Cases of preserves were quickly opened. All our bread and
biscuits were used, and some bowls of boiling tea comforted
our guests. But leaving the harbor, the sea grew heavier
and torrents of spray put the finishing touch to the
inextricable disorder that prevailed aboard ship. The storm
stayed with us until we made Brindisi, where we arrived at
seven o'clock on the morning of the twenty-second. When
Italy was sighted, the tiredness and discouragement
disappeared as if by magic. Hand clappings, praise of
France, promises of victory and of revenge, and absurd
efforts to disembark everything at once--passengers and
material. (Journal of Ensign Augé, Commander of the
_Marie-Rose_.)
Is that all? No; it is not. For if French effort is limitless, the
tonnage of the trawlers is not. And, in spite of every effort, they
were unable to get everyone aboard. Down there in the mud at Medua
some Serbs still waited, turning anxious eyes towards the high seas to
see whether or not the tricolor would appear on the horizon.... Well,
it did reappear, for France never gives up the fight. The French motto
here, as everywhere else, was "to the bitter end." On the
twenty-fourth of January the _Petrel_ and the _Marie-Rose_ started on
the final trip. Will they arrive in time? Probably not. In the
mountains that surround San Giovanni rifle shots and the rattle of
mitrailleuses were heard; the road to Alessio was deserted, the beach
seemed deserted, Medua harbor was covered with wreckage of all sorts,
rendering navigation impossible. However, the tiny craft entered the
harbor and approached the shore. Finally they saw some Serbs there.
The news was as disturbing as possible. The Austrians were only a few
kilometers off. There was fighting on the outskirts of the town. The
last able-bodied Serbs struggled manfully to hold off the Austrian
advance guard, which pressed them hard. Not a minute was to be lost if
a last salvage was to be made.
After a brief consultation, the two young commanders decided to take
off everyone in their old boats, aided by a huge lighter which they
took in tow. A grave responsibility if the weather did not hold; but
the man who risks nothing will gain nothing.
They worked with feverish haste. The hope of not being abandoned gave
wings to the weak. By four o'clock in the afternoon everything was
practically ready ... four "seventy-fives," ten artillery caissons,
two radio outfits, a thousand new rifles, hundreds of cases of shells,
cartridges and grenades and likewise large quantities of harness were
loaded on the trawlers. All the men who were in the town, its
outskirts or on the beach were assembled and embarked on the boats.
Not one was left behind. This time, safe from the rifles in the
distant mountains, everyone was saved.
At four-fifty in the afternoon [writes Ensign Augé] our
little boats cleared the harbor for the last time and made
the open sea. Suddenly we see a trail of foam hastening on
us with a mad rush. It started three or four hundred meters
off on our right. There is a lightning flash and we see the
torpedo cross our bows, too low, fortunately. A submarine
has tried to attack us but has missed. We describe a great
circle in order to avoid a second attack. Fortunately night
falls to end the chase, and we make for the Italian coast.
Although the sea is smooth, the third boat is lurching
terribly. About midnight I hear terrible cries from this
boat. It is dark as pitch and impossible to make out
anything in the darkness. The cries continue: sparks burst
forth. Something is thrown into the sea. It is impossible
to know what is happening. So much the worse. The most
dangerous thing would be to stop. Let us go on.
They went on and finally arrived in sight of Italy the next morning.
The incident of the night before had been a little thing which had
started a panic on board the boat. Little by little the roofs and
towers of Brindisi appeared in the distance. The entire squadron of
Allied ships was there, ranged in battle formation. When they saw the
two little boats which were bringing in the last Serbs with their last
guns, they rendered military honors to the heroic saviors, the crews
cheering and the colors saluting. Supreme and unprecedented homage was
rendered two nations: France and Serbia.
* * * * *
In January, 1918, M. Vesnitch, Serbian Minister to France, on a
mission to the United States, during an after-dinner speech, in a
voice that did not conceal his emotion and with a different manner
from his usual downcast one, told some of the details of this Passion.
And he added:
"We are grateful to everyone, but Serbia's heart will remain attached
through all centuries to come to France."
