Part 3

The instances were too numerous, the evidence too overwhelming, to be denied.... From him (U.S. Consul at Kiel) I learned that some unfortunate prisoners passing through the town (in a part of Germany inhabited by Scandinavians) had made signs that they were suffering from hunger and thirst, that some of the kind-hearted people among the Scandinavian population had given them something to eat and drink and for this they were condemned to fines, to prison and to have their names held up to the contempt of Germans for all time.

I do not know of any one thing that can give a better idea of the official hate for the nations with which Germany was at war than this.

JAMES W. GERARD _in "My Four Years in Germany."_

_THE EX-CONVICT:_

"_I was a 'lifer'; but they found I had so many abilities for teaching civilisation amongst our neighbours, that I am now a soldier_"

Crimes against women and young girls have been of appalling frequency. We have proved a great number of them, but they only represent an infinitesimal proportion of those which we could have taken up. Owing to a sense of decency, which is deserving of every respect, the victims of these hateful acts usually refuse to disclose them. Doubtless fewer would have been committed if the leaders of an army whose discipline is most rigorous had taken any trouble to prevent them; yet, strictly speaking, they can only be considered as the individual and spontaneous acts of uncaged beasts.

_French Government's Official Report, September, 1914._

_WAR LOAN MUSIC_

"_Was blazen die Trompeten Moneten heraus?_"

Early in September, 1914, the Government made the first War Loan issue. It took the form of L50,000,000 of 5 per cent. Treasury Bonds with a five years' currency, and a 5 per cent. Loan of undefined amount, irredeemable until 1924. The price of both the Treasury Bills and the Loan was 97-1/2. During the ten days in which the lists remained open, a tremendous propaganda was carried on in the Press--this quotation is typical:

"The victories which our glorious Army has already won in the west and east justify the hopes that now, as in 1870, the expenses and burdens of the war will fall ultimately upon those who have disturbed the peace of the German Empire. But first we must help ourselves. Great interests are at stake.

"German capitalists, show that you are inspired by the same spirit as our heroes, who shed their hearts' blood in the fight. Germans who have saved money, show that you have saved, not only for yourselves, but also for the Fatherland. German corporations, companies, savings banks, and all institutions which have blossomed and grown up under the powerful protection of the Empire, repay the Empire with your gratitude in this hour of fate. German banks and bankers, show what your brilliant organization and your influence on your customers are able to produce."

_Times History of the War._

_LIBERTE! LIBERTE CHERIE!_

Soldiers,--Upon the memorable fields of Montmirail, of Vauchamps, of Champaubert, which a century ago witnessed the victories of our ancestors over Bluecher's Prussians, your vigorous offensive has triumphed over the resistance of the Germans. Held on his flanks, his centre broken, the enemy is now retreating towards east and north by forced marches. The most renowned army corps of Old Prussia, the contingents of Westphalia, of Hanover, of Brandenburg, have retired in haste before you.

This first success is no more than a prelude. The enemy is shaken, but not yet decisively beaten.

You have still to undergo severe hardships, to make long marches, to fight hard battles.

May the image of your country, soiled by barbarians, always remain before your eyes. Never was it more necessary to sacrifice all for her.

Saluting the heroes who have fallen in the fighting of the last few days, my thoughts turn towards you--the victors in the next battle.

Forward, soldiers, for France.

FRANCHET D'ESPEREY, _General Commanding the Vth Army._ _Montmirail, September 9, 1914._

_THE JUNKER_

"_What I have most admired in you, Bethmann, is that you have made Socialists our best supporters_"

England is playing a perfectly shameful role in this war. Even though France were allied to Russia by an unfortunate treaty, England was not so allied! But England, who has ever been jealous of the industrial development of our country, used the violation of our treaty of neutrality with Belgium, which was incurred only in dire need and which was yielded openly and honestly in the Reichstag by the Chancellor, as a pretext to declare war against us.

