Winter in the Outer World
My narrative has hitherto been confined to affairs in the British
Isles; but to give a complete picture of the time I must now deal, even
though very briefly, with the effects of _B. diazotans_ in other parts
of the globe. My account will, of necessity, be incomplete: because our
knowledge of that period is at best a scanty one.
I have already indicated the part which the great air-ways played in
distribution of _B. diazotans_ over the world; but once it had been
planted in the new centres to which the aeroplanes carried it, other
factors came into action. From South-western Europe, the North-East
Trade Winds bore the bacilli across the Atlantic and spread them upon
the seaboard of South America, especially around the mouths of the
Amazon. The winds on the coast of North America caught up the germs and
drove them eventually to Scandinavia and even further east. New Guinea,
Borneo, Sumatra and the other islands of the chain were devastated
from the Australian centres. Madagascar was contaminated also, though
the point of origin in this case is not definitely known. Probably
the ocean currents played their part, as they certainly did in the
destruction of Polynesian vegetation.
Climate had a considerable influence upon the development of the
bacilli, once they were scattered. In the Tropics, they multiplied with
even greater rapidity than they had done in the North Temperate Zone.
On the Congo and in the Amazonian forests they seem to have undergone
a process of reproduction almost inconceivably swift. Those which
drifted up into the frigid regions of the North and South, however,
appear to have perished almost without a struggle: either on account of
the low temperature or the lack of nitrogenous material, they produced
very little effect in either of these districts. The sea-plants seem to
have been unaffected by them there; and one of the strangest results of
this inactivity was the complete change in habits of various fishes,
which now sought in the freezing North the feeding and breeding-grounds
which suited them best. The herring left the North Sea and the cod
quitted the Banks in search of purer water. On the other hand, the
great masses of weed in the Sargasso Sea were almost completely
destroyed, along with the other accumulations south-east of New Zealand
and in the North Pacific.
It must not be assumed, however, that wherever the colonies of _B.
diazotans_ alighted, devastation followed as a matter of course. For
some reason, which has never been made clear, certain areas proved
themselves immune from attack; so that they remained like oases of
cultivable land amid the surrounding deserts. The areas thus preserved
from sterility were not of any great size; usually they amounted only
to a few hundred acres in extent, though in isolated cases larger
tracts were found unaffected here and there.
With the recognition of the world-wide influence of _B. diazotans_, the
land became divided into two sections: the food-producing districts and
the consuming but non-productive areas. Nowhere was there sufficient
grain to make safety a certainty. In America, most of the available
food-stuffs were still in or near their places of origin when the panic
began to grow.
In the matter of meat, things were much in the same state. Those
countries which produced great supplies of cattle prohibited exports;
and the beasts were hurriedly slaughtered and the carcases salted to
preserve them, as soon as the failure of the grass made it impossible
to conserve live-stock.
Each country offered features of its own in the _débâcle_; but I can
only deal with one or two outstanding cases here.
The European conditions were so similar to those which I have already
depicted in the case of Britain that I need not describe them at
all. Southern Russia fared better than her neighbours; for after the
Famine there were still some remnants of her population left alive;
and it seems probable that the lower density of the Russian population
retarded the extinction of humanity in this region long after the worst
period had been reached in the western area.
In Africa and India, the course of the devastation was marked by
risings in which all Europeans seem to have perished. Thus we have no
descriptions of the later stages of the disaster in either case.
In China, the inhabitants of the densely-populated rice-growing
districts of Eastern China were the first to have the true position of
affairs forced upon their notice; and, leaving their useless fields,
they began to move westwards. At first the stirrings were merely
sporadic; but gradually these isolated movements reinforced one another
until some millions of Chinese were drifting into Western China and
setting up reactions among the populations which they encountered on
their way. From Manchuria, great masses of them forced their way up
the Amur Valley into Transbaikalia. Others, sweeping over Pekin on the
road, emerged upon the banks of the Hoang Ho. The inhabitants of the
Honan Province moved westward, increasing in numbers as they recruited
from the local populations _en route_. A massacre of foreigners took
place all over China.
