work in the country. This offer has not had the success which was
expected. Consequently the inhabitants will be removed by compulsion and
transported to the country. Those removed will be sent in the interior
of French occupied territory far behind the front, where they will be
employed in agriculture and in no way in military work.
_German Proclamation.
Lille, April, 1916._
Upon the order of General von Graevenitz and with the assistance of
Infantry Regiment 64, sent by the German General Headquarters, about
25,000 French, young girls from 16 to 20 years old, young women and men
up to the age of 55 years, without distinction of social condition, were
torn from their homes at Roubaix, Tourcoing, and Lille, pitilessly
separated from their families, and forced to do agricultural work in the
Departments of the Aisne and Ardennes.
_French Official Report._
[Illustration]
_THE LAST THROW_
* * * * *
These are not, as our enemies are pretending to believe, the last
exertions of an exhausted nation, but the hammer blows of a strong,
invincible people which commands sufficient reserves in men and all
other means for the continuation of the hammer blows.
_The Prussian War Minister_,
GENERAL WILD VON HOHENBORN,
_the Reichstag, April 11, 1916._
[Illustration]
_RUSSIA TO FRANCE_
* * * * *
On the 20th of April, 1916, a number of transports arrived at Marseilles
carrying a large number of Russian troops for the support of France. The
troops had come by water through the East. Russian troops continued to
arrive in France for some time afterwards.
[Illustration]
_THE DEATH'S HEAD HUSSAR AT VERDUN_
* * * * *
In short, with ever-ebbing vigor, the German Army is smashing its head
against the walls of Verdun. The weight and vigor of the blows decrease,
but the suicidal mania continues. Two months have passed since the early
success of the German attack ended with the capture of Vaux village.
Each resumption of the attempt to take Verdun since that time has been a
cause for increasing wonder. What is there about this enterprise that
has turned it into a fatal obsession, from which the German high command
cannot escape, however great the cost of continuance?
_From the Paris Figaro.
April, 1915._
[Illustration]
_SIR JUDAS CASEMENT_
* * * * *
On April 24 Sir Roger Casement, a former Consul General, was captured in
the act of trying to land German arms on the west coast of Ireland. He
had been conveyed thither in a German submarine, with two Irish soldiers
from German prisons. A German auxiliary cruiser loaded with 20,000
rifles and ammunition was taken and sunk at the same time. The vessel
was sunk by its own men, and the twenty-two German bluejackets on board
were made prisoners....
Casement had last been heard of in Germany, where he had attempted to
induce Irish prisoners of war to join an anti-British expedition to
Ireland. Testimony at his preliminary trial in London subsequently
showed that on Good Friday he had landed near Tralee from the German
submarine U-19 with a soldier named Bailey and another named Monteith.
In "McKinna's Fort" he was seen to drop a paper containing a code and
the words: "Await further instructions. Have decided to stay. Further
ammunition and rifles are needed. Send another ship." The small
collapsible boat in which he and his companions had landed also helped
to betray them, and Casement and Bailey were arrested before they could
get away in the automobile which was waiting for them.
_Current History, New York._
[Illustration]
_GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND_
* * * * *
The manifesto of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic did
not secure the support or signature of a single elected representative
of any section of the Irish people, or of any man who had won influence
by public services for Ireland. Its signatories were a convicted
dynamiter, a handful of minor poets, journalists and schoolmasters, a
junior corporation official, and a Syndicalist leader. The movement,
wrote Mr. Redmond, was insane and anti-patriotic: "Germany plotted it,
Germany organized it, Germany paid for it. So far as Germany's share in
it is concerned, it is a German invasion of Ireland, as brutal, as
selfish, as cynical as Germany's invasion of Belgium."
_The Times History of the War._
[Illustration]
_THE GRAVES OF ALL HIS HOPES_
[Illustration]
"_THE SUSSEX_"
"_You need cooling, my friend_"
* * * * *
I have deemed it my duty, therefore, to say to the Imperial German
Government that if it is still its purpose to prosecute relentless and
indiscriminate warfare against vessels of commerce by the use of
submarines, notwithstanding the now demonstrated impossibility of
conducting that warfare in accordance with what the Government of the
United States must consider the sacred and undisputable rules of
International Law and the universally recognized dictates of humanity,
the Government of the United States is at last forced to the conclusion
that there is but one course it can pursue and that unless the German
Imperial Government should now declare and effect the abandonment of its
present methods of warfare against passenger and freight-carrying
vessels, this Government can have no choice but to sever diplomatic
relations with the Government of the German Empire altogether.
