aiding or about to aid the enemy, or who may be at large to the danger
of the public peace or safety, or who violates or who attempts to
violate or of whom there is reasonable grounds to believe that he is
about to violate, any regulation to be promulgated by the President or
any criminal law of the United States, or of the States or Territories
thereof, will be subject to summary arrest by the United States Marshal,
or his Deputy, or such other officers as the President shall designate,
and to confinement in such penitentiary, prison, jail, military camp, or
other place of detention as may be directed by the President.
This proclamation and the regulations herein contained shall extend and
apply to all land and water, continental or insular, in any way within
the jurisdiction of the United States.
* * * * *
Saloniki was one of the mysteries of the war. News from that city was
brief and unsatisfying in the main. Great things, however, were done
there, and none greater than those accomplished by the British. Some of
these accomplishments are told in the pages that follow.
BRITISH OPERATIONS AT SALONIKI
OFFICIAL REPORT OF GENERAL MILNE
[Sidenote: Reinforcements needed north of Saloniki.]
[Sidenote: Italy to send 300,000.]
Since the conference at Rome the situation in Macedonia has been
radically changed. The weakness of General Sarrail's position lay in the
fact that neither England nor France felt free to send from the critical
western front the large reinforcements of men which the situation north
of Saloniki called for. Italy had the men, but was unwilling to send
them and to incur the heavy additional expense of maintaining them in
Macedonia. The conference at Rome, in which Premier Lloyd George was the
dominant figure, overcame that reluctance, probably promising Italy
parts of the Turkish Empire that had been earlier assigned tentatively
to Greece and guaranteeing the cost of the new expedition. The result
has been immediate and of the highest importance. Rome dispatches
indicate that Italy has sent, or is sending, a force of not less than
300,000 men; that these troops, to avoid the danger of submarines, are
being dispatched, not to Saloniki, but to Avlona, which is within forty
miles of the Italian coast; and, finally, these Italian forces have not
only built an excellent highway through the Albanian mountains but have
already joined forces with General Sarrail's right wing at Monastir. All
these facts indicate early activity in the Macedonian sector.
[Sidenote: General G. F. Milne's report.]
This glimpse of present conditions will serve to introduce the following
report of General G. F. Milne, commanding the British Saloniki Army in
Macedonia, on last Summer's operations in that sector. His report,
submitted to the British War Office early in December, 1916, covered the
army's operations from May 9, 1916, to October 8, 1916. The official
text of the report is here reproduced, with a few minor omissions:
[Sidenote: Found army concentrated near Saloniki.]
[Sidenote: British forces responsible for front on east and northeast.]
[Sidenote: Construction of defenses.]
"On May 9, 1916, the greater part of the army was concentrated within
the fortified lines of Saloniki, extending from Stavros on the east to
near the Galiko River on the west; a mixed force, consisting of a
mounted brigade and a division, had been pushed forward to the north of
Kukush in order to support the French Army which had advanced and was
watching the right bank of the Struma River and the northern frontier of
Greece. Further moves in this direction were contemplated, but, in order
to keep the army concentrated, I entered into an agreement with General
Sarrail by which the British forces should become responsible for that
portion of the allied front which covered Saloniki from the east and
northeast. By this arrangement a definite and independent area was
allotted to the army under my command. On June 8, 1916, the troops
commenced to occupy advanced positions along the right bank of the River
Struma and its tributary, the River Butkova, from Lake Tachinos to
Lozista village. By the end of July, on the demobilization of the Greek
Army, this occupation had extended to the sea at Chai Aghizi. Along the
whole front the construction of a line of resistance was begun; work on
trenches, entanglements, bridgeheads, and supporting points was
commenced; for administrative purposes the reconstruction of the
Saloniki-Seres road was undertaken and the cutting of wagon tracks
through the mountainous country was pushed forward.
[Sidenote: British take over line near Doiran.]
[Sidenote: Capture of Horseshoe Hill.]
