New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, No. 1, July 1918

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Title: New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, No. 1, July 1918
Author: Various
Language: English
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TABLE OF CONTENTS AND INDEX

Volume VIII.

[SECOND PART]

July-September, 1918

Pages 1-570

[Titles of articles appear in _italics_]

AERONAUTICS,
"Aerial Record," 51;
"The War in the Air," 80;
hospitals bombed, 83;
Lufbery's last fight, 85;
Richthofen's death, 85;
list of German aviators killed, 86;
ingenious devices for sending propaganda to the enemy, 198;
German giant airplane described, 201;
casualties from bombing of hospitals, 204;
"War in the Air," 439;
number of enemy machines brought down during year ended June 30, 439;
Allies' activities during period ending Aug. 15, 439;
allied raids on German cities, 439.
_See also_ PROGRESS of the War, 51, 223, 436.

AIMS of the War,
defined by Emperor of Germany, 36;
stated by Pres. Wilson, July 4 at Mount Vernon, 191;
reply of Austrian Foreign Minister, 194;
Chancellor von Hertling's reply in Reichstag, 311;
Viscount Milner speaks of German domination over her allies, 313;
Count Burian replies, 313.
_See also_ CAUSES of the War; Peace.

AIRPLANES, _see_ AERONAUTICS.

ALBANIA,
"Albanian and Slav," 201.

ALIEN Enemies, _see_ ENEMY Aliens.

_Allied Man Power Compared with That of Central Allies_, 75.

ALMEREYDA, editor of "Bonnet Rouge,"
dies mysteriously in prison, 198.

_Alsace-Lorraine: Its Relation to France_, 308.

_American Invasion of England_, 433.

_American Offensive a Success. First_, 57.

_American Soldiers in Action_, 55.

_Americans, Premier Lloyd George Lauds_, 148.

_Americans on the Battlefront_, 226.

_Americans' Defense of Chateau-Thierry_, 62.

_America's Answer_, (poem,) 144.

_America's Army, No Size Limit to_, 70.

_America's First Anniversary in France_, 78.

_America's First Field Army_, 429.

_Anniversary of the War, Fourth_, 529.

ANNUNZIO, Gabriele d', 440.

ARMENIA,
Turkish invasion under Brest-Litovsk Treaty, 131.

ARMIES,
"Armies Under Foreign Generals," 2;
allied war power compared with that of Central Allies, 75.
_See also under names of countries._

ASPHYXIATING Gas, _see_ GAS Warfare.

ASQUITH, Herbert H.;
"Final Phases of the War," 301;
"President Wilson and the League of Nations," 511;
address on occasion of silver wedding anniversary of King George, 532.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY,
"New Austro-German Alliance." 91;
"Austrians at Grips with Italians," 33;
Austria's leaders accept Germany's policy, 513.
_See also_ CAMPAIGN on Austro-Italian Border; JUGOSLAVIA;
PROGRESS of the War, 53.

_Austria's Disastrous Offensive_, 218.

BAKER, (Sec.) Newton D.,
"America's War Effort," 229.

BALFOUR, Arthur J.,
"The Basis of Peace"; "Belgium as a Pawn," 516.

BALKAN States, _see_
CAMPAIGNS in Balkan States;
CZECHOSLOVAKS;
JUGOSLAVIA, and under names of States.

BARRES, Maurice,
"Fraternity of English and French," 533.

BASTILE, History of, 200.

BASTILE Day
in the United States, 244;
"Fraternity of English and French," 533.

_Battle, A, Seen from Above_, 54.

BATTLES, _see_
CAMPAIGNS,
NAVAL Operations.

BEGBIE, Harold,
"The Living Line," (poem,) 149.

BELGIUM,
"Belgium as a Pawn," 312, 516;
Belgian courts superseded, 323;
"Belgium Under the Iron Heel," 519;
zinc coins issued, 87;
"Saving Belgium from Starvation," 521;
Germans seize church bells and organ pipes, 344.

_Belleau Wood, Capture of_, 65.

BENNETT, Arnold,
"A Peace League of Nations," 355.

BERG, (Lieut.) von,
German official army report, 243.

_Bessarabia, Rumania and_, 326.

_Bessarabia's Historical Background_, 328.

BIDDLE (Gen.), 336.

_Bombing Hospitals_, 330.

BONNET Rouge,
proprietor and staff tried for treason, 198.

BORAH (Sen.),
criticises America's inaction with regard to Russia, 260.

BORDEN, Sir Robert,
"Canada's War Achievements," 306.

_Boycotting Germany_, 545.

BRIDGE, Admiral Sir Cyprian,
reviews debatable phases of Battle of Jutland, 152.

_Britain's Imperial Hopes Realized_, 299.

BRYCE (Viscount),
"England and the War's Causes," 162;
speech at Fourth of July celebration, 336.

BUCHAREST, Treaty, _see_
PEACE--Rumanian Separate Peace.

BUCHET, Marguerite,
"Agony of the City of Lille," 281, 456.

BULLARD, (Maj. Gen.) R. L., 243.

BUNDY, (Maj. Gen.) Omar, 243.

BURIAN (Baron),
reply to American war aims, 194;
replies to Viscount Milner's reference to German domination
over her allies, 313.

BURR, Amelia Josephine,
"Pershing at the Tomb of Lafayette," (poem,) 329.

CAINE, (Sir) Hall,
"The World's Independence Day," 342.

CALDWELL, Charles Pope,
"War Record of the United States," 73.

CAMMAERTS, Emile,
"Another Cross for Belgium to Bear," 344.

CAMPAIGN in Asia Minor--
Anglo-Indian advance blocked by Turks, 15.
_See also_ PROGRESS of the War, 51.

CAMPAIGN on Austro-Italian border,
"The Austrian Defeat on the Piave," 463;
unsuccessful Austrian offensive in Piave region, 13;
"Austrians at grips with Italians," 33;
"Along the Piave," 210;
"Austria's Disastrous Offensive," 218.
_See also_ PROGRESS of the War, 51, 436.

CAMPAIGN in Balkan States,
Greeks take 1,500 Bulgar-German troops in Macedonia, 15;
Allies' success, 211.
_See also_ PROGRESS of the War, 51, 223, 436.

CAMPAIGN in Eastern Europe,
allied troops guard Murman coast, 252;
Czechoslovak Army fight Bolshevists in Siberia and Volga region, 253.

CAMPAIGN in Western Europe,
review of month's fighting, 1, 9;
Germans cross the Aisne, 9;
second battle of the Marne, 10, 12;
description by Geo. H. Perris, 17;
"The German Offensive," 17;
"The Turning Point of the Battle," 28;
description of the French counterblow, 30;
"End of the Fourth Phase," 32;
Petain's tactics by W. Duranty, 32;
"A German View of Germany's Effort," 35;
"A Battle Seen from Above," 54;
American soldiers in action in Champagne and Picardy, 55;
capture of Cantigny by Americans, 57;
"First American Offensive a Success," 57;
"Americans' Defense of Chateau-Thierry," 62;
"Capture of Belleau Wood," 65;
"The War in the Air," 80;
hospitals bombed, 83;
Americans advance northwest of Chateau-Thierry,
take Vaux and Belleau Wood, 197;
Australians and Americans take Hamel, 197;
French drive back Germans near Rheims, 197;
"Allied Successes on Three Fronts," 205;
American troops check German advance between
Chateau-Thierry and Jaulgonne, 213;
beginning of the allied offensive, 216;
"Americans on the Battlefront," 226;
"Taking the Village of Vaux," 233;
"Thorough American Work at Vaux," 235;
"The Advance at Hamel," 237;
"Agony of the City of Lille," 281, 456;
"Nieuport, City of Desolation," 286;
German offensive, 17;
enemy offensive in its fifth phase defeated on the Marne, 389;
America's part in second battle of the Marne described, 398;
account of the strategical plan which won the
second battle of the Marne, 414;
"How Foch Outgeneraled the Germans," 416;
German gains claimed, 425.
_See also_ Progress of the War, 50, 221, 435.

CANADA,
war finance in Canada, 72;
war achievements, 306.

CANADA'S Four Years of War Effort, 451.

CANBY (Prof.), 336.

CARRE, (Dr.) P.,
"Chemists and Chemistry in the War," 294.

CASUALTIES,
Chaplains on service, 8;
losses due to bombing of British hospitals in France, 83;
list of German aviators killed, 86;
casualties of belligerents during four years, 279;
losses from bombing of hospitals, 204;
estimate of German losses on western front, 389;
summary of American losses to Aug. 16, 431;
losses from air raids on Paris, 441.
_See also_ PRISONERS of War.

CAUCASUS Region, _see_ ARMENIA.

CAUSES of the War,
Prince Lichnowsky's memorandum, 162;
Lord Haldane's report of his conciliatory mission to
Germany in 1912, 166;
"Albanian and Slav," 201,
Dr. Wm. Muehlon lays responsibility for the war on
German Government, 547.
_See also_ AIMS of the War.

_Cavalry in Recent Battles_, 387.

CENTRAL Powers,
"Austria's Leaders Accept Germany's Policy," 513;
man power of, compared with that of the Allies, 75.
_See also_
AUSTRIA--HUNGARY;
GERMANY.

CECIL, (Lord) Robert,
views on an economic league of nations, 297.

CHATEAU-THIERRY,
historical sketch, 6.
_See also_ CAMPAIGN in Western Europe.

_Chemists and Chemistry in the War_, 294.

CHELMSFORD, Baron, 204.

CHINA,
Chinese-Japanese military alliance, 498.

CHURCHILL, Winston Spencer,
speech at Fourth of July celebration, 336;
"American Independence Day," 535.

CLEMENCEAU (Premier),
text of speech of defiance to Socialist pacifists, 307;
"Clemenceau's Defiance of Obstructors," 149.

CIOTORI, D. N.,
"Bessarabia's Historical Background," 328.

COLLEGE graduates in United States service, 203.

COMMERCE,
"American Exports Versus the U-boats," 45;
"An Economic League of Nations to Govern Trade After the War," 297;
"Trade After the War," 160;
world movement against German trade, 545.
_See also_ SHIPPING.

COMMUNIST Party, _see_ RUSSIA--Bolsheviki.

COMPIÉGNE,
historical sketch, 6.
_See also_ CAMPAIGN in Western Europe.

_Constantine's Treachery_, 504.

COST of the War,
public debts of chief belligerent powers, 277.
_See also_ FINANCES _under names of countries_.

COSTA RICA
declares war on Germany, 8.

_Current History Chronicled_, 1, 191, 381.

CURZON, Earl,
on League of Nations, 352.

CZECHOSLOVAK Nation,
Austria-Hungary denounces British recognition, 386.

CZECHOSLOVAKS,
role in Russian affairs, 265;
allied assistance, 465;
recognized as a nation, 489;
Czechoslovaks of Bohemia and Moravia, 491.
_See also_ PROGRESS of the War--Russia, 437.

CZERNIN von Chudenitz, (Count) Ottokar,
"Austria's Leaders Accept Germany's Policy," 513.

DALY, John,
"A Toast to the Flag," (poem,) 360.

_Death Knell of Empire_, 353.

DECORATIONS and honors,
distinguished service crosses, awarded to 100 Americans, 242;
Gen. Petain receives Military Medal, 382;
Gen. Foch becomes Marshal of France, 382;
conferring of foreign decorations on Americans, 383;
Legion of Honor conferred on Lieut. Nungesser, 442.

DEGOUTTE (Gen.),
sketch of career, 384.

DESCHANEL, Paul,
"American Ideals in the War," 543.

DISTINGUISHED Service Crosses, _see_ DECORATIONS.

DOBRUDJA, _see_ PEACE--Rumanian Separate Peace.

DRUNKENNESS,
reduced in England, 3.

DUBOST, Anthonin,
"What America Gives and Gains," 542.

DURANTY, Walter,
"The Turning Point of the Battle," 28;
Petain's masterly tactics, 32;
"How Foch Outgeneraled the Germans," 416.

DUVAL, Emile,
proprietor of Bonnet Rouge, shot for treason, 198.

EDDY, Sherwood,
"Poison Gas in Warfare," 291.

"ENEMY Aliens in the United States," 249;
property of, 250;
"Rumely Propaganda Case," 251.

_England and the War's Causes_, 162.

ENGLAND:--
Achievements 1914-1918 reviewed by Premier Lloyd George, 505.
Anniversary of the war, Fourth, 529.
Army, Irish volunteers, 1914-1917, 8.
Drunkenness reduced in, 3.
Finances, new vote of credit given, 8;
war pensions, 203.
"France's Tribute to Great Britain," 77.
Germany, Relations with,
Lord Haldane's official report of his conciliatory mission
prior to the war, 166;
Prince Lichnowsky's memorandum, 162;
"England and the War's Causes;" Prince Lichnowsky's memorandum, 162;
Lord Haldane's report of his conciliatory mission of 1912, 166;
British official statement issued in 1915, 169.

_Exchanging Thousands of Prisoners_, 94.

FERDINAND, (King) of Rumania,
accepts terms of treaty of Bucharest, 321.

_Final Phases of the War_, 301.

FINANCES, public debts of chief belligerent powers, 277.
_See also under names of countries._

FINLAND,
proposed constitution, 265;
German influence, 264.
_See also_ PROGRESS of the War, 53.

_Flame Throwers_, 397.

FOCH, (Gen.) Ferdinand,
receives Marshal's baton, 382;
his use of cavalry, 387.

FOODSTUFFS:--
Belgium, "Saving Belgium from Starvation," 521.
Canada's contribution, 307.
England, 7.
Ireland's food shipments to England, 90.
United States, "How America Has Fed the Allies," 450.
United States assistance to Allies, 387.

FOURTH of July,
worldwide celebration, 335;
"The World's Independence Day," 342;
addresses and papers, Cherioux Adolphe, 541;
Churchill, Winston Spencer, 535;
London Times editor, 538;
London Telegraph editor, 539;
Dubost, Anthonin, 543;
address and papers, Deschanel, Paul, 543.

FRANCE--
Premier Clemenceau receives vote of confidence, 149;
Bastile Day greeting received from Pres. Wilson, 245;
"Reconstructing the Life of France," 286;
"Alsace-Lorraine: Its Relation to France," 308.
_See also_ CAMPAIGN in Western Europe.

_Fraternity of English and French_, 533.

_French Armies at Close Range_, 414.

GALEAZZI, (Prof.) Riccardo,
"Rebuilding Disabled Soldiers," 101.

GALSWORTHY, John,
"The Soldier Speaks," (poem), 79.

GAS Warfare,
sneezing powder in gas attacks, 102;
"Poison Gas in Warfare," 291;
gas masks for horses. 290;
U-boat makes mustard gas attack off North Carolina, 448.

GASES, asphyxiating and poisonous, _see_ GAS Warfare.

GEORGE V., (King of England,)
reviews American troops in London, 69;
Paris renames street in honor of, 204;
attends fourth anniversary of the war ceremonies at
St. Margaret's, Westminster, 529;
congratulatory address on occasion of silver wedding delivered by
Premier Lloyd George, and H. H. Asquith, 532, 248.

_German Aims and Servile States_, 313.

_German Official View of the Americans_, 243.

_Germany and Great Britain in 1912_, 166.

GERMANY:--
Army,
text of order for fraternization on Italian front, 16;
estimate of losses on the western front, 389.
Austria-Hungary, Relations with,
"New Austro-German Alliance," 91.
Commerce,
world movement against German trade, 545.
Demoralization and crime in England;
Relations with, _see_ ENGLAND.
England, Relations with;
ENGLAND--Germany, Relations with.
Finances,
"Germany's Debt and Credit," 460.
Foreign relations,
von Kuhlmann's summary of war situation, 315;
criticised by Count Westarp, 318;
by Socialist leaders, 319;
Germany's financial burden, 550.
Infant welfare in, 7.
Population declining, 4.
Russia, relations with;
German Ambassador at Moscow assassinated, 258;
German intervention in Russia, 262.
South American States,
relations with, 8.
_See also_ CENTRAL Allies.

_Germany's Control of the Danube_, 324.

"_Germany's First Great Defeat_," 389.

GIBBS, Philip,
"The Advance at Hamel," 237.

GOURAUD (Gen.), 385.

_Great Britain's War Record_, 505.

GREECE,
"Constantine's Treachery," 504.

GREY of Falloden (Viscount),
"A League of Nations," 345.

HALDANE (Lord),
official report of his conciliatory mission to
Germany prior to the war, 166.

_Hamel, The Advance at_, 237.

HAMEL, _see_ CAMPAIGN in Western Europe.

HELSINGFORS, 8.

HENDERSON, Daniel M.,
"The Road to France," (poem,) 534.

HEROES, Pershing (Gen.)
cites many Americans for special acts of bravery, 241.
_See_ DECORATIONS and Honors.

_Heroic American Deeds_, 239.

HERTLING, (Chancellor) George F. von,
outlines German official view on peace, 311.

HINTZE, (Admiral) von,
appointed German Foreign Secretary, 312.

HONORS, Military,
see Decorations and Honors.

HOOVER, Herbert C.,
"How America Has Fed the Allies," 450.

HORVATH, Gen.,
declares himself dictator in East Siberia, 199, 254.

HOSPITAL ships,
sinkings, 447;
Llandovery Castle sunk, 246.

HOSPITALS
bombed, 83;
casualties, 204;
Col. Andrews describes attack on hospital at Boulenes,
Chaplain describes it to King George, 330;
protest by Conan Doyle, 331;
by Prussian Order of St. John, 331.

_How Foch Outgeneraled the Germans_, 416.

_How America Has Fed the Allies_, 450.

"_In Flanders Fields_," (poem), 144.

INDEPENDENCE Day, _see_ FOURTH of July.

INDIA,
report on constitutional reforms, 204.

IRELAND,
food shipments to England, 90;
69 Sinn Feiners arrested, 88;
statistics of volunteers 1914-1917, 8.

_Irish Plotters, Arrest of_, 88.

ITALY,
"Italy's Third Year of War," 76;
address by Secretary Lansing in honor of the
third anniversary of Italy's entrance into the war, 145;
speech of Count Macchi di Cellere, Italian Ambassador,
at Italian anniversary celebration, 146.

_Italy's Third Year of War_, 76.

_Italy's Troops, Trying to Corrupt_, 16.

JAMES, Edwin L.,
"America's Part in a Historic Battle," 398;
"Capture of Belleau Wood," 65;
"Defeating the German Offensive," 213;
"The Enemy Outflanked and Beaten," 216;
"Heroic American Deeds," 239;
"Thorough American Work at Vaux," 23.

JAPAN,
"Chinese-Japanese Military Alliance," 498.

JOHNSON, Thomas F.,
"First American Offensive a Success," 57.

JORDAN, E.,
"Czechoslovaks of Bohemia and Moravia," 491.

JUGOSLAVIA,
project for a South Slavic State Threatens to Disrupt
Austria-Hungary, 115;
Supreme War Council favors free Poland and Jugoslavia, 126;
"Great Britain and the Jugoslav State," 275;
conference of Poles, Jugoslavs, and Italians at Rome, 119;
the case of Bohemia, 123;
the case of Transylvania, 125;
Supreme War Council at Versailles favors free Poland and
Jugoslavia, 126;
"Growth of the Jugoslav Movement," 115;
declaration of Czech members of Reichsrat, 115;
Jugoslav deputies and Croatian labor demand independent States of
Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, 118.

_Jutland, Battle of_, 152.

KERENSKY, (ex-Premier) Alexander,
speech in London on Russian affairs, 259.

KIPLING, Rudyard,
"American Invasion of England," 433.

KOLA,
_see_ MURMAN District.

KROPOTKIN (Prince), speaks on Russian internal conditions, 263.

KUHLMANN, (Dr.) Richard von,
resignation, 312;
address leading to resignation, 315.

KUHLWETTER, (Capt.) von,
"Battle of Skagerrak as Germany Sees It," 156.

LANSING, (Sec. of State) Robert,
address In honor of third anniversary of Italy's
entrance into the war, 145.

LEAGUE of Nations,
views of Lord Robert Cecil, 297;
discussion by Viscount Grey of Falloden, 345;
by Premier Lloyd George, 351;
by Earl Curzon, 352;
"The Death of Empire," by H. G. Wells, 353;
French view, 350;
"Based on Population," by Arnold Bennett, 355;
"President Wilson and the League of Nations," 511.

LEWIS, J. Hamilton,
"Price of Peace," 523.

LICHNOWSKY (Prince),
record of his conduct while German Ambassador in England, 162.

LILLARD, R. W.,
America's answer, (poem), 144.

LILLE,
Agony of the city of, 281, 456.

LISLE, Claude Joseph Rouget de,
_see_ ROUGET de LISLE, CLAUDE JOSEPH.

LITHUANIA,
proclaimed an independent State allied to Germany, 109.

_Living Line, The_, (poem), 149.

LLANDOVERY Castle (hospital ship) sunk, 246.

LLOYD GEORGE, (Premier) David,
congratulates Pershing on Fourth of July celebration, 336;
"A Real League of Nations," 351;
"Britain's Imperial Hopes Realized," 299;
"Great Britain's War Record," 505;
address on occasion of silver wedding anniversary of King George, 532.

LUXEMBURG,
sketch of the history of, 202.

MACCHI DI CELLERE (Count),
speech at Italian anniversary celebration, 146.

McCRAE, (Lieut. Col.) John,
"In Flanders Fields," (poem), 144;
"America's Answer," (in honor of Lieut. Col. John McCrae,) 144.

McCUDDEN, (Capt.) James B.,
awarded Victoria Cross, 87.

McCUDDEN, (Maj.) James B.,
death, 442.

McGILLICUDDY, Owen E.,
Canada's four years of war effort, 451.

MACKENZIE, Cameron,
"Taking the Village of Vaux," 233.

MACLAY, (Sir) Joseph,
"Transporting America's Army Overseas," 443.

MAETERLINCK, Maurice,
"Brute Force Versus Humanity," 150.

MALVY, Louis J.,
trial for treason by French Senate, 198;
banishment, 384.

MAN Power--
Allied man power compared with that of the Central Powers, 75.

MANGIN, (Gen.) Joseph,
sketch of career, 385.

_Marne, Second Battle of_, 398.

MASARYK (Prof.),
receives message from Czechoslovaks, 469;
sends messages to Pres. Poincare and Secretary Balfour on recognition
of the Czechoslovak Nation, 489.

MARSEILLAISE,
story of, 200.

MEXICO and the United States, 142.

MEYNELL, Alice,
"In Honor of America," (poem), 445.

MILITARY Medal,
_see_ DECORATIONS and Honors.

MILNER (Viscount), British War Secretary,
speaks on German aims, 313;
Count Burian replies, 313.

MIRBACH (Count) von, German Ambassador,
assassinated in Moscow, 259;
his duplicity, 261.

MONTAGUE, Edwin Samuel, 204.

_Mount Vernon Address_, 191.

MUEHLON, (Dr.) Wilhelm,
lays responsibility for the war on the German Government, 547.

MURAVIEFF,
Bolshevist Commander in Chief, 266.

MURMAN District,
_see_ RUSSIA--Murman District.

MUSTARD gas,
_see_ GAS Warfare.

NATIONS at war, 388, 461.

NAUDEAU, Ludovic,
"Russia's Constituent Assembly," 267.

NAVAL operations,
Capt. Rizzo sinks Austrian dreadnoughts off Trieste and Dalmatia, 15;
"The Battle of Jutland," 152;
Thomas G. Frotheringham's account of the battle of Jutland reviewed
by Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge, Vice Admiral E. F. Fournier, and
Arthur Pollen, 152;
"Battle of Skagerrak (Jutland) as Germany Sees It," 156.
_See also_
PROGRESS of the War, 224, 437;
SUBMARINE warfare.

NEW York Evening Mail, 251.

NICHOLAS, (Romanoff) ex-Czar of Russia,
"The Imprisoned ex-Czar in the Crimea," 93;
biographical sketch, 381.

_Nieuport, City of Desolation_, 285.

NUNGESSER (Lieut.),
cited for Legion of Honor, 442.

PALLIS (Gen.),
sentenced for disloyalty, 204.

PARIS,
re-names streets in honor of allies, 204;
account of bombardments given by le Temps, 204.

_Peace League of Nations_, 355.

_Peace, The Basis of_, 303.

PEACE:--
"International Socialists' Peace Campaign," 158.
General Chancellor von Hertling outlines official view of
Berlin Government, 311;
"American Government's Peace Terms," 523.
Rumanian separate peace ratified, 321;
view of Rumanian ex-Premier, 323;
Protest of Rumanians in exile against, 325.
Russo-German, views of Trotzky and Savinkov, 113.
_See also_ AIMS of the War.

PENSIONS, England, 203.

PERRIS, George H.,
"The German Offensive," 17;
description of the French counterblow, 30;
"French Armies at Close Range," 414.

_Pershing at the Tomb of Lafayette_, (poem), 329.

PERSHING (Gen.),
cites Americans for special acts of bravery, 241.

PETAIN (Gen.),
masterly tactics in allied counterattacks, 32;
receives Military Medal, 382.

PICARDY,
_see_ CAMPAIGN in Western Europe, 423.

POINCARE, (Pres.) Raymond,
replies to Pres. Wilson's Bastile Day greeting, 245;
congratulates Pres. Wilson on Fourth of July celebration, 337.

POISON Gas, _see_ GAS Warfare.

POLAND,
Allies Supreme War Council favors independent State, 126;

POLLEN, Arthur,
reviews debatable phases of Battle of Jutland, 155.

PRISONERS of War, number taken in third German offensive, 1;
Franco-German agreement for release of, 94;
inhuman treatment of civilian prisoners in Austrian prison camps, 97;
abuses in German prison camps, 100;
prisoners taken in Bouresches Sector, German report on
examination of, 243;
appalling cruelty of Germans to, 288;
"Acme of German Cruelty," 314;
treatment of in German prison camps, 332.

_Prisons, Horror of Austrian_, 97.

_Progress of the War_, 49, 221, 434.

PROPAGANDA,
German, in the United States, 251;
sent to the enemy by balloons, 198.

PUTNAM, George Haven, 336.

RAILROADS,
Cairo to Jerusalem, 5;
Cape to Cairo, 5;
Kola to Petrograd, 255.

_Rebuilding Disabled Soldiers_, 101.

_Reconstructing the Life of France_, 286.

RED Cross,
second drive, 8;
President Wilson's address to inaugurate second Red Cross campaign,
137;
"Remarkable Work of American Red Cross in Italy," 472.

REHABILITATION,
_see_ SOLDIERS and Sailors, Rehabilitation.

RELIEF Work,
_see_ Hospital Ships.

RHEIMS,
_see_ CAMPAIGN in Western Europe.

RICHTHOFEN, Capt. Baron von,
death, 85.

RIGGS, Edward G.,
estimates college graduates in United States Service, 203.

RIZZO, Capt., 15.

_Road (The) to France_, (poem,) 534.

RODMAN (Admiral),
awarded the Order of the Bath, 383.

ROGERS, D. G.,
war finances, 277.

ROOSEVELT, (Lieut.) Quentin,
death, 441.

ROOSEVELT, Theodore,
sends letter to be read at Philadelphia celebration of Bastile Day,
246.

ROSENBERG, von,
appointed German Ambassador in Moscow, 259.

ROUGET DE LISLE,
Claude Joseph, 200.

RUBIN, A.,
Rumania and Bessarabia, 326.

RUMANIA,
signs legal and political supplementary agreement to
Peace of Bucharest, 127;
German control of Rumanian oilfields and harvest, 129;
Ferdinand accepts terms of Treaty of Bucharest, 321;
Rumanian peace treaty ratified, 321;
"Rumania and Bessarabia," 326;
"Rumania's Thralldom," 127;
"Rumania's Humiliation," 502.

RUMELY Propaganda Case, _see_ Enemy Aliens.

RUSSIA:--
Allied intervention discussed by Allies, 110;
Japan and China make treaty for intervention in Siberia, 110;
Sen. King's resolution in favor of, 111;
"New Forces at Work to Save Russia," 252.
"Czechoslovaks, Role of," 265.
Finances, Russia's debt, 277;
Germany, relations with, 258, 261, 262.
Internal conditions, 105, 259, 283.
Murman district, Anglo-American occupation of Kem, 199;
German-Finnish forces attack Murman railway, complete a railroad to
Kem, German submarines in White Sea, 255;
meaning of word "Murman," 256;
Murman railway, 257;
importance of the port of Kola, 257;
Allies intervene at request of Murman inhabitants against Soviet,
259;
Bolshevist and Finno-German invasion, 259;
intervention of the Allies, 259, 465;
allied forces at Murmansk and Archangel, 470.
Revolution, Bolsheviki fail to make peace with the Ukraine, 105;
"Russia under Many Masters," 103;
Czechoslovak Army fighting Bolsheviki in Siberia and in
Volga region, 252;
attitude of Czechoslovaks toward Soviets, 254;
Armed allied intervention discussed, 110, 259, 260, 261;
German intervention, 262;
Russia's Constituent Assembly, 267;
non-Bolshevist Government established in Siberia, 199, 254, 467;
anti-Bolshevists establish "Provisional Government of the
Country of the North," 470;
Japan sends aid to Czechoslovak troops, 466;
"Siberian Temporary Government" established, 467.
_See also_
CAMPAIGN in Eastern Europe;
ESTHONIA--Finland;
GERMANY;
JAPAN--Chinese-Japanese Military Alliance;
Relation with Russia;
UKRAINIA, LITHUANIA, POLAND;
PROGRESS of the War--RUSSIA.

RUSSIAN Situation, summary of, 265.

ST. JOHN of Jerusalem, Order of,
protest against bombing of hospitals, 331.

SAVINKOV, (ex-Minister) Boris,
on Bolshevist peace, 113.

SHERMAN, L. Y.,
"Germany Must Be Vanquished," 527.

SHIPBUILDING,
new records in, 43;
statistics of allied output for Jan. to May, 1918, 248;
American output Jan. to July, 1918, 203;
British and American output to August, 49.

SHIPPING,
"American Exports Versus the U-boats," 45;
American losses, 203;
tonnage acquired from other nations, 204;
Allies' losses Jan. to May, 1918, 248;
losses to allied and neutral during Jan.-Aug. 15, 446;
Canada's contribution, 307.
_See also_ SHIPBUILDING.

SHIPYARDS, new American shipyards, 449.

SIBERIA,
temporary non-Bolshevist Government with Gen. Horvath as
President established, 254.

SIMS, Admiral, 336.

SINN FEIN, _see_ IRELAND.

SKAGGERRAK, Battle of, _see_ NAVAL Operations.

SLAVS,
account of Slavonic peoples, 3;
"Albanian and Slav," 201.
_See also_ CZECHOSLOVAKS; JUGOSLAVIA.

SNEEZING Powder, _see_ GAS Warfare.

SOCIALISTS,
"International Socialists Peace Campaign," 158;
criticism of von Kuhlmann's summary of war situation, 319;
view of Treaty of Bucharest, 322;
text of Premier Clemenceau's speech of defiance to
Socialist pacifists, 307.

SOISSONS, 21, 386; _see also_ CAMPAIGN in Western Europe.

_Soldier Speaks_, (poem), 79.

SOLDIERS and sailors,
rehabilitation of, "Rebuilding Disabled Soldiers," 101;
pensions granted to British disabled soldiers, 203.

_Somme, Third Battle of_, 423.

_Stars and Stripes_, (poem,) 225.

STEPHENS, Winifred,
"Reconstructing the Life of France," 286.

STRESEMANN, (Dr.) Gustave,
criticises von Kuehlmann's summary of war situation, 319.

STURGES, (Lieut.) R. S. H.,
"Fashions of the Firing Line," 309.

SUBMARINE warfare,
"The U-boat Raid in American Waters," 38;
other submarine activities of the month, 40;
"Out of the Sleep of Death," 42;
summary of losses, 49;
Llandovery Castle sunk, 246;
statistics of Allies' losses, January to May, 1918, 248;
"The Submarine's Increasing Failure": summary of recent activities,
446.
_See also_ Hospital Ships.
_See also_ Progress of the War, 49, 221, 434.

SUPREME War Council, favors independent Poland and Jugoslavia, 126.

SWITZERLAND an oasis in wartime, 289.

_Theodoric and Attila on the Marne_, 427.

"_Toast to the Flag, A_," (poem,) 360.

TRADE, _see_ COMMERCE.

TRANSATLANTIC Trust Company, 251.

_Transporting America's Army Overseas_, 443.

_Troops, Transportation of_, 2.
_See also_ U. S. Army.

TROTZKY, Leon,
attitude on peace with Germany, 113.

TURKEY,
invasion of Caucasus under Brest Treaty, 131.

U-BOATS, _see_ SUBMARINE Warfare.

UKRAINIA,
refuses to make peace with Bolshevist Government, 105;
peace signed with Russia, 264.

UNITED STATES:--
Army,
number of troops in France, 1;
"Transportation of Troops," 2;
"Armies Under Foreign Generals," 2;
"First units of our new army reviewed by King George," 69;
"No Limit to Size America's Army," 70;
"War Record of the United States," 73;
America's first anniversary in France, 78;
"Premier Lloyd George Lauds Americans," 148;
number of negroes in, 204;
"America's War Effort," 229;
German official view of, 243;
reorganizations of, 429;
consolidation of all branches into one "United States Army," 430;
"Transporting America's Army Overseas," 443.
_See also_ CAMPAIGN in Western Europe.
Commerce,
"American Exports Versus the U-boats," 45;
finances, address by President Wilson on Federal Revenue bill, 139.
_See also_ COST of the War.
French aid in the American Revolution, 201.
"Mexico and the United States," 142.
Navy, largest naval appropriation bill passed, 431.
Russian Situation--Inaction criticised, 260.

SHIPPING, _see_ SHIPPING; SHIPBUILDING.

War Dept.,
summary of achievements to July, 1918, 229;
war with Germany and Austria-Hungary, "War Record of the
United States," 73.
_See also_ TITLES Beginning
America,
American.
_See also_ PROGRESS of the War, 49, 221, 434.

VAN DYKE, Henry,
"The Stars and Stripes," (poem,) 225.

_Vaux, Taking the Village of_, 233.

_Vaux, Thorough American Work at_, 235.

VERSAILLES Council, _see_ SUPREME War Council.

VICTORIA Cross
awarded to Capt. James B. McCudden, 87.

VILLERS-COTTERETS,
historical sketch, 6.
_See also_ CAMPAIGN in Western Europe.

"_War in the Air_," 80.

WELLS, H. G.,
"Boycotting Germany," 545;
"The Death Knell of Empire," 353.

WEST, Austin,
"Austrians at Grips with Italians," 33.

WESTARP (Count), leader of Conservatives,
criticises von Kuhlmann's summary of war situation, 318.

WHEELER, W. Reginald,
"Chinese-Japanese Military Alliance," 498.

WILLIAM II., Emperor of Germany,
defines issues of the war, 36.

WILLIAMS, Harold,
summary of the Russian situation, 265.

WILSON, (Pres.) Woodrow,
Red Cross speech in New York, 137;
Federal Revenue Bill, 139;
appeals for economy, 141;
Memorial Day proclamation, 141;
address to Mexican editors, 142;
"Mount Vernon address"; a statement of American war aims, 191;
reply of Baron Burian, 194;
Chancellor von Hertling's reply in Reichstag, 311;
Paris renames street in honor of, 204;
sends greeting to France on Bastile Day, 245;
reply of Pres. Poincare, 245;
congratulated by Pres. Poincare on Fourth of July celebration, 337;
reply, 337;
by King George of Greece, 340;
reply, 341;
denounces mob action, 384;
"President Wilson and the League of Nations," 511.

Portraits

ARNIM, (Gen.) Sixt von, 47.

BERTHELOT, (Gen.) Henri, 410.

BOEHM, (Gen.) von, 47.

BOROEVIC (Field Marshal). 237.

BRITISH Imperial War Conference, Members, 474.

BULLARD, (Maj. Gen.) R. L., 191.

BUNDY, (Maj. Gen.) Omar, 191.

BURNHAM, (Maj. Gen.) W. P., 204.

BURTSEFF, Vladimir, 268.

CAMERON, (Maj. Gen.) G. H., 394.

CHAPMAN, Victor, 395.

DICKMAN, (Maj. Gen.) J. T., 14, 191.

DUNCAN, (Maj. Gen.) G. B., 204.

EICHHORN, (Field Marshal) von, 427.

FOSDICK, Raymond B., 269.

GLENN, (Maj. Gen.) E. F., 204.

GOURAUD (Gen.), 410.

GREENE, (Maj. Gen.) H. A., 14.

HAAN, (Maj. Gen.) W. A., 394.

HALDANE, Viscount, Lord High Chancellor of England, 47.

HALE, (Maj. Gen.) H. S., 14.

HARBORD (Maj. Gen.), 68, 191.

HINTZE, (Admiral) Paul von, 411.

HITCHCOCK, (Sen.) G. M., 15.

HOLUBOWICZ, H. M., 78.

HORVATH (Gen.), 268.

HUMBERT (Gen.), 410.

HUTIER, (Gen.) von, 47.

KITCHIN, (Congressman) Claude, 15.

KNIGHT, (Rear Admiral) Austin M., 205.

LENINE, Nikolai, 458.

LIGGETT, (Maj. Gen.) Hunter, 191.

LOMONOSSOFF, (Dr.) G. V., 268.

LUFBERY, (Maj. Gen.) Ravul, 395.

McMAHON, (Maj. Gen.) J. E., 394.

MANGIN, (Gen.) Joseph, 410.

MARWITZ, (Gen.) von der, 47.

MARTIN, (Maj. Gen.) C. T., 204.

MASARYK (Prof.), 78.

MAUD'HUY, (Gen.) de, 220.

MIRBACH, (Count) von, 427.

MITCHEL, (Maj.) J. Purroy, 395.

MUIR, (Maj. Gen.) C. H., 394.

NIBLOCK, (Rear Admiral) Albert T., 205.

NICHOLAS, Romanoff, 426.

OVERMAN, (Sen.) L. S., 15.

PETLJURA (Gen.), 78.

READ, (Maj. Gen.) George W., 381.

RODMAN, (Rear Admiral) Hugh, 205.

ROOSEVELT, (Lieut.) Quentin, 395.

SENATE Committee on Military Affairs, 475.

SIMMONS, (Sen.) F. M., 15.

SIXTUS (Prince of Bourbon), 79.

SKOROPADSKI, Pavel Petrovitch, 268.

SVINHUFVUD (Judge), 78.

TALAAT Pasha, 236.

TCHITCHERIN, Georg, 459.

VALERA, (Prof.) Edward de, 79.

WILSON, (Rear Admiral) H. B., 205.

WOOD, (Maj. Gen.) Leonard, 14.

WRIGHT, (Maj. Gen.) Wm. M., 381.

Maps

ALBANIA, relation of, to other Balkan States, 212.

ARMENIA, 134.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, showing populations in threatened revolt, 117.

AUSTRO-ITALIAN
Campaign, 15;
Piave delta, 210;
Albania, Italo-French advance, 212;
Cairo-Jerusalem Railway, 4.

CAUCASUS region, 133.

EUROPE, showing territorial status of the war at the end of the
fourth year, 462.

JUGOSLAVIA, projected States, 116.

MURMAN Coast, 256.

MURMAN District, 471.

MURMAN-PETROGRAD Railway, 255.

RUSSIA, showing points where Bolsheviki have been fighting, 260.

RUSSIA, showing positions of Allied Expeditionary Forces, 476.

RUSSIA, railway system, 262.

SIBERIA, showing Trans-Siberian Railway, 263.

WESTERN Campaign:
German offensive of May, 10;
offensive of June 9, 12;
offensive of March to June, 18;
Cantigny captured by American troops, 59;
territory near Chateau-Thierry won back by American soldiers, 66;
Aisne-Marne region showing Allies' gains July, 1918, 206;
Marne front, 206;
Rheims, 207;
Allies' gains near Albert, Chateau-Thierry, and Bethune, 208;
battlefront, August, 1918, 391;
Chateau-Thierry "pocket," 393;
Lys Salient, 395;
Montdidier Salient, 396.

Illustrations

AMERICAN officers decorated by Gen. Philipot, 31.

AMERICAN patrol in trenches in France, 142.

AMERICAN troops on German soil, (Massevaux, Alsace,) 523.

BATTLEFIELD in France, 316.

CAMP Jackson, 333.

CHATEAU-THIERRY, bridge across the Marne, 506.

COLISEUM, Rome, during Italian celebration of anniversary of America's
entry into the war, 126.

DOGS trained for the British Army as dispatch bearers, 284.

FRENCH Chasseurs Alpins visiting Statue of Liberty, 1.

FRENCH town wiped out in German offensive, 95.

FRENCH town wrecked by retreating Germans, 506.

GAS attack as seen from an airplane, 317.

GAS masks, 317.

GUNS of the largest calibre, 285.

KENNELS of French war dogs, 284.

KING George's message to the soldiers of the United States, 69.

LOCRE, Ruins of village of, 221.

PICARDY inhabitants leaving their homes when German advance began, 94.

LUSITANIA'S victims' graves, 127.

PONT-A-MOUSSON, 143.

RED CROSS parade in New York reviewed by President Wilson, 1.

TANK, armored man power, 332.

TANK, new British type, 332.

UNITED STATES National Army men parade in London, 30.

VILLIERS-BRETONNEUX, entrance to chateau, 221.

WAR Dept. Building, Washington, 522.

Cartoons

171-190; 361-380; 551-570.

* * * * *

[Illustration: French Chasseurs Alpins, during a visit to New York
City, visiting the Statue of Liberty on Bedlow's Island

[Illustration: Opening of Second Red Cross Campaign, May 18, 1918.
The parade in New York City, which was led and reviewed by President
Wilson, passing down Fifth Avenue at Twenty-fifth Street

(_Times Photo Service_)]

CURRENT HISTORY CHRONICLED

[PERIOD ENDED JUNE 20, 1918]

A MONTH OF BATTLES

Military activity superseded everything else during the month under
review. Europe shook with the roar of battle. From May 27 to June
15 fully 3,000,000 men were engaged in deadly conflict along the
battlefronts of France, with a ghastly toll of blood, while in Italy
along a front of 100 miles more than 2,000,000 joined battle on June
15 and were furiously fighting when this issue went to press. The
third German offensive, which continued for three weeks, did not break
the front, nor did it divide the Allies, nor were the Channel ports
reached, nor was Paris invested. In all these respects the drive
failed, but important new territory was won by the Germans, and they
claimed over 85,000 prisoners and an enormous amount of booty; the
Allies declared that the failure of the Germans to obtain any of their
objectives, coupled with the frightful price they had paid in killed
and wounded, the shock to the army morale, and the disappointment in
the enemy leadership, operated practically as a German defeat almost
approaching disaster.

American co-operation in the war became profoundly significant
during the month. The announcement was authorized early in June
that more than 800,000 Americans were in France and that American
soldiers were occupying important sectors on the front. Their
brilliant stand on the Marne and at Belleau Wood, where they were
victorious over crack Prussian divisions, created great enthusiasm
throughout this country and evoked warmest encomiums from all the
Allies. It was announced that American forces were holding a sector
on German soil in the Vosges. It was understood that United States
troops were crossing the Atlantic at the rate of nearly 40,000
a week, and that with the steady gain in shipping facilities an
American Army in France of 1,500,000 was assured by Oct. 15,
1918. There was evidence that the Germans had realized the gravity of
American intervention, and that their great offensive was based on
the fear that ultimate defeat awaited them unless they could obtain
immediate victory.

The offensive launched by the Austrians in Italy on June 15 was their
most ambitious undertaking during the war. It was reported that they
had 1,000,000 men engaged and 7,500 guns. At the end of the fourth day
it was generally felt that the offensive had failed, as none of the
objectives was obtained.

There were no important military activities on any of the other fronts.

German submarines invaded American waters late in May and within three
weeks torpedoed twenty vessels, among them several steamships. There
was no panic; the only effect was a fuller realization that the country
was at war, with a marked speeding up of recruiting and a deepened
determination that the war should be waged until victory was won.
The raid caused no pause in the steady flow of troops to Europe. The
submarine sinkings materially diminished in European waters, and the
completion of new tonnage by the Allies during the month outstripped
the losses by thousands of tons. It was clear during this period that
the United States had attained its full stride in building ships,
airplanes, and ordnance.

The growing importance of aerial warfare was universally recognized
during the month, and the deadly efficiency of air squadrons in battle
was demonstrated as never before.

The Russian situation became no clearer, though there was a growing
impression that the Bolsheviki were steadily declining in power, while
the forces of order and moderation were strengthening. The movement for
intervention by Japan in Siberia gained momentum, but Washington gave
no indication of giving its assent. The German progress into Russia
continued, yet there were signs that the Ukrainians were resenting
German methods and were becoming a troublesome factor to the invaders.
The Germanization of Finland and the other Russian border provinces
proceeded apace. In the Caucasus the Turks continued to acquire new
power over former Russian territory, and the spread of Turanian
dominion was advanced.

Austria-Hungary was in a ferment during the month, and there was every
indication that the Poles, Czechs, and Slavs were working in harmony
and were threatening the existence of the Dual Empire.

In Great Britain, Italy, and France political matters were quieter,
and a better feeling prevailed than for many months, while in our own
country there was more war enthusiasm and less political discord than
at any previous time in the nation's history.

THE TRANSPORTATION OF TROOPS IN GREAT WARS

The announcement on June 15 that the United States had successfully
carried over three-quarters of a million troops to France, a
distance of more than 3,000 miles by sea, with the statement, made
at the same time, that the Allies had successfully transported
the enormous number of 17,000,000 to and from the various battle
zones, both with absolutely negligible losses, serves to bring up
the interesting question of the movements of vast bodies of men in
earlier wars. Leaving out the primitive wars, in which troops were
moved only by land, and almost wholly on foot, to begin with the
great Persian invasion of Europe, in the fifth century before our
era: Xerxes transported an enormous army, fabled to number five
millions, and certainly reaching nearly half a million combatants,
across the water-barrier of Europe by building a pontoon bridge over
the Hellespont, between three and four miles wide; but the Persians
had also, at Salamis, between 1,000 and 1,200 ships, which was a
sufficiently great achievement in transportation. On the return
invasion of Asia by the Greeks, Alexander the Great likewise crossed
the Hellespont, at the site of the Gallipoli fighting, by a bridge of
boats; the latest crossing of a great army on pontoons being that of
the Russians at the Danube, when they invaded Turkey in 1877. A feat
in transportation of another kind was that of Hannibal, who carried
his mixed army of Africans, Spaniards, and Gauls across the Alps,
probably at Mont Genevre, in the Summer of 218; an achievement later
repeated by Napoleon and the Russian General Suvoroff. A more recent
feat in transportation was the bringing of British and French troops
to America, in the days of Washington. But the closest analogy to the
present achievement of the American Army and Navy is probably that of
the transportation of British troops to South Africa, twenty years ago,
the distance being over 6,000 miles, or about twice the distance of our
Atlantic port from the landing place of our troops in France. The total
British losses in South Africa have more than once been equaled by one
week's British casualties in the present struggle in France, the ratio
of killed to wounded being about the same, namely, one to five.

ARMIES UNDER FOREIGN GENERALS

The brigading of American troops with French and English commands
and the fact that the entire forces of England and Italy, as well as
America, on the Continent, are commanded by a French soldier recall
that in many past wars large forces of one nation served under leaders
of another nation. In the Napoleonic wars there were numberless
instances of these armies of composite nationality, the most striking
example being, probably, the Grand Army which invaded Russia in 1811,
in which there was only a minority of French soldiers, nearly all
Western Europe contributing the majority. But these foreign troops
served by compulsion, not of good-will. A better analogy is the war
of the Spanish succession, in which both the Duke of Marlborough and
Prince Eugene commanded composite armies, voluntarily united; this war
transferred Newfoundland and Nova Scotia from France to England. In the
wars in India, English commanders have almost invariably had a majority
of native troops in their forces, and this was conspicuously the case
in the second half of the eighteenth century, as in Clive's decisive
victory at Plassey.

Considerable numbers of French troops served under an American
Commander in Chief at an eventful period in this country's history; of
the 16,000 who forced the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown,
about half were French troops, under Lafayette and Rochambeau. A
generation later, when Napoleon was trying to subdue Spain, mixed
forces of English, Portuguese, and Spanish troops fought, under the
Duke of Wellington and his colleagues, against the invaders. At
Waterloo also the Duke of Wellington had an army of several different
nationalities under his command, though the Dutch and Belgian troops
played no great part in the later stages of the battle. In the war of
1877, considerable Russian and Rumanian armies fought under a single
commander who was, for a considerable period, Prince Charles (later
King) of Rumania.

THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN SLAVS

The conference at Rome, April 10, 1918, to settle outstanding questions
between the Italians and the Slavs of the Adriatic, has once more
drawn attention to those Slavonic peoples in Europe who are under
non-Slavonic rule. At the beginning of the war there were three
great Slavonic groups in Europe: First, the Russians with the Little
Russians, speaking languages not more different than the dialect of
Yorkshire is from the dialect of Devonshire; second, a central group,
including the Poles, the Czechs or Bohemians, the Moravians, and
Slovaks, this group thus being separated under the four crowns of
Russia, Germany, Austria, and Hungary; the third, the southern group,
included the Sclavonians, the Croatians, the Dalmatians, Bosnians,
Herzegovinians, the Slavs, generally called Slovenes, in the western
portion of Austria, down to Goritzia, and also the two independent
kingdoms of Montenegro and Serbia.

Like the central group, this southern group of Slavs was divided
under four crowns, Hungary, Austria, Montenegro, and Serbia; but,
in spite of the fact that half belong to the Western and half to the
Eastern Church, they are all essentially the same people, though
with considerable infusion of non-Slavonic blood, there being a good
deal of Turkish blood in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The languages,
however, are practically identical, formed largely of pure Slavonic
materials, and, curiously, much more closely connected with the eastern
Slav group--Russia and Little Russia--than with the central group,
Polish and Bohemian. A Russian of Moscow will find it much easier
to understand a Slovene from Goritzia than a Pole from Warsaw. The
Ruthenians, in Southern Galicia and Bukowina, are identical in race and
speech with the Little Russians of Ukrainia.

Of the central group, the Poles have generally inclined to Austria,
which has always supported the Polish landlords of Galicia against
the Ruthenian peasantry; while the Czechs have been not so much
anti-Austrian as anti-German. Indeed, the Hapsburg rulers have again
and again played these Slavs off against their German subjects. It
was the Southern Slav question, as affecting Serbia and Austria, that
gave the pretext for the present war. At this moment, the central Slav
question--the future destiny of the Poles--is a bone of contention
between Austria and Germany. It is the custom to call these Southern
Slavs "Jugoslavs," from the Slav word Yugo, "south," but as this is a
concession to German transliteration, many prefer to write the word
"Yugoslav," which represents its pronunciation. The South Slav question
was created by the incursions of three Asiatic peoples--Huns, Magyars,
Turks--who broke up the originally continuous Slav territory that ran
from the White Sea to the confines of Greece and the Adriatic.

DRUNKENNESS REDUCED IN GREAT BRITAIN

The result of the control of the liquor traffic in Great Britain is
shown by the following figures of convictions for drunkenness in the
years named, the upper line of figures referring to males, the lower
line to females:

Greater London--Population, (1911,)
7,486,964

1913. 1914. 1915. 1916. 1917.

48,535 49,077 35,866 19,478 10,931
16,953 18,577 15,970 9,975 5,736
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
65,488 67,654 51,836 29,453 16,667

Boroughs, (36,) England and Wales--
Population, (1911,) 8,406,372

41,380 38,577 27,041 17,233 9,870
11,399 11,258 9,959 6,097 3,679
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
52,779 49,835 37,000 23,330 13,549
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
89,915 87,654 62,907 36,711 20,801
28,352 29,835 25,929 16,072 9,415
------- ------- ------ ------ ------
118,267 117,489 88,836 52,783 30,216

In England and Wales the deaths due to or connected with alcoholism
(excluding cirrhosis of the liver) fell from 1,112 (males) and 719
(females) in 1913 to 358 (males) and 222 (females) in 1917; deaths due
to cirrhosis of the liver, from 2,215 (males) and 1,665 (females) to
1,475 (males) and 808 (females); cases of attempted suicide, from 1,458
(males) and 968 (females) to 483 (males) and 452 (females); deaths from
suffocation of infants under one year declined from 1,226 to 704.

* * * * *

GERMANY'S POPULATION DECLINING

A careful study of the vital statistics of Germany and Great Britain
reveals the fact that the population of Germany is declining, while
that of Great Britain is increasing. The German Empire, which in June,
1919, at the previous rate of increase should have had 72,000,000
people, will have no more than 64,500,000. Germany as a whole will
have 5 per cent. less population than when the war began. Of those who
have been killed the greater number were men in the prime of life and
energy, whom Germany could least spare. By deaths in the battle zone
the empire has lost at least 3,000,000 men.

The birth rate has sunk to such a figure that by next year the number
of births will have fallen short of what they would have been had
there been no war by 3,333,000. In the same period the annual number
of deaths among the German civilian population, owing to the stress
and anxiety of the war, and sickness, which has been aggravated by
hardships and food troubles, has increased by 1,000,000 over the normal.

While by next year the German Empire will be 7,500,000 lower in
population than it would have been had the war not taken place, the
vitality of the peoples of Austria and Hungary has suffered even more.
The peoples of Austria will be 11 per cent. poorer in numbers next year
than if the war had not taken place. They will be 8 per cent. lower in
numbers than they were in 1914. Hungary will be still worse off. It
will have a population 9 per cent. lower than before the war, and 13
per cent. lower than it would have been if there had been no war.

Meanwhile, despite the losses suffered in the war zone, the British
population has been growing. By the middle of 1919 this population will
be only 3 per cent. lower than it would have been without war. Great
Britain in 1919 will have a larger population than in 1914.

CAIRO TO JERUSALEM BY RAIL

It was officially announced May 11 that the swing bridge over the Suez
Canal at Kantara was completed, and that on May 15, 1918, there was
direct railway service from Cairo to Jerusalem. When the war broke out
there were no railways between the Suez Canal and the Jaffa-Jerusalem
railway, a distance of some 200 miles, mainly desert.

[Illustration]

At that time a line ran along the western bank of the canal from Suez
to Port Said. It was linked up with the main lines of the Egyptian
State railways by a single track from Ismailia to Zagazig.

A few miles to the north of that track another line from Zagazig
stopped some eighteen miles short of the canal at El Salhia. At the
beginning of the war, to facilitate the transport of troops and
supplies to the canal and beyond, the track from Zagazig to Ismailia
was doubled, and a new line was pushed out from the dead end at El
Salhia to the canal opposite Kantara, a village on the eastern, or
Sinai, side of the canal. Later, when the British troops entered the
Sinai Peninsula, a railway was begun from Kantara eastward, and as the
British troops advanced so did the railway. It followed the northern
track across Sinai, and had been taken within a few miles of Gaza when
that town was captured last November. Meantime the Turks had built a
branch from the Jaffa-Jerusalem line to a point only five miles north
of Gaza, and by February General Allenby had joined the two systems, so
that there was direct railway connection between Kantara and Jerusalem.

KINDLING THE HOLY FIRE

The annual ceremony of the Kindling of the Holy Fire took place May
4 in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. In Turkish days
it was the custom to provide a guard of not less than 600 soldiers in
order to keep the peace between the Greeks and Armenians, as disorders
almost invariably occurred. On this occasion there was no guard of
any kind other than the ordinary police, and the ceremony took place
without any sign of disturbance.

The ceremony of the Holy Fire--at which, it is held, flame
comes by a miracle from heaven to kindle the lamps of the Holy
Sepulchre--apparently began in the ninth century, and was formerly
attended by leading representatives of all the churches. These have
long ago withdrawn from it, and it is now attended by members of the
Greek and Armenian Churches, mostly ignorant pilgrims of Eastern
Christendom. Many enlightened members of the Greek Church discouraged
the ceremony, as the vast crowds of frenzied people attending it had to
be kept in some sort of order by Turkish soldiers. At the appointed
time a bright flame of burning wood appears through a hole in the
Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre; the rush to obtain this new fire is
overwhelming, and it is handed on from taper to taper until thousands
of lights appear. A mounted horseman takes a lighted torch to convey
the sacred fire to the lamp of the Greek Church in the convent at
Bethlehem. In 1834 hundreds of lives were lost in the violent pressure
of the unruly crowd.

BUILDING THE CAPE TO CAIRO RAILWAY

Notwithstanding the war, 200 miles of the Cape to Cairo Railway in
Africa were laid in the last four years, and a total of 450 miles in
the last eight years from the Rhodesian frontier to the navigable
waterway of the Congo. The latest section of the Katanga Railway
reached Bukama, on the Congo River, May 22.

The railway starts from Cape Town and crosses Bechuanaland and
Rhodesia; it reached the Congo frontier in 1909. The first section
(158 miles) reached the copper mines of the Star of the Congo in
November, 1910, where Elizabethville, a populous town, inhabited by
1,400 white men, has since developed. The railway was pushed in 1913
as far as Kambové, another important mining district, (99 miles.) In
spite of the difficulties caused by the war, a third section was open
to traffic north of Kambové, reaching Djilongo (68 miles) in July,
1915. It was through this road that the two English monitors, under
the direction of Commander G. B. Spicer Simson, reached the waters
of Lake Tanganyika, which they cleared of enemy craft. Understanding
the advantages which the line would afford, the Belgian Colonial
Government opened new credits for the completion of the railway
as far as Bukama, (125 miles.) The building started from Djilongo
and Bukama at the same time, and, in spite of the difficulties of
the ground and the scarcity of labor in the region traversed, has
now been successfully completed. More than 30,000 tons of copper
are annually transported from the Congo copper mines.

COMPIEGNE AND ITS FOREST

Compiegne, the northern support of the French battlefront during
the early part of June, goes back to Roman days. Its name is a
modernization of Compendium, which seems to have meant the "short cut"
between Soissons and Beauvais. The castle, which was founded by Charles
the Bald, was rebuilt by Charles V. and Louis XV. It is now practically
a historical museum of pictures, sculpture, vases, beautiful French
furniture. The Hôtel de Ville, the Town Hall, was built under Louis
XII., and is now adorned by a recent statue of Jeanne d'Arc, whose cult
has been so widely revived in the last few years in France. And the
old churches of Saint James and Saint Antony go back to the France of
Charles VIII. and Louis XII. The magnificent forest of Compiègne, with
its century-old oaks and beeches, covers some 36,000 acres, or almost
sixty square miles, and has nearly ninety miles of parkways under its
shady boughs. Within it, near Champlieu, are old Roman ruins, and
the huge, many-towered Château of Pierrefonds, which was a favorite
hunting lodge of the Kings of France. Built in the fourteenth century,
it was rebuilt by Viollet-le-Duc. It is curious that the modern use
of airplanes in military scouting, in conjunction with our powerful
artillery, has given these forests a significance in battle which takes
us back not merely to the days of mediaeval warfare with its forest
ambushes but to the earlier fighting of primitive tribes.

THE FOREST OF VILLERS-COTTERETS

The immense importance of forests in the present battle is only
one among many returns to the machinery of mediaeval war, like the
revival of helmets, bombs, mortars, the use of a trench knife, which
is simply an adapted Roman broadsword. And, in exactly the same way,
the pressure of races in the present war has brought the fighting
back to the old, famous battle areas, on which the Latin races have
fought against the barbarians any time these two thousand years. This
is particularly true of the area of the fighting in the first half
of June. Much of the history here goes back to old Roman times, much
to the earliest Kings of France. Villers-Cotterets, in the old feudal
territory of Valois, has developed from a sixth century hamlet, first
named Villers-Saint-Georges. The great forest, which has been so
strong a buttress for the French and American line, was then known as
Col-de-Retz, and was a favorite hunting ground of the early Kings.
The Château Malmaison, rebuilt by Francis I. in 1530, was really a
magnificent hunting lodge; his son, Henry II., and Francis II. often
sojourned there. Charles V. halted there during his campaign in
Champagne. Charles IX. spent his honeymoon there with his young Queen
Elizabeth. The castle was restored by the Duke of Orleans in 1750, at a
cost of 2,000,000 francs, when the great walls of the park were built.
He was the father of Philippe-Egalité and the grandfather of King Louis
Philippe. Alexandre Dumas, who was born at Villers-Cotterets, described
the castle as being "as big as the whole town." Later it became an
orphanage, sheltering 800 children. In the forest is the "enchanted
butte," 752 feet above sea level, which is dimly visible from Laon,
forty-four miles away; here the fairies were traditionally believed to
dance in the moonlight. Finally, in the last martial act of Napoleon's
Hundred Days--on June 27, 1815, a week after Waterloo--Marshal Grouchy
fought the Prussians under Pirch within sight of Villers-Cotterets.

CHATEAU-THIERRY

Chateau-Thierry, which has added a splendid page to the martial
history of the American Army, is another of the ancient strongholds
whose strategic position has given it equal significance in the recent
fighting. It was originally a Roman camp, Castrum Theodorici. The
castle, built in 730 by Charles Martel, was given in 877 by Louis II.,
"the Stammerer," to Herbert, Count of Vermandois, from whose family it
passed in the tenth century to the Counts of Troyes. At the end of the
eleventh century the town, which had grown up under the shelter of the
fortress, was surrounded by a wall, and the Burgesses of the town, in
1520, received permission from Francis I. to found a leather and cloth
fair, which was long famous. Often a battleground, Château-Thierry
was captured by the English in 1421. It was sacked by the Spanish in
1591. It was a centre of French resistance in the invasion of 1814,
and Napoleon with 24,000 veterans decisively beat Blücher with 50,000
men under the historic walls of the ancient fortress. The fabulist La
Fontaine was born here on July 8, 1621.

INFANT WELFARE IN GERMANY

The British Local Government Board issued a report on infant welfare in
Germany, May 17, 1918, from which the following facts are taken:

During the war there has been a heavy fall in the number of births
in Germany. The first three years alone of the war reduced by over
2,000,000 the number of babies who would have been born had peace
prevailed. Some 40 per cent. fewer babies were born in 1916 than
in 1913. The infantile death rate has been kept well down, but is
50 per cent. higher than in Great Britain.

The birth rate, which had risen from 36.1 per 1,000 inhabitants in
the decade 1841-1850 to 39.1 per 1,000 in the period 1871-1880,
fell in the succeeding decades to 36.8, 36.1, and 31.9. The rate
for the last year of the period 1901-1910 was under 30 per 1,000,
and the continuance of the fall brought the rate as low as 28.3 in
1912.

In 1913 there were 1,839,000 live births in Germany; in 1916 there
were only 1,103,000--a decrease of 40 per cent. as compared with
1913. The corresponding figures for England and Wales (785,520
live births in 1916 against 881,890 in 1913) show a decrease of
10.9 per cent.

In 1913 the infant mortality rate for Germany was 151 per 1,000,
as compared with 108 in England and Wales. The rates in 1914 for
Prussia, Saxony, and Bavaria (comprising nearly 80 per cent. of
the total population of Germany) were 164, 173, and 193 per 1,000
respectively. The abnormal increase in infant mortality during the
first months of the war is shown by the fact that in Prussia in
the third quarter of 1914 the rate rose from 128 to 143; in Saxony
from 140 to 242; and in Bavaria from 170 to 239.

The principal measure adopted in Germany to promote infant
welfare during the war has been the distribution of the
imperial maternity grants. "Necessity" must first be proved, but
instructions have been given that the term "necessity" is to
be liberally interpreted. There was a general demand that some
further provision should be made for soldiers' wives who could
not meet the extra expenses connected with the birth of a child,
and by a Federal Order, published on Dec. 3, 1914, provision was
made for the payment (partly from imperial funds and partly from
the funds of the sickness insurance societies) of the following
allowances:

(a) A single payment of $6.25 toward the expenses of confinement.

(b) An allowance of 25 cents daily, including Sundays and
holidays, for eight weeks, at least six of which must be after the
confinement.

(d) A grant up to $2.50 for medical attendance during pregnancy if
needed.

(d) An allowance for breast-feeding at the rate of 12-1/2 cents
a day, including Sundays and holidays, for 12 weeks after
confinement.

These grants were afterward extended to women whose husbands were
employed on patriotic auxiliary service and women who were themselves
employed on such service. In addition to this special measure, steps
were taken to encourage the formation of local societies for promoting
infant welfare and the establishment by the societies of infant welfare
centres. Steps were taken to protect illegitimate children by assisting
unmarried mothers from municipal funds and to give expectant and
nursing mothers additional rations of food.

* * * * *

As a result of intensive farming propaganda, the acreage of cereals
and potatoes in England and Wales in 1917 was 8,302,000, an increase
of 2,042,000 over 1916. It is estimated that the tillage in 1917
in Scotland increased 300,000 acres over 1916, and in Ireland the
figures showed an increase of 1,500,000 acres, making a total of about
4,000,000 acres increase in the United Kingdom in the year. This was
accomplished in the face of the fact that in England and Wales alone
there were 200,000 fewer male laborers on the land in 1917 than before
the war. It is estimated that the United Kingdom in 1918-19 will
produce 80 per cent. of the total breadstuff requirements for the year,
whereas in 1916-17 the production was but 20 per cent. of the needs.

* * * * *

The volunteers furnished by Ireland, divided between Ulster and the
rest of the country, were as follows:

Rest of
Year. Ulster. Ireland. Total.
1914 26,283 17,851 44,134
1915 19,020 27,351 46,371
1916 7,305 11,752 19,057
1917 5,830 8,193 14,023
------ ------ -------
58,438 65,147 123,585

* * * * *

The Parliamentary Under Secretary to the British War Office, Mr.
Macpherson, in a statement in Parliament, May 3, 1918, gave the
following figures of Chaplains in the war, killed, died of wounds, or
died of disease while on service in the war. The figures do not include
colonial Chaplains or the Chaplains of the Indian Ecclesiastical
Establishment:

Church of England 57
Roman Catholic 19
Presbyterian 4
Methodist 3
United Board 3
--
Total 86

* * * * *

The Government of Costa Rica declared war on Germany May 23, 1918,
bringing the number of nations aligned against the Central Powers to
a total of twenty-one. Of the other Central American States Panama,
Nicaragua, and Guatemala had issued declarations of war. Honduras
severed diplomatic relations, and San Salvador proclaimed neutrality,
but explained that it was friendly to the United States. The Government
of Peru seized 50,000 tons of interned German ships, and the Government
of Chile is negotiating with the United States for the seizure, by
appropriation or sale to this country, of 200,000 tons interned in its
ports.

* * * * *

The Second American Red Cross drive was begun on May 20. The final
subscriptions, as announced on May 28, were $148,833,367, an
oversubscription of more than $48,000,000. The subscriptions in New
York City exceeded $33,000,000; in the rest of New York State they
were about $9,000,000. The oversubscription maintained a similar
average in all parts of the country.

* * * * *

When the Germans came in possession of Helsingfors there were seven
British submarines in the Baltic with stores, workshops, and barges for
floating mechanics, which had been moved into the harbor from different
parts of the Baltic as the Germans advanced into Russia. The British
naval contingent was in charge of Lieut. Commander Downie, and when it
was apparent that the Germans would come in possession of the harbor
the entire property was destroyed, including all the submarines, repair
shops, and supplies, estimated in value at $15,000,000.

* * * * *

Andrew Bonar Law, Chancellor of the British Exchequer, in introducing
a new vote of credit in Parliament June 18, announced that it was felt
that the German offensive in France had wholly failed and that the
Austrian offensive in Italy was the war's worst initial failure. He
extolled America's aid in the war and the brilliant part taken already
by American troops. He moved a vote of credit of $2,500,000,000, which
was promptly given. The vote brought the total British war credits
to $36,500,000,000. It will cover expenditures to Sept. 1, 1918.
Bonar Law stated that the daily cost of the war to Great Britain was
$34,240,000. The debt due Great Britain from her allies was stated to
be $6,850,000,000, and from the Dominions $1,030,000,000.

* * * * *

It was announced June 16 that an American contingent had been assigned
to the Vosges Mountains in Alsace in territory which belonged to
Germany prior to the war. Private W. J. Gwyton of Evart, Mich., of this
force was the first American killed on former German soil, having met
his death by machine-gun fire on the day after the unit entered the
line, (May 27, 1918.) He was awarded the Croix de Guerre.

Battles in France and Italy

Military Review From May 18 to June 18, 1918--Fighting
on the Marne and Oise--The Austrian Offensive

The third month of the great German offensive may be considered the
complement of the second; it has been an attempt to accomplish south
of the great Picardy salient what north of it had been tried and had
failed. In the second month the Lys salient had been developed, but the
barrier ridges of Ypres and Arras still held. At the end of the third
month the southern barriers--the Chemin-des-Dames and the watershed
of the Oise-Aisne--had been carried by the enemy, but the terrain of
occupation was so constricted, the enemy troops so distributed, that
neither of his ambitious objectives had been brought nearer attainment.
These objectives were the reaching of the sea by the Somme via Amiens,
with its corollaries, the isolation of the allied armies north of that
river and the occupation of the Channel ports; the decisive defeat
of the French armies in the field, with whatever moral and political
corollary that eventuality might produce; the occupation of Paris, and
the demoralization of the French body politic. [See map on Page 19.]

But the German failure of the third month is far more significant,
has a far greater bearing on the war, than the failure of the second.
The enemy has not only failed to broaden the Picardy front so as to
permit a further advance down the Somme, to inflict vital losses on
the Allies, to force the French back on the defenses of Paris, but,
in attempting to do these things he has transformed all his potential
resources into active resources, and these give evidence of approaching
exhaustion.

Only one conclusion is possible: Ludendorff with an initial
preponderance of men and war material, with the tactical advantage of
being able to manoeuvre from the centre outward, has been outgeneraled
both in tactics and in strategy by Foch, so that the former's gains of
terrain, while being of no advantage whatever--even a danger in certain
sectors--have been purchased at an expenditure of men and material
utterly incommensurate with their area and position.

FORCING THE AISNE

Ludendorff, on May 27, with a simultaneous diversion on the Lys salient
and another at the southwest angle of the Picardy salient, northwest
of Montdidier, began, with the most stupendous preparations ever
concentrated, an attack on the southern barriers over a forty-mile
front. He forced the Aisne the next day on an eighteen-mile front, and
on May 31 he brought up at the Marne on a six-mile front, having made a
penetration of thirty miles to the south. There he attempted to deploy
both east and west, and was held.

Meanwhile his baseline had been extended twenty miles to the west--to
near Noyon. He had occupied about 650 square miles of new territory and
had reduced his nearest approach to Paris from sixty-two to forty-four
miles.

Then, on June 9, with even a greater array of men and material,
he attempted to invert the western bow-like side of the salient
already formed by turning it outward. He made a fierce attack from a
twenty-mile front between Montdidier and Noyon in the direction of
Compiègne. With this objective attained, his Picardy front would have
been sufficiently broadened to enable him to resume his journey down
the Somme. Moreover, he would have been within striking distance of
Paris. He gained seven miles, which was later reduced to less than
six by French counterattacks. French counterattacks and a thrust
of American marines on his flanks in the three succeeding days not
only held him in a vise, but revealed his tremendous losses and the
extraordinary means he had expended in preparations. By June 12 his
failure, the ramifications of which actually demonstrated his defeat,
was an established fact. Then, on the following Saturday, June 15,
this failure was acknowledged by the sudden launching of an Austrian
offensive in Italy. How this was an acknowledgment we shall see in the
proper place.

[Illustration: UPPER MAP: WHERE THE GERMAN OFFENSIVE BEGAN ON MAY 27,
1918]

[Illustration: LOWER MAP: WHERE IT WAS STOPPED, MAY 31]

SECOND MARNE BATTLE

Held at the Ypres and Arras barriers in the north it was inevitable
that Ludendorff's next move would be in the south. The railways freed
by the expansion of the Picardy salient in March, the unhampered
concentrations made possible at Péronne, St. Quentin, La Fère, and
Hirson, and the admirable surface of the Laon Plateau for purposes of
manoeuvring large bodies of troops--all pointed to the line northwest
of Rheims as the probable point of attack. Then, when it came on May
27, consternation reigned among military critics as they observed the
apparent ease with which the Germans carried, first, the mighty Chemin
des Dames, protected on the east by Craonne and its three plateaux and
on the west by the Ailette and the Oise, and then the south bank of the
Aisne, with its formidable prepared fortifications at Soissons. The
German feints in the Lys salient and before Amiens in the preceding
week were said to have distracted Foch, who had thus been outgeneraled.
And when the Marne was reached between Dormans and Château-Thierry, it
was remembered how the Third German Army under General von Hausen had
swept across the river at that identical spot on Aug. 25, 1914.

In the first three days of the drive the Germans with the greatest
auxiliary force of tanks, machine guns, and poison gas projectors they
had ever mobilized employed twenty-five divisions, or 325,000 men. When
they doubled their base line and had reached the Marne and were trying
to deploy they were using forty divisions containing over 400,000 of
their best troops. When the offensive quieted down in the first days
of June it was estimated that they had lost fully 30 per cent. of the
total in casualties. On the other hand, they claimed to have captured
over 45,000 prisoners and taken 400 guns. They had come thirty miles
and had occupied 650 square miles of territory. But they were held.

What is the explanation of this seeming paradox? Foch could by calling
on a certain number of reserves easily have held the Chemin des Dames
until--he had been flanked and enfiladed out, between Neufchatel and
Rheims on the east and from the Oise where it enters the Aisne on
the west. He might have held out longer on the southern bank of the
Aisne, but the result would have been the same--losses equaling if not
surpassing those of the enemy and the surrender of thousands of guns
and large quantities of war material. Finally, he would have gained
nothing and might even have been unable to hold the Marne.

It is obvious that he did none of these things. But what did he do? He
left his front protected by only sufficient men and guns to produce
the greatest possible losses among the enemy as he slowly advanced
south and concentrated heavily on the enemy's flanks. It was he and not
Ludendorff who decreed that the Germans should reach the Marne between
Dormans and Château-Thierry, and nowhere else. But it was Pétain who
executed the plans of Foch.

THE FIGHT IN DETAIL

The German attack under the personal command of the Crown Prince
launched on the morning of May 27 was mainly directed against the
British 8th, 50th, 25th, and 21st Divisions and the French 6th
Army, which occupied the front from Vauxaillon eastward to the
Brimont region--from north of Soissons to the north and a little
west of Rheims. Certain sectors at once gave way under the strong
pressure--particularly in the Chambrettes. There was no mistaking this
for the main offensive, although in the Lys salient, between Ypres and
Arras in the north, and on both sides of the Somme and the Ardre in
the centre, there were simultaneous artillery preparations of great
violence. Toward the end of the day the weight of the enemy's attacks
carried his troops across both the River Aisne and the Chemin des
Dames. The line, however, remained unbroken, as the Allies retreated
across the Aisne between Vailly and Berry-au-Bac, which are eighteen
miles apart, and then gave way across the Vesle near Fismes.

On the 28th Franco-British troops proved the assault in the north to
be abortive by quickly re-establishing their lines east of Dickebusch
Lake and capturing a few prisoners. On the main field of battle in
the south the Franco-British right deployed to the east covering the
Brouillet-Savigny-Thillois line protecting Rheims. On the west they
did the same, but with more elasticity, while the centre continued to
give. On the 29th the acute angle of the German penetration, with its
vertex covering Fismes, suddenly sprung to the shape of a bow. The line
still held covering the Cathedral City, but on the west the defenders
of Soissons were killing their last Germans, and in the south Savigny
on the Ardre had been reached. At Savigny the line of advance was
diverted westward until it embraced Fère-en-Tardennois and Vezilly. And
still the retreating but unbroken Allies were deploying east and west
as its pressure increased, or were taken prisoner when retreat became
impossible.

