PAST AND PRESENT
Let us begin with the present, in view of the circumstance that the
war has brought the allied peoples into a much nearer approach to
union and has more fully systematized their efforts than can ever be
the case in peace time. We find, then, two groups of belligerents
pitted against each other, whose resources in men, money and economic
supplies are strikingly unequal. The Teutons are by far the weaker
side, and even in spite of their long preparations ought to have been
thoroughly beaten long ago. So evident and encouraging was the
comparison that the Entente nations themselves boldly grounded their
calculations on it, and anticipated a brief spell of warfare and a
decisive victory. And this forecast seemed reasonable enough when the
material elements were weighed and contrasted. The Entente communities
occupy 68,031,000 square kilometres of territory, which are inhabited
by a population of 770,060,000, or say 46 per cent. of the entire land
on the globe and 47 per cent. of the entire human race. The Central
Empires, on the other hand, possess no more than 5,921,000 square
kilometres with 150,199,000 inhabitants, which amounts to only 4 per
cent. of dry land on the globe and 9.1 per cent. of mankind. Add to
that the circumstance that in the air our superiority over our
enemies was undisputed, and that the odds in favour of our enlisting
the active support of the Balkan States were overwhelming. The chances
in favour of the Allies, therefore, were and are enormous. That being
so, why, it may well be asked, has the course of the military, naval
and air campaign so uniformly favoured the weaker side? It is no
answer to point out that Germany and Austria had been organizing the
war for over thirty years, or had contrived to mobilize all their
resources when the first shot was fired. That explanation would
account for their progress during the first few months, but not for
the victories they scored down to the beginning of April 1916. It was
loudly proclaimed by British journalists that the Berlin General Staff
had based its plan on the assumption that the struggle would be
decided in a few months and certainly by the end of 1914. And the
inference was drawn that as this time-table was upset, Germany was so
bewildered that she could hardly draw up another plan and adjust her
forces to that. She had shot her bolt, we were assured, had missed the
target, and it was beyond her power to put forth another effort. But
events refuted these false prophets, without, however, greatly
impairing their credit with the multitude. They still continue to
describe Germany's dire straits and foretell her speedy collapse. And
they are listened to with eagerness and trust.
In truth the root of the matter lies deeper. One of the most telling
factors, in every armed conflict between peoples, consists of the sum
total of imponderabilia which elude analysis. Intellectual and moral
equipment, as I ventured to write when the war began, sometimes
counts for more than battalions. And I instanced the Russo-Japanese
campaign as a case in point. One belligerent may regard the campaign
as a temporary calamity to be endured until it can be conveniently got
rid of, while another may gird his loins and go forth to battle
exultant like the fanaticized warriors of Cromwell. The former will
contemplate the struggle and regulate the conduct of it in the light
of immediate expediency, while the latter will treat the war as a
life-task and boldly throw the weight of everything he has, and is,
and hopes for into the blows he deals his adversary. Now in this
struggle the Teuton is the fanaticized warrior. He is fighting for an
ideal, which, whether or no he understands it, he caresses and deems
his very own. The hopes and dreams of the leaders of the nation have
been communicated to the individual citizen, who, having lived for
them, is ready to die for them. Our people, on the other hand, have
never enjoyed that education in patriotism which is bestowed on every
Teuton, and they are wanting in the strength of imagination, the
spirit of cohesion and the energizing social faith which might have
made up for the deficiency.
Then, again, over against the Allies' inexhaustible resources we must
put the marvellous capacity for organization which intensifies those
of our enemy. The nearest known approach to it is found in the
Japanese, who, there is little doubt, if pressed by circumstance,
would match the Teuton in resourcefulness and even outdo him in the
spirit of self-sacrifice. To this precious asset in Germany's leaders
corresponds a superlative degree of docility and self-surrender in her
people which offer a striking contrast to the strongly marked
individualist tendencies of the British, French and Russian races.
Nay, one may go farther and assert that the central streams of
national life in each of these countries flows in channels of party
politics, which no influential leader has ever attempted to deepen or
widen. The German, on the contrary, as we saw, associates his every
work and undertaking with ideas of almost cosmic breadth and is
actuated by interests to which all the larger problems of humanity are
akin. And he took timely possession of every lever that might
contribute to the success of his revolt against Europeanism, when his
far-reaching scheme was yet in the early phases of execution.
