required to feed them and to recover the cost from the municipal
authorities.
[Sidenote: Change of demeanor of soldiery.]
Of all the things I saw and heard in Roubaix and Lille none impressed me
more than the wonderful change which came over the outlook and demeanor
of the German soldiery between October, 1914, and October, 1915.
I had many opportunities of mingling with them, more, in fact, than I
cared to have, for now and again during this period two or three of them
were actually billeted on the good folk with whom I lodged.
[Sidenote: Already tired of war.]
I knew just sufficient of the German language to be able to chat with
them, and they made no attempt to conceal from me their real feelings. I
am merely repeating the statement made to me over and over again by many
German soldiers when I say that the men in the ranks are thoroughly
tired of the war, that they have abandoned all thought of conquest, and
that they fight on only because they believe that their homes and
families are at stake.
On that Autumn morning when the first German troops came into Roubaix
they came flushed with victory, full of confidence in their strength,
marching with their eyes fixed on Paris and London. They sang aloud as
they swung through our streets. They sing no more. Instead, as I saw
with my own eyes, many of them show in their faces the abject misery
which is in their hearts.
[Sidenote: Expect end of war in November, 1916.]
Last year scores of them told me, quite independently, that the war
would come to an end on November 17, 1916. How that date came to be
fixed by the prophets nobody knew, but the belief in the prophecy was
universal among the soldiers.
[Sidenote: Soldiers more courteous than officers.]
As a rule, the soldiers did not maltreat the civilians in Roubaix,
except when they were acting under the orders of their officers; when,
for example, they were tearing people from their homes to work as
slaves. They had, however, the right of traveling without payment on the
tramcars, and they frequently exercised this right to such an extent as
to preclude the townsfolk from the use of the cars.
[Sidenote: Officers requisition supplies.]
Apart from that annoyance, there was little ground for complaint of the
general behavior of the soldiers. The conduct of the officers was very
different. For a long time they made a habit of requisitioning from
shopkeepers and others supplies of food for which they had no intention
of paying. One day an officer drove up in a trap to a shop kept by an
acquaintance of mine and "bought" sardines, chocolate, bread, and fancy
cakes to the value of about 200 francs (about $40). He produced a piece
of paper and borrowed a pair of scissors with which to cut off a slip.
On this slip he wrote a few words in German, and then, handing it to
the shopkeeper, he went off with his purchases. The shopkeeper, on
presenting the paper at the Kommandantur, was informed that the
inscription ran, "For the loan of scissors, 200 francs," and that the
signature was unknown. Payment was therefore refused. This case, I
believe, was by no means an isolated one.
When an officer was billeted on a house, he would insist on turning the
family out of the dining room and drawing room and sleeping in the best
bedroom; sometimes he would eject people entirely from their home.
[Sidenote: A docile private soldier.]
By contrast the docile private soldier was almost a welcome guest. I
remember well one quite friendly fellow who was lodged for some time in
the same house as myself and some English over military age in the
suburb of Croix. He came to me in great glee one day with a letter from
his wife in which she warned him to beware of "the English cutthroats."
She went on to give him a long series of instructions for his safety. He
was to barricade his bedroom door every night, to sleep always with his
knife under his pillow, and never to take anything we offered him to eat
or drink.
[Sidenote: Few civilian offenses.]
Despite the temptations to crime and insubordination which naturally
attend an idle manufacturing population of some 125,000 people, there
were very few civilian offenses against the law, German or French, among
the inhabitants of Roubaix.
[Sidenote: Time hangs heavily.]
Time hung heavily on our hands. Cut off from the outer world except by
the occasional arrival of smuggled French and English newspapers, we
spent our time reading and playing cards, and at the last I hoped I
might never be reduced to this form of amusement again. In the two and a
half years cut out of my life and completely wasted I played as many
games of cards as will satisfy me for the rest of my existence.
[Sidenote: The gendarmerie called "Green devils."]
