a + larger measure of agreement has been reached upon the principle and + details of Irish self-government than has yet been attained. Is it + too much to hope that the scheme embodying this agreement will + forthwith be brought to fruition by those to whose call the Irish + Convention has now responded? I have the honor to be, Sir, your + obedient servant, + + HORACE PLUNKETT. + April 8, 1918. + + +THE MAJORITY REPORT + +The proposed scheme of Irish self-government referred to in Sir Horace +Plunkett's letter is set out below, the majorities by which each section +or subsection was carried being indicated in parentheses: + + THE IRISH PARLIAMENT. (51 votes to 18.) + + (1) The Irish Parliament to consist of the King, an Irish Senate, + and an Irish House of Commons. + + (2) Notwithstanding the establishment of the Irish Parliament or + anything contained in the Government of Ireland act, the supreme + power and authority of the Parliament of the United Kingdom shall + remain unaffected and undiminished over all persons, matters, and + things in Ireland and every part thereof. + + POWERS OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENT. The Irish Parliament to have the + general power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government + of Ireland, subject to the exclusions and restrictions specified in + 3 and 4 below. (51 to 19.) + + EXCLUSIONS FROM POWER OF IRISH PARLIAMENT. (49 to 16.) The Irish + Parliament to have no power to make laws on the following matters: + + (1) Crown and succession. + + (2) Making of peace and war, (including conduct as neutrals.) + + (3) The army and navy. + + (4) Treaties and foreign relations, (including extradition.) + + (5) Dignities and titles of honor. + + (6) Any necessary control of harbors for naval and military + purposes, and certain powers as regards lighthouses, buoys, beacons, + cables, wireless terminals, to be settled with reference to the + requirements of the military and naval forces of his Majesty in + various contingencies. (41 to 13.) + + (7) Coinage; legal tender; or any change in the standard of weights + and measures. + + (8) Copyright or patent rights. + + TEMPORARY AND PARTIAL RESERVATION. The Imperial and Irish + Governments shall jointly arrange, subject to imperial exigencies, + for the unified control of the Irish police and postal services + during the war, provided that as soon as possible after the + cessation of hostilities the administration of these two services + shall become automatically subject to the Irish Parliament. (37 to + 21.) + + RESTRICTION ON POWER OF IRISH PARLIAMENT ON MATTERS WITHIN ITS + COMPETENCE. (46 to 15.) + + (1) Prohibition of laws interfering with religious equality. N. + B.--A subsection should be framed to annul any existing legal + penalty, disadvantage, or disability on account of religious belief. + Certain restrictions still remain under the act of 1829. + + (2) Special provision protecting the position of Freemasons. + + (3) Safeguard for Trinity College and Queen's University similar to + Section 42 of act. + + (4) Money bills to be founded only on Vice-regal message. + + (5) Privileges, qualifications, &c., of members of Irish Parliament + to be limited as in act. + + (6) Rights of existing Irish officers to be safeguarded. + + CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. Section 9 (4) of the act of 1914 to apply + to the House of Commons with the substitution of "ten years" for + "three years." The constitution of the Senate to be subject to + alteration after ten years, provided the bill is agreed to by + two-thirds of the total number of members of both houses sitting + together. (46 to 15.) + + EXECUTIVE AUTHORITY. The executive power in Ireland to continue + vested in the King, but exercisable through the Lord Lieutenant on + the advice of an Irish Executive Committee in the manner set out in + act. (45 to 15.) + + DISSOLUTION OF IRISH PARLIAMENT. The Irish Parliament to be + summoned, prorogued, and dissolved as set out in act. (45 to 15.) + + ASSENT TO BILLS. Royal assent to be given or withheld as set out in + act with the substitution of "reservation" for "postponement." (45 + to 15.) + + CONSTITUTION OF THE SENATE. (48 votes to 19.) Lord Chancellor, 1; + four Archbishops or Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church, 4; two + Archbishops or Bishops of the Church of Ireland, 2; a representative + of the General Assembly, 1; the Lord Mayors of Dublin, Belfast, and + Cork, 3; peers resident in Ireland, elected by peers resident in + Ireland, 15; nominated by Lord Lieutenant--Irish Privy Councilors of + at least two years' standing 4, representatives of learned + institutions 3, other persons 4; representatives of commerce and + industry, 15; representatives of labor, one for each province, 4; + representatives of County Councils, two for each province, 8--64. + + On the disappearance of any nominated element in the House of + Commons an addition shall be made to the numbers of the Senate. + + CONSTITUTION OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. (45 to 20.) + + (1) The ordinary elected members of the House of Commons shall + number 160. + + (2) The University of Dublin, the University of Belfast, and the + National University shall each return two members. The graduates of + each university shall form the constituency. + + (3) Special representation shall be given to urban and industrial + areas by grouping the smaller towns and applying to them a lower + electoral quota than that applicable to the rest of the country. + + (4) The principle of proportional representation, with the single + transferable vote, shall be observed wherever a constituency returns + three or more members. (47 to 22.) + + (5) The convention accept the principle that 40 per cent. of the + membership of the House of Commons shall be guaranteed to Unionists. + In pursuance of this, they suggest that, for a period, there shall + be summoned to the Irish House of Commons twenty members nominated + by the Lord Lieutenant, with a view to the due representation of + interests not otherwise adequately represented in the provinces of + Leinster, Munster, and Connaught, and that twenty additional members + shall be elected by Ulster constituencies, to represent commercial, + industrial, and agricultural interests. + + (6) The Lord Lieutenant's power of nomination shall be exercised + subject to any instructions that may be given by his Majesty the + King. + + (7) The nominated members shall disappear in whole or in part after + fifteen years, and not earlier, notwithstanding anything contained + in Clause 5. + + (8) The extra representation in Ulster not to cease except on an + adverse decision by a three-fourths majority of both houses sitting + together. (27 to 20.) + + (9) The House of Commons shall continue for five years unless + previously dissolved. + + (10) Nominated members shall vacate their seats on a dissolution but + shall be eligible for renomination. Any vacancy among the nominated + members shall be filled by nomination. + + MONEY BILLS. (45 to 22.) + + (1) Money bills to originate only in the House of Commons, and not + to be amended by the Senate. (Act, Section 10.) + + (2) The Senate is, however, to have power to bring about a joint + sitting over money bills in the same session of Parliament. + + (3) The Senate to have power to suggest amendments, which the House + of Commons may accept or reject as it pleases. + + DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN HOUSES. Disagreements between the two houses to + be solved by joint sittings as set out in act, with the proviso that + if the Senate fail to pass a money bill such joint sitting shall be + held in the same session of Parliament. (45 to 22.) + + REPRESENTATION AT WESTMINSTER. + + (1) Representation in Parliament of the United Kingdom to continue. + Irish representatives to have the right of deliberating and voting + on all matters. + + (2) Forty-two Irish representatives shall be elected to the Commons + House of the Parliament of the United Kingdom in the following + manner: + + A panel shall be formed in each of the four provinces of Ireland, + consisting of the members for that province in the Irish House of + Commons, and one other panel shall be formed consisting of members + nominated to the Irish House of Commons. The number of + representatives to be elected to the Commons House of the Imperial + Parliament shall be proportionate to the numbers of each panel and + the election shall be on the principle of proportional + representation. (42 to 24.) + + (3) The Irish representation in the House of Lords shall continue as + at present unless and until that chamber be remodeled, when the + matter shall be reconsidered by the Imperial and Irish Parliaments. + (44 to 22.) + + FINANCE. (51 to 18.) + + (1) An Irish Exchequer and Consolidated Fund to be established and + an Irish Controller and Auditor General to be appointed as set out + in act. + + (2) If necessary, it should be declared that all taxes at present + leviable in Ireland should continue to be levied and collected until + the Irish Parliament otherwise decides. + + (3) The necessary adjustments of revenue as between Great Britain + and Ireland during the transition period should be made. + + FINANCIAL POWERS OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENT. + + (1) The control of customs and excise by an Irish Parliament is to + be postponed for further consideration until after the war, provided + that the question of such control shall be considered and decided by + the Parliament of the United Kingdom within seven years after the + conclusion of peace. For the purpose of deciding in the Parliament + of the United Kingdom the question of the future control of Irish + customs and excise, a number of Irish representatives proportioned + to the population of Ireland shall be called to the Parliament of + the United Kingdom. (38 to 34.) + + (2) On the creation of an Irish Parliament, and until the question + of the ultimate control of the Irish customs and excise services + shall have been decided, the Board of Customs and Excise of the + United Kingdom shall include a person or persons nominated by the + Irish Treasury. (39 to 33.) + + (3) A Joint Exchequer Board, consisting of two members nominated by + the Imperial Treasury, and two members nominated by the Irish + Treasury, with a Chairman appointed by the King, shall be set up to + secure the determination of the true income of Ireland. (39 to 33.) + + (4) Until the question of the ultimate control of the Irish customs + and excise services shall have been decided, the revenue due to + Ireland from customs and excise, as determined by the Joint + Exchequer Board, shall be paid into the Irish Exchequer. (38 to 30.) + + (5) All branches of taxation, other than customs and excise, shall + be under the control of the Irish Parliament. (38 to 30.) + + IMPERIAL CONTRIBUTION. The principle of such a contribution is + approved. (Unanimously.) + + LAND PURCHASE. The convention accept the recommendations of the + Sub-Committee on Land Purchase. (Unanimously.) + + JUDICIAL POWER. (43 to 17.) The following provisions of the + Government of Ireland act to be adopted: + + (_a_) Safeguarding position of existing Irish Judges. + + (_b_) Leaving appointment of future Judges to the Irish Government + and their removal to the Crown on address from both houses of + Parliament. + + (_c_) Transferring appeals from the House of Lords to the Judicial + Committee, strengthened by Irish Judges. + + (_d_) Extending right of appeal to this court. + + (_e_) Provision as to reference of questions of validity to Judicial + Committee. + + The Lord Chancellor is not to be a political officer. + + LORD LIEUTENANT. The Lord Lieutenant is not to be a political + officer. He shall hold office for six years, and neither he nor the + Lords Justices shall be subject to any religious disqualification. + His salary shall be sufficient to throw the post open to men of + moderate means. (43 to 17.) + + CIVIL SERVICE. (42 to 18.) + + (1) There shall be a Civil Service Commission consisting of + representatives of Irish universities which shall formulate a scheme + of competitive examinations for admission to the public service, + including statutory administrative bodies, and no person shall be + admitted to such service unless he holds the certificate of the + Civil Service Commission. + + (2) A scheme of appointments in the public service, with + recommendations as to scales of salary for the same, shall be + prepared by a commission consisting of an independent Chairman of + outstanding position in Irish public life, and two colleagues, one + of whom shall represent Unionist interests. + + (3) No appointments to positions shall be made before the scheme of + this commission has been approved. + + DEFERRING TAKING OVER CERTAIN IRISH SERVICES. + + Arrangements to be made to permit the Irish Government, if they so + desire, to defer taking over the services relating to Old-Age + Pensions, National Insurance, Labor Exchanges, Post Office Trustee + Savings Banks, and Friendly Societies. (43 to 18.) + +The final division on the question of the adoption of the report as a +whole was as follows: + + FOR (44) + + E. H. Andrews + M. K. Barry + J. Bolger + W. Broderick + J. Butler + J. J. Clancy + J. J. Coen + D. Condren + P. Dempsey + Earl of Desart + J. Dooly + Captain Doran + Archbishop of Dublin + Lord Mayor of Dublin + T. Fallon + J. Fitzgibbon + Sir W. Goulding + M. Governey + Earl of Granard + Captain Gwynn + T. Halligan + A. Jameson + W. Kavanagh + Alderman McCarron + M. McDonogh + J. McDonnell + C. McKay + A. R. MacMullen + Viscount Midleton + J. Murphy + J. O'Dowd + C. P. O'Neill + Lord Oranmore and Browne + Dr. O'Sullivan + J. B. Powell + T. Power + Provost of Trinity College + Sir S. B. Quin + D. Reilly + M. Slattery + G. F. Stewart + R. Waugh + H. T. Whitley + Sir B. Windle + + AGAINST (29) + + Duke of Abercorn + Sir R. N. Anderson + H. B. Armstrong + H. T. Barrie + Lord Mayor of Belfast + Archbishop of Cashel + Sir G. Clark + Colonel J. J. Clark + Lord Mayor of Cork + Colonel Sharman-Crawford + Bishop of Down and Connor + T. Duggan + H. Garahan + J. Hanna + M. E. Knight + Marquis of Londonderry + J. S. McCance + Sir C. McCullagh + J. McGarry + H. G. MacGeagh + J. McHugh + Moderator General Assembly + W. M. Murphy + P. O'H. Peters + H. M. Pollock + Bishop of Raphoe + T. Toal + Colonel Wallace + Sir W. Whitla + + +ULSTER UNIONISTS' REPORT + +Nineteen Ulster Unionists signed a dissenting report in which they +declared that it had soon become evident to them that no real approach +to agreement was possible, as the Nationalists put it beyond doubt that +what they wanted was "full national independence," or a Parliament +possessing co-equal powers with those of the Imperial Parliament. If the +Ulster Unionists had anticipated this at the outset, their report +explained, they "could not have agreed to enter the convention." +Objection was taken to the Nationalist scheme, which aimed at denying +the right of the Imperial Parliament to impose military service in +Ireland "unless with the consent of the proposed Irish Parliament." + +Dr. Mahaffy, Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, and the Archbishop of +Armagh, in a separate note, stated that they found it impossible to vote +for the majority proposals, since these involved, in their opinion, +either the coercion of Ulster, which was unthinkable, or the partition +of Ireland, which would be disastrous. + +Twenty-two Nationalists, including Joseph Devlin, M. P., the Archbishop +of Cashel, the Bishop of Raphoe, the Bishop of Down and Connor, and the +Lord Mayors of Dublin and Cork, signed a report favoring a subordinate +Irish Parliament with immediate full powers of taxation. + +The majority of the Nationalists also signed a note explaining that for +the sake of reaching an agreement with the Unionists they did not press +their claim for full fiscal autonomy. + +The Southern Unionists, who for "high considerations of allied and +imperial interests" signed the majority report, also added a note. They +insisted that all imperial questions and services, including the levying +of customs duties, be left in the hands of the Parliament of the United +Kingdom; that Ireland send representatives to Westminster; and that the +whole of Ireland participate in any Irish Parliament. + + +THE FINANCIAL ISSUE + +Apart from the main question whether an Irish Parliament with an +Executive responsible to it should be established, debate chiefly +centred on the question of fiscal autonomy. By January, 1918, it became +apparent that on the financial issue there were three clearly defined +bodies of opinion: + +First--The Ulster Unionists favoring the maintenance of the fiscal unity +of the United Kingdom; + +Second--A section of Nationalists insisting upon complete fiscal +autonomy for Ireland; + +Third--The Southern Unionists, supported by other Nationalists, and the +majority of the Labor representatives, favoring a compromise which left +to Ireland the proceeds of all sources of revenue and the imposition of +all taxes other than customs. + +It was to overcome these and other differences that Premier Lloyd George +invited representatives of the convention to London to confer with the +Cabinet. The Premier's letter, dated Feb. 25, 1918, is published in the +report. It discloses the fact that some of the Nationalists had been +willing to set up an Ulster Committee in the Irish Parliament to veto +the application of certain legislation to that province, to make Belfast +the headquarters of the Irish Ministry of Commerce, and to let the Irish +Parliament meet alternately in Dublin and Belfast. + + +GOVERNMENT'S ATTITUDE + +Dealing with "the difficult question of customs and excise," Lloyd +George wrote: + + The Government are aware of the serious objections which can be + raised against the transfer of these services to an Irish + Legislature. It would be practically impossible to make such a + disturbance of the fiscal and financial relations of Great Britain + and Ireland in the midst of a great war. It might also be + incompatible with that federal reorganization of the United Kingdom + in favor of which there is a growing body of opinion. On the other + hand, the Government recognize the strong claim that can be made + that an Irish Legislature should have some control over indirect + taxation as the only form of taxation which touches the great + majority of the people, and which in the past has represented the + greater part of Irish revenue. + + The Government feel that this is a matter which cannot be finally + settled at the present time. They therefore suggest for the + consideration of the convention that, during the period of the war + and for a period of two years thereafter, the control of customs and + excise should be reserved to the United Kingdom Parliament; that, as + soon as possible after the Irish Parliament has been established, a + Joint Exchequer Board should be set up to secure the determination + of the true revenue of Ireland--a provision which is essential to a + system of responsible Irish government--and to the making of a + national balance sheet, and that, at the end of the war, a royal + commission should be established to re-examine impartially and + thoroughly the financial relations of Great Britain and Ireland, to + report on the contribution of Ireland to imperial expenditure, and + to submit proposals as to the best means of adjusting the economic + and fiscal relations of the two countries. + + The Government consider that during the period of the war the + control of all taxation other than customs and excise could be + handed over to the Irish Parliament; that for the period of the war + and two years thereafter an agreed proportion of the annual imperial + expenditure should be fixed as the Irish contribution; and that all + Irish revenue from customs and excise as determined by the Joint + Exchequer Board, after deduction of the agreed Irish contribution to + imperial expenditure, should be paid into the Irish Exchequer. For + administrative reasons, during the period of the war it is necessary + that the police should remain under imperial control, and it seems + to the Government to be desirable that for the same period the + postal service should be a reserved service. + + +CONSCRIPTION IN IRELAND + +The announcement of the British Government's twofold plan of home rule +and conscription for Ireland caused an outpouring of protests from the +whole of the Nationalist population. Preparations for resistance were +begun, a great anti-conscription fund was opened, resolutions from +public bodies began pouring in, and the Sinn Fein clubs renewed their +activities. + +The most striking feature of the opposition to conscription was that it +welded together all the Irish elements represented by the Nationalist +Party, the Independent Home Rulers, led by William O'Brien and Timothy +Healy; the Sinn Fein, and the Labor organizations, which in recent years +had not been very friendly to the Nationalists. Representatives of all +these parties were present at a conference in Dublin, held, under the +Chairmanship of the Lord Mayor, on April 18. The Catholic Bishops, at a +meeting in Maynooth the same day, adopted a declaration against +conscription. This meeting was attended by five representatives from the +Dublin conference--John Dillon, Edward de Valere, Timothy Healy, a Labor +delegate, and the Lord Mayor of Dublin. + +A majority of the Nationalist members of the House of Commons decided +to abstain from attendance in Parliament during the crisis, thus +adopting the attitude of the Sinn Feiners who were elected to the House +but have never attended. Fifty-five of the Nationalist members met in +Dublin on April 20, with John Dillon presiding, and passed a resolution +in which they declared that the enforcement of compulsory military +service on a nation without its assent constituted "one of the most +brutal acts of tyranny and oppression of which any Government can be +guilty." + +Fifteen hundred delegates of labor unions met at the Mansion House, +Dublin, on April 20, and pledged their resistance to conscription. They +also fixed April 23 for the stoppage of all work as an earnest of this +resolve and to enable all workers to sign the pledge of resistance. The +complete stoppage of work was duly observed on the day mentioned, and +passed off for the most part in a quiet and orderly manner. + +Sunday, April 21, was observed throughout Catholic Ireland as the day +for the administration by the priests of the anti-conscription covenant. +From every Catholic pulpit conscription was the subject of discourse, +and the action of the Bishops and political leaders was explained. The +assemblies where the pledge was taken were generally outside the +churches, sometimes in the open air, sometimes in a hall. The practice +followed in many cases was for the priest to read the pledge, sentence +by sentence, the people reciting after him. In other cases the pledge +was given by the raising of hands or the signing of a paper. The Bishops +took part with the inferior clergy in administering the pledge, +addressing the people and generally warning them against isolated and +unconsidered action. They urged obedience to the orders of the +recognized leaders, who act in co-operation. All classes, including +lawyers, bankers, and merchants, as well as farmers and workmen, took +the pledge. + +On May 1 an Order in Council was issued by the British Government +postponing the operation of the National Service, or conscription, act +in Ireland beyond that date, to which it had been previously postponed. + +Premier Lloyd George, commenting on the new attitude of the Irish Home +Rulers in a letter addressed on May 2 to Irish workers on the Tyneside +in England, wrote: + + The difficulties have not been rendered easier of settlement by the + challenge to supremacy of the United Kingdom Parliament in that + sphere, which always has been regarded as properly belonging to it + by all advocates of home rule, which recently was issued by the + Nationalist Party and the Roman Catholic Hierarchy in concert with + the leaders of the Sinn Fein. + +While Nationalist and Catholic Ireland had already begun its campaign of +resistance to conscription, the Ulster Unionists, under the leadership +of Sir Edward Carson, prepared to oppose home rule. Sir Edward Carson +declared that the Government had broken its pledges to Ulster by +undertaking to pass a Home Rule bill, and on April 24 he advised the +Ulster Unionist Council to reorganize its machinery for the impending +struggle. + +The appointment of Field Marshal Viscount French as Lord Lieutenant of +Ireland and of Edward Shortt, member of the House of Commons for +Newcastle-on-Tyne, as Chief Secretary for Ireland was officially +announced on May 5. + +Lord French, before his new appointment, was Commander in Chief of the +forces in the United Kingdom and had gone to Ireland in that capacity a +few days before he became Viceroy. Edward Shortt, in addition to being a +Home Ruler, had voted against the extension of conscription to Ireland +until an Irish Government had been established. + + + + +Greatest Gas Attack of the War + +_W. A. Willison, Canadian correspondent, cabled from the Picardy front +on March 22, 1918:_ + + +While British and German troops were struggling far to the south in the +opening clash of the Spring campaign, the greatest projector gas +bombardment in the world's history was carried out by the Canadians +tonight against the enemy positions between Lens and Hill 70. Sharply at +11 o'clock the signal rocket gave notice of the beginning. A moment +later over 5,000 drums of lethal gas were simultaneously released from +projectors, and were hurled into the enemy territory from the outskirts +of Lens, and northward to Cité St. Auguste and the Bois de Dix-Huit. + +From his front lines and strong points favoring winds carried the +poisonous clouds back upon the enemy's supports, reserves, and assembly +areas. The whole of the front was lit up with enemy flares, dimly seen +through the heavy mist, while the men in our lines could hear the +enemy's gas alarms and cries of distress from the hostile trenches. + +Nine minutes later our field artillery, supported by heavy guns and +heavy trench mortars, opened up with a slow bombardment, which gradually +increased in intensity, until, forty minutes later, the enemy positions +were swept with a short, intensive, creeping barrage, which raked his +forward and rear areas with high explosive. Caught by our gas without a +moment's warning, caught again as he was emerging from his shelters by +our artillery, the enemy's casualties must have been very heavy, for the +effectiveness of our smaller gas operations has been emphatically proved +by the evidence of prisoners. + +Tonight's bombardment was three times greater than anything of its kind +ever attempted by us on the Western front, and much greater than +anything ever launched by the Germans, though the score of the second +battle of Ypres and other reckonings are still to be settled, and will +be settled. + + + + +Plucky Dunkirk + +By Anna Milo Upjohn + +_Inspector in Paris for the Fraternité Americaine_ + +[Since this article was written Dunkirk has faced a new peril from the +blow struck in her direction by the powerful German armies around Ypres, +to the southeast; but the author's vivid and sympathetic description of +the daily life of the little city remains as true as in the Winter days +when it was penned for CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE. + + +In the track of the wind stands the plucky little City of Dunkirk, still +flapping the flags of courage and constancy in the face of an +increasingly rabid enemy. It is the only city of France that is +subjected to bombardment from land and sea and sky. + +What is the every-day life in a town near enough to the front to be +never free from the menace of a triple bombardment? That is what I went +to find out, traveling by way of Calais in stygian darkness, for the +train was without lights to avoid the danger of bombs. + +A little before dawn the train drew into the black station of Dunkirk, +through whose roofing the sky showed dimly in spots where air-raid +shells had spattered. The silent crowd jostled through the darkness, the +soldiers separating themselves from it at the military exit. Inside, +only a ray from a dark lantern, held by the officer who scanned the +passports one by one, made a spot of light among the overlapping +shadows. The wind sighed through the draughty place, the snow entered +freely, the floor was sloppy with mud. Outside in the empty square not a +vehicle, not a porter, in sight. The street cars had stopped running. + +My hotel lay beyond the centre of the town. In the driving storm, +through unknown streets, I knew it would be foolish to attempt to find +it. An officer passed and to him I appealed. "To the right, in the +middle of the square," he said, with outstretched arm, "is the Lion de +Flandre. If they can't put you up there, come back and we will see." + +Not a point of light indicated the identity of the Lion de Flandre. On +nearer approach all the houses appeared boarded up, as though long since +abandoned. In the middle of the square was an oblong hump, like the +roofed-over foundation of a demolished building. I learned later that +this was a public refuge built for the inhabitants of the section. + + +HOTEL IN DANGER ZONE + +As I turned irresolutely in the direction of the dark façades, the +silhouette of a man in casque and puttees passed across the snow. A +crack of light gleamed from a hidden doorway, and through it he +disappeared. I followed hard after him and stepped into a lighted room +full of smoke and soldiers, a _man's_ place, with sand-strewn floor and +bottles conspicuously in evidence. Nevertheless, the comfortable woman +behind the bar received me without surprise. A room she could give me, +but as for food, that was a different matter. The