In its general character, this huge wandering of the Mongol races
recalls the movements which led eventually to the downfall of the
Roman Empire; but the parallel is illusory. In the days of Gengis
Khan, the Eastern hordes could always find food to support them on
their line of march, either in the form of local supplies which they
captured, or in the herds which they drove with them as they advanced.
But in this new tumultuous outbreak, food was unprocurable; and the
irruption melted away almost before the confines of China had been
reached. Some immense bands descended from Yunnan into Burmah; but they
appear to have perished among the rotting vegetation. Another series
of smaller bodies penetrated into Thibet, where they died among the
snows. The furthest stirrings of the wave appear to have been felt in
Chinese Turkestan; and apparently Kashgar and Yarkand were centres from
which other waves might have spread: but it seems probable that these
westernmost movements were checked by the tangle of the Pamirs and
Karakorams. Nothing appears to have reached Samarkand. But here, again,
it is difficult to discover what actually did occur. Any survivors who
have been interrogated are of the illiterate class, who had no definite
conception of the route which they followed in their wanderings.
The history of Japan under the influence of _B. diazotans_ is of
especial interest, since it presents the closest parallel to our own
experiences. At the outbreak of the Famine, the practical minds of
the Japanese statesmen seem to have acted with the promptitude which
Nordenholt had shown. They had not his psychological insight, it is
true; but they had a simpler problem before them, since they could
ignore public opinion entirely. Fairly complete accounts of their
operations are in existence, so far as the outer manifestations of
their policy are concerned, though we know little as yet of the inner
history of the events.
Kiyotome Zada appears to have been the Japanese Nordenholt. Under
his direction, two great expeditions raided Manchuria and Eastern
China with the object of capturing the largest possible quantity
of food-stuffs. It is probable that these two invasions, with the
consequent loss of food-supplies, led to the great stirrings among the
population of China. A Nitrogen Area was set up in the South Island,
the Kobe shipyards being its nucleus. Thereafter the history follows
very closely upon that of the Clyde Valley experiment, except in its
last stages.
Among the other Pacific communities the Famine proved almost completely
destructive. I have already told of the spreading of _B. diazotans_
through the chain of islands between Australia and Burmah. In Australia
itself no attempt was made to found a nitrogen-producing plant on a
sufficiently large scale.
One curious episode deserves mention. In the earlier days of the
Famine, news reached the Australian ports that certain of the
Polynesian islands were still free from the scourge; and a frenzied
emigration followed. But each ship carried with it the freight of _B.
diazotans_, so that this exodus merely served to spread the bacilli
into spots which otherwise they might not have reached. Before very
long the whole of Polynesia was involved in the disaster. Some diaries
have been discovered on board deserted vessels; and in every case the
history is the same: the long search through devastated islands, the
discovery at last of some untouched spot in the ocean wilderness, the
rejoicings, the landing, and then, a few days later, the realisation
that here also the bacillus had made its appearance. What seems most
curious is the fact that in many cases it was weeks before the ship’s
company grasped the apparently obvious truth that their own appearance
coincided with the arrival of the fatal germs. It never seems to have
occurred to any of them that they bore with them the very thing which
they were trying to escape. So they went from island to island,
seeking refuge from a plague which stood ever at their elbow, until at
last their stores failed.
On the West Coast of South America a new phenomenon appeared. The
huge deposits of nitrates in Bolivia and South Peru formed the best
breeding-ground for _B. diazotans_ which had yet been detected, with
the result that nitrogen poured into the atmosphere in unheard-of
volumes. In most places the winds were sufficient to disperse these
invisible clouds of gas; but in some spots the arrival of the bacilli
coincided with a dead calm, so that the nitrogen remained in the
neighbourhood in which it was generated. The great salt swamp in the
Potosi district furnished the best example of this phenomenon. The
whole surface frothed and boiled for days together; and the atmosphere
in the neighbourhood became so heavily charged with nitrous fumes that
the air was almost unbreatheable. All the inhabitants of the district
fled before this, to them, inexplicable danger; and the effects
extended as far as Llica and the railway junction at Uyuni. In this
“caliche” district, the destruction of combined nitrogen probably
attained its maximum; and the propagation of _B. diazotans_ never
reached such a level in any other part of the world.