On the 30th the enemy attempted to broaden his front northwest of
Rheims and failed, but he succeeded in obliterating the salient south
of Noyon, from the Oise Canal to Soissons, and on the 31st by an
advance from a twenty-five-mile curved front he reached the Marne
between Château-Thierry and Dormans on a contracted six-mile front.
Here he met on the south bank the prepared defenses, and has been kept
on the north bank ever since.

AMERICAN MARINES

In the enemy's attempts to broaden his front on the Marne salient,
June 1 and 2, he managed to rectify the eastern side by reaching Sarcy
and Olizy and by working along up the Marne a couple of miles east of
Dormans. He also measurably consolidated his positions between the Oise
Canal and Soissons, and south of the latter stretched the line into a
segment with a five mile vertical as far south as, but not including,
Château-Thierry on the Marne. This swing to the westward appears to
have been a deliberate attempt to force Foch to meet shock with shock
by throwing in his reserves, as the German advance had reached a point
only forty miles from Paris.

[Illustration: OFFENSIVE OF JUNE 9, AIMED AT COMPIEGNE, AND BLOCKED
BY THE FRENCH AFTER FIVE DAYS. LIGHT SHADED AREA WON BY GERMANS; DARK
SHADED AREA AT BOTTOM WON BACK BY AMERICANS NEAR CHATEAU-THIERRY]

This was unnecessary, however, for here, north of Château-Thierry,
the enemy was to meet a new foe--the American marines. It is doubtful
whether the extraordinary performance of this corps and its French
supports between June 6 and June 12, when they bent back the lower part
of the bow between La Feste-Milon and Château-Thierry--from Grandeles,
Champillon, and Clerembant Wood to Bussiares and Bouresches--can be
included in the second battle of the Marne or serves as a diversion
to the later battle of the Oise, directed against Compiègne. At any
rate, the ardor of the marines had the desired effect, for on the very
day they began their work the inspired Berlin Vossische Zeitung said:
"The German Supreme Command cannot well proceed now against the newly
consolidated French front, which is richly provided with reserves,
and bear the great losses which experience shows are entailed by such
operations." Thus ended the second battle of the Marne, sometimes
called the Aisne-Marne battle.

BATTLE OF THE OISE

The flanking lines between which the Germans were directed to the Marne
made the battle of the Oise inevitable as far as the Marne salient was
concerned. For the salient, there was only this alternative, if its
front could not be broadened: it must be "dug in" or be abandoned.
But, being necessary, if it could be waged beyond a certain point, it
would also become ambitious. It would supplement the Picardy front by
continuing its line down to the Marne. Reaching the Oise at Montmacq,
it would flank the French salient north of the Oise. Utilizing the Oise
and Ourcq Valleys, it would envelop the defensive forests of Aigue,
Compiègne, and Villers-Cotterets. This would mean Compiègne. From
Compiègne the investment of Paris was possible.

The battle, as far as the Germans are concerned, was probably their
most disastrous effort of the war within the given time. Between thirty
and thirty-four divisions were completely used up--a cost of over
400,000 effectives. Not only did their advance lack the element of
surprise, but it entered a veritable trap. Their front was enfiladed
with a destructive fire from impregnable flanks.

The battle was also a revelation; it demonstrated as nothing else
the waning man power of the enemy--the desperate mobilization of
16-year-old boys, of old men, of convicts, even.

The artillery preparation, rich in gas shells, began at midnight on
June 8-9. On the following morning at 4:30 the attack was launched over
the twenty miles from Montdidier to Noyon. And, as usual, there was
the northern diversion--the pounding of the British lines by gunfire
from Villers-Bretonneux to Arras. Even on the first day of the assault,
when the German centre advanced two and a half miles, the French made
a spirited counterattack near Hautebraye, between the Aisne and the
Oise. On the second day the enemy took at tremendous cost the villages
of Mery, Belloy, and St. Maur and debouched from Thiescourt Wood. On
the third day, with the aid of four fresh divisions, he managed to
reach the Aronde, on the west; to descend a mile astride the Matz and
to occupy its northern bank almost to the Oise, in the centre; and to
envelop the forest of Ourscamps, on the east. Before the sun set the
French, by a counterattack, had entirely won back the gains on the
west, with over 1,000 prisoners captured. On the fourth and fifth
days (June 13 and 14) the French heavily attacked on the flanks of
the centre--at Courcelles and at Croix Ricard. Then came two final
kicks from the foe; on June 16 he attempted to cross the Matz near its
junction with the Oise and was driven back with heavy losses. The next
day he drenched the south bank of the Marne with gas shells, but did
not attempt to cross the stream.

All this time abortive diversions had been going on in the north, in
the Lys salient, where on June 15 the British and Scottish troops took
the initiative and captured two miles of enemy positions seven miles
west of La Bassée and just north of Béthune.

THE AUSTRIAN OFFENSIVE

Just as the German defeat on the Marne and Oise was beginning to be
realized abroad--its losses calculated, its meaning interpreted--the
Austrians, on June 15, suddenly launched an offensive in the mountain
region of Veneto and from the left bank of the Piave. So far the
enemy has been firmly held in the mountains, but has crossed the
river at two places without, however, being able to bring over any
effective artillery--on the middle reaches he has gained the Plateau of
Montello, defended by the intrenchments prepared there by the British
under Plumer last December, and near the mouth he has succeeded in
establishing one or two bridgeheads in the vicinity of Capo Sile.

As a military proposition the offensive has lacked the so far
inevitable successes of a prepared initiative; in the mountains
the first attacks were almost instantly broken up by simultaneous
counterattacks. Along the river, especially in the vicinity of the
crossings, the battle is developing in scope and intensity.

Aside from the military paradox already noted, this offensive possesses
several characteristics, some military, some political, which seem well
worth while dwelling upon.

In the first place, the location of the active front east of the
Lago di Garda, from the Asiago Plateau to the sea, offers a certain
indication of the German military situation in France. Its abortive
character may also indicate the political situation in Austria-Hungary.
With the lines in the mountains held, the operations on the Piave
present no formidable danger to Italy.

It was well known by the Italian General Staff that the Austro-German
High Command intended to make the attempt to confirm the Italian
disaster of Caporetto as soon as the melting of the snows permitted
the transportation of men and supplies through the Alps. In the first
place, the material and man power lost by the Italians in the retreat
to the Piave, which included the actual elimination of the 2d Army,
were replaced. In the second, it was absolutely necessary to rectify,
even in the Winter, the northern mountain line east of the Lago di
Garda. West of the lake up to the Tonale Pass, over the great glacier
of the Adamello, it was practically invulnerable, save through the
Giudicaria Valley.

From west to east there were three doors, as it were, which had only
been partly shut--the Vallarsa south of Rovereto, the path of the
Frenzela Torrent and the angle it forms with the Brenta just above
Valstagna, and the approach down the Piave in the region of Monte
Monfenera from the Calcina Torrent. There were also other minor
openings--the passes of Monte Asolone, between the Brenta and the
Piave, covering the path south along the Val San Lorenzo, the Nos and
Campo Mulo Valleys between Asiago and the Brenta. All these were closed
in December and January, with a total loss to the enemy of over 10,000
men and 100 guns, save the domination of the Vallarsa, that was taken
from the Austrians by the capture of Monte Corno on May 15. Meanwhile,
the British and French armies had been transferred, the former from Il
Montello on the Piave to the Asiago Plateau, and the latter from the
Monfenera region to that of Monte Grappa. Between 200,000 and 300,000
Italian troops had been sent to the aid of France.

Thus the Italian General Staff awaited the inevitable with
confidence--a confidence fully seconded by people and press, for
if the mass of the Italians had fought in ignorance before the
catastrophe of Caporetto, since then they had learned the objects of
the war--national as well as allied.

But the General Staff had also learned something else. This was most
important. If Ludendorff in France should be successful--if he should
succeed in isolating the allied armies north of the Somme, or force
the French back upon the defenses of Paris, or both--then the Austrian
Commander in Chief with his million men would be aided by German
generalship and German divisions, and, together, they would strike down
the Giudicaria to the west of the Lago di Garda, with all strength and
disregarding all sacrifices in order to reach the metallurgic centre
of Italy in Lombardia and Emilia, thereby forcing Italy out of the war
and gaining access to the back door of France. If, however, Ludendorff
should be blocked in France, the offensive must still be made at the
propitious moment, but its plan of attack would be to the east of the
Lago di Garda, from the Astico to the sea. It would be entirely an
Austrian affair, and would naturally be limited by the political and
military situation in the Dual Monarchy.

It is of significance, therefore, that the offensive has been launched
to the east and not to the west of the Lago di Garda. Its locality
reveals Ludendorff's conviction that he is at least blocked in France,
if nothing else, whatever light its development may later throw upon
the parlous internal conditions of the Hapsburg Empire.

This admitted, the Austrian plan of campaign becomes a simple
problem--simple because there could be no other. At the beginning of
the war Italy attempted to neutralize the Trentino and the Carnic
region by sealing the passes and then made her attack across the
Isonzo. But she could never be certain that the passes had been
effectually sealed. A successful Austrian invasion through them would
jeopardize her armies on the Isonzo, isolate them by cutting their
lines of communication. That was the danger which threatened those
armies when the Austrians made their drive upon the Asiago Plateau
in May, 1916, which was ultimately outflanked and forced back. That
was also the disaster when last October the Austro-German armies,
having penetrated the Isonzo line from the north, forced it to retire
westward, forced a withdrawal from the passes in the Carnic and the
Dolomite Alps, and again reached the Asiago Plateau, this time free
from the danger of being flanked.

[Illustration: LEADING GENERALS OF THE AMERICAN ARMY

Major Gen. H. A. Greene
(_Press Illus. Service_)

Major Gen. Leonard Wood
(© _Clinedinst_)

Major Gen. H. S. Hale

Major Gen. J. T. Dickman
(© _Clinedinst_)]

[Illustration: PROMINENT IN AMERICAN WAR LEGISLATION

Senator G. M. Hitchcock
_Chairman Foreign Relations Committee_
(_Harris & Ewing_)

Congressman Claude Kitchin
_Chairman House Ways and Means Committee_
(_Harris & Ewing_)

Senator L. S. Overman

Senator F. M. Simmons]

[Illustration: SCENE OF THE NEW AUSTRIAN OFFENSIVE]

It is thus of most vital influence upon the operations going on along
the Piave that the British on the Asiago Plateau, on June 15, and
the French on Monte Grappa, the next day, and the Italians elsewhere
even covering a diversion at the Tonale Pass, should have hurled back
with severe losses the initial assaults of the enemy in the mountain
regions. On June 18 the Austrians claimed to have taken 30,000
prisoners and 120 guns since the 15th; the Italians and their allies
claimed 2,500 prisoners.

That the Greeks are certainly in the war was revealed on May 31,
when the news was published that they had, with the aid of French
artillery, captured some 1,500 Bulgar-German troops on the Struma front
in Macedonia. Meanwhile, however, General Guillaumat, who succeeded
General Sarrail as commander of the allied armies there in December,
has returned to France to take charge of the defenses of Paris.

Advices from Constantinople, via Moscow and London, indicate that the
Turks, having reached an agreement with the Caucasus peoples, are
assembling troops across the Armenian-Persian frontier, so as to block
the advance of General Marshall with the Anglo-Indian forces up the
Tigris. The left wing of the Turks, on June 14, reached Tabriz and
Lake Urumiah, in Persia, 200 miles northeast of Mosul on the Tigris.
Marshall is 60 miles south of that place.

Captain Rizzo of the Italian Navy, who on the night of Dec. 9-10 sank
the Austrian pre-dreadnought Wien in the Harbor of Trieste and put
another ship of the 5,000-ton class, now known to be the Budapest, out
of commission, again distinguished himself on June 10, when with two
torpedo boats he cut through the destroyer convoy of two dreadnoughts
of the Viribus Unitis class (20,000 tons) and sent certainly one and
probably both to the bottom off Dalmatia--one being seen to sink before
his eyes and the wreckage of the other being subsequently picked up.
This exploit leaves only one of these mighty ships afloat, the first
having been torpedoed in the Harbor of Pola on May 15.

Trying to Corrupt Italy's Troops

The Astounding German Order for Fraternization
and Penetration on the Italian Front

The April issue of CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE contained the text of
a German order for undermining the morale of Russian troops by
fraternization. Early in May a similar order was found on a German
prisoner captured by French troops on the Italian front. The order is
as follows:

281ST DIVISION, FIRST SECTION, NO. 226.--CONFIDENTIAL.

_Not to be communicated to troops in the first line._

First--Following the telephone order, Geroch No. 2,080, you are
asked to intensify with efficacy the propaganda with the enemy
army.

Second--The object of this propaganda is to disorganize the enemy
army and to obtain information regarding it. The propaganda must
be carried out in the following manner: (a) By throwing into the
enemy's trenches newspapers and proclamations destined for the
more intelligent elements; (b) by persuading the troops by oral
propaganda. For that it will be necessary to utilize officers,
under-officers, and soldiers who appear to be most adapted. The
posts for making contacts with the enemy must be placed under the
direction of the company commander, who must be in the first-line
positions. These officers must ascertain the points where it
will be the easiest to throw into the enemy trenches newspapers,
proclamations, &c. At these points you must seek to gain contact
with the enemy by means of our interpreters, and if the enemy
consents then fix an hour for future conversations. You must then
advise immediately by telephone the chief of the Information
Bureau of the division of every contact with the enemy.

Only the chief of the Information Bureau will have the right to
direct the conversations according to the instructions he has
received. It is rigorously prohibited for any of our soldiers
to enter into relation with the enemy except those who have
received the mission to do so, for fear that the enemy may seek
to profit by their ingenuousness. All letters and printed matter
which the enemy may have on his person must be taken from him,
and transmitted to the chief of the Information Bureau. Company
commanders, above all, must seek to establish the points where
the enemy's soldiers have received newspapers, the points where
the newspapers were taken openly, and without precaution. There
are posts of observation for the artillery, as it may happen that
French officers or foreign army instructors are in these posts.

In these enterprises for obtaining contact with the enemy, success
depends on the ability with which you operate. Good results can be
obtained by calling in a friendly tone and indicating sentiments
of comradeship or by reiterated promises not to fire and offers
of tobacco. The tobacco for this purpose will be furnished by the
company commanders.

Every evening, at 8 o'clock, the company commander must transmit
directly to the information officer a report of the propaganda
accomplished during the day. This report must contain the
following indications: (a) Has the enemy picked up our newspapers
and proclamations? (b) Have you endeavored to enter into relations
with the enemy? (c) With whom have you had contact--officers,
under-officers, soldiers? (d) Where and when were our newspapers
and proclamations thrown into the enemy's trenches? (e) All
other information of the enemy's conduct. At the same time, our
interpreters will send to the chief of the Information Bureau a
detailed report on all conversations they have had with the enemy.
The enemy's positions where propaganda is under way must not be
shelled by our artillery; they must indicate to the batteries the
positions of these points to be spared. The enemy is perfidious
and without honor, and it is necessary as a consequence to be
careful that they neither take our propagandists prisoners nor
kill them. Those of our soldiers who leave our lines for the
purpose of carrying newspapers and pamphlets to the enemy must be
advised. To protect them it will be necessary to constitute with
care special detachments, who will mount guard in the trenches,
and who will fire only on the order of the company commander who
is directing relations with the enemy.--Signed, on behalf of the
temporary commander of the division, the Major General commanding
the 62d Brigade.

THE GERMAN OFFENSIVE

Third Month of Desperate Effort to Break the French and British Lines
in France

By GEORGE H. PERRIS

_Special Correspondent with the French Armies_

[Copyrighted in the United States of America]

_The May and June issue of Current History Magazine contained detailed
descriptions of the first and second months of the great German
offensive in France, which began with a terrific blow in Picardy,
apparently with the object of driving a wedge between the French
and British, and then shifted to a deadly attack on the British in
Flanders, aiming to break through to the Channel ports. These phases
of the great battle were described by Philip Gibbs. The new phases,
sometimes called the third and fourth offensives, began May 27 and
June 9, respectively, and are known as the battle for Paris and the
battle of the Oise. The blow of May 27 was delivered between Rheims and
Montdidier, with the evident purpose of breaking the French lines and
clearing the way for a drive to Paris. The descriptions which follow
are written by George H. Perris, a special correspondent with the
French armies._

[This dispatch was written before the drive toward Paris was
was launched, and indicates that Mr. Perris had a clear
and correct idea of the German plan]

May 26, 1918.--The delay of the third act of the German offensive was
abnormal. The first was perhaps, in design and execution, the most
powerful operation in the history of warfare. The second, the attack
in Flanders in the middle week of April, almost certainly began as a
diversion intended to draw the British reserves from the Amiens front
and to fill the interval needed for the reorganization of forces.

Up to the middle of April the German armies not occupied in fighting
could do little but commence the strengthening of their new fronts,
as lines of defense and departure. Their staffs, high and low, must,
however, have been already engaged upon plans for the next push. Six
or seven weeks then have passed in constituting a new mass of attack,
with its armament and transport, in constructing roads and railways,
dumps and supply centres, in bringing forward batteries, airdromes,
hospitals, and so on.

True, this is not as long as the time of preparation for the first
phase of the battle, which may be broadly counted as from New Year's
to March 21. But there should be a vast difference between the mounting
of a wholly fresh offensive and its pursuit into the later stages. A
relentless continuity of pressure is evidently of very great importance
after the advantage of the initial surprise. It is the thing which a
commander will most aim at.

If the Germans did not keep going on the main line of their attack
north and south of the Somme after the middle of April, it was because
they could not do so; and the partial success of their ex-temporized
campaign in Flanders should not disguise from us this significant fact.

It would be useless at this period of the war, when all Germany demands
a decision and nothing less, if the new offensive did not lead to the
capture at least of some place of symbolic importance, such as Rheims,
Verdun, or Nancy. But that would require a force so large as to cripple
the major effort in the northwest. All the military virtue of the
German strategy is against such a dispersal of effort.

CHEMIN DES DAMES LOST

_May 28_--_The opening of the attack and the first day's results are
thus described by Mr. Perris:_

Hindenburg has scored another spectacular success. At dawn yesterday,
after three hours' bombardment, composed largely of gas shells, a new
German mass attack was thrown upon a twenty-five-mile front, extending
from the Ailette near Vauxaillon to the Aisne-Marne Canal near Brimont.

It was four or five times as numerous as the defenders, and in other
regards correspondingly stronger. In these circumstances, an attempt
to retain the line of the Chemin des Dames would have meant that the
French troops would have been massacred before reserves could reach
them, and there was nothing for it but to fall back steadily and in
good order, using successive lines of trenches and deep folds of ground
to punish the enemy for every forward step he made.

As I anticipated in my last message, the method of the first phase of
the German offensive was again employed with some improvements. This
method rests upon two main elements--the prodigal expenditure of the
large reserves obtained by the collapse of Russia and Rumania, and
the skillful use of the great advantage of what are called interior
lines of communication to throw a mass attack suddenly upon the chosen
sector, and so to gain the further advantage of surprise.

The front now chosen was held till a day or two ago by parts of two
armies belonging to the group of which the Prussian Crown Prince is
the titular chief. General von Boehm's army, extending from the Oise
at Noyon to east of Craonne, numbered nine divisions. In the sector of
General Fritz von Below, extending across the Rheims front to Suippe,
near Auberive, there were eight divisions. The whole twenty-five
miles attacked yesterday had therefore been held till the eve of
battle by only seven or eight divisions. The exact number of divisions
engaged yesterday is not yet known, but it seems to have been about
twenty-five, or over a quarter of a million combatants.

There is here a curious difference and likeness as compared with the
first phase of the offensive on March 21. To the seventeen divisions
already holding the sector of attack there were added another
seventeen. This time the same number has been added where there were
only eight. Two months ago the front of attack was about forty miles
long. This time a rather denser force was employed, perhaps because the
Aisne height constituted a formidable position, and it was intended to
carry it at a single rush.

While the front keeps its present shape the German staff has
necessarily a great advantage over that of the Allies in that it is
acting from the centre of a crescent, and they are around and outside
of it. If enough time can be given to preparations--and as my last
message showed the pause had been abnormal--they must gain a certain
benefit of surprise, and with this benefit such a mass of shock must
win a certain depth of ground.

Our only notions of the Chemin des Dames were obtained in a time very
different from the present emergency, the time of fixed fronts and of
methods defensive and offensive that are already old-fashioned to those
of us who have watched these blood-soaked hills and gullies for nearly
four years through heartrending vicissitudes, who remember Haig's and
Smith-Dorrien's first attempts to scale what seemed an impregnable
fortress, who saw the French bluecoats rush forward last Summer till
at length they stood firm on the cliffs of Craonne and Heurtebise, who
explored the Dragon's Cave at Malmaison Fort and the vast Montparnasse
quarry when they still stank from rotting flesh.

WITHDRAWAL NECESSARY

It is not a light thing that ground so full of tragic memories should
be lost. It seems only the other day that I was adventuring along the
Ailette by Anizyle-Château, sleeping in a dugout in Pinon Forest, and
examining the outposts that then held the northern edge of the hills.

War pays little regard to sentiment, and it is not any spectacular
stroke or sentimental score that will restore the falling fortunes of
the Hohenzollerns.

[Illustration: Total Gains of German Drive]

SHADED PORTIONS SHOW TOTAL GAINS OF THE GREAT GERMAN OFFENSIVE. THE
NUMERALS INDICATE THE SEQUENCE OF THE FOUR BATTLES OR PHASES. THE DRIVE
ON THE SOMME WAS LAUNCHED MARCH 21, THAT IN FLANDERS APRIL 9, THE
CHAMPAGNE DRIVE MAY 27, AND THE OFFENSIVE ON THE OISE JUNE 9

No doubt the French command found it grievous yesterday to order a
retreat to the Aisne. Feebler men might have temporized and lost in
doing so many good lives which are, after all, more sacred than the
most sacred earth.

The attack could not be anticipated. It was far beyond the powers of
the small defending forces to ward it off. With sound tactical sense
the heaviest assault was directed toward the eastern end of the Aisne
Hills at Craonne as soon as it became evident that this corner could
not be held, and that from here the whole line was in danger of being
turned.

The German forces included some of the specially trained units that
fought in von Hutier's army in the March attack--two divisions of the
Prussian Guard and other crack formations. It was only at heavy cost
that they got forward so quickly. The French retired from position to
position without confusion, firing continuously. The fact that their
losses are small in comparison with those of the enemy is an essential
point.

THE SECOND DAY

May 29--There has been very severe fighting today, with results
necessarily favorable on the whole to the enemy because the allied
reserves are only just beginning to reach the front. A strong
thrust toward Soissons and the road and railway from Soissons to
Coucy-le-Château at the moment when the head of the columns of the
offensive were striking south of the Vesle from Braisne, Bazoches, and
Fismes suggests that the armies engaged have already been reinforced.
[See maps in preceding pages.]

So far an almost insolent boldness has won through, but the French
resistance is steadily increasing, and more prudence will soon be
necessary. For instance, the River Aisne is a most awkward obstacle to
have on your line of communications. The enemy was able to prevent the
Allies from destroying all the bridges during the withdrawal, but it is
not too late, and the bombarding squadrons of the Allies will doubtless
find telling work to do in the early future.

Last evening when the enemy had got across the Aisne near Pontavert
part of the British brigade was falling back. A group of French
territorials, firing continuously upon the swarming graycoats, were
taking refuge in Germicourt Wood and being gradually surrounded. Some
Englishmen and older Frenchmen decided to make their last stand, to die
there together or to beat the enemy off. A handful of territorials got
away to tell the tale. The Englishmen fell to a man.

The French officer who told me of this episode of the battle spoke also
of the gallant work of a British cyclist battalion fighting with the
French before Fismes, and of the fate of some British officers who lost
their lives in blowing up Aisne bridges near Craonne. There was no time
to take the usual precautions, but the thing had to be done, and they
did it. My informant showed that he felt all the nobility and pathos of
these sacrifices, and he wished, as much as I, that the folk at home
should hear of them.

The first reports seemed to indicate that the success of the German
assault on the British sector led the defenders by a threat of
envelopment to retreat from the Aisne heights. This was not so. The
Germans first crossed the river further west, and the British left was
therefore obliged to fall back.

TERRIBLE BOMBARDMENT

It was the left, and particularly the 50th Division, that had to
bear the heaviest of the shock. The bombardment, which lasted three
hours, was of indescribable intensity, the chill night air being soon
saturated with poison gas, and when at dawn the German infantry,
hideous in their masks, broke like a tidal wave upon the thin British
line it was overwhelmed. The 50th is a territorial division.

A counterattack toward Craonne failed under a flank fire from tanks and
machine guns, and step by step the heroic line was withdrawn through
wooded and marshy ground to the Aisne.

The French on the left were resisting like masses with the same
bravery; contact was lost with them for a short time, as also with the
British 25th and 8th Divisions further east, and as the men fell back a
front could be preserved only by a converging retreat toward the south
by night. When the hills north of Vosle were reached the 50th Division
had lost a number of its officers and other ranks.

The British centre, consisting of part of the 25th and 8th Divisions,
was more fortunate. The 25th had been in reserve, and its support in
the low and difficult ground at the east end of the Aisne Valley was
most important. It and the 8th maintained their second positions till
late in the afternoon.

On the right the 21st Division, together with the neighboring French
division, had to defend the line of the canal from Berry-au-Bac to
Bermericourt against the onset of four German divisions, aided by the
strongest fleet of tanks the enemy has yet put into the field. This
northwestern edge of the great plain of Champagne is very favorable
ground for the use of cars of assault, and it was here that the French
made their first experiments with indifferent results that have since
been greatly bettered.

These two British and French divisions had the advantage of a line of
heights with batteries and perfect observation behind them. They held
out obstinately till the retreat of the left made it necessary to move
southward.

DESTRUCTION OF SOISSONS

May 30.--During last night the enemy took Fère-en-Tardenois and drove
the allied rearguards back to Vesilly, whence the line ran this morning
northeast to the outskirts of Rheims. As the Marne is thus brought into
the picture, it is pertinent to point out that in the famous battle of
September, 1914, the Germans reached to more than thirty miles south of
the river in this region.

This is at present their strongest push. The road from Soissons to
Compiègne is closed to them, but further south they have got to the
road Soissons-Hartennes.

Lest it be thought that the allied reserves are slow in coming into
play, I may point out that the front of the offensive has been nearly
doubled in length in the last three days. At the outset it was about
thirty-five miles. It is now sixty. Merely to make good losses and to
provide a screen of troops along this greater extent, with everything
in movement, has required effort.

At midnight on May 26 the battlefront was ten miles away from Soissons.
The few civilian inhabitants and the many hospital patients had settled
down to sleep, the usual hour for airplane raids having passed.

An hour later they and the few army bureaus in the neighborhood were
aroused by a sudden outbreak of bombardment, such as they had never
heard before, and soon afterward shells began to crash upon the town.

With the wounds of four years of war upon it, the northern quarter
completely destroyed and the cathedral grievously damaged, Soissons
still possessed something of its old-time grace and air of substantial
well being. It would be an exaggeration to compare it with Richmond,
for the Aisne is not the Thames and the French woods are not English
parks; but after the victory of Malmaison had put the boche back beyond
the Ailette we hoped to see the great mansions repaired and the happy
life of the shopping quarters gradually revived. Today the Germans are
camped in the smoking ruins of Soissons.

INCENDIARY SHELLS

On May 27 at least 1,200 explosive and incendiary shells were fired
into the place. The hospitals, including a special hospital for poison
gas cases, were hurriedly evacuated, American ambulance cars doing good
service in carrying away the wounded.

On Tuesday, the 28th, the bombardment continued, its purpose being, no
doubt, to put out of service the most important bridgehead of the Aisne
Valley and one of the most important lines of communication between the
regions to the south and north, the town being a railway centre of some
local consequence. That afternoon a good many houses were in flames,
and during the night a large part of the town was involved in fire.

The enemy had now shouldered his way on the north of the Aisne westward
from Pinon, Laffaux, and Vregny, and had reached the highroad running
from Coucy-le-Château to Soissons. Yesterday he pressed still further
west, and the road being thus covered, as well as the roads from
Laffaux and Vailly, made a powerful direct attack upon the town.

It looked at first like being an easy success. The French, wearied with
thirty hours of unceasing combat and impossibly outnumbered, fell back,
and the Germans reached the centre of the town. In the narrow streets,
however, the effect of superior numbers largely disappeared. The
French fought fiercely from corner to corner, and at last, gathering
themselves together, swept the enemy back to the northern and eastern
suburbs. In the afternoon new German contingents were brought up and in
a few hours gained complete possession of the place.

Soissons was, of course, in no sense fortified, and, the northern and
eastern roads having been lost, it had no military value. The highway
down the valley to Compiègne is bordered by the old French trench and
wire systems and dominated by hills on either side of the river. The
range on the south bank is covered for miles by the great forests of
Villers-Cotterets and Compiègne.

[Another correspondent stated that 1,200 shells fell in Soissons on May
27. The Bishop of Soissons stated in Paris on June 7 that 100 churches
had been razed to the ground by the Germans, and that at least 100
others had been pillaged and partially demolished. The famous cathedral
in Soissons suffered severely. The Bishop added that the Germans
knew neither faith nor law. They knew nothing but war and pillage.
The Germans, he said, were stripping and carrying everything away
methodically.

The Bishop also asserted that women, children, and old men had been
brutally murdered by German aviators, who flew over and fired with
their machine guns upon long lines of refugees on country roads.]

VON HUTIER'S METHOD

Something like forty divisions, most of them the best troops available,
have now been thrown across the Aisne--400,000 men who might possibly
have reached some vital part of the allied defenses in the north.

The von Hutier method is a prodigious invention, but it is as costly
in fire and blood as it is impressive for force and speed. In the last
week of March it was, in a purely military sense, properly employed,
even though it failed, because the objective could be said to be of a
vital or decisive character.

What vital objective is there in the present operation? The central
part of the German line has been pressed a little further in the
last twenty-four hours in the obscure region of scattered hamlets,
large farms, and deep tortuous valleys, midway between the Aisne and
the Marne. It now comes nearly down to the small market towns of
Fère-en-Tardenois and Ville-en-Tardenois, thence running east-northeast
to the Vesle just outside of Rheims.

The advance is meeting ever increasing resistance, and by the time the
first week is out it will perhaps be definitely arrested. But suppose
that it goes much further and reaches the Marne Valley, or even still
further to the Montmirail Valley. Two useful highroads, with some
country towns, would be lost to the Allies in these altogether unlikely
contingencies, but nothing vital would be lost. The German Army would
be no nearer than it now is to winning the war.

A TRAIN UNDER FIRE

In an evacuation station, where a number of British were waiting for
the hospital train, the ragged fellows told me of adventures that only
their scarlet, honest faces made credible. There was a young Lieutenant
who was on a train that was sent up north yesterday toward Fismes. The
exact whereabouts of the enemy was unknown. They ran right into the
German lines.

The outposts received them with a volley of rifle shots and then came
on with grenades. The engine driver stopped the train, jumped down, and
took refuge in a ditch. While the fight waxed hotter he was induced
to return, and they managed to steam backward just in time, carrying
some wounded and three German prisoners with them. The Lieutenant's
satisfaction in this last item seemed, however, to be marred by the
impression that the Germans were not forcibly captured, but wished to
surrender.

The civilian refugees are going south in processions of farm carts,
high-ended wagons, and ancient traps, or footing it behind barrows and
perambulators. I would not speak lightly of the temporary loss of their
lands and homes, but in their ranks there was no sign of panic or fear
for the final result.

Most of them were women and children, with a few gaffers, heading a
family group or driving cows and big white oxen. Girls with umbrellas
up against the hot sun and dust clouds, little children in their Sunday
best, and old ladies in Scotch caps sat on piles of straw, amid bedding
and furniture, on high wagons. Many of the younger folks had bicycles
and many walked, with dogs and goats frisking about them.

EXTENSION OF THE BATTLE

_On May 31 Mr. Perris described the extension of the battlefront during
the preceding twenty-four hours. He wrote:_

The battlefront now forms a vast triangle, the apex pointing markedly
toward Château-Thierry and less markedly toward Dormans. The west side
runs for about fifty miles from the Oise opposite Noyon to the Marne.
The east side runs back thirty miles to Rheims.

The enemy goes on multiplying his objective and distending his lines.
The military worth of this strategy is perhaps in inverse ratio to its
shown appearance on the map.

On the opposite flanks of the battlefield the allied forces have here
been drawn slightly back from the acute salient, marked by the two
trivial points named in a previous message, Betheny and Laneuvillette.
The ruins of Rheims thus become the corner of the allied defenses on
this line. I have explained that the city lies exposed in a saucer at
the southwestern corner of the Champagne and is completely dominated by
the allied crescent of high positions on the mountains of Rheims.

FIRM ON THE FLANKS

In contrast with the further advance of the German centre, the French
and British forces on the wings are holding firm. The great highroad
from Soissons to Château-Thierry marks broadly the western limit of the
offensive.

On the northern stretch of it there was hard fighting yesterday. In the
morning the enemy crossed the road at Hartennes and attacked westward
with a number of tanks, but was checked near the hamlet of Tigny.

Further north a well-known French division made, with its traditional
spirit, a thrust westward across the road and the little River Crise
and reached the village of Noyant. It had to fall back, but here, too,
the German advance was arrested. The Compiègne road is firmly held, and
the disparity of forces is being rapidly reduced.

On the other flank of the battlefield the French and British divisions
stand across the hills on the other bank of the Ardre, a small
tributary of the Vesle, from Brouillet to Thillois, on the northern
foothills of the mountain of Rheims, whence the front runs around the
ruined city.

This French division struck out from Le Neuvillette along the canal
and captured two hummocks, called Castalliers and De Courcy. It was
a bold effort, intended to check the enemy rather than in the hope
of retaining the position. This indeed proved impossible, but the
French were slow to retire, and the lesson will not be lost upon their
adversaries.

FIGHT TO THE DEATH

The news is gradually coming in of what happened on the front,
submerged by the assault of Monday morning, (May 27.) Its most
northerly part was the low ground beside the Ailette called the Forest
of Pinon, which I described fully last Christmas, when I spent several
days with the outposts by which it was held, in conditions somewhat
reminiscent of Wild West warfare. The nearest trenches were on the
hills a mile or two behind, this ground being too marshy to dig in. In
the forest blockhouses were then being built, and were laid out while
each side raided the other across the frontier on the stream and canal.
Nothing then seemed less likely than an attack across such ground,
but preparations were being pushed forward with the idea that a few
groups of defenders would gather in and around the blockhouses and
fight a delaying action, and then, if possible, escape back to the hill
trenches.

The event turned out otherwise. When the surviving groups and outposts,
amounting in all to three battalions, got together on Monday morning
they decided to intrench themselves and to fight to the death. Carrier
pigeons brought notes from them to this effect. The last note received
was dated 2 P. M. on Tuesday. The best that can be hoped is that some
survive as prisoners.

I think it may be said that there is now no danger of a break through
toward any vital objective.

STRONGER RESISTANCE

_Mr. Perris on June 2 gave the first hint of improved aspects of the
battle in the following dispatch:_

On Friday afternoon, May 31, General von Boehm's troops opened a new
pocket beyond Oulchy of a depth of about five miles and on either side
of the Ourcq Valley yesterday. In the course of stubborn fighting this
salient was slightly extended, and at the same time a narrow bend was
added to their gains between the Oise about Pont Eveque and the Aisne
west of Soissons.

The main line of pressure was thus changed from south to southwest,
and while the rest of the new front is relatively quiet, there have
developed two bulges, which represent the acutest stress of the battle.

The first of these is between the Oise and the Aisne, directed toward
the angle of the two rivers at Compiègne; the second, midway between
the Aisne and the Marne, points westward along the Ourcq, toward the
ancient town of Laferte-Milon.

In both these fields there has been a series of violent struggles
this morning, with a notable increase of the power of resistance of
the Allies. North of the Aisne the German assaults have been nearly
everywhere broken. A slight advance by the Germans on the Ourcq has
been won at the cost of very heavy losses, and the French are standing
with splendid resolution along its small tributary, the Savieres, which
marks the border of the forest region of Villers-Cotterets.

As the enemy has reached the heights northwest of Château-Thierry,
where we watch them from the south side of the river, an attempt to
push westward along the north bank of the Marne is to be expected.

THE ADVANCE CHECKED

_On June 3 Mr Perris was more optimistic than at any time since the
battle began. He wrote as follows:_

There is a slackening in the violence of the battle. Yesterday's
fighting was the most equal I have seen in this stage of the offensive.
We lost Faverolles again--this village has since been recaptured--but
regained Hill 163, just west of the village of Passy, and broke attacks
against Corcy, Troesnes, and Torcy. It is to be expected that the
enemy will make new efforts to destroy the French bastion on the bare
plateaus between the Aisne and the Ourcq.

Local currents of fortune are also in the nature of things, according
as one side or the other decides to throw its local reserves upon this
or that point. So far as the intentions of the German command have been
revealed, however, it may now be said that the position is in hand at
the end of the first week of this third act of the German offensive.

What is the outlook? By lengthy preparation aimed at an unlikely sector
the enemy gained ground to nearly as large an extent as in the first
act. In the last week of March von Hutier pierced from St. Quentin to
Montdidier, say, thirty-five miles. In the last week von Boehm advanced
from the Ailette to Château-Thierry, about thirty miles, on a similar
length of front. It is too early to attempt comparison of the cost of
the two enterprises in losses and exhaustion.

The German staff seems to have counted on employing forty-five
divisions in the Aisne offensive. Before the end of last week this
figure had been exceeded. No essential objective has been attained,
and none has been approached as nearly as in the two northern phases
of the offensive. Concentration, not dispersal, of effort is the means
to a quick decision. If Germany were not pressed for time and could be
content with partial victories, she might be satisfied, but Germany is
decidedly pressed for time, and only decisive actions now count.

The Americans are coming into the battlefront, and will presently be
there in force. This front now extends over 200 miles. The superiority
of aggressive force given by the collapse of Russia and Rumania is
ebbing away.

FRENCH OUTNUMBERED

The question will have arisen in some minds why, if the defenses of
the Chemin des Dames were as strong as I had represented them to be,
last Monday's attack should have so quickly overcome them. Detailed
narratives are being accumulated which throw light on this subject. I
take the case of the division holding the French left a week ago. We
all remember its front, which was naturally and artificially of the
strongest. It had nearly twelve hours' notice of what was afoot.

In the first place, the German artillery preparation, though short,
was of infernal violence. The rolling barrage was two miles deep.
It destroyed the French telephone wires and filled the battery
emplacements and machine-gun posts with various kinds of poison gas.
Dust and artificial smoke clouds isolated groups of defenders and hid
the waves of assault till they broke with a four-fold superiority of
force. Many groups were thus surrounded, but fought on for a couple
of hours, causing the enemy heavy losses. Many short counterattacks
delayed advances and every line of trench wire was used.

But the next most important thing, since reinforcements could not
arrive immediately, was that the mass of the division should be held
together and drawn back gradually for the defense of more essential
positions. These lay beyond the Soissons bridgehead. Reinforced last
Tuesday night, the division defended the plateau southeast of Soissons
for four days with obstinate heroism.

AIR SUPREMACY OF ALLIES

It may now be said that the allied airmen have established decided
supremacy in the new battlefield. The Germans had a week ago, in
this as in other respects, the advantage of their preparations and
initiative, and they used it boldly, flying low in numbers, and
machine-gunning our retreating ranks.

The balance could not be instantly redressed. The airplane seems to be
the very type of mobility, but it devours petrol, demands repairs, and,
in brief, must carry its camp with it.

Every day of this critical week has seen a larger concentration between
the Oise and the Marne, and an increasing number of combats and
expeditions. The first essential was to have constant information of
the enemy's movements; and this scouting work, though less sensational
than some other parts of the air program, remains perhaps the most
important of all.

Then followed with growing vigor the development of the aggressive
functions of the air service in which it became a sort of extension of
artillery and cavalry and even of infantry. A single group in one day
brought down six boche planes and three sausages, dropped seventeen
tons of bombs in the region of Rheims, and tons on marching columns of
the enemy in the neighborhood of Ville-en-Tardenois.

"Our pilots," said a group commander, "had orders not to come back with
a single cartridge or bomb, and you may take it from me that they do
not waste their munitions on clouds."

On Thursday another group commander, receiving news that an enemy
column was stretched over three miles of a certain road, sent about
fifty machines to deal with it. They charged as a squadron of cavalry
would do, coming down to within twenty and even ten yards of the earth,
and with bombs and machine guns effectually dispersing and demoralizing
the graycoats.

Many enemy planes and sausage balloons have been brought down, but that
is in the circumstances a secondary effort. Lines of communication and
rear camps and centres of the enemy also have been harried. On Friday
no less than seventy tons and on Saturday sixty-two tons of explosives
were dropped by airmen on German bivouac troops.

IN THE MARNE VALLEY

I went down to the Marne Valley yesterday afternoon and from the edge
of a wooded hill looked across over part of the north bank where
the Germans are established. Established is hardly the word, for
everything is floating and provisional in this phase of the war, and
it is more than ever invisible except where infantry actions are in
course, because there are no fixed intrenched lines. I could not find
any trace of the enemy on the opposite amphitheatre of hills, but an
observer hanging above at the tail of a sausage balloon may have seen
something, for from time to time the French guns blazed angrily over my
head and buildings were on fire in the villages.

In this winding stretch of the valley crests rise 500 feet above the
broad, strong stream, and there are five or six miles between the two
ridges. The French have guns and machine guns in position, and any
considerable attempt to cross will be very costly.

Two hundred Germans came over yesterday morning and are now more or
less contented guests of the French Republic. But the enemy does not
seem to contemplate an immediate passage, if at all. It would probably
be tried further west at some point where the northern hills are more
dominant. The section of the important objectives appears to lie in
this direction.

Immediately behind the zone of mutual observation, all the humming
activities of arms are proceeding with a freedom unknown in the days
of trench warfare, partly because this is the nature of the war of
movement and partly because, like other services, the air squadrons
are dispersed and the German airmen cannot obtain more than local
and momentary equality. And amid all the flow of troops and guns,
the pitching of camps, the laying of field telegraphs, shifting of
hospitals and hangars, bringing up of munitions and supplies, there is
an air of calm over the whole scene that would astonish those who see
the offensive only as it is concentrated in a newspaper sheet.

FIERCE FIGHTING JUNE 3

_In his dispatch dated June 4 Mr. Perris described the fighting on the
3d, which was the last desperate attempt of the Germans to advance in
that phase. He wrote:_

The battle blazed out afresh last night along and south of the upper
Ourcq, and the struggle is raging with violence, due, in part, to the
fact that both sides have brought up many guns and in part to the
desperation of the Germans as once more they see victory slipping out
of their hands.

Tactically, the chief feature today is the attempt of the enemy to
support the attack on the Ourcq by a thrust further south along its
tributary, the Clignon, a small stream following a marshy valley
westward to the middle course of the Ourcq. There the most bitter
combats have taken place and continue about the villages of Bouresches,
Torcy, and Veuilly-la-Poterie. At the latter point the Germans tried
to get around to the southward, but were effectually stopped in the
Veuilly Wood, a mile south of the village, by Americans. In all this
fighting the enemy's losses have been very severe, for in every case we
had the best defensive positions, well supported by machine guns and
75s.

I spoke yesterday of the importance of the French stand to the
southwest of Soissons, both as limiting the enemy's access to the Aisne
Valley and as narrowing his approach to the Ourcq Valley. A slight
withdrawal to the line of the villages of Pernant, Saconin, Missy, and
Vaucastille yesterday did not materially weaken this buttress of the
front. Nor is it seriously weakened by another short withdrawal this
morning between Pernant and Missy, for which the enemy has had to pay
dearly. We still hold Tresnes and Faverolles, and the prospects of von
Boehm reaching Villers-Cotterets are not bright enough to cheer the
drooping spirits of Berlin.

AMERICANS AT WORK

Another small warning of the rising power of American arms was given
on the Marne yesterday morning, when a fresh band of machine gunners
helped a French regiment to break an attempt to cross the river.

Between the Oise and the Aisne homeric conflicts are reported from
the neighborhood of Carlepont Wood, in which the hill called Mont de
Choisy, after having been lost and recaptured five times, remains in
French hands.

In all fields, therefore, the equalization of forces produces a result
more and more favorable. The defense of Mont de Choisy is the work of
French colonials. These troops had already distinguished themselves,
particularly at Douaumont, before Verdun.

Though the pressure upon the Franco-British line from Verneuil, on the
Marne, to Rheims, has been much less severe than that on the western
flank of the offensive, it is to be noted that the enemy has some of
his best divisions in the former area.

French cavalry corps, generally dismounted, but sometimes playing their
old part, have rendered excellent service during the battle. One of
them after forming an essential element in the retreating line, had to
meet Saturday and Sunday repeated attacks conducted by four--perhaps
five--German divisions in the Malmaison and Trotte Woods, which crown
the hills northeast of Verneuil, forming the buttress of the allied
positions beyond the Marne. In the Ourcq Valley toward La Fierté-Milon
another body of dismounted cavalry had to stand against some of the
best Prussian troops, including the first division of the Guards.

ENEMY'S LONG PAUSE

_In his dispatch dated June 5 Mr. Perris noted that a marked pause had
fallen on the battlefield. His comment was this:_

The pause in the enemy's adventure is a sign of weakness on his
part and of advantage to us. Germany is fighting against time. The
superiority she gained from the east is passing. The power of surprise
has been her greatest asset. After that everything depends for her on
speed in the exploitation of her success, and every delay is loss.

The next thing to remark is the great skill with which General Foch
has pursued what may be called his provisional Fabian strategy. With
surprise and superior reserves in the hands of the enemy, he had to
face a situation of extreme difficulty. To weaken other parts of the
front prematurely in order to defend the Aisne would have invited a
fresh blow in those other parts.

Two needs rose supreme--that of economizing men so as to hasten the
day when the Allies should have the superiority of forces necessary to
victory, and that of barring the road of the enemy toward every vital
objective. These objects have been attained, and if it should turn out
that the third act of the offensive is finished, this will mean that,
with all the unquestionable ability and daring of the German General
Staff, Foch has beaten them for the third time in the two and a half
months of their maximum power.

In any case, nothing of first-class importance has been lost. The
allied front has not been broken. The roads to Paris, toward which
the offensive was turned on the third day, are blocked. The ruins of
Rheims are nearly indefensible, but the road to Châlons is barred. The
plateaus between the Oise and the Aisne and between the Aisne and the
Ourcq stand like bastions of a vast fortress. Château-Thierry is lost,
and the eastern railway and the high road are locally interrupted, but
the Marne and the Paris road beside it are covered.

Finally, the enemy has engaged fifty divisions of his reserves in this
battle, and many of them have suffered very heavily.

AT CHATEAU-THIERRY

The attempt of part of the German 36th Division to cross the Marne at
Jaulgonne was frustrated brilliantly by the Americans and French. It
appears that a few men succeeded in getting across the river Thursday
night [May 30] at this point, eight miles east of Château-Thierry,
where the Marne makes a loop by the north.

They took shelter in the cutting and tunnel of the Paris-Châlons
railway, which runs along the south bank, and though they lost
seriously and their pontoons were destroyed, they got reinforcements
over to the strength of a battalion.

An attack to clear them out was, therefore, organized, and this
took place Sunday night, [June 2.] By that time the Germans had put
twenty-two light bridges across the stream, of which four had been
smashed by the French artillery, and had established a bridgehead with
six machine guns and a hundred men in the railway station on the south
bank opposite Jaulgonne.

This post was frontally attacked by a section of dismounted cavalry
who, however, were held up by machine-gun fire until American machine
guns came into action. Two sections of French infantry simultaneously
fell upon the bridgehead and the Germans broke before them.

The prisoners, of whom there are a hundred, declare that their officers
abandoned them at the beginning of the attack. A few men escaped by
swimming, and thirty or forty others gained the northern bank by the
pontoon boats. The rest of the battalion was wiped out.

The German losses in the action at the bridge of Château-Thierry were
severe. It is estimated that a thousand bodies lay by and near the
bridge, and the American machine gunners fired tens of thousands of
cartridges.

HOW THE BATTLE BEGAN

_In his dispatches on June 2 and June 5 Mr. Perris gave these further
details of how the battle began:_

As further details which I have received of their part in the beginning
of the battle clearly show, these divisions, the 50th, 8th, 21st, and
25th, were, it will be remembered, tired from bitter and repeated
actions in the course of the northern offensive. They had been on the
front only seventeen days when last Monday's attack was made, and
therefore had hardly had time to become thoroughly acquainted with the
sector. The main force of the enemy assault fell on the front of the
50th and 8th Divisions, against whom there were four German divisions
in line and two more in immediate reserve. The odds against the British
on this day were two and a half to one.

The 50th Division on the left was doing well on the Craonne Plateau,
when in the course of the morning they suddenly found that the enemy
was behind them. Owing to this surprise, the neighboring brigade of the
50th Division suffered badly.

By afternoon General Fritz von Below's men had got to the line of
the river, and in the evening the British were back at Guyencourt.
By Wednesday evening they held a large crescent around Fismes from
Lopeigne on the west through Coulanges and Lagery back to the Vesle at
Muizon. By this time the fighting strength of the British units was
greatly reduced, but reinforcements were coming up and the worst of the
crisis was over. The full story of the splendid episode can hardly yet
be told, but some day it will shine among the greatest achievements of
the war.

Some time must yet elapse ere we can know fully and exactly what
occurred on the Chemin des Dames at and after 4 A. M. on May 27. Many
of the combatants have died a martyr's death and been buried by alien
hands where they fell. Many more will long languish in prisoners'
camps; but the remnants of some regiments have now come down from the
front to rest, and by piecing together the narratives of these weary
men it is possible to make the first outline of the story that will one
day be told in all its pitifulness and terror.

One of them is the French infantry regiment which had long held the
central sector of this front. For this last trial it had been prepared
by months of trench raiding and strengthening its defenses. Submerged
by a storm of fire and poison gas and by wave upon wave of assault,
it went down in a single morning, fighting the hopeless fight to the
bitter end. A small number lived to cross the Aisne in the afternoon,
and these had to continue the struggle for four days and nights,
practically without respite. Few are those, even in this war, who have
survived such agony.

They were warned, and, so far as their local means allowed,
were prepared for the attack. Gas masks, machine guns, grenade
stores--everything was ready. The order was to hold ground between the
second and third positions or to die in the effort, and it was carried
out. It was to be expected that the telephone wires would be cut.
There remained carrier pigeons. A rolling barrage two miles deep and
of indescribable violence extinguished the poor efforts of the local
batteries to reply. Thick clouds of artificial smoke, gas, and dust
shrouded the assault, so that rocket signals were not seen at the rear
and the enemy was invisible till he reached the parapets.

The line was almost immediately broken and the battle became a struggle
of isolated groups, heavily outnumbered without the possibility of
reinforcement, defending scraps of broken trench dugouts or quarries
and still resisting long after the main tide of the conflict had passed
south.

A copy lies before me of messages dated from 3:30 to 8:30 A. M. and
sent back from these isolated groups by pigeon. No words could be so
eloquent as their laconic brevity. When permission to retreat was given
some officers refused to avail themselves of it.

The Colonel, with his staff papers, crossed the Aisne at 10 A. M. and
organized the defense of the passage. The survivors of the regiment
were re-formed on the south bank, and on the following day received
a reinforcement of men, bringing it up to a quarter of its original
strength. This handful had to meet the heavy attack southwest of
Soissons on May 29, and a series of attacks on the following two days.
No more was humanly possible, and they were withdrawn. They say that
not a man had uttered a complaint.

BATTLE OF THE OISE

_A fourth phase of the German offensive opened June 9 on a front of 20
miles between Noyon and Montdidier, which Mr. Perris describes thus:_

A new phase of the German offensive opened this morning at 4:30 o'clock
on a front of about twenty miles, extending from Montdidier to Noyon.
The artillery preparation, which again was rich in gas shells, began
at midnight, and covered not only the front, but a deep zone behind
it, especially villages and roads where the enemy thought to catch the
French local reserves.

There were evident reasons for the choice of this sector, and in
particular for seeking control of part of it, for a successful push
south along the line of the Roye-Compiègne railway would add another
converging road to the four roads leading toward Paris by the Oise,
Aisne, Ourcq, and Marne Valleys, which had already been tried. On the
other hand, the enemy could not reasonably hope for any such surprise
as was obtained in the first act of the offensive before St. Quentin
and in the third act of that on the Chemin des Dames.

In general, the French are resisting with dogged courage in their
covering positions, which are beyond range of the enemy mine throwers.
Evidence accumulates of the heaviness of the German losses in the
recent fighting and of the disappearance of the shallow enthusiasm with
which the offensive was begun.

_In describing the progress of this assault Mr. Ferris wrote on
June 10:_

The front of the attack was twenty miles in length, as compared with a
front of thirty miles in the attack on the Chemin des Dames and fifty
miles in the first phase of the offensive on March 21, and so far it is
only on the central half of this smaller front that any considerable
impression has been made on the French lines.

Whatever may have been the exact design, there had not been this time
the same extreme scruple to conceal troop movements, and for some days
past the exceptional traffic of convoys, the suspicious activity of the
enemy batteries in the correction of ranges and other signs had given
warning of what was afoot.

HEAVIER GERMAN LOSSES

One consequence was that, when the German infantry advanced yesterday
morning, it had to meet a volume of fire very different from that
which had answered the surprises of St. Quentin and the Aisne Heights.
French gunners had thoroughly studied the ground before them and were
all ready to deluge every path of approach directly that graycoat
waves appeared. From the beginning, therefore, the German losses have
been heavier than on the earlier occasions, and this must affect the
development of the action.

In other respects the now familiar von Hutier manoeuvre appears to
have been repeated, shock battalions carrying light machine guns
and machine rifles concentrating upon local breaches in our line and
leaving the task of cleaning up islands of resistance to the support
troops while they pressed on rapidly to exploit the first success. It
will probably be found that the operation was begun with about fifteen
divisions in the line, approximately 150,000 men, giving a density of
one division to a mile and a third.

Faced with a force superior in all arms, long resistance of the first
line is impossible, but it is significant that at 8 o'clock yesterday
morning, that is after four hours of a terrible storm of gas and
explosive shells, followed by four hours of hand-to-hand struggle, our
allies were still in a large part of the field fighting within what
is called the zone of advanced posts, and only the centre had fallen
back on the zone of principal resistance. Plemont Hill, overlooking
Lassigny, was still holding out at that hour, although the front had
lain immediately beneath it. The villages of Le Fretoy and Courcelles
were lost during the morning, but were recovered by counterattacks, in
which the French troops showed the highest spirit.

Up to late last night the only result that von Hutier could regard as
in any degree justifying the effort made and the losses suffered was
the capture of the villages of Ressons-sur-Matz and Mareuil-la-Motte,
whereas on the French left before Ribecourt, by Le Tretoy to
Courcelles, and on the right from Belval to Cannectancourt, the advance
varied from one to two miles. At the centre it rather exceeded three.

This is a poor gain, judged by precedent, and was bought at an
exorbitant price, but it has a certain tactical and perhaps superior
consequence.

_Later on June 10 Mr. Perris gave this further description of the
progress of the fighting:_

"This is the real battle," said a French staff officer, meaning to
contrast today's fierce fighting between forces unequal indeed, but
not crushingly so, with the attack on the Chemin des Dames. Here the
French had a stronger line, their reserves were nearer, and they
had sufficient notice to bring their batteries at every point into
effective action. Effective, do I say? At many points it was a massacre
of the columns of assault, and there is unanimity as well among the
prisoners as among our own combatants that the ranks of the enemy have
been torn and plowed with shot and shell. Never, perhaps, has the
German Army paid so dearly for an advance which nowhere exceeds five
miles.

This is the essential fact which governs all that follows; for if, as
the German official press says with a measure of truth, the German
objective is not a city or a port, but the complete destruction of the
allied armies, so our objective is not to hold a certain geographical
area, but to punish the advance so that the enemy forces will be
exhausted, while ours are being constantly recruited from oversea for
the last stroke that will give us the victory.

The smallness of the enemy's gains in this fourth phase of the grand
battle is merely the sign that von Hutier found across his path an
adversary prepared as far as was humanly possible, determined and able
to contest every yard of ground.

Thus the village of Courcelles, only two miles from the old front, was
lost, retaken, lost again, recovered, and remains in the hands of the
French. Thus Plemont, a position insignificant as compared with the
Aisne Heights, although encircled and covered with fire, was being
defended till last evening. Since then no carrier pigeon has come in,
and it must be presumed that the heroic handful of men who held this
point of the front have been overcome. Their countrymen will not forget
them.

The Turning Point of the Battle

By WALTER DURANTY

[Copyrighted]

_The turning point of the great battle came on June 11, when the French
delivered a desperate counterblow south of Montdidier and drove the
Germans back from the Aronde River, regaining important ground along a
front of seven and one-half miles, and capturing 1,000 prisoners and
many heavy guns. This phase of the struggle is described by Walter
Duranty, another special correspondent, whose dispatch is copyrighted
for_ CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE. _It is dated June 11, 1918._

As the battle continues it seems that the second week of June will
rank as one of the bloodiest and most decisive periods in the world's
history.

It is the veritable climax of four years of struggle. In the last
twenty-four hours the violence of the fighting has increased still
further. The limit of human endurance has been forced yet another notch
higher. Along a front of nearly twenty miles the Germans are driving
more than a quarter of a million men forward through a sea of blood.
The defenders say that it is as though the whole of the German Army
is engaged against them; no sooner is one battalion annihilated than
another takes its place, and another and another.

Early yesterday morning a handful of dismounted cavalry, greatly
employed for liaison work, fought their way back to the French lines
from the surrounded hill of Plemont. They reported that the survivors
of the French battalion occupying the position were still holding out
when they left, and that no less than fourteen attacks had already been
repulsed.

CARPETED WITH DEAD

The grassy slopes of the hill bore a hideous carpet of thousands of
German dead, over which new forces still advanced with the same madness
of sacrifice as the Carthaginians of old, flinging their children,
their possessions, and themselves into Moloch's furnace. The bloody
religion of militarism that Germany has followed for forty years has
led its votaries to culminating orgies of destruction.

But the defenders are not appalled by the fury of the struggle, nor by
numbers. Each position is held until every foot of ground has been paid
for by German blood. Again and again a swift counterattack, delivered
at the right moment, has wrested from the assailant the fruits of the
success he won so dearly and forced him to pay a toll of lives twice
over. In the villages thus retaken, the poilus say, gray-clad corpses
lay heaped up as though they had been collected for a gigantic funeral
pyre, and more than once the advancing enemy was screened from the
defenders' fire by a rampart of his own dead.

The general situation of the battle has changed little. In the centre
the French have retired slightly. On the left also there is a southward
bulge in the line. The right is still held by a wooded massif above
Drelincourt. On the right the towers of Noyon Cathedral could just be
distinguished. To the left smoke haze marked Lassigny, half hidden in a
hollow. It was a natural fortress with an infinity of cover for guns,
men, and machine guns against which no fury of sacrifice might prevail.
Well may the Germans try to turn that grim salient by an advance
further south in the centre--clearly their immediate objective. They
held it once before last year's retreat and they know its strength.

As I returned from the observation post I passed through a great
natural amphitheatre in a sort of mountain. At one side the Germans
had carved a huge eagle, colored blood red, on a slab of rock above
a grotto that had been their headquarters. Beneath it in Gothic
letters was the Brandenburg motto, "On, Brandenburg, on!" The artist
who designed the bird that is the symbol of German violence was well
inspired. The Kaiser's eagles are red, indeed, clotted and stained from
beak to claw with the crimson of countless slaughters.

The latest information from the battlefront emphasizes still more
clearly the difference between the results of the new German method
of attack when applied on a weakly held sector and a front where the
allied strength is normal. On two previous occasions Hindenburg's storm
divisions gained sensational success right from the outset by literally
swamping small forces by sheer weight after the defenders had been
half-stunned by the terrific bombardment to which their inferiority of
artillery permitted no adequate response.

Conditions are very different today. In the first place there was no
strategic surprise--the German move in this sector had been foreseen.
The utmost vigilance was everywhere maintained, and unmistakable signs,
such as the movement of troops, convoys, and artillery registration,
had been carefully noted. Precautions to meet the shock had been taken.
Against attack in depth by successive waves a depth defense had been
planned, with a front line of thinly held outposts to minimize loss,
and successive lines of greater strength extending back for kilometers.

When the German artillery storm broke out it was answered by a perfect
hurricane of French fire. Not only was every possible point where
the enemy troops might advance or batteries be hidden thoroughly
registered, but artillery held in reserve had its guns trained on
targets offered further in the rear by each hill, wood, or valley that
the enemy might assail as a vantage point or medium for infiltration.

The consequence has been that, in direct contradiction to the former
drives, the enemy's initial losses have been enormous and his gains
small; and the French losses were greatly decreased. Above all, there
has been no penetration of the line of resistance. In places it bulged
slightly under pressure, but only at the price of the most dogged
fighting and heavy sacrifice, and withal very slowly. One fact marks
the difference sufficiently:

HOW THEY WERE CHECKED

On May 27 the Germans had reached the Aisne--seven kilometers from
the starting point, across difficult country--in four and one-half
hours after the attack. In the first thirty hours of the present
attack they had barely passed thinly held outposts. Along the whole
thirty-kilometer front, from the Oise to Assainvillers--somewhat
shorter than the area of bombardment--fifteen to twenty assaulting
divisions were met by a galling machine-gun barrage and the terrible
"75" fire curtain from quick-firers and batteries. Irreplaceable
storm troops, whose training had taken months and whose existence was
essential to the continuance of Hindenburg's new strategy, melted like
snow beneath the August sun.

At Plemont--the scene of one of the most gallant actions in the
checking of the March drive by the men of the same army--the Germans
met a stubborn resistance, though their dead lay there thick as
fresh-cut wheat but a few hundred yards beyond the line of outposts.
Even in the centre, where the enemy's progress was deepest, an unbroken
line of defense was constituted by the same troops that had withstood
the attack from the beginning. Their spirit and numbers were still
sufficient, though the Germans opposing them had sent forward fresh
storm troops in wave after wave.

Mr. Perris's Description of the French Counterblow

_The French counterblow described above by Mr. Duranty was of great
importance in changing the entire aspect of affairs for the Allies. Mr.
Perris, in a dispatch dated June 12, gave these further particulars:_

Faces that wore a serious expression yesterday morning are decidedly
cheerful today. The battle has, in fact, taken a better turn. It is a
very dreadful struggle; no Frenchman can forget that fact, and in the
fever of weighing and measuring results more distant observers should
not for a moment overlook what they mean in flesh and blood. That being
said, we may join in the satisfaction of our allies that on its third
day the German onset has suffered a distinct check.

Following the front from west to east, the first thing to note is the
series of French counterattacks on the left, carried to a considerable
measure of success by skill in the direction and high spirit and
fortitude in the ranks.

At 11 A. M. yesterday a movement began from a little east of the
railway line between Domfront and Wacquemoulin. The infantry were
supported by tanks, and along the whole line the Germans were swept
back. A French contingent actually reached points which were within the
German front. The French advance went well beyond Rubescourt and Le
Fretoy, half way between Courcelles and Mortemer, and between Mery and
Couvilly, beyond Belloy, and to the border of St. Maur.

Meanwhile the enemy had delivered a very powerful blow at the French
centre and had driven a way, despite vigorous opposition, as far as the
village of Antheuil, two miles south of the Matz. At 4 P. M. a further
counterattack was therefore made from the French left centre, and the
enemy advance was completely arrested. In these combats a certain
amount of confusion was apparent in the German ranks, and the fact that
1,000 prisoners and some cannon were taken speaks eloquently. This was
not the heaviest punishment. Eyewitnesses say that German corpses strew
the battlefield in piles.

Three critical days of the offensive have then given the enemy at the
cost of enormous losses a not very magnificent result. We now know
that the program was to reach Compiègne on the second day. General von
Hutier must be greatly disappointed.

The attack was begun with fourteen divisions, at full strength, in the
line. They included at the centre divisions of the Prussian Guard and
four other crack divisions. About twice as many divisions have now been
thrown into this battle, ten already holding the sector and the rest
being fresh reserves.

These figures may be measured by the fact that the total German forces
in the west amount to 207 divisions, and that of these before the
offensive only sixty-two were in the general reserve, the rest being
engaged on the front. The more we consider in the light of material
considerations like these what the German command essayed and what it
has accomplished the more we shall appreciate the valor of the French
armies and the qualities of their chiefs; and it is impossible to do
justice to either without such reflection.

FRENCH HOLD GAINS

_On June 12 Mr. Perris reported that the French were holding their
gains and gave these further details of the counterattack the day
before:_

The French lines hold all the way round from the important position
of Mery Plateau by the hamlets of St. Maur and Antheuil to Marest
and Chevincourt. Time after time, last night and this morning, the
gray-coated masses of General von Hutier came on, only to be mowed down
by waves of fire from the 75s and machine guns, and their remnants
dispersed with bayonet and grenade.

Yesterday's French counterattacks met great bodies of the enemy
prepared to force another advance. Four divisions were found to be
ranged in a space of two miles. Hence the frightful intensity of the
combat and the abnormal slaughter.

The French tanks did very good service, and fleets of airplanes,
British as well as French, swept down upon the battlefield before and
behind our infantry, dropping bombs and raining down volleys of bullets
wherever a group of enemy soldiers was seen. The numerical inferiority
of the French was thus made good.

The block of wooded hills was very difficult to defend, even if the
enemy had got no further than Mareuil. The woods prevented long views
and open fields of fire; the deep ravines invited infiltrations; the
Oise Valley at the back left supply and relief columns open to the
German guns, and the Matz Valley, on the west, was the plain path of
envelopment. These are the reasons why this corner was not held longer.

Among the wheat and beet fields of the gently rolling plateau further
west, on the other hand, the defense had more advantage. There are
folds of ground enough to hide its batteries and reserves, but in
every direction there are open lines of fire, room for manoeuvre and
numerous railroads. Striking northeast from the Estrées Railway, the
French threaten the German centre.

To continue the southward march, even if it were possible, before this
pressure on the west had been disposed of would be reckless. Hutier has
met his match.

[Illustration: First parade of United States National Army men in
London. The photograph shows them rounding the corner at Hyde Park

[Illustration: General Philipot of the French Army decorating American
officers who distinguished themselves in opposing the German advance in
Picardy

(_French Pictorial Service_)]

THE COMPIEGNE THRUST

_On June 13 General von Hutier made a threatening thrust toward
Compiègne, which was parried by the French and was practically the
termination of further serious efforts in this phase by the Germans.
Mr. Perris tells the story of it as follows:_

South of the Aisne the high, bare farmlands extending from Soissons
to the borders of the forest of Compiègne are cut by a valley running
up from the other great forest of Villers-Cotterets to the river at
Ambleny. This valley, with the villages of Laversine, Coeuvre, Cutry,
Dommiers, and St. Pierre-Aigle, has constituted the front for the last
fortnight, with French outposts on the east side, but the real line of
resistance on the west.

Von Hutier having met with trouble beyond his expectations on the west
of the Oise, his colleague, von Boehm, was sent yesterday morning to
create a diversion on this flank of the battlefield. Five divisions,
two of them fresh ones, were thrown forward on both sides of Laversine,
a front of four miles.

Though outnumbered, the French have given a fine account of themselves,
breaking repeated assaults of the enemy, who is reported to have
got into the villages of Coeuvre and St. Pierre, a feat more than
counterbalanced by the French advance at Damard, further south on the
border of Villers-Cotterets Forest, and the admirable action of the
Americans on the ground recently taken by them in Clignon Valley.

This, however, is not the best sign for the fifth day of the offensive.
Von Hutier's thrust from the north toward Compiègne was by far the most
threatening of the numerous lines of attack the German command has now
opened. It has been brought to a stop by reactions of the French left
and centre, and was this morning contained, as we may hope definitely,
from the Mery Plateau and along the course of the Matz.

ENEMY'S FEVERISH HASTE

The feverish haste with which the enemy's attacks are multiplied as the
field of the offensive is enlarged, speaks eloquently of the conscious
need to bring the grand adventure to a speedy climax. But this haste
involves heavy moral as well as numerical usury. Instead of a full
normal period for refilling and new equipment, including rest at the
rear, or in a quiet sector, and a course of fresh training being given
to a division withdrawn from the line owing to its losses, it is
hurriedly reconstituted and pushed back into the battlefront after as
few days as possible.

Up to now the German armies have been sustained, not only by
reinforcements from Russia, but by the long rest of the Winter months;
otherwise they could not have accomplished what they have done.
These sources of strength are being rapidly exhausted. The human
material--cannon food--is failing in quality. The field depots have
been emptied of recruits. Men from the depots in Germany are rushed
to the front. Cavalry officers are dismounted to fill gaps in the
infantry. Men detached for special work are called back to their units,
and still the war god is unsatisfied.

Incorporation of the 1920 class began in April and May. Miners and
mechanics are again turned into the fighting ranks, ill as they can be
spared from industry. It is probable that not a division has been left
in the east that would be fit for the western front. Wounded men and
invalids imperfectly cured are pressed back into service. And behind
the armies thus replenished there is the nation, hungry, enfeebled,
terrorized, uttering words of despair even in its letters to the front.
Ludendorff may well hurry!

DEFENSE OF COURCELLES

A very brief diary of the battle at a single point will give an idea of
its bitter violence. The small village of Courcelles lies across the
chief road of the western wing of the offensive, only about two miles
from its starting point with the Montdidier-Estrées railway, and the
same distance behind it. For these reasons, and because it stands on
a spur of the Mery Plateau, it was certain to be a hardly contested
position.

On Sunday morning, June 9, taking advantage of the cover afforded by
broad fields of well-grown wheat, the Germans came up the slope from
Rollot and rushed the village. At 9:40 the French re-formed and retook
it, capturing 200 men and four officers. Forty minutes later a new wave
was brought up from the north, but was thrown back. Some storm troops,
however, got around by the rear. These were in turn repulsed.

Several hours passed in which the three streets of broken houses were
put in order for a siege. At 3 P. M. a fresh attack was repulsed.
Later in the afternoon the German success at Mery and Belloy resulted
in Courcelles being beset on three sides, only a narrow alley of
communication to the west remaining open.

The defenders now had their blood up. The reserves would soon arrive.
This western flank of the battle was of the utmost importance. It had
become a point of honor that the village should not be lost.

At 4:40 A. M. on Monday, after a preparatory bombardment, the next blow
fell. In ten minutes its failure was evident, though the fighting
about the barbed wire continued for an hour. Three more assaults
followed in the afternoon and evening. In the last of these some
Germans got into the village, but they were at last driven out.

On Tuesday the heroes of this splendid defense reaped the only reward
they desired. The great French counterattack definitely freed their
little fortress.

TABLES TURNED

This time it was the turn of the French to win the benefits of
initiative and surprise. Only a quarter of an hour was given to the
French artillery for its preparation work. Tanks and infantry then went
forward in alternate lines. An officer describes the advance of the
tanks rolling over the green wheatfields, while shells burst around
them, as having the appearance of a battle at sea.

The allied airmen, swooping above the moving line, not only sowed death
in the enemy's ranks with their machine guns, but also raced forward
and dropped bombs with effect on heavy batteries in the rear, killing
their crews and putting the guns out of action.

In some enemy units during this battle the men fought well. In others
there have been unmistakable signs of demoralization. Such inequalities
are not surprising in this crisis. The total superiority of force which
a few months ago was enough to have terrified us, and which is still
sufficiently serious to require every effort that can be put forth, is
ebbing away.

End of Fourth Phase--Two Expert Views

_All correspondents on June 14 united in the conclusion that the
counterblows of the Allies and the brilliant reaction of the French
from Courcelles to Mery ended the fourth phase of the great German
offensive. Mr. Perris summed up the situation as follows on June 14:_

The front has subsided into actions of no more than local importance.
The five days' battle west of the Oise has ended for the Germans, after
an advance varying from two to six miles, in a very costly reverse,
and for the Allies in a brilliant success of good generalship and
indomitable spirit in the ranks.

Beside the losses of the enemy, the French loss of the Thiescourt hills
and the wooded part of the valley opposite is of little importance.
The offensive which was to give a decision against them is far from
finished, but in relation to the resistance it encounters it shows a
falling, not a rising, gamut of power.

The first push toward Amiens ended in ten days, having entailed upon
the Allies the sacrifice of a tract forty miles deep and serious
casualties. The following attack in the north lasted about as long, but
with much slighter gains. The German success on the Chemin des Dames
brought the Crown Prince's vanguard to the Marne, twenty-five miles
from its starting point, but that it touched much less vital ground is
proved by the transfer of its centre of pressure to the Ourcq Valley
near Villers-Cotterets.

From these results to those of the present week's fighting there is a
marked descent, and this failure occurs in what must be accounted one
of the most critical directions the enemy can pursue. The ambitious
character of his design is now clear. It is not merely to divide the
British from the French army and then destroy one of them, but also by
a single series of converging operations to destroy them both.

His approach to Amiens as the centre of their joint communications
and to Hazebrouck as the door to the Channel ports has been followed
by an approach along four converging lines to the region of Paris,
the centre of French administrative life. In fact, the attainment of
all these objectives would not end the war, for I am sure there is
in France, and there probably is in the other countries concerned, a
deadly resolution that it shall not be ended in any such way; that, if
Paris should be destroyed--which heaven forfend--another capital shall
be found, and that there shall be no surrender while there is an army
on its legs.

This offensive has had two aims--to reach the crescent north and east
of Paris, whence a general attack could be launched, and to draw down,
disperse, and harry the allied reserves preparatory to the final
"Kaiserschlacht," the crowning blow along the whole line. Its relative
failure is a great encouragement.

PETAIN'S MASTERLY TACTICS

_Walter Duranty, in reviewing the fourth phase of the offensive, sent
the following cable dispatch to_ THE NEW YORK TIMES _on June 13:_

It has been said that the secret of Pétain's rise in three years from
the position of Colonel to Commander in Chief of the French armies
is his knowledge of when to launch counterattacks. The ability to
select the right place and time for a sudden stroke which nullifies
the enemy's gains has been the attribute of great captains throughout
history, and is one of the cardinal bases of successful strategy. In
that one word, counterattacks, lies the explanation of the triumphant
French resistance in the present battle against vastly superior
numbers--that and the indomitable courage of the defenders.

The master tactician commanding the army whose sector has been assailed
has so imbued his subordinates with his own principles that there is
hardly a position in the whole range of operations that the Germans
have not been forced to take two or three times over. For it is not
only the counter-stroke on a grand scale, like that which has won
back nearly all the Germans' gains on the left wing, which counts in
a struggle of this kind, where the losses inflicted on the enemy are
far more important than a hill or a village saved or abandoned. It is
the unexpected change from defense to attack, at the psychological
moment, that has maintained the spirit of the French troops and smashed
their weakened assailants just as they were thinking their success was
assured.

As the situation stands today [June 13] the Allies have won a great
victory in one of the hardest fought battles of the war, and a
carefully planned move in Hindenburg's desperate struggle against time
has been met and nullified. The Germans have also learned to their cost
that the American troops are already to be counted with. The enemy,
whose morale is daily weakening under the strain of non-successes and
never-ending calls upon his strength, has received a bitter reminder of
the American menace, which more than any other factor is responsible
for his convulsive striving after a speedy decision.

