the armistice, we were conducted to the Officers' Casino for lunch.
Each member of the party, as had been the practice from the outset,
having brought a package of sandwiches from the ship in his pocket, it
was intimated to the Commander of the station that we would not need to
trouble him to have the luncheon served, which he said had been prepared
for us. The same situation had arisen at Norderney and several other
of the stations previously visited, and in each of these instances
our "hosts" of the day had acquiesced in the plainly expressed desire
of the senior officer of the party that we should confine our menu
to what we carried in our own "nose-bags." Nordholz, however--quite
possibly with no more than an enlarged idea of what were its duties
under the circumstances--was not to be denied. A couple of plates of
very appetizing German red-cabbage _sauerkraut_, with slices of ham and
blood sausage, were waiting upon a large sidetable as we entered the
reception-room, and to these, as fast as a very nervous waiter could
bring them in, were added the following: a large loaf of _pumpernickel_,
a pitcher of chicken _consommé_, a huge beefsteak, with a fried egg
sitting in the middle of it, for each member of the party, two dishes
of apple sauce, and eight bottles of wine--four of white and four of
red. The steaks--an inch thick, six inches in diameter, and grilled to a
turn--were quite the largest pieces of meat I had seen served outside of
Ireland since the war. The _hock_ bore the label "_Dürkheimer_," and the
other bottles, which were of non-German origin, "_Ungarischer Rotwein_."
"Although I'd hate to hurt their feelings," said the senior officer of
the party, surveying the Gargantuan repast with a perplexed smile, "I
should like to confine myself to my sandwiches and leave a note asking
them to forward this to some of our starving prisoners. Since we've
been feeding their pilots and commissioners in the _Hercules_, however,
I suppose there's no valid reason why we should hesitate to partake of
this banquet. I'll leave you free to decide for yourselves what you want
to do on that score." We did. It was the American Ensign who, smacking
his lips over the last of his steak, pronounced it the best "hunk of
cow" he had had since he was at a Mexican _barbecue_ at Coronado; but
it was the General who had a second helping of apple sauce, and wondered
how they made it so "smooth and free from lumps," and what it was they
put in it to give that "very delicate flavour."
Hung around all four walls of the room were perhaps a dozen oil
paintings of flying officers in uniform, and although they bore no
names, we knew (from what had been told us of a similar display in the
reception-room at Norderney) that they were portraits of pilots who had
lost their lives in active service. One--a three-quarters length of a
small wiry man, with gimlet eyes and a jaw that would have made that of
a wolf-trap look soft and flexible in comparison--I recognized at once
as having been reproduced in the German papers as the portrait of the
great Schramm, who had been killed when his Zeppelin was brought down
at Potters' Bar. Another--the bust of a man of rather a bulkier figure
than the first, but with a face a shade less brutal--was also strangely
familiar. I felt sure I had seen before that terribly determined jaw,
that broad nose with its wide nostrils, that receding brow, with the
bony lumps above the eyes, and the tentacles of my memory went groping
for when and where, while I went on sipping my glass of _Rotwein_ and
listening to Major P----[1] and Ensign E---- comparing sensations on
dropping from airplanes with parachutes.
[1] Major Pritchard, who subsequently distinguished himself
by landing from R-34, after its transatlantic flight,
with a parachute.
"If the Huns," the former was saying, "had had proper parachutes most of
the crews of the Zepps brought down in England could have landed safely
instead of being burned in the air. Of the remains of the crew of the
one brought down at Cuffley, hardly a fragment was recognizable as that
of a man. But if--"
Like a flash it came to me. The warm, comfortable room, with its solid
"New Art" furniture and the table stacked with plates of food and wine
bottles, faded away, and I saw a tangled heap of metal and burning
debris, sprawling across a stubble field and hedgerow, and steaming in
the cold early morning drizzle that was quenching its still smouldering
fires. Five hours previously that wreckage had been a raiding Zeppelin,
charging blindly across London, pursued by searchlights and gun-fire.