But with this enormous multiplication of the bacilli, other events
followed. Carried north and east by winds, these huge quantities
of the germs found their way into the headwaters of the Amazon and
its tributaries, and were thus carried eastward into the very heart
of the tropical forests, where they continued to breed with almost
inconceivable rapidity. Soon the whole of the vegetation in this region
was in a decline; and the Amazon valley degenerated into a swamp choked
with dead and dying plants. Humanity was driven out long before the
end came. Animal life could not persist in the midst of this noisome
wilderness.
The same phenomena appeared, though in a different form, over the
southern part of South America. Here also the great rivers formed
the main distributing agencies for the bacilli; and the whole
cattle-raising district was devastated. The stock was slaughtered
on a huge scale as soon as it became clear that vegetation had
perished; but owing to mismanagement and transport difficulties the
preservatives necessary to make the best of the meat thus obtained were
not procurable in sufficient quantities. Nevertheless, by converting
as much as possible into biltong, more than sufficient was preserved
to keep a very large part of the population alive during the Famine;
and in later days, by trading their surplus dried meat for cereals and
nitrogenous compounds, they succeeded in rescuing a greater proportion
of lives than might have been anticipated.
To complete this survey of the world at that period, the effect of
_B. diazotans_ upon North America still remains to be told. I have
already given some information with regard to the spread of the Blight
across the Middle West; but I must mention that it was in this part
of the world especially that these curious isolated immune areas were
observed, wherein the bacillus seemed to make no headway. Thousands of
acres in all were found to be untouched by the denitrifying organisms.
At the time of the Famine the civilisation of North America was in a
curious condition, mainly owing to the influx of a foreign element
which had taken place to a greater and greater extent after the War.
The immigrants had come in such numbers that assimilation of them was
impossible, and in this way the stability of the central Government
was weakened. To a great extent the Southern States had fallen into
the hands of the negroes, but similar segregations were to be found
in other parts of the country. Germans accumulated in one State,
Italians in another, East Europeans and Slavs in yet other areas. Thus
Congress became subject to the group system of government, with all the
weaknesses which such a system brings in its train.
When _B. diazotans_ first made its appearance in the Continent the
Government in power was composed of feeble men, without character and
unfitted for bold decisions. The prohibition of cereal exports was a
measure arising from panic rather than foresight; and once this had
been put in operation, the Government rested on its oars and awaited
the turn of events.
Thus at this period the United States presented the spectacle of a
series of unsympathetic communities united by the slender bonds of a
weak central Government, and divided amongst themselves by the very
deepest cleavages. The grain-growing districts regarded the cities as
parasites upon the food-supply which had been raised; while the city
population, having only secured a certain amount of the available
food-stuffs, looked upon the Middle Westerners as an anti-social group
of hoarders. But even within these two large groups, minor cleavages
had come to light. The poorer classes, appalled at the rise in prices,
had begun to cry out against the rich. Hasty and ill-considered
legislation was passed which, instead of curing the troubles, merely
served to augment them; and soon the whole country was seething with
undercurrents of hatred for government of any kind.
With so much inflammable material, an outbreak was only a question of
time; and soon something almost akin to anarchy prevailed. Food at
any price became the cry. Those who controlled great stores of grain
had to defend them; those who lacked sustenance had no reason to
wait in patience. Civil war of the most bitter type broke out almost
simultaneously throughout the country.
Hostilities took a form which had never been imagined in any previous
fighting. In the old days one of the main objectives in the siege of
an area was the shutting out of supplies from the besieged garrison.
