Part 1

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

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.