SECTION I. The following designated objects are hereby seized and

[Illustration: VISCOUNT MILNER

The new British War Secretary in succession to Lord Derby. He had been a

member of the War Cabinet since its creation in December, 1916

(_Central News_)]

[Illustration: GENERAL SIR W. R. MARSHALL

Commander in Chief of the British forces in Mesopotamia

(_Central News_)]

[Illustration]

CURRENT HISTORY

_A Monthly Magazine of The New York Times_

Published by The New York Times Company, Times Square, New York, N. Y.

Vol. VIII.

Part I.

No. 3

June, 1918

25 Cents a Copy

$3.00 a Year

[Illustration]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

CURRENT HISTORY CHRONICLED 381

BATTLES IN PICARDY AND FLANDERS 389

THE GREATEST BATTLE OF THE WAR, By Philip Gibbs 398

America's Sacrifice, By Harold Begbie 410

AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN BATTLE 411

Overseas Forces More Than Half a Million 413

American Troops in Central France, By Laurence Jerrold 415

American Shipbuilders Break All Records 418

THIRD LIBERTY LOAN OVERSUBSCRIBED 419

Former War Loans of the United States 421

AMERICAN LABOR MISSION IN EUROPE 424

PROGRESS OF THE WAR 426

GERMAN LOSSES ON ALL FRONTS 431

GREAT BRITAIN'S FINANCES 432

TRADE AFTER THE WAR 434

FINLAND UNDER GERMAN CONTROL 438

Peace Treaty Between Finland and Germany 445

GERMAN AGGRESSION IN RUSSIA 449

MORE BOLSHEVIST LEGISLATION, By Abraham Yarmolinsky 455

LITHUANIA'S EFFORTS TOWARD AUTONOMY, By A. M. Martus 458

THE RAID ON ZEEBRUGGE AND OSTEND 460

GERMAN U-BOAT CLAIMS: Address by Admiral von Capelle 467

The Admiral's Statements Attacked 469

The Month's Submarine Record 470

A Secret Chapter of U-Boat History 471

SEA-RAIDER WOLF AND ITS VICTIMS 473

Career and Fate of the Raider Seeadler 476

TREATMENT OF BRITISH PRISONERS: Official Report 479

American Prisoners Exploited 484

THE TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF RHEIMS, By G. H. Perris 485

The Abomination of Desolation, By Dr. Norman Maclean 486

LLOYD GEORGE AND GENERAL MAURICE 488

THE NEW BRITISH SERVICE ACT 491

British Aid to Italy: General Plumer's Report 492

EMPEROR CHARLES'S "DEAR SIXTUS" LETTER 494

THE ISSUES IN IRELAND: Report of the Irish Convention 496

Greatest Gas Attack of the War 504

PLUCKY DUNKIRK By Anna Milo Upjohn 505

GERMANY'S ATTEMPT TO DIVIDE BELGIUM 511

STRIPPING BELGIAN INDUSTRIES: The Rathenau Plan 516

Spoliation of Belgian Churches: Cardinal Mercier's Protest 523

Belgium's Appeal to the Bolsheviki 525

SERBIA'S HOPES AND RUSSIA'S DEFECTION By Nicholas Pashitch 526

RUMANIA'S PEACE TREATY 529

Summary of the Peace of Bucharest 531

Bessarabia Voluntarily United to Rumania 535

THE WAR AND THE BAGDAD RAILWAY By Dr. Morris Jastrow 536

LICHNOWSKY'S MEMORANDUM 539

Full Text of von Jagow's Reply 541

German Comments on von Jagow's Views 545

Germany's Long Plotting for Domination By H. Charles Woods 548

THE EUROPEAN WAR AS SEEN BY CARTOONISTS: 31 Cartoons 551

ROTOGRAVURE ILLUSTRATIONS

VISCOUNT MILNER _Frontis_

GENERAL SIR W. R. MARSHALL "

CHARLES M. SCHWAB 394

JOHN D. RYAN 395

STAFF OFFICERS WITH PERSHING 410

LEADERS IN WAR ACTIVITIES 411

BARON STEPHAN BURIAN 426

LEADERS IN IRISH CONTROVERSY 427

BRITISH WAR LEADERS 458

FRENCH AND AMERICAN TANKS 459

AMERICAN REGIMENT IN FRANCE 474

FRENCH CHATEAU IN RUINS 475

MARCHING TO THE FRONT 506

HARVARD REGIMENT IN BOSTON 507

TRAFALGAR SQUARE IN WARTIME 522

TYPICAL SCENE IN FLANDERS 523

CURRENT HISTORY CHRONICLED

[PERIOD ENDED MAY 19, 1918.]

SUMMARY OF WAR ACTIVITIES

Four weeks of comparative calm on the western front intervened after the

furious fighting that had continued throughout the preceding month. The

Germans made several desperate efforts to smash their way through the

British lines to the channel ports, but they failed. The British and

French lines stood firm as granite, and the enemy suffered frightful

losses. The battle lines remained practically unchanged.

From the English Channel to the Adriatic there was complete union of the

British, French, American, and Italian forces under a single command;

these forces, including reserves, were estimated at 6,000,000 men. No

military event of importance occurred on the other fronts, though the

British made some further advances in Palestine and Mesopotamia.

In political matters the month brought events of more importance, chief

of which was the renewal of an alliance between Germany and Austria;

this was accomplished at a meeting of the Emperors.

The acceleration of troop movements from the United States to France was

a feature of the month, the estimate for the four weeks running as high

as 150,000; it was semi-officially stated that in April, 1918, more than

500,000 American soldiers were in France, and that by Jan. 1, 1919,

there would be 1,500,000 of our fighting men at the front, with 500,000

more at transportation, supply, and civil work; the speeding up of

shipbuilding and other war work was significant. The Third Liberty Loan

aggregated more than $4,000,000,000, with 17,000,000 subscribers,

proving a brilliant success. The President by proclamation extended

enemy alien restrictions to women also. A bill was passed enabling the

President to consolidate and co-ordinate executive bureaus, thus giving

him extraordinary executive powers. The sedition law was strengthened. A

new commercial agreement was made with Norway.

In Great Britain the chief event was the triumph of the Premier over a

military group that tried to overthrow his Ministry. There was a

recrudescence of the spirit of rebellion in Ireland. In France the

conviction of the Bonnet Rouge editors on a charge of treason deepened

confidence in the stability of the Government. The German penetration of

Russia continued, and all the evidence indicated that the country was

coming under Teutonic control, economically, industrially, and

financially. The humiliating peace forced on Rumania was ratified, and

the country passed practically under German and Austrian domination.

The month's record of enemy U-boat losses strengthened faith that this

menace was being eliminated and that new allied tonnage would exceed

losses in increasing ratio from May 1, 1918.

The chief naval event was the daring British raid on the German

submarine bases at Zeebrugge and Ostend; the channel at the first named

port was blocked, and the harbor entrance at Ostend, by means of a

second raid, was partially blocked, resulting in a serious hampering of

submarine operations. The Italians penetrated Pola Harbor, May 14, with

a small torpedo boat and sank a 20,000-ton Austrian dreadnought.

SINN FEIN PLOT FRUSTRATED

During the night of May 18 the British authorities in Ireland suddenly

arrested at their homes about 500 of the leading Sinn Feiners on the

charge of having treasonable communication with the German enemy. Among

those arrested were the Sinn Fein members of Parliament, also the

conspicuous Irish agitators and irreconcilables, both men and women. A

proclamation was issued by the Lord Lieutenant declaring that a

conspiracy with Germany had been discovered, calling upon all loyal

Irishmen to assist in suppressing it, and urging voluntary enlistments.

It was believed that this prompt action had prevented a contemplated

uprising, which was being aided by German spies. Comparative calm

followed the arrests.

FOCH'S ARMY COMPRISES ALL RACES OF EARTH

It seems certain that never in the world's history were so many

different races, peoples, and tongues united under the command of a

single man as are now gathered together in the army of Generalissimo

Foch. If we divide the human races into White, Yellow, Red, and Black,

all four are largely represented. Among the white races there are

Frenchmen, Italians, Portuguese, English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish,

Canadians, Australians, South Africans, (of both British and Dutch

descent,) New Zealanders; in the American Army, probably every other

European nation is represented, with additional contingents from those

already named, so that every branch of the white race figures in the

ethnological total. There are representatives of many Asiatic races,

including not only the volunteers from the native States of India, but

elements from the French colony in Cochin China, with Annam, Cambodia,

Tonkin, Laos, and Kwang Chau Wan. England and France both contribute

many African tribes, including Arabs from Algeria and Tunis, Senegalese,

Saharans, and many of the South African races. The red races of North

America are represented in the armies of both Canada and the United

States, while the Maoris, Samoans, and other Polynesian races are

likewise represented. And as, in the American Army, there are men of

German, Austrian, and Hungarian descent, and, in all probability,

contingents also of Bulgarian and Turkish blood, it may be said that

Foch commands an army representing the whole human race, united in

defense of the ideals of the Allies. The presence, among Foch's

strategic reserves, of 250,000 Italian soldiers is peculiarly

interesting, as no Italian force at all comparable to this in numbers

seems ever to have operated on French soil, though French armies have

again and again fought in Italy. During the early wars of Napoleon this

was the case, and again in 1859, when the battles of Magenta and

Solferino gave names to two new shades of red. In 1870 also there were

French troops in Rome; their withdrawal, in the Summer of that year,

opened the way for the final union of Italy.

MEETING OF THE GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN EMPERORS

The German and Austrian Emperors held a consultation at German Great

Headquarters on May 12 to discuss future relations between the two

empires. Emperor Karl was accompanied by Foreign Minister Burian, Field

Marshal von Arz, Chief of the General Staff, and Prince Hohenlohe,

Austrian Ambassador at Berlin. Germany was represented by Imperial

Chancellor von Hertling, Field Marshal von Hindenburg, General

Ludendorff, Foreign Secretary von Kuehlmann, and Count von Wedel,

Ambassador at Vienna.

According to an official statement issued in Berlin, all the fundamental

political, economic, and military questions affecting present and future

relations were thoroughly discussed, and "there was complete accord on

all these questions, tending to deepen the existing alliance." In many

quarters the impression prevailed that the result of the meeting

was to define and recognize formally the subservient relations of

Austria-Hungary toward the German Empire. The State Department at

Washington made public a report based upon indications given by the

Berlin newspapers that the agreement made at the meeting concerned three

points:

1. The duration of the alliance was fixed for twenty-five years.

2. Germany and Austria-Hungary are to sign a military convention

imposing upon each much stricter military obligations than did the

preceding treaty.

3. The economic relations will be regulated so as to realize the

plan of Mitteleuropa.

A solution of the Polish question was also arrived at, according to a

newspaper statement published in Berlin, on the lines of complete union

between Austria-Hungary and Poland. Another message said that the German

and Austrian Emperors had selected monarchs for Poland, Lithuania,

Courland, and Esthonia. It was officially stated that no actual treaty

was signed.

One of the most interesting subsequent revelations was that King Ludwig

of Bavaria and King Frederick August of Saxony were also present at the

meeting at German Great Headquarters. Some of the reports represented

these two monarchs as having been present uninvited.

THE PRINCE SIXTUS LETTER

Arthur J. Balfour, British Secretary of Foreign Affairs, replying to

inquiries in the House of Commons, May 16, stated that Emperor Karl's

peace letter to Prince Sixtus, which had been received while Mr. Balfour

was in America, was

a private letter written by Emperor Charles to a relative (Prince

Sixtus of Bourbon) and conveyed by him to President Poincaré and the

French Premier under seal of the strictest secrecy, but with no

permission to communicate it to any one except the Sovereign and

Premier of this country, [Great Britain.] The letter was

communicated to the French and English Premiers under these pledges.

He stated that he had no secrets from President Wilson, and added:

"Every thought I have on the war or on the diplomacy connected with the

war is as open to President Wilson as to any other human being." He

declared that he regarded the Sixtus letter as not a peace effort, but a

manoeuvre to divide the Allies. He declared that they were not fighting

for "a bigger Alsace-Lorraine than in 1870," and added:

If any representative of any belligerent country desires seriously

to lay before us any proposals we are ready to listen to them.

Lord Robert Cecil, Minister of Blockade, in the same debate, after

indorsing the preceding statement of Mr. Balfour, added this reference

to Russia:

We have no quarrel with Russia at all. On the contrary, with the

Russian people we have always desired to be on the closest possible

terms of friendship. We are anxious to do all we can to support and

assist the Russian people to preserve Russia as a great country, not

only now, but in the period after the war.

Lord Robert denied that Great Britain had any quarrel with the

Bolsheviki over their domestic policy, saying:

That is a matter for Russia, and Russia alone; we have no other

desire than to see Russia great, powerful, and non-German.

ATTACKS ON HOSPITAL SHIPS

The British Admiralty issued an official announcement on May 1, stating

that it was considered proved conclusively that the British hospital

ship Guildford Castle was attacked by a German submarine in the Bristol

Channel, March 10, and narrowly escaped destruction. At the time the

Guilford Castle was carrying 438 wounded soldiers and flying a Red

Cross flag of the largest size with distinguishing marks distinctly

illuminated. The attack occurred at 5:35 P. M., in clear weather. Two

torpedoes were fired. In evidence of attacks on hospital ships the

British Admiralty quotes the following extracts from the German official

message, sent through the German wireless stations on April 24, 1918:

With respect to the results of the submarine war for the month of

march, the Deutsche Tageszeitung says: "Lloyd George and Geddes

falsify the losses of ships plying in the military service (?

ignoring) so-called naval losses, auxiliary cruisers, guard ships,

_hospital ships_, and very probably also troop transports and

munition steamers, that is to say, precisely that shipping space

_which is particularly exposed to and attacked by the U-boats_.

TWO MORE LATIN-AMERICAN REPUBLICS ALIGNED AGAINST GERMANY

On April 22, 1918, the National Assembly of Guatemala declared that that

republic occupied the same position toward the European belligerents as

did the United States. Guatemala had broken off diplomatic relations

with Germany in April, 1917. On May 7 Nicaragua declared war against

Germany and her allies. The declaration was in the form of a

recommendation of President Chamorro, which the Nicaraguan Congress

adopted with only four dissenting votes. A further declaration was

adopted of solidarity with the United States and the other American

republics at war with Germany and Austria-Hungary. Nicaragua was the

twentieth nation to declare war against Germany. Uruguay remains a

neutral at this writing. On April 12 the Government asked Berlin,

through Switzerland, whether Germany considered that a state of war

existed with Uruguay, as stated by the commander of a submarine who had

captured a Uruguayan military commission bound for France. The German

Government replied on May 16 that it did not consider that a state of

war existed. Chile refused to ask free passage of Spain for a commission

of Chileans who sought to reach Germany, thereby indicating partiality

to the Germans. Argentina in the President's message, delivered May 18,

1918, reaffirmed its neutrality.

FRANCE'S SECOND TREASON TRIAL.

Duval, who was director of the suppressed Germanophile newspaper, Bonnet

Rouge, was condemned to death May 15 by court-martial for treason, and

six other defendants were sentenced to imprisonment: Marion, assistant

manager, for ten years; Landau, a reporter, eight years; Goldsky, a

reporter, eight years; Joucla, a reporter, five years; Vercasson, two

years and $1,000 fine; Leymarie, former director of the Ministry of the

Interior, two years' imprisonment and $200 fine.

The Bonnet Rouge was an evening paper of decided pacifist tendency,

which lost no occasion of belittling the military and political leaders

and policy, not only of France, but also of England. The attention of

the Government was drawn to it early in 1917, and its editor, Almeyreda,

and its manager, Duval, were under lock and key by August, 1917.

The police investigations showed that the Bonnet Rouge was to a great

extent dependent for its capital upon men whose ardor in the allied

cause had not been notable, and revealed the astonishing fact that M.

Malvy, as Minister of the Interior, had thought fit to subsidize the

paper to the extent of $1,200 a month and to encourage it in other ways.

It also became known to the public that Almeyreda before the war had

been in the closest contact with M. Caillaux and that he had received

from that politician, at the moment when Mme. Caillaux was being tried

for the murder of M. Calmette, the editor of the Figaro, the sum of

$8,000.

Duval, whose journeys to Switzerland had aroused the misgivings of the

Government, was detained at the French frontier station, searched, and

found to be in possession of a check for $32,800 drawn to the order of a

Mannheim banking firm, the business relations of which will appear in

subsequent trials. This check was photographed and was handed back to

Duval by some one of the French military or civil secret service

officials.

Almeyreda had hardly reached prison when he fell seriously ill and was

removed to the infirmary prison at Fresnes. There he died. The official

doctors first of all declared that he had been strangled, and then gave

it as their opinion that he had committed suicide.

Louis J. Malvy, who was at the time Under Secretary of the Interior, and

was Minister of the Interior under Ribot, will be tried by a

parliamentary court on the charge of having been in personal relations

with Duval and of having delivered to the Germans the scheme of the

abruptly ended French offensive in the Champagne in April, 1917.

THE CITY OF AMIENS.

Amiens, the old capital city of Picardy, goes far back into the military

history of Europe. Probably deriving its name from the Belgic tribe of

Ambiani, it was the centre of Julius Caesar's campaigns against those

warlike tribes. Several Roman Emperors had military headquarters there,

and it early gained importance as a bishopric. Evrard de Fouilloy, the

forty-fifth Bishop, began the great Gothic cathedral of Amiens, one of

the finest in the world, in the year 1220, the plans being made by René

de Luzarches, while the work was completed by Thomas de Cormont and his

son Renault in the year 1288, though the two great towers were not

finished until a century later. Because it is intersected by eleven

canals Louis XI. called Amiens "the little Venice."

Only second to the great cathedral in fame is the Hôtel de Ville, built

between 1660 and 1760, in which, on May 25, 1802, was signed the famous

treaty of Amiens, Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte, being

plenipotentiary for France. The parties to the Peace of Amiens were

France, England, Holland, and Spain. To Holland were restored the Cape

of Good Hope, Guiana, and other colonies; France received Martinique and

Guadeloupe; Spain received Minorca; Malta went to the Knights of Saint

John of Jerusalem, while Egypt was restored to Turkey. England was

secured in the control of India, and received Ceylon, (which had been

first Portuguese and later Dutch,) and the island of Trinidad. But many

of these dispositions were greatly modified thirteen years later, at the

close of the Napoleonic wars.

In Amiens there is a famous Napoleonic Museum, which has many fine

paintings by Puvis de Chavannes, including "War," "Peace," "Work," and

"Rest." When, on Nov. 28, 1876, Amiens was captured by the army of the

Prussians all religious monuments, including the cathedral, were

scrupulously guarded against any possible damage, and the rights of

private property were respected. Another of the titles of Amiens to fame

is the fact that Peter the Hermit, leader of the First Crusade, was born

there in 1050.

THE RUMANIAN NATION

Of the Emperor Hadrian's colony of Roman veterans at the mouth of the

Danube there remain many architectural monuments, including parts of two

fine bridges across the great river, a language largely Latin in

substance, and the name Romania. The Roman colony spread through the

Carpathians along the Roman road into Transylvania. It was in part

submerged by Hun and Magyar waves of invasion, and the western part of

the Rumanian people, west of the Carpathians, is still under Magyar

rule, while a small number of Rumanians inhabit the Austrian crownland

of Bukowina, once Rumanian soil. The Turks, following in the track of

the Huns and Magyars, once more swept over Rumania and on toward Vienna

and Russia, completely submerging the Balkan Peninsula, with the

exception of the Black Mountain, Montenegro, held by Serbs.

In the nineteenth century the Balkan nations began to extricate

themselves: Greece, with the aid of France, England, and Russia; Serbia,

with the aid of Russia; and the two principalities of Wallachia and

Moldavia, which were later to become Rumania. In the wars of Catherine

the Great and Suvoroff, which Byron has embodied in his comedy epic,

making Don Juan take part in the siege of Ismail, Russia took from

Turkey the Province of Bessarabia, named from an old Rumanian princely

house and largely populated by Rumanians.

The western half of Bessarabia was taken back from Russia and restored

to Turkey after the Crimean War, immediately after which, in 1861, the

two principalities were united in the single principality of Rumania,

under Colonel Cuza, a Rumanian, as Hospodar, or Lord, Turkish suzerainty

being acknowledged. In this way the strip of Bessarabia which had been

Russian for half a century became not Turkish, but Rumanian. When Russia

declared war against Turkey in 1877 she announced to Rumania that she

sought the restoration of her strip of Bessarabian land; and, knowing

this, Rumania became Russia's ally in the war against Turkey, with

Prince Carol as commander of her forces, he being of the Roman Catholic

branch of the Hohenzollerns. In 1881 he took the title of King, to which

his nephew Ferdinand succeeded in 1914.

THE HETMAN OF THE UKRAINE

Writing in 1818, Byron described Mazeppa as "the Ukraine Hetman, calm

and bold," and it is to the period of Mazeppa and even earlier that this

title and office goes back. The word Hetman is of uncertain origin, but

is probably derived from the Bohemian Heitman, a modification of

Hauptmann or Headman. When the Ukraine, the "borderland," was under

Polish suzerainty, in the period from 1592 to 1654, the epoch of "Fire

and Sword," "Pan Michael," and "The Deluge," the Hetman of the

Cossacks, (a Tartar word, kazak, meaning warrior,) was a

semi-independent viceroy.

After the acceptance of Russian suzerainty by the Ukraine under the

great Hetman, Khmelnitski, in 1654, the title and authority of the

Hetman were at first continued, but his power and privileges were

gradually curtailed and finally abolished. It is not certain whether the

word Ataman is a modification of Hetman or a Tartar title; at any rate,

we find the title, "Ataman of all the Cossacks," coming into use as an

appanage of the Czarevitch, or heir apparent of Russia, somewhat as the

title of Prince of Wales is an appanage of the heir apparent of England.

The Czarevitch was represented by Hetmans by delegation, for each

division of the Cossacks, these divisions being military colonies

westward as far as the Caspian, like that described by Tolstoy in his

novel, "The Cossacks."

Writing in 1799, W. Tooke, in his "View of the Russian Empire,"

described the insignia of the Hetman as being the truncheon, the

national standard, the horsetail, kettledrums and signet, a group of

emblems strongly suggesting Tartar influence; the dress of the Cossacks

was, likewise, borrowed from that of the Caucasus Mohammedan tribes, and

in this Caucasian dress the new Hetman of the Ukraine, Skoropadski, took

office at Kiev. His name indicates that he is not a Ruthenian, (Little

Russian,) but a Pole. It has been a consistent element of Austrian

policy to favor the Poles at the expense of the Ruthenians, with the

result that many Poles are strongly pro-Austrian, and hold high office

under the Austrian crown.

PRECEDENTS FOR A SEPARATE ULSTER.

When the Dominion of Canada was formed by the British North America act

of 1867, it included only four provinces, Upper and Lower Canada,

(Ontario and Quebec,) Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Provision was made

in the act for the voluntary admission of Prince Edward's Island, the

Northwest Territories and Newfoundland into the Dominion. While the

Northwest Territories took advantage of this provision, and are now

organized as the Provinces of Manitoba, British Columbia, Alberta,

Saskatchewan, Yukon and the Northwest Territories, Newfoundland, with

Labrador, the latter 120,000 square miles in area, preferred to remain

outside the Dominion of Canada, and has a wholly distinct Constitution

and administration, as independent of Canada as is that, for example, of

British Guiana. Compulsion was never suggested to bring Newfoundland and

Labrador within the Dominion of Canada, though Labrador is

geographically a part of the Canadian mainland.

In Australia likewise the union of the colonies was entirely voluntary.

Five of these, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia,

and Tasmania, by legislative enactments, approved by the direct vote of

the electors, declared their desire for a federal union, and the

Imperial Parliament gave effect to this by the act of July 9, 1900. This

act provided for the inclusion of Western Australia in the Australian

Commonwealth, if that colony so desired; and Western Australia shortly

expressed and carried out that desire.

The population of Ulster in 1911 was 1,581,696, (that of Belfast being

386,947;) the population of Newfoundland with Labrador in 1914 was

251,726; the population of Western Australia when it exercised the

option of inclusion in the Commonwealth of Australia was 184,114; it has

since nearly doubled. A similar case of separate treatment, this time

within the United States, is that of West Virginia, which, in 1862,

determined to remain within the Union when the rest of Virginia seceded.

West Virginia became a State on Dec. 31, 1862, and was not re-integrated

in the Old Dominion at the close of the civil war.

COURT-MARTIAL IN ITALY.

Four principal Directors of the Genoese Electrical Power Company, named

Königsheim, Ampt, Martelli, and Hess, early in April were sentenced to

death by court-martial at Milan by being "shot in the spine," and a

decoy girl was doomed to twenty years' imprisonment, while three

associates were relegated to the galleys for life. It was proved that

the condemned men received from Germany wireless messages, to be

forwarded to North and South America for the purposes of its underseas

campaign, and incriminating letters of their treasonable acts were

discovered. Ampt and his three co-Directors received a decoration from

the Imperial Government, but were so successful in deceiving the Italian

Government that they were subsequently decorated as Cavalieres of the

Crown of Italy.

AMERICAN TRADE PACT WITH NORWAY.

The signing of a general commercial agreement between the United States

and Norway--the first agreement of the kind to be entered into by

America with one of the North European neutrals--was announced by the

War Trade Board on May 3, 1918. It was signed by Vance McCormick,

Chairman of the War Trade Board, and Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, the famous

explorer, who was sent to the United States at the head of a special

mission.

Under the agreement Norway is assured of supplies to cover her estimated

needs so far as they can be furnished without detriment to the war needs

of the United States and its allies, and Norway, on her part, agrees to

permit the exportation to America and its allies of all Norwegian

products not needed for home consumption. It is provided that none of

the supplies imported from the United States or its allies or forwarded

with the aid of American bunker coal shall go directly or indirectly to

the Central Powers or be used to replace commodities exported to those

countries. This applies to anything produced by any auxiliaries to

production obtained under the agreement. In consequence of the agreement

the War Trade Board announced on May 9 that exports to Norway were about

to be resumed.

Another result of the improved relations between the two countries was

the chartering by the United States Shipping Board of 400,000 tons of

Norwegian sailing ships, to be put in non-hazardous trades, thereby

releasing other ships for traffic in the danger zones. This was one of

the most substantial increases which the American-controlled merchant

fleet has received since its inception.

BRITISH SHIPPING LOSSES

In the May issue of the Fortnightly Review of London appears the

following analysis of the gains and losses of the British merchant navy

since the outbreak of the war:

1914 (August to December.)

Tons. Tons.

Built 675,010? Total losses 468,728

Captured from

enemy 753,500 Total gains 1,429,110

--------- ---------

Total gains. 1,429,110 Balance +960,382

1915.

Built 650,919 Total losses 1,103,379

Captured from Total gains 662,419

enemy 11,500 ---------

------- Balance in

Total gains. 662,419 1915 -440,000

Brought down

from 1914 +960,382

---------

Balance at

end of 1915 +519,422

1916.

Built 541,552 Total losses 1,497,848

Captured from Total gains 545,052

enemy 3,500 ---------

------- Balance in

Total gains. 545,052 1916 -952,796

Brought down

from 1915 +519,422

---------

Balance at

end of 1916 -433,374

1917.

Built 1,163,474 Total losses 4,000,537

Captured from Total gains 1,174,974

enemy 11,500 ---------

--------- Balance in

Total gains 1,174,974 1917 -2,834,563

Brought down

from 1916 -433,374

---------

Balance at

end of 1917 -3,267,937

During the first three months of 1918 the net losses were 367,296 tons;

320,280 tons were built and 687,576 were lost, bringing the adverse

balance on April 1, 1918, to 3,635,233 tons.

GREAT BRITAIN'S WAR EXPENSES

The British Government has issued a White Paper estimating the cost of

the war for Great Britain in the year ending March 31, 1919, at

$12,750,000,000, of which $9,305,000,000 is allocated to navy, army, air

service, munition and ordnance factories, $205,000,000 to pensions,

$750,000 to National War Aims Committee; services not specified,

(presumed to include shipping,) $500,000,000; Treasury loans,

$1,750,000,000; Board of Trade, $265,000,000; wheat supplies,

$230,000,000, of which $200,000,000 is the estimated loss on the sale of

the 18-cent loaf of bread. Subsidies toward the sale of potatoes are

estimated at $25,000,000; purchases of wool and other raw materials are

put at $40,000,000, payment to railways at $175,000,000, and $25,000,000

for timber.

HATRED BETWEEN ITALIANS AND AUSTRIANS

THE implacable hatred which has developed between Italians and Austrians

is illustrated by the following Italian _communiqué_, issued in Rome on

Feb. 11, in reply to the Austrian Supreme Command's denial that the

Austro-Germans were first to bombard cities from airplanes. It points

out that the Austro-Germans first bombarded Udine, Treviso, Padua,

Verona, Venice, Ravenna, &c., massacring defenseless and innocent

populations and ruining valuable art treasures, and adds:

The Italians went to Trieste not to bombard citizens and private

houses, but the hydroplane stations in which are sheltered the

assassins of Venice, and the two vessels of the Monarch type which

were kept by the Imperial and Royal Navy behind the dyke, in the

hope that the Italian elements of the city would help to protect

them and afterward enable them to set out on some heroic enterprise

against the defenseless localities on the Adriatic Coast.

Immediately the hydroplanes, yielding to the indignation of the

whole world, ceased bombarding Venice, and immediately the two

vessels of the Monarch type were removed from Trieste, our aerial

raids ceased, since an understanding was proposed.

We wage war against the enemy's armed forces, and not against women,

children, monuments, and hospitals. In spite of the most solemn

denial issued by the Austrians of the acts which, after the first

bombardments of Padua, Treviso, and Vicenza at the end of December

and the beginning of January, they declared to be a question of

reprisals for bombardments, carried out by Franco-British aviators

on

German towns, the Germans, in substance, gave to be understood what

the Austrians hypocritically wished to hide, that is, that the

pretext of reprisals enabled them to persevere with their nameless

atrocities, which had been imposed upon them by some of their

leaders having yielded to the impulses of a criminal mentality. Thus

it happened that the Austrian Catholic command, bowing to the orders

of the German Lutheran pastors, bombarded Catholic churches in the

Italian cities. And so we see the Austro-Hungarian Government--so

solicitous for peace and love between nations--sowing hatred which

nothing can quench.

THE ORIGIN OF THE IRISH

Perhaps some light may be shed on the internal divisions which make the

solution of the Irish question so nearly impossible by a realization of

the fact that the population of Ireland consists of an unassimilated

congeries of races, every element of which except one represents foreign

invasion and conquest.

The earliest race, short, round-headed, dark, appears to be akin to the

Ligurian race of the Mediterranean; this race hunted the huge Irish elks

with flint arrows and axes, and may claim to be the real indigenous

stock, still surviving in the west. The second race, tall, dark,

long-headed, was akin to the Iberians (Basques) of Spain, who also

invaded Western France, and who probably built the cromlechs and stone

circles, since these are also found in Iberian Spain and Western France,

as at Carnac in Brittany. The third race, tall, golden-haired,

blue-eyed, came from the Baltic, bringing amber beads, and building

chambered pyramids, such as are also found in Denmark. The fourth race

to arrive included the Gaels, tall, round-headed, with red hair and gray

eyes; they came from Central Europe, probably by way of France.

Each new arrival was followed by wars of conquest, the Gaels finally

making themselves predominant, but not exterminating the older

races, examples of whom may still be found, with unchanged race

characteristics. In 1169 Norman French and Welsh came, as mercenaries in

the army of the King of Leinster. The Burkes are descended from the

Normans, the Fitzgeralds from the Welsh.

Battles in Picardy and Flanders

Military Review of All Fronts from April 17 to May 18, 1918.

In order to obtain a view of the situation of the German offensive on

April 17, which forms a background for the events to be related in this

review, it is necessary to point out a few controlling facts and

conditions--some long obvious, some recently revealed.

Ludendorff's major plan, based on the assumed shortness of vision on the

part of the Allies, to separate the British from the French and, by

isolating the former in the north and driving the latter toward their

bases in the south, thereby reach the mouth of the Somme, had failed. It

had failed, just as did the plan of Napoleon at Charleroi in 1815 to

separate the English from the Prussians. It failed because the military

genius of the British General Carey and the French General Fayolle on

two separate occasions had closed up gaps in the line of the Allies, and

because the vast masses of German troops were incapable, on account of

their demoralization, of making the fractures permanent.

It is now evident that the demoralization of General Gough's 5th Army,

which began on March 23, not only threatened his junction with Byng's 3d

Army, by forming an eight-mile gap between the two--into which, as has

already been related, Carey moved his hastily gathered nondescript

detachment--but as the 5th Army retreated another gap, gradually

lengthening to nearly thirty miles, was opened between its right wing

and the 6th French Army. Here General Fayolle, who had just appeared on

the field from Italy, did with organized divisions what Carey had done

with his scratch volunteers further north.

From statements made before the Reichstag Main Committee, but more

especially from letters and diaries found on captured German officers,

it appears that both Carey and Fayolle stopped an armed mob, utterly

incapable of taking advantage of the situation it had created as a

disciplined force. Regiments thrown together, officers separated from

their commands, detachments without control, all due to the impetuous

rush forward, could not recover in time to prevent Carey and Fayolle

from completing their work.

[Illustration: DIAGRAM SHOWING 8-MILE GAP, MARCH 23, WHICH WAS FILLED BY

CAREY'S "SCRATCH DIVISION," WHO HELD THE BREACH FOR SIX DAYS]

But Ludendorff's major plan, having failed in the first month of his

offensive, could not be repeated in the second. Since April 30 there has

been no French, British, Belgian, Portuguese, or American front in

Flanders or Picardy--only the front of the Allies, with the troops of

their several nations used wherever needed by the supreme commander,

Foch.

During the first month of the offensive two angles had been developed by

Ludendorff: The first, the great one, in the south, from a base of sixty

miles with a forty-mile perpendicular and its vertex near the Somme; the

second in the north, from a base of twenty miles with a fifteen-mile

perpendicular and its vertex on the edge of the Forest of Nieppe.

Between these two angles the original front of Lens, from Bailleul north

to Givenchy, still held, fifteen miles in length. There had been

voluntary or forced changes made by the Allies east of Ypres and east of

Arras.

[Illustration: DIAGRAM OF CRITICAL SITUATION, MARCH 24, 1918, WHERE

GENERAL FAYOLLE SAVED THE DAY BY THROWING HIS DIVISIONS INTO THE

THIRTY-MILE GAP LEFT BY RETIREMENT OF BRITISH 5TH ARMY]

The corollary in Flanders, unless it could be demonstrated, would be

as great a failure as the main proposition in Picardy. And the still

possible successful issue of the latter depended absolutely, as we shall

see, on a complete demonstration of the former. Both have been so far

handicapped by the augmenting mobility of the Allies, their growing

numbers, their centralized command, and their successful insistence to

control the air.

Such was the situation in Flanders and Picardy which confronted

Ludendorff at the dawn of the second month of the German offensive. The

whole problem to be solved was just as apparent to the Allies as it was

to him--to gain the barriers which threatened his angles of penetration,

in order again to utilize his preponderant forces of men and guns on a

broad front. To attempt to extend the vertices without broadening the

sides would mean to court danger, even destruction, at their weakest

points.

His frontal attacks upon Ypres and Arras, respectively from the

Passchendaele Ridge and against the Vimy Ridge, having failed, it became

necessary to attempt to flank the Allies by the occupation of their

defensive ridges. This explains his successful assaults upon Mont

Kemmel, 325 feet high, and his desire to envelop Mont Rouge, 423 feet

high, and his persistent attacks along the La Bassée Canal against the

heights of Béthune, 141 feet, all preceded by diversions between the

Somme and Avre, with concentrations at Villers-Bretonneux, Hangard, and

elsewhere.

[Illustration: PERSPECTIVE MAP SHOWING LOCATION OF OPPOSING FORCES IN

PICARDY AND FLANDERS. THE BLACK ARROW LINE ON THE RIGHT SHOULD NOT BE

MISTAKEN FOR THE OLD BATTLELINE, WHICH IS NOT INDICATED AT ALL. GENERAL

SIXT VON ARNIM'S FORCE, EAST OF YPRES, WAS INADVERTENTLY OMITTED]

On April 18 the French made a feint on both banks of the Avre River

south of Hangard, drove in a mile, and picked up some prisoners;

simultaneously the Germans, with a force of 137,000, made a heavy

assault upon the allied front lying across the La Bassée Canal, with a

diversion on the Lys River near St. Venant. Before the day was done

they had switched their attack to the Kemmel sector. In all three places

the Germans suffered repulse, with the loss of a few hundred prisoners.

Four days later the British advanced their lines on the Lys, just as the

French had on the Avre. Then on the 24th came the great enemy diversion

at Villers-Bretonneux, nine miles southeast of Amiens. Here the Germans

used tanks for the first time. The village, lost to the British on the

first day, was recovered on the second, when just to the south the

French and American troops were hotly contesting with the Germans the

possession of Hangard. The sharp salient at this place made it difficult

for the Allies to hold, while its retention, except as a site from which

losses could be inflicted on the Germans, was unnecessary. Consequently

it was evacuated, after the attacking detachment of the Prussian Guards

had been annihilated.

[Illustration: SCENE OF THE MONTH'S HEAVIEST FIGHTING IN FLANDERS,

ESPECIALLY ABOUT MOUNT KEMMEL]

BATTLE FOR MONT KEMMEL

Meanwhile the Germans had been preparing for a decisive assault against

Mont Kemmel with ever-augmenting artillery fire and with the

concentration of vast numbers of troops on the sidings of the railroad

between the villages of Messines and Wytschaete. These troops numbered

nine divisions, or about 120,000 men. From the 24th till the 27th they

incessantly swung around Mont Kemmel in massed front and flank attacks,

until the French and British were forced to give up the height, together

with the village of the same name and the village of Dranoutre, retiring

on La Clytte and Scherpenberg.

The occupation of Mont Kemmel, however, did not, as Ludendorff had

anticipated, force the British out of the Ypres salient, for their

voluntary retirement from part of the Passchendaele Ridge on April 17-19

had strengthened the salient, which could hold as long as the line of

hills west of Kemmel held--Mont Rouge, Mont Diviagne, Mont des Cats, &c.

The Berlin publicity bureau advertised the fact that a direct thrust at

Ypres had brought the Germans to within three miles of the town--an

achievement of no particular military value--while it quite ignored the

capture of Mont Kemmel, for the simple reason that its value was now

discovered to repose in their ability to carry their occupation

throughout the entire range.

[Illustration: REGION OF HANGARD AND VILLERS-BRETONNEUX, WHERE GERMANS

USED TANKS FOR THE FIRST TIME]

This they have since been vainly, except for local advances, trying to

do, often employing great forces of men in mass for two or three days at

a time--striving vainly to broaden the salient in three places: between

Dickebusch and Voormezeele, due south from Ypres; by an envelopment of

Mont Rouge to the southwest; on the south by an advance in the direction

of Béthune.

VON ARNIM'S EFFORTS

In the northern part of the salient the attacks reached their climax on

Monday, April 29, when General Sixt von Arnim's army was hurled in wave

after wave between Voormezeele and Scherpenberg and on the latter and

Mont Rouge, only to end in a repulse, which, on account of the number of

men believed to have been lost by the enemy, may be considered a

disastrous defeat. All this time a heavy bombardment had been going on

in the Béthune region in preparation for an infantry attack there; yet

on account of the defeat further north, it could not be delivered.

Henceforth, until May 16, von Arnim was obviously placed on the

defensive, whereas the Allies were locally on the offensive, either

recovering lost strategic points or consolidating their lines. On May 5,

between Locre and Dranoutre, the Franco-British forces advanced on a

1,000-yard front to the depth of 500 yards. On the 8th the Germans made

a half-hearted attack on the sector south of Dickebusch Lake and

entered British trenches, only to be repulsed with heavy loss. A similar

attack the next day between La Clytte and Voormezeele not only met with

a similar repulse, but was followed up by a strong British counterattack

which won considerable ground. On the 12th the French captured Hill 44

on the north flank of Kemmel, between La Clytte and Vierstraat.

On May 13 renewed enemy artillery activity on the lines back of Béthune

seemed to presage that an infantry attack was intended there. Nothing of

this nature ensued, however. On the 15th the Germans made a sudden

attack against Hill 44 but were hurled back by the French. On the

16th-17th they maintained a concentrated fire north of Kemmel.

GERMAN ATTACKS ON THE LYS

All these operations on the German northern salient, which is gradually

coming to be called the Lys salient, have shown no indication of being

intended to pave the way for a renewal of the general offensive in

Flanders. Their success might, and probably would, have forced the

evacuation of Ypres and affected the Picardy salient with its vertex

near Amiens, forcing the evacuation of Arras. But, as we have seen, the

operations on the Lys salient, meeting with an overwhelming obstruction

on April 29, did not achieve these results. Throughout the next three

weeks the manoeuvres of the enemy in Picardy afforded excellent

opportunities for counterattacks on the part of the Allies, whose object

here has been to punish the enemy as much as possible and to consolidate

every strategic position on a broad front in anticipation of a renewal

of Germany's original scheme to isolate the allied armies north of the

Somme by a dash to the mouth of that river via Amiens.

In these circumstances, the enemy on April 30 launched heavy attacks on

the French lines in the region of Hangard and Noyon. These fell down,

and on May 2 the French made distinct gains in Hangard Wood and near

Mailly-Raineval. The next day the French advanced their lines between

Hailles and Castel, south of the Avre, and captured Hill 82. On the 6th

the British advanced their lines between the Somme and the Ancre,

southwest of Morlancourt, and in the neighborhood of Locon and the Lawe

River, taking prisoners in both places. On the 11th skirmishes southwest

of Mailly-Raineval, between Hangard and Montdidier, developed into a

pitched battle, in which the French at first lost ground and then

recovered it. On May 14 the Germans, after an intense local bombardment,

delivered a spirited attack on a mile front of the British southwest of

Morlancourt, gaining a footing in their first trenches. Instantly some

Australian troops counterattacked and completely re-established the

British positions. On the 16th and 17th the enemy showed impressive and

portentous artillery activity along the Avre and at Rollott, on the

Abbéville road, south of Montdidier, similar in character to that

observed north of Kemmel, on the Lys salient.

There are now believed to be over half a million American rifles on the

western front, either at definite places or available as reserves. On

April 20 a battalion of Germans made a raid on our eight-mile sector

south of the Woeuvre, and succeeded in reaching the front-line trenches

and taking the village of Seicheprey. Our losses were between 200 and

300; 300 German dead were counted. A detachment of our army, principally

artillery, holds a sector of five miles with the French infantry east of

Montdidier, on the Picardy front, protecting the Beauvais-Amiens road.

Here their fire is principally employed in breaking up German

concentrations and transport in and around Montdidier.

THE ZEEBRUGGE RAID

The German submarine bases at Zeebrugge and Ostend on the Belgian coast

have been repeatedly bombed from the sea and shelled by British monitors

with indifferent results. With the adding of super-U-boats to the German

submarine fleet and the increased transatlantic traffic of the Allies

the necessity for effectually sealing these bases has long been

apparent. Theoretically the nature of the entrance to the harbors of

both places, resembling the neck of a bottle, about 250 feet wide, made

such a task easy by the sinking of block ships. Practically it was most

difficult, on account of both sea obstructions and the shore batteries.

On the night of April 22-23 British naval forces, commanded by Vice

Admiral Keyes, with the co-operation of French destroyers, and hidden by

a newly devised smoke-screen, invented and here employed by

Wing-Commander Brock, attempted to seal up the harbors. At Zeebrugge the

enterprise was entirely successful. The Intrepid and Iphigenia were sunk

well within and across the narrow channel, the Thetis at the entrance.

All three were loaded with cement, which became solid concrete after

contact with the water and can be removed only by submarine blasting. A

detachment of troops was also landed on the mole from the Vindictive and

engaged the crews of the German machine gun batteries stationed there.

An old submarine was placed under the bridge of the mole and detonated.

A German destroyer and some small craft were sunk. Before the blockships

were placed a torpedo had been driven against the lock gates which lead

from the channel into the inner harbors. The expedition retired with the

loss of fifty officers and 538 men, of whom sixteen officers and 144 men

had been killed.

At Ostend, the entrance to whose harbor is protected by no mole, the

block ships Sirius and Brilliant were not effectively placed. Against

this port the experiment was, therefore, repeated on the night of May

9-10. The Vindictive, with a cargo of concrete, was planted and sunk at

the entrance to the channel, but not entirely blocking it.

ITALIAN RAID AT POLA

Another naval exploit of the month worthy of record was the sinking in

the Austrian Harbor of Pola of a dreadnought of the Viribus Unitis class

(20,000 tons) by Italian naval forces, in the morning of May 15. The

achievement was similar to that performed by the President of the

Anaconda Copper Company, who has been appointed Director of Aircraft

Production for the United States Army] Italians on the night of Dec.

9-10, when a destroyer sawed her way through the steel net protecting

the Harbor of Trieste and torpedoed the predreadnoughts Wien and

Monarch, (5,000 tons each,) sinking the former. The Harbor of Pola,

however, is much more difficult to penetrate. It is three miles deep and

entered by a two-mile channel, at certain places less than half a mile

wide, and protected along its entire course by strong defenses. A mole

covers its mouth, making the channel here less than 1,000 yards wide.

Forts Cristo and Musil guard the entrance.

[Illustration: CHARLES M. SCHWAB

Head of the Bethlehem Steel Works, who has been appointed Director

General of the Emergency Fleet Corporation to carry out the Government's

shipbuilding program

(© _Harris & Ewing_)]

[Illustration: JOHN D. RYAN

TEUTONIZING THE BLACK SEA]

Save for the reports which have come to hand denoting the steady

progress of the British forces in Palestine and Mesopotamia, little of

importance has occurred in the Near East. Still the Teutonizing of the

Black Sea goes steadily on. On May 2 it was announced that a German

force had occupied the great Russian fortress of Sebastopol, famous for

its protracted siege by the British and French in 1855, and until then

considered impregnable. On May 12 part of the Russian Black Sea fleet

was taken possession of by the Germans at that place, while the

remainder escaped to Novorossysk. Among the captured vessels only the

battleship Volga and the protected cruiser Pamiat Merkuria were in

serviceable condition. At Odessa a new dreadnought and two protected

cruisers had already been seized by the Germans as they lay in their

slips.

In Macedonia the huge allied forces under the French General,

Guillaumat, are still waiting on events. The Greek Army is still in

process of reconstruction under the Venizelos Administration. The month,

however, has not been barren of engagements on this battleline. On April

28 the Serbians beat back attempts of the Bulgars to capture fortified

positions in the Vetrenik region; the French and British did the same in

regard to German attacks aimed at points west of Makovo and south of

Lake Doiran. So it has been all the month, the monotony only varied on

April 27, when there was intense artillery fire by the allied guns in

the neighborhood of Monastir, on the Cerna, and, in the Vetrenik region,

a Serbian assault annihilated a Bulgar section.

[Illustration: MAP OF PALESTINE AND MESOPOTAMIA, WHERE TWO BRITISH

ARMIES ARE AIMING AT BAGDAD RAILWAY]

IN THE NEAR EAST

There has been no serious attempt on the part of the Turks during the

month to oppose the expansion of General Allenby's front beyond

Jerusalem or the triumphant march of General Marshall up the Euphrates

and the Tigris--on the latter river now sixty miles below Mosul,

Marshall's obvious objective. The objective of Allenby is Aleppo, where

there is said to be a single division of German troops in addition to

the Turks, who have been forced north from Jerusalem. Allenby and

Marshall are advancing along parallel lines with a desert space of about

400 miles between. The Turks and their ally still have possession of the

caravan trail and the partly built and entirely surveyed Bagdad Railway,

which intersect the prospective parallel paths of Allenby and Marshall,

whose lines of communication already reach hundreds of miles to the

rear. But while Allenby has a lateral sea communication with Syrian

ports, no such advantage is enjoyed by Marshall, who must get all his

supplies from the head of the Persian Gulf, 450 miles to the south.

Whatever be the force at the disposition of the enemy, it is evident

that he will continue to possess a predominating tactical and strategic

advantage until he has been decisively defeated at both Aleppo and Mosul

or a junction has been established between Allenby and Marshall, or

both.

[Illustration: SCENE OF LATEST ITALIAN FIGHTING IN THE ALPS]

The former's line, which is a sixty-mile front, extending from Arsuf el

Haram on the Mediterranean east to the Jordan, took Es-Salt with

thirty-three German and 317 Turkish prisoners on May 1--twenty miles

north of Jerusalem--which was first occupied by Allenby early in

December.

Marshall's advance has been much more rapid. In the week of May 1 his

cavalry, in pursuit of the fleeing Turks, advanced twenty miles and

captured 1,000 prisoners. On May 7 he was 80 miles from Mosul; on May 10

he was within 60 miles. Allenby is 300 miles from Aleppo and 110 miles

from Damascus.

ON THE ITALIAN FRONT

Without any large movements of troops taking place, several things have

occurred since April 18 to invite attention to the Italian front, and

much speculation by military men has been indulged in as to whether the

resumption of the Teutonic offensive would be from the Piave or south

from the Astico-Piave line lying across the Sette Comuni and the Brenta,

or from the west of the Adige and the Lago di Garda, in an attempt to

reach Brescia and the metallurgic centre of Italy.

And most of the things in question which have occurred have served to

restore and augment the confidence of the Italians in their position. A

new 2d Army has taken the place of the old, annihilated in the

Capporetto campaign. All the lost guns have been replaced and new

heavies added. Revolution is, at any moment, expected to break out in

Austria-Hungary, while the Congress of Jugoslavs in Rome on April 9-11

has secured the adhesion to the Allies of the subjects of the Hapsburgs

and enabled the Italian Government to make use of them as a fighting

force. There are now believed to be no German divisions on the Italian

front, where the entire enemy strength, not measurably increased since

the snows have disappeared in the north, consists of 800

Austro-Hungarian battalions, or less than 1,000,000 men.