In this American war, however, the exact opposite held good. A
starving population encircled the areas in which food was stored
and endeavoured to force its way in; while the defenders were well
supplied with rations. Nor was this all. It was well recognised
among the besiegers that the supplies within the besieged area were
insufficient to meet the demands which would be made upon them if the
attacking force as a whole broke through the line of the defence; and
therefore each individual attacker felt that his comrades were also his
competitors, whom he had no great desire to see survive. Again, in the
previous history of warfare, any loss on the part of the garrison was
irreparable, since no reinforcements could penetrate the encircling
lines of enemies; but in this new form of combat any member of the
attacking force was willing to secede to the garrison if they would
allow him to do so, since by this means he could secure food. Thus
the casualties of the garrison could be made good simply by admitting
besiegers to take the place of those who had been killed.
In the main, these sieges took place at points where the harvested
grain, such as it was, had been accumulated for transport; but even the
areas which had proved immune from the attacks of _B. diazotans_ were
attacked by far-sighted men who looked beyond the immediate future and
who wished to control these remaining fertile areas in view of next
year’s supplies.
I have before me the diary of a combatant in one of these operations;
and it appears to me that I can best give an idea of the prevailing
conditions by summarising his narrative.
At the time of the outbreak he resided in Omaha; and the earlier
pages of his journal are occupied by a description of some rioting
which occurred in that city, ending with its destruction by fire.
During the upheaval he became possessed, in some way which he does
not describe, of a rifle, a considerable amount of ammunition, a
certain store of food. Thus equipped, and accompanied by four friends
similarly provided, young Hinkinson was able to get away in a Ford car
from Omaha in advance of the main body of citizens who were now left
houseless. Rumours of food-supplies led them towards Cedar Falls; but
at Ackley they discovered the error of their information and were for a
time at fault. Turning southward, they followed various indications and
finally located a fertile area in the triangle Mexico-Moberly-Hannibal.
At Palmyra, their motor broke down permanently; and they were forced to
abandon it. Collecting as much of their equipment as they could carry,
they tramped along the railway line and eventually reached Monroe City,
which was very close to the outer edge of the contest raging around the
fertile area.
From indications in the diary, it seems clear that Hinkinson and his
companions expected to find at Monroe City some sort of headquarters of
the attacking forces; but as they were unable to discover anything of
the kind, they continued their march, being joined by a small band of
other armed men who had arrived at Monroe City about the same time as
themselves.
Almost before they were aware of it, they blundered into the
firing-line. Apparently they had already been much surprised to find
no signs of a controlling spirit in charge of the operations; but
their actual coming under fire seems to have astounded them. They had
expected to find a vast system of trench-warfare in existence; and had
been keenly on the look-out for signs of digging which would indicate
to them that they had reached the rear positions of the attacking
force. What they actually found, as bullets began to whistle around
them, was a thin line of civilians with rifles and bandoliers who
were lying flat on the grass and firing, apparently aimlessly into
the distance. At times, some of the riflemen would get up, run a few
yards and then lie down again; but there seemed to be no discipline or
ordered activity traceable in their methods. It appeared to be a purely
individualistic form of warfare.
Hinkinson added himself to the skirmishing line, more from a desire for
personal safety than with any understanding of what was happening. It
appears that he lay there most of the afternoon, firing occasionally
into the distance from which the bullets came. His four friends were
also engaged in his immediate vicinity.
Later in the day his neighbour in the skirmishing line spoke to him and
suggested that he might form a sixth in the party. Hinkinson learned
from this man that during the night the attackers generally fought
among themselves for any food which there might be; and he proposed
that the Hinkinson party should stand watch about during the darkness,
so as to avoid robbery. They agreed to this; as it seemed the best
policy: though Hinkinson himself, in the entry he made at the end of
the day, seems to throw doubt upon the likelihood of such proceedings.