[M. Tardieu, in a cablegram June 18 to the French High Commission at
Washington, stated that 80,000 Germans had been put out of action in
the Noyon-Montdidier offensive, and that General von Hutier had failed
completely to realize his objective--the capture of Compiègne.]

Austrians at Grips With Italians

By AUSTIN WEST

[Copyright, 1918, by THE NEW YORK TIMES Company and CURRENT HISTORY
MAGAZINE]

[SEE MAP OF ITALIAN FRONT, PAGE 15]

_An offensive was launched June 15, 1918, by the Austrians against the
Italians with an army estimated to number 1,000,000 men. The attack
was on a front from the Asiago Plateau to the sea, a distance of
ninety-seven miles. The course of the struggle in the first four days
indicated the failure of the drive. The details of the earlier stages
of the battle are given herewith._

According to statements of prisoners, the Austrian objectives on the
first day of the attack were Bassano, eight miles down the Brenta, and
Treviso, eight miles west of the Piave. The attack along the Piave from
the Venetian lagoons to Montello was aimed at possession of the main
roads leading to Montebelluna, Treviso, and Mestre, five miles west of
Venice, thereby cutting off Venice and thrusting toward the heart of
the Venetian Plain.

In the meantime General Conrad von Hoetendorf's armies from Monte
Grappa to Asiago were to sweep down upon Asolo and Bassano to prevent
the retreat of the 3d Italian Army from the Piave and complete the
march of invasion from the north.

Austria's hopes and aims are reflected very strikingly in an Order
of the Day, dated June 14, compiled from Field Marshal Boroevic's
proclamation and circulated among the troops of the 3d Regiment over
Commander Mitteregger's signature. A copy has just fallen into Italian
hands. It runs as follows:

From the Adige to the Adriatic the Austrian Army descends into the
field against Italy. All the forces and all the material of the
monarchy are for the first time massed against one single enemy as
the outcome of preparations begun many months ago. Tomorrow the
Italian command will learn this tremendous news from the mouths of
our guns. The entire Italian front will be attacked, and to free
himself from our iron grip, which will encircle his whole front,
the enemy would be obliged to engage reserves far vaster than
those at his disposal.

From trench warfare we shall pass to that of movement and shall
occupy a country abounding in victuals and stores of every sort.
Let us therefore press forward resolutely toward the City of
Verona, where a century ago the august founder of our regiment
stood victor against the combined armies of France and Italy.

Today, (June 17,) nevertheless, after forty-eight hours of fighting,
the enemy still is held upon his first lines.

The British forces regained all the positions they held on the eve
of the battle. The French contingents southeast of Asiago on Turcio
Road recaptured Pennar in a bayonet charge and drove the Austrians
back far beyond their starting point. Counterattacking at Cornone, our
allies stopped effectually the enemy's dash toward Valstagna and took
500 prisoners. Fenilon and Moschin Mountains, overlooking the Brenta
Valley, which the enemy overwhelmed in his first onrush, have also
been retaken at the point of the bayonet, with 200 prisoners and forty
machine guns.

Along the Piave enemy masses concentrated, chiefly on the eastern
slopes on Montello and west of San Dona. In both districts passage
across the river was facilitated by a heavy rain of tear shells and
smoke bombs, and amid the smoke pontoons and rafts were taken down
to the water's edge. Three divisions got across from Colfosco and
Ilas, fronting Nervesa, but they were hemmed around at the foot of
Montello, at Fagare and Zenson, where the Austrians had penetrated some
way ahead. The Italians, after thrusting them from the latter place,
encircled some detachments in the river bend.

Croce Village, west of San Dona, was rewon and lost twice over, and
now rests in the possession of Italian bombardiers, Bersagliere, and
cyclist corps. But the best stroke of luck on the Piave occurred in
the Saletto sector. Taking advantage of numerous islets at this point,
where the river is nearly two miles wide, one Hungarian battalion of
the 96th Regiment had safely crossed, and was being quickly followed by
another. Italian gunfire smashed its boats, flinging the occupants into
the water. Many were carried away and drowned in the rapid currents,
while over a thousand survivors, including a Lieutenant Colonel,
a Major, and thirty other officers, out of the haul of 3,000 odd
prisoners taken during the day, were made captives by the Italians at
that spot.

The Austrians employed such a large amount of gases that the whole
battleline was enveloped in dense, impenetrable clouds. Fortunately,
a heavy rain fell in that region, which lessened to some extent the
effects of the gases.

The Italians fought fiercely with great dash, glad to get at the enemy
after so many months of forced inactivity and with an intense desire to
regain the country desecrated by the enemy's invasion.

The Austrians kept the Italians under deadly fire, especially aiming
at their second lines, to prevent the arrival of reinforcements. This
bombardment has small effect in the mountains, as, owing to the limited
number of men one can employ at one time, these are able to protect
themselves in dugouts excavated in the solid rock.

Snow, which is still lying on the mountains, is heaped up into immense
mounds by the bombardment. Italian troops, clothed in white overalls
to prevent their being seen against the whiteness, slowly advanced to
engage the enemy in hand-to-hand fighting.

Despite the rain, the work accomplished by the English and Italian
aviators was above praise. Flying low over the enemy troops, they
brought confusion and terror into their midst, intrepidly engaging the
Austrians in aerial combats, and bringing down in twelve hours many
enemy planes, while also collecting invaluable military information.
The English and French contingents co-operated with the Italians in
perfect accord and a splendid spirit of camaraderie.

Except for lack of secrecy, the Austrians organized this supreme effort
of theirs better than might have been expected. It was well planned
and resolutely delivered. The credit due the Italians is all the
greater for repulsing it completely in many places, containing it in
others, and nowhere allowing it to break through.

The sector on which the enemy gained most ground is on the Piave.
There the Austrians made three principal crossings of the river and
established three bridgeheads or salients into the original Italian
line.

To make this possible they blinded the Italian artillery and airplanes
by using great quantities of smoke shells which covered the river and
the Italian trenches on its bank with a dense black fog. Thus hidden,
the Austrian patrols hurried across the water in boats and on rafts
under no more than a random fire from the defense.

Having reached the western bank they pulled pontoon bridges across
and pushed reinforcements rapidly forward. The most notable of these
crossings was the enemy's penetration in the Montello sector, the
position which the British forces held all last Winter.

This sector is the hinge between the mountain and the Piave sectors;
it stands at the angle where the Piave leaves the mountains and enters
the Venetian Plain. It is an isolated hog's back, 700 feet high in the
middle and seven and a half miles long, running almost east and west,
with the foot of its northern and eastern slopes washed by the river,
its surface undulating, dotted with farms and little woods--an unusual
feature--crossed from north to south by no fewer than twenty-four
roads. The value of Montello to the enemy would have been that it would
dominate from the flank and rear all the Italian positions defending
the line of the Piave in the dead flat plain to the south.

The British, after reconquering the advanced positions, momentarily
abandoned on June 15 with a view of strengthening the line, not only
resisted all Austrian attempts, but counterattacked in a fashion that
caused an Italian superior officer to remark: "They are slamming the
gates of Italy in the face of the invader."

_In a dispatch on June 19 Mr. West recorded the fact that the enemy,
while maintaining pressure on the mountain front and Montello district,
was redoubling his efforts on the Piave especially west of San Dona.
The dispatch continues:_

The Austrian hold of the last-named vicinity, also in the Zenson bend
and at Saint Andrea, southeast of Montello, is being considerably
weakened by the Italian artillery fire and constant counterattacks.

Saint Andrea itself, with the adjacent villages of Giavera, Bavaria,
and Sovilla, has changed hands ten times over. The railroad running
thence toward Montebelluna is hidden under a litter of dead bodies for
a length of several kilometers. The haul of prisoners has risen from
6,000 to 9,000, General Diaz announced last night--an almost unique
fact in an offensive of this nature and undoubtedly the fruit of
Italy's immediate readiness for an energetic reaction.

Stupendous acts of heroism are recorded. Gunners of an Alpine regiment
stationed at the foot of Montello Hill, after being twice driven from
their batteries, united themselves to some storm troops, fought the foe
in a hand-to-hand encounter with daggers, and, recovering the cannon,
readjusted the breechlocks, which they had taken away with them, and
then fired pointblank into the adversary's ranks.

At Fagare two Hungarian battalions were annihilated amid the ruins of
houses where they had taken refuge. At Candelu an enemy machine-gun
corps, which had transformed the village into a fort, were killed by
Italian mountain artillery, and in the neighboring sector of Salettuol
the 3d Austrian Division lost 60 per cent. of its effectiveness.

Many of the prisoners at the moment of capture present the appearance
of Bedouins, being clad merely in tattered shirts, with their rifles
slung over their shoulders and a dagger in their hand. Nearly all
carried postcard maps marking out their journey, with a program
inscribed: "June 15, halt at Treviso. June 16, occupation of Venice."
They also carried little packets of money coupons printed in Italian
for spending in those cities.

A German View of Germany's Effort

The Recent Offensive

[BY THE COLOGNE GAZETTE EDITOR AT GERMAN HEADQUARTERS]

The task confronting us before the offensive seemed monstrous. What
the combined and many times superior armies of the Napoleonic School
and Kitchener's Army, young indeed but drawing its supplies from the
resources of a world empire had failed to accomplish against a force
of almost Frederickian inferiority in numbers, this task was to be
performed by the German Army, which, even after the absorption of the
eastern units, was scarcely equal in strength, much less superior to
the enemy. The big hammer had failed to beat down the little hammer;
it was now the turn of the little hammer to pit itself against the
big hammer. The German hinterland, diminutive in comparison with the
continents working for the coalition, was not only to hold its own,
but also to help to conquer in battle against the raw materials and
industries of half Europe, America, Africa, and Asia. The German
victory at Cambrai, which in a sense represented a transition from the
old to a new era in the history of the war in the west, had already
illuminated the difficulties that a brave and numerically superior
enemy could oppose to our attack.

In contrast with the victorious confidence of our veteran defense
troops--a confidence that at times excited the amazement of their own
leaders--the enemy continued to contemplate the German undertaking
with inveterate skepticism. British and French prisoners captured
during the Winter months indeed held out to us the prospect of
achieving an initial success similar to that which their own offensive
had achieved. But nowhere in the world did any one reckon upon more
than the customary initial success for our enterprise.

The German High Command decided from the very outset not to fight
a "battle of matériel," but to build up success upon a more ideal
foundation. Numerical inferiority was to be compensated by the warlike
and moral qualities peculiar to the German Army organism. The same
virtues that had proved the essential cause of the enemy's defeat were
to form the surest guarantees of German victory. To the undeniable
bravery of the English and French storming troops was to be opposed
the utmost bravery of the German tribes; the good quality of the enemy
leaders was to be met by better leading on the German side, and the
thorough preparation of our adversaries by one still more thorough.

As the Supreme Command could confidently reckon upon the two first as
given quantities, there remained as the chief task the preparation
of the attack. Unity of command and of forces, the latter non-German
only in respect of a valuable group of Austrian batteries that had
been placed in the line, facilitated the tremendous work. Frictions
and impediments that are inherent even in the best organized
coalition armies were spared us. It is impossible to picture what was
accomplished in the map rooms of the German staffs by experienced
specialists in defensive warfare, who worked in silence for months, at
the highest nervous pressure, in the face of the confident expectation
of the homeland and growing tension and impatience abroad. But it is
certain that an altogether enormous expenditure of organizing energy
was required in order to impart the method of attack; to ascertain and
control the situation of the enemy; to supply the striking force with
munitions and provisions; and finally to produce that masterpiece, the
veiled march into line.

Addresses by the Kaiser

He Extols Militarism and Defines the Issues of the War

The German Kaiser in two telegrams acknowledging congratulations on the
thirtieth anniversary of his accession to the throne made announcements
of historic interest regarding the issues of the war and the uses of
militarism. On June 17 he telegraphed to the German Chancellor, Count
von Hertling:

I express cordial thanks and kind good wishes to your Excellency
and the State Ministry on the day on which, thirty years ago, I
ascended the throne. When I celebrated my twenty-five-year jubilee
as ruler I was able, with special gratitude, to point out that
I had been able to do my work as a prince of peace. Since then
the world picture has changed. For nearly four years, forced to
it by our enemies, we have been engaged in the hardest struggle
history records. God the Lord has laid a heavy burden upon my
shoulders, but I carry it in the consciousness of our good right,
with confidence in our ship, our sword, and our strength, and in
the realization that I have the good fortune to stand at the head
of the most capable people on earth. Just as our arms under strong
leadership have proved themselves invincible, so also will the
home land, exerting all its strength, bear with strong will the
sufferings and privations which just now are keenly felt.

Thus, I have spent this day 'midst my armies, and it moved me
to the depths of my heart, yet filled with the most profound
gratitude to God's mercy.

I know that Prussian militarism, so much abused by our enemies,
which my forefathers and I, in a spirit of dutifulness, loyalty,
order, and obedience, have nurtured, has given Germany's sword and
the German Nation strength to triumph, and that victory will bring
a peace which will guarantee the German life.

It will then be my sacred duty, as well as that of the States,
with all our power to see to healing the wounds caused by the war
and to secure a happy future for the nation. In most faithful
recognition of the work hitherto performed, I rely on your
approved strength and the help of the State Ministry. God bless
our land and people!

In an address at Main Headquarters on June 15 he said that the war
was not a matter of strategic campaign, but a struggle of two world
views wrestling with each other. "Either German principles of right,
freedom, honor, and morality must be upheld," he added, "or Anglo-Saxon
principles with their idolatry of mammon must be victorious."

The Anglo-Saxons, he asserted, aimed at making the peoples of the world
work as slaves for the Anglo-Saxon ruling race, and such a matter could
not be decided in days or weeks, or even in a year.

The Emperor emphasized the fact that from the first he had realized
that the trials of war would be great. The first outbreak of enthusiasm
had not deceived him. Great Britain's intervention had meant a world
struggle, whether he desired it or not. He said he was thankful that
Field Marshal von Hindenburg and General Ludendorff had been placed
at his side as counselors. Drinking to the health of the army and its
leaders, the Emperor said:

The German people and army indeed are now one and the same and
look up to you with gratitude. Every man out there knows what he
is fighting for, the enemy himself admits that, and in consequence
we shall gain victory--the victory of the German standpoint. That
is what is in question.

The Emperor referred to the period of peace, which he described as
"twenty-six years of profitable but hard work, though they could not
always be regarded as successful in a political respect and had brought
disappointments."

His interests had been centred in the work connected with the
development of the army and the effort to maintain it at the level
at which it had been intrusted to him. Now, in time of war, he could
not better celebrate the day than under the same roof with the Field
Marshal and his faithful, highly gifted Generals and General Staff. The
Emperor continued:

In peace time in the preparation of my army for war my
grandfather's war comrades gradually passed away, and as the
German horizon gradually darkened, many a German, and not the
least I, hoped with assurance that God would in this danger place
the right man at our side. Our hope has not been disappointed.

In your Excellency and in you, General Ludendorff, Heaven bestowed
upon the German Empire and the German Army and staff men who are
called upon in these great times to lead the German people in arms
in its decisive struggle for existence and the right to live, and
with its help to gain victory.

He sent the following telegram to the Crown Prince:

Under your leadership the armies of Generals von Boehm, von
Below, and von Hutier have severely defeated the enemy and
shattered the storm of his hurriedly brought-up army reserves.
Eighty-five thousand prisoners and more than 1,000 guns are the
outward signs of this tremendous battle success. To you and the
participating commanders and troops I express my thanks and those
of the Fatherland. The fighting spirit and fighting strength of my
incomparable troops guarantee our final victory. God will further
help.

Field Marshal von Hindenburg, in congratulating the Emperor on behalf
of the army, extolled the Emperor's "wise care for peace" during the
first twenty-six years of his reign and Germany's brilliant progress
in all works of peace in that period. If the German Army and people
had been able for nearly four years in the face of a world of enemies
to show such proof of their strength and right to existence as never
yet in history had been demanded and given in such measure, he added,
they also owed this to their war lord, who had indefatigably watched
over the fighting efficiency of his armies. The Field Marshal renewed
the unswerving loyalty until death of Germany's sons at the front, and
concluded:

"May our old motto, 'Forward with God for King and Fatherland, for
Kaiser and Empire,' result in many years of peace being granted to your
Majesty after our victorious return home."

Demoralization and Crime in Germany

Evidence that the war has brought a great increase of crime in Germany
is forthcoming in many forms. At a conference held in Berlin early in
1918 to discuss "public insecurity" in all parts of Germany, it was
stated that most of the burglaries and other crimes were committed
during the nights between Friday and Monday. Statistics were given of
the payments made by companies which issue insurance policies against
burglary and theft. Payments on account of burglaries increased from
$400,000 in 1914 to $1,100,000 in 1916, and to about $5,000,000 in
1917. Compensation for stolen goods to the amount of nearly $15,000,000
was paid by the Prussian railways in 1917, as compared with a total of
only $1,050,000 in 1914.

Owing to the constant thefts of food in Berlin an official order has
been issued that no wheat or flour is to be moved through the streets
after dark. The theft of letters is becoming more and more common. One
night nineteen letter-boxes in Charlottenburg were broken open, and
the letters were destroyed after the postage stamps had been torn off.
Owing to frequent thefts of letters at a small town named Mittenwalde,
the Postmaster laid a trap for the thief, with the result that his own
wife has been sent to prison for six months.

The U-Boat Raid in American Waters

Twenty Vessels, Mostly in the Coastwise Trade, Sunk
Off the New Jersey and Virginia Coasts

One or more German submarines--the number was not definitely
established--appeared off the coast of the United States on May 25,
1918, and began sinking merchant ships on a large scale. Up to June
20 more than twenty steamers and sailing vessels, mostly of American
register, had been sent to the bottom.

This was the second visit of an armed German submarine to the American
side of the Atlantic for hostile action. In October, 1916, before the
United States entered the war, the U-53 held up coastwise traffic off
Nantucket and sank four British, one Dutch, and one Norwegian ship.
The U-53 had been preceded by the merchant submarine Deutschland,
which arrived at Baltimore on July 9, 1916, from Bremen and returned
with a cargo of nickel and rubber. The Deutschland made a second trip,
arriving at New London, Conn., in October.

The appearance off the American coast of the unidentified submarine,
or submarines, which made the raid on American and neutral shipping in
May and June, 1918, was not altogether unexpected. For several weeks
the American naval authorities had been searching for U-boats in home
waters in consequence of a dispatch from the British Admiralty stating
that two German submarines of the latest type, with a cruising capacity
of 10,000 miles, had left the North Sea and were observed proceeding
westward, probably in an attempt to cross the Atlantic.

The first information that German U-boats were conducting a
transatlantic campaign was brought to New York City on June 4 by
Captain Humphrey G. Newcombe and the ten members of the crew of the
American four-masted schooner Edward H. Cole, which was sunk with bombs
on the afternoon of June 2, fifty miles southeast of Barnegat, N. J.
All were agreed that the U-boat was about 200 feet long, of more than
20 feet beam, and with 5 feet freeboard, that it carried a three-inch
gun fore and aft, and a one-pounder quick-firer amidships, and that
it had a speed of 17 knots. The mate of the Edward H. Cole told how
he had noticed a submarine moving around the vessel at a high speed
and believed that it was an American craft with Naval Reserve cadets
on board, who were trying to have some fun with the sailors of the
merchant ship.

"I thought," the mate continued, "that it would be a good idea to
have a little fun with our skipper, who had turned in for a nap in
his cabin, and I yelled down the skylight, 'Tumble up on deck lively,
Cap! There's a big German submarine close astern, getting ready to
attack us.' Then I took the marine glasses and looked through them at
the stern of the U-boat, where her ensign was flapping limply against
the short flagstaff. For a moment or two I could not make out her
nationality, and then a gust of wind came and blew the ensign straight
so that I could see that it was the German flag, and then I shouted in
earnest to Captain Newcombe, 'It's no joke this time. By gosh, she is a
German submarine!'"

The schooners Hattie Dunn and Edna were the first vessels sunk--on May
25. Their crews, as well as that of the schooner Hauppauge, which was
sunk three days later, numbering twenty-three men, were taken on board
the submarine and kept prisoner there for eight days. When the tank
steamer Isabel Wiley was sunk, on June 2, the twenty-three prisoners
were placed, with the crew of the Isabel Wiley, in the tanker's four
boats and left to find their way to the shore. They were picked up by a
coastwise steamer and brought safely back to land.

Captain Charles E. Holbrook of the Hattie Dunn, the first skipper to
encounter the U-boat, thus described his experience:

We left New York for Charleston in ballast on May 23, and when,
two days later, we were about fifteen miles south of Winter
Quarter Lightship bowling along under an eight-knot breeze, I
heard a shell pass near the vessel. Then another shell, which fell
perhaps a quarter of a mile away. I was not taking much notice,
because I believed the vessel which I saw about two miles away was
an American submarine at target practice.

A third shell exploded close by us on the weather quarter, and
I knew that, whoever it was, wanted us to stop. I brought the
vessel up into the wind. The submarine, with her superstructure
and conning tower showing plainly above the water, came within two
hundred yards, and I saw that she was flying the two code letters
"A B," meaning "stop immediately."

From a small staff at the rear end of the superstructure fluttered
a small flag of the Imperial German Navy. An officer and three men
came over in a small boat, not over twelve feet long. In perfect
English the officer told us to get into our boats and that we
had but ten minutes allotted to us to get clear of our vessel.
They placed bombs along the sides of our vessel and blew her up
immediately, in the meantime putting an armed German sailor on
board the small boat in which were seven men and myself. This
did not give me time to rescue my personal effects and nautical
instruments. My men only saved what they stood in.

Perhaps I would have been given more time if the commander of
the submarine had not seen the Hauppauge under full sail about
four or five miles away. Like us the Hauppauge was light, and, I
understand, was bound from Portland to Newport News. He destroyed
Captain Sweeney's fine new schooner after ordering him and his
crew to take to their boats, and within a half hour both crews
were on board the submarine and both the small boats had been
placed on the submarine's deck and lashed down.

ON BOARD THE U-BOAT

Captain C. M. Gilmore of the Edna said that when he was stopped by
the U-boat an officer came aboard and told him he had ten minutes to
abandon ship. During the week he was on board the submarine, Captain
Gilmore said the Americans were treated with such extreme courtesy
by the Germans that it was evident that the whole matter was being
done under orders with the hope of having an effect on American public
opinion. Captain Gilmore added:

The officers of the submarine included a spare Captain who was
apparently on hand to take charge of any prize that might be
worth while turning into a raider, the commander of the U-boat
itself, and two others. These gave up their berths to me and the
master of the Hattie Dunn, and the Germans of the crew gave up
their bunks to the sailors and slept in hammocks themselves. The
officers gave us wines, cordials, and fine cigars, and in general
treated us with such marked hospitality that it seemed apparent
that they were carrying out a course that had been laid upon them.
The commander said that he had fuel and supplies for a month in
American waters and intended to stay here for that time before
going back.

The Carolina, a 5,000-ton passenger steamship belonging to the New
York and Porto Rico Steamship Line, which was sunk at 6 P. M. on June
2, had on board the largest number of persons of any of the ships
destroyed. Passengers and crew numbered 331. All escaped except seven
out of the twenty-six who were put on board on a motor launch. The
launch encountered a heavy storm and overturned. Christian Nelson,
Chief Engineer of the Carolina, who was in charge of the launch, after
a great effort managed to right it, but in the meanwhile seven persons
had disappeared in the sea. With the aid principally of a young Porto
Rican girl, who did not understand English, but who behaved very
intelligently and bravely, Nelson kept the launch afloat, although it
was waterlogged and the engine would not work. The launch was finally
picked up by a British freighter, which took the survivors into Lewes,
Del. The rest of the passengers and crew of the Carolina were picked
up by other vessels and safely landed. Some of the survivors were more
than twenty hours at sea in open boats.

LIST OF VESSELS SUNK

The complete list of ships attacked up to June 20 is as follows:

Jacob H. Haskell, schooner, 1,362 tons.
Isabel B. Wiley, schooner, 611 tons.
Hattie Dunn, schooner, 365 tons.
Edward H. Cole, schooner, 1,791 tons, subsequently raised
and saved.
Herbert L. Pratt, tank steamer, 7,200 tons.
Carolina, passenger steamer, 5,093 tons.
Winneconne, freighter, 1,869 tons.
Hauppauge, auxiliary schooner, 1,500 tons.
Edna, schooner, 325 tons, subsequently towed in.
Texel, steamship, 3,210 tons.
Samuel M. Hathaway, schooner, 1,038 tons.
Samuel C. Mengel, schooner, 700 tons, unconfirmed.
Edward Baird, schooner, 279 tons.
Eidsvold, Norwegian steamship, 1,570 tons.
Harpathean, British steamship, 4,588 tons.
Vinland, Norwegian steamship, 1,143 tons.
Desauss, schooner, 500 tons.
Pinar del Rio, steamship, 2,504 tons.
Vindeggen, Norwegian steamship, 2,632 tons.
Henrik Lund, Norwegian steamship, 4,322 tons.
One seagoing and two coal barges, which struck mines.

All the ships mentioned were sunk except the Herbert L. Pratt and the
Edna. Most of them were destroyed by bombs placed alongside after the
crews had left. In some cases gunfire was used. The submarine also
laid mines, which caused some damage. The commander of the submarine
was reported as saying that he was saving his torpedoes for bigger
ships. With the exception of the British and Norwegian vessels all
were American. The raid extended along the coast from within a couple
of hundred miles of New York southward as far as the entrance to
Chesapeake Bay.

HUNTING THE RAIDER

As soon as the first news was received that a submarine campaign was
being conducted off the American coast, prompt action was taken by the
Navy Department. Destroyers, submarine chasers, and airplanes were sent
out in large numbers to patrol the coast and search the neighboring
waters, but the U-boat eluded detection. New York Harbor was
temporarily closed, and, though there was no indication of the presence
of hostile airplanes, the lighting of the city was for several nights
diminished by darkening the main thoroughfares. There were rumors that
the submarine either had a "mother ship" or was using a base on the
Mexican coast. Marine insurance rates were not raised, but the officers
of vessels in the coastwise trade were granted a bonus by the Shipping
Board.

Other Submarine Activities of the Month

The British Admiralty's official statement of all losses of shipping
during the month of April, 1918, shows that 220,709 tons of British and
84,393 tons of allied and neutral vessels, a total of 305,102 tons,
were destroyed by submarines and lost by accident. The total for the
preceding month was 381,631 tons. In April, 1917, the total losses
amounted to 893,877. April, 1918, showed the lowest figures for any
month since the beginning of 1917. Another satisfactory feature of the
situation was that 40,000 tons more shipping was built by Great Britain
and the United States than was lost during the month.

Georges Leygues, the French Minister of Marine, informed the Army and
Navy War Committees of the Senate on May 25 that the means employed
to rid the seas of submarines had become increasingly effective since
January and had given decisive results. Tremendous strides had recently
been made by the Allies in repairing ships damaged by torpedoes or
mines. The Minister added that co-ordination between the allied
nations had become so smooth during the past four months that the
tonnage restored to the sea exceeded 500,000 weekly. Great Britain had
repaired 598,000 tons in one week recently, while France had effected
repairs upon 260,000 tons in one month. The increased building and more
efficient and speedier repair work were constantly bringing better
results in the transport of troops and supplies.

Twelve German submarines were sunk or captured in British waters by the
American and British destroyers during the month of April, which was
a record. This means that twelve U-boats were officially reported and
recognized as sunk and that evidence, either a cap bearing the name
of the submarine, a portion of the craft, or a live or dead German, was
produced when each case was recorded.

[Illustration: A YEAR'S DECLINE IN SHIPPING LOSSES]

In addition to this number, at least two other U-boats were destroyed
during that period. One was sunk on April 8 in the North Sea while
making an attack on a convoy to Holland. Another U-boat, making the
total fourteen, was sunk on Friday, April 26, during the forenoon
while attempting to attack a convoy of transports filled with American
troops on the way to France. In the case of these two U-boats no débris
or other direct evidence was recovered, and the British Admiralty
accordingly withheld official recognition.

Senator Swanson of Virginia, a member of the Senate Naval Committee,
made the statement on June 7 that the allied and American naval forces
had destroyed 60 per cent. of all German submarines constructed.
Senator Lodge of Massachusetts on June 15 said that since Jan. 1, 1918,
the United States Navy had sunk twenty-eight German submarines.

The American troop transport President Lincoln, 18,168 gross tons,
was sunk by a German submarine on May 31 while returning under convoy
from Europe. The ship was struck simultaneously by three torpedoes
and sank in eighteen minutes. Three other vessels were in company with
her at the same time. The crew and passengers abandoned the ship in
excellent order. All passengers, including the sick, were saved. One of
the American destroyers which went to the rescue saved 500 persons, and
another destroyer the remainder of the survivors. The number missing
was twenty-seven, comprising four officers and twenty-three enlisted
men. One of the officers was taken prisoner by the submarine.

The British armed mercantile troop-ship Moldavia, with American troops
on board, was torpedoed and sunk on May 23. Of the American soldiers
fifty-six were reported by the British Admiralty as "unaccounted for."
The British transport Ausonia was torpedoed and sunk on May 26. Forty
of the officers and crew were reported missing. The British transport
Leasowe Castle was torpedoed and sunk by an enemy submarine May 26 in
the Mediterranean. Thirteen military officers and seventy-nine of other
ranks, and of the ship's company the Captain, two wireless operators,
and six of other ratings were drowned.

Out of the Sleep of Death

Rescue of a Submarine Crew Imprisoned Fathoms Deep for Three Days

By an act which must stand among the most heroic in the records of
the war, Commander Francis H. H. Goodhart sacrificed his life to save
the crew of a British submarine, fast in the mud in thirty-eight feet
of water. It was in the first week of May, 1918, that the commander's
vessel found itself in this perilous plight. When the air supply of
the imprisoned men was about exhausted, Goodhart entered the conning
tower, giving instructions that he was to be blown upward in the hope
of reaching the surface and bringing aid to the imperiled crew. As
he entered the tower with the senior officer a small tin cylinder
containing instructions for rescuers was fastened to his belt, and the
commander's last words were: "If I don't get up, the cylinder will."

Air at high pressure had been forced into the conning tower, and the
lid was opened. Taking a deep breath, Commander Goodhart was shot
upward, but he struck a portion of the superstructure and was killed.

The senior officer, who had intended to remain in the submarine, was
forced from the tower by the air pressure and reached the surface
safely. The remainder of the crew was rescued soon afterward. A
posthumous reward of the Albert Medal for gallantry in saving life at
sea was conferred on Commander Goodhart.

The sufferings of the crew were thus described by one of the rescued
sailors in a letter to The London Telegraph:

When the first night of imprisonment passed, and it appeared from
our watches--we had artificial light enough to see the time--that
the dawn of a new day had come with no sign of release, some of
the company threatened to chuck hope. But others of us put as
bright a face on a black outlook as we could, and gave them such
cheer as a waterless and breadless situation would allow. Of
course, too, we had to remember that our air supply was running
out.

Speak of dropping sovereigns down a well! Every tick of my watch
I knew was as a lost sovereign, so far as air was concerned. But
those of us who were blessed with big batteries of optimism did
our best to distribute the current, and so the time dragged on.
Then a great thing happened. Two heroes came forward and offered
to risk all in an attempt to win to the surface. All honor to
them! How they did it and at what a cost may be told later on,
but the thing was done, and the outer world was thus made aware
of our terrible plight. That much we realized when we knew of the
presence of divers about our craft. What a relief! We had been
located, practical measures were being taken for our salvage, and
that splendid prospect made us take in a draught of new life.
Artificial light was fast failing, but hope was burning brightly,
so what did it matter?

Our ordeal, as it turned out, was but a young thing as yet,
however. We had still a long way to go. The day dragged through,
and when we entered on the silence and uncertainty of the night
we were a forlorn enough lot, I can assure you. The nerve of
the toughest of us was wearing thin. My fear that it might snap
suddenly all round was not realized, however, for we were given
further indications, which our practical ears were not slow
to catch, that the great work of rescue was well in hand. The
constant tapping of the divers outside was a cheering sound, and
brought hope to those of us who, in the steadily increasing stifle
of the atmosphere, were now breathing hard to live.

But rescue was long delayed, and in the early hours of the
following day most of us wrote our last farewell to our loved
ones--short, tender messages scrawled in pencil--and some of us
made our wills. Then, as if by a miracle, three strong strands
in the ladder of escape came to us from above. Exactly in what
manner this was made possible I cannot tell you. We got air,
water, and food, in only the smallest quantities, but just enough
to stir us into new life. That was a godsend as welcome as it was
unexpected. And we had not to wait long for the opening of our
prison door. When the details of that liberation are given it
will cause surprise and congratulation everywhere. It verges on
the miraculous. When we scrambled into freedom we were a dazed
and shaken lot of men, but I warrant you our hearts were full of
gratitude to God for saving mercies.

It was left to others to give fuller details of the impression caused
by the unexpected arrival of the three "strands" in the life ladder.
The first was air--life-giving air--which was forced into the stifling
compartment from above. The boon came just in time; the prisoners had
had about fifty hours of captivity, their last light was burning dimly,
and the atmosphere of their prison house was vile. More than one of the
company had lost consciousness, but the effect of the tiny air current
was instantaneous. The senseless men stirred as if in troubled sleep,
and opened their eyes, breathing hard, while those of the company
who had stood up to the ordeal with all their senses about them felt
instantly the glorious effect of the air draught.

The second strand was water--fresh, cold water--also forced down by
the splendid salvage party. The quantity was very small--only a sip
to each--but, oh! the refreshment of it! "We were parched in lip and
mouth and throat," said one of the prisoners, "and never was a drop of
water more welcome." The third strand was food, pellets of compressed
food. The salvage party had accomplished almost the impossible. And
this was not their greatest achievement. It was the forcing of a way
of escape for the entombed men that was the marvel. Ingenuity backed
up by tireless tenacity, resourcefulness that absolutely refused to
own either defeat or despair, triumphed over difficulties that seemed
insuperable.

What a picture for brush or pen is offered in the scene of rescue in
the dead of night, when these dazed prisoners won once again their
liberty. They came forth in single file from the prison house. Near the
head of the procession was a bronzed sailor, one whose coolness in the
dragging hours of extremity had done much to maintain the flickering
life of his comrades. He thrust out at arm's length his oilskin, and
followed with a wonderfully nimble step, thus providing the only touch
of lightness in the grim tragedy.

Shelter was awaiting them, and from there they dispatched hurried
messages to loved ones at home, to relieve hearts nearly broken by
suspense. And a while later a grateful little company heard read to
them by one of the survivors the metrical version of the 124th Psalm.
They needed no preacher to interpret to them its beauty and its
significance--for they had been there, and they knew:

And as fierce floods
Before them all things drown,
So had they brought
Our soul to death quite down.

* * * * * * *

Even as a bird
Out of the fowler's snare
Escapes away,
So is our soul set free.
Broke are their nets,
And thus escaped we.

New Records in Shipbuilding

Forty-four Ships in One Month

New records in the production of ships by the United States and the
United Kingdom were established during the month of May, 1918. American
shipyards completed and delivered to the Shipping Board forty-three
steel ships and one wooden ship, representing, in the aggregate,
263,571 deadweight tons. These figures do not refer to launchings, but
to ships fully equipped and ready for service. The month's work in
the United States in comparison with previous months is shown in the
following table of tonnage produced:

1918. Tons.
January 88,507
February 123,625
March 172,611
April 160,286
May 263,571

The May deliveries comprised thirty-nine requisitioned steel
vessels, four contract steel and one contract wooden ship. In
the last six days of the month there were delivered one wooden
and fourteen steel ships, totaling 82,760 tons. The best
previous week was that ended May 4, when the deliveries totaled 80,180
tons.

Launchings kept pace with the number of ships completed. Among the
vessels launched in May was the Agawam, the first "fabricated" ship in
the world, "fabricated" being the technical term applied to ships built
from numbered pieces made from patterns. Approximately 27 steel mills,
56 fabricating plants, and 200 foundries, machine, pipe, and equipment
shops were engaged in the production of the parts.

On June 1 it was unofficially stated that there were in operation by
the United States Government 2,200,000 deadweight tons of shipping
engaged in the transportation of troops and supplies and in kindred
work for the army. Reviewing the shipping situation as a whole, Edward
N. Hurley, Chairman of the Shipping Board, in an address on June 10,
said:

On June 1 we had increased the American-built tonnage to over
3,500,000 deadweight tons of shipping. This gives us a total
of more than 1,400 ships, with an approximate total deadweight
tonnage of 7,000,000 now under the control of the United States
Shipping Board.

In round numbers, and from all sources, we have added to the
American flag since our war against Germany began nearly 4,500,000
tons of shipping.

Our program calls for the building of 1,856 passenger, cargo, and
refrigerator ships and tankers, ranging from 5,000 to 12,000 tons
each, with an aggregate deadweight of 13,000,000. Exclusive of
these, we have 245 commandeered vessels, taken over from foreign
and domestic owners, which are being completed by the Emergency
Fleet Corporation. These will aggregate a total deadweight tonnage
of 1,715,000.

This makes a total of 2,101 vessels, exclusive of tugs and barges,
which are being built and will be put on the seas by the Emergency
Fleet Corporation in the course of carrying out the present
program, with an aggregate deadweight tonnage of 14,715,000.

Five billion dollars will be required to finish our program for
1918, 1919, and 1920, but the expenditure of this enormous sum
will give to the American people the greatest merchant fleet ever
assembled in the history of the world, aggregating 25,000,000 tons.

American workmen have made the expansion of recent months
possible, and they will make possible the successful conclusion
of the whole program. From all present expectations it is likely
that by 1920 we shall have close to 1,000,000 men working on
American merchant ships and their equipment.

We have a total of 819 shipways in the United States. Of these, a
total of 751, all of which except ninety are completed, are being
utilized by the Emergency Fleet Corporation for the building of
American merchant ships.

In 1919 the average tonnage of steel, wood, and concrete ships
continuously building on each way should be about 6,000. If we are
using 751 ways on cargo ships and can average three ships a year
per way, we should turn out in one year 13,518,000 tons.

The total gross revenue of our fleet is very impressive. From
the ships under the control of the Shipping Board a total gross
revenue is derived of about $360,000,000.

An appropriation of $1,761,701,000 for the American merchant marine
was provided in the Sundry Civil bill reported to the House on June 10
by the Appropriations Committee. The amount recommended for ships and
shipping was $1,282,694,000 less than the Shipping Board requested,
but Chairman Sherley explained that receipts from the operation of
ships could be devoted to building charges, and that no curtailment
of the building program was contemplated. Of the Shipping Board total
$1,438,451,000 was for construction in this country, $55,000,000 for
building American ships abroad, $87,000,000 for establishing shipyards,
$60,000,000 for operating ships heretofore acquired, and $6,250,000 for
recruiting and instructing ships' officers.

As the result of an agreement between the United States and Japanese
Governments, twenty-three Japanese ships, aggregating 151,166 tons
deadweight, have been chartered to the United States for the allied
transport services. On June 4 it was announced that twelve Japanese
ships, obtained either by purchase or charter, had arrived in Pacific
ports and were being transferred to the Atlantic Coast.

More than 400,000 tons of ships were released to the United States and
the Allies by Sweden under the terms of the commercial agreement signed
at Stockholm by representatives of the two Governments. Under a modus
vivendi, in effect for some months, the War Trade Board had permitted
exports to Sweden in sufficient quantities to meet immediate and urgent
needs.

The shipbuilding situation in the United Kingdom has shown considerable
improvement, as seen in the following table of merchant vessels, in
gross tons, completed in British yards and entered for service:

BRITISH SHIPBUILDING

April, 1917 69,711
May 69,773
June 109,847
July 83,073
August 102,060
September 63,150
October 148,309
November 158,826
December 112,486
January, 1918 58,568
February 100,038
March 161,674
April 111,533
May 197,274

It should be noted that the British practice is to express merchant
shipbuilding statistics in "gross tons," whereas in the United States
and some other countries the figures are recorded in "deadweight" tons,
which is a much higher figure.

The total ships completed in the shipyards of the United Kingdom during
the twelve months ended May 31, 1918, were 1,406,838 gross tons.
The corresponding figures for the year ended April 30, 1917, were
1,270,337.

Raising torpedoed ships has become a considerable source of increased
tonnage for the Allies. According to a report of the British Admiralty
Salvage Department, made public June 17, no less than 407 ships sunk by
Germans in British waters were salvaged in the years between January,
1915, and May, 1918. Up to December, 1917, 260 ships were recovered.
In the first five months of 1918 the number salvaged was 147, the
increased rate being due to improved methods.

Among the difficulties encountered was the danger of poisonous gases
from the rotting cargoes of sunken ships, which sometimes caused the
loss of lives. One salvage ship was torpedoed while working on a wreck,
and sometimes the work of weeks is destroyed by one rough sea. Feats
performed by the Salvage Department include the raising of a large
collier sunk in twelve fathoms of water and involving a dead lift of
3,500 tons. Another vessel was raised fifteen fathoms by the use of
compressed air.

American Exports Versus the U-Boats

By CHARLES FREDERICK CARTER

Notwithstanding a net loss of the world's shipping, due to the usual
perils of the sea as well as to enemy mines and submarines, of
2,632,279 tons from the beginning of the war to April 1, 1918, the
vital trade route across the Atlantic has shown a steady increase in
efficiency. Even more gratifying is the fact that in recent weeks the
gain in efficiency has been accelerated.

All the essential requirements of our allies as well as of our own
expeditionary forces abroad appear to be met, according to these
official statistics from the Department of Commerce. For instance,
exports of nitric, picric, sulphuric, and other acids, so essential
in the manufacture of munitions, are going to Europe in a steadily
increasing volume. Exports of acids increased from a total value of
$10,003,647 in the calendar year 1915 to $52,695,640 in 1917. Exports
of copper, no less necessary for cartridges and other uses, to France,
Italy, and Great Britain increased from 229,129,587 pounds in 1915 to
890,819,053 pounds in 1917.

The same three allies, which needed only 499,719 tons of steel
billets, blooms, and ingots in the calendar year 1915, took
1,395,019 tons in 1916 and 1,847,201 tons in 1917. Exports of
steel plates to the same three allies for ships, tanks, and
other military uses increased similarly from 63,584,467 pounds
in 1915 to 72,242,656 pounds in 1916 and 165,630,514 pounds
in 1917. All Europe took but a negligible tonnage of steel
rails in 1913, the last full year before the war. France
alone took 5,362 tons in 1915 and 122,858 tons in 1917. Exports of
locomotives to France kept pace with the rails, increasing from 38 in
1915 to 570 in 1917, and 129 in the month of January, 1918. Exports of
metal-working machinery to these three allies increased from a total
value of $29,229,683 in 1915 to $47,666,606 in 1916 and $54,906,405 in
1917.

Statistics on the exports of barbed wire epitomize the history of
defensive works by our allies. Italy, for example, took only 2,000
pounds of that commodity in 1915. Next year her requirements jumped
to 58,367,004 pounds, while last year the necessity of constructing
an entirely new system of defenses in haste called for 204,972,438
pounds of American barbed wire. On the other hand, France, which needed
264,310,493 pounds of barbed wire in 1916, called for only 29,952,532
pounds in 1917.

EXPORTS OF LEAD

France, Italy, and England laid in a stock of lead from which to make
bullets in 1915, the former country taking 21,234,108 pounds, Italy
5,176,794 pounds, and Great Britain 81,483,866 pounds. Next year total
shipments to all three countries fell off to 23,015,071 pounds, but
rose again to 59,470,181 pounds in 1917, "unrestricted" U-boat warfare
to the contrary notwithstanding.

Not all exports of lead went to our allies. Although at peace, Denmark,
Holland, and Sweden, each and severally, bought more American lead in
1916 than Italy needed in any one of three years of desperate fighting,
total exports to these three neutrals in that year aggregating
18,113,859 pounds. Even last year, after the United States had
declared war against Germany, 3,470,415 pounds of lead went to these
three neutrals, all of which just happen to drive a thriving trade
with Germany. The patriots who supplied this brisk neutral demand for
material from which bullets are made probably would not care to trace
the shipments to their ultimate effect in swelling American casualty
list.

Exports of explosives, including shells and projectiles, increased from
a total value of $188,969,893 in 1915 to $715,575,306 in 1916. In
1917, after England and France had attained such marvelous efficiency
in the production of these essentials of war, exports declined, but
still reached the enormous total of $633,734,405. Just to show that
we are keeping our stride in supplying explosives to the firing line
the fact may be mentioned that in spite of delays due to a lack of
bunker coal in the unprecedentedly severe month of January, 1918, we
shipped 2,606,297 pounds of dynamite during the month, as compared with
1,787,600 pounds in January, 1917, and 37,587,662 pounds of powder,
against 36,767,984 pounds in the corresponding month of 1917.

Gasoline, the foundation on which present allied supremacy in the air
is based, and which also plays so great a part in land transportation,
is going to Great Britain, France, and Italy in swiftly increasing
volume. Shipments to these three countries in 1915 totaled 36,936,303
gallons; in 1916, 98,178,139 gallons; in 1917, 141,327,159 gallons. As
a basis of comparison it may be said that America's total exports of
gasoline to all the world in 1913 amounted to only 117,728,286 gallons.

Gasoline engines are going abroad at a similar rate of increase, 50,317
being shipped in the seven months ended Jan. 31, 1918, as compared with
36,209 in the corresponding period of 1916-17.

So much has been said about submarine losses that the average man
may be pardoned for accepting the German figures, which have been
exaggerated from 46 to 113 per cent., and the German delusion that
England is about to be "brought to her knees" by the modern form of
piracy. To whatever extent this impression of Prussian frightfulness
has been disseminated the submarine campaign has been a success; but
right there success ends. In spite of the utmost the U-boats could do,
munitions have flowed in steadily increasing volume from America to
Europe, while the destructiveness of the undersea boats has as steadily
declined. Furthermore, the fact must not be forgotten that not all
ships sunk by submarines have been eastbound with cargoes of munitions
for the Allies. Some have been lost on the westward voyage; others have
been laden with grain for the starving Belgians, or for neutrals which
have developed such an astonishing appetite for lard, lead, and other
things of which Germany stands in need; still others have been hospital
ships.

[Illustration: VISCOUNT HALDANE

British War Secretary from December, 1905, to June, 1912, when he
became Lord High Chancellor

(_Photo Underwood & Underwood._)]

[Illustration: GERMAN COMMANDERS ON WEST FRONT

General von Hutier

General Sixt von Arnim

General von Boehn

General von der Marwitz]

If any further evidence of America's great part in the war,
irrespective of participation by American troops in the fighting, is
needed it can be found in statistics of exports of foodstuffs to the
Allies, who have been obliged to depend more and more upon this country
for the necessaries of life.

Exports of wheat flour to France in the calendar year 1915 were
2,392,952 barrels; in 1916, 2,263,990 barrels; in 1917, 2,659,328
barrels. Italy called for 148,999 barrels of American wheat flour in
1915 and 1,494,816 barrels in 1917, while Great Britain's requirements
were 3,269,262 barrels in the former year and 4,808,141 barrels in the
latter.

Our total exports of fresh beef to all the world in 1913 were only
6,580,123 pounds. In 1915 we sent Great Britain, France, and Italy
256,198,283 pounds. In 1916 exports to these three countries fell off
to 160,879,642 pounds, but rose again to 172,940,833 pounds, in spite
of von Tirpitz's unrestricted destructiveness.

In 1913 France took only 716,266 pounds of American bacon; but in
1915 the demand jumped to 52,044,475 pounds, increasing still further
to 60,606,802 pounds in 1916 and to 73,195,974 pounds in 1917. Great
Britain, which got along with 145,269,456 pounds of American bacon in
1913, needed 284,783,009 pounds in 1916 and 341,674,452 pounds in 1917.
In the same period exports of hams and shoulders to France increased
more than twelvefold and to Great Britain more than a third.

Exports of lard to France, Italy, and Great Britain increased from a
total of 200,490,003 pounds in 1913 to 210,139,760 pounds in 1915 and
224,683,383 pounds in 1916. In 1917 exports to these three countries
fell to 189,024,889 pounds. It is an interesting coincidence that
Holland, whose appetite for American lard was fully satiated by
38,313,677 pounds in 1913, and which was able to skimp along with a
trifle more than 20,000,000 pounds a year during the first two years of
the world war, required 64,888,545 pounds in 1917, when Germany's need
for fats grew desperate.

Exports of sugar have gone forward to the Allies on the same vast
scale. In 1913 our entire export trade absorbed only 14,995,232 pounds
of sugar. In 1915 we sent to Great Britain, France, and Italy alone
860,456,311 pounds; in 1916, 1,126,022,067 pounds; in 1917, 519,881,377
pounds. No wonder the sugar bowl disappeared from the American
restaurant table last Fall and still remains in strict seclusion!

SOLDIERS AND CHEWING GUM

Not only have we been rendering the Allies a useful service by
supplying so important a portion of their necessary food and munitions
of war, but we have been for some months forwarding troops to the
battleline. No figures are given out regarding movements of troops,
but there is a significant bit of evidence in the monthly summaries
of foreign commerce which proves that the number of American fighters
abroad must be very large. As the Government has published this
evidence, there can be no harm in referring to it here.

Gum is not chewed by Europeans, but seems to be regarded as a necessary
of life in the United States, if the wagging jaws to be seen in street
cars and other public places are any indication. Well, according to
Government figures, no chewing gum whatever was exported in 1915;
but in the calendar year 1917 the value of chewing gum exported was
$1,403,888! The figures given, being at wholesale prices, represent
upward of 176,000,000 cuds! Even on the most liberal allowance; so vast
a quantity would supply a great many fighting men.

Viewed from another standpoint, these chewing-gum statistics are even
more encouraging. If the shortage of cargo space to allied ports were
as desperate as Germany's press agents would have us believe, it does
not seem reasonable to suppose that any part of it would be frittered
away on chewing gum in such formidable quantities. This conviction is
strengthened by the discovery that exports of candy have increased
one-third in the three calendar years of war, to a total of $2,108,081
in 1917.

Most gratifying of all is the fact that despite the utmost endeavors of
the submarines, and notwithstanding upward of 3,000 strikes in American
shipyards last year, the capacity and efficiency of transatlantic
shipping increases from day to day not only positively but also
negatively by the withdrawal of the heavy tonnage formerly serving
enemy countries through contiguous neutral nations.

True, exports fell off somewhat for the eight months ended Feb. 28,
1918; but Europe received 63 per cent. of the total. Now when Europe
is spoken of it means substantially England, France, and Italy. Russia
obtained very little in those eight months, and Germany's neutral
neighbors still less. The shrinkage in the volume of supplies to our
fighting partners was not so much on account of anything the submarines
could do as because of the temporary breakdown of our own system due to
extraordinarily severe weather and to other causes.

Now the weather handicap has been lifted, our industrial machine has
been geared up and more ships have been placed where they could render
the most effective service. While in February, 1918, we could send our
allies only 750,000 tons of food, which was 50,000 tons less than their
minimum requirements, in the next month this was increased to 1,100,000
tons.

OUR NEW MERCHANT MARINE

After having the decadence of the American merchant marine dinned into
our ears for decades, we may be pardoned for gloating over the way this
same merchant marine has come back under the stress of war. Of total
imports worth $1,778,596,695 in 1915, goods valued at $342,796,714
arrived in vessels flying the American flag. In 1917 the value of
goods arriving in American vessels had increased to $732,814,858.
The increase was the greatest shown by ships of any nation, and the
total value was the highest for any, British ships ranking second with
imports valued at $693,565,240. This was a decrease of only $7,000,000
from 1915, in spite of all the U-boats could do. French ships,
fighting the same sneaking foe, were actually able to increase the
value of goods delivered at American ports from $70,275,445 in 1915 to
$102,346,317 in 1917, considerably more than making up for the decrease
in imports arriving under British and Italian flags. In the seven
months ended Jan. 31, 1918, nearly 29 per cent. of all imports arrived
in ships flying the American flag.

And the efficiency curve is still climbing. Up to April 10 America,
by restricting imports, withdrawing ships from less essential trade
routes, and by obtaining neutral tonnage by agreement--in other words,
by good management--had been able to place 2,762,605 tons of shipping
in the transatlantic service to carry food, munitions, and men to
France. Of this total, 2,365,344 tons were under American registry. By
skillful handling in port at both ends of the route the efficiency of
this tonnage had been increased 20 per cent., which was equivalent to
adding more than 400,000 tons to the carrying capacity of the fleet as
compared with normal times.

These figures include very little of the 500,000 tons of Dutch shipping
requisitioned, and none at all of the 250,000 tons Japan has promised
to contribute during the Summer. Neither do they include any of the
tonnage of England and the other allies which the American Shipping
Control Committee has the power to reroute, nor yet do they take into
consideration any of the tonnage under way or to be built in American
shipyards, nor the 200,000 tons Japan has agreed to build for us as
soon as we can deliver the plates; for this article deals only with
conditions as they now exist.

To sum up, the shipping situation, as disclosed by Government
statistics, is far more satisfactory than current comment would
lead one to believe. If it is not all we could wish, we have the
satisfaction of knowing that Germany is much more dissatisfied with it
than we are.

Progress of the War

Recording Campaigns on All Fronts and Collateral Events From
May 18, 1918, Up to and Including June 18, 1918

President Wilson signed the new selective draft bill on May 20,
and issued a proclamation designating June 5 as the day when all
young men who had reached the age of 21 since June 5, 1917, should
register. Figures given out by the War Department on June 15
indicated that 744,865 men had responded. On May 23, Major Gen.
Crowder announced that an amendment to the law, compelling men not
engaged in a useful occupation either to apply themselves to some
form of labor contributing to the general good, or to enter the
army, would become effective July 1.

On May 27 President Wilson addressed the Congress urging the
enactment of a new revenue bill during the present session.
Hearings were begun at once by the House Committee on Ways and
Means.

The German Government on April 20 offered to free Siegfried Paul
London, an alleged American, held in custody by the Germans in
Warsaw, in exchange for the release of Captain Franz von Rintelen,
and threatened reprisals against Americans in Germany in case the
offer was refused. Secretary Lansing, on June 4, sent a reply
through the Swiss Minister, flatly refusing to comply with the
demand, and indicated that if reprisals were undertaken the United
States would retaliate.

Indictments charging conspiracy to commit treason against the
United States and to commit espionage were returned on June 7
against Jeremiah A. O'Leary, John T. Ryan, Willard Robinson, Emil
Kipper, Albert Paul Fricke, Lieutenant Commander Hermann Wessels,
and the Baroness Maria von Kretschmann, reported to be a kinswoman
of the German Empress. Dr. Hugo Schweitzer and Rudolph Binder, now
dead, were also named in the indictment. O'Leary, who had fled
from justice after being indicted for conspiracy in connection
with the publication of The Bull, was taken into custody in
Washington on June 12.

General Peyton C. March announced on June 15 that over 800,000 men
had been sent abroad.

A supplementary note from the Netherlands Government was delivered
to the State Department on May 22, contending that Secretary
Lansing's reply to the original protest against the seizure by the
United States Government of Dutch merchant shipping in American
ports did not fully answer the objections.

German submarines began to raid shipping off the eastern coast of
the United States on May 25. On June 3 it became known that twelve
ships had been sunk. They were the schooners Hattie W. Dunn, the
Edward H. Cole, the Edward Baird, the Isabel B. Wiley, the Samuel
C. Mengel, the Samuel W. Hathaway, and the auxiliary schooner
Hauppauge, and the steamships Texel, Winneconne, and the Carolina.
Twelve lives were lost on the Carolina. The schooner Edward was
attacked, but was saved and towed to port. Mines were set afloat
by the submarines, and the tanker Herbert L. Pratt struck a mine
off the Delaware Capes, but was raised and saved. Precautions were
taken at once to guard against air raids on New York City and
other places near the coast.

On June 4 the Norwegian steamship Eibsvord was sunk off the
Virginia Capes, and an American destroyer interrupted an attack
on the French steamer Radioleine about sixty-five miles off the
Atlantic Coast.

The British steamer Harpathian was sunk off the Virginia Capes
without warning on June 6, and the next day the Norwegian steamer
Vinland was sunk in the same area.

On June 9 the American steamer Pinar del Rio was sunk seventy-five
miles off the coast of Maryland.

Two Norwegian steamers, the Vindeggen and the Henrik Lund, were
sunk on June 10 100 miles east of Cape Charles, and on the same
day an American transport fired at a U-boat off the New Jersey
coast.

Germany announced on June 9 that seven submarines were operating
in American waters.

The sinking of two Norwegian barks, the Krinsjoa and the Samoa,
off the Virginia coast was announced on June 16.

The American oil tanker William Rockefeller was sunk in European
waters on May 18. Three lives were lost.

The American troops transport President Lincoln, bound for the
United States, was sunk in the naval war zone on May 31. Four
officers and twenty-three men were lost.

The Argonaut, an American ship, was torpedoed off the Scilly
Islands on June 5.

The Irish steamer Inniscarra was sunk on May 24 on the way from
Fishguard to Cork. Thirty-seven members of the crew were reported
missing. Another Irish ship, the Innisfallen, was sunk in British
waters on June 7 and eleven lives were lost. News was received
on June 14 that an Irish fishing fleet of about twenty ships was
torpedoed on May 31 between County Down and the Isle of Man.

The sinking of the British steamer Ellaston was announced on June
6. On June 12 announcement was made that the British transport
Ausonia had been torpedoed in the Atlantic while on her way
westward.

The Köningen Regentes, a hospital ship, was sunk off the English
Coast, June 6.

The Swedish steamer New Sweden was torpedoed in the Mediterranean
Sea on May 30, and on June 14 word was received that the Swedish
steamship Dora had been sunk without warning and nine members of
the crew killed.

An American ship arriving at an Atlantic port from the war zone on
June 1 reported that an American destroyer had sunk two submarines
within a half hour. A British transport, arriving at an Atlantic
port on June 8, reported that she had sunk two U-boats, and two
British ships that reached the United States on June 11, each
reported the sinking of one U-boat. Senator Weeks announced on
June 15 that twenty-eight submarines had been sunk by the American
Navy since Jan. 1.

CAMPAIGN IN WESTERN EUROPE

May 18-24--Brisk raiding operations in all sectors, with varying
success.

May 27--Germans resume their great offensive by delivering a
terrific blow on a forty-mile front from around Vauxailion nearly
to Rheims and take the Chemin des Dames and attack the French
lines on the northern flank of the Lys salient between Voormezeele
and Locre; Americans drive Germans back at three points in
Picardy; long-range guns renew the bombardment of Paris; three
persons killed, fourteen injured.

May 28--Americans take Cantigny; Germans advance about six miles
on a nine-mile front from Vauxailion to Cauroy, take many towns,
cross the Aisne and the Vesle Rivers, and drive a wedge to Fismes;
Allies re-establish their line on the Lys-Ypres front east of
Dickebusch Lake.

May 29--Germans take Soissons; Allies, with their centre forced
back four miles, retire across the Vesle River and fall back
on Rheims; Americans repulse three counterattacks at Cantigny;
British make a successful raid southeast of Arras; French repulse
a local attack north of Kemmel.

May 30--Germans held at both flanks near Soissons and Rheims; gain
four miles in drive toward the Marne, take Fère-en-Tardenois and
Vezilly; Americans defeat all attempts of the Germans to recover
ground near Cantigny; French better their positions north of
Kemmel; German attack near Festubert fails; German long-range gun
resumes bombardment of Paris despite British promise not to carry
out air raids on German cities on Corpus Christi Day.

May 31--Germans reach the Marne in an eight-mile drive, and are
closing in on Château-Thierry; Americans make successful raid in
the Woevre region and penetrate German line near Toul to a depth
of 400 meters.

June 1--Germans turn west in their drive toward Paris, push
forward along the Ourcq River six miles or more into the area
beyond Neuilly and Chony, beat back the French between Hartennes
and Soissons, press on northwest of Soissons, reaching Nouvron and
Fontenoy, and attack east of Rheims.

June 2--French counterattacks slow up German drive between
Soissons and Château-Thierry; Germans occupy Longport, Corcy,
Faverolles, and Troesnes, but lose them all; Germans in possession
of the eastern half of Château-Thierry; French hold the western
half and recover ground southwest of Rheims.

June 3--Germans make slight gains west of Nouvron and Fontenoy,
take Chaudun, and push ahead slightly west of Château-Thierry;
French retake Faverolles north of the Ourcq.

June 4--American troops, co-operating with the French west of
Château-Thierry, check the Germans, beating off repeated attacks
and inflicting severe losses; Germans thrown back at all points
except in the neighborhood of Veuilly-la-Poterie; British recover
Thillois, southwest of Rheims.

June 5--Americans beat off two more attacks on the Marne
battlefield; German advance checked all along the line; attempt to
cross the Oise near Montalagache fails; French regain ground north
of the Aisne near Vingre; British repulse a raid near Marlancourt.

June 6--American and French troops advance two-thirds of a mile
in the neighborhood of Veuilly-la-Poterie; American marines gain
two and a sixth miles on a two and a half mile front northwest of
Château-Thierry; Germans recapture ruins of Locre Hospice.

June 7--American marines drive on two and one-half miles northwest
of Château-Thierry, storm Torcy and Bouresches, and take
Veuilly-la-Poterie in co-operation with the French.

June 8--Germans resume shelling near Montdidier; Americans again
attack near Torcy and hold Bouresches against fresh assault;
French push on north of Veuilly, reach the outskirts of Dammard,
gain east of Chezy, and retake Locre Hospice.

June 9--Germans begin new offensive on a front of twenty miles
extending from Montdidier to Noyon, and gain two and a half miles
in the centre; Americans again repulse the enemy near Veuilly;
Germans pound British positions between Villers-Bretonneux and
Arras; Paris again shelled by long-range guns.

June 10--American marines penetrate German lines for about
two-thirds of a mile on a 600-yard front in the Belleau Wood;
Germans gain two and a half miles around Ressons and Mareuil.

June 11--French deliver two counterblows in the centre and
left of the Noyon-Montdidier line, drive Germans back between
Rubescourt and St. Maur, regaining Belloy, Senlis Wood, and the
heights between Courcelles and Mortemer, and regain Antheuil, but
lose Ribecourt, and are forced to give ground along the Oise, as
German drive to the Matz River flanks their position; Americans
take Belleau Wood; Australians drive Germans back half a mile on
a mile and a half front between Sailly-Laurette and Morlancourt;
Americans gain at Château-Thierry and cross the Marne.

June 12--French make further advances between Belloy and St. Maur,
on the left of the Montdidier-Noyon line; Germans gain a foothold
on the southern bank of the Matz River, occupying Melicocq and
adjoining heights, and advance east of the Oise and on the Aisne
flank; French win further ground east of Veuilly, and occupy
Montcourt and the southern part of Bussiares.

June 13--French make successful counterattack against the German
centre on the Matz, retaking Melicocq and Croix Ricard, and
throwing the enemy back across the river; Germans gain a footing
in the eastern end of the line in Laversine, Coeuvres, and St.
Pierre-Aigle; Americans repel attempt to retake Bouresches.

June 14--German offensive west of the Oise ends; artillery
fighting south of the Aisne and in the area between
Villers-Cotterets and Château-Thierry.

June 15--British and Scottish troops in the Lys salient capture
German forward positions on a front of two miles north of Béthune;
French improve their position at Villers-Cotterets Forest; French
recapture Coeuvres-et-Valsery, south of the Aisne; Americans
repulse night raid south of Thiaucourt; announcement made that
Americans are holding sectors in Alsace.

June 16--Americans drive Germans off with gas attacks northwest of
Château-Thierry; French repulse Germans on the Matz River.

June 17--French improve their positions between the Oise and the
Aisne, near Hautebraye; Germans drench American lines near Belleau
with gas.

June 18--French improve their positions in local operations in the
Aisne region.

ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

June 11--Italians repulse attacks at Monte Carno and Cortellazzo
and east of Capo Sile.

June 14--Austro-Hungarian forces launch attack against the Italian
lines on Cady Summit and the Monticello Ridge, but are beaten back.

June 15--Austrians begin great offensive on a 97-mile front from
the Asiago Plateau to the sea.

June 16--Austrians cross the Piave River in the vicinity of
Nervesa and in the Fagara-Musile area; Italians give way at the
Sette Comuni Plateau and in the regions of Monte Asolone and Monte
Grappa, but later re-establish their lines.

June 17--British and Italians check Austrians in the regions of
Asiago and Monte Grappa; Austrians extend their gains west of the
Piave River opposite San Dona di Piave and capture Capo Sile.

June 18--Austrians repulsed on the eastern edge of the Asiago
Plateau and fail in attempt to cross the Piave between Meserada
and Cardelu, a mountain position across Piave on their eastern
flank, but suffer enormous losses.

BALKAN CAMPAIGN

May 31--Greek troops, supported by French artillery, capture
strong enemy positions of Srka di Legen, on the Struma front.

June 2--Greeks enlarge their gains west of Srka di Legen.

June 11--Serbs repulse attacks in the region of Dobropolje.

CAMPAIGN IN EAST AFRICA

May 19--Nanungu occupied by the British.

May 24--Announcement made that direct communication had been
established between the advanced troops of Brigadier Edward's
column, advancing westward from Port Amelia, and Major Gen.
North's troops, advancing eastward from Lake Nyassa.

CAMPAIGN IN ASIA MINOR

May 22--British advance north of Tekrit on the Tigris to Fatha.

May 29--Turks on the Irak front occupy Kirkuk.

June 14--Turks occupy Tabriz in Persia.

AERIAL RECORD

The London area was raided on May 19. Forty-four persons were
killed and 179 wounded. Five German airplanes were brought down by
the British.

On May 22 the Germans made an ineffectual attempt to raid Paris.
Three persons were killed and several were injured in the
outskirts of the city, and one German machine was brought down. In
another raid, on May 23, one German machine succeeded in reaching
the city. One woman was killed and twelve persons injured. The
city was raided again on June 1 and June 2, and several persons
were wounded.

Cologne was raided by allied airplanes on May 18. Fourteen persons
were killed and forty injured. On the nights of May 21 and May 22
British aviators bombed railway stations in German Lorraine, a
chloride factory in Mannheim, and the railway near Liége. In an
allied air raid over Liége, on May 26, the railway station was
destroyed and twenty-six persons were killed. Karlsruhe was bombed
by the British on June 1, and tons of explosives were dropped on
Metz, Seblon, and other towns. Twenty-seven German machines were
downed. Metz and Seblon were again attacked on June 6. During the
period from May 30 to June 12 the British carried out many raids
against Bruges, Zeebrugge, and Ostend. On June 13 British aerial
squadrons made raids into Germany, bombarding the railway station
at Treves, in Rhenish Prussia, and factories at Dillingen, Bavaria.

A British official statement issued May 21 announced that 1,000
German planes had been downed in two months.

On the night of May 19 four squadrons of German airplanes raided
British hospitals behind the battlelines in France. Hundreds of
persons were killed or wounded. Hospitals containing French and
American wounded were again raided on the nights of May 29 and
May 31. One nurse was killed, several persons were injured, and a
number of civilians died of their wounds.

Two hundred and fifty-two German airplanes were brought down by
allied aviators on the western front in the week ended May 23. In
the first two days of June the French downed fifty-seven German
machines and dropped 130 tons of explosives in the battle area.
British airmen destroyed or damaged 518 German airplanes and seven
observation balloons in the month of May.

Major Raoul Lufbery, the foremost American air fighter, was killed
May 19 in a combat with a German armored biplane back of the
American sector north of Toul. The plane which brought him down
was later downed by a Frenchman.

On May 25 announcement was made that the first airplanes to be
furnished to the American Army from the United States had arrived
in France and were in use in a training camp.

The first American bombing squadron to operate behind the front
raided the Baroncourt railway on June 14, at a point northwest of
Briey and returned safely in spite of German attacks. A second
excursion was made later in the day, when the railway station and
adjoining buildings at Conflans were bombed.

NAVAL RECORD

An official announcement was made on May 23 that the British
Government had on May 15 established a new mine field between the
Norwegian and Scotch coasts.

One Austrian dreadnought, the Szent Istvan, was sunk by two
Italian torpedo boats off the Dalmatian coast June 10, and a
second was badly damaged.

RUSSIA

On May 23 General Semenoff established an autonomous Government in
the Trans-Baikal region, after a report of a quarrel with Admiral
Kolchak. The Bolshevist Foreign Minister, Tchitcherin, sent a
protest to China on May 26 charging the Chinese Government with
officially protecting General Semenoff in his activities against
the Soviet power.

The Germans continued their advance into Ukraine, and on May
25 broke the armistice on the Voronezh front, in spite of the
truce between Russia and the Ukraine, and occupied Valuiki after
four days' fighting. Atrocious methods were used in reprisal for
disorders among the peasants. On May 31 several villages near Kiev
were drenched with gas.

The Bolshevist Foreign Minister, Tchitcherin, protested to France
on May 29 against the further retention of Russian troops on the
French front.

The Chinese Government informed Tchitcherin on May 29 that it
was unable to admit Russian Soviet councils in China because the
Soviet Government had not been recognized by China.

On May 29 announcement was made that a new Cossack Government
had been set up in the Don country with General Krasnoff at the
head. His first proclamation announced that the Austro-Germans had
entered the territory to aid in the fight against the Red Guard
and for the establishment of order.

The Bolshevist Government offered to surrender the Russian Black
Sea fleet to Germany on condition that the warships be restored to
Russia after peace had been declared and that the Germans refrain
from using the vessels, June 6.

Several moves were made looking toward intervention by the Allies
to save Russia from complete domination by Germany. A military
agreement between China and Japan relating to the expedition into
Siberia was signed on June 2. On June 10 Senator William H. King
introduced a resolution in the United States Senate proposing
that a civilian commission be sent to Russia, backed by an allied
military force, for the purpose of overcoming German propaganda
and to aid in giving freedom to the country. The Russian
Ambassador at Washington, Boris Bakhmeteff, presented to the
State Department on June 11 a resolution adopted by the Central
Committee of the Cadet Party of Russia urging allied intervention.

June 18--Further advances into Russia by the Germans in
contravention of Brest treaty.

FINLAND

General Mannerheim, Commander in Chief of the Finnish White
Guards, resigned on May 23 because of the plan of the Finnish
Conservatives to invade the Russian Province of Karelia.

The Cabinet resigned on May 25 as a result of the appointment of
former Premier Zvinhufvud as temporary dictator. M. Paasikivi, a
member of the old Finnish party and a former Senator, was asked by
the dictator to form a Cabinet.

On June 2 Russia agreed with Germany that she would accept
proposals for the regularization of her relations with Finland.

A Swedish Socialist paper, according to a dispatch printed in The
London Times of June 3, published a statement that a secret treaty
existed between Finland and Germany whereby the Finnish Government
undertook to establish a monarchy under a German dynasty, to place
the Finnish Army under German leadership, to allow Finland to be
used as a passageway to the arctic and the Aland Islands as a
naval base. Later reports announced that Prince Oscar, the fifth
son of the German Emperor, would probably be the ruler.

On June 12, the Government proposal for the establishment of a
monarchy with a hereditary ruler was presented to the Landtag.

Kronstadt was seized by the Germans May 30, and on the same day
announcement was made that General von der Goltz had been placed
in supreme command of the Finnish Army as well as of the German
forces in Finland.

Announcement was made on June 10 that Germany and Russia had
reached an agreement concerning the boundaries of Finland,
providing that Finland cede to Russia the fortresses of Ino and
Raivola under guarantees that they were not to be fortified.
Russia ceded to Finland the western part of the Murman Peninsula
with an outlet to the Arctic Ocean.

In response to communications from the French and British
Legations at Stockholm, the Finnish Government announced that it
had no designs on the Mourmansk railway, but would not undertake
not to reunite Carelia with Finland, and on June 17 it was
announced that Finland would annex Carelia.

RUMANIA

Lord Robert Cecil announced in the British House of Commons on May
28 that diplomatic representatives of the Allies at Jassy had
notified Rumania that their Governments considered the Rumanian
peace treaty with the Central Powers null and void.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY

An official French dispatch received in Washington May 22
announced that a decree had been issued in Vienna dividing Bohemia
into twelve district governments, with advantages to the Germans
which would reduce the Czech powers in the Reichsrat at Vienna
as well as in Bohemia itself. Martial law was proclaimed in some
parts of Bohemia.

The aspirations of the Congress of Oppressed Races of
Austria-Hungary, which was held in Rome in April, were indorsed by
Secretary Lansing in a statement issued May 29.

Disorders throughout Bohemia and the Slavic regions of
Austria-Hungary by the Poles, Slovenes, Czechs, and Slavs. Serious
political unrest throughout the Dual Empire. Prime Minister of
Austria, Dr. Seidler, resigns.

Austria and Germany fail to block an agreement regarding
disposition of Poland.

MISCELLANEOUS

The Manchester Guardian announced on May 18 that the war treaty
between England, France, Italy, and Russia, which embodied
Italy's terms of entering the war, and which was published by the
Bolshevist Government in Russia on Jan. 26, had been abrogated,
and that its place had been taken by a new treaty.

The Radoslavoff Ministry in Bulgaria resigned June 16.

China and Japan reached an agreement on military affairs,
including the expedition into Siberia, and on other matters on May
20, and the formal compact was signed June 2. A naval convention
had been signed May 23.

The Belgian Foreign Minister, Charles de Broqueville, resigned on
June 3. He was succeeded by M. Cooreman, former President of the
House of Representatives.

A memorandum presented to the American State Department and made
public on June 14 showed that Belgians were still being deported
and were compelled to work behind the German lines.

On June 12 the lower house of the Prussian Diet adopted the
fourth reading of the suffrage bill, including provision for
the proportional representation of the mixed language districts
of the eastern provinces, and also passed bills settling the
composition of the upper house and providing for a revision of the
Constitution.

Peru seized interned German ships of 50,000 tonnage at Callao,
June 15.

Costa Rica declared war against Germany May 23.

A Battle Seen From Above

By a Correspondent at the Front

[By arrangement with The London Chronicle]

The night mists came creeping up like a smoke screen, and the battalion
that marched up toward the edge of the battlefield along the road that
skirted the far end of the aerodrome was a regiment of shadow forms. A
band of drums and fifes was playing them out with a merry little tune,
so whimsical and yet so sad also in the heart of it.

It had been decided that an important railway junction behind the
German lines was to be bombed. All day long had been the continuous
roar of death, and now, when night had fallen, all the sky seemed on
fire with it. Voluminous clouds, all bright with a glory of infernal
fire, rolled up to the sky, the most frightful and tragic thing it has
ever been given to men to behold, with an infernal splendor beyond
words to tell.

With a tense, restless emotion the order to set off out over the enemy
lines was awaited. In the ground-fog the machine, with a load of bombs
tucked away under the wings, looked a mysterious, weird thing, and
shadowy forms flitted hither and thither across the aerodrome. The
tramp of marching men could be heard, and the tap of drums to the
rhythm of their feet, and those transport columns which shake the
Flemish cottages of the little hamlets as they pass along.

At last the order was given, and up into the chill air the machine
rose. Circling round a couple of times, the nose of the airplane was
set in the direction of the objective, away behind the inferno of the
hell-fires of No Man's Land.

Only the mighty voice of the engine could be heard, and headlights were
switched off just before crossing the line. There was still a dank,
heavy mist hanging over the ground, and visibility was not so good as
might have been desired.