But what has promoted most satisfaction in the Italian Government and

people was the decree issued by the Interallied Supreme Council of War

at Abbéville on May 3, giving General Foch authority to include the

Italian front under his supreme command, that front thereby becoming the

right wing of the allied battle line in Europe--now "one army, one

front, and one supreme command."

That is the way Bonaparte fought his victorious battles in the days of

the First Republic, alternately on the Rhine and the Adige. Moreau could

not win without Bonaparte, nor Bonaparte without Moreau, while Carnot,

in the centre, was the vehicle of transit.

Before the snows made manoeuvres impossible the Italians had closed two

gates which threatened the plains of Veneto from the north--one at the

junction of the front with the Piave, one at the angle of the Frenzela

Torrent and the Brenta River.

Gunfire had been steadily augmenting on the front when, on May 10, they

closed another, and on May 15 still another. The first of these was the

capture of Monte Corno, which commanded the part up the Vallarsa, the

second was a partial recovery of Monte Asolone, between the Brenta and

the Piave, sufficient to cover the path up the Val San Lorenzo. Both

mountains are really plateaus of about two square miles area each, whose

irregular summits the enemy had strongly fortified in order to clear the

valleys below. In both places subsequent Austrian counterattacks were

broken up.

Meanwhile, Italian aircraft dominate from above. On May 14 the enemy

lost eleven airplanes with no losses to the Italians and the British,

who were assisting them.

Premier Lloyd George on German Autocracy

Premier Lloyd George wrote the following preface for a volume containing

extracts from speeches he delivered during the war:

I have never believed that the war would be a short war, or that in

some mysterious way, by negotiation or compromise, we would free

Europe from the malignant military autocracy which is endeavoring to

trample it into submission and moral death. I have always believed

that the machine which has established its despotic control over the

minds and the bodies of its victims and then organized and driven

them to slaughter in order to extend that control over the rest of

the world, would only be destroyed if the free peoples proved

themselves strong and steadfast enough to defeat its attempt in

arms. The events of the last few weeks must have made it plain to

every thinking man that there is no longer room for compromise

between the ideals for which we and our enemies stood. Democracy and

autocracy have come to death grips. One or the other will fasten its

hold on mankind. It is a clear realization of this issue which will

be our strength in the trials to come. I have no doubt that freedom

will triumph. But whether it will triumph soon or late, after a

final supreme effort in the next few months or a long-drawn agony,

depends on the vigor and self-sacrifice with which the children of

liberty, and especially those behind the lines, dedicate themselves

to the struggle. There is no time for ease or delay or debate. The

call is imperative. The choice is clear. It is for each free citizen

to do his part.

The Greatest Battle of the War

Second Month of the Desperate Fighting in Flanders and Picardy

By Philip Gibbs

_Special Correspondent With the British Armies_ [Copyrighted in United

States of America]

_The May issue of Current History Magazine contained Philip Gibbs's

story of the great German offensive up to April 18, 1918. At that time

the Germans were seeking to break the British lines in front of Ypres,

as part of their drive for Amiens and the British Channel ports,

generally known as the battle of Picardy. The pages here presented are a

continuation of his eyewitness narrative of the most sanguinary battle

in history._

April 18.--The arrival of French troops on our northern front is the

most important act that has happened during the last three or four days,

and it was with deep satisfaction that we met these troops on the roads

and knew that at last our poor, tired men would get support and help

against their overwhelming odds.

Beside the khaki army of the British has grown very quickly an army in

blue, the cornflower blue of the French poilus. They are splendid men,

hard and solid fellows, who have been war-worn and weather-worn during

these three and a half years past, and look the great fighting men who

have gone many times into battle and know all that war can teach them in

endurance and cunning and quick attack.

As they came marching up the roads to the front they were like a

streaming river of blue--blue helmets and coats and blue carts and blue

lorries, all blending into one tone through these April mists as they

went winding over the countryside and through French market towns, where

their own people waved to them, and then through the villages on the

edge of the Flanders battlefields, where they waited to go into action

under shell-broken walls or under hedges above which British shellfire

traveled, or in fields where they made their bivouacs, and fragrant

steams arose to one's nostrils as cuistots lifted the lids of stewpans

and hungry men gathered around after a long march.

The attack this morning from Robecq, below St. Venant, down to Givenchy,

is a serious effort to gain La Bassée Canal and form a strong defensive

flank for the enemy while he proceeds with his battles further north and

also to get more elbow room from the salient in which he is narrowly

wedged below Merville.

For this purpose he brought up several more divisions, including the

239th, which was in the Somme fighting of March, but not heavily

engaged. This one attacked the British at Robecq and was repulsed with

heavy losses. It was at a place called La Bacquerolles Farm, near

Robecq, where after heavy shelling last night the enemy rushed one of

the outposts at 10 o'clock. In order to facilitate the attack this

morning of German divisions north and south at 4 o'clock the German guns

began a heavy bombardment of the British lines as far down as Givenchy

and maintained it for five hours, using large numbers of gas shells, on

account of the east wind, which was in their favor.

His guns shelled the bridges across the canal in the hope of preventing

the British supports going up. Then his troops came forward in waves on

a wide front. They were in immense numbers as usual, with many mixed

battalions. One of the British units today took prisoners from ten

different regiments. There were some ten German divisions facing four

British ones north of Béthune, and all along the line the troops were

much outnumbered; nevertheless, the enemy was repulsed at all but a few

points of attack and beaten back bloodily.

THE GHASTLY LOSSES

In this battle one regiment of the 42d German Division has lost over 50

per cent. of its strength, and other losses are on a similar scale.

These ghastly casualties have been piling up along this line between

Merville and Béthune since the 13th of this month, when the Germans made

a series of small attacks as a prelude to today's battle, owing, it

seems, to battalion officers taking the initiative without orders from

the High Command, in order to push forward and break the British lines

if they could find weakness there.

On the 13th and 14th some of the South Country troops were attacked by

strong forces repeatedly, and on the second day for five hours at a

stretch the enemy endeavored to come across from houses and inclosures

west of Merville toward St. Venant. For those five hours the South

Country lads fired with rifles, Lewis guns, and machine guns into solid

bodies of Germans, and their field guns tore gaps in the enemy's

formations and broke up their assemblies before the attacks could

proceed. One advance in five waves was mown down before it could make

any progress, and others were dealt with in the same way.

_Mr. Gibbs describes the German repulse between Robecq and Givenchy as a

"black day for the enemy," and continues:_

April 19.--At the end of the day all the enemy's efforts ended in bloody

failure, in spite of the daring and courage of his troops, who

sacrificed themselves under the British fire, but were only able to gain

a few bits of trench work and one or two outposts below the fortified

works at Givenchy, which are quite useless to them for immediate or

future use.

It was a big attack, for which they had prepared in a formidable way.

After the shock of their repulse by the Lancashire men of the 55th

Division they increased their strength of heavy artillery by three times

bringing up large numbers of howitzers, including eleven-inch monsters.

They were massed in divisions in front of us and determined to smash

through in the wake of a tremendous bombardment.

BRITISH UNDER FIRE

For five hours, as I said, this storm went on with high explosives and

gas, and the devoted British had to suffer this infernal thing, the

worst ordeal human beings may be called upon to bear, this standing to

while all the earth upheaved and the air was thick with shell splinters.

But when the bombardment had passed and the German infantry came forward

the British received them with blasts of machine-gun fire, incessant

volleys of rifle fire, and a trench mortar bombardment that burst with

the deadliest effect among the attacking troops.

This trench mortar barrage of the British was one of the most awful

means of slaughter yesterday, especially when the enemy tried to cross

La Bassée Canal further north, and in that sector the infantry and

gunner officers say more Germans were killed yesterday along the canal

bank than on any other day since the fighting in this neighborhood. One

battery of trench mortars did most deadly execution until their pits

were surrounded, and only two of their crews were able to escape.

The machine gunners fought out in the open after some of their positions

had been wiped out by gunfire, caught the enemy waves at fifty yards'

range, and mowed them down; but the enemy was not checked for a long

time, despite his losses, and when one body fell another came up to fill

its place and press on into any gap that had been made by their

artillery or their own machine-gun sections.

There was one such momentary gap between a body of the Black Watch, who

had been weakened by shellfire, and some of their comrades further

north, and into this the enemy tried to force a way. Other Scottish

troops were in reserve, and when it became clear that a portion of the

line was endangered by this turning movement they came forward with grim

intent, and by a fierce counterattack swept through the gap and flung

back the enemy, so that the position was restored.

Further north some Gloucesters were fighting the enemy both ways, as

once before in history, when they fought back to back, thereby winning

the honor of wearing their cap badge back and front, which they do to

this day. The Germans had worked behind them as well as in front of

them, and they were in a tight corner, but did not yield, and finally,

after hard fighting, cleared the ground about them.

Meanwhile further south some Lancashire troops on the canal lost some

parts of their front line under an intense bombardment, but still fought

on in the open, repulsing every effort to drive them back and smashing

the enemy out of their positions, so that only remnants of the German

outposts clung on until late last night, up to which time there was

savage strife on both sides.

FIGHTING FOR THE CANAL

Extraordinary scenes took place on the canal bank when the enemy tried

to cross. In the twilight of early dawn a party came out of a wood and

tried to get across the water, but was seen by the British machine

gunners and shot down.

Then another body of men advanced and carried with them a floating

bridge, but when those who were not hit reached the water's edge they

found the bridge as fixed did not reach to the other side. Some of them

walked on it, expecting perhaps to jump the gap, but were shot off, and

other men on the bank also were caught under British fire.

A Corporal went down to the canal edge and flung hand grenades at the

Germans still struggling to fix the bridge, and then a Lieutenant and a

few men rushed down and pulled the bridge on to their side of the bank.

Later this young officer saw one of the British pontoons drifting down

and swam to it and made it fast beyond the enemy's reach, but in a

position so that some of his men ran across and caught the enemy under

their fire on his side of the canal.

At 7 o'clock yesterday morning, while a handkerchief was hoisted by the

enemy, three hundred of them made signs of surrender. Some of them

changed their minds at the last moment and ran away, but 150 gave

themselves up, and some of them swam the canal in order to reach our

side for this purpose. They were shivering in their wet clothes and in

the northeast wind, which lashed over the battle lines yesterday, and

they were very miserable men.

THE BELGIAN VICTORY

_Mr. Gibbs declares that had the Germans been able to pass Givenchy or

cross the canal north of Béthune on the 18th and 19th the result would

have proved disastrous. He gives credit for the repulse to the British

and French combined lines. He thus describes the achievement of the

Belgians on April 17_:

The Germans on the 17th pressed the attack in force against the

Belgians. Besides three regiments of the 1st Landwehr Division usually

holding this sector, between the Ypres-Staden railway and Kippe, they

brought up from Dixmude--poor Dixmude, into whose flaming ruins I went

when it was first bombarded in October, 1914--two regiments of the 6th

Bavarian Division, and from the coast the 5th Matrosen Regiment of the

2d Naval Division, with a regiment of the 58th Saxons. It was a heavy

force, and they hoped to surprise and annihilate the Belgian resistance

by their weight and quickness of attack.

The Belgians were waiting for them, standing, too, in those swampy

fields which they have held against the enemy for three and a half

years, always shelled, always paying daily a toll of life and limb, not

getting much glory or recognition because of the great battles

elsewhere, but patient and enduring as when I knew them on the Yser in

the first dreadful Winter of the war, and their little regular army

fought to a finish.

Even before the battle the German marines, Saxon troops, and Landwehr

suffered misery and lost many men. They lay out in the flat, wet fields

two nights previously, and were very cold, and scared by the Belgian

gunfire which burst among them. They had no great artillery behind them,

and the Saxons and German sailors now prisoners of the Belgians curse

bitterly because they were expected to get through easily in spite of

this.

Germans Cut Off

The enemy's intention was to take Bixschoote and advance across the Yser

Canal, driving south to Poperinghe. What they did by their massed

attacks was to penetrate to a point near Hoekske, southeast of Merckem,

the main weight of their pressure being directed along the Bixschoote

road. The Belgians delivered a quick counterattack, with wonderful

enthusiasm among officers and men. They had perfect knowledge of the

country, and used this fully by striking up from a place called Luyghem

in such a way that the enemy was driven toward the swamp, where any who

went in sank up to his neck in the ice-cold water.

The Germans were cut off from their own lines and trapped. Seven hundred

of them surrendered, men of all the regiments I have mentioned, and they

seemed to think themselves lucky at getting off so cheaply, though they

quailed when they were brought back through the towns behind the lines,

and the Belgian women, remembering many things, raised a cry as these

men passed. It was not a pleasant sound. I heard it once in France when

a German officer passed through with an escort. It was a cry which made

my blood run cold. But there is gladness among the Belgian troops, for

they had long waited for their chance of striking, and made good.

Heroism of the Doctors

As heroic a story as anything in all this history of the last four weeks

is that of the medical officers, nurses, orderlies, and ambulance men

belonging to these casualty clearing stations, who were not far behind

the fighting lines when the battle began on March 21.

And then in a few hours they were on the very edge of the enemy's

advancing tide, so that they were almost caught by it and had to make

brave efforts to rescue the wounded, save their equipment, and get away

to a place where for a little while again they could go on with their

noble work until the red edge of war swept up with its fire again and

they had to retreat still further.

I used to pass very often the outer ring of those casualty clearing

stations on the right of the British line beyond Bapaume, in the Cambrai

salient, and away toward St. Quentin.

They were almost caught on that day of March 21 when the infernal

bombardment was flung over a wide belt of the British lines, and the

enemy stormed the defenses and the British fought back in heroic

rearguard actions. It became a question of only a few hours, sometimes

of the last quarter of an hour, when these brave medical officers with

the nurses and orderlies could get away.

It is always the rule of patients first, and at Ham there were 1,200

wounded, and many others in other places. The railways were choked with

military transport or destroyed by shellfire. On the roads refugees were

mixed up with the transport and guns and troops. It was a frightful

problem, but the medical staffs did not lose their nerve, and set about

the business of removal with fine skill and discipline.

Caring for the Wounded

What wounded could walk were gathered together and sent on to the roads

to make their way back as far as their strength would carry them. The

badly wounded were packed into all the available ambulances and sent

away. The equipment had sometimes to be put on any train, regardless of

its destination. It was gathered in afterward from whatever place it

went to.

A casualty clearing station of 1,000 beds needs 100 lorries to move it,

but nine lorries take a full kit for 200 beds, and always nine lorries

moved off first after the wounded to take up a new station further back

and carry on. The medical officers looked after the surgical instruments

and trundled them along the roads on wheeled stretchers. One officer

went twenty-five miles this way and another seventeen miles. The

sisters, after the wounded had left, were put on any vehicle going back

from the battleline.

During these days I saw them squeezed between drivers and men on motor

lorries, sitting among the Tommies in transport wagons, one at least on

a gun limber, and others perched on top of forage, still merry and

bright in spite of all the tragedy about them, because that is their

training and their faith.

In this retreat one poor sister was killed and another wounded. Many of

them, with the medical officers, lost their kits. At Achiet le Grand, on

March 21, a shell killed eight orderlies and blew out the back of the

operating theatre, and at another village on a second night, three

ambulances were smashed up by bombs. Two drivers, with some of their

patients, were killed, but all the wounded were brought away from the

outer ring of casualty clearing stations safely, and then from the

second ring through Roye and Marincourt, Dernacourt, and Aveluy.

At Roye there was no time to spare, owing to the enemy's rapid advance,

and seventy patients remained with a medical officer and twelve

orderlies until they could be rescued, if there was any possible

chance. There seemed at first no chance, but on the way back to

Villers-Bretonneux the medical officer in command of the first convoy

met some motor ambulances and begged the drivers to go into Roye and

rescue those who had been left behind. They went bravely and brought

away all the wounded and the staff, and had no time to spare, because

the last ambulance came under the German rifle fire.

It is a strange and wonderful thing that the patients do not seem to be

harmed in any way by this excitement and fatigue, and one of the chiefs

who made a tour of inspection of all his clearing stations at this time

tells us he found all the wounded in good condition and apparently no

worse for their experience.

Fall of Villers-Bretonneux

_ On April 24 the Germans attacked the important village of

Villers-Bretonneux, near Amiens; it is on a hill above the Somme, and

was used as a corps headquarters and administrative office by the

British. The attack was in great force, including tanks, the first time

they had been used by the Germans._

_The initial assault was a success and the Germans took the village and

advanced nearly a mile beyond--but let Mr. Gibbs tell the rest:_

During the night they were driven out by Australian troops, who, by a

most skillful and daring piece of generalship, were sent forward in the

darkness without preliminary artillery preparation, and, relying

absolutely on the weapons they carried to regain this important portion,

which gave the enemy full observation of the British positions on both

sides of the Somme Valley beyond Amiens.

The splendid courage of the Australian troops, the cunning of their

machine gunners, and the fine leadership of their officers achieved

success, and, in conjunction with English battalions, they spent the

night clearing out the enemy from the village, where he made a desperate

resistance, and brought back altogether something like 700 or 800

prisoners.

It was a complete reversal of fortune for the enemy, and in this

twenty-four hours of fighting he has lost great numbers of men, whose

bodies lie in heaps between Villers-Bretonneux and Warfusee and all

about the ruins and fields in that neighborhood.

First German Tanks

The attack on Villers-Bretonneux was made by four divisions. They were

the 4th Guards, the 77th, quite new to this phase of the war, the 228th,

and the 243d. They were in the full strength of divisions, twelve

regiments in each, and a great weight of men on such a narrow front

against one British division, whose men had already been under frightful

fire and had been living in clouds of poison gas with masks on.

An officer of the Middlesex was in a bit of a trench when the first

German tank attacked his men on the east side of the village, and it

went right over him as he lay crouched, and traveled on, accompanied by

bodies of troops.

The Middlesex and West Yorks put up a great fight but had to give ground

to superior numbers. The East Lancashires, who were the garrison of

Villers-Bretonneux, were also attacked with great odds, and after a

brave resistance fell back with the general line, which took up a

position toward the end of this first phase of the battle west of

Villers-Bretonneux and in the edge of Bois Abbé to the left of it. Into

this wood in the course of the day a German patrol of one officer and

forty men made their way and stayed there out of touch with their own

men, and were taken prisoners last night.

The Night Battle

The attack by the Australians was made after 10 o'clock at night. It was

difficult to attack suddenly like this. There was no artillery

preparation. There should have been a moon, but by bad luck it was

veiled in a thick, wet mist.

It was decided by the Australian General that his men should go straight

into the attack with bayonet and machine gun, not waiting for artillery

protection which would tell the enemy what was coming.

The plan of attack was to push forward in two bodies and to encircle

Villers-Bretonneux, while some Northamptons and others were in the

centre with the order to fight through the village from the north. This

manoeuvre was carried out owing to the magnificent courage of each

Australian soldier and the gallantry of the officers.

The Germans fought desperately when they found themselves in danger of

being trapped. They had nests of machine guns along the railway

embankment below the village, and these fired fiercely, sweeping the

attackers who tried to advance upon them.

Those who worked around north and east of the village also came under a

burst of machine-gun fire from weapons hidden among the ruins and

trenches, but they rounded up the enemy and fought him from one bit of

ruin to another in streets which used to be filled with civilian life

only a few weeks ago and crowded with staff officers and staff cars, but

now were littered with dead bodies and raked by bullets.

The Australians captured two light field guns, which the enemy had

brought up in the morning, according to his present habit of advancing

guns behind his third wave of men, and several minenwerfer and many

machine guns.

Great Piles of Dead

During the night they and the English troops seized over 500 men as

prisoners and sent them back, and several hundred seem to have been

routed out. Today, [the 25th,] judging from these I saw myself, the

living were not so many as the dead.

It was fierce fighting in Villers-Bretonneux and around it last night

and this morning the enemy fought until put out by bayonet, rifle

bullet, or machine gun. The Australian officers say that they have never

seen such piles of dead, not even outside of Bullecourt or Lagnicourt

last year, as those who lie about this village of frightful strife.

The German tanks, which were first seen in this battle, though heavier

than the British, with bigger guns, have now beaten a retreat, leaving

one of their type in No Man's Land. The tank has a high turret and thick

armor plates, and is steered and worked on a different system from the

British. One of them was "killed" by a tank of the old British class,

and then the British put in some of the newer, faster, and smaller

types, which can steer almost as easily as a motor car, as I know,

because I have traveled in one at great pace over rough ground.

These set out to attack bodies of German infantry of the 77th Division

forming up near Cachy. It was a terrible encounter, and when they

returned this morning their flanks were red with blood. They slew

Germans not by dozens nor by scores, but by platoons and companies. They

got right among the masses of men and swept them with fire, and those

they did not kill with their guns they crushed beneath them, manoeuvring

about and trampling them down as they fell. It seems to have been as

bloody a slaughter as anything in this war.

Battle for Kemmel Hill

_The furious battle for the possession of Kemmel Hill, an eminence of

strategic importance in the Ypres region, occurred April 25, 26, and 27,

and was as sanguinary as any in Flanders. Although the Germans won the

hill, their victory involved such colossal sacrifices that this deadly

thrust ended their serious offensive for the time. Mr. Gibbs's

description of this battle in part follows:_

After several attempts against Kemmel had been frustrated the enemy all

went out, April 25, to capture this position. Four divisions at least,

including the Alpine Corps, the 11th Bavarians, and the 5th, 6th, and

107th, were moved against Kemmel in the early morning fog after a

tremendous bombardment of the Franco-British positions. It was a

bombardment that begun before the first glimmer of dawn, like one of

those which the British used to arrange in the days of their great

Flanders battles last year. It came down swamping Kemmel Hill so that it

was like a volcano, and stretched away on to the British lines on the

left of the French by Maedelstede Farm and Grand Bois down to

Vierstraat.

Then the German infantry attacked in depth, battalion behind battalion,

division behind division, and their mountain troops of Alpine Corps and

Jägers and Bavarians came on first in the assault of Kemmel Hill, which

was not much more than a hillock, though it looms large in Flanders, and

in this war. The French had suffered a terrible ordeal of fire, and the

main thrust of the German strength was against them.

Foe Strikes in Two Directions

The enemy struck in two directions to encircle the hill and village of

Kemmel, one arrowhead striking to Dranoutre and the other at the point

of junction between the French and British northward.

In each case they were favored by fog and the effect of their gunfire.

They were able to drive in a wedge which they pushed forward until they

had caused gaps. The French on Kemmel Hill became isolated and there was

a gulf between the British and the French and between the French left

and right.

On the hill the French garrison fought with splendid heroism. These men,

when quite surrounded, would not yield, but served their machine guns

and rifles for many hours, determined to hold their positions at all

costs, and to the death. Small parties of them on the west of the hill

held out until midday or beyond, according to the reports of the airmen,

who flew low over them, but by 9 o'clock this morning, owing to the gaps

made by the enemy, the French main line was compelled to draw back from

Kemmel.

They inflicted severe losses on the enemy as they fell back and thwarted

his efforts to break their line on the new defensive positions.

Meanwhile a body of Scottish troops were seriously involved. Some of

their officers whom I saw today tell me the fog was so thick, as on

March 21, that after a terrific bombardment the first thing known at

some points a little way behind the line was when the Germans were all

around them.

Germans Under Von Arnim

The German army of assault upon Kemmel and the surrounding country was

under command of General Sixt von Arnim, who was the leading opponent of

the Allies in the long struggle of the first Somme battles, and whose

clear and ruthless intelligence was revealed in the famous document

summing up the first phase of that fighting, when he frankly confessed

to many failures of organization and supply, but with acute criticism

which was not that of a weak or indecisive man.

Under his command as corps commanders were Generals Seiger and von

Eberhardt, and they had picked troops, including the Alpine Corps and

strong Bavarian and Prussian divisions specially trained for assault in

such country as that of Kemmel. Their plan of attack to strike at the

points of junction between the French and British east of Kemmel, and

also at the French troops south of it, near Dranoutre, proved for the

time successful, and by driving in wedges they were able to make the

Allies fall back on the flanks and encircle Kemmel Hill after furious

and heroic fighting by the French and British troops.

The British now were in weak numbers compared with the strength brought

against them. Their withdrawal to the new lines of defense by Vierstraat

and the furious attacks across the Ypres-Comines Canal gave the enemy

some ground in the region of St. Eloi and the bluff and the spoil bank

of the canal itself. It is villainous ground there, foul with wreckage

of the old fighting.

British troops and Canadian troops were put to the supreme test of

courage to take and hold these places. The glorious old 3d Division,

commanded in those days of 1915 and 1916 by General Haldane, fought from

St. Eloi to the bluff, month in and month out, and lost many gallant

officers and men there after acts of courage which belong to history.

German storm troops made three violent attacks on Locre, which were

flung back by the French, with heavy casualties among the enemy, and it

was only at the fourth attempt with fresh reserves that they were able

to enter the ruins of the village, from which the French then fell back

in order to reorganize for a counterattack. This they launched today at

an early hour, and now Locre is in their hands after close fighting, in

which they slew numbers of the enemy.

After their success on April 25, when they captured Kemmel, the Germans

have made little progress, and, though there was fierce fighting all day

yesterday, they failed to gain their objectives, and were raked by fire

hour after hour, so that large numbers of their dead lie on the field of

battle. At 4 in the afternoon they engaged in fresh assaults upon the

positions near Ridge Wood, to which the line had fallen back, but

English and Scottish troops repulsed them and scattered their waves. It

was a bad day for them because of their great losses. The British have

broken the fighting quality of some of the enemy's most renowned

regiments.

The Country Devastated

All the roads and camps around Ypres are under a heavy, harassing fire

once more, Ypres itself being savagely bombarded by high-explosive and

gas shells, so that after some months of respite those poor ruins are

again under that black spell which makes them the most sinister place in

the world. Suicide Corner has come into its own again, and the old

unhealthy plague spots up by the canal are under fire.

The enemy's guns are reaching out to fields and villages hitherto

untouched by fire, and these harassing shots, intended, perhaps, to

catch traffic on the roads or soldiers' camps, often serve the enemy no

more than by the death of innocent women and children. A day or two ago

a monstrous shell fell just outside a little Flemish cottage tucked away

in an angle of a road which I often pass. It scooped out a deep pit in

the garden without even scarring the cottage walls, but two children

were playing in the garden and were laid dead beside a flower bed.

Yesterday a small boy I know went grubbing about this plot of earth and

brought back a great chunk of shell bigger than his head. Those are the

games children play in this merry century of ours. They are astoundingly

indifferent to the perils about them, and sleep o' nights to the thunder

of gunfire not very far away, or slip their heads under the bedclothes

when bombs fall near.

But older folk find this gradual creeping up of the war a nervous strain

and a mental agony which keeps them on the rack. It is pitiful to watch

their doubts and perplexities and their clinging on to their homes and

property. Shells smash outlying cottages to dust with their people

inside them, but still the people in the village itself stay on, hoping

against hope that the Germans' guns have reached their furthest range.

"I shall not go till the first shell falls in the middle of the square,"

said a girl.

Another woman said:

"If I go I lose all I have in life, so I will risk another day."

They take extraordinary risks, and our officers and men find some of

them on the very battlefields and in farmyards where they unlimber their

guns.

Heavy German Losses

The enemy's losses in this continual fighting have been severe. We have

been able to get actual figures of some of their casualties, which are

typical of the more general effect of the British fire. Of one company

of the 7th German Division which fought at St. Eloi on Friday only 40

men remained out of its full strength of 120.

The 4th Ersatz Division lost most heavily, and a prisoner of the 279th

Pioneer Company, which relieved the 360th Regiment of that division,

says the average company strength was fifteen men.

The entire regimental staff was killed by a direct hit of a British

shell on their headquarters dugout near Cantieux. The same thing

happened to the battalion headquarters of the 223d Regiment, which is

now in a state of low morale, having been fearfully cut up.

The 1st Guards Reserve Regiment of the 1st Guards Division, which was

much weakened in the fighting on the Somme and afterward was sent to La

Bassée, lost thirty-six officers, including a regimental commander and

one battalion commander. These losses are affecting inevitably the

outlook of the German troops on the prospects of their continued

offensive.

Prisoners from divisions which suffered most confess they have no

further enthusiasm for fighting, and that their regiments can only be

made to attack by stern discipline and the knowledge that they must

fight on or be shot for desertion.

On the other hand, the best German troops, especially those now

attacking in Flanders, like the Alpine Corps and 11th Bavarian Division,

are elated and full of warlike spirit.

Even their prisoners profess to believe they are winning the war and

will have a German peace before the year is out.

Desperate Fighting for Ypres

_The Germans vainly launched desperate attacks of unexampled fury

against the British and French lines in the Ypres region on April 29.

Mr. Gibbs in his cable dispatch of that date thus refers to these

assaults:_

It becomes clearer every hour that the enemy suffered a disastrous

defeat today. Attack after attack was smashed up by the British

artillery and infantry, and he has not made a foot of ground on the

British front.

The Border Regiment this morning repulsed four heavy assaults on the

Kemmel-La Clytte road, where there was extremely hard fighting, and

destroyed the enemy each time.

One of the enemy's main thrusts was between Scherpenberg and Mont Rouge,

where they made a wedge for a time and captured the crossroads, and it

was here that a gallant French counterattack swept them back.

The British had no more than a post or two in Voormezeele this morning,

and the enemy was there in greater strength, and sent his storm troops

through this place, but was never able to advance against the fire of

the British battalions.

His losses began yesterday, when his troops were seen massing on the

road between Zillebeke and Ypres in a dense fog, through which he

attempted to make a surprise attack. This was observed by low-flying

planes, and his assembly was shattered by gunfire. After a fierce

shelling all night, so tremendous along the whole northern front that

the countryside was shaken by its tumult, German troops again assembled

in the early morning mist, but were caught once more in the British

bombardment.

At 3 o'clock a tremendous barrage was flung down by the German gunners

from Ypres to Bailleul, and later they began the battle by launching

first an attack between Zillebeke Lake and Meteren. South of Ypres they

crossed the Yser Canal by Lock 8, near Voormezeele, which was their

direction of attack against the British, while they tried to drive up

past Locre against the French on the three hills.

The successful defense has made the day most bloody for many German

regiments.

Enemy's Attacks Futile

In order to turn them if frontal attacks failed against the French,

German storm troops--they are now called grosskampf, or great offensive

troops--were to break the British lines on the French left between Locre

and Voormezeele and on the French right near Merris and Meteren. That

obviously was the intention of the German High Command this morning,

judging from their direction of assault.

So far they have failed utterly. They failed to break or bend the

British wings on the French centre, and they failed to capture the

hills, or any one of them, defended by the French divisions.

They have attacked again and again since this morning's dawn, heavy

forces of German infantry being sent forward after their first waves

against Scherpenberg and Voormezeele, which lies to the east of

Dickebusch Lake, but these men have been slaughtered by the French and

British fire and made no important progress at any point.

For a time the situation seemed critical at one or two points, and it

was reported that the Germans had been storming the slopes of Mont Rouge

and Mont Noir, but one of the British airmen flew over these hills at

200 feet above their crests, and could see no German infantry near them.

Round about Voormezeele, North Country and other English battalions had

to sustain determined and furious efforts of Alpine and Bavarian troops

to drive through them by weight of numbers, after hours of intense

bombardment, but the men held their ground and inflicted severe

punishment upon the enemy.

All through the day the German losses have been heavy under field-gun

and machine-gun fire, and the British batteries, alongside the French

seventy-fives, swept down the enemy's advancing waves and his masses

assembled in support at short range.

There is no doubt that the French guarding the three hills have fought

with extreme valor and skill. For a brief period the Germans apparently

were able to draw near and take some of the ground near Locre, but an

immediate counterattack was organized by the French General, and the

line of French troops swung forward and swept the enemy back. Further

attacks by the Germans north of Ypres and on the Belgian front were

repulsed easily, and again the enemy lost many men.

French and British Valor

_On April 30 Mr. Gibbs confirmed the details of the disastrous German

defeats on the two preceding days and gave these further particulars:_

It was the valor of Frenchmen as well as Englishmen which yesterday

inflicted defeat upon many German divisions, and the Allies fought side

by side, and their batteries fired from the same fields and their

wounded came back along the same roads, and the khaki and blue lay out

upon the same brown earth.

I have already given an outline of yesterday's battle, how, after a

colossal bombardment, the German attack early in the morning from north

of Ypres to south of Voormezeele, where English battalions held the

lines, and from La Clytte past the three hills of Scherpenberg, Mont

Rouge, and Mont Noir, which French troops held to the north of Meteren,

where the English joined them; again, how the English Tommies held firm

against desperate assaults until late in the evening; how the enemy made

a great thrust against the French, driving in for a time between

Scherpenberg and Mont Noir until they were flung back by a French

counterattack.

In the night the French, who had now regained all the ground that had

been temporarily in the enemy's hands, made a general counterattack and

succeeded in advancing their line to a depth of about fifteen hundred

yards beyond the line of the three hills, which thereby was made more

secure against future assaults.

Deadly Machine-Gun Work

Meanwhile throughout the day the English battalions had been sustaining

heavy assaults, breaking the enemy against their front. The Leicesters,

especially, had fierce fighting about Voormezeele, where, as I told

yesterday, the enemy was in the centre of the village. German storm

troops advanced against our men here and along other parts of the line

with fixed bayonets, but in most places, except Voormezeele, where there

was close fighting, they were mowed down by Lewis-gun fire before they

could get near. Line after line of them came on, but lost heavily and

fell back.

Over the ground east of Dickebusch Lake some Yorkshire troops saw these

groups of field gray men advancing upon them, and the glint of their

bayonets, wet in the morning mist, and swept them with bullets from the

Lewis guns and rifles until heaps of bodies were lying out there on the

mud flats in the old Ypres salient. The most determined assaults were

concentrated upon the 25th Division, but it held firm and would not

budge, though the men had been under fearful fire in the night

bombardment, and their machine gunners kept their triggers pressed, and

bullets played upon the advancing Germans like a stream from a garden

hose.

The troops in the whole division yielded no yard of ground and they hold

that they killed as many Germans as any battalion in this battle. It was

a black day for Germany. More than ten German divisions, probably

thirteen, seem to have been engaged in this attempt to smash our lines

and encircle the three hills. They included some of the enemy's finest

divisions, so they lost quality as well as quantity in this futile

sacrifice of man-power--man-power which seems to mean nothing in flesh

and blood and heart and soul to men like Ludendorff, but is treated as a

material force like guns and ammunition and used as cannon fodder.

Brilliant French Fighters

_Referring to the French troops in this battle, Mr. Gibbs wrote:_

Today again I have been among the thousands of French soldiers. It is

splendid to see them because of their fine bearing. They are men in the

prime of life, not so young as some of the British and with a graver

look than one sees on British faces, when they have not yet reached the

zone of fire. They are men who have seen all that war means during these

years of agony and hope and boredom and death. They have no illusions.

They stare into the face of death unflinchingly and shrug their

shoulders at its worst menace and still have faith in victory.

So I read them, if any man may read the thoughts that lie behind those

bronzed faces with the dark eyes and upturned mustaches under the blue

painted helmets or the black Tam o' Shanters.

They are not gay or boisterous in their humor, and they do not sing like

the British as they march, but they seem to have been born to this war,

and its life is their life, and they are professionals.

The Tricolor passes along the roads of France and Flanders, and French

trumpets ring out across the flat fields below Scherpenberg, and all the

spirit of the French fighting men, who have proved themselves great

soldiers in this war, as for thousands of years of history, is mingled

with our own battalions. Together yesterday they gave the German Army a

hard knock.

The British Guards

_In his cable of May 1 Mr. Gibbs gave details of the extraordinary

heroism of the British Guards. He related incidents which had occurred

April 11 to 14, after the Germans had broken through the Portuguese in

their efforts to widen the gap between Armentières and Merville by

gaining the crossings of the Lys._

The Grenadier, Irish, and Coldstream Guards were sent forward along the

Hazebrouck-Estaires road when the situation was at its worst, when the

men of the 15th Division and other units had fought themselves out in

continual rearguard and holding actions, so that some of those still in

the line could hardly walk or stand, and when it was utterly necessary

to keep the Germans in check until a body of Australian troops had time

to arrive. The Guards were asked to hold back the enemy until those

Australians came and to fight at all costs for forty-eight hours against

the German tide of men and guns which was attempting to flow around the

other hard pressed men, and that is what the Guards did, fighting in

separate bodies with the enemy pressing in on both flanks.

Greatly outnumbered, they beat back attack after attack, and gained

precious hours, vital hours, by the most noble self-sacrifice. A party

of Grenadiers were so closely surrounded that their officer sent back a

message saying:

"My men are standing back to back and shooting on all sides."

The Germans swung around them, circling them with machine guns and

rifles and pouring a fire into them until only eighteen men were left.

Those eighteen, standing among their wounded and their dead, did not

surrender. The army wanted forty-eight hours. They fixed bayonets and

went out against the enemy and drove through him. A wounded Corporal of

Grenadiers, who afterward got back to the British lines, lay in a ditch,

and the last he saw of his comrades was when fourteen men of them were

still fighting in a swarm of Germans.

Fought Back to Back

The Coldstream Guards were surrounded in the same way and fought in the

same way. The army had asked for forty-eight hours until the Australians

could come, and many of the Coldstreamers eked out the time with their

lives. The enemy filtered in on their flanks, came crawling around them

with machine guns, sniped them from short range and raked them from

ditches and upheaved earth.

The Coldstream Guards had to fall back, but they fought back in small

groups, facing all ways and making gaps in the enemy's ranks, not firing

wildly, but using every round of small-arms ammunition to keep a German

back and gain a little more time.

Forty-eight hours is a long time in a war like this. For two days and

nights the Irish Guards, who had come up to support the Grenadiers and

Coldstreamers, tried to make a defensive flank, but the enemy worked

past their right and attacked them on two sides. The Irish Guards were

gaining time. They knew that was all they could do, just drag out the

hours by buying each minute with their blood. One man fell and then

another; but minutes were gained, and quarters of hours and hours.

Small parties of them lowered their bayonets and went out among the gray

wolves swarming around them, and killed a number of them until they also

fell. First one party and then another of these Irish Guards made those

bayonet charges against men with machine guns and volleys of rifle fire.

They bought time at a high price, but they did not stint themselves nor

stop their bidding because of its costliness.

The brigade of Guards here and near Vieux Berquin held out for those

forty-eight hours, and some of them were fighting still when the

Australians arrived, according to the timetable.

Carnage Near Locre

_Mr. Gibbs, in a dispatch dated May 3, gave these vivid descriptions of

the fighting in the Locre-Dranoutre-Kemmel region:_

On April 24 the German bombardment was intensified and spread over a

deep area, destroying villages, tearing up roads, and making a black

vomit of the harrowed fields. Dranoutre, Locre, Westoutre, and other

small towns were violently bombarded. That night the French discovered

that the Germans were preparing an attack for the next morning, to be

preceded by a gas bombardment. The officers warned all their men, and

they stood on the alert with gas masks when at 3:30 in the morning

thousands of gas shells fell over them, mixed with high explosives of

all calibres up to the monster twelve-inch, which burst like volcanic

eruptions.

In the intensity of bombardment several officers who fought at Fleury

said: "This is the most frightful thing we have seen. Verdun was nothing

to it."

All the French troops jammed on gas masks, and on one day put them on

fifty times, only removing them when the wind, which was fairly strong,

blew away the poison fumes until other storms of shells came. For nearly

a week they wore them constantly, sleeping in them, officers giving

orders in them, and the men fighting and dying in them and charging with

the bayonet in them. It was worth the trouble and suffering, for this

French regiment between Locre and Dranoutre had only twelve gas

casualties.

That morning the German attack fell first on Kemmel Hill, which they

turned from the north, and two hours later, the bombardment continuing

all along the line, they developed a strong attack against Dranoutre in

the south in order to take Locre and turn the French right. Until

evening the troops on Kemmel Hill, with a small body of British, still

held out with great devotion in isolated positions, but by 8 o'clock

that morning Kemmel Hill was entirely cut off.

Other British Units in Danger

This was a severe menace to their comrades at Locre and southward,

because both their flanks were threatened. They did heroic things to

safeguard their right and left, which again and again the enemy tried to

pass. I have already told in a previous message how a gallant French

officer and a small company of men made a counterattack at Dranoutre and

held the post there against all odds.

Up by Locre the commandant of the left battalion found machine-gun fire

sweeping his left flank, and his men had to face left to defend their

line. Small parties of Germans with machine guns kept filtering down

from the north and established themselves on the railway in order to

rake the French with an enfilade fire.

One French company, led by devoted officers, counterattacked there five

times with the bayonet into the sweep of those bullets, and by this

sacrifice saved their flank. Another company advanced to hold the

hospice. There was desperate fighting day after day, so that its ruins,

if any bits of wall are left, will be as historic as the château at

Vermelles, or other famous houses of the battlefields.

French and Germans took it turn and turn about, and although the enemy

sent great numbers of men to garrison this place they never were able to

hold it long, because always some young French Lieutenant and a handful

of men stormed it again and routed the enemy. When it was taken last on

April 29, the day of the enemy's severe defeat, the French captured 100

prisoners in the cellars there, and they belonged to fourteen battalions

of four regiments of three divisions, showing the amazing way in which

the enemy's divisions have been flung into confusion by the French fire.

Under Constant Shellfire

On the morning of April 26 French companies made six attacks, and in the

afternoon two more, and though their losses were heavy, that evening

both the village and hospice of Locre stayed in their hands. That night,

their men being exhausted for a time after so many hours under fire,

they withdrew their line a little to the Locre-Bailleul road by the

Château of Locre and west of Dranoutre in order to reorganize a stronger

defense. The German bombardment slackened on the morning of April 28

owing to fog, and those few hours on that day and one other were the

only respite these French troops had from the incessant and infernal

gunfire when, owing to open warfare, "en rase campagne," as the French

call it, as in 1914, without a complete system of trenches or dugouts or

other artificial cover, they were much exposed.

"There were ten big shells a second," one of these officers told me,

"and that lasted, with only two short pauses, for six days all through

the battle, and other shells were uncountable."

The enemy had brought up light artillery and trench mortars almost to

his front lines in Dranoutre Wood and other places and attempted to take

the French in an enfilade fire from Kemmel, but by this time many French

guns were in position, reinforcing the British artillery, and on the

28th they opened up and killed great numbers of the enemy.

Allied aviators saw long columns of Germans on the roads by Neuve Eglise

and in Dranoutre Wood, and signaled to the guns to range on these human

targets. The guns answered. Masses of Germans were smashed by the fire

and panicstricken groups were seen running out of Dranoutre Wood.

Night of Horror for Germans

That night the Germans seemed to be relieving their troops, and again

the French and British guns flung shells into them, and for the enemy it

was a night of death and horror; but the next day, the 29th, the enemy

made reply by a prolonged bombardment, more intense even than before,

and then attacked with new troops all along the line. But the French

also had many fresh troops in line--not those I met yesterday--who at 2

o'clock in the morning went forward into attack and took back the

village. This defeated the enemy's plan of turning the French left.

All through that day the enemy's desperate efforts to break through

were shattered, and that night the French held exactly the same ground

as before and had caused enormous losses to the German divisions, at

least 40 per cent. of their strength, as it is reckoned on close

evidence.

That night even the German guns stopped their drumfire, as though Sixt

von Arnim's army was in mourning for its dead. It was a night of strange

and uncanny silence after the stupendous tumult, but for those French

regiments who had been holding the line for nearly a week it had been a

day of supreme ordeal.

Preparing for Another Advance

_There were no general engagements during the preceding five days nor up

to May 18, but incessant artillery fire was kept up and raids were

constantly made. On May 5 Mr. Gibbs described the difficulties

encountered by the Germans in preparing for a new advance:_

The enemy has many divisions, both up in the Flemish fields and on the

Somme, divisions in line and divisions in reserve--divisions crowded in

reserve--and there are few roads for them down which to march. There is

not much elbow room for such masses to assemble, and not much cover in

trenches or dugouts from high explosives or shrapnel. So we pound them

to death, many of them to death and many of them to stretcher cases, and

relief comes up, gets wildly mixed with the divisions coming down, and

at night there is mad confusion in the ranks of marching men and

transport columns, which gallop past dead horses and splintered wagons

and wrecks of transport columns, and among the regimental and divisional

staffs, trying to keep order in the German way when things are being

smashed into chaos, while the Red Cross convoys are over-loaded with

wounded and unable to cope with all the bodies that lie about.

This is what is happening behind the German lines--I have not overdrawn

the picture, believe me--and it is upsetting somewhat the plans of the

high German officers who are arranging things from afar through

telephones, down which they shout their orders.

"The Drums of Death"

_In his dispatch of May 9 the following was written to describe the

difficulties of the Germans in reorganizing their battered forces:_

From many points the British have complete observation of the enemy's

positions there, as he has of theirs from the other side of the way,

and, needless to say, they are making use of this direct view by

flinging over storms of shells whenever his transport is seen crawling

along the tracks of the old Somme battlefields or his troops are seen

massing among their shell craters.

The town of Albert itself, where once until recent history the golden

Virgin used to lean downward with her babe outstretched above the ruins,

is now a death trap for the German garrisons there and for any German

gunners who try to hide their batteries among the red brick houses. By

day and night their positions are pounded with high explosives and

soaked in asphyxiating gas.

I went within 2,000 yards of it yesterday, and saw the heaviest work of

the British upon it. It was a wonderful May day, as today is, and the

sun shone through a golden haze upon the town. As I looked into Albert

and saw the shells smashing through, and then away up the Albert-Bapaume

road, past the white rim of the great mine crater of La Boiselle to the

treeless slopes of Posières, and over all that ground of hills and

ditches to the high, wooded distant right, with its few dead stumps of

trees, it was hard to believe that all this was in the area of the

German Army, that the white, winding lines freshly marked upon this

bleak landscape were new German trenches, and that the enemy's outposts

were less than 2,000 yards from where I stood.

Fritz Having a "Thin Time"

Some siege gunners were lying on their stomachs and observing the

enemy's lines for some monsters I had seen on my way up, monsters that

raised their snouts slowly, like elephants' trunks, before bellowing out

with an earthquake roar, annihilating all one's senses for a second.

Some of the men passed the remark to me that "Albert isn't the town it

was" and that "Fritz must be having a thin time there." They also

expressed the opinion that the Albert-Bapaume road was not a pleasant

walk for Germans on a sunny afternoon.

I did not dispute these points with them, for they were beyond argument.

Big shells were smashing into Albert and its neighborhood from many

heavy batteries, raising volcanic explosions there, and shrapnel was

bursting over the tracks in white splashes.

_In describing the artillery fire which broke up a threatened assault on

May 5, Mr. Gibbs wrote:_

A new German division, the 52d Reserve, and the 56th German Division

prepared an assault on Ridge Wood. All these men were crowded into

narrow assembly grounds and did not have quiet hours before the moment

of attack. They had hours of carnage in the darkness. British and French

guns were answering back the German bombardment with their heaviest

fire. French howitzers, long-muzzled fellows, which during recent weeks

I had seen crawling through Flanders with the cornflowers, as the French

soldiers call themselves, crowded about them on the gun limbers and

transport wagons and muddy horses, and which had traveled long

kilometers, were now in action from their emplacements between the

ruined villages of the Flemish war zone, and with their little

brothers, the soixante-quinzes, their blood-thirsty little brothers,

were savage in their destruction and harassing fire.

I have seen the soixante-quinze at work and have heard the rafale des

tambours de la mort--the ruffle of the drums of death--as the sound of

their fire is described by all soldier writers of France. It was that

fire, that slashing and sweeping fire, which helped to break up any big

plan of attack against the French troops yesterday morning, and from

those assembly places a great part of the German infantry never moved

all day, but spent their time, it seems, in carrying back their wounded.

Tragic Desolation of Arras

_Mr. Gibbs on May 11 described a visit to Arras, as follows:_

Since the beginning of these great battles in bleak, cold weather Spring

has come, and almost Summer, changing all the aspect of the old

battlefields and of the woods behind craterland and of the cities under

fire.

I went into one of those cities the other day, Arras, which to me and to

many of us out here is a queerly enchanted place because of its beauty,

which survives even three years of bombardment, and because of the many

great memories which it holds in its old houses and streets and the

sense of romance which lurks in its courtyards and squares, reaching

back to ancient history before its death. For Arras is dead and but the

beautiful corpse of the city that was once very fair and noble.

During the recent weeks the enemy has flung many big explosive shells

into it, so that its ruins have become more ruined and many houses

hardly touched before have now been destroyed. It was sad to see this

change, the fresh mangling of stones that had already been scarred, the

heaps of masonry that lay piled about these streets that were utterly

deserted. I walked down many of them and saw no living soul, only a few

lean cats which prowled about, slinking close to the walls and crouching

when a German shell came over with a rending noise.

Bright sunlight shone down these streets, putting a lazy glamour upon

their broken frontages and flinging back shadows from high walls, except

where shell holes let in the light. The cathedral and the great Palace

of the Bishops were unroofed, with tall pillars broken off below the

vaulting and an avalanche of white masonry about them. They were

clear-cut and dazzling under the blue sky, and one was hushed by the

tragic grandeur of these ruins.

One of the British airplanes flew low over the city, and its engine sang

loudly with a vibrant humming, and now and again the crash of a gun or a

shell loosened some stones or plaster below its wings. Other birds were

singing. Spring birds, who are not out for war but sweethearting in the

gardens of Arras.

America's Sacrifice

By Harold Begbie

[By arrangement with The London Chronicle.]

One of the finest moral actions in this war has been done by America. It

is action on a gigantic scale, and yet of a directly personal character.

Insufficient publicity, I think, has been given to this action.

