THE BEST WAY TO CRUSH PAN-GERMANY
I
THE UNITED STATES AND THE VASSALS OF BERLIN
In the wholly novel plan which I am about to set forth, the United
States may play a preponderating and decisive part; but by way of
preamble I must call attention to the fact that the United States is
not, in my judgment, as I write these lines, in a position to give
its full effective assistance in the conflict, because it is not
officially and wholeheartedly at war with Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria,
and Turkey—states in thrall to Berlin and constituent parts of
Pan-Germany. This situation is, I am fully convinced, unfavorable to
the interests of the Allies, and it paralyzes American action, for
these reasons.
As a matter of fact, Germany can no longer carry on the war against
the Entente save by virtue of the troops and resources which are
placed at her disposal by Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey.
If the Allies wish to conquer Germany, their chief adversary, it
is necessary that they understand that they must _first of all_
deprive Prussian militarism of the support—apparently secondary, but
really essential—which it receives from its allied vassals. It is,
furthermore, eminently desirable that it should be recognized in the
United States that Turkish, Bulgar, Magyar, and Austrian imperialism
are bases of Prussian imperialism, and that in order to establish a
lasting peace, the disappearance of these secondary imperialisms is
as necessary as that of Prussian imperialism itself. Moreover, the
fact that Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey are not officially at
war with the United States enables Berlin to maintain connections in
America of which we may be sure that she avails herself to the utmost.
This situation is propitious also for that German manœuvre which
consists in making people think that a separate peace is possible
between Turkey, or Bulgaria, or Austria-Hungary on the one side and
the powers of the Entente on the other. However, as the game to be
played is complicated and difficult, good sense suggests that we
proceed from the simple to the complex, and hence that we strike the
enemy first of all in his most vulnerable part. Now, as we shall
see, it is mainly in the territory of the three vassals of Germany
that the new plan which I am about to set forth can be carried out
in the first instance, without, however, causing any prejudice—_far,
far_ from it,—to the invaluable assistance which the Americans are
preparing to bring to the Allies on the Western front. For all these
reasons, it seems desirable that American public opinion should
admit the imperious necessity of a situation absolutely unequivocal
with regard to the governments of Constantinople, Sofia, Vienna,
and Budapest, which are vassals of Berlin and by that same token
substantial pillars of Pan-Germany.
II
DESTRUCTION OF PAN-GERMANY BY INTERNAL EXPLOSION
I believe that I have demonstrated, in earlier chapters of this
book that, because of the advantages, economic and military, which
the existence of Central Pan-Germany guarantees to Germany for both
present and future, the essential, vital problem that the Allies have
to solve—a problem which sums up all the others—is, how to destroy
this Central Pan-Germany.
It is infinitely easier to destroy than is generally supposed among
the Allies, because it contains potent sources of dissolution. The
Allied leaders seem not to have bestowed upon this situation the
extremely careful attention which it deserves. In any event, down to
the present time they have not sought to take advantage of a state of
affairs which is eminently favorable to them.
To understand this situation, and how it may be utilized at once, we
must set out from the following starting-point. Of about 176,000,000
inhabitants of Pan-Germany in 1917, about 73,000,000 Germans, with
the backing of only 21,000,000 vassals—Magyars, Bulgars, Turks,—have
to-day reduced to slavery the immense number of 82,000,000 allied
subjects—Slavs, Latins, or Semites, belonging to thirteen different
nationalities, all of whom desire the victory of the Entente, since
that alone will assure their liberation. In addition, a considerable
portion of Germany’s vassals would, under certain conditions, gladly
throw off the yoke of Berlin.
Among the 176,000,000 people of Pan-Germany we distinguish the
following three groups.
_Group 1._ Slaves of the Germans or of their vassals capable of
immediate action favorable to the Entente—say, 63,000,000, made up as
follows:—
(_a_) In Turkey,—
Arabs 8,000,000
Generally speaking the Arabs detest the Turks. A portion of them have
risen in revolt in Arabia, under the leadership of the King of Hedjaz.
(_b_) In Central Europe,—
Polish-Lithuanians 22,000,000
Ruthenians 5,500,000
Czechs 8,500,000
Jugo-Slavs 11,000,000
Roumanians 8,000,000
——————————
55,000,000
There are, then, in Central Europe alone, 55,000,000 people
determinedly hostile to Germanism, forming an enormous, favorably
grouped mass, occupying a vast territory, commanding a part of the
German lines of communication, and comparatively far from the fronts
where the bulk of the German military forces is.