Everything that human foresight could think of was carefully studied,
everything that human ingenuity could provide for was thoroughly
effected and systematized. Royal dynasties were founded abroad by
German princes. German colonies settled in Russia, Poland, Palestine
and Brazil. German schools were opened in Roumania, Spain, Asia Minor,
the Ottoman Empire, the Tsardom. Foreign newspapers were bought or
subsidized. Protestant sects with pro-German tendencies were
encouraged. Banks were founded with Entente capital and employed to
ruin the trade of the nations that subscribed it. Colonies of
mechanics, clerks, middlemen were settled in every European country
and colony and obtained control of the nation's industries and trade.
Special legislation was enacted in Berlin to enable the German to
become a foreign subject in externals while bound by all the duties of
a citizen of his own country.
As the hour for the military and naval struggle was drawing near
intestine strife was industriously stirred up in all those countries
whose rivalry the Germans had reason to apprehend. Emissaries were
despatched to Egypt who made common cause with the disaffected and
restless elements of the population, cultivated friendship with the
Senussi and smuggled in arms to would-be African rebels. In India
German "scientific explorers" hobnobbed with the natives, criticized
the state of "serfage" to which British rule had reduced one of the
most highly civilized races of mankind, and made overtures to the
Afghans. To Abyssinia another "scientific expedition" was despatched,
which consisted of a number of German officers and one explorer. After
a circuitous and difficult journey it arrived at Massaua in March
1915, and requested the authorization of the Italian Governor of
Erithea, the Marquess Salvago-Raggi, to push on to Adis Abeba, in
order to re-establish communications between the German Legation there
and the Berlin Foreign Office. The real object of the expedition, as
the Italian Government well knew, was to incite the young Negus to
attack the British in the Sudan and the French in Djibuti. But Italy,
although still neutral, understood too well how difficult it would
have been for her to limit Abyssinia's warlike operations to the
French and British possessions and ward them off from her own
colonies. Baron Sonnino accordingly declined to accord the permission
asked for, and consented only to allow a large consignment of
"correspondence" to be sent on.[107]
[107] Cf. _L'Idea Nazionale_, March 7, 1915; _Tribuna_, April
1, 1915.
Later on Turkish officers were sent to Libya to egg on the Arabs to
harass the Italians there. The Kaiser himself despatched a letter in
Arabic to the Senussi which was intercepted on a Greek sailing vessel
near Tripoli. It is said to have been enclosed in an embossed casket,
and was found on board together with L4000 in gold and a number of
oriental gifts. The letter, if genuine, is worth recording. Wilhelm
II., the Supreme Head of the Protestant Church in Germany, gives
himself therein, among other high sounding titles, those of Allah's
Envoy and Islam's Protector, and states explicitly that it is his will
that the Senussi's doughty warriors should drive the "infidels" from
the land which is the heritage of the true believers and their chief.
This, from the "supreme Bishop" of one of the Christian Churches, is
characteristic.
In Asia Minor Germany's machinations were carried on with a much
greater measure of success. Her former opponents had withdrawn their
opposition and undertaken to lend her positive assistance to attain
ends which were directed against themselves. This chapter of Entente
diplomacy is marked by broad streaks of farcical comedy calculated to
bewilder the serious student. France was converted to political
orthodoxy on the subject of the Baghdad Railway and its cultural
significance. Some of her publicists frankly repented that she had so
long looked upon it with disfavour, and threw the blame on Russia, for
whose sake they had kept aloof. At Potsdam the Tsar's Minister
abandoned his objections to the Baghdad enterprise and undertook to
build a railway line from Persia, which would allow another stretch of
country to be tapped by the German Railway Company. Great Britain,
acknowledging the error of her ways, agreed that Koweit should not be
the terminus and made valuable concessions to the Teuton, the
realization of which was hindered by the outbreak of the war. Turkey,
through Enver, who had imported from the Fatherland a band of military
"instructors" under Liman von Sanders, became the _ame damnee_ of
Germany. In Persia every warlike and predatory tribe was courted by
the Teuton intruder, and the German mission at Teheran, as well as the
Consulates in the chief towns of the Shahdom, became centres of
agitation against Britain and Russia and branches of the German
General Staff.