"On July 20, 1916, in accordance with the policy laid down in my
instructions, and in order to release French troops for employment
elsewhere, I began to take over the line south and west of Lake Doiran,
and commenced preparations for a joint offensive on this front. This
move was completed by August 2, 1916, and on the 10th of that month an
offensive was commenced against the Bulgarian defenses south of the line
Doiran-Hill 535. The French captured Hills 227 and La Tortue, while the
British occupied in succession those features of the main 535 ridge now
known as Kidney Hill and Horseshoe Hill, and, pushing forward,
established a series of advanced posts on the line Doldzeli-Reselli. The
capture of Horseshoe Hill was successfully carried out on the night of
August 17-18, 1916, by the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light
Infantry at the point of the bayonet in the face of stubborn opposition.
The enemy's counterattacks were repulsed with heavy loss.
[Sidenote: The Bulgarian advance.]
[Sidenote: British and French attack.]
"On August 17, 1916, the Bulgarians, who, at the end of May, had entered
Greek territory by the Struma Valley and moved down as far as Demir
Hissar, continued their advance into Greek Macedonia. Columns of all
arms advanced from seven different points, between Sarisaban, on the
Mesta, and Demir Hissar. The four eastern columns converged on the
country about Drama and Kavala, while the remainder moved southward on
to the line of the Struma from Demir Hissar toward Orfano. On August 19,
1916, a mounted brigade with one battery carried out a strong
reconnoissance, and found the enemy in some force on the line
Prosenik-Barakli Djuma; on the following day, after being reinforced by
a battalion, this brigade again advanced in conjunction with the French
detachment. These attacking troops, after encountering the enemy in
force on the line Kalendra-Prosenik-Haznatar, withdrew after dark to
the right bank of the Struma. The French detachment was subsequently
placed under the orders of the General Officer Commanding British troops
on this front, and received instructions to cooperate in the defense of
the river line.
[Sidenote: Bridges over Angista River destroyed.]
"On August 21, 1916, the railway bridge near Angista Station was
demolished by a detachment from the Neohori garrison, and three days
later two road bridges over the Angista River were destroyed. Both these
operations were well carried out by yeomanry, engineers, and cyclists in
the face of hostile opposition.
[Sidenote: Bulgarians in Eastern Macedonia.]
"The Bulgarians continued their advance into Eastern Macedonia unopposed
by the Greek garrison, and it was estimated that by the end of August
the enemy's forces, extending from Demir Hissar southward in the Seres
sector of the Struma front, comprised the complete Seventh Bulgarian
Division, with two or three regiments of the Eleventh Macedonian
Division, which had moved eastward from their positions on the Beles
Mountain to act as a reserve to the Seventh Division, and at the same
time to occupy the defenses from Vetrina-Pujovo northward. Opposite the
Lower Struma was a brigade of the Second Division, with a brigade of the
Tenth Division, in occupation of the coast and the zone of country
between Orfano and the Drama-Kavala road. This brigade of the Tenth
Division was supported by another brigade in the Drama Kavala area. As a
result of this advance and of a similar move in the west General Sarrail
decided to intrust to the British Army the task of maintaining the
greater portion of the right and center of the allied line.
[Sidenote: Northumberland Fusiliers capture Nevolien.]
"On September 10, 1916, detachments crossed the river above Lake
Tachinos at five places between Bajraktar Mah and Dragos, while a sixth
detachment crossed lower down at Neohori. The villages of Oraoman and
Kato Gudeli were occupied, and Northumberland Fusiliers gallantly
captured Nevolien, taking thirty prisoners and driving the enemy out of
the village. The latter lost heavily during their retirement and in
their subsequent counterattack. They also suffered severely from our
artillery fire in attempting to follow our prearranged movements to
regain the right bank of the river.
[Sidenote: Rise in the Struma River hinders operations.]
"On the 15th similar operations were undertaken, six small columns
crossing the river between Lake Tachinos and Orljak bridge. The villages
of Kato Gudeli, Dzami Mah, Agomah, and Komarjan were burned and
twenty-seven prisoners were taken. The enemy's counterattacks completely
broke down under the accurate fire of our guns on the right bank of the
river. On the 23d a similar scheme was put into action, but a sudden
rise of three feet in the Struma interfered with the bridging
operations. Nevertheless, the enemy's trenches at Yenimah were captured,
fourteen prisoners taken, and three other villages raided. Considerable
help was given on each occasion by the French detachment under Colonel
Bescoins, and much information was obtained which proved to be of
considerable value during subsequent operations.