I had watched the ghostly shape disappear in the darkness as it shook
off the beams of the searchlights, and when it appeared again it was as
a descending comet of streaming flame streaking earthward across the
north-western heavens. After walking all the rest of the night--with
a lift from an early morning milk cart--I had arrived on the scene at
daybreak, and before the cordon of soldiers which later kept the crowds
back had been drawn. They had just cut a way through the wreckage to
one of the cars, and were cooling down the glowing metal with a stream
pumped by a little village fire-engine. Then they began taking out
what remained of the bodies of the crew. Some had been almost entirely
consumed by the fierce flames, and it is literally true that many of the
blackened fragments were hardly recognizable as human. But there was one
notable exception. By a miracle, the chest and head of the body of what
had undoubtedly been the commanding officer had been spared the direct
play of the flames. The fingers gripping the steering wheel were charred
to the bone, but the upper part of the tunic was so little scorched
that it still held the Iron Cross pinned into it. The blonde eyebrows,
beneath the bony cranial protuberances, were scarcely singed, and even
the scowl and the tightly compressed lips seemed to express intense
determination rather than death agony. That portrait--and doubtless most
of the others that looked down upon our strange luncheon party that day
at Nordholz--must have been painted from life.
VI
MERCHANT SHIPPING
The difference between the work of the Shipping Board of the Allied
Naval Armistice Commission and that of the other sub-commissions was
well defined by one of its members when he facetiously described it as
"the only branch of the business that pays dividends." The work of the
sub-commissions for the inspection of warships, seaplane and airship
stations and forts, in that it was for the purpose of seeing that
certain disarmament or demolition had been carried out, was largely
destructive; that of the Shipping Board, on the other hand, which had
as its end the return to the Allies of all of their merchant ships
interned in German harbours, was constructive. The Shipping Board began
to "pay dividends" (in the form of steamers dispatched for home ports)
almost from the day of the arrival of the _Hercules_ in Wilhelmshaven,
and these continued steadily until the last of the interned ships
surviving--a number had, unfortunately, been lost in mine-sweeping and
other dangerous work in which the Germans had employed them--had found
its way back to resume its place as a carrier of men and merchandise
and restore the heavily depleted tonnage of the country to which it
belonged.
At the outbreak of the war there were ninety-six Allied vessels in
German harbours, and all of these were promptly placed under embargo.
Of these, eighty were British, fourteen Belgian, and two French. As
all of the French and Belgian ships were small craft, their tonnage
was practically negligible. Besides these embargoed ships, the Allied
Commission had been directed to demand and arrange for the return of the
thirty-one--twenty-one British, eight Belgian, one American, and one
Brazilian--Allied ships which had been condemned in German Prize Courts
since the outbreak of the war. Ten of these, it was subsequently learned
when the question came up in conference, had been sunk, the Germans
having made a practice of using Allied ships in their hands for all work
involving great risk.
The question of the return of mercantile tonnage was taken up in the
course of the first conference in the _Hercules_ at Kiel. Admiral
Goette was requested to produce a complete list of all Allied and
American ships lying at the time in German ports, including all
mercantile vessels which had been condemned in Prize Courts. This list
was to show clearly which vessels were considered seaworthy, and if
unseaworthy, from what cause. It was also requested that information
should be given as to which of these ships were fitted for mine-seeking
or mine-sweeping, as it was planned to leave these temporarily in
German hands in order to facilitate the efforts she was supposed to
be making to clear the way for navigation. It was directed that ships
ready to take the sea should be bunkered and ballasted at once, and
that towage should be provided for sailing ships. All explosives were
to be removed, and the Germans were ordered to provide a steamer to
bring back the crews from the ports at which the embargoed ships had
been delivered--the Tyne, in case of British vessels, and Dunkerque for
French.
In respect to the ships considered unseaworthy, Admiral Goette was
requested to arrange for all machinery, boilers, tanks, and spaces
to be opened up, and the equipment made ready for inspection by the
Sub-Commission for Shipping. Following this inspection, immediate
facilities for dry docking and the carrying out of such repairs as the
Sub-Commission considered necessary to prepare each vessel for sea were
to be provided.