In the Tsar's dominions German agents organized a series of strikes in
the various works belonging to their countrymen, paid the strikers and
fostered a subversive political movement which bade fair to culminate
in a real revolution. In Belgium the Flemings, who had for years been
protesting against the refusal of their Government to give them a
Flemish University in Ghent, were incited against the Walloons, whose
dialect is of French origin and whose sympathizers were the entire
French people. And one of the joint acts of the German administration
in Brussels has been to appoint a commission to submit a scheme for
the creation of a Flemish high school in Ghent and accentuate the
differences between the two elements of the population.[108]
[108] A spirited protest against this poisonous endeavour was
published by a number of Belgians, including Camille
Huysmans, who refused to accept any favours from the Germans.
Meanwhile, in Germany the work of organization went steadily forward.
While British Ministers were on the look-out for reasons or pretexts
for diminishing expenditure on shipbuilding, Germany, under von
Tirpitz, was stealing a march on us and increasing hers. And over and
above this, she was arranging a surprise in the shape of submarines
and aircraft which, had the war been deferred for another couple of
years, might have not only removed the odds in our favour but given
her a decided superiority over us. And, by way of intensifying the
value of her fleet, she set to work to deepen the Kiel Canal and thus
to confer a sort of ubiquity on her battleships, which can now
concentrate in the North Sea or the Baltic without let or hindrance
from the enemy. When the epoch of the Dreadnoughts was opened German
armoured ships had a displacement of no more than 13,000 tons. The
larger type of battleship, which was afterwards constructed, could not
pass through the Canal, which had to be deepened. The necessary work
was so thoughtfully and opportunely taken in hand that it was
terminated in July 1914, just when the harvest for that year was also
ingathered. Asphyxiating gas had been manufactured in the year 1911,
as the Russians have discovered on certain of the machines. Thus when
the fatal hour struck, everything was ready.
In the financial sphere, too, we find the same comprehensive survey,
the same eye for detail, the same forethought and combination. When
hostilities broke out British banks held about L1,100,000,000 of their
depositors' money. A large percentage of this had been employed to
discount foreign, and in especial German bills, so that the paper
remained in Great Britain and the gold was transferred to Germany,
where it plays its part against us. But those marvellous efforts put
forth with such effect by our enemies made no appeal to our rulers.
Nowhere in the British Empire was there any man of mark thinking and
acting for the community. The political pilots who had charge of the
state-ship possessed neither chart nor compass nor rudder. Neither did
they feel the need of these things. The Government disbelieved in war
and was minded, if a struggle should be precipitated, to keep out of
it. Nobody envisaged the needs and interests of the Empire as aspects
of a single problem. Nobody had any clear-cut plan for the working out
of the destinies of the British people. The interests of party, the
expediency of local reforms, the squabbles between this faction and
that, constituted the burning topics of the hour, and there were none
other. And it was while we were thus wrangling with and threatening
each other that the blast of the clarion ushered in the day of doom.
The secrets of nature, revealed by science to a nation which
acknowledges no restraints, then became weapons of wholesale
destruction to be used to subjugate all civilization. Now, there are
some reasons for assuming that civilization will escape the thraldom,
but there are unhappily equally cogent grounds for apprehending that
some of its most precious achievements will be irrecoverably lost and
others greatly impaired. Had there been a master mind at the helm of
the British state-ship before the war or at its opening, we might have
been spared the necessity of signing one day a temporary peace amid
the ruins of European culture.
But no puissant genius in any of the allied countries towered above
the dead level of mediocrity. Great Frenchmen, Britons and Russians
were said to be available, but there was no great man in evidence. And
this want proved disastrous. In Germany, on the other hand, it was
hardly felt. For it was compensated by the existence of a vast human
machine, adaptable to every change of circumstance, capable of
assuming countless Protean forms simultaneously, ready with a solution
for the most unexpected problems, provided with organs suited to the
discharge of every conceivable function, all directed to the same end.