Is it realized by the people of this country that America has already

saved us from capitulating to the enemy? Either we should have been

forced into this surrender (with our armies unbroken and our munitions

of war unexhausted) or we should at this moment be struggling to live

and work and fight on one-third of our present rations.

America is sending to these islands almost two-thirds of our food

supplies. Sixty-five per cent. of the essential foodstuffs eaten by the

British citizen comes to him from the American Continent. This in itself

is something which calls for our lively gratitude. But there is a

quality in the action of America which should intensify our gratitude.

For these American supplies, essential to our health and safety,

represent in very large measure the personal and voluntary

self-sacrifice of the individual American citizen. They are not crumbs

from the table of Dives. They are not the commandeered supplies of an

autocratic Government. They represent, rather, the kindly, difficult,

and entirely willing self-sacrifice of a whole nation, the vast majority

of whom are working people.

There is only one altar for this act of sacrifice--it is the table of

the American working classes. And the rite is performed by men, women,

and children, at every meal of the day, day after day, week after week.

This act of self-sacrifice, let us remember, is made in the midst of

plenty. Well might the American housewife ask why she should deprive her

children of food, why she should institute wheatless and meatless days,

when all about her there is a visible superabundance of these things.

Questions such as this are natural enough on the other side of the

Atlantic, and on the other side of the American continent, 5,000 miles

away from the battlefields of France.

But the citizens of America do not ask such questions. With a

cheerfulness and a courage which are as vigorous as their industry, and

with a moral earnestness which is by far the greatest demonstration

America has yet given to the world of American character, these people

so far away from us on the other side of the Atlantic have willingly and

with no coercion by the State denied themselves for the sake of the

Entente. They are going short, they are going hungry, for our sakes.

They are practicing an intimate self-sacrifice in order that we may hold

our own till their sons come to fight at our side. All over America the

individual American citizen is making this self-sacrifice, and making it

without a murmur. He is feeding, by his personal self-sacrifice, not

only these islands, but France, Italy, and many of the neutrals.

This great demonstration of character has had no other impetus than the

simple declaration of the facts by Herbert Hoover, the man who fed

Belgium. Hoover has told his countrymen how things stand. That is all.

The Winter of 1918, he declared to them, will prove to mankind whether

or not the American Nation "is capable of individual self-sacrifice to

save the world." His propaganda has never descended to unworthy levels.

He has appealed always to the conscience of his countrymen. He has

spoken of "a personal obligation upon every one of us toward some

individual abroad who will suffer privation to the extent of our own

individual negligence."

America has answered this appeal in a manner which marks her out as one

of the greatest moral forces in the world. It should be known out there,

in the farmhouses and cottages of the American Continent, that the

people of this country are mindful of America's self-sacrifice, and are

grateful.

GENERAL STAFF OFFICERS WITH PERSHING

[Illustration:

Brig. Gen. Benjamin Alvord,

_Adjutant_

(© _Harris & Ewing_)]

[Illustration:

Brig. Gen. Andre W. Brewster,

_Inspector_

(© _Harris & Ewing_)]

[Illustration:

Brig. Gen. Edgar Russell,

_Signal Officer_

(_Underwood from Buck_)]

[Illustration:

Brig. Gen. Harry L. Rogers,

_Quartermaster_

(© _Harris & Ewing_)]

PROMINENT IN WAR ACTIVITIES

[Illustration:

Brig. Gen. B. D. Foulois,

_Aviation Officer on Pershing's Staff_

_(Press Illustrating Service)_]

[Illustration:

Dr. F. P. Keppel,

_Recently appointed Assistant Secretary

of War_

_(© Harris & Ewing)_]

[Illustration:

W. C. Potter,

_Chief of Equipment Division of

Signal Corps_

_(© Harris & Ewing)_]

[Illustration:

Brig. Gen. C. B. Wheeler,

Ordnance Officer on Pershing's Staff

_(© Harris & Ewing)_]

American Soldiers in Battle

How They Repelled an Attack at Seicheprey and Fought in Picardy

[MONTH ENDED MAY 20, 1918]

Seicheprey, in the Toul sector, was the scene on April 20, 1918, of the

most determined attack launched against the American forces in France up

to that time. A German regiment, reinforced by storm troops, a total of

1,500, was hurled against the American positions on a one-mile front

west of Remières Forest, northwest of Toul, after a severe bombardment

of gas and high explosive shells. The Germans succeeded in penetrating

the front-line trenches and taking the village of Seicheprey, but after

furious hand-to-hand fighting the American troops recaptured the village

and most of the ground lost in the early fighting.

Next morning, after a brief bombardment, the Americans attacked and

drove the enemy out of the old outposts, which they had gained, and thus

broke down an offensive which, it was believed, was intended as the

beginning of a German plan to separate the Americans and the French. The

French lines also were attacked, but the Germans were repulsed and the

lines re-established.

The losses were the heaviest sustained by Americans since they began

active warfare in France. In a dispatch to the War Department General

Pershing indicated that the losses among his men were between 200 and

300. According to the German official statement 183 Americans were taken

prisoner, so that the American casualties apparently came mostly under

the heading of captured. Official reports of the German losses,

according to a prisoner captured later, gave 600 killed, wounded, and

missing.

IN THE PICARDY BATTLE

"Franco-American positions south of the Somme and on the Avre" were

officially mentioned for the first time in the French War Office report

of April 24, indicating that forces of the United States were there on

the battlefront resisting the great German offensive. The report stated

that an intense bombardment of the positions all along this front was

followed by an attack directed against Hangard-en-Santerre, the region

of Hailles, and Senecat Wood. The Germans were repulsed almost

everywhere.

Formal announcement that American troops sent to reinforce the allied

armies had taken part in the fighting was made by the War Department in

its weekly review of the situation issued on April 29. "Our own forces,"

the statement read, "have taken part in the battle. American units are

in the area east of Amiens. During the engagements which have raged in

this area they have acquitted themselves well."

UNDER INTENSE FIRE

Another heavy attack was launched by the Germans against the Americans

in the vicinity of Villers-Bretonneux on April 30. It was repulsed with

heavy losses for the enemy. The German bombardment opened at 5 o'clock

in the afternoon and was directed especially against the Americans, who

were supported on the north and south by the French. The fire was

intense, and at the end of two hours the German commander sent forward

three battalions of infantry. There was hand-to-hand fighting all along

the line, as a result of which the enemy was thrust back, his dead and

wounded lying on the ground in all directions. The French troops were

full of praise for the manner in which the Americans conducted

themselves under trying circumstances, especially in view of the fact

that they are fighting at one of the most difficult points on the

battlefront. The American losses were rather severe.

The gallantry of the 300 American engineers who were caught in the

opening of the German offensive on March 21 was the subject of a

dispatch from General Pershing made public by the War Department on

April 19. The engineers were among the forces hastily gathered by Major

Gen. Sanderson Carey, the British commander, who stopped the gap in the

line when General Gough's army was driven back. [See diagram on Page

389.] During the period of thirteen days covered by General Pershing's

report, the engineers were almost continuously in action. They were in

the very thick of the hardest days of the great German drive in Picardy.

General Pershing embodied in his report a communication from General

Rawlinson, commander of the British 5th Army, in which the latter

declared that "it has been largely due to your assistance that the enemy

is checked." The report covered the fighting period from March 21 to

April 3. The former date marked the beginning of the Ludendorff

offensive along the whole front from La Fère to Croisilles. It showed

that while under shellfire the American engineers destroyed material

dumps at Chaulnes, that they fell back with the British forces to

Moreuil, where the commands laid out trench work, and were then assigned

to a sector of the defensive line at Demuin, and to a position near

Warfusee-Abancourt.

During the period of thirteen days covered by the report the American

engineers had two officers killed and three wounded, while twenty men

were killed, fifty-two wounded, and forty-five reported missing.

STORY OF CAREY EPISODE

A correspondent of The Associated Press at the front gave this account

of the part played by Americans in the historic episode under General

Carey:

A disastrous-looking gap appeared In the 5th Army south of Hamel in

the later stages of the opening battle. The Germans had crossed the

Somme at Hamel and had a clear path for a sweep southwestward.

No troops were available to throw into the opening. A certain

Brigadier General was commissioned by Major Gen. Gough, commander

of the 5th Army, to gather up every man he could find and to "hold

the gap at any cost." The General called upon the American and

Canadian engineers, cooks, chauffeurs, road workmen, anybody he

could find; gave them guns, pistols, any available weapon, and

rushed them into the gap in trucks, on horseback, or on mule-drawn

limbers.

A large number of machine guns from a machine-gun school near by

were confiscated. Only a few men, however, knew how to operate the

weapons, and they had to be worked by amateurs with one "instructor"

for every ten or twelve guns. The Americans did especially well in

handling this arm.

For two days the detachment held the mile and a half gap. At the end

of the second day the commander, having gone forty-eight hours

without sleep, collapsed. The situation of the detachment looked

desperate.

While all were wondering what would happen next, a dusty automobile

came bounding along the road from the north. It contained Brig. Gen.

Carey, who had been home on leave and who was trying to find his

headquarters.

The General was commandeered by the detachment and he was found to

be just the commander needed. He is an old South African soldier of

the daredevil type. He is famous among his men for the scrapes and

escapades of his school-boy life as well as for his daring exploits

in South Africa.

Carey took the detachment in hand and led it in a series of attacks

and counterattacks which left no time for sleeping and little for

eating. He gave neither his men nor the enemy a rest, attacking

first on the north, then in the centre, then on the south--harassing

the enemy unceasingly with the idea of convincing the Germans that a

large force opposed them.

Whenever the Germans tried to feel him out with an attack at one

point, Carey parried with a thrust somewhere else, even if it took

his last available man, and threw the Germans on the defensive.

The spirit of Carey's troops was wonderful. The work they did was

almost super-natural. It would have been impossible with any body of

men not physical giants, but the Americans and Canadians gloried in

it. They crammed every hour of the day full of fighting. It was a

constantly changing battle, kaleidoscopic, free-for-all,

catch-as-catch-can. The Germans gained ground. Carey and his men

were back at them, hungry for more punishment. At the end of the

sixth day, dog-tired and battle-worn, but still full of fight, the

detachment was relieved by a fresh battalion which had come up from

the rear.

STAFF CHANGES

Major Gen. James W. McAndrew, it was announced on May 3, was appointed

Chief of Staff of the American expeditionary force in succession to

Brig. Gen. James G. Harbord, who was assigned to a command in the field.

Other changes on General Pershing's staff included the appointment of

Lieut. Col. Robert C. Davis as Adjutant General, and Colonel Merritte W.

Ireland as Surgeon General.

The General Staff of the American expeditionary forces in France, as the

result of several changes in personnel, consisted on May 14, 1918, of

the following:

Commander: General John J. Pershing

Aid de Camp: Colonel James L. Collins

Aid de Camp: Colonel Carl Boyd

Aid de Camp: Colonel M. C. Shallenberger

Chief of Staff: Major Gen. J. W. McAndrew

Adjutant: Lieut. Col. Robert C. Davis

Inspector: Brig. Gen. Andre W. Brewster

Judge Advocate: Brig. Gen. Walter A. Bethel

Quartermaster: Brig. Gen. Harry L. Rogers

Surgeon: Colonel Merritte W. Ireland

Engineer: Brig. Gen. Harry Taylor

Ordnance Officer: Brig. Gen. C. B. Wheeler

Signal Officer: Brig. Gen. Edgar Russell

Aviation Officer: Brig. Gen. B. D. Foulois

President Wilson on May 4 pardoned two soldiers of the American

expeditionary force who had been condemned to death by a military

court-martial in France for sleeping on sentry duty and commuted to

nominal prison terms the death sentences imposed on two others for

disobeying orders.

HEALTH OF THE SOLDIERS

Major Hugh H. Young, director of the work of dealing with communicable

blood diseases in our army in France, made this striking statement on

May 12 regarding the freedom of the American expeditionary force from

such diseases:

In making plans for this department of medical work in France it

had been calculated by the medical authorities in Washington to

have ten 1,000-bed hospitals, in which a million men could receive

treatment, but with 500,000 Americans in France there is not one of

the five allotted Americans in any of the hospitals now running,

and only 500 cases of this type of disease needing hospital

treatment, instead of the expected 5,000.

In other words, instead of having 1 per cent. of our soldiers in

hospitals from social diseases, as had been expected, the actual

number is only one-tenth of 1 per cent. There is no reason to doubt

that this record will be maintained. The hospitals prepared for

this special treatment are to be used for other cases.

This means that the American Army is the cleanest in the world. The

results, according to Major Young, have been achieved by preventive

steps taken by the American medical directors, coupled with the

co-operation of the men.

Overseas Forces More Than Half a Million

Preparing for an Army of 3,000,000

The overseas fighting forces of the United States have been increasing

at a much more rapid rate than the public was aware of. Early in May the

number of our men in France was in excess of 500,000. A great increase

in the ultimate size of the army was further indicated when the War

Department asked the House Military Affairs Committee for a new

appropriation of $15,000,000,000.

Mr. Baker, Secretary of War, appeared before the committee on April 23

and, after describing the results of his inspection of the army in

France, said that the size of the army that the United States would send

abroad was entirely dependent upon the shipping situation. Troops were

already moving to France at an accelerated rate.

President Wilson, through Mr. Baker, presented the House Military

Affairs Committee on May 2 with proposals for increasing the army. The

President asked that all limits be removed on the number of men to be

drafted for service. Mr. Baker said that he declined to discuss the

numbers of the proposed army "for the double reason that any number

implies a limit, and the only possible limit is our ability to equip and

transport men, which is constantly on the increase."

The Administration's plans were submitted in detail on May 3, when the

committee began the preparation of the army appropriation bill carrying

$15,000,000,000 to finance the army during the fiscal year ending June

30, 1919. Mr. Baker again refused to go into the question of figures,

but it became known at the Capitol that the estimates he submitted were

based on a force of not fewer than 3,000,000 men and 160,000 officers in

the field by July 1, 1919. The plan contemplated having 130,000 officers

and 2,168,000 men, or a total of 2,298,000, in the field and in camps by

July 1, 1918, and approximately an additional million in the field

before June 30, 1919.

Mr. Baker said that all the army camps and cantonments were to be

materially enlarged, to take care of the training of the men to be

raised in the next twelve months. The General Staff had this question

under careful consideration, and the idea was to increase the size of

existing training camps rather than to establish new camps. These camps,

it was estimated, already had facilities for training close to a million

men at one time.

The Secretary of War also made it clear that the total of

$15,000,000,000 involved in the estimates as revised for the new army

bill did not cover the whole cost of the army for the next fiscal year.

The $15,000,000,000, he explained, was in addition to the large sums

that would be carried in the Fortifications Appropriation bill, which

covers the cost of heavy ordnance both in the United States and

overseas. Nor did it include the Military Academy bill. It was

emphasized that, although estimates were submitted on the basis of an

army of a certain size, Congress was being asked for blanket authority

for the President to raise all the men needed, and the approximate

figures of $15,000,000,000 could be increased by deficiency

appropriations.

It was brought out in the committee that the transportation service had

improved and that the War Department was able to send more men to France

each month. It was estimated that if transport facilities continued to

improve, close to 1,500,000 fighting men would be on the western front

by Dec. 31, 1918. The United States had now in camp and in the field,

it was explained to the committee, the following enlisted men and

officers:

Enlisted men 1,765,000

Officers 120,000

Total 1,885,000

Provost Marshal General Crowder announced on May 8 that 1,227,000

Americans had been called to the colors under the Selective Draft act,

thereby indicating approximately the strength of the national army.

Additional calls during May for men to be in camp by June 2 affected

something like 366,600 registrants under the draft law. These men were

largely intended to fill up the camps at home, replacing the seasoned

personnel from the divisions previously training there. With the

increase of the number of divisions in France, the flow of replacement

troops was increasing proportionately.

In regard to the number of men in France, Mr. Baker on May 8 made the

following important announcement:

In January I told the Senate committee that there was strong

likelihood that early in the present year 500,000 American troops

would be dispatched to France. I cannot either now or perhaps later

discuss the number of American troops in France, but I am glad to be

able to say that the forecast I made in January has been surpassed.

This was the first official utterance indicating even indirectly the

number of men sent abroad. The first force to go was never described

except as a division, although as a matter of fact it was constituted

into two divisions soon after its arrival in France.

An Associated Press dispatch dated May 17 announced that troops of the

new American Army had arrived within the zone of the British forces in

Northern France and were completing their training in the area occupied

by the armies which were blocking the path of the Germans to the Channel

ports. The British officers who were training the Americans stated that

the men from overseas were of the finest material. The newcomers were

warmly greeted by the British troops and were reported to be full of

enthusiasm.

American Troops in Central France

By Laurence Jerrold

_This friendly British view of our soldiers in France is from the pen of

a noted war correspondent of The London Morning Post_

I have recently visited the miniature America now installed in France,

and installed in the most French part of Central France. There is

nothing more French than these ancient towns with historic castles,

moats, dungeons, and torture chambers, these old villages, where farms

are sometimes still battlemented like small castles, and this

countryside where living is easy and pleasant. On to this heart of

France has descended a whole people from across the ocean, a people that

hails from New England and California, from Virginia and Illinois. The

American Army has taken over this heart of France, and is teaching it to

"go some". Townsfolk and villagers enjoy being taught. The arrival of

the American Army is a revelation to them.

I was surprised at first to find how fresh a novelty an allied army was

in this part of France. Then I remembered that these little towns and

villages have in the last few months for the first time seen allies of

France. The ports where the American troops land have seen many other

allies; they saw, indeed, in August, 1914, some of the first British

troops land, whose reception remains in the recollection of the

inhabitants as a scene of such fervor and loving enthusiasm as had never

been known before and probably will not be known again. In fact, to put

it brutally, French ports are blasé. But this Central France for the

first time welcomes allied troops. It is true they had seen some

Russians, but the least said of them now the better. Some of the

Russians are still there, hewing wood for three francs a day per head,

and behaving quite peaceably.

These old towns and villages look upon the American Army in their midst

as the greatest miracle they have ever known, and a greater one than

they ever could have dreamed of. One motors through scores of little

towns and villages where the American soldier, in his khaki, his soft

hat, (which I am told is soon to be abolished,) and his white gaiters,

swarms. The villagers put up bunting, calico signs, flags, and have

stocks of American "canned goods" to show in their shop windows. The

children, when bold, play with the American soldiers, and the children

that are more shy just venture to go up and touch an American soldier's

leg. Very old peasant ladies put on their Sunday black and go out

walking and in some mysterious way talking with American soldiers. The

village Mayor turns out and makes a speech utterly incomprehensible to

the American soldier, whenever a fresh contingent of the latter arrives.

The 1919 class, just called up, plays bugles and shouts "Good morning"

when an American car comes by.

Vice versa, this Central France is perhaps even more of a miracle to the

American troops than the American troops are to it. To watch the

American trooper from Arkansas or Chicago being shown over a castle

which is not only older than the United States, but was in its prime

under Louis XII., and dates back to a Roman fortress now beneath it, is

a wonderful sight. Here the American soldier shows himself a charming

child. There is nothing of the "Innocents Abroad" about him. I heard

scarcely anything (except about telephones and railways) of any American

brag of modernism in this ancient part of France. On the contrary, the

soldier is learning with open eyes, and trying to learn with open ears,

all these wonders of the past among which he has been suddenly put. The

officer, too, even the educated officer, is beautifully astonished at

all this past, which he had read about, but which, quite possibly, he

didn't really believe to exist. The American officers who speak

French--and there are some of them, coming chiefly from the Southern

States--are, of course, heroes in every town, and sought after in cafés

at recreation hours by every French officer and man. Those who do not

know French are learning it, and I remember a picturesque sight, that of

a very elderly, prim French governess in black, teaching French to

American subalterns in a Y.M.C.A. canteen.

A great French preacher the other day, in his sermon in a Paris church,

said that this coming to France of millions of English troops and future

millions of American troops may mean eventually one of the greatest

changes in Continental Europe the world has ever known. His words never

seemed to me so full of meaning as they did when I was among the

Americans in the heart of France. There, of course, the contrast is

infinitely greater than it can be in the France which our own troops are

occupying and defending. These young, fresh, hustling, keen Americans,

building up numerous works of all kinds to prepare for defending France,

have brought with them Chinese labor and negro labor; and Chinese and

negroes and German and Austrian prisoners all work in these American

camps under American officers' orders. Imagine what an experience, what

a miracle, indeed, this spectacle seems to the country-folk of this old

French soil, who have always lived very quietly, who never wanted to go

anywhere else, and who knew, indeed, that France had allies fighting and

working for her, but had never seen any of them until these Americans

came across three thousand miles of ocean.

Something of a miracle, also, is what our new allies are accomplishing.

They are doing everything on a huge scale. I saw aviation camps,

training camps, aviation schools, vast tracts where barracks were being

put up, railways built, telegraphs and telephones installed by Chinese

labor, negro labor, German prisoners' labor, under the direction of

American skilled workmen, who are in France by the thousand. There are

Y.M.C.A. canteens, Red Cross canteens, clubs for officers and for men,

theatres and cinemas for the army, and a prodigious amount of food--all

come from America. The hams alone I saw strung up in one canteen would

astonish the boches. American canned goods, meat, fruit, condensed milk,

meal, &c., have arrived in France in stupendous quantities. No body of

American troops land in France until what is required for their

sustenance several weeks ahead is already stored in France. Only the

smallest necessaries are bought on the spot, and troops passing through

England on their way to France are strictly forbidden, both officers and

men, to buy any article of food whatsoever in England. As for the

quality, the American has nothing to complain of, so far as I could see.

All pastry, cakes, sweets are henceforth prohibited throughout civilian

France, but the American troops rightly have all these things in plenty.

I saw marvelous cakes and tarts, which would create a run on any Paris

or London teashop, and the lady who manages one American Red Cross

canteen (by the way, she is an Englishwoman, and is looked up to by the

American military authorities as one of the best organizers they have

met) explained to me wonderful recipes they have for making jam with

honey and preserved fruit. The bread, of course, they make themselves,

and, as is right, it is pure white flour bread, such as no civilian

knows nowadays.

One motors through scores of villages and more, and every little old

French spot swarms with American Tommies billeted in cottages and

farmhouses. Many of them marched straight to their billets from their

landing port, and the experience is as wonderful for them, just spirited

over from the wilds of America, as it is for the villagers who welcome

these almost fabulous allies. But it is the engineering, building, and

machinery works the Americans are putting up which are the most

astonishing. Gangs of workers have come over in thousands. Many of these

young chaps are college men, Harvard or Princeton graduates. They dig

and toil as efficiently as any laborer, and perhaps with more zeal. One

American Major told me with glee how a party of these young workers

arrived straight from America at 3:30 P. M., and started digging at 5

A. M. next morning. "And they liked it; it tickled them to death." Many

of these drafts, in fact, were sick and tired of inaction in ports

before their departure from America, and they welcomed work in France as

if it were some great game.

Perhaps the biggest work of all the Americans are doing is a certain

aviation camp and school. In a few months it has neared completion, and

when it is finished it will, I believe, be the biggest of its kind in

the world. There pilots are trained, and trained in numbers which I may

not say, but which are comforting. The number of airplanes they use

merely for training, which also I must not state, is in itself

remarkable. "Training pilots is the one essential thing," I was told by

the C.O. These flying men--or boys--who have, of course, already been

broken in in America, do an additional course in France, and when they

leave the aviation camp I saw they are absolutely ready for air fighting

at the front. This is the finishing school. The aviators go through

eight distinct courses in this school. They are perfected in flying, in

observation, in bombing, in machine-gun firing. On even a cloudy and

windy day the air overhead buzzes with these young American fliers, all

getting into the pink of condition to do their stunts at the front. They

seemed to me as keen as our own flying men, and as well disciplined.

They live in the camp, and it requires moving heaven and earth for one

of them to get leave to go even to the nearest little quiet old town.

The impression is the same of the American bases in France as of the

American front in France. I found there and here one distinctive

characteristic, the total absence of bluff. I was never once told that

we were going to be shown how to win the war. I was never once told that

America is going to win the war. I never heard that American men and

machines are better than ours, but I did hear almost apologies from

American soldiers because they had not come into the war sooner. They

are, I believe, spending now more money than we are--indeed, the pay of

their officers is about double that of ours. I said something about the

cost. "Yes, but you see we must make up for lost time," was all the

American General said. And he told me about the splendid training work

that is being done now in the States by British and French officers who

have gone out there knowing what war is, and who teach American officers

and men from first-hand experience. This particular General hoped that

by this means in a very short time American troops arriving in France

may be sent much more quickly to the front than is now the case.

An impression of complete, businesslike determination is what one gets

when visiting the Americans in France. A discipline even stricter than

that which applies in British and French troops is enforced. In towns,

officers, for instance, are not allowed out after 9 P. M. Some towns

where subalterns discovered the wine of the country have instantly been

put "out of bounds." No officer, on any pretext whatsoever, is allowed

to go to Paris, except on official business. From the camps they are not

even allowed to go to the neighboring towns. They have, to put it quite

frankly, a reputation of wild Americanism to live down, and they

sometimes surprise the French by their seriousness. It is a striking

sight to see American officers and men flocking into tiny little French

Protestant churches on Sundays in this Catholic heart of France. The

congregation is a handful of old French Huguenots, and the ancient,

rigid French pasteur never in his life preached to so many, and

certainly never to soldiers from so far. They come from so far, and from

such various parts, these Americans, and for France, as well as for

themselves, it is a wonderful experience. I was told that the postal

censors who read the letters of the American expeditionary force are

required to know forty-seven languages. Of these languages the two least

used are Chinese and German.

American Shipbuilders Break All Records

Charles M. Schwab Speeds the Work

[MONTH ENDED MAY 15, 1918]

All shipbuilding records have been broken by American builders in the

last month. On May 14 it was announced that the first million tons of

ships had been completed and delivered to the United States Government

under the direction of the Shipping Board. The actual figures on May 11

showed the number of ships to be 159, aggregating 1,108,621 tons. More

than half of this tonnage was delivered since Jan. 1, 1918. Most of

these ships were requisitioned on the ways or in contract form when the

United States entered the war. This result had been anticipated in the

monthly records, which showed a steady increase in the tonnage launched:

Number of

Ships Aggregate

Month. Launched. Tonnage.

January 11 91,541

February 16 123,100

March 21 166,700

The rapidity with which ships are being produced was shown by the

breaking of the world's record on April 20 and in turn the breaking of

this record on May 5. On the former date the 8,800-ton steel steamship

West Lianga was launched at Seattle, Wash., fifty-five working days from

the date the keel was laid. This was then the world's record. But on May

5 at Camden, N. J., the steel freight steamship Tuckahoe, of 5,548 tons,

was launched twenty-seven days after the keel was laid.

Ten days after this extraordinary achievement the Tuckahoe was finished

and furnished and ready for sea--another record feat.

Charles M. Schwab, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bethlehem

Steel Corporation, was on April 16, 1918, appointed Director General of

the Emergency Fleet Corporation to speed up the Government's

shipbuilding program. He was invested with practically unlimited powers

over all construction work in shipyards producing vessels for the

Emergency Fleet Corporation. Charles Piez in consequence ceased to be

General Manager of the Corporation, remaining, however, as Vice

President to supervise administrative details of construction and

placing contracts.

Mr. Schwab, who was the fifth man to be put in charge of the

shipbuilding program, was not desirous of accepting the position when

first approached because he considered his work in producing steel of

first importance in the carrying out of the nation's war program. But

after a conference with President Wilson, Edward N. Hurley, Chairman of

the Shipping Board; Bainbridge Colby, another member of the board, and

Charles Piez, he decided to accept the new position.

Almost the first thing Mr. Schwab did was to move his headquarters to

Philadelphia as the centre of the steel-shipbuilding region, taking with

him all the division chiefs of the Fleet Corporation directly connected

with construction work and about 2,000 employes. The Shipping Board and

Mr. Piez retained their offices in Washington with 1,500 subordinates

and employes. As a further step toward decentralization it was arranged

to move the operating department, including agencies such as the

Interallied Ship Control Committee, headed by P. A. S. Franklin, to New

York City.

The original "cost-plus" contract under which the Submarine Boat

Corporation of Newark was to build 160 ships of 5,000 tons for the

Government was canceled by Mr. Schwab as an experiment to determine

whether shipyards operating under lump-sum contracts and accepting all

responsibility for providing materials could make greater speed in

construction than those operating with Government money, such as the Hog

Island yards. The result was to increase the cost of each of the 160

ships from $787,500 to $960,000.

A request for an appropriation of $2,223,835,000 for the 1919 program

was presented by Mr. Hurley and Mr. Schwab to the House Appropriations

Committee on May 8.

Of this total $1,386,100,000 was for construction of ships and

$652,000,000 for the purchasing and requisitioning of plants and

material in connection with the building program.

Third Liberty Loan Oversubscribed

Approximately 17,000,000 Buyers

When the Third Liberty Loan, raised to finance America's war needs,

closed on May 4, 1918, the subscriptions were well over $4,000,000,000,

a billion in excess of the amount called for. The total was announced on

May 17 as $4,170,019,650. Secretary McAdoo stated that he would allot

bonds in full on all subscriptions.

The loan was regarded as the most successful ever floated by any nation,

not so much because of the volume of sales, but because of the wide

distribution of the loan. Approximately 17,000,000 individuals

subscribed, that is, about one person in every six in the United States.

The number of buyers in the Third Loan exceeded those in the Second by

7,000,000 and those in the First by 12,500,000.

The campaign throughout the country was conducted with all the

thoroughness of a great political struggle, with the difference that

there were no contending parties and all forces were marshaled to make

the loan a success. Nor was the campaign merely a display of efficient

organization and vigorous propaganda. It had many features of dramatic

and picturesque interest, not only in the large cities, but in almost

every smaller centre of the nation. A noonday rally of 50,000 men and

women in Wall Street, New York, on the closing day, was typical. An

eyewitness described it thus:

The Police Department Band appeared and the band of the 15th Coast

Artillery from Fort Hamilton. Taking advantage of the occasion,

James Montgomery Flagg now appeared in his studio van on the

southern fringe of the Broad Street crowd. A girl with him played

something on the cornet. It was a good deal like a show on the

Midway at a Western county fair. But this was no faker--one of the

most famous artists in America, throwing in a signed sketch of

whoever bought Liberty bonds. Those near him began pushing and

crowding to take advantage of the offer.

And now, suddenly, a tremendous racket up the street toward

Broadway. Who comes?

Cheer on cheer, now. It is the "Anzacs." Twelve long, rangy fellows,

officers all, six or seven of them with the little brass "A" on the

shoulder, which signifies service at Gallipoli and in Flanders. They

are members of the contingent of 500 which arrived here yesterday on

its way to the battlefields of France. They run lightly up the

Sub-Treasury steps and take their stand in a group beside the

soldier band.

And now they all come--all the actors in the drama of the day.

Governor Whitman, bareheaded, solemn-faced; Rabbi Stephen Wise, with

his rugged face and his shock of blue-black hair; Mme.

Schumann-Heink, panting a little with excitement; Auguste Bouilliz,

baritone of the Royal Opera of Brussels, who later is to thrill them

all with his singing of the "Marseillaise"; Cecil Arden, in a

shining helmet and draped in the Union Jack, come to sing "God Save

the King," while the sunburned Australian officers stand like

statues at salute; Oscar Straus, and then--

"Yee-ee-ee-eee."

Oh, how they cheered! For the "Blue Devils" of France had poured out

of the door of the Sub-Treasury and, with the fitful sun shining

once more and gleaming on their bayonets, were running down the

steps in two lines, past the "Anzacs," past the soldier band, to

draw up in ranks at the bottom.

Lieutenant de Moal speaks. What does he say? Who knows? But he is

widely cheered, just the same, as he gives way to Governor Whitman.

"There are gatherings like this, though not so large, all over our

land today," cries the Governor. "In every town and city we

Americans are gathered together at this moment to demonstrate that

we are behind our army, behind our navy, behind our President."

The cheers that acclaimed his mention of the President drowned his

voice for several moments.

"Here are the Australians," he cries, pointing to the "Anzac"

officers. "They have brought us a message, but we are going to give

them a message, too."

As the Governor stepped back to cheers that rocked the street,

Lieutenant de Moal barked a sharp order, and the "Blue Devils"

shouldered their guns with fixed bayonets, the six trumpeters

ta-ra-ta-raed, and the soldiers of France moved off up the sidewalk

lane to the side door of the Stock Exchange, where all business was

suspended during the fifteen minutes of their visit on the floor.

Four of the "Anzacs" meanwhile were taken from their ranks on the

steps of the building up to the pedestal of the statue of

Washington, which was used as speaker's platform, and Captain Frank

McCallam made a brief address.

"We haven't many men left," he said simply. "And it is up to you

people to help us out to the best of your ability."

More cheers, and then Cecil Arden sang "God Save the King." The

American regular fired a blank volley over the heads of the crowd,

and the kids scrambled for the empty shells.

Following Wise and Straus, Bouilliz, the Belgian baritone, sang the

"Marseillaise," and then, after the soldier band had played "Where

Do We Go from Here, Boys?" Mme. Schumann-Heink advanced and sang the

national anthem, following it up with an appeal that was the climax

to the play.

Less exciting but more impressive was the parade on April 26, when

thousands of mothers who had sent their sons to the front marched in a

column of 35,000 men and women in the Liberty Day parade in New York

City. This day had been proclaimed as such by President Wilson for "the

people of the United States to assemble in their respective communities

and liberally pledge anew their financial support to sustain the

nation's cause, and to hold patriotic demonstrations in every city,

town, and hamlet throughout the land."

The challenge of the mothers was inscribed on one of the banners they

carried: "We give our sons--they give their lives--what do you give?"

Remarkable as was the appearance of these mothers with the little

service flags over their shoulders, many of them so old that they

marched with difficulty, the spectators who flanked the line of march

along Fifth Avenue from Washington Square to Fifty-ninth Street found it

even more thrilling to note that so very many of them, whether they were

mothers or young wives, or just young girls proud of the brothers that

had gone forth to service--so very many of them carried service flags

with three and four and five and even six stars, and occasionally a

glint of the sun would even carry the eye to a gold star, which meant,

whenever it appeared, a veil of mourning for a wooden cross somewhere in

France.

Among the minor but ingenious forms of publicity was the Liberty Loan

ball which was rolled from Buffalo to New York, a distance of 470 miles,

and which ended its journey of three weeks on May 4 at the City Hall.

The ball was a large steel shell covered with canvas.

Every community that reached or exceeded its quota to the loan was

entitled to raise a flag of honor specially designed for the purpose. At

least 32,000 communities gained the honor and raised the flag.

To strengthen the financial basis of the nation's war industries and use

monetary resources to the best advantage the War Finance Corporation

bill was passed by Congress and approved by President Wilson on April 5,

1918. The two main purposes of the act are to provide credits for

industries and enterprises necessary or contributory to the prosecution

of the war and to supervise new issues of capital. The act creates the

War Finance Corporation, consisting of the Secretary and four additional

persons, with $500,000,000 capital stock, all subscribed by the United

States. Banks and trust companies financing war industries or

enterprises may receive advances from the corporation.

Former War Loans of the United States

A Historical Retrospect

_The United States Government asked for $2,000,000,000 on the First

Liberty Loan in the Spring of 1917, and $3,034,000,000 was subscribed by

over 4,000,000 subscribers. For the Second Loan, near the end of 1917,

$3,000,000,000 was sought, and $4,617,532,300 was subscribed by

9,420,000 subscribers._

_The Guaranty Trust Company of New York in a recent brochure reviewed

the history of the various war loans of the United States, beginning

with the Revolutionary loans, as follows:_

When the patriots at Lexington "fired the shot heard 'round the world,"

the thirteen Colonies found themselves suddenly in the midst of war, but

with practically no funds in their Treasuries. The Continental Congress

was without power to raise money by taxation, and had to depend upon

credit bills and requisitions drawn against the several Colonies. France

was the first foreign country to come to the aid of struggling America,

the King of France himself advancing us our first loan. All told,

France's loan was $6,352,500; Holland loaned us $1,304,000; and Spain

assisted us with $174,017. Our loan from France was repaid between 1791

and 1795 to the Revolutionary Government of France; the Holland loan

during the same period in five annual installments, and the Spanish loan

in 1792-3.

Our first domestic war loan of £6,000 was made in 1775, and the loan was

taken at par. A year and a half later found Congress laboring under

unusual difficulties. Boston and New York were held by the enemy, the

patriot forces were retreating, and the people were as little inclined

to submit to domestic taxation as they had formerly been to "taxation

without representation." To raise funds even a lottery was attempted. In

October, 1776, Congress authorized a second loan for $5,000,000. It was

not a pronounced success, only $3,787,000 being raised in twelve months.

In 1778 fourteen issues of paper money were authorized as the only way

to meet the expenses of the army. By the end of the year 1779 Congress

had issued $200,000,000 in paper money, while a like amount had been

issued by the several States. In 1781, as a result of this financing and

of the general situation, Continental bills of credit had fallen 99 per

cent.

Then came Robert Morris, that genius of finance, who found ways to raise

the money which assured the triumph of the American cause. By straining

his personal credit, which was higher than that of the Government, he

borrowed upon his own individual security on every hand. On one occasion

he borrowed from the commander of the French fleet, securing the latter

with his personal obligation. If Morris and other patriotic citizens had

not rendered such assistance to the Government, some of the most

important campaigns of the Revolutionary War would have been impossible.

Following came the Bank of Pennsylvania, which issued its notes--in

effect, loans--to provide rations and equipment for Washington's army at

Valley Forge. These notes were secured by bills of exchange drawn

against our envoys abroad, but it was never seriously intended that they

should be presented for payment. The bank was a tremendous success in

securing the money necessary to carry out its patriotic purposes, and

was practically the first bank of issue in this country.

With the actual establishment of the United States and the adoption of

the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton came forward with a funding scheme

by which the various debts owed to foreign countries, to private

creditors, and to the several States were combined. In 1791, on a specie

basis, our total debt was $75,000,000. The paper dollar was practically

valueless and the people were forced to give the Government adequate

powers to raise money and to impose taxes. Between that date and 1812

thirteen tariff bills were passed to raise money to meet public

expenditures and pay off the national debt.

THE WAR OF 1812.

For some time previous to the actual outbreak of the War of 1812

hostilities had been predicted. In a measure, this enabled Congress to

prepare for it. And although the war did not begin until June of 1812,

as early as March of that year a loan of $11,000,000, bearing 6 per

cent. at par, to be paid off within 12 years from the beginning of 1813,

was authorized. Of this, however, only $2,150,000 was issued, and all

was redeemed by 1817. The next year a loan of $16,000,000 was authorized

and subscribed. This was followed, in August, by a loan of $7,500,000

which sold at 88-1/4 per cent.

At the end of the war the total loans negotiated by the Government

aggregated $88,000,000. The nation's public debt, as a result of this

war, was increased to $127,334,933 in 1816. By 1835, either by

redemptions or maturity, it was all paid.

MEXICAN WAR LOANS

The Mexican War net debt incurred by the United States was approximately

$49,000,000 and was financed by loans in the form of Treasury notes and

Government stock. The Treasury notes, under the act of 1846, totaled

$7,687,800 and the stock $4,999,149. The latter paid 6 per cent.

interest. By act of 1847 Treasury notes to the amount of $26,122,100

were issued, bearing interest in the discretion of the Secretary of the

Treasury, reimbursable one and two years after date, and convertible

into United States stock at 6 per cent. They were redeemable after Dec.

31, 1867. Economic developments following this war led to a period of

extraordinary industrial prosperity which lasted for several years. A

change in the fiscal policy of the Government, with overexpansion of

industry, however, resulted in a panic in 1857 and a Treasury deficit in

1858. The debt contracted in consequence of the Mexican War was redeemed

in full by 1874.

The situation had not improved to any great extent when Lincoln took

office on March 4, 1861, and by mid-November of that year a panic was

in full swing. The outbreak of the civil war found the Treasury empty

and the financial machinery of the Government seriously disorganized.

Public credit was low, the public mind was disturbed, and raising money

was difficult. In 1862 the Legal Tender act was passed, authorizing an

issue of $150,000,000 of legal-tender notes, and an issue of bonds in

the amount of $500,000,000 was authorized.

This proved to be a most popular loan. The bonds were subject to

redemption after five years and were payable in twenty years. They bore

interest at 6 per cent., payable semi-annually, and were issued in

denominations of $50, $100, $500, and $1,000. Through one agent, Jay

Cooke, a genius at distribution, who employed 2,850 sub-agents and

advertised extensively, this loan was placed directly with the people at

par in currency. Altogether the aggregate of this loan was $514,771,600.

Later in that year Congress authorized a second issue of Treasury notes

in the amount of $150,000,000 at par, with interest at 6 per cent.; in

January, 1863, a third issue of $100,000,000 was authorized, which was

increased in March to $150,000,000, at 5 per cent. interest. These

issues were referred to as the "one and two year issues of 1863."

DEFICIT IN 1862

In December, 1862, Congress had to face a deficit of $277,000,000 and

unpaid requisitions amounting to $47,000,000. By the close of 1863

nearly $400,000,000 had been raised by bond sales. A further loan act,

passed March 3, 1864, provided for an issue of $200,000,000 of 5 per

cent. bonds known as "ten-fortys," but of this total only $73,337,000

was disposed of. Subsequently, on June 30, 1864, a great public loan of

$200,000,000 was authorized. This was an issue of Treasury notes,

payable at any time not exceeding three years, and bearing interest at

7-3/10 per cent. Notes amounting to $828,800,000 were sold. The

aggregate of Government loans during the civil war footed up a total of

$2,600,700,000; and on Sept. 1, 1865, the public debt closely

approached $3,000,000,000, less than one-half of which was funded.

Civil war loans, with one exception, which sold at 89-3/10, were all

placed at par in currency, subject to commissions ranging from an eighth

to one per cent. to distributing bankers. The average interest nominally

paid by the Government on its bonds during the war was slightly under 6

per cent. Owing to payment being made in currency, however, the rate

was, in reality, much higher. With the conclusion of the war, the

reduction of the public debt was undertaken, and it has continued with

but two interruptions to date.

Heavy tax receipts for several years after the close of the war

potentially enabled the Government to reduce its debt. Indeed, from 1866

to 1891, each year's ordinary receipts exceeded disbursements, and

enabled the Government to lighten its financial burdens. In 1866 the

decrease in the net debt was $120,395,408; in 1867, $127,884,952; in

1868, $27,297,798; in 1869, $48,081,540; in 1870, $101,601,917; in 1871,

$84,175,888; in 1872, $97,213,538, and in 1873, $44,318,470.

Through refunding operations--in addition to bonds and short-time

obligations redeemed with surplus revenues--the Government paid off, up

to 1879, $535,000,000 bonds bearing interest at from 5 to 6 per cent. In

this year the credit of the Government was on a 4 per cent. basis, and a

year later on a 3-1/4 per cent. basis, against a maximum basis of 15-1/2

per cent. in 1864.

Between 1881 and 1887 the Governzment paid off, either with surplus

revenues or by conversion, $618,000,000 of interest-bearing debt. In

1891 all bonds then redeemable were retired, and on July 1, 1893, the

public debt amounted to less than one-third of the maximum outstanding

in 1865. In 1900 the Government converted $445,900,000 bonds out of an

aggregate of $839,000,000 convertible under the refunding act passed by

Congress in that year. And further conversions in 1903, 1905, and 1907

brought the grand total up to $647,250,150--a result which earned for

the Government a net annual saving in interest account of $16,551,037.

SPANISH WAR LOANS

The United States is a debt-paying nation. Hence, America's credit,

despite occasional fluctuations, has steadily risen, and our national

debt has sold on a lower income basis than that of any other nation in

the world.

Following the sinking of the Maine in Havana Harbor, in 1898, Congress

authorized an issue of $200,000,000 3 per cent. ten-twenty-year bonds.

Of this aggregate $198,792,660 were sold by the Government at par. So

popular was this loan, it was oversubscribed seven times. During the

year 1898, following the allotment to the public, this issue sold at a

premium, the price going to 107-3/4, and, during the next year, to

110-3/4. After the war ended, the Government, in accordance with its

unvarying custom, began to pay off this debt; but, despite the Secretary

of the Treasury's offer to buy these bonds, he succeeded in purchasing

only about $20,000,000 of them.

[Illustration]

American Labor Mission in Europe

War Aims of Organized Workers Conveyed to English and French Labor

Unions

An American Labor Mission visited England and France in April, 1918, to

present the views of American workingmen regarding the war. The

delegation numbered eighteen, headed by James Wilson, President of the

Patternmakers' League of North America. In his first address at London,

April 28, before the British and Foreign Press Association, Mr. Wilson

said:

We recognize as a fundamental truth that there can be no democracy

with the triumph of the Imperial German Government. The principle of

democracy or the principle of Prussian military autocracy will

prevail as a result of the world war. There can be no middle course

nor compromise. The contest must be carried on to its finality.

The Central Powers have staked everything on the result of this

struggle. Their defeat means the destruction of a machine which has

been built with remarkable efficiency and embodies the very life of

the German race.

On the other hand, every free man instinctively appreciates that if

we are to maintain the standard of civilization as worked out by the

free men of the world, and if posterity is to be guaranteed

political and industrial freedom, the war must be won by the allied

countries. Peace now would be the fulfillment of the Prussian dream,

for they have within their grasp the very heart of Continental

Europe and resources which would make sure further conquest upon the

other nations of the world.

The American labor movement, in whose behalf my colleagues and

myself have been authorized to speak, declare most emphatically that

they will not agree to a peace conference with the enemies of

civilization, irrespective of what cloak they wear, until Prussian

militarism has withdrawn within its own boundaries, and then not

until the Germans have, through proper representatives, proved to

our satisfaction that they recognize the right of peoples and

civilized nations to determine for themselves what shall be their

standard.

Unless reconstruction shall soon come from the German workers within

that country, it is now plain that the opportunity to uproot the

agencies of force will only come when democracy has defeated

autocracy in the military field and wins the right to reconstruct

the relations between nations and men.

German freedom is ultimately the problem of the German people, but

the defeat of Prussian autocracy in the field will bring the

opportunity for German liberty at home.

BRITISH SEAMEN'S ATTITUDE

J. Havelock Wilson, President of the British Seamen's Union, conferred

with the American Mission at London, April 30, and informed it of the

decision of his union to transport no pacifists to any peace conference.

He made the following statement:

On Sept. 21, 1917, we formed what we called a Merchant Seamen's

League, and declared that if German terrorism on the sea continued

we would enforce a boycott against Germany for two years after the

war, and that for every new crime from that time on we would add one

month to the length of the boycott. The length of the boycott now

stands at five years seven months. We have reliable information that

this action is making a very profound impression on German

manufacturers and shippers.

The British seamen got their first intimation of German treachery

when the international transport strike was first proposed by German

delegates ostensibly to pledge support. But the British learned

later that the German delegates had in their pockets as they talked

contracts signed with employers.

After that we watched the German Social Democrats in the Socialists'

international. But we never could get the Germans to face the issue.

Always they had excuses and evasions. We never had confidence in

them. When war came we felt it our duty to take care of the men on

our ships who could no longer sail, and also to set a good example.

Here were Germans on our ships who had been in England so long that

they had forgotten their language. On Aug. 20, 1914--you see we

acted quickly--we bought an estate of thirty-nine acres and built

the model internment camp of Great Britain. We asked the Government

to give us charge of all interned German sailors, and, let it be

known to the credit of Great Britain, that was done. The Government

allowed us all 10s. per week per man for upkeep. The camp became a

great success. There were 1,000 German sailors interned in it.

Until May, 1915, all went well. On May 1 the interned men celebrated

May Day, their international revolutionary holiday. They had their

banners, "Workers of the World, Unite," "World Brotherhood," and so

on. We had planned a great fête to be held later and I had secured

the consent of several well-known persons to attend and help make it

a success. On May 7 the Lusitania was sunk. I called the Germans in

camp together and told them the terrible thing that had happened. I

told them they were not to blame, but that the celebration could not

be held. And they made no protest to me.

Now here were 1,000 Germans not under control of the Kaiser. Some of

them had been among us twenty or thirty years. As soon as I had got

out of the place they sang and cheered and rejoiced over the

Lusitania disaster. They kept this up for four hours. They made me

conclude that the camp must be handed over to the military as soon

as possible, and this was done. Six months after that came the

U-boat campaign, and, what made that worse, the fact that the

U-boats always turned their guns on open boats.

I have got hundreds of cases of boys whose arms and legs have been

blown off by U-boat guns while trying to get away from sinking ships

in open boats. I wrote the Secretary of the International Transport

Workers' Union protesting against these crimes. His reply attempted

to justify every crime. That showed us that not only was the Kaiser

responsible, but that the organized trade union movement of Germany

was also responsible.

On June 1, 1917, a Socialist congress was convened at Leeds. It was

advertised as the greatest conference ever held. We sent two men

there to tell our story. Our men found that small bodies of only a

handful of members had been delegated, who got the floor easily for

the pacifist cause. Our men could not secure anything like a fair

chance.

In this conference MacDonald, Fairchild, and Jowett were elected

delegates to Stockholm. We at once resolved that no delegates should

leave this country. And none did.

That is the history of the seamen's determination to bottle up such

British pacifists as may desire to go abroad spreading their

doctrine. Mingled with it is the grim, sad story of 12,000 members

of the Seamen's Union who have lost their lives on merchant ships

through Germany's criminal conduct on the seas.

And while there is here and there one in England who resembles a

leader of labor who is a pacifist, the determination of the British

seamen to go through with the war to the finish is scarcely more

than a reflection of the rank-and-file spirit that is to be found

throughout the whole of British labor.

NO PARLEYS WITH ENEMY LABOR

The American delegates met the representatives of labor in London and in

Paris. In England they found the sentiment almost unanimous in approval

of their decision to favor no conferences with German labor

representatives until a victory had been achieved. In France, however,

they encountered a group that favored contact with the German and

Austrian Socialists. On May 6 there was a conference in Paris between

the American labor delegates and the members of the Confederation

Générale de Travail, the great French revolutionary labor organization.