But down below one of those terrible bombardments, a beautiful and
devilish thing, was in full blast. All the sky seemed on fire with it,
and thousands of gun flashes were winking and blinking from hidden
places and hollows. Shells rushed through the air as though flocks of
colossal birds were in flight. Amid all the noise and din of those
fires of hate and hell it was certain the monotonous drone of the
engine would not be heard.

Then, when the Hun lines had been crossed without trouble from
"Archies," glancing back, star-shells could be seen bursting and
pouring down golden rain. And as far as the eye could see, northward
and southward, stretched seemingly unbroken lines of Verey lights. The
enemy was also sending up his flares, as he often does, to reveal any
masses of men who may be moving between his shell craters and ours.

Quickly the "eggs" were dropped on the objective, and two terrific
bursts of flame indicated the explosions. Evading the beams of a
searchlight that sought to pick up the machine, home and the friendly
darkness were sought.

The German lines were recrossed, and, glancing below, it was seen that
S O S light signals, with their little cries of color to the German
gunners behind, were being sent up into the skies. It was some time
ago that such lights were first seen up in the sky, and they had never
ceased their winking for a single night, though now they appeared
blurred in the white breath which had arisen from the wet earth.

And to pass over all this is to conceive a great admiration for these
gunners, who, amid all the tumult, deafening and nerve splitting, of
our batteries, work with an endurance and courage to the limit of human
nature. G. B.

American Soldiers in Action

Achievements of General Pershing's Troops in
the Terrific Battles in Champagne and Picardy

[MONTH ENDED JUNE 18, 1918]

With over 800,000 American troops in France, as the Secretary of War
announced on June 15, 1918, the United States in the last month has
assumed a far greater portion of the Allies' burden and has begun
to take its full share in the large-scale fighting on the western
front. Within a year since the first American troops landed in France,
a period primarily one of preparation, the United States Army has
developed into an important military factor. Evidence of this was seen
in June in several engagements in which the Americans distinguished
themselves by their gallantry, resourcefulness, and efficient
methods. Prominent in the month's record were the American offensive
at Cantigny, and later, on a much larger scale, the operations at
Château-Thierry and in the Marne region near that town.

General Pershing directed the offensive which resulted in the capture
of the strongly fortified village of Cantigny, northwest of Montdidier,
thereby creating a small salient. The attack, which was delivered on
May 28, was on a front of one and one-quarter miles. The Americans,
supported by French heavy guns in addition to their own artillery
and French tanks, swept forward with remarkable speed and precision,
occupied the village, captured 200 prisoners, and inflicted severe
losses in killed and wounded on the enemy. Then, with equal rapidity,
they consolidated their newly won positions and were thus able to
repulse some very fierce counterattacks during the following days. The
American casualties were relatively small. The troops that captured
Cantigny were sent to that sector a month previously, after Pershing's
offer to place all his men and resources at the disposal of the
Allies. During the four weeks preceding the offensive the Americans
had held their positions under comparatively heavy shelling.

Both before and after the Cantigny engagement, the Americans in all
the sectors where they held positions were occupied in ceaseless
fighting of minor importance. There were many artillery duels, with
plentiful use of gas on both sides, many raids, and considerable aerial
activity. The Americans began to feel the effect of increased aircraft
production, and in several sectors where the Germans had previously had
the advantage the situation was now reversed and American aviators had
the upper hand.

AT CHATEAU-THIERRY

Château-Thierry, a town on the Marne, was the next place where the
Americans distinguished themselves. On May 31, when the capture of
the town by the Germans was imminent, American machine gunners began
to arrive on the river banks. Joining a battalion of French colonial
troops, they entered the town, and by their well-organized defense
positions and accurate fire, caused the advancing Germans to hesitate
and halt. The Americans not only repulsed the Germans at every point
at which they were engaged, but took prisoners without having any
prisoners in turn taken by the Germans. The Americans in this sector
were units drawn from the Marine Corps.

The successful resistance against the Germans at Château-Thierry was
followed by the marines beating off two determined German attacks on
the Marne. The Germans concentrated large forces before Veuilly Wood,
and began a mass attack. They were mowed down by the American machine
gunners, and the attack was broken up before reaching the American
line. The Germans fled in confusion and with heavy losses.

It was now the Americans' turn to attack. The marines, pushing forward
on the morning of June 6, penetrated to a depth of over two miles on
a front of two and a half miles, and occupied all the important high
ground northwest of Château-Thierry. The French co-operated to the left
of the Americans. The Germans were so hard pressed by the Americans
that in three days it was necessary to bring up three new divisions of
the best German troops.

The Americans continued to advance, pushing forward to a line which
lay through Les Mares Farm, just north of the village of Lucy le
Bocage, and on through the outskirts of the town of Triangle. This
line included strong positions in Bussiares Wood, the crossroads south
of Torcy, and the southern edge of Belleau Wood. During the night of
June 6 the fighting raged with great fierceness for five hours. The
Americans captured Bouresches and Torcy. Further fighting on June 7
extended the American line over a front of about six miles to a depth
of nearly two and a half miles. While the losses of the Americans were
necessarily heavy, the German dead were piled three deep in places.

The importance of the operations of the Americans on the Marne sector
was evident from the fact that the day before they arrived on the front
and began fighting, the Germans advanced about six miles. While the
Americans advanced their line, the French completed the capture of
Vilny, Veuilly-la-Poterie, and the heights southeast of Hautevesnes.

BELLEAU WOOD ENGAGEMENT

Following the capture of Bouresches came the fierce fighting for
the possession of Belleau Wood to the north. This wooded hill was a
stronghold of German infantry and machine gunners, and the only way to
attack it was by advancing to the other side. The American infantry had
the assistance of the artillery in clearing the wooded heights, and in
the biggest artillery engagement in which the Americans had yet been
engaged more than 5,000 high explosive and gas shells were thrown into
the German machine gun nests in the woods. Meanwhile German attacks
against Hill 204, west of Château-Thierry and commanding the town, were
repulsed.

The United States marines attacked again on the morning of June 10
and penetrated the German lines for about two-thirds of a mile on a
600-yard front in Belleau Wood, with the result that the Germans were
driven from all but the northern fringe of the wood. On June 11 the
wood was captured and 300 prisoners were taken.

FIRST FIELD ARMY

The War Department received reports on May 21 which showed that the
first of the field armies had been organized and was in service in
France. The army, composed of two army corps, each made up of one
regular army, one National Guard, and one National Army division, was
placed under the temporary command of Major Gen. Hunter Liggett, the
senior Major General then in foreign service. General Liggett was
selected to command the first army corps organized in France, and
this corps, with that temporarily commanded by Major Gen. Charles T.
Menoher, made up the first field army, the total strength of which
was almost 200,000 men. By June 14 the American forces in France had
become so numerous that General Foch had informed General Pershing
that it was desirable to maintain them as purely American units. This
fact was communicated to the House Military Affairs Committee by the
War Council at Washington. In accordance with this policy two full
American divisions were engaged in the fighting in the Château-Thierry
sector. The Secretary of War told the committee that General Foch was
gradually decreasing the number of Americans brigaded with the French
and British, and thereby increasing the American unit.

Official announcements made at Washington showed that approximately
half a million soldiers had landed in France since the German drive
began on March 21, 1918, and that Americans held no more than fifty
miles of the whole western front. One element of Pershing's mobile
forces, by direction of General Foch, guarded the way at the apex of
the whole German wedge near Montdidier. Cantigny, which was captured
by these forces, was very close to the point of maximum penetration
achieved by the enemy after nearly three months of desperate fighting.

The total casualties sustained by the American Expeditionary Forces
from the beginning of American participation in the war up to June 17,
1918, is shown in the following figures issued by the War Department at
Washington:

Deaths. Total.
Killed in action 881
Lost at sea 291
Died of wounds 364
Accident and other causes 422
Died of disease 1,234
-----
Total deaths 3,192
Wounded 4,547
Missing, including prisoners 346
-----
Grand total 8,085

First American Offensive a Success

Capture of Cantigny by General Pershing's Troops
Described in Vivid Detail

By THOMAS M. JOHNSON

_Correspondent with the American Army_

_This stirring narrative of the first attack and capture of enemy
territory by the American forces in France was written by a staff
correspondent of The New York Evening Sun. It constitutes a memorable
chapter in our military history, not because of the size of the town
captured, but because the event marks the beginning of offensive
operations in Europe by the United States Army. The brave men who took
Cantigny--at the apex of the German salient aimed at Amiens--continued
to hold it against all counterattacks through the succeeding weeks.
Under date of May 29, 1918, Mr. Johnson cabled from the front:_

The Americans have made their first real attack of the war, and it is
a complete success. Advancing up a wooded slope behind French tanks
and protected by a perfect and annihilating barrage from French and
American guns, our infantry at 7 o'clock Tuesday morning, May 28,
stormed and captured the village of Cantigny, northwest of Montdidier,
and the German defenses to the north and south, making an advance of a
mile on a two-mile front.

The Americans went over in open formation at 6:45 o'clock, advancing
at an easy walk and maintaining intervals as if on parade. The sun
had just risen, and through streaky clouds all about tongues of red
flame were darting from the muzzles of hundreds of massed guns, big
and small, while the air itself quivered with the shock of explosions,
mingled with the deafening yet purring roar that is called drum fire.

Cantigny itself was turned into a veritable hell, a pillar of fire and
smoke, and into it went the crawling, sinister tanks followed by the
American infantry in thin lines or little groups. For a while they
were swallowed up in the great white and brown and black cloud that
enveloped the village, then back to the American line came the first
message: "We're here! Everything O. K.!"

Thus these troops of the New World made their first real entry into the
war. Thus they did what they could to help in offsetting the new German
effort. Compared with the giant struggle going on elsewhere it was
just a little outburst, but we did our best with it and have succeeded.

AN UNFORGETTABLE SCENE

No one who had the privilege to be on the scene at the time of this
first American attack will ever forget the sight. It was unforgettable.
The whole thing is uneffaceable from the time in the pregnant darkness
when the troops that had been chosen for this most honorable of tasks
went quietly along the shell-pitted roads to the jumping-off place;
from the time the grotesque monsters called tanks rumbled up the same
roads to hide until dawn in lairs behind the front line, while other
monsters with long snouts crouched upon their heavy carriages like
coiled serpents and were given their last drop of oil and their last
daub of grease to make sure that their devastating charges would fall
true upon their mark; from the time the men were given their last
orders and their last "good luck" and went off, they knew not to what,
in the first early streak of rosy dawn when the cannonade began and the
first airplanes whirred overhead toward the doomed village.

From then until that last throbbing hour when the tempest of shellfire
drowned out everything, yes, up to that tense minute at 6:45 o'clock
when we turned to one another and in an awestruck whisper said,
"They're over," it is all unforgettable. One lives such moments but
once.

This operation had been planned for weeks down to the minutest detail
under the direction of the Superior French Command, and in the closest
co-operation with the French, to whom must go a liberal measure of the
credit for its success.

So far as its objects may be disclosed, they were the following: To
reduce the enemy salient and capture its strong point and observation
post. Cantigny was all those things. Jutting out from the German front,
it gave the enemy an advantage in the field of fire, while, because of
its strong cellars, which were linked up with an especially long tunnel
under the château in the southern part of the village, which might be
likened to its citadel, it was decidedly a strong post.

Perhaps most important of all, it gave the boche a local advantage
comparable to that of a man looking down a well. It commanded a sort of
valley running back into our lines and permitted the enemy observers
to see many things that went on there and so direct his artillery fire
upon our back areas. For all of those reasons Cantigny was a prize of
value out of all proportion to its size.

ATTACK CAREFULLY REHEARSED

The attack was carefully planned and was rehearsed by our infantry with
tanks. They had the further advantage of valuable data gained by our
patrols in frequent night explorations of the village, whence the boche
seems to have withdrawn his infantry during darkness.

To two American soldiers goes the credit for the fine and loyal thing
they did which immeasurably contributed to the success of their
comrades. These two soldiers were captured early yesterday morning
in a trench raid, and last night the question on every one's mind
was, "did they tell?" They knew what was coming and had rehearsed it.
Subjected to Prussian grilling, would they tell? The answer came this
morning. The Germans were caught completely by surprise just as they
made relief. The prisoners taken by us included some incoming and some
outgoing troops. They hadn't the slightest idea the attack was coming.
They didn't tell, those boys of ours. All the more honor to them for it!

PLAN OF THE ATTACK

This is how the attack was executed: The troops selected to make it
entered the trenches in two shifts, the first on Sunday night and the
second on Monday night, May 27. Special trenches had been constructed
to accommodate a larger number of men than usual. Two hours before
zero--that is to say, at 4:45 o'clock this morning--the men withdrew
to supporting trenches, whence they went to the front line at zero, or
6:45.

[Illustration: CANTIGNY, THE FIRST TOWN CAPTURED IN FRANCE BY AMERICAN
TROOPS]

They were divided into three waves for the main attack, with separate
detachments to whom had been allotted the task of mopping up the
Cantigny cellars. On the right and centre the advance was made to the
furthest objectives, while on the left, according to the plan, after
mopping up the German trenches, our troops withdrew slightly to a
better position, connecting with our old front line.

The troops went forward in extended order, preceded by the powerful
tanks, all of which entered Cantigny and went some distance beyond.
With the infantry went a detachment of flame throwers who were used
against the cellars when the boche refused to come out when ordered to
do so. They were also accompanied by a strong detachment of engineers,
signal corps men, and carrier pigeons, but the wires have remained
intact.

The artillery fire was tremendous. The German batteries at the rear
were also drenched by gas. A rolling barrage behind which the infantry
advanced was laid by the field guns. The infantry went forward first
at the rate of fifty yards per minute and then at twenty-five yards
per minute. The moving barrage of fire stalked ahead of our men into
Cantigny, keeping the boche down until the infantry was upon him.

The timetable was adhered to perfectly. At 4:45 o'clock the artillery
began a heavy concentrated fire, swelling to a drum fire at 6:45,
"zero," continuing thence onward to 7:20, when the infantry reached
their final objectives. At 7:30 the infantry outlined their position
with flares so as to enable the airplanes to signal back. Thus it will
be seen that Cantigny was taken in less than thirty-five minutes, for
the final objectives were beyond the village.

ALL MODERN WEAPONS USED

There were some tough nuts to crack besides Cantigny itself, such as
the trench system protecting it on the south, also part of the Fontaine
Wood, and some separate houses at the crossroads at the southeastern
outskirts of the town, but all were reduced with bombs, bayonets, or
rifles, while the machine guns which went along with the infantry also
aided.

Besides all this, a heavy smoke barrage was used, not only to screen
our infantry from boche observers, but to blind the boche gunners. The
tremendous effectiveness of the whole thing was shown by the fact that
for nearly a half hour after the infantry went over the top, the German
artillery was practically silenced. This was due especially to the
accurate counterbattery work of the French heavies.

So the Americans in their first attack had the aid of every engine of
modern warfare--tanks, gas, flame throwers, smoke barrage, numbers of
airplanes, machine guns and automatic rifles, while some especially
heavy trench mortars also were concentrated and hurled great bombs into
the German trenches from close range. Reports all agree that the German
defenses were completely leveled, and the smashed up trenches look like
a field plowed by a giant harrow. Our men walked into the trenches
through great gaps torn in the barbed wire, but in many places there
was no wire at all for great stretches. So much for the main outlines
of the attack.

WATCHING THE BEGINNINGS

Waking up early in the morning on the blanket bed on the floor of the
dugout and taking a first peek through the sandbagged entrance, it was
plain that our best hopes were going to be realized and that it would
be a clear day with good visibility. The sun had not yet appeared, but
the clouds were few and the early light showed every feature of the
country. Here and there were dark dots denoting the waiting batteries,
while sausage balloons were already swinging overhead.

In the messroom the commanding General sat at breakfast, cleanly shaven
and unworried, although he had been on the front line most of the
night. This General, who was in immediate command, talked not about
the attack, but about the censorship, tactfully choosing the favorite
subject of every correspondent.

By this time the artillery had started, so we went out along the road
toward the front, passing a line of ambulances parked under the trees.
The further we went along the road the more frequent became the flashes
of the explosions on either side, but thus far not a single boche shell
had come in and the sounds overhead were all caused by the familiar
rushing of our shells and none by the whistle of the boche shells.

Some distance up the road was a vantage spot whence we got a clear view
of Cantigny, or the spot where it had been. It was a picture terrible
in its grandeur. Cantigny might have been a volcano in eruption
shooting up clouds that were first white, then brown, then black, while
above the air was filled with spiral shaped black clouds of exploding
shrapnel.

GUNNERS BEAT THEIR RECORD

That great smoke cloud was eternally writhing and twisting and taking
on new forms as if anguished Cantigny were trying to escape its fate,
but every instant more guns flashed. Beside the observation post the
cloud grew larger. Finally the smoke streamed off to the right. Near
by the American gunners were working, stripped to their undershirts,
dripping with perspiration. We walked over there.

"This is the fastest firing we've ever done," said one breathless
officer.

Further to the right was the house where the correspondent spent
several days and nights a month ago. It is ruined now, but batteries
are still there, and they, too, were spouting fire and smoke.

To the left new batteries had opened and the din was terrific. It was
hard to resist the impulse to put one's fingers in one's ears. A glance
at the watch showed that it lacked barely five minutes of the "zero"
hour. Those five minutes passed more rapidly, and yet more slowly, than
any I had ever experienced.

Ahead was a green slope dotted with trees, up which our infantry was
to advance. It was bare and empty. It seemed incredible that in a few
minutes our men would be there. The second hand crawled, yet raced,
around the dial. It rested on the figure 10 and we looked at one
another. "They're over," we whispered.

We looked up from our watches to find that the smoke clouds had drifted
down the slope until the whole country for miles about Cantigny
was obscured by shifting, changing vapor from the great caldron
toward which our unseen men were plunging. We almost groaned our
disappointment, for in a moment there came a little rift in the smoke,
revealing something moving on the ground.

Imagine looking at the teeth of a black comb through a wire screen and
having some one pass the comb slowly before your eyes. That was what it
looked like--those black teeth, our men, were screened by the shifting
smoke. It was only the tiniest glimpse. Then the smoke drifted over and
rose again, but we had seen them going forward and upward to Cantigny.
After a time the smoke spread still further. Nothing remained to be
seen.

ALL WENT AS REHEARSED

Walking back along the road, where now there were a few belated boche
shells coming, the heavy artillery officer said: "From my observation
post we could see them for a couple of minutes. They went just the way
they rehearsed, just walked along slowly, keeping in fine alignment.
We could see two of the three waves and not a single man out of place,
following the barrage like veterans. We could even see an individual
man sometimes."

Beside the road ambulances were waiting. From overhead an observer came
sweeping down to drop a message near a white marker on the ground. He
leaned out of his seat and waved his hand; then the machine soared up
again. Evidently all was going well. Other planes were hovering over
Cantigny.

As we entered headquarters all about the guns were crashing and
flashing. Headquarters was an underground hive swarming with activity.
Officers were hugging telephones or were bent over maps under electric
lights. Some were in khaki and some were in light blue. The first of
these latter was Lieut. Col. de Chambrun, a descendant of Lafayette.
"It goes well," he said, and a moment later an American officer called
from a telephone: "They can see the boche throwing down his arms in
Cantigny." After that the messages came thick and fast:

"The first boche shell hit our front line at 7:06--the Colonel
has twenty prisoners--the right flank is sending back about a
hundred--balloon reports grenade fighting west of Cantigny where
our men are mopping up the trenches--two of our stretcher bearers
are returning with an empty stretcher--one tank returning from
Cantigny--our men are seen walking around the street of Cantigny--flame
throwers can be seen through the smoke clearing out the dug-outs--enemy
fire beginning on Cantigny Wood at 7:30, three-quarters of an hour
after zero."

After that come other reports of German batteries at last able to
operate, though haltingly. Shortly afterward the officer reported,
laconically, "There goes my observation post. Steve's gone to capture
Cantigny single-handed. Couldn't keep him there."

The French and Americans were jubilant. There were mutual handshakings,
then silence, and in came a grimy, sweaty, but happy soldier, the
first of the men who'd been over the top into Cantigny. He saluted
punctiliously: "Sir, I have brought back twenty prisoners."

PEN READY FOR PRISONERS

Sure enough, there they were outside, about to be herded into
a detention pen that was already prepared for them. They were
dull-looking men, still half stunned, in dirt-gray uniforms, looking
like slugs or earthworms, sullen and angry at being captured by
Americans. The officer said 120 had been counted up above already, and
added: "Hope we get enough to even up for Seicheprey."

The soldier was triumphant. "I went with the first wave," he said. "We
got to a sort of trench, and all of a sudden the boches jumped right
up in front of us and started to throw grenades. We went at 'em with
grenades, bayonets, rifles, pistols, whatever came handy. I spitted
one big fellow on my bayonet, but the bayonet stuck. So I pulled out
my trench knife and went for another, but he yelled 'Kamerad!' so I
grabbed his gun and hit a third over the head with it. There were
grenades busting all around, but I could hear our fellows shouting 'Go
to it, Yanks!' the same as they did all the way over No Man's Land.

"Pretty quick all the boches were yelling 'Kamerad!' and putting up
their hands. The Captain told me to herd these together and get them
down quick so they could be questioned. There's about a hundred more up
in the woods cut off by the barrage."

A little later the wounded began coming back to the dressing stations
which had been specially prepared. The wounded were all cheerful,
saying, "We went right through 'em--nothing to it--go back and do it
again tomorrow." Every man asked only two things: "How many boches did
we get?" and "Have you got a cigarette?"

These are the real victors of Cantigny. When all's said and done, the
staff may plan, guns may fire, tanks may crawl, but the common infantry
soldier is the real hero of all.

Americans' Defense of Château-Thierry

United States troops, mostly inexperienced in actual warfare, on June
1 played a brilliant part in the defense of Château-Thierry. By their
prompt and resolute support to the French they assisted in driving the
Germans from the south bank of the Marne at that vital point, and were
largely responsible for blocking the enemy's determined advance across
the river toward Paris, thus preventing the development of a most
serious situation for the Allies. The French official report of the
incident was as follows:

American troops checked German advanced forces which were seeking
to penetrate Neuilly Wood, and by a magnificent counterattack
hurled back the Germans north of this wood.

Further south the Germans were not able to make any gains. On the
Marne front an enemy battalion which had crept across to the left
bank of the river above Jaulgonne was counterattacked by French
and American troops and hurled back to the other bank, after
having suffered heavy losses. A footbridge which the enemy used
was destroyed and 100 prisoners remained in our hands.

A BRITISH ACCOUNT

The Reuter correspondent under date of June 5 described the feat of the
Americans at Château-Thierry in these words:

On May 31, when the Germans were already in the outskirts of
Château-Thierry, an American machine-gun unit was hurried thither
in motor lorries. Château-Thierry lies on both banks of the Marne,
which is spanned by a big bridge. A little to the northward a
canal runs parallel to the river and is crossed by a smaller
bridge.

The Americans had scarcely reached their quarters when news was
received that the Germans had broken into the northern part of
Château-Thierry, having made their way through the gap they had
driven in our lines to the left of the town and then pouring along
the streets to the bridge, intending to establish themselves
firmly on the south bank and capture the town.

The American machine gunners and French colonials were thrown into
Château-Thierry together. The Americans immediately took over
the defense of the river bank, especially the approaches to the
bridge. Fighting with their habitual courage and using their guns
with an accuracy which won the highest encomiums from the French,
they brought the enemy to a standstill.

Already wavering under the American fire, the Germans were
counterattacked by the French colonials and driven from the town.
They returned to the attack the next night and under cover of
darkness crept into the town along the river bank and began to
work their way through the streets toward the main bridge. At the
same moment a tremendous artillery bombardment was opened upon the
southern half of the town.

BLOWING UP THE BRIDGE

When within range of the machine guns the Germans advanced under
the cover of clouds of thick white smoke from smoke bombs, in
order to baffle the aim of the American gunners. A surprise,
however, was in store for them. They were already crossing the
bridge, evidently believing themselves masters of both banks, when
a thunderous explosion blew the centre of the bridge and a number
of Germans with it into the river. Those who reached the southern
bank were immediately captured.

In this battle in the streets, and again at night, the young
American soldiers showed a courage and determination which
aroused the admiration of their French colonial comrades. With
their machine guns they covered the withdrawal of troops across
the bridge before its destruction, and although under severe fire
themselves, kept all the approaches to the bank under a rain of
bullets which nullified all the subsequent efforts of the enemy
to cross the river. Every attempt of the Germans to elude the
vigilance of the Americans resulted in disaster.

During the last two days the enemy has renounced the occupation of
the northern part of Château-Thierry, which the American machine
guns have made untenable. It now belongs to No Man's Land, as,
since the destruction of the bridges, it is not worth while for
the French to garrison it.

Against their casualties the Americans can set a much greater loss
inflicted by their bullets on the enemy. They have borne their
full part in what a French staff officer well qualified to judge
described as one of the finest feats of the war.

THE QUICK ADVANCE

The story of the quick advance of the American marines was related in
detail by Wilbur Forrest in The New York Tribune as follows:

It is a narrative that stands for more, perhaps, than most of
those written in American history books. It is literally another
story of American minute men who abandoned the figurative
plowshares of peaceful training camps and rushed to the scene
of action. They met the enemy with weapons they knew how to
handle.

On May 30 the enemy reached the Marne east of Château-Thierry and
began a forceful advance along the north bank toward the city. The
same day American machine gunners received orders 100 kilometers
to the rear to jump into auto trucks and hurry into action.

They started almost immediately, and an all-night journey found
the battalion at 4 o'clock in the afternoon of the 31st on a hill
overlooking Château-Thierry. All around them French batteries were
firing full tilt. The enemy was advancing on the city.

Right here those American machine gunners got their first glimpse
of real war. German shells crashed into villages within plain view
and the little city below them was not being spared. The officers
chose a small nearby village as headquarters and the marines
waited for darkness before loading little black machine guns on
their shoulders and marching into Château-Thierry.

GERMAN SHELLS RAKE CITY

German high explosives and shrapnel were raking the city, but
the young Americans under fire for the first time coolly placed
their guns in position on the south bank of the river. They saw
heavy shells strike the railroad station and they saw it burn.
They saw houses fall like packs of cards, and I have the word of
a Frenchman, who was present, that they were "cool like American
cucumbers."

During the night the Germans gradually filtered into the outskirts
on the north side of the town. Roughly speaking, the American
guns were so placed between the houses and in the gardens as to
enfilade the approaches to the bridges and the streets on the
opposite sides. All remained on the south bank of the river with
the exception of a Lieutenant, (John T. Bissell,) a youthful
Pittsburgher, who was one of West Point's latest graduates.

The Lieutenant with a dozen men and two guns was ordered to cross
the river to prevent the enemy's advance along forked roads which
merge to the right of the northern approach to the iron bridge.
For convenience sake it is permissible to say that A Company was
charged with holding the left part of the town on the south bank
and the approaches to the larger bridges, while B Company's guns
swept the opposite approaches to the iron bridge, and, therefore,
held the right portion of the town.

Several hundred yards separated the two companies. The enemy's
shelling was intensified during the night, but no Germans were
yet in sight. The machine guns were quiet, although A Company's
commander, O. F. Houghton of Portland, Me., was forced to abandon
the headquarters he had chosen in a house on the bank of the
river and change the position of some guns because of the enemy's
precise fire.

It was a waiting game for Company A's guns. In the meantime
Company B, at about 5 A. M., in broad daylight, saw two columns
of the enemy of twelve men each, advancing across an open field
toward the river to the right of their position. The Germans
carried light machine guns and were blissfully ignorant that our
men were here. One American gun swung its shy little nose around
toward the Germans and waited. Behind it was an unpoetic youth
named Must of Columbia, S. C., a Sergeant, who waited until he
saw the whites of their eyes, and then let them have it, as he
explained today.

AT CLOSE RANGE

"I got eight out of the bunch by a little surprise shooting," said
the Sergeant with a considerable show of pride. "They flopped
nicely. Then I turned on the other squad, but they were leary and
I only got one. The rest of them got into the ditch and crawled
back without showing themselves. Later in the day their Red Cross
men came out to pick up the wounded. We've got orders not to fire
on members of the Red Cross, so I let 'em work unmolested. But I
kept tally all day when their Red Cross men came out. By my count
they carried off nine and they weren't all wounded, either."

The Germans during the day of June 1 gained the hills overlooking
the north bank of the river. Their machine guns and their
artillery observers, therefore, were able to direct a galling fire
on the south bank and portions of the north bank which still were
held by French colonials and two machine guns under an American
Lieutenant.

DEADLY MACHINE GUNS

The enemy's position thus made the north bank untenable and
orders were given to retire to the south bank under cover of the
darkness. At 9:30 P. M. the French, in accordance with these
plans, retired to the south bank and blew up a stone bridge.
The American machine gun companies during the retirement poured
a galling fire from the flanks into the areas evacuated by the
retiring troops.

The enemy was now shelling the south bank more heavily and the
enemy machine-gun fire was multiplied. The commander of Company A
was forced to change the position of his guns in order to secure
a better field of fire. With the light Hotchkiss pieces on their
shoulders he led his men into a wood further down the river. Here
they were spotted by enemy observers and thirty high explosive
shells crashed into the wood. The shelling ceased and the guns
went into their positions.

The French were still retiring at 10:30 P. M. It was pitch dark,
except for shell bursts and the streaky flame stabs from the
machine guns on both sides--the Americans were in the wood and
along the south bank of the river, the Germans on the crest of the
hill on the other side.

Suddenly there was an immense detonation. It was the big bridge
blowing up. Then there came out of the darkness across the river,
as the firing lulled, the ghostly chant of the advancing enemy.
It was one of those German mass attacks, where men, shoulder to
shoulder, singing in guttural tones the praise of Germany and the
Kaiser, blindly walk into death like fanatics.

The sort of creaky, shuffling sound their boots made as they
trotted into the open road came across the river like the wailing
of lost souls, converged toward the bridge and was heard by these
young Americans, who strained their eyes across the river to
get what machine-gun men call "the target." But it was in pitch
darkness, and there was only the sound to tell them there were
plenty of "targets." Every little black devil of a machine gun
tore loose with hellfire. The Americans behind them, who saw their
first glimpse of war about thirty hours before, fed in bullets
as fast as human hands could work. And the bullets caught their
"targets" on the opposite side.

The "target" came on again and again, but nothing could live in
that leaden hail. The enemy waves melted in the darkness.

Now come the even more thrilling experiences of the little band
of Americans under Lieutenant Bissell who had been cut off and
surrounded by the enemy across the river. Even experienced
soldiers could not be blamed if they had surrendered there.

At the beginning of the German mass attack a few French colonial
soldiers, also cut off by the blown-up bridge, made the Lieutenant
understand that then it was every man for himself. The north bank
was becoming a seething mass of Germans. All other forces had
retired across the river. Bullets were registering on every foot
of the space approaching the bridges.

The Germans chant to keep up the courage of the advancing masses.
They sometimes yell to disconcert their enemies. With this ghostly
chanting drawing nearer to the Lieutenant and his men and the
weird yells of the Germans occasionally splitting the night, there
was no thought of surrender. Their orders were to retreat by the
main bridge, and orders were orders.

SERIOUS PREDICAMENT

Picking up both guns, each man carrying his allotted piece in
manoeuvres, the party of thirteen started along the river for
the main bridge. Reaching the vicinity of the approach, they
discovered their plight. The enemy was almost upon them. Still
carrying their guns, they jumped down, taking cover under the
stone parapets at the river's edge. Thus they worked their way
down to the iron bridge, though the Germans on the very parapet
above were marching into a hail of American machine guns from the
south bank.

B Company did not know that a detachment had not escaped. The
German attack remained at its height, and the enemy, despite its
losses, kept sweeping toward the iron bridge. Bissell and his men
attempted to cross under their own fire. Three were immediately
wounded. They retired, picking up their wounded.

The Lieutenant knew that B Company's guns were across the bridge,
and he approached as near as he dared and yelled repeatedly. B
Company's officers finished the story, which was narrated and
corroborated by the Lieutenant and others at the rest camp today.

The first B Company knew that Americans were opposite was when
they heard a voice calling "Cobey! Cobey!" Cobey was the other
Lieutenant.

This time the German attack melted. B Company's guns ceased fire
long enough for Cobey to cross the bridge and lead the Lieutenant
and the men to safety. Throughout the remainder of the night the
enemy vented his rage by heavy shelling. The next day, June 2, the
heavy shelling continued. The enemy had picked up his dead and
wounded across the river under cover of darkness and could be seen
occasionally flitting from house to house.

Sniping was continuous between the French and Germans. Machine
guns were silent during the day in order not to give away their
positions. Nightfall was so quiet that the Americans were not able
to understand such warfare. They thought all war was noisy.

However, at 9 o'clock at night the enemy made a fierce rush for
the iron bridge. Fifteen minutes of heavy machine-gun firing
squelched the attack and the shelling was resumed. The heavy
bombardment continued.

"GOT" WHOLE PLATOON

On June 3 the Sergeant in charge of one of our platoons at the
iron bridge saw a German platoon of about fifty men forming on
top of a hill. They made a beautiful target, according to the
Sergeant's story today. He and his companions believe he got them
all.

The enemy brought more artillery up by night and began a terrific
shelling to culminate in what appeared to be an attempted attack.
The French artillery sprinkled the opposite bank of the river with
a barrage which the "novice" American fighters called beautiful.
They thought it was less than a hundred yards away, and stood up
to watch it, and there wasn't any attack.

The French engineers on this night laid a charge under the iron
bridge while the American guns laid down a leaden protective
barrage. When the charge was detonated the Germans rushed forward
from the house to ascertain the cause of the explosion. It was
here that a prearranged petrol flare lit up the vicinity like day,
and again American machine gunners had what they insist on calling
"targets."

"I was impressed by many things," a company's Captain said. "First
of all, the coolness of every man, and especially of a young
Georgia theological student who had been drafted, who on the third
day complained because the boche shells kept mussing up his gun
position. Second, the attitude of those wonderful French colonial
troops with us. They gave us inspiration. They said we gave
them inspiration; so it was a fifty-fifty exchange. Third, that
beautiful French barrage and our wonderful 'targets.'"

Capture of Belleau Wood

Brilliant Exploit of American Troops Northwest of Château-Thierry

_The American troops achieved their most important exploit on June
6, 7, and 8 in the region northwest of Château-Thierry. Here they
drove back the Germans for nearly two miles along a front of several
miles, took from them the important Belleau Wood, captured over 1,000
prisoners, successfully resisted and seriously demoralized two crack
divisions of Prussians which had been picked especially to punish them,
and effectively blocked a desperate attempt of the Germans to break
through the line, an attempt which, if successful, would have given
them an open road toward Paris and created a situation of extreme peril
to the Allies. Edwin L. James, a correspondent of_ THE NEW YORK TIMES,
_described this achievement as follows:_

[COPYRIGHTED]

There was considerable wonderment among French and American officers
last week when it was discovered that the crack 5th Guard and 28th
German Divisions were in front of us. It was generally believed then
that the Germans planned no immediate attempt to advance northwest of
Château-Thierry, and there was much speculation as to why Hindenburg
had sent these troops there. This is now explained by a captured German
officer's statement, and is substantiated by documents found on him.
He said these two divisions already were on their way to the rear for a
four weeks' rest, to take part in another offensive, when suddenly they
were ordered to go at once to the front northwest of Château-Thierry,
"in order to prevent at all costs the Americans being able to achieve
success."

[Illustration: TERRITORY BETWEEN THE TWO DARK LINES WAS WON BACK IN
HEAVY FIGHTING BY AMERICAN SOLDIERS AND MARINES]

This showed the anxiety of the German High Command regarding the
effect that an American success would have on the German Army and the
populace, and of the great desirability of preventing such a happening.

UNDERESTIMATED OUR EFFORT

When I visited the headquarters of this French army today [June 14]
a sheet of paper was handed to me on which was written a report of
information gained from the examination of a large number of prisoners
from the 28th German Division. The report said:

American assistance, which was underestimated in Germany because
they doubted its value and its opportunity worries the German High
Command more than it will admit. The officers themselves recognize
that, among other causes, it is the principal reason for which
Germany hastens to try to end the war and impose peace. They
believe that if we succeed in holding on for the rest of this
year the German cause will be lost. But they say that until the
end of the year they will allow us no respite in their effort to
break our morale and our will to conquer. They hope that fear of
devastations and the terror caused in Paris, as well as continuing
attacks of the German Army, determined to end the war, will get
the best of our resistance before American aid will become truly
effective.

All agree that the war is reaching the supreme crisis at this
moment. They all declare that the offensives will be renewed and
prolonged in view of this decision until the German forces are
exhausted.

In addition, the prisoners did not conceal their great surprise at
the training and quickness that the Americans have shown against
them, nor at the good work accomplished by the artillery, which
for three days engaged them, cutting off all food supplies and all
reinforcements and causing them very heavy losses--practically all
of the officers and twenty-five of the men were killed or wounded
in a single infantry company and twelve in a machine-gun section,
of which the full quota was seventeen men.

Especially important is this report coming from the French Army, not
because the Americans would emphasize such statements by prisoners,
but because of the probability that the Germans might be rather
praiseworthy of Americans when questioned by our officers with a view
to getting better treatment as prisoners of war. There is no question
that this document speaks the truth.

A letter written by a German officer and found on his body said:

"The Americans are so courageous that they do not allow themselves to
be made prisoners." Another letter written by a German private called
the Americans "devilhounds."

GERMANY FEARS AMERICA

Germany fears America, and that fear is growing. At first the High
Command told their officers and the officers told the soldiers that the
Americans could not get to France because the U-boats would stop them.
Then the German fighters began to find Americans appearing against them
here and there, and finally at many points. Then the officers told the
German soldiers the Americans would not fight. Now the German soldiers
know the Americans can and will fight; and more and more of them are
learning it every day. There is no lack of evidence that the German
populace fears America's power in the war, and no question that the
German High Command is seriously perturbed at the results when the real
news of the Americans' fighting gets back to the people.

In no spirit of boastfulness it may be said that American fighters,
with a proper amount of training, are the best fighters in France
today. The soldiers of other armies of necessity are tired after
nearly four years of fighting, but the Americans are fresh, fresh in
spirit and physique. Other soldiers hope that Germany will be beaten;
the American soldiers know that Germany will be beaten. And Germany
knows that Germany will be beaten unless she wins in the next four
months. That is her only chance, and she will play it for what it is
worth. Everything is to be thrown into that effort. There will be
ruthlessness, there will be frightfulness.

The four days' victorious fight for possession of the important Bois
de Belleau, northwest of Château-Thierry, resulted in the capture,
besides the prisoners mentioned, of two German field guns, 77s, and
thirty machine guns, besides some small mortars. This was the first
capture of German artillery by Americans. I believe that when the
history of the war is written the Americans' capture of the Bois de
Belleau will be ranked among the neatest pieces of military work of the
conflict.

Five days ago, [June 9,] after the capture of the town of Bouresches,
the Americans started the task of taking away the Bois de Belleau from
the Germans. In the rush at Bouresches they had been unable to secure
the rocky strongholds in the woods, and passed on, leaving many nests
of machine guns there, which afterward kept up a harassing fire. The
Americans several times made big raids into the woods, clearing out
part of the Germans, but the next day the Germans would reappear with a
harassing fire. Despite strong artillery work, the Germans seemed able
to stay there.

On Sunday, the 9th, a rain of extra heavy artillery fire began on
the woods. This kept up all Sunday night and Monday. On Monday night
the fire was redoubled and the woods literally raked with lines of
shellfire.

At about 3 o'clock Monday morning the marines started, as soon as the
artillery fire was stopped, to go through those woods. At the nearer
edge of the woods, devastated by our shellfire, they encountered little
opposition. A little further on the Germans made a small stand, but
were completely routed; that is, those who were not killed. By this
time the marines were fairly started on their way. They swept forward,
clearing out machine gun nests with rifle fire, bayonets, and hand
grenades.

WORK OF MARINES

The Germans started in headlong flight when the Americans seized two
machine guns and turned them on the Germans with terrific effect. The
Germans soon tired of this, and those nearest the Americans began
surrendering. In the meantime the marines kept up the chase.

[Illustration: MAJOR GENERAL HARBORD, IN COMMAND OF AMERICAN MARINES]

While this was going on the Americans almost surrounded the woods, and
the Germans, fleeing from some of the Americans, ran into the machine
gun and rifle fire of the others. Then those left rushed headlong the
other way to surrender. In a short time the gallant marines had got
to the other side of the woods, and immediately, with the aid of the
engineers, started the construction of a strong position.

Prisoners counted that day numbered more than 300. It was found that
they belonged to the crack 5th German Guard Division, which includes
the Queen Elizabeth Regiment. There had been 1,200 Germans in the
woods. With the exception of the prisoners nearly all the rest were
slain.

The prisoners said they were glad of the chance to surrender and get
out of the woods, because the American artillery fire for three days
had cut off their food and other supplies and they had lived in a
hell on earth. The Germans seemed deeply impressed by the fury of the
American attack. One of the captured officers, when asked what he
thought of the Americans as fighters, answered that the artillery was
crazy and the infantry drunk. A little German private, taking up his
master's thought, pointed to three tousled but smiling marines, and
said: "Vin rouge, vin blanc, beaucoup vin." He meant he thought the
Americans must be intoxicated, to fight as they did for that wood.

Our boys took especial delight in corralling the machine guns. These
guns had been very well placed behind trees and in rocky caves and
well supplied with ammunition. The Americans had practiced on a German
machine gun previously captured, and knew just how to use them against
the "Heinies." The captured guns were cleverly camouflaged and were
almost overlooked by the Americans. The mortars had been used to throw
gas shells from the heights into the woods upon the Americans.

GERMAN MORALE LOW

There was the greatest surprise among American officers at the evident
low morale among members of the 5th Guard Division, thought to be one
of the Kaiser's very best.

The Germans had tried their best to get the Americans out of the wood
and to hold the valuable position. They had sent attack after attack
there, always failing to gain complete free possession, but making
things very unpleasant for our men. It was after four days of this that
the marines got on their hind legs and went after the Germans.

An American General tonight characterized the capture of Belleau
Wood as the most important thing the Americans at the front had yet
accomplished. Its possession straightens our line, taking away from the
German his protected wedge into our positions, and gives an excellent
starting point for further operations.

Two hours after the Americans started through the wood the Germans
launched their heavy attack to regain Bouresches. A dark and cloudy
night had aided their preparations for the rush, but the Americans,
expecting something of the sort, had the northern side of the town
lined with machine guns, and had artillery all trained on the railroad
embankment over which the Germans had to come. The Americans seem to
have excellent tab on the German movements, and when, at 5 o'clock, the
Germans came over, they met a terrific machine gun fire, while a heavy
barrage which was put right behind the attacking party and gradually
lowered on it not only cut off reinforcement for it but killed many
in it. The slaughter of Germans in this attack was the heaviest
the Americans have yet been able to inflict. Our men, in excellent
positions at the edge of the town, suffered almost no losses. In this
operation we took fifty prisoners, including one officer.

United States Troops in London

First Units of Our New Army Reviewed by
King George Amid Dense Throngs

A regiment of the new army of the United States from Camp Gordon,
Georgia, 2,700 strong, marched through London May 11, 1918, and was
reviewed by the King; Colonel Whitman was in command. Each soldier
received a facsimile copy of the following letter from the King:

[Illustration: KING GEORGE'S MESSAGE TO THE SOLDIERS OF THE UNITED
STATES]

The London Times, in describing the occasion, referred to the attitude
of the British public as follows:

All along the way people gathered thickly. There were dense
crowds in the neighborhood of Charing Cross, in the Mall, around
the Victoria Memorial, and in Grosvenor Gardens. Rarely has the
Stars and Stripes been so conspicuous in London; the flag flew
from public and private buildings. It was waved here and there by
spectators. It was worn in many buttonholes. London Americans set
the fashion of bringing flags small enough to carry and big enough
to add emphasis to a personal demonstration. Some English people
followed their example, and others were heard wishing that they
had "brought their American flags from home." Street hawkers of
buttonhole favors had learned the phrase "Old Glory," and shouted
it familiarly.

But the real lesson of the day came from the crowd everywhere.
It taught those critics who have complained that during the war
London has forgotten how to cheer, that London still remembers.
The people cheered the American troops, they cheered the Guards,
they had a special shout for wounded sailors and soldiers; and by
no means did they forget to cheer the King. Occasionally, however,
there were silences which seemed to speak of an understanding of
the mission of this array of martial youth; of the sacrifice that
mingled with the glory of devotion; perhaps also of the history
that Britain and America have begun to make in union.

The bearing of the American troops was described in the following
passage:

It is worth noting that when the colors passed many men received
them with bared heads, and that "Off with your hats!" was heard
now and then in admonition from a civilian. Considering that the
custom of so honoring the colors of British regiments is still
far from universal, this may be accepted by Americans as a rather
notable tribute.

Three things were striking in these Americans--their youth, their
seriousness, and their modesty. The first quality is easily
conceded to America; we all think of her as young. Those of her
sons whom London scrutinized so keenly came under arms only last
Summer. They are officered chiefly by men who then passed through
the Officers' Training Corps, though the commanding officer and the
Lieutenant Colonel belong to the old regular army. They might,
therefore, be expected to deserve the name of boys, by which
they were affectionately called. But it was their presentation
of the idea of youth, of the quintessence of youth, which struck
the spectator. Nor was it modified by the suggestion of dead
earnestness which accompanied it and might seem to clash with it.
The qualities in combination distinguished the American battalions
from any young English regiment, which strikes the observer as
at once older and more light-hearted. Not that there was really
any lack of hilarity about the Americans in their hours of ease.
The one who sang a comic song in front of the barracks before
parade had a joyful heart, and was certainly a cause of joy to
the Londoners who stood listening to him. As for the men's modest
demeanor, it ought to dispose of the notion that the Americans
cherish any intention "to show us how things should be done"--if
that suggestion is not long since dead.

Physically, the regiment was marked by well-set shoulders, bronzed
faces, and general fitness. It looked sinewy, and went along
with a fine swing. A few men were pointed out for their unusual
height. Spectators on the outskirts of the crowd had an excellent
opportunity of appraising these giants. Otherwise the standard of
stature was level.

The pride of Americans in the troops--and there were many
Americans, naval, military, and civil, among the onlookers--was
easy to see. Before the embassy it reached its highest
manifestation. The building was decorated with flags, like most
of the houses in Grosvenor Gardens. The American Ambassador (Mr.
Page) took the salute outside the embassy. In his company were
Admiral Sims, Commander Babcock, and Lieut. Col. Slocum. Mrs. Page
was an interested spectator in the balcony above. Here the bands
played "Pack Up Your Troubles" and "John Brown's Body." A reminder
of American history and of the foundations of the United States
was introduced when several veterans of the civil war joined the
procession.

No Limit to Size of America's Army

More Than 700,000 Additional Young Men Registered
Under the Draft Law

On the recommendation of the Secretary of War, who appeared before the
House Committee on Military Affairs on May 23, the committee agreed
to give President Wilson authority to raise an army of practically
unlimited size. The text of the provision to be incorporated in the
Army bill was adopted unanimously. The committee had originally been in
favor of limiting the size of the army to 5,000,000.

On June 5 male residents of the United States who had reached the age
of 21 years since that date in 1917 were required to register under the
amended selective draft law. Nearly complete reports to the Provost
Marshal General's office showed that 744,865 men complied with the
law. This was 266,724 below the Census Bureau estimate, but as more
than 200,000 did not register because they had already enlisted in the
army, navy, or Marine Corps, the military authorities found the result
entirely satisfactory.

So-called "work or fight" regulations were issued by the Provost
Marshal General on June 3. All citizens were called upon to report
to the nearest local board all men of military age who should be in
the idler or nonproductive classification after July 1, 1918. The
local boards were given authority to summon any man who may be idle or
nonproductively employed within its territory.

With the double purpose of increasing the number of men available for
military service and of insuring fairer administration of the selective
service law, Provost Marshal General Crowder on June 7 instituted
a reinvestigation of the draft classification lists throughout
the nation. General Crowder believed that by "slacker marriages"
and underground claims to exemption on the ground of industrial
or agricultural work registrants had escaped service, and that in
some districts the local boards had interpreted the regulations too
strictly. It was expected that more than 500,000 men would be brought
by the reclassification into Class 1, which was being rapidly exhausted.

Another move toward the full utilization of the nation's man power was
made on May 24 when the Secretary of War sent to Congress the draft of
a bill authorizing the raising of the maximum age limit for voluntary
enlistment in the army from 40 to 55 years. Between these ages there
were probably 7,500,000 men, and thousands of them have applied to the
War Department to be allowed to serve. The department planned to assign
men over 40 years to noncombatant service, which calls for a very large
proportion of men for every combatant at the front.

The War Department on June 6 permitted publication of reports to the
Acting Chief of Ordnance (Brig. Gen. C. C. Williams) showing that since
the United States declared war 1,568,661 rifles had been produced for
the army. This total was made up of 1,140,595 modified Enfields, 1917
model; 176,796 Springfields, 1903 model, and 251,270 Russian rifles.
The last named are used for training purposes and to equip home
guards. There were also the equivalent of 100,000 Enfields and 100,000
Springfields made up in spare parts. With the rifles already in hand
when war was declared, and allowing for the fact that only one-half
of the soldiers in an army carry rifles, the Ordnance Department
had enough rifles for an army of about 2,000,000 men, after making
allowance for one year's wastage.

The organization of five new regiments and nineteen battalions of
Railway Engineers, to be used in addition to the regiments already
working in France, was announced by the War Department on June 6. The
work was carried out by the staff of the Director General of Military
Railways, Samuel M. Felton, in conjunction with the Engineer Corps.
This brought the number of Americans engaged in railroad construction
and operation in France up to 50,000.

A total of $160,000,000 has been spent on railway materials alone, not
including supplies provided and used by the Engineer Corps proper.
Director General Felton, describing the growth in personnel and the
increase in the size of the task confronting his staff, beginning with
the organization of the first railway regiment, said that early in
1917 the Chief of Engineers decided to organize a railway operating
regiment. Mr. Felton, who had acted as his railway adviser in 1916, was
asked to take charge of the work. Six railroads having headquarters in
Chicago were called on to recruit one company each. The regiment formed
the nucleus of the present railway organization. While it was being
formed, the United States entered the war. One of the first requests
transmitted to this Government by the French Mission was for assistance
in strengthening the French railway systems to meet the increasing war
strain. This request was made in April, 1917, and early in May Mr.
Felton was called to Washington to organize nine railway regiments,
including the Chicago regiment.

War Finance in Canada

Income Tax Begins at $1,000--New Taxes on Luxuries

The new Canadian taxes in the budget for the fiscal year 1918-19 show
marked increases, especially in income taxes. Exemption in the case of
unmarried persons is reduced from $1,500 to $1,000, and for married
persons from $3,000 to $2,000, the rate being 2 per cent. from $1,000
to $1,500 in the case of the unmarried and the same amount from $2,000
to $3,000 in the case of the married. The present rate of supertax is
continued upon incomes up to $50,000, and above that there is a gradual
increase, reaching 50 per cent. on incomes over $1,000,000. In addition
there will be a war surtax upon incomes over $6,000, running from 5 per
cent. on incomes between $6,000 and $10,000 and 25 per cent. on incomes
over $200,000. It has also been decided to grant an exemption of $200
per child. The total war tax on incomes over $1,000,000 reaches 77 per
cent.

The tax on tobacco is increased from 10 to 20 cents per pound; on
cigars from $5 to $6 per 1,000; on cigarettes from $3 to $6 per 1,000;
on foreign raw leaf tobacco from 28 to 40 cents per pound, and on
foreign leaf tobacco stemmed from 42 to 60 cents per pound. It has also
been decided to place a tax of 10 cents per pound on tea, and it is
proposed to increase the duty on coffee to 5 cents for British coffee
and to 7 cents for the general tariff. There will be a tax of 8 cents
per pack on playing cards and a specific rate customs duty of 5 cents
per lineal foot on moving-picture films. A special war excise tax of
10 per cent. is to be imposed upon the selling value of motor cars,
jewelry, gramophones, phonographs, mechanical pianos; imported into or
manufactured in Canada.

The Minister of Finance stated that $258,000,000 was the revenue for
the year ended March 31, 1918, with civil expenditures of $173,000,000.
The increase in interest and pensions for the coming year was estimated
at $25,000,000. The Finance Minister stated that the war expenditures
of the last year approximated $345,000,000, of which $167,000,000 had
been spent in Canada. Up to March 31 the total outlay on the war was
approximately $878,000,000, which included all expenditures at home and
abroad. During the last two years they had applied $113,000,000 toward
war expenditures, in addition to expenditures on interest and pensions.
The net debt of Canada was now approximately $1,200,000,000.

He pointed out that trade was annually increasing, and that exports
were now much greater than imports. The total trade had increased since
1913 from $1,000,000,000 to $2,500,000,000 last year, the balance of
trade in favor of Canada being $625,000,000. Exports to Great Britain
totaled $860,000,000, while imports were only $81,000,000. On the other
hand, the balance of trade against Canada with the United States was
$350,000,000.

Referring to immigration, the Minister of Finance said that, in spite
of the war, over 200,000 people had entered Canada in the last three
years, largely farmers from the United States. He anticipated large
immigration into Canada shortly after the end of the war.

* * * * *

War Record of the United States

An Official Summary of American Activities
During the First Year of Belligerency.

By CHARLES POPE CALDWELL

_Member of Congress from New York_

[DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MAY 22, 1918]

At the outset, let me say frankly that we have made mistakes--yes,
grievous mistakes--and had our foresight been as keen as the
afterthought of our critics we might have accomplished more. But,
notwithstanding these mistakes and omissions, America has done her
share--indeed, more than her share--for she has done many times more
than any of our allies suspected that she was capable of doing and
more than the greatest enthusiast in America hoped she could do. She
has confirmed our friends and confounded our enemies. Or, let me put
it in another way: America has raised and equipped a bigger army in
shorter time and now holds a greater section of the fighting front,
transporting her forces 3,000 miles across an infested sea, in ten
months, than England was capable of doing in twelve months across the
English Channel of less than thirty miles. We began with less, went
further, and arrived with more in shorter time. Yet their motive was
necessity and ours only desire.

When war was declared in April, 1917, the standing army of the United
States consisted of 136,000 officers and men, many of whom were in the
foreign service, and the National Guard consisted of 164,000 officers
and men, many of whom were too old for active service, and a large
part of them physically unfit to perform the duty for which they had
volunteered. Our experts told us that it would take two years to raise
an army of 1,000,000 men and five years to train the commissioned
personnel. It has now been about one year since the first legislation
was passed authorizing the increase of our army for war purposes. The
strength of our military forces is now as follows:

ARMY STRENGTH, MAY, 1918

Officers. Men.
Regular army 10,295 504,677
Reserve Corps 79,038 78,560
National Guard 16,906 411,952
National Army 33,894 510,963
On special and technical duty 8,195
Drafted in April 150,000
Drafted in May 233,742
------- -------
Total 148,328 1,889,894

Grand total, 2,038,222 officers and men.

So we have today an army of more than 2,000,000, of which 500,000
have already been shipped to France and 1,000,000 more have had the
necessary training to fit them for foreign service. These are now
waiting for the boats to carry them over. Our critics now complain that
we have not done more, yet we have done in one year twice as much as
they thought we could do in two years.

When war was declared, each of our allies sent commissions to America
to advise us what to do and to assist us wherever possible in our
preparation. The English told us that they did not need men, but they
did need money and supplies; the Italians that they did not need men,
but that they did need material and money; the Russians that they did
not need men or material, but did need money and ammunition; the French
told us that they needed raw material and money, and asked that a small
expeditionary force be sent to hearten their people and as an earnest
of our intention of seeing the war through.

Under this tutelage and squaring our conduct with the requests of our
friends, it was thought by many to be inadvisable to attempt to raise
an army of more than 1,000,000 men. Congress was therefore requested
to pass military legislation limiting the army to the 136,000 regulars,
the 164,000 National Guardsmen, and 500,000 drafted men, with authority
to call an additional 500,000 in case they should be needed. Under
the legislation that Congress passed, in spite of the recommendation
from the Allies, we have already raised more than 2,000,000 men, and
early in the year 1919 will have 3,000,000 men in the army. We have
lately taken the "lid off" so that the President may have as big an
army as necessity requires and our man power permits. Notwithstanding
the fact that the appropriation measure now pending before the House
is drawn with the view of supporting an army of only 3,000,000 men, I
am confident that before many months deficiency appropriations will be
necessary. The army is growing so rapidly and its needs are so urgent
that the efforts heretofore made will be small in comparison with those
of the next twelve months. We will probably have between 4,000,000 and
5,000,000 men before the end of the next fiscal year.

TWENTY MILLION FIGHTING MEN

When we were considering legislation in the Spring of 1917, it was
thought that our largest task would be getting men. Experience has
shown that this is easy of accomplishment, made so by reason of the
fact that we have left open the door for a reasonable amount of
volunteers in the National Guard and regular army and passed a draft
law under which all men of military age may readily be mobilized.
The justness and fairness of the scheme as worked out by the Provost
Marshal General have obtained the earnest co-operation and enthusiastic
support of our people as a whole.

As I have said, our military law has been amended giving the President
authority to call additional increments of men from time to time as
needed. It has also been amended to permit him to register and classify
all men that reach the age of 21 years. We now have 2,000,000 men in
the army. The men between the ages of 21 and 31 years in 1917 have
been classified, and there remains in Class 1 approximately 2,000,000
men physically fit not called. The class of 1918, which will be
registered this Summer, will add another million, making a grand total
of 5,000,000, without calling Classes 2, 3, 4, or 5, containing nearly
6,000,000, and without calling the boys from 18 to 21--3,000,000 more.
If the war lasts until 1924 there will be added 6,000,000 more men. The
potential man power of America for a seven-year war, therefore, may
be conservatively estimated at 20,000,000 fighting men of recognized
military age. This out of a population of 125,000,000.

Not because I think that all of our man power will be needed, but in
order that we may get a view of the task that is in front of us and
understand the necessity for the large army we are calling and the huge
expenditures we are making, let me recall these facts.

THE ENEMY'S STRENGTH

The Central Powers at the outbreak of the war had a population of
142,250,000, in round numbers, of which 26,310,000 were males between
the ages of 18 and 44, and if 70 per cent. of them were available for
military service their man power would be approximately 18,360,000.
Since the Russian fiasco Germany has occupied a territory greater in
area than both Germany and Austria, in which there live upward of
51,000,000 people. And if the reports that we get are to be believed,
the Kaiser has compelled the boys between 18 and 21 in this occupied
territory to enter the German training camps, and he hopes in a short
time to have them on the western front, thus augmenting his man power
to approximately 21,000,000 fighting men.

This is the job we have on our hands. The newspapers tell us that
the Kaiser has only 2,000,000 or 3,000,000 soldiers, but it would be
wise for the members of this House in passing legislation affecting
the conduct of the war to keep in mind the figures that I have just
indicated. To meet this Great Britain--the British Isles, Canada,
Australia, and New Zealand--France, Italy, and the United States have a
combined population from which they can draw 30,000,000 or 40,000,000,
and in addition to these numbers there is an enormous reservoir from
which to draw further man power in the colonies and possessions of the
Allies and the twenty-three smaller countries now allied with us in
the war. To show something of the relative strength of the contending
forces I will read the following capitulation, which is believed to be
substantially accurate and has been compiled after very careful inquiry
from the best sources available:

MAN POWER OF CENTRAL POWERS COMPARED WITH THAT OF THE ALLIES

A. B. C.
Est'd avail.
Estimated for mil.
Males 18-44 serv. of all
Population inclusive, kinds--70%
1914. 1914. of B.
CENTRAL POWERS
Austria-H'ary 51,000,000 9,360,000 6,500,000
Bulgaria 4,750,000 800,000 560,000
Germany
(Continental) 68,000,000 12,850,000 9,000,000
Ottoman Empire 18,500,000 3,300,000 2,300,000
---------- ---------- ---------
Total 142,250,000 26,310,000 18,360,000

ASSOCIATED GOVERNMENTS
Australia 5,000,000 850,000 595,000
Canada 7,500,000 1,275,000 892,500
France 39,000,000 6,630,000 4,640,000
Gt. Britain 46,000,000 7,820,000 5,474,000
India 320,000,000 54,400,000 37,800,000
Italy 36,000,000 6,120,000 4,284,000
Japan 54,000,000 8,180,000 1,390,000
New Zealand 1,200,000 204,000 142,800
Portugal 6,000,000 1,020,000 714,000
Serbia 2,800,000 476,000 333,200
South Africa 6,000,000 1,020,000 714,000
United States 100,000,000 17,000,000 11,900,000
----------- ---------- ----------
Total 623,500,000 104,995,000 68,879,500

The casualties resulting in death, permanent injury, or incapacity in
the German Army have amounted to admittedly about 3,000,000 men during
the four years of war, or approximately the same number as have been
supplied by the young men who have reached military age during the same
period. From this statement it would appear that from the point of man
power Germany is no worse off today than when she started the war. The
weakening of the German forces is represented, however, by the lack of
nourishment for her workers, her women and children, and the discharges
which must necessarily follow the reaching of advanced age by the old
men called to the colors, both of which will be felt more keenly as
time goes on, as well as the disease which must necessarily accompany
conditions such as the war has produced. America will not begin to
discharge her men on account of advanced age for twenty years. In other
words, the man power of America will get stronger and the man power of
the enemy must get weaker for the next twenty years, if, by any chance,
the war should last that long. We have nothing to fear from this source.

DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED

The first war difficulty encountered came when we looked for shelter
for the vast army being assembled. Much to the surprise of every one,
it was soon discovered that there was not cloth enough in the world
to put tents over an army the size of the one we were organizing,
and there were not mills and machinery enough to make it. Therefore
wooden cantonments were constructed. We built thirty-two cantonments
with a floor space of 640,000,000 square feet, with the necessary
water, sewers, lighting plants, storehouses, ice plants, hospitals,
and recreation centres to take care of 1,280,000 men, in which
undertaking there was used in ten weeks' time more human labor than
went into the building of the Panama Canal. Besides these, we have
constructed aviation fields, ordnance schools, and training schools
for officers--herculean tasks in themselves. We have also put up at
the ports of embarkation, and throughout the country, supply depots,
and storage warehouses with a combined floor space of 24,220,000
square feet for the army, in addition to what the navy has done in
that respect, and have constructed the enormous buildings erected for
administrative purposes in Washington and elsewhere. Verily, your Uncle
Samuel is a modern Aladdin, who, when he wants a thing devoutly, rubs
the lamp of American patriotism and the genius of America produces
overnight all that he requires.

When we entered the war we had practically no surplus clothing for our
army, our reserve supply having been used up in the Mexican expedition.
Our allies were using practically the full output of all of our mills
capable of producing cloth of the character used for uniforms. To take
over these factories would have discommoded our allies. We met the
difficulty by a change of the machinery in carpet factories, ducking
mills, and kindred industries, and have been able to, during the
last year, make Summer and Winter clothing enough for 2,000,000 men,
and have a reserve supply of every article of wear for our soldiers
sufficient to take care of the authorized increase.

TRAINING AND EQUIPMENT

England trained her first million a whole year in citizens' clothes
and top hats, with walking sticks for guns, because she could not do
otherwise, and this in spite of the fact that she was the greatest
textile manufacturing country in the world and had all America to
help her. Notwithstanding this shortage, our first 1,500,000 men were
trained in uniforms and taught the manual of arms with a rifle. When
England went into the war she had shortly before adopted a new type of
gun, but her factories were not equipped to supply it. She abandoned
her new type of gun, and has fought the war thus far with an admittedly
inferior type of rifle, a large portion of which were made on order in
the United States.

There went up a hue and cry that America adopt a foreign type of rifle,
notwithstanding the facts that the rifle is the most necessary weapon
of warfare, and we had the Springfield rifle in substantial
quantity, admittedly the best rifle then being used in the world,
shooting the most powerful and efficient ammunition ever prepared. In
the face of this criticism, we adhered to our own weapon, adopting a
modified and rechambered Enfield, which differs from a Springfield in
such a small way that it is not worthy of discussion, now known as the
United States rifle, model of 1917, resulting in some delay but now
being produced in sufficient quantity.

When General Joffre made the request for a small expeditionary force,
the critics of the Administration demanded what they thought was the
impossible--i.e., that we ship to France during the first year 50,000
to 100,000 men. During the first ten days of May we shipped 90,000.
Within one year after the first shipment America will have an army of
1,000,000 men in France, with their necessary arms, equipment, and
supplies. It will be the best-fed, the best-clothed, the best-paid army
of its size that the world has ever known, speaking the same language,
worshipping the same God, and following the same flag. Its personnel
will have the quickest perceptions of any soldiers in the world, and
will have been trained under modern conditions, surrounded by the best
moral influences, with the lowest percentage of disease, and will be
nerved by the highest motives that actuate men.

Victory for our cause is therefore certain.

Italy's Third Year of War

Other Anniversaries, With Official Greetings Exchanged
by the Allies and the United States

The third anniversary of Italy's entry into the war was the occasion
of an address by Prime Minister Orlando, delivered in the Augusteum at
Rome on May 24, in which, in reaffirming the unity of the Allies, he
said:

For this unity, so solemnly consecrated again today, I express in
the name of Italy my deep gratitude to all. To England, which
could not send a more noble or more agreeable messenger than your
Royal Highness, who brings to us a message reaffirming friendship
with our country, a friendship which was shown at a time which was
painful to us, and which has been strengthened by the intimacy of
affection in the days of grief still more than in those of joy. To
France, to our great sister toward whom with a feeling of renewed
admiration our hearts are turned. To the United States, to this
young people, powerful in its strength and already rich in glory
owing to the wisdom of its leader and the numerous virtues of
its men. To the peoples conquered by the enemy because of their
smallness, for which reason their heroic sacrifice and admirable
bravery are all the more apparent. To those nations from the
Baltic to the Adriatic which the common enemy has oppressed. To
the oppressed nations in the interior and on the frontiers of
enemy States which heroically rise in rebellion with the cry "Long
Live the Entente!"

In the royal box were the Prince of Wales and Prince Peter of
Montenegro. The vast audience contained the official representatives
of all the allied powers and the United States, and the leaders of all
political and social groups of Italy, with representatives from all the
important cities. The Prince of Wales in his address said:

I come to you to assure you of the constant friendship and sincere
affection of the British people for your nation, whose enlightened
and precious sympathy is a proof of the creative unity of arms
which nothing can again dissolve. In the city of Rome, the ancient
capital of the world, the source of social order and justice, I
proudly proclaim my conviction that the great object for which
our two nations are fighting against the forces of reaction is
inevitably destined to triumph, owing to the union of which our
meeting this evening is symbolic.

The King of Italy addressed the following Order of the Day to the army
and navy:

Soldiers on land and sea! The fourth year of war, which began
today, finds you full of pride for the hard trials you have
faced, and which, with admirable courage, you have overcome. In
face of your firm decision to resist to the utmost the enemy was
obliged to call a halt, and in daring and magnificent actions you
have many a time shown him the indomitable spirit and resolute
will to conquer with which you are animated. This priceless
energy, revivified by the faith which your country has in you,
is strengthened still further by the anxiety with which your
oppressed and despoiled brothers await your coming.

Soldiers on land and sea! With the sacred image of a country
entirely freed from the enemy imprinted in the very depths of your
hearts, together with the ideals of justice and civilization which
our war has adopted as its aims, I will accompany you in your
future struggles, certain that the reward for the tireless energy
which you, in common with our valiant allies, have shown will not
be delayed much longer.

President Wilson sent the following message to the Italian people,
after it had been read by Secretary Lansing at a Washington celebration
of Italy's anniversary:

I am sure that I am speaking for the people of the United States
in sending to the Italian people warm fraternal greetings
upon this, the anniversary of the entrance of Italy into this
great war, in which there is being fought out once for all
the irrepressible conflict between free self-government and
the dictation of force. The people of the United States have
looked with profound interest and sympathy upon the efforts
and sacrifices of the Italian people, are deeply and sincerely
interested in the present and future security of Italy, and
are glad to find themselves associated with a people to whom
they are bound by so many personal and intimate ties in a
struggle whose object is liberation, freedom, the rights of
men and nations to live their own lives and determine their
own fortunes, the rights of the weak, as well as the strong,
and the maintenance of justice by the irresistible force of
free nations leagued together in the defense of mankind. With
ever-increasing resolution and force we shall continue to stand
together in this sacred common cause. America salutes the
gallant Kingdom of Italy, and bids her Godspeed.

France's Tribute to Great Britain

Great Britain's "Empire Day" was celebrated May 24 throughout France.
In Paris there was an imposing demonstration at the Sorbonne, at which
were present the President of the republic, Ministers, Ambassadors,
and Deputies. President Deschanel of the Chamber in speaking of "the
prodigy of Great Britain's effort" said:

This people of seamen and merchants came forward as volunteers in
crowds; in the Spring of 1915 there were 2,400,000, and at the end
of the same year 3,000,000. In May, 1916, King George announced
that 5,000,000 men had been raised by voluntary recruitment.
But this did not suffice. Parliament voted compulsory service,
the greatest victory that the people ever gained over itself, a
triumph of duty and conscience, the pledge of that victory which
we shall win together over the enemy.

When Germany over a year ago proclaimed unrestricted submarine
warfare, she announced, too, England's capitulation at short
notice. Instead of that hundreds of thousands of Americans are
crossing the seas as allies. Germany has united France and England
not for the present struggle but forever.

Before the war there was in a Calais belfry a Flemish peal of
bells. On the clock dial two knights armed with lances--Henry
VIII., King of England, and Francis I., King of France. Every time
the hour struck they exchanged lance thrusts--one at 1 o'clock,
three at 3 o'clock, and twelve at midday. A German shell hit the
knights and ended the fight forever. It is the only German shell
which ever showed esprit, remarked a French wit.

Georges Leygues, Minister of Marine, who spoke in the name of the
French Government, said that, thanks to the maritime supremacy of Great
Britain, the Entente had the mastery of the sea and could look to the
future without concern. Reviewing the work that the navies silently
accomplished, he mentioned that in the course of last month they had
sunk more submarines than the Germans were building. They protected the
transports which in April disembarked on the coasts of France more than
400,000 soldiers.

"In the past," he continued, "mastery of the sea was always a powerful
means of conquest. At present it forms in addition a powerful guarantee
with which none other is comparable. The enemy knows that he will
retain neither in the east, nor in the west, nor in the south the
territories which he momentarily occupies, and he knows, moreover, that
he will not wrest from us the mastery of the sea. That being so, the
issue of the war is certain, and the navies take their place in the
gratitude of the Entente alongside of its incomparable armies."

America's First Anniversary in France

President Poincaré of France sent the following cablegram to President
Wilson on June 13, the anniversary of the arrival in France of the
first American troops:

The Allies, owing to the Russian capitulation, are living through
the most difficult hours of the war, but the rapid formation of
new American units and the uninterrupted increase in oversea
transportation are leading us with certainty toward the day when
the equilibrium is restored.

President Wilson replied as follows:

MR. PRESIDENT: Your telegram was certainly conceived
in the highest and most generous spirit of friendship, and I am
sure that I am expressing the feeling of the people of the United
States, as well as my own, when I say that it is with increasing
pride and gratification that they have seen their forces under
General Pershing more and more actively co-operating with the
forces of liberation on French soil.

It is their fixed and unalterable purpose to send men and
materials in steady and increasing volume until any temporary
inequality of force is entirely overcome and the forces of freedom
made overwhelming, for they are convinced that it is only by
victory that peace can be achieved and the world's affairs settled
upon a basis of enduring justice and right. It is a constant
satisfaction to them to know that in this great enterprise they
are in close and intimate co-operation with the people of France.

WOODROW WILSON.

President Poincaré also sent a message to General Pershing, heartily
praising "the gallant troops of your command who behaved so
magnificently in the recent battles." He expressed the firmest hope in
the continuation of the American successes.

General Pershing replied to President Poincaré as follows:

Permit me to thank you, Mr. President, for your kind message on
the occasion of this anniversary. The enthusiastic reception which
Paris gave us then has since been extended by all your people to
the American Army.

Today our armies are united in affection and resolution, with full
confidence in the final success which will crown the long struggle
for liberty and civilization.

The following telegrams were also sent to General Pershing:

On the anniversary of your arrival in France to take command of
the American troops I wish, my dear General, to express to you
once more the greatest admiration

[Illustration: NATIONAL LEADERS IN EASTERN EUROPE

Judge Svinhufvud
_Dictator of Finland_

Professor Masaryk
_Leader of Czech independence movement_
(© _Harris & Ewing_)

M. H. Holubowicz
_Premier of Ukrainia_

General Petljura
_Ukrainian War Minister_]

[Illustration: Professor Edward de Valera

_President of the Sinn Fein, arrested in connection with an alleged
German plot in Ireland_

[Illustration: Prince Sixtus of Bourbon]

_To whom the Emperor Karl wrote his famous peace letter. The Prince is
fighting on the side of the Allies_

for the powerful aid brought by your army to the cause of the
Allies. With ever-increasing numbers the American troops cover
themselves with glory under your orders in barring the route of
the invader. The day is coming when, thanks to the superb effort
of your country and the valor of persons, the enemy, losing the
initiative of operations, will be forced to incline before the
triumph of our ideal of justice and civilization.

CLEMENCEAU.

A year ago you brought to us the American sword. Today we have
seen it strike. It is the certain pledge of victory. By it our
hearts are more closely united than ever.

FOCH.

MY DEAR GENERAL: Your coming to French soil a year ago filled
our country with enthusiasm and hope. Accept today the grateful
homage of our soldiers for the daily increasing aid on the
battlefield brought by their American brothers in arms. The last
battles, where the magnificent qualities of courage and military
virtue of your troops were demonstrated in so brilliant a manner,
are a sure guarantee of the future. The day is not far off when
the great American Army will play the decisive rôle, to which
history calls this army on the battlefields of Europe. Permit me,
my dear General, to express to you, on this anniversary day, my
entire confidence and assure you of my feelings of affectionate
comradeship.

PETAIN.

The Soldier Speaks

By JOHN GALSWORTHY

[By Arrangement with The London Chronicle.]

If courage thrives on reeking slaughter,
And he who kills is lord
Of beauty and of loving laughter--
Gird on me a sword!
If death be dearest comrade proven,
If life be coward's mate,
If Nazareth of dreams be woven--
Give me fighter's fate!

* * * * *

If God is thrilled by a battle cry,
If He can bless the moaning fight,
If when the trampling charge goes by
God Himself is the leading Knight;
If God laughs when the gun thunders,
If He yells when the bullet sings--
Then my stoic soul but wonders
How great God can do such things!

* * * * *

The white gulls wheeling over the plow,
The sun, the reddening trees--
We being enemies, I and thou,
There is no meaning to these.
There is no flight on the wings of Spring,
No scent in the Summer rose;
The roundelays that the blackbirds sing--
There is no meaning in those!

If you must kill me--why the lark,
The hawthorn bud, and the corn?
Why do the stars bedew the dark?
Why is the blossom born?
If I must kill you--why the kiss
Which made you? There _is_ no why!
If it be true we were born for this--
Pitiful Love, Good-bye!

* * * * *

Not for the God of Battles!--
For Honor, Freedom, and Right,
And saving of gentle Beauty,
We have gone down to fight!