It was the same organism that had worked with such brilliant success
for over thirty years, growing and perfecting itself steadily until it
became the concrete manifestation of a whole system of thought,
sentiment and co-ordinated action. Germany had developed into a
powerful national State in which the spirit of self-surrender for the
good of the community animates all sections alike, all of which
co-operate effectively, through the organizations which they
spontaneously created, for the realization of their common objects.
And therein lay her force.
On the outbreak of war Germany was faced with a group of the most
arduous and intricate problems any Government has ever yet had to
tackle. For most of them she had had the time and the forethought to
prepare. But others arose which had been neither provided for nor
foreseen, in consequence of her mistaken assumption that Great Britain
would hold aloof from the war. The total value of her exports and
imports in the year 1913 was computed at 1,000,000,000 sterling, and
an infinity of fine threads bound her industrial activity with
foreign countries. By Great Britain's declaration of war, for which
Germany was unprepared until the last days of July, nearly all these
threads were snapped asunder, and the industrial and economic life of
the Empire had to be swiftly readjusted to the new conditions. And
here it was that the nation rose as one man to the unparalleled
occasion, faced the tremendous ordeal, and, contrary to the
expectations of its adversaries--ever prone to judge others by
themselves--has continued not merely to exist, but to extend its
conquests ever since.
It was in the financial sphere that the first strain was felt. But
perilous though it actually was, it would have been intolerable but
for the precautionary measures adopted in July and the ingenious
devices applied by the Reichsbank immediately after. The first step
taken was to substitute short-terms credit for long. The gold in the
Reichsbank increased steadily, and from 1,009,000,000 marks on July 7,
1913, it rose to 1,356,000,000 by July 7, 1914. The war treasure
hoarded in the Julius-Tower was doubled, so as to enable the Imperial
Bank to issue 720,000,000 marks on the strength of it, whereby its
gold cover was augmented from 1,253,000,000 to 1,447,000,000. A
further considerable reserve of silver was laid by, which proved
extremely useful later on. One result of this policy was that on the
fatal 31st July, no less than 4,500,000,000 marks in banknotes could
be issued without exceeding the limits prescribed by the law.[109] A
network of Loan Banks was also created throughout the country in which
every one, possessed of property of any description, could obtain
credit to any amount, provided the pledges warranted the advance.
[109] One-third gold cover is the amount fixed. Cf. Professor
J. Plenge, _Der Krieg und die Volkswirtschaft_.
Nor were the large groups of business men neglected who had no pledges
to offer yet sorely needed credit. For their behoof War Credit Banks
were instituted, which transacted business on curious lines. A city or
town subscribed a third or even more of the shares of the borrowing
company, and the Imperial Bank conferred the right of rediscounting
bills of exchange up to an amount equal to three times the value of
the capital, and sometimes even more. Institutions were opened for
advancing money on house property, and for assisting special branches
of industry. The Hansa-Bund, for instance, founded a War Credit Bank
for "the Middle Classes" which, with the authorization of the
Reichsbank, rediscounts bills of exchange drawn by individuals for
whom the Commune vouches. Associations were constituted in the country
and in towns, and the nature of their work is evidenced by the 18,000
rural Savings and Credit Banks and 16,000 urban and trade
associations.[110] For farmers and struggling landowners, a Central
Board, for the purchase of machines, was created, which also
superintended the equitable distribution of orders among industrial
firms.
[110] These figures are drawn from statistics published in
July 1914. Cf. Dr. Karl Hildebrand, _Ein starkes Volk_.
The suddenness of the declaration of war had for its effect, and
perhaps also for one of its objects, the stemming of the flow of gold
from the Reichsbank before it had exceeded the total of 100,000,000
marks and also the prevention of its disappearance from the country.
Soon afterwards gold was brought in astonishing quantities to the bank
by all classes of citizens who had hoarded it jealously in peace-time,
but now recognized the criminality of applying the principles of
individual ownership to what of right belongs to the jeopardized
community. For the nation realized the fact that the condition of
public danger entitled the Government to wield an unlimited degree of
power over the lives and property of the people for the welfare of the
community.