Although more than three weeks had passed since the signing of the
armistice, Admiral Goette admitted at once on the presentation of these
demands that not only had no seaworthy Allied ship started on its voyage
home, but that nothing whatever had been done in the way of repairing
any of those not seaworthy. He agreed, however, to do what he could
to expedite matters from that time on in the case of the embargoed
ships, but protested that, as the ships condemned in the Prize Courts
had, according to German law, ceased to be Allied vessels, he had no
authority to deliver them. On being told that the Allied Commission had
been appointed to deal with the terms of the armistice, not to discuss
matters of German or any other law, he finally gave way and agreed to
furnish a list of the prize ships. He made the reservation, however,
that the "question of legality," since it did not concern the conferring
commissions, should be taken up later between the interested Governments.
Indeed, protests, as preliminaries to acquiescence, formed the major
part of the German notes on the shipping question, as will be seen from
the following extracts. "I herewith bring officially to your notice,"
the President of the German Sub-Commission wrote after the first
conference, (1) "that we do not recognize the obligations demanded by
the Allies to deliver embargo ships on the 17th December by the fact
that we are willing to deliver them at the earliest possible moment";
and (2) "that embargo ships proceeding out at the request of the Allies
without having been reconditioned in a manner to put them in the same
condition in which they were at the beginning of the war will leave
prematurely under protest. Germany declines any further obligations
with regard to these ships." Writing after the first extension of the
armistice and referring to that fact, he intimates that "the period for
fulfilling the provisions of Article XXX" (the repair of ships) "is also
prolonged until January 17, 1919. Accordingly Germany is not obliged to
hand over the interned ships before the 17th January. In spite of this
Germany will make every endeavour in the future also to deliver these
interned ships as soon as possible, and, as hitherto, will seek to carry
out the terms of the armistice most loyally.... Without being under any
obligation to do so, and merely in order to furnish further proofs of
the loyal and business-like intentions of carrying out the terms of the
armistice, measures have been taken for carrying on reconditioning, as
far as that is possible and without prejudice, in accordance with the
newest regulations of the British Lloyd."
The same formula, it will be observed, was followed in connection with
each subject under consideration. There was first the protest, then an
intimation that the wish of the Allies should be carried out in spite of
the fact there was no obligation to do so, and finally the invariable
"patting of themselves on the back" on the part of the Germans for the
"loyalty of spirit" thus displayed.
There was a subtle appeal to British sportsmanship in this paragraph
from one of the communications of the President of the German Shipping
Commission. "I again request you to signify your approval that the
German embargo steamer, _Marie_ (ex _Dave Hill_), now lying in Batavia,
in recognition of her signal services during the war, both from the
military point of view and seamanship, should be permitted first to put
in with her crew to a German port; the ship will then, after handing
over her German fittings, be delivered as quickly as arranged in the
Tyne."
It was not stated what the "signal services" of the _Marie_ had been
in the war, nor for whom they had been performed; but I am under the
impression she was the ship which was credited with the very fine
exploit of running the British blockade of East Africa, delivering a
cargo of arms and munitions to Von Letow, and then making her escape
to the Dutch Indies. As this cargo was the one thing which enabled the
East African campaign to be carried on to the end of the war (when
it must otherwise inevitably have terminated a year or two earlier),
there can be no two ways of looking at the "signal service" the _Marie_
performed--for the Germans.
Owing to the difficulty in securing crews to take the ships to the Tyne,
Admiral Goette requested that the Allied Commission should furnish in
advance a guarantee of safety for those who could be induced to make the
voyage. Admiral Browning's reply was a counter-demand for a guarantee of
safety for the parties landing from the _Hercules_ to carry out their
inspections of German ships and air stations. "The word of my Commission
is given here and now," he said, "in the presence of many witnesses,
for the security of any German subject who may, in the course of the
execution of the armistice, land in Great Britain. It is not customary
to give written assurances regarding the honourable observation of
the law of nations, but in the case of Germany we are obliged to ask
for guarantees in writing because of the description which has been
furnished us of the state of the country. We are obliged to ask before
we take any steps to see that the terms of the armistice are executed,
that the parties should be able to perform their duties without danger,
let, or hindrance."