boches had the habit +of coming at about dinner time, and it had become a nuisance to abandon +the untasted meal every night and to dive into the cave--it really had! +So she had given up trying to have anything hot at night and let the +fires go out at 6. But if I would like a sandwich and some beer--? + +After the long, starved journey this was not alluring. + +"Not a cup of tea with the sandwich?" I pleaded. A collaborator was +called, a plump, dark woman, and after a hurried conference I was asked +to wait in the room behind the café. Nothing could be more dismal than +this compartment. It was high for its floor space, like a deep box with +a lid, and had no outside windows, being wedged between the café and the +kitchen. The ornate glass divisions were gone or clinging in fragments, +the walls pierced in many places, the plaster down. A tiny point of gas +burned high above the table. + +They were very good to me, these warbound women, one of whom, I +discovered, had an ulcerated tooth, the other two little boys captive in +Belgium. + + +FIRST NIGHT'S EXPERIENCES + +In a short time a small bit of steak and a potato cut in quarters and +fried were placed before me, and simultaneously a large black dog with +wistful eyes but determined manner stationed himself at my side. The +steak was followed by a chilly little salad, bread and cheese, and more +butter than I had seen for many a month in Paris--and a cup of tea +which, for its grateful warmth, I drank without challenge. + +Snatches of honest English, mingled with French, filtered in from the +café, where the fire was not quite extinct and where beer was served +until 9 o'clock. Before that hour I was fumbling upstairs guided by the +patronne, who carried a two-inch stub of candle between her fingers. +"This is the way to the cave," she explained, pointing to a doorway +under the stairs. "In case of an alarm you have only to rush down there. +There will be a light burning at the entrance." Passing through the +hallway she indicated the spot where a man had recently been killed. "If +he had stayed where he was, at the table where you have just eaten, +Madame, he would have been all right, but as he ran to the refuge a bomb +exploded outside in the square, burst open the front door, traversed the +length of the corridor, passed through the kitchen wall and into the +garden beyond. But you can rest assured that nothing will happen +tonight, Madame," continued the patronne, who seemed as familiar with +the habits of Gothas as a farmer's wife is with those of fowls--"Not in +this wind, oh, no!" + +After that first night I groped my way alone to bed, the candle stub +having come to an end, feeling my way along the pitch dark passageways +to the room with the linoleum mat, the room which had not known fire for +three years and a half, whose paneless windows were boarded up, the one +room in the house which had not lost a ceiling or floor or whose walls +were not clipped through with shells. The regular inmates of the hotel +slept nightly in the cellar. It saved time and was warmer. + +Notwithstanding the reassurances of the patronne I confess to going to +bed with half my clothes on. But under the wing of the storm Dunkirk +slept tranquilly for three successive nights. Of course, there was +always the soft bum-bum of the cannon on the northern horizon, strange +tremors shook the bed, and the night was full of weird sounds, the +rattling skeletons of dead houses. + + +BRAVE LITTLE DUNKIRK + +Like an arm held up to protect the face, the coast between Calais and +Dunkirk bears the brunt of storm from the North Sea. A dark sea, sombre +and brooding, girdled by lowering clouds; on the snow-driven plain a few +detached towers, etched as though in sepia against the gray sky and +rising abruptly above the low line of roof--this is Dunkirk on a +Winter's day. A homely little town with a deep fringe of docks and +waterways on its seaward side and a girdle of fortifications built by +Vauban encircling the rest. The whole set in a ring of dark water which +fills the moat. It is thoroughly Flemish in character, and, seen from +the water, must resemble a city on a delft tile. The moral attitude of +the town has always been one of robust activity. Even its patron saints +are among the most industrious and enterprising in the calendar--notably +St. Eloi, who brought Christianity to the Dunkerquois and to whom the +original Dunkirk (church on the dunes) was dedicated. + +All the history of the town is tinged with a vigor which has blown in to +it from the sea. Here the crusading ships of Baldwin of Flanders, and +later those of St. Louis of France, were fitted out. After the momentous +marriage of Marie of Burgundy had thrown the city for a time under the +dominion of Spain it played a brilliant part in the game of the +period--piracy. + +The quaint tower on the quay--called Lugenhaer, the Liar--was used at +that epoch to give false signals to ships at sea. But it dates from a +much earlier period, and was one of twenty-eight towers with which +Baldwin of Flanders bound together the wall with which he surrounded +the city. The Liar and the belfry of the recently ruined Cathedral of +St. Eloi were the only interesting architectural bits left in Dunkirk. +The thirteenth century tower, dark and strong at its base, rises to a +great height, flowering into restrained tracery at the top and +shepherding under its shadow the heart of the town, which lies below it. +This is the lodestone. Toward it I turned after leaving the battered +hotel that first morning at Dunkirk. + +[Illustration: A photograph, full of human interest, showing Americans, +headed by a regimental band, marching to the front in France + +(_American Official Photograph_)] + +[Illustration: The Harvard University Regiment marching through the +streets of Boston + +(© _Underwood_)] + + +CITY OF SHATTERED HOMES + +From the snowy Place de la Gare the street cars started regularly in +divergent directions, but oh, the gloom of those dead streets which they +passed! Wide streets, winding between rows of low houses, plain and +solid, but built on a neighborly plan. Their desolation is the more +marked because of this innate, homelike quality. In almost all of them +the window and door spaces were boarded up, and the first impression was +rather that of a deserted city than of a demolished one. But a second +glance showed that destruction had come from the sky, tearing away the +roof, annihilating the interior, and rendering the house uninhabitable, +perhaps irreparable, though the walls might to a certain extent be left +standing. Often the havoc was more apparent, exposing the bare skeleton +of a home and the shattered remnants of household comforts in shocking +nudity. + +The freakishness of destruction by bombardment is proverbial. It is this +which creates in the timid an intense anxiety and in the hardy the +willingness to take a chance. The 8-year-old son of the chief surgeon at +the Military Hospital, stretching out his hand during a bombardment, +said calmly, "Of course it _may_ fall on _that_, but there is plenty of +room on each side." And this rather sums up the spirit of the +Dunkerquois who remain. + +Of a population of 40,000, about 5,000 are left, and most of these have +become modern cave men. To be thoroughly up to date one must live in a +"casemate." In every quarter of the town posters announce the locality +of these public refuges. They are either cellars reinforced overhead, +or dugouts in the public squares, strongly roofed with corrugated iron, +which is covered with wood and sandbags. Often there is extra trench +work inside, always a tight little stove with a pipe running the length +of the cave, plank benches along the sides, and usually beds with army +blankets. + + +DODGING THE BOMBS + +Into these refuges the Dunkerquois has learned to precipitate himself +with extraordinary celerity. He considers a minute and a half sufficient +time in which to gain safety, no matter where he may be when the +"alerte" is given. When there is a bombardment from the land side the +alarm is sounded as the obus leaves the gun at the front. It takes 90 +seconds for its flight to Dunkirk. So accurately is this calculated that +casualties seldom result from a land bombardment. The inhabitants +scuttle into safety, and the damage is limited to bricks and mortar. The +peppering from sea is also taken lightly. The firing is very rapid, but +it is soon over, and the shots are comparatively small, passing clean +through the walls without shattering them. It is the air raids which are +dreaded, and these are increasingly frequent and destructive. Often the +chugging of the motors can be heard in the thick darkness for a quarter +of an hour or more before there is an explosion, and this is a +nerve-racking experience. + +A striking feature of the streets in Dunkirk is the incumbrance of the +sidewalks by boxes filled with stones and sandbags. These cover the +windows and approaches to the cellars and serve as shock absorbers +against flying pieces of shell. + +And why does any one stay in so precarious an outpost on the verge of +the fighting line? Some perhaps because to set forth alone or with a +brood of children into an unknown world already trampled by countless +refugees seems an equally perilous outlook. Others because their +maintenance still depends upon the docks and shipyards, though the 6,000 +longshoremen usually employed about the piers have disappeared. Then +there are those whose interests are bound up in a shop or other +investment in the town, and business is brisk in Dunkirk, owing to the +presence of two armies. A few there are who are not only _of_ Dunkirk +but who _are_ Dunkirk itself, upon whose presence depends the prosperity +of the town and its usefulness to the State. + + +STILL A LIVELY PORT + +For if the picturesque landmarks have disappeared, Dunkirk has by no +means lost its sea prestige. It is the third port of France, and though +its position is singularly exposed it is largely through its harbor that +the British Army has been revictualed since the beginning of the war. +This renders still more remarkable the fact that not one ship has been +lost between Dunkirk and the English port of clearing. One does not +appreciate at first glance all that this implies. It means for one thing +that some one must sit tight at Dunkirk. Traffic by sea has gone on +uninterruptedly and until recently has been quite that of normal times. +Now, owing to the recent restrictions on imports and exports, it is +greatly reduced, though still regular. The sailings and dockings take +place on schedule time. + +One of those largely responsible for the order of the port is the +Consular Agent of the United States, M. Morel, also President of the +Chamber of Commerce of Dunkirk. His house, a mere skeleton, has long +since been abandoned for the superior comforts and safety of the cellar. +Attached to the jamb of the almost equally ruined office building his +small sign in black and gold makes a brave showing. The front of the +building had been largely torn away and with it a part of the roof. +Looking up one saw a dizzy arrangement of laths and rafters, suggestive +of the underside of a heap of jackstraws. But the staircase was firm and +led to a small back room, where a bright fire burned and where business +was transacted as usual; not only the business of the port, for while I +was there an American Red Cross doctor and a bevy of nurses came in to +have their passports renewed. + +Another home which I had the privilege of entering, that of Commandant +Boultheel, had been more fortunate, for it stood as yet untouched by +disaster. Here in an atmosphere of warm charm, a serene and gracious +hostess dispensed hospitality to her friends. Pewter and old china on +the walls and a great fire of logs dispelled the depression of the +outside world. Around the table were men of war and men of the world, +who represented the finest qualities of the French. Among them was a +valiant Préfet du Nord, who had spent ten months as hostage in a German +prison, using his time to study English and reread Horace. In fact, I +felt, as I had on the train, that the further I got from Paris the +nearer I came to the heart of France. + +A glimpse of "cave life" I had in the pharmacie maintained by the +Sisters of the Sacré Coeur in the basement of the Hôtel de Ville, where +it had been temporarily installed by the city, its own quarters being +untenable. This was a large space lighted by electricity and crowded +with bottles and jars, bundles of herbs and bandages, and made cheerful +by the bright faces of the sisters. In another portion of the cellar +they sleep, living entirely underground. + +Families are large in Dunkirk, and children troop unconcernedly to and +fro between home and school. To them the nightly flight to the casemate +is no longer a wild adventure. + + +BUSINESS UNDER DIFFICULTIES + +The business part of the town has not the sad aspect of the residence +streets, for it is full of life. The decrepit shops, half boarded up, +many of them resembling a face with a bandage over one eye, are doing a +lively business. With the demands of a large floating population of two +armies, Dunkirk is not suffering commercially. Department stores, book +shops, shoe stores, provision shops of all kinds, make the most of a +short day. Oranges, figs, dates, nuts, and conserved food of all kinds +are much in evidence, also warm clothing, blankets, boots, and novels. +The restaurant of the Hôtel Chapeau Rouge was filled with French and +English officers, and an excellent meal was served much as it would be +in Paris. At 4:30 everything is closed. Lights are extinguished, windows +and doors are sealed with their householders behind them, unless the +latter are among those who seek the comparative safety of the suburbs at +nightfall. For though the entire surrounding country is subject to +bombardment, the town is the centre of attack. In the twilight of the +unlighted streets scarce a footfall is heard. Only the occasional rumble +of a heavy cannon shakes the air. Behind the wall of darkness pulses a +full life undismayed by the terrors of the approaching night or the +possibilities of the tomorrow. + + +A STAG AT BAY + +In the heart of the forest I once saw a stag leading his herd to the +shelter of a rock in the rush of an oncoming storm. Having urged them +into crouching positions around him, he turned and with a simple gesture +lifted his head to the storm. There was that in his attitude which +compelled reverence. One mentally saluted, though one might think "poor, +silly beast, in what way could he mitigate the lash of the tempest?" But +instinctively he had obeyed the highest for which he had been created, +the protection of the weak. And his calm presence caught away all panic +from those around him. Often while in Dunkirk this scene came back to +me, recalled by the simple matter-of-courseness with which these brave +men and equally brave women stayed on because it was the place for them +to be. + +At the Military Hospital of Rosendael, with the exception of the +intrepid surgeon and the almoner, it is the women who hold the position. +Originally the city hospital, it was taken over by the army at the +beginning of the war. An immense building with modern equipment and a +capacity for 700 patients, it has been necessary of late to evacuate +many of the sections because of the increasing frequency of the +bombardments. The hospital has been struck many times and one ward +completely destroyed. As it happened there were no soldiers in that +section, it being used as a maternity hospital for the city. Several +women and little children were killed and also the sister in charge, +Sister St. Etienne, so dear to her co-workers that she is never spoken +of without tears. She had just finished her rounds for the night when +the alarm came. Her one thought was to save her ward from panic. A bomb +crashing through the roof hurled a beam across the sister, killing her +instantly and wrecking the entire wing. + + +"FOR ALL AMERICAN WOMEN" + +In spite of this tragedy and of recurring attacks, the other sisters and +the head nurse, Mlle. Guyot, have held their posts with quiet heroism +and have never lost an hour's duty. The patients now are mostly +convalescent, because fresh cases are no longer brought there. + +The supplies of shirts, pajamas, and bandages sent from America were +gratefully commented upon by Mlle. Guyot, and I was touched by similar +expressions from the men. One poor aviator, terribly burned, but +recovering, put up a bandaged hand and saluted me "for all American +women." Another poilu wove for me a table mat of red, white, and blue +cord. All were fervent in their good wishes. + +Everywhere warmth and order prevailed, from the wards where the bandaged +soldiers sat about with their pipes and their knitting to the big bakery +where the fragrant brown bread is baked and to the kitchens with their +caldrons of broth and crisp roasts of meat. + +Dry, well ventilated "abris" or bomb shelters have been built in +connection with each section of the hospital. The surgeon, who sleeps in +a cellar near the centre, is the first to assist his patients to shelter +in case of an alarm. There, underground, long games of cards are played +on the brink of the unknown. This is not callousness, but is done with +deliberate intent by the clever surgeon, (a refugee from Lille,) knowing +that by this means his men may be saved a nervous strain which might +prove fatal. + +Mlle. Guyot, who has been at the hospital since the beginning of the +war, knows as well as any one what the city has endured. It was she who +said to me: + +"I shall never forget that Dunkirk has borne the weight of the war from +the first day; that she has seen the exodus of the Belgian population, +to whom she has given refuge as well as to the people of the Department +du Nord; that she has known the passing of innumerable armies going and +coming from the Yser; that in October, 1914, she began to be bombarded, +having at the same time to fulfill the immense duty of bringing in and +caring for the wounded from that immortal battlefield; and through it +all I have seen Dunkirk living and working and saving with a smile!" + +The military position of Dunkirk is sometimes confusing because it has +been alternately on the French and English fronts. The English are now +retiring, but sentinels of three nationalities still guard the city +gates; English Tommy and French poilu stand with their arms across each +other's shoulders, the Belgian stands apart. + +On the sands of Malo, which is but a prolongation of Dunkirk, with a +sweeping beach toward the North Sea, strange men from Tonquin were +digging trenches--dark men branded by the sun and the mark of the East, +with warm dabs of color on their high cheekbones, and small opaque eyes +under rising brows. The uniform of the French Colonial is often a +medley. He looks as though he had begun "dressing up" like children in +the attic, and as though his mind had fallen short of his expectations. +Out on those bleak sands his touches of rich blue, crimson, and green +had almost the fervor of stained glass set against the dark and sinister +sea. To the north the Belgian coast cut the background with a livid +streak of sand. + +In spite of the moving figures, the loneliness was as of the ends of the +earth. The silence was accentuated rather than broken by the purr of the +cannon and the mewing of a stray gull slapped sidewise by the wind. But +it is thus that I like to think of Dunkirk--scourged by the wind, +blotted out by the storm, knowing that for the time being her stout +hearts are safe. + +As the sea has been the life of Dunkirk in the past, so it will be its +resurrection. The city cannot be struck a deathblow from the land side +as has many another less favorably situated. But what a unique protégé +for some god-mothering American city to help re-establish through her +sympathy and aid! + +Is it any wonder that France has just included in the arms of Dunkirk +the following legend in addition to the one gained by the naval battle +of 1793: "Ville heroique, sert d'exemple à toute la nation"? + + + + +Brutal Treatment of Italian Prisoners + + +Sworn statements from British soldiers returned from German prison camps +and hospitals received by Reuter's Agency (the Associated Press of Great +Britain) indicate that systematic brutality is practiced there upon +Italian prisoners. Lance Corporal Horace Hills, 7th Suffolk Regiment, +made the following statement under oath: + + Five or six thousand Italians came in. They had traveled three or + four days, and had had nothing at all to eat. After they arrived + soup was brought in, and, as they were starving, they rushed at it. + The Germans then dashed forward and stabbed them with their swords + and bayonets, and killed and wounded a lot. Seven or eight Italians + were dying every day in the camp of starvation. They had no parcels. + I saw an Englishmen give an Italian bread, and the Italian went down + on his knees and kissed his hands. + +Private J. F. Jackson, King's Liverpool Regiment, swore: + + One Italian told me they had been fifteen days on the journey and + had only three meals all the time. Our hospital lager was separated + from the camp by barbed wire; we took some bread and threw it over + the wire to the Italians; they all began to grab for it, but a lot + of Germans rushed up and drew their bayonets and flourished them in + the air in a threatening manner, and kicked and threw the Italians + about, and got the bread for themselves. + +At Friedrichsfeld the treatment of the Italians was equally barbarous, +the sentries shooting them for trying to get food from the British. +Equally revolting stories come from Ohrdrup, Nammelburgh, Stendal, +Soltau, Limburg, and Hamburg. + + + + +Germany's Attempt to Divide Belgium + +Official Summary of Recent Political Events in Flanders, Issued by the +Belgian Foreign Office + +_Germany's plan to divide Belgium by organizing a small group of +"activists" to establish a so-called Council of Flanders for the purpose +of separating the Flemish from the Walloon Provinces, was described in +the April issue of CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE, pp. 91-96, along with the +fearless opposition which the attempt created. The following summary of +the case, with a fuller array of dates and details, has since been +prepared by the Belgian Foreign Office at St. Adresse, France, the seat +of King Albert's Government in exile:_ + + +The semi-official Wolff Agency in Berlin announced on Jan. 20, 1918, +that the so-called Council of Flanders had proclaimed the autonomy of +Flanders Dec. 22, 1917. Soon after that action, which had passed +unnoticed and had left Belgian opinion indifferent and scornful, Herr +von Walraff, German Secretary of the Interior, had judged the time +opportune for a trip to Belgium, (Jan. 1, 1918.) The "council," after +getting into close relations with him, had taken up the decree which the +Landtag had intrusted to him on the 4th of February preceding, and had +declared that it would submit itself to a popular referendum. + +At length a commission of executive officials was created; it included +heads for the Departments of the Interior, Agriculture, Public Works, +Arts and Sciences, Justice, Finance, Labor, National Defense, Posts and +Telegraph, and the Navy. The German telegraphic agencies sent out this +news in all directions to spread the idea that Flanders was showing an +intention of detaching itself from Belgium, and to give the impression +of a spontaneous popular movement for political separation. + +The thought that inspired this intrigue dates back to a period almost +two years earlier. On April 5, 1916, the German Chancellor, in defining +the war aims of Germany before the Reichstag, had outlined the imperial +policy of establishing a protectorate over the Flemings. Later there +were found in Belgium some obscure and discredited citizens who, +betraying their sacred duty, placed themselves in the pay of the +enemy and consented to make themselves the agents and accomplices of the +invaders. + + +GERMAN ACT OF SEPARATION + +On Feb. 4, 1917, an assembly composed of 200 Belgians speaking the +Flemish language met and voted for the creation of a "Council of +Flanders." On March 3 this body sent a deputation to Berlin, and the +Chancellor announced to it that "the policy tending toward the +administrative separation would be pursued with all the vigor possible +during the occupation," and that "during the negotiations and after the +conclusion of peace the empire would not cease to watch over the +development of the Flemish race." The German decrees dividing Belgium +into two administrative regions followed close upon these declarations, +(March 21, 1917.) + +At the end of 1917 the German authorities believed that the moment had +come to consummate the enterprise by completing the administrative +separation with a political separation. Thus the end would be attained: +Belgium would be dismembered; one part of the country would fall under +vassalage to Germany, and, in case there were no annexation, would +become in a way a sphere of influence for the empire. + +The intrigues of the "Council of Flanders" are merely a comedy intended +to mask this policy. The policy rests upon a clever juggling with the +question of languages. Under cover of the principle of free +self-determination of peoples, it seeks to internationalize an internal +problem in the hope of dislocating the Belgian nationality. Perhaps +it also aims at the creation of a fictitious Government which shall +furnish the German Government with the means for opening fallacious +peace negotiations to deceive the world and weaken the cohesion of the +Allies. Many German newspapers have allowed these aims to appear, and +some have boldly unveiled them. + + +ALL BELGIUM PROTESTS + +But the strong protests of Flemish communities and of the entire Belgian +Nation have foiled these plans, and the news coming from the occupied +region enables us to determine with precision the character of the rôle +played by the "Council of Flanders." At the same time it attests the +determination of the Belgian people to repel all foreign interference +and to maintain its unity unshaken. + +What is this "Council of Flanders"? It has no representative character. +It was created by a private assembly which had no mandate from the +people. It now pretends to seek popular sanction through an election. +This is only a subterfuge. There has been no election. There has been no +consultation of the people. The promoters have limited themselves to +assembling groups of adherents in theatres or restaurants, and causing +gatherings composed of their proselytes, with an admixture of the +curious and the idle, to vote on lists of candidates previously arranged +in the private offices of those who are directing the work. + +The Deputies and Senators, in a protest to the Chancellor, thus +denounced the pretense of an election that was organized in Brussels: + + A meeting was called at a day's notice in an exhibition hall. + Everybody entered who wished to, Belgians or strangers, men, women, + and children. There were in all 600 or 700 persons. It was these + unknown persons, come together by chance, without control or + guarantee, that in a few moments, as an interlude in a speech, + proclaimed the election of twenty-two Deputies to the "Council of + Flanders" and fifty-two Provincial Councilors, Such was the + expression--without the knowledge of the people--of the will of the + Municipality of Brussels, which has 200,000 electors and almost + 1,000,000 inhabitants. + + +PROTESTS OF CITY COUNCILS + +Foreign occupation has not wholly destroyed legitimate and regular +representation in Belgium. The Provincial Councils and the City Councils +are still functioning. The administrative framework of the country +survives. The municipal organization, so solidly rooted, has not ceased +to exercise power. The Provincial and Municipal Councilors, like the +Deputies and Senators, most of whom remain in the country, have been +elected by universal, direct, and secret suffrage. They alone in the +occupied territory are competent to express the true national opinion, +and that opinion is strikingly voiced in the protest of the Flemish and +Walloon members of Parliament, in that of the Common Councils of the +capital and the large cities of Antwerp and Ghent, whose example has +been followed by an increasing number of prominent citizens and local +Governments of smaller towns in Flanders. + +It has been demonstrated that the "Council of Flanders" is pursuing an +enterprise of usurpation, that it is a tool of the invader, and that its +members are in reality only agents of the German authorities. They went +to Berlin a year ago to ask for administrative separation. Herr von +Walraff met them at Brussels at the beginning of 1918 to arrange for +political separation. When Tack and Borms were arrested by the Belgian +police on the order of Belgian Magistrates it was the German +functionaries who, by force, compelled their release, and they came out +of prison by the side of the German officer who had liberated them. +It was the Kommandantur of Antwerp that ordered the communal +administration, disregarding its resistance, to authorize the "activist" +demonstration of Feb. 3, and to have this protected by the police, in +violation of orders of the Burgomaster that had been in force nearly +four years. It was the German military headquarters, too, that forbade +all demonstrations of other groups and commandeered the hall of the +Chamber of Commerce, placing it at the disposition of the organizers of +a demonstration judged by the Burgomaster to be one to wound public +sentiment and endanger the public peace.