I repeat these words, which are France's sweetest reward, because they
attest in history what France, the nation "worn out and bled white"
has done to save and succor her little ally.
Finally let me say that the men are wrong who believe France is
without strength and resources. Beneath her torn garments, in rags,
under flesh that is cruelly bruised, there beats a virile heart which
fights on and on. And there is young, red blood which still flows and
is always ready to flow for the immortal principles of Liberty,
Justice and Humanity.
IV
THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE
A French statesman, Mr. Louis Barthou, has summed up the War aims of
France in the three words: "Restitution, Reparation, Guarantees."
Restitution means the surrender of all occupied territories, of the
territories occupied by force during forty-seven months, as well as
the territories occupied by force during forty-seven years. Between
the five departments forming Flanders-Argonne and the five departments
forming Alsace-Lorraine, France is unable to make any distinction.
France wants Metz back on the same ground upon which she wants Lille
back. If Germany is to keep Metz she might as well keep Lille. Her
claim to Strasbourg is not better than her claim to Cambrai.
And this is a thing which "the man in the street" fails sometimes to
understand. He says: "Yes, we know, Alsace-Lorraine was taken from
France forty-seven years ago by violence, without the people of the
occupied territories being consulted. But how did France acquire
Alsace-Lorraine in previous times? Was it not also by force after
successful wars? Is it not a fact that Alsace-Lorraine, in days of
yore, belonged to Germany, and that, historically, Alsace is a German
land?"
No, it is precisely not a fact. It is the contrary of a fact and of
truth. And this must be made clear, once for all.
When France demands Alsace-Lorraine, she does not do so because she
will have some more departments in her geographical configuration, but
because these territories belonged to France during centuries and
centuries, because they were taken from France by force forty-seven
years ago, because the people of these territories not only were never
consulted, but also protested against Prussian domination--because, in
a word, it is a question of right.
In a speech, which he delivered on the 24th of January, 1918, before
the Reichstag, Count von Hertling, the Imperial German Chancellor,
expressed himself as follows:
Alsace-Lorraine comprises, as is known, for the most part
purely German regions which by a century long of violence
and illegality were severed from the German Empire, until
finally in 1779 the French Revolution swallowed up the last
remnant. Alsace and Lorraine then became French provinces.
When in the war of 1870, we demanded back the district which
had been criminally wrested from us, that was not a conquest
of foreign territory but, rightly and properly speaking,
what today is called disannexation.
It is doubtful that Count von Hertling will ever leave in history the
memory of a great Chancellor; but, if he does, it will be no doubt in
the History of Ignorance and Falsehood. Never has a statesman in so
few words uttered with such impudence so many untruths!
Historically speaking, there are in Alsace-Lorraine three parts: there
is Lorraine, there is Alsace, and there is the southern part of
Alsace including the town of Mulhouse.
As regards the town of Mulhouse, the question is most simple and
clear. The town never, at any time, belonged to Germany or to the
Germans. It belonged to Switzerland and, at the end of the 18th
century, during the French revolution, the town, after a referendum,
decided to become French. A delegation was sent to Paris, to the
French Parliament, then called the _Conseil des Cinq-Cents_, and the
delegation expressed publicly, officially, the desire of Mulhouse to
be part of the French territory. There was a deliberation, and
unanimously the _Conseil des Cinq-Cents_ voted a motion couched in the
following terms: "_The French Republic accepts the vow of the citizens
of Mulhouse._"
A few weeks later the French authorities, among scenes of unparalleled
enthusiasm, made their entry into the town, and the flag of Mulhouse
was wrapped up in a tricolor box bearing the inscription: "The
Republic of Mulhouse rests in the bosom of the French Republic."
Alsace--the rest of Alsace--became French in 1648, more than two
centuries before the war of 1870. It became French according to a
treaty. The treaty was signed by the Austrian Emperor, because Alsace
belonged to the Austrian Imperial Family. And it is not without
interest to quote an article (article 75) of the treaty:
The Emperor cedes to the King of France forever, _in
perpetuum_, without any reserve, with full jurisdiction and
sovereignty, all the Alsatian territory. The Austrian
Emperor gives it to the King of France in such a way that no
other Emperor, in the future, will ever have any power in
any time to affirm any right on these territories.