The War in the Air

Attacks by Massed Squadrons of Airplanes Become
an Important Factor in Battle

Aerial warfare entered upon a new phase with the opening of the German
offensive in March, 1918, and largely bore out the prediction that the
operations in the air would become almost as vital as those of infantry
and artillery. Since early in the war airmen have been performing the
scouting and observation functions which formerly belonged to the
cavalry arm; and as the conflict has developed they have also become
skilled in the art of harassing the enemy. So far these operations
had been carried out by individual aviators or comparatively small
squadrons, but the operations of March, 1918, witnessed the definite
development of larger squadrons, manoeuvring as effectively as bodies
of cavalry, and in massed formation attacking infantry columns. The
possibilities of the new aerial arm were further demonstrated in the
creation of a barrage, as effective as that of heavy artillery, for the
purpose of holding back advancing bodies of infantry.

In the first days of the German offensive there took place an aerial
battle which up to that time was unique in the annals of warfare. It
was a battle not merely for the purpose of gaining the mastery of the
air, but to aid allied infantry and artillery in stemming the tide of
the German advance, and when the drive finally slowed down and came
to a halt in Picardy, the allied airmen had undoubtedly contributed
largely to the result.

During the first two days (March 21-22) of the German drive there was
comparatively little aerial activity. The aviators on both sides were
preparing for the impending battle, which actually began on the morning
of March 23 and lasted all that day and the day following. At the end
of the two days' struggle the allied airmen had gained a decisive
victory, the point of which was complete ascendency in the air during
the next five days, when the German aviators were entirely unable to
prevent the allied fliers from doing what they liked.

UNPRECEDENTED AIR BATTLE

The story of the air battle of March 23-24 reads like one of the most
extraordinary adventure tales ever imagined. The struggle began with
squadrons of airplanes ascending and manoeuvring as perfectly as
cavalry. They rose to dizzy heights, and, descending, swept the air
close to the ground. The individual pilots of the opposing sides now
began executing all manner of movements, climbing, diving, turning in
every direction, and seeking to get into the best position to pour
machine-gun fire into enemy airplanes. Every few minutes a machine
belonging to an allied or German squadron crashed to the ground, often
in flames. At the end of the first day's fighting wrecked airplanes and
the mangled bodies of aviators lay strewn all over the battlefield.

All next day, March 24, the struggle in the air went on with unabated
fury. The allied air squadrons were now on the offensive and penetrated
far inside the German lines. The German aviators counterattacked
whenever they could, and more than once succeeded in crossing the
French lines. But at the close of the second day victory rested with
the allied airmen, and during the next five days scarcely a German
airplane took the air.

The nature of the military operations on the earth below during these
five days, (March 25-29,) favored the allied airmen and permitted them
to secure important results in attacking infantry. The Germans were
advancing through the valley of the Oise and across the Picardy plains,
while the Allies were endeavoring bring up sufficient reserves to hold
back the advance. The fighting was now in the open, and except for
walls, trees, and ditches there was practically no cover of which the
Germans could take advantage. This was exactly what suited the allied
air squadrons as they sallied forth to harass and hamper the advancing
German columns, which they attacked by day and night. Many German units
were completely destroyed by showers of bombs, others were dispersed
and demoralized, and there is no doubt that the allied squadrons,
unopposed for the time by German aviators, did much to retard the
advance of the enemy columns. The allied airmen literally swarmed in
the air, but in carefully organized formations, so that their attacks
would reap the largest possible gain.

ARTILLERY COLUMN SHATTERED

Some of the separate episodes illustrate the advantage of unopposed
aerial operations. On March 25, for instance, a German artillery
column moving along the road between Guiscard and Noyon, was attacked
by French airmen and entirely dispersed. The machine gunners in the
airplanes killed or wounded many horses which either fell down in
their harness and blocked the road, or, panic-stricken, bolted in
all directions, leaving the roads and adjoining fields covered with
dead men and animals, wrecked guns, caissons, and wagons. Bodies of
infantry were similarly broken up, dispersed, or demoralized. Showers
of bombs from the airplanes created a barrage, and entire companies
of German infantry were annihilated. In addition, railroad stations
were damaged, transports blocked, and military works and depots of
all kinds destroyed or put out of commission. At no previous time in
the war did armies suffer so severely as did the German forces during
the five days, March 24-29, 1918. The allied airmen did not come out
unscathed. Many were killed by rifle fire, and many machines were lost.
But the Allies held the mastery of the air and turned it to the fullest
advantage, while the Germans were organizing new aerial squadrons.

On the fifth day of this period of allied air supremacy German
airplanes began to appear once more, and with the organization of new
enemy squadrons, the Allies' ascendency was no longer uncontested.
Richthofen and other German air commanders came on the scene with their
squadrons, and from March 30 onward there was continued fighting in the
air between the opposing forces.

OFFICIAL DESCRIPTION

A day-to-day story of the air fighting on the Western front would vary
little in its recital of duels and raids and battles between opposing
squadrons. But on some days there was more intense fighting than
usual. Such a day was April 12, when the Allies achieved the feat of
destroying or bringing down ninety-three enemy airplanes.

That day's work is described in Sir Douglas Haig's report from British
Headquarters:

On the 12th inst. atmospheric conditions were favorable for
flying, and a great concentration of our airplanes was effected
by us on the battlefront. Large numbers of low-flying machines
were employed in bombing and sweeping with machine-gun fire roads
packed with the enemy's troops. Thirty-six tons of bombs and over
110,000 rounds of ammunition were fired by us.

While these attacks on ground targets were in progress, other
formations, flying at a greater height, engaged the enemy's
airplanes, which were extremely active in this sector. Other
machines reconnoitred the battle area, bringing back information
as to the positions of our own and the enemy's troops.

On the remainder of the British front the usual work in
co-operation with our artillery was carried out, and a very large
number of photographs taken.

In air fighting forty German machines were brought down by our
airplanes, and twenty other hostile airplanes were driven down out
of control. In addition, two of the enemy's machines were shot
down by anti-aircraft-gun fire. Three hostile observation balloons
were also destroyed. Twelve of our airplanes are missing.

After dark the incessant bombing carried out by us during the
previous twelve hours was continued until dawn. Over twenty-two
tons of bombs were dropped on different targets, including the
Don and Douai railway stations, two important railway junctions
between Mazières and Rheims, and roads leading up to the
battlefront in the neighborhood of Estaires.

Sir Douglas Haig's report next day stated that low-flying machines
reconnoitred the battlefront during the day and dropped over 1,200
bombs on the enemy's troops on roads leading to the front. The numbers
of German airplanes destroyed on various days evidence the intensity of
the air fighting. Thus, reports of successive days showed these totals:
21, 53, (two days;) 55, 21, 30, 97, (four days.) On May 25 it was
stated that many more German airplanes had been added to the total of
1,000 machines recorded as having fallen to earth, or having been sent
down out of control since the opening of the drive on March 21.

WORK OF BOMBING SQUADRONS

Some slight indication of the work of the bombing planes was given in
a report of the British Air Ministry, which stated that the number of
bombs dropped by British airmen over enemy lines in France, opposite
the British front, during March was 23,099 by day and 13,080 by night.
The Germans dropped in the area occupied by British troops 517 by day
and 1,948 by night. During April the British dropped 6,033 bombs behind
the enemy lines along the British front, and the Germans retaliated
with 1,346 in the area occupied by British troops.

By reuniting practically all their available air force in the sector of
attack the enemy won a short-lived superiority. On June 4 there was a
good deal of air fighting, that day turning more steadily in favor of
the Allies, who by the following day had gained the upper hand over the
Germans.

A brilliant exploit by French aviators was that briefly recorded in
the official report of June 5 to the effect that in the valley of the
Savière French bombardment squadrons threw more than seventeen tons
of bombs on enemy troop concentrations. Early in the afternoon the
airmen were informed that a large number of Germans were assembling in
the valley of the Savière. Owing to the configuration of the ground
they were sheltered from the fire of artillery and it evident that
they intended to reinforce the German move westward into the Forest of
Villers-Cotterets. Bombplanes were sent out.

The effect of the bombs was tremendous. The German soldiers broke
headlong for cover, abandoning all thought of fight. Ten minutes later
a bombplane group of the same strength arrived on the scene. At first
no Germans were visible; then circling low, the airmen discovered the
enemy hiding in the horseshoe wood of Hautwison on the eastern side of
the valley. Again the devoted battalions were subjected to a terrible
bombardment amid trees that gave no protection. Before the decimated
units could re-form the first squadron had returned with a new load,
and once more the wood was filled with the roar of explosions.

No human morale could stand such triple strain. In vain the German
officers tried to re-form their panic-stricken men. When the French
infantry counterattacked they had an easy victory over the weakened
forces that had made the advance. The airmen's success against the
reserves had nullified an advance that might have been dangerous.

GERMANS FIGHT GERMANS

One of the most extraordinary episodes of recent aerial fighting was
the battle waged on June 5 between two flights of German planes. It was
an unintentional but disastrous fight between brother aviators, during
which British pilots joyfully and impartially rendered assistance first
to one side, then to the other, until so many of the German fliers
had been destroyed or damaged that the conflict could not continue.
According to eyewitnesses two British officers in a fighting machine
were leading a patrol along the lines, when they sighted a German
Halberstadt two-seater, which, upon their appearance, fired a green
signal light. The British leaders expected a trap, and waited to see
what this unusual performance meant. In a short time six German scouts
came wheeling out of the blue and joined the Halberstadt. Almost at
once six other enemy scouts dived out of the sun on their comrades,
whom apparently mistook for a British patrol about to attack the
Halberstadt.

What happened was this: The Halberstadt had been acting as a decoy,
and the green light had been meant as a signal for assistance. But
there had been no expectation that two flights of German planes would
respond at the same time. Not being able to distinguish the markings
of their friends--and this has happened not infrequently before--the
newcomers immediately began a furious attack upon them. The British
leaders then guided their patrol into this mad mêlée and took a hand.
The Halberstadt was the first victim, and this was shot down by a
British commanding machine. Another British fighter in the meantime
had accounted for two more enemy scouts, which were sent swirling to
destruction. All the time the German aircraft were continuing their
bitter battle among themselves, and several of them were seen to go
down out of control before the engagement finally ended. The British
leaders by their good judgment had led the Germans into their own trap.

ATTACKS ON HOSPITALS

Some hundreds of the personnel and patients of British hospitals behind
the battlelines were killed and wounded on May 19 in the heavy attack
by German bombing planes. Among those on the casualty list were several
nurses, some of whom were killed, and several medical officers who were
wounded. A large American hospital in the neighborhood escaped. A great
number of the bombs were of extraordinary size, digging vast craters
in the hospital grounds, while others were high-explosive shrapnel
bombs, which scattered bullets through the crowded hospital tents and
buildings. A three-seated airplane was brought down by gunfire while
flying at a low altitude, and the occupants were made prisoner. The
German Captain and the pilot sustained comparatively light shrapnel
wounds, while the observer was not hurt. When questioned why he had
directed his men against hospitals, the Captain asserted that he did
not see the Red Cross signs. He said that he was seeking military
objectives and had no desire to molest hospitals. With a shrug
shoulders, the Captain added that if the British chose to build their
hospitals near railways, they must expect to get them bombed.

The same group of hospitals was attacked again on the night of May
31. Several of them were hit and the casualty list among patients and
workers was considerable. One hospital was almost demolished when an
enemy aviator dropped an explosive on it after getting his bearings by
letting fall a brilliant flare which lighted up the whole district. The
raid lasted two hours. In one hospital one ward was destroyed and two
other wards were damaged. Several attendants were killed in this place,
and there were other casualties. The operating theatre of still another
hospital was wrecked.

Altogether between May 15 and June 1 German airmen bombed British
hospitals in France seven times, causing casualties totaling 991, as
follows: Killed--Officers, 11; other ranks, 318; nursing sisters, 5;
Women's Auxiliary Corps, 8; civilians, 6. Wounded--Officers, 18; other
ranks, 534; nursing sisters, 11; Women's Auxiliary Corps, 7; civilians,
73.

On the night of May 28 German airmen deliberately dropped bombs on
hospitals many miles in the rear of the front, in which there were
scores of American and hundreds of French sick and wounded. A number of
Americans were slightly injured by flying glass. One French nurse was
killed and another injured. Several civilians died of wounds.

In addition to their operations against the Germans in France and
Belgium, the Allies continued to carry the war into Germany. In a raid
during the night of May 27 British long-distance bombing machines
dropped between four and five tons of bombs on chemical works at
Mannheim, the Landau railroad station, an electric power station
at Kreuzwald, and on the Metz-Sablons railroad station. Very large
explosions were caused and much damage done. The same night the
important railway triangle at Liége in Belgium was bombarded. In spite
of determined opposition by German airplanes, British aviators on May
dropped bombs on factories and the railroad station at Saarbrücken in
Rhenish Prussia.

Cologne, the sixth largest city of Germany, was raided by British
bombing planes on May 18. Bombs were dropped on railroad stations,
factories, and barracks. Eighty-eight of the persons who were
killed were buried in the same grave. The people of the city became
panic-stricken. Aix-la-Chapelle was also attacked and factories set on
fire.

TONS OF BRITISH BOMBS

British air squadrons carried out successful raids in Germany on
May 31. Long-distance bombing machines crossed the Rhine and, in
spite of strong opposition from enemy aircraft, dropped over a ton
of bombs on the station and workshops at Karlsruhe. Another group of
British airplanes dropped a ton of bombs on the railway triangle of
Metz-Sablons with good effect and without losses. During the course
of the day thirty-one tons of bombs were dropped on different targets
behind the enemy lines. Twenty German machines were destroyed in air
fighting, and six were driven out of control. During the night sixteen
tons of bombs were dropped on targets in enemy territory. Six tons
were dropped on the Bruges docks and on the Zeebrugge-Bruges Canal. In
addition, four tons were dropped on railway junctions and the stations
at Metz-Sablons, Karthaus, and Thionville.

Another typical day's work of the British aviators was that described
in the official report issued on June 6. On the previous night
long-distance bombing machines again attacked the Metz-Sablons station
triangle and also the railway sidings at Thionville, dropping five tons
of bombs with good results, although the visibility was indifferent.
Next morning (June 6) the railway station at Coblenz was heavily
attacked. The fine weather of June 5 enabled the British airmen to
carry out much photographic, reconnoissance, and artillery work. Twenty
tons of bombs were dropped on different targets, including hostile
dumps and railway billets, the Armentières and Roye stations, and the
Zeebrugge seaplane base. In addition long-distance day bombing machines
heavily attacked the railway station and barracks at Treves, and the
Metz-Sablons railway station, and the railways at Karthaus, returning
without loss. Seven hostile machines and three German observation
balloons were shot down during the day, and three hostile airplanes
were driven down out of control. Four of the British machines are
missing. On the night of June 5 thirteen tons of bombs were dropped on
the St. Quentin, Boesinghe, Cambrai, and Armentières stations.

PARIS AND LONDON RAIDED

German aviators made an ineffectual attempt on the night of May 21
to raid Paris. Three persons were killed and several wounded in the
outskirts of the city, but none of the raiders reached Paris itself.
The following night another attack was made, and this time one of the
German aviators succeeded in reaching the city. Bombs were dropped at
various places, causing thirteen casualties, with one killed. German
aviators also attacked the railroads north and northeast of Paris, but
the bombs dropped caused no serious damage.

Forty-four persons were killed and 179 injured in the London area
during an air raid on the night of May 19. Four of the German
machines were destroyed, and a fifth fell flaming into the sea. This
was the sixth raid on London since the beginning of 1918, and with
the exception of that on Jan. 28 the most disastrous. Many of the
casualties were among persons who were on the streets or in doorways,
thus disregarding the warnings to seek shelter.

AMERICAN AVIATORS

Aerial fighting is the only form of modern warfare which gives
opportunities for individual deeds of heroism; and every army has
its list of airmen, dead or alive, who have distinguished themselves
in thrilling fights high above the earth. Here, because there were
Americans fighting in the air, mainly with the French, before the
United States entered the war, this nation has already a record which
can vie with that of the other belligerents. On April 27 the standing
of American aviators based on the number of adversaries shot down was
as follows: Major Raoul Lufbery, 18; Major William Thaw, 5; Lieutenant
Frank Baer, 5; Sergeant Baylies, 5; Captain Charles Biddle, 2, and
Sergeant Vernon Booth, Sergeant August Grehore, Second Lieutenant
Henry Grendelass, Sergeant Thomas Hitchcock, Lieutenant Friest Larner,
Sergeant David Putnam, Sergeant W. A. Wellman, Lieutenant Allan
Winslow, and Lieutenant Douglas Campbell, 1 each.

As the above list shows, Major Raoul Lufbery was easily America's
leading airman, having far surpassed the initial record of an "ace,"
attained when an airman destroys five enemy machines. But his career
was cut short on May 19, when he was killed in a dramatic combat with a
German biplane behind the American sector north of Toul. Lufbery lost
his life after six other American airmen had tried in vain to bring
down the German machine. A German bullet set his petrol tank on fire,
and Lufbery leaped from his machine.

LUFBERY'S LAST FIGHT

It was early in the morning when the German biplane appeared over the
American airdromes moving slowly. Immediately the "alerte" signal was
given and two Americans started up, and two others followed. When they
got to a height of about 2,500 meters they found themselves face to
face with a giant German biplane with a wing spread of sixty feet,
carrying a pilot and two gunners, and driven by two engines. The
engines were armored, and the pilot sat in a steel house. The gunners
wore armor and occupied protected positions, each manning a heavy
machine gun. The American fighters sent streams of bullets in vain
against the new enemy.

By this time other Americans were in the air, trying to bring down
the German, who loafed along, not seeming to mind bullets at all. The
scene, in full view for many miles, looked like a lot of swallows
pecking at a giant bird of prey. When one of the Americans landed,
out of ammunition, reported his inability to do damage to the German
machine, Lufbery asked and received permission to try. He mounted
up above the German, got his machine gun going well, and swept head
first at the monster plane. When part of the way had been traversed he
swerved off, supposedly because his machine gun jammed. But in a few
minutes he was back at the German again, dashed by with his machine gun
going, but produced no effect. He was seen to turn and start up at the
enemy again, when suddenly he swerved and a thin line of flame shot
from his machine, which seemed to hang still for a moment and then dart
down. This took place at an altitude of 2,000 meters. When his machine
was at an altitude of about 1,500 meters the American ace was seen to
arise and leap into midair. From long experience he knew that to stay
in his seat meant to be burned to death horribly. His body fell like a
plummet, landing in the midst of a flower garden back of a residence in
the village of Maron, while his machine fell in flames and landed on
the ground a mass of wreckage. At Lufbery's funeral it was announced
that the battleplane which had caused his death had been brought down
by French airmen.

Lieutenant Douglas Campbell, a Californian, by bringing down his fifth
German airplane on May 31, secured the distinction of being the first
American-trained ace. Besides Campbell, America then had two other
aces, Major William Thaw and Captain D. M. K. Peterson, but both Thaw
and Peterson got their training with the French Army.

RICHTHOFEN'S DEATH

Germany has also lost her most aggressive aviator, Captain Baron
von Richthofen, who commanded the most efficient of the German air
squadrons. He was killed just after bringing down his eightieth
machine. He was shot down in an aerial combat near Sailly-le-Sec on the
Somme. With his "flying circus" of more than twenty followers, Captain
von Richthofen flew toward the British lines about noon on April 20.
Here they met two British airplanes, and von Richthofen separated
himself from his followers and started on a furious pursuit of these
machines. Meanwhile a score of other British planes came swirling up
and engaged the Germans. The Captain kept after his man and attempted
to outmanoeuvre him. The British plane, which was accompanying the one
under attack, got above the German. The three machines raced toward
the British lines, their machine guns chattering like mad. They kept
getting lower, until at last, when they were about fifty yards back of
the British trenches, they were only a few hundred feet high. Meanwhile
the other German machines were fighting the British squadron more than
three miles away.

Machine guns and rifles on the ground came into action against Captain
von Richthofen, who was also being fired at by at least one of his
adversaries in the air. Suddenly his machine turned its nose downward
and crashed to the earth. Examination later showed that the German
pilot had a bullet through his heart. Von Richthofen was apparently
killed while trying to break through the British aerial defenses in the
Ancre region in order that enemy reconnoissance machines might cross
the lines to make observations on the defenses. A document captured
by the British revealed the reason for his presence there. It was a
communication from the "group commander of aviation" to the First
Pursuit Squadron, of which von Richthofen's eleventh pursuit flight was
part, saying: "It is not possible to fly over the Ancre in a westerly
direction on account of strong enemy opposition. I request that this
aerial barrage be forced to break in order that a reconnoissance up
to the line of Marieux-Puchevillers (ten miles from the front) may be
carried out."

Richthofen was buried with military honors behind the British lines.
A large number of British fighting men and aviation officers, as well
as Americans stationed at a neighboring airdrome, were in attendance.
Mechanics of an aviation squadron had constructed a coffin, on which
they placed a plate giving the aviator's name, rank, and other data.
The body was carried on a motor car, with which marched a firing
squad many officers and men. Six British air service officers acted
as pallbearers. As the procession moved to the burial place, scores of
busy aviation mechanics paused and stood at attention as a tribute to
the dead aviator. The Baron was buried under a hemlock tree, and the
squad fired the last shots across the grave.

LIST OF GERMANS KILLED

A list printed in the Berliner Zeitung am Mittag on April 24 showed
that of the forty-one German aviators who had brought down fifteen or
more opponents since the beginning of the war, nineteen had fallen in
action and two had been reported missing. The list of the fallen German
fliers, together with the alleged number of their victims and the year
of their death, follows:

Captain von Richthofen 80 1918
Lieutenant Boss 50 1917
Captain Bölcke 40 1916
Lieutenant Gontermann 39 1917
Lieutenant Max Müller 38 1918
Lieutenant Kurt Wolff 34 1917
Lieutenant Schaefer 30 1917
Lieutenant Allmenroeder 30 1917
First Lieut. von Tutschek 27 1918
Lieutenant Böhme 24 1917
First Lieut. Bethge 20 1918
Lieutenant von Eschwege 20 1917
Lieutenant Frankl 19 1917
Lieutenant Wintgens 18 1916
Lieutenant Baldamus 18 1917
Lieutenant Hess 17 1917
First Lieut. Immelmann 15 1916
Lieutenant Dossenbach 15 1917
Lieutenant Schneider 15 1917

Lieutenant von Bülow, with twenty-eight victims, and First Lieutenant
Dostler, with twenty-six, were reported missing.

At the beginning of the offensive in March, Germany claimed 102 army
aviators, each of whom had brought down more than seven airplanes or
balloons in battles, and that the total number of victims up to May
of these star fliers was 1,698. In this period forty-three of these
aces had been killed and three were missing. Others probably had been
disabled and were no longer in service. Of those still alive, whether
still in the service or not, the ones with the best records were then
Lieutenant Bongartz with thirty-three victories, Lieutenant Bucker also
with thirty-three, and Lieutenant von Richthofen, brother of the dead
ace, with twenty-nine.

FRENCH AND BRITISH "ACES"

France has produced a number of brilliant military airmen, the latest
to come into special prominence being Lieutenant René Fonck, who in one
day (May 10) brought down six German airplanes. This achievement had
not been equaled even by the late Captain Guynemer, of whom Fonck has
become the successor in daring, skill, and resourcefulness as an air
fighter. On June 4 it was announced that Lieutenant Georges Madon had
won his twenty-eighth aerial victory.

A British airman with an extraordinary record, Captain James B.
McCudden, who is only 23 years of age, was awarded the Victoria Cross
on March 29 "for most conspicuous bravery, exceptional perseverance,
keenness, and very high devotion to duty." He had already won nearly
every decoration awarded in the British Army, including the Military
Medal, the Military Cross, and the Distinguished Service Order. He went
to France with the first British army in August, 1914, and, having had
some experience of the air, was pressed into service as an observer
at Mons and gave valuable information of enemy movements during the
retreat. As a Sergeant he was officially promoted to be an observer,
and quickly won fame for his expert handling of guns in several stiff
fights. As the pilot of a single-seater scout McCudden has had over
100 fights and some wonderful escapes without sustaining the slightest
hurt. The crack German pilot Immelmann was a deadly rival, and they had
three duels, but the fight was broken off on each occasion
without either man being able to claim an advantage. In the official
announcement of the award of the V. C., it was stated that Captain
McCudden had then accounted for fifty-four enemy airplanes, forty-two
being definitely destroyed. The official statement added:

On two occasions he has totally destroyed four two-seater enemy
airplanes on the same day, and on the last occasion all four
machines were destroyed in the space of one hour and thirty
minutes.

While in his present squadron he has participated in seventy-eight
offensive patrols, and in nearly every case has been the leader.
On at least thirty other occasions, while with the same squadron,
he has crossed the lines alone, either in pursuit or in quest of
enemy airplanes.

The following incidents are examples of the work he has done
recently:

On Dec. 23, 1917, when leading his patrol, eight enemy airplanes
were attacked between 2:30 P.M. and 3:50 P.M. Of these two were
shot down by Captain McCudden in our lines. On the morning of the
same day he left the ground at 10:50 o'clock and encountered four
enemy airplanes; of these he shot down two.

On Jan. 30, 1918, he, single-handed, attacked five enemy scouts,
as a result of which two were destroyed. On this occasion he only
returned home when the enemy scouts had been driven far east; his
Lewis-gun ammunition was all finished and the belt of his Vickers
gun had broken.

As a patrol leader he has at all times shown the utmost gallantry
and skill, not only in the manner in which he has attacked and
destroyed the enemy but in the way he has during several aerial
fights protected the newer members of his flight, thus keeping
down their casualties to a minimum.

This officer is considered, by the record which he has made, by
his fearlessness, and by the great service which he has rendered
to his country, deserving of the very highest honor.

Zinc Coins in Occupied Belgium

To obviate the great shortage of fractional currency in occupied
Belgium, a shortage that hindered the most modest transactions, the
German authorities decided early in March, 1918, to emit a large
issue of zinc coins with a face value of 50 centimes, (10 cents.) The
new coins have a diameter of 24 millimeters and bear on the face a
coat-of-arms with a lion above a laurel branch, and with the value
of the coin on the right. The obverse bears a five-pointed star,
the inscription "België-Belgique," and the date. The centre of each
coin is pierced by a hole 4-1/2 millimeters in diameter.

Arrest of Irish Plotters

Sixty-nine Sinn Fein Members Imprisoned for Treasonable Relations With
the Enemy

Current History Magazine for June contained a brief reference to the
arrest of leaders of the Sinn Fein movement in Ireland, May 18, 1918,
for being in treasonable communication with the Germans. Among the
leaders arrested was Professor Edward de Valera, President of the
Sinn Fein Society and a member of Parliament, who had refused to take
his seat; also George Noble Plunkett, a Count of Rome and Member of
Parliament; Mme. Markievicz, wife of a Polish Count; Arthur Giffith,
one of the founders of the Sinn Fein movement; William T. Cosgrove,
Treasurer of the Sinn Fein and Member of Parliament from Kilkenny City;
Joseph McGuinness, Member of Parliament for South Longford; Darrel
Figgis, an Irish poet; Dr. Richard Hayes, Herbert Mellowes, who led
the Sinn Fein rising in Galway in 1916; Professor Monaghan, President
of the local Sinn Fein Club at Drogheda; Pierce McCann, President of
the East Tipperary Sinn Fein Executive; Frank Drohan, President of
the Clonmel Sinn Fein Club; Dr. Thomas Dillon, Sean Milroy, and Sean
McEntee, members of the Sinn Fein Executive; George Nichols, Coroner
for the County of Galway, and Peter Hughes, Chairman of Dundalk Urban
Council and a prominent Sinn Feiner. In all sixty-nine were arrested
and imprisoned in England, not 500, as at first reported. The arrests
were made between midnight and dawn by domiciliary visits, and were
accomplished without any disorder, being a complete surprise.

OFFICIAL PROCLAMATION

Preceding the arrests the following proclamation was issued by Field
Marshal French, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland:

Whereas, It has come to our knowledge that certain subjects of his
Majesty the King domiciled in Ireland have conspired to enter into
treasonable communication with the German enemy; And whereas,
Such treachery is a menace to the fair name of Ireland and its
glorious military record--a record which is a source of intense
pride to a country whose sons have always distinguished themselves
and fought with such heroic valor in the past, in the same way
as thousands of them are now fighting in this war; And whereas,
Drastic measures must be taken to put down this German plot, which
measures will be directed solely against that plot,

Now, therefore, we, the Lord Lieutenant General and General
Governor of Ireland, have thought fit to issue this our
proclamation declaring, and it is hereby declared, as follows:

That it is the duty of all loyal subjects of his Majesty to assist
in every way his Majesty's Government in Ireland to suppress this
treasonable conspiracy, and to defeat the treacherous attempt of
the Germans to defame the honor of Irishmen for their own ends.

That we hereby call upon all loyal subjects of his Majesty in
Ireland to aid in crushing the said conspiracy, and so far as in
them lies to assist in securing the effective prosecution of the
war and the welfare and safety of the empire.

That as a means to this end we shall cause still further steps
to be taken to facilitate and encourage voluntary enlistment in
Ireland in his Majesty's forces, in the hope that, without resort
to compulsion, the contribution of Ireland to those forces may be
brought up to its proper strength and made to correspond to the
contributions of other parts of the empire.

EFFECT OF ARRESTS

News of the arrests created a profound sensation in Ireland, but no
breaches of the peace followed anywhere; in fact, the excitement
over conscription subsided appreciably after the episode, likewise
the activities of the Sinn Feiners. The leader of the Nationalists
repudiated the treasonable work of the Sinn Feiners, and, in
consequence of the disclosures, the alliance against conscription that
had been formed between the Nationalists and Sinn Feiners was ruptured.

On May 25 the British Government issued a statement reviewing the
causes of the arrests. In this document it was that definite proof
was at hand that after the abortive rebellion of Easter week, 1916,
plans were made for a revolt in 1917, but that this miscarried because
of America's entry into the war and Germany's inability to send troops
to Ireland. An uprising in Ireland was planned for 1918 after the
German offensive in the west had been successful and when Great Britain
presumably would be stripped of troops.

The discovery of a German-Sinn Fein plot for landing arms in Ireland
was made about April of this year, and even after the capture, on April
12, of the German agent who reached Ireland by submarine, munitions
were shipped from Cuxhaven in the early part of this month.

Concerning the arrests in Ireland, the statement said that facts and
documents, for obvious reasons, could not be disclosed at this time,
nor could the means of communication between Germany and Ireland.

DETAILS OF INTRIGUE

With reference to the activities in 1918 the text of the statement was
as follows:

Professor de Valera, addressing the convention of the Irish Volunteers
on Oct. 27, 1917, said:

"By proper organization and recruiting we could have 500,000
fighting volunteers in Ireland. That would be a big army, but
without the opportunity and means for fighting it could only
be used as a menace. There already has been too much bloodshed
without success, and I would never advocate another rebellion
without hopeful chances of success. We can see no hope of that
in the near future, except through a German invasion of England
and the landing of troops and munitions in Ireland. We should be
prepared to leave nothing undone toward that end."

On another occasion in January of this year de Valera said: "As
long as Germany is the enemy of England, and England is the enemy
of Ireland, so long will Ireland be a friend of Germany."

For some considerable time it was difficult to obtain accurate
information as to German-Sinn Fein plans, but about April, 1918,
it was ascertained definitely that a plan for landing arms in
Ireland was ripe for execution, and that the Germans only awaited
definite information from Ireland as to the time, place, and date.

The British authorities were able to warn the Irish command
regarding the probable landing of an agent from Germany from a
submarine. The agent actually landed on April 12 and was arrested.

The new rising depended largely upon the landing of munitions from
submarines, and there is evidence to show that it was planned to
follow a successful German offensive in the west and was to take
place at a time when Great Britain presumably would be stripped of
troops.

According to documents found on his person, de Valera had worked
out in great detail the constitution of his rebel army. He hoped
to be able to muster 500,000 trained men. There is evidence that
German munitions actually had been shipped on submarines from
Cuxhaven in the beginning of May, and that for some time German
submarines have been busy off the west coast of Ireland on other
errands than the destruction of allied shipping.

It will thus be seen that the negotiations between the executive
of the Sinn Fein organization and Germany have been virtually
continuous for three and a half years. At first a section of
Irish-Americans was the intermediary for most of the discussions,
but since America's entrance into the war the communication with
the enemy has tended to be more direct. A second rising in Ireland
was planned for last year, and the scheme broke down only because
Germany was unable to send troops.

This year plans for another rising in connection with the German
offensive on the western front were maturing, and a new shipment
of arms from Germany was imminent.

An important feature of every plan was the establishment of
submarine bases in Ireland to menace the shipping of all nations.

In the circumstances no other course was open to the Government
if useless bloodshed was to be avoided and its duty to its allies
fulfilled but to intern the authors and abettors of this criminal
intrigue.

LANDING FROM SUBMARINE

On June 10 it was announced that the man who was put ashore on the west
coast of Ireland from a German submarine on April 12, 1918, and who is
now a prisoner in the Tower of London, was Lance Corporal J. Dowling of
the Connaught Rangers. The collapsible boat in which Dowling was landed
was made of canvas with a bottom of twenty-three wooden slats, each
four inches wide, making the boat about eight feet long and two feet
wide. The canvas sides, about twenty inches high, had an inner lining
rubber fabric, to be blown up from a valve at the rear to give the boat
buoyancy. There were loops along the sides in which short wooden braces
or struts kept the boat from collapsing. The whole craft when rolled up
weighed less than forty pounds. When the buoyancy chambers were pumped
full of air the boat would easily support three men.

No effort had been made up to June 20 to put into execution the
conscription law in Ireland, notwithstanding there had been a very
meagre response to the call for volunteer enlistments.

Ireland's Food Shipments to England

A Limerick correspondent of The London Telegraph, on May 15, 1918, sent
that newspaper the following table of Irish food exports to England,
with other information not before made public:

_Values of Foodstuffs Imported Into and Retained for Consumption
in Great Britain from Undermentioned Countries. (Figures for 1917
are not available.)_

1912. 1913. 1914. 1915. 1916.
Millions Millions Millions Millions Millions

£ £ £ £ £
Ireland 30 36 37 46 59
United States 30 30 42 82 116
Argentina 31 31 27 46 36
Canada 18 19 23 27 41
British India 22 17 13 22 20
Denmark 20 22 23 20 20
New Zealand 9 9 11 16 18
Netherlands 14 16 17 14 13
Australia 13 15 16 12 10
Russia 17 15 13 8 1

This shows that for years Ireland's food supply to Great Britain was
only exceeded by that of the United States of America, whose people,
now fighting with us, probably will want more in future for themselves.

As regards the quantities of foodstuffs exported to Great Britain from
Ireland, the following table speaks:

P.C.
Average, Average, Inc.
1912-13. 1916-17. or Dec.

Live cattle, number 832,000 889,000 +6.9
Live sheep, number 639,000 700,000 +9.5
Live pigs, number 233,000 239,000 +2.6
Butter, tons 37,000 36,000 -4.0
Eggs, tons 56,000 69,000 +23.2
Poultry, tons 15,000 14,500 -3.3
Bacon and hams, tons 61,000 54,000 -11.5
Oats, tons 67,000 85,000 +26.9
Potatoes, tons 150,000 173,000 +15.3
Biscuits, tons 17,000 21,000 +23.5
Yeast, tons 7,000 11,000 +57.1
Cond. milk, tons 13,000 12,000 -7.7

The following shows the quantities of foodstuffs, as nearly as
possible, imported from foreign countries and British possessions, and
is the latest we could obtain:

------Average.------- P.C.
1912-13. 1916. Inc.
Tons. Tons. or Dec.

Beef, fresh 423,000 353,000 -16.5
Mutton 256,000 182,000 -28.9
Pork 20,000 15,000 -25.0
Meat, preserved
(mostly tinned beef) 44,000 94,000 +113.6
Butter 201,000 107,000 -46.8
Eggs 180,000 51,000 -71.7
Bacon and hams 252,000 407,000 +61.5
Potatoes 373,000 85,000 -77.2
Condensed milk 57,000 65,000 +14.0
Margarine 68,000 130,000 +91.2
Wheat 5,003,000 4,620,000 -7.6
Barley 310,000 256,000 -17.4
Oats 890,000 617,000 -30.7
Rice 204,000 425,000 +108.3
Maize 1,614,000 1,198,000 -25.8

It must be remembered that Ireland has now no foreign imports, and
has to feed herself as well as help Great Britain. She consumes only
one-fourth of her own cattle, and with only 10 per cent. of the
population supplies 40 per cent. of the cattle and 30 per cent. of the
pigs of the United Kingdom, despite shortage of imported cattle cakes,
&c., formerly obtainable. Ireland also, by her position with regard to
Great Britain, minimizes loss by U-boats, and by her proximity also
makes more trips possible, and consequently more cargoes landed in a
short time than is possible by any foreign nation or British possession.

As regards increased tillage, under the 1918 orders it is required that
in holdings of over ten acres the area under cultivation this year must
be 15 per cent. of the total arable land of the holding, in addition
to that under cultivation in 1916, and in the case of holdings of over
200 acres 20 per cent. of the arable area. The result is that at the
present time there are well over 1,000,000 more acres under cultivation
than in 1916, a large proportion of such cultivation being voluntary.
In County Limerick alone the area under corn crops shows an increase
of 148 per cent., and that of all green crops, potatoes, mangolds, and
turnips, of 33 per cent.

New Austro-German Alliance

Official Declarations Regarding It by the
Chief Ministers of Both Empires

The official text of the new treaty of alliance between Germany and
Austria-Hungary--as a result of the meeting of the Emperors, May 12,
1918--was not made public. Baron Burian, Austro-Hungarian Foreign
Minister, made the following declaration regarding it on May 16:

The extension of the alliance, which in long years of peace had
deeply penetrated the minds of the peoples and has stood the test
of hard times, not only corresponds with what has now become a
historic necessity, and is not only an imperative necessity, owing
to the fact that Austria-Hungary and Germany, who are surrounded
by a ring of common enemies, must firmly hold together in the
centre in order to be able to resist the terrible embrace, but it
also corresponds with the requirement of all patriotic Austrians,
Hungarians, and Germans who think clearly about our future.

Austria-Hungary and Germany do not desire to renew or extend the
alliance in order to attack or oppress any one in the world, but
to stand by each other when their vital interests are assailed.
The new alliance will again be a defensive alliance, which
today serves to bring about peace and will in future serve for
its preservation. It will show the world that Austria-Hungary
and Germany united are not to be beaten, and will convert our
opponents to peace by the strength of our will for peace.

Dr. Wekerle, the Premier of Hungary, announced in the Hungarian lower
house that the new alliance was a strengthening of the existing
alliance and was for a considerable period. He added:

I think that it will be a matter for general approval by
Hungarians that our interests are so well looked after, and that
they will be maintained by such a proved alliance. This alliance
is therefore being renewed, and very naturally it will also extend
to those questions which are directly connected with it. Naturally
certain military agreements will also be concluded, but these
cannot be called a military convention.

Count Michael Karolyi here interjected inquiry, "During the war?" Dr.
Wekerle proceeded:

Agreements may be concluded during the war relating to common
action and common equipment, but having no connection with army
organization as such. We shall in no respect give up our right
of decision as regards economic rapprochement. Count Karolyi
continually talks about "Central Europe," but "Central Europe" is
a very vague idea. No one doubts that closer economic ties are
desirable and also possible. I repeat that we shall not give up in
a single respect our independent right of decision. The validity
of the economic agreement will depend on the approval of the
House. War aims were not discussed, for there can be no question
of war aims.

The entire alliance aims only at the maintenance of peace in all
directions. The alliance can but improve the mutual relations
between us allies, but it is not to be regarded in any way as a
hindrance to any eventual relations which may be established in
the economic domain with other nations; neither is it a hindrance
to an eventual entrance into the so-called League of Nations.
The guarantee lies in the fact that we have arranged a purely
defensive alliance.

ANDRASSY'S VIEWS

Count Julius Andrassy, one of the most influential statesmen of
Austria-Hungary, in a public statement discussed the new alliance
in detail. He asserted that when Bismarck and the elder Andrassy
were negotiating the treaty of alliance in 1879 the Iron Chancellor
expressed a wish that the two great powers should conclude a defensive
and offensive alliance against every eventuality. Andrassy, however,
was absolutely opposed to this, and, being convinced that the German
statesman would give way, was determined to break off the negotiations
altogether rather than conclude an alliance of such a general
character. His view prevailed, Count Julius added, and the treaty was
directed exclusively against Russia.

The treaty which was discussed by the two leading statesmen at Gastein
nearly forty years ago, and which has since then directed the events
of the world, has served its purpose so well, the Count continued,
that it has become superfluous in its old form. "It has smashed the
adversary against whom it provided protection." The treaty in its
new form, he asserted, is merely an adaptation of the original one
to altered conditions. In 1879, he stated, Russian Imperialism was
the only common danger for Austria-Hungary and Germany, and it was
appropriate therefore that the alliance should be directed against
Russia. Now, however, the situation is completely changed, and "the
danger against which we must protect ourselves is no longer Russian
imperialism but the permanent animosity of, and possible new attacks
by, those countries which have endeavored during the last four years,
while straining all their forces to the utmost capacity, to annihilate
the Central Powers and split them up into their component parts."

PARTITION OF AUSTRIA

The chief aim of those powers, according to Andrassy, is the partition
of Austria-Hungary, on the ground that a lasting peace can be
assured only by giving autonomy on a democratic basis to the various
nationalities composing the Dual Monarchy. "Our present need is thus,"
he added, "an alliance that will protect us against these dangers of
the future as it has protected us in the past." The Hungarian statesman
considers it possible also that in course of time the old danger
may revive in a new form, for the idea of a union of all Slavs in a
Socialist Republican Confederation is the old program of most Russian
revolutionaries and agitators. For this reason, too, he contends,
the alliance in its new form is imperatively necessary, though the
immediate danger has to be met first.

"It is only by holding together those forces which have saved our two
empires now," he asserted, "that we can protect ourselves against
the future danger that menaces us in the form of a fresh attempt on
the part of our adversaries to attain what they are this time unable to
attain." The world is today divided into two parts, Count Julius
observes, and he declares that it would be illusion and fanaticism to
believe that things will be otherwise in the near future. He wishes to
make it clear that the Central Powers are not responsible for this, and
maintains that the new Dual Alliance is formed to insure that another
already existing alliance shall not imperil "our existence and our
future." He wishes also to point out most emphatically that the new
Dual Alliance, like the old one, is purely defensive.

He believes that when this war is over no nation will be inclined to
pursue an aggressive foreign policy, but he, nevertheless, maintains
that guarantees must be given that neither of the contracting parties
shall be involved in any plans of conquest and hegemony cherished by
the other. He insists, furthermore, that the peace concluded with their
defeated enemies by the victorious allied Central Powers must manifest
clearly that it is no obstacle to the development of an international
law which would prevent the waging of war as much as possible, and
would settle the armament question on an international basis, and also
that this alliance does not wish to continue to fight after peace has
been concluded, but will pursue a peaceable policy in every respect;
that it does not wish to be exclusive, but is desirous of effecting a
friendly rapprochement with the countries today opposed to it.

Finally, he expressed the opinion that the interest of the Dual
Alliance requires that "our relationship also with Bulgaria and with
Turkey shall be made stable and shall be strengthened."

THE TWO EMPERORS

The following exchange of telegrams between Emperor Karl and the Kaiser
was made public on May 15:

At the moment of leaving the favored soil of the German Empire
on my way home I feel impelled again warmly to greet you and to
express my heartiest thanks not only for the very gracious but
also for the truly friendly reception which you gave me yesterday.
I am highly satisfied with our harmonious conference. From my
heart and in true friendship I say may we soon meet again. KARL.

The Kaiser telegraphed in reply:

Many thanks for your friendly telegram. I am exceedingly glad
that you are so satisfied with your visit here. It is a great
joy to me also to have seen you and to have again established in
our detailed discussions our entire accord regarding aims which
guide us. Their realization will bring great blessings on our
empires. I hope soon to be in a position to take advantage of your
kind invitation. Hearty greetings to Zita and yourself. In true
friendship. WILHELM.

CHANCELLOR'S STATEMENT

Count Hertling, the German Chancellor, in a statement regarding the new
understanding between the two empires, said that the agreement had not
been signed, but the basic ideas had been agreed upon. He added:

The deepening and further development of the work created by the
great statesman Bismarck and by Count Andrassy will assuredly
have beneficial consequences for Germany and Hungary. I need
not specially emphasize the fact that all efforts aiming at the
improvement of German and Hungarian relations and at bringing the
peoples closer together have my warmest sympathy. M Clemenceau,
who indulged in the illusion that he would be able to sever our
firm alliance, will now be able to see from the results of the
negotiations the fruits of his intrigues. The new Dual Alliance
will, in particular, comprise two important sections, namely, the
economic and military agreements.

The economic union of Germany and Austria-Hungary is not aimed at
any State whatever. I am quite prepared for aggressive intentions
and tendencies to be ascribed to us by our opponents, and the
watchword given out by the Entente of an economic war after the
war against the Central Powers can now go ahead. This assertion,
however, is entirely false. We want nothing but our place in the
sun. We are quite entitled to harmonize our common interests and
to act together. As regards the military side of the discussions,
I must emphasize the fact that our agreements for the future have
no aggressive character. We only desire the consolidation of our
present relations. We also desire to remain just as closely bound
together after the war as during the war, which has drawn us
together.

If the world should one day unite in an International Peace League
Germany would unhesitatingly and joyfully join in. Unfortunately
the present conditions give very little hope of that. Our desire
is to win and to preserve peace. Our policy has ever been a policy
of peace, just as our alliance with the monarchy is a peace
alliance; that is, an alliance for the preservation of peace. We
are now fighting for our existence and for peace, which we also
long for.

I am still optimistic enough to believe that we shall have peace
this year. I say "optimistic," as the speeches which we hear from
Entente statesmen still talk of crushing the Central Powers. It
might have been thought that the attacks on Mr. Lloyd George,
which, after all, indicate a strengthening of the peace idea,
would have created a better basis for possibilities of peace.
That, however, has not been the case. At the moment I cannot say
more than that I cherish firm confidence that further events in
the west will bring us nearer to a speedy end of the war, and that
the alliance of Germany and Austria-Hungary, which has been tested
and extended during the war, will then bring renewed prosperity
and rich blessings.

The Imprisoned ex-Czar in the Crimea

Djuber Castle, in the Crimea, became the compulsory residence of the
Romanoff family in April, 1918, after their removal from Tobolsk,
Siberia. A correspondent of the Frankfurter Zeitung who visited the
ex-Czar in May gives this account of his new prison home:

"The castle is splendidly situated with a commanding view of
the sea. The vicinity is embellished by beautiful residences.
Twenty-five Soviet soldiers form the special guard of the former
imperial family; armed with rifles and machine guns and hand
grenades, they are under the orders of one officer. These soldiers
are determined to prevent any attempt at flight, but, on the other
hand, they are also firmly resolved to protect the ex-imperial
family against any odious attack. Till recently the Romanoffs
spent money freely on their garrison, but now they have financial
difficulties, and can no longer pay the soldiers so well. The
presence of the Soviet soldiers is sometimes irksome to the
imperial family, but at times they are also glad to show their
appreciation at being protected against the raids of brigands
who infest the country. * * * Grand Duke Nicholas refused to be
interviewed, declaring that as a private individual he had nothing
to say."

Exchanging Thousands of Prisoners

Franco-German Agreement, Signed at Berne, Provides
for Release of More Than 300,000 Captives

The exchange of certain classes of French, Belgian, and German
prisoners, totaling about 330,000, began on May 15, 1918, in accordance
with an agreement arranged at Berne, Switzerland, by a conference of
French and German delegates held there from April 2 to April 26, and
later ratified by both Governments. It was announced at the same time
that Italy had completed a similar arrangement.

The news of the Franco-German agreement came as a complete surprise
to Great Britain and the other allies, and aroused an instant demand
for negotiations looking to a release of British prisoners on similar
terms. There was a tendency in some quarters to criticise the French
Government for its separate action in the matter. After a lively debate
on the subject in the House of Commons on May 28, Lord Newton, head of
the Prisoners of War Department, stated that the British Government
had "already entered into negotiations with the German Government with
a view to arranging a wide scheme of exchange, following, broadly
speaking, the agreement recently concluded between France and Germany."
On the same day a dispatch from Holland announced that both the British
and German Governments had informed the Netherlands Government that
they wished to send delegates to The Hague shortly to discuss matters
relating to the exchange of prisoners.

TOTALS OF PRISONERS

Between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000 prisoners have been taken on both sides
since the beginning of the war. The latest exact figures on the subject
were published in the Summer of 1917, when the Central Powers held
2,874,271 prisoners, and the Entente Allies held a total of 1,284,050.
Germany alone had 1,690,731 prisoners, including 17,474 officers;
Austria-Hungary, 1,092,055; Bulgaria, 67,582, and Turkey, 23,903, a
total of 2,874,271, of whom 27,620 are officers. This total was made up
of the following nationalities:

Total In
Number. Germany.

Russian 2,080,699 1,212,007
French 368,607 367,124
Serbian 154,630 25,879
Italian 98,017
Rumanian 79,033 10,157
British 45,241 33,129
Belgian 42,437 42,435
Montenegrin 5,607

The British prisoners of war not in Germany were divided between
Bulgaria and Turkey.

The prisoners of the Allies, not including 40,000 Austrians and
Bulgarians captured by the Serbians and now in Italy or 20,000 Turkish
prisoners in Egypt, were distributed as follows:

Total In In In In
Number. Engl'd. France. Russia. Italy.

German 594,050 85,000 259,050 250,000
Austr'n 630,000 550,000 80,000

At the same time Switzerland was sheltering 26,000 interned war
prisoners, of whom 16,000 were French, English, and Belgian, while
10,000 were German. In addition, 7,000 relatives were visiting interned
men in Switzerland. Most of these interned prisoners will be released
by the new agreements, while other thousands will take their place.

FRANCO-GERMAN TERMS

The Franco-German agreement, which, being the first exhaustive document
of its kind in this war, will serve as a model for those that follow,
provides that all privates and noncommissioned officers who have been
prisoners in France and Germany for eighteen months shall be exchanged,
man for man and rank for rank, in the order of priority of capture.
Officers over 48 years of age are to be released, and certain other
classes of officers are to be interned in Switzerland, while the
French and Belgian interned soldiers already in Switzerland are to
be released. It is estimated that there are 150,000 prisoners on each
side who will be exchanged under the Franco-German agreement alone, and
as transportation difficulties will prevent the moving of more than
10,000 a month each way, the repatriation of the 300,000 or more who
have been in captivity since 1914 will require at least fifteen months.
The interned civilians, it is stated, should all be back in their own
countries in six months. The release terms are to go on applying to
later prisoners as soon as their captivity amounts to eighteen months.

[Illustration: Inhabitants of Picardy who were forced to leave their
homes when the German advance began

[Illustration: A town in France practically wiped out in the German
offensive which began on March 21, 1918. The road was cleared
subsequently for the passage of British troops

(_British Official Photo from Underwood_)]

The status of citizens of occupied territory is profoundly modified
by the provisions of the agreement, which expressly stipulate that
deportations shall cease. Both sides bind themselves not to use
released soldiers or civilians in war work. The validity of Germany's
promise on this point was a theme of bitter comment in England when the
terms of the French agreement first became known.

SUMMARY OF DOCUMENT

The most important articles in the Franco-German convention, which is
very long, may be summarized as follows:

Article 1. Direct repatriation, without regard for rank or
numbers, for sub-officers, Corporals, and soldiers who have been
in captivity at least eighteen months at the time when this
agreement goes into force: (a) who have reached the age of 40
years and are not yet 45, and are fathers of at least three living
children; (b) who have reached the age of 45, but are not yet 48.

Art. 2. Direct repatriation, man for man and rank for rank, for
sub-officers, Corporals, and soldiers in captivity for at least
eighteen months, and not included in any of the classes mentioned
in Article 1.

Art. 3. In the exchange provided for in Article 2 no distinction
will be made between sub-officers. Corporals will be ranked with
them.

Art. 4. Internment in Switzerland, without regard for rank or
numbers, for all officers in captivity at least eighteen months:
(a) who have reached the age of 40 years and are not yet 45, and
are the fathers of at least three living children; (b) who have
reached the age of 45 years, but are not yet 48.

Art. 5. Internment in Switzerland, man for man, regardless of
rank, for sub-officers in captivity at least eighteen months and
not included in the foregoing categories.

Art. 6. The order of priority for repatriation and internment
shall be determined by priority of captivity and by equal duration
of imprisonment after considering age. If this order cannot be
followed exactly, the repatriation of the prisoner who has to
remain shall not be delayed beyond two months at most.

Art. 9. Repatriation, without regard to rank or numbers, for
officers, sub-officers, Corporals, and soldiers who were taken
prisoner prior to Nov. 1, 1916, and who on April 15, 1918, find
themselves interned in Switzerland by reason of wounds or illness.

TRANSPORTING PRISONERS

Art. 10. The repatriation of these prisoners shall be effected in
the following manner: Each train in either direction shall contain
700 prisoners of war to be exchanged, man for man. Each train
coming from Germany, moreover, shall contain 100 French prisoners
of war designated in Article 1, and each train from France shall
contain 50 German prisoners of the same category, until the
total in this class on both sides is exhausted. The repatriation
shipments should contain a monthly average of 15 per cent. of
noncommissioned officers and 85 per cent. of privates.

Art. 11. At the beginning of each series of ten trains of private
soldiers there shall be formed on each side a convoy of 400
officers to be interned in Switzerland in accordance with Article
5. This convoy shall include, besides, 100 French officers
coming from Germany and 50 German officers coming from France
to be interned under Article 4, until the total on each side is
exhausted.

Art. 12. The first two trainloads of officers provided for in
Article 11 shall start from Lyons, the third from Constance, the
fourth from Lyons, and so on alternately. The first ten trains
of private soldiers arranged for under Article 10 shall start
from Constance; the ten trains of the second series shall go from
Lyons, and so on alternately.

Art. 13. Prisoners of war who do not yet come under the conditions
prescribed in Articles 1-5 shall be repatriated or interned in
Switzerland, as the case may be, as rapidly as the prescribed
conditions are fulfilled.

Art. 14. Officers in sound health who are interned in Switzerland
either under the present agreement or under the Berne agreement of
March 15, 1918, cannot be repatriated save in exceptional cases
and solely for serious illness or accident.

Art. 16. Article 19 of the Berne convention of March 15, 1918,
concerning the employment of repatriated soldiers shall be
applicable to prisoners benefiting from the present agreement.
Released Belgian prisoners can be employed in France under the
same conditions as repatriated French prisoners.

Art. 17. All the foregoing provisions are to apply to German
prisoners of war captured by Belgian troops and to Belgian
prisoners taken by German troops. The Belgian officers,
sub-officers, and soldiers shall be included in the repatriated
and interned French groups in the proportion of one Belgian for
ten Frenchmen, up to the exhaustion of the number of German war
prisoners who were captured by Belgian troops and who come under
the foregoing provisions.

Art. 18. In the repatriation and internment of prisoners under
Articles 1-5 only men in sound health are to be counted. Ill or
wounded prisoners will continue to be repatriated directly or
interned in Switzerland under the conditions laid down under
Articles 7-18 of the Berne agreement of March 15, 1918.

Art. 20. The provisions contained in Articles 1-19 of the present
convention shall cease to be in force on Aug. 1, 1919, if one of
the two Governments shall have given notice to that effect to the
Swiss Political Department before May 1, 1919.

FOOD FOR PRISONERS

The articles following those just summarized relate to the
treatment of prisoners remaining in captivity. The most important
are these:

Art. 25. The daily rations of officers must be sufficient in
quantity and quality, especially as regards meat, vegetables, and
seasoning, after taking into account the food restrictions imposed
upon the civil population. The management of food supplies by the
prisoner officers themselves is to be favored in every way.

Art. 26. The daily rations allotted to imprisoned privates in
Germany and in France must contain a minimum of 2,000 calories for
men not working, 2,500 calories for ordinary workers, and 2,850
calories for prisoners doing heavy work.

Art. 27. Prisoners of war shall, in general, receive the same
ration of meat as the civil population.

Art. 28. The minimum ration of bread allotted to imprisoned German
officers, sub-officers, and soldiers in France is fixed at 350
grams a day. It will be increased to 400 for prisoners working
outside the camp. The minimum bread ration allotted to French
war prisoners in Germany is the same as that for the civilian
population and is never allowed to go below 250 grams.

Art. 29. The German Government authorizes for all war prisoners a
collective assignment of bread at the rate of two kilograms (four
pounds) of bread per man per week. The providing and distributing
of these consignments of food will continue to be assured for
all the camps and detachments affected by the present agreement.
The provisions are to be sent free and by fast freight. The
consignments are to be distributed without any charge whatever and
by the most direct and rapid routes available. The empty sacks can
be returned to the country of origin.

Art. 33. The provisions of Articles 25-32 are applicable to
Belgian prisoners in Germany as well as to German prisoners who
have fallen into the power of the Belgian Government and are now
in France.

LIBERATING CIVILIANS

The second part of the agreement deals solely with civilian prisoners:

Art. 1. Civilian prisoners, regardless of age or sex, are
authorized, upon their own demand and under conditions hereafter
stated, to leave the country where they are held; this applies
alike to interned persons and to those who have been liberated
after a period of internment.

Art. 2. The word internment is to include all civilians who,
whatever the cause or date of their commitment, are or have been
detained in any place of internment against their will.

Art. 3. Civilians who at the beginning of the war had their
domicile or habitual residence either in the State where they are
or on the free territory of the other State will be conducted to
the Swiss frontier, whence they can proceed to Germany if they
come from France or to France if they come from Germany.

Art. 4. Civilians who at the beginning of the war had their homes
in a locality of the occupied regions will be sent back there.
They can ask to be taken to the Swiss frontier, and the request
will be complied with whenever military necessity does not stand
in the way. In cases where, for military reasons, the return
of such persons to their homes is impossible, the civilians in
question shall be sent to the frontier or to another part of the
occupied territory, which will be assigned to them, as nearly as
possible, in accordance with their wishes.

Art. 5. If a civilian desires to remain in the territory or State
where he now is interned, he will be authorized to do so on
condition that his residence there shall be permanent.

Art. 9. The civilians interned in Switzerland at the moment when
this agreement goes into effect will be freed from internment.

Art. 12. Civilians who return to their country under the present
agreement cannot be employed in military service, either at the
front, or in the war zone, or in the interior of occupied enemy
territory, or in the territories or possessions of an allied State.

Art. 13. The arrangements for the liberation of civilians shall
be put into operation immediately after this agreement goes into
effect. Reckoning from that date, the transportation ought to be
finished in a space of not more than three months for civilians
now actually interned and six months for those interned at some
time in the past. This transportation will be furnished free.

The following articles deal with the population of occupied territory:

Art. 17. The inhabitants of occupied territory cannot be compelled
to work, except under the following rules: The work must be done
under the best material and moral conditions, with due regard
to personal aptitudes, social conditions, sex, age, and the
physical status of the workers. Members of a family, so far as
possible, must not be separated. Their labors must never involve
any obligation to take part in war operations against their own
country. Work can be demanded only (a) as service for the needs
of the army of occupation, within the limitations laid down in
Article 52 of The Hague Convention regarding war on land; (b) with
the object of preventing idleness on the part of persons capable
of working, who are supported at public expense, and who have
refused voluntary employment; (c) with the object of providing, in
the absence of other means, for the existence of the population.

Art. 18. Persons compelled to work under Article 17 must be
employed, with the exception mentioned, in the locality of their
domicile or in its immediate neighborhood. If for military or
economic reasons an inhabitant has to be removed from his home in
order to put him at work, this removal shall not in any case take
him outside the occupied territory, nor shall it bring persons
whose residence is more than thirty kilometers from the firing
line within the limits of that zone.

Suitable provision shall be made for housing and food for workers
who shall receive fair remuneration, and, if need be, medical
service. Besides rest periods and normal changes they shall be
given permission as often as possible to visit their families,
with whom they shall also be allowed to correspond and exchange
parcels.

Art. 19. Aside from the cases designated in Article 18, and aside
from the case of a total or partial evacuation of a locality for
military reasons, an inhabitant of occupied territory cannot be
displaced from his home against his will, unless, because of his
personal attitude, his presence endangers military security or
public order.

Art. 20. No civilian coming from one of the two States can
in future be interned in the other State or in the occupied
territories. Nevertheless, a civilian who, by reason of his
personal attitude, and in the interest of military security or
public order, has to be removed from his domicile in occupied
territory, can be taken into the territory of the occupying
State. The duration of his absence from occupied territory must
be limited to a period of strict necessity and must not exceed
six months, save in exceptional cases. At the expiration of
this period the interested person is authorized to return to
the occupied territory, unless the authorities should prefer to
conduct him to the Swiss frontier.

The foregoing Franco-German agreement was entered into for an initial
period of fifteen months, beginning May 15, 1918, and can be renewed
for periods of three months each. A Belgo-German agreement of narrower
scope was signed at Berne on March 22, 1918, relating only to civilian
prisoners.

Horrors of Austrian Prisons

Inhuman Treatment of Civilian Women and Men at Internment Camps

A correspondent of The London Telegraph who spent three years in
captivity in Austria has told of the horrible brutalities and cruelties
suffered by interned aliens in that country. He states that there are
both stations and camps for the interned prisoners, but the former
are employed to exploit the captives; they are more livable than
the horrible camps, but to live at a station one is charged three
to ten times more for food and lodging than the current rates for
citizens, and the prisoners suffer greatly for want of food and decent
sanitation.

He describes the experiences of prisoners at a place called Illmau, in
lower Austria, as typical of Austrian methods. A party of Englishmen
were taken there shortly after they had been arrested in Vienna. They
were marched along for about twenty kilometers, carrying their bags
or packages. It was very cold, below freezing point, and when at last
they arrived at Illmau at dark they were pushed into a kind of cellar,
three or four steps below the level of the ground. A soldier locked
them in, telling them they could go there and die. It was a place with
no windows--only a small hole in floor. The floor, bare earth, was wet
and muddy, water trickling down the walls. For every two men was one
straw sack, also damp, of course, and they were so closely packed that
they could not lie straight.

During the day it was so dark that they could not see each other's
faces. In the morning they were told that, if they wanted to wash,
they might go to the pump from which they also got their drinking
water. This pump stood in the middle of a manure heap, and could only
be reached by wading knee deep through the liquid pool surrounding the
manure heap. The quality of the drinking water can be rather imagined
than described. The treatment was most rough; the only argument a guard
ever used was the butt end of his rifle--if not the bayonet. Not many
words were wasted on the "Schweine - Engländer," (Swine - English.)

One day some high officials came to inspect Illmau, and after they
had seen the above-ground portion, the Englishmen, who were shut up
in their cellar, could hear them asking if no one was shut up in the
cellars, as by rights they ought to inspect the cellars, too. But the
guard officer assured them on his solemn word of honor that the cellars
were empty. And those who were there did not dare to call out--they
knew what their punishment would be--"stringing up" at least. This is
an old punishment, where the wrists are fettered behind the back, a
cord attached and passed through a ring in the wall over the prisoner's
head. This cord is then pulled tight, till the man is forced right on
to his toes. He is then kept so for about an hour, or till he faints.
This was often done at Illmau.

After the Englishmen had been in their wet cellar for a week, and
were nearly all ill with the terrible cold, they were told they could
go into an upstairs room. These rooms were occupied by Serbs and
Poles, nearly all very ill with consumption and very dirty. Each man
received a blanket of a kind of checked pattern. When these blankets
were hung up in the yard to air it was impossible to recognize their
pattern--they were all a crawling mass. The room into which the
Englishmen were put was so full that when they lay down at night they
were almost one on the top of the other. The consumptives were always
expectorating, and "sanitary arrangements" were unknown.

Drosendorf was a camp where, especially during the first months,
prisoners endured the greatest hardships. They slept in sheds, in
stables, sometimes on wet straw, sometimes without, and were treated
as brutally as in other camps. "Here were also some women," says the
correspondent, "and a lady I knew personally. When the latter was
brought there with other prisoners, male and female, after walking for
miles, they were shut into a large room--men and women together. There
the 'sanitary arrangements' consisted of a large pail put down in the
middle of the room. This lady was kept in this room with the men for
some days, and not allowed to leave it." In this camp at present there
are principally Russians, and rarely a day passes that a death does not
occur from starvation. Here, as also in the large camp of Katzenau, the
rations are as follows:

Breakfast.--Tea made of a mixture of dried birch and strawberry
leaves, and sixty grams (about two ounces) of bread.

Midday.--Soup made of turnips, or potatoes boiled and served in
the water they are boiled in, (no salt or fat,) and another sixty
grams of bread.

Evening.--Same as breakfast. At some places the same vessels are
used for washing the floors and for boiling the soup.

Estergom in Hungary was at the beginning a much dreaded place. It is
surrounded on three sides by the Danube and barbed wire on the fourth.
At the beginning there were over 30,000 prisoners--men, women, and
children--there, but not sufficient accommodation, so many spent the
nights out of doors in the rain and endless mud. Some lived in tents.
Of course striking a match in the dark was strictly forbidden, and when
once some one did strike one, the guards rushed in, striking about them
blindly with their fixed bayonets. Once one unfortunate Scotchman was
attacked very badly with dysentery in the middle of the night, and came
out to ask the guard to take him to a doctor. The guard simply ordered
him to go back to the tent and be quiet. When the sick man begged
again, the guard knocked him down with the butt end of his rifle.

One camp, which was even lately mentioned as a disgrace in the Austrian
Parliament, is Thalerhof, near Graz, the capital of Styria. Here they
kept principally their own refugees from Galicia.

The London Telegraph correspondent writes of Thalerhof:

"One Polish lady who had been there for eight months is now in Raabs.
She was taken away from her own house in Galicia in the clothes she
stood in, allowed to take nothing with her. Eventually she reached
Thalerhof. Through her sufferings there the poor woman is so broken
down that it is almost impossible to get her to speak of what she has
been through. A little she told me. When they--she and other ladies,
priests, peasants, men of all classes--were brought to Thalerhof, the
ladies (not the peasant women) were told they must come and bathe.
It was many degrees below freezing point, but they were taken to a
shed, open all round, down the middle of which a long row of troughs
half filled with dirty water was arranged. The water had already been
used by soldiers for washing their clothes. Then they were ordered to
undress.

"The soldiers with fixed bayonets surrounded these ladies, while
they completely undressed in the open, and forced them to bathe in
the troughs, threatening them with fixed bayonets all the time and
torturing them with coarse jokes. The low-class women were left quiet,
not forced to bathe like this. After the bath was over they were shut
up in a room crowded with people full of vermin. The ladies were always
chosen for the dirty work--never the peasant women, just as the priests
were set to clear up the 'sanitary arrangements,' which there consisted
of a long open ditch with a board along one side of it."

CIVILIANS KIDNAPPED

"At the beginning they had a cruel way of arresting people. They would
march them off as they stood, not letting them communicate with wives
or friends or relatives. I know of one lady who for about two months
did not know where her husband was, while he knew just as little about
her. Two Serbian ladies, mother and daughter, who had also been at
Salzerbad, had been staying at a little watering place in Dalmatia,
where they had gone for many years. One evening, when they were only
dressed in cotton dressing gowns, they were asked by an official to
come down to a steamer lying at the wharf. Only for a few minutes, he
said; there were just a few questions to be asked. So they went just as
they were, and went on the boat with several others; some one began to
ask them questions, when, to their horror, they noticed the ship was
moving. They were taken right away, as they were. At every port they
stopped and brought in others in the same way.

"In Fiume they landed, were handcuffed two and two, and marched through
the streets to the prison. There the daughter and her 65-year-old
mother, who had been also handcuffed, spent the night in a cell,
with only two upright chairs in it. Next day they and all the other
prisoners collected up to then were packed into third-class carriages,
packed as close as they would go, and in each compartment two soldiers,
fully accoutred, with fixed bayonets, and smoking like chimneys.
Although it was hot Summer, all the windows were kept shut. In this way
they were brought to Marburg--a journey of some four or five hours in
ordinary time--but they took two days for it. All this time they had
nothing to eat. People came to the train selling things; but, as all
their money had been taken away from them on the boat, they could get
nothing. In Marburg they were put in the prison, and kept there for
eight months."

Abuses in German Prison Camps

Examples of Heartless Treatment

Quartermaster Sergeant T. Duggan of the First Coldstream Guards, who
was at the prison camp at Schneidemühl (Posen) from 1914 to March,
1918, described the horrors at that camp as follows:

Prisoners of all nationalities, Russians, French, British, and
Belgians, were kept there, the majority being Russians. At the
beginning they lived in holes in the ground without any covering
whatever. Quartermaster Sergeant Duggan showed me a photograph
illustrating this condition of things, which lasted for some time,
it being a month before the prisoners had any covering over their
heads. The food was so bad that the British could never eat it.

About December, 1914, a typhus epidemic began. It continued for
four or five months. Schneidemühl has one camp divided into three
inclosures, the whole camp containing about 40,000 prisoners. The
daily average of deaths was certainly not under thirty. Another
photograph was shown to me depicting a long procession of coffins
during the epidemic. A gigantic German carrying a rifle headed
the procession, which was mainly composed of unfortunate Russian
prisoners. Anything more pathetic cannot be imagined. Photographs
were also shown me of the actual funeral service and place of
interment. These photographs showed many being buried at one time
in one long trench. After the interment, where the bodies were
deposited four deep, one above another, the Germans made mounds
surmounted by crosses, intimating that only two persons were
buried beneath each mound.

It is impossible to estimate now how many were buried altogether,
but many thousands died from this typhus epidemic. When the
epidemic broke out a terrible condition of affairs quickly ensued,
and it was not until it had been raging for a fortnight that
Russian doctors arrived on the scene. Some of the patients were
then first sent to hospital. The camp's condition, even after the
doctors' arrival, was perfectly awful.

A British merchant Captain, who was released in May from internment in
a German camp, asserted under oath that after his ship was torpedoed
he was locked up for twenty-four hours in the U-boat for refusing to
answer questions. On the following day he was searched, and for still
refusing to answer was sentenced to be shot on reaching port, or before
if he should cause any annoyance. One of the principal officers called
him a liar and an English swine.

Some days later the submarine put into Heligoland, and the Captain was
transferred to an underground cell ashore. Later, after scanty and
bad food had made him ill, he was marched with other prisoners from
merchant ships to a camp. Kept naked in intense cold for three hours
while his clothes were being searched, German officers stood about
laughing. His garments were returned to him wet, and he was put in
barracks, where his only covering was verminous blankets.

In another compound the conditions were better, but the food uneatable.
The prisoners were skeletons in rags. If they fell down from weakness
they were kicked and clubbed, beaten with the flat of swords, and kept
standing at attention in freezing weather. They had to fight like
wild beasts for food that a dog would refuse. Funerals were a daily
occurrence.

Transferred to Brandenburg, where he lived five and a half months, the
fare was such that, by the time his own parcels of food arrived, he
had lost twenty-eight pounds in weight. Twenty degrees of frost have
been registered on the inside wall of the barrack in the mornings,
and in Summer the heat was intolerable and the flies and mosquitos
very trying. Sanitation was almost nil; 850 Russians died at that camp
earlier in the war, and several were burned to death there shortly
before the Captain arrived.

Rebuilding Disabled Soldiers

Wonderful Work That Italy Is Doing to Render Maimed Men Self-Supporting

By PROFESSOR RICCARDO GALEAZZI

[Lieutenant Colonel Italian Royal Medical Corps]

_Professor Galeazzi is at the head of the Milan Institute for the
After-Care of Disabled Soldiers. The article herewith presented is
published by_ CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE _by arrangement with The London
Chronicle._

Our idea is that the future prospects of a disabled soldier must not
be built upon his assurance of obtaining a pension, but upon the
rebuilding of him physically, and the retraining of him technically, to
take up a self-supporting position in life.

Therefore, there must be no scrapping of the broken soldier. When we
bring him from the battlefield, and find that a limb or limbs have to
be amputated, the soldier thus wounded is placed in a special category,
and we cannot discharge him from the army until every care has been
taken to rebuild him physically, morally, and professionally. Then,
having given him his limbs and his re-education gratuitously, we also
give him gratuitously whatever implements or machinery may be necessary
for him to practice his new trade. Not until then do we put him on his
new road of life.

The organization for the different stages of this treatment is
interesting. In Italy each army corps has its special province or
district. And each of those geographical sections has a complete
organization for the care of the disabled. There is the surgical
hospital, the orthopedic institute, and the school for retraining the
soldier in whatever trade he may be capable of following.

When the amputation wound is sufficiently healed in the surgical
hospital, we give the soldier a month's leave, fitting him with a
temporary limb for use during that time. When the month is out--that
is, before he has had time to get into lazy habits at home or suffer
from the effects of misdirected sympathy--he must enter the school
for the re-education disabled. To this school is also attached the
orthopedic institution. Here he has his definite set of limbs fitted. A
plaster cast is taken and each limb is made with particular individual
care; and during the first weeks of its use the soldier is under
the constant supervision of the doctors, so that they can alter the
artificial limbs according as any defects become manifest.

I may also say, for it is an important point, that the limbs made for
the common soldier are the same as those made for the Colonel, and the
one gets them gratis just as the other does. Not only that, but we have
a National Institute whose duty is to take care of these limbs, renew
them and alter them free of cost, as long as the soldier lives.

What are the limbs like? Well, for instance, even where a man has lost
both hands, we have fitted artificial ones which enable him to write
with pen or pencil, to use knife and fork, to button his clothes,
and to shave with a safety razor. Thus we get rid of the constant
depression from which a soldier would otherwise suffer were he to feel
dependent upon some friend for every hand's turn in his daily life.

One of the great sources of success in applying these limbs is the
special Italian system, the theory of which was laid down by Vanghetti,
of making the amputation so that the muscles from the living part of
the arm can be attached in such a way to the artificial limb as to get
an organic muscular connection. Thus the natural muscles of the living
arm actually can be got to work the artificial fingers or leg, as the
case may be. I have made several of these connections full success.
And the system is now becoming almost the rule all over the country. It
is a special Italian invention, though some of the German professors
want to claim the credit for it.

The most important feature, however, of our Italian system is the
insistence on retraining. If the soldier's disablement does not allow
him to follow his ordinary calling in life, and if he be not of
independent means, he is absolutely bound to spend at least a month or
six weeks in the training school. There he is asked to choose a trade
or calling in keeping with his physical ability. We keep him for at
least about six weeks, and show him the whole system in working order.
Of course, if he cannot be persuaded, we must allow him to go home,
for, after all, we are a free country. But when he remains he is put
through a thorough course of training.

During these first weeks in the school the new limbs are fitted, for
the school works in connection with the orthopedic institute. In
the school we teach the illiterate peasants to read and write. We
teach all sorts of designing and drawing, all commercial subjects,
all the artisan trades, and also technical farming. Generally we
give preference to these trades that can be practiced at home; and
we do not encourage largely such trades as would call for work in
large factories. In the case of farmers or farm laborers, who are too
seriously injured to undertake the heavy work in the fields, we teach
them the finer technique of vine culture, wine making, cheese making,
&c.

And it generally happens that these disabled men return to life better
fitted for their work than they were before the war.

Sneezing Powder in Gas Attacks

A report from a correspondent on the Picardy front, dated May 6, 1918,
described how the Germans launched a heavy gas attack against the
Americans, sending over within a short period 15,000 shells, containing
chiefly mustard gas. This attack was notable for a new German device,
which is described as follows:

The Germans introduced gas warfare, forcing modern soldiers to
wear gas masks. Now after the use of masks has proved an effective
weapon against gas they are using a new weapon to force the allied
soldiers to take off masks that they may be easily killed by
lethal phosgine and diphosgine gases.