PRESIDENT WILSON'S
_Address to Congress,
April 19, 1916._
[Illustration]
"_I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU WERE TOO PROUD TO FIGHT!_"
* * * * *
This decision I have arrived at, to break off diplomatic relations with
Germany unless her methods of submarine warfare were abandoned, with the
keenest regret; the possibility of the action contemplated I am sure all
thoughtful Americans will look forward to with unaffected reluctance.
But we cannot forget that we are in some sort and by the force of
circumstances the responsible spokesmen of the rights of humanity, and
that we cannot remain silent while those rights seem in process of being
swept utterly away in the maelstrom of this terrible war. We owe it to a
due regard for our own rights as a nation, to our sense of duty as a
representative of the rights of neutrals the world over, and to a just
conception of the rights of mankind to take this stand now with the
utmost solemnity and firmness.
PRESIDENT WILSON'S
_Address to Congress.
April 19th, 1916._
[Illustration]
"_Indeed, I am the most humane fellow in the world._"
* * * * *
The German Government attaches no less importance to the sacred
principles of humanity than the Government of the United States. It
again fully takes into account that both Governments for many years
cooperated in developing international law in conformity with these
principles, the ultimate object of which has always been to confine
warfare on sea and land to armed forces of belligerents and safeguard as
far as possible noncombatants against the horrors of war.
_German Gov't. reply to
U. S. Government in Sussex Case.
May, 1916._
[Illustration]
_Von Tirpitz_: "_Well, my dears, I'm afraid you will have to improve
your manners--for a while at least._"
* * * * *
The German Government notifies the Government of the United States that
German naval forces have received the following order:
In accordance with the general principles of visit and search and the
destruction of merchant vessels, recognized by international law, such
vessels, both within and without the area declared a naval war zone,
shall not be sunk without warning and without saving human lives unless
the ship attempt to escape or offer resistance.
_Imperial German Government
to United States Government.
May 4, 1916._
[Illustration]
"_WELL, MR. PRESIDENT, IF YOU INSIST, WE SHALL TRY TO BEHAVE LIKE
GENTLEMEN._"
* * * * *
In view of the circumstances the German Government frankly admits that
the assurance given to the American Government, in accordance with which
passenger vessels were not to be attacked without warning, has not been
adhered to in the present case. As was intimated by the undersigned in
the note of the 4th instant, the German Government does not hesitate to
draw from this resultant consequences. It therefore expresses to the
American Government its sincere regret regarding the deplorable incident
and declares its readiness to pay an adequate indemnity to the injured
American citizens. It also disapproved of the conduct of the commander,
who has been appropriately punished.
VON JAGOW,
_German Foreign Secretary
to United States Government,
8th May, 1916._
[Illustration]
_GOTT STRAFE VERDUN_
"_I wish I knew whether it is wiser to retreat or to advance_"
VERDUN
* * * * *
For more than two months the battle of Verdun has raged almost
ceaselessly day and night. It is conceded that Germany has concentrated
picked troops and heavy guns in quantities never before seen in war.
Yet, apart from the first withdrawal of General Petain's army from
outlying positions to definite lines of defense, the two months fighting
has not given the attacking forces a gain of two miles.
_Current History, New York._
[Illustration]
_GERMAN MILITARISM ON THE ALLIES' OPERATING TABLE_
"_For the sake of the world's future we must first use the knife_"
* * * * *
The Germans have come with floating mines in the open seas, threatening
belligerents and neutrals equally. They have come with the
undiscriminating and murderous Zeppelin, which does military damage only
by accident. They have come with the submarine, which destroys neutral
and belligerent ships and crews, in scorn alike of law and mercy. They
have come upon blameless nations with invasion, incendiarism, and
confiscation. They have come with poisonous gases and liquid fire. All
their scientific genius has been dedicated to wiping out human life.