If we compare this intelligent appreciation of the position by rulers
and ruled, and their readiness to accommodate their respective actions
to it and play their parts as organs for the discharge of special
functions, with the haziness of conception, the misinterpretation of
events, and the utter lack of co-operation displayed by the
corresponding sections of the allied communities, we shall grasp the
secret of the superiority of the seemingly weaker group of
belligerents and the paltry results hitherto achieved by the stronger.
German industry, too, the source of the nation's prosperity, was
shaken to its foundations. It had worked largely for the foreign
market. And all at once its exports were cut down by 60 per cent.,
because of the stoppage of the supplies of raw materials. Imports also
fell by 75 per cent. One immediate consequence of this partial
stagnation was the enormous increase of the army of the unemployed.
Although 4,000,000 men were taken from the various industries and
despatched against the Belgians, French and Russians, there were at
the end of August no less than 3,400,000 men thrown out of
employment.[111] Thus the total number of unemployed was 7,400,000,
and as there were 17,000,000 hands employed before the war, it may be
inferred that German industry was reduced by 43-1/2 per cent. It was
in these conditions that the Teuton capacity for organization was
manifested.
[111] Cf. _Messenger of Europe_, April 1915, M. Lurie.
Two great industrial organizations flourished in Germany before the
war,[112] and although occasionally disagreeing on various points,
sensibly furthered the interests of their countrymen at home and
abroad. No sooner was war declared than they dropped their differences
and constituted a War Committee for German Industry. Among the varied
functions of this new body were the distribution of information
respecting orders given by the State, new legislation, etc.;
co-operation with firms for the fulfilment of contracts despite the
outbreak of hostilities; the selection of operatives, clerks, etc.,
for firms needing these; the obtainment of places for the unemployed
and the organization of the credit system.
[112] _Der Zentral-Verband Deutscher Industrieller_ and _Der
Bund der Industriellen_.
This Committee also applied for and received permission to have all
those skilled artisans recalled from the front whose services were
deemed indispensable for war industries. It likewise watched over the
distribution of State orders, and saw that each of the various firms
received its due share.
The organization of German industry during the war was taken in hand
by a group of experts and officials possessed of the insight,
knowledge and power necessary for the discharge of the arduous task.
Among the members of the Board we find the names of representatives
of finances, industries and the Government; the Minister of the
Interior, all the members of the Federal Council, M.M. Gwinner,
Bleichroeder, Siemens, etc. Special bureaux were opened for various
kinds of supplies, a Central Office for the War Supply of Tobacco,
another for that of chocolate, a third for leather, a fourth for
linen, etc.[113] Another group of organizations dealing with the
acquisition and distribution of raw stuffs possessed in certain cases
the right of expropriation, and is not allowed to make more than a
certain limited profit on its transactions. Among them are an
association for the supply of metals, another for chemicals, and a
third for woollen stuffs.
[113] It is affirmed by contrabandists in Scandinavia who are
acting on Germany's behalf, that many of the commissions for
the acquisition of raw stuffs for Germany are composed almost
exclusively of non-Russian subjects of the Tsar.
In consequence of the shortage of raw materials, economy and the
employment of substitutes were everywhere resorted to spontaneously
before the Government had time to intervene. From every household came
old copper vessels, copper wire, worn-out clothing from which the
manufacturers removed the wool, leather straps, shoes, bags, etc. From
Belgium and France everything that could be utilized as raw material
was hurriedly transferred to the Fatherland. At first the supply of
aluminium for castings and Zeppelins was insufficient, but a
composition of spelter and tin was invented, which answered the main
purposes equally well. Nickel being also scarce, coins of 10 pfennige
were withdrawn from circulation and utilized, while considerable
quantities were imported from Scandinavian countries. The place of
jute was taken by paper, and from paper under-garments were made.
Roasted acorns, theretofore employed in lieu of coffee only by the
poorer classes, thenceforward became the daily beverage of the middle
classes as well. A substitute for olive oil was extracted from cherry
stones, tainted meat was rendered harmless by chemical methods,
nitrates were extracted from the air by a Norwegian process which the
Germans had perfected and applied.