The weapon is nothing more or less than sneezing powder fired
in high explosive shells. This powder percolates through mask
respirators and brings on sneezing spells which lead the men to
take off their masks and to receive the full effect of lethal
gases. It has been used against the Americans. The method in use
is to fire a number of sneezing powder shells just before a gas
attack or to scatter them along among lethal gas shells.

The German now uses his gases in four methods: First, clouds,
which depend on a favorable wind; second, projectors, also
depending on the wind; third, long-range artillery gas shells,
and, fourth, hand grenades. Deadly gases, such as phosgine and
diphosgine, are used in short-range guns, while neutralization
gas, intended only to prevent activities of allied soldiers far
back of the lines, is used at long range. Mustard gas is much used
in this way. The latest perfection in the use of lethal gases is
to fire twelve or more mortars shooting large-calibre shells at
the same time by an electrical arrangement, thus producing great
concentration.

Russia Under Many Masters

A Month's Events Amid the Chaos Produced by Bolshevist Misrule and
German Invasion

The State Department at Washington on May 16, 1918, published the text
of a protest to Germany made by the Russian Government on April 26. The
document opened with the following statement: "The Russian Government
has taken every measure possible strictly to fulfill the Brest- Litovsk
treaty from the Russian side, and in this way to secure for our people
the chief aim of this treaty--a state of peace. But in reality no such
state of peace exists." The message then enumerated the grievances of
the Russians. It pointed out that by advancing upon Kursk and Voronezh
the German and Ukrainian troops infringed the Russo-Ukrainian frontier
line, "which was one-sidedly established by the Ukrainian Rada itself,
and officially made known to us by the German Government." At the
same time, the protest said, Russian military property in Finland was
being seized by the White Guards, operating in agreement with German
detachments and under instruction from the German staff.

The document also called attention to the fact that, although the
Soviet authorities had declared their readiness to open peace
negotiations with the Ukrainian Central Rada, neither the Ukrainian
Government, "which is now directed by Germany," nor the Berlin
Government itself, had given any answer to the Russian offer. "Owing
to such circumstances," the message declared, "the Soviet Government
considers itself compelled to mobilize all necessary forces in order to
secure the freedom and independence of the Russian Republic, which is
now menaced beyond the limits established by the Brest-Litovsk treaty."
The document concluded by reiterating the complete readiness of the
Russian people to fulfill the conditions of the Brest-Litovsk pact, and
by demanding the German Government should formulate the new demands,
"in the name of which it directs Ukrainian, Finnish, and German troops
against the Russian Soviet Government."

GERMAN PROMISES

In response to this protest, Berlin, on May 13, advised the Soviet
Government through the Russian Ambassador in Berlin, that Germany would
stop the invasion of Russian territory, and that it would observe the
Brest-Litovsk treaty and restore the rights of Russians residing in
Germany. In spite of this assurance, however, the advance of the German
Army in Great Russia did not cease. According to a Moscow dispatch,
dated May 25, the Germans occupied the district town of Valuyki, in
the Government of Voronezh, which is Great Russian territory, and
made further advances. The occupation was preceded by a battle which
lasted four days. The Teutons also continued their operations in the
Don region, where a battle occurred near Bataisk, and in the Caucasus.
They mined the Strait of Kerch, or Yenikal, known to the ancients as
the Cymmerian Bosporus, which is the only passage from the Black Sea
into the Sea of Azov. German airships appeared over Novorossysk, on
the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, and their submarines entered
its port. This was done apparently to intimidate the Transcaucasian
Government, which refused to cede Novorossysk to Turkey. About the same
time Bolshevist detachments crossed the Caspian, attacked the Turks and
recaptured the port of Baku. Another battle was won by the Russians
over the Turco-German troops in the Kars district of Transcaucasia on
May 24. The enemy retreated along the Ardahan road, massacring the
population as they went.

Early in June the Germans made a further advance in the south, namely,
in the Roslav region and in the district of Rylsk, Government of Kursk.
They advanced from the Rostov Railway toward Voronezh and captured
Roventki. They also made an attempt to cut the Tsaratsyk Railway near
the Kumyigar River. On June 10 the Germans started a new movement
eastward along a front sixty miles wide, between Valyiki, captured
previously, and Zhukovo.

BLACK SEA FLEET

A large part of the Russian Black Sea fleet fell into the hands of the
Germans when they captured Sebastopol, but two large ships and two
destroyers escaped. A telegram to the Berliner Tageblatt, dated May 12,
said that the majority of the captured vessels had been so neglected
that only two battleships were in good condition. One dreadnought and
four cruisers had previously been captured at Odessa. On June 6, the
Moscow Government offered to surrender the Black Sea fleet to Germany
on the following conditions: 1. The ships to be restored after the war
is over. 2. Germany to refrain from using the vessels. 3. Invasion of
Russia to stop.

According to a memorandum sent on May 21 by Foreign Minister
Tchitcherin to the Bolshevist Ambassador Joffe in Berlin, Russian
merchantmen and even a hospital ship were attacked by the Germans in
the Black Sea, and the menace of German attack constituted a serious
obstacle to navigation in the Baltic and Arctic.

On June 6, Germany delivered an ultimatum to the Soviet Government,
demanding the return of the remainder of the Russian Black Sea Fleet
from Novorossysk to Sebastopol, as a condition for the cessation of
hostilities on the part of the Central Powers. The Commissary for
Foreign Affairs expressed himself in favor of acceding to the demand,
and Lenine ordered the surrender of the ships.

The Soviet Government had no illusions as to the stability of the
Brest-Litovsk peace, but in its opinion the time for a new clash with
the Central Powers was not yet ripe. Consequently, in the of German
aggression, it pursued a policy of preserving this "bad peace" by all
manner of concessions and compromises.

The tasks which the Soviet Government were facing were outlined by
Nikolai Lenine in several speeches made before the Central Executive
Committee of the Councils, in the middle of May. His words were to the
effect that war was threatening the Soviet Republic from many quarters.
Either of the belligerent groups of imperialistic powers might, in his
opinion, at any moment attack Russia. The ambitions of Skoropadsky
and of the new Caucasian Government, which was under the influence
of German militarism, was regarded as another source of danger. "We
shall do the little we can," said Lenine, "all that diplomacy can do
to put off the moment of attack. * * * We shall not defend the secret
agreements which we have published to the world; we shall not defend a
'Great Power,' for there is nothing of Russia left but Great Russia,
and no national interests, because for us the interests of the world's
socialism stand higher than national interests. We stand for the
defense of the socialistic fatherland."

Lenine professed belief that this defense was facilitated by the
profound schism which divided the capitalistic Governments, by the fact
that "the German bandits" were pitted against "the English bandits,"
and that there were economic rivalries between the American bourgeoisie
and the Japanese bourgeoisie. "The situation is," said Lenine, "that
the stormy waves of imperialistic reaction, which seem ready any moment
to drown the little island of the Soviet Socialist Republic, are broken
one against another." It was his intention to take full advantage of
this situation, and to keep Russia out of the war for as long a time
as possible, with a view to curing her economic wounds and building up
her military power for the coming clash with world capitalism. Economic
recuperation, in the largest sense of the word, was thus declared to be
the immediate problem of the revolution. The expropriation of capital
became a matter of secondary importance in comparison with the task
of consolidating the gains of the proletariat and putting them to
good use. "We have accomplished two tasks," said Lenine in concluding
his speech before the Central Executive Committee on May 16. "We have
seized the power, and we have divided it among all Russia. We point
to the realization of the third and most difficult task, namely, the
disciplining of the proletariat to such a degree that every corner of
Russia shall be permeated thereby."

NO PEACE WITH UKRAINE

The Bolshevist Government made efforts to come to terms with the
Ukraine, and also with Finland. In the middle of May a Russian
peace delegation arrived in Kiev. Germany appointed Baron Mumm von
Schwarzenstein, Ambassador to the Ukraine, as its representative to
the peace conferences, with almost dictatorial powers, especially in
questions relating to boundaries. The efforts of the Soviet Government
to make peace with the Ukraine remained ineffectual. The delegates were
unable to agree regarding the frontier line. Repatriation of Ukrainians
living in Great Russia was another stumbling block. The removal of
property by repatriated Ukrainians, it was objected, would conflict
with the Soviet regulation allowing only small sums of money to be
exported from Russia. Besides, said the Bolsheviki, this would give
propertied Russians a simple means of escape from the Soviet Republic.

According to a London dispatch, dated June 7, Germany was responsible
for the delay in the negotiations. The German command at Kiev was
reported to have declared Russo-Ukrainian peace inopportune before all
important points in the Ukraine were occupied.

It was reported on June 10 that Germany and Russia had entered into
an agreement under which Finland ceded to Russia the fortresses of
Ino and Raivola, with the understanding that they were not to be
fortified, while Russia surrendered to Finland a part of the Murman
Peninsula, with an outlet to the ocean, thus bringing German influence
to Russia's arctic ports and to the railroads connecting them with the
interior of the country.

INTERNAL CONDITIONS

Upon the whole, conditions in Russia showed no signs of improvement.
Famine existed in Petrograd and in other, particularly urban, districts
of Great Russia, while civil war was still raging in Siberia and in
some parts of European Russia. According to information made public
by the State Department at Washington on May 21, cholera broke out in
Astrakhan and in the Caspian Sea region. Observers of Russian life
also noted the growing moral laxity of the population and its complete
indifference to public affairs.

Reports from Eastern and Central Russia indicated that in many
districts less than half the usual acreage was plowed. This was
attributed to the shortage of seed, horses, and implements. Even where
seed was available the peasants, uncertain of the disposition of
the land and the crops, did not plant extensively. Breadstuffs were
scarce even in grain centres, and prices were very high. The attitude
of the farmers to the city people continued to be one of distrust
and hostility, and the exodus of the city dwellers into the country
continued.

A recent article in Maxim Gorky's daily Novaia Zhizn (New Life) speaks
of the conditions prevailing in the Russian village in the following
terms:

All those who have studied the Russian village of our days clearly
perceive that the process of demoralization and decay is going
on there with remarkable speed. The peasants have taken away the
land from its owners, divided it among themselves, and destroyed
the agricultural implements. And they are getting ready to engage
in a bloody internecine struggle for the division of the booty.
In certain districts the population has consumed the entire grain
supply, including the seed. In other districts the peasants are
hiding their grain underground, for fear of being forced to share
it with starving neighbors. This situation cannot fail to lead to
chaos, destruction, and murder.

The article gives also a glimpse of what is going on in the remnants of
the Russian Army:

There are numerous reports to the effect that the soldiers are
dividing among themselves the military property of the country and
committing unspeakable acts of violence. Wild rumors are current
about the troops returning from Asia Minor. It is said that they
have brought with them into the Crimea a large number of "white
slaves" and that there is in Theodosia a veritable slave market.
The supply is so great that the price has fallen from 100 or 150
rubles to 15 or 30 rubles apiece.

RUSSIA A MADHOUSE

A terrible picture of the chaos in Russia is given by an educated
woman in Petrograd, the daughter of a Russian diplomat formerly in
Washington, and the widow of an officer in the Russian Army. To a
former classmate in the United States she wrote:

It was bad enough before the March revolution, when our unhappy,
half-witted Emperor, under the influence of his German wife,
seemed to do everything possible to make people lose patience. But
now we have a thousand anonymous potentates, the top ones paid by
Germany, and the lower ones lured into supporting them by money,
money, and money.

The present Government has abolished all laws, all courts, the
police, land ownership, all private real estate in towns, all
distinction of castes and grades in the army and navy. They have
seized all the banks, are opening all the private safes, and
confiscating all gold and silver found therein, though it had
never been said before that it was criminal to have it. Of course,
everything they "decree" is so mad that it is quite sure not to
last forever, but the chaos they make will take centuries to
forget. The country is going back to a savage state. And we will
not live to wait for better times.

All Russia is suffocating--every day brings new surprises that
show that there is but one way out of it--the grave. On the
ground of liberty they abolish all laws, Judges, attorneys,
and substitute for it "people's courts of justice," with only
soldiers, workmen or peasants, often quite illiterate and always
without the slightest knowledge of court proceedings, taking the
places of the former judiciary.

On the same ground they abolish all police, let loose all the
criminals from the prisons, arm them, constituting from their
number, together with workmen, deserters and hooligans, a "red
guard," and fill the prisons to their utmost with all those who
crave for order and will not work together with them toward the
total ruin of the country.

On the pretense of equality they abolish all grades in the army and
navy and make all posts elective by the simple soldiers. In most
places it is understood as complete extermination, lynching of the
officers, who, for being better educated, are under suspicion of being
"counter-revolutionary." The highest posts are occupied by elected
soldiers who very often can hardly sign their names, and the former
officers are made simple soldiers, with a soldier's pay of $3.50 a
month, and ordered to the lowest tasks, cleaning of the barracks,
cooking food, taking care of the horses.

Our great country could only exist when all the wheels of the
Government were working in harmony. Now everything is a perfect chaos.
Everybody was willing to throw over the Czaristic Government, but not
in order to change it for this one, of loot, anarchy, and treason
toward our allies! Ah, the shame, the disgrace, and the folly of it!

LOOTING AND DESTROYING

The army, which now consists of young boys, (the regular one is long
ago killed,) without any sense of duty, morals, and discipline, see
their acquired "freedom" in the freedom to go home when they want to.
And so all the trains, all the stations, are attacked and destroyed
by this horde of savages, who kill engineers, if it seems to them the
train goes too slowly, who martyrize the railway agents who tell them
of the impossibility of starting their train, for there is another one
coming toward them on the same track. As this human flood goes home
without any organization, everything is looted and destroyed.

Some months ago I was believing myself to be quite well off. I have
a house in Petrograd. Last Spring I was offered $125,000 for it, but
was advised not to sell and go over to America to have my little girl
become a happy American school girl. Now--I have on hand about $2,000
and no other resources; the house, like other private property, is
being confiscated, the revenue going to the Government, that is to say,
to the private pockets of the usurpers. The Government bonds annulated
(repudiated)--and even if I had more money--believe me--there is
nothing to buy.

Life in Petrograd is horrible--all the criminals, all the workmen,
and demoralized soldiers rob the few cars that still bring some kind
of products. In the very heart of the city, in daytime, you have your
clothes taken off your back literally. Just think that there is no
police, nobody to call for help, for those who would like to help have
had their firearms confiscated, even the officers, even the highest
Generals. All the soldiers, &c., are armed have become highwaymen. At
any moment you can expect a number of them to come into your private
lodging and, under the pretense of "perquisition," take away all your
money and valuables.

Our money is not accepted anywhere abroad. Russia is bankrupt, so that
it is impossible to escape. All my friends and relatives are in the
same awful position. Everybody lives on his last money, even those who
were quite rich. Their money was in Government or private bonds, and,
as they are declared void, where will you get money from? My poor mind
cannot grasp the whole thing; it is too great a madness. My only chance
to save my little girl's life and my own would be to get away from here
and go to the United States. Here, if we do not die in the next months,
we will be slaves, regular slaves, of our lowest classes.

RAILROAD SITUATION

Some light was shed on the railroad situation in Russia by the
report made on June 2 to the Central Executive Committee of the
Soviets by the Assistant Commissioner of Railroads. The percentage of
disabled locomotives, he stated, was about 30, that of crippled cars
being higher. In 1917 Russia had 560,000 cars and upward of 20,000
locomotives. The Germans seized a large number of cars and locomotives.
Nevertheless, there was no scarcity of rolling stock, for the mileage
had been reduced from 45,000 to 35,000. The general conclusion of the
report was that the situation had slightly improved, especially in
Siberia.

On April 22, Leon Trotzky made a report to the Central Executive
Committee of the Soviets on the newly organized Russian Army. He
defended the employment of officers of the old army on the ground
that they were just as valuable as the military property taken over
by the Soviet Government, and pointed out the eventual necessity
of conscription. According to a London dispatch, dated June 8, the
Soviet Government decided to introduce conscription. "One of the most
promising things," said a Bolshevist diplomat in an interview on June
5, "is the steady growth of the new Red army. Its discipline already is
better than that of the old one. Its members have so far been recruited
from town and factory workers. * * * We take measures to provide for
military training in villages and towns and all necessary steps toward
raising the fighting capacity of our new army, which already is by no
means negligible."

BOLSHEVIKI AND THE JEWS

A statement bearing on the situation of the Russian Jews under the
Bolshevist régime was issued by the celebrated Russian jurist and
former Senator, Oscar Grusenberg, and made public on June 10. The
document follows:

Those who think that the Jews are at present ruling Russia are
profoundly mistaken. The new laws, or rather administrative
regulations, which the Bolsheviki have promulgated, have hurt the
Jewish population more than other citizens, for the Bolshevist
legislation has ruined the commerce and industry of the country.

After the Bolshevist insurrection we lived through events similar
to those of October, 1905. In October, 1917, pogroms occurred in
200 Jewish towns and hamlets.

The tragedy of the Jews in Russia is heart-breaking. The united
Russian Jewry, counting upward of 6,000,000, exists no longer.
With the secession of the Ukraine, Lithuania, and Poland, the
number of Jews in Russia is reduced to a million and a half. The
situation of the Jews in the Ukraine, and particularly in Poland
and Lithuania, under German domination, is very sad. The Jews have
lost in this war, in killed and wounded, the majority of their
youth. A great many Jewish soldiers are pining in prison camps,
others are locked up in jails on slanderous charges of treason.

The Jews are almost the only nationality in Russia which, by every
means available, is seeking to arrest the process of splitting
up the Russian Empire, and which works for the reunion of the
portions that have seceded.

Hundreds of thousands of Russian Jews were ruined at the moment
when the Bolsheviki took over the Governmental power. The
population visited its wrath on the Jews, because some of the
Bolshevist leaders are or are said to be Jews. But the Russian
Empire has been demoralized, not by the Jews, but by the old
régime. Russia lacks great leaders with heroic characters, who
know how to act in an hour of distress. This made possible the
triumph of men like Lenine and Trotzky.

The Jewish leaders of the Bolsheviki are themselves a product of
the old régime. Czarism persecuted and exiled them. Education they
were forced to seek abroad, and there, in foreign lands, they
lost all connection with and love for Judaism and Russia. Every
country is to them but a railroad station. It is these former Jews
and present Bolshevists that are responsible for the appalling
misery which has befallen the Russian Jews.

ANTI-BOLSHEVIST MOVEMENTS

An official French dispatch received in Washington on May 16 asserted
that the opposition to the Soviet régime was growing stronger. On
June 2 a Russian wireless message announced the discovery of a vast
counter-revolutionary conspiracy, with ramifications throughout the
country. Moscow was declared in a state of siege, a large number
of persons were arrested, and stringent measures were taken to
restrain the press. Boris Savinkov, Chief of the War Department under
Kerensky, and Prince Kropotkin, the famous revolutionist and writer,
were reported to have taken part in the conspiracy. A week later a
Moscow dispatch reported that factory workers were boycotting Soviet
delegates, that some provincial towns elected anti-Bolshevist Deputies
to the Soviets, and that a general political strike appeared imminent.

In the middle of May the Central Committee of the Russian Social
Revolutionary Party addressed to the National Council of the French
Socialist Party and to the Parliamentary Socialist group the following
message:

The Bolshevist Government, which exists but by the grace of
our German masters, assumes, under the pressure of Germany's
Ambassador, a provoking attitude toward the allied powers,
and particularly toward France, addressing to them insulting
ultimatums which are in striking contrast with the servile
docility they manifest in executing the orders of German
imperialism. The Russian Social Revolutionary Party sends
its socialist greetings to the French section of the Labor
International, and protests against the spirit of the foreign
policy of the present dictators of Russia.

The Social Revolutionary Party declares at the same time that the
newly formed Communist group, formerly Bolsheviki, must on all
accounts be excluded from the International for having called
upon the most elementary principles of democracy to resuscitate
forms of despotism and violence. They have betrayed the cause of
international socialism by an infamous separate peace with the
crowned despots of Central Europe, transforming Russia, disarmed,
humiliated, and crushed, into an administrative supply house
destined to sustain the German offensive in the west.

The Social Revolutionary Party expresses the hope that all the
national sections of the Labor International will determine
their attitude as regards the Bolshevist usurpers, taking into
consideration this declaration of our party, which itself has the
right to speak for all Russian labor, having held an absolute
majority in the Constitutional Convention, whose powers will
be resuscitated in spite of the sanguinary repressions made by
the usurpers of power. We beg our French comrades to send this
declaration to the Socialist parties of the allied countries.

FIGHTING IN SIBERIA

Armed opposition to the Soviet Government was confined chiefly to
Eastern Siberia. In the first week of June clashes occurred in
Transbaikalia between the Government troops and the anti-Bolshevist
forces led by General Semenoff. The Soviet troops were apparently
mastering the situation. It was reported that they included armed
Teuton prisoners, and that General Semenoff was expecting Japanese
reinforcements. The other leaders of anti-Bolshevist forces, Admiral
Kolchak, Colonel Orloff, and General Kalmakoff, co-operated in
protecting the railways and massed their troops, which include Russians
and Chinese, for an offensive. The Soviet Government repeatedly
protested to China against the assistance it had given to General
Semenoff, requesting that the Chinese Government should either
close the Manchurian frontier to the General's forces or permit the
Bolshevist troops to cross into Manchuria and subdue the rebel. On May
25 Ambassador Francis published a statement from Secretary Lansing to
the effect that American Consuls had given no aid to General Semenoff,
or any other anti-Bolshevist leader. The message contained an assurance
of "the friendly purposes of the United States toward Russia, which
will remain unaltered so long as Russia does not willingly accept
autocratic domination by the Central Powers."

Late in May a new Government appeared the south of Russia. It claimed
to represent the regions of Don, Kuban, Terek, Astrakhan, and Northern
Caucasus, and was emphatically Bolshevist in its orientation. It was
headed by a dictator, General Krasnoff, who had served under Kerensky
up to the fall of the Provisional Government. His manifesto declared
that the Don Government was a sovereign State, at war with the Soviet
Republic, and on friendly terms with the Ukraine. This manifesto
contained the following statement: "Yesterday's foreign foes, the
Austro-Germans, have entered our territory in alliance with us to fight
against the Red Guard and for the establishment of order on the Don."

Another anti-Bolshevist Government was formed, early in June, in
Eastern Siberia. The new State, which proclaimed itself an independent
republic, purported to include the entire territory stretching from
Lake Baikal to the Pacific, as well as the district of Irkutsk and the
Island of Sakhalin, comprising a population of 2,500,000.

Violent clashes occurred between the Soviet forces and the Czechoslovak
troops, which had joined the Russian Army to fight for the allied
cause. The Czechoslovaks defeated the Soviet army, which was trying to
enforce Trotzky's order to disarm them, seized the railway stations at
Penza, on the Volga, in an effort to force their way to Vladivostok,
and penetrated into the Ural region.

DISMEMBERING RUSSIA

During the month under record Germany made further steps in pursuance
of her policy of subjugating the _membra disjecta_ of the former
Russian imperium.

On May 13 it was reported that Berlin planned to turn Lithuania into
a "semi-federal" German State. The next day Emperor William issued a
proclamation declaring Lithuania a free and independent State, on the
basis of the action of the Lithuanian Landsrat, which, on Dec. 12,
1917, had 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."
The declaration assumed that Lithuania would "participate in the
war burdens of Germany, which secured her liberation." According to
information made public by the State Department at Washington, the
Germans were forcing the Lithuanian peasants to work for the landowners
at a starvation wage and were taking stringent measures against city
workers.

Similar conditions prevailed in Livonia. A message sent on May 21 by
Tchitcherin to Ambassador Joffe stated that the Germans had created a
reign of terror there, persecuting labor and assisting the Barons in
suppressing their political adversaries.

In the Ukraine the Germans disarmed the troops of the overthrown Rada
and backed Skoropadsky's dictatorial régime with bayonets. Sporadic
uprisings of peasants against the Teutons continued. In the Province
of Kiev the Germans used gas bombs against several revolted villages,
and whole communities were asphyxiated. Revolts also broke out in the
Governments of Podolia and Poltava. Resistance was offered mainly in
connection with German food requisitioning. It was reported that the
Germans had twelve army corps in the Ukraine. In the middle of May the
Central Powers granted a loan of 4,000,000 marks to the Ukraine.

GERMAN ATROCITIES

The German atrocities in White Russia are thus described in a Russian
Government dispatch received in London on May 14:

In the Bobrinsk district entire villages have been set afire
and plundered. In the village of Buda a Uhlan patrol extorted a
contribution of several thousand rubles, and, when the peasants
had paid part of it and were unable to pay more, the Uhlans
surrounded the village and bombarded it.

In other villages peasants, women, and children who endeavored to
escape from fires were pursued by Uhlans and cut to pieces with
swords or flogged with whips. In one village an old Jew was first
flogged and then hanged in the presence of all the villagers. Most
savage acts were perpetrated in Jewish villages. All persons
suspected of belonging to the Bolsheviki and those in military
uniforms were immediately shot.

In Finland the Germans helped the White Guards to suppress the
revolution, and strengthened their grip on the country. Some of the
captured Red Guards were shot--7,000 were reported executed on June
6--others were to appear before twenty-one specially created courts.
The reprisals of the White Guards were directed particularly against
the Russians in Finland. A Russian wireless, dated May 14, contained
the following statements: "Even 12-year-old children have been shot.
At Viborg one witness saw 200 corpses, mainly Russian officers and
mere schoolboys. According to other witnesses, more than 600 persons
were executed in two days." The German headquarters in Finland
estimated the number of persons massacred at 70,000. The Finnish
High Court of Justice ordered the arrest of all Socialist members of
the Finnish Diet. In contravention of the Brest-Litovsk treaty, the
German commander demanded the control of the Russian war supplies at
Helsingfors, which were valued at 150,000,000 rubles.

On June 12 the Finnish Government introduced into the Diet a bill
providing for the establishment of a monarchic form of government in
Finland. The Finnish King, who is to be a hereditary ruler, shall be
invested with broad powers regarding treaties with foreign States, and
shall have the absolute veto in several important matters.

The new Finnish Government is emphatically pro-German. This was
illustrated by the membership of the new Cabinet formed by Paaskivi.
There were signs, however, that anti-German sentiment was developing
among the masses of the people. General Mannerheim, Commander of the
White Guard, resigned late in May, apparently as a protest against
the Germanization of the Finnish Army. This army is now commanded by
German officers. The Germans also took over the control of the Finnish
Military College, and undertook to organize the Finnish coast fleet.
They are constructing two railways in Northern Finland.

In the middle of May the White Russian Republic was proclaimed with the
consent of Germany. The new Government seemed to favor a union with
Lithuania, under the military protectorate of Germany. On June 4 it was
reported that the new republic had been recognized by the Ukraine.

Early in May the Tartar National Council met at Bakhchisaray, Crimea,
and issued a statement protesting against the entrance of the
Austro-German troops into the Crimea. The council declared that the
Crimea, whose population is 70 per cent. Tartar, intends to maintain
its complete independence till conditions in Russia grow more settled.

According to a London dispatch, dated June 7, fierce fighting was going
on between the troops of the Caucasian Government and the Turks. These
are reported to have massacred 10,000 Armenians in a fortnight. The
Government had ordered the mobilization of all men between the ages of
19 and 42.

ALLIED INTERVENTION

The subject of allied military intervention in Russia for the purpose
of freeing the country from German domination attracted a great deal of
attention in June. The allied Governments did not define their attitude
toward this matter, but it seemed certain that the United States did
not favor sending an interallied military expedition into Russia.
Japan refrained from any action in this direction. The only measure it
took was to enter into an agreement with China for the protection of
the general peace in the Orient from possible German and Bolshevist
aggression. The principal clauses of the military treaty between China
and Japan, signed May 16, 1918, are in substance as follows:

The two Governments, with a view to warding off the danger
constituted for them by the penetration of German influence toward
the eastern frontier of Russia, have decided to regulate their
conduct in regard to the enemy by placing themselves in agreement
on a footing of perfect equality, and in according each other
mutual aid in that region where their common action is to be
exercised.

The Chinese authorities will facilitate the task of the Japanese
authorities, who will be enabled to conduct the transport of
troops and establish in the occupied territories works which
shall be removed at the conclusion of military operations, and,
moreover, undertake to supply war material and munitions, as well
as engineers and a medical staff and other necessary specialists.

The Japanese must in return respect Chinese sovereignty and
local customs, and will evacuate Chinese territory as soon as
the operations are terminated. The agreement will automatically
cease to be valid as soon as the state of war between the two
contracting parties and the Central Powers is terminated.

One article of the agreement provides that Chinese troops may be
employed outside the national territory, and another stipulates
that the two Governments shall come to an understanding with the
Chinese Eastern Railway Company if this railway should have to be
used during the course of the operations.

RUSSIAN OPINION

In Russia proper the Soviet authorities and radical public opinion
opposed foreign intervention of any kind. Late in May the official
Bolshevist organ printed an article asserting that Russia desired from
the Allies no help intended to drag her back into the war, but that
"Russia would appreciate in the highest degree any assistance toward
the improvement of transportation and communication facilities and
the rehabilitation of her economic life." Even the moderate press
found foreign military intervention undesirable. The Moscow Prizyv,
the official organ of the Social Revolutionaries, however, declared
editorially that "the intervention of the Allies alone can give us the
real military strength and indispensable support for thrusting back
the yoke of the German, and for reconstituting Russia." On June 11,
Boris Bakhmeteff, the Russian Ambassador at Washington, transmitted
to the State Department a resolution adopted by the Central Committee
of the Constitutional Democrats, (also known as Cadets,) the Russian
Liberal Party. The resolution pointed out that the Cadet Party did
not recognize the Brest peace, and looked to the Allies for the
amelioration of Russian conditions. The statement emphatically denied
the assertion that the Russian democracy was opposed to allied aid.
It insisted, however, that the success of the action would depend
upon "the support of national feeling in Russia." The resolution
concluded: "It is further imperative for Russian public opinion to
receive assurances that the expedition will be co-ordinated with the
inviolability of the rights and interests of Russia, and that the
actions of all the Allies on Russian territory will be performed under
international control."

SENATOR KING'S RESOLUTION

On June 10 a resolution favoring intervention in Russia was offered in
the Senate by Senator King of Utah. It was referred to the Committee on
Foreign Relations. The full text of the resolution follows:

Whereas, The people of Russia after centuries of political
servitude are finally about to realize their aspirations for
liberty and the constitution of a federal republic; and,

Whereas, The innate sense of justice, desire for public order, and
the community life of the Russian people promise a sound moral
basis for the institutions of liberty and the equal rights of men
under the law as incorporated in a republican form of government;
and,

Whereas, It is the traditional policy and the interest of the
United States of America to promote and protect the progress
of liberty and the principles of democracy as incorporated in
republican institutions; and,

Whereas, The people and the Government of the United States
hailed with great and sincere good-will the prospects for the
establishment of these principles in the great domains of Russia
for the permanent welfare, political dignity, and beneficence of
the Russian people; and,

Whereas, The Imperial Government of Germany, by intrigues and
propaganda, and in perfidious violation of the pretended peace
with Russia, designs to destroy the Government of Russia and the
unity and nationality of the Russian people, and for this purpose
is attempting to separate Russia into small vassal States in order
to more effectually bring the people, territory, and resources of
Russia within the German power; and,

Whereas, In the pursuit of this perfidious purpose, Germany is
now subjecting Russia to industrial and economic servitude, and
is attempting to recruit troops from among the people of Russia
to replenish her depleted armies, and to promote her felonious
purpose in the world; and,

Whereas, The Russian people desire to establish a republican form
of Government and are in sympathy with the cause of the United
States of America and of the Allies, and would welcome assistance
in neutralizing German intrigue and propaganda, and in repelling
the intrusion of German power; and,

Whereas, German troops are now operating in Russia and are making
advances, with a view to taking possession of Russian territory,
including Siberia, and subjecting the same to political domination
and industrial servitude; and,

Whereas, The cause of the Allies and the principles for which they
wage war are thus placed in jeopardy; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate of the United States
that a commission be sent to Russia to co-operate with the
American Ambassador and other representatives of our Government to
overcome and neutralize German propaganda in Russia and to aid in
Russia's economic, industrial, and political freedom; and be it

Further Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate of the
United States that a military expedition be organized and sent
by the United States of America, in conjunction with the Allies,
including Japan and China, to co-operate with the armies of the
Russian people to repel the advance of German arms and to expel
from Russia German military power and establish therein the
authority of the people and Government of Russia.

The policy of the Washington Government in June remained one of
nonintervention in Russia, but there was a strongly representative
and widely increasing public opinion that the United States should
join with Japan, China, and the Allies to aid Russia and prevent
further German penetration. This sentiment was especially outspoken
and vigorous in the West and on the Pacific slope, where previously
anti-Japanese and anti-Chinese prejudices had predominated.

INTERVENTION URGED

A Supreme Council was held at Tokio June 7, attended by Prince Fushimi,
Field Marshals Yamagata and Terauchi, (the Premier,) and Lieut. Gen.
Oshima, the Minister of War. A joint conference of the Field Marshals
and the Admirals was summoned for June 10.

The Entente Governments of Europe were declared in a Tokio dispatch
dated June 15 to be bringing increasing influence to bear to induce
Japan to intervene in Russia. Among the several French officers who
arrived in Tokio to consult with the General Staff was Major Pichon,
who was head of the French military mission to Russia, and whose
recall was demanded by the Bolsheviki. Major Pichon was reported to
be striving for intervention in Siberia as a military necessity with
the same energy that he opposed Rumania's entrance into the war as
an ill-advised step. Major Pichon formerly was Military Attaché at
Bucharest. The partisans of intervention were finding support from A.
I. Konovaloff, formerly Minister of Trade and Industry in the Russian
Provincial Government, and especially from Jules Destrée, who was
appointed Belgian Minister to Petrograd in August, 1917. M. Destrée,
who is a Socialist, arrived in Japan after vainly seeking to return to
Europe across Finland.

"It is urgently imperative for the defense of the interests of the
Entente that there shall be a liberation of the Russian people from
Germanic domination," M. Destrée declared. "The Trans-Siberian Railroad
is the only remaining communication with the outside world, and this
could be destroyed at any time by the German prisoners, of whom
there are 20,000 under arms in Siberia. I saw armed Germans at every
station, ostensibly allies of the Bolsheviki. The destruction of the
Trans-Siberian Railroad would mean the complete abandonment of Russia
to the Teutons."

CZECHS IN SIBERIA

It was reported on June 15 that the Czechoslovak troops operating
against the Russian Soviet Government in Siberia and the Ural region
continued their successes. During the 9th and 10th of June, having
occupied Samara, they advanced rapidly toward Ouffa.

On the Siberian railroad from Theliabinsk to Tomsk (a distance of
1,250 miles) all the towns were reported to be in the hands of the
Czechoslovaks. Omsk was occupied on June 8 by a united force of Slavs
and Cossack peasants under command of Colonel Ivanoff, the Soviet
forces having retired from Omsk and Tunen.

The new Siberian Government established the Omsk-Nicholaevsk region
notified the Soviet Government at Moscow of the abolition of the
government of soldiers and deputies in Siberia and of the creation
of the new Provisional Government. The notification stated that the
Siberian Government, which is joined by Commander Ivanoff in the
forwarding of communication, does not intend to work for the separation
of Siberia from Russia, and is ready to negotiate for a supply of
provisions to the northern district of Russia.

Should the Council of Commissioners at Moscow, however, attempt to
re-establish the Soviet power in Siberia, it was declared, the Siberian
Government would resist and would discontinue the sending of bread
grains to Northern Russia.

Letters From Trotzky and From Kerensky's War Minister

Two letters from Russian officials, very different in contents but
both of historical significance, were brought to the outside world
by Herman Bernstein, who had been sent to Petrograd by The New York
Herald. One is a confidential letter from Trotzky to Lenine, written at
Brest-Litovsk at the end of the peace conference, as follows:

It is impossible to sign their peace. They have already agreed
with fictitious Governments of Poland, Lithuania, Courland, and
others concerning territorial concessions, military and customs
treaties, in view of self-determination. These provinces,
according to the German interpretation, are already independent
German States, and as independent States have already concluded
territorial and other agreements with Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Today I put these questions squarely and received a reply leaving
no room for misunderstandings. Everything was stenographed.
Tomorrow we shall present the same questions in writing. We cannot
sign their peace.

My plan is this: We announce the termination of the war and
demobilization without signing any peace. We declare we cannot
participate in the looting war of the Allies nor a looting
peace. Poland's, Lithuania's, Courland's fate we place upon the
responsibility of the German working people. The Germans will be
unable to attack us after we declare the war ended. At any rate,
it would be very difficult for Germany to attack us because of
her internal conditions. The Scheidemannists adopted a formal
resolution to break with a Government that makes annexationist
demands of the Russian revolution. The Berliner Tageblatt and
the Vossische Zeitung demand an understanding with Russia by
all means; Centrists favor an agreement. Internal strife is
demoralizing the Government, a bitter controversy is raging in the
press about the struggle on the western front; we declare that we
end the war, but do not sign peace.

They will be unable to make an offensive against us.
Verteidigungskrieg. If they attack us our position will be no
worse than now, when they have the opportunity to declare us
agents of England and Wilson, after his speech and comments on
attack. I must have your decision. We could well drag negotiations
one, two, three, or four days; afterward they must be broken off.
I see no other solution than that proposed.

I clasp your hand.

Your TROTZKY.

Answer by direct wire: "I agree to your plan" or "I do not agree."

This letter is in accordance with the published circumstances. Trotzky
apparently endeavored to persuade Lenine that if Russia should declare
the war at an end, while refusing to sign a formal peace, the Germans
would not attack. They, on the contrary, attacked at once, and Trotzky
collapsed. History must determine whether he was honestly mistaken or
was merely seeking a means of "saving his face," while acting in the
German interest.

FROM BORIS SAVINKOV

The other letter is by Boris Savinkov, Kerensky's Minister of War,
and for many years a leader in the terrorist wing of the Social
Revolutionary Party. It was published last April in the Russky
Viedomosti. The Lenine Government promptly suppressed it and
confiscated the paper, but Mr. Bernstein succeeded in smuggling a copy
out of Russia. It reads as follows:

We are vibrating with indignation at the Bolshevist decrees
and their ignominious peace. We feel ourselves humiliated and
disgraced. We are mercilessly handed over "Kamerad" to any one.
Nevertheless, we are doing nothing, because we do not even venture
to say, "God be praised, it was not we but our neighbor who was
shot." Yet we shall never forget that Lenine, Nathanson and
company arrived in Russia via Berlin. The German Government helped
them. The gift demands a gift in return. Lenine and his satellites
have repaid Germany handsomely, first through the subsidized
journal Pravda, next by the naked front, then by Brest-Litovsk,
and finally by an incredible peace.

What have they done with my Russia? It is necessary to be a
fanatic or a paid agent to be able seriously to maintain that
the international proletariat would help us. Only criminals and
lunatics could base a political computation upon such support
when Lenine and his co-adjutors entirely destroyed Russia's
former means and power. The Germans lifted the mailed fist and
Lenine instantly gave way, but others commenced howling about the
necessity to defend the fatherland, not only my Russia, but the
newly invented fatherland. Who can believe the men who destroyed
the army and declared that the idea of fatherland is a prejudice?
Who can believe that they would defend Russia? They are impotent.
Nor do I believe that they are sincere. The Soviet admitted that
the declaration of Lenine was right that we Russians ought to put
up with the loss of Finland, Esthonia, Livonia, Courland, White
Russia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and part of the Caucasus districts.
The rights of Russia exist no longer. There are only separated
towns and villages, economically dependent upon foreigners. The
position of Russia is like that of Poland after the partition. Has
not William realized his dream? Have not the People's Commissaries
deserved the Iron Cross?

The Bolsheviki have served Germany and serve Germany still.
It is no secret that Russia is covered with a net of German
organizations, and that the Russians who are wishing for the
restoration of the monarchy are working hand in hand with the
Germans. It is no secret that many Russians dream of the day on
which the Germans will enter Petrograd and German policemen appear
in the Nevsky Prospekt. They prefer the devil himself to the
Bolsheviki. What have they done with my Russia?

The Bolsheviki are our national misfortune, but Russia must
be saved, not by our enemies, not by German bayonets, but by
ourselves. We Russians must again be masters of Russia. It must
never be said that we are weak without the imperial assistance of
William and are unable to organize a State. It was not to reach
this goal that we sacrificed streams of Russian blood throughout
three years, nor was it in order to follow the program of the
Bolsheviki or to stretch out our hand toward the enemy. As sure as
it is treason against Russia to compromise with the Bolsheviki, so
sure is the agreement with Germany under which we are now living
worse treason against Russia. We must not forget that the Russian
Nation does not die. Sooner or later it will dawn upon the people
of Russia what my Russia ought to be, and the treason will never
be pardoned. It is an aberration to believe that Nicholas will be
able to return. But when will my Russia stand forth again vigorous
and free? I only know one thing. I learned when young: Through
work and fight thou shalt win thy right. We must work and fight
against the Germans and the Bolsheviki.

After the revolution of March, 1917, had achieved what terrorism had
been powerless to accomplish, M. Savinkov threw himself heart and soul
into the task of saving the army. He realized more clearly than did any
of his revolutionary associates, Kerensky included, that a surrender to
the Germans with the Socialists in power would inevitably compromise
the Socialist cause in Russia. As Chief Commissioner of the Coalition
Government with the armies of the southwestern front he strongly
supported General Korniloff in taking stern measures to restore
discipline. Kerensky quarreled with Savinkov because the latter,
becoming Minister of War, continued to support General Korniloff.
Savinkov is a comparatively young man, of great determination and
resource. He is well known as a writer.

Growth of the Jugoslav Movement

Project for a South Slavic State, Aided by the
Czechs, Threatens to Disrupt Austria-Hungary

Of the many internal troubles tending toward the disintegration of
the Austro-Hungarian Empire the one that has grown most rapidly
in the last year is the Jugoslav movement--the movement for an
independent State to be known as Jugoslavia, and to include all the
Southern Slavic provinces of Austria-Hungary, as well as Serbia and
Montenegro in the Balkans. This project assumed a new phase in May,
1918, when it received the active support of the millions of Czechs
in Bohemia, Austria's northwest border province. The Czech demand
for a free Bohemia and Jugoslavia helped to precipitate a political
crisis at Vienna, which Emperor Charles met by summarily suppressing
Parliament. All indications pointed to the existence of a united effort
of the Slavs, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Ukrainians, Croatians, and
Italians to throw off the Teutonic yoke, completely dismembering the
Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The only session of the Reichsrat that has been held in Austria-Hungary
since the war began was opened on May 31, 1917, and closed abruptly
by imperial order on May 4, 1918. Throughout that period the Slavic
Deputies in the lower house showed increasing hostility to the war
methods and plans of the Teutonic minority which rules the empire. The
house consisted of 516 members, of whom only 233 were Germans. The
dominant nationality has for years managed to keep its control of the
Reichsrat through alliance with the Poles, who hold 80 or 90 seats,
but in the Spring of 1918 the Poles broke away from the Germans, and
suddenly the Government discovered that it was in a minority and that
its war budgets were in serious danger of being defeated. Then it
resorted to the drastic measure of adjourning Parliament under threat
of force.

Already the Czechs, Slovaks, and Jugoslavs been working together
in Parliament, generally getting the support of the Ruthenians
(Ukrainians) and the Italians. In the closing months of 1917 this
tendency was accentuated, when the Polish leaders came into closer
alliance with the Czecho-Slovaks and Jugoslavs. This was cemented
by a congress of Czech Deputies, held in Prague on Jan. 6, 1918,
which adopted unanimously the declaration given below. The document
was at first suppressed by the Austro-Hungarian censor, and the few
publications that got hold of it were not allowed to leave the country.

THE CZECH DECLARATION

Despite this attempt at suppression the text of the document reached
the outside world through the Czecho-Slovak National Council. It is as
follows:

In the fourth year of this terrible war, which has already cost
the nations numberless sacrifices in blood and treasure, the first
peace efforts have been inaugurated. We, the Czech members of the
Austrian Reichsrat, which, through the verdicts of incompetent
military tribunals, has been deprived of a number of its Slav
Deputies and Czech Deputies to the dissolved and as yet unsummoned
Diet of the Kingdom of Bohemia, and to the equally unsummoned
Diets of Moravia and Silesia, recognize the declarations of the
Czech Deputies in the Reichsrat, and deem it our duty emphatically
to declare, in the name of the Czech Nation and of its oppressed
and forcibly silenced Slovak branch of Hungary, our attitude
toward the reconstruction of international relations.

When the Czech Deputies of our regenerated nation expressed
themselves during the Franco-Prussian war on the international
European problems they solemnly declared in their memorandum
of Dec. 8, 1870, that "all nations, great or small, have an
equal right to self-determination, and their complete equality
should always be respected. Only from the recognition of the
equality of all nations and from mutual respect of the right
of self-determination can come true equality and fraternity, a
general peace and true humanity."

[Illustration: SHADED AREA SHOWS THE PROJECTED STATE OF JUGOSLAVIA,
INCLUDING SERBIA, MONTENEGRO, AND SLAVIC PORTIONS OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY]

We, the Deputies of the Czech Nation, true even today to these
principles of our ancestors, have, therefore, greeted with joy the
fact that all States based upon democratic principles, whether
they are belligerent or neutral, now accept with us the right of
nations to free self-determination as a guarantee of a general and
lasting peace.

Also the new Russia accepted the principle of self-determination
of nations during its attempts for a general peace as a
fundamental condition of peace. The nations were freely to
determine their fate and decide whether they want to live in an
independent State of their own or whether they choose to form one
State in common with other nations.

DEMANDS INDEPENDENCE

On the other hand, the Austro-Hungarian delegate declared,
in the name of the Quadruple Alliance, that the question
of the self-determination of those nations which have not
hitherto enjoyed political independence should be solved in a
constitutional manner within the existing State. In view of
this declaration we deem it our duty to declare, in the name
of the Czecho-Slovak Nation, that this point of view of the
Austro-Hungarian representative is not our point of view. On
the contrary, we have in all our declarations and proposals
opposed this solution, because we know, from our own numberless
bitter experiences, that it means nothing but the negation of
the principle of self-determination. We indignantly express our
regret that our nation was deprived of its political independence
and of the right of self-determination, and that by means of
artificial electoral statutes we were left to the mercy of the
German minority and of the Government of the centralized German
bureaucracy.

Our brother Slovaks became the victims of Magyar brutality and of
unspeakable violence in a State which, notwithstanding all its
apparent constitutional liberties, remains the darkest corner of
Europe, and in which the non-Magyars, who form the majority of
the population, are ruthlessly oppressed by the ruling minority,
extirpated, denationalized from childhood, unrepresented in
Parliament and civil service, deprived of public schools, as well
as of all private educational institutions.

The Constitution, to which the Austro-Hungarian representative
refers, falsified even the justice of the general suffrage by
an artificial creation of an over-representation of the German
minority in the Reichsrat, and its utter uselessness for the
liberty of nations was clearly demonstrated during the three
years of unscrupulous military absolutism during this war. Every
reference to this Constitution, therefore, means, in reality,
only a repudiation of the right of self-determination for the
non-German nations of Austria who are at the mercy of the Germans;
and it means an especially cruel insult and injury to the
non-Magyar nations in Hungary, where the Constitution is nothing
but a means of shameful domination by the oligarchy of a few
Magyar aristocratic families, as was again proved by the recent
electoral reform proposal.

[Illustration: Austria-Hungary Sketch Map Showing Slavic Populations in
Threatened Revolt]

THE SLAVS IN ALL PARTS OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, SINCE THE SIGNING OF THE
BREST-LITOVSK TREATY, HAVE DEVELOPED AN ORGANIZED OPPOSITION TO THE
RULE OF THE GERMAN MINORITY AT VIENNA. IN THE NORTHWEST THE CZECHS
OF BOHEMIA AND THE SLOVAKS OF MORAVIA, CONSTITUTING THE CZECHOSLOVAK
MOVEMENT, HAVE TAKEN PART IN SERIOUS RIOTS AT PRAGUE AND ELSEWHERE
ON BEHALF OF INDEPENDENCE. THE POLES AND RUTHENIANS OF GALICIA AND
BUKOWINA ARE SUPPORTING THEM POLITICALLY. IN THE SOUTHWEST THE
SLOVENES, CROATS, AND SERBIANS HAVE DEVELOPED A STRONG JUGOSLAV
MOVEMENT, DEMANDING THE CREATION OF A NEW STATE HEADED BY THE KING OF
SERBIA. THIS MOVEMENT RECENTLY GAINED THE SUPPORT OF THE ITALIANS BOTH
IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND IN ITALY.

SELF-DETERMINATION

Our nation longs with all the democracies of the world for a
general and lasting peace. But our nation is fully aware that
no peace can be permanent except a peace which will abolish old
injustice, brutal force, and the predominance of arms, as well
as the predominance of States and nations over other nations,
and which will assure a free development to all nations, great
or small, and which will liberate especially those nations which
still are suffering under foreign domination. That is why it
is necessary that this right of free national development and
to self-determination of nations, great or small, to whatever
State they may belong, should become the foundation of future
international right, a guarantee of peace, and of a friendly
co-operation of nations, as well as a great ideal which will
liberate humanity from the terrible horrors of a world war.

We, deputies of the Czech nation, declare that a peace which would
not bring our nation full liberty could not be and would not mean
a peace to us, but only a beginning of a new, desperate, and
continuous struggle for our political independence, in which our
nation would strain to the utmost its material and moral forces.
And in that uncompromising struggle it would never relax until
its aim had been achieved. Our nation asks for independence on
the ground of its historic rights, and is imbued with the fervent
desire to contribute toward the new development of humanity on the
basis of liberty and fraternity in a free competition with other
free nations which our nation hopes to accomplish in a sovereign,
equal, democratic, and socially just State of its own, built upon
the equality of all its citizens within the historic boundaries of
the Bohemian lands and of Slovakia, guaranteeing full and equal
national rights to all minorities.

Guided by these principles, we solemnly protest against the
rejection of the right of self-determination at the peace
negotiations, and demand that, in the sense of this right, all
nations, including, therefore, also the Czecho-Slovaks, be
guaranteed participation and full freedom of defending their
rights at the Peace Conference.

WAGRAM GATHERING

On March 2 a gathering of Jugoslavs met at Zagrub (Wagram) which
included the Jugoslav Deputies of the Reichsrat, practically the entire
membership of the Croatian Sabor, (the Legislature which exercises a
limited amount of local autonomy,) and other representatives of the
nation. According to the Hrvatska Drzhava, extracts from whose accounts
have been translated by the Serbian Press Bureau in Geneva, they
contained the following statement:

After having discussed the general political and national
situation the assembly has agreed on the necessity of a
concentration of all parties and groups which, from the point
of view of national self-government, demand the creation of a
national and independent States of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs
founded on the principle of democracy.

The language of this passage parallels the Declaration of Corfu, by
which exiled leaders of the Jugoslav movement demanded the union of
the Jugoslav territories in Austria-Hungary with Serbia and Montenegro
into one kingdom under the Karageorgevitch dynasty. Austrian papers at
once became agitated because there was no reference to the carrying out
of this aim within the framework of the Hapsburg Empire. The fact that
many, if not most, of those present were known to be in accord with the
Declaration of Corfu, and the suspicion that practically all of them
favored it at heart, caused many protests against the "introduction of
the policy of Belgrade" in the Viennese press.

The matter was further complicated by the activity of the police in the
affair, they having broken up the first session of the assembly and
posted a guard around the hall. Demonstrations of the students against
this, which seem to have gone no further than parading up and down the
streets singing Slavic national songs, were broken up by the police
with the utmost violence, and many were arrested.

This did not prevent a large gathering, principally of students, at
the station the next day to bid farewell to Dr. Koroshetz, leader of
the Jugoslav Club in the Reichsrat. Dr. Koroshetz is taking the lead
in the organization of a Jugoslav National Council of some twenty-four
members, whose aims are euphemistically described for the present as "to
arrange the tactics of the general Jugoslav policy."

The economic conditions which contribute to the revolutionary ferment
in the Jugoslav countries were set forth in a speech in the Reichsrat
in the course of a budget discussion just before this assembly by Dr.
Matko Leginja, Deputy from Istria and Vice Chairman of the Jugoslav
Club. He quoted the appeal from an Istrian commune which ended:

We beg, ask, and demand bread, peace, and the return of our
brethren, fathers, and sons to console us, to see that our fields
are worked properly, and that there should be some one with us to
close the eyes of the dying parents.

Of many instances of starvation which he gave was one of a parish in
which in 1912 there were 67 births and 23 deaths. In 1917 there were
23 births and 68 deaths, without counting those who died in military
service.

CONFERENCE AT ROME

The significance of the whole movement was deepened by the Conference
of Oppressed Austrian Nationalities held at Rome on April 10, when a
full understanding with Italy was reached. The territorial and other
questions at issue between the Italians and Jugoslavs were settled,
and the Poles joined the other delegates in the demand for a complete
overthrow of the present Austrian Empire, declaring that the future
of Poland lay in a firm alliance with the reconstituted nations of
the Czecho-Slovaks, the Jugoslavs, and the Rumanians. The text of the
formal declaration then adopted, is as follows:

1. Every people proclaims it to be its right to determine its own
nationality and national unity and complete independence.

2. Every people knows that the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy is an
instrument of German domination, and a fundamental obstacle to the
realization of its rights to free development and self-government.

3. The Congress recognizes the necessity of fighting against the
common oppressors.

The representatives of the Jugoslavs agree:

That the unity and independence of the Jugoslav Nation is
considered of vital importance by Italy.

That the deliverance of the Adriatic Sea and its defense from any
enemy is of capital interest to the two peoples.

That territorial controversies will be amicably settled on the
principle of nationality, and in such a manner as not to injure
the vital interests of the two nations; interests which will be
taken into account at the peace conferences.

The Polish delegates added their declaration that they considered
Germany to be Poland's chief enemy, and that they believed the
disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to be indispensable for
the obtaining of their independence from Germany.

ITALY'S ACTIVE HELP

As a result of this important conference, a separate section was
established by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to look after
the propaganda in favor of the Allies in the Austro-Hungarian countries
and in their armies. The Austrian Premier, Dr. von Seidler, stated
in his last speech before the adjourning of the Reichsrat that the
Austro-Hungarian Government was fully aware of this propaganda and had
taken measures to combat it. A Slovene paper, the Slovenic, commented
as follows:

The German newspapers have begun at the same time to call the
attention of the Jugoslavs to Italian imperialistic aims and to
show all at once great devotion to our country, which, they say,
is menaced by the Italian peril. With a special affection for our
people, an affection never known before, they urge us to beware of
our Italian neighbors, enumerating all the points of the London
understanding with regard to our territory.

In publishing this agreement the Grazer Tagblatt, that ultra
national German organ, wished to give us a political lesson
of which they might have saved themselves the trouble. It was
superfluous, if for no other reason, because it came from German
nationalists, whose counsels we can never follow.

The Austrian Government and the German newspapers are troubling
themselves in vain as to how to circumvent the Italian propaganda.
It would be of more importance if they would take care to improve
their system of government, the oppression and injustice of which
only help the work of the propaganda. (Further thirty lines
censored.)

PROTEST IN REICHSRAT

The Czecho-Slovak Deputies in the Reichsrat introduced a motion on
April which was suppressed by the Vienna censorship. In the name
of the Slovak Parliamentary Union, the motion, introduced by Deputy
Kalinov, demanded that the Reichsrat refuse to sanction the imperial
ordinance of May 1, 1915, which extended the age of service in the
Landsturm from 43 to 50 years. The arguments presented in support of
this demand, as summarized by a Berne correspondent of the Paris Temps,
constitute a protest of all the Czecho-Slovak nations:

1. Against the war.

2. Against the militarism which, directed by the absolute will of
the monarch, has enchained the free will of nations.

3. Against the military tyranny that has installed itself in
Bohemia, and which is militarizing every stratum of society.

4. Against the spirit and tendencies of the army leaders, who have
made of the army an instrument of Germanization and Magyarization.

5. Against absolutism, because the law has been interpreted in an
unconstitutional manner, without the consent of the Reichsrat.

6. Against the dual system and the will for annexation, against
peace based on violence, and, still more emphatically, against
the shameful exploitation of Czecho-Slovak territory through
requisitions and incessant contributions.

The Czecho-Slovak Deputies added:

An attempt is being made to starve our country, which was the
granary of the whole Hapsburg Monarchy, and whose population,
alike in villages and cities, is now suffering atrociously from
famine and misery.

Our declaration is, above all, a unanimous manifestation of the
collective will of the nation. It proves:

That the Czecho-Slovak Nation is firmly resolved to dispose
henceforth of its own life and goods and children by the sole
agency of its freely elected representatives.

That our nation and, first and foremost, our women demand a
general and just peace, which alone can bring liberty and
independence to the nation, and which alone can cause justice to
reign in the whole world.

That we wish henceforth to live our own life in a State of our
own, as a member of a society of free nations, a society that will
solve without violence the questions that arise between peoples,
depending upon a friendly understanding, and thus bringing
happiness to liberated humanity.

When the Austro-Hungarian Government under Premier von Seidler found
itself confronted by a hostile Slavic majority in the Reichsrat,
threatening the defeat of its war budgets, Emperor Charles empowered
the Premier to "adjourn Parliament forthwith and inaugurate measures to
render impossible the resumption of its activities." This was done on
May 4. The Parliament had been composed of 233 Germans, 108 Czechs, 92
Poles, 33 Ruthenians, 42 Jugoslavs, and 19 Italians. The Germans had
considerably less than a majority.

In another respect the suppression of Parliament was viewed as a
concession to the Magyars. Those holding reign in Hungary since 1867
had been resentful at the claims of the Czechs and the Jugoslavs,
fearing that the Government would be forced to make some concessions to
them. If the project of unity were realized Hungary would be reduced
to about half of its present size. On several occasions the Magyars
had called on the Government at Vienna to suppress the Parliamentary
agitation, threatening to form a separate Hungarian army and impose
restrictions on the exportation of foodstuffs.

The Government, in a public statement, ascribed its action to the food
crisis, which was very acute, adding: "The Government will devote
its entire strength to the economic problem and will try to create
conditions required to enable the population to hold out."

THE PREMIER'S ADMISSION

A Vienna dispatch stated that the Premier, addressing a conference
of party leaders, had demanded that the Parliamentary sittings be
postponed, and added that, unless they took this step, the Government
would prevent the sessions by force. In the debate that followed
he had admitted the existence of many problems which must receive
consideration, especially that of the agitation for a South Slavic
State, but had added:

Discussion of this problem, however, is impossible at present,
because it concerns not only Austria but also Hungary and Bosnia.
But one thing is certain--if such a State were created it could
be only under the sceptre of his Majesty, as a component part
of the monarchy. It could not include those parts of Austrian
territory which border on the Adriatic and are closely connected
with districts where the German language is spoken. But national
aspirations exist also in these districts, and it is only natural
that the national wishes of the Southern Slavs be duly considered.

In the course of discussion of the question of revising the
Constitution on the basis of national autonomy, Premier von Seidler
announced that in Bohemia the Government would speedily issue
regulations providing for the appointment of administrators for
districts inhabited by distinct nationalities. After sounding a warning
against inciting nationalities against one another, he said:

Our entire military and political situation has reached a climax.
The next few months will bring a big decision. I am firmly
convinced the decision on the battlefield will be in favor of
Austria and her allies. Our economic, especially our food,
conditions are very serious, but they are not at all desperate.
To hold on now to a final happy decision is the vital question
for the State. It therefore is necessary that, unhampered by
Parliamentary confusion, the Government be left in a position to
devote all its strength to these tasks.

FOOD SHORTAGE

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was at that time facing a dozen different
crises, all aggravated by the problem of food. Even the racial
animosities, always threatening to overturn the unstable rule of the
German and Magyar minority over the Slavic majority, was inflamed into
bitterness by sectional jealousies over food distribution. These crises
reached a culmination in the decision of the Government to prorogue
Parliament.

What straits the empire had reached were partially revealed by the
Premier's speech to the party leaders, and also by the German official
statement that all food supplies from the Ukraine during the month of
May would be given to Austria-Hungary, on account of its greater need.
Still more significant was Dr. von Seidler's admission, made public
on May 4, that Austria was unable to feed the populations of North
Tyrol and Northern Bohemia, and that he had, therefore, consented that
the former be attached for provisioning purposes to Bavaria, and the
latter to Saxony. This concession, the dispatch added, had been wrung
from him by leaders of the German parties after a conference lasting
six hours. It meant that for food supply purposes these portions of
Austria were being annexed to Germany. The Austrian Government yielded
with the greatest reluctance, realizing that the political consequences
might be far-reaching. It was pointed out that this would accentuate
the feud between the German and non-German races in Austria-Hungary,
since the provinces affected are German-speaking, and would strengthen
the agitation for the incorporation of Austria into a German federation.

The meeting of the German and Austrian Emperors at the German Great
Headquarters on May 12 did not tend to allay fears of this nature.
Though the results of the meeting remained secret, the belief
was expressed in many quarters that it had constituted a formal
acknowledgment of the subservient relations of Austria-Hungary toward
the German Empire.

MARTIAL LAW IN PRAGUE

Shortly after the beginning of the war the Hungarian authorities
suppressed the Slovak press almost in its entirety. Thus the Slovaks
came to depend upon the Czech newspapers of Bohemia for their political
and other information. On May 5 the Hungarian Government issued an
order forbidding Czech newspapers from Bohemia and Moravia to circulate
in Slovakia.

The whole Czech and Slovak population, indeed, was seething
with hostility to the Imperial Government and its war policies.
Prague, the capital of Bohemia, had become a centre for leaders of
the Czecho-Slovaks, Jugoslavs, and Poles in their agitation for
independence. Demonstrations of an anti-German character became
frequent, and Czechs and Jugoslavs paraded the streets shouting "Long
live Wilson, Clemenceau, and Lloyd George!" The manifestations against
the Austrian State began afresh on the evening of May 17, when the
police made arrests, and culminated on May 20, when the Government
declared Prague under martial law. All political meetings were
prohibited, and the police issued a proclamation announcing that any
further disorders would be met with violent measures.

One of the events that had aroused popular hostility was the
suppression of the Czech newspaper Narodni Listi. The last copy of
this paper contained the text of the oath taken at Prague by the
Czecho-Slovak, Jugoslav, and Polish journalists, as follows:

Gathered at Prague while the world war has made necessary a new
reorganization of the world on the basis of a higher authority
given to the people, we proclaim that we shall remain in the front
line of battle for the freedom of peoples, that we shall fight
together in favor of each other's interests, that we shall repulse
together any despotic measure, and that we shall denounce together
the oppression of the Austrian State.

We want to promote together the confidence of our people in the
achievement of their aspirations, to encourage them to express
their will more positively.

We raise our right hand and solemnly swear that we shall give
all that we own, all our strength, all our possessions, for the
liberation of our people and for the achievement of the political
unity of the Czecho-Slovak people, the political unity of the
Jugoslavs, and the political unity of the Polish people.

RIOTS IN WENSEL SQUARE

The disorders leading to the declaring of martial law were described by
the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger a few days later in these terms:

The chief demonstration in the new outbreak occurred in Wensel
Square in Prague on May 20. The demonstration was a big one
and reached such pitch that in the evening the police had
to interfere. The Czechs sang their patriotic hymn with its
additional anti-German verses and raised cheers for President
Wilson and Professor Masaryk, the Bohemian delegate now in the
United States. Although Wensel Square was thereafter barred to the
demonstrators by the police, the demonstrations were repeated at
10 o'clock at night, and not until midnight did the mounted and
foot police succeed in restoring order.

Another account gave other details:

At the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Czech
National Theatre speeches violently attacking Germany were
delivered, and the renewal of the alliance between Germany
and Austria-Hungary was denounced. Several deputies addressed
the crowd, urging resistance to the end and the sacrifice of
wealth and blood for Bohemia. The theatre was then closed and
rioting occurred in the streets outside. The Jugoslavs who had
participated in the Bohemian festivities were ordered to leave
the city. Crowds singing patriotic songs accompanied them to the
railway station.

In the next week about 800 Czechs were arrested at Prague and other
Bohemian cities on a charge of seditious conspiracy.

REVOLT IN AUSTRIAN ARMY

Riots and disorders in Bohemia continued to increase during the
following weeks. Crowds at Chozen, exasperated by police brutality, set
fire to barracks and to the City Hall, where the mounted police were
lodged. Eight of the officers were burned to death. At Kolin the people
pulled down the Austrian and raised the Bohemian flag. Public buildings
were burned at Tabor and in other Bohemian towns, also at Olmutz,
Moravia. At Prague the offices of two German newspapers were sacked.
The Neue Freie Presse of Vienna declared: "Only the tenacity and union
of those who desire the preservation of the State can make the monarchy
survive this great crisis."

Mutinies among the Slavic troops in the Austrian Army also assumed
serious proportions. A Vienna dispatch to the Berliner Tageblatt on May
3 gave the following details:

The troubles began in the Slovene Battalion of the 9th Infantry
Regiment at Judenbourg. The German officers were killed, after
which the troops gave themselves up to acts of anarchy. In time
they were driven into the mountains, where they finally were
disarmed after a combat.

The Czechs of Pilsen, stationed at Fumberg, also revolted. The
rising was put down by the sword. Part of the rebels, having
succeeded in passing the frontier, took refuge in the mountains of
Saxony, where they were made prisoner by the Germans.

A third case of serious revolt took place at Funkirchen, where a
Serbian regiment from Austria revolted and massacred the officers.
The exact details of these revolts are difficult to obtain. It
appears, however, the instigators were Austrian soldiers returned
from the prisoners' camps in Russia.

GERRYMANDERING BOHEMIA

On May 22 the Austro-Hungarian Government issued a decree dividing
Bohemia into twelve districts, under a system giving new administrative
and electoral advantages to the Germanic population. The German
minority in the Imperial Parliament had been about to be completely
isolated by a union of the Czechs, Slovaks, Jugoslavs, Ruthenians, and
Poles. The electoral redistribution sought to avoid this by reducing
the Czech strength in the Reichsrat at Vienna as well as in the
Bohemian Diet. An official French bulletin dated May 22 said:

The law bulletin of the Austrian Empire publishes a decree
according to which the district Governments which were so long
demanded by the Germans are established in Bohemia. The twelve
district Captains who are nominated will represent the Statthalter
of Prague in each district and will have the same powers.

The boundaries of the districts are fixed, so far as possible,
according to the national grouping. In the words of the decree,
"the aim is to take the first steps toward the re-establishment
of order in Bohemia." This decree foreruns undoubtedly a policy
of repression, the first act of which tends to dismember Bohemia
by granting to the German elements the guarantees or, better, the
privileges which they demand.

Up to the present, Bohemia comprised thirteen districts, only
two of which had a majority of German population, according
to statistics from Vienna. In four of the districts there are
hardly any Germans. The new plan aims at creating in each of
the twelve new districts a German minority and to grant to this
minority, however small it may be, considerable advantages in the
administrative and electoral domains.

This method is meant to bring about as a first result a
considerable increase in the number of German deputies in the
Diet to the prejudice of the Czechs, who until now have held the
majority of the seats. It is clear that this device of the Pan
Germans is bound to arouse the most violent opposition on the part
of the Czechs.

A dispatch printed in all the Wagram papers calls attention to the
fact that martial law has been proclaimed in several districts of
Bohemia because in certain regions serious riots have occurred.
More than 150 persons have been put in prison. The estate of
Prince Furstenberg was ransacked. Riots occurred at Marsch,
Ostrau, Pilsen, and Nachod. The Czech press expresses itself very
violently. The Vetcher writes:

"The Government is trying in vain to present its reform under
bright colors, but it is evident at first sight, in fact,
that nothing but the dismembering of Bohemia is under way.
The Ministerial decree is preparing the parceling out of our
fatherland and the foundation of a German province made of our own
flesh."

The Narodni Listi, which was suppressed by the censorship as
guilty of "criminal dealings," has written:

"It is in vain that threats are hurled at us to divert us from the
line of conduct which we have decided to follow according to our
proclamation. It is in vain that the sessions of Parliament are
adjourned. Our indignation will not be less in June (the Austrian
Chamber is to resume its sittings on June 19) and our opponents
will have the opportunity of realizing it. The chart which,
according to von Seidler, is to be granted to us will not change
our resolution: 'We shall fight on without any consideration, with
compromise, for the defense of the Czech State.'

"This evidently shows the attitude of all the nationalities
crushed by the Germans and the Magyars in the Dual Monarchy. The
movement was not entirely unexpected, but it is possible that the
fact of threatening them with a pitiless repression has advanced
it and made it more formidable.

"Emperor Charles is away from Vienna, and on his return he will
find political conditions which the food situation will make even
more distressing. Once more the frightfulness of German methods,
so dear to the Germans, will bear its fruit by arousing rebellion
of the people oppressed."

AUSTRIAN OFFICIAL VIEW

An official Austrian note, referring to the decree, said:

Certain events, which were a danger to the safety of the State and
presented even a character of high treason, took place during the
first days of the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the founding
of the National Bohemian Theatre, and led the authorities to take
repressive measures.

Swiss commentators explain that this alludes to a note from the police
posted in Prague, which declared that mob gatherings and processions
would be dispersed by force if necessary. Jugoslav guests, who had
come to Prague to participate in the celebration, were obliged leave
the city, and the newspaper Narodni Listi was suspended because the
Austrian authorities declared: "The manner in which this paper is
worded tends to arouse sympathy in favor of the Entente States."

Accounts of the great gathering at Prague, which caused the Austrian
Government to declare martial law, stated that the city was adorned
with the Czech colors and the Slav tricolor flag. The Czech press
expressed regret at the absence of Russians and great satisfaction at
the presence of Poles. It was reported that the Ruthenians of Eastern
Galicia were prevented by the authorities from attending.

The festival was organized by the recently formed Independence Party of
Dr. Kramarcz, and the ceremonies consisted generally of a glorification
of the union of the Slavic peoples.

WEAKENING NATIONALISM

It is stated by American sympathizers of the Czechs that the new
decree is intended also to weaken the Bohemian national movement by
decentralizing the forces of the nation and partly to prepare for the
possible establishment of a province of "German Bohemia," such as
has been talked of in case the national movement is so strong as to
force the Austrian Government to try to compromise on some sort of
federalization.

The Czecho-Slovak Nation, which has declared its demands for unity and
complete independence, includes the Slovaks in the northern part of the
Kingdom of Hungary and the Czechs, now divided among Bohemia, Moravia,
and Silesia, three of the seventeen crown lands of Austria.

There has been much reference in German-Austrian papers recently to the
possible establishment of a German Bohemia, to include the districts
with the largest German population. Any rearrangement on this basis
would be beset with obstacles, for the Czecho-Slovaks refuse to consent
to any partition and the Germans demand not only the border districts
for their German Bohemia, but the City of Prague itself.

It was recently reported that in April the Pope, acting through the
Papal Nuncio at the request of the Vienna Government, had caused the
arrest of Dr. Yeglitch, Prince Archbishop of Laibach, on account of
his activities in behalf of the Jugoslav movement. Dr. Yeglitch was
the head of the Slovene Catholic party in Parliament, and his arrest
produced an outburst of indignation in Croatia and Slovenia. A Vatican
dispatch later declared the report of the Pope's connection with the
matter to be entirely without foundation.

BOHEMIANS IN ITALY'S ARMY

Troops from Bohemia began joining the Italian Army in April to fight
against Austria. The first detachments of this Czecho-Slovak army,
which is being formed in many centres out of the one-time subjects of
Emperor Karl, have taken up their positions in various parts of the
Italian line. They wear the Italian uniform, with certain distinctive
signs. The effect upon their fellow-Slavs who are still fighting under
the Austrian colors is a subject of considerable interest on both
sides. The new position of affairs is being assiduously explained to
them by airplane propaganda, and committees of their own race are
accredited to and working with the Italian high command. G. Ward Price,
a British correspondent, telegraphed from Italian headquarters on May 1:

One night recently some of the Czechs fighting with the
Italians were in the front line at a place where the Austrian
battalion holding the trenches opposite consisted largely of
their fellow-countrymen. After some preliminary conversation by
megaphone one of the allied Czechs crawled out to the other lines
and urged his compatriots to come over to our side, where they
would be treated not as prisoners or deserters but as friends. The
Austrian Czechs replied that they would willingly do so, but that
the line behind their own was held by Hungarians, who would almost
certainly see them moving out of the trench and open fire on them
with machine guns.

The allied Czech brought this message in to his friends, whereupon
the Italian guns were asked to put down a barrage between the
Austrian front trenches and their support line, driving the
Hungarians to cover and isolating them from the Czechs, of whom
some were thus able to cross over in safety to our side.

RACIAL DIVISIONS IN HUNGARY

Hungary in no less degree than Bohemia presents a problem of racial
antipathies which has been a cause of serious unrest for centuries;
aggravated by the present worldwide aspiration for independent
nationalism it has thrown the country into turmoil and given a strong
impetus to a revolutionary movement by the non-Magyar inhabitants. In
a recent issue of The New Europe, D. Draghicescu, in discussing the
situation in Hungary, gives the following facts regarding its racial
divisions:

Hungary is a country of 22,000,000 souls, of whom approximately
9,000,000 are Magyars and 13,000,000 non-Magyars, belonging to
four or five different races. The Magyars have always insisted
upon the fact that in Hungary they form by themselves a block
of 9,000,000, while the other nationalities, taken altogether,
are but 13,000,000, and that each of these, taken separately,
constitute beside the Magyars a negligible minority. Naturally,
if the 9,000,000 Magyars lived dispersed in all the provinces of
Hungary, mingled with other nationalities in the proportion of
9 to 13, or 41 per cent., or if in each or in the majority of
these provinces they formed a majority over the non-Magyars, or
even an overwhelming majority over the most important of these
nationalities, nothing could be done; the racial question in
Hungary should not and would not arise. In that case, no doubt,
the Hungarian State would properly bear the impress of the most
numerous race, and would be, in fact, a national Magyar State,
and the minority races would necessarily be sacrificed, even
although their blood-brothers across the frontier might form
powerful and prosperous States, (Rumania, Serbia, &c.) However
objectionable might be the measures taken by the Magyars against
these nationalities, they would, in such conditions, be up to a
certain point excusable. It is impossible to create a strong and
workable State and to insure peace and prosperity in a country so
heterogeneous and containing an _imbroglio_ of peoples each facing
in its own direction and gravitating toward other neighboring
States.

EACH RACE ISOLATED

He states that the Magyars, however, have never allowed it to be
understood how the various races have been distributed in the kingdom,
and he elucidates this as follows:

Hungary consists of several provinces, each of which is inhabited
by a separate nationality, homogeneous and compact. Of these
provinces one of the most important beyond question is the
Hungarian Pousta, situated on the banks of the Theiss and the
middle Danube, and inhabited by 7,000,000 to 8,000,000 Magyars.
The remaining 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 Magyars are scattered over
the other provinces, forming the ruling caste and providing
officials, magistrates, and police. Their business is to dominate
the nationalities of these provinces and bend them under the yoke
of the Magyars.