Moreover, at the present crisis, these 55,000,000 human beings,
subjected to the most heartless German and Bulgarian terrorism,
are coming to understand better and better that the only means of
escape from a ghastly slavery, from which there is no appeal, is to
contribute at the earliest possible moment to the victory of the
Entente. The insurrectionary commotions that have already taken
place in Poland, Bohemia, and Transylvania, prove what a limitless
development these outbreaks might take on if the Allies should do
what they ought to do to meet this psychological condition. It is
clear that, if these 55,000,000 slaves of Central Europe should
revolt in increasing numbers, this result would follow first of all:
_the default of Russia would be supplied_. Indeed, the Germans, being
harassed in rear of their Eastern fronts, would be considerably
impeded in their military operations and in their communications.
Under such conditions the attacks of the Allies would have much more
chance of success than they have to-day.
_Group 2._ Slaves of the Germans or of their vassals, who cannot stir
to-day, being too near the military fronts, but whose action might
follow that of the first group—nearly 16,000,000, made up as follows:—
(_a_) In Turkey,—
Ottoman Greeks 2,000,000
Armenians 1,000,000
—————————
3,000,000
(_b_) On the Western front,—
French 3,000,000
Belgians 7,500,000
Alsatians and Lorrainers 1,500,000
Italians 800,000
——————————
12,800,000
_Group 3._ Vassals of Germany, possible rebels against the yoke of
Berlin after the uprising of the first group—about 9,000,000.
Of 10,000,000 Magyars, there are—a fact not generally known among the
Allies—9,000,000 poor agricultural laborers cynically exploited by
one million nobles, priests, and officials. These 9,000,000 Magyar
proletarians are exceedingly desirous of peace. As they did not want
the war, they detest those who forced it on them. They would be
quite capable of revolting at the last moment against their feudal
exploiters, if the Allies, estimating accurately the shocking social
conditions of these poor Magyars, were able to assure them that the
victory of the Entente would put an end to the agrarian and feudal
system under which they suffer.
Is not this a state of affairs eminently favorable to the interests
of the Allies? Would not the Germans in our place have turned it
to their utmost advantage long ago? Does not common sense tell us
that if, in view of the pressure on their battle fronts, the Allies
knew enough to do what is necessary to induce the successive revolts
of the three groups whose existence we have pointed out, a potent
internal element in the downfall of Pan-Germany would become more and
more potent, adding its effects to the efforts which the Allies have
confined themselves thus far to putting forth on the extreme outer
circumference of Pan-Germany?
Let us inquire how this assistance of the 88,000,000 persons confined
in Pan-Germany in their own despite can be obtained and made really
effective.
Let us start with an indisputable fact. The immense results which the
German propaganda has achieved in barely five months in boundless
Russia, with her 182,000,000 inhabitants, where it has brought
about, in Siberia as well as in Europe, separatist movements which,
for the most part,—I speak of them because I have traveled and
studied much in Russia,—would never have taken place but for their
artificial agitation,—these results constitute, beyond dispute, a
striking demonstration of what the Allies might do if they should
exert themselves to act upon races radically anti-Boche, held captive
against their will in Pan-Germany. Assuredly, in the matter of
propaganda, the Allies are very far from being as well equipped as
the Germans and from knowing how to go about it as they do. But the
Germans and their vassals are so profoundly detested by the people
whom they are oppressing in Pan-Germany; these people understand so
fully that the remnant of their liberty is threatened in the most
uncompromising way; they are so clearly aware that they can free
themselves from the German-Turkish-Magyar yoke only as a result
of this war and of the decisive victory of the Entente, that they
realize more clearly every day that their motto must be, ‘Now or
never.’
Considering this state of mind, so favorable to the Allies, a
propaganda on the part of the Entente, even if prepared with
only moderate skill, would speedily obtain very great results.
Furthermore, the desperate efforts which Austria-Hungary, at the
instigation of Berlin and with the backing of the Stockholmists
and the Pope, was making to conclude peace before its threatening
internal explosion, show how precarious German hegemony in Central
Europe still is. The Austro-Boches are so afraid of the extension
of the local disturbances which have already taken place in Poland
and Bohemia, that they have not yet dared to repress them root
and branch. Those wretches, to fortify themselves against these
anti-German popular commotions, resort to famine. At the present
moment, notably in the Jugo-Slav districts and in Bohemia, the
Austro-Germans are removing the greatest possible quantity of
provisions in order to hold the people in check by hunger. But this
hateful expedient itself combines with all the rest to convince these
martyrized peoples of the urgent necessity of rising in revolt if
they prefer not to be half annihilated like the Serbs.
To make sure of the constant spread and certain effectiveness of the
latent troubles of the oppressed Slavs and Latins of Central Europe,
there is need on the part of the Allies, first of moral suasion, then
of material assistance.