Now, these achievements and the marvellous adaptability, energy and
resourcefulness which they connote, are no mean elements in Germany's
equipment for the coming economic struggle. They proclaim that the
mind of the Teuton man of business is too firmly riveted on the goal
to be fascinated by any special route leading towards it, and that it
is sufficiently free and disengaged to turn with eager interest to any
problem, however novel, with which it may be suddenly confronted. Use
and want are not its masters, sluggish contentment cannot numb its
activity. The customers' requirements, nay, their whims and fancies,
are ever sure to receive close attention and prompt satisfaction. The
contrast between this unflagging alertness and the drowsy apathy of
the British manufacturer and tradesman is an old story, which has
evoked comments sharp enough, it would seem, to arouse the commercial
community to a lively sense of its danger and duty. And yet there are,
unhappily, cogent grounds for believing that the malady of
listlessness is as malignant to-day as before the war.
Now, these organizing and inventive talents of the Teuton, as
compared with the subordinate aims, fitful energies and honest but
mischievous conservatism of our own leaders and people, bear witness
to the same twofold talent of the German for looking far ahead and
contriving expedients on the spur of the moment. Great Britain's
participation in the struggle cut off Germany from the sea and gave
the two Central Empires the aspect of a beleaguered city. Hopes were
entertained by the Allies that famine might reinforce the work of
their armies and navies in compelling the enemy to sue for peace.
About 9 per cent. of the corn used in Germany usually came from
abroad, and now the interruption of the communications rendered this
source of supply precarious. The soldiers, too, had to be fed on a
scale of greater abundance than usual, and the prisoners of war,
however poorly nourished, would consume a certain amount of corn. The
first measure promulgated to meet the new conditions was a prohibition
of exportation. Potato flour was employed in bread-baking. War bread
was standardized for the whole Empire. The principal cities purchased
vast quantities of cereals, and Prussia founded a War Corn Association
for the acquisition of cereals to be stored until the ensuing spring.
Expropriation was legalized. In these ways L40,000,000 worth of
cereals were got together for consumption. The War Corn Association
operated with a capital of L2,500,000, to which the States subscribed
over one million, and the big cities one million, and the great
industrial firms L450,000.[114] This corn was paid for at the highest
market rates, the owners being compelled by law to declare how much
they possessed. With each of these proprietors--in the first phase
with 5,000,000 landowners--separate arrangements were concluded. The
Association employed for the purpose nearly three thousand
commissioners and five hundred other officials, and the Credit Banks
made advances on the quantities sold.
[114] Cf. Karl Hildebrand, _Ein starkes Volk_, p. 122.
Simultaneously with this home organization the other multifarious
tasks of devising new weapons for the war, improving the various types
of aircraft, building larger submarines and guns of greater calibre
went forward with unimpaired speed. Nothing was too vast or too
complicated to be undertaken, no detail was too trivial to be studied.
Politics, economics, military strategy and national psychology were
all cunningly interwoven in the various schemes laid for the
destruction of the Allies. Russia was inveigled into continuing her
trade with Germany, which, as we saw, was during the first year a
nowise negligible quantity.
A piquant detail in this connection is worthy of mention.[115] It is
affirmed that the Customs House authorities on the Russo-Swedish
frontiers discovered to their dismay that for well over a year Germany
had been receiving from Russia a large proportion of the raw materials
necessary for the fabrication of asphyxiating gas. It appears that
Sweden, which in peace time was wont to import from the Tsardom a
certain quantity of those products, trebled its demands during the
first year of the war.
[115] It is noticed by the Italian and French press; cf., for
instance, _Roma_, October 31, 1915.
Contingents of contrabandists were despatched to Greece, Spain,
Morocco, Holland, Italy, Switzerland and the United States. Secret
stations were established for supplying submarines with the
wherewithal to carry on their war against inoffensive passenger
steamers. Agents were kept in the neutral countries to corrupt the
local press and poison the wells of information in order to allure the
neutrals into belligerency. A highly organized news-distributing
bureau was equipped in Berlin with all the requisites for falsifying
facts and distorting military tidings. Its branches are spread over
the globe. Passports were forged at first and later on genuine ones
abstracted from the Berlin Foreign Office and handed over to spies.