In these other provinces each race is at home, and is as compact
and homogeneous as the Magyars in the Pousta. Transylvania, for
example, with the neighboring plains of the Banat, of Chrishana
and Mamaramuresh is peopled by 4,000,000 or 5,000,000 Rumanians,
among whom there are to be found here and there small bodies
of Magyars. The Southern Slavs in their turn dwell in compact
masses of between 5,000,000 and 6,000,000 in the southern part of
Hungary; and there are at least 2,000,000 Slovaks in the north,
who also form a compact group. The Magyars are determined that
the 7,000,000 to 8,000,000 of the Hungarian Pousta shall rule
the 13,000,000 of non-Magyars in Transylvania, Jugoslavia, and
Slovakia, and that these nationalities shall disappear, losing
their language and individuality and adopting those of the
Magyar people. It is nothing less than national suicide which
the Magyars demand from these races, and, since this is refused,
the jingoes of Budapest, enjoying carte blanche from the Emperor
and the European powers, have for sixty years been carrying out
a veritable campaign of murder against the non-Magyar races of
Hungary.

TRANSYLVANIA'S CASE

The problem is intensified by the fact that the Serbs and Rumanians of
Hungary see 5,000,000 of their brother Serbs and 7,500,000 of their
brother Rumanians across their frontiers in Serbia and in Rumania under
separate sovereignties of their own people. Mr. Draghicescu continues
as follows:

Doubtless, if Transylvania and Jugoslavia were merely isolated
provinces without affinity or resemblance to neighboring States,
as is, for example, the case of Ireland in the United Kingdom,
we should admit that, however great might be the majority of
these races over the Magyars, the racial question would not and
could not arise. It would in that case be merely a question
of domestic politics and administration without international
interest. But this is far from being the case in Transylvania,
for instance, where the Rumanian population touches upon three
sides the Rumanians of the kingdom, and where it has no contact
with the Magyars, except on one-third of its racial frontier.
Moreover, assuming the Magyars to have a certain superficial claim
to ascendency in Hungary, where they are 41 per cent. of the
whole population, this claim cannot be admitted in Transylvania,
where they are but 15 per cent. to 18 per cent. In Jugoslavia
the proportion of Magyars is even smaller. Now, if we imagine
the reunion of Transylvania to Rumania to be an accomplished
fact, the proportion of races in Greater Rumania would be 92 per
cent. Rumanians to 8 per cent. Magyars; for if to the 7,500,000
Rumanians of the kingdom there are added 4,500,000 Rumanians of
Hungary among whom there live scattered bodies of Magyars to
the number approximately of 1,000,000, we shall have 12,000,000
Rumanians to 1,000,000 Magyars.

In this case, in place of the crying injustice of a 15 per cent.
Magyar population seeking to dominate and exterminate a Rumanian
population of 60 per cent., we should have a liberal State in
which the Rumanians would constitute 93 per cent. and the Magyars
between 6 and 7 per cent. In Jugoslavia the same process would
give similar results. It is impossible for Serbs and Rumanians
to be indifferent to the fate of their kinsmen threatened with
Magyarization. If they desire to save their captive brethren,
if they desire to liberate them and unite with them, it is not
because they are themselves impelled by a spirit of conquest and
inspired by a reprehensible imperialism. In them such aims would
be absurd. They are roused against the Magyars by legitimate fears
for their own fate and liberty in the future. If the Rumanians
and Serbs of Hungary were finally Magyarized it would be a proof
that the Serb and Rumanian Nations were ephemeral and might easily
disappear without harm to any one. Once the resistance of the
Serbs and Rumanians of Hungary was broken, the fate of the Serbian
and Rumanian Kingdoms would be sealed. The Magyars, with the help
of their German allies and masters, would soon overcome the Serbs
and Rumanians in the free kingdoms, exposed as these would be to
the treacherous onslaughts of Bulgaria.

Therefore, the true terms and proportions of this question may be
stated as follows: It is a war of life or death between 9,000,000
Magyars and some 25,000,000 Slavs and Latins. The former are
vigorously upheld by the Germans and the Bulgars. And the others?
Surely they should have for allies all who desire that Germany and
her vassals should not destroy the liberties of the world.

Supreme War Council Favors Free Poland and Jugoslavia

The session of the Supreme War Council of the allied Governments, held
at Versailles on June 4, 1918, was attended by the Premiers of Great
Britain, France, and Italy. At the close of its deliberations it issued
the following statement:

The Supreme War Council held its sixth session under circumstances
of great gravity for the alliance of free peoples. The German
Government, relieved of all pressure on the eastern front by the
collapse of the Russian armies and people, has concentrated all
its effort in the west. It is now seeking to gain a decision in
Europe by a series of desperate and costly assaults upon the
allied armies before the United States can bring its full strength
effectively to bear.

The advantage it possesses in its strategic position and superior
railway facilities has enabled the enemy command to gain some
initial successes. It will undoubtedly renew its attacks and the
allied nations still may be exposed to critical days.

After a review of the whole position, the Supreme War Council is
convinced that the Allies, bearing the trials of the forthcoming
campaign with the same fortitude as they have ever exhibited in
defense of the right, will baffle the enemy's purpose and in due
course bring him to defeat. Everything possible is being done to
sustain and support the armies in the field. The arrangements for
unity of command have greatly improved the position of the allied
armies and are working smoothly and with success. The Supreme War
Council has complete confidence in General Foch. It regards with
pride and admiration the valor of the allied troops.

Thanks to the prompt and cordial co-operation of the President of
the United States, the arrangements which were set on foot more
than two months ago for the transporting and brigading of American
troops will make it impossible for the enemy to gain victory by
wearing out the allied reserve before he has exhausted his own.

The Supreme War Council is confident of the ultimate result, and
the allied peoples are resolute not to sacrifice a single one of
the free nations of the world to the despotism of Berlin. Their
armies are displaying the same steadfast courage which has enabled
them on many previous occasions to defeat a German onset. They
have only to endure with faith and patience to the end to make
victory for freedom secure. The free peoples and their magnificent
soldiers will save civilization.

[Illustration: The scene in the Coliseum at Rome on April 7, 1918, when
the Italian official celebration of the anniversary of America's entry
into the war took place

(_Photo Audigier_)]

[Illustration: The third anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania
May 7, 1915. Three large graves at Queenstown, Ireland, where 178 of
the victims were buried

(_British Official Photo from Underwood_)]

A supplemental official statement announced that the following
declarations had been unanimously agreed to by the Premiers of the
three nations:

The creation of a united, independent Polish State, with free
access to the sea, constitutes one of the conditions of a solid
and just peace and the rule of right in Europe.

The Allies have noted with satisfaction the declaration of the
American Secretary of State, to which they adhere, expressing the
greatest sympathy with the national aspirations of the Czechs and
Jugoslavs for freedom.

AMERICA AND JUGOSLAVS

The American declaration referred to above was made public by Secretary
Lansing on May 29 in these words:

The Secretary of State desires to announce that the proceedings
of the Congress of Oppressed Races of Austria-Hungary, which was
held in Rome in April, have been followed with great interest by
the Government of the United States, and that the nationalistic
aspirations of the Czecho-Slovacs and the Jugoslavs for freedom
have the earnest sympathy of this Government.

Secretary Lansing's declaration was greeted with enthusiasm by
Jugoslavs in both Europe and America. Premier Pashitch of Serbia a few
days later communicated to the American Chargé d'Affaires at Corfu
his profound appreciation of the action of the United States. Another
result was a formal offer of military service by Jugoslavs residing
in this country. The offer was made to the Senate Foreign Affairs
Committee on June 5 by Don Niko Grskovich and John J. Grgurevich,
acting as spokesmen for their fellow-Slavs. They explained that the
Slovenians, Croats, and other South Slavs in the United States were
intensely hostile to the German-Austrian cause, and were eager to cast
their lot with the Allies, but because they were technically subjects
of the Austrian Crown they occupied the status of enemy aliens and were
unable to join the army.

"If Congress will enact a law taking this stigma from our people 50,000
enlistments in the American Army will be the immediate result," Mr.
Grskovich told the committee. "Ultimately, nearly 500,000 of our people
will be found fighting under the American flag."

Rumania's Thralldom

Subjection of the Nation to German Tyranny Under a
Supplementary Economic Treaty

CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE for June contained the text of the main
treaty imposed on Rumania by Germany, known as the Peace of Bucharest.
On May 10 it was announced that a "legal and political supplementary
agreement" had been exacted, which completed the economic subjection of
the country. The main clauses of this treaty follow:

CLAUSE I.--This provides for the resumption of Consular relations
and the admission of Consuls. The treaty demands that a further
Consular treaty shall be concluded as soon as possible, and
stipulates for the indemnification of all damage suffered during
the war by Consular officials or done to Consular buildings.

CLAUSE II.--This clause says that Rumania renounces
indemnifications and damages caused on Rumanian territory as the
result of German military measures, including all requisitions and
contributions. Amounts which Germany has already paid for damages
of the nature just described will be refunded by Rumania in so far
as these have not been refunded from the country's means, or paid
in the newly issued notes of the Banca Generale of Rumania, (note
issue department.)

Within six months after the ratification of

Until redemption, the notes of the Banca Generate shall be
recognized as legal tender. After the ratification of the peace
treaty such notes shall no longer be issued.

Another article, under the same clause, provides that Rumania
shall indemnify the Germans for all damages suffered by them on
Rumanian territory as the result of the military measures of
one of the belligerent powers. This stipulation also applies to
the losses which the Germans have suffered as participants, and
especially as shareholders, of undertakings situated in Rumanian
territory. Immediately after the ratification of the treaty a
commission shall meet in Bucharest to fix the amount of such
losses. The contracting parties will each appoint a third of the
members, and the President of the Swiss Federal Council will be
asked to designate neutral personages to make up the other third,
which is to include the Chairman.

Rumania will also indemnify neutral nations for damage which has
been caused them on Rumanian territory as a result of German
military measures, and which must be made good according to the
principles of international law.

CLAUSE III.--This clause stipulates for the restoration of
treaties and agreements between the contracting parties which were
in force before the war, except for those cases in which the peace
treaty provides otherwise, and in cases where such instruments are
undenouncable for a certain period. This period is prolonged by
the period of the duration of the war.

The contracting parties reserve until after the conclusion of a
general peace the fixing of their attitude toward separate and
collective treaties of a political character.

CLAUSE IV.--This contains prescriptions governing the restoration
of ordinary relations between debtor and creditor. It says,
too, that each contracting party will, immediately after the
ratification of the treaty, resume the payment of its obligations,
particularly the public debt service, to subjects of the other
party.

Restoration and compensation for concessions and privileges in
land and other rights are also dealt with.

CLAUSE V.--This deals with compensation for damage suffered during
or immediately before the outbreak of war by civilian subjects of
the respective parties in life, health, liberties, or property
through acts contrary to international law.

Germans who were in the Rumanian public service before the war,
and who were dismissed as enemy foreigners, shall, on their
request, be restored to equal rank and equal salary, or, if this
is impracticable, they shall be given fair compensation.

CLAUSE VI.--This clause says that the respective prisoners of war
shall be sent home in so far as they, with the assent of the State
concerned, do not desire to remain in its territory or to proceed
to another country. The exchange of prisoners is to follow as soon
as possible, at definite times to be further agreed upon.

The expenditure of each party for prisoners of war belonging to
the other party up to April 1, 1918, will be calculated on the
basis of an average rate of 2,000 marks (£100) for each officer
in Germany, and 1,000 for all other prisoners in Germany, and
2,500 (£100) and 1,250 lei respectively for prisoners in Rumania.
Immediately on the ratification of the treaty a commission
composed of three members of each party is to meet in Bucharest to
arrange details and to supervise the carrying out of the agreement.

Interned civilians will also be gratuitously sent home as soon as
possible, in so far as they do not wish to remain in the country
of their internment or go elsewhere.

CLAUSE VII.--This relates to the right of subjects of the
contracting parties to return to the country of their origin
without suffering prejudice.

CLAUSE VIII.--This stipulates an amnesty for offenses committed
by prisoners of war, interned men, and certain others. It
incidentally stipulates that Rumania shall grant an amnesty to its
subjects for their political conduct or military conduct based
upon political grounds during the war.

CLAUSE IX.--This provides that captured river craft, merchant
ships, and cargoes shall be returned, or, if no longer in
existence, be paid for, and compensation shall also be paid for
the period they were in the captor's possession. Here, too, a
commission will be appointed.

CLAUSE X.--This stipulates that various rights shall be accorded
to German churches and schools in Rumania.

CLAUSE XI.--This says: "Rumania, after having obtained the assent
of the Rumanian National Bank, agrees that the balances and
deposits of the National Bank now at the German Reichsbank shall
remain in the Reichsbank's charge for five years (and if Rumania
falls behind with an installment, for ten years) as a security for
Rumania's Public Debt Service, as regards the subjects of Germany;
and may also, if necessary, be drawn on to pay interest and redeem
drawn bonds."

The representatives of the contracting parties will meet in
Berlin within four weeks after the signature of the treaty to
make further arrangements regarding the fulfillment and further
guaranteeing of Rumania's financial obligations.

CLAUSE XII.--This provides that the respective representatives
shall meet in Berlin within four months after the ratification of
this treaty, further to supplement it.

CONTROL OF OIL FIELDS

Under the petroleum agreement between the Central Powers and Rumania,
the Central Powers' controlling company, the Oil Lands Leasing Company,
is endowed with exclusive rights of the most far-reaching character for
thirty years, with the right of prolongation for two subsequent periods
of thirty years, making ninety in all.

Up to one-quarter of the foundation shares will be offered to the
Rumanian Government with the right of transfer to private interests,
but Germany and Austria-Hungary insure their control by the creation of
preference shares with a fifty-fold voting right, and these shares are
exclusively at their disposal.

A State trading monopoly in oil in Rumania is also provided for,
the exercise of the monopoly to be intrusted to a company that is
to be formed by a financial group designated by the German and
Austro-Hungarian Governments.

All kinds of privileges are stipulated for the Oil Lands Leasing
Company, the position of which is most carefully hedged around.

The parties are agreed by the terms of Article IV. of the foregoing
agreement that immediately after the ratification of the peace
treaty the Rumanian Government will enter into negotiations with the
Governments of Germany and Austria-Hungary regarding the manner in
which Rumania's surplus oil and oil products can be placed at the
disposal of Germany and Austria-Hungary without endangering the vital
interests of Rumania in respect of the country's industries and its own
needs. The provisions of Article IV., therefore, only enter into force
should no other understanding have been arrived at before Dec. 1, 1918.

COST OF RUMANIA'S PEACE

A correspondent who was at Jassy for years and left there only a few
days before the peace treaty was signed thus writes of Rumania's hard
fate:

"What is the balance sheet of Rumania after eighteen months' hard
struggle? Before August, 1916, she had absolute economic freedom and
could sell her harvests to any one she pleased at any price she wanted.
In 1915 and 1916 the Rumanian exporters sold wheat to Germany and
Austria at from 10s. to 12s. a bushel. The Austro-German importers had
to pay, besides, a heavy export tax in gold to the Rumanian Government.
Now Germany has secured for herself and her allies practically the
whole Rumanian harvest for years to come, at a price which she is going
to fix, and in such conditions that 'no diplomatic intervention should
be necessary in the future for securing the grain necessary for the
allied Central Powers.'

"Rumania had in Europe, after Russia, the richest oil fields and the
greatest production of oil. The fields were in American, German, and
English hands, but the Rumanian Government had full control of the
production and drew very large benefits. When the war broke out in
1914 the Rumanian Government at once prohibited the export of petrol
and heavy oils to Germany. The German companies tried hard to send the
much-needed petrol to their countries, but succeeded in smuggling only
a small quantity through at enormous cost. After a year the production
of petrol increased so much that the Government was compelled to allow
the export of a small quantity, asking Germany in exchange to agree
that Rumania should receive a certain quantity of goods the export of
which was prohibited in Germany. The Germans will not forget that they
had to pay for the petrol at the rate of about $200 a ton."

GERMAN OIL MONOPOLY

"Since November, 1916, the Rumanian oil industry has been destroyed. In
the last ten days before the Germans penetrated into the rich Prahova
Valley the British mission under Lieut. Col. Norton Griffiths destroyed
everything--wells, tanks, refineries were burned, smashed to pieces,
or blown up, so that even now, after a year and a half, the Germans
have not been able to reconstruct them. According to statements made by
German prisoners in November last, none of obstructed wells had been
put in order again. The German engineers have worked hard, boring new
wells, but have not succeeded in getting more than 10 to 15 per cent.
of the normal production. However, although the refineries and wells
have been destroyed, the oil fields exist, and I think that not even
50 per cent. of them have yet been worked in Rumania. The Germans know
this, and the clause in the peace treaty that they should have the
control and monopoly of the oil fields for ninety-nine years will make
them the real owners and entirely independent of the American market.
These two assets--the corn and the oil--on which the whole wealth of
the Rumanian Kingdom was based, are thus under direct German control."

"Furthermore, Rumania has suffered much during the war. Towns and
villages have been destroyed, and nearly the entire stock of railway
carriages, vans, and locomotives has been lost. The productive capacity
of the country has been enormously diminished. About 60 per cent. of
the horned cattle and more than 70 per cent. of the horses have gone.
Famine and disease have made ravages among the rural population, nobody
having paid any attention to them. I have seen villages of 300 to
500 inhabitants reduced to 40. All the rest died from spotted typhus
or other scourges. This shows how reduced are the means of national
recovery after peace is signed. The financial situation is probably
worse than the economic. At the outbreak of the war the budget amounted
to 500,000,000 lei, ($100,000,000,) while the national debt was about
1,500,000,000 lei, ($300,000,000.) A few weeks before I left Jassy
the Minister of Finance told me that the debt had increased to about
$1,250,000,000. In the period from August, 1916, to February, 1918,
the revenue had been very greatly reduced. As the military situation
was always critical and the Government had decided twice, before
the Russian disaster, to move to Russia, everybody who had a little
money kept it at home and did not invest it in Government securities.
Therefore only a small amount had been raised in Rumania by loans;
the greatest part of the money had to be obtained from abroad, mainly from
England, but also from France and the United States, at a rate of 4 to
5 per cent. Thus the interest which Rumania had to pay on her national
debt represented about $62,500,000, or more than three-quarters of her
budget in the pre-war days."

VON KUEHLMANN'S EXPLANATION

Dr. von Kühlmann, the German Foreign Secretary, who forced the treaty,
in an address before the Berlin Chamber of Commerce May 24, explained
the advantages which the peace of Bucharest had brought to Germany. He
said:

Two points must be taken into consideration: First, guaranteeing
Rumanian agricultural and petroleum production as urgently
necessary for the carrying on of the war by the Central Powers
and for the transition period; and, secondly, the important rôle
which Rumania has to fill in providing a thoroughfare to the East,
especially as she dominates the lower course of the Danube.

It is here that there comes into effect the International Danube
Delta Committee, upon which only States on the banks of the
Danube can be represented. Only if the States agree to it will
the countries lying on the Black Sea be able to come into it.
Therefore, it is especially important for the German seaboard
traffic that we have been able to secure sites for dockyards.

Along with the Danube, the importance of the Rumanian railways
must be considered, especially the Bucharest-Czernavoda-Constanza
line, over which Germany must have control. It has been agreed
with Bulgaria that this railway to Constanza, which is to be made
a free port with grain silos and petroleum tanks, is to be leased
to a German company for ninety-nine years.

The cable between Constantinople and Constanza played an important
rôle before the war. This cable is to be developed to the utmost
and secured from enemy control.

Alluding to the agreement by which Germany had secured the Rumanian
harvest of 1918-19, and the far-reaching option upon the entire
Rumanian harvest for the next seven years, Dr. von Kühlmann said:

One can look forward to the whole food question with a certain
amount of confidence. * * * Formal war indemnities were not
demanded by Germany, but the numerous privileges we secured
are equivalent, in the opinion of experts, to anything which
would have been yielded by indemnities. When, some day, the
damage caused by the U-boat warfare shall have been made good by
newly-built ships, the sea route from Constanza will regain its
importance. Whether traffic on the Danube will be able to compete
with it is a question of the distant future. For the present we
shall have to rely on the Danube.

MODEL PEACE TERMS

Discussing this treaty on June 1, the Nachrichten of Munich declared:

The peace concluded with Rumania should serve as a model for
the general peace terms to be concluded by the Central Powers.
Germany has found a method of making conquered countries share her
enormous war burdens without actually inflicting a crushing war
indemnity. This method consists in enforcing on them a stipulation
for preferential treatment to be accorded to Germany over a long
period, so that Germany may be fully supplied with goods she
needs. In this way Rumania will furnish the Central Powers with
wheat and petroleum on advantageous terms for ninety years. A
similar happy solution must also be adopted in all peace treaties
to be conducted in the future.

ARMENIA'S SUFFERINGS IN A NEW PHASE

Turkish Invasion of the Caucasus Under the
Brest Treaty--Struggle of the Georgians

By the terms of the Brest-Litovsk treaty the Bolshevist Government of
Russia gave up to Turkey the districts of Batum, Kars, and Erivan,
comprising the southwestern portion of the Caucasus, between the Black
and Caspian Seas. This region includes the Russian part of the former
Kingdom of Armenia, with Turkish Armenia adjoining it on the south. It
is inhabited largely by Armenians and by that other ancient people, the
Georgians, between whom and the Turks there has been an age-long and
deadly feud. Hundreds of thousands of Armenian refugees from Turkish
persecution in Asia Minor had taken refuge here under the Russian
flag in the last three years, especially after the first Petrograd
revolution gave promise of liberty under a republic. Now Georgians
and Armenians alike find themselves betrayed into the hands of their
Turkish enemies.

Soon after the signing of the treaty on March 3, 1918, the Turks sent
armed forces to take possession of the three districts named. They met
with resistance both from the Armenians and from the Georgians, but
neither of the betrayed nationalities had an army competent to cope
with the enemy. The result was a new reign of terror, similar to that
of the massacres in Turkish Armenia, and the world was horrified anew
by the atrocities that ensued.

PROTEST OF ARMENIANS

The Armenian National Council on April 14 addressed the following
protest to the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to the President
of the Reichstag:

The Armenian National Council, as the supreme body for the
expression of the will of the Armenian people, is addressing you
in connection with the tragic state of things in Armenia. Armenia
is flooded with blood and, only recently saved from centuries of
slavery, is again condemned to fresh sufferings. Following upon
the withdrawal of the Russian troops, Turkish troops have already
invaded the undefended country and are not only killing every
Turkish Armenian but also every Russian in Armenia.

In spite of the terms of the peace treaty, which recognizes the
right of self-determination for these Caucasian regions, the
Turkish Army is advancing toward Kars and Ardahan, destroying the
country and killing the Christian population. The responsibility
for the future destiny of the Armenians lies entirely with
Germany, because it was Germany's insistence that resulted in the
withdrawal of the Russian troops from the Armenian regions, and at
the moment it rests with Germany to prevent the habitual excesses
of the Turkish troops, increased by revengefulness and anger.

It is hard to believe that a civilized State like Germany, which
has the means for preventing the excesses of her ally, will permit
the Brest-Litovsk treaty to be used by the German people, who have
been involved in war against their own will, as a means for the
creation of incalculable sufferings.

The National Council firmly believes that you will undertake the
necessary measures, which depend solely upon you, to influence the
Turkish authorities with a view to saving the Armenian people from
fresh horrors.

POLICY OF ANNIHILATION

To this protest the Bolshevist Government of Russia added the following:

The offensive of the Turkish troops and detachments on the
Caucasian front has been followed by the murder of the whole
Armenian population. The peaceful population of women and children
have been killed without mercy and their property has been
plundered and burned.

The peace treaty, which we were forced to sign at Brest-Litovsk,
left the determination of the future destiny of the people of the
provinces of Ardahan, Kars, and Batum to themselves. The events
which have taken place in these provinces testify that the old
policy of the annihilation of the Armenian people is still to be
applied.

On the Turkish front the advantage of the war was on the side of
Russia, and Russia was forced to give up Ardahan, Kars, and Batum
only because Germany was the ally of Turkey. The responsibility
for all the horrors which the Armenian population is now suffering
in those regions already occupied by the Turkish troops lies,
therefore, with the German Government, which directly helped
Turkey to secure these regions.

The People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs protests against
such abuse of the right of self-determination of the population
of these provinces, and expresses the hope and insists on the
necessity of immediate and energetic intervention on the part of
Germany in the Caucasus, with a view to stopping further murders
and the annihilation of the peaceful population, such as has taken
place in Ardahan.

The Armenians and Georgians fought the advancing Turks, but their
efforts were in vain; on April 17 Batum fell to the Turks, and the
Ottoman troops were said to have a firm grip on these and other
portions of the Caucasus.

STORY OF THE GEORGIANS

The rugged mountain region between the Black and Caspian Seas, known as
the Caucasus, covers 180,603 square miles consists of 14 provinces.
The population in 1914 was 11,735,100, of whom 87 per cent. were
illiterate; there are no less than 46 distinct nationalities among
the inhabitants, chief of which are the Georgians and Armenians. The
Georgians were the only nationality to maintain their independence up
to the end of the eighteenth century. Georgia existed as a State long
before the Christian era; Alexander the Great conquered the country.
In 1080 the Kingdom of Georgia was established by David III. Peter the
Great of Russia, recognizing its importance, entered into an alliance
with the kingdom, and in 1721 Russian and Georgian troops penetrated to
Baku, the rich industrial district bordering on the Caspian Sea. King
Heraklius II., who reigned during the middle and end of the eighteenth
century, received high praise from Catherine the Great and Frederick
the Great for his military prowess and intellect, and in 1768 Russia
and Georgia took joint action against the Turks.

In 1783 the Turks and Persians invaded Georgia, and Russia again
concluded a treaty of protection, in which Georgia's independence
was guaranteed. In 1801 Russia violated this treaty by annexing
Georgia as a Russian province. The people revolted, but the uprising
was unsuccessful. The Georgian mountaineers, however, never became
reconciled to Russian dominion, and in connection with the Circassians
carried on guerrilla warfare for forty years. In 1864 they were finally
defeated and given the choice of submitting or emigrating to Turkey.
Only 90,000 submitted and 418,000 emigrated to Turkey.

The jubilee of 100 years' alliance between the Kingdom of Georgia
and Russia was celebrated in Tiflis, Sept. 26, 1901. At that time
Czar Nicholas II. issued a manifesto acknowledging the loyalty of
the Georgian people, who "voluntarily placed the kingdom under our
protection," expressing imperial thanks to the Georgian Nation, and
extending the promise of "my special attention and care for this brave
nation, which is united with us by common ties of religion." This in
face of the further fact that in 1811 the independence of the Georgian
Church, which had existed since the year 542, was abolished by the
Russians and only six Bishoprics out of twenty-eight were allowed to
remain, while more than $350,000,000 of church property was confiscated!

[Illustration: RUSSIAN CAUCASUS REGION, INCLUDING GEORGIA AND RUSSIAN
ARMENIA, PARTS OF WHICH WERE HANDED OVER TO THE TURKS BY THE TREATY OF
BREST-LITOVSK]

PROGRESS AMONG GEORGIANS

D. Ghambashidze, in a recent statement regarding the Georgian Nation,
alludes to the progress made in the second half of the nineteenth
century as follows:

The number of daily papers and weeklies in 1913 was twenty-four,
and the number of books published in the same year on various
subjects was about 240, amounting to 460,000 copies. It must also
be remembered that 75 per cent. of the total population can read
and write, and there are many schools and libraries. Eighty-five
per cent. of the total population is composed of peasantry,
whose chief occupation is very intensive agriculture, tobacco,
wine, cotton, and silk being included in their products. The
co-operative movement is also very strong in Georgia, there being
about 400 co-operative societies, nearly 70 per cent. of the
peasants being members.

During the last eight centuries the nobility of Georgia has
devoted its attention chiefly to military occupations. There
were about 5,700 officers in the Russian Army, among whom may be
mentioned the very distinguished Generals, Princes Bagration,
Amilakhvari, Tchavachavadze, Orbelliani, and Amiradjebi. Prince
Imeretinski has acted as Governor General of Poland, and
through his wise rule won great respect among the Poles. He was
instrumental in obtaining the permission of the Emperor for
the erection of a monument to the great Polish poet Mickevits
in Warsaw. General Kazbek was commander of the fortress of
Vladivostok and General Orbelliani was Commander in Chief of the
Russian troops stationed in Finland.

Among the Georgian Bishops the most celebrated was Bishop Gabriel,
whose famous sermons have been translated into English by the Rev.
Dr. Malan, one-time Vicar of Oxford. There were also a great many
Georgian professors at various Russian universities, among them
the celebrated physiologist, Professor Tarhanov; the philologist,
Professor D. Tchubinov, and Petriev, the late Dean of Odessa
University. Distinguished Georgians like Prince Tchavachavadze
and Eristov were members of the Russian House of Lords, while Mr.
Tsereteli, the celebrated Georgian Deputy in the Duma, acted as
one of the leaders during the present revolution.

The Armenian Nation also goes far back into ancient history. Six
centuries before Christ the texts engraved on the rocks by King Darius
mentioned Armenia by its present name. During centuries immediately
before and after the beginning of the Christian era Armenia was an
independent kingdom occupying the region between Mesopotamia and the
valleys south of the Caucasus Mountains. This kingdom became Christian
about the same time as the Roman Empire, and since then the Armenian
Church has not ceased to be independent, not only of the Eastern,
Greek, and Slavic Churches, but also of the Roman Church.

[Illustration: ARMENIA, SCENE OF EARLIER TURKISH ATROCITIES]

Professor Meillet of the Collège de France, Paris, states that there
has been an Armenian literature since the fifth century of our era,
and that the old Armenian writings are more original and interesting
than the ancient Slavic literatures, which date from several centuries
later. Historians of art agree that in architecture, from the fifth to
the ninth century, the Armenians were creators of new forms. Professor
Meillet adds that at a time when the very name of Franco did not yet
exist, and when the French language had not been differentiated the
Latin, Armenia was playing a great part in history and had an important
literature of its own.

At the period of the Crusades the Armenians founded a kingdom in
Cilicia and aided the Crusaders. Since the last of the Crusades there
have been no independent Armenians. Mussulman, Persian, and Turkish
States have dominated their former country. In the nineteenth century
the Caucasus portion was taken by Russia. But the Armenian Nation had
its own customs, language, literature, and church, and all these it has
kept. It had the will to live, and in spite of its subjugation it has
lived.

SUCCESSFUL EMIGRANTS

Armenians, hindered by persecution from tilling their lands, emigrated
to other countries, where they developed eminent qualities. Industrious
farmers, attached to their native land, they have yet known how, under
necessity, to adapt themselves to all the professions of the modern
world. Thus they came to fill a large place in Constantinople, in
Egypt, in Transylvania, in Poland, and more recently in Baku, in the
whole basin of the Mediterranean, and even in America. Everywhere they
have made useful citizens; it was an Armenian, Althen, who introduced
the cultivation of madder in Southern France. In their own country,
where they had preserved a patriarchal system, most of them remained
farmers.

The Armenian Church, which has not ceased to be autonomous, is the most
democratic of the ancient Christian Churches; it is the only one in
which laymen take part with the priests in the election of the head of
the Church, the Catholicos, who lives in the Convent of Etchmiadzin, in
Russian Armenia.

In the nineteenth century, though possessing no intellectual centre of
their own, the Armenians found means for giving a modern literature to
Russian Armenia and another to Turkish Armenia. Occupying a part of
Asia that is a natural passageway between the Orient and the Occident,
says Professor Meillet, they have been, since the fifth century,
carriers of European civilization. Their vanguard position has made of
them the martyrs of Western culture. Their success and their European
character made them odious to their Turkish masters, who were less
industrious than they. By the Treaty of Berlin in 1878 Turkey pledged
herself to introduce reforms and ameliorations in Armenia, and to
protect these people from attacks by the Kurds and Circassians; but the
pledge was never kept. After the massacres at Sassun in 1894 Europe
made a more imperious demand for reforms; Sultan Abdul Hamid promised
them--and immediately ordered the great massacres of 1895 and 1896,
which won for him the name of the Red Sultan.

UNDER THE YOUNG TURKS

The Young Turk revolution promised to improve the lot of the Armenians
by instituting liberty in the Ottoman Empire; in reality the Young
Turks desired only to make a unified empire of which they should
be masters; they tried to "Turkify" all the races under them by
persecuting those who wished to keep their own character; in 1909 they
caused the Armenians at Adana to be massacred.

When the Young Turk Government allied itself with the Central Empires,
learning organization from the Germans, it organized the destruction of
the Armenians in 1915 on scientific lines. It ordered the deportation
of these people from land which they had occupied for more than 2,000
years, and, after massacring the men and seizing the young women, it
caused the rest of the women and the children to perish of hunger,
thirst, and fatigue along the highways into which they had been driven;
it sent them to die in the deserts of Syria and Mesopotamia. Hundreds
of thousands of Armenians were thus destroyed. When the victorious
Russian troops entered Erzerum and Trebizond they found only a few
dozens of Armenians out of the tens of thousands who had inhabited
those cities. The German authorities knew of these massacres; they made
no protest.

In Syria the Christian population was destroyed by other methods; all
the food was taken away, and then the district was isolated and the
entrance of new food supplies forbidden. Hundreds of thousands of
Syrians died of hunger. Germany knew of this crime; it did not protest.

EXTERMINATING A RACE

The great war gave the Young Turk leaders their long-desired
opportunity to crush the Armenians. Henry Morgenthau, the United States
Ambassador at Constantinople at that time, says in a recent statement:

During the Spring of 1915 they evolved their plan to destroy the
Armenian race. They criticised their ancestors for neglecting
to destroy or convert the Christian races to Mohammedanism at
the time when they first subjugated them. Now, as four of the
great powers were at war with them and the two others were their
allies, they thought the time opportune to make good the oversight
of their ancestors in the fifteenth century. They drafted the
able-bodied Armenians into the army without, however, giving
them arms; they used them simply to build roads or do similar
work. Then, under the pretext of searching the houses for arms,
they pillaged the belongings of the villagers. * * * The final
and worst measure was the wholesale deportation of the entire
population from their homes and their exile to the desert, with
all the accompanying horrors on the way. * * * The facts contained
in the reports received at the embassy from absolutely trustworthy
eyewitnesses surpass the most beastly and diabolical cruelties
ever perpetrated or imagined in the history of the world.

BARBAROUS TORTURES

Many of these horrors were told in detail in the monumental report of
Viscount Bryce, portions of which were published in CURRENT HISTORY
MAGAZINE, November, 1916. To these may be added a statement made to Mr.
Morgenthau personally by an eyewitness--a German missionary!--and put
into writing at the American Embassy in Constantinople, which reads in
part as follows:

It was that very afternoon that I received the first terrible
reports, but I did not fully believe them. A few millers and
bakers, whose services were needed by the Government, had
remained, and they received the news first. The men had all been
tied together and shot outside of the town. The women and children
were taken to the neighboring villages, placed in houses by the
hundreds, and either burned alive or thrown into the river. (Our
buildings being in the main quarter of the town we could receive
the news quite promptly.) Furthermore, one could see women and
children pass by with blood streaming down, weeping. * * * Who
can describe such pictures? Add to all this the sight of burning
houses and the smell of many burning corpses.

Within a week everything was nearly over. The officers boasted
now of their bravery, that they had succeeded in exterminating
the whole Armenian race. Three weeks later when we left Moush,
the villages were still burning. Nothing that belonged to the
Armenians, either in the city or the villages, was allowed to
remain. In Moush alone there were 25,000 Armenians; besides, Moush
had 300 villages with a large Armenian population.

We left for Mezreh. The soldiers who accompanied us showed us
with pride where and how and how many women and children they had
killed.

We were very pleased to see upon our arrival at Harpoot that the
orphanages were full. This was, however, all that could be said.
Mamuret-ul-Aziz has become the cemetery of all the Armenians; all
the Armenians from the various vilayets were sent there, and those
who had not died on the way came there simply to find their graves.

Another terrible thing in Mamuret-ul-Aziz were the tortures to
which the people had been subjected for two months, and they had
generally treated so harshly the families of the better class.
Feet, hands, chests were nailed to a piece of wood; nails of
fingers and toes were torn out; beards and eyebrows pulled out;
feet were hammered with nails, as they do with horses; others were
hung with their feet up and heads down over closets. * * * Oh! How
one could wish that all these facts were not true! In order that
people outside might not hear the screams of agony of the poor
victims, men stood around the prison wherein these atrocities were
committed, with drums and whistles.

On July 1 the first 2,000 were dispatched from Harpoot. They
were soldiers, and it was rumored that they would build roads.
People became frightened. Whereupon the Vali called the German
missionary, Mr. ----, and begged him to quiet the people; he was
so very sorry that they all had such fears, &c. They had hardly
been away for a day when they were all killed in a mountain pass.
They were bound together, and when the Kurds and soldiers started
to shoot at them some managed to escape in the dark. The next day
another 2,000 were sent in the direction of Diarbekr. Among those
deported were several of our orphans (boys) who had been working
for the Government all the year round. Even the wives of the Kurds
came with their knives and murdered the Armenians. Some of the
latter succeeded in fleeing. When the Government heard that some
Armenians had managed to escape they left those who were to be
deported without food for two days in order that they would be too
weak to be able to flee.

All the high Catholic Armenians, together with their Archbishop,
were murdered. Up to now there still remained a number of
tradesmen whom the Government needed and therefore had not
deported; now these, too, were ordered to leave, and were murdered.

TOTAL NUMBER MURDERED

The total Armenian population in the Turkish Empire in 1912 numbered
between 1,600,000 and 2,000,000. Of these 182,000 escaped to the
Russian Caucasus, where now again they have been placed in peril of
extermination at the hands of the Turks. About 4,200 escaped into
Egypt, while 150,000 still remain in Constantinople. To these figures
must be added the relatively small number of survivors still in hiding
or scattered in distant provinces. Mr. Morgenthau concludes that
1,000,000 Armenians were harried out of their homes in Asia Minor,
that the murdered number between 600,000 and 800,000. The remainder, in
pitiful want of the barest necessities of life, hold out their hands to
the Christian fellowship of America for aid.

In how far was the German Government responsible for the murder and
deportation of the Armenians in Turkey? Mr. Morgenthau, summing up
the story own fruitless efforts to get Baron Wangenheim, the German
Ambassador, to intervene in their behalf, says: "Let me say most
emphatically, the German Government could have prevented it." Now again
it is the German Government that has handed over the Armenian refugees
in the Russian Caucasus to the tender mercy of the Turks.

President Wilson's Addresses

Important Utterances on War Themes

_President Wilson delivered two public addresses in May, 1918, the
first in New York City, May 17, to inaugurate the second Red Cross
campaign, the second before a joint session of the United States
Congress, May 27, on the subject of a Federal revenue bill. The
speeches are given herewith._

Red Cross Speech in New York

[DELIVERED IN THE METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE, NEW YORK CITY, MAY 17, 1918]

There are two duties with which we are face to face. The first duty is
to win the war. And the second duty that goes hand in hand with it is
to win it greatly and worthily, showing the real quality of our power
not only, but the real quality of our purpose and of ourselves. Of
course, the first duty, the duty that we must keep in the foreground of
our thought until it is accomplished, is to win the war. I have heard
gentlemen recently say that we must get 5,000,000 men ready. Why limit
it to 5,000,000?

I have asked the Congress of the United States to name no limit,
because the Congress intends, I am sure, as we all intend, that every
ship that can carry men or supplies shall go laden upon every voyage
with every man and every supply she can carry. And we are not to be
diverted from the grim purpose of winning the war by any insincere
approaches upon the subject of peace. I can say with a clear conscience
that I have tested those intimations and have found them insincere. I
now recognize them for what they are, an opportunity to have a free
hand, particularly in the East, to carry out purposes of conquest and
exploitation.

Every proposal with regard to accommodation in the West involves a
reservation with regard to the East. Now, so far as I am concerned,
I intend to stand by Russia as well as France. The helpless and the
friendless are the very ones that need friends and succor, and if
any men in Germany think we are going to sacrifice anybody for our
own sake, I tell them now they are mistaken. For the glory of this
war, my fellow-citizens, so far as we are concerned, is that it is,
perhaps for the first time in history, an unselfish war. I could not be
proud to fight for a selfish purpose, but I can be proud to fight for
mankind. If they wish peace let them come forward through accredited
representatives and lay their terms on the table. We have laid ours and
they know what they are.

But behind all this grim purpose, my friends, lies the opportunity
to demonstrate not only force, which will be demonstrated to the
utmost, but the opportunity to demonstrate character, and it is
that opportunity that we have most conspicuously in the work of the
Red Cross. Not that our men in arms do not represent our character,
for they do, and it is a character which those who see and realize
appreciate and admire; but their duty is the duty of force. The duty of
the Red Cross is the duty of mercy and succor and friendship.

WHAT THE WAR IS DOING

Have you formed a picture in your imagination of what this war is
doing for us and for the world? In my own mind I am convinced that
not a hundred years of peace could have knitted this nation together
as this single year of war has knitted it together, and better even
than that, if possible, it is knitting the world together. Look at the
picture. In the centre of the scene, four nations engaged against the
world, and at every point of vantage, showing that they are seeking
selfish aggrandizement; and, against them, twenty-three Governments
representing the greater part of the population of the world, drawn
together into a new sense of community of interest, a new sense of
community of purpose, sense of unity of life. The Secretary of War
told me an interesting incident the other day. He said when he was in
Italy a member of the Italian Government was explaining to him the many
reasons why Italy felt near to the United States.

He said: "If you want to try an interesting experiment go up to any one
of these troop trains and ask in English how many of them have been in
America, and see what happens." He tried the experiment. He went up to
a troop train and he said, "How many of you boys have been in America?"
and he said it seemed to him as if half of them sprang up. "Me from
San Francisco"; "Me from New York"; all over. There was part of the
heart of America in the Italian Army. People that had been knitted to
us by association, who knew us, who had lived among us, who had worked
shoulder to shoulder with us, and now friends of America, were fighting
for their native Italy.

Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.
And this intimate contact of the great Red Cross with the peoples who
are suffering the terrors and deprivations of this war is going to be
one of the greatest instrumentalities of friendship that the world ever
knew, and the centre of the heart of it all, if we sustain it properly,
will be this land that we so dearly love.

SERVICE BY GIVING

My friends, a great day of duty has come, and duty finds a man's soul
as no kind of work can ever find it. May I say this? The duty that
faces us all now is to serve one another, and no man can afford to make
a fortune out of this war. There are men among us who have forgotten
that, if they ever saw it. Some of you are old enough--I am old
enough--to remember men who made fortunes out of the civil war, and you
know how they were regarded by their fellow-citizens. That was a war to
save one country--this is a war to save the world. And your relation
to the Red Cross is one of the relations which will relieve you of the
stigma. You can't give anything to the Government of the United States;
it won't accept it. There is a law of Congress against accepting even
services without pay. The only thing that the Government will accept
is a loan, and duties performed; but it is a great deal better to
give than to lend or to pay, and your great channel for giving is the
American Red Cross.

Down in your hearts you can't take very much satisfaction in the last
analysis in lending money to the Government of the United States,
because the interest which you draw will burn your pockets, it is
a commercial transaction, and some men have even dared to cavil at
the rate of interest, not knowing the incidental commentary that
constitutes upon their attitude.

But when you give, something of your something of your soul, something
of yourself goes with the gift, particularly when it is given in such
form that it never can come back by way of direct benefit to yourself.
You know there is the old cynical definition of gratitude as "the
lively expectation of favors to come." Well, there is no expectation
of favors to come in this kind of giving. These things are bestowed in
order that the world may be a fitter place to live in, that men may be
succored, that homes may be restored, that suffering may be relieved,
that the face of the earth may have the blight of destruction taken
away from it, and that wherever force goes there shall go mercy and
helpfulness.

And when you give, give absolutely all that you can spare, and
don't consider yourself liberal in the giving. If you give with
self-adulation, you are not giving at all, you are giving to your own
vanity; but if you give until it hurts, then your heartblood goes with
it.

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION

And think what we have here! We call it the American Red Cross, but it
is merely a branch of a great international organization, which is not
only recognized by the statutes of each of the civilized Governments of
the world, but it is recognized by international agreement and treaty,
as the recognized and accepted instrumentality of mercy and succor. And
one of the deepest stains that rests upon the reputation of the German
Army is that they have not respected the Red Cross.

That goes to the root of the matter. They have not respected the
instrumentality they themselves participated in setting up as the
thing which no man was to touch, because it was the expression of
common humanity. We are members, by being members of the American Red
Cross, of a great fraternity and comradeship which extends all over the
world, and this cross which these ladies bore today is an emblem of
Christianity itself.

It fills my imagination, ladies and gentlemen, to think of the women
all over this country who are busy tonight and are busy every night and
every day doing the work of the Red Cross, busy with a great eagerness
to find out the most serviceable thing to do, busy with a forgetfulness
of all the old frivolities of their social relationships, ready to
curtail the duties of the household in order that they may contribute
to this common work that all their hearts are engaged in, and in doing
which their hearts become acquainted with each other.

When you think of this, you realize how the people of the United
States are being drawn together into a great intimate family whose
heart is being used for the service of the soldiers not only, but for
the service of civilians, where they suffer and are lost in a maze of
distresses and distractions. And you have, then, this noble picture
of justice and mercy as the two servants of liberty. For only where
men are free do they think the thoughts of comradeship; only where
they are free do they think the thoughts of sympathy; only where they
are free are they mutually helpful; only where they are free do they
realize their dependence upon one another and their comradeship in a
common interest and common necessity.

MAKING THE WORLD DEMOCRATIC

I heard a story told the other day that was ridiculous, but it is
worth repeating, because it contains the germ of truth. An Indian was
enlisted in the army. He returned to the reservation on a furlough.
He was asked what he thought of it. He said: "No much good; too much
salute; not much shoot." Then he was asked: "Are you going back?"
"Yes." "Well, do you know what you are fighting for?" "Yes, me know;
fight to make whole damn world Democratic Party." He had evidently
misunderstood some innocent sentence of my own.

But, after all, although there is no party purpose in it, he got it
right as far as the word "party"--to make the whole world democratic in
the sense of community of interest and of purpose; and if you ladies
and gentlemen could read some of the touching dispatches which come
through official channels, for even through those channels there come
voices of humanity that are infinitely pathetic; if you could catch
some of those voices that speak the utter longing of oppressed and
helpless peoples all over the world, to hear something like the "Battle
Hymn of the Republic," to hear the feet of the great hosts of liberty
going to set them free, to set their minds free, set their lives free,
set their children free, you would know what comes into the heart of
those who are trying to contribute all the brains and power they have
to this great enterprise of liberty.

I summon you to the comradeship. I summon you in this next week to say
how much and how sincerely and how unanimously you sustain the heart of
the world.

Address on Revenue Legislation

[DELIVERED BEFORE CONGRESS MAY 27, 1918, BY PRESIDENT WILSON]

It is with unaffected reluctance that I come to ask you to prolong your
session long enough to provide more adequate resources for the Treasury
for the conduct of the war. I have reason to appreciate as fully as you
do how arduous the session has been. Your labors have been severe and
protracted. You have passed a long series of measures which required
the debate of many doubtful questions of judgment and many exceedingly
difficult questions of principle, as well as of practice. The Summer
is upon us, in which labor and counsel are twice arduous and are
constantly apt to be impaired by lassitude and fatigue. The elections
are at hand, and we ought as soon as possible to go and render an
intimate account of our trusteeship to the people who delegated us to
act for them in the weighty and anxious matters that crowd upon us in
these days of critical choice and action. But we dare not go to the
elections until we have done our duty to the full. These are days when
duty stands stark and naked, and even with closed eyes we know it is
there. Excuses are unavailing. We have either done our duty or we have
not. The fact will be as gross and plain as the duty itself. In such a
case lassitude and fatigue seem negligible enough. The facts are tonic
and suffice to freshen the labor.

And the facts are these: Additional revenues must manifestly be
provided for. It would be a most unsound policy to raise too large a
proportion of them by loan, and it is evident that the $4,000,000,000
now provided for by taxation will not of themselves sustain the greatly
enlarged budget to which we must immediately look forward. We cannot in
fairness wait until the end of the fiscal year is at hand to apprise
our people of the taxes they must pay on their earnings of the present
calendar year, whose accountings and expenditures will then be closed.
We cannot get increased taxes unless the country knows what they are
to be and practices the necessary economy to make them available.
Definiteness, early definiteness, as to what its tasks are to be is
absolutely necessary for the successful administration of the Treasury.
It cannot frame fair and workable regulations in haste; and it must
frame its regulations in haste if it is not to know its exact task
until the very eve of its performance. The present tax laws are marred,
moreover, by inequities which ought to be remedied. Indisputable facts,
every one; and we cannot alter or blink them. To state them is argument
enough.

WAR PROFITS AND LUXURIES

And yet, perhaps, you will permit me to dwell for a moment upon
the situation they disclose. Enormous loans freely spent in the
stimulation of industry of almost every sort produce inflations and
extravagances which presently make the whole economic structure
questionable and insecure, and the very basis of credit is cut away.
Only fair, equitably distributed taxation of the widest incidents and
drawing chiefly from the sources which would be likely to demoralize
credit by their very abundance can prevent inflation and keep our
industrial system free of speculation and waste. We shall naturally
turn, therefore, I suppose, to war profits and incomes and luxuries for
the additional taxes. But the war profits and incomes upon which the
increased taxes will be levied will be the profits and incomes of the
calendar year 1918. It would be manifestly unfair to wait until the
early months of 1919 to say what they are to be. It might be difficult,
I should imagine, to run the mill with water that had already gone over
the wheel.

Moreover, taxes of that sort will not be paid until June of next year,
and the Treasury must anticipate them. It must use the money they are
to produce before it is due. It must sell short-time certificates of
indebtedness. In the Autumn a much larger sale of long-time bonds must
be effected than has yet been attempted. What are the bankers to think
of the certificates if they do not certainly know where the money is to
come from which is to take them up? and how are investors to approach
the purchase of bonds with any sort of confidence or knowledge of their
own affairs if they do not know what taxes they are to pay and what
economies and adjustments of their business they must effect? I cannot
assure the country of a successful administration of the Treasury in
1918 if the question of further taxation is to be left undecided until
1919.

The consideration that dominates every other now, and makes every
other seem trivial and negligible, is the winning of the war. We are
not only in the midst of the war, we are at the very peak and crisis
of it. Hundreds of thousands of our men, carrying our hearts with them
and our fortunes, are in the field, and ships are crowding faster and
faster to the ports of France and England with regiment after regiment,
thousand after thousand, to join them until the enemy shall be beaten
and brought to a reckoning with mankind. There can be no pause or
intermission. The great enterprise must, on the contrary, be pushed
with greater and greater energy. The volume of our might must steadily
and rapidly be augmented until there can be no question of resisting
it. If that is to be accomplished, gentlemen, money must sustain it
to the utmost. Our financial program must no more be left in doubt or
suffered to lag than our ordnance program or our ship program or our
munition program or our program for making millions of men ready. These
others are not programs, indeed, but mere plans upon paper, unless
there is to be an unquestionable supply of money.

A TAX ON PROFITEERING

That is the situation, and it is the situation which creates the
duty; no choice or preference of ours. There is only one way to
meet that duty. We must meet it without selfishness or fear of
consequences. Politics is adjourned. The elections will go to those
who think least of it; to those who go to the constituencies
without explanations or excuses, with a plain record of duty faithfully
and disinterestedly performed. I for one, am always confident that the
people of this country will give a just verdict upon the service of the
men who act for them when the facts such that no man can disguise or
conceal them. There is no danger of deceit now. An intense and pitiless
light beats upon every man and every action in this tragic plot of war
that is now upon the stage. If lobbyists hurry to Washington to attempt
to turn what you do in the matter of taxation to their protection or
advantage, the light will beat also upon them. There is abundant fuel
for the light in the records of the Treasury with regard to profits of
every sort. The profiteering that cannot be got at by the restraints of
conscience and love of country can be got at by taxation. There is such
profiteering now, and the information with regard to it is available
and indisputable.

I am advising you to act upon this matter of taxation now, gentlemen,
not because I do not know that you can see and interpret the facts
and the duty they impose just as well and with as clear a perception
of the obligation involved as I can, but because there is a certain
solemn satisfaction in sharing with you the responsibilities of such
a time. The world never stood in such a case before. Men never before
had so clear and so moving a vision of duty. I know that you will
begrudge the work to be done here by us no more than the men begrudge
us theirs who lie in the trenches and sally forth to their death.
There is a stimulating comradeship knitting us all together. And this
task to which I invite your immediate consideration will be performed
under favorable influences, if we will look to what the country is
thinking and expecting and care nothing at all for what is being said
and believed in the lobbies of Washington hotels, where the atmosphere
seems to make it possible to believe what is believed nowhere else.

SPIRIT OF THE NATION

Have you not felt the spirit of the nation rise and its thought become
a single and common thought since these eventful days came in which we
have been sending our boys to the other side? I think you must read
that thought, as I do, to mean this, that the people of this country
are not only united in the resolute purpose to win this war, but are
ready and willing to bear any burden and undergo any sacrifice that it
may be necessary for them to bear in order to win it. We need not be
afraid to tax them, if we lay taxes justly. They know that the war must
be paid for, that it is they who must pay for it, and, if the burden is
justly distributed and the sacrifice made a common sacrifice from which
none escapes who can bear it at all, they will carry it cheerfully
and with a sort of solemn pride. I have always been proud to be an
American, and was never more proud than now, when all that we have said
and all that we have foreseen about our people is coming true. The
great days have come when the only thing that they ask for or admire is
duty, greatly and adequately. done; when their only wish for America
is that she may share the freedom she enjoys, when a great, compelling
sympathy wells up in their hearts for men everywhere who suffer and
are oppressed, and when they see at last the high uses for which their
wealth has been piled up and their mighty power accumulated, and,
counting neither blood nor treasure, now that their final day of
opportunity has come, rejoice to spend and to be spent through a long
night of suffering and terror in order that they and men everywhere may
see the dawn of a day of righteousness and justice and peace. Shall we
grow weary when they bid us act?

The President's Appeal for Economy

_Secretary McAdoo, realizing that to carry the war through to a
successful issue may test this nation's resources to the extreme limit
of endurance and self-denial, inaugurated a campaign in the middle of
May, 1918, for fuller conservation of food, fuel, labor, and money. In
support of this campaign President Wilson issued the following signed
letter on May 29:_

This war is one of nations--not of armies--and all of our 100,000,000
people must be economically and industrially adjusted to war conditions
if this nation is to play its full part in the conflict. The problem
before us is not primarily a financial problem, but rather a problem of
increased production of war essentials, and the saving of the materials
and the labor necessary for the support and equipment of our army and
our navy. Thoughtless expenditure of money for nonessentials uses up
the labor of men, the products of the farm, mines, and factories, and
overburdens transportation, all of which must be used to the utmost and
at their best for war purposes.

The great results which we seek can be obtained only by the
participation of every member of the nation, young and old, in a
national concerted thrift movement. I therefore urge that our people
everywhere pledge themselves, as suggested by the Secretary of the
Treasury, to the practice of thrift; to serve the Government to their
utmost in increasing production in all fields necessary to the winning
of the war; to conserve food and fuel and useful materials of every
kind; to devote their labor only to the most necessary tasks; and to
buy only those things which are essential to individual health and
efficiency; and that the people, as evidence of their loyalty, invest
all that they can save in Liberty bonds and war savings stamps.

The securities issued by the Treasury Department are so many of them
within the reach of every one that the door of opportunity in this
matter is wide open to all of us. To practice thrift in peace times
is a virtue and brings great benefit to the individual at all times;
with the desperate need of the civilized world today for materials and
labor with which to end the war, the practice of individual thrift is a
patriotic duty and a necessity.

I appeal to all who now own either Liberty bonds or war savings stamps
to continue to practice economy and thrift and to appeal to all who do
not own Government securities to do likewise and purchase them to the
extent of their means. The man who buys Government securities transfers
the purchasing power of his money to the United States Government until
after this war, and to that same degree does not buy in competition
with the Government.

I earnestly appeal to every man, woman, and child to pledge themselves
on or before the 28th of June to save constantly and to buy as
regularly as possible the securities of the Government; and to do
this, so far as possible, through membership in war savings societies.
The 28th of June ends this special period of enlistment in the great
volunteer army of production and saving here at home. May there be none
unenlisted on that day!

WOODROW WILSON.

Memorial Day Proclamation, 1918

_Following is the proclamation issued by the President of the United
States for Decoration Day observance, May 30, 1918:_

Whereas, The Congress of the United States on the second day of April
last passed the following resolution:

Resolved, by the Senate, (the House of Representatives
concurring,) That, it being a duty peculiarly incumbent in a
time of war humbly and devoutly to acknowledge our dependence on
Almighty God and to implore His aid and protection, the President
of the United States be, and is hereby, respectfully requested
to recommend a day of public humiliation, prayer, and fasting,
to be observed by the people of the United States with religious
solemnity and the offering of fervent supplications to Almighty
God for the safety and welfare of our cause, His blessings on our
arms, and a speedy restoration of an honorable and lasting peace
to the nations of the earth; and,

Whereas, It has always been the reverent habit of the people of the
United States to turn in humble appeal to Almighty God for His guidance
in the affairs of their common life;

Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States
of America, do hereby proclaim Thursday, the 30th day of May, a day
already freighted with sacred and stimulating memories, a day of public
humiliation, prayer and fasting, and do exhort my fellow-citizens of
all faiths and creeds to assemble on that day in their several places
of worship and there, as well as in their homes, to pray Almighty God
that He may forgive our sins and shortcomings as a people and purify
our hearts to see and love the truth, to accept and defend all things
that are just and right, and to purpose only those righteous acts and
judgments which are in conformity with His will; beseeching Him that
He will give victory for our armies as they fight for freedom, wisdom
to those who take counsel on our behalf in these days of dark struggle
and perplexity and steadfastness to our people to make sacrifice to the
utmost in support of what is just and true, bringing us at last the
peace in which men's hearts can be at rest because it is founded upon
mercy, justice, and good-will.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.

_Done in the District of Columbia, this eleventh day of May, in the
year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighteen, and of the independence
of the United States the one hundred and forty-second._

WOODROW WILSON.

_By the President:_

ROBERT LANSING,

Secretary of State.

Mexico and the United States

The President's Pledge

President Wilson delivered the following important speech to a
delegation of Mexican editors at the White House June 7, 1918:

I have never received a group of men who were more welcome than
you are because it has been one of my distresses during the period
of my Presidency that the Mexican people did not more thoroughly
understand the attitude of the United States toward Mexico. I
think I can assure you, and I hope you have had every evidence of
the truth of my assurance, that that attitude is one of sincere
friendship--not merely the sort of friendship which prompts one
not to do his neighbor any harm, but the sort of friendship which
earnestly desires to do his neighbor service.

My own policy and the policy of my own Administration toward
Mexico was at every point based upon this principle; that the
internal settlement of the affairs of Mexico was none of our
business; that we had no right to interfere with or dictate to
Mexico in any particular with regard to her own affairs.

Take one aspect of our relations which at one time may have been
difficult for you to understand. When we sent our troops into
Mexico our sincere desire was nothing else than to assist you to
get rid of the man who was making the settlement of your affairs
for the time being impossible. We had no desire to use our troops
for any other purpose, and I was in hopes that by assisting in
that way and thereupon immediately withdrawing the troops I might
give you substantial proof of the truth of the assurances that I
had given your Government through President Carranza.

GERMAN INTRIGUES

And at the present time it distresses me to learn that certain
influences, which I assume to be German in their origin, are
trying not only to make a wrong impression, but to give an
absolutely untrue account of the things that happen.

You know distressing things have been happening just off our
coast; you know of vessels that have been sunk. I yesterday
received a quotation from a paper in Guadalajara which stated
that thirteen of our battleships had been sunk off the Capes of
Chesapeake.

You see how dreadful it is to have the people so radically
misinformed. It was added that our Navy Department was withholding
the facts with regard to these sinkings. I have no doubt that
the publisher of the paper printed this in perfect innocence and
without intending to convey a wrong impression, but it is evident
that allegations of that sort proceed from those who wish to make
trouble between Mexico and the United States.

[Illustration: An American patrol under a French officer in the
trenches in France. Some of the rifles are equipped for firing grenades

[Illustration: Pont-à-Mousson, in the Toul sector, showing the Church
of St. Laurent. The transparent fabric hung across the street is for
the purpose of misleading enemy aerial observers

(_French Pictorial Service_)]

Now, gentlemen, for the time being at any rate, and I hope that
it will not be a short time, the influence of the United States
is somewhat pervasive in the affairs of the world, and I believe
it is pervasive because those nations of the world which are less
powerful than some of the greatest nations are coming to believe
that our sincere desire is to do disinterested service.

We are the champions of those nations which have not had the
military standing which would enable them to compete with the
strongest nations in the world, and I look forward with pride
to the time which I hope will come when we can give substantial
evidence not only that we do not want anything out of this war,
but that we would not accept anything out of this war; that it is
absolutely a case of disinterested action.

And if you will watch the attitude of our people you will see that
nothing stirs them so deeply as the assurances that this war, so
far as we are concerned, is for idealistic objects. One of the
difficulties that I experienced during the first three years of
the war, the years when the United States was not in the war, was
in getting the Foreign Offices of the European nations to believe
that the United States was seeking nothing for herself, that her
neutrality was not selfish, and that if she came in she would not
come in to get anything substantial out of the war--any material
object, any territory or trade or anything else of that sort.

In some Foreign Offices there were men who personally know me
and they believed, I hope, that I was sincere in assuring them
that our purposes were disinterested; but they thought that
these assurances came from the academic gentleman removed from
the ordinary sources of information and speaking the idealistic
purposes of a cloister. They did not believe I was speaking the
real heart of the American people, and I knew all along that I
was. Now I believe every one who comes in contact with American
people knows that I am speaking their purposes.

READY TO HELP RUSSIA

The other night in New York at the opening of the campaign for
funds for our Red Cross I made an address. I had not intended to
refer to Russia, but was speaking without notes, and in the course
of what I said my own thought was led to Russia, and I said that
we meant to stand by Russia just as firmly as we would stand by
France or England or any other of our allies.

The audience to which I was speaking was not an audience from
which I would have expected an enthusiastic response to that. It
was rather too well dressed. It was an audience, in other words,
made up of a class of people who would not have the most intimate
feeling for the sufferings of the ordinary man in Russia; but that
audience jumped to its feet in enthusiasm. Nothing else that I
said on that occasion aroused anything like the enthusiasm that
single sentence aroused.

Now that is a sample, gentlemen. We cannot make anything out of
Russia. We cannot make anything out of our standing by Russia
at this time--the remotest of European nations so far as we are
concerned, the one with which we have had the least connections in
trade and advantage--and yet the people of the United States rose
to that suggestion as to no other that I made in that address.

That is part of America as we are ready to show it by any act of
friendship toward Mexico. Some of us, if I may speak so privately,
look back with regret upon some of the more ancient relations
that we have had with Mexico long before our generation; and
America, if I may now so accept it, would now feel ashamed to take
advantage of her neighbor.

NO SELFISH AGGRESSION

So I hope you can carry back to your homes something better than
assurances and words. You have had contact with our people. You
know of your own personal reception. You know how gladly we have
opened to you the doors of every establishment that you wanted
to see and have shown you just what we are doing, and I hope you
have gained the right impression as to why we are doing it. We are
doing it, gentlemen, so that the world may never hereafter have to
fear the only thing that any nation has to dread--the unjust and
selfish aggression of another nation.

Some time ago, as you probably all know, I proposed a sort of
Pan-American agreement. I had perceived that one difficulty in
our past relations with Latin America was this: The famous Monroe
Doctrine was adopted without your consent and without the consent
of any Central American or South American States. If I may adopt a
term that we so often use in this country, we said: "We are going
to be your big brother whether you want us to be or not."

We did not ask whether it was agreeable to you that we should be
your big brother. We said we are going to be. Now, that was all
very well as far as protecting you from aggression from the other
side of the water, but there was nothing in it that protected you
from aggression from us, and I have repeatedly seen an uneasy
feeling on the part of representatives of States of Central and
South America that our self-appointed protection might be for our
own benefit and our own interest and not for the interest of our
neighbors. So I have said:

"Very well, let us make an arrangement by which we will give
bonds. Let us have a common guarantee that all of us will sign a
declaration of political independence and territorial integrity.
Let us agree that if any one of us, the United States included,
violates the political independence or territorial integrity of
any of the others, all others will jump on her."

I pointed out to some gentlemen who were less inclined to enter
into this arrangement than others that that was, in effect, giving
bonds on the part of the United States that we would enter into an
arrangement by which you would be protected from us.

PEACE BY MUTUAL TRUST

Now, that is the kind of agreement that will have to be the
foundation of the future life of the nations of the world,
gentlemen. The whole family of nations will have to guarantee
to each nation that no nation shall violate its political
independence or its territorial integrity. That is the basis--the
only conceivable basis--for the future peace of the world, and
I must admit that I was anxious to have the States of the two
Continents of America show the way to the rest of the world as to
how to make a basis of peace.

Peace can only come by trust. If you can once get a situation
of trust then you have got a situation of permanent peace.
Therefore, every one of us, it seems to me, owes it as a
patriotic duty to his own country to plant the seeds of trust and
confidence instead of seeds of suspicion.

That is the reason I began by saying to you that I had not had the
pleasure of meeting a group of men who are more welcome than you
are, because you are our near neighbors. Suspicion on your part,
or misunderstanding on your part, distresses us more than we would
be distressed by similar feelings on the part of those less near
to us.

It is you who can see how Mexico's future must depend upon peace
and honor, so that nobody shall exploit her. It must depend upon
every nation that has any relation with her and the citizens of
any nation that has any relations with her keeping within the
bounds of honor and fair dealing and justice, because so soon as
you can admit your own capital and the capital of the world to the
free use of the resources of Mexico it will be one of the most
wonderfully rich and prosperous countries in the world.

And when you have foundations of established order and the
world has come to its senses again we shall, I hope, continue
in connections that will assure us all permanent cordiality and
friendship.

In Flanders Fields

By Lieut. Col. JOHN D. McCRAE

[Written during the second battle of Ypres, April, 1915. The author,
Dr. John McCrae of Montreal, Canada, was killed on duty in Flanders,
Jan. 28, 1918.]

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amidst the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow.
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe!
To you from falling hands, we throw
The torch. Be yours to hold it high!
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

America's Answer

By R. W. LILLARD

[Written after the death of Lieut. Col. McCrae, author of "In Flanders
Fields," and printed in The New York Evening Post.]

Rest ye in peace, ye Flanders dead.
The fight that ye so bravely led
We've taken up. And we will keep
True faith with you who lie asleep
With each a cross to mark his bed,
And poppies blowing overhead,
Where once his own life blood ran red.
So let your rest be sweet and deep
In Flanders fields.

Fear not that ye have died for naught.
The torch ye threw to us we caught.
Ten million hands will hold it high,
And Freedom's light shall never die!
We've learned the lesson that ye taught
In Flanders fields.

Secretary Lansing on War Themes

Why the United States Is at War

Robert Lansing, Secretary of State of the United States, delivered an
address in New York on May 23, 1918, in honor of the third anniversary
of Italy's entrance into the war. He said in part:

Oh, you of the blood of a people who have given so much to
civilization, no greater task has ever fallen upon you, no greater
duty has ever been the lot of the Italian race, than that which
is yours today. You are called forth to defend the land which is
enshrined in the hearts of the world as the cradle of justice and
liberty. Fail you cannot, fail you must not, fail you will not in
such a cause and such a crisis.

This is no time to measure the price which must be paid in blood
and treasure. No price is too large, no sacrifice too great for
the protection of your sacred heritage from the invaders.

Today, America, youngest of the great powers of the earth, is
proud to cross the seas and to stand side by side with the most
ancient power of Europe in upholding the standard of democracy,
and to unite in proclaiming to the nations tortured by war that
peace must be won and will be won by the might of liberty-loving
men, a glorious peace which will endure throughout the ages
because it is written in the book of destiny that freedom will
rise triumphant from the ashes of this desolated world.

To gallant Italy, to our loyal associate and friend, we of America
extend greetings on this day of reconsecration to a noble cause,
on this day when the Italian people renew their solemn pledge to
resist to the uttermost the accursed ambitions of the military
rulers of Germany and Austria.

Italy's decision was the decision of a people who preferred the
horrors of war to dishonor, who preferred to die rather than to be
enslaved by Prussian masters or by Prussia's vassals. It breathed
anew the valor of Rome.

United with you of the Latin race are we who could desire no
prouder title than "the Romans of the West." A citizen of this
young Republic could crave no higher public virtue nor covet a
more devoted patriotism than that which inspired a dweller on the
Seven Hills in the brave days of the old Roman Republic.

My friends of America and of Italy, we will win this war. It may
be on the wasted fields of Flanders and Picardy; it may be in the
valley of the Piave and the snow-crowned peaks of the Alps; or it
may be on German lands beyond the Rhine. Somewhere and somehow and
some time we will win. It cannot be otherwise, for we fight for
justice, for liberty, and for humanity.

AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Secretary Lansing delivered another address in New York on June 5 at
the commencement exercises of Columbia University. In accepting an
honorary degree from that institution he said:

Today this Republic stands with the democracies of the earth
arrayed in battle against the most relentless enemy of human
liberty which the ages have produced. To save this country of ours
and to save the civilized world from Prussianism has become the
supreme duty of the American people and of all other peoples who
love justice and freedom.

In this titanic struggle we are joined not only with France, our
historic ally, but also with Great Britain, our ancient foe. On
the blood-stained fields of France we three, together with Italy,
Belgium, and Portugal, are standing shoulder to shoulder against
the plunderers. Our traditional friendship for France, which can
never be forgotten, and our traditional enmity for Great Britain,
which is forgotten, are swallowed up in this supreme crisis of
liberty, our common heritage. The grave perils to our lives as
nations unite us with bonds of steel as our armies face the foe of
all mankind.

I am proud that in these terrible days we are associated with
the tenacious warriors of Britain; I am proud that with our
blood we can on French soil prove the affection which we cherish
for the French people; I am proud that Italy, superb in her
determined resistance, is our partner in this conflict, and that
the indomitable spirit of the Belgians and Serbs is a living
inspiration to gallant deeds and noble sacrifice. I am proud, as I
know every American is proud, to be thus united with the nations
which hate Prussianism and loathe the evil desires which it
engenders in the hearts of men.

Prussianism has appealed to the sword, and by the sword
Prussianism must fall. It is the divine law of retribution which
we as the instruments of justice must enforce so that the world
may be forever rid of this abomination. * * *

Let us understand that a Prussian-made peace would not be the end;
that it would only postpone the final struggle. Now that this war
has come upon us we must carry it through to a decision. We must
not transmit to future generations the germs of militarism. From
the spirit of despotism, which has caused this awful tragedy, this
war must free the world. We have suffered enough. The nations must
never endure such black days of agony as those in which we are
living.

It is the supreme task of civilization to put an end to
Prussianism. To listen to proposals for a Prussian peace, to
compromise with the butchers of individuals and of nations so that
they would by agreement gain a benefit from their crimes would
be to compound an international felony, which this Republic will
never do.

Force is the one way to end Prussianism, for it is the only thing
which the Prussian respects. This war for democracy must be waged
to a successful conclusion to make liberty and justice supreme on
the earth. It will be a bitter struggle, with lights and shadows,
for the foe is strong and stubborn; but in the end we shall
triumph, for we must triumph or abandon all that is worth while in
this world. May every American so live and so serve that when the
day of victory over the Prussians dawns, as it will dawn, he may,
by right of faithful service, share in the glory.

To that bright hour let us look forward with confidence, for the
Supreme Ruler of the Universe could not decree otherwise. He has
imposed upon us and our brave comrades in arms the task of freeing
mankind from the curse of avarice and inhumanity which besets us.
He has put upon us the burden of making this world a fit dwelling
place for civilized men. Let us not shrink from the task or seek
to avoid the burden. Convinced of the righteousness of our cause
and of our destiny let us make war with all our energy. Let us
keep our banners unfurled and our trumpets sounding to battle
until victory is achieved.

Prussia wickedly sought war and Prussia shall have war and more
war and more war until the very thought of war is abhorrent to
the Prussian mind. So I read the spirit of America. So I read
the supreme purpose of the Allies. Victory lies before us and
beyond victory a just and enduring peace. Until that peace is sure
America cannot and will not put aside the sword.

ITALIAN AMBASSADOR'S SPEECH

Count Mocchi di Cellere, the Italian Ambassador to the United States,
in his address at the Italian anniversary celebration, said:

Literally speaking, this is the third anniversary of Italy's
formal entry into the war. But perhaps I need not remind you,
gentlemen, that our struggle against the enemy goes back to the
time when, some twenty centuries ago, on those selfsame fields
and mountains that are now a part of our common allied front, the
Roman eagle was already waging that fight against the barbarians
in which the American eagle has more recently joined us.

The struggle of today is to us Italians the rounding-out of
a tremendous cycle of world history, in which, alone of all
civilized nations, Italy was in at the beginning and is in at the
finish. Since the time when Roman law laid the foundations for the
international intercourse of the world, the struggle has gone on
against Teutonic brutality. We are in it as a nation with all the
traditions and survivals of centuries, with all the memories of
the race, with all the influences of obscure ancestral heredities.

One verse of our national hymn reminds us that no Teuton stick
ever curbed Italy, and that the children of Rome do not bow their
necks to a yoke. That was the blunder of the enemy--he did not
realize that to a liberty-loving people the spirit of freedom is
like the breathing of pure air, an essential of life. Sometimes a
man does not know how essential it is until some one tries to take
it from him. Then he must die or revolt. Italy revolted. * * *

Whatever the enemy may have to say or may desire others to
believe about it, Italy is not in this war for any base and
selfish motives of conquest, imperial or unlawful territorial
aggrandizement. While in fact fighting for the liberation of
mankind threatened with oppression and slavery, Italy is aiming
at the liberation of her oppressed sons within and beyond the
boundary imposed upon her by an iniquitous treaty.

For the freedom of our country we need security on land and sea;
a security which nature herself had assured us with well defined
geographic boundaries and which the violence of oppressive and
barbarous nations has too long stolen from us. Now we see our duty
clear; and faithful to our duty, we will not lay down our arms
until the freedom of mankind, which implies the freedom of our
oppressed brothers, and the security of our land, is attained.

Secretary Lansing delivered the chief address at the commencement
exercises of Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., June 10. He said in
part:

It is hardly open to debate, in the light of subsequent events,
that the philosophical and political ideas which have been taught
for years from the university platforms, from the pulpits, and
through the printed word to young and old in Germany, excited in
them an insolent pride of blood and infused into their national
being an all-absorbing ambition to prove themselves supermen
chosen by natural superiority and by Divine mandate to be rulers
of the earth. Not only in Germany, but among those of German
descent in other lands, has this pernicious belief spread, linking
Germans everywhere to the Fatherland in the hope that they would
be considered worthy to share in the future glory of the masters
of the world. * * *

A decade before the war Reiner, inspired with the imperialism of
Prussia, announced: "It is precisely our craving for expansion
which drives us into the paths of conquest, in view of which all
chatter about peace and humanity can and must remain nothing but
chatter."

Not less ominous to liberty are the words of Professor Meinecke:
"We want to become a world people. Let us remind ourselves that
the belief in our mission as a world people has arisen from our
originally purely spiritual impulse to absorb the world into
ourselves."

Observe that extraordinary phrase, "to absorb the world into
ourselves." To conceive such a national destiny is to resurrect
the dead ambitions of an Alexander or a Caesar; to teach it as
a right to young men is to sow in their minds an egotism which
breeds distorted conceptions of individual honor and justice, and
gives to them an utterly false standard of national life.

