The fight of the one and the four might, in view of the difference in
the size of the combatants, be called quite fairly "the fight of the one
and the fifty-three." Each of the assailants has his own character.
Germany is represented as a ferocious giant; Austria follows Prussia's
lead, a little the worse for wear, with a bandaged head as the souvenir
of his former campaign: he does his best to look and act like Germany.
Bulgaria loses not a moment, but puts his rifle to his shoulder to shoot
the small enemy: he acts in his own way, according to his own character:
kill the enemy as quickly as possible and seize the spoil, that is his
principle. Turkey is a rather broken-down and dilapidated figure, who is
preparing to use his bayonet, but has not got it quite ready. Serbia,
erect, with feet firmly planted, stands facing the chief enemy, a little
David against this big Goliath and his henchman, Austria; and the other
two, so recently deadly foes, now standing shoulder to shoulder, attack
him while his attention is directed on Germany.
The leader and "hero" of this assault is Prussia, big, brutal,
remorseless. The Dutch artist always concentrates the spectator's
attention on him. You can almost hear the roar coming out of his mouth:
"Gott strafe Serbien." This is the figure, as Raemaekers paints him,
that goes straight for his object, regardless of moral considerations.
Serbia is in his way, and Serbia must be trampled in the mire. The
artist's sympathy is wholly with Serbia, who is pictured as the man
fighting against the brute, slight but active and noble in build, facing
this burly foe.
And poor old Turkey! Always a figure of comedy, never ready in time,
always ineffective, never fully able to use the weapons of so-called
"civilization." Let it always be remembered that in the Gallipoli
peninsula, when the Turks at first were taking no prisoners, but killing
the wounded after their own familiar fashion with mutilation, for the
sake of such spoil as could be carried away, Enver Pasha issued an order
that thirty piastres should be paid for every prisoner brought in alive,
a noble and humane regulation. Let us hope that the reward was always
paid, not stolen on the way, as has been so often the case in Turkey.