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Later the City Councils were forbidden by German authority +to debate political questions, such as the autonomy of Flanders.] + +At length Governor General von Falkenhausen stamped the "Council of +Flanders" with the seal of German investiture, deciding by a decree of +Jan. 18, 1918, (published Feb. 10,) that the appointment of the +"council's" delegates was subject to his ratification, and that these +delegates were called to collaborate with him in his legislative labors. + +Thus one has the right to conclude that the whole organism of the +"Council of Flanders" is only a foreign tool to serve the enemy in his +designs of division and oppression. The delegates of the council cannot +pretend to any independence, since the decree of Jan. 18 reduces them to +the rôle of functionaries of German authority, named by that authority +and expected to contribute, by their advice, to its political work. + + +THE DELEGATES OSTRACIZED + +The Belgian people, without distinction of language, party, or +condition, have, by impressive demonstrations, repudiated the faithless +citizens who, joining hands with the enemy, have arrogated to themselves +the right to speak in the name of the Flemings. The Flemings were the +first to condemn the crime. To the protests of the Deputies and Senators +and of the City Councils have been added those of the leading +intellectual and political societies of Flanders. The Flemish Academy +raised its voice to "affirm its fidelity to the Belgian Fatherland and +its King." The Belgian Labor Party proclaimed that "not one of the 800 +labor groups composing it, and not one of its authorized leaders, had +been led astray or corrupted by the activist-separatist movement, either +in Flanders or in Wallonia." + +In the streets of Antwerp, of Malines, of Brussels, spontaneous +uprisings which the German troops could not suppress voiced the scorn +and anger of the crowds. + +Crowning this expression of the popular will and giving it the sanction +of law, the Brussels Court of Appeals, acting upon the protest of the +Deputies and Senators, at a plenary sitting of all its united chambers, +[Feb. 7, 1918,] ordered a hearing which ended in the arrest of delegates +of the "Council of Flanders" on a charge of conspiracy against the form +of the State, interference with public functions, and wicked attacks +against the constitutional authority of the King, the rights of the +chambers, and the laws of the nation. When the German authorities, +protecting the guilty ones and acting in the guise of vengeance, caused +the arrest of the Presidents of the Court, who had come in the august +garb of justice to do their duty, the Court of Cassation, by a decree of +Feb. 11, decided unanimously to suspend its sittings; the Courts of +Appeals in Ghent and Liége, with all the courts of first instance and +the courts of commerce, followed its example. The civic heroism of a +whole people is summed up in that impressive gesture. There is no more +eloquent page in history. + +This nation can remain free. It stoically endures the presence and +domination of the enemy in its territory. The foreign occupation that +has lasted three and a half years has not broken its spirit or its will +to resistance. The Flemish, like the Walloon communities, victims of the +most frightful brutalities, subjected to a system of forced labor, +decimated by deportations, have remained immovably faithful to King and +country. The moral unity of the nation has continued intact. + + +FLEMISH QUESTION NOT NEW + +The Flemish question does not imperil this unity. It dates much further +back than the war and has often been a subject of lively debate. It is a +question of interior policy which the nation alone must solve, after the +war, independently, under its own free constitutional powers. Belgium +has had the same Constitution since 1831, and has not dreamed of +altering its principles, unless we except the proclamation of universal +manhood suffrage in 1893. In eighty-three years of peace and prosperity +there was not a single political party that cast doubt upon the validity +of the fundamental charter--an eloquent proof of its plastic vitality +and perfect harmony with the deepest needs of the nation's collective +existence. + +Equality before the law, (Article 6,) individual liberty, (Articles 7, +8, 9, 10,) liberty of religious faith, (Articles 14 and 15,) freedom in +education, (Article 17,) freedom of the press, (Article 18,) the right +of assembly, (Article 19,) liberty of association, (Article 20,) freedom +as to language, (Article 21)--these are the essential axioms on which +the nation's public life is based.[2] + +[Footnote 2: Article 21 of the Constitution reads thus: "Employment of +the languages used in Belgium is optional. It can be regulated only by +law and solely for acts of public authority and for judicial +proceedings."] + +The Belgian Constitution, after guaranteeing respect for these +fundamental principles, regulates the exercise of political powers, all +of which, it declares, "emanate from the nation." (Article 25.) "The +legislative power is exercised jointly by the King, the House of +Representatives, and the Senate." (Article 26.) The Deputies are elected +directly by all the Belgian citizens who are 25 years old and who have +lived at least one year in the commune, those who fulfill certain +requirements of knowledge or capacity being allowed one or two +supplementary votes. (Article 47.) Senators are elected on the same +principles, with the difference that the voters must be at least 30 +years old. The Senate also includes a certain number of members elected +by the Provincial Councils. (Article 53.) For both chambers the voting +is obligatory and secret, and the division of seats is arranged on a +system of proportional representation that safeguards the rights of +minorities. Subject to the responsibility of his Ministers the King +exercises the executive power. (Articles 63 and 64.) + +Judicial power is exercised through courts whose members are not subject +to removal. (Articles 99 and 100.) A jury alone can deal with criminal +cases, political charges, and indictments brought against the press. +(Article 98.) + +Finally, side by side with the three great political branches, the +provincial and communal Governments deal with all matters of local +interest. Chief among them are--for the commune: the City Council, +elected by direct vote, and the "College of Burgomasters and Aldermen," +whose members are chosen by the Common Council, with the exception of +the Burgomaster, who is appointed by the King; and for the province: the +Provincial Council, directly elected, the "Permanent Deputation," +elected by the Provincial Council, and the Governor, who represents the +National Government. + + +SETTLING THE LANGUAGE ISSUE + +This rapid sketch suffices to show the democratic and liberal nature of +the Belgian Governmental system. Such institutions permit of free +discussion and facilitate the peaceful solution of the most irritating +internal problems. As the protest of the Flemish societies puts it, "The +Flemings are not a conquered nation; they have the same electoral right +as the Walloons; they have all the means for safeguarding their just +rights." + +Belgium has always lived an intense life, yet this has never compromised +its unity. Three great parties, the Catholic, the Liberal, the +Socialist, struggle for preponderance, and their action extends to all +parts of the country without distinction of language. Each of them +supports an identical program, in Flanders as in Wallonia, regardless of +whether the citizens speak Flemish or French. The party lines have never +corresponded with the linguistic lines. In each are found leaders of the +Flemish movement, whose aspirations have given rise to many speeches, +but have never been repudiated as anti-patriotic. This movement is thus +described by the Flemish societies in their protest against the "Council +of Flanders": "It is the expression of the fundamental principle that +every population possesses the inalienable right to develop itself +according to its own character and its own language, life, and historic +personality." But it remains essentially national and declares itself, +in the document just cited, unalterably hostile to the separation of the +country into two Governments with two capitals, two Ministries, two +Parliaments. The Flemish societies see in separation only "a weakening +that will lead to a catastrophe for the Flemings, as well as for the +Walloons." They add: + + Our most sacred political and economic interests are menaced by + these absurd plans. The organic whole which has made of Belgium, + through its commerce and industry, its rivers, ports and railways, + its agriculture and workingmen, all working together under a single + Government through scores of years, an economic power of the first + order, would be dissolved, artificially weakened by contradictory + influences, enervated by divergent official policies. The narrow + particularism which in the past and present has done so much harm + would dominate. The balance between the different political, + religious, and social tendencies in our country would be destroyed, + and Belgium would be left in a state of crisis which, through long + years, would render almost impossible the relief of the country and + the curing of the wounds caused by the war. + + +RIGHTS OF FLEMISH TONGUE + +In the years before the war the Belgian Parliament passed several laws +intended to assure to the Flemish language the place that belongs to it +in the national life, especially in the administrative, judicial, and +educational departments. It will suffice to recall the law of May 12, +1910, on secondary schools, and the law of July 2, 1913, on languages in +the army, making a knowledge of Flemish and French obligatory for +admission to the National Military School. At the moment when the war +broke out the Parliament was considering a proposition tending to +organize Flemish high schools, and in a report to the King, Oct. 8, +1916, the Government declared itself "convinced that immediately upon +the re-establishment of peace a general agreement of favorable +sentiments, which it will try to promote, will assure to the Flemings, +both in the higher schools and in all the others, that complete +equality, in right and in fact, which ought to exist under the +guarantees of our Constitution." (Moniteur, Oct. 8-14, 1916.) + +Only after the war can the Government solve the problems arising out of +the Flemish movement. The promoters of that movement themselves deplore +the intervention of an alien power and scorn the traitors who have +conspired with the enemy, accepting money and positions at his hand. It +is as loyal Belgian citizens, they declare, that they are striving for +reforms from which they expect a fuller intellectual development of +Flemish communities, and they see in such culture a new force of unity +for the nation, from which they by no means wish to be separated. + + +BELGIAN PREMIER'S VIEW + +_Baron de Broqueville, the Belgian Prime Minister, said to a +correspondent of The London Times:_ + +The Belgian people, after three and a half years of the most grinding +oppression, have shown by the courageous defiance of enemy bayonets +which brought about the collapse of the "activist" plot, that they have +lost none of their sturdy resolve to be free; that the spirit which +moved them to reject the German ultimatum of Aug. 2, 1914, is as strong +as ever. * * * + +Only one thing is worrying and humiliating in a quite special degree all +Belgians in occupied territory. It is the fear lest abroad it may be +imagined that there really is an "activist" movement in Belgium. All the +reports we have received on this point amount to this: "No one in +Belgium talks of this alleged movement, for it is nonexistent. There are +a few miserable individuals in German pay--always the same--who intrigue +and plot. All they have achieved is to arouse against them such feelings +of repulsion and hate that they have been thrust forever forth from the +nation, and nothing can cleanse them of their crime. For mercy's sake, +beg people not to insult us by treating the agitation of these +individuals seriously, and to stop seeing any agitation where there is +nothing but the work of a few paid traitors. + +It is in this sense that our compatriots write to us from behind the +German barrier. There, as elsewhere, the most ardent advocates of +Flemish claims reject foreign interference in internal policy, and they +treat as traitors to the cause all those who accept bribes from the +torturers of their country. + + + + +Stripping Belgian Industries + +Germany's Use of the "Rathenau Plan" for the Exploitation of Belgium and +Northern France + + +The German Government from the beginning of the war has systematically +stripped the factories of Belgium and other conquered territory with the +purpose, it is charged, of crippling industries in those countries, not +only as a war measure, but as an economic means of preventing future +competition. This phase of German war policy is treated in a brochure +edited by Professors Dana C. Munro of Princeton, George C. Sellery of +the University of Wisconsin, and August C. Krey of the University of +Minnesota. It is issued by the United States Committee on Public +Information under the title, "German Treatment of Conquered Territory." +The editors find their text in this statement by Deputy Beumer, made +before the Prussian Diet in February, 1917: + + _Anybody who knows the present state of things in Belgian industry + will agree with me that it will take at least some years--assuming + that Belgium is independent at all--before Belgium can even think of + competing with us in the world market. And anybody who has traveled, + as I have done, through the occupied districts of France, will agree + with me that so much damage has been done to industrial property + that no one need be a prophet in order to say that it will take more + than ten years before we need think of France as a competitor or of + the re-establishment of French industry._ + +This exploitation for the benefit of German industry is an outgrowth +of the plan suggested early in August, 1914, by Dr. Walter +Rathenau, President of the General Electric Company of Germany, to +establish a Bureau of Raw Materials for the War. The bureau +(Kriegsrohstoffabtheilung) was made a part of the Ministry of War. Its +operation in the occupied territories was explained in a lecture by Dr. +Rathenau in April, 1916, as follows: + + It was necessary to be sure of an increase in the reserve of raw + materials both by purchase in neutral countries and by monopolizing + all stocks found in the occupied territory of the enemy. * * * The + occupation of Belgium, of the most valuable industrial parts of + France, as well as of parts of Russia, made a new task for the + organization. It was necessary to make use of the stocks of raw + material of these three territories for the domestic economy of the + war, to use, especially, the stores of wool found at the centres of + the Continental wool market. Valuable stocks of rubber and of + saltpeter were to be used for the profit of the manufacturer at + home. The difficulties that are met with in keeping to the rules of + war while making these requisitions have been overcome. A system of + collecting stations, of depots and of organizations for distribution + was arranged which solved the difficulties of transportation, + infused new blood into industry at home, and gave it a firmer and + more secure basis. + + +BRAND WHITLOCK'S STATEMENT + +This plan, which has given German industry "a firmer and more secure +basis," was used not merely to "make war support war" by contributions +wrung from the conquered peoples, but also to destroy future +competition--in violation of The Hague Convention, (Articles 46, 52, +53,) which Germany had signed. In the first months of the war a pretense +was still made of acting under military necessity, but this was soon +abandoned. On March 4, 1915, Brand Whitlock, American Minister to +Belgium, reported to the State Department: + + The Federation of Belgian Steel and Iron Manufacturers forwarded a + protest to the German Governor General in Belgium, on Jan. 22, 1915, + complaining that the German authorities have invaded the Belgian + plants and seized the machinery and tools, which have been taken to + pieces and sent to Germany in great number; in many cases no receipt + was left in the hands of the legitimate owner to prove the nature, + number, and value of the seized tools. Machinery to the value of + 16,000,000 francs ($3,000,000) had been taken away up to Jan. 22. + + Furthermore, the Feldzeugmeisterei in Berlin has entered into a + contract with the firm Sonnenthal Junior of Cologne, which firm is + to collect, transport, and deliver to German manufactories of war + supplies all engines and tools seized in Belgium and France, and to + bring them back after the war is over. + + This contract provides, also, that the Sonnenthal Company has the + right and even is compelled, in co-operation with the gun foundry at + Liége, to pick out in factories of the occupied territory those + machines which seem most useful for the manufacture of German war + supplies and to propose the seizure of the machinery. + + The Royal Belgian Government protests, with indignation, against + these measures, which constitute a clear violation of Article 53 of + the regulations of the Fourth Hague Convention. The items enumerated + in Article 53 are limited and neither the seizure nor the transport + to another country of machinery and tools used in industry are + permitted; these implements must always be respected when they are + private property, (Article 46.) + + By the removal of these tools, the efforts made by the manufacturers + in order to maintain a certain activity in the plants are nullified, + numerous workmen are obliged to remain idle and are facing + starvation. These measures will also retard the restoration of + industry after the war is over. + + Furthermore, the German authorities disregard in a systematic way + the prescriptions of Article 52 of the above-mentioned regulations + of the Fourth Hague Convention, which stipulate that requisitions in + nature from towns and their inhabitants in the occupied territory + can only be permitted when they are directly destined for the army + of occupation. + + +UNJUST FINES + +A dispatch from Minister Whitlock dated at Brussels, Aug. 2, 1915, gives +a fuller memorandum on the subject, as follows: + + Upon the arrival of German troops at Brussels, the city and communes + of the agglomeration were required to pay as a war contribution the + sum of 50,000,000 francs in gold, silver, or banknotes, the Province + of Brabant having to pay, in addition, the sum of 450,000,000 + francs, to be delivered not later than Sept. 1, 1914. + + The sum of 50,000,000 francs imposed on the City of Brussels was + reduced to 45,000,000 francs, but the city was later subjected to a + penalty of 5,000,000 francs on the ground that two members of the + German Secret Service had been attacked by the crowd without + assistance having been rendered by the Brussels police. On this + point it may be noted that when Mr. Max, the Burgomaster, at the + beginning of the occupation, asked the German authorities to inform + him of the names of the German secret police agents whom they + intended to employ, he was told that there were no German secret + police in Brussels. + + In December, 1914, a contribution of 480,000,000 francs, payable at + the rate of 40,000,000 a month, was imposed on the provinces. + + At the beginning of April, 1915, a fine of 500,000 marks was imposed + on the City of Brussels, which refused to repair the road between + Brussels and Antwerp--a State road the repair of which devolved upon + the State. But the German authorities had taken over the State + moneys, and should, therefore, have assumed the expense of the work. + Furthermore, this road is entirely outside of the territory of the + City of Brussels, and, finally, the city had not the administration + for the maintenance or construction of roads, and had neither + material nor personnel to carry on such work. + + On Jan. 16, 1915, on Belgians who had voluntarily left the country + and had not returned by March 1, 1915, tenfold advance of personal + tax was made; and many taxes were imposed on communes as indemnity + for damages claimed by German citizens to have been suffered through + acts of the inhabitants at the time war was declared. + + When the German Army arrived in Brussels, it requisitioned for the + daily support of the troops 18,000 kilos of wheat, 10,000 kilos of + fresh meat, 6,000 kilos of rice, 10,000 kilos of sugar, and 72,000 + kilos of oats. Similar requisitions were made, in all cities in + which the German troops camped. The requisitions, however, exceeded + the needs of the troops in passing or in occupation, and a large + part of the requisitioned supplies was sent to Germany. + + At Louvain the German authorities requisitioned 250,000 francs' + worth of canned vegetables and at Malines about 4,000,000 francs' + worth. + + In Flanders and in part of Hainault the farmers were despoiled of + almost all their horses and cattle and the little wheat and grain + remaining. The little village of Middleburg, for instance, which + numbers 850 inhabitants, after having given up 50 cows, 35 hogs, and + 1,600 kilos of oats, was forced to furnish in January and February, + 1915, 100 hogs, 100,000 kilos of grain, 50,000 kilos of beans or + peas, 50,000 kilos of oats, and 150,000 kilos of straw. + + At Ghent and Antwerp the German authorities found about 40,000 tons + of oil-cake, necessary for the feeding of cattle in Winter, and + seized it. + + They also carried off several hundred thousand tons of phosphates + from Belgium for use in Germany. + + Walnut trees on private properties, as well as on State lands, were + cut down and requisitioned. + + Besides, draught horses--the result of a rational selection carried + on through more than a century and probably the most perfect Belgian + agricultural product--were carried off throughout all Belgium. Not + only did the German Army requisition horses necessary for its + wagons, mounts for its troops or artillery service, but it carried + away from the Belgian stock horses absolutely unfit for military + service, which were sent to Germany. The same is true as regards the + cattle. + + All crude materials indispensable for Belgian industries were + requisitioned and sent to Germany--leather, hides, copper, wool, + flax, &c. Furthermore, if not the entire stock, at least the + greatest number possible of machinery parts, were shipped to Germany + to be used, according to German statements, in making munitions + which the Belgian factories had refused to produce. + + At Antwerp, requisitions of all kinds of materials and products were + considerable, notably: + + Francs. + Cereals 18,000,000 + Oilcake, about 5,000,000 + Nitrate, over 4,000,000 + Oils--animal and vegetable--over 2,000,000 + Oils--petrol and mineral--about 3,000,000 + Wools 6,000,000 + Rubber 10,000,000 + Foreign leathers, to Dec. 1, about 20,000,000 + Hair 1,500,000 + Ivory, about 800,000 + Wood 500,000 + Cacao 2,000,000 + Coffee 275,000 + Wines 1,100,000 + + Cottons in large quantities--one house having been requisitioned to + the amount of 1,300,000 francs. Other enormous requisitions were + made on shop depots, &c., and are impossible of computation just + now. + + +PAYMENT WITHHELD + +The requisitions from Antwerp, which Mr. Whitlock enumerates, were the +subject of a protest by the Acting President of the Antwerp Chamber of +Commerce on March 18, 1915. He valued these goods at more than +83,000,000 francs ($16,600,000) and stated that only 20,000,000 francs +($4,000,000) had been paid by the German authorities. The reply of +Governor General von Bissing on Sept. 24 shows that up to that time +payment had not been made. The reason is indicated in the following +statement of German policy, published in the Frankfurter Zeitung Dec. +21, 1914: + + The raw materials which the Imperial Government has bought in + Antwerp, Ghent, and other places will be paid for as soon as + possible. The payment will be made only after the goods have been + transported into Germany and after the valuation has been made, and + _the payment shall be made in such manner that no money shall be + sent from Germany to Belgium during the period of the war_. + +Professor Munro and his fellow-editors have drawn freely upon the +official texts printed in the work entitled "German Legislation for the +Occupied Territories of Belgium," edited, in ten volumes, by Huberich +and Nicol-Speyer, (The Hague, 1915-17.) These volumes cover the period +from Sept. 5, 1914, to March 29, 1917, and contain a reprint of "The +Official Bulletin of Laws and Ordinances" in German, French, and +Flemish. The documents show that the first step under the Rathenau plan +was to ascertain what raw materials and other supplies were accessible. +Consequently, there were many ordinances commanding the declaration of +certain wares. The following is an example: + + Brussels, Dec. 11, 1914. + + All stocks of benzine, benzol, petroleum, spirits of alcohol, + glycerine, oils and fats of any kind, toluol, carbide, raw rubber + and rubber waste, as well as all automobile tires, shall immediately + be reported in writing to the respective chiefs of districts or + commanders, with a statement of quantity and the place of storage. + * * * + + If a report is not made the wares shall be confiscated for the State + and the guilty individual shall be punished by the military + authorities. (_From "German Legislation," &c., Vol. I., p. 95._) + +Such a declaration made it easy for the military authorities later to +acquire the wares either by direct requisition or by forced sales. The +following are examples: + + Brussels, Aug. 13, 1915. + + Article 1. The stocks of chicory roots existing within the + jurisdiction of the General Government in Belgium are hereby + commandeered. (_From "German Legislation," &c., Vol. IV., p. 148._) + + + Brussels, Jan. 8, 1916. + + Article 1. All wools (raw wool, washed wool, tops and noils, woolen + waste, woolen yarns, artificial wools, as well as mixtures of these + articles with others) and also all mattresses filled with the wools + above specified and now an object of trade or introduced into + trade, found within the jurisdiction of the General Government, are + hereby commandeered. + + Wool freshly shorn or in any other way separated from the skin shall + also be subject to seizure immediately upon its separation. (_From + "German Legislation," &c., Vol. VI., p. 57._) + +Between October, 1914, and March, 1917, there were ninety-two separate +ordinances of the General Government commanding the declaration, forced +sale, or confiscation of various materials. Of these, forty-five were +issued in 1915 and thirty-five in 1916. How these decrees passed by +rapid evolution from mere declaration to complete confiscation is +instanced in these typical examples: + +1. A decree issued at Brussels July 19, 1916, lists several pages of +textile materials which are to be declared. + +2. A decree of Aug. 22, 1916, enlarges the preceding list. + +3. A decree drawn up July 19, 1916, but not published till Sept. 12, +1916, declares 75 per cent. of this material subject to seizure by the +Militärisches Textil-Beschaffungsamt. + +4. Later decrees of seizure cover materials overlooked in these. + + +STRIPPING BELGIUM OF METALS + +Every scrap of metal in the conquered countries that could possibly be +seized has been confiscated. The ordinance below is given as an example +of the thoroughness of the system of requisitions. The prices to be paid +were entirely too low, and the sixth section shows that the owners were +not expected to part with their property willingly. The ordinance was +issued at Brussels Dec. 13, 1916: + + SECTION I. The following designated objects are hereby seized and + must be delivered. + + SECTION II. Movable and fixed household articles made of copper, + tin, nickel, brass, bronze or tombac, whatever their state: + + 1. Kitchen utensils, metal ware, and household utensils, except + cutlery. + + 2. Wash basins, bathtubs, warm-water heaters and reservoirs. + + 3. Individual or firm name plates in and on the houses, doorknobs, + knockers, and metal decorations on doors and carriages not necessary + for locking. + + 4. Curtain rods and holders and stair carpet fixtures. + + 5. Scales. + + 6. All other household articles or adornments made of tin. + + The articles included under the numerals 1-6 are subject to seizure + and delivery even when not contained in households in the narrow + sense, but in other inhabited or uninhabited buildings and rooms, + (_e. g._, offices of authorities, office rooms in factories and + entries.) + + SECTION III. Exempt from seizure and delivery: + + 1. Articles on and in churches and other buildings and rooms + dedicated to religious services. + + 2. Articles in hospitals and clinics, as well as in the private + offices of physicians, apothecaries, and healers, so far as these + articles are essential to the care of the sick or the practice of + medicine and cannot be replaced. + + 3. Articles in public buildings. + + 4. Articles which are part of commercial or industrial stores either + designated for sale or useful in the business. For these articles a + special decree is enacted.