Both of them have been sick unto death. Clutched foully by the throat,
they have heard their own death rattle; they themselves thought they
might not survive. Now they stand on their feet, so weak, so pale, and
so feeble that their life might still be despaired of. If we do not
obtain definite guarantees against the monster who has barely failed
to strangle them and to force the entire world back into the darkness
of slavery, we shall have failed in our task, and the blood shed in
the fight for Liberty will have been shed in vain.
* * * * *
APPENDICES
The following irrefutable documents, selected from among thousands of
others which history will record, prove better than any other means
how the Germans understand war and peace. They deserve a place in this
volume because they demonstrate why and against what France is
fighting.
APPENDIX I
HOW GERMANS FORCED WAR ON FRANCE
Answering to the Pope, in September, 1917, Kaiser Wilhelm II declared
"_that he had always regarded it as his principal and most sacred duty
to preserve the blessing of Peace for the German people and the
world_." More recently, driving through the battlefield of Cambrai,
the Kaiser, according to the war correspondent of the Berlin
_Lokalanzeiger_, exclaimed: "God knows what I have not done to prevent
such a war!"
A document made public by M. Stephen Pichon, French Foreign Minister,
shows exactly how, in the last days of July, 1914, the Kaiser tried
"to preserve the blessings of Peace for the German people and the
world" and what he did "to prevent such a war."
Speaking at the Sorbonne, in Paris, on March 1, 1918, M. Pichon said:
I will establish by documents that the day the Germans
deliberately rendered inevitable the most frightful of wars
they tried to dishonor us by the most cowardly complicity in
the ambush into which they drew Europe. I will establish it
in the revelation of a document which the German Chancellor,
after having drawn it up, preserved carefully, and you will
see why, in the most profound mystery of the most secret
archives.
We have known only recently of its authenticity, and it
defies any sort of attempt to disprove it. It bears the
signature of Bethmann Hollweg (German Imperial Chancellor at
the outbreak of the war) and the date July 31, 1914. On
that day Von Schoen (German Ambassador to France) was
charged by a telegram from his Chancellor to notify us of a
state of danger of war with Russia and to ask us to remain
neutral, giving us eighteen hours in which to reply.
What was unknown until today was that the telegram of the
German Chancellor containing these instructions ended with
these words:
_If the French Government declares it will remain neutral
your Excellency will be good enough to declare that we must,
as a guarantee of its neutrality, require the handing over
of the fortresses of Toul and Verdun; that we will occupy
them and will restore them after the end of the war with
Russia. A reply to this last question must reach here before
Saturday afternoon at 4 o'clock._
That is how Germany wanted peace at the moment when she declared war!
That is how sincere she was in pretending that we obliged her to take
up arms for her defense! That is the price she intended to make us pay
for our baseness if we had the infamy to repudiate our signature as
Prussia repudiated hers by tearing up the treaty that guaranteed the
neutrality of Belgium!
It was explained that the above document has not previously been
published, because the code could not be deciphered: the French
Foreign Office succeeded only a few days before in decodifying the
document.
Moreover, Herr von Bethmann Hollweg, on March 18, 1918, acknowledged
the accuracy of M. Pichon's quotation and contented himself to declare
that "his instructions to Von Schoen were justified."
APPENDIX II
HOW GERMANS TREAT AN AMBASSADOR
This document is quoted from the French "Yellow Book," page 152:
_From Copenhagen_
_French Yellow Book No. 155_
M. Bapst, French Minister at Copenhagen, to
M. Doumergue, Minister for Foreign Affairs.
COPENHAGEN, AUGUST 6, 1914.
The French Ambassador at Berlin, M. Jules Cambon, asks me to
communicate to your Excellency the following telegram:
I have been sent to Denmark by the German Government. I have
just arrived at Copenhagen. I am accompanied by all the
staff of the Embassy and the Russian Chargé d'Affaires at
Darmstadt with his family. The treatment which we have
received is of such a nature that I have thought it
desirable to make a complete report on it to your Excellency
by telegram.