When today one reads that treaty, one has the impression that more
than two centuries ago the Austrian Emperor had already a sort of
apprehension that later on another Emperor would interfere in the
matter and create mischief!
Fifty-three years after that treaty, the Prussians, who dislike seeing
anything in some one's else possession, tried to recover Alsace. Their
own ambassador tried to dissuade them, and in 1701 Count Schmettau,
ambassador of Prussia in Paris, wrote to his king:
"_We cannot take Alsace, because it is well known that her inhabitants
are more French than the Parisians_...."
Could anything answer better the affirmation that "Alsatians are of
German tendency?"
Lorraine became French in 1552, more than three centuries before the
war of 1870. Lorraine became French not after a war and as the result
of a conquest, but according to a treaty signed by all the Protestant
Princes of Germany, in which we find the following sentence, which is
really worthy of meditation: "_We find just that the King of France,
as promptly as possible, takes possession of the towns of Toul, Metz,
and Verdun, where the German language has never been used._" So that
the Germans themselves put on the same line the towns of Metz, Toul,
and Verdun, and recognized that the town of Metz was not German.
All this is extremely simple and clear. What happened several
centuries later is equally clear.
When, in 1871, on February 16th, the deputies of Alsace-Lorraine
learned that their provinces would be given up to Germany, they
assembled, and in an historical document which was signed by all of
them--there were thirty-six--they protested in the following terms:
Alsace and Lorraine cannot be alienated. Today, before the
whole world, they proclaim that they want to remain French.
Europe cannot allow or ratify the annexation of Alsace and
Lorraine. Europe cannot allow a people to be seized like a
flock of sheep. Europe cannot remain deaf to the protest of
a whole population. Therefore, we declare in the name of our
population, in the name of our children and of our
descendants, that we are considering any treaty which gives
us up to a foreign power as a treaty null and void, and we
will eternally revindicate the right of disposing of
ourselves and of remaining French.
And, three years later, in January, 1874, when for the first time
Alsace and Lorraine had to elect deputies, they reiterated the same
protest. They elected fifteen new deputies; some were Protestants,
some were Catholics, one of them was the Bishop of Strasbourg, but
they unanimously signed a declaration which was read at the Tribune of
the German Reichstag. The declaration was the following:
In the name of all the people of Alsace-Lorraine, we protest
against the abuse of force of which our country is a
victim.... Citizens having a soul and an intelligence are
not mere goods that may be sold, or with which you may
trade.
The contract which annexed us to Germany is null and void. A
contract is only valid when the two contractants had an
entire freedom to sign it. France was not free when she
signed such a contract. Therefore our electors want us to
say that we consider ourselves as not bound by such a
treaty, and they want us to affirm once more our right of
disposing of ourselves.
I beg to call the attention of the reader to two sentences of this
protestation:
"Europe cannot allow a people to be seized like a flock of sheep,"
wrote the deputies of 1871. "People are not mere goods which may be
sold or with which you may trade," proclaimed the deputies of 1874.
Now you will find, nearly word for word, the same thought expressed
in the message of President Wilson to Congress, when he wrote: "No
right exists anywhere to hand peoples about from sovereignty to
sovereignty as if they were property."
That right does not exist, and it is because that right was
outrageously violated in 1871 that France wants Alsace-Lorraine to
come back to her. It is because, in 1871, Right has been wronged that
today Right must be reinstated.
Some people have spoken of a referendum. Why a referendum? Was there
any referendum in 1871? And how could there be a referendum? How could
you include in this referendum the hundreds of thousands of Alsatians
who have fled from German domination? How could you exclude from this
referendum the hundreds of thousands of Germans who have come to
Alsace?
The referendum was rendered by Mulhouse in 1798. Will that town be
obliged to vote again? And how many times will it be obliged to vote
for France? The referendum was rendered by the whole of Alsace and
Lorraine in 1871 and 1874, by their elected deputies, when they
unanimously protested against the German annexation.