[3] + +[Footnote 3: Such articles in trade and industry were declared seized +Dec. 30, 1916. The form of that edict is practically the same as this, +penalties being somewhat higher. The listing of these articles had +occurred in July, 1916. Other items were added later and all were now +declared seized.] + + SECTION IV. Procedure of seizure is as follows: + + All alteration of the articles subject to seizure is forbidden. All + judicial disposition or change of ownership is interdicted, except + in so far as the following paragraphs permit. + + SECTION V. _Obligation to Deliver._ The delivery of the seized + articles must be made at the time and places designated by the + Division of Trade and Industry; it can also be made before the + requisition at the Zentral-Einkaufsgesellschaft for Belgium. Upon + delivery the ownership of the articles is vested in the German + Military Administration. + + Articles of artistic or historic value, if so recognized by the + Bureau of Delivery, need not be delivered. + + The Bureau of Delivery may, for unusual cause, grant exemptions from + delivery. + + SECTION VI. _Indemnity._ The following prices will be paid for the + delivered articles: + + Francs. + Copper, per kilo 4 + Tin 7.50 + Nickel 13 + Brass 3 + Bronze 3 + Tombac 3 + + In arranging the weight, seizures of nondesignated materials will + not be included. + + The payment will take place on the basis of the estimate made by the + Bureau of Delivery. Payment will be made to the deliverer without + question of his ownership. + + If the deliverer refuses to accept the payment he will be given a + receipt, and the determination of the indemnity in this case will + follow through the Reichsentschädigungskommission according to the + rules in force. + + SECTION VII. _Persons and Corporations Affected by This Decree:_ + + 1. House owners, inhabitants and heads of establishments. + + 2. Persons, associations, and corporations of a private or public + nature whose buildings or rooms contain articles enumerated in + Section 2. + + To this group, furthermore, belong also State, Church, and community + business and industrial establishments, including business, + industrial, and office buildings in the ownership, possession, or + guardianship of military and civil authorities. For buildings + abandoned or not occupied by their owners or inhabitants, the + communal authorities are responsible for the execution of this + decree. The district commanders are authorized to furnish further + instructions to the communities in this case. If dwelling houses are + occupied as quarters by German military or civil authorities the + execution of this order rests upon the military authorities + concerned. + + SECTION VIII. _Confiscation._ [Failure to comply with the provisions + of the decree entails confiscation.] + + SECTION IX. _Co-operation of Communities._ [Local authorities + ordered to co-operate in execution of this order.] + + SECTION X. _Certificates of Exemption._ [Verwaltungschef empowered + to issue certificates of exemption.] + + SECTION XI. _Punishment for Violations._ Any one who intentionally + or through gross negligence violates the present decree or + supplementary regulations will be punished with imprisonment not to + exceed two years or a fine not to exceed 20,000 marks, or both. Any + one who urges or incites others to violate the present decree or its + supplementary regulations will be punished in like manner, unless he + has incurred graver punishment under the general law. The attempt is + punishable. Military courts and military authorities are empowered + to try cases. (_From "German Legislation," &c., Vol. IX., pp. + 398-394._) + +Some industries which were not directly useful to the Germans were at +first allowed to resume work in whole or in part, for the Government +did not wish to cut off all sources of the enormous indemnities which it +was levying upon towns and individuals. But the rival manufacturers in +Germany objected angrily against this policy. Thus Dr. Goetze, head of +the German Glassmakers' Union, wrote in the Wirtschaftzeitung der +Zentralmächte, Nov. 10, 1916: + + It has become vital to the German manufacturers of glass wares that + the Belgian manufacturers should be stopped from going to neutral + markets, and it must be admitted that the German Civil + Administration has fully recognized the necessity of arranging this + matter according to the demands of the German industry, and that it + has taken suitable action. [In spite of this some Belgian shops were + able to do some exporting and had affected the market price.] + Measures must be taken to stop this. For this reason the factories + of Central and Eastern Germany, which are most directly concerned, + have secured the promulgation of an order stopping importation, + transit, and exportation. * * * We must demand that the German Civil + Administration of Belgium should first of all look out for the + protection of the interests of the German industry. + +In addition to securing the aid of the German Government in ruining +Belgian industries which competed with them, German manufacturers have +also been aided by the German Government in obtaining Belgian trade +secrets. For example, Dr. Bronnert secured a permit from the War +Ministry to visit the factory at Obourg for making artificial silk. He +took full notes of all that he could learn when he visited it, on Dec. +9, 1916, and carried away designs and parts of the machinery. Dr. +Bronnert is a director of a German factory for making artificial silk +which competes with the Belgian factory. (_From the "Informations +Belges," No. 307._) + + +HAGUE REGULATIONS FLOUTED + +When Belgium attempted to protest against the illegal requisitions, +citing The Hague regulations, they received answers such as the +following, which was read to the Municipal Council and notables of the +town of Halluin, June 30, 1915: + + Gentlemen: What is happening is known to all these gentlemen. It is + the conception and interpretation of Article 52 of The Hague + Convention which has created difficulties between you and the + German military authority. On which side is the right? It is not for + us to discuss that, for we are not competent, and we shall never + arrive at an understanding on this point. It will be the business of + the diplomatists and the representatives of the various States after + the war. + + Today it is exclusively the interpretation of German military + authority which is valid, and for that reason we intend that all + that we shall need for the maintenance of our troops shall be made + by the workers of the territory occupied. I can assure you that the + German authority will not under any circumstances desist from + demanding its rights, even if a town of 15,000 inhabitants should + have to perish. The measures introduced up to the present are only a + beginning, and every day severe measures will be taken until our + object is obtained. + + This is the last word, and it is good advice I give you tonight. + Return to reason and arrange for the workers to resume work without + delay; otherwise you will expose your town, your families, and your + persons to the greatest misfortunes. + + Today, and perhaps for a long time yet, there is for Halluin neither + a prefecture nor a French Government. There is only one will, and + that is the will of German authority. + + _The Commandant of the Town_, + SCHRANCK. + + (_From Massart's "Belgians Under the German Eagle," New York, 1916, + pp. 192-3._) + + +GERMANY'S PROFITS + +The German profits from the Rathenau plan were summarized thus frankly +by Herr Ganghofer in an article published in the Münchener Neueste +Nachrichten Feb. 26, 1915: + + For three months about four-fifths of the army's needs were supplied + by the conquered country. Even now, although the exhausted sources + in the land occupied by us are beginning to yield less abundantly, + the conquered territory is still supplying two-thirds of the needs + of the German Army in the west. Because of this, for the last four + months the German Empire has saved an average of 3,500,000 to + 4,000,000 marks a day. This profit which the Germans have secured by + their victory is very greatly increased by another means. That is + the economic war which, in accordance with the rules of + international law, is being carried on against the conquered land by + the exhaustion of the goods which belong to the State, which are + being carried to Germany from Belgium and Northern France. These are + in enormous quantities and consist of war booty, fortress supplies, + grain, wool, metal, expensive hardwood, and other things, not + including all private property which cannot be requisitioned. In + case of necessity this private property will, of course, be secured + to increase the German supply, but it will also be paid for at its + full value. What Germany saves and gains by this economic war, + carried on in a businesslike way, can be reckoned at a further + 6,000,000 to 7,000,000 marks a day. Thus the entire profit which the + German Empire has made behind its western front since the beginning + of the war can be estimated at about 2,000,000,000 marks. For + Germany this is a tremendous victory through the sparing and + increase in her economic power; for the enemy it is a crushing + defeat through the exhaustion of all of the auxiliary financial + sources in those portions of his territory which have been lost to + us. + + Of the branches and management of this economic war I shall have + more to say. Then people will learn to banish to the lumber room of + the past the catch phrase about "the unpractical German." A German + officer of high rank at St. Quentin characterized this happy change + which has taken place in our favor in these half-serious, + half-humorous words: "It is extraordinary how much a man learns! + Although in reality I am an officer of the Potsdam Guard, now I am + in the wool and lumber business. And successful, too!" + +Governor General von Bissing's testimony on this subject, as recorded in +his "Testament," will be found in full in CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE for +February, 1918, pp. 330-38. Among the passages from it quoted in the +pamphlet here under review is this: + + The advantages which we have been able during the present war to + obtain from Belgian industry, by the removal of machinery and so on, + are as important as the disadvantages which our enemies have + suffered through the lack of their fighting strength. + + + + +LANGHORNE'S DISPATCH + +That the systematic exploitation and destruction in Flanders and +Northern France were still going on in the Fall of 1917 is shown by the +following dispatch from the American Chargé d'Affaires in Holland: + + The Hague, Sept. 29, 1917. + + SECRETARY OF STATE, WASHINGTON: A person who has recently arrived + here from Ghent gives the following information as to conditions in + East and West Flanders and Northern France: + + The looms and machinery are being taken away from the textile mills + in Roubaix and Tourcoing and sent to Germany. Such machines as + cannot be removed and transported have in some instances been + dynamited, and in others are being destroyed with hammers. In the + neighborhood of Courtrai in Flanders all the mills have been ordered + to furnish a list of their machinery. The measures which have been + applied to the north of France will be carried out in Flanders. All + textile fabrics have been requisitioned by the military authorities, + even in small retail stores, and woolen blankets have been taken + from private houses. There is also extensive requisitioning of wine. + In the larger cities in the course of the past few weeks large + numbers of children of from 10 to 15 years have been brought in for + office work. There is a rapid increase in the number of women + brought in for this purpose. A marked animation was observed in the + Etappen inspection at Ghent last week. It is believed that at the + meeting of the inspection something unusual was being discussed. + + LANGHORNE, _Charge d' Affaires._ + + +DESTRUCTION STILL GOING ON + +That the Rathenau plan is still wringing the remnants of industrial +supplies from Belgium in 1918 is shown by documents still later than +those printed in the brochure just reviewed. In January linen and +mattresses were being taken from hotels, boarding houses, and convents +all over Belgium. The inhabitants were forbidden by law to have any wool +in their possession, but were offered a substitute made of seaweed. The +large electrical plant at Antwerp known as l'Escaut was stripped of its +machinery, which was transferred to a German plant. Belgian kitchens did +not escape. The huge copper pans and kettles, the glory of Belgian +housewives, had to go to Germany with the bright jars and jugs of the +milkmaids. Nearly every conceivable brass, copper, and bronze object had +been requisitioned by that time. + +The Belgian Government sent out a statement on Feb. 17, 1918, containing +these passages: + + The German authorities then aggravated the evils of industrial + stoppage by forbidding public works and commandeering the factories + and metals and leather for military purposes. After this they + instituted the barbarous system of deporting workmen to perform + forced labor in Germany, a system which they had to interrupt + officially, after some months, because it proved revolting to the + conscience of mankind, but only to substitute for it immediately the + forced labor of the civilian population, in work of military value, + by the order of the military authorities. This system is still being + cruelly maintained in the zones lying back of the fighting line in + the provinces of East and West Flanders, Hainault, Namur, and + Luxemburg. + + Meanwhile, the commandeering has become general, and affects both + natural and manufactured products and also tools, motors, and means + of transportation, whether mechanical or animal. Finally, fiscal and + administrative measures have been taken to close the last remaining + outlets for Belgian products into neutral countries. + + These facts are incontestable. They are proved by many rules and + regulations officially published by the German authorities. + + At present the raid upon the last economic resources of occupied + Belgium has been carried on to such an extent that they are + methodically taking away all the machinery from the factories, which + they themselves have made idle, in some cases to set it up again in + Germany, in other cases, to break it up and use it for grapeshot. + + The purpose of this entire system of destruction is double: First, + to supply deficiencies in German industry; secondly, to put an end + to Belgian competition and later to subject Belgian industry to that + of Germany when the time comes for refitting the factories with + machinery after the war. + + The proofs collected by the Belgian Government in support of this + statement are conclusive. It is significant that in general the task + of systematically stripping Belgian factories was intrusted to + German manufacturers who were the direct competitors of the Belgian + owners. Some of them have taken advantage of their official + positions to steal secrets of manufacturing processes, for example, + at the artificial silk shops of Obourg, and personal methods of + production and sale. + + And as to the fact that Germany is destroying the factories for a + military reason without any regard for the economic needs of Belgium + or for the rights of nations, it is sufficient to cite the following + passages from a semi-official note that appeared in the Norddeutsche + Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 392, of Dec. 18, 1917, in which Germany + distinctly pleads guilty: + + "All measures taken in Belgium are inspired by military necessity. + + "The exploitation, under military control, of Belgian factories in + order to repair locomotives and automobiles, and also to obtain + material of war for the front, is carried out for the purpose of + relieving the strain on German industry and economizing + transportation. It has become necessary to strip the Belgian + factories of their machinery and other fittings, because all German + industry is busy filling orders for material of war. * * * By + relieving the home market from the necessity of enlarging our own + factories we are accelerating the production of munitions and other + products. * * * In consequence of the intense activity of all German + industry our machinery and other equipment is tremendously + overworked, and must from time to time be partly replaced by new + machines, while, furthermore, we must be able to furnish spare parts + rapidly unless we wish to see our output of munitions diminish. The + machinery and equipment required for these purposes are evidently + brought from Belgian factories. The destruction of whole factories + for the production of grapeshot is effected in order to maintain at + its present level the supply of iron and steel in Germany, or, if + possible, to raise it. * * * It is not only possible, but even + evident, that, in view of all the steps taken by the military + authorities, the question of keeping up work in some of the + factories of the occupied country must be subordinated to + considerations tending to spare the lives of German soldiers and + thus protect our national power." + +[Illustration: Trafalgar Square, London, as it appears after three and a +half years of war + +(© Western Newspaper Union)] + +[Illustration: A typical scene in Flanders today, with all signs of +civilization completely obliterated + +(_International Film Service_)] + +This record of the deliberate crippling of Belgian industries was +brought up to March 6, 1918, by an official dispatch to the United +States Government, quoting the statement of Belgian refugees to the +effect that dynamite was being used to destroy machines and equipment in +factories in the Mons district. Rails of tramways were being taken up, +and in some cities they were entirely destroyed. Meanwhile, deportation +of men, and even of children 13 years old, was proceeding, several +hundred boys between the ages of 13 and 15 being taken from Mons alone. + + + + +Spoliation of Belgian Churches + +Cardinal Mercier's Protest + + +Cardinal Mercier, Archbishop of Malines, issued the following letter to +the clergy and people of his diocese on March 2, 1918: + + _My Very Dear Brethren:_ + + The painful tidings, announced semi-officially on Feb. 8, by the + occupying power, have been confirmed. The bulletin of laws and + edicts, dated Feb. 21, requires an inventory of the bells and organs + of our churches. Informed by experience, we need not delude + ourselves; the inventory of today is the signal for the requisition + of tomorrow. + + The repeated protests of the Sovereign Pontiff, our appeal to the + Chancellor of the Empire, appear thus to have been in vain. + + Your Christian hearts will bleed. At a time when we are in such need + of comfort, a veil of mourning will descend upon our land, covering + like a shroud our every day. It is to be for Catholic Belgium an + interminable Way of the Cross. + + It is true, is it not, dear brethren, that we should have borne this + sorrow, added to so many others, if it had concerned ourselves + alone, but this time the rights of God, of our Saviour, Jesus, the + freedom of the Church and of her heritage are to be sacrificed to + what is called necessity, that is, to the military need of our + enemies. + + "This term, liberty of the Church, rings harshly on the ears of + politicians," writes the great Dom Gueranger. They immediately + discern therein the signs of a conspiracy. Now there is no thought + in our minds either of conspiracy or of revolt, but of the + indefeasible affirmation of the rights granted to His Immaculate + Spouse by our Saviour, Jesus. + + The freedom of the Church lies in her complete independence with + regard to all secular powers, not alone in her teachings of the + Word, in the administering of the sacraments, in the untrammeled + relations between all ranks of her Divine hierarchy, but also in the + publishing and applying of her disciplinary decrees--in the + conservation and administration of her temporal heritage. + + "Nothing in the world is dearer to God than this liberty of His + Church," says St. Anselm. + + The Apostolic See, through the medium of Pope Pius VIII., wrote on + June 30, 1830, to the Bishops of the Rhine Province: "It is in + virtue of a Divine order that the Church, spotless spouse of the + Immaculate Lamb, Jesus Christ, is free and subject to no earthly + dominion." + + "This freedom of the Church," continues Dom Gueranger, "is the + bulwark of the very sanctuary, hence, the shepherd, sentinel of + Israel, should not wait until the enemy has entered into the fold + to sound the cry of alarm. The duty of protecting his flock begins + for him at the moment of the enemy's siege of his outposts, upon + whose safety depends the police of the entire city." + + In the execution of this duty of our pastoral office we protest, + dear brethren, against the injury which the forcible seizure of + church property will cause to the liberty of our mother, the Holy + Church. + + We add that the removal of the bells without the consent of the + religious authorities and despite their protests will be a + sacrilege. + + The bell is, in fact, a sacred object its function is sacred. It is + a consecrated object; that is to say, it is devoted irrevocably to + Divine service. It has been not only blessed but anointed by the + Bishop with the holy oil and the holy chrism, just as you were + anointed and consecrated at holy baptism; just as anointed and + consecrated as the priest's hands which are to touch the consecrated + wafer. + + The function of the bell is holy. The bell is sanctified by the Holy + Ghost, says the liturgy, sanctificetur a Spiritu Sancto, to the end + that, in its voice, the faithful shall recognize the voice of the + Church calling her children to hasten to her breast. + + It announced your initiation into Christian life, your confirmation, + your first communion. It announced, dear parents, your Christian + marriage; it weeps for the dead; thrice daily it marks the mystery + of the Incarnation; it recalls the immolation of the Lamb of God on + the altar of sacrifice; it sings the joys of Sabbath rest, the cheer + of our festivals of Christmas, of Easter, of Pentecost. Her prayers + are associated with all the events and all the great memories, happy + or unhappy, of the fatherland. + + Yes, the seizure of our bells will be a profanation; whosoever + assists in it will lend the hand to a sacrilege. + + The Catholic Bishops of Germany and Austria will not deny these + principles. If their patriotism has wrung from them concessions + which must have cost their religious spirit dear, patriotism with us + confirms on the contrary the law of resistance. We would be + betraying the Church and the fatherland were we so cowardly as to + permit without a public act of reprobation the taking away of metal + to be converted by the enemy into engines of destruction, destined + to carry death into the ranks of the heroes who are sacrificing + themselves for us. + + The authorities, strangers to our beliefs, will not be greatly + moved, I fear, by the protest, however worthy of respect, of our + religious consciences, but at least they should remember their given + word and not tear up a juridical code which their believers have + elaborated with us and promulgated. Morality has force of law for + Governments as for individuals. + + On Oct. 18, 1907, the representatives of forty-four Governments + gathered together at The Hague, drew up a convention concerning laws + and customs of war on land. + + They were assembled, they proclaimed unanimously, for a double + purpose--in the first place to safeguard peace and prevent armed + conflicts between nations; and, in the second place, in the extreme + hypothesis of an appeal to arms, to serve, nevertheless, the + interests of humanity and the progressive demands of civilization by + restraining, as much as possible, the rigors of war. + + To this convention there was annexed a set of regulations which, the + general tenor of its clauses having been examined a first and a + second time, respectively, during the peace conferences held in 1874 + at Brussels and in 1899 at The Hague, was submitted a third time, in + 1907, to careful study at the second conference at The Hague and + signed by the plenipotentiaries of all the great powers. + + The first signer of this code of international law in wartime was + Baron Marschall von Bieberstein, delegated by his Majesty, the + German Emperor, King of Prussia. + + Articles 52 and 46 of the regulations annexed to the convention are + formulated as follows: + + "Article 52. Neither requisitions in kind nor service can be + demanded from communes or inhabitants, except for the necessities of + the army of occupation." + + "Article 46. Family honor and rights, individual life and private + property, as well as religious convictions and worship, must be + respected." + + Evidently bells and organs are not necessary to supply the needs of + the army of occupation, they lie in the domain of private property, + are destined for the exercise of Catholic worship. + + The transformation of these articles of the Church into war + munitions will be, therefore, a flagrant violation of international + law, an act of force perpetrated on the weaker by the stronger + because he is the stronger. + + We Belgians, who have never wished nor acted other than well toward + Germany, we are the weak ones. I call you all to witness, brethren, + is it not true that prior to 1914 a current of sympathy, of esteem, + of generous hospitality was turning our trusting hearts toward those + who are today so harshly oppressing us? You will remember that on + the very day of the invasion the first lines that flowed from my pen + spoke to you of those "whom we have the sorrow to call our enemies." + For four years Germany has been rewarding us. Nevertheless, we will + not rebel. You will not seek in desperate recourse to material + force the sudden triumph of our rights. + + Courage does not reside in passionate impulse but in self-mastery. + We will offer to God in reparation for the sacrilege which is about + to be committed against Him, and for the final success of our cause, + our supreme sacrifice. + + Let us pray, one for the other, that the arm of the All-Powerful may + lend us support; "Lord," says the Holy Spirit, in the Book of + Esther, "Lord, Sovereign Master, all is subject to Thy authority. + Nothing, nobody, is capable of resisting Thee if Thou shalt decide + to save Israel. * * * Grant our prayer, Lord! Transform our grief + into joy, so that, living, we may glorify Thy name. * * * Thou art + just, Lord. Now they are no longer satisfied to weigh us down under + the most grievous servitude, they intend to silence the voices that + praise Thee and to tarnish the glory of the temple. Remember us, O + Lord. Reveal Thyself to us in this hour of our tribulation. * * * O + God, Thou art exalted above all, hearken to the voice of those who + place their hopes in Thee. Deliver us from the blows of injustice + and grant that our courage may control our fears." + + In the name of the freedom of the Church, in the name of the + sanctity of the Catholic religion, in the name of international law, + we condemn and reprove the seizure of the bells and organs of our + churches; we forbid the clergy and faithful of our diocese to + co-operate toward their removal; we refuse to accept the price of + the sacred objects taken from us by violence. + + Strong in invincible hope, we await the hour of our God. + + D. J. CARDINAL MERCIER, Archbishop of Malines. + + + + +Belgium's Appeal to the Bolsheviki + +_The Belgian Government, shortly after the Bolshevist Government of +Russia deserted the Allies and disbanded its armies, sent this eloquent +appeal to Petrograd:_ + + +By the treaty of April 19, 1839, Russia placed her guarantee upon the +independence and neutrality of Belgium. On Aug. 4, 1914, when Germany +had violated this neutrality--which the German Government also had +guaranteed--Belgium appealed to Russia for aid. To this appeal Russia +replied on Aug. 5 by promising the assistance of her arms. Thus Belgium +entered into the struggle for independence and neutrality, trusting in +the unswerving loyalty of the Russian people. + +On Feb. 14, 1916, Russia undertook to renew by a solemn act the pledges +she had made regarding Belgium, "heroically faithful to her +international obligations." Russia declared before a listening world +that she would not cease hostilities until Belgium should be +re-established in her independence and liberally indemnified for the +losses she had endured. Furthermore, Russia promised her aid in assuring +the commercial and financial rehabilitation of Belgium. + +The authorities placed in power by the Russian revolution have just +signed--on Feb. 9 and March 3, 1918--treaties under which they lay down +their arms before the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires. + +Yet Belgium is still the prey of the imperial armies, which oppress her, +decimating her population by privations and pitiless repressions, and +overwhelming her with the worst kind of moral tortures. To these +violences the Belgian Nation continues to oppose forces of resistance +drawn from a consciousness of right, from the beauty of her cause, from +her love of liberty. + +Respect for treaties is the basis of the moral and juridical relations +of States and the condition of an honest and regular international +order. Carried into the war by a will to compel respect for a treaty +which Russia had guaranteed, Belgium is pursuing the struggle without +wavering, and at the price of the most cruel sacrifices. She considers +that the promise of Russia, in which she trusted, is still binding. She +refuses to believe that the Russian people, master of its destinies, +will irrevocably abandon the promises made in its name. Confident in the +honor and loyalty of the Russian people, Belgium reserves to herself the +right to implore the execution of obligations whose permanent character +places them outside any internal changes of régime in the State. + + + + +Serbia's Hopes and Russia's Defection + +By Nikola Pashitch + +_Premier and Foreign Minister of Serbia_ + +[Speech delivered March 31, 1918, before the Skupshtina at Corfu and +especially translated for CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE] + + +Since the last meeting of this Assembly a great number of events have +come to pass which have measurably modified the general military and +political situation. One of our greatest