No. XIV.
(_From the Grand Duke NICHOLAS, Commander-in-Chief of the
Russian Armies._)
SIR,--It is pleasant in the midst of this welter of war to
remember the days when your nation and mine were at peace, and when it
was possible for each of us to inspect the troops of the other without
running the risk of having our heads blown off by gigantic shells fired
at the distance of several miles. What splendid reviews were those
you used to hold on the _Tempelhofer Feld!_ What a feeling of almost
irresistible power was inspired by those solid regiments manoeuvring
and marching past under the eyes of their supreme War-lord! I think
the intoxication of that sight was too great for you. You were not one
of those calm ones who can be secure through the mere possession of
strength. You had it, but at last came a point when you felt that it
was all useless to you unless you employed it. So you urged on Austria
in her unhappy policy of quasi-Bismarckian adventure; you cast to the
winds every prompting of prudence and humanity; you imagined that other
nations, because they were slow to take offence, could be bullied and
hectored with impunity; you flung your defiance east and west, and in a
moment of passion made war against all those who had striven for peace,
but were not prepared to cling to it at the price of dishonour.
And thus began the disappointments which have settled upon you like a
cloud. For, after all, war is entirely different from a review or from
the most skilful peace-manoeuvres. In manoeuvres everything can be
comfortably arranged beforehand. There are no bullets and no shells,
and at the end a Kaiser can place himself at the head of many thousands
of cavalry and can execute a charge that will resound for days through
the columns of the newspapers. But in war there is a real enemy who
has guns and bayonets and knows how to use them. All the colour that
fascinates a shallow mind has to be put aside. There are deaths and
wounds and sickness, and in the endurance of these and in the courage
that surmounts all difficulties and dangers the dingiest regiment may
make as brave a show as those which used to practise the parade-march
over the review-field. I rather doubt if you had thought of all
this--now had you?
Moreover our Russians, though they may look rough and though you may
accuse them of ignorance, are no whit inferior to the most cultivated
German professor in their patriotism and in their stern resolution
to die rather than submit to defeat. They do not boast themselves to
be learned men, but, on the other hand, it is not they who have made
Louvain a city of ruins. They fight fiercely against men who have arms
in their hands, but they have not executed innocent hostages, nor
have they used warships and airships to massacre women and children.
In these particulars they are willing to grant you and your Germans
an unquestioned supremacy. If that be the civilisation to which your
philosophers and poets have brought you, I can only say that we shall
endeavour to rub along without such philosophers and poets; and I must
beg you not to attempt to convert our Cossacks to your views. Being
simple folk and straightforward, they might resent violently your
efforts to give them the enlightenment of the Germans.
All this sounds like preaching, and Heaven knows I do not want to
preach to you. You have hardened your heart, and I suppose you must go
through this bitter business to the end. Let me rather tell you that,
rough and unlearned as we are, we are making excellent progress in our
fighting. So far we have once more foiled your HINDENBERG'S
attack on Warsaw. We have an earnest hope that we shall be able to make
your troops highly uncomfortable in the North, while towards the South
we have been dealing quite faithfully with the Austrians. The Caucasus
is filled with Turks dead or flying from our troops. As to Serbia--but
I feel it would be scarcely polite to mention this stiff-necked
country. It must be galling for your ally to have to fight a people so
small in numbers but so great in their unconquerable resolution. Was it
in order that Austrian troops might be chased headlong from Belgrade
that you went to war?