M. Jouhaux, General Secretary of the confederation, made the proposed

international conference practically the sole note of his speech.

France, he asserted, had no hatred for the German workers themselves,

and he pointed out that if the conference took place it could have only

one of two results. Either the workers in the enemy countries would

refuse to join in the efforts of the workers of the allied countries for

the liberation of the world's peoples, in which case the war must

continue, or they would accept the allied view of what was right and

would act with the allied peoples for the good of humanity.

The American reply was in these definite words:

"We don't hate the German workers any more than you do, but to give them

our hand now would be looked upon by them only as a sign of weakness."

After reminding the congress of the hypocritical professions of the

German Socialist Party before the war, the delegation declared itself in

entire agreement with Samuel Gompers that American labor men would

refuse to meet the German delegates under any circumstances so long as

Germany was ruled by an Imperialistic Government. This declaration left

Albert Thomas, former Cabinet officer and leader of the group,

practically without a word to say. M. Thomas urged the same arguments

as Jouhaux, but all the satisfaction the French labor men got was a

promise from James Wilson, President of the American delegation, to

report the matter to the American workers when he returned home.

Chairman Wilson reaffirmed at a luncheon given at the Foreign Office May

10 that American labor would not discuss the war with representatives of

German labor until victory was won, because German labor, which was

permitting the war, must do something itself in its own country toward

ending the conflict justly before it could debate with labor

representatives of the allied countries on what ought to be.

The luncheon was given by Stephen Pichon, Foreign Minister, on behalf of

the French Government. With the exception of Premier Clemenceau, all the

members of the Cabinet were present as well as other men notable in

French public life. Ambassador Sharp was also in attendance.

The mission visited the fighting front and returned to London May 11 to

hold mass meetings at English industrial centres. The members were

received by the King and dined by the London Chamber of Commerce May

15.

Progress of the War

Recording Campaigns on All Fronts and Collateral Events From April 18,

1918, Up to and Including May 17, 1918

UNITED STATES

The campaign for the Third Liberty Loan of $3,000,000,000 ended on May

4. The total subscription was $4,170,019,650, as announced by the

Treasury Department on May 17.

On April 20 President Wilson issued a proclamation extending to women

enemy aliens the restrictions imposed on men.

The Overman bill, giving the President power to consolidate and

co-ordinate executive bureaus and agencies as a war emergency measure,

was passed by the Senate on April 28 and by the House on May 14.

The War Trade Board announced on May 3 that a general commercial

agreement with Norway had been signed. On May 12 it announced that in

order to conserve materials and labor and to add tonnage to the fleet

carrying men and munitions to Europe, arrangements had been made to have

Great Britain, France, Italy, and Belgium pass upon the advisability of

releasing proposed exports before granting licenses to shippers. On May

14 an agreement was reached between the United States and the allied

nations providing that all imports to the United States should be

forbidden unless sanctioned by the War Trade Board.

A conference report on the Sedition bill, giving the Government broad

new powers to punish disloyal acts and utterances, was adopted by the

Senate on May 4, and by the House of Representatives on May 7, and sent

to the President for his signature.

As a result of charges of graft, inefficiency, and pro-German tendencies

directed against the military aircraft administration by Gutzon Borglum,

President Wilson, on May 15, asked Charles Evans Hughes to aid Attorney

General Gregory in making a thorough investigation. Mr. Hughes accepted

the invitation. The President also wrote a letter to Senator Martin

denouncing the Chamberlain resolution for an investigation of the

conduct of the war by the Committee on Military Affairs of the Senate,

and on the same day the Senate Committee on Audit and Expenses, to which

the resolution had been referred, ordered a favorable report on it,

modifying it so as to provide for a limited inquiry.

SUBMARINE BLOCKADE

The American steamship Lake Moor was reported sunk on April 11.

Forty-four Americans were killed when the Old Dominion liner Tyler was

sunk off the French coast on May 2.

The British liner Oronsa was sunk on April 28. All on board except three

members of the crew were saved. The British sloop Cowslip was torpedoed

on April 25. Five officers and one man were missing.

The British Admiralty announced on April 24 the cessation of the weekly

return of shipping losses and the substitution of a monthly report.

In a statement made in the Chamber of Deputies on May 11, Georges

Leygues, the French Minister of Marine, declared that the total of

allied tonnage sunk by German submarines in five months was 1,648,622,

less than half the amount alleged by Germany to have been destroyed. He

announced that the number of submarines sunk by the Allies was greater

than Germany's output.

[Illustration: BARON STEPHAN BURIAN

Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister in succession to Czernin]

LEADERS IN THE IRISH CONTROVERSY

[Illustration: John Dillon, M. P.,

_Leader of the Nationalist Party_

(_Press Illustrating Service_)]

[Illustration: Joseph Devlin,

_Nationalist M. P. for West Belfast_

(_Press Illustrating Service_)]

[Illustration: Sir Edward Carson, M. P.,

_Leader of the Ulster Unionists_

(_Central News_)]

[Illustration: Sir Horace Plunkett,

_Chairman of the Irish Convention_

(_Bain News Service_)]

Twelve German submarines were officially reported captured or sunk in

British waters by American or British destroyers during the month of

April, and two others were known to have been destroyed.

Ten passengers were killed when the French steamship Atlantique was

torpedoed in the Mediterranean early in May. The ship managed to reach

port.

CAMPAIGN IN WESTERN EUROPE

April 18--French advance on both banks of the Avre River between Thanne

and Mailly-Raineval; Germans deliver terrific assaults upon the British

front from Givenchy to the neighborhood of St. Venant.

April 19--Italian troops reach France; British beat off assaults on Mont

Kemmel and recover ground west of Robecq; bombardment of Paris resumed.

April 20--Germans hurl force against American and French troops at

Seicheprey and get a grip on the town, but are driven out; Belgians give

ground temporarily near the Passchendaele Canal, but regain it; British

re-establish their positions in Givenchy-Festubert region.

April 21--British drive Germans from some of their advanced positions

near Robecq; Americans retake Seicheprey outposts.

April 23--British gain ground east of Robecq and in the neighborhood of

Meteren.

April 24--Germans take Villers-Bretonneux, but are repulsed at other

places south of the Somme; Franco-American positions at Hangard shelled.

April 25--British recover Villers-Bretonneux; French and British lose

ground in the Lys salient before terrific German assaults from

Wytschaete to Bailleul, aiming at Mont Kemmel; Germans take Hangard.

April 26--Germans take Mont Kemmel and the villages of Kemmel and

Dranoutre and push on to St. Eloi; French recover part of Hangard.

April 27--British and French troops recover some of the ground lost in

the Bailleul-Wytschaete sector; Germans repulsed at Voormezeele after

hard fight.

April 28--Germans take Voormezeele, but are driven out by counterattack;

Locre changes hands five times.

April 29--Germans make heavy attacks upon the entire Franco-British

front from Zillebeke Lake to Meteren; British hold their line intact;

French yield some ground around Scherpenberg and Mont Rouge, but later

regain it; Belgians repulse attacks north of Ypres; Americans take over

a sector of the French line at the tip of the Somme salient.

April 30--French recover ground on the slope of Scherpenberg and

advance their line astride the Dranoutre road; positions of the allied

forces push forward between La Clytte and Kemmel.

May 1--Americans repulse attacks in the Villers-Bretonneux region;

Béthune region bombarded.

May 3--French and British improve their positions along the Somme River

southward to below the Avre; French take Hill 82, near Castel, and the

wood near by.

May 4--Germans repulsed at Locon; French make progress near Locre, and

British advance near Meteren; Americans in the Lorraine sector raid

German positions south of Halloville and penetrate to third line; French

shell disables last of German guns that have been bombarding Paris.

May 5--Franco-British forces, in operation between Locre and Dranoutre,

advance their positions on a 1,000-yard front to an average depth of 500

yards; Germans foiled in attempt to occupy former American trenches in

the Bois Brûlé.

May 6--Germans launch heavy gas attacks against American troops on the

Picardy front.

May 8--Germans gain a foothold at several points midway between La

Clytte and Voormezeele, but are repulsed at other points along the line;

Australians advance 500 yards near Sailly and 300 yards west of

Morlancourt.

May 9--British re-establish their lines and drive Germans out of British

trenches between La Clytte and Voormezeele; Germans occupy British

advanced positions at Albert on a front of about 150 yards.

May 10--British restore their line at Albert; German artillery fire

active in the Vimy and Robecq sectors of the British front, and south of

Dickebusch.

May 11--Berlin reports heavy losses inflicted on American troops

southwest of Apremont; Germans gain small portion of territory southwest

of Mailly-Raineval, but are driven out by French; French gain ground in

Mareuil Wood.

May 12--French troops north of Kemmel capture Hill 44 and an adjoining

farm; Germans bombard Albert, Loos, and Ypres sectors, and lines

southeast of Amiens, but are repulsed by the French near

Orvillers-Sorel.

May 13--Americans blow up enemy ammunition dump and start fires in

Cantigny, with explosions; Germans resume firing north of Kemmel.

May 14--Hill 44, north of Kemmel, changes hands several times; French

advance in Hangard region; British carry out successful raid near

Robecq.

May 15--Germans repulsed by the British southwest of Morlancourt and by

the French north of Kemmel. May 16--Heavy gunfire in the Lys and Avre

areas.

May 17--Official announcement that American troops have taken their

place in the British war zone in Northern France; German gunfire

increases in the Lys and Hailles region.

ITALIAN CAMPAIGN.

May 3--Heavy fighting reported along the entire front between the

Adriatic and the Giudicaria Valley.

May 5--Increase in artillery fire, notably in the Lagarina and Astico

Valleys.

May 11--Italians penetrate advanced Austrian positions on Monte Carno.

May 12--Italians wipe out a Coll dell' Orso garrison.

May 14--Austrian attempts to renew attacks on Monte Carno and to

approach Italian lines at Dosso Casina and in the Balcino and Ornic

Valleys fail.

May 16--Italians enter Austrian lines at two points on Monte Asolone;

British make successful raid at Canove.

CAMPAIGN IN ASIA MINOR.

April 21--Armenians retake Van.

April 27--British in Mesopotamia advance north of Bagdad and Kifra.

April 28--British cavalry forces a passage of the Aqsu at a point

southwest of Tuzhurmatl.

April 29--British take Tuzhurmatl.

April 30--British advance as far as the Tauk River, and occupy Mezreh.

May 1--Es-Salt taken by the British.

May 7--British enter Kerkuk.

May 12--Arabs of Hedjaz raid Jadi Jerdun station and a post on the

Hedjaz Railway, taking many prisoners and destroying tracks and bridges.

AERIAL RECORD.

Trent, Trieste, and Pola were raided by Italian scouts on May 10.

Carlshutte, Germany, was bombed by the British May 3. Saarbrucken was

bombed on May 16, and five German machines were brought down.

British aviators raided the aviation grounds at Campo Maggiore on May 4

and brought down fourteen Austrian planes.

German airmen attacked Dutch fishing vessels in the North Sea May 5.

Ostend, Westende, and Zeebrugge were attacked by British seaplanes on

May 6.

Many notable air battles occurred on the western front in connection

with the fighting in Picardy and Flanders. In one day, May 15,

fifty-five German airplanes were brought down by British and French

aviators, and on May 16 forty-six German machines were brought down by

the British.

NAVAL RECORD.

Early in the morning of April 23 British naval forces, in co-operation

with French destroyers, carried out a raid against Zeebrugge and

Ostend, with the object of bottling up German submarine bases. Five

obsolete British cruisers, which had been filled with concrete, were run

aground, blown up, and abandoned by their crews, and two old submarines

were loaded with explosives for the destruction of the Zeebrugge mole. A

German destroyer was sunk and other ships were shelled. Twenty yards of

the Zeebrugge mole were blown up, and the harbor was blocked completely.

On May 10 the obsolete cruiser Vindictive was sunk at the entrance to

Ostend Harbor, practically completing the work.

An Austrian dreadnought of the Viribus Unitis type was torpedoed by

Italian naval forces in Pola Harbor on the morning of May 14.

RUSSIA.

On April 20, Japan ordered reinforcements sent to Vladivostok, as the

Bolsheviki had directed the removal of munitions westward. On the same

day diplomatic representatives of the allied powers were formally

informed by the Siberian Provincial Duma of the formation--by

representatives of the Zemstvos and other public organizations--of the

Government of Autonomous Siberia.

The Bolshevist Foreign Minister, George Tchitcherin, on April 26,

addressed representatives in Moscow of the United States, England, and

France, requesting the speedy recall of their Consuls from Vladivostok

and the investigation of their alleged participation in negotiations

said to have been conducted between their Peking embassies and the

Siberian Autonomous Government. He also asked them to explain their

attitude toward the Soviet Government and the alleged attempts of their

representatives to interfere with the internal life of Russia. Japan was

asked to explain the participation of Japanese officials in the

counter-revolutionary movement. An official report of the demand for the

removal of John K. Caldwell, the American Consul at Vladivostok, was

received by the American State Department on May 6, from Ambassador

Francis. The State Department announced that Mr. Caldwell had done

nothing wrong and that he would not be removed. On the same day a report

was received that the Russian authorities at Irkutsk had arrested the

Japanese Vice Consul and the President of the Japanese Association on

the charge of being military spies.

At a meeting of several thousand peasants of the Ukraine, held on April

29, a resolution was passed calling for the overthrow of the Government,

the closing of the Central Rada, the cancellation of the Constituent

Assembly convoked for May 12, and the abandonment of land socialization.

General Skoropauski was proclaimed Hetman and was recognized by

Germany.

The German advance into the Ukraine continued, military rule was

established in Kiev, and several members of the Government, including

the Minister of War, were removed on the ground that the Government had

proved too weak to maintain law and order. Vice Chancellor von Payer,

speaking before the Main Committee of the German Reichstag on May 4,

attempted to justify Germany's use of the iron hand by declaring that

grain had been withheld and that prominent Ukrainians, members of the

Committee of Safety, had been caught planning the assassination of

German officers.

Rostov-on-the-Don was occupied by Germans on May 9, but was recaptured

by the Russians the next day.

M. Tchitcherin, on May 12, sent a wireless message to Ambassador Joffe,

at Berlin, instructing him to try to obtain from Berlin cessation of

every kind of hostility, and declared that captures of Russian territory

violated the terms of the treaty of peace. He also gave assurances that

the Black Sea Fleet would not attack the port of Novorossysk, which the

Germans threatened to capture. In an evasive reply the Commander in

Chief of the German troops in the East said he could only agree to the

cessation of naval operations against the Black Sea Fleet, provided that

all ships returned to Sebastopol and were retained there, thus leaving

the port of Novorossysk free for navigation.

A Swedish report of May 14 told of a German ultimatum to the Bolshevist

Government demanding the occupation of Moscow and other Russian cities,

the abolishment of armaments, and the effecting of certain financial

measures which would practically make Russia a German colony.

Professor H. C. Emery, the American who was seized when the Germans

landed in the Aland Islands, was freed from prison, but was still

detained in Germany, according to a report received on May 5.

The British Foreign Minister, A. J. Balfour, announced in Commons on May

5 that Great Britain was ready to grant temporary recognition to the

Esthonian National Council.

Transcaucasia proclaimed its independence on April 26, and a

conservative Government was formed, headed by M. Chkemkeli.

Ciscaucasia proclaimed itself an independent State on May 14.

The Caucasus proposed peace negotiations with Turkey May 10.

Russian Bolshevist troops crossed the Caspian Sea in gunboats and

recaptured Baku from the Mussulmans May 17.

Emperor William issued a proclamation, May 14, recognizing the

independence of Lithuania, allied with the German Empire, and saying

that it was assumed that Lithuania would participate in the war burdens

of Germany.

FINLAND.

Hostilities between the Finnish White Guards and the Germans and the Red

Guards continued. Germany protested to the Bolshevist Foreign Minister

on April 23 against the landing of allied troops at Murmansk, declaring

that such landing was a violation of the Brest-Litovsk treaty. Germany

also denied that Germans had participated in the raid of the Finnish

White Guards upon Kem.

The White Guards, on April 26, demanded the surrender of a fort on the

Finnish coast ceded to Russia by the Finnish Bolshevist Government,

constituting part of the Kronstadt defenses. The Kronstadt Council of

Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates refused to comply with the demand, and

organized resistance.

Viborg was taken by the White Guards on April 30. On May 3, the Germans

in the southwest defeated the Red Guards after a five days' battle near

Lakhti and Tevastus. The Finnish flag was raised on the fortress of

Sveaborg on May 13. On May 15 the White Guards entered Helsingfors, and

on May 17 they seized Boris-Gleb on the Norwegian border from the

Russian troops, thus gaining access to the Arctic Ocean.

RUMANIA.

A peace treaty between Rumania and the Central Powers was signed May 6,

and supplementary legal, economic, and political treaties were later

concluded.

The Rumanian Parliament was dissolved on May 10 by royal decree and new

elections were ordered.

POLAND.

The Lausanne Gazette announced on May 12 that Poland was handed over to

Germany economically, politically, and militarily, according to a secret

treaty arranged at Brest-Litovsk between a Russian delegation, headed by

Trotzky, and German representatives. At a conference between the

Emperors of Germany and Austria-Hungary, Germany agreed to the solution

of the Polish question desired by Austria, in return for certain

concessions from Austria.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Guatemalan Assembly, on April 22, declared the country to be in the

same position as the United States in the war, and the following day the

Guatemalan Minister at Washington announced that the declaration was

meant as a declaration of war against Germany and her allies.

In response to a request from Uruguay for a definition of the relations

between the two countries, Germany replied, according to an

announcement made public May 16, that she did not consider that a state

of war existed.

Nicaragua declared war on Germany and her allies on May 7.

Royal assent to the British man-power bill, providing for conscription

in Ireland, was given on April 18. An Order in Council was issued on May

1 postponing the Conscription act.

Lord Wimborne, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Henry E. Duke, Chief

Secretary, resigned on April 24. Edward Shortt was appointed Chief

Secretary and Viscount French succeeded Lord Wimborne as Lord

Lieutenant.

James Ian MacPherson announced in the House of Commons on May 9 that a

German submarine had recently landed an associate of Sir Roger Casement

on the Irish coast, where he was arrested by Government officials, and

that he was now in the Tower of London and would be tried by

court-martial. A dispatch dated May 15 revealed that two Germans

accompanied him, and that all three were imprisoned.

All the Sinn Fein leaders, including De Valera and the Countess

Markievicz, were arrested in Belfast, Dublin, and other cities, on May

17, as the result of the discovery of treasonable relations with

Germany. Lord Lieutenant French issued a proclamation dealing with the

situation, calling on all loyalists to aid in blocking the German plans

and asking for volunteers to provide Ireland's share of the army.

Sir Arthur Roberts, financial adviser to the British Air Minister,

resigned on April 24 as a result of a disagreement with Lord Rothermere.

The next day Lord Rothermere resigned. He was succeeded by Sir William

Weir. Baron Rhondda resigned as Food Controller and Lord Northcliffe

resigned as Chairman of London headquarters of the British Mission to

the United States and Director of Propaganda in Enemy Countries.

Representatives of the allied nations met at Versailles on May 1 and May

2.

On May 6 Major Gen. Frederick Barton Maurice, formerly Director General

of British Military Operations, addressed a letter to The London Daily

Chronicle challenging the statements made in the House of Commons by

Premier Lloyd George and Andrew Bonar Law with regard to the military

situation and demanding a Parliamentary investigation. On May 7

ex-Premier Asquith moved for an inquiry in Commons. After a speech by

Lloyd George in Commons in his own defense, May 9, the House, by a vote

of 293 to 106, upheld him and the Government and rejected Mr. Asquith's

motion.

The Austrian Premier was empowered by Emperor Charles, on May 4, to

adjourn Parliament and to inaugurate measures to render impossible the

resumption of its activities.

A growing resentment against the domination of Austria-Hungary by

Germany was manifested by Austria's Slavic peoples. A dispatch from

Switzerland dated May 8 told of serious disturbances in the fleet,

caused by seamen of Slavic and Italian stock, which resulted in several

changes in the high command. A new Hungarian Cabinet, headed by Dr.

Wekerle, was formed on May 10. On May 13 Vienna papers published a

declaration by the Czech members of the Austrian House of Lords in which

an independent State was demanded.

As a result of a conference between Emperor William and Emperor Charles

at German Headquarters on May 10, Austria-Hungary concluded a new

convention with Germany.

M. Duval, manager of the Bonnet Rouge, and his associates, Leymarie and

Marion, directors of the paper; Goldsky and Landau, journalists, and two

minor men named Joucla and Vercasson, were placed on trial in Paris on

charges of treason and espionage, on April 29. On May 15, Duval was

sentenced to death for treason, and the six other defendants were

sentenced to imprisonment for terms ranging from two to ten years.

The British Government replied to the note of the Netherlands Government

concerning the taking over of Dutch ships on May 1, and asserted the

full legality of the seizure.

A London dispatch, dated April 24, announced that Germany had sent an

ultimatum to Holland demanding the right of transit for civilian

supplies and sand and gravel. Holland yielded to these demands on April

28, with the stipulation that the sand and gravel should not be used for

war purposes. On May 5, Foreign Minister Loudon announced in the Dutch

Chamber that Germany had promised to transport no troops or military

supplies and to limit the amount of sand and gravel.

Persia informed Holland, on May 3, that it regarded as null and void all

treaties imposed upon Persia in recent years, and especially the

Russo-British treaty of 1907 regarding the spheres of influence.

[Illustration]

German Losses On All Fronts

One Estimate Reaches 5,600,000

Karl Bleibtreu, the German military statistician, writing in Das Neue

Europa of April 22, gives the German losses from Aug. 2, 1914, to Jan.

31, 1918, as 4,456,961 men. His figures deal exclusively with those

killed in action or taken prisoner. They are official from Aug. 2, 1914,

till July 31, 1917, and are then estimated to Jan. 31, 1918. His figures

and comment read:

WESTERN FRONT

1914

August 172,500 November 93,000

September 214,500 December 50,200

October 139,600

--------

Total 669,800

1915

Jan. and Feb 66,000 August 105,400

March (?)61 Sept. and Oct 119,450

April 42,500 November 57,500

May 112,500 December 57,750

June and July 152,300

--------

Total 713,461

1916

January 18,100 July 86,650

February 17,800 August 148,000

March 51,300 September 119,800

April 72,650 October 125,000

May 64,000 November 87,100

June 54,850 December 56,000

--------

Total 901,250

1917

January 48,000 April 59,000

February 39,000 May, June and

March 39,600 July 134,850

--------

Total, (7 months) 320,450

These figures give, on the western front,

from Aug. 2, 1914, to July 31, 1917, an aggregate

of 2,604,961 casualties.

EASTERN FRONT

1914 163,900 1916 359,800

1915 699,600 1917 261,200

This gives a total from Aug. 2, 1914, to July 31, 1917, of 1,484,550,

and for the two fronts combined of 4,089,511.

From Aug. 1, 1917, to Jan. 31, 1918, Herr Bleibtreu estimates the total

losses on both fronts at 367,450, making in all 4,456,961 men.

In adding those who died from illness or wounds, the losses resulting

from the colonial and maritime fighting, as well as in the noncombatant

and auxiliary services, not comprised in the preceding enumeration, the

grand total considerably exceeds 5,000,000.

Estimates of German losses from Jan. 31, 1918, to May 20, 1918, range

from 400,000 to 600,000. If the above figures are correct, the total

German loss in the forty-six months of the war exceeds 5,600,000. The

London Telegraph, in analyzing these figures, said:

With regard to the figures given by Herr Bleibtreu, it may be

remarked that they are enormously in excess over those compiled in

well-informed quarters from the official casualty lists published by

the German Government, and issued periodically. Down to July 31,

1918, these lists had contained a grand total of 4,624,256 names,

but did not include naval or Colonial troop losses. Of the above

figure the following are the permanent losses:

Killed and died of wounds 1,056,975

Died of sickness 75,988

Prisoners 335,269

Missing 267,237

---------

Total 1,735,469

These statistics are merely the names published down to July 31, 1917,

and are not to be taken as the actual total casualties, as the lists are

always at least several weeks behindhand. But even allowing for this

fact, Bleibtreu's estimate for the killed in action and prisoners alone

is considerably more than double those officially acknowledged by

Berlin, and nearly equal to the total casualties admitted in the

official lists from all causes. Of this remarkable discrepancy there can

be only two possible explanations. Either the German Government has

throughout the war systematically falsified its casualty lists--and

there is good reason to believe that this is the case--or else Bleibtreu

has been put up by the German Staff to publish a set of statistics

intended deliberately to mislead the Allies.

Great Britain's Finances

Heavy War Taxes Levied

The new British budget for 1918-19 was introduced in the House of

Commons April 23. It included some sweeping changes in taxes and gave

important data of expenses. The estimate for 1918 in round numbers is

$15,000,000,000; the estimated revenue is $4,200,000,000, leaving a

balance to be covered by loans of $10,800,000,000. The actual

expenditures in 1917-18 were $13,481,105,000; the revenue was

$3,536,175,000; the deficit met by loans was $9,944,930,000.

Under the new budget the tax on incomes is increased from $1.25 in $5 to

$1.50 in $5. Under the new rate the increased tax begins at an income of

$2,500 a year. On an income that is wholly earned--such as a salary--the

tax is as follows:

Income. Tax.

Income. Tax

$2,000 a year $157

2,500 a year 225

3,000 a year 375

4,000 a year 600

5,000 a year 750

10,000 a year 2,250

Where the income is wholly unearned the tax is as follows:

TAXES ON UNEARNED INCOME

Income. Tax

$2,000 a year $210

2,500 a year 300

3,000 a year 455

5,000 a year 947

10,000 a year 2,635

The super tax in the new law begins at an income of $13,750, and the

total taxes paid on the following incomes, including income tax and

super tax, are as follows:

TOTAL INCOME AND SUPER TAX

Income. Tax

$15,000 a year $4,802

20,000 a year 6,812

25,000 a year 8,937

30,000 a year 11,187

40,000 a year 15,937

50,000 a year 20,937

100,000 a year 47,187

500,000 a year 255,187

The tax on $500,000 incomes is a little over 50 per cent. In the case

of a tax-payer whose total income does not exceed $4,000 an allowance of

$125 is granted in respect of his wife and an allowance of a like amount

in respect of any dependent relatives whom he maintains; also an

allowance of $125 in respect of children under 16 years of age.

TAXES ON COMMODITIES

Checks require a stamp of 4 cents, also promissory notes. The

excess-profit rate remains at 80 per cent. The tax on spirits is raised

to $7.50 a gallon; on beer to $12.50 a barrel; on tobacco to $2.04 a

pound, the effect of which will increase the price 4 cents an ounce,

while the cheapest cigarette, now 6 cents for ten, will be 7 cents for

ten. The tax on matches is increased so that they will be sold at 2

cents a box instead of 1-1/2 cents. An additional duty of $3 a

hundredweight is levied on sugar, so that sugar heretofore selling at

11-1/2 cents a pound will now have to be sold at 14 cents a pound.

A tax of 16-2/3 per cent, is levied on the sale of luxuries, including

jewelry, and of articles above a certain price when they become articles

of luxury; also on hotel and restaurant bills. This tax will be

collected by means of stamps. The new postage rate is raised to 3 cents

an ounce; on book packages exceeding one ounce an extra charge of 1 cent

will be levied. Letters to the United States will cost 3 cents instead

of 2 cents. Post-cards in England will be 2 cents instead of 1 cent, and

the parcel rate, under seven pounds, 18 cents, and between seven and

eleven pounds, 25 cents.

LUXURIES HEAVILY TAXED

The tax on luxuries is a new tax in England, and is following the method

adopted in France Dec. 31, 1917. The tax on luxuries in France is levied

at the rate of 10 per cent. on the retail selling price of the scheduled

articles. All payments of less than 20 cents are exempted. The schedule

consists of two lists, one comprising articles taxed irrespective of

price at 10 per cent., and the other, articles taxed when the retail

price exceeds certain specified amounts, as follows:

_Taxed Irrespective of Price._--Photographic appliances, gold or

platinum jewelry, billiard tables, silk hosiery and underwear,

artistic bronze and iron work, horses and ponies for pleasure

purposes, curiosities and antiques, sporting guns, books, servants'

liveries, gold watches, perfumery, soaps and dentifrices, paintings

and sculpture, pianos, (other than cottage pianos,) tapestry,

truffles, pleasure boats, and yachts.

_Taxed Above Specified Prices, (approximately shown in U.S.

money.)_--Pet dogs, $8; other pets, $2; smokers' requisites, $2;

bicycles, $50; silver jewelry, $2; picture frames, $2; walking

sticks, $2; chinaware table service, $40; single pieces, 39c to $3;

men's headwear, $4; women's hats, $8; women's footwear, $8; men's

footwear, $10; chocolates, 75c per pound; corsets, $10; men's suits,

$35; women's costumes or mantles, $50; scissors, $2; lace and

embroidery machine made, 35c per yard; handmade, $1.83 per yard;

artificial flowers, $2; furs, $20; gloves, $1.58; furniture, $300

per suite; mirrors, $4; motor cycles, $400; watches, $10;

handkerchiefs, $3.66 per dozen; umbrellas, $5; feathers, $5; clocks,

$20; photographs, $8 per dozen; cottage pianos, $240; curtains, $20;

carpets, $3.62 per yard; pajamas and dressing gowns, $16; horse

carriages, $200; bird cages, $2.

Payments for goods bought before Jan. 1, 1918, are exempt from the tax.

AMERICA'S ASSISTANCE

In presenting the budget the Chancellor of the Exchequer stated that the

expenditures in the past year exceeded the estimate by $2,030,000,000.

He referred to America's assistance as follows:

The extent of the assistance of the United States and our advances

to the Allies last year amounted to $2,525,000,000. In addition to

this the United States have advanced to all the Allies no less a sum

during the year than $4,750,000,000. Of this sum approximately

$2,500,000,000 was advanced to us and $2,250,000,000 to the Allies.

The House will see, therefore, that, whereas this year we advanced

to the Allies approximately the same amount as last year,

$2,525,000,000 as against $2,700,000,000, the United States advanced

in addition $2,250,000,000; that is to say, the total advances by us

and by the Government of the United States are $4,775,000,000, as

against $2,700,000,000 by us alone last year.

The House would notice that our advances to the Allies are

approximately the same amount as the advances made to us by the

Government of the United States. This is satisfactory. It means that

it is only necessary for us to lean on the United States to the

extent that the other Allies lean upon us, or that, in other words,

after nearly four years of war we are self-supporting.

But it is almost absurd that we should be borrowing with one hand

while we are lending with the other. The result is that our accounts

are inflated apparently, and in fact to that extent our credit is

weakened. I have therefore been in communication with Mr. McAdoo,

the Financial Minister of America, and Mr. Crossley, the head of the

United States Financial Mission, and I suggested as regards advances

to the Allies a course which, if adopted, will have the effect of

lessening to a considerable extent our burden, while in no way

increasing the total obligations of the United States.

THE TOTAL BRITISH DEBT

In referring to the total debt the Chancellor of the Exchequer made the

following statement:

The national debt, on the estimates which I have submitted to the

House, will at the end of the present year, (March 31, 1919,) amount

to $39,900,000,000. Previously, in counting our liabilities, I have

deducted altogether advances to Allies and Dominions. I do not

propose to adopt that course today. We cannot ignore what is

happening in Russia; though, even yet, I do not admit--I do not

believe--that we should regard the debt of Russia as a bad debt,

because, sooner or later, in spite of what is happening now, there

will be an ordered Government in that country.

By the end of this year the total amount due by the Allies to us

will be $8,110,000,000, and I should hope that we should be able to

deduct Dominion and obligation debts, making a total of

$5,920,000,000. The amount of our national debt at the end of last

year was $29,250,000,000. The amount of our liability on the basis I

have stated is $34,280,000,000, and, taking 5 per cent. on this

amount as the rate of interest, the total comes to $1,900,000,000.

This, added to the normal expenditure, makes a total amount of

$3,400,000,000.

Now, how is that to be met? Taking the Inland Revenue taxation

alone, it amounts to $2,700,000,000. The Inland Revenue officials

have assured me that they have made a very careful and a very

conservative estimate. Taking this estimate, there remains a

deficit on the full year of $550,000,000.

To make good this $550,000,000 I shall impose new taxation which, on

the full year, will bring in $570,000,000. The Inland Revenue, in

their estimate of result of existing taxation, take no account

whatever of the excess profits duty, but that duty, as I have

pointed out, is expected to yield $1,500,000,000.

Assuming--an assumption that may last for half an hour

[laughter]--that the income tax remains at 5s, that should reach

$375,000,000. Of course, that must be supplemented. It depends upon

the state of trade and credit, but I think I am quite safe in saying

that this amount, which they have left out of their reckoning, is

more than sufficient to counter-balance any error made with regard

to existing taxation.

GERMANY'S WAR DEBT

He followed this with a statement contrasting the financial condition of

Great Britain with that of Germany, as follows:

Up to June, 1916, according to the statement of the German Financial

Minister, the monthly German expenditure was $500,000,000; it is now

admitted to be $937,500,000, which means a daily expenditure of

$31,250,000, which is almost the same as ours. But it does not

include such matters as separation allowances. As to the war debt,

the German votes of credit up to July amounted to $31,000,000,000.

Up to 1916 they imposed no new taxation at all, and in that year

they proposed a war increment levy. Assuming that their estimates

were realized, the total amount of taxation levied by the German

Government was $1,825,000,000, as against our own amount.

This amount is not enough to pay the interest of the war debt which

Germany has accumulated up to the end of the year. The German

balance sheet, reckoned on the same basis as ours, will, with

interest, sinking fund, pensions, and pre-war expenditures, be a

year hence $3,600,000,000; and with additional permanent imperial

revenue of $600,000,000 they will make their total additional

revenue $925,000,000 per annum, and this amount, added to the

pre-war revenue, makes a total of $1,675,000,000, showing a deficit

at the end of the year of $1,925,000,000.

If that were our position I should say that bankruptcy was not far

from the British Nation.

The German taxes have been almost exclusively indirect, imposed on

commodities paid for by the mass of the people and not upon the

wealthier classes, who control the Government and on whom the

Government is afraid to put extra taxation.

Trade After the War

Important Report by a Commission of British Experts and Economists

Great Britain's policy with reference to future trade is outlined in the

final report of the Committee on Commercial and Industrial Policy After

the War, of which Lord Balfour of Burleigh was Chairman, and which

included in its membership Arthur Balfour, (ex-Master Cutler of

Sheffield,) also the heads of the various Boards of Trade, the textile

trades, with representatives of the shipping and shipbuilding

industries, finance, engineering, metal trades, coal, electrical, iron

and steel associations, national transport workers, and distinguished

economists.

Shipping policy after the war is not dealt with in the report, but, in

view of the world shortage of tonnage, the committee express the

opinion that, while it may be desirable to impose for a limited period

some restriction on the use of British ports by enemy vessels, any

policy which might tend to check the use of English ports by foreign

shipping generally would be inexpedient. They, however, urge that, in

accordance with the Paris Conference resolutions, the exaction of

reparation in kind from enemy countries should, in the interests of the

reconstruction of industry and the mercantile marine, be carried out as

fully as may be practicable.

In a general survey of the position of British industry and overseas

trade in 1913, prior to the war, the committee found that the United

Kingdom had taken only a limited share in the more modern branches of

industrial production, and that certain branches had come to be

entirely, or very largely, under German control, and in numerous

branches foreign manufacturers had secured a "strong, or even

predominant, position." They found that British merchants and

manufacturers had also been encountering successful competition in

overseas trade. They believe that the knowledge gained during the war

will be a valuable asset in the development of British industry.

As to the measures which should be adopted during the transitional

period, the committee reaffirm the main recommendations of their interim

report, namely:

Transition Period

(a) The prohibition of the importation of goods from enemy origin

should be continued, subject to license in exceptional cases, for at

least twelve months after the conclusion of the war, and

subsequently for such further period as may be deemed expedient.

(b) The Paris resolutions relating to the supply of the Allies for

the restoration of their industries can be carried into effect if a

policy of joint control of certain important commodities can be

agreed upon between the British Empire and the Allies. Any measures

should aim at securing to the British Empire and the allied

countries priority for their requirements, and should be applied

only to materials which are mainly derived from those countries and

will be required by them. This policy should be applied as regards

the United Kingdom by legislation empowering the Government to

prohibit the export, except under license, of such articles as may

be deemed expedient, and, as regards the British Empire and the

allied countries, the Government should, without delay, enter into

negotiations with the various Governments concerned, with a view to

the adoption of suitable joint measures in the case of selected

commodities of importance.

The Government should consider, in consultation with the Allies, the

expediency of establishing after the war a joint organization on the

lines of Commission Internationale de Ravitaillement for dealing

with the orders of the allied Governments for reconstruction

purposes, and with such private orders as they may find it expedient

to centralize.

It is pointed out that the prolongation of the war and the entry into it

of the United States have increased the importance of a considered

policy directed toward assuring to the British Empire and the Allies

adequate supplies of essential raw materials during the period

immediately following the conclusion of peace, and that the extent to

which the Paris resolutions which bear upon this vital question can be

carried into effect depends upon the co-operation of the Governments

concerned.

PROBLEM OF RAW MATERIALS

The committee reports that it will be necessary to continue for a

considerable period after the war some portion of the control of home

and foreign trade in order to secure adequate supplies of foodstuffs and

raw material. It does not regard it as practical to attempt to make the

empire self-supporting in respect of numerous raw materials. It notes

that the Board of Trade already has set up a committee to investigate

the question of the supply of cotton and it recommends special inquiries

as regards each commodity. "The object to be kept in view should be

that the empire may be capable in an emergency of being independent in

respect of the supply of every essential commodity of any single

foreign country."

The committee advises against the exclusion of foreign (other than

present enemy) capital from sharing in the development of the empire's

resources, but recommends:

(a) Complete disclosure, as far as is practicable, of the extent of

foreign holdings in any particular case.

(b) That mineral and other properties are not secured by foreign

concerns in order to prevent the development of those properties,

and to check competition in supply; and

(c) That in the case of commodities of great imperial importance,

the local Government concerned should have some measure of control

over the working of the properties.

These principles, if accepted, should be brought to the notice of

the Governments of other parts of the empire, with a view to the

adoption of a uniform policy.

ALIENS IN BUSINESS

The committee expresses the opinion that it would not be desirable to

impose special restrictions against the participation of aliens in

commercial and industrial occupations. It recommends, however, that

such occupations as pilot and patent agent should be confined to

British-born subjects, and suggests that foreign commercial travelers

operating in the United Kingdom should be registered and hold licenses,

that the registration of title to property should be compulsory, and

that such registration should involve a declaration of the nationality

of the owner.

The committee deems it unwise to restrain the establishment or the

continuance of agencies or branches of foreign banks or insurance

companies in the United Kingdom, but foreign insurance companies should

be required to make a deposit proportionate to the business done.

Foreign banks should be required to pay the income tax.

The committee considers it necessary to impose special restrictions on

the subjects of enemy countries, and that this can best be done by means

of stringent permit and police regulations, but it does not believe that

attempts should be made to prevent enemy subjects from establishing

agencies or holding interests in commercial or industrial undertakings.

A plan for the maintenance and development of industries essential to

national safety, called "Key Industries," is proposed, as follows:

Synthetic dyes, spelter, tungsten, magnetos, optical and chemical

glass, hosiery needles, thorium nitrate, limit and screw gauges, and

certain drugs.

SPECIAL INDUSTRIES BOARD

The committee recommends the creation of a permanent special industries

board, charged with the duty of watching the course of industrial

development and recommending plans for the promotion and assistance of

the industries enumerated above. With reference to industries generally

the committee thinks that the individualist methods hitherto adopted

should be supplemented by co-operation and co-ordination of effort in

respect of

1. The securing of supplies of materials.

2. Production, in which we include standardization and scientific

and industrial research; and

3. Marketing.

The report recommends the formation of combinations of manufacturers,

strong, well organized associations and combinations, to secure supplies

of materials, especially the control of mineral deposits in foreign

countries. In order to facilitate increased production it recommends:

That an authority should be set up which should have the right,

after inquiry, to grant compulsory powers for the acquisition of

land for industrial purposes and the diversion or abolition of roads

or footpaths.

That there should be a judicial body with compulsory powers to deal

with the question of wayleaves required for the development of

mineral royalties and the economical working of collieries and

mines.

The committee believes in the formation of organizations for marketing

the manufactured products of the country and deems it inexpedient for

the Government to enter into any policy aiming at positive control of

combinations (trusts) in the United Kingdom. It recommends that

combinations be legalized, so as to be enforceable between members. It

welcomes the establishment of the British Trade Corporation to

co-ordinate and supplement existing financial facilities for trading

purposes. As a general rule the members think it would be undesirable

that the State should attempt to provide capital for industrial

purposes, but as the re-establishment of industry on a peace basis will

be profoundly affected by taxation, currency, and foreign exchanges,

they recommend that these matters be taken up by the Treasury, in

consultation with the banking and commercial interests.

TARIFF REGULATIONS

With reference to tariff the committee recommends a protective tariff

only on industries "which can show that, in spite of the adoption of the

most efficient technical methods and business organization, they cannot

maintain themselves against foreign competition, or that they are

hindered from adopting these methods by such competition."

The general fiscal policy as finally adopted by the committee is as

follows:

1. The producers of this country are entitled to require from the

Government that they should be protected in their home market

against "dumping" and against the introduction of "sweated" goods,

by which term we understand goods produced by labor which is not

paid at trade union rates of wages, where such rates exist in the

country of origin of the goods, or the current rates of that country

where there are no trade union rates. We recommend that action be

taken in regard to "dumping" on the lines (though not necessarily in

the precise form) adopted in Canada.

2. Those industries which we have described as "key" or "pivotal"

should be maintained in this country at all hazards and at any

expense.

3. As regards other industries, protection by means of customs

duties or Government assistance in other forms should be afforded

only to carefully selected branches of industry, which must be

maintained either for reasons of national safety or on the general

ground that it is undesirable that any industry of real importance

to our economic strength and well-being should be allowed to be

weakened by foreign competition or brought to any serious extent

under alien domination or control.

4. Preferential treatment should be accorded to the British oversea

dominions and possessions in respect of any customs duties now or

hereafter to be imposed in the United Kingdom, and consideration

should be given to other forms of imperial preference.

5. As regards our commercial relations with our present allies and

neutrals, the denunciation of existing commercial treaties is

unnecessary and inexpedient, but the present opportunity should be

taken to endeavor to promote our trade with our allies, and

consideration should be given to the possibility of utilizing for

purposes of negotiation with them and present neutrals any duties

which may be imposed in accordance with the principles laid down

above.

LIMITING PROTECTIVE PRINCIPLES

In view of the danger that the admission of the principle of protection,

even to a limited extent, may give rise to a widespread demand for

similar assistance from other industries, and consequently to an amount

of political pressure which it may be very difficult to resist, the

committee further recommends:

That a strong and competent board, with an independent status,

should be established to examine into all applications from

industries for State assistance, to advise his Majesty's Government

upon such applications, and, where a case is made out, to frame

proposals as to the precise nature and extent of the assistance to

be given.

Before recommending tariff protection for any particular industry it

should be the duty of the board to consider forms of State

assistance other than, or concurrent with, protective duties, such

as bounties on production, preferential treatment (subject to an

adequate standard of quality and security against price rings) in

respect of Government and other public authority contracts, State

financial assistance, and also whether the position of the industry

could not be improved by internal reorganization.

The board should also have constantly in mind the safeguarding of

the interests of consumers and of labor, and should make

recommendations as to the conditions which for these purposes should

be attached to any form of Government assistance, whether by means

of a tariff or otherwise.

The committee reports adversely on the changing of weights, measures,

and coinage to the metric system.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: BANK OF FINLAND, AT HELSINGFORS, WHERE THE RED GUARDS,

ATTEMPTING TO BREAK INTO THE BUILDING, WERE REPULSED BY THE WHITE

GUARDS]

Finland Under German Control

Events of the Period of Chaos and Foreign Invasion Preceding the Fall of

Viborg

Civil war, later complicated by the German invasion, has been the

central fact in the history of Finland since the declaration of its

independence in December, 1917. The internecine strife was precipitated

by the coup d'état which the Finnish Socialists effected in January,

1918. It so happened that the representatives of the propertied classes

had the majority in the Diet which severed the century-old connection

between Finland and Russia. As for the Government which this Diet has

set up to rule the independent republic, all its members belong to

middle-class parties. Headed by Mr. Svinhufud, a Young-Finn leader, it

includes one Svekoman, two Agrarians, three Old-Finns, and six

Young-Finns.

The dissatisfaction of the Socialist elements, which are very strong in

Finland, with this régime soon grew so intense that they decided to

overthrow it by armed force. The Red Guard, that is, detachments of

armed workmen organized by the Finnish Labor Party, seized Helsingfors,

dissolved the "bourgeois" Government, and formed a Socialist Cabinet

under the leadership of Senator Kullervo Manner. The revolutionists did

not, however, succeed in capturing Mr. Svinhufud and his associates.

These fled north and established their headquarters at Vasa,

(Nikolaystadt,) on the Gulf of Bothnia. Since then the half-starved

country has been the arena of bloody clashes between the Red troops and

the forces supporting the Vasa Government, which consist largely of

middle-class elements and are known as the White Guards.

It is an open secret that Russia rendered substantial assistance to the

Finnish revolutionists. Most of the weapons in their possession are from

Russian arsenals, and Russian soldiers who lingered on in Finland even

after the Bolsheviki had agreed to withdraw the Russian troops stationed

there have been fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Finnish Red

Guards. It is reported that on several occasions the Finnish Red Guards

were reinforced by Red Guards from Petrograd. Moreover, in its

organization the Finnish Socialist Workmen's Republic is a copy of the

Russian Soviet Republic. The Red Finns have the same hierarchy of

Soviets, and they affect the administrative terminology of the

Bolsheviki.

RED FINLAND

The Finnish Socialists should not, however, be treated as identical with

the Russian Bolsheviki. The difference between them is probably due to a

difference of civilization, for culturally the dissimilarity between a

Russian and a Finn is as great as it is linguistically and ethnically.

It is noteworthy that unlike the Bolsheviki they regard their own rule

as a transitional, provisional régime. Speaking on Feb. 14, 1918, at the

first meeting of the Finnish Central Soviet, Kullervo Manner, President

of the Commissariat of the People of Finland, said among other things:

One of the foremost aims of the great revolution of Finland's

workers is to build the proud edifice of a political democracy on

the ruins of the fallen power of the Junkers. * * * As soon as the

enemy of the people has been defeated throughout the country shall

the people of Finland be given an opportunity through referendum to

accept a new Constitution. The People's Commissariat intends shortly

to put before the Central Soviet a proposal for a fundamental law

through which will be laid the ground for a real representation by

the people and a firm foundation for the future of the working

class.

Although the Finnish Socialists are united with Russia by co-operation

and common aspirations, they do not desire to join the Russian

Federation. Finnish socialism identifies itself with the cause of

Finnish nationalism. It was the Socialists that were the stanchest

advocates of Finland's secession from Russia, and it was they that, by

calling a general strike, forced the Diet to adopt immediately the

Independence bill in November, 1917.

The notion of Finland's complete sovereignty forms the basis of the

peace concluded early in March, 1918, between the Russian Socialist

Federative Soviet Republic and the Finnish Socialist Workmen's

Republic, "in order to strengthen the friendship and fraternity between

the above-mentioned free republics." According to this pact, published

on March 10, Russia hands over to the Independent Finnish Socialist

Republic all its possessions in Finland, including real estate,

telegraphs, railways, fortresses, lighthouses, and also Finnish ships

which had been requisitioned by the Russian Government before or during

the war. Article IX. provides for "free and unimpeded access for the

merchant ships of the Russian and Finnish Socialist Republics to all

seas, lakes and rivers, harbors, anchoring places, and channels" within

their territories. The next article establishes uninterrupted

communication, without trans-shipment, between the Russian and Finnish

railways. Article XIII. contains the provision that "Finnish citizens in

Russia as well as Russian citizens in Finland shall enjoy the same

rights as the citizens of the respective countries."

[Illustration: SKETCH MAP SHOWING FINLAND'S RELATION TO SWEDEN, NORWAY,

AND RUSSIA]

GERMAN HAND IN FINLAND

If "Red" Finland has had the support of the Russian Bolsheviki, "White"

Finland has found a most enterprising ally in Germany. The Vasa

Government has been working in direct and now open contact with

Berlin. It is overwhelmingly pro-German. The relation between the two

Governments early assumed the character of vassalage on the part of the

Finns. This is evidenced by the peace agreement which official Finland

concluded with Germany on March 7. Its full text will be found elsewhere

in this issue.

[Illustration: THE OLD CASTLE OF VIBORG, FINLAND, WHICH THE WHITE GUARDS

USED AS A FORT]

Since the beginning of the war the Germans have been conducting in

Finland an active campaign of espionage and propaganda through a host of

agents and sympathizers. The propaganda found a favorable soil among the

propertied classes, and especially among the landed gentry of Swedish

extraction. On the other hand, the persecutions which the Czar's

bureaucracy inflicted upon the nation, and against which neither the

French nor the British press uttered any adequate protest, drove some of

the patriotic Finns into the arms of Russia's enemies. A number of

Finnish youths escaped to Germany and entered the ranks of the German

Army. The University of Helsingfors played a prominent part in this

movement. In 1915 an entire battalion made up exclusively of Finns

fought under the German colors, while no Finns served in the Russian

Army, exemption from military service being one of the ancient Finnish

privileges respected by the Imperial Russian Government.