allies, Russia, has retired +from the battlefield, but another ally, quite as powerful as Russia, but +doubtless not yet bringing to bear all the force of which she is +capable, has rushed to our aid. + +These two principal events, with others of less importance, have +perceptibly changed the situation which existed more than a year ago, +when Germany proposed to us the conclusion of a peace "honorable" for +both the belligerent groups. Already at that time had Germany perceived +the impossibility of fighting her adversaries by military force alone, +and was obliged to resort to other means, which she had already +employed, although in a more restrained fashion. So Germany decided to +make more energetic use of her hidden channels with the idea of +disorganizing in the quickest possible time the unity of her +adversaries. She contrived intrigues, employing different methods +according to the country where they were to be used and where she +believed they would succeed. + +You still remember the case of Miassoyedov, which was perpetrated with +the aim of annihilating an entire Russian army. You also remember the +attempt of the enemy to have Ireland revolt, an experiment which +dismally failed owing to the prompt and energetic measures taken by the +British Government. Surely you have a vivid memory of the criminal +exploitation which the enemy Governments made in Italy of the Papal note +in favor of peace. Also, you remember the numerous cases of arson of +munition plants by the action of their agents, and the enemy propaganda +of a premature peace for the benefit of Germany, employed to the limit +by pacifists and certain imperialist and international adventurers +through lectures and "defeatist" newspapers in neutral countries. + + +RUSSIA ALONE DECEIVED + +All these intrigues were clothed in fine phrases and put forward with +high humanitarian ideals, by which the enemy propagated monarchistic +ideas in republics and republican ideas in monarchies, eulogizing a +military régime in democratic countries and in autocracies democratic, +republican, and even anarchistic ideals. + +They all had one sole end--to provoke internal disorders and discord +among the Allies in order to divert the attention of Germany's +adversaries from the principal aim. In every allied country these secret +machinations of our enemies were unmasked and repelled. Repelled--except +in Russia. All these intrigues and secret machinations could not succeed +anywhere except in Russia, where there are many Germans, and where our +enemies managed to concentrate the entire attention of a people in the +midst of war upon their internal organization. In this way the +possibility was placed in the hands of enemies--most dangerous to the +liberty of the people and to their right to dispose freely of their +destiny--to guide more easily the struggle with free and democratic +nations reared against Prussianism in order to defend the rights of the +weak and prevent the enslaving of other countries and other peoples. + + +RUSSIAN LIBERTY DESTROYED + +The first revolutionary movement in Russia was directed against an +autocratic and irresponsible Government. On the side of the revolution +they pretended that the Government had initiated pourparlers for a +separate peace with Germany unknown to the Russian people and the +Allies. After this first movement, a second took place in Russia +demanding a democratic peace "without annexations and indemnities" on +the basis of the right of peoples to determine their destiny freely and +for themselves. + +This second revolutionary provisional Government not having the desire +to cut the bonds which attached Russia to the democratic and allied +countries, a third movement followed, which did not hesitate to cut the +bonds uniting Russia to the Allies, to demobilize the Russian armies--an +act contrary to all reason, even revolutionary--and to initiate +pourparlers with the enemy at Brest-Litovsk for a separate peace. + +The result of these pourparlers was the capitulation of the Maximalists +to Prussian militarism, the disguised annexation by Germany of the great +Baltic provinces of Russia, and the conclusion of peace between the +Central Powers and the Ukraine, by which the latter separated from her +enfeebled sister in order consciously to aid the enemies of the Slav +race. The recognition of the independence of Finland, Caucasia, and +Poland by the Central Powers followed, and, upon its heels, +disintegration and general discord in Russia finally giving place to the +present civil and fratricidal war. + +We would not wish to deny that the Russian revolution counted for +something in the ranks of its sincere combatants in the way of high +social ideals, for democratic reforms, and for liberty. But, judging +from its results, it is impossible to deny that the Russian revolution +sustained a German influence, and that this influence so far has been +useful only to Germany, who still makes war on Russia in order to +prevent the latter from unifying her enfeebled peoples and +re-establishing her position in the world. + + +A SHAMEFUL CATASTROPHE + +The Russian revolutionists fell before the blow of Prussian militarism +and surrendered to it the peoples who had hoped to obtain the right of +self-determination. It is possible, even probable, that the situation in +Russia may improve. But at present what the Germans aimed at in Russia +has been attained. They have taken away Russian provinces, incited civil +war in the Russian fatherland, and removed the danger of the Russian +armies which threatened them. These armies having been prematurely +demobilized for incomprehensible reasons, the enemy is able to direct +all his forces against his other adversaries. He has also obtained in +this way a considerable amount of war material and food. + +This catastrophe, which has covered the Russian people with shame, has +been a lesson to all other nations, for it has definitely confirmed the +conviction that it was certainly Germany who provoked this terrible war +with the aim of conquest and hegemony. + +But the great and free America did not wait for this moment before +deciding to declare war on Germany, who had placed above the principles +of right and justice that of brute force. On account of the Germans' +conduct in the war, which surpassed all known horror and barbarism, not +sparing even neutral nations, the United States became convinced that it +was its duty to restrain this bestial force if the world were not to +fall under the yoke of Prussian militarism. America entered the war to +defend civilization and the right of people to dispose of themselves. + + +AMERICANS TO THE BREACH + +The appearance of North America on the war stage filled the place made +vacant by the surrender of Russia. Our allies having come to the +conviction that they could count no longer on Russia, and that it would +even be dangerous to regard her as a military asset, have employed all +their forces in conformity with the new situation in order to fortify +the solidarity which unites them and to augment their military and +material force in proportion to what they had lost by the withdrawal of +Russia, all with the idea of assuring the world a just and durable peace +based on the liberty of the people to be self-determining. The strength +of the army of our allies is greater by far than that of the enemy, not +only in man power but also in material. Organization is improving, +and on all questions there is complete accord. Quite recently German war +atrocities decided Japan to participate still more actively in the +struggle. + +The Serbian people, who have made the greatest sacrifice and given the +finest proofs of their loyalty and fidelity toward the Allies, may +therefore be certain that their sacrifices have not been in vain, and +that their ideals will be realized if they continue to give in the +future the evidence of their military and civil virtues, and if, as in +the past, they abhor all intrigues having for their aim the destruction +of our concord and union in defense of the interests of our people, who +bear three names, but who form but one nation. We have observed that +Austria-Hungary, particularly in these latter days, has intensified her +intrigues and her calumnies against the Serbian people. She began by +spreading in Western Europe the false rumor that Serbia had tried, in an +indirect way, to initiate pourparlers for a separate peace, because in +our country and on the front of the Serbian Army she had suggested that +she would be disposed to end the war against Serbia were it not for the +fact that King Peter and the Serbian Government were opposed to the +project. All such intrigues and calumnies have only one end--to destroy +the faith which our allies have in the Serbian people, to rupture the +national concord, and by our discord and quarrels to assure the conquest +of the Serbian Nation. + + +SERBIA STILL FAITHFUL + +But our people know Austria-Hungary too well to be taken in by these +infamous intrigues and to believe her lying words. The nation remains +faithful to her noble allies, who are pouring out their blood for little +and weak nations, and will not deviate one hair's breadth from her stand +until the end. The Serbian people have given all that they have, and +now, although few in numbers, they still stand faithfully by the side of +the Allies. They should never lose sight of the fact that it was +Austria-Hungary who provoked the war with the idea of annihilating +Serbia. + +Our allies will not fail to acquire the conviction that the various +peoples of Austria-Hungary cannot be free, and that a durable peace +cannot be guaranteed so long as these peoples shall live in the State of +the Hapsburgs, who from peoples once free have made Germano-Magyar +slaves and have prevented their development by subjecting them to +Germano-Magyar exploitation. + +Germanism in its drive toward the Orient hurled itself upon Serbia, and +only as a single united nation of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, closely +bound to Italy, can we obstruct the German push toward the Orient and +Adriatic, and aid in the establishment of a durable peace. + +We ask only justice. We demand that slavery of peoples be abolished, +just as slavery of individuals was suppressed. We demand equality among +all nations, whether great or small, the fraternity and equality of all +nationalities, and the foundation of a free State of all the reunited +Jugoslavs. The return of Alsace-Lorraine to France and the complete +re-establishment of independent Belgium; the re-establishment of the +kingdom of all the Czechs, also that of all the Poles, the union of +Italians with Italy, of Rumanians with Rumania, of Greeks with Greece, +all of which would constitute the greatest and most solid guarantee for +a just and lasting international peace. Hence we proclaim what should be +realized soon or later--if not after this war then after a new shedding +of blood--because this realization is identified with the progress of +civilization and of humanity. + +These great ends, humane and just, which are incarnated with the life +and growth of civilization, we repeat, should be realized. They embrace +those great ideals which spring from the soul and sentiments of +individuals and races, and which will vanquish the brute force of +certain anachronistic States, just as, in the last century, they +vanquished the brute force of the individual. + +Let us pledge our honor and eternal gratitude to all the peoples who are +fighting for the right of all nations to shape their own destiny and for +an international peace both just and lasting. + + + + +Rumania's Peace Treaty + +Why the Onerous Terms of the Central Powers Had to be Accepted + + +The peace treaty between Rumania and the Central Powers was signed at +Bucharest May 6, 1918, and is called "the peace of Bucharest." Dr. von +Kühlmann, the German Foreign Secretary, was Chairman of the +plenipotentiaries representing the Central Powers. A comprehensive +synopsis of the terms of the treaty appears elsewhere in this issue of +CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE. + +A writer in The London Times explains why Rumania was compelled to +accept the enemy's exacting terms. He quotes General Averescu, the +Rumanian Prime Minister, in these words: + + If Rumania accepts the humiliating German peace terms and is ready + to yield to her enemies the dearest part of her territory, she does + not do it only to spare the lives of the remnants of her army, but + for the sake of her allies, too. If Rumania refuses the German + conditions today she may be able to resist another month, but the + results will be fatal. A month later she might have to lose even the + shadow of independence which is left to her now; and then, no doubt, + the Germans would deal with her in the same way as they dealt with + occupied France and with Belgium. The whole Rumanian army would be + made prisoners, and would be sent to work on the western front + against the Allies, while the civilian population would be compelled + to work in ammunition and other factories for the Kaiser's army. I + fought in the ranks in 1877 to help my country to win the Dobrudja. + You may imagine how I feel now, having to sign the treaty which + gives it to our worst enemies. But we are compelled to amputate an + important part of our body in order to save the rest of it. However + painful it may be, we are bound to do it. + + +DESERTED BY RUSSIA + +To understand Rumania's situation, as The London Times correspondent +goes on to say, we have to consider her position since Kerensky's fall. +At the end of November, 1917, the front from the Bukowina to the Black +Sea was held by a Russo-Rumanian force. Its flanks from Dorna-Watra to +Tergu-Ocna and from Ivesti to the Black Sea were held by three Russian +armies, numbering about 450,000 men, and by two Rumanian armies of about +180,000 men. The Russian armies were, of course, weakened by many +desertions and by lack of discipline, so that their actual was much less +than their nominal strength. Nevertheless, about 350,000 Russians were +still holding the front at that time. When the Russian armistice was +signed, Rumania was compelled, by the joint threats of Germany and the +Soviets of the Rumanian front, to adhere to it. From that day the +Russian troops began to leave the trenches, not in hundreds, as they did +before, but in masses of thousands at a time. Thus, at the end of +January, 1918, hardly 50,000 Russians remained on the whole Rumanian +front, and they had no desire to fight the enemy, but, being from +Siberia or some other remote part of Russia, found it more convenient to +spend their time in Rumania than to go back to their own country. They +could easily raise money by selling to the highest bidder (Austrian or +Rumanian) their guns, rifles, motor cars, &c. + +For a certain time many--especially the French--believed strongly in the +Ukraine and in the promises of the Rada. Much money had been spent in +recruiting an army of the Ukraine which was supposed to fill the gaps +left by the Russian Army on the southwestern front. All that I saw of +this army was a group of about 150 boys, none of them over the age of +16, armed with rifles with fixed bayonets, a pistol, a sword, and a +dagger. All wore spurs, though none of them had a horse. They paraded in +the main streets of Jassy daily between 11 and 12. I calculated that +every one of these boys cost the Entente well over £10,000. But in time +the most incorrigible dreamers realized that the Ukraine had played a +trick on Rumania. Then the handsome Ukrainian toy soldiers were +withdrawn from circulation, and no army ever replaced the Russians. + +In the meantime, the Rumanian Government decided, for political and +military reasons, to occupy Bessarabia. This operation required no less +than seven divisions. Thus at the beginning of February the same front +which was held in November by over 500,000 men was occupied by barely +120,000. Army supplies were getting shorter every day; and Rumania, +being in a state of war with the Bolshevist Government, was completely +cut off from the rest of her allies. In these circumstances Germany had +an easy prey, and dealt with it in true German fashion. + + +AN IMPERIOUS SUMMONS + +When the treaty with the Ukraine was signed Rumanian Headquarters +received a note from General Morgen, the German Commander in Chief, +saying that, as peace with Russia had been concluded, the Rumanian +armistice had come to an end, and that delegates should be sent without +delay to Focsani to examine the new situation. The Rumanian delegates +arrived at Focsani next day. They were received with such insolence by +the German delegates that the Chief of the Rumanian General Staff, +General Lupesco, threatened to leave immediately. The discussions, +however, did not last very long, and the mission came back with the +announcement that Rumania had to decide within four days whether she was +ready to discuss peace terms or not. A Crown Council was held +immediately; and the majority of the Generals declared that the army +could resist for a month at the most. M. Bratiano and M. Take Jonescu, +who could not consent to make peace with the enemy, resigned, and the +King asked General Averescu, the most popular man in Rumania, to form a +new Cabinet. + +Meanwhile, King Ferdinand received a telegram from Berlin, by which he +was warned that the Austro-German Government would not discuss peace +terms with a Cabinet which included M. Bratiano or any member of his +former Cabinet. The feelings of the King of Rumania--when he saw that +even before peace discussions had begun the enemy had begun to interfere +in Rumania's internal politics--can be appreciated. But King Ferdinand +carried his head high, as he had done all through the tragic misfortunes +of his country, and was indifferent to German arrogance. He replied to +Herr von Kühlmann that Rumania was an independent country, and had a +right to any Government she pleased. But none of the members of the +former Cabinet came into the new one. General Averescu formed a +Government which had the tragic task of concluding peace, and thus of +annihilating, temporarily at least, all the tremendous efforts that +Rumania had made during the preceding fifty years to become, +economically as well as politically, the leading power in the Balkans. + + +THREE HUNGRY ENEMIES + +The peace negotiations were supposed to last for a fortnight at most. In +fact, they were nothing more than a farce, for the Germans allowed no +discussion at all. They simply laid their preliminary conditions before +the Rumanian delegates, and, taking advantage of the military +helplessness of Rumania, told them: "You can take it or can leave it." +The Rumanian delegates made a few attempts to discuss the German terms, +but they soon found that it was useless and that the only thing to do +was to yield. + +The fact was that Rumania had to satisfy three hungry enemies. Each had +his own object, but in each case the result was the same from the point +of view of Rumania--subjection to the German yoke. The Bulgarians were +eager to accomplish their ideal of "a great Bulgaria" by the annexation +of the Dobrudja. Therefore, Rumania had to give up the Dobrudja. The +Austrians, under Magyar pressure, demanded the surrender of the +Carpathian passes--a condition which was pressed by Count Czernin, who +remembered with bitterness the rebuff that he had suffered from the +Rumanian King and Government at the time when Rumania came into the war. +The Germans were determined to seize the immensely rich oilfields of +Rumania and to secure for an unlimited period Rumanian wheat for +Germany at a price to be fixed by German authorities. For years Germany +had tried to get control of the Rumanian oilfields. Where bribes and the +offer of a heavy price had failed, the chance of war now insured +success. The oilfields were seized nominally by way of a monopoly for +ninety-nine years. + + +GERMANY'S SHARE OF BOOTY + +As usual, Germany's allies had to yield up some of the prey to her. Thus +the Germans succeeded in setting up a condominium over the most +important part of the Dobrudja, between Constanza and the mouths of the +Danube. From Campina, the centre of the oilfields district, a pipe line +runs direct to Constanza, where the oil can be stored in enormous tanks, +which were left practically untouched when Constanza was abandoned in +November, 1916. It is essential for Germany that she should control the +pipe line, and this she will certainly do under the form of the +condominium. + +As for the grain supply, the Germans, who had had to pay a heavy price +for Rumanian grain before Rumania went to war, owing especially to +British competition, were particularly careful to insure now against the +repetition of anything so unpleasant. The form of the agreement which +was dictated to Rumania on this point is that the surplus is to go to +Germany after the needs of Rumania have been satisfied. What the needs +of Rumania may be will be decided by a Rumanian commission; but this is +to be under German control, and there is not much doubt that the ration +allowed to the Rumanian population will be proportioned pretty +accurately to the needs of Germany. + +These territorial and economic advantages secured, Germany went on to +add humiliation for Rumania to the heavy toll of material loss. They +insisted that the eight Rumanian divisions which were holding the +Rumanian front should be demobilized at once under the control of German +staff officers. Finally, the Germans asked that the Rumanian Government +should give all possible facilities to a German force to pass through +Rumania to Odessa. In point of fact, on March 10, long before the peace +conditions were settled, the first German battalions passed through +Galatz on their way to the Ukraine. + +All these humiliating conditions had to be accepted. The motive of the +Germans in piling up their enactions so frequently was evidently to +compel the Averescu Cabinet, which they suspected of being pro-ally, to +resign. They hoped to force the King to form a Cabinet of their +Bucharest friends. In this they succeeded. The present Government of +Rumania may be pro-German; but the Rumanian Nation--from the last +peasant soldier, who brought the Germans to a stand last Summer at +Maraseshti and Oitoz, to the King--bitterly hates everything German. +Isolated as Rumania is now, she waits breathlessly for the victory of +the Allies, hoping to be helped to free herself from German dominion. + + + + +The Peace of Bucharest + +Synopsis of Rumania's Peace Treaty + + +Following is a comprehensive summary of the treaty finally signed by the +Rumanian Government at Bucharest, May 6, 1918: + + Clause 1.--_Re-establishment of Peace and Friendship._ + + Article I. Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey, on the + one hand, and Rumania on the other, declare the state of war ended + and that the contracting parties are determined henceforth to live + together in peace and friendship. + + Article II. Diplomatic and Consular relations between the + contracting parties will be resumed immediately after the + ratification of the peace treaty. The admission of Consuls will be + reserved for a future agreement. + + Clause 2.--_Demobilization of the Rumanian Forces._ + + Article III. The demobilization of the Rumanian Army, which is now + proceeding, will immediately after peace is signed be carried out + according to the prescriptions contained in Articles IV. and VII. + + Article IV. The regular military bureau, the supreme military + authorities and all the military institutions will remain in + existence as provided by the last peace budget. The demobilization + of divisions eleven to fifteen will be continued as stipulated in + the treaty of Focsani signed on March 8 last. Of the Rumanian + divisions one to ten, the two infantry divisions now employed in + Bessarabia, including the Jäger battalions which are the remnants of + dissolved Jäger divisions, and including two cavalry divisions of + the Rumanian Army, will remain on a war footing until the danger + arising from the military operations now being carried on in the + Ukraine by the Central Powers ceases to exist. + + The remaining eight divisions, including the staff, shall be + maintained in Moldavia at the reduced peace strength. Each division + will be composed of four infantry regiments, two cavalry regiments, + two field artillery regiments, and one battalion of pioneers, + together with the necessary technical and transport troops. The + total number of the infantry of the eight divisions shall not exceed + 20,000 men; the total number of cavalry shall not exceed 3,200; the + entire artillery of the Rumanian Army, apart from the mobile + divisions, shall not exceed 9,000 men. The divisions remaining + mobilized in Bessarabia must, in case of demobilization, be reduced + to the same peace standard as the eight divisions mentioned in + Article 4. + + All other Rumanian troops which did not exist in peace time will at + the end of their term of active military service remain as in peace + time. Reservists shall not be called up for training until a general + peace has been concluded. + + Article V. Guns, machine guns, small arms, horses, and cars and + ammunition, which are available owing to the reduction or the + dissolution of the Rumanian units, shall be given into the custody + of the Supreme Command of the allied (Teutonic) forces in Rumania + until the conclusion of a general peace. They shall be guarded and + superintended by Rumanian troops under supervision of the allied + command. The amount of ammunition to be left to the Rumanian Army in + Moldavia is 250 rounds for each rifle, 2,500 for each machine gun, + and 150 for each gun. The Rumanian Army is entitled to exchange + unserviceable material at the depots of the occupied region, in + agreement with the allied Supreme Command, and to demand from the + depots the equivalent of the ammunition spent. The divisions in + Rumania which remain mobilized will receive their ammunition + requirements on a war basis. + + Article VI. The demobilized Rumanian troops to remain in Moldavia + until the evacuation of the occupied Rumanian regions. Excepted from + this provision are military bureaus and men mentioned in Article 5, + who are required for the supervision of the arms and material laid + down in these regions. The men and reserve officers who have been + demobilized can return to the occupied regions. Active and formerly + active officers require, in order to return to these regions, + permission of the chief army command of the allied forces. + + Article VII. A General Staff officer of the allied powers, with + staff, will be attached to the Rumanian Commander in Chief in + Moldavia, and a Rumanian General Staff officer, with staff, will be + attached as liaison officer to the chief command of the allied + forces in the occupied Rumanian districts. + + Article VIII. The Rumanian naval forces will be left to their full + complement and equipment, in so far as their views, in accordance + with Article IX., are not to be limited until affairs in Bessarabia + are cleared, whereupon these forces are to be brought to the usual + peace standard. Excepted herefrom are river forces required for the + purposes of river police and naval forces on the Black Sea, employed + for the protection of maritime traffic and the restoration of + mine-free fairways. Immediately after the signing of the peace + treaty these river forces will, on a basis of special arrangement, + be placed at the disposal of the authorities intrusted with river + policing. The Nautical Black Sea Commission will receive the right + of disposing of the naval forces on the Black Sea, and a naval + officer is to be attached to this commission in order to restore + connection therewith. + + Article IX. All men serving in the army and navy, who in peace time + were employed in connection with harbors or shipping, shall, on + demobilization, be the first to be dismissed in order that they may + find employment in their former occupations. + + Clause 3.