On the morning of Monday, the 3rd of August, after I had, in
accordance with your instructions, addressed to Herr von
Jagow a protest against the acts of aggression committed on
French territory by German troops, the Secretary of State
came to see me. Herr von Jagow came to complain of acts of
aggression which he alleged had been committed in Germany,
especially at Nuremberg and Coblenz by French aviators, who
according to his statement "had come from Belgium." I
answered that I had not the slightest information as to the
facts to which he attached so much importance and the
improbability of which seemed to me obvious; on my part I
asked him if he had read the note which I had addressed to
him with regard to the invasion of our territory by
detachments of the German army. As the Secretary of State
said that he had not yet read this note I explained its
contents to him. I called his attention to the act committed
by the officer commanding one of the detachments who had
advanced to the French village of Joncherey, ten kilometers
within our frontier, and had blown out the brains of a
French soldier whom he had met there. After having given my
opinion of this act I added:
"You will admit that under no circumstances could there be
any comparison between this and the flight of an aeroplane
over foreign territory carried out by private persons
animated by that spirit of individual courage by which
aviators are distinguished.
"An act of aggression committed on the territory of a
neighbor by detachments of regular troops commanded by
officers assumes an importance of quite a different nature."
Herr von Jagow explained to me that he had no knowledge of
the facts of which I was speaking to him, and he added that
it was difficult for events of this kind not to take place
when two armies filled with the feelings which animated our
troops found themselves face to face on either side of the
frontier.
At this moment the crowds which thronged the Pariser Platz
in front of the Embassy and whom we could see through the
window of my study, which was half open, uttered shouts
against France. I asked the Secretary of State when all this
would come to an end.
"The Government has not yet come to a decision," Herr von
Jagow answered. "It is probable that Herr von Schoen will
receive orders today to ask for his passports and then you
will receive yours." The Secretary of State assured me that
I need not have any anxiety with regard to my departure, and
that all the proprieties would be observed with regard to me
as well as my staff. We were not to see one another any more
and we took leave of one another after an interview which
had been courteous and could not make me anticipate what was
in store for me.
Before leaving Herr von Jagow I expressed to him my wish to
make a personal call on the Chancellor, as that would be the
last opportunity that I should have of seeing him.
Herr von Jagow said that he did not advise me to carry out
this intention as the interview would serve no purpose and
could not fail to be painful.
At 6 o'clock in the evening Herr von Langwerth brought me my
passports. In the name of his Government he refused to agree
to the wish which I expressed to him that I should be
permitted to travel by Holland or Belgium. He suggested to
me that I should go either by way of Copenhagen, although he
could not assure me a free passage by sea, or through
Switzerland via Constance.
I accepted this last route; Herr von Langwerth having asked
me to leave as soon as I possibly could it was agreed, in
consideration of the necessity I was under of making
arrangements with the Spanish Ambassador, who was
undertaking the charge of our interests, that I should leave
on the next day, the 4th August, at 10 o'clock at night.
At 7 o'clock, an hour after Herr von Langwerth had left,
Herr von Lancken, formerly Councilor of the Embassy at
Paris, came from the Minister for Foreign Affairs to tell me
to request the staff of my Embassy to cease taking meals in
the restaurants. This order was so strict that on the next
day, Tuesday, I had to have recourse to the authority of the
Wilhelmstrasse to get the Hôtel Bristol to send our meals to
the Embassy.
At 11 o'clock on the same evening, Monday, Herr von
Langwerth came back to tell me that his Government would not
allow our return by way of Switzerland under the pretext
that it would take three days and three nights to take me to
Constance. He announced that I should be sent by way of
Vienna. I only agreed to this alteration under reserve, and
during the night I wrote the following letter to Herr von
Langwerth:
"BERLIN, AUGUST 3rd, 1914.
"M. LE BARON;
"I have been thinking over the route for my return
to my country about which you came to speak to me
this evening. You propose that I shall travel by
Vienna. I run the risk of finding myself detained
in that town, if not by the action of the Austrian
Government, at least owing to the mobilization
which creates great difficulties similar to those
existing in Germany as to the movements of trains.