Fortunately, they did not entirely trust their new comrade; and one of
the five kept awake while pretending to sleep. When the night grew dark
they heard movements in the skirmishing line, rifles were still blazing
intermittently up and down the front, and here and there they caught
the groans of the wounded. But in addition to these sounds, to which
they had by this time grown accustomed, they heard scuffles, cries of
anger, hard breathing and all the noises of men wrestling with each
other. It was a cloudy, moonless night and nothing could be seen. At
last, long before dawn, they discovered their friend of the afternoon
engaged in rifling one of their food-bags. Finding himself discovered,
he fled into the darkness and they never saw him again.
It was not until well on in the next day that Hinkinson made any
further discoveries; but fresh surprises were awaiting him. He learned
that the firing-line to which he was opposed was not a portion of
the defence of the area at all, but was part of the attacking group.
This puzzled him for a day or two, to judge from the remarks which he
made in his journal; but at length he seems to have understood that
his fellow-attackers were almost as much to be feared as the actual
defenders.
He gives a sketch on one page of his diary showing the situation as he
understood it. In the centre lies the actual fertile area, surrounded
by an elaborate system of entrenchments. This zone he terms the Defence
Zone. About a mile outside this, but coming much closer in parts, lies
what he describes as the Offensive-Defensive Circle. When he reached
this section, as we learn from a later part of his journal, he found it
very roughly entrenched, the main works being rifle-pits rather than
connected trench-lines. This Offensive-Defensive Circle was occupied
by part of the attacking force; but the actual fighting in it was upon
both front and rear. The holders of this Circle wished to force their
way into the Defence Zone; but having gained a start upon the late
comers whose firing-line lay still further to the rear, they proposed
to retard as far as possible any advance in force from the outermost
lines. Thus the combatants of the Circle, as soon as they had forced
their way into it, devoted their attention to sniping new-comers who
might follow them up; then seizing any opportunity, they made their
way forward toward the centre and joined the inner skirmishing line
which directed its fire upon the entrenchments of the actual Defence
Zone. The outermost region, in which Hinkinson and his friends found
themselves, was composed of men who had either arrived late on the
field or failed to struggle forward in face of the sniping from the
Circle.
In both the outer ring and the Circle the dominating idea was food.
There was no commissariat and no central directing body of any kind.
When a man joined the outer ring, he knew that he had only the supplies
which he carried with him; beyond that, he could count upon nothing
except what he could steal from his neighbours. The only chance of life
was to fight a way up to the centre as soon as possible and take the
chance of being recruited by the garrison.
While the Hinkinson group remained intact, they were able to protect
themselves from food-thieves; but on the fourth day in the skirmishing
line one of the five was severely wounded; and, knowing how little
care was given to wounded men, he shot himself. Two more were killed
by snipers on the fifth day. Three days later, Hinkinson managed to
establish himself in a rifle-pit of the Circle; and he thus lost sight
of his remaining friend.
Life in the Circle was lived under appalling conditions, for it was
within range of both the Defence Zone and the outer skirmishing line;
and there was very little chance of exercise even at night. Food was
scarcer here than in the outer ring; and consequently raids for food
were almost incessant during the hours of darkness. Ammunition was
also very scarce; and Hinkinson was only able to keep up his supply by
searching the bodies which lay in his neighbourhood. After two days in
the rifle-pit he seems to have suffered from some form of influenza.
The only thing which he notes with satisfaction is the fact that there
was no artillery in the whole action. It was a case of rifle-fire from
beginning to end.
After his third day in the rifle-pit, he succeeded in making his way
into the inner firing-line of the Circle, so that at last he was
actually in contact with the Defence Zone. He was astonished to find
that the defenders were using up ammunition much faster than the
attacking forces; and it is clear that this puzzled him, as he could
see no reason for it. He had expected to find them running short.