[Sidenote: British attack Matzikovo salient.]
[Sidenote: Heavy artillery fire from the enemy.]
[Sidenote: British carry out bombing raids.]
"On the Doiran-River Vardar front there remained as before the whole of
the Bulgarian Ninth Division, less one regiment; a brigade of the Second
Division and at least two-thirds of the German 101st Division, which had
intrenched the salient north of Matzikovo on the usual German system. To
assist the general offensive by the Allies I ordered this salient to be
attacked at the same time as the allied operations in the Florina area
commenced. With this object in view the whole of the enemy's intrenched
position was subjected to a heavy bombardment from Septem. 11 to 13,
1916, the southwest corner of the salient known as the Piton des
Mitrailleuses being specially selected for destruction. The enemy's
position was occupied during the night 13th-14th, after a skillfully
planned and gallant assault, in which the King's Liverpool Regiment and
Lancashire Fusiliers specially distinguished themselves. Over 200
Germans were killed in the work, chiefly by bombing, and seventy-one
prisoners were brought in. During the 14th the enemy concentrated from
three directions a very heavy artillery fire, and delivered several
counterattacks, which were for the most part broken up under the fire of
our guns. Some of the enemy, however, succeeded in forcing an entrance
into the work, and severe fighting followed. As hostile reinforcements
were increasing in numbers, and as the rocky nature of the ground
rendered rapid consolidation difficult, the troops were withdrawn in the
evening to their original line, the object of the attack having been
accomplished. This withdrawal was conducted with little loss, thanks to
the very effective fire of the artillery. During the bombardment and
subsequent counterattack the enemy's losses must have been considerable.
On the same front on the night of the 20th-21st, after bombarding the
hostile positions on the Crete des Tentes, a strong detachment raided
and bombed the trenches and dugouts, retiring quickly with little loss.
A similar raid was carried out northeast of Doldzeli.
"In addition to these operations and raids, constant combats took place
between patrols, many prisoners being captured, and several bombing
raids were carried out by the Royal Flying Corps.
[Sidenote: Operations on a more extensive scale.]
[Sidenote: Bridging the Struma River.]
"In order further to assist the progress of our allies toward Monastir
by maintaining such a continuous offensive as would insure no
transference of Bulgarian troops from the Struma front to the west, I
now issued instructions for operations on a more extensive scale than
those already reported. In accordance with these the General Officer
Commanding on that front commenced operations by seizing and holding
certain villages on the left bank of the river with a view to enlarging
the bridgehead opposite Orljak, whence he would be in a position to
threaten a further movement either on Seres or on Demir Hissar. The high
ground on the right bank of the river enabled full use to be made of our
superiority in artillery, which contributed greatly to the success of
these operations. The river itself formed a potential danger, owing to
the rapidity with which its waters rise after heavy rain in the
mountains, but on the night of September 29, 1916, sufficient bridges
had been constructed by the Royal Engineers for the passage of all arms.
During the night of September 29-30 the attacking infantry crossed below
Orljak bridge and formed up on the left bank.
[Sidenote: Scotch troops take several villages.]
"At dawn on the following morning the Gloucesters and the Cameron
Highlanders advanced under cover of an artillery bombardment, and by 8
a.m. had seized the village of Karadjakoi Bala. Shortly after the
occupation of the village the enemy opened a heavy and accurate
artillery fire, but the remaining two battalions of the brigade, the
Royal Scots and Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, though suffering
severely from enfilade fire, pushed on against Karadjakoi Zir. By 5.30
p. m. that village also was occupied, in spite of the stubborn
resistance of the enemy. Attempts to bring forward hostile
reinforcements were frustrated during the day by our artillery, but
during the night the Bulgarians launched several strong counterattacks,
which were repulsed with heavy loss.
[Sidenote: Capture of Yenikoi.]
