(The Berlin papers declared that the population, mad with joy,
drank champagne and danced in the streets.)
I draw the sword that with God's help I have kept all these years in the
scabbard. I have drawn the sword which without victory and without honor
I cannot sheath again. All of you will see to it that only in honor is
it returned to the scabbard. _You are my guaranty that I can dictate
peace to my enemies._
_The_ KAISER _to his Guards at Potsdam_,
_August, 1914_.
[Illustration]
_"ARE YOU READY TO MAKE MUNITIONS FOR GERMANY?"_
* * * * *
The first official charges on the subject were issued on November 9 at
Havre by Baron Beyens, Belgian Foreign Minister, as follows:
"The German Government is rounding up in large numbers in the towns and
villages of occupied Belgium, such as Alost, Ghent, Bruges, Courtrai,
and Mons,--to name only the first to be victims of the measures,--all
men fit to bear arms, rich and poor, irrespective of class, whether
employed or unemployed, hunchbacks, cripples, and one-armed men alone
are excepted. These men are torn in thousands from their families;
fifteen thousand from Flanders alone are sent God knows where. Whole
trainloads are seen going east and south."