--_Cessions of territory outlined in Articles X., XI., and + XII._ + + Article X. With regard to Dobrudja, which, according to Paragraph 1 + of the peace preliminaries, is to be added by Rumania, the following + stipulations are laid down: (A) Rumania cedes again to Bulgaria, + with frontier rectifications, Bulgarian territory that fell to her + by virtue of the peace treaty concluded at Bucharest in 1913. + (Attached is a map showing the exact extent of the frontier + rectification, with a note to the effect that it forms an essential + part of the peace treaty.) A commission composed of representatives + of the allied powers shall shortly after the signature of the treaty + lay down and demarkate on the spot the new frontier line in + Dobrudja. The Danube frontier between the regions ceded to Bulgaria + and Rumania follows the river valley. Directly after the signature + of the treaty further particulars shall be decided upon regarding + the definition of the valley. Thus the demarkation shall take place + in Autumn, 1918, at low water level. + +[Illustration: RUMANIA AND ITS LOST TERRITORY: THE BLACK AREA SHOWS THE +SOUTHERN PART OF DOBRUDJA, WON FROM THE BULGARS IN THE LAST BALKAN WAR, +WHICH RUMANIA IS FORCED TO RETURN TO BULGARIA. THE SHADED AREA--NORTHERN +DOBRUDJA--WHICH INCLUDES THE MOUTHS OF THE DANUBE AND RUMANIA'S ONLY +ACCESS TO THE BLACK SEA, IS CEDED TO THE CENTRAL POWERS, WHO WILL +ADMINISTER IT THROUGH A MIXED COMMISSION. THE SHADING ALONG RUMANIA'S +WESTERN BORDER INDICATES THE AUSTRO-GERMAN "RECTIFICATION," WHICH GIVES +AUSTRIA ALL THE MOUNTAIN PASSES AND IMPORTANT MINERAL LANDS.] + + (B) Rumania cedes to the allied powers that portion of Dobrudja up + to the Danube north of the new frontier line described under Section + A; that is to say, between the confluence of the stream and the + Black Sea, to the St. George branch of the river. The Danube + frontier between the territory ceded to the allied powers and + Rumania will be formed by the river valley. The allied powers and + Rumania will undertake to see that Rumania shall receive an assured + trade route to the Black Sea, by way of Tchernavoda and Constanza, + (Kustendje.) + + Article XI. says that Rumania agrees that her frontier shall undergo + rectification in favor of Austria-Hungary as indicated on the map, + and continues: + + "Two mixed commissions, to be composed of equal numbers of + representatives of the powers concerned, are immediately after the + ratification of the peace treaty to fix a new frontier line on the + spot." + + Article XII. Property in the ceded regions of Rumania passes without + indemnification to the States which acquire these regions. Those + States to which the ceded territories fall shall make agreements + with Rumania on the following points: First, with regard to the + allegiance of the Rumanian inhabitants of these regions and the + manner in which they are to be accorded the right of option; + secondly, with regard to the property of communes split by the new + frontier; thirdly and fourthly, with regard to administrative and + juridical matters; fifthly, with regard to the effect of the changes + of territory on dioceses. + + Clause 4 deals with war indemnities, of which Article XIII. declares + that the contracting parties mutually renounce indemnification of + their war costs, and special arrangements are to be made for the + settlement of damages caused by the war. + + The fifth clause relates to the evacuation of occupied territories, + embodied in Articles XIV. to XXIV., summed up as follows: + + "The occupied Rumanian territories shall be evacuated at times to be + later agreed upon. The strength of the army of occupation shall, + apart from the formation employed in economic functions, not surpass + six divisions. Until the ratification of the treaty the present + occupation administration continues, but immediately after the + signature of the treaty the Rumanian Government has the power to + supplement the corps of officials by such appointments or dismissals + as may seem good to it." + + Up to the time of evacuation, a civil official of the occupation + administration shall always be attached to the Rumanian Ministry in + order to facilitate so far as possible the transfer of the civil + administration to the Rumanian authorities. The Rumanian authorities + must follow the directions which the commanders of the army of + occupation consider requisite in the interest of the security of the + occupied territory, as well as the security, maintenance, and + distribution of their troops. + + For the present, railways, posts, and telegraphs will remain under + military administration, and will, in accordance with proper + agreements, be at the disposal of the authorities and population. As + a general rule, the Rumanian courts will resume jurisdiction in the + occupied territories to their full extent. The allied powers will + retain jurisdiction, as well as the power of police supervision, + over those belonging to the army of occupation. Punishable acts + against the army of occupation will be judged by its military + tribunals, and also offenses against the orders of the occupation + administration. Persons can only return to the occupied territories + in proportion as the Rumanian Government provides for their security + and maintenance. + + The army of occupation's right to requisition is restricted to + wheat, peas, beans, fodder, wool, cattle, and meat from the products + of 1918, and, further, to timber, oil and oil products, always + observing proper regard for an orderly plan of procuring these + commodities, as well as satisfying the home needs of Rumania. + + From the ratification of the treaty onward the army of occupation + shall be maintained at the expense of Rumania. A separate agreement + will be made with regard to the details of the transfer of the civil + administration, as well as with regard to the withdrawal of the + regulations of the occupation administration. Money spent by the + allied powers in the occupied territories on public works, including + industrial undertakings, shall be made good on their transfer. Until + the evacuation these undertakings shall remain under the military + administration. + + Clause 6.--_Regulations regarding navigation on the Danube._ + + Article XXIV. Rumania shall conclude a new Danube Navigation act + with Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey, regulating the + legal position on the Danube from the point where it becomes + navigable, with due regard for the prescriptions subsequently set + forth under Sections A to D, and on conditions that the + prescriptions under Section B shall apply equally for all parties to + the Danube act. Negotiations regarding the new Danube Navigation act + shall begin at Munich as soon as possible after the ratification of + the treaty. + + The sections follow: (A) Under the name Danube Mouth Commission, the + European Danube Commission shall, under conditions subsequently set + forth, be maintained as a permanent institution, empowered with the + privileges and obligations hitherto appertaining to it for the river + from Braila downward, inclusive of this port. The conditions + referred to provide, among other things, that the commission shall + henceforth only comprise representatives of States situated on the + Danube or the European coasts of the Black Sea. The commission's + authority extends from Braila downward to the whole of the arms and + mouth of the Danube and adjoining parts of the Black Sea. + + (B.) Rumania guarantees to the ships of the other contracting + parties free navigation on the Rumanian Danube, including the + harbors. Rumania shall levy no toll on ships or rafts of the + contracting parties and their cargoes merely for the navigation of + the river. Neither shall Rumania, in the future, levy on the river + any tolls, save those permitted by the new Danube Navigation act. + + Section C provides for the abolition after the ratification of the + treaty of the Rumanian ad valorem duty of 1-1/2 per cent. on imports + and exports. + + Articles XXV. and XXVI. deal with Danube questions and provide that + Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Rumania are entitled + to maintain warships on the Danube, which may navigate down stream + to the sea and up stream as far as the upper frontier of Austria's + territory, but are forbidden intercourse with the shore of another + State or to put in there except under force majeure or with the + consent of the State. + + The powers represented on the Danube Mouth Commission are entitled + to maintain two light warships each as guard ships at the mouth of + the Danube. + + Article XXVII. provides equal rights for all religious + denominations, including Jews and Moslems, in Rumania, including the + right to establish private schools. + + Article XXVIII. provides that diversity of religion does not affect + legal, political, or civil rights of the inhabitants, and, pending + ratification of the treaty, a decree will be proclaimed giving the + full rights of Rumanian subjects to all those, such as Jews, having + no nationality. + + The remaining three articles provide that economic relations shall + be regulated by separate treaties, coming into operation at the same + time as the peace treaty. The same applies to the exchange of + prisoners. + + +THE KAISER EXULTS + +Emperor William replied to Chancellor von Hertling's congratulations on +the conclusion of peace between Germany and Rumania with this message: + + The termination of the state of war in the east fills me also with + proud joy and gratitude. Thanks to God's gracious help, the German + people, with never-failing patriotism, under brilliant military + leadership and with the assistance of strong diplomacy, are fighting + step by step for a happy future. + + I can but convey my thanks on this occasion to you and also to + your collaborators. God will help us to pass through the struggle + which the hostile attitude of the powers, still under arms against + us, has forced us to continue and to conclude it victoriously for + the good of Germany and her allies. + +Emperor William in a telegram to Dr. Richard von Kühlmann, the German +Secretary for Foreign Affairs, said: + + The conclusion of peace with Rumania gives me an opportunity of + expressing my joyful satisfaction that peace has now been given to + the entire eastern front. + + May rich blessings descend on the peoples concerned from the + resumption of peaceful labor to which they can now devote + themselves. + + I thank you and your collaborators for the work done in loyal + co-operation with our allies, and I confer on you as a sign of my + appreciation the Order of the Royal Crown of the First Class. + + + + +Bessarabia Voluntarily United to Rumania + + +Count Czernin, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, during the +negotiations with Rumania explained in a public speech that Rumania +would be compensated for the loss of territory on the Transylvanian +border by taking the southern part of Bessarabia, the Russian province +bordering Rumania on the east. The southern part of Bessarabia, however, +has few Rumanians, while the northern part is largely populated by them. +Subsequent events have apparently changed the Austro-German plans, for +the whole of Bessarabia has voted almost unanimously for union with +Rumania. The event was officially announced at Washington on April 22 +through the Rumanian Charge d'Affaires, N. H. Lahovary, as follows: + + On April 9 the National Assembly of Bessarabia voted by 86 against + 3 for union of Bessarabia to Rumania. The Rumanian Premier was then + at Kishinev (capital of Bessarabia) and took cognizance of the vote + amid enthusiastic acclamation and declared this union to be + definitive and indissoluble. + + Bessarabian delegates went to Jassy on April 12 to present the + homage of the people of Bessarabia to their Majesties the King and + Queen of Rumania. A Te Deum was sung at the cathedral in the + presence of the royal family, the Government, and the Bessarabian + delegates. The Archbishop of Bessarabia was also there, having + taken the place next to the Metropolitan of Moldavia, who + celebrated the service. + + After the ceremony was over a parade of the troops took place, + followed by a luncheon given at the royal palace in honor of the + Ministers of Bessarabia. His Majesty the King drank to the health + of the united Rumanian and Bessarabian people, after witnessing the + great historic event accomplished by the will of the people of + Bessarabia and proclaiming indissoluble the union of the ancient + province of the Moldavian crown to the mother country. + +Bessarabia, according to Mr. Lahovary, has about 3,000,000 inhabitants, +and more than three-fourths of these are Rumanians. "Bessarabia," he +continued, "is one of the richest farm lands of what was formerly +Russia. The Bolsheviki ravaged it frightfully during the Winter months, +and the country was only saved by the Rumanian troops, who were called +in by the Bessarabians. Because of this help the Bolsheviki declared war +on Rumania, and there were violent clashes between the Bolshevist +brigands and Rumanian troops. Finally the latter ousted the Bolsheviki +and succeeded in restoring tranquillity, but only after the Bolsheviki +had committed most frightful outrages and pillaged the country. If +Rumania was obliged to make peace, it was due directly to the attitude +of the Bolsheviki toward Rumania." + + + + +The War and the Bagdad Railway + +A Study by Dr. Morris Jastrow + +_Professor of Semitic Languages in the University of Pennsylvania_ + +[From his book, "The War and the Bagdad Railway"] + +_Germany's project of a railway from Berlin to Bagdad, now rivaled by a +new one from Berlin to Bombay via Russia, was one of the chief causes of +the war. It dates from 1888, when a syndicate of German and British +capital organized the Anatolian Railway, to be built from Haidar Pacha, +opposite Constantinople, to Angora--about 360 miles. The German members +later bought out the British interests. Further concessions were +obtained, but in 1898 a much more ambitious plan was brought forward by +the visit of the German Emperor to Sultan Abdul Hamid, and in 1899 the +general policy of a line across Asia Minor was announced. This line, +however, as a glance at the map will show, did not get beyond Angora; +Russia killed that phase of the project. The Bagdad Railway was then +organized in 1903, and obtained from Turkey an unprecedented concession +running southeastward to the Persian Gulf. Both England and France were +offered a minor share in the enterprise, but refused. The Germans thus +remained in full control, at the same time obtaining all the French +capital they needed through Swiss banks._ + + +The Bagdad Railway has been a nightmare resting heavily on all Europe +for eighteen years--ever since the announcement in 1899 of the +concession granted to the Anatolian Railway Company. No step ever taken +by any European power anywhere has caused so much trouble, given rise to +so many complications, and has been such a constant menace to the peace +of the world. No European statesman to whom the destinies of his country +have been committed has rested easily in the presence of this spectre of +the twentieth century. In the last analysis the Bagdad Railway will be +found to be the largest single contributing factor in bringing on the +war, because through it more than through any other cause the mutual +distrust among European powers has been nurtured until the entire +atmosphere of international diplomacy became vitiated. The explanation +of this remarkable phenomenon, transforming what appeared on the surface +to be a magnificent commercial enterprise, with untold possibilities for +usefulness, into a veritable curse, an excrescence on the body politic +of Europe, is to be sought in the history of the highway through which +the railway passes. The control of this highway is the key to the +East--the Near and the Farther East as well. Such has been its rôle in +the past--such is its significance today. * * * + +The most recent events are merely the repetition on a large scale of +such as took place thousands of years ago and at frequent intervals +since. The weapons have changed, new contestants have arisen to take the +place of civilizations that after serving their day faded out of sight, +but the issue has ever remained the same. We are confronted by that +issue today--the control of the highway that leads to the East. * * * +The decisive battlefields for the triumph of democracy are in the West, +but the decision for supremacy among European nations lies in the East. +The Bagdad Railway is the most recent act in a drama the beginnings of +which lie in the remote past. * * * + +The course of events in the Near East since the entering wedge, +represented by Napoleon's expedition to Egypt, is to be interpreted as +the irresistible onslaught of the West to break down the barrier created +in 1453. As we survey the successive steps in this onslaught, the +struggle between France and England, culminating in the Convention of +1904, which gave France a dominant position in Morocco in return for +allowing England a free hand in Egypt, the attempts of France and Russia +to hedge in England in India, followed by England and Russia in dividing +up their "spheres of influence" in Persia, the commercial and railway +concessions secured by England, France, and Russia from Turkey, sinking +ever deeper into a slough of desperate weakness, we see how these +struggles, conventions, and partnerships all lead up to the dramatic +climax--the struggle for the historic highway which is the key to the +Near East. Its possession will mean in the future--as it always has in +the past--dominion over Syria, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and probably Arabia; +and the Near East points its finger directly toward the Farther East. +Under the modern symbol of railway control, Asia Minor, true to the +genius of its history, once more looms up as a momentous factor in the +world history. * * * The murder at Serajevo was merely the match applied +to the pile all ready to be kindled. * * * + +[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE COMPLETED AND PROJECTED SECTIONS OF THE +BAGDAD RAILWAY, THE GERMAN ENTERPRISE THAT FIGURED AMONG THE PRIMARY +CAUSES OF THE WAR] + +Full credit should be given to the German brains in which this project +was hatched, and there is no reason to suspect that at the outset the +German capitalists who fathered the enterprise were actuated by any +other motive than the perfectly legitimate one to create a great avenue +of commerce. When, however, the German Government entered the field as +the backer and promoter of the scheme the political aspect of the +railroad was moved into the foreground, and that aspect has since +overshadowed the commercial one. + +Had the original plan of the German group to run the Bagdad Railway +across Northern Asia Minor from Angora been adhered to, the interior +would have been kept free, and it is likely that a favorite English plan +(afterward taken up also by the French Government) to run a railway from +the Gulf of Alexandretta via Aleppo and the Euphrates to Bagdad might +have been carried out. * * * The railway projects of Asia Minor and +Syria might have remained purely commercial undertakings of great +cultural value. The political aspect of railway plans in the Near East +might have been permanently kept in the background. + +The stumbling block that prevented the execution of the original plan +was--strangely enough--Russia. Her opposition to the northern route +brought about the change. Russia had plans of her own in Asia Minor and +in the lands to the east beyond. In the last two decades of the +nineteenth century Russia, fearing the extension of English power in +the Far East, cast her eyes about for securing zones of influence that +might bring her into touch with the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. +She secured the co-operation of France in 1891, and it is both +interesting and instructive to note that the Franco-Russian alliance was +originally directed against England rather than against Germany. * * * +She exacted from Turkey the Black Sea Basin agreement, formally +sanctioned in 1900, which reserved to her the right to construct +railroads in Northern Asia Minor. * * * At all events, her opposition +was strong enough to secure a modification of the plan of the Bagdad +Railway in favor of the transverse route, which, as it turned out, gave +Germany a tremendous advantage over all rivals, though it also brought +on the opposition of England. Russia was not prepared to allow any +further advantage to be gained in the East by England. On the whole she +still preferred Germany. + +[England's opposition to Germany's new railway scheme became acute when +it was publicly announced that the road was not to terminate at Bagdad, +or even at Basra, but to run on to a point "to be determined" on the +Persian Gulf. The Convention of 1902-3 made it evident that Germany had +stolen a march on England, and that the prestige of France, too, had +suffered. The favor shown to the German syndicate by the Turkish +Government was evident. The terms were indeed unprecedented. Says Dr. +Jastrow: "No wonder that there were great rejoicings in Germany when +they were announced and gnashing of teeth outside of Germany." With the +announcement of the 1902-3 concession and the formation of the Bagdad +Railway Company as a successor to the old Anatolian Company, the German +syndicate did offer English and French capitalists a share in the +enterprise, and insisted that the plan was "international." But the +"share" thus offered was merely assistance in financing what would +remain a German matter--inasmuch as Germany reserved the control in the +management's personnel. England and France therefore refused to +participate.] + + + + +LICHNOWSKY'S MEMORANDUM + +Von Jagow's Replies to the Prince's Revelations--Further German Comments + + +The revelations by Prince Lichnowsky, German Ambassador in London at the +outbreak of the war, which were printed in the May number of CURRENT +HISTORY MAGAZINE, produced a profound impression throughout the world, +disclosing as they did the part played by the German Imperial Government +in starting the war. German officialdom at once attacked Lichnowsky, +compelling him to resign his rank and threatening him with trial for +treason. On April 27, 1918, the Prussian upper house decided to grant +the request of the First State Attorney of District Court No. 1 of +Berlin for authorization to undertake criminal proceedings against +Prince Lichnowsky. The State Attorney held that Prince Lichnowsky, in +communicating to third parties documents or their contents officially +intrusted to him by his superiors had infringed the secrecy incumbent on +him. + +In referring to the prosecution of the Prince, Maximilian Harden, in a +May issue of the Zukunft, said: + +"I will swear that there are dozens of men sitting there in these dark +war hours who have written and said similar things in sharper and more +bitter words." Herr Harden asked whether these would meet the same fate +if their papers were stolen and exposed in German shop windows. "Many a +trusted wife," he said, "must cry out in fear: 'But, you know, Ernst, +Adolf, and Klaus have spoken more desperately.'" + +The chief theme of Lichnowsky's memorandum, the editor of Die Zukunft +asserts, was the danger to Germany of a too-close alliance with Vienna +and Budapest, of the flirtation with Poland, and his insistence upon the +necessity of friendly relations with a strong Russia. The German outcry +against Lichnowsky, however, gave foreign countries the impression that +the Prince had made fearfully damaging disclosures of Berlin's guilt. +The question of blame, he says, "reflected almost an identical +interpretation to that of our White Book, and a cool head would not have +made a world sensation out of it." Harden concludes by saying that an +ostracized Lichnowsky would become a power; but the Prussian Diet has no +sense of humor. + +In the May CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE an abridged version of the first +reply of former Foreign Secretary von Jagow to Prince Lichnowsky was +printed, but the document is of such importance that a translation in +its entirety is herewith given.[4] + +[Footnote 4: The full text of Prince Lichnowsky's memorandum, with the +replies of Herr von Jagow, the Mühlon letter, comments of the German +press, and other matter, has been published in a separate forty-page +pamphlet by The Current History Magazine.] + + + + +Von Jagow's Two Replies to Lichnowsky + + +Practically coincident with the giving out for publication on March 19, +through the semi-official Wolff Telegraph Bureau, of an account of a +discussion in the Main Committee of the Reichstag of the memorandum of +the former Ambassador at London, together with substantial excerpts from +the main chapters of his work, the German Government got in touch with +Herr von Jagow, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs when the war +began, and asked him to write an article calculated to counteract the +effect of the Lichnowsky revelations. Herr von Jagow hastened to accede +to this request, but he merely made matters worse for the German +Government by practically admitting the correctness of Prince +Lichnowsky's assertion that England did not want war and that Berlin was +aware of this. + +Copies of German newspapers received here show that, while the journals +of all factions were practically of one mind in reproaching the German +Foreign Office for its lack of diplomatic ability, the Pan-German and +militarist organs laid special stress upon the implication in the von +Jagow article that Germany might have been willing to drop its alliance +with Austria if it could have been sure of contracting one with England, +and the Liberal and Socialist papers declared that it was no use +insisting any longer that Great Britain was guilty of the wholesale +bloodshed of the world war, and that now nothing really stood in the way +of moving for a peace by agreement. + +These comments were so sharp on both sides that Herr von Jagow was soon +moved to write another article defending his reply to Prince Lichnowsky +and arguing that his statements regarding the Triple Alliance could by +no means be interpreted as meaning that he would have been willing to +abandon Austria-Hungary in favor of Great Britain. In this article, +which was first printed in the Münchener Neueste Nachrichten, von Jagow +says he cannot understand how these statements can be taken to mean that +he was an opponent of the alliance with Austria and was considering a +choice between Austria and England. He proceeds to defend his own policy +by reference to the fact that Bismarck was not content with the Triple +Alliance on the one hand, and the famous "Reinsurance Treaty" with +Russia on the other hand, but in 1887 deliberately promoted agreements +between Austria-Hungary, Italy, and England, with the object of +"bringing England into a closer relationship to the Central European +league and making her share its burdens." Bismarck's policy relieved +Germany of some of her obligations, because "Austria-Hungary, supported +by Italy and England, held the balance against Russia." + +Then, as The London Times points out, carefully avoiding the history of +the present Kaiser's reversal of Bismarck's policy and abandonment of +the "Reinsurance Treaty" with Russia, von Jagow defends his attempts to +make British policy serve Germany's purposes. It was "because of the +isolation of the Triple Alliance, which had come about in the course of +years," that von Jagow "pursued a rapprochement with England." He +did so, "not with any idea of putting England in the place of +Austria-Hungary, but in order, by disposing of the Anglo-German +antagonism, to move England to a different orientation of her policy." +Germany "could not count upon Italy," and wanted other assistance in +upholding Austria-Hungary in the Balkans against Russia. Herr von Jagow +proceeds: + +"The combination of England would have relieved us of the necessity of +taking: our stand alone, when the case arose, for Austria-Hungary +against Russia. As was effected by the agreements of 1887, a part +of our obligations would have been laid upon other shoulders. It is in +this sense that I spoke of the possibility of the loosening and the +dissolution of old unions which no longer satisfy all the conditions. + +"The alliance with Austria-Hungary was the cornerstone of Bismarckian +policy, and that it had to remain. The expansion of the alliance into +the Triple Alliance, by taking in Italy, was a means of supplementing +the Central European grouping of the powers; it was an 'auxiliary +structure,' by means of which Bismarck aimed at a further guarantee of +peace, especially as he intended thereby to check Italy's Irredentist +policy. Threads then ran to England via Italy. These threads gave way +later, and this caused a considerable change in the attitude of Italy. + + +Friendly to England + +"A friendly attitude on the part of England toward the Triple +Alliance--what Professor Hermann Oncken calls the moral extension of the +Triple Alliance over the Channel--was the aim of our policy, and in this +we were sure of the complete accord of our allies. I never thought that +the agreements about Bagdad and the colonies would mean an immediate +alteration of England's course in European policy. These agreements were +to prepare the way for this change of course. I was under no illusions +about the difficulties which would still have to be overcome. But +difficulties, and even resistance on the part of public opinion in one's +own country, cannot prevent us from following a road that is seen to be +right. The league between Germany and Austria-Hungary, supported by +friendship with England, would have created a peace bloc of unassailable +strength. The increasing Irredentism of Italy, her friction with Austria +on the Adriatic, and the Russophile and also Irredentist tendencies of +Rumania, would have lost their importance. Then, in given circumstances, +the Triple Alliance treaty might have been modified. The union with +England would also have secured us against Russian aggression, and the +obligations imposed upon us by our alliance would thereby have been +diminished. + +"The road to this goal was long. The calm development was crossed by the +Serajevo murders, and in the fateful hour of August, 1914, the English +Government--instead of keeping peace--preferred to join in the war +against us. The English Government has probably since then been assailed +by serious doubts as to whether its choice was right. In any case, it +assumed a considerable share of the guilt for the bloodshed in Europe." + +Herr von Jagow then denies that his scheme was inevitably doomed to +failure, saying that the policy of England is more liable to adaptation +and alteration than the policy of any other country, and that "more +far-seeing statesmen than those who were intrusted with the fortunes of +the Island Empire in 1914--think only of the Pitts, Disraelis, and +Salisburys--held other views about the orientation of England toward +Germany and Russia." + +"As matters stand today, attempts to arrive at clearness about the +respective parts played by our enemies at the outbreak of the war, and +about the greater or less degrees of guilt belonging to each of them, +can have only a historical value. England has made the cause of our +enemies her own, and so she also shall be made to feel how Germany +defends herself against her enemies." + + + + +Full Text of von Jagow's First Reply + +[Copyrighted] + +_Herr von Jagow's first reply to Prince Lichnowsky, which was printed in +the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung March 23, 1918, follows:_ + + +"So far as it is possible, in general, I shall refrain