But even if the inhabitants, in their enforced idleness, had any
temptation to be insubordinate, they had a far greater inducement to
keep the law in the bridled savagery of the German gendarmerie. These
creatures, who from the color of their uniform and the brutality of
their conduct were known as the "green devils," seemed to revel in sheer
cruelty. They scour the towns on bicycles and the outlying districts on
horseback, always accompanied by a dog as savage as his master, and at
the slightest provocation or without even the slenderest pretext they
fall upon civilians with brutish violence.
[Sidenote: Women badly treated.]
It was not uncommon for one of these men to chase a woman on his
bicycle, and when he had caught her, batter her head and body with the
machine. Many times they would strike women with the flat of their
sabres. One of them was seen to unleash his dog against an old woman,
and laugh when the savage beast tore open the woman's flesh from thigh
to knee.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Crossing Belgium.]
In January Mr. Whitaker crossed the line into Belgium with the aid of
smuggler friends, traversed that country, chiefly on foot, and two
months later escaped into Holland and so to England. In Belgium he was
astonished to find what looked like prosperity when compared with
conditions in the occupied provinces of France. After expressing
gratitude to Belgian friends and a desire to tell only what is truth, he
proceeds:
[Sidenote: No sign of privations.]
The first fact I have to declare is that nowhere in my wanderings did I
see any sign of starvation. Nowhere did I notice such privation of food
as I had known in Northern France. Near the French frontier, it is true,
the meals I took in inns and private cottages were far from sumptuous,
but as I drew nearer to the Dutch frontier the amount and variety of the
food to be obtained changed in an ascending scale, until at Antwerp one
could almost forget, so far as the table was concerned, that the world
was at war.
[Sidenote: The diet at Roubaix, France.]
Let me give a few comparisons. At Roubaix, in France, at the time when I
left in the first week of this year, my daily diet was as follows:
Breakfast--coffee, bread and butter (butter was a luxury beyond the
reach of the working people, who had to be content with lard); midday
meal--vegetable soup, bread, boiled rice, and at rare intervals an egg
or a tiny piece of fresh meat; supper--boiled rice and bread. Just over
the border, in Belgium, the food conditions were a little better. The
ticket system prevailed, and the villagers were dependent on the depots
of the American Relief Commission, supplemented by local produce.
A little further, and one passed the line of demarkation between the
etape--the part of Belgium which is governed by General von Denk,
formerly commanding the troops at Valenciennes--and the governement
general, under the command of General von Bissing.
[Sidenote: The first fresh meat in weeks.]
Here a distinct change was noticeable. My first meal in this area
included fillet of beef, the first fresh meat I had tasted for weeks.
Tickets were still needed to buy bread and other things supplied by the
Relief Commission, but other foodstuffs could be bought without
restriction.
[Sidenote: A dinner at Brussels.]
At Brussels the food supply seems to be nearly normal. My Sunday dinner
there consisted of excellent soup, a generous helping of roast leg of
mutton, potatoes, haricot beans, white bread, cheese, and jam, and wine
or beer, as preferred; while for supper I had cold meat, fried potatoes,
and bread.
[Sidenote: Food conditions at Antwerp.]
At Antwerp, with two French friends who accompanied me on my journey
through Belgium, I walked into a middle-class cafe at midday. I ordered
a steak with fried potatoes and my friends ordered pork chops. Without
any question about tickets we were served. We added bread, cheese, and
butter to complete the meal and washed it down with draft light beer.
Later in the day we took supper in the same cafe--an egg omelette, fried
potatoes, bread, cheese, and butter. And the cost of both meals together
was less than the cost of the steak alone in Roubaix.
[Sidenote: Appearance of Brussels.]
The policy of the Germans appears to be to interfere as little as
possible with the everyday life of the country. The fruits of this
policy are seen in a remarkable degree in Brussels. All day long the
main streets of the city are full of bustle and all the outward
manifestations of prosperity.
[Sidenote: Business going on.]