They have forced these things into general use in the war.
The Prussian authorities apparently have but one idea of peace--an iron
peace imposed on other nations by German supremacy. They do not
understand that free men and free nations will rather die than submit to
that ambition, and that there can be no end to the war till that aim is
defeated and renounced.
_From an interview with_
SIR EDWARD GREY,
_in the Chicago News,
May, 1916._
[Illustration]
_EMPIRE DAY, 1916_
* * * * *
When Germany challenged us nearly two years ago to uphold with our lives
the ideals by which we professed to live, we accepted the challenge, not
out of madness, nor for glory or for gain, but to make good those
professions. Since then the Allies and our empire have fought that they
may be free and all earth may be free from the intolerable domination of
German ideals. We did not foresee the size of the task when it opened.
We do not flinch from it now that the long months have schooled us to
full knowledge and have tempered us nationally and individually to meet
it. The nations within the empire have created, maintained, and
reinforced from their best the great armies they devote without question
to this issue. They have emerged, one by one, as powers clothed with
power through discipline and sacrifice, strong for good by their bitter
knowledge of the evil they are meeting, and wise in the unpurchasable
wisdom of actual achievement. Knowing as nations what it is we fight
for, realizing as men and women the resolve that has been added to us by
what each has endured, we go forward now under the proud banner of our
griefs and losses to greater effort, greater endurance, and, if need be,
heavier sacrifice, equal sponsors for the deliverance of mankind.
RUDYARD KIPLING,
_on Empire Day, May 24, 1916._
[Illustration]
_THE SPRING SONG_
[Illustration]
_THE GERMAN_:
"_If you will let me keep what I have I will let you go_"
* * * * *
I have twice publicly stated that Germany has been and is prepared to
discuss the termination of the war upon a basis that offers guarantee
against further attack from a coalition of her enemies and insures peace
to Europe. You have read President Poincare's answer to that.
One thing I do know--only when statesmen of the warring nations come
down to a basis of real facts, when they take the war situation as every
war map shows it to be, when, with honest and sincere will they are
prepared to terminate this terrible bloodshed and are ready to discuss
the war and peace problems with one another in a practical manner, only
then will we be nearing peace.
Whoever is not prepared to do that has the responsibility for it if
Europe continues to bleed and tear itself to pieces. I cast that
responsibility far from myself.
VON BETHMANN-HOLLWEG _to
Berlin Correspondent of
New York World.
May 22, 1916._
[Illustration]
_THE WANDERING JEW_
"_Once I turned the Christ from my door; now I must wander from the
Northern to the Southern seas--from Eastern to the Western shores ...
asking for Peace, but never finding it._"
[Illustration]
_GRATITUDE OF THE WOMEN OF FRANCE TO THE KING OF SPAIN FOR THE TRACING
OF THE MISSING_
* * * * *
The soul of the royal work for the discovery of the missing is Don
Emilio-Maria de Torres, Minister Plenipotentiary and private secretary
to his Majesty. It is in the offices of his Secretariat, in the Palacio
Real, that this work is installed; it was soon so crowded there that it
became necessary to give up to it four halls, and then eight, in order
that the collaborators, becoming more and more numerous, might work
comfortably. In May, 1916, the work of the King, already a year old,
occupied at Madrid twenty-eight persons, who began their day at eight in
the morning and sometimes worked far into the night.
MME. GABRIELLE REVAL
_in La Revue des Deux Mondes._
[Illustration]
_THE BILL_
* * * * *
It is proved that from May 20 to May 25 (1916) seven different divisions
were flung into the battle on both sides of the Meuse. Four of these
were brought from other points of the Western front--two from Flanders,
two from the Somme.
On the left bank alone four divisions were employed in the last week-end
fighting. Without a thought of the enormous losses caused by our curtain
fire and machine guns, the German Command threw them one after the other
into the boiling pot east and west of Mort Homme. On May 22 alone,
before the capture of Cumieres village, which has now been retaken, the
enemy made no fewer than 16 attacks upon the front from the Avocourt
Wood to the Meuse. Over 50,000 men sought that day to climb the slopes
of Mort Homme and the plateau of Hill 304. The great charnel heap had
15,000 fresh corpses flung upon it without the French lines having
yielded.