from taking up +the statements concerning the policy obtaining before my administration +of the Foreign Office. + +"I should like to make the following remarks about the individual points +in the article: + +"When I was named State Secretary in January, 1913, I regarded a +German-English rapprochement as desirable and also believed an agreement +attainable on the points where our interests touched or crossed each +other. At all events, I wanted to try to work in this sense. A principal +point for us was the Mesopotamia-Asia Minor question--the so-called +Bagdad policy--as this had become for us a question of prestige. If +England wanted to force us out there it certainly appeared to me that a +conflict could hardly be avoided. In Berlin I began, as soon as it was +possible to do so, to negotiate over the Bagdad Railroad. We found a +favorable disposition on the part of the English Government, and the +result was the agreement that was almost complete when the world war +broke out. + + +Colonial Questions + +"At the same time the negotiations over the Portuguese colonies that had +been begun by Count Metternich, (as German Ambassador at London,) +continued by Baron Marschall, and reopened by Prince Lichnowsky were +under way. I intended to carve the way later for further negotiations +regarding other--for example, East Asiatic--problems, when what was in +my opinion the most important problem, that of the Bagdad Railroad, +should be settled, and an atmosphere of more confidence thus created. I +also left the naval problem aside, as it would have been difficult to +reach an early agreement over that matter, after past experiences. + +"I can pass over the development of the Albanian problem, as it occurred +before my term of office began. In general, however, I would like to +remark that such far-reaching disinterestedness in Balkan questions as +Prince Lichnowsky proposes does not seem possible to me. It would have +contradicted the essential part of the alliance if we had completely +ignored really vital interests of our ally. We, too, had demanded that +Austria stand by us at Algeciras, and at that time Italy's attitude had +caused serious resentment among us. Russia, although she had no interest +at all in Morocco, also stood by France. Finally, it was our task, as +the third member of the alliance, to support such measures as would +render possible a settlement of the divergent interests of our allies +and avoid a conflict between them. + +"It further appeared impossible to me not to pursue a 'triple alliance +policy' in matters where the interests of the allied powers touched each +other. Then Italy would have been driven entirely into line with the +Entente in questions of the Orient, and Austria handed over to the mercy +of Russia, and the Triple Alliance would thus have really gone to +pieces. And we, too, would not have been able to look after our +interests in the Orient, if we did not have some support. And even +Prince Lichnowsky does not deny that we had to represent great economic +interests right there. But today economic interests are no longer to be +separated from political interests. + +"That the people 'in Petrograd wanted to see the Sultan independent' is +an assertion that Prince Lichnowsky will hardly be able to prove; it +would contradict every tradition of Russian policy. If we, furthermore, +had not had at our command the influence at Constantinople founded by +Baron Marschall, it would hardly have been possible for us to defend our +economic interests in Turkey in the desired way. + + +Russia and Germany + +"When Prince Lichnowsky further asserts that we only 'drove Russia, our +natural friend and best neighbor, into the arms of France and England +through our Oriental and Balkan policy' he is in conflict with the +historical facts. Only because Prince Gortschakoff [Russian Premier] was +guiding Russian policy toward a rapprochement with a France lusting for +revenge was Prince Bismarck induced to enter into the alliance with +Austria-Hungary; through the alliance with Rumania he barred an advance +of Russia toward the south. Prince Lichnowsky condemns the basic +principles of Bismarck's policy. Our attempts to draw closer to Russia +went to pieces--Björki proves it--or remained ineffective, like the +so-called Potsdam agreement. Also, Russia was not always our 'best +neighbor.' Under Queen Elizabeth, as at present, she strove for +possession of East Prussia to extend her Baltic coasts and to insure her +domination of the Baltic. The Petrograd 'window' has gradually widened, +so as to take in Esthonia, Livonia, Courland, and Finland and reach +after Aland. Poland was arranged to be a field over which to send troops +against us. Pan-Slavism, which was dominating the Russian policy to an +ever greater degree, had positive anti-German tendencies. + +"And we did not force Russia to drop 'her policy of Asiatic expansion,' +but only tried to defend ourselves against her encroachments in European +policy and her encircling of our Austro-Hungarian ally. + + +Grey Conciliatory + +"Just as little as Sir Edward Grey [British Foreign Secretary] did we +want war to come over Albania. Therefore, in spite of our unhappy +experience at Algeciras, we agreed to a conference. The credit of an +'attitude of mediation' at the conference should not be denied Sir +Edward Grey; but that he 'by no means placed himself on the side of the +Entente' is, however, surely saying rather too much. Certainly he often +advised yielding in Petrograd (as we did in Vienna) and found 'formulas +of agreement,' but in dealing with the other side he represented the +Entente, because he, no less than ourselves, neither would, nor could, +abandon his associates. That we, on the other hand, 'without exception, +represented the standpoint dictated to us from Vienna' is absolutely +false. We, like England, played a mediatory rôle, and also in Vienna +counseled far more yielding and moderation than Prince Lichnowsky +appears to know about, or even to suggest. And then Vienna made several +far-reaching concessions, (Dibra, Djakowa.) If Prince Lichnowsky, who +always wanted to be wiser than the Foreign Office, and who apparently +allowed himself to be strongly influenced by the Entente statesmen, did +not know this, he surely ought not to make any false assertions now! If, +to be sure, the degree of yielding that was necessary was reached in +Vienna, we also naturally had to represent the Austrian standpoint at +the conference. Ambassador Szögyeni himself was not one of the +extremists; in Vienna they were by no means always satisfied with his +attitude. That the Ambassador, with whom I was negotiating almost every +day, constantly sounded the refrain of casus foederis is entirely +unknown to me. It certainly is true that Prince Lichnowsky for some +time past had not been counted as a friend of Austria in Vienna. Still +complaints about him came to my ears oftener from the side of Marquis +San Giuliano [Italian Foreign Minister] than from the side of Count +Berchtold, [Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister.] + +"King Nicholas's seizure of Scutari constituted a mockery of the entire +conference and a snub to all the powers taking part in it. + +"Russia was by no means obliged 'to give way to us all along the line'; +on the contrary, she 'advanced the wishes of Serbia' in several ways, +Serbia even receiving some cities and strips of territory that could +have been regarded as purely Albanian or preponderatingly so. Prince +Lichnowsky says that 'the course of the conference was a fresh +humiliation for the self-consciousness of Russia' and that there was a +feeling of resentment in Russia on that account. It cannot be the task +of our policy to satisfy all the unjustified demands of the exaggerated +self-consciousness of a power by no means friendly to us, at the cost of +our ally. Russia has no vital interests on the Adriatic, but our ally +certainly has. If we, as Prince Lichnowsky seems to wish, had flatly +taken the same stand as Russia, the result would have been a humiliation +for Austria-Hungary and thus a weakening of our group. Prince Lichnowsky +seems only anxious that Russia be not humiliated; a humiliation of +Austria is apparently a matter of indifference to him. + + +The "Wily" Venizelos + +"When Prince Lichnowsky says that our 'Austrophilie' was not adapted to +'promote Russia's interests in Asia,' I don't exactly understand what +this means. Following a disastrous diversion toward East Asia--in the +Japanese war we had favored Russia without even being thanked for +it!--Russia again took up her policy directed toward the European Orient +(the Balkans and Constantinople) with renewed impulse, (the Balkan +Alliance, Buchlau, Iswolsky, &c.) [Iswolsky retired as Russian Foreign +Minister after Germany forced the Czar to repudiate his Serbian policy +in 1909.] + +"Venizelos, the cunning Cretan with the 'Ribbon of the Order of the Red +Eagle,' evidently knew how to throw a little sand into the eyes of our +Ambassador. He, in contrast to King Constantine and Theototy, always was +pro-Entente. His present attitude reveals his feelings as clearly as can +be. Herr Danef, however, was entirely inclined toward Petrograd. + +"That Count Berchtold displayed certain inclinations toward Bulgaria +also in its differences with Rumania is true; that we 'naturally went +with him' is, however, entirely false. With our support, King Carol had +the satisfaction of the Bucharest peace. [Ended second Balkan war.] If, +therefore, in the case of the Bucharest peace, in which we favored the +wishes and interests of Rumania, which was allied to us, our policy +deviated somewhat from that of Vienna, the Austro-Hungarian Cabinet +certainly did not believe--as Prince Lichnowsky asserts--that it 'could +count upon our support in case of its revision.' That Marquis San +Giuliano 'is said to have warned us already in the Summer of 1913 from +becoming involved in a world war,' because at that time in Austria 'the +thought of a campaign against Serbia' had found entrance, is entirely +unknown to me. Just as little do I know that Herr von Tschirschky--who +certainly was rather pessimistic by nature--is said to have declared in +the Spring of 1914 that there soon would be war. Therefore, I was just +as ignorant of the 'important happenings' that Prince Lichnowsky here +suspects as he was himself! Such events as the English visit to +Paris--Sir Edward Grey's first to the Continent--surely must have been +known to the Ambassador, and we informed him about the secret +Anglo-Russian naval agreement; to be sure, he did not want to believe +it! + +"In the matter of Liman von Sander, [German reorganizer of the Turkish +Army,] we made a far-reaching concession to Russia by renouncing the +General's power of command over Constantinople. I will admit that this +point of the agreement over the military mission was not opportune +politically. + +"When Prince Lichnowsky boasts of having succeeded in giving the treaty +a form corresponding to our wishes, this credit must not be denied him, +although it certainly required strong pressure on several occasions to +induce him to represent some of our desires with more emphasis. + +"When Prince Lichnowsky says that he received the authorization +definitely to conclude the treaty, after he previously asserts that 'the +treaty was consequently dropped,' this contains a contradiction which we +may let the Prince straighten out. Lichnowsky's assertion, however, that +we delayed publication because the treaty would have been 'a public +success' for him that we begrudged him, is an unheard-of insinuation +that can only be explained through his self-centred conception of +things. The treaty would have lost its practical and moral effect--one +of its main objects was to create a good atmosphere between us and +England--if its publication had been greeted with violent attacks upon +'perfidious Albion' in our Anglophobe press and in our Parliament. And +there is no doubt that, in view of our internal position at that time, +this is what the simultaneous publication of the so-called Windsor +Treaty would have caused. And the howl about English perfidy that the +internal contradiction between the text of the Windsor Treaty and our +treaty would doubtless have called forth would hardly have been stilled +in the minds of our public through the assurance of English bona fides. + +"With justified precaution, we intended to allow the publication to be +made only at the proper moment, when the danger of disapproving +criticism was no longer so acute, if possible simultaneously with the +announcement of the Bagdad Treaty, which also was on the point of being +concluded. The fact that two great agreements had been concluded between +us and England would doubtless have materially favored their reception +and made it easier to overlook the aesthetic defects of the Portuguese +agreement. It was consideration for the effect of the agreement--with +which we wanted to improve our relations with England, not to generate +more trouble--that caused our hesitation. + +"It is correct that--although in a secondary degree--consideration was +also taken of the efforts just then being made to obtain economic +interests in the Portuguese colonies, which the publication of the +agreement would naturally have made more difficult to realize. These +conditions Prince Lichnowsky may not have been able to perceive fully +from London, but he should have trusted in our objective judgment and +acquiesced in it, instead of replacing his lack of understanding with +suspicions and the interjection of personal motives. He certainly would +have found our arguments understood by the English statesmen themselves. + +"The Ambassador's speeches aroused considerable adverse sentiment in +this country. It was necessary for the creation of a better atmosphere, +in which alone the rapprochement being worked for could flourish, that +confidence in our English policy and in our London Ambassador be spread +also among our people at home. Prince Lichnowsky, otherwise so +susceptible to public opinion, did not take this motive sufficiently +into account, for he saw everything only through his London spectacles. +The charges against the attitude of the Foreign Office are too untenable +to be bothered with. I would only like to point out that Prince +Lichnowsky was not left in ignorance regarding the 'most important +things,' in so far as they were of value to his mission. On the +contrary, I gave the Ambassador much more general information than used +to be the custom. My own experiences as Ambassador induced me to do so. +But with Lichnowsky there was the inclination to rely more upon his own +impressions and judgment than upon the information and advice of the +Central Office. To be sure, I did not always have either the motive or +the authority to impart the sources of our news. Here there were quite +definite considerations, particularly anxiety regarding the compromising +of our sources. The Prince's memorandum furnishes the best justification +for the caution exercised in this regard. + + +Defense of Archduke + +"It is not true that in the Foreign Office the reports that England +would protect France under all circumstances were not believed. + +"At Knopischt, on the occasion of the visit of his Majesty the Kaiser +to the Archduke heir apparent, no plan of an active policy against +Serbia was laid down. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was not at all the +champion of a policy leading to war for which he has often been taken. +During the London conference he advised moderation and the avoidance of +war. + +"Prince Lichnowsky's 'optimism' was hardly justified, as he has probably +convinced himself since through the revelations of the Sukhomlinoff +trial. Besides, the secret Anglo-Russian naval agreement (of which, as +said before, he was informed) should have made him more skeptical. +Unfortunately, the suspicion voiced by the Imperial Chancellor and the +Under Secretary of State was well grounded. How does this agree with the +assertion that we, relying upon the reports of Count Pourtalès that +'Russia would not move under any circumstances,' had not thought of the +possibility of a war? Furthermore, so far as I can recollect, Count +Pourtalès [German Ambassador at St. Petersburg] never made such reports. + + +Blame for Russia + +"That Austria-Hungary wished to proceed against the constant +provocations stirred up by Russia, (Herr von Hartwig,) which reached +their climax in the outrage of Serajevo, we had to recognize as +justified. In spite of all the former settlements and avoidances of +menacing conflicts, Russia did not abandon her policy, which aimed at +the complete exclusion of the Austrian influence (and naturally ours +also) from the Balkans. The Russian agents, inspired by Petrograd, +continued their incitement. It was a question of the prestige and the +existence of the Danube Monarchy. It must either put up with the +Russo-Serbian machinations, or command a quos ego, even at the risk of +war. We could not leave our ally in the lurch. Had the intention been to +exclude the ultima ratio of the war in general, the alliance should not +have been concluded. Besides, it was plain that the Russian military +preparations, (for instance, the extension of the railroads and forts in +Poland,) for which a France lusting for revenge had lent the money and +which would have been completed in a few years, were directed +principally against us. But despite all this, despite the fact that the +aggressive tendency of the Russian policy was becoming more evident from +day to day, the idea of a preventive war was far removed from us. We +only decided to declare war on Russia in the face of the Russian +mobilization and to prevent a Russian invasion. + +"I have not the letters exchanged with the Prince at hand--it was a +matter of private letters. Lichnowsky pleaded for the abandonment of +Austria. I replied, so far as I remember, that we, aside from our treaty +obligation, could not sacrifice our ally for the uncertain friendship of +England. If we abandoned our only reliable ally later we would stand +entirely isolated, face to face with the Entente. It is likely that I +also wrote that 'Russia was constantly becoming more anti-German' and +that we must 'just risk it.' Furthermore, it is possible that I, in +order to steel Lichnowsky's nerves a little and to prevent him from +exposing his views also in London, may also have written that there +would probably be some 'bluster'; that 'the more firmly we stood by +Austria the sooner Russia would yield.' I have said already that our +policy was not based upon alleged reports excluding war; certainly at +that time I still thought war could be avoided, but, like all of us, I +was fully aware of the very serious danger. + +"We could not agree to the English proposal of a conference of +Ambassadors, for it would doubtless have led to a serious diplomatic +defeat. For Italy, too, was pro-Serb and, with her Balkan interests, +stood rather opposed to Austria. The 'intimacy of the Russo-Italian +relations' is admitted by Prince Lichnowsky himself. The best and only +feasible way of escape was a localization of the conflict and an +understanding between Vienna and Petrograd. We worked toward that end +with all our energy. That we 'insisted upon' the war is an unheard-of +assertion which is sufficiently invalidated by the telegrams of his +Majesty the Kaiser to the Czar and to King George, published in the +White Books--Prince Lichnowsky only cares to tell about 'the really +humble telegram of the Czar'--as well as the instruction we sent to +Vienna. The worst caricature is formed by the sentence: + +"'When Count Berchtold finally decided to come around we answered the +Russian mobilization, after Russia had vainly negotiated and waited a +whole week, with the ultimatum and the declaration of war.' + +[In quoting Lichnowsky, Herr von Jagow omits the former's statement that +Count Berchtold "hitherto had played the strong man on instructions from +Berlin."] + + +"Wrong" Conclusions + +"Should we, perhaps, have waited until the mobilized Russian Army was +streaming over our borders? The reading of the Sukhomlinov trial has +probably given even Prince Lichnowsky a feeling of 'Oh si tacuisses!' On +July 5 I was absent from Berlin. The declaration that I was 'shortly +thereafter in Vienna' 'in order to talk everything over with Count +Berchtold' is false. I returned to Berlin on July 6 from my honeymoon +trip and did not leave there until Aug. 15, on the occasion of the +shifting of the Great Headquarters. As Secretary of State I was only +once in Vienna before the war, in the Spring of 1913. + +"Prince Lichnowsky lightly passed over the matter of the confusing +dispatch that he sent us on Aug. 1--at present I am not in possession of +the exact wording--as a 'misunderstanding' and even seems to want to +reproach us because 'in Berlin the news, without first waiting for the +conversation, was made the basis of a far-reaching action.' The +question of war with England was a matter of minutes, and immediately +after the arrival of the dispatch it was decided to make an +eleventh-hour attempt to avoid war with France and England. His Majesty +sent the well-known telegram to King George. The contents of the +Lichnowsky dispatch could not have been understood any other way than we +understood it. + +"Objectively taken, the statement of Prince Lichnowsky presents such an +abundance of inaccuracies and distortions that it is hardly a wonder +that his conclusions are also entirely wrong. The reproach that we sent +an ultimatum on July 30 to Petrograd merely because of the mobilization +of Russia and on July 31 declared war upon the Russians, although the +Czar had pledged his word that not a man should march so long as +negotiations were under way, thus willfully destroying the possibility +of a peaceful adjustment, has really a grotesque effect. In concluding, +the statement seems almost to identify itself with the standpoint of our +enemies. + +"When the Ambassador makes the accusation that our policy identified +itself 'with Turks and Austro-Magyars' and 'subjected itself to the +viewpoints of Vienna and Budapest,' he may be suitably answered that he +saw things only through London spectacles and from the narrow point of +view of his desired rapprochement with England à tout prix. He also +appears to have forgotten completely that the Entente was formed much +more against us than against Austria. + +"I, too, pursued a policy which aimed at an understanding with England, +because I was of the opinion that this was the only way for us to escape +from the unfavorable position in which we were placed by the unequal +division of strength and the weakness of the Triple Alliance. But Russia +and France insisted upon war. We were obligated through our treaty with +Austria, and our position as a great power was also threatened--hic +Rhodus, hic salta. But England, that was not allied in the same way with +Russia and that had received far-reaching assurances from us regarding +the sparing of France and Belgium, seized the sword. + +"In saying this, I by no means share the opinion prevalent among us +today that England laid all the mines for the outbreak of the war; on +the contrary, I believe in Sir Edward Grey's love of peace and in his +earnest wish to arrive at an agreement with us. But he had allowed +himself to become entangled too far in the net of the Franco-Russian +policy; he no longer found the way out, and he did not prevent the world +war--something that he could have done. Neither was the war popular with +the English people; Belgium had to serve as a battle cry. + +"'Political marriages for life and death' are, as Prince Lichnowsky +says, not possible in international unions. But neither is isolation, +under the present condition of affairs in Europe. The history of Europe +consists of coalitions that sometimes have led to the avoidance of +warlike outbreaks and sometimes to violent clashes. A loosening and +dissolving of old alliances that no longer correspond to all conditions +is only in order when new constellations are attainable. This was the +object of the policy of a rapprochement with England. So long as this +policy did not offer reliable guarantees we could not abandon the old +guarantees--even with their obligations. + +"The Morocco policy had led to a political defeat. In the Bosnian crisis +this had been luckily avoided, the same as at the London Conference. A +fresh diminution of our prestige was not endurable for our position in +Europe and in the world. The prosperity of States, their political and +economic successes, are based upon the prestige that they enjoy in the +world. + +"The personal attacks contained in the work, the unheard-of calumnies +and slanders of others, condemn themselves. The ever-recurring suspicion +that everything happened only because it was not desired to allow him, +Lichnowsky, any successes speaks of wounded self-love, of disappointed +hopes for personal successes, and has a painful effect. + +"In closing, let us draw attention here to what Hermann Oncken has also +quoted in his work, 'The Old and New Central Europe,' the memorandum of +Prince Bismarck of the year 1879, in which the idea is developed that +the German Empire must never dare allow a situation in which it would +remain isolated on the European Continent between Russia and France, +side by side with a defeated Austria-Hungary that had been left in the +lurch by Germany." + + + + +German Comments on von Jagow's Views + + +In commenting upon Herr von Jagow's reply to Prince Lichnowsky, Georg +Bernhard, editor in chief of the Vossische Zeitung, took occasion to +re-emphasize his favorite theory of a rapprochement with Russia so as to +enable Germany to reduce Great Britain to the level of a second-class +power. In a long article, printed on March 31, Herr Bernhard asserted +that Prince Lichnowsky had been by no means alone in his policy of +seeking agreement with England as Herr von Jagow himself had admitted, +and that the German Foreign Office had seemed obsessed with the idea +that it was a question of a choice between Austria and England, when, in +reality, if the diplomats had wanted to pursue a good German policy and +at the same time be of service to Austria, they should have made it a +question of Russia or England and tried to establish good relations with +the former under all circumstances. After quoting von Jagow's remark +about the inadvisability of abandoning old alliances until new +constellations were attainable, Herr Bernhard said: + +"We shall not go into the question here if, during this war, which +strains all the forces of the alliance to the utmost, a former German +Secretary of State should have written such sentences. It is +incomprehensible how they came from the pen of a sensible man--and Herr +von Jagow is such a one. And it is still more incomprehensible how they +were able to escape the attention of the Foreign Office. Fortunately, +they can no longer do any harm now, as through our deeds we have +demonstrated our loyalty to the Austrians and Hungarians better than it +can be done by any amount of talk." + +In an earlier editorial Herr Bernhard referred as follows to von Jagow's +admission that he did not believe that England had laid all the mines +leading to the world war: + +"In spite of all experiences, therefore, here is another--almost +official--attempt made to represent the war as merely the result of the +aggressive desires of France and Russia. As if France (through whose +population went a shudder of fear as it saw itself on the edge of the +abyss of war) would ever have dared to go to war without knowing that +England stood back of her! And were Edward's trips to Paris without any +effect upon our diplomats? Has it not also finally become sufficiently +well known through the reports of the Belgian Ambassador how France +repeatedly tried to escape from the alliance, but was always again +forced into the net by Nicolson, [former British Under Secretary for +Foreign Affairs,] through Edward? The Imperial Chancellor, von Bethmann +Hollweg, himself admitted in the Reichstag the harmful rôle of King +Edward. Only he, as probably did Herr von Jagow also, thought that +Edward's death put an end to the policy of encircling. But this policy +of encircling--and here is where the mistake entailing serious +consequences is made by our diplomats--was not at all merely a personal +favorite idea of Edward VII., but the continuation of the traditional +English policy toward the strongest Continental power." + + +Thanks for Hindenburg + +Herr Bernhard then asserted that England desired the publication of the +proposed Anglo-German treaty regarding the division of the Portuguese +colonies into spheres of economic interests so as to make Portugal's +eventual support of the Entente all the surer, and continued: + +"And Lichnowsky wanted to fall into this trap set by England. It was +avoided by the Foreign Office more through instinct than sagacity. And +these diplomats have guided Germany's destiny before and during the war! +Let us give the warmest thanks to Hindenburg because his sword has now, +it is to be hoped, put an end once for all to the continued spinning of +plans by such and similar diplomats even during the war." + +Theodor Wolff, editor in chief of the Berliner Tageblatt, probably the +leading organ of the German business elements and liberal politicians +who were opposed to the war from the beginning, and who still hope for a +negotiated peace that will facilitate an early resumption of trade +relations with Great Britain and the rest of the allies, expressed the +hope that the "battle of minds will finally create a clearer +atmosphere," and then remarked: + +"Only quite incidentally would I like to allow myself to direct the +attention of Herr von Jagow to an erroneous expression that appears +twice in his reply. Herr von Jagow writes: 'We informed him [Lichnowsky] +of the secret Anglo-Russian naval agreement,' and in another place: 