HORRORS OF THE WAR
_American Relief for War-Stricken Peoples of Europe_--_Millions
of Dollars Contributed in Cash and Gifts_--Canada Aids the
Belgians_--Devastation of Poland Even Greater and More Terrible them
that of Belgium_.
Soon after the world became aware of the fact that the German army's
progress through Belgium on its dash to Paris in August of 1914 had
resulted in the absolute devastation of the little buffer state, an
enterprising and sympathetic American citizen, Mr. James Keeley, editor
of the Chicago Herald, penned a remarkable open letter "to the Children
of America," in which he suggested the sending of a "Christmas ship" to
Europe, filled with gifts of a useful character for the little ones of
all the belligerent nations. The response was immediate and most truly
generous. Newspapers and civic organizations all over the United States
joined in gathering from young and old the contributions that freighted
a United States warship with a cargo of gifts worth over two million
dollars, and at Yuletide these gifts were systematically distributed
among the innocent victims of the war in all the countries concerned.
The idea of the Christmas ship was nobly conceived and splendidly
executed. Rulers of the belligerent nations recognized the beauty of the
idea and paused awhile in their martial activities to welcome and thank
the American commissioner who enacted the role of an international Santa
Claus. But the slaughter on the fighting lines of eastern and western
Europe went on unabated and the peaceful symbolism of the Christmas ship
was soon forgotten in the daily recurrence of battle and bloodshed.
AWFUL CONDITIONS IN POLAND
While the frightful state of Belgium commanded the sympathy of the
civilized world in the winter of 1914-15, the conditions in Poland
were even worse. At the end of March the great Polish pianist, Ignace
Paderewski, paid a visit to London on behalf of the suffering Poles
and his efforts resulted in the formation of an influential relief
committee. Among the members were such men as Premier Asquith,
ex-Premier Balfour, Chancellor of the Exchequer Lloyd-George, Cardinal
Bourne, archbishop of Westminster; Admiral Lord Charles Beresford and
the Russian and French ambassadors. An American woman, Lady Randolph
Churchill, also took an active part in the work of the committee, which
soon succeeded in raising a large sum for the relief of the most urgent
distress in Poland. While in London on his mission of mercy, Mr.
Paderewski said:
"Is it the death agony or only the birth pangs? That is the question
which every Pole throughout the world is asking himself as tragedy
follows tragedy in the long martyrdom of our beloved nation. You have
only heard the details of Belgium, but I tell you they are as nothing
with what has happened in Poland.
"The scene of operations in Poland is seven times larger than that of
Belgium, and she has had to endure seven times the torture. Remember,
the battle of Europe is being fought in the east, not in the west, and
while the tide of battle has reached a sort of ebb along the trenches
about the frontiers of Alsace and Flanders, the great waves roll
backward and forward from Germany to Russia and break always on Poland.
"Our country, in fact, is just as Belgium was called--the cockpit of
Europe, and it may now be called the battlefield of the world, if not of
civilization.
"It is only perhaps we Poles who have known to its utmost depths what
this war has really meant. It is not only that there are 10,000,
human beings on the verge of starvation, nay, actually perishing; there
is worse than that.
"Remember that both Belgium and Poland are still under the yoke. The
Russians, it is true, occupy some fifteen thousand miles of our country,
but this is really nothing, for the Germans occupy five-sixths of it,
and the desolation passes all comprehension.
CALLS IT COMPULSORY SUICIDE
"As to actual battles, I can hardly speak of them. It is torture even to
think of them. Only consider! Our one nation is divided as it were into
three sections, which were thrust each against the others to work out
their destruction. It is parricide! It is fratricide, nay suicide!
Compulsory suicide! That is what it is!
"Listen to what it means to us all. I was told by a man from Austria
that an army doctor, a Pole by birth, who was deputed to go over the
Austrian battlefields and verify identification marks on the bodies,
found among the 14,000 dead hardly any but Polish names. He looked in
vain for any others, and in the end went mad with horror at the thought
of it. Another story that came to me the other day told of another case
of the tragedy of Poland which is almost too terrible for the human mind
to contain. The incident took place during a charge. Both armies had
been ordered to attack, and the Poles, as usual, were in the front
lines. As they met in the shock they recognized each other.