Strikes and outrages were engineered in the United States, Italy, and
Russia. The Putiloff works, which before the war were nearly falling
into German hands and have since been supplying munitions for the
Tsar's army, were stricken with creeping paralysis, against which
exhortations and threats were vain, and finally they had to be
sequestrated by the State. Millions of dollars were expended in the
United States in efforts to prevent the manufacture or the transport
of munitions to the Allies. In Greece vast sums were cheerfully
disbursed by Baron Schenk to work the elections and defeat Venizelos.
Roumania was overrun by bands of Germans whose functions were to
calumniate, vilify, corrupt and threaten. Spain has been wrought upon
in like manner by a small army of Teutons abundantly supplied with the
same weapons. Persia was scoured by German agitators who deployed all
their talents and acquirements, their knowledge of the language and
acquaintance with the native religion, to rouse the natives against
Russia and Great Britain. Abyssinia, although deprived by Italy of
the presence of the German "scientific expedition," was induced by the
German Minister at Adis Abeba to behave in such a way that in the
month of March 1916 King Victor's Government found it advisable to
issue a decree ordering _urgent_ fortifications to be constructed in
Erythea.[116] Sweden has been provided with war news and political
information free of charge by the generous Press Bureau of Berlin. In
Belgium persevering exertions have been put forth to sow discord
between Flemings and Walloons. In China, where a British adviser is
employed by the Chief of the State, Yuan Shih Kai has turned a willing
ear to the mentors from the Fatherland, with results which bear the
hall-mark of Germany. In Mexico Villa's murderous raids on American
territory, instigated, it is asserted, by German emissaries, compelled
United States troops to pursue him over the frontiers, and raised an
issue which may be decided only by a regular campaign. Thus Teuton
diplomacy, at whose failures we are so prone to rail, contrived on the
one hand to pass off the assassinations of Americans on board the
_Lusitania_ as a justifiable act, and on the other to present the New
Mexico murder, which was the work of a mere savage, as such an outrage
on the law of nations as warrants the employment of military
force.[117]
[116] On March 16, 1916.
[117] The _New York World_, in a leading article published
March 18, writes: "No pacifist proclaims the doctrine that,
although Americans had a legal right to live near the border,
they should have taken themselves out of the danger zone in
the interest of peace. No German-American Alliance holds
meetings to proclaim the dead at Columbus as 'Guardian
angels.' No German language newspaper has spoken of the New
Mexico massacre as undertaken in a holy cause, or referred to
the President as incapable of understanding either German
militarism or German Kultur. Yet the Americans who were
assassinated on the _Lusitania_ and the _Arabic_ had as much
right to be where they were as the Americans who were dragged
from their beds at Columbus and slaughtered. The _Lusitania_
murder was deliberately planned and ordered by the Government
in Berlin, which has assumed full responsibility therefore,
and presented but one excuse, that its victims were
unexpectedly numerous. The New Mexico murder was planned and
executed by a savage, with no pretence that there is a
Government behind him, the guilt of the outlaw of the border
being not one whit less than that of the outlaw of the sea."
That same diplomacy, seconded by the press organization which
invented facts and moulded opinion, scored successes in Bulgaria,
Greece, Roumania, Switzerland, and contrived not only to keep Italy
from declaring war against Germany, but to negotiate a treaty for the
protection of German property there. Despite its clumsiness and
arrogance and brutality, German diplomacy is unmatched as an agency
for rousing popular forces in civilized and uncivilized countries into
subversive excitement. It surrounded the Pope of Rome with
philo-German dignitaries, gave him an Austrian as adviser, and
permeated the Vatican with an atmosphere of Kultur which even pious
Catholics of non-Teuton countries avoid as mephitic. It caught the
Sultan and his Young Turks, Anglophile and Francophile, in its toils,
and gave its warm approbation to the massacre of the Armenians. It won
over the young Shah of Persia, who, with great difficulty and only
after strenuous exertions, was kept from going over bodily to the
Turkish camp. It bought the services of the Senussi. It is making
headway with the Negus of Abyssinia. It offered a bribe to Italian
socialists and found work for Italian anarchists, whose
representatives were received in the palace of the Kaiser's Ambassador
in Rome. And--most difficult task of all--it reconciled, at least for
a time, the interests of Bulgaria with those of Greece and Roumania.