Admiral Goette conceded this demand, and then went on to press his own
in a statement highly illuminative of the abject position the German
naval authorities found themselves in their relations with both the
men of the warships and merchant sailors. "I wish to explain," he
said, "that the request which we make is not to be construed into an
expression of suspicion or distrust. It is merely in the interests of
the men themselves, as we experienced in the case of the personnel of
the submarines taken to English ports that the men were obviously under
great apprehension that something might happen to them on coming into
English parts. The guarantee is merely wanted as something definite
to show the crews, as we have great difficulty in getting the men to
believe us. That is why we also suggest that the German Commission
should receive the minutes of the conference, as they would be quite
enough for our purpose in order to be able to show the men in print that
the declaration has been actually made."
The mutual guarantees were subsequently given in writing as follows:--
GUARANTEE BY THE GOVERNMENT AT BERLIN AS TO THE SAFETY OF
MEMBERS OF THE ALLIED COMMISSION DURING THEIR STAY IN
GERMANY.
Berlin.
_December_ 6, 1918.
Foreign Office.
No. 172192.
The safety of the members of the Allied Commission and
of the representatives of the United States is guaranteed
by the Government of the State for the whole extent of
German territory. All representatives and functionaries of
the Administration of the State, the Federal States and
Municipalities of the Army and of the Navy are requested to give
them every protection and to assist them in every way in the
unhindered execution of their work.
The Government of the State.
(_Signed_) EBERT.
HAASE.
GUARANTEE AS TO SECURITY OF GERMAN CREWS OF MERCHANT VESSELS
H.M.S. _Hercules_.
_December_ 6, 1918.
The Allied Naval Armistice Commission.
No. 0379.
In reply to your verbal request of yesterday, 5th December,
1918, we hereby authorize you to communicate to those
concerned our assurance that the security of the crews sent
over in merchant vessels, restored under Article XXX, Terms of
Armistice, will be properly safeguarded on their arrival in
British or French ports.
A copy of this document will be forwarded to the Admiralty
in London and to the Ministry of Marine in Paris accordingly.
(_Signed_) M. E. Browning, _Vice-Admiral_.
(_Signed_) M. F. A. Grasset, _Contre-Amiral_.
To Rear-Admiral Ernst Goette.
Guarantees having been provided, the following instructions were handed
to the German Commission regarding the carrying out of inspections under
the terms of the armistice:--
1. The Allied Naval Commission shall be received on board each
mercantile vessel to be inspected by officers of approximately
equivalent rank and conducted through the vessel, visiting such places
and compartments as the Allied Commission may wish.
2. All compartments are to be adequately lighted.
3. All vessels shall be cleared of men before and during the inspection,
with the exception of those necessary to open up machinery, doors,
hatches, etc.
4. If guns are mounted they are to be uncovered, and all explosives
removed from the vessel.
The Allied inspection parties were instructed as follows:--
(_a_) To satisfy themselves that all Allied vessels are bunkered,
ballasted, and sufficiently manned for the passage to the Tyne, in the
case of British and Belgian vessels, and to Dunkerque, in the case of
French vessels.
(_b_) To ensure that the necessary repairs and dry docking of
unseaworthy ships are carried out by the German authorities.
(_c_) To ascertain that sufficient deck and engine stores are provided
for the passage.
(_d_) That all ships' papers, including Log Book and Register,
confiscated on internment are returned.
(_e_) That ammunition and explosives are landed from the vessels which
have been used for war purposes.
The arrival of the lists of embargo and prize ships showed them to be
scattered about among a large number of ports on both the North Sea
and the Baltic. As lack of time precluded the possibility of visiting
Danzig or any other Baltic ports east of Kiel, it was arranged that all
seaworthy ships in these ports should proceed to Kiel for inspection.
After completing the inspection of the five ships in Wilhelmshaven (two
of which were found to have machinery defects which made it impossible
to deliver them without extensive repairs), the Shipping Board departed
by train for Hamburg and Bremerhaven, where the greater part of their
work was to be done. Before they rejoined the _Hercules_ three days
later at Kiel over thirty British ships had been inspected and the
preliminary steps taken for their return to the Tyne.