To understand the necessity and the usefulness of the first, it must
be said that, despite all the precautions taken by the Austro-Boche
authorities, the declarations of the Entente in behalf of the
oppressed peoples of Central Europe become known to these latter
comparatively soon, and that these declarations help greatly to
sustain their _morale_. For example, President Wilson’s message of
January 22, 1917, in which he urged the independence and unification
of Poland, and his ‘Flag Day’ speech, on June 15, in which he set
forth the great and intolerable peril of the Hamburg-Persian Gulf
scheme, manifestly strengthened the determination of the Poles, the
Czechs, and the Jugo-Slavs to free themselves at whatever cost from
the fatal yoke of Vienna and Berlin. In addition, the constantly
increasing power of the aeroplane enables the Allies to spread
important communications broadcast over enemy territory.
First of all, it is essential that the three races which, by
reason of their geographical situation and their ethnographical
characteristics are indispensable in any reconstitution of Central
Europe based on the principle of nationalities, and who consequently
have a leading part to play in the centre of the Pan-Germany of
to-day, should be, one and all, absolutely convinced that the victory
of the Entente will make certain their complete independence. The
Poles have received this assurance on divers occasions, notably from
President Wilson, and very recently from M. Ribot, commemorating in a
dispatch to the Polish Congress at Moscow ‘the reconstitution of the
independence and unity of all the Polish territories to the shores of
the Baltic.’ But the 11,000,000 Jugo-Slavs and the 8,500,000 Czechs
have not yet received from the leaders of the Entente sufficiently
explicit and repeated assurances.
There are two reasons why this is so. In the first place, the
absolutely chimerical hope of separating Austria-Hungary from Germany
has obsessed, down to a very recent date, certain exalted personages
of the Entente, who, having never had an opportunity to study on the
spot the latest developments in Austria, still believe in the old
classic formula, ‘If Austria did not exist, we should have to create
it.’ In the second place, certain other personages of the Entente
incline to the belief that, in order to obtain a swift victory, the
problem of Central Europe is a problem to be avoided. Now, as to this
point, the few men who unquestionably know Austria well—for example,
the Frenchmen Louis Léger, Ernest Denis, M. Haumant, Auguste Gauvain,
and others, and the Englishmen, Sir Arthur Evans, Seton-Watson,
Wickham Steed, and others—are unanimous in being as completely
convinced as I myself am that the breaking-up of the monarchy of
the Hapsburgs is indispensable to the establishment of a lasting
peace—and furthermore, such a breaking-up as a result of the revolt
of the oppressed peoples is one of the most powerful instruments in
the hands of the Entente to bring the war to a victorious close.
In fact, there are certain quasi-mechanical laws which should guide
in the reconstruction of a Europe that can endure. Now, without
a free Bohemia and Jugo-Slavia it is impossible—impossible, I
insist—that Poland should be really free, that Serbia and Roumania
should be restored, that Russia should be released from the grip
of Germany, that Alsace-Lorraine should be restored permanently
to France, that Italy should be protected from German domination
in the Adriatic, in the Balkans, and in Turkey, that the United
States should be warranted against the world-wide results of the
Hamburg-Persian Gulf enterprise. Bohemia is the central point of the
whole. With its circle of mountains, it is the indispensable keystone
of the European edifice, rebuilt upon the basis of the principle of
nationalities. Whosoever is master of Bohemia is master of Europe. It
must be, therefore, that liberty shall be master of Bohemia.
On the other hand, it is undeniable that the successive uprisings of
8,500,000 Czechs and 11,000,000 Jugo-Slavs, taking place concurrently
with that of 22,000,000 Poles, is absolutely in line with the present
military interests of the Entente. Therefore, for the Allies to
assume an attitude of reserve toward the Czechs and Jugo-Slavs is as
contrary to the democratic principles they invoke as to their most
urgent strategic interests. But this mistake has been frequently
made, solely because the exceptional importance of Bohemia has not
yet been fully grasped. Mr. Asquith, in his speech of September 26
last, furnishes an example of this regrettable reserve with respect
to the Czechs—a reserve which is diminishing, no doubt, but which
still exists. He said:—
‘If we turn to Central and Eastern Europe, we see purely artificial
territorial arrangements, which are repugnant to the wishes and
interests of the populations directly concerned, and which, so long
as they remain unchanged, will constitute a field fertile in new
wars. There are, first, the claims of Roumania and Italy, so long
overdue; there is heroic Serbia, which not only must be restored
to her home, but which is entitled to more room in which to expand
nationally; and there is Poland. The position of Greece and the South
Slavs must not be forgotten.’