After the March revolution, and especially after the fall of Riga, the

efforts of the German agents, with whom Finland now fairly swarmed, were

directed toward fomenting Finnish separatism. In fact, the Swedish press

asserted that from the very beginning of the war the Germans had spent

large sums of money in trying to fan the Finns' smoldering discontent

with Russia. At the same time Germany endeavored to enlist the

sympathies of the White Guards, (skudshär,) which the middle classes

were hastily organizing, ostensibly for the purpose of assisting the

militia and protecting the population from robbers. Berlin was so

successful in its task that as early as October, 1917, the head of the

Russian Bureau of Counterespionage in Finland spoke of the skudskär as

"the vanguard of the German Army." The Finns who served in Wilhelm's

army and were thoroughly indoctrinated with German military science and

German ideals were returned to their native country, and it was they

that took upon themselves to officer the White Guards. Some of the

weapons and munitions used by the latter were secured from Sweden, but

most of them came from Germany and were probably a part of the Russian

booty. The above-mentioned Russian official declared, in an interview

published in a Petrograd daily in October, 1917, that German submarines

appeared regularly off the Finnish coast and delivered arms and

ammunition to Finnish vessels.

ATROCITIES ON BOTH SIDES

The White Guards, commanded by General Mannerheim, fought the

revolutionists with varying success but without achieving a decisive

victory. Several towns in the south were the scene of prolonged battles

in which many lives were lost, notably Tammerfors, the important

industrial centre, where fierce fighting raged throughout the second

half of March. The factory districts in the north were also the scene of

stubborn fighting. A number of women were seen in the ranks of the Red

Guards.

The two warring factions created a reign of "Red" and "White" terror in

the country. Both committed frightful atrocities. On April 17, Oskari

Tokoi, the Commissionary for Foreign Affairs in the Socialist Cabinet,

protested to all the powers against the manner in which General

Mannerheim treated his Red Guard prisoners. He pointed out that, while

the Red Guards regarded the captured White Guards as prisoners of war,

the Government troops, having taken a number of prisoners, shot all the

officers and every fifteenth man of the rank and file. On the other

hand, the corpses of many White Guards were found unspeakably mutilated.

Immediately after the outbreak of the Socialist rebellion, the official

Government conceived the idea of appealing for foreign military aid

against the revolutionists. On Jan. 30 such an appeal was reported to

have been sent to Sweden. The cause of White Finland had many

sympathizers in that country. The Finnish White Guards had a recruiting

office in Stockholm, and a number of Swedish volunteers fought in their

ranks. A considerable portion (12 per cent.) of the Finnish population

are Swedes, mostly members of the higher classes. In addition, the two

countries have common historical memories, for Finland was a Swedish

province for six centuries, from the time of Erik VIII., King of Sweden,

till the Russian annexation in 1809.

The Swedish Government did not, however, elect to intervene. It is not

certain whether Stockholm refused its assistance because Finland refused

to cede the Aland Islands to the Swedes as a compensation for their

services, or because, as Mr. Branting asserts, Sweden was to intervene

"as the creature and ally of Germany." The only step the Swedes took was

to send a military expedition to the Aland Islands, in response to

several appeals from their population, which is mostly Swedish. This

measure was decided upon by the Swedish Parliament on Feb. 16 and was

effected two or three days later.

The Aland Archipelago, consisting of about ninety inhabited islets and

situated between Abo on the Finnish coast and Stockholm, belongs to

Finland. Its strategic importance for Sweden is aptly characterized by

an old phrase which describes it as "a revolver aimed at the heart of

Sweden." The mission of Sweden's troops was to clear the islands, by

moral suasion if possible, from the bands of Russian soldiers and

Finnish White and Red Guards which for some time had been terrorizing

the population. The Bolshevist garrison offered stubborn resistance to

the landing of the Swedish forces.

THE GERMAN INVASION

At noon on March 2 a German detachment occupied the Aland Islands. The

next day the German Minister at Stockholm informed the Swedish

Government that Germany intended to use these islands as a halting place

for the German military expedition into Finland, undertaken at the

request of the Finnish Government for the purpose of suppressing the

revolution. He gave assurances that Germany sought no territorial gains

in effecting the occupation and would not hinder the humanitarian work

of the Swedish Supervision Corps in the islands. On March 22 the Main

Committee of the Reichstag rejected, by 12 votes against 10, the motion

of the Independent Social Democrats to evacuate the Aland Islands and

cease interfering with the internal affairs of Finland.

[Illustration: VIEW OF ULEABORG, WHERE THE WHITE GUARDS FOUGHT A

SANGUINARY ENGAGEMENT WITH THE BOLSHEVIST RED GUARDS]

Mr. Branting, the Swedish political leader, denounced the talk that

Finland, deserted by Sweden, turned to Germany in despair, as "gross

hypocrisy." He is convinced that a secret agreement existed between

Finland and Germany long before the outbreak of the civil war, and that

Finland wants to be a dependency under Germany rather than a member of a

Scandinavian federation of States. Some members of the Diplomatic Corps

in Washington were also reported to believe that the civil war was

merely a specious pretext for inviting Germany to restore order in the

country, and that the negotiations which brought about the German

intervention had been going on secretly for months.

March passed in preparations for the expedition. On the morning of April

3 the Russian icebreaker Volinetz, which had been captured by the White

Guards, piloted a German naval squadron, consisting of thirty-six ships,

into the Finnish waters of Hangö, which is the extreme southwestern

point of the Finnish coast, within a few hours of Helsingfors. During

the afternoon the Germans landed on the peninsula of Hangö a force

which, according to an official German statement, comprised 40,000 men

under General Sasnitz, 300 guns, and 2,000 machine guns. The next day

the Berlin War Office issued the following statement: "Eastern

Theatre--In agreement with the Finnish Government, German troops have

landed on the Finnish mainland." Later more German detachments were

landed at Abo.

According to one report, the Germans, upon their landing, opened

negotiations with the Finnish Socialists, but their overtures were

apparently rejected. The Russian Government immediately protested to

Germany against the landing in Finland. The German Government replied by

demanding that the Russian war vessels in Finnish territorial waters

should either leave for Russian ports or disarm, according to Article 5

of the Brest-Litovsk treaty, on or before midday, April 12. The

Bolsheviki ordered the commander of the Baltic fleet to carry out this

demand. Four Russian submarines were fired upon and sunk by the Germans

at Hangö during the landing and several other Russian warships were

blown up by their own crews for fear of being captured by the Germans.

[Illustration: VIEW OF FINNISH LAKE REGION NEAR FAVASTELLIUS]

On April 13 the Finnish Official News Bureau gave out a statement to the

effect that all German troops landed in Finland had been dispatched at

the request of the Finnish Government. On April 17 the Germans landed

40,000 men at Helsingfors. Their naval squadron stationed in the harbor

of the Finnish capital consisted of twelve vessels.

FALL OF VIBORG

The Red Guards offered a stubborn resistance to the invaders, but it

soon became apparent that their cause was lost. Upon the landing of the

Germans, the Socialist Government escaped from Helsingfors and

established itself at Viborg, seventy-five miles northwest of Petrograd.

On April 13 the German troops, aided by naval detachments, entered

Helsingfors, "after a vigorous encounter with armed bands," as the

German official announcements read. According to a Reuter dispatch, a

three days' battle preceded the capture of the Finnish capital. It was

taken by storm after fierce fighting in the streets. About the same time

the City of Abo was taken by the White Guards. The Germans then

proceeded to move on Viborg. On April 23 the Finnish Socialist

Government protested to the allied representatives, including the

American Ambassador to Russia, against the German interference. It

declared that the Finnish Socialists would continue for the cause of

freedom, with "a profound hatred and contempt for the executioners of

nations and of the labor movement."

Viborg fell into the hands of the White Guards on April 30, after nearly

all its defenders, 6,000 in all, were slaughtered. Among the prisoners

taken was Kullerwo Manner, the President of the Socialist Government. On

May 4 Berlin was able to announce complete victory in Finland. The

official report follows:

Finland has been cleared of the enemy. German troops, in

co-operation with Finnish battalions, attacked the enemy between

Lakhti and Tevasthus in an encircling movement, and in a five days'

battle, in spite of a bitter defense and desperate attempts to break

through, we have overwhelmingly defeated him. The Finnish forces cut

off his retreat in a northerly direction. The enemy is closed in on

every side, and, after the heaviest losses, is laying down his arms.

We took 20,000 prisoners. Thousands of vehicles and horses were

captured.

A dispatch dated May 8 reported, however, that the country was far from

pacified, and that the Red Guards continued to offer resistance at many

points.

Speaking before the Main Committee of the Reichstag, on May 8, Friedrich

von Payer, the German Imperial Vice Chancellor, defended Germany's

intervention in Finland. The fundamental aim of this step was "to

create in North Finland a final condition of peace, both military and

political." He stated that the entire staff of the 43d Russian Army

Corps was recently captured in Finland. He denied that Germany intended

further to interfere in the inner affairs of Finland, and added that

Germany had concluded economic and political treaties with Finland

whereby both parties would profit.

UNDER GERMAN DOMINATION

While these military operations were being carried on, Finland was

becoming a German province. Late in March an American and an English

officer, visiting General Mannerheim at Vasa upon orders from their

legations, were threatened by Finnish White Guard officers with personal

violence and turned out of the dining room of the chief hotel. This

incident was described as characteristic of the feeling existing among

the majority of Finns. On April 1 Vasabladet, the chief Vasa newspaper,

wrote: "No military or other similar persons from any of the countries

at war with Germany ought to be allowed to stay within the borders of

our country so long as we, with the help of God and Germany, are

fighting our hard fight for liberty, order, and justice against the

barbarous ally of the western powers." It appears from a case reported

on April 26 that the viséing of foreign passports by Finnish officials

depends now upon the consent of the Berlin authorities.

Finland was proclaimed a republic in December, 1917. It has always been

one of the most democratic countries in Europe. It is asserted,

nevertheless, that the experiences through which the former grand duchy

has passed in the last six months have converted many classes of the

population to monarchism. A Stockholm dispatch dated May 8 declared that

a monarchy would probably be proclaimed in Finland, and that Duke Adolph

Frederick of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, uncle of the Crown Princess of

Germany, would be appointed King.

GREATER FINLAND

In the middle of April it became known that the Finnish statesmen had an

ambitious plan for the territorial aggrandizement and political

expansion of their country at the expense of Russia, and possibly also

of Norway. A Stockholm paper published a statement that Germany had

agreed to the establishment of a Greater Finland, to include the

territory of the Petrograd-Murman railway to the arctic. The newspaper

added that the Finnish railway system was to be enlarged with a view to

establishing direct connection from North Cape to Budapest and

Constantinople. Thus Finland would become the cornerstone of a

"Mitteleuropa" stretching from the arctic coast to Asia Minor and

beyond. A well-known Finnish painter stated in an interview that the

Finnish troops, co-operating with the Germans, would take Petrograd as

well as the south coast of the Gulf of Finland, which is ethnically

Finnish. An announcement was made on May 8, before the Main Committee of

the Reichstag, that no Germans were participating or would participate

in the advance of Finnish troops on Petrograd.

A movement has been set afoot among Karelians, presumably by Finns, in

favor of the Finnish annexation of Russian Karelia, on the basis of the

principle of self-determination. Karelia includes parts of the

Governments of Petrograd, Olonetz, and Archangel; its aboriginal

population belongs to the Finnish race.

[Illustration]

Peace Treaty Between Finland and Germany

Full Text of the Document

The Imperial Government of Berlin announced on March 7, 1918, that a

treaty of peace between Germany and Finland had been signed. Two days

later the full text was transmitted from Berlin to London through the

wireless stations of the German Government. This treaty with Germany was

made by the element in the Republic of Finland represented in a military

way by the White Guards, who were pro-German and co-operated with the

German army sent immediately afterward to make war in Finland against

the Red Guards, who represented the Bolshevist element of the Finnish

population. During April an armed conflict between the Reds and the

Germans raged around Helsingfors, where the Bolshevist forces fought to

annul this treaty, though with steadily diminishing prospects of

success.

The full text of the treaty follows:

The Royal German Government and the Finnish Government, inspired by

the wish, after the declaration of the independence of Finland and

its recognition through Germany, to bring about a condition of peace

and friendship between both countries on a lasting basis, have

resolved to conclude a peace, and for this purpose they have

appointed the following plenipotentiaries: For the Royal German

Government, the Chancellor of the German Empire, Dr. Count von

Hertling; for the Finnish Government, Dr. Phil Edvard Immanuel

Hjelt, State Adviser, Vice Councilor of the University of

Helsingfors, and Rafael Waldemar Erich, LL.D., Professor of State

Law and of the Law of Nations at the University of Helsingfors, who,

after the mutual setting forth in good order and form of their

plenipotentiary powers, have come to an agreement on the following

provisions:

_CHAPTER I.--Friendship Between Germany and Finland and the Assuring

of the Independence of Finland_

Article 1. The contracting parties declare that between Germany and

Finland no state of war exists and that they are resolved henceforth

to live in peace and friendship with each other. Germany will do

what she can to bring about the recognition of the independence of

Finland by all the powers. On the other hand, Finland will not cede

any part of her possessions to any foreign power nor constitute a

charge on her sovereign territory to any such power before first

having come to an understanding with Germany on the matter.

Article 2. Diplomatic and consular relations between the contracting

parties will be resumed immediately after the confirmation of the

peace treaty. The freest possible admission of Consuls on both sides

is to be provided for by arrangements in special treaties.

Article 3. Each of the contracting parties will replace the damage

which has been caused in its own territory by the war, or which the

States or populations have brought about by actions contrary to

international law, or which has been caused by the consular

officials of the other party either to life, liberty, health, or

property.

_CHAPTER II.--War Indemnities_

Article 4. The contracting parties renounce mutually the making good

of war costs; that is to say, State expenses for the carrying on of

the war as well as the payment of war indemnities; that is to say,

of those prejudices which have arisen for them and their subjects in

the war zones by reason of the military measures connected with all

the requisitions undertaken in enemy country.

_CHAPTER III.--The Re-entry Into Force of State Treaties_

Article 5. The treaties which lapsed as a consequence of the war

between Germany and Russia shall be replaced as soon as possible by

new treaties for relations between the contracting parties, and they

shall be made to correspond to the new outlook and conditions which

have now arisen. Especially the contracting parties shall at once

enter into negotiations in order to draw up a treaty for the

settlement of trade and shipping relations between the two

countries, to be signed at the same time as the peace treaty.

Article 6. Treaties in which, apart from Germany and Russia, also a

third power takes part, and in which Finland appears together with

Russia or in the place of the latter, come into force between the

contracting parties on the ratification of peace treaty or, in case

the entry takes place later, at that moment. In connection with

collective treaties of political contents, in which other

belligerent powers are also involved, the two parties reserve their

attitude until after the conclusion of a general peace.

_CHAPTER IV.--Re-establishment of Private Rights_

Article 7. All stipulations existing in the territory of either of

the contracting parties, according to which, in view of the state of

war, subjects of the other party are subjected to any special

regulation whatever in the observation of their private rights,

cease to be of force on the confirmation of this treaty. Subjects of

either of the contracting parties are such legal persons and

societies as have their domicile in the respective territories.

Furthermore, subjects of either of the parties, legal persons and

societies which do not have their domicile in the territory, must be

regarded as on the same level in so far as in the territory of the

other party they were submitted to the stipulations applying to such

subjects.

Article 8. With regard to the civil debt conditions which have been

influenced by war laws, the following has been agreed:

1. The debt conditions will be re-established in so far as the

stipulations in Articles 8 to 12 do not decide otherwise.

2. The stipulation in Paragraph 1 does not prejudice the question as

to what extent the conditions created by the war (especially the

impossibility of settlement of debt owing to the obstacles in

traffic or commercial prohibitions in the territory of either of the

contracting parties) shall be taken into account in the

determination of claims of subjects of either party in accordance

with the laws applying thereto in the respective territories. In

this connection subjects of the other party who have been prevented

by the measures of that party, are not to be dealt with more

unfavorably than the subjects of their own State, who have been

prevented by the measures of that State.

A person who by the war has been prevented from carrying out in good

time a payment shall not be obliged to make good the damage which

has occurred owing thereto.

3. Demands of money, whose payment could be refused during the war

on the strength of war laws, need not be paid until after the

expiration of three months after the confirmation of the peace

treaty. In so far as nothing else has been stipulated in the

supplementary treaty, an interest of 5 per cent. per annum must be

paid on such debts from the original date on which they were due,

for the duration of the war and the further three months, regardless

of moratoriums. Up to the day on which they were originally due, the

interests agreed upon, if any, must be paid. In the case of bills or

checks submission for payment as well as protests against nonpayment

must take place within the fourth month after the confirmation of

this treaty.

4. For the settlement of outstanding affairs and other civil

obligations, officially recognized unions for the protection of

debtors and for the examination of claims of lay and legal persons

belonging to the union, as well as their plenipotentiaries, are to

be mutually recognized and permitted.

Article 9. Each contracting party will immediately after the

confirmation of the peace treaty resume payment of its obligations,

especially the public debt duties to subjects of the other party.

The obligations which became due before the confirmation of the

treaty will be paid within three months after the confirmation.

Article 10. Copyrights, trade protective rights, concessions and

privileges, as well as similar claims on public legal foundations,

which have been influenced by war laws, shall be re-established, in

so far as nothing else has been stipulated in Article 12.

Each contracting party will grant subjects of the other party who on

account of the war have neglected the legal period in which to

undertake an action necessary for the establishment or maintenance

of a trade protective right, without prejudice to the justly

obtained rights of third parties, a period of at least one year in

which to recover the action. Trade protective rights of subjects of

one party which were in force on the outbreak of war, shall not

expire in the territory of the other party, owing to their

non-application, till after the termination of four years from the

confirmation of this treaty. If in the territory of one of the

contracting parties a trade protective right, which in accordance

with the war laws could not be applied for, is applied for by an

agent who during the war has taken protective measures in the

territory of the other party in accordance with the rules, such

right, if claimed within six months after the confirmation of the

treaty, shall, with the reservation of the rights of third parties,

have priority over all applications submitted in the meantime, and

cannot be made ineffective by facts which have arisen in the

meantime.

Article 11. Periods for the superannuation of rights shall, in the

territory of each of the contracting parties, toward subjects of the

other party, expire at the earliest one year after the confirmation

of the peace treaty in so far as they had not expired at the time of

the outbreak of war. The same applies to periods for the submission

of dividend-warrants or warrants for shares in profit, as well as to

bills which have become redeemable or have become otherwise payable.

Article 12. The activities of authorities who on the strength of war

laws have become occupied with the supervision, custody,

administration, or liquidation of property or with the receiving of

payments, are without prejudice to the stipulations of Article 13,

to be wound up in accordance with the following principles:

1. Properties under supervision, in custody or under administration,

are to be set free immediately on the demand of the parties entitled

to them. Until the moment of transfer to the entitled party care

must be taken for the safeguarding of his interests.

2. The provisions of Paragraph 1 shall not modify the properly

acquired right of a third party. Payments and other obligations of a

debtor which, as mentioned at the beginning of the article, have

been received or caused to be received at the places mentioned,

shall, in the territories of the contracting parties, have the same

effect as if the creditor himself had received them.

Civil dispositions which have been made at the places mentioned at

the instigation of the parties or by them will have full effect and

are to be maintained by the parties.

3. Regarding the operations of the places mentioned at the beginning

of this article, especially those for receipts and payments, details

shall at once be given to the authorized parties immediately upon

demand. Claims which have been lodged to be dealt with at these

places can only be dealt with in accordance with the stipulations of

Article 14.

Article 13. Land or rights in land or in mines as well as rights in

the use or exploitation of lands, or undertakings, or claims for

participation in an undertaking, especially those represented by

shares, which have been forcibly alienated from the persons entitled

to them by reason of war laws, shall be transferred to the former

owner within a period of one year after the confirmation of the

peace treaty, and there shall be returned to him any profits which

have accrued on such property during the alienation or deprivation,

and this shall be done free from all rights of third parties which

may have arisen in the meantime.

_CHAPTER VI.--Indemnity for Civil Damages_

Article 14. Subjects of one of the contracting parties resident in

the territory of the other contracting party who, by reason of war

laws, have suffered damage either by the temporary or lasting

privation of concessions, privileges, and similar claims, or by the

supervision, trusteeship, administration or alienation of property,

are to be appropriately indemnified so far as the damage by the war

cannot be replaced by the actual re-establishment of their former

conditions. This also applies to shareholders who, on account of

their character as foreign enemies, are excluded from certain

rights.

Article 15. Each of the contracting parties will indemnify the

civilian subjects of the other party for damages which have been

caused to them in its territory during the war by the State

officials or the population there through breaches of international

law and acts of violence against life, health, or property.

Article 16. Each of the contracting parties will at once pay to the

subjects of the other party their just claims so far as this has not

already been done.

Article 17. For the fixing of the damages, according to Articles 14

and 15, there shall meet in Berlin a commission immediately after

the confirmation of this treaty which shall consist of one-third of

each of the contracting parties and one-third of neutrals. The

President of the Swiss Bundesrat shall be asked to nominate the

neutral members, from whom the Chairman shall be chosen. The

commission shall fix the principles, on which it is to work, and it

shall decide as to what procedure it shall follow. Its decisions

shall be carried out by sub-commissions, which shall consist of one

representative from each of the contracting parties and a neutral

umpire. The amounts fixed by the sub-commissions are to be paid

within one month of the decision being made.

_CHAPTER VII.--The Exchange of Prisoners of War and Interned

Civilians_

Article 18. Finnish prisoners of war in Germany and German prisoners

of war in Finland shall, as soon as practicable, be exchanged within

the times fixed by a German-Finnish Commission, and subject to the

payment of the costs entailed in such exchange in so far as those

prisoners do not wish to stay in the country where they happen to

be, with its consent, or to go to another country. The commission

will also have to settle the further details of such exchange and to

supervise their execution.

Article 19. The deported or interned civilians on both sides will be

sent home as soon as practicable free of charge so far as, subject

to the consent of the country on whose territory they are staying,

they do not wish to remain there or wish to go to another country.

The settlement of the details and the supervision of their execution

shall be carried out by the commission mentioned in Article 18. The

Finnish Government will endeavor to obtain from the Russian

Government the release of those Germans who were captured in Finnish

territory and who at the present time are outside Finnish on Russian

territory.

Article 20. Subjects of one party who at the outbreak of war had

their domicile or commercial establishments in the territory of the

other party and who did not remain in that territory may return

there as soon as the other party is not in a state of war. Their

return can only be refused on the ground of the endangering of the

internal or foreign safety of the State. It would suffice that a

pass be made out by the authorities of the home Government in which

it is to be stated that the bearer is one of those persons as

stipulated in Item 1. No visé is to be necessary on these passes.

Article 21. Each of the Contracting Parties undertakes to respect

and to tend the several burial places of subjects of the other party

who fell in the war as well as those who died during internment or

deportation and the persons intrusted by each party with care and

proper decoration of the burial places may attend to these duties in

accord with the authorities of each country. Questions connected

with the care of such burial places are reserved for further

agreements.

_CHAPTER VIII.--Amnesty._

Article 22. Each of the contracting parties concedes amnesty from

penalties to the subjects of the other party who are prisoners of

war for all criminal acts committed by them and further to all

civilian interned or deported subjects of the other party for all

punishable acts committed by them during their internment or

deportation period, and lastly to all subjects of the other party

for crimes against all exceptional laws made to the disadvantage of

enemy foreigners. The amnesty will not apply to actions committed

after the confirmation of the peace treaty.

Article 23. Each party concedes complete amnesty to all its own

subjects in view of the work which they have done in the territory

of the other party as prisoners of war, interned civilians, or

deported civilians.

Article 24. The contracting parties reserve to themselves the right

to make further agreements according to which each party may grant

an amnesty of penalties decreed on account of actions committed to

its disadvantage.

_CHAPTER IX.--The Treatment of Mercantile Vessels and Cargoes Which

Have Fallen Into the Hands of the Enemy._

Article 25. Mercantile ships of one contracting party which lay in

the ports of the other contracting party on the outbreak of the war,

as well as their cargoes, are to be given back to their owners, or

in so far as this is not possible they are to be paid for in money.

For the use of such embargoed vessels during the war the usual daily

freight is to be paid.

Article 26. German mercantile ships and their cargoes which are in

the power of Finland, except in cases foreseen in Article 25 at the

signing of this treaty or which may arrive there later, are to be

given back if on the outbreak of war they were in an enemy port or

were interned in neutral waters by enemy forces.

Article 27. The mercantile vessels of either of the contracting

parties captured as prizes in the zone of power of the other party

shall be regarded as definitely confiscated if they have been

legally condemned as prizes, and if they do not come under the

provisions of Articles 25 and 26. Otherwise they are to be given

back, or, in so far as they are no longer available, they are to be

paid for. The provisions of Paragraph 1 are to apply also to ships'

cargoes taken as prizes belonging to subjects of the contracting

parties, but goods belonging to subjects of one of the contracting

parties on board ships flying enemy flags which have fallen into the

hands of the other contracting party are in all cases to be handed

over to their rightful owners, or, so far as this is not possible,

they are to be paid for.

Article 28. The carrying out of the provisions contained in Articles

25 to 27, especially the fixing of the damages to be paid, shall be

decided by a mixed commission, which shall consist of one

representative from each of the contracting parties with a neutral

umpire, and shall sit in Stettin within three months after the date

of confirmation of the peace treaty. The President of the Swiss

Bundesrat shall be requested to nominate the umpire.

Article 29. The contracting parties will do all in their power to

facilitate the free return of the mercantile ships and their cargoes

to their homes as set forth in Articles 25 to 27. The contracting

parties will also give their support to each other in the

re-establishment of the mutual commercial intercourse, after the

assuring of safe shipping routes, which had been disturbed by the

war.

_CHAPTER X.--Adjustment of the Aland Question._

Article 30. The contracting parties are agreed that the Forts put

upon the Aland Islands are to be removed as soon as possible, and

that the lasting non-fortified character of these Islands and also

their treatment in a military and technical sense for purposes of

shipping, shall be settled by agreement between Germany, Finland,

Russia and Sweden; and to these agreements, at the wish of Germany,

the other States lying in the Baltic Sea shall be invited to assent.

_CHAPTER XI.--Final Provisions._

Article 31. The Peace Treaty shall be confirmed. The confirmatory

documents shall be exchanged as soon as practicable in Berlin.

Article 32. The Peace Treaty, so far as is not otherwise stipulated,

shall come into force with its confirmation. For the making of

supplementary additions to the Treaty the representatives of the

contracting parties shall meet in Berlin within four months of its

confirmation.

German Aggression in Russia

Record of Events Placing Finland and the Ukraine More Fully Under

Teutonic Control

During the month ended May 15, 1918, the German advance in the territory

of the former Russian Empire continued uninterruptedly. While minor

military operations were conducted in the Province of Kursk, in Russia

proper, the main body of the invading army occupied the Crimea and

penetrated into the Donetz coal basin. On April 24 the German troops,

under General Kosch, reached the City of Simferopol, in the Crimea. A

week later they occupied Sebastopol, the great military and commercial

seaport, famous in Russian history. A portion of the Russian Black Sea

fleet fell into the hands of the Germans. On May 3 the invaders seized

Taganrog, on the Sea of Azov. On May 9 they took Rostov, at the mouth of

the River Don, but two days later the city was again in Russian hands.

The Germans are apparently intent on occupying the seacoast from

Bessarabia, on the west, to the Caucasus, on the east.

The Bolshevist régime gave signs of undergoing a process of

reorganization. It sought to enlist the services of officials who had

served under the Provisional Government and of Generals of the old army.

A new War Department was formed. Trotzky, the Minister of War and

Marine, advocated universal conscription of labor. The Central Executive

Committee, at his suggestion, decreed compulsory military service.

Workmen and peasants from 18 to 40 years old were to be trained for

eight consecutive weeks, for a weekly minimum of eight hours. Women were

accepted into the army as volunteers.

The Bolshevist authorities made several attempts to suppress rioting and

street looting. Early in May the Red Guards fought a pitched battle with

the Moscow anarchists, who refused to surrender their munitions, and

stamped out their organization. The Soviets passed resolutions and took

measures against the anti-Jewish massacres which occurred in numerous

cities. Disorder and mob rule, however, continued to prevail in Russia,

while hunger and unemployment were daily increasing.

INDUSTRY CRIPPLED

On April 16 M. Gukovsky, the Commissary for Finance, reported to the

Central Executive Committee of the Soviets on Russia's financial and

industrial condition. He said that the semi-yearly expenditure would

amount to 4,000,000,000 rubles, while the income expected was only

3,300,000,000 rubles. The railroads had lost 70 per cent. of their

freight capacity, and the cost of operation had increased ten times,

(120,000 against 11,600 rubles per versta.) The Central Government, he

stated, derived no revenue from taxes, as the local Soviets used the

sums they collected for their own purposes. To illustrate the industrial

conditions the Commissary cited the example of the Sormov locomotive

works, whose daily output is two locomotives, instead of eighteen as

formerly. M. Gukovsky recommended strict economy in expenditures and

urged the necessity of securing the services of financial and industrial

experts for the purpose of organizing an efficient State machinery.

Among the recent legislative measures of the Moscow Government must be

mentioned the nationalization of foreign trade, which is a part of the

general Bolshevist scheme of Socialist reforms. A special board has been

created to regulate the prices of all exports and imports.

In the middle of April hostilities were reopened between the newly

collected troops of General Korniloff, former Russian Commander in

Chief, and the Bolshevist forces. It was reported that the Bolsheviki

heavily defeated the anti-Soviet troops, capturing Novocherkask and

wounding the Cossack General. It was also stated that General Dutoff,

another anti-Bolshevist leader, was captured by the Soviet troops, and

that General Semyonov, the leader of the Cossack movement against the

Bolsheviki in Siberia, was killed.

The incident of the Japanese landing at Vladivostok was near closing,

when further interest in the Far Eastern situation was aroused in Russia

by a number of documents seized on the person of a member of the

anti-Soviet "Siberian Government." According to a note addressed on

April 26 by M. Chicherin to diplomatic representatives in Moscow, these

documents proved that the Consuls of Great Britain, France, and

America--and the diplomatic representatives of these powers in

Peking--sought to interfere in the internal affairs of Russia by

participating in the counter-revolutionary movement for an autonomous

Government in Siberia. A similar charge was laid to the Japanese

officials. The Russian Government, therefore, demanded the recall of the

allied Consular officers at Vladivostok, also asking the Allies to

define their attitude toward the Soviet Government. Neither Ambassador

Francis nor the French Ambassador, M. Noulens, made any official reply

to the Russian charges. M. Noulens had previously drawn upon himself the

wrath of the Bolsheviki by declaring that the armed intervention of the

Allies in Russia would be an act of friendly assistance. Mr. Francis

informally notified the Moscow Government that, in his opinion, the

documents failed to involve the American officials. On May 9 Secretary

Lansing instructed him to present informally to the Russian Foreign

Office a denial of its charge against the American Consul at

Vladivostok.

ENEMY PROPAGANDA

In a speech on April 27 Baron Shimpei Goto, the new Japanese Foreign

Minister, referred to the malevolent propaganda which is being conducted

in Russia with a view to creating an estrangement between Japan and

Russia. He expressed the view that "Russia is a power endeavoring to

reorganize a machine temporarily out of order," adding: "Japan must

give encouragement, assistance, and support to the work of

reorganization in Russia. We trust the sound sense of the Russian people

will not be misled by reports calculated to keep the two neighbors

apart."

Shortly after the capture of Sebastopol the Russian Government protested

to Germany against the seizure of the Black Sea fleet and the invasion

of the Crimea. The Russian note pointed out that these acts were in

contravention of the Brest treaty and that they might endanger the

peaceful relations between the two countries. The Germans did not seem

to be concerned to maintain these relations. They treated the population

of the occupied territories with harshness. Starving refugees were not

admitted into the regions under their domination. It was reported that

in the Government of Minsk able-bodied persons were seized in the

streets and sent to Germany in locked cars. Constant food requisitioning

was another feature of the German rule in Russia.

RUSSIA'S PROTEST

On April 15 M. Chicherin, Russian Commissary for Foreign Affairs,

protested to Berlin against the outrages committed by the German troops

in Russia. The text of the note follows:

The Central Soviet institutions receive many complaints with regard

to German troops burning Russian villages and using violence against

Russian inhabitants. An eyewitness well known to us and absolutely

trustworthy states that at Lepel, northwest of Mogileff, German

soldiers killed a whole family, not sparing women and children, on

the plea that one of the family belonged to a partisan detachment.

The local military authorities state that at the village of

Novoselki, Mogileff, on April 5, there appeared an officer and

soldiers of the 346th Regiment and took oats from the inhabitants by

force. The officer was killed by the peasants, and the soldiers

fled. After this the village was surrounded by the soldiers, fired

on by machine guns, and burned.

The following day the German commander sent a notice to the Russian

military authorities at Orsha saying that the inhabitants of

Novoselki had been ejected, and the village burned owing to a German

officer's being killed.

[Illustration: MAP OF THE UKRAINE AND OTHER REGIONS OF RUSSIA NOW UNDER

GERMAN DOMINATION]

Observers of Russian life agree that feelings of resentment and

animosity on the part of the Russian population for the German oppressor

are steadily growing throughout the country. At the same time good

feeling between the Russians and the Allies, especially the Americans,

is on the increase. British and French troops are co-operating with

Bolshevist forces in defending against Finns and Germans the Murman

seacoast and the railway from the interior of Russia to the arctic ports

of Alexandrovsk and Archangel, where large supplies of valuable war

materials are stored up. The War Council attached to the Murman local

Soviet consists of one Russian, one Englishman, and one Frenchman. The

landing of the allied troops at Alexandrovsk the Germans regarded as a

violation of the Brest treaty, which provides for peace with Finland,

and protested to the Moscow Government against the act.

The constant exchange of protests between Berlin and Moscow is partly

caused by the ambiguous wording of the Brest treaty. On April 24 Adolf

Joffe, the Bolshevist Ambassador in Berlin, telegraphed to Moscow that

the Russian translation of the treaty was considered by the German

authorities incorrect, and that the publication of the final draft of

the document was postponed until the receipt of an authentic version.

DISMEMBERING RUSSIA

It appears that Germany has been making further attempts to encourage

the separatist tendency in Russia, in contravention of the Brest

treaty. The German Government is reported to have inquired of the local

Crimean authorities concerning the nationalization of their flag. The

Bolsheviki interpreted this step as indicative of the German desire to

separate the Taurida Republic from the Russian Federation.

According to a communication issued by the Rumanian Chargé d'Affaires,

the National Assembly of Bessarabia voted, on April 9, the union of the

province to Rumania by 86 against 3. Thereupon, the Rumanian Premier,

amid enthusiastic acclamation, proclaimed the union to be "definitive

and indissoluble," and a delegation was sent to Jassy to present the

homage of the people of Bessarabia to the King. Rumania seems to have

acted at the suggestion of Germany. It is known that the latter proposed

to Rumania to annex a part of Bessarabia and thus compensate herself for

Rumanian territory taken by Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria. It is also

known that (on March 22?) Russia signed a treaty with Rumania regarding

Bessarabia. The province was to be evacuated by the Rumanian troops,

which had occupied it at the request of the population, and the guarding

of Bessarabia was to pass into the hands of local militia, while all

evacuated places were to be immediately occupied by Russian troops.

Russia undertook to leave Rumania the surplus of Bessarabian grain

remaining after the local population and Russian troops had been

provided for. The Ukrainian Government refused to recognize the step

taken by Bessarabia.

According to the terms of the Brest treaty the Baltic Provinces Esthonia

and Livonia were to remain under Russian sovereignty, but three weeks

later Germany began intriguing for a union of these countries with the

Kingdom of Russia. The falsity of the assertion that the people of

Esthonia favored a Baltic monarchy was exposed by the following protest

of the Esthonian Provisional Government, published April 22:

Regarding the communication from Berlin that the joint Landtag of

Esthonia, Livonia, Riga, and Oesel has decided upon the separation

of Baltic provinces from Russia and the creation of a Baltic

monarchy in personal union with Prussia, I declare, as

representative of the Esthonian Republic, that this resolution does

not constitute an expression of opinion of the Esthonian people, but

only that of a German nobility minority and its adherents.

On May 5 the British Government informally recognized the Esthonian

Provisional Government and, in the words of Mr. Balfour's communication,

"reaffirmed their readiness to grant provisional recognition to the

Esthonian National Council as a de facto independent body until the

peace conference, when the future status of Esthonia ought to be settled

as far as possible in accordance with the wishes of the population."

On April 26 Transcaucasia declared its independence under a conservative

Government, headed by M. Chkhemkeli.

Count von Mirbach, the Royal German Ambassador to Russia, accompanied by

a Turkish representative, arrived in Moscow on April 23. He was welcomed

by the Chairman of the Central Executive Committee as "a representative

of a power with which a peace treaty has been concluded at

Brest-Litovsk, as a result of which peace, so needed by the people, was

established between the two States." Pravda, the official Bolshevist

daily, greeted the Royal German Ambassador as "the plenipotentiary of an

armed band which with limitless audacity oppresses and robs wherever it

is able to thrust in with a bloody imperialistic bayonet."

ULTIMATUM ON PRISONERS

Germany has shown eagerness to obtain the release and the use of the

able-bodied German prisoners who are now in Russia. It is believed that

there are at present upward of 1,000,000 German prisoners of war in

European Russia and Siberia. It was reported on April 27 that a special

German commission had arrived in Moscow to take charge of the exchange

of prisoners with Russia, and that exchanges of invalids had already

begun. The number of Russians in German hands is estimated at 3,000,000.

An earlier official German communication explained the delay in

repatriating Russians by the lack of transportation facilities. On

April 29 the State Department at Washington gave out the following

statement:

The Department of State has learned that there will shortly leave

for Russia a German commission, consisting of 115 members, which

will take up the question of the exchange of Russian and German

prisoners. It is reported that it is the purpose of the commission

merely to present to the Russian authorities an ultimatum from

Germany requiring, first, the immediate release of all German

prisoners who are in good health; second, that those who are ill

will remain in Russia under the care of neutral physicians, and,

third, that the Germans on their side will release only those

Russian prisoners in Germany who are invalids or who are

incapacitated. In the event of a refusal on the part of Russia,

Germany will order that Petrograd be taken.

Upon the heels of this ultimatum came another one, served on the Council

of the People's Commissaries by the German Ambassador, Count von

Mirbach. According to a dispatch, the new ultimatum, too, dated May 10,

had a bearing on the prisoner question, but in addition demanded

complete cessation of arming troops and the disbandment of units already

formed. This demand produced an unusual stir in Russia. The Commissaries

held an extraordinary session at which the situation created by the

ultimatum was discussed. The Bolsheviki showed no intention of complying

with the German ultimatum.

On May 12 Foreign Minister Chicherin instructed the Russian Ambassador,

M. Joffe, at Berlin to "try to obtain from Berlin cessation of every

kind of hostility." The Germans had announced their intention to capture

Novorossiysk, on the Caucasian coast of the Black Sea, under the pretext

that the Russian warships, which had escaped seizure at Sebastopol and

which are stationed at Novorossiysk, constituted a danger for the German

vessels. The instruction added that the German invasion of Russian

territory was causing much unrest in the country.

COUP IN THE UKRAINE

On April 18 the State Department at Washington announced that, according

to an authentic report, the Teutons intended to dissolve the Ukrainian

Rada and set up a Government of their own. On April 24 a Ukrainian

financier prominent in aiding the Germans was arrested in the name of

"the Committee of Ukrainian Safety." The German Vice Chancellor,

Friedrich von Payer, in his speech before the Main Committee of the

Reichstag, said that this secret organization aimed at driving the

Germans out of the country and was even planning the assassination of

all German officers. It included a number of prominent Ukrainians,

several Ministers of State among them, and held its meetings at the

house of the Minister of War. An investigation was demanded by the

German Ambassador, but the Rada took no action.

Two days later General von Eichhorn, Commander of the German Army in the

Ukraine, proclaimed "a state of enhanced protection," making all

offenders of order subject to the jurisdiction of German court-martial.

He had previously issued a field-sowing decree, necessitated, as the

Germans explained, by the fact that the Rada had taken no measures

concerning the field sowing, without which the country could not meet

its treaty obligations relative to the delivery of grain to Germany. On

April 28, while the Rada was in session, German troops entered the hall

and arrested a number of its members, the Minister of War among them.

The next day a number of landowners and rich peasants who were holding a

convention in Kiev declared its sessions permanent, voted the

dissolution of the Rada as well as the cancellation of the order

convoking the Constituent Assembly on May 12, and proclaimed General

Skoropadsky Hetman (Supreme Military Chief) of the Ukraine.

The Rada ceased to exist. It had but scant support in the country. A

creature of the Teutons, it was supported by their armed forces. It

proved unable to secure the delivery of the promised foodstuffs to the

Central Powers. Owing to the resistance of the population only 3,000,000

poods (pood, 36 pounds) were delivered to the Teutons, instead of

30,000,000 poods, which the Rada undertook to supply. The Germans then

withdrew their support. According to various reports, the German agents

took an active part in the overthrowing of the Rada.

Speaking of the fall of the Rada, the German Vice Chancellor said that

"stubborn adherence to communistic theories that have gained no sympathy

among the peasant population, which is attached to the soil, seems to

have been principally responsible for bringing about its end." One of

the first acts of the new Government was the restoration of private

ownership of land. The new régime has many features of an autocratic

rule. The following information regarding the extent of the Hetman's

powers is furnished by the German Service of Propaganda:

The Government power in its entire capacity belongs to the Hetman

for all the territory of the State. The Hetman ratifies the laws, he

appoints the President of the Council of Ministers, he is chief

director of the relations of foreign affairs of the Ukrainian State,

he is Generalissimo of the army and of the navy, he declares war,

proclaims martial law and exceptional laws. In the administration of

justice he has the right of pardon and commutation of sentence.

It has been pointed out that, while the reconstructed Ukrainian

Government is emphatically and avowedly pro-German, some of its leading

spirits are Russian patriots and advocates of a union with Russia. Grand

Duke Dmitry Pavlovich is said to have taken an active part in the coup

d'état. A dispatch, dated May 10, announced the beginning of peace

negotiations between Russia and the Ukraine.

GERMAN PENETRATION

United States Minister Morris at Stockholm cabled to the State

Department on May 14:

Swedish press reports from Moscow state that Count von Mirbach

recently transmitted to the Commissariat of the People a note

formulated as an ultimatum and demanding the immediate effecting of

certain financial measures which would practically make Russia a

German colony. The chief points of the note were the immediate

solution of the question regarding the exchange of prisoners, the

complete abolishment of armaments, and the dissolution of units

formed recently; also the occupation of Moscow and some other large

Russian cities.

On the same date it was reported from Moscow that the Germans had

captured Rostov-on-Don, thus gaining control of the Caucasus, the grain

districts in the Donnetz Basin, and the coal, iron, and oil fields.

Northern Russia was thus cut off from the Caucasus, excepting for a

single railroad running through Tsaritsin, in the southern part of the

Government of Saratov, which the Germans were threatening.

The dispatch continued as follows:

The Governmental power in its entire Government, with which it had

made peace, is regarded by North Russia as a step toward its

occupation. Within a few weeks the future of Petrograd and Moscow

probably will be determined, as it is considered that the Soviet

Government either must submit to German domination or retreat

eastward and prepare for a defense against the invaders. Effective

resistance will be difficult without outside assistance, because of

the lack of technical experts and supplies. The bitter feeling

against Germany is intensified by the ruthless seizures in Ukraine,

and a growing disposition to accept allied aid if the Entente Allies

will recognize the Bolshevist Government is evident.

RUSSIA'S LOSSES

The Commissariat of Commerce on April 10 gave the following summary of

what Russia lost by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk:

Inhabitants 56,000,000

(About one-third total European Russia.)

Territory 300,000 square miles

(About one-sixth total European area.)

Railways 13,000 miles

(About one-third total mileage.)

Coal 89 per cent.

Iron 73 "

Machinery 1,073 factories.

Textiles 918 "

Paper 615 "

Chemicals 244 "

Tobacco 133 "

Spirits 1,685 distilleries.

Beer 574 breweries.

Sugar 268 refineries.

The lost territories used to yield an annual revenue of nearly

$425,000,000 and boasted 1,800 savings banks.

More Bolshevist Legislation

By Abraham Yarmolinsky

Speaking on Dec. 5, 1917, before the Central Executive Committee of the

Soviets on the subject of the right of constituents to recall their

representatives, Nikolai Lenine, the head of the proletarian Government

of Russia, made the following remark: "The State is an institution for

coercion. Formerly it was a handful of money-bags that outraged the

whole nation. We, on the contrary, wish to transform the State into an

institution of coercion which must do the will of the people. We desire

to organize violence in the name of the interests of the toilers." The

April issue of CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE contained a general outline of

the manner in which the makers of the social revolution applied this

principle of Statehood to the solution of various problems of home

government. The present article will deal more in detail with some of

the acts of the Bolshevist legislators. There is no better way of

gaining an insight into the views and intentions of the present rulers

of Russia than to study the abundant output of their legislative

machinery.

CONTROLLING PRODUCTION

Lenine's Government has worked out an elaborate scheme of State control

over national production and distribution as a preliminary step toward

the complete socialization of the country's industry and commerce. The

semi-legislative, semi-executive organs created for that purpose form an

intricate hierarchy of affiliated elective bodies and corporations of a

large and ill-defined jurisdiction.

In the first place, there have been instituted so-called Soviets of

Workmen's Control, (decree of Nov. 27, 1917.) These are made up of

representatives of trade unions, factory committees, and productive

co-operatives, and aim at regulating the economic life of industrial

plants using hired labor, the control in each enterprise being effected

through the elective bodies of the workmen, together with the

representatives of the salaried employes. The executive organs of the

Soviets of Workmen's Control have the right to fix the minimum output

of a given firm, to determine the cost of the articles produced, to

inspect the books and accounts, and, in general, to supervise the

production and the various business transactions. Commercial secrecy,

like diplomatic secrecy, is abolished. The owners and controlling

agencies are responsible to the State for the safety of the property and

for the strictest order and discipline within the precincts of the

establishments. The local Soviets are subordinated to provincial Soviets

of Workmen's Control, which issue local regulations, take up the

complaints of the owners against the controlling agencies, and settle

the conflicts between the latter.

The Central All-Russian Soviet of Workmen's Control issues general

instructions and co-ordinates the activities of this controlling system

with the efforts of the other administrative organs regulating the

economic life of the country.

The members of this central institution of control, together with

representatives from each Commissariat (Ministry of State) and also

expert advisers, form the Supreme Soviet (Council) of National Economy,

instituted by the decree of Dec. 18, 1917. This body directs and unifies

the work of regulating the national economy and the State finances. It

is empowered to confiscate, requisition, sequestrate, and syndicate

various establishments in the field of production, distribution, and

State finances. The Supreme Council is divided into several sections,

each of which deals with a separate economic phase. Among other tasks

devolving upon these sections is the drafting of the law projects for

the respective Commissariats. Bills affecting national economy in its

entirety are brought before the Council of the People's Commissaries

through the Supreme Council of National Economy.

ECONOMIC REGULATION

On Jan. 5, 1918, the Institute of Local Soviets of National Economy was

created, "for the purpose of organizing and regulating the economic life

of each industrial section in accordance with the national and local

interests." Affiliated with the local Soviets of Workmen's and Soldiers'

Delegates, they are subject to the authority of the Supreme Council of

National Economy. They are made up of representatives from trade unions,

factory committees, workmen's co-operatives, land committees, and the

technical personnel of industrial and commercial establishments. The

inner organization of these bodies is elaborate. There are sections,

divisions, (of organization, supply and distribution, labor, and

statistics,) and business offices.

Here are some of the functions of these Soviets. They must:

1. Manage the private enterprises confiscated by the State and given

over to the workmen, such as, for instance, a number of factories in

the Ural mining district.

2. Determine the amount of fuel, raw materials, machinery, means of

transportation, labor, &c., needed by the given industrial section,

and the amount available in it.

3. Provide for the economic needs of the section.

4. Distribute the orders for goods among the individual enterprises

and work out the basis for the distribution of labor, raw material,

machinery, &c.

5. Regulate transportation in the section.

6. See to it that all the productive forces should be fully utilized

both in industry and agriculture.

7. Improve the sanitary conditions of labor.

LAND COMMITTEES

The activity of the Soviets of National Economy is restricted to the

field of industry. Their counterpart in agriculture are the so-called

land committees.

The decree relating to agrarian socialization, voted by the Bolsheviki

at 2 A. M., Nov. 8, 1917, recommends the use of a certain _nakaz_,

(mandate,) based on 242 resolutions passed by village communities, as a

guide in putting the land reform into practice. Article 8 of this

_nakaz_, which is a paraphrase of the agrarian program of the Social

Revolutionists, reads thus: "All the land, upon confiscation, forms a

national agrarian fund. The distribution of the land among the toilers

is taken care of by local and central self-governing bodies. * * * The

land is periodically redistributed, with the growth of population and

the rise of the productivity of agricultural labor."

For the purpose of putting this program into operation and regulating

the economic life of the village generally there have been instituted

land committees, (decree of Nov. 16,) one for each volost, (rural

district including several villages.) They are to be elected by the

population of the district and exist as separate institutions, or

function as an organ of the volost zemstvo, wherever this is found. The

duties of a land committee are many and complex. It takes inventory of

all the land in the district and allots to each village its share of

plow land, meadows, and pastures, seeing to it that the land should be

equitably distributed among the individual toilers and correctly tilled.

It grants lease of lands and waters, not subject to distribution,

receives the rent and turns it over to the national fund. It regulates

the supply and demand of agricultural labor, takes charge of the

forests, fixes prices of timber, receives and fills orders for fuel from

the State, and takes the necessary measures to preserve the large,

scientifically conducted agricultural establishments.