Admiral Goette's report at the first conference respecting conditions
at Hamburg and the vicinity had made it appear probable that a visit
to the Elbe would be entirely out of the question, and even after
guarantees of safety had arrived it still seemed that venturing there
would be attended by uncertainty if not danger. "In the Elbe," the
President of the German Commission had said, "power is entirely in the
hands of the Workmen's and Soldiers' Council, and Naval Officers have
no authority or influence whatever. One of the chief supports of the
Workmen's and Soldiers' Council is the light cruiser _Augsburg_. There
are also some torpedo-boats, mine-sweeping vessels and other small craft
there which should be disarmed; but officers at Wilhelmshaven have no
power to see to it, nor can they give any definite information as to
what is there.... The Elbe is much less under the influence of the
Berlin Government than either Wilhelmshaven or Kiel. The Elbe Republic
appears to have been much more radical than the others from the start,
and has from the beginning of the Revolution refused to co-operate with
the Naval Officers, while such co-operation was at once in effect in
Wilhelmshaven and Kiel."
It is by no means improbable that Admiral Goette was quite sincere in
this summary of conditions on the Elbe; indeed, so far as the lack
of authority on the part of Naval Officers was concerned, it was
an accurate statement of the case. But in assuming that this would
necessarily make it impossible for the Allied Shipping Board to carry
out their work he proved quite wrong. Contemptuous as they were of their
ex-officers, the men, far from displaying any desire to interfere with
the work of the Commission, proved themselves no less willing than their
mates in Wilhelmshaven to help in any way they could. The Workmen's and
Soldiers' Council took over the protection of the party from the moment
of its arrival, and, save for a single incident which could hardly have
been classed as "preventable," nothing of an untoward nature occurred in
the course of the visit.
[Illustration: IN THE ELBE, HAMBURG]
[Illustration: RAILROAD STATION AT HAMBURG]
At Hamburg the party put up at the Hotel Atlantic, where they
reported that their comfort was extremely well looked after in every
way. Occupying a wing to themselves and using a private dining-room,
they saw little of the other guests. They were not allowed to linger in
the foyer or any of the public rooms on the ground floor, and as soon as
they had reached their rooms an armed guard of the Workmen and Soldiers
took station at the entrance to the corridor. These precautions appeared
quite unnecessary, as no signs of unfriendliness of any kind were in
evidence.
The rooms were large and furnished with all their pre-war luxuriousness.
The linen was abundant and of fine quality. The steam heaters had to
be turned off to prevent the rooms becoming overheated. The response
from the hot-water taps was immediate. The brass fittings were still
in place, and there were no signs of _ersatz_ towels, sheets, or even
lace curtains. Soap was the only thing missing, but that difficulty
was common to all Germany. Food (even on one of the days which was
meatless) was both abundant and wholesome--"well up to the average in a
first-class English hotel," as one of the members put it. There was an
ample and varied wine list to order from, including--besides many Rhine
and Hungarian brands--several French and Italian brandies and liqueurs.
There was some discussion over the cigars, the only point upon which
the Commission were unanimous being that they were not tobacco, and
that any member desiring to experiment in the effect of them upon a
human being should do so upon himself, and in his own room. German
"substitute" tobacco looks better than it smokes; in fact, the only way
in which the Workmen's and Soldiers' guards attached to our parties were
in the least obnoxious was through putting up "smoke barrages," and even
these were avoidable except in turrets, magazines, shaft tunnels, and
other enclosed spaces.
The inspection of the twenty-four British ships in the Elbe revealed
the fact that it had been the German practice to convert the best of
the embargo steamers into mine-layers, net-layers, seaplane carriers,
and other types of war auxiliaries. These had been kept in the best of
condition, and, allowing for the hard service they had been engaged in,
were in practically as good shape as when first seized. The second-grade
steamers and sailing vessels had merely been laid up and left to go
to rack and ruin. Stripped of everything in the way of metal or gear
that was likely to prove of use elsewhere, unpainted, uncared-for and
covered with four-and-a-half years' accumulation of rust and filth, they
presented a sorry sight. Although yielding little in the way of metal
or technical instruments, the sailing ships had furnished useful loot in
the form of hempen ropes and canvas, of both of which they were stripped
to the last ravellings.