'The +secret Anglo-Russian naval agreement might also have made him a little +more skeptical.' Only the day before, on Saturday, it was said in an +article of the Norddeutshe Allgemeine Zeitung, also directed against +Lichnowsky: 'Negotiations were pending with Russia over a naval +agreement that the Prince characteristically passes over in silence.' In +reality, although hasty historians also speak without further ceremony +of a treaty, it is manifest that no Anglo-Russian agreement existed; +there was merely a Russian proposal, and the most that can be said is +that 'negotiations were pending.' * * * + +"His [von Jagow's] remark, 'It is not true that the Foreign Office did +not believe the reports that England would protect France under all +circumstances,' is in contradiction with the well-known report of the +then English Ambassador, Goschen, which describes into what surprise and +consternation Herr von Bethmann and Herr von Jagow were thrown by the +news of the English declaration of war." + +In beginning his comment upon von Jagow, Herr Wolff threw a little more +light upon the way in which Prince Lichnowsky's memorandum "for the +family archives" got into more or less general secret circulation in +Germany before it was printed by the Swedish Socialist paper Politiken +last March, and also described the character of Captain Beerfelde, the +member of the German General Staff who, according to some cabled +reports, is to be tried for his part in distributing copies of the +memorandum. + +Herr Wolff said that Prince Lichnowsky had had five or six copies made, +of which he had sent one to Wolff, one to Albert Ballin, head of the +Hamburg-American line, and another to Arthur von Gwinner, head of the +Deutsche Bank. All of these persons carefully hid the "dangerous gift" +in the deepest recesses of their writing desks, but a fourth copy went +astray and got into hands for which it had not been intended, and from +these hands passed into those of still another individual. Then the +editor wrote: + + +How Manuscript Became Public + +"I made the acquaintance some years before the war of the officer who +obtained the memorandum 'on loan,' and sent copies of it to State +officials and politicians. He belongs to an old noble family, was +treated with sympathy by General von Moltke, the Chief of the General +Staff, occupied himself enthusiastically with religious philosophy or +theosophy, and was a thoroughly manly but mystic person. * * * After +hard war experiences, he felt the longing to serve the dictates of peace +with complete devotion, and he surrendered himself to a pacifism which +is absolutely incompatible with the uniform. + +"Late one evening he visited me in a state of great excitement, and told +me that he had manifolded a memorandum by Prince Lichnowsky which had +been lent to him, and that, without asking the author, he had sent it to +the 'leading men.' It was impossible to convince him by any logic or on +any grounds of reason that his action was wrong, senseless, and harmful. +He was a Marquis Posa, or, still more, a Horatius Cocles, who, out of +love for Rome or for mankind, sprang into the abyss." + +The Berlin Vorwärts, the leading organ of the pro-Government Socialists, +began its editorial on the von Jagow reply by remarking that the article +of the former State Secretary for Foreign Affairs was hardly calculated +to convince the reader that Prince Lichnowsky's self-esteem was the only +thing that had had a "painful effect" upon the German people in July, +1914, and since that time. It then said that "Herr von Jagow agrees with +Lichnowsky upon the decisive point!" quoted what von Jagow had said +about his desire for an Anglo-German rapprochement, and continued: + +"These words show that, in 1913, the Wilhelmstrasse and the London +Embassy were in the complete harmony of common beliefs and intentions. +Herr von Jagow, exactly like Lichnowsky, exactly like Bethmann, and +exactly like Wilhelm II., believed in the possibility of creating 'an +atmosphere of confidence,' as Jagow says, between Germany and England, +through a series of agreements, of which those regarding the Bagdad +Railroad and Africa were to have been the first." + +Vorwärts then proceeded to point out that the Albanian crisis had +strengthened this faith instead of weakening it, took up von Jagow's +reasons for Germany's refusal to have the proposed Anglo-German +agreement on the Portuguese African colonies published, and exclaimed: + +"What a fear of Tirpitz! A disturbing of the new relations through his +intrigues and the howling of his jingo press was to be avoided through +an affectation of secrecy. But three weeks later the war with England +was here and the Pan-German sheets welcomed 'the longed-for day!' What +had happened in the meantime? Of course, 'perfidious Albion' (even Jagow +puts quotation marks on these words) had in the meantime thrown off the +mask and revealed her perfidy! Let's hear what--after Lichnowsky--Herr +von Jagow, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in July, 1914, has to +say about it!" + +Then Vorwärts quoted Jagow's description of how the war began, and went +on: + +"All that remains of the accusations against the English Government is +that it did not prevent the world war, 'although it could have done so.' +Now Herr von Jagow also did not prevent the world war, but he must +certainly be acquitted of the charge that he could have prevented it. He +really could not, and so an emphatic statement of inability is the best +excuse for him and his fellow-disputants. + +"Let us establish the facts. England did not desire the war; she merely +did not prevent it. The war was not popular in England; it also was not +popular in Russia and France. But it has become popular. The whole +world--right away across the Atlantic and the Pacific--is united in +hatred against us. We, however, have for almost four years been +inoculated with the view that 'England laid all the mines which caused +the war'--a view which the Secretary of State, in accordance with the +evidence of the Ambassador, has now declared to be false! It is, +however, by this false view that the whole war policy of the German +Empire has been directed--from the declaration of unrestricted submarine +warfare, which brought us war with America, down to those Chancellor +speeches which say that Belgium must not again become England's area of +military concentration. + +"If all the parties concerned were convinced that the belief in +England's guilt is a fiction, why did they feed this belief, and why did +they pursue a policy which was based upon it? They ought rather to have +appointed to the Chancellorship Tirpitz, who, perhaps, believes what he +says. Instead of that, a policy of fear of Tirpitz has been pursued. +Sometimes a policy against Tirpitz has been attempted, but it has always +been reversed at decisive moments, out of fear of the nationalistic +terror. + +"This fear was, perhaps, not entirely unfounded, for agitation is +unscrupulous. The older ones among us still remember very well 'an +Englishwoman' who was very unpopular in many circles, but this +Englishwoman was the mother of the German Kaiser. No doubt there was no +more convenient method for the Government to guard the dynasty than for +it to take part in, or at least to tolerate, the agitation against the +English. This was the only way of preventing the agitation from turning +ultimately against the wearer of the German imperial crown. But ought +such intimate considerations to have been permitted to play a part when +the fate of the nations was at stake? + +"Let us put an end to this! At this moment we are in a battle which may +be decisive and which is going in favor of the empire. But even after +this battle we shall possess neither the possibility nor the moral right +to treat our opponent according to the principle of 'With thumbs in his +eyes and knee on his breast.' Even after the greatest military successes +there exists the necessity for political negotiation. It will be easier +for us to enter into this negotiation after the poisonous fog of the war +lies shall have lifted. Now that Herr von Jagow has cleared up the rôle +played by England at the beginning of the war, there is nothing in the +way of the fulfillment of the promise made by Bethmann to 'make good the +wrong committed against Belgium'! + +"If it is perhaps true that everything Wilhelm II., Bethmann, von Jagow, +and Lichnowsky thought was true up to three weeks before the outbreak of +the war was false, then let the mistake be acknowledged and the +conservative Pan-Germans be put openly in the Government, so that they, +both within and without, may complete the work of a peace by force. But +if this is neither desirable nor possible, then there is nothing left to +do but to take a decided step ahead. For the German people cannot be +satisfied with the methods of governing exercised before and during the +war. * * * The German people can only endure after the war as a +peace-loving nation that governs itself." + + + + +Lichnowsky's Testimony as to Germany's Long Plotting for Domination + +By H. Charles Woods, F. R. G. S. + + +To a Britisher who has followed the trend of events in the Near East, +and who has witnessed the gradual development of German intrigues in +that area, there has never been published a document so important and so +condemnatory of Germany as the disclosures of Prince Lichnowsky. + +On the one hand, the memorandum of the Kaiser's ex-Ambassador in London +proves from an authoritative enemy pen that, practically ever since the +Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78, and particularly from the time of the +accession of the present Emperor to the throne in 1888, the Germans have +carefully prepared the way for the present war, and that during this +period they have consistently turned their attention toward the East and +toward the development of the Mitteleuropa scheme. And on the other side +it indicates, if indeed any indication were still required, that the +so-called rivalry existing between England and Germany prior to the war +arose not from any desire on the part of Great Britain to stand in the +way of the development of legitimate German interests in the Balkans and +in Asia Minor, but from the unwillingness of the Government of Berlin to +agree to any reasonable settlement of the many all-important questions +connected with these regions. + +Although for years the Germans had been intriguing against the Triple +Entente, Prince Lichnowsky, a man possessed of personally friendly +feelings for England, was sent to London in order to camouflage the real +designs of the enemy and to secure representation by a diplomatist who +was intended to make good, and who, in fact, did make a high position +for himself in British official and social circles. The appointment +itself raises two interesting questions. In the first place, while this +is not stated in the memorandum, it is clear that, whereas Baron +Marschall von Bieberstein was definitely instructed to endeavor to make +friends with England and to detach her from France and Russia, or, if +this were impossible, to bring about war at a convenient time for +Germany, Prince Lichnowsky's task was somewhat different. Kept at least +more or less in the dark as to German objects, the Ambassador, who +arrived in London when the Morocco crisis of 1911 was considered at an +end, instead of being intrusted with the dual objects of his +predecessor, was clearly told to do, and did in fact do, his utmost to +establish friendly relations with England. The Berlin Government, on the +other hand, this time maintained in its own hands the larger question of +the making of war at what it believed, happily wrongly, to be a +convenient time for the Central Empires. In the second place, although +this, too, is not explained, various references made by Prince +Lichnowsky leave little doubt in the mind of the reader who knows the +situation existing at the German Embassy prior to the outbreak of war +that the Ambassador himself was aware that von Kühlmann--the Councilor +of Embassy--was, in fact, the representative of Pan-Germanism in +England, and that to this very able and expert intriguer was left the +work of trying to develop a situation which, in peace or in war, would +be favorable to the ruler and to the class whose views he voiced. + + +Phases of German Policy + +To come down to the real subject of this article--the proof provided by +Prince Lichnowsky's disclosures of the long existence of the German +Mitteleuropa scheme and of the fact that Germany, and not Austria, made +this war, largely with the object of pushing through her designs in the +East--I propose to divide my remarks in such a way as to show that the +development of this scheme passed through three phases and in each case +to take what may be called a text from the document under discussion. + +The first phase lasted from the Congress of Berlin of 1878, when Prince +Lichnowsky says that Germany began the Triple Alliance policy, and more +definitely from the accession of the present Emperor to the throne in +1888 until the Balkan wars. While in using these expressions the +ex-Ambassador does not refer only to this period, he says: "The goal of +our political ambition was to dominate in the Bosporus," and "instead of +encouraging a powerful development in the Balkan States, we placed +ourselves on the side of the Turkish and Magyar oppressors." + +These words contain in essence and in tabulated form an explanation +(from the pen of a German whose personal and official positions enabled +him to know the truth) of the events which were in progress during this +period--events the full importance of which has often been refuted and +denied by those who refused to see that from the first the Kaiser was +obsessed by a desire for domination from Hamburg to the Persian Gulf. +Indeed, from the moment of his accession the sentiments and views of the +German ruler became markedly apparent, for one year later his Majesty +paid the first of his carpet-bagging visits to Constantinople--a visit +more or less connected with the then recent grabbing of Haidar +Pasha-Ismid railway--now the first section of the Bagdad line--by the +Germans, and with the prolongation of that line to Angora as a German +concern, concessions secured by Mr. Kaula, acting on behalf of German +interests in 1888. + + +Preparing for Pan-German Project + +Before and particularly after the appointment of Baron Marschall von +Bieberstein, who had then been a personal friend of the Kaiser for many +years, the enemy had been carefully preparing the way for the +realization of his Pan-German dreams in the Near and Middle East. +Although so far as the Balkan States were concerned, up to the outbreak +of the war the Kaiser endeavored to screen his intentions behind a +nominally Austrian program, for years he had really been making ready +his ground for the present occasion by military, political, and economic +penetration and by diplomatic intrigues destined to bring about a +favorable situation for Germany when the propitious moment for action +arrived. The power of von der Goltz Pasha, who introduced the present +military system into Turkey in 1886, and of his pupils was gradually +increased until the Ottoman Army was finally placed completely under +Germanic control. + +The Young Turkish revolution of 1908, which at first seemed destined +greatly to minimize German power at Constantinople, really resulted in +an opposite effect. Thus in spite of the effective support of England +for Turkey during the Bosnian and Bulgarian crises of 1908 and 1909, a +gradual reaction subsequently set in. This was due in part to the +cleverness and regardlessness of von Bieberstein, and in part to the +circumstances arising out of the policy adopted by the Young Turks. For +instance, while the Germans ignored the necessity for reforms in the +Ottoman Empire so long as the Turks favored a Teutonic program, it was +impossible for the British Government or the British public to look with +favor upon a régime which worked to maintain the privileged position of +Moslems throughout the empire, which did nothing to punish those who +instigated the massacre of the Armenians of Cilicia in 1909, and which +was intent upon disturbing the status quo in the Persian Gulf, and upon +changing the status of Egypt to the Turkish advantage. + + +The Turco-German Entente + +Such indeed became the position that even the Turco-Italian war, which +might have been expected to shake the confidence of the Ottoman +Government in the bona fides of Italy's then ally, did not seriously +disturb the intimate relations which were gradually developing between +Berlin and Constantinople. Here again enemy intrigues were to the fore, +for in addition to Austria's objecting to the inauguration of any +Italian operations in the Balkans, the German Government, when the +position of its representative in Constantinople had become seriously +compromised as a result of the Italian annexation of Tripoli, which he +could not prevent, suddenly found it convenient to transfer von +Bieberstein to London and to replace him by another, perhaps less able, +but certainly none the less successful in retaining a grasp over +everything which took place in the Ottoman capital. + +Before and particularly after the accession of the Kaiser to the throne, +the Germans gradually furthered their program by a system of railway +penetration in the East. In the late '60s Baron Hirsch secured a +concession for the construction of lines from Constantinople to what was +then the north-western frontier of Eastern Rumelia, and from Saloniki to +Mitrovitza, with a branch to Ristovatz on the then Serbian frontier. At +first these lines were under French influence, but they subsequently +became largely an Austrian undertaking, and considerably later the +Deutsche Bank secured a predominating proportion of the capital, +thus turning them practically into a German concern. In Asia Minor the +British, who were originally responsible for the construction of +railways, were gradually ousted, until, with the signature of the Bagdad +Railway agreement in 1903, the Germans dominated not only that line, but +also occupied a position in which, on the one hand, they had secured +control of many of its feeders, and, on the other, they had jeopardized +the future development and even the actual prosperity of those not +already in their possession. + + +Fruits of the Balkan Wars + +This brings us up to the second phase in the development of +Pan-Germanism in the East--the period of the Balkan wars--toward two +aspects of which, as Prince Lichnowsky says, the Central Powers devoted +their attention. "Two possibilities for settling the question remained." +Either Germany left the Near Eastern problem to the peoples themselves +or she supported her allies "and carried out a Triple Alliance policy in +the East, thereby giving up the rôle of mediator." Once more, in the +words of the Prince himself, "The German Foreign Office very much +preferred the latter," and as a result supported Austria on the one hand +in her desire for the establishment of an independent Albania, and on +the other in her successful attempts to draw Bulgaria into the second +war and to prevent that country from providing the concessions which at +that time would have satisfied Rumania. + +So far as the first of these questions--that connected with Albania--is +concerned, while the ex-Ambassador admits the policy of Austria was +actuated by the fact that she "would not allow Serbia to reach the +Adriatic," the actual creation of Albania was justified by the existence +of the Albanians as a nationality and by their desire for independent +government. Indeed, that the régime inaugurated by the great powers on +the east of the Adriatic, and particularly the Government of William of +Wied, proved an utter failure, was due not so much to what Prince +Lichnowsky describes as the "incapacity of existence" of Albania as to +the attitude of the Central Powers, and especially to that of Austria, +who, having brought the new State into being, at once worked for unrest +and for discord in the hope of being able to step in to put the house in +order when the propitious moment arrived. + + +Promoting Balkan Discord + +The second direction in which the enemy devoted his energy was an even +larger, more German and more far-reaching one. "The first Balkan war led +to the collapse of Turkey and with it the defeat of our policy, which +has been identified with Turkey for many years," says the memorandum. +This at one time seemed destined to carry with it results entirely +disadvantageous to Germany. Thus, if the four States, Bulgaria, Greece, +Montenegro, and Serbia, who fought in the first war had continued on +good terms with one another, the whole balance of power in Europe would +almost certainly have been changed. Instead of the Ottoman Empire, which +prior to the outbreak of these hostilities was held by competent +authorities to be able to provide a vast army, then calculated to number +approximately 1,225,000 men, there would have sprung up a friendly group +of countries which in the near future could easily have placed in the +field a combined army approximately amounting to at least 1,000,000, all +told. As the interests of such a confederation, which would probably +have been joined by Rumania, would have been on the side of the Triple +Entente, the Central Powers at once realized that its formation or its +continued existence would mean for them not only the loss of the whole +of Turkey, but also the gain for their enemies of four or five allies, +most of whom had already proved their power in war. + + +German Power in Turkey + +Between the Balkan wars and the outbreak of the European conflagration, +but as part of the former period, there occurred two events of +far-reaching significance. The first, which is mentioned by Prince +Lichnowsky, was the appointment of General Liman von Sanders practically +as Commander in Chief of the Turkish Army--an appointment which Mr. +Morgenthau rightly tells us constituted a diplomatic triumph for +Germany. When coupled with the fact that Enver Pasha--an out-and-out +pro-German--became Minister of War about the same time, the military +result of this appointment was an enormous improvement in the efficiency +of the Ottoman Army. Its political significance, on the other hand, was +due to the fact that it carried with it a far-reaching increase of +Pan-German influence at Constantinople. + +The second event in progress during the interval of peace was connected +with the Aegean Islands question. Germany, having first utilized her +diplomatic influence in favor of Turkey, later on encouraged the +Government of that country in its continued protests against the +decision upon that question arrived at by the great powers. Not content, +however, with this, the Kaiser, who has now adopted the policy of +deportation in Belgium, in Poland, and in Serbia, definitely encouraged +the Turks in a like measure in regard to the Greeks of Asia Minor in +order to be rid of a hostile and Christian population when the time for +action arrived. That this encouragement was given was always apparent to +those who followed the course of events in 1914, but that it was +admitted by a German Admiral to Mr. Morgenthau constitutes a +condemnation the damning nature of which it is difficult to exaggerate. + + + + +THE EUROPEAN WAR AS SEEN BY CARTOONISTS + +[Illustration: [Dutch Cartoon] + +Gott Mit Uns + +_--Raemaekers in "Kultur in Cartoons."_] + +[Illustration: [French Cartoon] + +Signing the Russian Peace + +_--From La Victoire, Paris._] + +[Illustration: [Spanish Cartoon] + +Peace in Russia + +_--From Esquella, Barcelona._] + +[Illustration: [Swiss Cartoon] + +The Russian Revolution + +_--From Nebelspalter, Zurich._ + +Bolshevist statesmanship.] + +[Illustration: [English Cartoon] + +A Threat from the Orient + +_--From The Passing Show, London._ + +"Fancy meeting _you_!"] + +[Illustration: [Italian Cartoon] + +The Yellow Peril + +_--From Il 420, Florence._ + +GERMANY: "After I have gathered all these eggs into one basket, this +fellow threatens to upset everything."] + +[Illustration: [American Cartoon] + +Camouflage + +_--From The Indianapolis News._] + +[Illustration: [Dutch Cartoon] + +The Kaiser's "Alte Gott" + +_--From De Notenkraker, Amsterdam._ + +"In thee I trust, confound me not."] + +[Illustration: [French Cartoon] + +_--From La Victoire, Paris._ + +"We have done all this: We will try to do better."--_General Foch._] + +[Illustration: [American Cartoon] + +Prussianism + +_--From The Columbus Dispatch._ + +How can the world make peace with this thing?] + +[Illustration: [American Cartoon] + +Enough to Make a Dead Man Laugh + +_--From The New York Herald._ + +WILHELM: "What have I not done to preserve the world from these +horrors?"] + +[Illustration: [English Cartoon] + +The End of Their Perfect Day + +_--From The Passing Show, London._] + +[Illustration: [American Cartoon] + +_--G. M. Amato in Mid-Week Pictorial._] + +[Illustration: [English Cartoon] + +Postponed + +"Papa, ven _are_ ve going to Calais?" + +"Ach! Go and ask your grandpa!" + +_--From Cassell's Saturday Journal, London._] + +[Illustration: [American Cartoons] + +Rough Going + +_--San Francisco Chronicle._ + + +Now You're Shoutin', Newton! + +_--St. Louis Globe-Democrat._] + +[Illustration: [American Cartoons] + +Hohenzollern "Victory" + +_--From The New York Times._ + +GERMANY: "How many will be left to enjoy the fruits of your 'victory'?"] + +[Illustration: The Follies of 1918 + +_--Buffalo News._ + +WAR BULLETIN: "The Kaiser's six sons have suffered no casualties."] + +[Illustration: So Far and No Further! + +_--Central Press Association._] + +[Illustration:[English Cartoon] + +The Line Blocked + +_--From News of the World, London._ + +THE ALL-HIGHEST: "Gott in Himmel! Hindenburg! What shall we do? I +promised to be in Paris on the 1st of April!"] + +[Illustration: [Italian Cartoon] + +German Peace Methods + +_--From Il 420; Florence._ + +First disarm the people by false talk of no annexations, then, with a +dagger at their back, force them to sign peace on your own terms.] + +[Illustration: [German-Swiss Cartoon] + +On the Field of Honor + +_--Nebelspalter, Zurich._ + +MARIANNE (France): "Wilson, my friend and protector, defend me!"] + +[Illustration: [Italian Cartoon] + +A French Counterattack + +_--Il 420, Florence._ + +WAR BULLETIN: "The French violently attacked the weakest point on the +German front."] + +[Illustration: [German Cartoon] + +The Fate of Holland's Ships + +_--Lustige Blätter, Berlin._ + +PROUD ALBION: "Here, give me that boat; I need it in my fight for the +'freedom of the seas'!"] + +[Illustration: [Spanish Cartoon] + +In Paris on Good Friday + +_--Esquella, Barcelona._ + +JOAN OF ARC: "Father, forgive them; they know not what they do."] + +[Illustration: [English Cartoon] + +Germany's Lost Colonies + +_--From The Passing Show, London._ + +PACIFIST: "Here! All that bag of yours must be handed over to a league +of nations for disposal." + +JOHN BULL: "Oh, must it? And did your friend behind the hedge send you +to say that?"] + +[Illustration: [American Cartoon] + +Hitting Him Where He Lives + +_--From The New York World._] + +[Illustration: [Italian Cartoon] + +The Battle of Picardy + +--Il 420, Florence. + +A second Verdun, with the same results for Germany.] + +[Illustration: [American Cartoon] + +On the Western Front + +_--From The San Francisco Call-Post._ + +"Ach! How he iss gaining!"] + +[Illustration: [English Cartoon] + +A Test of Endurance + +_--From The Passing Show, London._ + +How much longer?] + +[Illustration: [Dutch Cartoon] + +The New Waxworks Group for the German Museum + +_--From De Amsterdammer, Amsterdam._] + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: + +Italicized text denoted by underscores (_). + +Apparent printer's errors corrected. + +Spelling changes: + +Page 383, "y" was changed to read "by." (a private letter written by +Emperor Charles to a relative...) + +Page 383, "Guilford" was changed to read "Guildford." (At the time the +Guildford Castle was...) + +Page 385, "langauge" was changed to read "language." ( including parts +of two fine bridges across the great river, a language largely Latin in +substance,) + +Page 402, "altogther" was changed to read "altogether." (they spent the +night clearing out the enemy from the village, where he made a desperate +resistance, and brought back altogether something like 700 or 800 +prisoners.) + +Page 406, "fiften" was changed to read "fifteen." (made a general +counterattack and succeeded in advancing their line to a depth of about +fifteen hundred yards beyond the line of the three hills,...) + +Page 427, "Austalians" was changed to read "Australians." (Germans gain +a foothold at several points midway between La Clytte and Voormezeele, +but are repulsed at other points along the line; Australians advance 500 +yards near Sailly and 300 yards west of Morlancourt.) + +Page 440, "skudskär" was changed to read "skudshär." (the head of the +Russian Bureau of Counterespionage in Finland spoke of the skudshär +as...) + +Page 455, "miniumum" was changed to read "minimum." (The executive +organs of the Soviets of Workmen's Control have the right to fix the +minimum output of a given firm,..) + +Page 468, "cinsiderably" was changed to read "considerably," (After +America's entry into the war material help for the Entente has not only +not increased, but has even decreased considerably.) + +Page 468, "rogram" was changed to read "program." (Wilson's gigantic +armament program has brought about such...) + +Page 470, "dur-" was changed to read "during." (In regard to the +sinkings in April, French official figures showed that the total losses +of allied and neutral ships, including those from accidents at sea +during the month, aggregated 381,631 tons.)] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Current History, Vol. VIII, No. 3, +June 1918, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41479 *** |