_Official Despatch from Verdun front._
[Illustration]
_THE LAST RIDE_
[Illustration]
_CAGED_
* * * * *
During an enterprise directed to the northward our high sea fleet on May
31 encountered the main part of the English fighting fleet, which was
considerably superior to our forces.
During the afternoon, between Skagerrak and Horn Reef, a heavy
engagement developed, which was successful to us, and which continued
during the whole night....
_The High Sea Fleet returned today (Thursday) into our port._
_German Admiralty Report.
Berlin, June 1, 1916._
On the afternoon of Wednesday, the 31st of May, a naval engagement took
place off the coast of Jutland.
The British ships on which the brunt of the fighting fell were the
battle cruiser fleet and some cruisers and light cruisers, supported by
four fast battleships. Among these the losses were heavy.
The German battle fleet, aided by low visibility, avoided a prolonged
action with our main forces. As soon as these appeared on the scene _the
enemy returned to port_, though not before receiving severe damage from
our battleships.
_British Admiralty Report.
London, June 2, 1916._
[Illustration]
_THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND_
_William Falstaff_: "_I know not what you call all, but if I fought not
with the whole British fleet, then I am a bunch of radish._"
* * * * *
Our High Sea Fleet on May 31 encountered _the main part of the English
fleet_.
On our side the small cruiser _Wiesbaden_, by hostile gunfire during the
day engagement, and his Majesty's ship _Pommern_, during the night, as
the result of a torpedo, were sunk.
The fate of his Majesty's ship _Frauenlob_, which is missing, and of
some torpedo boats, which have not returned yet, is unknown.
_German Admiralty Report. June 1, 1916._
* * * * *
In order to prevent fabulous reports, it is again stated that in the
battle off Skagerrak on May 31 the German high sea forces were in battle
with _the entire modern English fleet_.
We were obliged to blow up the small cruiser _Elbing_, which, on the
night of May 31-June 1, owing to a collision with other German war
vessels, was heavily damaged.
_German Admiralty Report. June 3, 1916._
We state that the total loss of the German high sea forces during the
battle of May 31-June 1 and the following time are: One battle cruiser,
one ship of the line of older construction, four small cruisers, and
five torpedo boats. Of these losses, the _Pommern_, launched in 1905;
the _Wiesbaden_, _Elbing_, _Frauenlob_, and five torpedo boats already
have been reported in official statements. For military reasons, we
refrained until now from making public the losses of the vessels
_Luetzow_ and _Rostock_.
_German Admiralty Report. June 8, 1916._
[Illustration]
"_AT LAST, TIRPITZ, I MAY TENDER MY IMPERIAL THANKS PUBLICLY._"
* * * * *
After visiting my fleet, which returned victoriously from a heavy
battle, I feel I must again declare to you my imperial thanks for what
you have performed in my service in the technical domain and the domain
of organization. Our ships and weapons upheld themselves brilliantly in
the battle in the North Sea. It is also for you a day of glory.
THE GERMAN EMPEROR _to_
GRAND ADMIRAL VON TIRPITZ.
_June, 1916._
Before the Battle of Jutland Von Tirpitz retired from his post as
Minister of the Navy on the ground of ill health. He is credited with
being responsible for the submarine policy of ruthlessness which the
German Government were forced to moderate on account of President
Wilson's firm attitude in the Sussex episode.
[Illustration]
"_We Had Almost Beaten the Boy When His Father Arrived and Then We Had
to Run for Our Lives._"
* * * * *
The Germans were driven back into their ports without so much as making
an effort to grapple with the main body of our Grand Fleet, and had the
temerity to claim what really was a rout as a complete victory. A couple
more such victories and there will be nothing left of the German Navy
worth speaking about. The truth is slowly leaking out, and its full
extent is not yet realized or appreciated. Our command of the seas, so
far from being impaired, has been more firmly and unshakably
established.