"Under these circumstances I must ask the German
Government for a promise made on their honor that
the Austrian Government will send me to Switzerland,
and that the Swiss Government will not close its
frontier either to me or to the persons by whom I
am accompanied, as I am told that that frontier has
been firmly closed to foreigners.
"I cannot then accept the proposal that you have
made to me unless I have the security which I ask
for, and unless I am assured that I shall not be
detained for some months outside my country.
"JULES CAMBON."
In answer to this letter on the next morning, Tuesday the
4th August, Herr von Langwerth gave me in writing an
assurance that the Austrian and Swiss authorities had
received communications to this effect.
At the same time M. Miladowski, attached to the Consulate at
Berlin, as well as other Frenchmen, was arrested in his own
house while in bed. M. Miladowski, for whom a diplomatic
passport had been requested, was released after four hours.
I was prepared to leave for Vienna when, at a quarter to
five, Herr von Langwerth came back to inform me that I would
have to leave with the persons accompanying me at 10 o'clock
in the evening, but that I should be taken to Denmark. On
this new requirement I asked if I should be confined in a
fortress supposing I did not comply. Herr von Langwerth
simply answered that he would return to receive my answer in
half an hour. I did not wish to give the German Government
the pretext for saying that I had refused to depart from
Germany. I therefore told Herr von Langwerth when he came
back that I would submit to the order which had been given
to me but "that I protested."
I at once wrote to Herr von Jagow a letter of which the
following is a copy:
BERLIN, AUGUST 4, 1914.
"SIR:
"More than once your Excellency has said to me that
the Imperial Government, in accordance with the
usages of international courtesy, would facilitate
my return to my own country, and would give me
every means of getting back to it quickly.
"Yesterday, however, Baron von Langwerth, after
refusing me access to Belgium and Holland, informed
me that I should travel to Switzerland via Constance.
During the night I was informed that I should be
sent to Austria, a country which is taking part in
the present war on the side of Germany. As I had no
knowledge of the intentions of Austria towards me,
since on Austrian soil I am nothing but an ordinary
private individual, I wrote to Baron von Langwerth
that I requested the Imperial Government to give me
a promise that the Imperial and Royal Austrian
authorities would give me all possible facilities
for continuing my journey and that Switzerland would
not be closed to me. Herr von Langwerth has been good
enough to answer me in writing that I could be
assured of an easy journey and that the Austrian
authorities would do all that was necessary.
"It is nearly five o'clock, and Baron von Langwerth
has just announced to me that I shall be sent to
Denmark. In view of the present situation, there is
no security that I shall find a ship to take me to
England and it is this consideration which made me
reject this proposal with the approval of Herr von
Langwerth.
"In truth no liberty is left me and I am treated
almost as a prisoner. I am obliged to submit,
having no means of obtaining that the rules of
international courtesy should be observed towards
me, but I hasten to protest to your Excellency
against the manner in which I am being treated.
"JULES CAMBON."
Whilst my letter was being delivered I was told that the
journey would not be made direct but by way of Schleswig. At
10 o'clock in the evening, I left the Embassy with my staff
in the middle of a great assembly of foot and mounted
police.
At the station the Ministry for Foreign Affairs was only
represented by an officer of inferior rank.
The journey took place with extreme slowness. We took more
than twenty-four hours to reach the frontier. It seemed that
at every station they had to wait for orders to proceed. I
was accompanied by Major von Rheinbaben of the Alessandra
Regiment of the Guard and by a police officer. In the
neighborhood of the Kiel Canal the soldiers entered our
carriages. The windows were shut and the curtains of the
carriages drawn down; each of us had to remain isolated in
his compartment and was forbidden to get up or to touch his
luggage. A soldier stood in the corridor of the carriage
before the door of each of our compartments which were kept
open, revolver in hand and finger on the trigger. The
Russian Chargé d'Affaires, the women and children and
everyone were subjected to the same treatment.
At the last German station about 11 o'clock at night, Major
von Rheinbaben came to take leave of me. I handed to him the
following letter to Herr von Jagow.
"WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 5, 1914.