It was rendered twenty years ago by the census which was taken by the
Germans themselves in Alsace. According to that census, in 1895,
notwithstanding the fact that the teaching of French was prohibited in
the public schools, there were 160,000 people in Alsace speaking
French. And five years later, in 1900, according to another census
there were 200,000 people in Alsace speaking French. And of these
200,000 people, there were more than 52,000 children.
The referendum was also rendered by Alsatians who, before this war,
engaged themselves in the French Army, and became officers. According
to the official statistics of the French War Department, there were in
1914 in the French Army 20 generals, 145 superior officers, and 400
ordinary officers of Alsatian origin. On the other side, in the German
Army in 1914, there were four officers of Alsatian origin.
And finally the referendum was rendered only one year before the
present war, in 1913, when Herr von Jagow, then Prefect of Police in
Berlin, made the following extraordinary declaration: "We Germans are
obliged in Alsace to behave ourselves as if we were in an enemy's
country...." What better referendum could you wish than such an
admission by a German statesman?
Moreover, the question of Alsace-Lorraine is not only a French
question, but also an international question. It is not only France
who has sworn to herself to recover Alsace-Lorraine--it is all the
Allies who have sworn to France that she should recover it.
"We mean to stand by the French democracy to the death," solemnly
declared Mr. Lloyd-George on the 5th of January, 1918, "in the demand
they make for a reconsideration of the great wrong of 1871, when,
without any regard to the wishes of the population, two French
provinces were torn from the side of France and incorporated in the
German Empire."
And, three days later, using nearly the same words, President Wilson,
in his luminous message to Congress, said: "_The wrong done to France
by Prussia in 1871, in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has
unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years should be
righted, in order that peace may once more be made secure in the
interest of all._"
All the statesmen who have spoken since the beginning of the war in
the name of the Allied Powers have attested that this war is not only
a struggle for the liberty of nations and the respect due to
nationalities, but also an effort toward definite peace. Their words
only appeared fit for stirring up the enthusiasm of the crowds, and
fortifying their will of sacrifice, because they gave expression to
their feelings and prayers. If they are forgotten by those who uttered
them they will be remembered by those who heard and treasured them.
In September, 1914, Winston Churchill said: "We want this war to
remodel the map of Europe according to the principle of nationalities,
and the real wish of the people living in the contested territories.
After so much bloodshed we wish for a peace which will free races, and
restore the integrity of nations.... Let us have done with the
armaments, the fear of strain, intrigues, and the perpetual threat of
the horrible present crisis. Let us make the regulation of European
conflicts just and natural." The French republic, of one mind with the
Allies, proclaimed through its authorized representatives that this
war is a war of deliverance. "France," said Mr. Stephen Pichon,
Foreign Minister, "will not lay down arms before having shattered
Prussian militarism, so as to be able to rebuild on a basis of justice
a regenerated Europe." And Mr. Paul Deschanel, the President of the
Chamber, continued: "The French are not only defending their soil,
their homes, the tombs of their ancestors, their sacred memories,
their ideal works of art and faith and all the graceful, just, and
beautiful things their genius has lavished forth: they are defending,
too, the respect of treaties, the independence of Europe, and human
freedom. We want to know if all the effort of conscience during
centuries will lead to its slavery, if millions of men are to be
taken, given up, herded at the other side of a frontier and condemned
to fight for their conquerors and masters against their country, their
families, and their brothers.... The world wishes to live at last,
Europe to breathe, and the nations mean to dispose freely of
themselves."
These engagements will be kept. But they will have been kept only when
Alsace-Lorraine--the Belgium of 1871, as Rabbi Stephen Wise has called
it--has been returned to France. Then, and only then, will there be
real peace. Then, and only then, will the "Testament" of Paul
Derouléde have been executed:
When our war victorious is o'er,
And our country has won back its rank,
Then with the evils war brings in its train
Will disappear the hatred the conqueror trails.
Then our great France, full of love without spite
Sowing fresh springing-corn 'neath her new-born laurels,
Will welcome Work, father of Fortune,
And sing Peace, mother of lengthy deeds.
Then will come Peace, calm, serene, and awful,
Crushing down arms, but upholding intellect;
For we shall stand out as just-hearted conquerors,
Only taking back what was robbed from us.