PHILIPP SCHEIDEMANN, _Socialist ex-Vice-President of the Reichstag._

_THE HIGHER POLITICS_

_The Kaiser: "We will propose peace terms; if they accept them, we are the gainers; if they refuse them, the responsibility will rest with them_"

Germany has suggested informally that the United States should undertake to elicit from Great Britain, France, and Russia a statement of the terms under which the Allies would make peace.

The suggestion was made by the Imperial Chancellor, von Bethmann-Hollweg, to Ambassador Gerard at Berlin as a result of an inquiry sent by the American Government to learn whether Emperor William was desirous of discussing peace, as recently had been reported.

_The Associated Press._ _Washington, September 17, 1914._

_LUTHER-LIEBKNECHT IN THE REICHSTAG_

"_It is a War of Rapine! On that I take my stand. I cannot do otherwise_"

I understand that several members of the Socialist Party have written all sorts of things to the press with regard to the deliberations of the Socialist Party in the Reichstag on August 3 and 4.

According to these reports there were no serious differences of opinion in our party in regard to the political situation, and our own position and decision to assent to war credits are alleged to have been arrived at unanimously.

In order to prevent the dissemination of an inadmissible legend I feel it to be my duty to put on record the fact that the issues involved gave rise to diametrically opposite views within our parliamentary party, and these opposing views found expression with a violence hitherto unknown in our deliberations.

It is also entirely untrue to say that assent to the war credits was given unanimously.

DR. CARL LIEBKNECHT, _Member of the Reichstag._ _September 18, 1914._

_THE LAND MINE_

_THE VERY STONES CRY OUT,_

"_Thou art the man_"

The German Government states officially in contradiction of the report made by the Havas Agency that German artillery purposely destroyed important buildings at Rheims, that, on the contrary, orders were given to spare the Cathedral by all means.

COUNT VON BERNSTORFF. _Washington, September, 1914._

On Sept. 19 the cathedral was fairly riddled by bombs during the entire day, and at about 3:45 the scaffolding surrounding the north tower caught fire. This fire lasted about one hour, and during that time two further bombs struck the roof, setting it also on fire.

The monument, about which no troops were massed, towers above the rest of the town; to avoid it, in view of the uselessness of destroying it and because it was serving as a hospital, would have been an easy matter.

It would seem that the only explanation which can be offered was blind rage upon the part of the besieging army.

MR. WHITNEY WARREN'S _Official Report to the French Government._ _September, 1914._

_THE BRAGGART_

"_It was I who opened fire on Rheims Cathedral_"

My dear Sir, how is it possible to fight these people? They seem to have no mercy, no decency. It really seems impossible to know how to meet them.

GENERAL CASTELNAU TO MR. WHITNEY WARREN.

The bells sound no more in the cathedral with two towers. Finished is the benediction!... With lead, O Rheims, we have shut your house of idolatry!

M. RUDOLF HERZOG _in Berlin Lokal-Anzeiger. Jan., 1915._

_RHEIMS--WAR AND CHRIST_

The commonest, ugliest stone put to mark the burial-place of a German grenadier is a more glorious and venerable monument than all the cathedrals of Europe put together.

GEN. VON DISFURTH _In Hamburger Nachrichten._

Reduce to ashes the basilica of Rheims where Klodovig was anointed, where that Empire of Franks was born--the false brothers of the noble Teutons; burn that cathedral!

_Written in the year 1814 by_ JEAN-JOSEPH GOERRES _in the "Rheinische Merkin."_

LIQUID FIRE

In October, 1914, the headquarters of the second German army at St. Quentin had issued an Order regulating the use of fire-squirts ejecting inflammable liquid. A special Corps of Pioneers, attachable to any unit which might need them, had been organized to handle this novel weapon. The Order explained that the instrument could squirt a flame which would cause mortal injury and which, owing to the heat generated, would drive the enemy to a considerable distance. It was recommended particularly for street fighting.

_Times History of the War._

_WE ARE ON OUR WAY TO CALAIS!_

In those days the German headquarters gave continuously the order, "To Calais, to Calais," and the staff considered no difficulties, calculated no sacrifices, in order to achieve success.