The delegates of a number of volost land committees, together with

representatives of the local zemstvo and the Soviet of Workmen's and

Soldier's Delegates, form a county committee. The latter, in its turn,

sends a delegate to the Provincial Land Committee. The Main Land

Committee, which heads the whole system, is an independent institution

on a par with the central State organizations. It is a large group of

people, consisting of the Commissariat of Agriculture, together with

representatives from the following bodies: The Commissariats of Finance,

Justice, and Internal Affairs, the provincial Land Committees, the

All-Russian Soviet of Peasants' Deputies, the All-Russian Soviet of

Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates, and the political parties.

NO MORE LANDLORDS

The Bolsheviki have been careful to extend the abolition of private land

ownership to city real estate. By a special decree they abrogated the

property rights in city land and in those of the city buildings whose

value, together with that of the ground they occupy, exceeds a certain

minimum, fixed in each municipality by the local authorities, or which

are regularly let for rent, although their value does not exceed the

minimum. The land and the buildings are declared public property. The

dispossessed owners retain the right to use the apartment they occupy in

their former property, provided the apartment is worth no more than 800

rubles of rent per annum. In case the value of the apartment exceeds

this maximum the former owner pays the difference to the local Soviet of

Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates. All the rent which formerly went to

the landlord is now paid to that institution or to the Municipal

Council. Not more than one-third of the sum thus collected is to be used

to meet the various needs of the community; 10 per cent. of it goes to

the national housing fund; the rest forms the local housing fund for

erecting new buildings, laying out streets, and making other

improvements.

COMPULSORY INSURANCE

Municipal socialization of land values, while manifestly intended to

benefit the poorer classes, directly affects all the elements of the

city population. Other measures enacted by the Bolsheviki are restricted

to the proletariat, and properly belong to the field of specific labor

legislation. Thus, a law has been passed limiting the working day in

both industrial and commercial establishments to eight hours, and

further regulating the work of women and children. Furthermore, a

minimum wage of the hired workers has been fixed in each section of the

country. But by far the most radical and characteristic innovations

launched by the Bolshevist Government in this line of legislation are

those relating to compulsory insurance of workmen.

On Dec. 29 there was created the Institute of Insurance Soviets, with an

executive organ in the form of a Chamber of Insurance. It is the

intention of the Government to introduce compulsory insurance for

laborers against sickness, unemployment, invalidism, and accidents. The

regulations published so far relate only to the first two forms of

insurance. The respective decrees rule that throughout the territory of

the Russian Republic all hired workers, without distinction of sex, age,

religion, nationality, race, and allegiance, are to be insured against

sickness and unemployment, irrespective of the character and duration of

their work. Salaried employes and members of liberal professions are not

subject to this regulation.

At the moment the workman is hired by the employer he automatically

becomes a member of two fraternities. In the event of his illness, one

furnishes him free medical aid and a weekly allowance equal to his

wages; the other assures him the equivalent of his wages if he loses his

employment and becomes an unemployed workman. The latter term the law

defines as "any able-bodied person depending for subsistence chiefly

upon the wages of his (or her) labor, who is unable to find work at the

normal rate of remuneration fixed by the proper trade union, and who is

registered in a local labor exchange or trade union." The workmen

contribute no dues to the fraternities. The income of the latter

consists mainly of the payments made by the employers. The owner of an

establishment using hired labor must contribute each week to the health

insurance fraternity 10 per cent. of the sum he pays out as wages, and

at least 3 per cent. of the same sum to the unemployment insurance

fraternity. The administrative machinery of this novel form of insurance

is worked out with much detail.

It is natural to ask how the various institutions described above are

working, if they are functioning at all. It is clear that the smooth

working of a great number of cumbersome and wholly novel administrative

agencies in a body politic torn by an unprecedented social upheaval amid

the horrors of a twofold war would be little short of a miracle.

Moreover, it appears that the Bolsheviki have already grown disappointed

in some of their political dogmas, notably in the unrestrained and

ubiquitous application of the elective principle. Nevertheless, the

query, in its entirety, can hardly be adequately answered at present.

The time is not far off, however, when it will be possible to say

whether the measures decreed in the name of the dictatorial will of the

Russian proletariat have taken root or--and this alternative is more

probable--whether they have remained merely codified day-dreams.

Lithuania's Efforts Toward Autonomy

By A. M. Martus

In the press of the United States on May 4, 1918, there appeared a

notice that President Wilson had given audience to the Lithuanian

delegation, recognizing the Lithuanians as a distinctively separate race

having rights of self-determination.

At the time of the upheavals in Russia, during the Russo-Japanese war in

1905, Lithuanians, irrespective of political affiliations, held a

convention in their capital, Vilna, over 2,000 delegates participating,

where they unanimously asserted their right of self-government; also

expressing a strong desire to form one political body with their

half-brothers, the Letts.

Again in October, 1917, a convention was held in Vilna with about 250

delegates from those parts of Lithuania occupied by German forces, to

press their claim of independence for Lithuania. In January, 1918,

representative Lithuanians assembled in the same city proclaimed

independent Lithuania. Another convention of Lithuanian representatives

from Russia and from Lithuanian communities in the United States,

England, and Argentina, held in the same month in Stockholm, Sweden,

approved the act of their countrymen under German domination. On March

13 and 14 American Lithuanians held a convention in New York City,

giving their unanimous approval to the proclaiming of an Independent

Lithuanian Republic; here a unanimous resolution was passed protesting

against any Polish aspirations or claims to Lithuania, and demanding

the inclusion of the Lithuanian part of East Prussia, with the old

Lithuanian city of Karaliauchus (Königsberg,) in the Lithuanian

Republic.

Lithuanians claim those parts of the neighboring provinces where their

language is spoken and where the inhabitants consider themselves

Lithuanians. They claim the eastern part of East Prussia--about 13,500

square miles, with 700,000 or 800,000 inhabitants--and parts of the

provinces of Minsk and Vitebsk; thus the Lithuanian-Lettish Republic

would stretch over 131,000 square miles and have a population of over

11,500,000, inhabiting five centres--Karaliauchus, (Königsberg,)

Klaipeda, (Memel,) Libau, Windau, and Riga.

The country is very rich for agriculture, though it contains much

undeveloped land, with many rivers, lakes, and large forests. Along the

River Nieman in Druskeniki, Government of Goodns, and in Birchtany,

Government of Vilna, there are salt springs of high healing qualities,

but on account of a corrupt Russian Government they remain undeveloped

and unexploited. The seabeach around Palanga, a little distance above

Germany's border on the Baltic, could be turned into another Atlantic

City, according to the opinion of experts, but the place remains

neglected. Lithuania's soil is very rich in aluminium and in material

for manufacturing glass. During my last visit to Lithuania, in 1914, the

discovery of radium was reported in the vicinity of the mineral springs

at Birchtany, but the war came on very soon and nothing further was

heard of it.

BRITISH LEADERS ON LAND AND SEA

[Illustration: Gen. F. B. Maurice

_Formerly Director of Operations at the British War Office, now holding

a high position abroad_

(_Press Illustrating Service_)]

[Illustration: Maj. Gen. S. C. Mewburn,

_Canadian Minister of Militia and Defense_

(_Press Illustrating Service_)]

[Illustration: Vice Admiral Roger Keyes

_Who directed the British attack on Zeebrugge_

(_Central News_)]

[Illustration: Brig. Gen. Sandeman Carey,

_Who stopped the gap in the British line before Amiens_ (©

_Underwood_)]

[Illustration: A new type of tank made for the French Army

(© _Underwood_)]

[Illustration: First American tank just completed at Boston

(_Paul Thompson_)]

In March, 1918, Lithuanians demanded that Germany recognize their

Provisional Government. The Tevyne of New York, official organ of the

Lithuanian Alliance of America, received the following from its

correspondent in Russia, relayed from Yokohama, March 26:

In Lithuania there has been formed a Provisional Government

consisting of the following: A. Smetona, Premier; P. Dovydailis,

Minister of Education; J. Shaulys, Minister of Foreign Affairs; M.

Smilgevichus, Minister of Finances; M. Birzhishka, Minister of

Justice; J. Vileishis, Minister of Public Works; D. Malinauskas,

Minister of Public Safety. Dr. J. Shlupas, well known among American

Lithuanians, has been appointed Envoy Plenipotentiary to the United

States; J. Aukshtuolis, President of the Lithuanian Committee in

Stockholm, is made Ambassador to the Scandinavian countries; M.

Ychas, member of the last Russian Duma, Ambassador to England and

France; J. Gabrys, manager of the Lithuanian Information Bureau in

Switzerland, Ambassador to the Central Powers. A national army is

being organized. Lithuania's absolute neutrality was proclaimed.

Drafted a political and economic treaty with Sweden.

Lithuanians fought in the Russian Army against the Germans, and now

large numbers of them are joining the military and naval forces of the

United States to fight the common foe; some are already in the English

Army. Lithuania has suffered not for her own faults, but because she was

situated between two belligerents. In the Government of Suvalki the

German and Russian Armies chased each other nine times backward and

forward; one may imagine how much is left there. Nothing but

excavations, trenches, heaps of ruins, crumbling chimneys indicate where

previously were large and prosperous villages. The world is yet to hear

more about German requisitions, German devastations, and German rapine

in Lithuania. Not only forests were denuded, but even fruit trees on the

farms were cut down and shipped to Germany. The remaining inhabitants

are forced to raise crops for the invaders, and for their various

products they must accept, under penalty, specially printed money for

local use--money that Germans themselves would not accept.

Notwithstanding reports to the contrary, the Lithuanians were with the

Allies all the time, and will stand by them to the end. They have faith

that the Allies, when the proper time comes, will recognize their just

claims.

Germany to Impose "War Burdens" on Lithuania

Emperor William on May 12, 1918, issued the following proclamation

regarding Lithuania:

We, Wilhelm, by God's grace German Emperor, King of Prussia, &c.,

hereby make known that, whereas the Lithuanian Landsrat, as the

recognized representative of the Lithuanian people, on Dec. 12

announced the restoration of Lithuania as an independent State

allied to the German Empire by an eternal, steadfast alliance, and

by conventions chiefly regarding military matters, traffic, customs,

and coinage, and solicited the help of the German Empire; and,

Whereas, further, Previous political connections in Lithuania are

dissolved, we command our Imperial Chancellor to declare Lithuania

on the basis of the aforementioned declarations of the Lithuanian

Landsrat, in the name of the German Empire, as a free and

independent State, and we are prepared to accord the Lithuanian

State the solicited help and assistance in its restoration.

We assume that the conventions to be concluded will take the

interests of the German Empire into account equally with those of

Lithuania, and that Lithuania will participate in the war burdens of

Germany, which secured her liberation.

The Lithuanian National Council, with headquarters at Washington,

replied to the foregoing proclamation on May 14 as follows:

The assumption that Lithuania "will participate in the war burdens

of Germany" means a contribution of three things: Money, munitions,

and men. The first we have not, as Germany has already impoverished

us; the second, we have no means of supplying, because we lack the

first. Therefore, Germany can have reference only to men. Men from a

self-declared democracy to fight in the ranks of autocracy?

Unthinkable. Lithuania would not consent. Are her citizens to be

dragooned into the ranks of the Kaiser? This would be an abridgment

of the sovereignty which Germany has already recognized, for

Chancellor von Hertling's reply stated, "We hereby recognize

Lithuania as free and independent."

Germany knows that ultimate defeat is unavoidable, but she would

compensate losses in the west with gains in the east, among which

Lithuania is gambled on as an asset. No recognition of Lithuanian

independence can be sincere when coupled with the von Hertling

terms, but if this sop will add to Prussian man power it may

postpone somewhat the inevitable day of reckoning and give her more

time to Germanize in the east with a view of confederating the new

republics under Junker rule.

[Illustration: THE BRITISH CRUISER VINDICTIVE AS IT LOOKED AFTER THE

FIGHT AT ZEEBRUGGE; LATER IT WAS SUNK IN THE HARBOR AT OSTEND TO BLOCK

THE CHANNEL]

The Raid on Zeebrugge and Ostend

British Naval Exploit That Damaged Two German U-Boat Bases on the North

Sea Coast

The little Belgian port of Zeebrugge fell into German hands in the

Autumn of 1914, and, with the neighboring port of Ostend, became a thorn

in the side of the Entente by reason of its increasing use as a base for

enemy destroyers, submarines, and aircraft. The Germans, having seized

the shipbuilding plants at Antwerp, began building submarines and small

war craft, which could be sent by way of Bruges down the canals that

connect the latter city with Zeebrugge and Ostend. Especially useful to

them was the maritime canal whose mouth at Zeebrugge was protected by a

crescent-shaped mole, thirty feet high, inclosing the harbor.

On the night of April 22-23, 1918, a British naval expedition under Vice

Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, commanding at Dover, aided by French

destroyers, undertook to wreck the stone mole at Zeebrugge and to block

the entrances to the canals both at Zeebrugge and at Ostend by sinking

the hulks of old ships in the channels. The episode, marked as it was by

heroic fighting, proved to be one of the most thrilling and picturesque

in the naval operations of the war. To Americans it recalled Hobson's

exploit with the Merrimac at Santiago, while to Englishmen it brought

back memories of Sir Francis Drake and his fireships in the Harbor of

Cadiz.

Though the fighting at Zeebrugge lasted only an hour, the British lost

588 men, officially reported as follows: Officers--Killed, 16; died of

wounds, 3; missing, 2; wounded, 29. Men--Killed, 144; died of wounds,

25; missing, 14; wounded, 355.

Six obsolete British cruisers took part in the attack. They were the

Brilliant, Iphigenia, Sirius, Intrepid, Thetis, and Vindictive. The

first five of these were filled with concrete and were to be sunk in the

entrances of the two ports. The Vindictive, working with the two Mersey

ferryboats Daffodil and Iris, carried storming and demolition parties to

the Zeebrugge mole. The object was to attack the enemy forces and guns

on the mole, along with the destroyer and submarine depots and the large

seaplane base upon it, and thus to divert the enemy's attention from the

work of the block ships. As the attack on the mole accomplished this,

the main object of the operation was successful.

The attacking forces were composed of bluejackets and Royal Marines

picked from the Grand Fleet and from naval and marine depots. Sir Eric

Geddes stated in Parliament the next morning that light forces belonging

to the Dover command and Harwich forces under Admiral Tyrwhitte covered

the operation from the south. A large force of monitors, together with

many motor launches and small, fast craft took part. One of the

essentials of success was the creation of a heavy veil of artificial fog

or smoke. The officer who developed this phase of the attack was killed

in action. The general plan was to attack the guns and works on the

Zeebrugge mole with storming parties, while the concrete-laden cruisers

were being sunk in the channel. Two old and valueless submarines filled

with explosives were to be blown up against the viaduct connecting the

mole with the shore.

STORY OF THE FIGHTING

A detailed narrative of the affair was issued by the British Admiralty

on the 25th, the essential passages of which are as follows:

The night was overcast and there was a drifting haze. Down the coast

a great searchlight swung its beam to and fro in the small wind and

short sea. From the Vindictive's bridge, as she headed in toward

the mole, with the faithful ferryboats at her heels, there was

scarcely a glimmer of light to be seen shoreward. Ahead, as she

drove through the water, rolled the smoke screen, her cloak of

invisibility, wrapped about her by small craft. This was the device

of Wing Commander Brock, without which, acknowledges the Admiral in

command, the operation could not have been conducted.

A northeast wind moved the volume of it shoreward ahead of the

ships. Beyond it was the distant town, its defenders unsuspicious.

It was not until the Vindictive, with bluejackets and marines

standing ready for landing, was close upon the mole that the wind

lulled and came away again from the southeast, sweeping back the

smoke screen and laying her bare to eyes that looked seaward.

There was a moment immediately afterward when it seemed to those on

the ships as if the dim, coast-hidden harbor exploded into light. A

star shell soared aloft, then a score of star shells. The wavering

beams of the searchlights swung around and settled into a glare. A

wild fire of gun flashes leaped against the sky, strings of luminous

green beads shot aloft, hung and sank. The darkness of the night was

supplemented by a nightmare daylight of battle-fired guns and

machine guns along the mole. The batteries ashore awoke to life.

Landing on the Mole

It was in a gale of shelling that the Vindictive laid her nose

against the thirty-foot high concrete side of the mole, let go her

anchor and signaled to the Daffodil to shove her stern in.

The Iris went ahead and endeavored to get alongside likewise. The

fire was intense, while the ships plunged and rolled beside the mole

in the seas, the Vindictive with her greater draught jarring against

the foundations of the mole with every lunge. They were swept

diagonally by machine-gun fire from both ends of the mole and by the

heavy batteries on shore.

Commander (now Captain) Carpenter conned the Vindictive from the

open bridge until her stern was laid in, when he took up his

position in the flame thrower hut on the port side. It is marvelous

that any occupant should have survived a minute in this hut, so

riddled and shattered is it.

The officers of the Iris, which was in trouble ahead of the

Vindictive, describe Captain Carpenter as handling her like a picket

boat. The Vindictive was fitted along her port side with a high

false deck, from which ran eighteen brows or gangways by which the

storming and demolition parties were to land.

[Illustration: MAP SHOWING RELATION OF ZEEBRUGGE AND OSTEND TO THE

ENGLISH COAST]

The men gathered in readiness on the main lower decks, while

Colonel Elliott, who was to lead the marines, waited on the false

deck just abaft the bridge. Captain Halahan, who commanded the

bluejackets, was amidships. The gangways were lowered, and they

scraped and rebounded upon the high parapet of the mole as the

Vindictive rolled in the sea-way.

The word for the assault had not yet been given when both leaders

were killed, Colonel Elliott by a shell and Captain Halahan by

machine-gun fire which swept the decks. The same shell that killed

Colonel Elliott also did fearful execution in the forward Stokes

mortar battery. The men were magnificent; every officer bears the

same testimony.

The mere landing on the mole was a perilous business. It involved a

passage across the crashing and splintering gangways, a drop over

the parapet into the field of fire of the German machine guns which

swept its length, and a further drop of some sixteen feet to the

surface of the mole itself. Many were killed and more wounded as

they crowded up the gangways, but nothing hindered the orderly and

speedy landing by every gangway.

Lieutenant H. T. C. Walker had his arm shot away by shell on the

upper deck, and lay in darkness while the storming parties trod him

under. He was recognized and dragged aside by the commander. He

raised his remaining arm in greetings. "Good luck to you," he called

as the rest of the stormers hastened by. "Good luck."

The lower deck was a shambles as the commander made the rounds of

the ship, yet those wounded and dying raised themselves to cheer as

he made his tour. * * *

Heroic Work on the Iris

The Iris had troubles of her own. Her first attempts to make fast to

the mole ahead of the Vindictive failed, as her grapnels were not

large enough to span the parapet. Two officers, Lieut. Commander

Bradford and Lieutenant Hawkins, climbed ashore and sat astride the

parapet trying to make the grapnels fast till each was killed and

fell down between the ship and the wall. Commander Valentine Gibbs

had both legs shot away and died next morning. Lieutenant Spencer,

though wounded, took command and refused to be relieved.

The Iris was obliged at last to change her position and fall in

astern of the Vindictive, and suffered very heavily from fire. A

single big shell plunged through the upper deck and burst below at a

point where fifty-six marines were waiting for the order to go to

the gangways. Forty-nine were killed. The remaining seven were

wounded. Another shell in the ward-room, which was serving as a sick

bay, killed four officers and twenty-six men. Her total casualties

were eight officers and sixty-nine men killed and three officers and

103 men wounded.

Storming and demolition parties upon the mole met with no resistance

from the Germans other than intense and unremitting fire. One after

another buildings burst into flame or split and crumbled as dynamite

went off. A bombing party working up toward the mole extension in

search of the enemy destroyed several machine-gun emplacements, but

not a single prisoner rewarded them. It appears that upon the

approach of the ships and with the opening of fire the enemy simply

retired and contented themselves with bringing machine guns to the

short end of the mole.

BLOCKING THE CANAL

Describing operations of the three

block ships, the official narrative says:

The Thetis came first, steaming into a tornado of shells from great

batteries ashore. All her crew, save a remnant who remained to

steam her in and sink her, already had been taken off her by a

ubiquitous motor launch, but the remnant spared hands enough to keep

her four guns going. It was hers to show the road to the Intrepid

and the Iphigenia, which followed. She cleared a string of armed

barges which defends the channel from the tip of the mole, but had

the ill-fortune to foul one of her propellers upon a net defense

which flanks it on the shore side.

[Illustration: PLAN ILLUSTRATING THE FIGHT AT THE ZEEBRUGGE MOLE, THE

BLOCKING OF THE BRUGES CANAL, AND THE LOCATION OF SUNKEN SHIPS]

The propeller gathered in the net, and it rendered her practically

unmanageable. Shore batteries found her and pounded her

unremittingly. She bumped into the bank, edged off, and found

herself in the channel again still some hundreds of yards from the

mouth of the canal in practically a sinking condition. As she lay

she signaled invaluable directions to others, and her commander, R.

S. Sneyd, also accordingly blew charges and sank her. Motor launches

under Lieutenant H. Littleton raced alongside and took off her crew.

Her losses were five killed and five wounded.

The Intrepid, smoking like a volcano and with all her guns blazing,

followed. Her motor launch had failed to get alongside outside the

harbor, and she had men enough for anything. Straight into the canal

she steered, her smoke blowing back from her into the Iphigenia's

eyes, so that the latter was blinded, and, going a little wild,

rammed a dredger, with her barge moored beside it, which lay at the

western arm of the canal. She was not clear, though, and entered the

canal pushing the barge before her. It was then that a shell hit the

steam connections of her whistle, and the escape of steam which

followed drove off some of the smoke and let her see what she was

doing.

[Illustration: PERSPECTIVE MAP OF OSTEND HARBOR, WITH ZEEBRUGGE IN THE

DISTANCE]

Main Object Attained

Lieutenant Stuart Bonham Carter, commanding the Intrepid, placed the

nose of his ship neatly on the mud of the western bank, ordered his

crew away, and blew up his ship by switches in the chart room. Four

dull bumps were all that could be heard, and immediately afterward

there arrived on deck the engineer, who had been in the engine room

during the explosion, and reported that all was as it should be.

Lieutenant E. W. Bullyard Leake, commanding the Iphigenia, beached

her according to arrangement on the eastern side, blew her up, saw

her drop nicely across the canal, and left her with her engines

still going, to hold her in position till she should have bedded

well down on the bottom. According to the latest reports from air

observation, two old ships, with their holds full of concrete, are

lying across the canal in a V position, and it is probable that the

work they set out to do has been accomplished and that the canal is

effectively blocked. A motor launch, under Lieutenant P. T. Deane,

had followed them in to bring away the crews and waited further up

the canal toward the mouth against the western bank.

Lieutenant Bonham Carter, having sent away his boats, was reduced to

a Carley float, an apparatus like an exaggerated lifebuoy with the

floor of a grating. Upon contact with the water it ignited a calcium

flare and he was adrift in the uncanny illumination with a German

machine gun a few hundred yards away giving him its undivided

attention. What saved him was possibly the fact that the defunct

Intrepid still was emitting huge clouds of smoke which it had been

worth nobody's while to turn. He managed to catch a rope, as the

motor launch started, and was towed for awhile till he was observed

and taken on board.

THE VINDICTIVE'S STORY

Commander Alfred F. B. Carpenter, who commanded the Vindictive and who

was made Captain for his successful work, gave an Associated Press

correspondent an interesting description of the episode. During the

attack he was at the end of the bridge in a small steel box or cabin

which had been specially constructed to house a flame thrower. The

Captain, with his arm in a sling, standing on the shell-battered deck of

the Vindictive, said:

Exactly according to plan we ran alongside the mole, approached it

on the port side, where we were equipped with specially built

buffers of wood two feet wide. As there was nothing for us to tie up

to, we merely dropped anchor there, while the Daffodil kept us

against the mole with her nose against the opposite side of our

ship. In the fairly heavy sea two of our three gangways were

smashed, but the third held, and 500 men swarmed up this on to the

mole. This gangway was two feet wide and thirty feet long. The men

who went up it included 300 marines and 150 storming seamen from the

Vindictive, and fifty or so from the Daffodil. They swarmed up the

steel gangway, carrying hand grenades and Lewis guns. No Germans

succeeded in approaching the gangway, but a hard hand-to-hand fight

took place about 200 yards up the mole toward the shore.

The Vindictive's bow was pointed toward the shore, so the bridge got

the full effect of enemy fire from the shore batteries. One shell

exploded against the pilot house, killing nearly all its ten

occupants. Another burst in the fighting top, killing a Lieutenant

and eight men, who were doing excellent work with two pompoms and

four machine guns.

The battery of eleven-inch guns at the end of the mole was only 300

yards away, and it kept trying to reach us. The shore batteries also

were diligent. Only a few German shells hit our hull, because it was

well protected by the wall of the mole, but the upper structure,

mast, stacks, and ventilators showed above the wall and were

riddled. A considerable proportion of our casualties were caused by

splinters from these upper works.

Meanwhile the Daffodil continued to push us against the wall as if

no battle was on, and if she had failed to do this none of the

members of the landing party would have been able to return to the

ship.

Twenty-five minutes after the Vindictive had reached the wall the

first block ship passed in and headed for the canal. Two others

followed in leisurely fashion while we kept up the fight on the

mole. One of the block ships stranded outside of the canal, but the

two others got two or three hundred yards inside, where they were

successfully sunk across the entrance.

Fifteen minutes after the Vindictive arrived alongside the mole our

submarine exploded under the viaduct connecting the mole with the

mainland. The Germans had sent a considerable force to this viaduct

as soon as the submarine arrived, and these men were gathered on the

viaduct, attacking our submersible with machine guns. When the

explosion occurred the viaduct and Germans were blown up together.

The crew of the submarine, consisting of six men, escaped on board a

dinghy to a motor launch.

Early in the fighting a German shell knocked out our howitzer, which

had been getting in some good shots on a big German seaplane station

on the mole half a mile away. This is the largest seaplane station

in Belgium. Unfortunately, our other guns could not be brought to

bear effectively upon it. The shell which disabled the howitzer

killed all the members of the gun crew. Many men were also killed by

a German shell which hit the mole close to our ship and scattered

fragments of steel and stone among the marines assembling on the

deck around the gangway.

Half an hour after the block ships went in, we received the signal

to withdraw. The Vindictive's siren was blown, and the men returned

from all parts of the mole and thronged down the gangway. We put off

after having lain alongside just about an hour. The Germans made no

effort to interfere with our getaway other than to continue their

heavy firing.

RESCUE FROM BLOCK SHIPS

One of the most thrilling incidents was the rescue by two American-built

motor launches of nearly 200 members of the crews of two block ships

sunk at the entrance to the Bruges Canal. The feat was accomplished

under a heavy fire and the actual transfer was made in less than five

minutes. One launch delivered ninety-nine men to the destroyer.

The dead and wounded could not all be brought away, but the loss of

personnel in this way was declared to be remarkably small.

Stoker Bendall of the submarine which blew up the Zeebrugge mole said:

It was silent and heavy business. We were going full tilt when we

hit the viaduct. It was a good jolt, and we ran right into the

middle of the viaduct and stuck there, as we intended to do. I don't

think anybody said anything except, "Well, we are here all right."

We lowered a skiff and stood by while the commander touched off the

fuse and then tumbled into the skiff and pushed off. By bad luck the

propeller fouled the exhaust pipe and left us with only two oars and

two minutes to get away. The enemy lights were on us, and the

machine guns were firing from the shore.

Before we made 200 yards the submarine went up, and there was a

tremendous flash and roar, and lots of concrete from the mole fell

around us. Luckily, we were not struck.

Photographs taken from an airplane a few days later showed that the

effort to block the canal entrance had been successful. The Intrepid and

Iphigenia had reached the precise positions in which they were intended

to be sunk, while the exploded submarine had blown a gap of sixty to a

hundred feet in the shore end of the mole. The Frankfurter Zeitung, in

commenting on the affair, said: "It would be foolish to deny that the

British fleet scored a great success through a fantastically audacious

stroke in penetrating into one of the most important strongholds over

which the German flag floats."

ATTACKS AT OSTEND

At Ostend the operations on the same night were unsuccessful, largely

owing to a shift of wind. Small craft with smoke apparatus ran in

according to program, set up a screen, and lit two large flares to mark

the entrance to the harbor for the two concrete-laden cruisers that were

to be sunk in the channel. Before the cruisers could arrive, however,

the wind shifted and blew away the smoke screen, after which the German

gunfire quickly destroyed the flares. The cruisers tried to proceed by

guesswork under heavy fire, but their efforts were in vain. One of the

block ships was sunk, but not in a position to obstruct the channel.

A second attempt to close the Ostend harbor was made on the night of

May 9-10, when the battered old Vindictive, which had borne the brunt of

the shellfire at the Zeebrugge mole, was sunk in the channel with her

inside full of concrete. A member of the expedition gave this account:

As the Vindictive neared Ostend it became apparent that the Germans

had got wind of our presence, for suddenly there was a regular

pyrotechnic display of star shells. The effect was brilliant, but

quite undesirable from our point of view. Immediately guns of all

sizes opened fire on us, and there was a terrific din.

The Vindictive and one or two other vessels received hits, and a few

casualties were caused by this gunfire. The firing was heavily

returned by our ships. Most of the crew of the Vindictive were taken

off when the ship was at a little distance from the Ostend piers,

only a few officers and men being left to navigate her between the

piers and sink her there. A motor launch which was assisting in

picking up the crew was hit several times by shellfire, and was in a

sinking condition when it came alongside the Admiral's vessel, the

destroyer Warwick, to which they were transferred. The motor launch

had extensive damage in the fore part, and by order of the Admiral

was sunk, as it was apparent that it could not get back to Dover.

There was a heavy explosion when the Vindictive sank between the

piers.

The casualties in the second Ostend raid were forty-seven, of whom

eighteen were killed or missing, the rest wounded.

* * * * *

The British Admiralty, in its official report of the second Ostend

action, issued May 14, stated that the Vindictive was "lying at an angle

of about 40 degrees to the pier, and seemed to be hard fast." Commander

Godsal, who was on deck during the critical moments, was missing and was

believed to have been killed; Lieutenant Crutchley blew up the auxiliary

charges in the forward 6-inch magazine from the conning tower. Lieut.

Commander William A. Bury, who blew up the main charges by a switch

installed aft, was severely wounded. The Admiralty reported that the

sunken ship would make the harbor impracticable for any but small craft

and difficult for dredging operations.

German U-Boat Claims

Address by Admiral von Capelle

_German Naval Secretary_

Admiral Von Capelle, the German Secretary of the Navy, delivered an

address before the Reichstag, April 17, 1918, in which he asserted that

the submarine warfare of Germany was a success. In the course of his

speech he said:

"The main question is, What do the western powers need for the carrying

on of the war and the supply of their homelands, and what amount of

tonnage is still at their disposal for that purpose? All statistical

calculations regarding tonnage are today almost superfluous, as the

visible successes of the U-boat war speak clearly enough. The robbery of

Dutch tonnage, by which the Anglo-Saxons have incurred odium of the

worst kind for decades to come, is the best proof of how far the

shipping shortage has already been felt by our opponents. In addition to

the sinkings there must be added a great amount of wear and tear of

ships and an enormous increase of marine accidents, which Sir J.

Ellerman, speaking in the Chamber of Shipping recently, calculated at

three times the peace losses. Will the position of the western powers

improve or deteriorate? That depends upon their military achievements

and the replacing of sunken ships by new construction."

Dealing briefly with Sir Eric Geddes's recent speech on the occasion of

the debate on the naval estimates, Admiral von Capelle declared:

"The assertion of the First Lord of the Admiralty that an unwillingness

to put to sea prevailed among the German U-boat crews is a base

calumny."

LOSSES AND CONSTRUCTION

As regards the assertions of British statesmen concerning the

extraordinarily great losses of U-boats, Admiral von Capelle said:

"The statements in the foreign press are very greatly exaggerated. Now,

as before, our new construction surpasses our losses. The number of

U-boats, both from the point of view of quality and quantity, is

constantly rising. We can also continue absolutely to reckon on our

military achievements hitherto attained. Whether Lloyd George can

continue the naval war with prospects of success depends, not upon his

will but upon the position of the U-boats as against shipbuilding.

According to Lloyd's Register, something over 22,000,000 gross register

tons were built in the last ten years before the war in the whole

world--that is, inclusive of the construction of ourselves, our allies,

and foreign countries. The entire output today can in no case be more,

for difficulties of all kinds and the shortage of workmen and material

have grown during the war. In the last ten years--that is, in peace

time--800,000 gross register tons of the world's shipping was destroyed

annually by natural causes. Now in wartime the losses, as already

mentioned, are considerably greater. Thus, 1,400,000 gross register tons

was the annual net increase for the entire world. That gives, at any

rate, a standard for the present position. America's and Japan's new

construction is to a certain extent destined for the necessities of

these countries.

"In the main, therefore, only the figures of British shipbuilding come

into question. About the middle of 1917 there was talk of 3,000,000 tons

in official quarters in Great Britain. Then Lloyd George dropped to

2,000,000, and now, according to Bonar Law's statement, the output is

1,160,000 tons. As against, therefore, about 100,000 tons monthly put

into service there are sinkings amounting to 600,000 tons, or six times

as much. In brief, if the figures given are regarded as too favorable

and new construction at the rate of 150,000 tons monthly--that is, 50

per cent. higher--be assumed, and the sinkings be reduced to 450,000

tons, then the sinkings are still three times as large as the amount of

new construction.

THE COMING MONTHS

"One other thing must especially be taken into consideration for the

coming months. Today every ship sunk strikes at the vital nerve of our

opponents. Today, when only the absolutely necessary cargoes of

foodstuffs and war necessities can still be transported, the sinking of

even one small ship has quite a different significance as compared with

the beginning of the U-boat war. Moreover, the loss of one ship means a

falling out of four to five cargoes. In these circumstances even the

greatest pessimist must say that the position of our opponents is

deteriorating in a considerably increasing extent and with rapid

strides, and that any doubt regarding the final success of the U-boat

war is unjustified."

Replying to a question of the reporter, Admiral von Capelle said:

"Our opponents have been busily endeavoring to strengthen their

anti-submarine measures by all the means at their disposal, and,

naturally, they have attained a certain success. But they have at no

time had any decisive influence on the U-boat war, and, according to

human reckoning, they will not do so in the future. The American

submarine destroyers which have been so much talked about have failed.

The convoy system, which, it is true, offers ships a certain measure of

protection, has, on the other hand, also the great disadvantage of

reducing their transport capabilities. The statements oscillate from 25

to 60 per cent.

"For the rest, our commanders are specially trained for attacks on

convoys, and no day goes by when one or more ships are not struck out of

convoys. Experienced commanders manage to sink three to four ships in

succession belonging to the same convoy."

THE STEEL QUESTION

Admiral von Capelle then dealt with the steel question as regards

shipbuilding, which, he said, "is practically the determinative factor

for shipbuilding." He continued:

"Great Britain's steel imports in 1916 amounted to 763,000 tons, and in

1917 only amounted to 497,000 tons. That means that already a reduction

of 37 per cent. has been effected, a reduction which will presumably be

further considerably increased during 1918. Restriction of imports of

ore from other countries, such as America, caused by the U-boat war will

also have a hampering effect on shipbuilding in Great Britain. It is

true that Sir Eric Geddes denied that there was a lack of material, but

expert circles in England give the scarcity of steel as the main reason

for the small shipbuilding output.

"American help in men and airplanes and American participation in the

war are comparatively small. If later on America wants to maintain

500,000 troops in France, shipping to the amount of about 2,000,000 tons

would be permanently needed. This shipping would have to be withdrawn

from the supply service of the Allies.

"Moreover, according to statements made in the United States and Great

Britain, the intervention in the present campaign of such a big army no

longer comes into consideration. After America's entry into the war

material help for the Entente has not only not increased, but has even

decreased considerably. President Wilson's gigantic armament program has

brought about such economic difficulties that America, the export

country, must now begin to ration instead of, as it was hoped,

increasingly to help the Entente. To sum up, it can be stated that the

economic difficulties of our enemies have been increased by America's

entry into the war."

"ENGLAND'S DANGER POINT"

Later in the debate Admiral von Capelle said: "The salient point of the

discussion is the economic internal and political results of the U-boat

war during the coming months. The danger point for England has already

been reached, and the situation of the western powers grows worse from

day to day."

Admiral von Capelle then briefly dealt with that calculation of the

world tonnage made by a Deputy which received some attention in the

Summer of last year. "This calculation," he said, "shows a difference of

9,000,000 tons from the calculation of the Admiralty Staff. In my

opinion, the calculation of the Admiralty Staff is correct. Whence

otherwise comes the Entente's lack of tonnage, which, in view of the

facts, cannot be argued away? The Admiralty Staff in its calculation

adapted itself to the fluctuating situation of the world shipping. At

first each of the enemy States looked after itself. Later, under Great

Britain's leadership, common control of tonnage was established."

Admiral von Capelle quoted the calculation of the American Shipping

Department, according to which the world tonnage in the Autumn of 1917

amounted to 32,000,000, of which 21,000,000 were given as transoceanic.

He insisted, however, that so much attention must not be paid to all

these calculations, but exhorted the people rather to dwell on the

joyful fact that the danger point for the western powers had been

reached.

At the close of the sitting Admiral von Capelle stated that all orders

for the construction of U-boats had been given independently by the

Naval Department and that the Naval Administration had never been

instructed to give orders for more U-boats by the Chancellor or the

Supreme Army Command. Every possible means, he said, for the development

of U-boat warfare had been done by the Naval Department.

Admiral von Capelle in a supplemental statement before the Reichstag,

May 11, in discussing the naval estimates, said:

The reports for April are favorable. Naturally, losses occur, but

the main thing is that the increase in submarines exceeds the

losses. Our naval offensive is stronger today than at the beginning

of unrestricted submarine warfare. That gives us an assured prospect

of final success.

The submarine war is developing more and more into a struggle

between U-boat action and new construction of ships. Thus far the

monthly figures of destruction have continued to be several times as

large as those of new construction. Even the British Ministry and

the entire British press admit that.

The latest appeal to British shipyard workers appears to be

especially significant. For the present the appeal does not appear

to have had great success. According to the latest statements

British shipbuilding fell from 192,000 tons in March to 112,000 in

April; or, reckoned in ships, from 32 to 22. That means a decline of

80,000 tons, or about 40 per cent. [The British Admiralty stated

that the April new tonnage was reduced on account of the vast amount

of repairing to merchantmen.--Editor.]

America thus far has built little, and has fallen far below

expectations. Even if an increase is to be reckoned with in the

future, it will be used up completely by America herself.

In addition to the sinkings by U-boats, there is a large decline in

cargo space owing to marine losses and to ships becoming

unserviceable. One of the best-known big British ship owners

declared at a meeting of shipping men that the losses of the British

merchant fleet through marine accidents, owing to conditions created

by the war, were three times as large as in peace.

The Admiral's Statements Attacked

The British authorities asserted that Admiral von Capelle's figures were

misleading and untrue. The losses published in the White Paper include

marine risk and all losses by enemy action. They include all losses, and

not merely the losses of food ships, as suggested in the German wireless

message dated April 16. Even in the figures of the world's output of

shipbuilding von Capelle seems to have been misled. He states that

"something over 2,000,000 gross tons were built annually in the last ten

years, including allied and enemy countries." The actual figures are

2,530,351 gross tons. He further states that the entire output today can

in no case be more, owing to difficulties in regard to labor and

material. The actual world's output, as shown in the Parliamentary White

Paper, excluding enemy countries, amounted to 2,703,000 gross tons, and

the output is rapidly rising. Von Capelle tried to raise confusion with

regard to the figures 3,000,000 and 2,000,000 tons and the actual output

for 1917. The Admiralty says no forecast was ever given that 3,000,000

tons, or even 2,000,000 tons, would be completed in that year. Three

million tons is the ultimate rate of production, which, as the First

Lord stated in the House of Commons, is well within the present and

prospective capacity of United Kingdom shipyards and marine engineering

works. The exaggerated figures of losses are still relied on by the

enemy. The average loss per month of British ships during 1917,

including marine risk, was 333,000 gross tons, whereas Secretary von

Capelle in his statement bases his argument on an average loss from

submarine attacks alone of 600,000 tons per month. The figures for the

quarter ended March 31, 1918, showed British losses to be 687,576 tons,

and for the month of March 216,003 tons, the lowest during any month,

with one exception, since January, 1917. With regard to steel, the First

Lord has already assured the House of Commons that arrangements have

been made for the supply of steel to give the output aimed at, and at

the present time the shipyards are in every case fully supplied with the

material.

The American production of new tonnage reached its stride in May, and

the estimate of over 4,000,000 tons per annum was regarded as

conservative. It was estimated that the total British and American new

tonnage in the year ending May, 1919, would exceed 6,000,000, as against

total U-boat sinkings, based on the record of the first quarter of 1918,

of 4,500,000.

OFFICIAL RETURNS OF LOSSES

The following was the official report of losses of British, allied, and

neutral merchant tonnage due to enemy action and marine risk:

Allied

Period. British. and Neutral. Total.

1917. Month. Month. Month.

January 193,045 216,787 409,832

February 343,486 231,370 574,856

March 375,309 259,376 634,685

-------- -------- ----------

Quarter 911,840 707,533 1,619,373

April 555,056 338,821 893,877

May 374,419 255,917 630,336

June 432,395 280,326 712,721

-------- -------- ----------

Quarter 1,361,870 875,064 2,236,934

July 383,430 192,519 575,949

August 360,296 189,067 519,363

September 209,212 159,949 369,161

-------- -------- ---------

Quarter 952,938 541,535 1,494,473

October 289,973 197,364 487,337

November 196,560 136,883 333,443

December 296,356 155,707 452,063

-------- -------- ---------

Quarter 782,889 489,954 1,272,843

1918.

January 217,270 136,187 353,457

February 254,303 134,119 388,422

March 216,003 165,628 381,631

-------- -------- ---------

Quarter 687,576 435,934 1,123,510

The Secretary of the Ministry of Shipping stated that the tonnage of

steamships of 500 gross tons and over entering and clearing United

Kingdom ports from and to ports overseas was as under:

Period. Period.

1917. Gross Tons. 1918. Gross Tons.

October 6,908,189 January 6,336,663

November 6,818,564 February 6,326,965

December 6,665,413 March 7,295,620

This statement embraces all United Kingdom seaborne traffic other

than coastwise and cross Channel.

The Month's Submarine Record

The British Admiralty, in April, 1918, discontinued its weekly report of

merchant ships destroyed by submarines or mines, and announced that it

would publish a monthly report in terms of tonnage. These figures are

shown in the table above. The last weekly report was for the period

ended April 14, and showed that eleven merchantmen over 1,600 tons, four

under 1,600 tons, and one fishing vessel had been sunk.

In regard to the sinkings in April, French official figures showed that

the total losses of allied and neutral ships, including those from

accidents at sea during the month, aggregated 381,631 tons.

Norway's losses from the beginning of the war to the end of April, 1918,

amounted to 755 vessels, aggregating 1,115,519 tons, and the lives of

1,006 seamen, in addition to about 700 men on fifty-three vessels

missing, two-thirds of which were declared to be war losses.

The American steamship Lake Moor, manned by naval reserves, was sunk by

a German submarine in European waters about midnight on April 11, with a

loss of five officers and thirty-nine men. Five officers and twelve

enlisted men were landed at an English port. Eleven men, including five

navy gunners, were lost when the Old Dominion liner Tyler was sunk off

the French coast on May 3. The Canadian Pacific Company's steamer Medora

also was sunk off the French coast. The Florence H. was wrecked in a

French port by an internal explosion on the night of April 17. Out of

the crew of fifty-six men, twenty-nine were listed as dead or missing,

twelve were sent to hospital badly burned, two were slightly injured,

and only thirteen escaped injury. Of the twenty-three men of the naval

guard only six were reported as survivors.

Six officers and thirteen men were reported missing as the result of two

naval disasters reported on May 1 by the British Admiralty. They formed

part of the crews of the sloop Cowslip, which was torpedoed and sunk on

April 25, and of Torpedo Boat 90, which foundered.

According to Archibald Hurd, a British authority on naval matters, the

area in the North Sea which was proclaimed by the British Government as

dangerous to shipping and therefore prohibited after May 15 is the

greatest mine field ever laid for the special purpose of foiling

submarines. It embraces 121,782 square miles, the base forming a line

between Norway and Scotland, and the peak extending northward into the

Arctic Circle.

A Secret Chapter of U-Boat History

How Ruthless Policy Was Adopted

_The causes that led to Germany's adoption of the policy of unrestricted

submarine warfare on Feb. 1, 1917, were revealed a year later by the

Handelsblad, an Amsterdam newspaper, whose correspondent had secured

secret access to "a number of highly interesting and important

documents" long enough to read them and make notes of their contents.

The Dutch paper vouched for the accuracy of the following information:_

At the close of the year 1915 the German Admiralty Staff prepared a

semi-official memorandum to prove that an unrestricted submarine

campaign would compel Great Britain to sue for peace "in six months at

the most." The character of the argument conveys the impression that the

chiefs of the German Admiralty Staff had already made up their minds to

adopt the most drastic measures in regard to submarine warfare, but that

they wished to convince the Kaiser, the Imperial Chancellor, and the

German diplomatists of the certainty of good results on economic and

general, rather than merely military, grounds. To this end the

memorandum based its arguments on statistics of food prices, freight,

and insurance rates in Great Britain. It pointed out that the effects on

the prices of essential commodities, on the balance of trade, and,

above all, on the morale of the chief enemy, had been such, even with

the restricted submarine campaign of 1915, that, if an unrestricted

submarine war were decided upon, England could not possibly hold out for

more than a short period.

The memorandum was submitted to the Imperial Chancellor, who passed it

on to Dr. Helfferich, the Secretary of State for Finance. He, however,

rejected the document on the ground that, in the absence of authentic

estimates of stocks, it was impossible to set a time-limit to England's

staying power, and also that he was exceedingly doubtful as to what line

would be taken by neutrals, especially the United States. Dr. Helfferich

maintained that so desperate a remedy should only be employed as a last

resource. The authors of the memorandum then sent a reply, in which they

developed their former arguments, and pointed to the gravity of the

internal situation in Germany. They emphasized the importance of using

the nearest and sharpest weapons of offense if a national collapse was

to be avoided. They reinforced their argument by adducing the evidence

of ten experts, representing finance, commerce, the mining industry, and

agriculture. They were Herr Waldemar Müller, the President of the

Dresdner Bank; Dr. Salomonsohn of the Disconto Gesellschaft; Dr. Paul

Reusch of Oberhausen, Royal Prussian Councilor of Commerce; Dr.

Springorum of Dortmund, Chancellor of Commerce, member of the Prussian

Upper House, (Herren Haus,) General Director of Railways and Tramways at

Hoesch, an ironmaster, and a great expert in railways; Herr Max Schinkel

of Hamburg, President of the Norddeutsche Bank in Hamburg and of the

Disconto Gesellschaft in Berlin; Herr Zuckschwerdt of Madgeburg,

Councilor of Commerce, late member of the Prussian Upper House; Herr

Wilhelm von Finck of Munich, Privy Councilor, chief of the banking house

of Merck, Finck & Co., Munich; Councilor of Economics R. Schmidt of

Platzhof, member of the Württemberg Upper Chamber and of the German

Agricultural Council; Herr Engelhard of Mannheim, Councilor of Commerce,

President of the Chamber of Commerce and member of the Baden Upper

Chamber.

These experts were invited to send answers in writing to the three

following questions: (1) What would be the effect on England of

unrestricted submarine warfare? (2) What would be its effect on

Germany's relations with the United States and other neutrals? (3) To

what extent does the internal situation in Germany demand the use of

this drastic weapon?

The reader will do well to remember that the replies were written in

February, 1916--nearly two years ago. All agreed on the first point--the

effect on Great Britain. The effect of unrestricted submarine warfare on

England would be that she would have to sue for peace in six months at

the most. Herr Müller, who seemed to be in a position to confirm the

statistics given in the memorandum, pointed out that the supply of

indispensable foodstuffs was, at the time of writing, less than the

normal supply in peace time. He held that the submarine war, if

relentlessly and vigorously pursued, would accomplish its purpose in

less time than calculated in the memorandum--in fact, three months

should do it. Dr. Salomonsohn also thought that six months was an

excessive estimate, and that less time would suffice.

On the question of the effect on neutrals the experts were divided. Dr.

Reusch suggested that the neutrals despised the restricted submarine

warfare of 1915, and held that every ship in British waters, whether

enemy or neutral, should be torpedoed without warning. According to him,

the world only respects those who, in a great crisis, know how to make

the most unscrupulous use of their power.

Herr Müller predicted that ruthless submarine war would cause a

wholesale flight of neutrals from the war zone. Their newspapers might

abuse Germany at first, but they would soon get tired. The danger was

from the United States, but that would become less in proportion as

Germany operated more decisively and ruthlessly. Dr. Salomonsohn adopted

the same attitude. He recognized the possibility of war with the United

States, but was loath to throw away so desirable a weapon on that

account.

As to the third point, all the experts agreed that the internal

situation in Germany demanded that the most drastic methods of submarine

warfare should be employed. Herr Zuckschwerdt urged the advisability of

the most drastic measures owing to the feeling of the nation. The nation

would stand by the Government, but not if it yielded to threats from

America. Such weakness would lead to serious consequences. Herr Schmidt

admitted the possibility of Germany not being able to hold out, and

emphasized the importance of taking drastic steps before disorder and

unrest arose in the agricultural districts.