And our nation, weary of mourning,
Will soothe the living while praising the dead,
And nevermore will we hear the name of battle
And our children shall learn to unlearn hate.
Just as France will not accept peace without restitution, she will not
accept peace without reparation.
Germany can never make reparation for all the ruin, all the
destruction, all the sacrilege she has wrought. There can be no
reparation for the Cathedral of Rheims, for the Hotel de Ville at
Arras, for the deaths of thousands of innocent beings, for the
slaughter of women and children.
But there can be reparation for the damage done to machinery. The
treasures of art which, contrary to all law and right, Germany has
taken into her own country, can be returned. They can return the funds
illegally stolen from the vaults of municipalities, banks and public
societies. They can pay off the receipts which they themselves have
signed for the objects they have compelled the owners to hand over to
them.
Every château in the north of France, places such as those of the
Prince of Monaco, of Mr. Balny d'Avricourt, that of Coucy, have been
looted and pillaged. Antique furniture, paintings by the great
masters, sculptures, historic pieces of tapestry have been carried off
into Germany. Tapestries, sculptures, furniture and paintings must
come back from Germany. The museums at St. Quentin and Lille have seen
their collections of value to art and science carried off; these
collections must come back. Factories have been robbed of their pumps,
of their equipment, of their trucks; other pumps, other equipment,
other trucks must be put in their place. Otherwise, nothing will
prevent that in the future other expeditions will come to ransack
other countries. A bold move towards Venice allowed base hands to be
laid on the most beautiful works of art humanity had produced. A
fortunate descent on the shores of Long Island or of New Jersey would
allow the Metropolitan Museum to be looted.
At Ham, in the Somme district, the Grand Duke of Hesse, the former
Empress of Russia's brother, one morning entered the shop of an
antiquarian and picked out a number of ancient bibelots and vases,
ordering that they be sent to his quarters. The owner thought it would
be wise to state the price of the lot:
"The price," exclaimed the Grand Duke, "there's nothing for me to pay
for! Everything here belongs to me."
But the owner protested, since, as he said, he did own the goods.
"Here," said the Grand Duke, "this will pay you for them."
And he handed the man his card with the words "good for so many
francs" written on it; also his signature.
The number of francs mentioned on the Grand Duke of Hesse's card will
have to be paid in full after the war. So will the thousands of
requisitions signed by persons of less importance--governors,
generals, colonels, majors, men who thought they could ransack all
Belgium and the north of France with impunity, giving in exchange mere
scraps of paper.
The great cities of Lille, Roubaix, Tourcoing, Laon and Mezières have
been compelled to pay exorbitant levies for war purposes, which have
amounted to billions of francs. This was contrary to all international
law and to the Hague Tribunal's regulations. The funds thus illegally
extorted will have to be repaid in full. No indemnities--that is
understood and is perfectly just. It is precisely because there will
not have to be any indemnities that the indemnities already extorted
will have to be made good.
* * * * *
Finally, just as France cannot make peace without receiving
restitution and reparation, she cannot make peace without receiving
certain guarantees.
Here we approach one of the most complex and difficult aspects of the
entire problem, because we find ourselves in the presence of the
famous League of Nations. President Wilson, one of the most noble and
generous spirits, one of the greatest figures that has appeared in the
entire war, launched if not the idea at least the first definite
statement thereof.... And this statement has awakened in all hearts,
tired of carnage and slaughter, the same infinite hope that words of
goodness, liberty and fraternity always awaken, which evoke the
thought of the supreme end towards which humanity tends. The statement
has done better than merely move men's emotions, it has moved men's
thoughts. It has kindled in them a ray of hope which tends to shine
more brightly every day in that they know that the civilized world
will be truly a civilized world only when it is formed and fashioned
in the likeness of a civilized nation. In a civilized nation no one
has the right to kill another man, to obtain justice by using force,
to commit murder, nor to raise armed bands to shoot, blow up or kill
with poisoned gas other men. Tribunals exist to appease differences
and to prevent fighting; every citizen is associated with every other
citizen in the common cause of security and progress.