What these frenzied orders have cost in human lives history will tell later on.

"_The German Fury in Belgium_," By L. MOKVELD.

Then the "seventy fives" were brought up at a gallop and poured a hail of shell at the demoralized German infantry wading frantically through the water towards the canal. Rifles and machine guns joined the work of destruction, and the placid lake between the railway and canal was soon dotted with drowning Germans fallen from the demoralized crowds struggling to reach a haven of safety over the bridges of St. Georges, Schoorbakke, and Tervaete.

The crisis of the battle of the Yser was over; the Germans had made their great effort and had failed.

_The Times History of the War._ _Battle of the Yser. October, 1914._

_WRITE IT DOWN, SCHOOLMASTER_

_William: "Write it down, Schoolmaster. Monday shall be Copper Day; Tuesday, Potato Day; Wednesday, Leather Day; Thursday, Gold Day; Friday, Rubber Day; Saturday, no Dinner Day, and Sunday, Hate Day!"_

Take you the folk of the Earth in pay, With bars of gold your ramparts lay, Bedeck the ocean with bow on bow, Ye reckon well, but not well enough now, French and Russian, they matter not, A blow for a blow, a shot for a shot, We fight the battle with bronze and steel, And the time that is coming Peace will seal, You we will hate with a lasting hate, We will never forego our hate, Hate by water and hate by land, Hate of the head and hate of the hand, Hate of the hammer and hate of the crown, Hate of seventy millions choking down, We love as one, we hate as one, We have one foe and one alone, ENGLAND!

_Hymn of Hate, by_ ERNST LISSAUER. _Translation by_ BARBARA HENDERSON. _New York Times, Oct., 1914._

_BARBED WIRE_

_THE SEA MINE_

Take the very first incident of the war, the mine laying by the _Koenigin Luise_. Here was a vessel, which was obviously made ready with freshly charged mines some time before there was any question of a general European war, which was sent forth in time of peace, and which, on receipt of a wireless message, began to spawn its hellish cargo across the North Sea at points fifty miles from land in the track of all neutral merchant shipping. There was the keynote of German tactics struck at the first possible instant. So promiscuous was the effect that it was a mere chance which prevented the vessel which bore the German Ambassador from being destroyed by a German mine. From first to last some hundreds of people have lost their lives on this tract of sea, some of them harmless British trawlers, but the greater number sailors of Danish and Dutch vessels pursuing their commerce as they had every right to do. It was the first move in a consistent policy of murder.

SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE _In "The German War."_

_HIS MASTER'S VOICE_

The _Vlaamsche Stem_ (_Flemish Voice_), a Flemish newspaper, was bought by the Germans, whereupon the whole of the staff resigned, as it no longer represented its title.

_THE PROMISE_

We shall never sheathe the sword which we have not lightly drawn until Belgium recovers in full measure all and more than she has sacrificed, until France is adequately secured against the menace of aggression, until the rights of the smaller nationalities of Europe are placed upon an unassailable foundation, and until the military domination of Prussia is wholly and finally destroyed.

H. H. ASQUITH, _Prime Minister of England._ _November, 1914._

_THE RAID_

"_Do you remember Black Mary of Hamburg?_"

"_Aye, well._"

"_She got six years for killing a child, whilst we get the Iron Cross for killing twenty at Hartlepool._"

This morning a German cruiser force made a demonstration upon Yorkshire coast, in the course of which they shelled Hartlepool, Whitby, and Scarborough.

A number of their fastest ships were employed for this purpose, and they remained about an hour on the coast. They were engaged by patrol vessels on the spot.

During the bombardment, especially in West Hartlepool, the people crowded in the streets, and approximately twenty-two were killed and fifty wounded.

_British Admiralty report._ _December, 1914._

_THE TYPHUS INFERNO AT WITTENBERG_

They were received in apathetic silence (Dec., 1914). The rooms were unlighted, the men were aimlessly marching up and down, some were lying on the floor, probably sickening for typhus. When they got into the open air again Major Fry broke down. The horror of it all was for the moment more than he could bear.