Sea-Raider Wolf and Its Victims

Story of Its Operations

_A third chapter of sea-raider history similar to those of the Möwe and

Seeadler was revealed when the Spanish steamship Igotz Mendi, navigated

by a German prize crew, ran aground on the Danish coast, Feb. 24, 1918,

while trying to reach the Kiel Canal with a cargo of prisoners and

booty. The next day the German Government announced that the sea-raider

Wolf, which had captured the Igotz Mendi and ten other merchant vessels,

with 400 prisoners, had successfully returned after fifteen months in

the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. The story of the Wolf's

operations, as gleaned by Danish and English correspondents from the

narratives of released prisoners, is told below. Some of the most

interesting passages were furnished by Australian medical officers who

had been captured on the British steamer Matunga:_

The Wolf, a vessel of about 6,000 gross tonnage, armed with several guns

and torpedo tubes, carried a seaplane, known as the Wolfchen, which was

frequently used in the operations of the sea raider. On some days the

seaplane made as many as three flights. The Wolf, apparently, proceeded

from Germany to the Indian Ocean, laying minefields off the Cape,

Bombay, and Colombo. Early in February, 1917, she captured the British

steamship Turritella, taking off all the officers and putting on board a

prize crew which worked the vessel with her own men. In every case of

capture, when the vessel was not sunk at once, this procedure was

adopted.

The Wolf transferred a number of mines to the Turritella, with

instructions that they should be laid off Aden. A few days later the

Turritella encountered a British warship, whereupon the prize crew,

numbering twenty-seven, sank the Turritella, and were themselves taken

prisoner.

Three weeks later the Wolf overhauled the British steamer Jumna. The

Wolf thought that the British vessel was about to ram her, and the port

after-gun was fired before it was properly trained, killing five of the

raider's crew and wounding about twenty-three others. The Jumna remained

with the Wolf for several days, after which her coal and stores were

transferred to the raider, and she was sunk with bombs. The next vessels

to be captured and sunk were the British steamships Wordsworth and Dee.

Early in June the Wolf, while at anchor under the lee of an island in

the Pacific, sighted the British steamship Wairuna, bound from Auckland,

N. Z., to San Francisco with coal, Kauri gum, pelts, and copra. The Wolf

sent over the seaplane which, flying low, dropped a canvas bag on the

Wairuna's deck, containing the message, "Stop immediately; take orders

from German cruiser. Do not use your wireless or I will bomb you." The

Wairuna eased down, but did not stop until the seaplane dropped a bomb

just ahead of her. By this time the Wolf had weighed anchor and

proceeded to head off the Wairuna. A prize crew was put on board with

orders to bring the ship under the lee of the island and anchor. All the

officers, except the master, were sent on board the Wolf. The following

day possibly a thousand tons of cargo were transferred.

CAPTURE OF THE MATUNGA

While the two vessels were anchored, the chief officer and second

engineer of the Turritella let themselves over the side of the Wolf with

the intention of swimming ashore. Later, the Wairuna was taken out and

sunk by gunfire, the bombs which had been placed on board having failed

to accomplish their purpose. The next captures were the American

vessels, Winslow, Beluga, and Encore, which were either burned or sunk.

For nearly a week following this the Wolf hove to, sending the seaplane

up several times each day for scouting purposes. Apparently she had

picked up some information by her wireless apparatus and was on the

lookout for a vessel. On the third day the Wolfchen went up three times,

and, on returning from its last flight, dropped lights. Early the next

morning none of the prisoners was allowed on deck. A gun was fired by

the Wolf, and it was afterward found that it was to stop the British

steamer Matunga, with general cargo and passengers, including a number

of military officers and men.

BETRAYED BY WIRELESS

It was on the morning of Aug. 5, when the Matunga was nearing the coast

of the territory formerly known as German New Guinea, that she fell in

with the Wolf, which was mistaken for an ordinary tramp steamer, as the

two vessels ran parallel to each other for about two miles. Then the

Wolf suddenly revealed her true character by running up the German flag,

dropping a portion of her forward bulwarks, exposing the muzzles of her

guns, and firing a shot across the bows of the Matunga. At the same time

the Wolf sent a seaplane to circle over the Matunga at a low altitude

for the obvious purpose of ascertaining whether the latter was armed.

Apparently satisfied with the seaplane's report, the German Captain sent

a prize crew, armed with bayonets and pistols, to take possession of the

British ship. Before their arrival, however, all the Matunga's code

books, log books, and other papers were thrown overboard. During the

time the prize crew, all of whom spoke English well, were overhauling

the Matunga, it was learned that the Germans had been lying in wait for

her for five days, as they had somehow learned that she was carrying 500

tons of coal, which they needed badly, and that the German wireless

operator had been following her course from the time of her departure

from Sydney toward the end of July.

The two ships, now both under German command, proceeded together to a

very secluded natural harbor on the north coast of Dutch New Guinea, the

entrance to which was watched by two German guard boats, while a

wireless plant was set up on a neighboring hill and the Wolf's seaplane

patrolled the sea around for about 100 miles on the lookout for any

threatened danger. The two ships remained in the Dutch harbor for nearly

a fortnight, during which time the Wolf was careened and her hull

scraped of barnacles and weeds in the most thorough and methodical

manner, after which the coal was transferred from the Matunga's bunkers.

The latter vessel was then taken ten miles out to sea, where everything

lying loose was thrown into the hold and the hatches battened down to

obviate the possibility of any floating wreckage remaining after she was

sunk. Bombs were then placed on board and exploded, and the Matunga went

down in five or six minutes without leaving a trace.

Before the Matunga was sunk all her crew and passengers were transferred

to the Wolf, which then pursued a zigzag course across the Pacific Ocean

and through the China Sea to the vicinity of Singapore, where she sowed

her last remaining mines. According to stories told by the crew, they

had sown most of their mines off Cape Town, Bombay, Colombo, the

Australian coast, and in the Tasman Sea, between Australia and New

Zealand. They also boasted that on one occasion, when off the coast of

New South Wales, their seaplane made an early morning expedition over

Sydney Harbor (the headquarters of the British Navy in the Pacific) and

noted the disposition of the shipping in that port. They also claimed

that the seaplane was the means of saving the Wolf from capture off the

Australian coast on one occasion, when she was successful in sighting a

warship in sufficient time to enable the Wolf to make good her escape.

A week or more was spent by the Wolf in the China Sea and off Singapore,

whence she worked her way to the Indian Ocean for the supposed purpose

of picking up wireless instructions from Berlin and Constantinople.

[Illustration: An American regiment marching through a French village

(_American Official Photograph_)]

[Illustration: American troops, with full equipment, on parade in London

(© _Western Newspaper Union_)]

[Illustration: A French château shelled by the Germans after they had

been driven from the village by Canadians

(© _Western Newspaper Union_)]

On Sept. 26, while still dodging about in the Indian Ocean, the Wolf

met and captured a Japanese ship, the Hitachi-maru, with thirty

passengers, a crew of about 100, and a valuable cargo of silk, copper,

rubber, and other goods, for Colombo. During the previous day the

Germans had been boasting that they were about to take a big prize, and

it afterward transpired that they based their anticipations on the terms

of a wireless message which they had intercepted on that day. When first

called upon by signal to stop, the Japanese commander took no notice of

the order, and held on his way even after a shot had been fired across

his ship's bow. Thereupon the Wolf deliberately shelled her, destroying

the wireless apparatus, which had been sending out S O S signals, and

killing several members of the crew. While the shelling was going on, a

rush was made by the Japanese to lower the boats, and a number of both

crew and passengers jumped into the sea to escape the gunfire. The

Germans afterward admitted to the slaughter of fifteen, but the Matunga

people assert that the death roll must have been much heavier. The

steamer's funnels were shot away, the poop was riddled with shot, and

the decks were like a shambles. All this time the Wolf's seaplane

hovered over the Japanese ship ready to drop bombs upon her and sink her

in the event of any hostile ship coming in sight.

After transferring the passengers and crew and as much of the cargo as

they could conveniently remove from the Hitachi-maru to the Wolf, her

decks were cleared of the wreckage their gunfire had caused, and a prize

crew was put in charge of her with a view of taking her to Germany. Some

weeks later, however, that intention was abandoned for reasons known

only to the Germans themselves, and on Nov. 5 the Hitachi-maru was sunk.

IGOTZ MENDI TAKEN

The Wolf then proceeded on her voyage, and on Nov. 10 captured the

Spanish steamship Igotz Mendi, with a cargo of 5,500 tons of coal, of

which the Wolf was in sore need. The raider returned with this steamer

to the island off which the Hitachi-maru had been sunk, and one evening

all the married people, a few neutrals and others, and some sick men

were transferred from the Wolf to the Igotz Mendi. The raider took

aboard a large quantity of coal, and, after the Spanish vessel had been

painted gray, the two vessels parted company. The Wolf reappeared on

several occasions and reported that she had captured and sunk the

American sailing vessel John H. Kirby and the French sailing vessel

Maréchal Davout. On Boxing Day the Wolf attempted to coal from the Igotz

Mendi in mid-Atlantic, but, owing to a heavy swell, the vessels bumped

badly. It was afterward stated that the Wolf had been so badly damaged

that she was making water.

A few days later two large steamships were sighted, and both the Wolf

and the Igotz Mendi hastily made preparations to escape. The officers

and crew changed their clothes to ordinary seamen's attire, packed up

their kitbags, and sent all the prisoners below.

Among the latter was the first officer of the Spanish ship, who saw a

German lay a number of bombs between the decks of the Igotz Mendi ready

to be exploded if it became necessary to sink that ship with all her

prisoners while the Wolf looked after her own safety. These bombs were

temporarily left in the charge of the German wireless operator to whom

the Spanish officer found an opportunity of communicating a message to

the effect that he was wanted immediately on the bridge. The ruse was

successful, for the operator promptly obeyed the instruction, and in his

temporary absence all the bombs were thrown overboard. The German

commander, Lieutenant Rose, was furious. He held an investigation next

day and asked each prisoner if he knew anything about the bombs. When

the Spanish Chief Officer's turn came he answered:

"Yes; I threw them overboard. I'll tell you why. It was not for me,

Captain Rose, but for the women and little children. I am not afraid of

you. You can shoot me if you want to, but you can't drown the little

children."

Rose confined him to his room, and the next time the Igotz Mendi met the

Wolf, Commander Nerger sentenced him to three years in a German military

prison.

Coaling having finished, the vessels proceeded north in company. During

the first week of January the Wolf sank the Norwegian bark Storkbror, on

the ground that the vessel had been British-owned before the war. This

was the Wolf's last prize. The last time the two raiders were together

was on Feb. 6, when the Wolf was supplied with coal and other

requirements from the Igotz Mendi. Thereafter, each pursued her own

course to Germany.

RAIDER MEETS DISASTER

About Feb. 7 the Igotz Mendi crossed the Arctic Circle, and,

encountering much ice, was forced back. Two attempts were made at the

Northern Passage, but as the ship was bumping badly against the ice

floes a course was shaped between Iceland and the Faroes for the

Norwegian coast. On the night of the 18th a wireless from Berlin

announced that the Wolf had arrived safely. At 3:30 P. M. on Feb. 24 the

Igotz Mendi ran aground near the Skaw, having mistaken the lighthouse

for the lightship in the foggy weather. Three hours later a boat came

off from the shore. The Igotz Mendi was boarded at 8 o'clock by the

commander of a Danish gunboat, who discovered the true character of the

ship, which the Germans were endeavoring to conceal.

Next day twenty-two persons, including nine women, two children, and two

Americans, were landed in lifeboats and were cared for by the British

Consul. Many of them had suffered from inadequate nourishment in the

last five weeks. There had been an epidemic of beri-beri and scurvy on

board the vessel.

The Danish authorities interned the German commander of the Igotz Mendi.

The German prize crew refused to leave the ship.

The Berlin authorities on Feb. 25, 1918, issued an official announcement

containing these statements:

The auxiliary cruiser Wolf has returned home after fifteen months in

the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. The Kaiser has telegraphed

his welcome to the commander and conferred the Order Pour le Mérite,

together with a number of iron crosses, on the officers and crew.

The Wolf was commanded by Frigate Captain Nerger and inflicted the

greatest damage on the enemy's shipping by the destruction of cargo

space and cargo. She brought home more than four hundred members of

crews of sunken ships of various nationalities, especially numerous

colored and white British soldiers, besides several guns captured

from armed steamers and great quantities of valuable raw materials,

including rubber, copper, brass, zinc, cocoa beans, copra, &c., to

the value of many million marks.

Career and Fate of the Raider Seeadler

A German Adventure in the Pacific

_Fitted out as a motor schooner under command of Count von Luckner, with

a crew of sixty-eight men, half of whom spoke Norwegian, the German

commerce raider Seeadler (Sea Eagle) slipped out from Bremerhaven in

December, 1916, encountered a British cruiser, passed inspection, and

later proceeded, with the aid of two four-inch guns that had been hidden

under a cargo of lumber, to capture and destroy thirteen merchant

vessels in the Atlantic before rounding the Horn into the Pacific and

there sinking three American schooners before meeting a picturesque fate

in the South Sea Islands. The narrative of the Seeadler's career as here

told by CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE is believed to be the most complete yet

published._

On Christmas Day, 1916, the British patrol vessel Highland Scot met and

hailed a sailing vessel which declared itself without ceremony to be the

three-masted Norwegian schooner Irma, bound from Christiania to Sydney

with a cargo of lumber. As nothing was more natural, the vessel was

allowed to pass, and soon disappeared on the horizon.

A few days later, in the Atlantic, running before a northerly gale, this

neat-looking, long-distance freighter threw its deck load of planks

and beams into the ocean, brought from their hiding places two four-inch

guns, six machine guns, two gasoline launches, and a motor powerful

enough to propel the vessel without the use of sails on occasion. Then a

wireless dispatch sent in cipher from aerials concealed in the rigging

announced that the German raider Seeadler was ready for business. On the

bow the legend, "Irma, Christiania," and at the masthead the flag of

Norway remained to lure the raider's victims to destruction.

The Seeadler had formerly been the American ship Pass of Balmaha, 2,800

tons, belonging to the Boston Lumber Company. In August, 1915, while on

its way from New York to Archangel, it was captured by a German's

submarine and sent to Bremen, where it was fitted out as a raider. Under

the name of the Seeadler it left Bremerhaven on Dec. 21, 1916, in

company with the Möwe, ran the British blockade by the ruse indicated

above, and began its career of destruction on two oceans. While the Möwe

waylaid its twenty-two victims along the African coast, the Seeadler

turned southwest and preyed on South American trade.

One by one the Seeadler sent to the bottom the British ships Gladis

Royle, Lady Island, British Yeoman, Pinmore, Perse, Horngarth; the

French vessels Dupleix, Antonin, La Rochefoucauld, Charles Gounod, and

the Italian ship Buenos Aires. On March 7, 1917, it encountered the

French bark Cambronne two-thirds of the way between Rio de Janeiro and

the African coast and forced it to take on board 277 men from the crews

of the eleven vessels previously captured. The Cambronne was compelled

to carry these to Rio de Janeiro, where it landed them on March 20, thus

first revealing the work of the Seeadler to the world. On March 22 the

German Government announced the safe completion of the second voyage of

the Möwe. (See CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE for May, 1917, p. 298.)

Having thus ended its operations in the Atlantic, the Seeadler rounded

Cape Horn with the intention of scouring the Pacific. In June it

sank two American schooners in that ocean, the A. B. Johnson and R. C.

Slade, adding another, the Manila, on July 8, and making prisoners of

all the crews. Captain Smith of the Slade afterward told the story of

his experiences. His ship had been attacked on June 17, and he had at

first tried to escape by outsailing the raider; but after the ninth

shell dropped near his ship he surrendered. He continued:

They took all our men aboard the raider except the cook. Next

morning I went back on board with all my men and packed up. We left

the ship with our belongings June 18. We were put on board the

raider again. Shortly after I saw from the raider that they cut

holes in the masts and placed dynamite bombs in each mast, and put

fire to both ends of the ship and left her. I saw the masts go over

the side and the ship was burning from end to end, and the raider

steamed away.

After six months of hard life at sea the raider was in need of repairs

and the crew longed for a rest on solid land. Casting about for an

island sufficiently isolated for his purpose, the Captain, Count von

Luckner, decided upon the French atoll of Mopeha, 265 miles west of

Tahiti; he believed the little island to be uninhabited. The Seeadler

dropped anchor near its jagged coral reefs July 31, 1917. On Aug. 1

Captain von Luckner took possession of the islet and raised the German

flag over what he called the Kaiser's last colony. But the next day,

during a picnic which he had organized "to entertain his crew and

prisoners," leaving only a few men on board the Seeadler, a heavy swell

dropped the ship across an uncharted blade of the reef, breaking the

vessel's back. The Germans were prisoners themselves on their own

conquered islet!

Von Luckner had been incorrect in believing the island entirely

uninhabited. Three Tahitians lived there to make copra (dried cocoanut)

and to raise pigs and chickens for the firm of Grand, Miller & Co. of

Papeete; this firm was shortly to send a vessel to take away its

employes, a fact which the Germans learned with mixed emotions.

They brought ashore everything they could from their wrecked ship,

including planks and beams, of which they constructed barracks; also

provisions, machine guns, and wireless apparatus. The heavy guns were

put out of commission--likewise the ship's motor. The wireless plant, a

very powerful one, was set up between two cocoanut trees. It was

equipped with sending and receiving apparatus, and without difficulty

its operator could hear Pago-Pago, Tahiti, and Honolulu.

On Aug. 23 Count von Luckner and five men set out in an armed motor

sloop for the Cook Islands, which they reached in seven days. There they

succeeded in deceiving the local authorities, but a few days later they

and their boat were captured in the Fiji Islands by the local

constabulary and handed over to the British authorities. Thus ended the

Captain's hope of seizing an American ship and returning to Mopeha for

his crew.

On Sept. 5 the French schooner Lutece from Papeete arrived at Mopeha to

get the three Tahitians and their crops. First Lieutenant Kling took a

motor boat and a machine gun and captured the schooner, which had a

large cargo of flour, salmon, and beef, with a supply of fresh water.

Kling and the rest of the Germans, after dismantling the wireless, left

the island that night, abandoning forty-eight prisoners, including the

Americans, the crew of the Lutece, and four natives. Before going they

destroyed what they could not take with them, cut down many trees to get

the cocoanuts more easily, and left to the prisoners very scant

provisions, and bad at that. The few cocoanuts that remained were

largely destroyed by the great number of rats on the island. There was

plenty of fish and turtles.

After the flight of the Germans the French flag was hoisted on the

island and the twentieth-century Robinson Crusoes organized themselves

under Captain Southard of the Manila and M. Fain, one of the owners of

the Lutece. The camp was rebuilt, the supplies rationed out, the

catching of fish and turtles arranged, and the question of going in

search of help discussed. On Sept. 8 Pedro Miller, one of the owners of

the Lutece, set sail in an open boat with Captains Southard and Porutu,

a mate, Captain Williams, and three sailors, hoping to reach the Island

of Maupiti, eighty-five miles to the east; but after struggling eight

days against head winds and a high sea he returned to Mopeha with his

exhausted companions. Two days later, Sept. 19, Captain Smith of the

Slade, with two mates and a sailor, left the island in a leaky whaleboat

dubbed the Deliverer of Mopeha and shaped their course toward the west;

in ten days they covered 1,080 miles and landed at Tutuila, one of the

Samoan Islands, where the American authorities informed Tahiti by

wireless of the serious plight of the men marooned on Mopeha. The

British Governor at Apia--Robert Louis Stevenson's last home--also

offered to send a relief ship; but the Governor of the French

Establishments of Oceania, declining this offer with thanks, dispatched

the French schooner Tiare-Taporo from Papeete on Oct. 4.

Two days later the relief expedition sighted Mopeha by means of a column

of smoke that rose from the island, for the Robinson Crusoes had

organized a permanent signal system to attract the attention of passing

vessels. The arrival of the rescuers was greeted with frantic

acclamations. By evening the last boatload of refugees was aboard the

Tiare-Taporo, and on the morning of Oct. 10 the schooner reached

Papeete, where the prisoners at last were free.

The fate of the Lutece with the main body of the Seeadler's crew was

indicated, though not fully explained, by a cable dispatch from

Valparaiso, Chile, March 5, 1918, stating that the Chilean schooner

Falcon had arrived there from the Easter Islands with fifty-eight

sailors formerly belonging to the crew of the Seeadler. The sailors were

interned by the Chilean Government. Count Felix von Luckner, commander

of the Seeadler, who, with five of his men, had been captured by the

local constabulary of the Fiji Islands, was interned by the British in a

camp near Auckland, New Zealand. In December he and other interned

Germans escaped to sea in an open boat and traveled nearly 500 miles,

suffering from lack of food and water, but were recaptured after a two

weeks' chase.

Treatment of British Prisoners

Shocking Brutalities in German War Prisons Revealed in an Official

Report

A report issued by an official British Investigating Committee, known as

the Justice Younger Committee, appointed to investigate the treatment of

British soldiers by their German captors, made public in April, 1918,

presents a shocking record of barbarities. The commission reported as

follows:

There is now no doubt in the minds of the committee that as early,

at the latest, as the month of August, 1916, the German Command were

systematically employing their British as well as other prisoners in

forced labor close behind the western firing line, thereby

deliberately exposing them to the fire of the guns of their own and

allied armies. This fact has never been acknowledged by the German

Government. On the contrary, it has always been studiously

concealed. But that the Germans are chargeable, even from that early

date, with inflicting the physical cruelty and the mental torture

inherent in such a practice can no longer be doubted.

Characteristically the excuse put forward was that this treatment,

not apparently suggested to be otherwise defensible, was forced upon

the German Command as a reprisal for what was asserted to be the

fact, namely, that German prisoners in British hands had at some

time or other been kept less than thirty kilometers (how much less

does not appear) behind the British firing line in France. This

statement was quite unfounded.

Furthermore, at the end of April, 1917, an agreement was definitely

concluded between the British and German Governments that prisoners

of war should not on either side be employed within thirty

kilometers of the firing line. Nevertheless, the German Command

continued without intermission so to employ their British prisoners,

under the inhuman conditions stated in the report. And that

certainly until the end of 1917--it may be even until now--although

it has never even been suggested by the German authorities, so far

as the committee are aware, that the thirty kilometers limit agreed

upon has not been scrupulously observed by the British Command in

the letter as well as in the spirit.

"Prisoners of Respite"

The German excuse is embodied in different official documents, some

of which enter into detailed descriptions of the reprisals alleged

to be in contemplation because of it. These descriptions are in

substantial accord with treatment which the committee, from the

information in their possession, now know to have been in regular

operation for months before either the threat or the so-called

excuse for it, and to have continued in regular operation after the

solemn promise of April that it should cease. These documents

definitely commit the German Command to at least a threatened

course of conduct for which the committee would have been slow to

fix them with conscious responsibility. Incidentally they

corroborate in advance the accuracy, in its incidents, of the

information, appalling as it is, which has independently reached

the committee from so many sides.

As a typical example, the committee set forth a transcript in

German-English of one of these pronouncements, of which extensive

use was made. It is a notice, entitled, "Conditions of Respite to

German Prisoners." As here given, it was handed to a British

noncommissioned officer to read out, and it was read out to his

fellow-prisoners at Lille on April 15, 1917:

Upon the German request to withdraw the German prisoners of war to

a distance of not less than thirty kilometers from the front line,

the British Government has not replied; therefore it has been

decided that all prisoners of war who are captured in future will

be kept as prisoners of respite. Very short of food, bad lighting,

bad lodgings, no beds, and hard work beside the German guns, under

heavy shellfire. No pay, no soap for washing or shaving, no towels

or boots, &c. The English prisoners of respite are all to write to

their relations or persons of influence in England how badly they

are treated, and that no alteration in the ill-treatment will occur

until the English Government has consented to the German request;

it is therefore in the interest of all English prisoners of respite

to do their best to enable the German Government to remove all

English prisoners of respite to camps in Germany, where they will

be properly treated, with good food, good clothing, and you will

succeed by writing as mentioned above, and then surely the English

Government will consent to Germany's request, for the sake of their

own countrymen. You will be supplied with postcard, note paper, and

envelope, and all this correspondence in which you will explain

your hardships will be sent as express mail to England.

Starved to Death

It seems that the prisoners, from as early as August, 1916, were

kept in large numbers at certain places in the west--Cambrai and

Lille are frequently referred to in the evidence--but in smaller

numbers they were placed all along the line. Their normal work was

making roads, repairing railways, constructing light railways,

digging trenches, erecting wire entanglements, making gun-pits,

loading ammunition, filling munition wagons, carrying trench

mortars, and doing general fatigue work, which under the pain of

death the noncommissioned officers were compelled to supervise.

This work was not only forbidden by the laws of war, it was also

excessively hard. In many cases it lasted from eight to nine hours a

day, with long walks to and fro, sometimes of ten kilometers in each

direction, and for long periods was carried on within range of the

shellfire of the allied armies. One witness was for nine months kept

at work within the range of British guns; another for many months;

others for shorter periods. Many were killed by these guns; more

were wounded; deaths from starvation and overwork were constant. One

instance of the allied shellfire may be given. In May, 1917, a

British or French shell burst among a number of British and French

prisoners working behind the lines in Belgium. Seven were killed;

four were wounded.

But there is much more to tell. The men were half starved. Two

instances are given in the evidence of men who weighed 180 pounds

when captured. One was sent back from the firing line too weak to

walk, weighing only 112 pounds; the other escaped to the British

lines weighing no more. Another man lost twenty-eight pounds in six

weeks. Parcels did not reach these prisoners. In consequence they

were famished. Such was their hunger, indeed, that we hear of them

picking up for food potato peelings that had been trampled under

foot. One instance is given of an Australian private who, starving,

had fallen out to pick up a piece of bread left on the roadside by

Belgian women for the prisoners. He was shot and killed by the guard

for so doing.

Some Merciful Guards

It was considered, so it would seem, to be no less than a stroke of

luck for prisoners to chance upon guards who were more merciful. For

instance, one of them speaking of food at Cambrai says:

If it had not been for the French civilians giving us food as we

went along the roads to and from work we should most certainly have

starved. If the sentries saw us make a movement out of the ranks to

get food they would immediately make a jab at us with their rifles,

but conditions here were not so bad as at Moretz, where if a man

stepped out of the ranks he was immediately shot. I heard about

this from men who had themselves been working at Moretz, and had

with their own eyes seen comrades of theirs shot for moving from

the ranks.

At Ervillers in February, 1917, a prisoner's allowance for the day

consisted of a quarter of a loaf of German black bread, (about a

quarter of a pound,) with coffee in the morning; then soup at

midday, and at 4:30 coffee again, without sugar or milk. On this a

man had to carry on heavy work for over nine hours. The ration of

the German soldier at the same time and place consisted of a whole

loaf of bread per day, good, thick soup, with beans and meat in it,

coffee, jam, and sugar; two cigars and three cigarettes. The food

conditions at Marquion a little later are thus described:

We used to beg the sentries to allow us to pick stinging nettles

and dandelions to eat, we were so hungry; in fact, we were always

hungry, and I should say we were semi-starved all the time. While

we were here our Sergeants put in for more rations, but the answer

they got was that we were prisoners of war now "and had no rights

of any kind; that the Germans could work us right up behind their

front lines if they liked, and put us on half the rations we were

then getting."

Flogged with Dog Whip

The ration was coffee and a slice of bread at 4:45 A. M., soup of

barley and horseflesh at 2 P. M., eight pounds of barley and ten

pounds of meat between 240 men. And they were compelled to work hard

for eight or nine hours a day on this diet. The frequent cruelty of

the guards generally is a matter constantly referred to:

The German Sergeant in charge at Ervillers (says one prisoner) was

very harsh. Twice I saw him (this prisoner was there for a month

only) using a dog whip, and heard of him doing so on another

occasion. He used it mostly on men who were slow in getting out to

work owing to weakness.

The description by a body of these men on their arrival at a camp in

Germany, after being withdrawn from the front, may be taken as

another example of this:

We were forced to work; we were given hardly any food, and when we

fell down from sheer exhaustion we were kicked until we got up

again, and it was not until we absolutely could not get about that

we were sent back.

To add to their miseries, the accommodation provided for these

prisoners was in many cases pathetically inadequate. The witnesses

recur to this again and again. One sleeping place, for instance, for

a large party was a barn with no roof. The rain poured in upon the

men. They had to sleep in their wet clothes and work in the same

clothes. They had no change of any kind. And some of these

prisoners, if they survived so long, were kept behind these enemy

lines for over a year. Their quarters at Cambrai are thus described

by two of the men:

our uniforms, without either greatcoats or blankets. There was no

fire, and it was very cold. We lay on loose straw, which was full

of vermin, and we consequently became verminous. We could only

wash in a bucket of cold water, without either soap or towels.

The Germans did not supply us with any clothing, and as we had to

work in all weathers, conditions were very hard. Our clothes used

to get drenched through, but still we had to go back to barracks

and sleep in them. It was terribly cold also, especially without

our fur coats. We asked for clothing, but never got any.

No Parcels or Letters

But, added to all these hardships, it was the total absence of

parcels and the fact that letters or communications from their

friends rarely reached them that placed these prisoners, for misery,

in a class apart. Instances are on record where the very existence

of some of them was undisclosed by their captors for many months. In

March, 1917, for example, a body of these prisoners who had been

captured as long before as August, 1916, and had been kept at work

by the Germans behind their lines ever since, were returned to a

parent camp in Germany weak and emaciated. On arrival there they

found a number of their own names in the lists of missing men that

had been sent from our War Office through Switzerland and posted in

the camp. * * *

It seems almost incredible, but the committee do not doubt it to be

the fact, that as late as November, 1917, there were at

Limburg-am-Lahn undelivered between 18,000 and 20,000 parcels for

British prisoners on the German western front. In July, 1917, the

German delegates at The Hague plainly recognized that no distinction

in respect of the receipt of parcels could be properly made between

prisoners of war in occupied territories and others. The agreement

then concluded contains provisions on that subject. Having regard to

the condition of things at Limburg as late as November, 1917, the

committee can only regret that the effect of that agreement was

certainly at that date not so manifest as it ought to have been. The

matter, they add, is of tragic importance to the prisoners

concerned. It made and makes just the difference between starvation

and existence to the unfortunate sufferers.

Extracts from Evidence

The committee extract from the great mass of evidence now in their

possession statements as to the impression produced upon those who

actually saw our men upon their escape to the British lines or after

their transfer to camps in Germany. These statements, they believe,

must convince every impartial mind that it is impossible in terms of

exaggeration to describe the sufferings these prisoners had

undergone.

In April, 1917, three of them escaped over "No Man's Land." They

were received by a British General Staff officer, a Major in the 1st

Anzac Corps. This is what he says of them, under date April 18,

1917:

Three men escaped from behind the German lines to us the other day.

They had been prisoners three months, and were literally nearly dead

with ill-treatment and starvation. One of them could hardly walk,

and was just a skeleton. He had gone down from 182 pounds to less

than 112 pounds in three months. I fetched him back from the line,

and it almost made me cry. All that awful January and February out

all day in the wet and cold; no overcoat, and at night no blanket,

in a shelter where the clothes froze stiff on him; no change of

underclothing in three months, and he was one mass of vermin, no

chance of washing. The bodies of all of them were covered with

sores. "Beaten and starved," one of them said, "sooner than go

through it again I'd just put my head under the first railway."

The following is the substance of statements by two witnesses from a

German camp:

About June, 1917, a party of about twenty English soldiers came in

who had been working behind the German lines on the western front. I

became friends with one of them. He was so weak that I have several

times seen him faint on parade. Another of them told me that he was

one of a party of 100 working behind the lines on the western front

digging trenches and carrying up supplies. He said they were all

very badly treated and starved. They were knocked about by the

Germans if they did not march as fast as they wanted them to,

although they were all so weak. He was only sent to Germany when he

became so weak as to be useless for work. When I left he did not

look as if he could lift a shovelful of sand. There was another whom

I knew. He had also been working behind the lines. They had to work

in clogs and no socks. He said they used to tie rags round their

feet. He was employed on road making. I never could have believed

the things I was told but for the terrible state the men were in,

which caused me to feel that no horror I was told was impossible.

Many were brought into the camp who had returned from working behind

the lines; they were in a shocking state, literally skin and bones,

hardly able to walk, and quite worn out physically and mentally;

their clothes threadbare and in rags, without boots, wearing old rag

slippers. They told me that the conditions of work behind the lines,

where some of them had been for months, were terrible; they had to

work eight hours a day, and generally were made to walk ten

kilometers out to their work, and the only food they were given was

one cup of coffee, a slice of bread, and some soup a day--a day's

ration.

"Shot at Sight"

From another camp comes the following testimony:

In May of this year a large party of British came into the camp, who

had returned from behind the German lines. They were ravenous

through being starved, and half savages. I spoke to several of them.

* * * Men were shot at sight for a slight cause, such as dropping

out to get bread from Belgian civilians. The state in which they

returned was the worst sight I have seen in my life. Their clothes

were ragged, they were half shaven, verminous, suffering from skin

diseases, and were half savage with hunger and bad treatment. After

their arrival the commandant in the camp issued an order (which I

saw) that no more of these parties should be taken through the main

street of the town, but should go by the byways on account of the

feeling that had been caused among the population. I am told that

the population showed a great deal of sympathy, tears, &c.

About May 1, 1917, about 300 prisoners of all nationalities were

brought from behind the western lines. I spoke to those who came

into the lazaret. All were starving, and had been kept there until

they collapsed from overwork. Fifteen Russians died as soon as they

were brought in. One man told me that on a march of eleven

kilometers a man fell out ill, the guard gave him so many minutes to

fall in again, and told him he would shoot him if he was not up by

then; he could not go on, and the guard shot him.

From a third camp:

I knew two of our men who had been working behind the German lines

in the west for five months. One was 29 years old, the other 25. The

first weighed 180 pounds when captured. He left the firing line too

weak to walk, and weighed 110 pounds. He was badly treated and

knocked about. When I saw him in camp he was black and blue. The

other man had the same treatment. They were both starved, and both

were gray-headed with the five months' treatment. These men said our

men were dying there every day through hardship and exposure. The

food behind the lines was about half the camp rations.

"Worked to the Bone"

From a fourth camp:

In September, 1917, seventy-five noncommissioned officers, who had

been behind the lines, were brought into our camp. They were in a

bad physical condition, hungry, lousy, and worked out. One month

after, a large body, all privates from behind the lines, captured

since May, came in. They were in a terrible condition, famished

beyond words. They had been worked to the bone, and were in a filthy

condition. They made our camp lousy. The camp doctor said they were

the worst cases he had seen, and said they could stay in bed for a

week. They were so famished that two died of eating the food we gave

them. They had been working on the Hindenburg line, and the railway

Cambrai to Lille, and repairing it under fire. They said they were

on very small rations and compelled to work. They told us that

Frenchwomen who out of compassion gave them any trifling gift of

fruit were knocked down by the sentries.

From the same camp:

I spoke to men who had been kept at work behind the German lines on

the western front. The majority of these were there about twelve

months, and they came into camp about the end of November or the

beginning of December, 1917. They told me that they had been

employed close up to the lines. They had been employed cutting

trees, and had been under our own shellfire. They were half starved

and in a terrible condition. On one occasion about 300 came in,

about forty of whom had British clothes, the rest being dressed in

odds and ends of French and German clothing--in fact, anything they

could get hold of. We collected bread for them and cut it up in

readiness for their arrival so as to save all possible time, but

their hunger was so great they could not help raiding us and

fighting for it. It was terrible to see them. I do not think many of

them had been wounded, but their condition was so terrible that I

cannot describe it.

They were absolutely the worst bunch of men I had ever seen. They

were terribly thin and weak, and fell down as soon as they started

to eat, as they were in an absolutely exhausted state. Their

underclothing was in a dreadful state, and they were covered with

vermin, and had been like that for about twelve months. This is the

party which I mentioned as coming to the camp about the end of

November or the beginning of December, 1917. About a fortnight after

their arrival, and after their clothes had been fumigated and they

had baths two or three times a week, they picked up wonderfully.

From a fifth camp:

In March, 1917, I saw fifty English prisoners come in to camp who

had been working behind the lines near Cambrai digging trenches;

they had been there three or four months. All of them were in a

shocking condition, absolutely starved, with boils and sores all

over them. We used to share our parcels with these men. During the

whole time I was in camp--that is, up to December last--men were

drifting in who had been working behind the lines on the western

front; they always arrived in the same shocking condition. I

remember particularly one, in November, 1917, coming back from

Cambrai district. He was very bad and starved; he told me they had

been very badly treated; all huddled together in barns, no sanitary

arrangements, no blankets, and he said he had seen a native woman

shot for giving them food; that they were well within range of guns,

and within six kilometers of the lines, shells frequently falling

about them, and that he had seen many of his own comrades wounded

while working, that they were knocked about by their guards, and,

generally, his account of their treatment was appalling. To my

knowledge from conversation with them, men were coming in who had

been working close up behind the lines right down to the time I left

Germany in December, 1917.

From an army Chaplain:

On Feb. 16, 1917, there arrived in Minden Hospital sixteen men who

had been working behind the western front, attached to Camp E.K. 5.

The thermometer registered 10 degrees, Fahrenheit, below zero. They

had walked seven kilometers from the station. Their clothing

consisted of tunic, trousers, and thin shirt, boots and socks, and

an old hat--no coat and no underclothes. They had been two days and

two nights in the cold train with very little to eat. * * * Two of

these men died later of consumption in Minden. They had all been

captured in November (this was February) and their relatives did not

know that they were even alive. These men report, too, that they are

brutally treated; human life is not worth so much as horseflesh,

because the latter can be eaten. They are worked until they either

die or so completely collapse that they are useless. I believe this

was the first party that arrived from the western front. I had the

names of the men in a notebook, but it was taken from me. They said

it was nothing to wake up in the morning and find the man sleeping

beside you dead. I got the names of several who had died, and wrote

to their people to inform them.

Lives Made Unbearable

The committee close these statements with the following striking

extract from the evidence of a young wounded British officer who was

placed in a ward in a German hospital in France, filled with

prisoners of all nationalities:

The German in charge of the ward was a

university professor, and, seeing several of our men, also Russians

and Rumanians, come on to the hospital in an emaciated condition, I

asked him the cause, and where they came from, when, without giving

me details, he told me they came from working camps behind the

lines. There, he said, the conditions were frightful, so much so

that he himself was ashamed of them--the men were overworked, under

shellfire, very much underfed, had not much clothing, and slept in

sheds and shelters in the snow under filthy conditions. I

ascertained from him and from some of our own men that many died

behind the lines; all were thoroughly ill-treated by the Germans,

and the lives of those who did not die were made quite unbearable.

I am sure the German who informed me had no personal grounds which

made him complain against the system, it was merely on humanitarian

grounds that he told me he was shocked; and the independent stories

I received from our own soldiers simply bore out the fact that the

Germans were ill-treating their prisoners behind the lines at this

time. While I was in hospital the German I have mentioned above did

his best to get the men from the hospital marked unfit for work

behind the lines; and I must in fairness add that as a result very

few, if any, went back to work there once they had been sent to

hospital, and they seemed to be marked for camps in Germany

instead.

The report concludes: "The committee in their survey of the evidence

dealt with in this report have failed to find a trace even of lip

service either to the obligations so solemnly undertaken by the

German Government in time of peace for regulating their conduct in

time of war or to these principles from their War Book which that

Government professed as their own. Further comment appears to the

committee to be superfluous. The facts speak for themselves."

American Prisoners Exploited

_A correspondent sent the following from The Hague, April 20, 1918,

regarding the German treatment of American prisoners:_

From irrefutable evidence obtained by your correspondent, it is

impossible to close one's eyes to what is going on in the hospitals and

prisoners' camps in Germany. It is a mistake to believe that the

treatment of prisoners and wounded in Germany has improved. On the

contrary, it is as bad as it ever was, even worse.

The punishments inflicted are cruel and inhuman. As is well known,

prisoners are absolutely dependent upon parcels for food and clothing. A

favorite punishment is to withhold these from a whole camp or from large

bodies of prisoners. It has been established beyond doubt that prisoners

are employed behind the front and are under shellfire, in defiance of

The Hague agreement of 1917.

Some prisoners never reach a camp in Germany for six months, meanwhile

receiving no parcels of food. Their condition on arrival at camp, broken

down and starving, is pitiable.

The evidence doesn't tend to show that American prisoners are receiving

any preferential treatment. It is reported that the first American

prisoners taken were hawked about the country, presumably to show them

off to the populace. At Giessen, where, it would seem, American

prisoners were kept on two separate occasions, they were prohibited any

intercourse, even by sign language, with other prisoners and were not

allowed to receive parcels or gifts from them.

British prisoners at Giessen asked if they could give parcels to

Americans, and finally received permission to do so the following day.

But the next day the American prisoners were moved away early in the

morning.

British prisoners were able to detect Americans who had been captured

any length of time by their appearance and by the state of their

clothes. Until parcels for them arrived from Berne their state was

deplorable.

A British noncommissioned officer recently obtained the signatures of

the first ten Americans captured and talked with them. These men signed

the scrap of paper in the hope that some news of them would reach the

outside world. They were in poor physical health and somewhat

despondent.

A few recent examples from a large amount of sworn evidence follow:

In February, 1918, 4,000 men were sent from a Westphalian camp to within

thirty kilometers behind the front. Their guards ran away to escape the

British shrapnel fire.

The state of prisoners coming from the big Somme battle in the first

week of the present month was deplorable. Their wounds had not been

dressed in many cases for more than ten days. Owing to the lack of

dressing, British comrades bandaged their wounds with old towels and

shirts.

It was formally announced by the German authorities in Camp Bonn on

April 13 last that two British soldiers, R. and B., had been shot near

Minden for not stopping talking when ordered to do so.

In November, 1917, men were brought into the hospital at M. continually,

having been wounded by shrapnel from behind the lines. Wounded men lay

for three or four weeks unattended and grossly neglected.

Much of the sworn evidence is so repugnant that it could not be

published. There has been talk of reprisals on American prisoners, and

even foreigners born in America are included in these threatened

reprisals.

Total Destruction of Rheims

By G. H. Perris

_With the French Armies, April 20, 1918_

The great fire at Rheims has nearly burned itself out. Having thrown in

a week 50,000 explosive and an unknown number of incendiary and gas

shells, the German gunners ceased as suddenly and inexplicably as they

had begun, and when I entered the city this morning the silence of death

brooded over it.

The written word is powerless to describe such a spectacle, and it is no

more adequate for being unmeasured. But when men of faith, men who love

the old and beautiful, write under the fresh, stunning impression of

such a sight, is it strange that some loose phrases escape them?

I am very familiar with the ruins of Rheims. From the first bombardment,

which destroyed the exquisite sculptures of the north tower and the

façade of the cathedral three and a half years ago, I have been able to

watch the mischief extending step by cruel step. At first, with normal

British reluctance to credit the outrageous or incomprehensible, one was

chiefly concerned to find out whether, after all, there was not some

sort of military excuse. I severely cross-examined every one who could

be supposed to know anything about the matter. There never was any

shadow of excuse.

It remained only to record from time to time the progress of a crime as

deliberate as any in the annals of the war, and in its own kind

particularly damnable--a blackhearted crime such as a Comanche chief or

a Congo cannibal would not have had the wickedness to conceive.

And if there be still any rationalist obstinate enough to ask for the

reason why of this last outburst of vandalism, I can only hazard the

guess that it may have been planned, like the long-distance bombardments

of Paris, as a terroristic accompaniment of the Hindenburg offensive. It

may have been supposed that the tales of the refugees would help to

demoralize Paris and the rest of the country. So little after these

terrible years has the boche learned of the people he set out to

conquer.

Well, the Cathedral of St. Louis is not falling. Wonderful was the work

of the builders. More buttresses, pinnacles, gargoyles, and stone

railings have been shattered, more statues chipped, and rain, entering

freely by a large rent in the roof, has worked invisible damage since my

last visit in November. The cathedral has been struck again. The

uplifted sword of Joan of Arc in the bronze equestrian statue before the

cathedral has been cut in half.

If this were all, we should have after the war at least a worthy

memorial to leave to posterity. It is said that it would now cost a

million sterling to restore the finest Gothic fane in France. I hope

nothing of the kind will be attempted, nothing more, that is, than the

construction of a new roof, new windows, doors, and furnishings, and the

necessary strengthening of the structure.

For as it stands, gashed and discolored, the vast shell has a strange

magnificence and a piteous loveliness like that of some of the broken

splendors that remain to us from the ancient world. Let Rheims speak to

the future generations as the ruins of the Acropolis and the Forum have

spoken to our fathers and us.

But the city itself raises a different and a more difficult problem. It

is now no exaggeration to say that as a whole it is destroyed beyond

hope. Till a fortnight ago large parts of it were not beyond the

possibility of repair. Remember that Rheims was not a small town like

Ypres or Arras, but a wealthy and dignified community of 120,000 souls,

occupying a space equal to one-fifth of that of Paris.

There is now from end to end probably not a single house whose walls are

not more or less broken. The northern and eastern quarters were already

in ruins. Now the centre of the city is gutted. Of the public buildings

the central squares built in the time or after the Counts of Champagne,

the cloth warehouses and workshops, the private residences, bazaars and

shops, nothing stands but rows of smoking walls, half buried in fallen

rafters and masonry.

The Abomination of Desolation

An Episode in France

_Dr. Norman Maclean, an eminent Scottish scholar, whose articles from

the front have appeared in The Scotsman of Edinburgh, penned this

touching picture of the war-devastated Somme region a few days before

the Germans again swept over it in March, 1918:_

They stood side by side on a heap of rubbish inside the door of the

ruined church in the midst of the ruined town--a man and woman garbed in

humble, rusty black. The survivors of the erstwhile population were

being brought back as shelters were prepared and work provided for them;

these had obviously just returned, and had come straight to the church.

When they fled before the flood of death, the church stood scatheless,

built immovably upon the rock of the centuries. It was a shrine of

beauty and a haunt of peace. But as they now stood on the mound of

fallen masonwork inside the west door, what they saw was this--the roof

lying in an undulating ridge piled on the floor, the sacred pictures

torn and tattered; the pillars shattered; the altar buried under a great

mass of débris, and a figure of the Christ, uninjured, looking out

through the broken arches on the dead town, and on the land beyond,

where the white crosses gleam o'er the multitudinous dead.

The man stood motionless, with a face like a mask. But in a moment the

woman shook as if stricken by an ague. She turned and stumbled toward

the doorway, where there is no door, the tears coursing down her cheeks

and a sob in her throat. The man turned and followed her. He took her

hand in his, and they walked away with bowed heads in silence. It is

strange how the human heart is moved. It was the tremulous face of that

black-robed woman, and the lifting of her hands as if to hide the

abomination of desolation from her sight, and the stumbling flight from

a scene intolerable, that made me feel the horror spread before me. For

I saw it with her eyes.

What she saw was infinitely more than what I could see. She had

experienced in her own soul that this was holy ground. In happy days of

childhood heaven seemed to lie here; she had come hither to be received,

in white, into the holy fellowship; hither to be married; hither to

dedicate her children at the sacred font. And when the burden of life

was heavier than could be borne, how often had she come hither; and as

she fell on her knees at the elevation of the Host, the very God seemed

to fold her in the Eternal Embrace, and her troubles fled as morning

mists before the sun.

And when the war came, and the men went forth, and with them her sons,

how often did she come softly to this sanctuary and dip her hand in the

holy water at the door and cross herself, and bow toward the altar, and

kneel and pray that they might be saved. In and out all day they came

then, men and women, and they prayed for their own, and for France, and

their prayers were as the moaning of the winds. * * * And now this!

Nothing is left. Home and town and children and sanctuary are all

overwhelmed in the one flood. And the Christ from the broken pillar

gazes upon a perishing world. It is with her as with those of old, who

fell under the heel of the oppressor and who cried: "Zion is a

wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation; our holy and our beautiful house

where our fathers praised Thee is burned with fire, and all our pleasant

things are laid waste."

There is that in man which enables him to meet every blow of fate with

unblanched face--save one. When the blow is aimed at his soul, then he

shrivels. It was in her soul that this woman was smitten, as she saw the

house of her God thus. And that is why there in the land of death the

churches and cathedrals are all in ruins. To make the altars of Arras

gaze on the clouds and the stars, and make the winds wail through the

colonnades of Rheims, was deemed the surest and swiftest way of

spreading terror and affright. So the devotées of Odin declared war upon

God. For a little while the tribal deity and the belligerent dynast

reign supreme. The homeless and bereft, the great multitude who are as

those standing on the rubble-heap, are verily left with nothing but

their eyes to weep with.

It is amazing how soon one gets assimilated to the most horrifying

environment. In a few days one can walk through a town which has been

turned into heaps without even a shock of wonder, just as at home one

reads the war news and the list of the dead without any realization. In

these days we need to be stung broad awake now and then. A city in ruins

becomes deadly monotonous--until one is wakened.

One day, when the sun broke forth heralding the Spring, the promise of

green on a clump of tangled rose bushes tempted me to turn into the

garden of a shattered villa. It was as thousands of others: the

hearthstones looked upward to the clouds, and the household goods lay

piled tier on tier of rotting lumber as floor fell on floor. In the

centre of the green a shell hole took my eye, and I picked my way toward

it. Out of the earth at the bottom of the hole there obtruded the bones

of a man's arm. In haste, the dead had been thrown into the shell hole

and lightly covered. And the rains had washed so much of the earth away.

And that bone brought the realization that I stood in the midst of one

vast cemetery.

Everywhere and all around under the feet are the nameless dead--men,

women, and little children. These last are the nightmare of this horror.

Formerly nations recovered from war swiftly; the cradles filled up the

gaps. But here the children are dead. To the eye of faith the Star of

the East shines still with splendor over every spot where a babe lies.