His entry into the Defence Zone was due, apparently, to a stroke
of good luck. On the day which brought him face to face with the
defenders, he saw an attack made from the Circle upon the entrenchments
before him. It was an utterly haphazard affair: first one man ran
forward, then two or three others joined him; and finally the force of
suggestion brought the major part of the attackers to their feet and
hurled them upon the trenches before them, which at this point were
only a few hundred yards away. Despite its random character, it seems
to have been successful to some extent. A considerable number went
down before a bombing attack made from the trenches; but despite this
a fairly large band surmounted the parapet and disappeared beyond. A
confused sound of rifle-firing was followed by a short silence; and
then a regular volley seemed to have been fired. None of the attacking
party reappeared.
According to Hinkinson’s reading of the situation, a number of the
defenders had been killed in the hand-to-hand struggle in the trenches;
and he concluded that this was his best opportunity to endeavour to
gain a footing among the defence force, which would now be weakened
slightly and possibly anxious for recruits.
At this point, his diary is illegible and I can throw no light upon the
subjects included in the hiatus. When it becomes readable again, I find
him a member of the defending group.
Apparently on this side of the debatable land discipline was as marked
as it was absent from the other side. The death penalty was inflicted
for the slightest error. Once or twice Hinkinson seems to have run
considerable risks in this direction through no great fault of his own.
He found that the defence problem was in some ways a complex one,
whilst in other directions it was simplified considerably by the unique
conditions of the new warfare. Owing to the enormous perimeter which
had to be defended, the garrison was almost wholly used up in forming
a very thin firing-line which was liable to be rushed at any point by
strong bodies of the attacking force, as, indeed, he had already seen
himself. Given sufficient spontaneous co-operation for a raid, the
trenches could be entered without any real difficulty by the survivors
of a charge. But once within the defended lines, the attackers were
accepted as part of the defence force, provided that their numbers
were not in excess of the casualties produced by their onset. Thus the
_personnel_ of the trench-lines changed from day to day, dead defenders
being replaced by successful raiders whose main interest had changed
sides. Under such conditions, the maintenance of discipline was a
matter which required the sternest measures. The garrison was always up
to full strength; but its members were not a military body in the usual
sense, since they changed from time to time as new recruits took the
places of the killed. Of _esprit de corps_ in the usual meaning of the
words there was not a trace; but its place was taken by the instinct of
self-preservation, which seems to have made not a bad substitute.
As to the question of ammunition-supply, which had puzzled Hinkinson
so much during his experiences in the outer zones, it became simple
when once he was inside the trench-lines. There appears to have been
a regular traffic by aeroplane between the food-area and the outer
world, munitions being imported by air in exchange for food which the
air-craft took back on their return trips.
* * * * *
Readers can now picture for themselves the state of the world after
the Famine had done its worst. The great cities which marked the
culmination of civilisation had all shared the fate of London; and most
of the towns had gone the same road. All the vast and complex machinery
which mankind had so laboriously gathered together in these teeming
areas had been destroyed by fire.
Here and there--in Scotland, in Japan, and in a couple of American
centres--Nitrogen Areas were in full activity; and the traditions
of pre-Famine times were being kept alive, though with profound
modifications; but outside the boundaries of these regions the only
human beings left in the world were a mere handful, scattered up and
down the globe and existing hazardously upon chance discoveries of
food-stuffs here and there. The Esquimaux had a better prospect of
survival than most of these relics of civilisation.
But the trifling changes involved in the downfall of humanity were
overshadowed by the effects of _B. diazotans_ upon the face of the
earth. All that had once been arable land became a desert strewn
with the bones of men. The vast virgin forests of America, Northern
Europe and tropical Africa became mere heaps of rotting vegetation:
pestilential swamps into which no man could penetrate and survive.
Apart from these regions, the land-surface was sandy, except where
boulder-clay deposits kept it together. Water ebbed away in these
thirsty deserts; and with its disappearance the climate changed over
vast areas of the world.
Those who went out in the early aeroplane exploring expeditions across
these stricken and barren lands came to understand, as they had never
done before, the meaning of the abomination of desolation.