"One poor fellow, as he was struck through by a bayonet, cried out in
his death agony, 'Jesu Maria! I have five children! Jesu Maria!' The
words went as straight to the brain of his conqueror as a dagger to the
heart, and killed his reason. Somewhere among the madhouses of Europe
there is a lunatic. He is not violent, but he never laughs. He only
wanders about with the words of his dying victim, 'Ah, Jesu Maria! I
have five children. Jesu Maria!'
"The promise of Grand Duke Nicholas that Poland shall be a nation once
again went straight to the very heart of every one of our 25,000,
fellow countrymen. That one promise has been sufficient to change the
whole mentality of the nation and fill their souls with new hope. It has
cleared up any doubt that might have existed in the minds of the Poles
in Austria and Prussia as to what it is that the allies are fighting
for--namely: the principles of nationality for which we have suffered,
ah! how many centuries!"
MILLIONS OF POLES DESTITUTE
The ruin wrought by war in Belgium affected 7,000,000 people. In Poland
more than twice that number have been rendered destitute. Not less than
15,000 villages have been laid waste, burned, or damaged in Russian
Poland alone. The loss in property has been estimated at $500,000,000,
but may reach double that sum.
In Galicia the conditions are reported to be equally appalling, though
the smashup has not been as complete, because the Russians have been
able to maintain their positions more permanently than they have in the
district west and northeast of the Polish capital.
The greater part of Poland lying in a broad sweep of country west,
southwest and northeast of Warsaw has been swept over and battered to
pieces by shot and shell like the strip of Flanders on both sides of the
Yser river.
Without any direct interest in the present great conflict, the unhappy
Poles found themselves impressed into the armies of these three great
powers and fighting against their own racial brethren. That meant that
brother was to fight against brother, and as the stress of the war
increased and the age limit was raised to 38 years and even higher,
nearly every able-bodied Pole was impressed into service.
Almost the first move of the Russians at the outbreak of hostilities was
to invade Galicia. This brought with it instantly all the most frightful
horrors of war. Embracing as it does a large part of the grain-growing
district of the Polish peoples, the devastation of Galicia meant
suffering for not only that province, but for Russian Poland as well.
The crops had only been partially harvested by August, when the war
began.
The panic of war stopped the work in the fields, even where the peasants
were not compelled to flee before the invader. The men were called to
the colors and the crops were allowed to rot in the fields. Numerous
towns were sacked.
The advance to Lemberg by the Russians was swift. In the panic that
followed this great city of 200,000 had scarcely 70,000 left when the
invaders took possession. Families were broken up; none of the refugees
had time to take supplies or clothes.
Germany's first move against Russia came from the great fortresses
along the Oder and Vistula. All of western Poland was overrun. When the
Russian advance from Warsaw drove back the invaders, the scars of the
conflict left this section of Poland badly battered. Then came Von
Hindenburg's victorious armies, and again this section was torn by shot
and shell and wasted. While some of the larger places, such as Lodz,
Plock, Lowicz, Tchenstochow and Petrokov, were spared, the smaller
towns, villages, and hamlets in the direct line of battle suffered
equally from the defenders and invaders.
All the section to the northeast of Warsaw between the East Prussian
frontier and the Bug, Narew, and Niemen rivers has suffered even a worse
fate, as the bitterness engendered by the devastation worked by the
Russians in East Prussia led to reprisals that not even the strict
discipline of the German army could curb. Not only were the peasants'
homes pounded to bits by the opposing artillery fire, but the armies as
they fought back and forth took all the cattle, horses, and stock that
came to their hands. Disease added to the suffering of the stricken
people.
THOUSANDS OF VILLAGES DESTROYED
Henry Sienkiewicz, the great Polish writer and author of "Quo Vadis," a
refugee in Switzerland, said, on March 15, 1915:
"In the kingdom of Poland alone there are 15,000 villages burned or
damaged; a thousand churches and chapels destroyed. The homeless
villagers have sought shelter in the forests, where it is no
exaggeration to say that women and children are dying from cold and
hunger by thousands daily.