But that Star has been extinguished in this region of doom. The altar is

buried, the hearthstone is in the rain, and amid the welter of rubbish

you can see the children's cots twisted and rusting and woeful. A woman

breaking into sobs inside a ruined church door; a body in a shell hole

in a garden, a child's cot rusting on a rubbish heap--these open the

eyes and make them see.

These things did not come by the arbitrament of war. It wasn't shrapnel

and high explosives that wrought the desolation. From the battlements of

the old citadel one can see the dead town lie spread, and the houses hit

by shells are few and far between. The houses destroyed wantonly by the

enemy ere they retreated are easily recognized, for the walls fell

outward by the internal explosions. Ninety-five per cent. have fallen

outward, and the wall of the church is likewise. This ancient sanctuary

was wantonly destroyed by the retreating enemy. What amazes one is the

appalling stupidity of such a crime. If the Germans destroyed the town,

that was their right, the might of the sword, and their act could

perhaps be justified. But to destroy the church is to destroy what even

Attila spared, and so outrage the conscience and instinct of the world.

There is never an excuse to seek when an outrage is perpetrated by the

enemy. A hospital ship is sunk--but, of course, it is carrying

munitions! A church is turned into a ruin, but its towers are used as

observation posts! Poor little towers in a land of airplanes and captive

balloons! If the churches had been spared, as they were spared in the

world's darkest ages, humanity would know that the German soul was still

alive. But now the world knows that it is up against an enemy that

threatens body and soul alike--an enemy that not only kills the body,

but destroys the soul! What an amazing stupidity!--but it is through

such stupidity that God lays up judgment against the day of wrath.

Lloyd George and General Maurice

A Speech in Which the Premier Routed His Enemies and Revealed Some

Inside Facts

A flurry arose in British Parliamentary circles early in May which for a

day or so threatened to wreck the Lloyd George Government, but which

resulted in a new triumph for the Premier and a humiliating defeat for

those who had intrigued against him. It was precipitated by Major Gen.

Sir Frederick Barton Maurice, who had been Director of Military

Operations until April, 1918, when he was succeeded by Brig. Gen.

Radcliffe. His removal had been due to a public utterance in which he

had criticised General Foch for not coming sooner to the assistance of

the British after the beginning of the German offensive.

On May 7 General Maurice published a letter in which he definitely

asserted that the Premier had made a misleading statement to the House

of Commons April 9, when he asserted that the British Army in France on

Jan. 1, 1918, was considerably stronger than on Jan. 1, 1917; that he

misstated the facts regarding the number of white divisions in Egypt and

Palestine; also that Bonar Law, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had

made a misstatement in denying that the extension of the British front

in France had been ordered by the Versailles War Council.

A resolution was introduced by former Premier Asquith for the

appointment of a committee to investigate the charges. The Lloyd George

Government accepted the challenge and announced that they would regard

the passage of the resolution as a vote of censure and would resign if

it was carried. The debate on the resolution occurred May 9 and resulted

in an overwhelming victory for the Government, the vote to uphold the

Lloyd George Ministry being 293 to 106; the Irish members were not

present.

In his address the Premier took up the charges in detail. Regarding the

figures of the British strength he quoted from a report from General

Maurice's own department, initialed by his deputy, dated April 27,

1918, which concluded with these words:

From the statement included, it will be seen that the combatant

strength of the British Army was greater on Jan. 1, 1918, than on

Jan. 1, 1917.

He also showed that his statements regarding the relative strength of

the opposing forces in France and the number of white divisions in Egypt

were based on figures furnished by General Maurice's department.

Regarding the extension of the British front in France the Premier made

some interesting disclosures showing that the extension was made by

agreement of Field Marshal Haig and General Pétain, and not by the

Versailles Council. He said:

Before the council had met it had been agreed between Field Marshal

Haig and General Pétain, and the extension was an accomplished fact.

Field Marshal Haig reported to the council that the extension had

taken place. There was not a single yard taken over as a result of

the Versailles conference--not a single yard of extension.

In discussing this phase Lloyd George proceeded as follows:

Extending the British Line

Of course, the Field Marshal was not anxious to extend his line. No

one would be, having regard to the great accumulation of strength

against him, and the War Cabinet were just as reluctant.

There was not a single meeting between the French Generals and

ourselves when we did not state facts against the extension, but the

pressure from the French Government and French Army was enormous,

and what was done was not done in response to pressure from the War

Cabinet. It was done in response to very great pressure which Sir

Douglas Haig could not resist and which we could not resist. We are

not suggesting that our French allies are asking unfairly. That is

certainly not my intention.

There was a considerable ferment in France on the subject of the

length of the line held by the French Army as compared with our

army. The French losses had been enormous. They had practically

borne the brunt of the fighting for three years. There was a larger

proportion of their young manhood put into the line than in any

belligerent country in the world. They held 336 miles. We held a

front of 100 miles.

That is not the whole statement, because the Germans were much more

densely massed in front of ourselves. Not only that, but the line we

held was much more vulnerable. Practically the defense of Paris was

left to us, and the defense of some of the most important centres,

but there was the fact that you had this enormous front held by the

French Army, as compared with what looked like the comparatively

small front of ours.

Shortage of Farm Labor

In addition to that, the French Army at that time was holding, I

think, a two-division front on our line in order to enable us to

accumulate the necessary reserves for the purposes of the attack in

Flanders. That was part of the line which, I believe, was held

before by the British and French.

The French were pressing in order to withdraw men from the army for

purposes of agriculture. I ought to explain that their agricultural

output had fallen enormously, owing to the fact that they had

withdrawn a very large proportion of their men from the cultivation

of the fields, and they felt it essential that they should withdraw

part of their army for the purpose of cultivating the soil, and they

were pressing us upon these topics.

The Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Sir William Robertson, and

the Cabinet felt that it was inevitable that during the Winter

months there should be some extension, and we acknowledged that

something had to be done to meet the French demands, and to that

extent we accepted the principle that there must be some extension

of the line.

At that time the Field Marshal was under the impression that the

Cabinet had taken a decision without his consent. The Chief of the

Imperial Staff upon that sent the following memorandum to the War

Cabinet. I will read it, but first, with reference to the Boulogne

Conference, I may, perhaps, say that that was the first time we had

a discussion with the French Ministers. The subject of discussion

was a rather important foreign office. It was not summoned in the

least to discuss an extension of the lines. We never knew that was

to be raised. Sir William Robertson and I represented the British

Government, and M. Painlevé, the Prime Minister, and General Foch

represented the French Government.

When Sir William Robertson discovered that the Field Marshal was

under the impression that we had come to a decision without his

consent he sent the War Cabinet a memorandum, in which he says:

"At the recent Boulogne Conference the question of extending our

front was raised by the French representatives. The reply given was

that, while in principle we were, of course, ready to do whatever

could be done, the matter was one which could not be discussed in

the absence of Sir Douglas Haig, or during the continuance of the

present operations, and that due regard must also be had to the plan

of operations for next year.

"It was suggested that it would be best for the Field Marshal to

come to an arrangement with General Pétain, when this could be done.

So far as I am aware no formal discussion has taken place, and the

matter cannot be regarded as decided. Further, I feel sure that the

War Cabinet would not think of deciding such a question without

first obtaining Sir Douglas Haig's views. I am replying to him in

the above sense."

That, I think, was on the 19th of October. The War Cabinet fully

approved of the communication. Sir Douglas Haig communicated, and

said that it threw a new light on the Boulogne position. I think

that we have a right to complain of the way in which it has been

rumored about that Sir Douglas Haig protested.

The War Cabinet's Decision

The fact that Sir William Robertson had explained and Sir Douglas

Haig had stated that the explanation threw new light has never been

repeated. That is how mischief is done.

On Oct. 24 this question was first formally discussed by the War

Cabinet. There was further pressure from the French Government, and

Sir William Robertson gave his views as to the time which the

British Government ought to take, and this conclusion is recorded in

the minutes of the War Cabinet as follows:

"The War Cabinet approve of the suggestion of the Chief of the

Imperial Staff that he should reply to Field Marshal Sir Douglas

Haig in the following sense: The War Cabinet are of the opinion that

in deciding to what extent the British troops can take over the line

from the French regard must be had to the necessity of giving them a

reasonable opportunity for leave, rest, and training during the

Winter months and to the plan of operations for the next year, and,

further, while the present offensive continues it will not be

possible to commence taking over more line.

"Under these circumstances the War Cabinet fear that until this

policy is settled it will be premature to decide finally whether the

British front is to be extended by four divisions or to greater or

lesser extent."

The resolution was communicated to Sir Douglas Haig by Sir William

Robertson, and we never departed from it. After that came the

Cambrai incident and the Italian disaster, which necessitated our

sending troops to Italy. That made it difficult for the Field

Marshal to carry out the promise he made to General Pétain for a

certain extension of the front. Then the present French Prime

Minister came in, and he is not a very easy gentleman to refuse. He

was very insistent that the British Army should take over the line.

Clemenceau Suggested Versailles

We stood by the position that that was a matter to be discussed by

the two Commanders in Chief. We never swerved from that position. At

last M. Clemenceau suggested that the question should be discussed

by the military representatives at Versailles, and that the

Versailles Council should decide if there was any difference of

opinion. The military representatives discussed the question, and

the only interference of the War Cabinet was to this extent. We

communicated with the Chief of Staff, who was then in France, and

with Sir Douglas Haig to urge on them the importance of preparing

their case for the other side so as to make the strongest possible

case for the British view.

The military representatives at Versailles suggested a compromise,

but coupled with it recommendations as to steps which ought to be

taken by the French Army to assist the British if they were

attacked, and by the British to assist the French if they were

attacked, which was even a more important question than the

extension of the front.

That recommendation came up for discussion at the Versailles Council

of Feb. 1. Before that meeting Sir Douglas Haig and General Pétain

met and entered into an agreement as to the extension of the front

to Brissy, and Sir Douglas Haig reported that to the Versailles

Council. When the discussion took place there no further extension

of the line was taken at all as a result of the discussion.

That is the whole story. I was to make it perfectly clear that in

the action Sir Douglas Haig took for the extension of the line he

had the full approval of the British Cabinet, having regard to the

pressure of the French Government and military authorities. Sir

Douglas Haig had no option except to make the extension. He was in

our judgment absolutely right in the course he took. Naturally, he

would have preferred not to have done it, but the British Government

fully approved of the action he took.

The real lesson of the discussion is the importance of unity of

command. It would never have arisen if you had had that. Instead of

one army and one commander responsible for one part of the line, and

another army and another commander responsible for another part of

the line, we have one united command responsible for the whole and

every part. It was the only method of safety, and I am glad we have

it at last.

It was not so much a question of the length of the line held by one

force or the length held by another. It was a question of reserves

massed behind.

The Premier ended with a plea for a truce to political "sniping." On May

13 it was announced that as a disciplinary measure General Maurice had

been placed on "the retired list."

[Illustration]

The New British Service Act

Provisions of Law Which Raises Military Age

The new British Military Service act became effective in April, 1918,

having passed both houses of Parliament by large majorities; it

immediately received the royal assent. The provision applying

conscription to Ireland was suspended temporarily, on the assumption

that it would not be enforced until a measure of home rule for Ireland

was agreed upon. The main provisions of the new service measure are as

follows, as analyzed by The London Times:

RAISING OF MILITARY AGE

Men Up to 50.--Obligation to military service imposed upon every

male British subject:

1. Who has at any time since Aug. 14, 1915, or who for the time

being is in Great Britain, and

2. Who on April 18, 1918, had attained the age of 18 years and had

not attained the age of 51 years or who at any subsequent date

attains the age of 18 years.

Men Up to 55.--If it appears necessary at any time for the defense

of the realm, his Majesty may, by Order in Council, declare the

extension of the obligation to military service to men generally or

to any class of men up to any age not exceeding 56 years. The draft

of any such order is to be presented to each house of Parliament,

and will not be submitted to his Majesty in Council unless each

house presents an address, praying that the order may be made.

Doctors.--Duly qualified medical practitioners, who have not

attained the age of 56 years, are made immediately liable to

military service.

FORMER PRISONERS OF WAR

The clause in the act of May, 1916, excepting from military service

any person who has been "a prisoner of war, captured or interned by

the enemy, and has been released or exchanged," is to cease to have

effect. It is, however, provided that the change shall be without

prejudice to any undertaking, recognized by the Government, and for

the time being in force, that any released or exchanged prisoner of

war shall not serve in his Majesty's forces during the present war.

TIME-EXPIRED MEN

The act of May, 1916, provided that the service should not be

prolonged of men who, when their times for discharge occurred, had

served a period of twelve years or more and had attained the age of

41 years. This section is to cease to have effect.

EXTENSION TO IRELAND

Method of Procedure.--His Majesty may, by Order in Council, extend

the act to Ireland, with the necessary modifications and

adaptations.

Legal Proceedings.--An Order in Council may be issued to make

special provision for the constitution of the civil court before

which proceedings for any offenses punishable on summary conviction

under the Reserve Forces act, the Army act, and the Military Service

acts are to be brought in Ireland. The order may also assign any

such proceedings to a specified civil court or courts.

WITHDRAWAL OF EXEMPTIONS

His Majesty may, by proclamation declaring that a national emergency

has arisen, direct that any certificates of exemption other than

those granted on the grounds of ill-health or of conscientious

objection shall cease to have effect.

THE TRIBUNALS

The Local Government Board or the Secretary for Scotland may make

regulations for the following purposes:

1. For providing for applications for certificates of exemption,

including appeals, being made to such tribunals, constituted in such

manner and for such areas as may be authorized.

2. For establishing special tribunals, committees, or panels for

dealing with particular classes of cases.

3. For regulating and limiting the making of applications.

4. For making other provision to secure the expeditious making and

disposal of applications.

It is provided that such regulations shall not alter the four

grounds for applications for certificates of exemption--the

expediency, in the national interests, that a man should be engaged

in other work, business or domestic reasons, ill-health, and

conscientious objection.

PENALTIES

Any person making a false statement with a view to preventing or

postponing the calling up of himself or any other person, or for any

medical examination, is to be liable to six months' imprisonment.

It is to be the duty of any man whose certificate has been

withdrawn, or who no longer satisfies the conditions on which it was

granted, to transmit it forthwith to the local office of the

Ministry of National Service. If he fails without reasonable cause

to do so, he will be liable to a fine of £50.

MEDICAL EXAMINATION

Any man holding a certificate of exemption (other than one from

combatant service only) or applying for its renewal may at any time

be required to present himself for medical examination or

re-examination.

VOLUNTEER OBLIGATION

Every man granted a certificate of exemption is to join the

Volunteer Force for the perid of the war, unless the tribunal

dealing with the case orders to the contrary.

CONVENTIONS WITH ALLIED STATES

The act is to be read with previous acts in relation to the act of

1917, which confirmed conventions with allied States making subjects

of those States in this country liable for military service. That

act is also to apply to Ireland, if the act is extended to Ireland.

EXCEPTIONS

The exceptions from the act are the following:

1. Men ordinarily resident in the Dominions.

2. Members of the regular or reserve forces or of the Dominion

forces, and territorials liable to foreign service.

3. Men serving in the navy, the Royal Marines, or the air force.

4. Certain categories of officers and men who have left or been

discharged from the forces in consequence of disablement or

ill-health; and men medically rejected, if, on further medical

examination after April 5, 1917, they have been certified to be

totally and permanently unfit for any form of military service.

5. Men in holy orders or regular ministers of any religious

denomination.

British Aid to Italy

General Plumer's Dispatch

The report was published May 10, 1918, that 250,000 Italian troops had

been concentrated in France to swell the reserves of the allied armies

against the German offensive, and that this had been accomplished

without weakening the Italian front, which was preparing for a

threatened Austrian attack. No statement was made regarding the British

troops that had gone to Italy's aid during the disaster to the Italian

armies in 1917.

General Sir Herbert Plumer, who took over the command of the British

troops in Italy after their arrival there, Nov. 10, 1917, submitted his

official report March 9, 1918. He stated that he found on his arrival

that the situation in Italy was disquieting, the Italian Army having

received a severe blow, and the aid that the British and French might

give could not be immediate owing to difficulties of transport. As it

was then uncertain whether the Italians could hold the Piave line, it

was arranged that two British divisions in conjunction with the French

should move to the hills north and south of Vicenza. By the time the

troops had reached this position the situation had improved and an offer

was made by the British in conjunction with the French to take over a

sector of the foothills of the Asiago Plateau. But as snow was imminent

and special mountain equipment was difficult to provide, the suggestion

was made by the Italians that the British should take over the Montsello

sector, with the French on their left. This was agreed to.

Sir Herbert considers that the entrance of the French and British had an

excellent moral effect and enabled the Italians to withdraw and

reorganize. The Montsello sector, which was taken over on Dec. 4 and

work immediately begun on its defense, is described by Sir Herbert as a

hinge to the whole Italian line, joining the mountain portion facing

north, from Mount Tomba to Lake Garda, to the Piave line held by the 3d

Italian Army.

December was an anxious month. Several German divisions were east of the

Piave, and an attempt to force the river and capture Venice was

considered likely. Local attacks grew more and more severe, and, though

the progress of the enemy was not great and Italian counterattacks were

constantly made, the danger of a break-through increased. The Austrians

were being encouraged to persevere in the hope of getting down to

the plains for the Winter.

Rear lines of defense were constructed, and as time passed and the

preparations were well forward the feeling of security grew, and was

further increased by the recapture by the Italians of the slopes of

Monte Asolone on Dec. 22. The following day Mount Melago and Col del

Rosso, on the Asiago Plateau, were lost, but the Italians regained the

former by a counterattack. Though Christmas Day found the situation

still serious, especially on the Asiago, where the Italians, while

fighting stubbornly, suffered from strain and cold, the situation showed

signs of improvement. This outlook was brightened still further by the

capture of Mount Tomba, with 1,500 prisoners, by the French. In this

action British artillery assisted.

"During all this period," the dispatch continues, "we had carried out

continuous patrol work across the River Piave and much successful

counterbattery work. The Piave is a very serious obstacle, especially at

this season of the year, the breadth opposite the British front being

considerably over 1,000 yards, and the current 14 knots. Every form of

raft and boat has been used, but wading has proved the most successful,

though the icy cold water made the difficulties even greater. In spite

of this there has never been any lack of volunteers for these

enterprises.

"On Jan. 1 our biggest raid was carried out by the Middlesex Regiment.

This was a most difficult and well-planned operation, which had for its

objective the capture and surrounding of several buildings held by the

enemy to a depth of 2,000 yards inland, provided a surprise could be

effected. Two hundred and fifty men were passed across by wading and

some prisoners were captured, but, unfortunately, the alarm was given by

a party of fifty of the enemy that was encountered in an advanced post,

and the progress inland had therefore, in accordance with orders, to be

curtailed. The recrossing of the river was successfully effected, and

our casualties were very few. An operation of this nature requires much

forethought and arrangement, even to wrapping every man in hot blankets

immediately on emerging from the icy water.

"The 3d Italian Army also opened the year well by clearing the Austrians

from the west bank of the Piave about Zenson. This was followed on Jan.

14 by the attack of the 4th Italian Army on Mount Asolone, which,

although not entirely successful, resulted in capturing over 400

Austrian prisoners. The situation had by this time so far improved that

I offered to take over another sector of defense on my right in order to

assist the Italians. This was agreed to, and was completed by Jan. 28.

On this day and the following the 1st Italian Army carried out

successful operations on the Col del Rosso--Mont Val Bella front, on the

Asiago Plateau. The infantry attacked with great spirit, and captured

2,500 Austrians. British artillery took part in the above operation."

General Plumer states that in February the weather was bad, much snow

having fallen, and operations were hampered. Although the British had

not taken part in serious fighting, yet they had some share in the

improvement which, he says, had taken place.

The work of the R. F. C., under Brig. Gen. Webb-Bowen, during the period

under review (says Sir Herbert) has been quite brilliant. From the

moment of arrival they made their presence felt, and very soon overcame

the difficulties of the mountains. They have taken part in all

operations, and rendered much assistance to the Italians in the air.

They have carried out a large number of successful raids on enemy

aerodromes, railway junctions, &c., and have during the period destroyed

sixty-four hostile machines, a large proportion of which were German,

and nine balloons, our losses to the enemy during the period being

twelve machines and three balloons.

A comparison of the photographs of hostile battery positions when our

artillery entered the line with the positions now occupied shows that

the enemy batteries have been successfully forced back almost throughout

the whole front. Some British artillery assisted both in French and

Italian operations, and a frequent interchange of British and Italian

batteries was made, together with counterbattery staff officers, in

order that experience of each other's methods might be gained. Every

effort was made to illustrate the value of counterbattery work, the

value of which we had learned by experience in France, but which the

Italians had not hitherto fully appreciated.

"The Italians were only too anxious to profit by any experience we could

give them, and this was done not only by frequent interchange of visits

of commanders and staffs to the various sectors of defense, but by the

establishment of schools of instruction, at which a large number of

Italian officers actually underwent the courses. About 100 Italian

officers attended the courses at the various schools, together with some

French officers. Similarly, British officers underwent courses at French

and Italian schools."

Sir Herbert thanks the Italian authorities for their assistance,

especially General Diaz, Chief of the Staff, and expresses indebtedness

to Generals Fayolle and Maistre, in command of the French troops.

Emperor Charles's "Dear Sixtus" Letter

French Supplemental Statement Corroborates Its Authenticity

The publication of the letter of Emperor Charles of Austria to his

brother-in-law, Prince Sixtus, in which he sought a separate peace with

France, referring to the "just claims" of France to Alsace-Lorraine, and

which caused the downfall of Count Czernin, the Austrian Foreign

Secretary, was followed by this official denial by the Austrian

Government:

The letter by his Apostolic Majesty, published by the French Premier

in his communiqué of April 12, 1918, is falsified, (verfaelscht.)

First of all, it may be declared that the personality of far higher

rank than the Foreign Minister, who, as admitted in the official

statement of April 7, undertook peace efforts in the Spring of 1917,

must be understood to be not his Apostolic Majesty but Prince Sixte

of Bourbon, who in the Spring of 1917 was occupied with bringing

about a rapprochement between the belligerent States. As regards the

text of the letter published by M. Clemenceau, the Foreign Minister

declares by All Highest command that his Apostolic Majesty wrote a

purely personal private letter in the Spring of 1917 to his

brother-in-law, Prince Sixte of Bourbon, which contained no

instructions to the Prince to initiate mediation with the President

of the French Republic or any one else, to hand on communications

which might be made to him, or to evoke and receive replies. This

letter, moreover, made no mention of the Belgian question, and

contained, relative to Alsace-Lorraine, the following-passage: "I

would have used all my personal influence in favor of the French

claims for the return of Alsace-Lorraine, if these claims were just.

They are not, however." The second letter of the Emperor mentioned

in the French Premier's communique of April 9, in which his

Apostolic Majesty is said to have declared that he was "in accord

with his Minister," is significantly not mentioned by the French

communiqué.

This statement drew forth from the French Government the following

reply:

There are rotten consciences. The Emperor Charles, finding it

impossible to save his face, falls into the stammerings of a man

confounded. He is now reduced to accusing his brother-in-law of

forgery, by fabricating with his own hand a lying text. The original

document, the text of which has been published by the French

Government, was communicated in the presence of M. Jules Cambon,

Secretary General of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and delegated

for this purpose by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, to the

President of the Republic, who, with the authorization of the

Prince, handed a copy of it to the President of the Council.

The Prince spoke of the matter to M. Ribot himself in terms which

would have been devoid of sense if the text had not been that

published by the French Government, is it not evidence that no

conversation could have been opened, and that the President of the

Republic would not even have received the Prince a second time, if

the latter, at Austria's instance, had been the bearer of a document

which contested our rights instead of affirming them?

The Emperor Charles's letter, as we have quoted it, was shown by

Prince Sixte himself to the Chief of State. Moreover, two friends of

the Prince can attest the authenticity of the letter, especially the

one who received it from the Prince to copy it.

The Serbian Government, moreover, gave the lie direct to Count Czernin's

statement in reference to offering peace to Serbia. Premier Pashitch was

asked in the Skupshtina at Corfu by Deputy Marco Trifcovitch whether

Count Czernin's statement was true. He replied that he had denied Count

Czernin's statements as soon as he had received the text of the speech

from Amsterdam, and that he welcomed this fresh opportunity of declaring

before Parliament that, so far as Serbia was concerned, the statements

were totally inaccurate. (Exclamations from the right, "Czernin lied!")

The Premier then proceeded to say that Count Czernin had never made

peace overtures to Serbia, and that, if he had, such proposals would not

have been accepted. "All the statements of Count Czernin," continued M.

Pashitch, "are only the result of Austro-Hungarian intrigues."

Premier Clemenceau explained in detail before three committees of the

French Chamber, the Committees on Foreign Affairs, the Army, and the

Navy, which represented practically one-fourth of the total membership,

the circumstances connected with the letters; it was unanimously agreed

that there was nothing in the situation to justify any further

consideration than had been given them. The Paris Temps gave the

following details concerning their receipt:

The Emperor's two letters, and the conversations arising out of

them, will form an essential part of the proceedings before the

committees today. The letter from the Emperor to Prince Sixte of

Bourbon-Parma was communicated to M. Poincaré on March 31 last year,

but it remained in the possession of the Prince, who gave a copy of

it to M. Ribot, by whom it was placed in the archives of the French

Foreign Office. "Let us add," says the Temps, "that in the course

of the interview which he had with Lloyd George at Folkestone a few

days after the copy of the letter came into his possession that M.

Ribot handed a copy of this copy to the British Premier. A little

later in the interview which took place at St. Jean de Maurienne, in

Savoy, between the chiefs of the British, French, and Italian

Cabinets the question was raised as to what should be done in case

the Austro-Hungarian Cabinet took steps toward peace negotiations.

An agreement was come to without difficulty between the Allies as to

the line of conduct to be adopted in such an eventuality. Let us add

that this first letter sent to Prince Sixte had determined the

Allies to ask for further explanations, as the result of which

Prince Sixte received from his imperial brother-in-law a second

letter, which was also communicated to M. Poincaré and M. Ribot. We

have no right to give any indication on this subject, but we believe

we can state that this second letter was regarded unanimously by the

Allies as of such a nature that it would not permit them to pursue

the conversations further."

Kaiser Wilhelm in the following telegram accepted without reserve

Emperor Charles's statement that the Sixtus letter had been distorted:

Accept my heartiest thanks for your telegram, in which you repudiate

as entirely baseless the assertion of the French Premier regarding

your attitude toward French claims to Alsace-Lorraine, and in which

you once again accentuate the solidarity of interest existing

between us and our respective empires. I hasten to inform you that

in my eyes there was no need whatever for any such assurance on your

part, for I was not for a moment in doubt that you have made our

cause your own, in the same measure as we stand for the rights of

your monarchy. The heavy but successful battles of these years have

clearly demonstrated this fact to every one who wants to see. They

have only drawn the bonds close together. Our enemies, who are

unable to do anything against us in honorable warfare, do not recoil

from the most sordid and the lowest methods. We must, therefore, put

up with it, but all the more is it our duty ruthlessly to grapple

with and beat the enemy in all the theatres of war. In true

friendship, WILHELM.

As a sequel to the matter it was reported from Vienna that the mother of

Empress Zita and Prince Sixtus had been compelled to leave Vienna and

live in retirement at her estates, remote from the Austrian capital.

THE ISSUES IN IRELAND

Official Report of the Irish Convention--Full Text of the Chairman's

Summary of the Proceedings

The Irish home-rule question, in consequence of the failure of the Irish

Convention to agree, became an important war issue in the Spring of 1918

on account of its effect upon Great Britain's man-power measures.

Premier Lloyd George, on May 21, 1917, announced the Government's

decision to summon a convention of Irishmen representing all parties and

interests to endeavor to reach an agreement on the home-rule question.

The Sinn Feiners refused to send representatives, but all other factions

were represented in the convention, which met July 25, 1917, at Dublin

and elected Sir Horace Plunkett Chairman. The report of its

recommendations was made public April 13, 1918, in three separate

documents--the proposals for a scheme of Irish self-government, adopted

by vote of 44 to 29 in a total membership of 90; a protest by the Ulster

Unionist delegates, who dissented from any agreement, and the report of

22 Nationalist delegates, who were unable to agree to the fiscal

proposals. The majority proposals were accepted by practically all the

Nationalists, all the Southern Unionists, and 5 out of 7 of the Labor

representatives.

The summary of the proceedings, presented by Sir Horace Plunkett, and

the scheme of government as agreed upon by the majority, are of

importance historically for a comparison with subsequent measures of

home rule, which the British Government announces it intends to

introduce before putting into force conscription in Ireland.

THE CHAIRMAN'S SUMMARY

Sir Horace Plunkett's letter reads:

Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith the report of the

proceedings of the Irish Convention. For the immediate object of the

Government the report tells all that needs to be told:

It shows that in the convention, while it was not found possible to

overcome the objections of the Ulster Unionists, a majority of

Nationalists, all the Southern Unionists, and five out of the seven

Labor representatives were agreed that the scheme of Irish

self-government set out in Paragraph 42 of the report should be

immediately passed into law. A minority of Nationalists propose a

scheme which differs in only one important particular from that of

the majority. The convention has, therefore, laid a foundation of

Irish agreement unprecedented in history.

I recognize that action in Parliament upon the result of our

deliberations must largely depend upon public opinion. Without a

knowledge of the circumstances which, at the termination of our

proceedings, compelled us to adopt an unusual method of presenting

the results of our deliberations, the public might be misled as to

what has actually been achieved. It is, therefore, necessary to

explain our procedure.

Adopting the Report

We had every reason to believe that the Government contemplated

immediate legislation upon the results of our labors. The work of an

Irish settlement, suspended at the outbreak of the war, is now felt

to admit of no further postponement. In the dominions and in the

United States, as well as in other allied countries, the unsettled

Irish question is a disturbing factor both in regard to war effort

and peace aims. Nevertheless, urgent as our task was, we could not

complete it until every possibility of agreement had been explored.

The moment this point was reached--and you will not be surprised

that it took us eight months to reach it--we decided to issue our

report with the least possible delay. To do this we had to avoid

further controversy and protracted debate. I was, therefore, on

March 22, instructed to draft a report which should be a mere

narrative of the convention's proceedings, with a statement, for the

information of the Government, of the conclusions adopted, whether

unanimously or by majorities.

It was hoped that this report might be unanimously signed; and it

was understood that any groups or individuals would be free to

append to it such statements as they deemed necessary to give

expression to their views. The draft report was circulated on March

30, and discussed and amended on April 4 and 5. The accuracy of the

narrative was not challenged, though there was considerable

difference of opinion as to the relative prominence which should be

given to some parts of the proceedings. As time pressed, it was

decided not to have any discussion upon a majority report, nor upon

any minority reports or other statements which might be submitted.

The draft report was adopted by a majority, and the Chairman and

Secretary were ordered to sign it and forward it to the Government.

A limit of twenty-four hours was, by agreement, put upon the

reception of any other reports or statements, and in the afternoon

of April 5 the convention adjourned sine die.

The public is thus provided with no majority report, in the sense of

a reasoned statement in favor of the conclusions upon which the

majority are agreed, but is left to gather from the narrative of

proceedings what the contents of such a report would have been. On

the other hand, both the Ulster Unionists and a minority of the

Nationalists have presented minority reports covering the whole

field of the convention's inquiry. The result of this procedure is

to minimize the agreement reached, and to emphasize the

disagreement. In these circumstances I conceive it to be my duty as

Chairman to submit such explanatory observations as are required to

enable the reader of the report and the accompanying documents to

gain a clear idea of the real effect and significance of the

convention's achievement.

I may assume a knowledge of the broad facts of the Irish question.

It will be agreed that of recent years the greatest obstacle to its

settlement has been the Ulster difficulty. There seemed to be two

possible issues to our deliberations. If a scheme of Irish

self-government could be framed to which the Ulster Unionists would

give their adherence, then the convention might produce a unanimous

report. Failing such a consummation, we might secure agreement,

either complete or substantial, between the Nationalist, the

Southern Unionist, and the Labor representatives. Many entertained

the hope that the effect of such a striking and wholly new

development would be to induce Ulster to reconsider its position.

Ulster Issue Unsolved

Perhaps unanimity was too much to expect. Be this as it may, neither

time nor effort was spared in striving for that goal, and there were

moments when its attainment seemed possible. There was, however, a

portion of Ulster where a majority claimed that, if Ireland had the

right to separate herself from the rest of the United Kingdom, they

had the same right to separation from the rest of Ireland. But the

time had gone by when any other section of the Irish people would

accept the partition of their country, even as a temporary

expedient. Hence, the Ulster Unionist members in the convention

remained there only in the hope that some form of home rule would be

proposed which might modify the determination of those they

represented to have neither part nor lot in an Irish Parliament. The

Nationalists strove to win them by concessions, but they found

themselves unable to accept any of the schemes discussed, and the

only scheme of Irish government they presented to the convention was

confined to the exclusion of their entire province.

Long before the hope of complete unanimity had passed, the majority

of the convention were considering the possibilities of agreement

between the Nationalists and the Southern Unionists. Lord Midleton

was the first to make a concrete proposal to this end. The report

shows that in November he outlined to the Grand Committee and in

December brought before the convention what looked like a workable

compromise. It accepted self-government for Ireland. In return for

special minority representation in the Irish Parliament, already

conceded by the Nationalists, it offered to that Parliament complete

power over internal legislation and administration, and, in matters

of finance, over direct taxation and excise. But, although they

agreed that the customs revenue should be paid in to the Irish

Exchequer, the Southern Unionists insisted upon the permanent

reservation to the Imperial Parliament of the power to fix the rates

of customs duties. By far the greater part of our time and attention

was occupied by this one question, whether the imposition of customs

duties should or should not be under the control of the Irish

Parliament. The difficulties of the Irish Convention may be summed

up in two words--Ulster and Customs.

Customs and Excise Problem

The Ulster difficulty the whole world knows; but how the customs

question came to be one of vital principle, upon the decision of

which depended the amount of agreement that could be reached in the

convention, needs to be told. The tendency of recent political

thought among constitutional Nationalists has been toward a form of

government resembling as closely as possible that of the dominions,

and, since the geographical position of Ireland imposes obvious

restrictions in respect of naval and military affairs, the claim for

dominion home rule was concentrated upon a demand for unrestricted

fiscal powers. Without separate customs and excise Ireland would,

according to this view, fail to attain a national status like that

enjoyed by the dominions.

Upon this issue the Nationalists made a strong case, and were able

to prove that a considerable number of leading commercial men had

come to favor fiscal autonomy as part of an Irish settlement. In the

present state of public opinion in Ireland it was feared that

without customs no scheme the convention recommended would receive a

sufficient measure of popular support to secure legislation. To

obviate any serious disturbance of the trade of the United Kingdom

the Nationalists were prepared to agree to a free-trade arrangement

between the two countries. But this did not overcome the

difficulties of the Southern Unionists, who on this point agreed

with the Ulster Unionists. They were apprehensive that a separate

system of customs control, however guarded, might impair the

authority of the United Kingdom over its external trade policy.

Neither could they consent to any settlement which was, in their

judgment, incompatible with Ireland's full participation in a scheme

of United Kingdom federation, should that come to pass.

It was clear that by means of mutual concessions agreement between

the Nationalists and the Southern Unionists could be reached on all

other points. On this important point, however, a section of the

Nationalists, who have embodied their views in a separate report,

held that no compromise was possible. On the other hand, a majority

of the Nationalists and the whole body of Southern Unionists felt

that nothing effective could result from their work in the

convention unless some understanding was reached upon customs which

would render an agreement on a complete scheme attainable. Neither

side was willing to surrender the principle; but both sides were

willing, in order that a Parliament should be at once established,

to postpone a legislative decision upon the ultimate control of

customs and excise. At the same time each party has put on record,

in separate notes subjoined to the report, its claim respecting the

final settlement of this question. A decision having been reached

upon the cardinal issue, the majority of the convention carried a

series of resolutions which together form a complete scheme of

self-government.

Parliament for All Ireland

This scheme provides for the establishment of a Parliament for the

whole of Ireland, with an Executive responsible to it, and with full

powers over all internal legislation, administration, and direct

taxation. Pending a decision of the fiscal question, it is provided

that the imposition of duties of customs and excise shall remain

with the Imperial Parliament, but that the whole of the proceeds of

these taxes shall be paid into the Irish Exchequer. A joint

Exchequer Board is to be set up to determine the Irish true revenue,

and Ireland is to be represented upon the Board of Customs and

Excise of the United Kingdom.

The principle of representation in the Imperial Parliament was

insisted upon from the first by the Southern Unionists, and the

Nationalists conceded it. It was felt, however, that there were

strong reasons for providing that the Irish representatives at

Westminster should be elected by the Irish Parliament rather than

directly by the constituencies, and this was the arrangement

adopted.

It was accepted in principle that there should be an Irish

contribution to the cost of imperial services, but owing to lack of

data it was not found possible in the convention to fix any definite

sum.

It was agreed that the Irish Parliament should consist of two

houses--a Senate of sixty-four members and a House of Commons of

200. The principle underlying the composition of the Senate is the

representation of interests. This is effected by giving

representation to commerce, industry, and labor, the County

Councils, the Churches, learned institutions, and the peerage. In

constituting the House of Commons the Nationalists offered to

guarantee 40 per cent. of its membership to the Unionists. It was

agreed that, in the south, adequate representation for Unionists

could only be secured by nomination; but, as the Ulster

representatives had informed the convention that those for whom they

spoke could not accept the principle of nomination, provision was

made in the scheme for an extra representation of Ulster by direct

election.

The majority of the Labor representatives associated themselves with

the Nationalists and Southern Unionists in building up the

Constitution, with the provisions of which they found themselves in

general agreement. They frankly objected, however, to the principle

of nomination and to what they regarded as the inadequate

representation of Labor in the upper house. Throughout our

proceedings they helped in every way toward the attainment of

agreement. Nor did they press their own special claims in such a

manner as to make more difficult the work, already difficult enough,

of agreeing upon a Constitution.

Knottiest Question in History

I trust I have said enough to enable the reader of this report and

the accompanying documents to form an accurate judgment upon the

nature and difficulties of the task before the convention and upon

its actual achievement. While, technically, it was our function to

draft a Constitution for our country, it would be more correct to

say that we had to find a way out of the most complex and anomalous

political situation to be found in history--I might almost say in

fiction. We are living under a system of government which survives

only because the act abolishing it cannot, consistently with

Ministerial pledges, be put into operation without further

legislation no less difficult and controversial than that which it

has to amend. While the responsibility for a solution to our problem

rests primarily with the Government, the convention found itself in

full accord with your insistence that the most hopeful path to a

settlement was to be found in Irish agreement. In seeking this--in

attempting to find a compromise which Ireland might accept and

Parliament pass into law--it has been recognized that the full

program of no party could be adopted. The convention was also bound

to give due weight to your opinion that to press for a settlement

at Westminster, during the war, of the question which, as I have

shown, had been a formidable obstacle to agreement would be to

imperil the prospect of the early establishment of self-government

in Ireland.

Notwithstanding the difficulties with which we were surrounded, a

larger measure of agreement has been reached upon the principle and

details of Irish self-government than has yet been attained. Is it

too much to hope that the scheme embodying this agreement will

forthwith be brought to fruition by those to whose call the Irish

Convention has now responded? I have the honor to be, Sir, your

obedient servant,

HORACE PLUNKETT.

April 8, 1918.

THE MAJORITY REPORT

The proposed scheme of Irish self-government referred to in Sir Horace

Plunkett's letter is set out below, the majorities by which each section

or subsection was carried being indicated in parentheses:

THE IRISH PARLIAMENT. (51 votes to 18.)

(1) The Irish Parliament to consist of the King, an Irish Senate,

and an Irish House of Commons.

(2) Notwithstanding the establishment of the Irish Parliament or

anything contained in the Government of Ireland act, the supreme

power and authority of the Parliament of the United Kingdom shall

remain unaffected and undiminished over all persons, matters, and

things in Ireland and every part thereof.

POWERS OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENT. The Irish Parliament to have the

general power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government

of Ireland, subject to the exclusions and restrictions specified in

3 and 4 below. (51 to 19.)

EXCLUSIONS FROM POWER OF IRISH PARLIAMENT. (49 to 16.) The Irish

Parliament to have no power to make laws on the following matters:

(1) Crown and succession.

(2) Making of peace and war, (including conduct as neutrals.)

(3) The army and navy.

(4) Treaties and foreign relations, (including extradition.)

(5) Dignities and titles of honor.

(6) Any necessary control of harbors for naval and military

purposes, and certain powers as regards lighthouses, buoys, beacons,

cables, wireless terminals, to be settled with reference to the

requirements of the military and naval forces of his Majesty in

various contingencies. (41 to 13.)

(7) Coinage; legal tender; or any change in the standard of weights

and measures.

(8) Copyright or patent rights.

TEMPORARY AND PARTIAL RESERVATION. The Imperial and Irish

Governments shall jointly arrange, subject to imperial exigencies,

for the unified control of the Irish police and postal services

during the war, provided that as soon as possible after the

cessation of hostilities the administration of these two services

shall become automatically subject to the Irish Parliament. (37 to

21.)

RESTRICTION ON POWER OF IRISH PARLIAMENT ON MATTERS WITHIN ITS

COMPETENCE. (46 to 15.)

(1) Prohibition of laws interfering with religious equality. N.

B.--A subsection should be framed to annul any existing legal

penalty, disadvantage, or disability on account of religious belief.

Certain restrictions still remain under the act of 1829.

(2) Special provision protecting the position of Freemasons.

(3) Safeguard for Trinity College and Queen's University similar to

Section 42 of act.

(4) Money bills to be founded only on Vice-regal message.

(5) Privileges, qualifications, &c., of members of Irish Parliament

to be limited as in act.

(6) Rights of existing Irish officers to be safeguarded.

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. Section 9 (4) of the act of 1914 to apply

to the House of Commons with the substitution of "ten years" for

"three years." The constitution of the Senate to be subject to

alteration after ten years, provided the bill is agreed to by

two-thirds of the total number of members of both houses sitting

together. (46 to 15.)

EXECUTIVE AUTHORITY. The executive power in Ireland to continue

vested in the King, but exercisable through the Lord Lieutenant on

the advice of an Irish Executive Committee in the manner set out in

act. (45 to 15.)

DISSOLUTION OF IRISH PARLIAMENT. The Irish Parliament to be

summoned, prorogued, and dissolved as set out in act. (45 to 15.)

ASSENT TO BILLS. Royal assent to be given or withheld as set out in

act with the substitution of "reservation" for "postponement." (45

to 15.)

CONSTITUTION OF THE SENATE. (48 votes to 19.) Lord Chancellor, 1;

four Archbishops or Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church, 4; two

Archbishops or Bishops of the Church of Ireland, 2; a representative

of the General Assembly, 1; the Lord Mayors of Dublin, Belfast, and

Cork, 3; peers resident in Ireland, elected by peers resident in

Ireland, 15; nominated by Lord Lieutenant--Irish Privy Councilors of

at least two years' standing 4, representatives of learned

institutions 3, other persons 4; representatives of commerce and

industry, 15; representatives of labor, one for each province, 4;

representatives of County Councils, two for each province, 8--64.

On the disappearance of any nominated element in the House of

Commons an addition shall be made to the numbers of the Senate.

CONSTITUTION OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. (45 to 20.)

(1) The ordinary elected members of the House of Commons shall

number 160.

(2) The University of Dublin, the University of Belfast, and the

National University shall each return two members. The graduates of

each university shall form the constituency.

(3) Special representation shall be given to urban and industrial

areas by grouping the smaller towns and applying to them a lower

electoral quota than that applicable to the rest of the country.

(4) The principle of proportional representation, with the single

transferable vote, shall be observed wherever a constituency returns

three or more members. (47 to 22.)

(5) The convention accept the principle that 40 per cent. of the

membership of the House of Commons shall be guaranteed to Unionists.

In pursuance of this, they suggest that, for a period, there shall

be summoned to the Irish House of Commons twenty members nominated

by the Lord Lieutenant, with a view to the due representation of

interests not otherwise adequately represented in the provinces of

Leinster, Munster, and Connaught, and that twenty additional members

shall be elected by Ulster constituencies, to represent commercial,

industrial, and agricultural interests.

(6) The Lord Lieutenant's power of nomination shall be exercised

subject to any instructions that may be given by his Majesty the

King.

(7) The nominated members shall disappear in whole or in part after

fifteen years, and not earlier, notwithstanding anything contained

in Clause 5.

(8) The extra representation in Ulster not to cease except on an

adverse decision by a three-fourths majority of both houses sitting

together. (27 to 20.)

(9) The House of Commons shall continue for five years unless

previously dissolved.

(10) Nominated members shall vacate their seats on a dissolution but

shall be eligible for renomination. Any vacancy among the nominated

members shall be filled by nomination.

MONEY BILLS. (45 to 22.)

(1) Money bills to originate only in the House of Commons, and not

to be amended by the Senate. (Act, Section 10.)

(2) The Senate is, however, to have power to bring about a joint

sitting over money bills in the same session of Parliament.

(3) The Senate to have power to suggest amendments, which the House

of Commons may accept or reject as it pleases.

DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN HOUSES. Disagreements between the two houses to

be solved by joint sittings as set out in act, with the proviso that

if the Senate fail to pass a money bill such joint sitting shall be

held in the same session of Parliament. (45 to 22.)

REPRESENTATION AT WESTMINSTER.

(1) Representation in Parliament of the United Kingdom to continue.

Irish representatives to have the right of deliberating and voting

on all matters.

(2) Forty-two Irish representatives shall be elected to the Commons

House of the Parliament of the United Kingdom in the following

manner:

A panel shall be formed in each of the four provinces of Ireland,

consisting of the members for that province in the Irish House of

Commons, and one other panel shall be formed consisting of members

nominated to the Irish House of Commons. The number of

representatives to be elected to the Commons House of the Imperial

Parliament shall be proportionate to the numbers of each panel and

the election shall be on the principle of proportional

representation. (42 to 24.)

(3) The Irish representation in the House of Lords shall continue as

at present unless and until that chamber be remodeled, when the

matter shall be reconsidered by the Imperial and Irish Parliaments.

(44 to 22.)

FINANCE. (51 to 18.)

(1) An Irish Exchequer and Consolidated Fund to be established and

an Irish Controller and Auditor General to be appointed as set out

in act.

(2) If necessary, it should be declared that all taxes at present

leviable in Ireland should continue to be levied and collected until

the Irish Parliament otherwise decides.

(3) The necessary adjustments of revenue as between Great Britain

and Ireland during the transition period should be made.

FINANCIAL POWERS OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENT.

(1) The control of customs and excise by an Irish Parliament is to

be postponed for further consideration until after the war, provided

that the question of such control shall be considered and decided by

the Parliament of the United Kingdom within seven years after the

conclusion of peace. For the purpose of deciding in the Parliament

of the United Kingdom the question of the future control of Irish

customs and excise, a number of Irish representatives proportioned

to the population of Ireland shall be called to the Parliament of

the United Kingdom. (38 to 34.)

(2) On the creation of an Irish Parliament, and until the question

of the ultimate control of the Irish customs and excise services

shall have been decided, the Board of Customs and Excise of the

United Kingdom shall include a person or persons nominated by the

Irish Treasury. (39 to 33.)

(3) A Joint Exchequer Board, consisting of two members nominated by

the Imperial Treasury, and two members nominated by the Irish

Treasury, with a Chairman appointed by the King, shall be set up to

secure the determination of the true income of Ireland. (39 to 33.)

(4) Until the question of the ultimate control of the Irish customs

and excise services shall have been decided, the revenue due to

Ireland from customs and excise, as determined by the Joint

Exchequer Board, shall be paid into the Irish Exchequer. (38 to 30.)

(5) All branches of taxation, other than customs and excise, shall

be under the control of the Irish Parliament. (38 to 30.)

IMPERIAL CONTRIBUTION. The principle of such a contribution is

approved. (Unanimously.)

LAND PURCHASE. The convention accept the recommendations of the

Sub-Committee on Land Purchase. (Unanimously.)

JUDICIAL POWER. (43 to 17.) The following provisions of the

Government of Ireland act to be adopted:

(_a_) Safeguarding position of existing Irish Judges.

(_b_) Leaving appointment of future Judges to the Irish Government

and their removal to the Crown on address from both houses of

Parliament.

(_c_) Transferring appeals from the House of Lords to the Judicial

Committee, strengthened by Irish Judges.

(_d_) Extending right of appeal to this court.

(_e_) Provision as to reference of questions of validity to Judicial

Committee.

The Lord Chancellor is not to be a political officer.

LORD LIEUTENANT. The Lord Lieutenant is not to be a political

officer. He shall hold office for six years, and neither he nor the

Lords Justices shall be subject to any religious disqualification.

His salary shall be sufficient to throw the post open to men of

moderate means. (43 to 17.)

CIVIL SERVICE. (42 to 18.)

(1) There shall be a Civil Service Commission consisting of

representatives of Irish universities which shall formulate a scheme

of competitive examinations for admission to the public service,

including statutory administrative bodies, and no person shall be

admitted to such service unless he holds the certificate of the

Civil Service Commission.

(2) A scheme of appointments in the public service, with

recommendations as to scales of salary for the same, shall be

prepared by a commission consisting of an independent Chairman of

outstanding position in Irish public life, and two colleagues, one

of whom shall represent Unionist interests.

(3) No appointments to positions shall be made before the scheme of

this commission has been approved.

DEFERRING TAKING OVER CERTAIN IRISH SERVICES.

Arrangements to be made to permit the Irish Government, if they so

desire, to defer taking over the services relating to Old-Age

Pensions, National Insurance, Labor Exchanges, Post Office Trustee

Savings Banks, and Friendly Societies. (43 to 18.)

The final division on the question of the adoption of the report as a

whole was as follows:

FOR (44)

E. H. Andrews

M. K. Barry

J. Bolger

W. Broderick

J. Butler

J. J. Clancy