[Sidenote: Enemy counterattacks.]
[Sidenote: British consolidate new line.]
[Sidenote: Enemy casualties heavy.]
"During the following night determined counterattacks of the enemy were
again repulsed, and by the evening of October 2, 1916, the position had
been fully consolidated. Preparations were at once made to extend the
position by the capture of Yenikoi, an important village on the main
Seres road. This operation was successfully carried out by an infantry
brigade, composed of the Royal Munster and Royal Dublin Fusiliers, on
the morning of October 3, 1916, after bombardment by our artillery. By 7
a. m. the village was in our hands. During the day the enemy launched
three heavy counterattacks. The first two were stopped by artillery
fire, which caused severe loss. At 4 p. m. the village, the ground in
the rear, and the bridges were subjected to an unexpectedly heavy
bombardment from several heavy batteries which had hitherto not
disclosed their positions. Following on the bombardment was the heaviest
counterattack of the day, six or seven battalions advancing from the
direction of Homondos, Kalendra, and Topalova with a view to enveloping
our positions. This attack was carried forward with great determination,
and some detachments succeeded in entering the northern portion of
Yenikoi, where hard fighting continued all night, until fresh
reinforcements succeeded in clearing out such enemy as survived. During
the following day the consolidation of our new line was continued under
artillery fire. On the 5th, after a bombardment, the village of Nevolien
was occupied, the Bulgarian garrison retiring on the approach of our
infantry. By the following evening the front extended from Komarjan on
the right via Yenikoi to Elisan on the left. On the 7th a strong
reconnoissance by mounted troops located the enemy on the Demir
Hissar-Seres railway, with advanced posts approximately on the line of
the Belica stream and a strong garrison in Barakli Djuma. On October 8,
1916, our troops had reached the line Agomah-Homondos-Elisan-Ormanli,
with the mounted troops on the line Kispeki-Kalendra. The enemy's
casualties during these few days were heavy.
[Sidenote: Assistance of the Royal Flying Corps.]
"I consider that the success of these operations was due to the skill
and decision with which they were conducted by Lieutenant General C. J.
Briggs, C. B., and to the excellent cooperation of all arms, which was
greatly assisted by the exceptional facilities for observation of
artillery fire. The Royal Flying Corps, in spite of the difficulties
which they had to overcome and the great strain on their resources,
rendered valuable assistance. Armored motor cars were used with effect.
* * *
"On the enforcement of martial law the management of the three lines of
railway radiating from Saloniki had to be undertaken by the Allies; one
line, the Junction-Saloniki-Constantinople, is now entirely administered
by the British Army; this, together with the additional railway traffic
involved by the arrival of the Serbian Army, as well as the Russian and
Italian troops, has thrown a considerable strain on the railway
directorate."
* * * * *
Russia, after three years of warfare against Austria and Germany, during
which millions of her soldiers were killed and wounded, startled the
world suddenly, in February, 1917, by casting out the Czar and
establishing a provisional government, which purported to be a
government by the people and not by the bureaucracy. The dramatic events
of the first days of the revolution are described in the following
chapter.
IN PETROGRAD DURING THE SEVEN DAYS
ARNO DOSCH-FLEUROT
Copyright, World's Work, July, 1917.
[Sidenote: Cossacks trotting through the Nevsky in Petrograd.]
A crowd of ordinary citizens were passing in front of the Singer
Building on the Nevsky in Petrograd at noon February 25th, Russian time
(March 10th), stopping occasionally to watch a company of Cossacks
amiably roughing some students with a miscellaneous following who
insisted on assembling across the street before the wide, sweeping
colonnades of Kasan Cathedral. As the Cossacks trotted through, hands
empty, rifles slung on shoulders, the crowds cheered, the Cossacks
laughed.
A few trolley cars had stopped, though not stalled, and groups of
curious on-lookers had crowded in for a grandstand view. The only people
who did not seem interested in the spectacle were hundreds of women with
shawls over their heads who had been standing in line for many hours
before the bread-shops along the Catherine Canal.
[Sidenote: Some Cossacks and infantry in side streets.]