Major Priestly saw delirious men waving arms brown to the elbow with faecal matter. The patients were alive with vermin; in the half light he attempted to brush what he took to be an accumulation of dust from the folds of a patient's clothes, and he discovered it to be a moving mass of lice. In one room in Compound No. 8 the patients lay so close to one another on the floor that he had to stand straddle-legged across them to examine them.

What the prisoners found hardest to bear in this matter were the jeers with which the coffins were frequently greeted by the inhabitants of Wittenberg who stood outside and were permitted to insult their dead.

_Report of the British Committee._

_REMEMBER WITTENBERG_

These medical officers protested with the camp commander against the herding together of the French and British prisoners with the Russians, who, as I have said, were suffering from typhus fever. But the camp commander said, "You will have to know your Allies"; and kept all of his prisoners together, and thus as surely condemned to death a number of French and British prisoners of war as though he had stood them against the wall and ordered them shot by a firing squad. Conditions in the camp during the period of this epidemic were frightful. The camp was practically deserted by the Germans.

At the time I visited the camp the typhus epidemic, of course, had been stamped out. The Germans employed a large number of police dogs in this camp and these dogs not only were used in watching the outside of the camp in order to prevent the escape of prisoners but also were used within the camp. Many complaints were made to me by prisoners concerning these dogs, stating that men had been bitten by them. It seemed undoubtedly true that the prisoners there had been knocked about and beaten in a terrible manner by their guards.

JAMES W. GERARD _in "My Four Years in Germany."_

_THE WONDERS OF CULTURE_

On January 29, 1915, the first Zeppelin raid upon Paris took place. Twenty-four people were killed outright by the exploding bombs and over 30 were injured. With one exception all the dead and injured were civilians and the majority were women and children.

_TIRPITZ' LAST HOPE--PIRACY_

The waters around Great Britain and Ireland, including the whole English Channel, are declared a war zone on and after February 18, 1915.

Every enemy merchant ship found in this war zone will be destroyed, even if it is impossible to avert dangers which threaten the crew and passengers.

Also neutral ships in the war zone are in danger, as in consequence of the misuse of neutral flags ordered by the British Government on January 31, and in view of the hazards of naval warfare, it cannot always be avoided that attacks meant for enemy ships endanger neutral ships.

Shipping northward, around the Shetland Islands, in the eastern basin of the North Sea, and a strip of at least thirty nautical miles in breadth along the Dutch coast, is endangered in the same way.

_German Navy Official Communication. Berlin, February 4, 1915._

_ALCOHOLISM--BRITONS NEVER WILL BE SLAVES_

The vast majority belong to a class we can depend upon. The others are a minority.

But, you must remember, a small minority of workmen can throw a whole works out of gear. What is the reason? Sometimes it is one thing, sometimes it is another, but let us be perfectly candid. It is mostly the lure of the drink. They refuse to work full time, and when they return their strength and efficiency are impaired by the way in which they have spent their leisure. Drink is doing us more damage in the war than all the German submarines put together.

D. LLOYD GEORGE AT BANGOR. _February 28, 1915._

_The Crown Prince: "Isn't it an enjoyable war?"_

_William: "Perhaps, but hardly as much so as I anticipated"_

To sum up, the German General Staff has placed upon its record since the beginning of the campaign--apart from the failure of its great plan, which aimed at the crushing of France in a few weeks--seven defeats of high significance, namely, the defeat of the sudden attack on Nancy, the defeat of the rapid march on Paris, the defeat of the envelopement of our left in August, the defeat of the same envelopement in November, the defeat of the attempt to break through our centre in September, the defeat of the coast attack on Dunkirk and Calais, and the defeat of the attack on Ypres.