"SIR:
"Yesterday before leaving Berlin, I protested in
writing to your Excellency against the repeated
change of route which was imposed upon me by the
Imperial Government on my journey from Germany.
"Today as the train in which I was passed over the
Kiel Canal an attempt was made to search all our
luggage as if we might have hidden some instrument
of destruction. Thanks to the interference of Major
von Rheinbaben, we were spared this insult. But
they went further.
"They obliged us to remain each in his own
compartment, the windows and blinds having been
closed. During this time, in the corridors of the
carriages at the door of each compartment and
facing each one of us, stood a soldier, revolver in
hand, finger on the trigger, for nearly half an hour.
"I consider it my duty to protest against this
threat of violence to the Ambassador of the
Republic and the staff of his Embassy, violence
which nothing could even have made me anticipate.
"Yesterday I had the honor of writing to your
Excellency that I was being treated almost as a
prisoner. Today I am being treated as a dangerous
prisoner. Also I must record that during our
journey which from Berlin to Denmark has taken
twenty-four hours, no food has been prepared nor
provided for me nor for the persons who were
traveling with me to the frontier.
"JULES CAMBON."
I thought that our troubles had finished, when shortly
afterwards Major von Rheinbaben came, rather embarrassed, to
inform me that the train would not proceed to the Danish
frontier if I did not pay the cost of this train. I
expressed my astonishment that I had not been made to pay at
Berlin and that at any rate I had not been forewarned of
this. I offered to pay by a cheque on one of the largest
Berlin banks. This facility was refused me. With the help of
my companions I was able to collect, in gold, the sum which
was required from me at once, and which amounted to 3,611
marks, 75 pfennig. This is about 5,000 francs in accordance
with the present rate of exchange.
After this last incident, I thought it necessary to ask
Major von Rheinbaben for his word of honor as an officer and
a gentleman that we should be taken to the Danish frontier.
He gave it to me, and I required that the policeman who was
with us should accompany us.
In this way we arrived at the first Danish station, where
the Danish Government had had a train made ready to take us
to Copenhagen.
I am assured that my British colleague and the Belgian
Minister, although they left Berlin after I did, traveled by
the direct route to Holland. I am struck by this difference
of treatment, and as Denmark and Norway are, at this moment,
infested with spies, if I succeed in embarking in Norway,
there is danger that I may be arrested at sea with the
officials who accompany me.
I do not wish to conclude this dispatch without notifying
your Excellency of the energy and devotion of which the
whole staff of the Embassy has given unceasing proof during
the course of this crisis. I shall be glad that account
should be taken of the services which on this occasion have
been rendered to the Government of the Republic, in
particular by the Secretaries of the Embassy and by the
Military and Naval Attachés.
JULES CAMBON.
APPENDIX III
HOW GERMANS ARE WAGING WAR
The French Government, as soon as it heard of the first German
atrocities, instituted a Commission of inquiry composed of three high
French magistrates: Mr. Georges Payelle, President of the Cour des
Comptes, Mr. Georges Maringer, Councilor of State, and Mr. Edmond
Paillot, Councilor of the Cour of Cassation. That Commission proceeded
to the spot where the atrocities had been perpetrated and heard
witnesses, who deposed under oath.
All evidence and proceedings have been printed and fill up ten heavy
volumes.
Among many depositions, the following one, taken the twenty-third of
October, 1915, at Paris, will give an idea of the horrors to which the
invaded regions of France were submitted.
* * * * *
Duren Virginie, wife of Berard Durem, 29 years of age, inhabitant of
Jarny in the Department of Meurthe et Moselle, a refugee at
Levallois-Perret:
I swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.