H. H. ASQUITH,
_British Prime Minister._
[Illustration]
_DER TAG_
_Thank God, "the Day" is over_
* * * * *
First--It was admitted that "the small cruiser _Wiesbaden_ was sunk" and
that the _Pommern_--the character of that ship not being mentioned--had
also been destroyed; the light cruiser _Frauenlob_ was "missing," with
"some torpedo boats." The rest of the High Seas Fleet, it was declared,
"had returned to our harbors."
Second--It had to be confessed that the light cruiser _Elbing_ had been
sunk.
Third--A statement was issued to the effect that "one battle cruiser,
(the _Luetzow_,) one ship of the line of older construction, (the
_Pommern_,) four smaller cruisers," (the _Wiesbaden_, _Elbing_,
_Frauenlob_, and _Rostock_,) and "five torpedo boats" (really
destroyers) represented "the total loss."
Fourth--It is now known that the battle cruiser _Seydlitz_ was run
ashore to save her from sinking. It is asserted by travelers who have
returned to Amsterdam that the battle cruiser _Derfflinger_ sank "on
being towed into Wilhelmshaven," and it is reported from Copenhagen that
the _Pommern_ was not the battleship which was torpedoed in the Baltic
by a British submarine in July last, but a new battle cruiser which was
named after the German State, thus perpetuating its association with the
navy. The story of the sinking of the dreadnought battleship
_Ostfriesland_ awaits confirmation.
ARCHIBALD HURD
_in the London Daily Telegraph._
[Illustration]
_German Admiral_: _How quiet it must be in those English harbors
blockaded by our Fleet._
[Illustration]
_THE DEATH OF KITCHENER_
* * * * *
Field Marshal Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener, the British Secretary of
State for War, perished with his staff off the West Orkney Islands on
June 5 by the sinking of the British cruiser _Hampshire_, which struck a
mine and went down fifteen minutes later. "O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory?" Formerly they had sounded in our ears as
chords of solemn music, breathing consolation; now that we see them
clearly to be triumphant verities, living and everlasting truths, they
ring out like a trumpet call, summoning and inspiring the living to
stronger action. The work continues though the hand that moulded it
perishes; the body dies, but the soul lives on. There is no sting in the
grave when on either side men press forward to one immortal goal and
when living and dead battle together for incorruptible principles.
Whether individually we live or die signifies nothing, if that high
cause for which we fight wins. Lord Kitchener's death will not interfere
with the work he had undertaken, nor shall his passing delay, but rather
shall it hasten the victory to which he looked forward.
_Land and Water, London, June 8, 1916._
[Illustration]
_Crown Prince_: "_We must have a higher pile to see Verdun, Father._"
* * * * *
The Crown Prince, after the gigantic effort of his armies, was
confronted with problems more vast, with a resistance more confident and
more efficient, than those which he had had to face in the opening days
of the Verdun offensive. In three days the French had been driven off
their first positions along a large portion of the Verdun front; over a
month later they were still defending with increasing vigour their
second line. Behind that line lay yet another, and the prospect of the
fall of Verdun was but faint upon the German horizon. The French could
already count upon victory, the price of Verdun having already been
exacted in the enemy's blood, without the position having been captured.
That price, it was said, had been fixed by the Imperial General Staff at
200,000 casualties.
_The Times History of the War._
[Illustration]
_THIS WILL MAKE WILLIAM JEALOUS; IT BEATS HIS NURSE CAVELL._
* * * * *
Signor Baltisti, before the war, was Deputy for Trent in the Austrian
Parliament, and in that position was a strong advocate of irredentist
claims in the Trentino. When war broke out he joined a Trentino regiment
under the Italian flag.
He was captured by the Austrians in June, 1916, and executed, although
he wore an Italian uniform. His corpse was publicly hanged on a gibbet
in the city of Trent.
[Illustration]
_SUMMER TIME, 1916--FIVE ON A BENCH_
* * * * *
The Summer of 1916 saw the Germans defeated at Verdun on the Somme and
at Riga. The Austrians were defeated in the Trentino and the Bukovina.
The Turks continued their retreat in Asia Minor and the Caucasus, while
the Entente Allies advanced upon the Bulgarians from Saloniki.
[Illustration]
_CIVILISATION_: "_WHAT IS THE VERDICT._"
* * * * *