Women in short, fashionable skirts, with high-topped fancy boots, stroll
completely at their ease along the pavement, studying the smart things
with which the drapers' shop windows are dressed. Jewelers' shops,
provision stores, tobacconists, and the rest show every sign of
"business as usual." I bought at quite a reasonable price a packet of
Egyptian cigarettes, bearing the name of a well-known brand of English
manufacture, and I recalled how, not many miles away in harassed France,
I had seen rhubarb leaves hanging from upper windows to dry, so that the
French smoker might use them instead of the tobacco which he could not
buy. Even the sweetstuff shops had well-stocked windows.
[Sidenote: Theaters and cinema palaces open.]
The theaters, music halls, cinema palaces, and cafes of Brussels were
open and crowded. On the second night of my visit I went with my two
French companions to the Theatre Moliere and heard a Belgian company in
Paul Hervieu's play, "La Course du Flambeau." The whole building was
packed with Belgians, thoroughly enjoying the performance. So far as I
could tell, the only reminder that we were in the fallen capital of an
occupied country was the presence in the front row of the stalls of two
German soldiers, whose business, so I learned, was to see that nothing
disrespectful to Germany and her armies was allowed to creep into the
play.
[Sidenote: An ordinary cinema performance.]
At another theater, according to the posters, "Veronique" was produced,
and a third bill announced "The Merry Widow." At the Theatre de la
Monnaie, which has been taken over by the Germans, operas and plays are
given for the benefit of the soldiers and German civilians. One
afternoon I spent a couple of hours in a cinema hall. A continuous
performance was provided, and people came and went as they chose, but
throughout the program the place was well filled. The films shown had no
relation to the war. They were of the ordinary dramatic or comic types,
and I fancy they were of pre-war manufacture. Nothing of topical
interest was exhibited.
[Sidenote: Scenes in Antwerp like those in Brussels.]
All the scenes which I have described in Brussels were reproduced in
Antwerp. There was a slightly closer supervision over the comings and
goings of the inhabitants, but there was the same unreal atmosphere of
contentment and real appearance of plenty. Though a good number of
officers were in evidence, the military arm of Germany was not
sufficiently displayed to produce any intimidation. Perhaps the most
obvious mark, here and in the capital, that all was not normal was the
complete absence of private motor cars and cabs from the streets.
[Sidenote: Belgium still has cattle.]
In the country districts two things struck me as unfamiliar after my
long months in France. About Roubaix not a single head of cattle was to
be seen; in Belgium every farm had its cows. In Belgium the mounted
gendarmerie--the "green devils" whose infamous conduct in the Roubaix
district I have described--were unknown. Their place was filled by
military police, who, by comparison with the gendarmes, were gentleness
itself.
I do not profess to know the state of affairs in parts of Belgium which
I did not visit, but I do know that my narrative of the conditions of
life that came under my personal inspection has come as a great surprise
to many people who imagine the whole of Belgium is starving.
[Sidenote: Belgium better fed than occupied France.]
We in hungry Roubaix looked out on Belgium as the land of promise. The
Flemish workers who came into the town from time to time from Belgium
were well fed and prosperous looking, a great contrast to the French of
Roubaix and Lille. The Belgian children that I saw were healthy and of
good appearance, quite unlike the wasted little ones of France, with
hollow blue rings round their eyes.
[Sidenote: Germany desires a state in Belgium.]
The people of Roubaix, knowing these facts, are convinced that the
Germans are endeavoring to lay the foundations of a vassal State in
Belgium. Foiled in their attempts to capture Calais, the Germans believe
that Zeebrugge and Ostend are capable of development as harbors for
aggressive action against England. The French do not doubt that the
enemy will make a desperate struggle before giving up Antwerp.
The picture I have presented of Belgium as I saw it is, of course,
vastly different from the outraged Belgium of the first stage of the
war.
[Sidenote: The people not to be seduced.]
Lest there should arise any misunderstanding, I complete the picture by
stating my conviction, based on intimate talks with Belgian men and
women, that the population as a whole are keeping a firm upper lip, and
that attempts by the Germans to seduce them from their allegiance by
blandishment and bribery will fail as surely as the efforts of
frightfulness.