[Sidenote: People charged by police.]
People were going about their affairs up and down the Nevsky without
being stopped, and sleighs were passing constantly. Cossacks and a few
companies of infantrymen were beginning to appear on the side streets in
considerable numbers, but, as a demonstration over the lack of bread in
the Russian capital had been going on at intervals for two days with
very little violence, people were beginning to get used to it. I arrived
from the direction of the Moika Canal just as the cannon boomed midday
and I felt sufficiently unhurried to correct my watch. Then I hailed a
British general in uniform who had arrived, also unimpeded, from the
opposite direction, and we had just stopped to comment on the unusual
attitude of populace and Cossacks, when there was a sudden rush of
people around the corner from the Catherine Canal and before we could
even reach the doubtful protection of a doorway a company of mounted
police charged around the corner and started up the Nevsky on the
sidewalk. We were obviously harmless onlookers, fur-clad bourgeois, but
the police plunged through at a hard trot, bare sabres flashing in the
cold sunshine. The British general and I were knocked down together and
escaped trampling only because the police were splendidly mounted, and a
well-bred horse will not step on a man if he can help it.
[Sidenote: Display of stupid physical force.]
This was a display of that well-known stupid physical force which used
to be the basis of strength of the Russian Empire. Its ruthlessness, its
carelessness of life, however innocent, terrorized, and, we used to
think, won respect. We know better now, especially those of us who were
eye-witnesses of the Russian revolution, and saw how the police provoked
a quarrel they could not handle.
[Sidenote: Crowds begin to be dangerously large.]
I watched the growth of the revolt with wonder. Knowing something of the
dissatisfaction in the country, I marveled at the stupidity of the
Government in permitting the police to handle its inception as they did.
Any hundred New York or London policemen, or any hundred Petrograd
policemen, could have prevented the demonstrations by the simple process
of closing the streets. But they let people crowd in from the side
streets to see what was going on even when the crowds were beginning to
be dangerously large, and, having permitted them to come, charged among
them at random as if expressly making them angry.
[Sidenote: Ease with which Czar was overthrown.]
I look back now at the time before the Revolution. The life of Petrograd
is much as it was to outward appearances except that the new republican
soldiers are now policing the streets, occasional citizens are wearing
brassarts showing they are deputies of some sort or members of
law-and-order committees, and there is a certain joyous freedom in the
walk of every one. Here, in one corner of this vast empire, a revolt
lacking all signs of terrorism, growing out of nothing into a sudden
burst of indignation, knocked over the most absolute of autocracies.
Just to look, it is hard to believe it true. As a Socialist said to me
to-day: "The empire was rotten ready. One kick of a soldier's boot, and
the throne with all its panoplies disappeared, leaving nothing but
dust."
I asked President Rodzianko of the Duma the other day:
[Sidenote: Revolution inevitable after Duma was dissolved.]
"From what date was the revolution inevitable?"
I expected him to name one of the days immediately before the revolt,
but he replied:
"When the Duma was dissolved in December without being granted a
responsible ministry."
"How late might the Emperor have saved his throne?"
"New Year's. If he had granted a responsible ministry then, it would not
have been too late."
[Sidenote: The Government brought Cossacks to Petrograd.]
The Government was either blind or too arrogant to take precautions. It
had fears of an uprising at the reconvening of the Duma and brought
13,000 Cossacks to Petrograd to put fear into the hearts of the people,
but it permitted a shortage of flour which had been noticeable for
several weeks to become really serious just at this moment. There were
large districts of working people practically without bread from the
time the Duma reconvened up to the moment of the revolution.
[Sidenote: Situation needed a great ruler.]
In the palace at Tsarskoe-Selo the seriousness of the situation was not
ignored, but the preventive measures were lamentable. The Emperor, also,
went to the front. If he had been a big enough man to be an emperor he
would certainly never have done so. That left the neurasthenic Empress
and the crafty, small-minded Protopopoff to handle a problem that needed
a real man as great as Emperor Peter or Alexander III.
[Sidenote: The author on the point of leaving Russia.]
[Sidenote: The appearance of Cossacks.]