German diplomacy has often misread foreign political situations,
mistaken the trend of national opinion and sentiment and failed to
achieve ends which might by dint of mere patience and quiescence have
been readily accomplished. For it has no psychological standard by
which to measure the nobler qualities of a foreign people, however
closely it may have studied their politics, their history and their
vices. Its tests are for the lower grades of human character, and with
these it has indeed achieved extraordinary things.
Thus, with infinite labour the Teuton mind has grappled with the
chaotic welter produced by the European war. But, besides the skilful
handling of great financial and kindred problems, its assiduity in
watching for and readiness to seize opportunities for dealing with the
issues of lesser moment is worth noting, were it only for its value as
a stimulus. One instance occurred in the very first sitting of the
Reichstag after hostilities had begun. The legislature agreed to
introduce a slight reform of the law, dealing with the rights of
children born out of wedlock, of whom there are in Germany 185,000 a
year. The Government assented to the change, which was embodied in a
bill affirming the right of the illegitimate children of soldiers
fallen in battle to the same pension as if their parents had been
legally married. And the Reichstag passed the bill unanimously.
This solicitude about little things is most saliently in evidence in
the military domain. Here nothing is neglected that can contribute to
the fighting value of the units. Hence the care shown for the
nourishment and comfort of the soldiers. Ruthlessly though they are
sacrificed in battle, they are well looked after in the trenches, and
their career is followed with interest and recorded with accuracy by
their superiors. I was struck with the completeness of the information
which the German War Office possesses and can produce at a moment's
notice about any individual soldier. It was brought home to me in this
way. The Chief of the Berlin police had a grandson in the war who had
been missed for several weeks. Desirous of obtaining particulars about
his capture or death, he asked a neutral friend to obtain information
from the Russians. And by way of furnishing a description he sent a
printed card, which I read. It contained the name and age of the
soldier, the regiment to which he belonged, the hamlet in which he was
last seen, the distances that separated that hamlet from the next town
and the next large city, the day, the hour and _the minute_ when the
man together with his comrades were attacked, and the number of
Russians who attacked them. And all these printed particulars refer to
a private soldier! Is there anything comparable to this to be found in
any of the allied countries?
The scene of another characteristic fact that struck me was Brussels.
Princess L. requested permission from the German authorities to repair
to France to visit her mother, who, she explained, was ill. At the
Kommandantur her request was met with the cutting remark that many
persons had been applying for permits to visit their mothers, sisters
and other relations abroad, who all appeared to be victims of some
mysterious epidemic. Still, the official added, he would not
definitively refuse the request, but would accord it as soon as he had
proof that the lady's mother was really ill. "We shall have inquiries
made." "But you cannot have inquiries made in France during the war,"
she objected. "Just as quickly as in peace time," he retorted.
Sceptical and sad the petitioner returned home. But in a day or two
she was summoned to the Kommandantur and informed that her statement
had been verified, her mother lay ill--the malady was mentioned--and
she was permitted to go. The Germans have eyes and ears in all the
countries of their adversaries.
One can readily imagine the painful kind of questions that will arise
in the mind of an intelligent ally who realizes for the first time how
great are the inventive and organizing talents of the Teuton, how
unswerving his resolve, how tenacious he is of purpose, and how
unconscious most of us still are of the need of bestirring ourselves
to compete with him on terms of equality. The German's striving is
one, but all-embracing. His means are countless, for they are
restricted by no limitations. In his search for tools and agents he
enters into human nature, but not in its entire compass; only into the
baser parts, so that his estimate is often erroneous and his
expectations are unfulfilled. But even when ample deduction has been
made for these failures, the odds remaining in his favour are
formidable, and will continue undiminished unless and until we realize
our plight, shuffle off the cramping coils of conservatism,
insularity and self-complacency and brace ourselves to the most
strenuous, the most painful effort we have ever yet put forth. On our
capacity to effect this inward change, rather than upon any diplomatic
arrangements, depends the issue of the struggle which will begin when
military and naval hostilities have come to an end.