Mr. Whitaker's account of his escape into Holland closes thus:
[Sidenote: Nearing Holland.]
When we drew near to the wires, just before midnight, we lay on the
ground and wriggled along until we were within fifty yards of Holland.
There we lay for what seemed to be an interminable time. We saw patrols
passing. An officer came along and inspected the sentries. Everything
was oppressively quiet.
[Sidenote: Through the electrified barbed wire.]
Each sentry moved to and fro over a distance of a couple of hundred
yards. Opposite the place where we lay two of them met. Choosing his
opportunity, one of my comrades, who had provided himself with rubber
gloves some weeks before for this critical moment, rushed forward to the
spot where the two sentries had just met. Scrambling through barbed wire
and over an unelectrified wire, he grasped the electrified wires and
wriggled between them. We came close on his heels. He held the deadly
electrified wires apart with lengths of thick plate glass with which he
had come provided while first my other companions and then I crawled
through. Before the sentries returned we had run some hundreds of yards
into No Man's Land between the electrified wires and the real Dutch
frontier.
[Sidenote: Arrival at Rotterdam.]
Only one danger remained. We had no certainty that the Dutch frontier
guards would not hand us back to the Germans. We took no risks, though
it meant wading through a stream waist deep. Our troubles were now
practically over. By rapid stages we proceeded to Rotterdam.
I was without money. My watch I had given to the Belgian villager in
whose cottage I had found refuge. My clothes were shabby from frequent
soakings and hard wear. I had shaved only once in Belgium, and a stubby
growth of beard did not improve my general appearance.
[Sidenote: Sent on to London.]
At Rotterdam I reported myself to the British Consul. I was treated with
the utmost kindness. My expenses during the next four or five days,
while I waited for a boat, were paid and I was given my fare to Hull.
There I was searched by two military police and questioned closely by an
examining board. My papers were taken and I was told to go to London and
apply for them at the Home Office. As I was again practically without
means I was given permission to go to my home in Bradford before
proceeding to London.
* * * * *
In cooperation with the British forces, a Russian army took part in
movements against Bagdad and Turkish cities in Armenia and Persia. These
military movements were marked by varying success on the part of the
Russian and Turkish forces. Certain phases of this campaign are
described in the following chapter.
THE ANGLO-RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN IN TURKEY
JAMES B. MACDONALD
Copyright, American Review of Reviews, April, 1916.
[Sidenote: Mesopotamia important to Great Britain.]
It is perhaps not generally realized how important the future of
Mesopotamia is to the British, or why they originally sent an expedition
there which has since developed into a more ambitious campaign. Ever
since the Napoleonic period British influence and interests have been
supreme from Bagdad to the Persian Gulf, and this was the one quarter of
the globe where they successfully held off the German trader with his
political backing.
[Sidenote: Great Britain's war with Persia.]
[Sidenote: British steamer on the Tigris.]
It will be recalled that early in Queen Victoria's reign Great Britain
engaged in a war with Persia, and landed troops at Bushire in assertion
of their rights. Ever since they have policed the Persian Gulf, put down
piracy, slave and gun-running, and lighted the places dangerous to
navigation. These interests having been entrusted to the Government of
India, news affecting them seldom finds its way into Western papers.
Previous to the war a line of British steamers plied regularly up the
River Tigris to Bagdad, the center of the caravan trade with Persia. The
foreign trade of this town alone in 1912 amounted to $19,000,000, and it
was nearly all in the hands of merchants in Great Britain or India.
Germany exported $500,000 worth of goods there annually. Basra, farther
down the river, exports annually about 75,000 tons of dates, valued at
$2,900,000. It also does a large export trade in wheat.
[Sidenote: An irrigation scheme.]
[Sidenote: The Persian oil fields controlled by Great Britain.]
[Sidenote: Native tribes subsidized.]