On the 25th of August, 1914, the sixty-sixth and
sixty-eighth Bavarian regiments were quartered together at
Jarny. I was ordered to bring water for the soldiers, so
went in search of a large number of water pails. At three
o'clock in the afternoon an officer, who met me, told me I
had carried enough water and ordered me to go back to my
house. As the Germans were firing on our house with
mitrailleuses, I took refuge in the cellar with my two sons,
Jean, aged six, and Maurice, aged two, and also my daughter
Jeanne, nine years of age. The Aufiero family was also
there. Soon petrol was poured over the house; it got into
the cellar through the air-hole, and we were surrounded by
flames. I saved myself, carrying my two little boys in my
arms, while my daughter and little Beatrice Aufiero ran
along holding on to my skirt. As we were crossing the
Rougeval brook, which runs near my house, the Bavarians
fired on us. My little Jean, whom I was carrying, was struck
by three bullets, one in the right thigh, one in the ankle,
and one in the chest. The thigh was almost shot away, and
from the place where the bullet through his chest came out
the lung projected. The poor child said, "Oh, Mother, I have
a pain," and in a moment he was dead. At the same time
little Beatrice had her arm broken so badly that it was
attached to her shoulder only by a piece of flesh, and
Angele Aufiero, a boy of nine years, who followed a short
distance behind us, was wounded in the calf of the leg.
Little Beatrice suffered cruelly and wept bitterly, but she
did not fall down, continuing to go along with me.
While these things were taking place, the Perignon family,
which lived next door to us, was massacred.
When they were no longer shooting at us, I tried to wash my
baby, who was covered with blood, in the brook; but a
soldier prevented me, shouting, "Get away from there."
Finally we got to the road. Meanwhile they were driving M.
Aufiero out of the cellar. The Germans, who spoke French
after a fashion, said to his wife, "Come see your husband
get shot." The poor man, on his knees, asked for mercy, and
as his wife shrieked "My poor Côme," the soldiers said to
her, "Shut your mouth." His execution took place very near
us.
The Bavarians sent me, my children, Mme. Aufiero and her
daughter to a meadow near the Pont-de-l'Etang. A general
ordered that we be shot, but I threw myself at his feet,
begging him to be merciful. He consented. At this moment an
officer, wearing a great gray cloak with a red collar, said,
as he pointed to the dead body of my child, "There is one
who will not grow up to fight our men."
The next day, in my flight to Barrière Zeller, an officer
came up and told me that the body of my dead child smelled
badly and that I must get rid of it. Since I could find no
one to make a coffin, I found in the canteen two rabbit
hutches. I fastened one of these to the other, and there I
laid the little body. It was buried in my garden by two
soldiers, and I had to dig the grave myself.
APPENDIX IV
HOW GERMANS OCCUPY THE TERRITORY OF AN ENEMY
In the first days of April, 1916, the following notice, bearing the
signature of the German commander, was posted on all the walls of
Lille, the great town in the north of France which has been occupied
by the Germans since the beginning of the war.
All the inhabitants of the town, except the children under
fourteen years of age, their mothers, and the old men, must
prepare to be transported within an hour and a half.
An officer will decide definitely which persons shall be
conducted to the camps of assembly. For this purpose, all
the inhabitants must assemble in front of their homes, in
case of bad weather they shall be permitted to stay in the
lobbies. The doors of the houses must be left open. All
complaints will be unavailing. No inhabitant of a house,
even those who are not to be transported, can leave the
house before eight o'clock in the morning (German time).
Each person may take thirty kilograms of baggage with him.
Should there be any excess over this amount, all that
person's baggage will be refused regardless of everything.
Separate packages must be made up by each person, and a
visibly written, firmly secured address must be on each
package. The address must bear the person's name, surname,
and the number of his identification card.
It is very necessary for each person to provide himself with
utensils for eating and drinking, also with a woolen blanket
and some good shoes and some linen. Each person must have on
his person his identification card. Whoever shall attempt to
evade deportation shall be punished without mercy.
ETAPPEN--KOMMANDANTUR
The threat contained in the notice cited here was carried out to the
letter. Here is an account of it from the communication addressed by
M. D----, formerly the _receveur particulier_ of Lille, to M. Cambon,
formerly the French Ambassador to Berlin:
On Good Friday night at three o'clock the troops who were
going to occupy the designated section, Fives, came through
our houses. It was dreadful. An officer passed by, pointing
out the men and women whom he chose, leaving them a space of
time amounting to an hour in some cases and ten minutes in
others, to prepare themselves for their journey.