"Poland comprises 127,500 square kilometers. One hundred thousand of
these have been devastated by the battling armies. More than a million
horses and two million head of horned cattle have been seized by the
invaders, and in the whole of the 100,000 square kilometers in the
possession of the soldiers not a grain of corn, not a scrap of meat, nor
a drop of milk remain for the civil population. "The material losses up
to the present are estimated at 1,000,000,000 rubles ($500,000,000). No
fewer than 400,000 workmen have lost their means of livelihood.
"The state of things in Galicia is just as dreadful for the civil
population--innocent victims of the war. Of 75,000 square kilometers all
except 5,000 square kilometers around Cracow are in possession of the
Russians. They commandeered 900,000 horses and about 200,000 head of
horned cattle and seized all the grain, part of the salt fields, and the
oil wells.
"The once rich province is a desert. Over a million inhabitants
have sought refuge in other parts of Austria, and they are in sheer
destitution."
Truly, "War is hell!"
RELIEF FOR BELGIAN SUFFERERS
Following the invasion and over-running of Belgium by the Germans, the
problem of feeding the Belgian population became an urgent one. The
invaders left the problem largely to the charitable sympathies of the
civilized world, and from almost every quarter of the globe aid was sent
in money or provisions for the stricken people. In spite of the enormous
war drains upon the resources of the British Empire, every one of the
Overseas Dominions did its full share in Belgian relief, while the
United States, through the Rockefeller Foundation and other agencies, as
well as the South American countries, also contributed to alleviate the
suffering in the little kingdom. The contributions continued during more
than two years and the relief was administered most efficiently by means
of commissions.
RELIEF ASKED FOR SERBIA
On April 3, 1915, the leading United States newspapers printed an
appeal received from Nish, the war capital of Serbia, which set forth a
terrible situation in terms that confirmed a report already made public
by Sir Thomas Lipton, who dedicated his famous steam yacht, the Erin,
as a hospital ship for use in the Mediterranean, and visited Serbia
in February and March. The appeal was dated February 23 and said in
substance as follows:
"Typhus is raging in Serbia, and unless immediate aid be sent the
mortality will be appalling. "Typhus is a filth disease and is spread
by lice, which flourish only in dirt. There are not enough buildings to
house the sick and they lie huddled together on dirty straw.
"They have not changed their clothes for six months, and consequently
personal cleanliness, which is absolutely essential in checking the
disease, is impossible. They cannot get proper nourishment, as there is
not enough available, nor is there money to buy it if it were.
"The doctors can usually only work for two weeks before contracting
the disease, as they have no means of protecting themselves. Yet they
volunteer for typhus hospitals, knowing that they are probably going to
their death, for the mortality is over 50 per cent.
"The following four things are most urgently needed:
"1. Tents and portable chicken runs, as these make excellent houses.
There is no lumber in Serbia, so nothing can be built here.
"2. Beds and bed linen. It is impossible to keep straw free from lice.
"3. Underclothing. Dirty clothes make an ideal breeding place for lice.
"4. Disinfectants and whitewash.
"Speedy help is essential, as every day's delay costs hundreds of
lives."
The response to this touching appeal was immediate and generous, Germans
and Austrians in America contributing freely. A large amount of cash and
supplies for the Austrian prisoners was sent to the American consul at
Nish, who was also acting consul for Germany and Austria in Serbia.
GERMAN REPORT OF VILLAGES RAZED
A dispatch from Berlin by wireless March 23 stated that according to a
report received there from Cracow, the damages due to the war in
Poland and Galicia at that time amounted to 5,000,000,000 marks
($1,250,000,000).
In Galicia 100 cities and market places and 6,000 villages had been more
or less damaged, while 250 villages had been destroyed. Horses to the
number of 800,000 and 500,000 head of cattle, with all grain and other
provisions in Galicia had been taken away by the Russians.