_French Official report, February, 1915._

_A LETTER FROM THE GERMAN TRENCHES_

"_We have gained a good bit: our cemeteries now extend as far as the sea_"

The wastage of German effectives is easy to establish. We have for the purpose two sources--the official lists of losses published by the German General Staff and the notebooks, letters, and archives of soldiers and officers killed and taken prisoners. These different documents show that by the middle of January the German losses on the two fronts were 1,800,000 men.

These figures are certainly less than the reality, because, for one thing, the sick are not comprised, and, for another, the losses in the last battle in Poland are not included. Let us accept them, however; let us accept also that out of these 1,800,000 men 500,000--this is the normal proportion--have been able to rejoin after being cured. Thus the final loss for five months of the campaign has been 1,300,000 men, or 260,000 men per month.

_French Government Official Report._ _March, 1915._

_NEUVE CHAPELLE_

_Order of the Crown Prince of Bavaria: "You must give those English heavy blows."_

_Tommy to prisoners after Neuve Chapelle: "Weren't they heavy?"_

Soldiers of the Sixth Army! We have now the good luck to have also the Englishmen opposite us on our front, troops of that race whose envy was at work for years to surround us with a ring of foes and to throttle us. That race especially we have to thank for this war. Therefore, when now the order is given to attack this foe, practice retribution for their hostile treachery and for the many heavy sacrifices! Show them that the Germans are not so easily to be wiped out of history. Show them that, with German blows of a special kind. Here is the opponent who most blocks a restoration of the peace. Up and at him!

CROWN PRINCE RUPPRECHT.

After several days of severe fighting the British captured Neuve Chapelle, on the 11th March, 1915. The German loss was estimated at 18,000.

_THE MUNITION SHORTAGE_

_Fired at but unable to reply_

We have unfortunately found that the output is not only not equal to our necessities, but does not fulfil our expectations.... I can only say that the supply of war material at the present moment and for the next two or three months is causing me very serious anxiety, and I wish all those engaged in the manufacture and supply of these stores to realize that it is absolutely essential not only that the arrears in the deliveries of our munitions of war should be wiped off, but that the output of every round of ammunition is of the utmost importance and has a large influence on our operations in the field.

LORD KITCHENER. _House of Commons, March 15, 1915._

_SUBMARINE BAGS_

On March 18 a month had passed since the beginning of our sharp procedure against our worst foe. We can in every way be satisfied with the results achieved in the meantime! In spite of all steps taken before and thereafter, the English have everywhere had important losses to show at sea--some 200 ships lost since the beginning of the war, according to the latest statements of the Allies.

In the innocent exalted island kingdom many a fellow is already striking; why should not even the recruit strike, who is also beginning to get a glimmer of the truth that there are no props in the ocean waves?

The more opponents come before the bows of our ships and are sunk, the better! Down with them to the bottom of the sea; that alone will help! Let us hope that we shall soon receive more such cheerful news.

VICE-ADMIRAL KIRCHOFF. _Hamburger Framdenblatt._ _March 19, 1915._

"_I had such a delightful dream that the whole thing was not true_"

The strategic retreat of the French Army, the facility with which the German armies were able to advance from August 25 to September 5, gave our adversaries a feeling of absolute and final superiority, which manifested itself at that time by all the statements gleaned and all the documents seized.

At the moment of the battle of the Marne the first impression was one of failure of comprehension and of stupor. A great number of German soldiers, notably those who fell into our hands during the first days of that battle, believed fully, as at the end of August, that the retreat they were ordered to make was only a means of luring us into a trap. German military opinion was suddenly converted when the soldiers saw that this retreat continued, and that it was being carried out in disorder, under conditions which left no doubt as to its cause and its extent.

_French Government Official Report._ _March, 1915._

_FOX TIRPITZ PREACHING TO THE GEESE_

"_You see, my little Dutch Geese, I am fighting for the freedom of the Seas_"

On March 25, 1915, the Dutch vessel _Medea_, on the way from Valencia to London, was sunk by a German submarine, U 28, near Beachy Head, after the crew had had time to save themselves in the boats. The submarine towed the two boats for a quarter of an hour and then left the occupants to their fate.