Thus, while Mr. Asquith manifests the best intentions toward the
oppressed peoples of Central Europe, he does not even mention the
Czechs, that is, Bohemia. Now, in reality, all the promises that the
Entente can make concerning Poland, Serbia, Roumania, and Italy, are
not capable of lasting fulfillment unless Bohemia is set free, for
Bohemia dominates all Central Europe. Furthermore, Mr. Asquith’s
silence as to the fate of Bohemia may be a legitimate cause of
uneasiness to the Czechs, who are now doing the impossible to contend
with Germanism, despite the shocking terrorism which lies so heavy
upon them. So we may say, that Mr. Asquith would have served the
interest of the Entente more effectively if he had emphatically named
Bohemia and the Czechs who are so much in need of being supported
and encouraged by the Allies, whom they regard as their liberators.
The misconceptions that have led to the ignoring of the claims of
the Central European Slavs, and of their extreme importance in the
solution of the war-problem, will soon prove themselves an even
heavier load to carry than those committed in Bulgaria and Greece.
To put an end to these vagaries, it is necessary that henceforth
the leaders of the Entente should earnestly encourage, at least the
Poles, Czechs, and Jugo-Slavs—that is to say, about 42,000,000 slaves
of Berlin in Central Europe. The encouragement of these peoples as
a single body is indispensable, for, although the Boches are able
to control the local and, so to say, individual insurrectionary
movements, on the contrary, because of the vast area which a general
insurrection of the 42,000,000 would involve, its repression by
the Austro-Boches would be practically impossible. The example of
a successful general uprising would certainly induce a similar
movement by the balance of the 88,000,000 human beings who are
vitally interested in the destruction of Pan-Germany. To bring about
this result, then, the first essential thing to be done is for the
leaders of the Entente to put forth a most unequivocal declaration,
giving the Poles, Czechs, and Jugo-Slavs assurance that the victory
of the Entente will make certain their complete liberation. It is
impossible to see what there is to hinder such a declaration. Its
effects would soon be discerned if it were enthusiastically supported
by the Allied press and by the Allied Socialists, who, let us hope,
will finally realize that, while it is impossible to bring about a
revolution against Prussian militarism in Germany, it can very easily
be effected in Austria-Hungary.
But, some one will say, a revolution is not possible without material
resources. Naturally, I shall discuss this point only so far as the
interests of the Entente will allow me to do it publicly. In the
first place I will call attention to the fact that, by reason of the
immensity of the territory they occupy, simple passive resistance on
the part of the oppressed races of Central Europe, provided that it
is offered in concert and accompanied by certain essays in the way of
sabotage and strikes, which are easy enough to practice without any
outside assistance, would create almost inextricable difficulties for
the Austro-Germans.
But there is something much better to be done. At first sight, it
seems very difficult for the Allies to bear effective material aid to
the oppressed peoples of Pan-Germany, because they are surrounded by
impregnable military lines. In fact, by combining the results of the
tremendous development of the aviation branch made possible by the
adhesion of the United States, _with certain technical resources_
which are available, the Entente can, comparatively quickly and
easily, supply the Poles and the rest with material assistance which
would prove extraordinarily efficacious.
I am not writing carelessly. I have studied for twenty years these
down-trodden races and the countries in which they live. I know about
the material resources to which I refer. If I do not describe them
more explicitly, it is because no one has yet thought of employing
them, and in such matters silence is a bounden duty. But I am, of
course, at the disposition of the American authorities if they
should wish to know about the resources in question, and to study
them seriously. I am absolutely convinced that, if employed with
due method, determinedly, and scientifically, in accordance with a
special technique, these resources, after a comparatively simple
preparation,—much less in any event than those which have been made
in other enterprises,—would lead to very important results which
would contribute materially to the final decision.[2]
To sum up—in Central Europe, through the liberation, preceded by the
legitimate and necessary revolution, of its martyred peoples, are
found in conjunction: (_a_) the means of making good the default of
Russia; (_b_) the basis of a new and decisive conclusion of the war;
(_c_) the possibility of destroying Central Pan-Germany; (_d_) the
consequent wiping out of the immense advantages from the war which
the mere existence of Pan-Germany assures to Germany; and (_e_) the
elements of a lasting peace upon terms indisputably righteous and
strictly in accordance with the principles of justice invoked by the
Entente.
[Illustration: Decoration]
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FOOTNOTES:
[2] To the editor, M. Chéradame has written with less reserve on this
vital subject; but it seems best to put in print at this time no more
than the suggestion indicated.—_The Editor of the Atlantic Monthly._
THE WAR AND THE SPIRIT OF YOUTH
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Transcriber’s Notes
pg 28 Changed: at her allies’ expense constitutute
to: at her allies’ expense constitute
pg 53 Changed: the reconstruction of these devasted
to: the reconstruction of these devastated
pg 72 Changed: the slavery of eight-two millions
to: the slavery of eighty-two millions