A large irrigation scheme was partly completed before the war, near the
ancient town of Babylon, under the direction of a famous Anglo-Indian
engineer, Sir William Willcocks. When finished it was to cost
$105,000,000, and was expected to reclaim some 2,800,000 acres of land
of great productibility. It will, therefore, be seen that Britain had
some considerable stake in the country. In addition to this, the British
Government, shortly before the war, invested $10,000,000 in acquiring
control of the Anglo-Persian oil fields, which is the principal source
of supply for oil fuel for their navy. By this means they avoided the
risk of great American corporations cornering the supply of oil fuel and
holding up their navy. John Bull upon occasion shows some gleamings of
shrewdness. This deal is on a par with their purchase of sufficient
shares to control the Suez Canal. The Anglo-Persian oil fields are
situated across the border in Persia, and the oil is led in pipes down
the Karam River valley, a tributary of the combined Tigris and Euphrates
rivers. The native tribes in the neighborhood were subsidized to protect
the pipe-line, or, rather, to leave it alone.
[Sidenote: Russia and Great Britain in Persia.]
[Sidenote: German railways must end at Bagdad.]
During recent years Persia has fallen into decay. Politically she is
more sick than "the sick man of the East." The people have a religion of
their own and worship the sun, although quite a number of Moslems have
settled in their midst. Being cognizant of German designs to create a
great Eastern empire in Mesopotamia and Persia, which would threaten
India, Egypt, and the Russian East, Britain and Russia came together and
formed a kind of Monroe Doctrine of their own. They said, in effect,
northern Persia shall be Russia's sphere of influence, and southern
Persia shall be Britain's sphere of influence. They both recognized that
a great military power, like Germany, permanently established at
Bagdad, with aggressive tendencies, would imperil their Eastern
dominions, and both were prepared to make it a _casus belli_--Britain,
further, a few years ago informed Germany that the area from Bagdad to
the head of the Gulf was her "Garden of Eden," and any attempt to carry
German railways south of Bagdad would bring on war. The Emperor William
apparently did not mind this opposition by Britain and Russia to his
Oriental ambition, provided he could find a passage through the Balkans.
[Sidenote: Persian gendarmes officered by Swedes.]
[Sidenote: Fairy-tales of Turkish conquest.]
At the time Britain and Russia came to an agreement regarding Persia
they were not on so good a footing with each other as they are to-day.
In order that neither should get an advantage over the other, it was
decided that the Persian gendarmes--about 6,000 in number--should be
officered by neutrals, and, unfortunately as it turned out for the
Allies, they mutually chose Swedes. On the outbreak of war neither
Britain nor Russia desired that Persia should be brought into it. The
German ambassador in Persia, however, had other views, and suborned
Swedish officers in command of the Persian gendarmes. Partly by this
means, and partly by Turkish agents, a rebellion was brought about
within the Russian sphere. Religion had nothing to do with the trouble
in Persia. Turkish forces entered Persian Kurdistan and announced that
they were on their way to conquer India and the Russian East, while
their compatriots would overrun Egypt. These were the fairy-tales with
which the Germans had originally enticed the Turks into the war. The
Turks were willing to believe them, and apparently did believe them. The
responsible Germans had no such illusions, but hoped to attain their
ends by causing internal disturbances within India and Egypt. These
German canards, put about in war time, have been adopted by some
writers in this country as the foundation from which to write
contemporary history. It may interest them to know that India possesses
the strongest natural frontiers in the world.
[Sidenote: Strategy depends on geography.]
Strategy nowadays is very largely a matter of geography. Modern armies
are circumscribed in their movements by the available means of
transportation, whether these be by railroad, river, or roadway, and
this means geography applied in giving direction to troop movements.
[Sidenote: Geographies of the war area.]
Before entering into a review of the combined Anglo-Russian campaign a
preliminary survey of the strategical geography of the war area will
make the position more clear.
[Sidenote: Constantinople once the world clearing-house.]
[Sidenote: Still the easiest route.]