Not alone from the lecturer and the essayist came this idea that
the Germans are a superior race set apart to rule the world. It
was preached in the pulpits as a Divine truth by those who even
had the effrontery to support their assertions by references to
the Holy Scriptures. Listen to some of the thoughts proclaimed by
ordained ministers of Christ to their German congregations:

"It may sound proud, my friends, but we are conscious that it is
also in all humbleness that we say it; the German soul is God's
soul; it shall and will rule over mankind."

May we be spared the consequences of a German "humbleness" which
fairly struts and swaggers, and which finds further expression in
the words of another Doctor of Divinity when he declares: "Verily
the Bible is our book. It was given and assigned to us, and in
it we read the original text of our destiny, which proclaims to
mankind salvation or disaster as we will it."

"As we will it!" There in four words is the whole story of the
Prussian doctrine of the "superman," of a "place in the sun."

Paganism, tinctured with modern materialism and a degenerate type
of Christianity, broods today over Germany. Christian ministers
have proclaimed Jehovah to be the national deity of the empire,
a monopolized German God, who relies on the physical might of
His people to destroy those who oppose His will as that will is
interpreted by His chosen race. Thus the Prussian leaders would
harmonize modern thought with their ancient religion of physical
strength through brutalizing Christianity.

In view of the spirit of hypocrisy and bad faith manifesting
an entire lack of conscience, we ought not to be astonished
that the Berlin Foreign Office never permitted a promise or a
treaty engagement to stand in the way of a course of action
which the German Government deemed expedient. I need not cite
as proof of this fact the flagrant violations of the treaty
neutralizing Belgium--and the recent treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
This discreditable characteristic of the German foreign policy
was accepted by German diplomats as a matter of course and as
a natural if not a praiseworthy method of dealing with other
Governments.

Frederick the Great, with cynical frankness, once said: "If there
is anything to be gained by it, we will be honest. If deception
is necessary, let us be cheats." That is in brief the immoral
principle which has controlled the foreign relations of Prussia
for over 150 years.

It is a fact not generally known that within six weeks after the
Imperial Government had, in the case of the Sussex, given to
this Government its solemn promise that it would cease ruthless
slaughter on the high seas, Count Bernstorff, appreciating the
worthlessness of the promise, asked the Berlin Foreign Office to
advise him in ample time before the campaign of submarine murder
was renewed, in order that he might notify the German merchant
ships in American ports to destroy their machinery because he
anticipated that the renewal of that method of warfare would in
all probability bring the United States into the war.

How well the Ambassador knew the character of his Government, and
how perfectly frank he was! He asked for the information without
apology or indirection. The very bluntness of his message shows
that he was sure that his superiors would not take offense at the
assumption that their word was valueless and had only been given
to gain time, and that, when an increase of Germany's submarine
fleet warranted, the promise would be broken without hesitation
or compunction. What a commentary on Bernstorff's estimate of the
sense of honor and good faith of his own Government!

We must go on with the war. There is no other way. This task must
not be left half done. We must not transmit to posterity a legacy
of blood and misery. We may in this great conflict go down into
the Valley of Shadows, because our foe is powerful and inured to
war. We must be prepared to meet disappointment and temporary
reverse, but we must, with American spirit, rise above them; with
courageous hearts we must go forward until this war is won.

Premier Lloyd George Lauds Americans

David Lloyd George, the British Premier, speaking at the Printers'
Pension Fund dinner in London, June 7, 1918, paid this tribute to the
American soldiers in France:

I have only just returned from France, and met a French statesman
who had been at the front shortly after a battle in which the
Americans took part. He was full of admiration not merely of their
superb valor but of the trained skill with which they attacked and
defeated the foe.

His report of the conduct of the American troops, a division
that had been in action for the first time, was one of the most
encouraging things I have heard, because they are coming in
steadily. There is a great flow, and we are depending upon them,
and the fact that we know that when they appear in the battleline
they will fight in a way which is worthy of the great traditions
of their great country is in itself a source of support and
sustenance and encouragement to all of those who with anxious
hearts are watching the conflict which is going on in France.

The toast with which you have done me the honor to associate my
name is "Success to the Allied Cause." If for any cause the Allies
were not to succeed, it would be a sorry world to live in. Most
times people are inclined to exaggerate events of the day, but
there are occasions when generations of men underestimate the
significance of events. You cannot exaggerate the importance or
significance of the issues with which we are confronted today.

In the past you have had in the history of the world great
struggles for domination of a certain civilization, a certain
ideal or a certain religion, and the fate of the world and the
destiny of man and the lives of untold millions for generations
have been fashioned upon the triumph or failure of this cause.
Take the time of Turkish military power in the past or the
Saracens' attempt to trample down and overrun the civilization
of the West. Nations were wiped out, great countries devastated.
You had untold misery and wretchedness throughout vast tracts
of territory for ages. At last that tide was stemmed. Supposing
that had failed. What a difference it would have made for European
civilization today!

At this hour there is a struggle with an ideal more material, more
sordid, more brutal, than almost any other which has been sought
to be imposed upon Europe--the Prussian military ideal, with its
contempt for liberty, its contempt for human right, its contempt
for humanity. If they were to succeed today, you would fling back
human civilization into the dark dungeons of the past.

The crisis is not past, but with a stout heart we shall win
through, and then woe to the plague. In the interests of
civilization, in the interests of the human race, it must be
stamped out. You cannot allow it to come again to darken the lives
of millions, and to desolate millions of homes. That is what we
are fighting for.

This is a country which has faced a great crisis in the past.
We hear about Ludendorff's hammer blows. Hammer blows crack and
crumble poor material. Hammer blows harden and consolidate good
metal. There is good metal in British hearts. It has stood the
test of centuries. It will stand this. So will that gallant
little people, that gallant great people across the Channel who
are fighting for their liberties, for the honor of their native
land, fighting without flinching. I have seen them. I never saw
signs of wavering in any French face. They are full of courage,
full of determination to fight through to the end, and it is a
united France more than ever. So it is a united Britain. Unity and
resolution are two qualities we need. We have sunk our political
differences. We have bigger things to think about. I am not
despising the political controversies of the past. In some form
or another they will come again. These controversies are the very
essence of freedom, but for the moment we have one purpose.

Let us be one people, one in aim, one in courage, one in the
resolve never to give in. Let Britain stand like a breakwater
against the torrent, and, God willing, we will break it in two.

Clemenceau's Defiance of Obstructors

Premier Clemenceau of France received a vote of confidence in the
Chamber of Deputies on June 6, 1918, by a vote of 377 to 110. An
attempt was made by the militant Socialists to embarrass the Government
by demanding information of military matters which it was deemed
inexpedient to reveal. In his victorious speech defying his critics he
said:

The collapse of Russia enabled the enemy to set free an army of
a million men to add to his forces on our front. Anybody can
understand that under such enormous weight our line must give
way at some points. Some of our men have fought one against five
without sleeping for three or four days. The losses of our allies,
the British, in the heroic struggle have been more than we could
have believed possible.

The situation has become dangerous for our armies, but in all
this I see nothing to diminish our confidence in our troops. As
to the Government, it will continue to make war stubbornly and
obstinately. We will never capitulate. If you are not satisfied
with our work, turn us out. It is for you to decide.

The only thing that matters is final success. Our effectives
are lessening in number, but so are those of Germany, while the
Americans are coming in larger and larger numbers to take part in
the final victory. * * *

Down there all that the heroes can do is to die, but you
by your firm and resolute attitude can give them what they
deserve--victory. You have before you a Government which told you
the very first day that it did not enter into power to negotiate
without victory. As long as we are here the fatherland will be
defended at all costs, and no force will be spared to obtain
success.

We have allies who represent the greatest nations in the world,
that have decided to go on until success is certain, success which
is near. The Americans are arriving for the final blow.

The Living Line

By HAROLD BEGBIE

[By arrangement with The London Chronicle]

_As long as faith and freedom last,
And earth goes round the sun,
This stands--the British line held fast
And so the fight was won._

_The greatest fight that ever yet
Brought all the world to dearth;
A fight of two great nations set
To battle for the earth._

* * * * *

_That bleeding line, that falling fence,
That stubborn ebbing wave,
That string of suffering human sense,
Shuddered, but never gave._

_A living line of human flesh,
It quivered like a brain;
Swarm after swarm came on afresh
And crashed, but crashed in vain._

* * * * *

_The world shall tell how they stood fast,
And how the fight was won,
As long as faith and freedom last
And earth goes round the sun._

Brute Force Versus Humanity

By MAURICE MAETERLINCK

[Translated for CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE from Les Annales, Paris]

The struggle of today is only a resumption of the conflict that has
never ceased to redden the soil of Western Europe ever since its birth
into history. The two chief episodes of this conflict, as everybody
knows, are the invasion of Roman Gaul (including Northern Italy) by the
Germans, and the conquest of Great Britain by the Anglo-Saxons and the
Normans. Ignoring questions of race, which are complex, uncertain, and
always debatable, one can, by viewing the subject from another point,
see in the persistence and desperation of this war the conflict of two
wills, either one of which succumbs for a moment only to rise again
with more energy and determination.

On one side there is the will of earth, or of nature, which openly, in
the human species, as in all others, favors physical and brutal force;
on the other, the will of humanity, or at least of a part of humanity
that is seeking to establish the reign of other energies more subtile
and less animal. It is incontestable that brute force thus far has
always triumphed. But it is equally certain that it has never triumphed
save in appearance and for a brief moment. Gaul, invaded and overcome,
quickly assimilated the invaders, and England gradually transformed
her conquerors. The instruments of the will of earth turned against it
on the morrow of victory and armed the hand of the vanquished.

It is probable that, even today, if events followed the course
prescribed by destiny, the same phenomenon would be reproduced.
Germany, after having crushed and enslaved the greater part of
Europe, throwing it back and overwhelming it with numberless evils,
would herself end by turning against the will which she represents;
and that will, which hitherto had found a docile instrument and a
chosen accomplice in the German race, would be obliged to find these
elsewhere, a task less easy than formerly.

But now, to the stupefaction of those who will some day examine this
epoch dispassionately, behold, events are suddenly moving upward
against the irresistible current, and, for the first time since man is
in a position to observe it, brute force is meeting an unexpected and
insurmountable resistance. If this resistance remains victorious to the
end, there will, perhaps, never have been a change of course comparable
to it in the history of man; it will mean a triumph over the will of
earth, of nature, or of fate, a triumph infinitely more significant,
more heavy with consequences, and perhaps more decisive, than all those
which in other domains appear to have crowned our effort with more
glory.

Let us be not at all astonished, then, that the resistance is enormous
and prolonged beyond all that experience of war has taught us. Our
prompt and easy defeat was written in the annals of destiny. We had
against us all the force of aggression acquired since the origin of
Europe. We have to reverse the wheel of history. We are on the point of
succeeding; and if it is true that intelligent beings on the heights
of other worlds are watching us, they are doubtless contemplating the
most curious spectacle that our planet has offered them since they
discovered it in the star dust scintillating around them in space.
They must be saying to themselves, disconcerted, that age-long and
fundamental laws are being unexpectedly transgressed.

Unexpectedly? That is too much to say. This transgression of an
inferior law, no longer as high as man, has long been in process of
preparation; but it came very near to being frightfully punished. Its
success will be due only to the aid of a part of those who formerly
swelled the great flood which today they are resisting with us, as if
something in the history of the world or in the plans of destiny had
been changed; or, rather, as if we had finally succeeded in changing
something, and in bending laws to which we have hitherto been entirely
subject.

But we need not think that after victory the struggle will be ended.
The profound forces of earth (brute force) will not lay down their
arms so soon, and the invisible war will go on for a long time under
peace. If we do not take care, victory will be even more fatal than
defeat. In fact, this defeat, like its predecessors, would have been
only an adjourned victory. It would have worn out, scattered, absorbed,
the adversary by dispersing his energies over the world, while our
victory will bring us a double danger. It will leave our enemies in a
fierce isolation, where, massed upon themselves, fenced in, purified by
misfortune and misery, they will secretly strengthen their formidable
virtues, while we, no longer held in check by their intolerable but
salutary menace, may give free rein to defects and vices which, soon
or late, will place us at their mercy. Before thinking of peace,
therefore, it would be well to assure ourselves of the future and make
it powerless to harm us. We cannot take too many precautions when
going, as we are, against the manifest desire of the power that is
carrying us.

This is why our effort is painful and meritorious. We are going, it
cannot be too often repeated, against the law of force. Our adversaries
are driven forward by a power that drives us back. They are advancing
in the direction of nature, whereas we are swimming against the great
current that flows around the globe. Earth has an idea that is no
longer ours. She is convinced that man is an animal in all respects
like other animals. She has not yet noticed that he has drawn away
from the herd. She does not yet know that he has climbed her highest
mountains. She has not yet heard of justice, of pity, of loyalty,
of honor; she knows not what these are, or she confuses them with
weakness, inefficiency, stupidity, and fear. She has held to the
original certitudes that were indispensable in the beginnings of life.
She is falling behind us, and the space between is growing rapidly.
She thinks less swiftly and has yet had the time to comprehend us.
Besides, she does not count as we do, and the ages for her are less
than our years. She is slow because she is almost eternal, while we are
swift because we have not many hours before us. It is possible that
her thought may some day rejoin ours; meanwhile, we have to defend our
advance and prove to ourselves, as we are beginning to do, that it is
permitted to be right against her will, that our advance is not fatal,
and that it is possible to maintain it.

For it is beginning to be difficult to maintain that earth, or nature,
or brute force, is always right, and that those who do not blindly
follow its mandates are doomed to perish. We have learned to observe
nature more attentively and have acquired the right to judge her. We
have ascertained that, far from being infallible, she never ceases to
deceive herself. She hesitates, she gropes. She does not know just
what she wants. She begins with enormous blunders. She first peoples
the world with fantastic and inchoate monsters, not one of which is
stable, and they all disappear. Gradually, at the expense of the life
which she creates, she acquires an experience which is the cruel fruit
of innumerable sufferings inflicted with indifference. In the long run
she grows wiser, learns moderation, corrects herself, retraces her
steps, redresses her errors, and devotes to their reparation the best
of her intelligence and of her forces. It is incontestable that she is
perfecting her methods and that she is showing herself more able, more
prudent, less given to excess, than in the beginning. It is none the
less true that in all reigns, in all organisms, and even in our own
bodies, the bad workmanship, the double uses, the inadvertencies, the
things repented of, the absurdities, the useless complications, the
sordid economies, and the senseless wastes continue.

There is no reason, therefore, to believe that our enemies have the
truth on their side because nature's primal force is with them. Nature
does not possess the truth any more than we do. She searches for it as
we do, and does not find it any more easily. She does not seem to know
any more than we where she is going or whither she is being led by that
which leads all things. We do not have to obey her without questioning,
and there is no need to be disturbed or to despair if one is not of her
opinion. We are not dealing with an infallible and immutable wisdom
against which it would be madness to oppose one's thought. We are on
the way to prove to her that she is in error, that the raison d'être
of man is higher than that which she has provisionally assigned to
him, that he has already surpassed her previsions, and that she is
wrong to retard his march. Besides, she is full of good-will, knows
how to recognize her faults on occasion, to avoid their disastrous
consequences, and never stiffens herself in an inflexible and majestic
self-esteem. We can convince her if we can persevere. It will take
a great deal of time, for, I repeat, she is slow, but not at all
obstinate. It will take a great deal of time, because it involves
a very long future, a very great change of direction, and the most
important victory for which man has ever hoped.

The Battle of Jutland

Debatable Phases of the Great Naval Conflict Reviewed by
Eminent British Experts

By ADMIRAL SIR CYPRIAN BRIDGE, G. C. B.

_In the May number of_ CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE _appeared a general
review of the battle of Jutland by Mr. Thomas G. Frothingham,
with a footnote and diagrams by Professor Westcott of the United
States Naval Academy at Annapolis. The article was brought to the
attention of Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge, one of the most noted naval
experts of Great Britain, and was also sent to Mr. Arthur Pollen,
an internationally recognized naval writer in England, both of whom
contribute comments on the American writer's article. Since his review
appeared Mr. Frothingham has joined the National Army of the United
States as Captain._--EDITOR.

There is only one thing certain in naval history, and that is that
every great sea fight--as to the circumstances of which we have
detailed information--has been criticised as indecisive and as not
fought in the way which it should have been. Ex-President Theodore
Roosevelt, whose fairness and accuracy as a naval historian have been
generally recognized, has said: "Every historian ought to feel a sense
of the most lively gratitude toward Nelson; in his various encounters
he never left any possible room for dispute as to which side had come
out first best." Unfortunately, this is going rather too far, for the
merits of every one of Nelson's battles have been disputed, and his way
of fighting each has been adversely criticised. This fate he shares
with the great De Ruyter and with less important men. Rodney and Lord
Howe, as commanders in general actions, were fiercely criticised. Lord
Hawke did not receive the customary recognition of his services until
seventeen years after the great battle of Quiberon Bay. Roosevelt
tells us that: "In every one of De Ruyter's last six battles each side
claimed the victory." If we had minute accounts of the talk that went
on in the gardens and porches of ancient Athens we should, without
doubt, learn that Salamis was far from being decisive and that, anyhow,
it ought to have been fought in a different way. It is just as well to
remember this whenever we are discussing a naval battle, whether of old
date or recent. Land battles have not been treated in quite the same
fashion. Their results have not been disputed so often, nor has the
manner in which they were fought been so often adversely criticised.

Perhaps we may account for this difference in the treatment of
conflicts on the two elements by noting the fact that naval historians
and critics of naval operations have but rarely been men of naval
experience, while the historians and critics of military operations
have usually been soldiers. There has, of course, been some conflict
of opinion as to the results of fighting on shore, as we can see on
comparing the communiques of the contending sides in the present war.
Even after allowing for the unprecedented mendacity of the German
authorities and the unprecedented gullibility of the German public
there is still some sign of an honest difference of opinion. The
difference is not due to lay or unprofessional ignorance.

As regards naval operations in war--indeed, as regards naval affairs in
general--it has been shown times without number that it is impossible
for any one without naval experience to take a comprehensive or
accurate view of naval conditions. This is by no means to disparage
what shoregoing writers have done in naval history or in the discussion
of some subjects largely though not totally naval. As long as they
record facts they do very valuable work. It is when they express
opinions and draw inferences from very technical data that they are
almost certain to go astray. As a searcher in authoritative records
and a narrator of detailed occurrences James is distinctly superior to
Mahan; but who would give a fig for James's opinions? Whereas Mahan's
govern the naval thought of the world.

JUTLAND RECORDS INCOMPLETE

Thomas G. Frothingham's "Review of the Battle of Jutland" in THE NEW
YORK TIMES CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE is a valuable account of the events
of the engagement. It would not have been possible within the limits of
his article to have related every incident, but he has made a judicious
selection of those which he does bring forward. He had, of course, to
depend on his sources; and on some important points these contained
little or no information. Anything like a full account from the German
side was virtually nonexistent. It would have been instructive to have
put the German naval authorities into the witness box and to have
subjected them to that species of cross-examination which consists
in a comparison of some of their statements with others and with the
statements of their opponents. It would be here that a writer with the
true instinct of a historian, which Mr. Frothingham evidently does
possess, could render valuable service had the necessary materials been
at his disposal.

A writer who draws inferences from data by no means full and perhaps
open to dispute can hardly expect to carry conviction to every
reader. It might be sufficient to deal with Mr. Frothingham's general
conclusion concerning the battle of Jutland; but it will be well before
doing so to notice also one or two minor but still important inferences
which he draws from the events of the battle.

GERMAN FLEET'S OBJECT

Mr. Frothingham maintains that the German fleet came out with the
object, and no other, of engaging the British fleet, a force known
to be greatly superior in number of ships and power of ordnance. He
apparently, but not quite clearly, suggests that the Germans knew how
the British fleet would be employed and how it would be disposed. It
would be difficult to put any other construction on the words--"With
the object of engaging a fleet usually so disposed and so employed,
the Germans came out from their bases." Surely this is a pure
assumption which can only be supported by other assumptions founded on
improbability rather than on probability. There is another assumption
which is more plausible and which is supported by evidence--indirect,
it is true, but copious. The war had been going on for more than a year
and a half, and yet the German High Sea Fleet, in spite of its name,
had sedulously refrained from venturing on the high seas. This made it
the object of perpetual taunts by the enemies of Germany. There was
some not completely suppressed restlessness among the German people.

It has been an almost invariable rule in war that the fleet which keeps
on lying in port is eventually forced to put to sea by public opinion.
The tone and wording of many official German statements justify the
conclusion that the German fleet put to sea with the object, not of
meeting the British fleet, but of returning to port with the assertion
that the British fleet had kept out of the way and that the North Sea
had been "swept" for it in vain. Contrary to the probable expectation,
Sir David Beatty's force was met with and there seemed a chance of
being able to attack him with the whole strength of the German Navy.
Unforeseen opportunities of the kind have frequently occurred in naval
war, and may be expected frequently to occur again.

FRENCH EXPERT'S OPINION

Here may be quoted some observations, dated March 11, 1918, by the
very distinguished French flag officer Vice Admiral E. F. Fournier, in
a preface to a translation of an account of the general work of the
British Navy:

Je m'associe également aux regrets de l'auteur de cette notice
qu'une ombre injustifiée ait été portée sur le tableau, si
flatteur pour l'amour-propre de la Grande Bretagne, par certains
critiques de la presse anglaise sur la bataille du Jutland. Je
le fais d'autant plus volontiers que, dès la nouvelle de cette
memorable rencontre navale, j'écrivis dans le Matin un article ou
je vantais l'esprit de décision et la résolution si opportune de
l'Amiral Beatty, n'hésitant pas à se jeter, malgré l'infériorité
de ses forces, à la tête de la flotte allemande toute entière pour
la contrecarrer dans ses desseins, en s'y accrochant énergiquement
jusqu'a l'arrivée du renfort anglais, comme l'eût fait, sans aucun
doute, Nelson lui-même, en pareil cas.

TRANSLATION:

I regret as much as does the author of this article that an
unjustified shadow has been cast upon the picture, so flattering
for the self-esteem of Great Britain, by certain English press
criticisms upon the battle of Jutland. I indorse his view the more
willingly because, on first receiving the news of that memorable
naval combat, I wrote for the Matin an article in which I extolled
Admiral Beatty's spirit of decision and very opportune resolution,
in not hesitating to throw himself, despite the inferiority of
his forces, at the head of the whole German fleet to checkmate its
designs, and in hanging on firmly until the arrival of English
reinforcements, as Nelson himself undoubtedly would have done in
such a case.

Mr. Frothingham holds that the German fleet had not been led into
a trap. Here, perhaps, something turns on the meaning given to
particular words. A trap may be reasonably defined as an unforeseen and
unfavorable position. Was it a deliberately sought or an unforeseen
result that at 9 P. M. the German fleet was so placed that it had
between it and its bases a hostile fleet which, as Mr. Frothingham
tells us, still had an "overwhelming superiority in ships and guns?"
Was such a position favorable or unfavorable? Surely there can be but
one answer to each of these questions.

LOSS OF BRITISH SHIPS

Those who prefer to do so may use long words like "psychology" and
"mentality," but the plain English of the situation is that the public
mind in the allied and neutral countries was greatly impressed by the
news that the British fleet had lost several ships, and by the fact
that these losses were announced in the earlier part of the official
communiqué concerning the battle. In the few great sea fights of which
anything was generally remembered, the British had not lost ships.
This, however, was far from being the universal rule.

In the great naval actions of the seventeenth century we lost many
ships. It was recognized that a fleet might be victorious and still
lose ships. The great Lord Hawke at Quiberon Bay lost ships. The
contending fleets of the present day are so very large that they recall
those of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, when ships
were lost in action by both sides. This, especially in view of the
power of the naval ordnance of today, is almost certain to occur again.
There is a wide difference between the naval gun of the present day and
that of Nelson's and earlier times. The primary object of the older gun
was to cause casualties among the enemy's crews; the modern naval gun
is meant to destroy his ships. A fifteen-inch gun is not necessary to
kill or wound a man. Naval weapons would be complete failures if, in
sea fights, they were to prove incapable of destroying ships, and there
is no probability that the destruction will fall on one side only.

Mr. Frothingham's final conclusion is that the "actual tactical result
of the battle was indecisive." A very full definition of an indecisive
tactical result would be instructive. One result of the battle of
Jutland is beyond dispute and is in no way a matter of opinion. These
lines are being written on the 12th of May, 1918, close upon two years
after the battle of Jutland was fought. Not once during all that long
time has the German High Sea Fleet ventured on the high seas or done
more than just peep over the edge of its sheltering mine fields.

Comment by Mr. Arthur Pollen

_Arthur Pollen, the English naval critic, offers the following
observations on debatable phases of the battle:_

I have read Mr. Frothingham's article, and it seems to me to be
substantially accurate as a synopsis of the officially published
events of the afternoon and evening. The writer's comments also seem
to be judicious and fair. The battle raises, however, so many and
such large problems, strategical, tactical, and technical, that it is
impossible for any writer to exhaust the matter, or even to indicate
the disputable points in so small a space as Mr. Frothingham has been
able to devote to it.

In one or two not unimportant particulars I hold a different view of
the facts and different opinions from the writer. For example, it
seems to me that the Grand Fleet did not, as Mr. Frothingham states on
Page 339, at 6:25 form in battle line astern of the battle cruisers.
The plan published with the dispatches makes it seem more probable
that the van of the Grand Fleet followed a course considerably to the
north though parallel to that of the battle cruisers, and that it was
not until about 7:05 that they turned from an easterly to a southerly
course and formed astern of the Vice Admiral commanding the battle
cruiser fleet. The story of the action might have been very different
had circumstances permitted of the Grand Fleet going into action
astern of the Vice Admiral at 6:15.

Again, Page 337, I cannot agree that it is evident that the German
fleet was not forced into action with the Grand Fleet, but that Vice
Admiral Scheer deliberately chose to engage that force. There is
nothing to show that Scheer suspected Jellicoe was on the scene until
he began to turn from north to southeast about a quarter of an hour
before the Grand Fleet was sighted.

Again, Page 339, I cannot agree that it was the night disposition of
the fleet that was the crucial decision. It is true it ended the battle
for the night, but the decision which gave the battle its character
was taken earlier in the day, when the enemy was allowed to open the
range under the cover of destroyer attacks and smoke screens. In the
existing atmospheric conditions and light it was impossible for gunnery
to be effective, even at 12,000 and 9,000 yards and the only terms on
which the German fleet could be defeated and sunk would have been those
of close action. The refusal of close action was due to the menace of
the German destroyer attacks, used on this occasion for purposes of
defense and to afford an opportunity of evasion, with masterly skill
and decisive effect. The dispositions and tactics of the night action
are a different matter, but of these we are still completely ignorant.

Battle of Skagerrak as Germany Sees It

By CAPTAIN VON KUEHLWETTER

_of the German Imperial Navy_

[This article on the battle of Jutland was written during the week
which it was fought, May 31, 1916]

Although Trafalgar, Tsushima, and Skagerrak will be treated and
discussed together in future naval histories, it is not yet possible
to draw the full historical consequences from the two last-named naval
battles. We can estimate the effects of Trafalgar on the history of
the world, for we know that it laid the foundations of British naval
supremacy. With the exception of the immediate military advantage
gained, the full results of the battle of Tsushima have not yet been
developed. Still less can the battle of Skagerrak have left its impress
upon world history.

For us Skagerrak [Jutland] has been a great, decisive victory, which
our whole High Sea Fleet gained after a long, bitterly contested battle
on the open sea, far from the home coast and its points of support,
against the superior British Grand Fleet. Our naval forces inflicted
upon the British fleet losses which, in terms of tons, even according
to the British Admiralty, were double ours. But the tonnage does not
fully represent the seriousness of the losses, since the British lost
three dreadnoughts, as against one of ours, and three armored cruisers,
as against one of our old armored cruisers.

If we add to this what our own observations, supported by statements of
British prisoners, show, the enemy's losses were three and a half times
ours; that is, in terms of fighting units, six dreadnoughts, including
two older types, as against one dreadnought and one pre-dreadnought,
and four armored cruisers and one small cruiser, as against four small
cruisers.

The purpose of a battle is destruction, the victor being the side which
goes further in this direction. The figures just quoted can leave no
doubt on this point.

The German fleet remained on the battle area. After the repeatedly
successful attacks of our torpedo boat flotillas the British fleet was
forced to sheer off, and we never saw it again. Although the British
ships were superior in speed and were reinforced by the arrival of
twelve additional battleships, they made no attempt to recover contact
with us and continue the battle. Our numerous torpedo boats searched
for the British fleet all night without finding it, and instead
utilized the opportunity to rescue a large number of British sailors.

This justifies us in calling the battle an absolute victory for us. It
has demonstrated that the German fleet had within it the power to beat
the more numerous and more up-to-date British fleet, and it opens up
great possibilities for the future.

The battle of Skagerrak did not decide the war. Neither did Trafalgar
nor Tsushima, nor did Tannenburg or the battle of the Masurian Lakes. A
single battle between great powers will never be ultimately decisive.
How much it contributes to the final outcome of a war cannot be
estimated. The greatest result so far is not in the fact that Great
Britain lost ships, but in the victory.

TRAFALGAR AND JUTLAND

Trafalgar and the name of Nelson stand high in naval history. Let
us draw a military comparison between Trafalgar and the battle of
Skagerrak. At Trafalgar there were on the British side 27 ships of the
line, (of which 8 had 80 guns, 16 had 74 guns, and 3 had 64 guns,) four
frigates, and two smaller vessels. On the side of the allied French and
Spanish fleet there were 33 ships of the line, (of which 10 had from
80 to 110 guns, 22 had 74 guns, and one had 64 guns,) three frigates,
and two smaller vessels. The French and Spanish fleet was not only
numerically stronger, but its ships were better built and better armed.

[Illustration: A GERMAN DIAGRAM OF THE BATTLE OF THE SKAGERRAK
(JUTLAND)]

In the battle of Skagerrak we had opposing each other: On the British
side, thirty-one dreadnoughts, inclusive of six battle cruisers, and
four armored cruisers; on the German side, twenty-one dreadnoughts,
inclusive of five battle cruisers, and six older cruisers. Roughly
speaking, we had twenty-seven big ships against thirty-five. Here also
the better quality, judged by size, up-to-dateness, and armament, was
on the side of the larger fleet. Apart from these big ships, there were
on each side about fifty smaller vessels.

The total tonnage of the British fleet at Trafalgar was equal to about
two modern dreadnoughts, as one of the ships of the line in Nelson's
time was of about 2,000 tons. In numbers of guns and of crew there were
more at Trafalgar, as at that time the ships were sailing vessels.

The British had between 17,000 and 20,000 men engaged, against 21,000
to 24,000. At Skagerrak we had from 35,000 to 40,000, as against 45,000
to 50,000 men. In this way we can compare the battle in its general
aspect with Trafalgar. But if we look into the matter more closely, the
French and Spanish fleet had within it an element of weakness arising
from the fact that it consisted of two allied forces, between which
there is never complete co-ordination. The French were further weakened
by effects of the Revolution and exhaustion from previous battles. The
French Admiral himself said: "Never before was the French fleet at such
a low standard. We had bad masts, bad sails, bad rigging, bad officers,
and bad seamen." Of the Spanish, Nelson said: "They have neither
seamen nor officers." At the head of the allied forces was a French
Admiral who had no confidence in the fleet and who was acting under
instructions issued by Napoleon, which he felt incapable of carrying
out. Opposed to him was the seasoned and well-schooled fleet of Nelson,
so that it was not a battle of equal opponents and the result was
annihilation. None of the French or Spanish ships was again seen at
sea; nineteen were captured or destroyed, ten were driven into harbor
and blockaded; four escaped, only to fall into the hands of the victors
a few days later.

COMPARED WITH TSUSHIMA

And now Tsushima, another parallel. A Russian fleet, made up of any
old vessels the Russians could get together, and of what ships still
remained in the East--supported by Port Arthur--made one last bid
against the sea power of the enemy. Without training, without points
of support, honeycombed with revolutionary ideas, the Russian fleet
started on its trip to the Far East, where it arrived on May 27, after
suffering terrible hardships and being more than six months on the way
to meet the enemy. Meanwhile, Port Arthur, with its fleet, had fallen.
The Russian Admiral knew that he had absolutely no chance, but he did
not have enough courage to retreat. Blindly and without confidence he
started the battle against an opponent who was superior in numbers,
equipment, and training. Of the 38 Russian ships which arrived on
the morning of May 27, 1905, in the Strait of Korea, 19 were sunk
and 7 captured, including 2 hospital ships. The Russian Admiral, 273
officers, and 5,833 petty officers and men were taken prisoner; 201
officers and 4,344 men were killed. Against this the Japanese lost only
three torpedo boats and about 700 men.

Trafalgar was not a battle between equal forces, and still less so
was Tsushima; hence, as regards their military value, they cannot be
compared with Skagerrak. In this battle for the first time there were
two sides equally well trained, equally imbued with the same spirit,
equally determined. Here also the smaller force won. The superior
force had to quit the battle area, and only the power it retained
within itself saved it from annihilation. This battle gave us, in the
military sense, a victory such as naval history has never yet recorded.
Its moral effect upon our fleet, especially after the long harassing
wait, cannot be expressed in words. It did not end the war, but it gave
us more confidence and startled England, who always thought she had an
invincible fleet.

On the victory of Trafalgar England founded her colonial world power,
because she thereby obtained the mastery of the seas, which remained
unchallenged. Tsushima gave Japan the sea power in the East which she
needed to carry out her military plans on land. It no more ended the
Japanese-Russian war than Trafalgar had ended the struggle of that day,
but it gave Japan a military success which was of great value to her
in peace negotiations. We hope that Skagerrak is a blow against the
victory of Trafalgar and the first step toward the smashing of British
sea power, and that other mighty hammer blows will fall against the
barriers which shut off other peoples from the freedom of the seas.

International Socialists' Peace Campaign

A Message Sent to the Socialists of the Central
Powers by Those of the Entente Nations

Emile Vandervelde and Camille Huysmans, the Chairman and Secretary
of the International Socialist Bureau, on March 1, 1918, signed and
transmitted a message to the Socialists of Germany, Austria-Hungary,
and Bulgaria, inviting them to consider the declaration on war aims
adopted by the Interallied Labor and Socialist Conference in London,
Feb. 23, and asking them to propose conditions of their own for
comparison. The communication was printed April 17 without comment in
the German Socialist organ, Vorwärts, being reproduced by it from the
Paris Humanité. It is as follows:

The third Interallied Socialist Conference, which was held in
London from Feb. 20 to Feb. 23, has commissioned the President
and Secretary of the International Socialist Bureau to communicate
to you the authentic text of the memorandum which has been
adopted by the meeting of delegates of the Labor and Socialist
organizations of Great Britain, France, Italy, and Belgium. The
main ideas of this document have received, or had received in
advance, the approval of the parties of Serbia, Portugal, Greece,
Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

A special mission, consisting of Stuart, Bunning, (England,)
Jouhaux and Cachin, (France,) a Belgian delegate, an Italian
delegate, and the Secretary of the International Socialist Bureau,
Camille Huysmans, has gone to the United States in order to obtain
the adhesion of the American working class to this memorandum,
which expresses the point of view of the organized proletariat
of the Entente countries with regard to the necessary foundations
of a democratic peace and the principal conditions for a general
international Labor and Socialist conference, which has been
summoned to a neutral country by "a committee which provides all
guarantees of impartiality toward the various elements which are
called to take part."

In making this communication to you the signatories of this
message consider it profitable to recall objectively the reasons
which determined the acceptance of the procedure proposed by the
London Conference.

The conference was of the opinion that it would be of no use to
assemble a general congress unless its aim had been established in
principle.

The conference was of the opinion that "the principal condition
for the holding of a plenary assembly of the International
consists in its organizers satisfying themselves that all the
organizations to be represented formulate in precise terms and
by a public declaration their peace conditions upon the basis
of the principles of peace without annexations and without
indemnities of a punitive character, and the right of the peoples
to self-determination," and, further, that these organizations
will "work with all their power to obtain from their Governments
the necessary guarantee that these principles shall be applied
honestly and without _arriere-pensées_ in the settlement of all
questions raised at the official peace conference."

In order itself to satisfy these conditions, the London Conference
has considered it necessary to state precisely its views and its
action in the memorandum which we are commissioned to communicate
to you.

The conference expects that your party, following the same idea,
will resolve to issue a public declaration of a similar kind,
whether separately or jointly with the Labor and Socialist
organizations of Central Europe.

In the opinion of those who took part in the London Conference
the comparison of these documents will be of the greatest
importance. It will be a principal means of establishing whether
a sufficient agreement of views exists between the proletariats
of the two belligerent groups to make possible a common action
against imperialism and for a democratic peace. This preliminary
examination is all the more necessary, because it is obvious that
no important party, conscious of its responsibility, will run
the risk of having the resolutions of an international congress
imposed upon it by the will of a majority. Only resolutions which
were the expression of a general and common will would possess
moral authority and practical effect.

The sum of the matter is that the Socialists of the Entente
countries request you in this grave hour, in which it is necessary
to know whether the world is to be freed by democracy or to be
handed over to imperialism, to ask your consciences whether
a real, sincere, and effective agreement of the wills of the
proletariats is possible in order to put an end to the law of
violence, in order to lay the foundations not of a peace, but of
the peace, and in order to help the peoples to liberate themselves
from the endless chain of military war which leads to economic
wars, and of economic wars which will again produce military wars.

We add to the messages only one observation. Since the London
Conference momentous events have taken place which constitute the
gravest menace for the workers of all countries. The principles
to which they appeal have been shamefully violated. The right of
the peoples to self-determination has been openly disregarded. In
Austria and Germany themselves Socialists have expressed the fear
that Russia, disarmed and for the moment impotent, might become
a battleground in which the rival imperialisms and their claims
would meet and ultimately satisfy themselves jointly at the cost
of the defeated revolution.

The working classes have a common interest in protesting against
such events and in preventing the realization of such projects.

That is the wish of the authors and the signatories of the
memorandum. In the same spirit we beg you to subject this document
to a conscientious and thorough examination.

In communicating this request to you we address to you, comrades,
our Socialist greetings.

At a meeting of the Socialist Party Committee in Berlin on May 31,
according to the Vorwärts, Friedrich Ebert, Vice President of the
Social Democrats, announced that the party leaders had indirectly
received a copy of the Entente Socialist memorandum on war aims.
Philipp Scheidemann declared that the aims of the Entente Socialists
were to a great extent in complete accord with the annexationist aims
of the Entente Governments. The committee adopted a resolution pledging
continued adherence to the Reichstag peace resolution of July, 1917,
which declared for no annexations and no indemnities.

Trade After the War

The State Department at Washington announced on June 5, 1918, that
it had appointed an economic representative, who was to join the
American Embassy at Rome. This was regarded as the first step in a
general policy of more active participation by the United States in
preparations of the nations at war with Germany for the after-the-war
trade struggle.

The new treaty of alliance between Germany and Austria to control all
Central European sources of raw materials, and to exclude other nations
from equal trade privileges, with similar restrictions imposed by the
new treaties forced on Finland, Ukrainia, and Rumania, changed the
attitude of the American Government, which at first had not assented to
the proposals of the Paris Economic Conference to interpose artificial
obstructions to free commerce with the Central Powers after the war.

The Italian Government recently named a commission to study
after-the-war problems, and with this commission the American economic
delegate will have close relations. Italian importing and exporting
interests in the United States also have taken advantage of the
opportunity afforded by the decision of the Italian Government to
consider this important subject, and have joined in the dispatch of a
committee to Italy to co-operate. Italian industries, though of great
potential strength and capable of returning large profits on their
capitalization, are said to require substantial assistance from America
if they are to go on after the war without relapsing into the control
of German financiers.

It is reported that economic representatives will be sent to the
American Embassies in all the allied capitals.

On May 14 Mr. Bonar Law, British Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced
in the House of Commons that, in order to leave its country's hands
free for the time when peace arrived, the French Government had
denounced all commercial conventions containing a general clause
regarding "most-favored nations"; and that, in view of the probable
scarcity of raw material after the war and the necessity for providing
for the needs of the British Empire and the Allies, the British
Government intended to adopt a similar course.

In answer to other questions, Mr. Bonar Law said that the British
Government had not changed its policy expressed in the Paris
resolutions since the entrance of the United States into the war; he
had every reason to believe that America was very anxious for unity of
economic control, and agreed that any useful action would be much more
effective if taken in conjunction with our allies.

Lord Balfour of Burleigh's committee considered the question of the
denunciation of commercial treaties and reported against it. The
report contains a summary of the various commercial treaties which
are in existence between Great Britain and other countries. Those
with enemy countries have been terminated by the war. In the case
of allied countries commercial treaties on the basis of reciprocal
most-favored-nation treatment are in force between the United Kingdom
and Italy, Portugal, Russia, the United States, Japan, Serbia, and
Montenegro. There is a similar treaty with Rumania. United Kingdom
goods have most-favored-nation treatment in France, owing to a
legislative enactment and not by treaty right, for customs duties were
excepted from the scope of the Anglo-French commercial convention of
1882.

Great Britain has commercial treaties on the most-favored-nation
basis with Switzerland and Greece. In the case of the Netherlands and
Denmark, the general principle of most-favored-nation treatment is
subject to minor limitations. The position with regard to Sweden and
Norway is doubtful; but the old treaty of 1826 with Sweden and Norway
on a reciprocal most-favored-nation basis has continued in operation in
practice, in spite of the dissolution of the union between Sweden and
Norway in 1905.

Outside Europe, Great Britain has commercial treaties providing for
reciprocal and unconditional most-favored-nation treatment with
Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay,
and Venezuela. Those with Costa Rica and Liberia are conditional.

Nearly all these commercial treaties are subject to a fixed period
of notice on either side as a condition of denunciation. The treaty
with Japan cannot be terminated before 1923. The treaty with Portugal
has only recently been completed, after years of negotiation. Twelve
months' notice of termination is required in the case of the treaty
with Switzerland and of most of those with neutral countries outside
Europe. The Spanish agreement--it is based on an exchange of notes in
1894--is subject to six months' notice.

Before the war there was no commercial treaty between the United
Kingdom and Germany. The United Kingdom enjoyed most-favored-nation
treatment in Germany in customs matters by virtue of a biennial law.

Exchange of Naval Greetings With England

The following exchange of greetings between the heads of the navies of
the United States and Great Britain was made public:

_Washington, April 5, 1918._

MY DEAR SIR: Your references to the splendid spirit of
co-operation between the navies of our two countries, and your
warm praise of the officers and men of the navy who have gone
abroad, have been most grateful to me and to the men in the
navy and to all Americans. The brightest spot in the tragedy of
this war is this mutual appreciation of the men in the naval
service. Our officers who have returned confirm the statements of
Vice Admiral Sims of the courtesies and kindness shown in every
way by the Admiralty and officers of the British fleet, and we
have reciprocated by receiving cordially the able and efficient
officers who have come from your country to confer and work elbow
to elbow with our officers in the difficult work which this war
imposes upon the naval service of all the countries allied in the
war against the submarine menace.

I had hoped to have the pleasure of visiting Great Britain and
personally expressing this feeling of mutual working together
and of exchanging views, but the task here of making ready more
and more units for the fleet is a very serious one, and my duty
chains me here. The order in all the navy is "full speed ahead"
in the construction of destroyers and other craft, and the whole
service is keyed up to press this programme forward as rapidly
as possible. Therefore I shall not have the pleasure until
this program shall materialize better and better of personal
acquaintance and conference, which would be of such interest and
value.

Sincerely yours,

(Signed) JOSEPHUS DANIELS.
Sir Eric Geddes, First Lord of the Admiralty, London.

* * * * *

_April 23._

DEAR MR. DANIELS: I am exceedingly grateful to you for your letter
of April 5, in which you thank me for the public reference which
I have made to the very cordial relations which exist between the
navies of our two countries. As you know, we all of us here have
a great admiration for your officers and men and for the splendid
help which they are giving in European waters; and, further, we
find Vice Admiral Sims invaluable in counsel and co-operation.

I fully appreciate how onerous your office must be at the present
time; and much though I regret that you do not see your way to
visiting this country in the near future, I hope that we may some
day have the pleasure of welcoming you here. Yours sincerely,

(Signed) E. C. GEDDES.

* * * * *

_Commander in Chief's Office,_

_Queenstown, May 4._

On the anniversary of the arrival of the first United States
men-of-war at Queenstown, I wish to express my deep gratitude to
the United States officers and ratings for the skill, energy, and
unfailing good nature which they have all consistently shown, and
which qualities have so materially assisted the war by enabling
the ships of the allied powers to cross the ocean in comparative
freedom.

To command you is an honor, to work with you is a pleasure, and to
know you is to know the best traits of the Anglo-Saxon race.

(Signed) LEWIS BAYLY,

Admiral, Commander in Chief.

England and the War's Causes

Prince Lichnowsky's Memorandum a Document of Vital Importance to History

By VISCOUNT BRYCE

_Former British Ambassador to the United States_

[Copyright, 1918, by The New York Times Company]

The secret memorandum which Prince Lichnowsky wrote as a record and
vindication of his conduct while German Ambassador in England is the
most important single document which has come before the world since
the first days of the war. It was not meant to become known during
the war, perhaps not within his own lifetime. It was written not to
justify England but to criticise the policy which tied Germany to
Austria, and was published without, and indeed against, its author's
will. It may have been composed partly to relieve the writer's own
feelings, from an impulse which those will understand who are prevented
by considerations of public duty from vindicating their conduct to the
world. It may also be due to the sense, natural to men who have borne a
part in great events, that they owe it to posterity to contribute what
they can to the truth of history. Anyhow, it has exposed him to the
anger and persecution of the German Government; and this persecution
is evidence of the importance it attaches to it as a condemnation of
its conduct. The truth of its contents has been confirmed, if indeed it
needed confirmation, by the statements of Herr von Jagow, late German
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and of Herr Mühlon, one of the
Krupp directors.

Prince Lichnowsky appears in this document as a man of clear vision
and cool judgment, an acute observer of social as well as political
phenomena, a good witness both to what he noted during his residence
here and to what he knew of the action of his own Government. And now
let us see what he records.

When the war began in August, 1914, the German Government entered on
two campaigns, which it has ever since prosecuted with equal energy and
an equal disregard of honor and humanity.

One of these was the campaign by arms. It suddenly invaded Belgium, a
peaceful neutral country, whose neutrality it was pledged to respect,
and which it has treated with the utmost cruelty, murdering, or
reducing to the slavery of forced labor, its civilian and noncombatant
inhabitants. It has similarly enslaved the inhabitants of Poland, and
has encouraged its Turkish allies to massacre their innocent Armenian
subjects.

A CAMPAIGN OF FALSEHOOD

The other campaign was one of falsehood, conducted by speeches and
through the press, and intended to mislead public opinion. It was
an effort to deceive both its own people and neutral nations by
mendacious misrepresentations of German aims, purposes, and conduct,
and by equally false descriptions of the aims, purposes, and conduct
of Germany's antagonists, and especially of the British Government
and the British people. It tried to represent the war as having been
forced upon Germany by Britain. Germany, it said, was merely defending
herself against an unprovoked attack. She desired to live at peace
with her neighbors, developing her own resources, cherishing no
aggressive designs. Her enormous army and navy had been created only to
protect her against the jealous and malicious enemies by whom she was
surrounded, and especially against Great Britain. Britain, it seems,
was envious of Germany. Being herself "a decadent nation"--this was the
prevailing German the commercial competition of Germany, and tried to
keep the latter out of all foreign markets. British policy--so they
said--under the direction of King Edward VII., had formed alliances
with France and Russia in order to hem in Germany, and after trying
to block Germany's outlets in Africa and Asia, contrived this war to
destroy by arms the rival whom she could not face up to in trade and
manufacturing industry.

While these accusations were brought against Britain, attempts were
made to excuse the invasion of Belgium by the false stories, dropped as
soon as they had served their temporary purpose, that French officers
had been sent into Belgium to help to organize the Belgian troops
against Germany and that French aviators had been flying over German
territory.

Grotesque as all these inventions were, they were repeated with such
audacity as to produce some effect in neutral countries. But their
chief and more lasting influence was on the German people. A large part
of the German press, inspired and controlled by the German Government,
had for some time past been holding up England as the persistent foe of
Germany. It now redoubled its falsehoods, representing Sir Edward Grey
as having plotted to bring about a war, and urged Russia to refuse a
peaceful solution; and it added equally groundless charges that England
had secretly planned with Belgium to attack Germany through Belgian
territory. These fables, repeated incessantly by German politicians,
as well as by the newspapers, found ready credence with the German
people, easily led by their press, always docile to the orders of their
Government, and now swept off their feet by a wave of patriotism and
by the belief that they were about to achieve a victory as rapid and
complete as that of 1870. It was this conviction of the malevolence and
the grasping ambition of England that created that ferocious hatred of
the English which has continued to display itself in the treatment of
English prisoners and in the exultation over such crimes as the sinking
of the Lusitania.

ORGANIZED HATE

This sudden outburst of hatred in a nation so intelligent startled and
amazed us. It can be understood only when we remember that the German
Government did everything in its power not only to create hatred, but
also to stifle every voice that was raised to let the people know
the truth. They never have been permitted to know the truth, and the
disappointment that fell upon them when their march on Paris was
arrested with the help of a British Army and their coasts strictly
blockaded by a British fleet added fuel to their anger and has made it
ever since an easier matter to keep the truth from them.

Now, what was the truth?

The British people bore no hatred whatever toward the German people.
King Edward VII. meant no harm to Germany when he showed his liking
for the French. Neither did his Ministers when they took steps to
remove the differences that had been causing trouble between ourselves
and France, and again when they came to a friendly understanding with
Russia. These arrangements were made in the interests of European
peace and good-will, not in order to damage Germany. British merchants
and manufacturers never dreamed of fighting Germany to get rid of her
commercial competition. Had such an idea occurred to them, they would
have reflected that Germany was England's best foreign customer, not
to add that two years of even a successful war would have inflicted
far more loss upon them than the extension of German trade competition
could have repaired in twenty years. British men of science and
learning admired the immense contributions Germany had been making
to the progress of knowledge, and they had many personal friends in
Germany. British statesmen did not desire to add to British possessions
abroad, feeling that we had already all we needed, and that the
greatest interest of the British Empire was a universal peace.

No section of our people, neither traders, nor thinkers and writers,
nor statesmen, had any idea of the dangers to the mind and the
purpose of those who ruled Germany. We did not realize what the feudal
aristocracy and military caste of Germany were pondering and planning,
nor how little weight they attached to considerations either of good
faith or of humanity. Hence, beyond maintaining a strong fleet, the
indispensable protection of a country open to sea attack which did not
maintain a large army, we had made no preparations for war, and had
scarcely bethought ourselves of what action we should have to take
on land if we became involved in war. In this belief and attitude
there may have been less prudence than was needed. But our absence of
suspicion is the best proof of how little we expected aggression. It is
an absolute refutation of the calumny that Britain, with her tiny army,
was planning an attack on the greatest military power in the world.

All this every Englishman knows. I repeat it only because it has now
received not only a confirmation but also a valuable further proof in
the Lichnowsky memorandum, a proof unsolicited and uncontemplated, and,
moreover, unimpeachable, because it comes from one who bore a leading
part in what it records, and who never meant to let it become known.

ENGLAND'S PACIFIC SPIRIT

First--The memorandum bears witness to the pacific spirit of the
British people. Here are some of its words:

"The commercial jealousy about which we [in Germany] hear so much is
based on a wrong conception of the circumstances. Certainly Germany's
rise as a commercial power after 1870 and during the following decades
was a menace to British commercial circles which with their industries
and export houses had held a virtual monopoly. The increasing commerce
with Germany, which was the leading country in Europe as regards
British exports, had, however, given rise to the wish to maintain
friendly relations with their best customer and business friend, and
had driven all other considerations into the background. Notably, in
commercial spirit and the effort to further our common commercial
interests."

"At the English cities to which I was invited (by the Chambers of
Commerce and municipalities) I was well received everywhere. * * *
In all other circles I also met with the most friendly reception and
co-operation--at Court, in society, and from the Government."

"On account of our fleet alone England would not have drawn the sword
any more than on account of our trade, which has been alleged to have
produced jealousy and finally war. * * * It was possible to arrive at
an understanding in spite of the fleet, and without a 'naval holiday,'
[intermission of naval shipbuilding.]"

Second--The memorandum shows that the attitude of the British
Government, and in particular of Sir Edward Grey, then Foreign
Minister, was entirely pacific. The admirable characterization of
Sir Edward it contains is too long to quote, but it testifies to
his perfect straightforwardness and constant wish to maintain good
relations with Germany, and after describing how "the simplicity and
honesty of his ways secured him the respect even of his opponents," it
adds: "This is a true picture of the man who is decried [in Germany] as
'Liar Grey' and instigator of the world war."

The memorandum goes on to show how sincerely Sir Edward had worked
for peace, first in 1913, during the Balkan troubles, when he went
hand-in-hand with Germany, "hardly ever supporting the French or
Russian claims. He conducted the negotiations with circumspection,
calm, and tact." Frequently, when appealed to by Lichnowsky to use his
influence with the Russian Government to arrange difficulties between
it and Germany, "Sir Edward gladly did this, and his intervention
contributed in no small degree to smooth the matter over."

Third--A still weightier evidence of the good-will of the British
Government is supplied by the account given of the concessions made
to German wishes in Asia and Africa. "Sir Edward Grey," says the
memorandum, "after having outstanding points of difference with
France and Russia, wished to make similar agreements with us. It was
not his object to isolate us, but to the best of his power to make us
partners in the existing association. As he had succeeded in overcoming
Anglo-French and Anglo-Russian differences, so he also wished to do
his best to eliminate the Anglo-German, and, by a network of treaties,
which would no doubt have led in the end to an agreement on the
troublesome question of naval armaments, to insure the peace of the
world."

THE BAGDAD RAILWAY

"His plan was, in his own words, without interfering with England's
existing friendship, which had no aggressive aims and does not entail
any binding obligations, to arrive at a friendly rapprochement and
understanding with Germany to bring the two groups [of powers] nearer."
In pursuance of this policy, the British Government went a very long
way to meet German wishes in respect to the Bagdad Railway. They
agreed to let it be prolonged to El Basra; they included the whole of
Mesopotamia as far as that town in the German sphere of influence, and
also the whole district of the Bagdad and Anatolian railway, i.e., all
the centre of Asia Minor.

Not less large were the concessions made in South Central Africa. "The
new agreement [regarding the interests of Germany and England in the
African possessions of Portugal] was fully in accord with German wishes
and interests. For these the British Government showed the greatest
consideration. Sir E. Grey intended to demonstrate his good-will toward
us, but he also wished to assist our colonial development as a whole."
These arrangements were embodied in two treaties highly advantageous
to Germany, which, however, the German Government, for some reasons of
its own, had postponed signing, so that they remained unpublished up
till the outbreak of the war. Had we in the inner spirit of the German
Government, and the use it would make of our concessions, British
Ministers might well have hesitated to go so far as they did. But
that they conceded so much is the completest proof of their good-will
and the most convincing refutation of the charges which the German
Ministers and press have brought against them.

It would take too long to follow out in this article the constant
efforts of the British Government during the fateful days before the
outbreak of the war to avoid a conflict by means of Sir E. Grey's
repeated plans of mediation and adjustment. The memorandum shows how
earnestly he labored for peace at Berlin, at Petersburg, at Vienna, and
how all his attempts were baffled by the settled purpose of the German
Government to force on war.

THE POTSDAM CONFERENCE

Britain may, like other nations, have in the past sometimes indulged
her ambition, sometimes abused her strength, sometimes embarked in wars
that might well have been avoided. But on this occasion at least she is
blameless. Never in her long history has she had so perfectly clear a
conscience as in the case of this war. Her people neither contemplated
it nor desired it. They were driven into it by the action of the German
Government, which persisted in pushing it on even when Austria seemed
willing to draw back. All had evidently been settled at that famous
Potsdam conference, when (as the German Ambassador at Constantinople,
before Italy had declared war against Austria, told his Italian
colleague) the Emperor had inquired of his military and naval chiefs
whether they were ready for the conflict for which, during some months
preceding, preparations had been in progress. Neither when the war
began did Britain wish to do more than prevent Germany from destroying
Belgium and mortally wounding France. Sir E. Grey spoke truly for the
nation when, as the memorandum records, he said: "We don't want to
crush Germany."

Germany and Great Britain in 1912

Lord Haldane's Official Report of
His Conciliatory Mission Prior to the War

_Lord Haldane, the British Minister for War in 1912, was sent on a
mission to Berlin in that year to confer with the German Chancellor,
Dr. von Bethmann Hollweg, in the hope of reaching some agreement with
Germany for a mutual reduction of armament, and for the establishment
of conditions that would preserve European peace. The hope regarding
armaments was not fulfilled, and the conversations that had taken place
were not made public by either Government; but late in May, 1918,
in view of the revelations of Prince Lichnowsky regarding Germany's
responsibility for the war, the British Government at length published
Lord Haldane's report. It is in the form of a daily record, beginning
Feb. 8, 1912, and is here reproduced in full, with the exception of
parts relating solely to British defensive measures:_

"At the interview with the Chancellor, which took place at 2 o'clock
and lasted for more than an hour and a half, I began by giving him
the message of good wishes for the conversations and for the future
of Anglo-German relations with which the King had intrusted me at the
audience I had before leaving. He was pleased with this message, and
intimated that he would write through the German Ambassador to thank
the King. I then said that perhaps it would be convenient if I defined
the capacity in which I was in Berlin, and there to talk to him; and
I defined it as above intimated. I proceeded to ask whether he wished
to make any observations or desired that I should begin. He wished
me to begin, and I went on at once to speak to him as arranged in a
conversation I had had with Sir Edward Grey before leaving London."

"I told him that I felt there had been a great deal of drifting away
between Germany and England, and that it was important to ask what was
the cause. To ascertain this, events of recent history had to be taken
into account. Germany had built up, and was building up, magnificent
armaments, and with the aid of the Triple Alliance she had become the
centre of a tremendous group. The natural consequence was that other
powers had tended to approximate. I was not questioning for a moment
Germany's policy, but this was the natural and inevitable consequence
in the interests of security. We used to have much the same situation
with France when she was very powerful on the sea that we had with
Germany now. While the fact to which I referred created a difficulty,
the difficulty was not insuperable; for two groups of powers might be
on very friendly relations if there was only an increasing sense of
mutual understanding and confidence. The present seemed to me to be a
favorable moment for a new departure. The Morocco question was now out
of the way, and we had no agreements with France or Russia except those
that were in writing and published to the world.

"The Chancellor interrupted me, and asked me whether this was really
so. I replied that I could give him the assurance that it was so
without reserve, and that in the situation, which now existed I saw no
reason why it should not be possible for us to enter into a new and
cordial friendship, carrying the two old ones into it, perhaps, to the
profit of Russia and France as well as Germany herself. He replied that
he had no reason to differ from this view."

"In connection with my remarks as to the events of last Summer, he
interposed that we had military preparations. I replied that no
preparations had been made which were other than those required to
bring the capacity of the British Army in point of mobilization to
something approaching the standard which Germany had long ago reached,
and which was with her a matter of routine. For this purpose we had
studied our deficiencies and modes of operation * * * We could not be
caught unprepared."

NO AGGRESSIVE ALLIANCES

The Chancellor seemed much pleased with Lord Haldane's explanation,
and said: "There had been much talk of our fleet and our army, and
the steps we had taken, but that he understood the position I had
indicated." "I said, in reply, that it was a pleasure to me to hear
this, and that I hoped I should carry him with me still further in my
belief that if Germany had really, which I did not at all suppose,
intended to crush France and destroy her capacity to defend herself, we
in England would have had such a direct interest in the result that we
could not have sat by and seen this done."

"He said he did not dissent from this view, nor did he wish to hamper
our freedom in such a case. But he wished to propose a formula; the
balance of power was a phrase he did not like, though he admitted that
the historical considerations I had referred to made it natural that
some grouping should take place, and that England should lean toward
the weaker side. He had, however, proposed, in his communication to us,
a formula of neutrality which might go a long way to help."

"I said I cordially agreed with the good intention of his formula, the
working of which was that neither was to enter into any combinations
against the other. If this meant combinations for attack or aggression,
I was entirely of his mind. But I must put on spectacles in looking at
his words, and, first of all, I would put on German spectacles. How
would Germany find herself if, when bound by such a formula, we were so
wicked as to attack her ally Austria or to try to grab Denmark, which
was of deep strategical interest to her? Again, suppose Germany joined
in an attack on Japan or Portugal or Belgium--he then interposed 'or
Holland'--but I said I really hadn't all our treaties sufficiently in
my head to be as sure about Holland as I was about the others. Or if,
I added, Germany were to pounce upon France and proceed to dismember
her, what would happen? He answered that these cases were not at all
likely, but he admitted that they were fatal to his formula. I asked
him whether he would be satisfied with mutual undertakings against
aggressive or unprovoked attacks and against all combinations, military
and naval agreements, and plans directed to the purpose of aggression
and unprovoked attack. He said it was very difficult to define what was
meant by aggression or unprovoked attack. I replied that you could not
define the number of grains which it took to make a heap, but one knew
a heap when one saw one." * * *

QUESTION OF GERMAN FLEET

"We then passed on to the question of the German fleet, as to which he
asked me to make any observations. I said I must. He and I had been
talking with the most absolute candor and friendliness to each other,
and I felt he would regard me as wanting in character were I not very
frank with him about the new navy law. What was the use of entering
into a solemn agreement for concord and against attack if Germany at
the same moment was going to increase her battle fleet as a precaution
against us, and we had consequently to increase our battle fleet as a
precaution against her? This was vital from our point of view, because
we were an island power dependent for our food supplies on the power of
protecting our commerce, and for this we needed the two-power standard
and a substantial preponderance in battle fleets. He said that it
was absolutely essential to Germany to have a third squadron in full
readiness for war. At present, owing to her system of recruiting, for
three months in the year she had virtually, owing to the necessity for
training recruits, no fleet ready at all. I said I did not contest
this; she was quite entitled to have it if she thought it necessary,
but the result would be that we should not be able to rely on the two
battle squadrons and reserve squadrons which had sufficed hitherto,
but that we should be compelled to have five, or even six, squadrons
ready in home waters, perhaps bringing ships from the Mediterranean to
strengthen them."

"He asked me was that necessary if we had a friendly agreement? I
said it would be a less convincing proof of friendliness if Germany
prepared her third squadron, and we should have no option. Still, I
said, this was not so serious as the proposal to add a third ship every
second year to the German construction program. This would put us in
great difficulties so far as securing the good opinion of the public
in England about the value of an agreement. We should certainly have
to proceed at once to lay down two keels to each one of the new German
additions, and that would cost money and cause feeling. It was true
that each country could bear the additional cost without difficulty.
They were rich and so were we. If it was for the purpose of the navy
our people would not complain, in my opinion, of the addition of
another shilling to the income tax, but it would be a great pity. He
asked was that really likely to be our program, the laying down of two
additional keels for each German one. I said that I had no doubt that
it would be the result, and the Government would be turned out if they
failed to accomplish it; and therefore some modification seemed to be
of the utmost importance, if the agreement was to be a real success."

"After a pause he said he would consider this and 'die Sache
überlegen.' The conversation up to this point had been largely in
German, I taking to English whenever there was a delicate topic, and
the Chancellor occasionally speaking English, but nearly always German.
In order to avoid misunderstanding repeated sentences in the other
language. I was impressed by his evident desire to meet us wherever he
could, and I derived considerable hope from the manner and emphasis
with which he said that he would reconsider the question of the ships.
But I must add that he went on to say that the question of the new
squadron was vital, and that some new ships would be necessary in
it. Could I suggest any way out, for they must keep to the plan of
a new law. I observed that it was not for me to venture to make any
suggestion to his Excellency, but that a spreading out in size of the
new program might make a difference. He said, 'Perhaps, eight or nine
years'; I added, 'or twelve, if he could not do better.' He again said
that he would take this matter into serious consideration and consult
his experts. 'My Admirals,' he said, 'are very difficult.' 'That was an
experience,' I observed, 'which we sometimes found in England also.'"

THE KAISER AND VON TIRPITZ

On the following day, Feb. 9, Lord Haldane had an interview with the
Emperor, the Chancellor, and Admiral Tirpitz on the navy, at which
Tirpitz held out for the new German naval program, which was discussed
at great length. Lord Haldane wrote:

"I insisted that fundamental modification was essential. The tone
was thoroughly friendly, but I felt that I had come to the most
difficult part of my task of getting material fit to bring back for
the consideration of my colleagues. The utmost I was able to get was
this: The Emperor was so disturbed at the idea that the world would not
believe in the reality of the agreement unless the shipbuilding program
was modified that he asked me what I would suggest. I said that it was
a too technical matter for me to discuss here, but that if he would not
drop the new law--which I saw he felt he could not--he might at least
drop out a ship. This idea was never abandoned, but Admiral Tirpitz
combated it so hard that I said: 'Well, can we not spread the tempo?'
After much talking we got to this, that, as I insisted that they must
not inaugurate the agreement by building an additional ship at once,
they should put off building the first ship till 1913, and then should
not lay down another till three years after, (1916,) and not lay down
the third till 1919."

"Admiral Tirpitz wanted us to give some understanding about our own
shipbuilding. He thought the two-power standard a hard one for Germany,
and, indeed, Germany could not make any admission about it. I said it
was not a matter of admission. Germany must be free and we must be
free, and we should probably lay down two keels to their one. In this
case the initiative was not with us, but with them. An idea occurred to
all of us on this observation that we should try to avoid defining a
standard proportion in the agreement, and that, indeed, we should say
nothing at all about shipbuilding in the if the political agreement
was concluded the Emperor should at once announce to the German public
that this entirely new fact modified his desire for the fleet law as
originally conceived, and that it should be delayed and spread out to
the extent we had discussed. For the rest, each of us would remain
masters in our own houses as far as naval matters were concerned."

"The Emperor thought the agreement would affect profoundly the tendency
in shipbuilding, and he certainly should not desire to go beyond the
three ships. The fact of the agreement was the key to everything. The
Chancellor, he said, would propose to me this afternoon a formula which
he had drafted. I said that I would see the Chancellor and discuss
any further territorial questions with him, and would then return as
speedily as I could and report the good disposition which I had found
to my colleagues, and leave the difficulties of not being able to stop
shipbuilding more completely, and, indeed, all other matters to their
judgment. I could only assure the Emperor that I had been much struck
with the friendly disposition in Berlin, and that he would find a not
less friendly disposition in London."

NO AGREEMENT REACHED

Lord Haldane mentions that he was in communication with M. Jules
Cambon, the French Ambassador in Berlin, and recounted his
conversations to him. The Ambassador quite appreciated that the purpose
of the mission was to create a detente, as distinguished from an
entente. M. Jules Cambon reported his conversation with Lord Haldane to
M. Poincaré.

Lord Haldane had another conversation with the Chancellor in the hope
of arriving at a formula with regard to the navy. The Chancellor said
that the "forces he had to contend with were almost insuperable. Public
opinion in Germany expected a new law and the third squadron, and he
must have these. I said we could not contest Germany's right to do in
these matters, and indeed in other matters, as she pleased. But why not
postpone the shipbuilding for longer and adapt the law accordingly? * * *"

"The Chancellor said he would try. He asked me to consult the experts
in London and make a suggestion. I had said, he remarked, that
everything was good only on balance, and Germany must for a greater
end give up a minor advantage. The new squadron and the new fleet law
she must have, but it was a question for the experts, on which he did
not pronounce, whether a retardation of greater magnitude than Tirpitz
proposed might not be possible. I promised to let him know privately
the state of feeling here about the Tirpitz proposals on my return."

The Ministers then endeavored to arrive at a formula, the whole purpose
of which was to bring about conditions which would prevent to endeavor
to get a definition of the duty of neutrality; and, in the event of
war, to combine in order to localize the conflict.

After Lord Haldane's return to London, negotiations in search of
a formula were continued. Prince Lichnowsky preserved a friendly
atmosphere, but the German Government never agreed to conditions
which would have safeguarded the neutrality of Belgium or maintained
her honorable obligations to our allies. The nearest they got at the
eleventh hour was, as Lord Grey said, "far too narrow an engagement for
us."

British Official Statement Issued in 1915

_The German press in 1915 made certain incorrect allegations regarding
the Haldane Mission, whereupon on Aug. 31, 1915, the British Government
issued the following official statement:_

THE FOREIGN OFFICE ISSUED THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT RESPECTING THE
ANGLO-GERMAN NEGOTIATIONS OF 1912:

An account of the 1912 Anglo-German negotiations was published in the
semi-official Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung last month. This account
was misleading, and was no doubt intended to mislead, and made it
appear that the British Government had at that time rejected what would
be regarded in many quarters as a reasonable offer of friendship from
Germany.

In these circumstances it may be as well to publish a statement of the
facts compiled from official records here. Early in 1912 the German
Chancellor sketched to Lord Haldane the following formula as one which
would meet the views of the Imperial Government:

1. The high contracting parties assure each other mutually of
their desire of peace and friendship.

2. They will not either of them make or prepare to make any
(unprovoked) attack upon the other, or join in any combination or
design against the other for purposes of aggression, or become
party to any plan or naval or military enterprise alone or in
combination with any other power directed to such an end, and
declare not to be bound by any such engagement.

3. If either of the high contracting parties become entangled
in a war with one or more powers in which it cannot be said to
be the aggressor, the other party will at least observe toward
the power so entangled a benevolent neutrality, and will use its
utmost endeavor for the localization of the conflict. If either
of the high contracting parties is forced to go to war by obvious
provocation from a third party, they bind themselves to enter into
an exchange of views concerning their attitude in such a conflict.

4. The duty of neutrality which arises out of the preceding
article has no application in so far as it may not be reconcilable
with existing agreements which the high contracting parties have
already made.

5. The making of new agreements which render it impossible for
either of the parties to observe neutrality toward the other
beyond what is provided by the preceding limitation is excluded in
conformity with the provisions in Article 2.

6. The high contracting parties declare that they will do all in
their power to prevent differences and misunderstandings arising
between either of them and other powers.

GERMAN PLAN ONE-SIDED

These conditions, although in appearance fair as between the parties,
would have been grossly unfair and one-sided in their operation.
Owing to the general position of the European powers and the treaty
engagements by which they were bound, the result of Articles 4 and 5
would have been that, while Germany in the case of a European conflict
would have remained free to support her friends, this country would
have been forbidden to raise a finger in defense of hers.

Germany could arrange without difficulty that the formal inception of
hostilities should rest with Austria. If Austria and Russia were at
war, Germany would support Austria, as is evident from what occurred
at the end of July, 1914; while as soon as Russia was attacked by
two powers France was bound to come to her assistance. In other
words, the pledge of neutrality offered by Germany would have been
absolutely valueless, because she could always plead the necessity
of fulfilling her existing obligations under the Triple Alliance as
an excuse for departing from neutrality. On the other hand, no such
departure, however serious the provocation, would have been possible
for this country, which was bound by no alliances with the exception
of those with Japan and Portugal, while the making of fresh alliances
was prohibited by Article 5. In a word, as appeared still more evident
later, there was to be a guarantee of absolute neutrality on one side
but not on the other.

It was impossible for us to enter into a contract so obviously
inequitable, and the formula was accordingly rejected by Sir Edward
Grey.

Count Metternich upon this pressed for counter proposals, which he
stated would be without prejudice and not binding unless we were
satisfied that our wishes were met on the naval question. On this
understanding Sir Edward Grey on the 14th of March, 1912, gave Count
Metternich the following draft formula, which had been approved by the
Cabinet:

England will make no unprovoked attack upon Germany, and pursue no
aggressive policy toward her.

Aggression upon Germany is not the subject, and forms no part of
any treaty, understanding, or combination to which England is now
a party, nor will she become a party to anything that has such an
object.

Count Metternich thought this formula inadequate, and suggested two
alternative additional clauses:

England will therefore observe at least a benevolent neutrality
should war be forced upon Germany; or

England will therefore, as a matter of course, remain neutral if a
war is forced upon Germany.

This, he added, would not be binding unless our wishes were met with
regard to the naval program.

SIR EDWARD GREY'S VIEW

Sir Edward Grey considered that the British proposals were sufficient.
He explained that, if Germany desired to crush France, England might
not be able to sit still, though, if France were aggressive or attacked
Germany, no support would be given by his Majesty's Government or
approved by England. It is obvious that the real object of the German
proposal was to obtain the neutrality of England in all eventualities,
since, should a war break out, Germany would certainly contend that it
had been forced upon her, and would claim that England should remain
neutral. An admirable example of this is the present war, in which,
in spite of the facts, Germany contends that war has been forced upon
her. Even the third member of the Triple Alliance, who had sources of
information not open to us, did not share this view, but regarded it as
an aggressive war.

Sir Edward Grey eventually proposed the following formula:

The two powers being mutually desirous of securing peace and
friendship between them, England declares that she will neither
make nor join in any unprovoked attack upon Germany. Aggression
upon Germany is not the subject, and forms no part of, any treaty,
understanding, or combination to which England is now a party, nor
will she become a party to anything that has such an object.

Sir Edward Grey when he handed this formula to Count Metternich said
that the use of the word "neutrality" would convey the impression that
more was meant than was warranted by the text; he suggested that the
substance of what was required would be obtained and more accurately
expressed by the words "will neither make nor join in any unprovoked
attack."

Count Metternich thereupon received instructions to make it quite
clear that the Chancellor could recommend the Emperor to give up the
essential parts of the Novelle (the bill then pending for the increase
of the German Navy) only if we could conclude an agreement guaranteeing
neutrality of a far-reaching character and leaving no doubt as to any
interpretation. He admitted that the Chancellor's wish amounted to
a guarantee of absolute neutrality, failing which the Novelle must
proceed.

Count Metternich stated that there was no chance of the withdrawal
of the Novelle, but said that it might be modified; it would be
disappointing to the Chancellor if we did not go beyond the formula we
had suggested.

Sir Edward Grey said that he could understand that there would be
disappointment if his Majesty's Government were to state that the
carrying out of the Novelle would put an end to the negotiations and
form an insurmountable obstacle to better relations. His Majesty's
Government did not say this, and it hoped that the formula which it
had suggested might be considered in connection with the discussion
of territorial arrangements, even if it did not prove effective in
preventing the increase of naval expenditure.

Sir Edward Grey added that if some arrangement could be made between
the two Governments it would have a favorable though indirect effect
upon naval expenditure as time went on; it would have, moreover, a
favorable and direct effect upon public opinion in both countries.

A few days afterward Count Metternich communicated to Sir Edward Grey
the substance of a letter from the Chancellor, in which the latter said
that, as the formula suggested by his Majesty's Government was from
the German point of view insufficient, and as his Majesty's Government
could not agree to the larger formula for which he had asked, the
Novelle must proceed on the lines on which it had been presented to the
Federal Council. The negotiations then came to an end, and with them
the hope of a mutual reduction in the expenditure on armaments of the
two countries.

* * * * *

THE EUROPEAN WAR AS SEEN BY CARTOONISTS

[American Cartoon]

[Illustration: "Advance!"

--_From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat._]

[Italian Cartoon]

[Illustration: There Is a Reason

----_From Il 420, Florence._

ST. PETER: "Why do you not protest against these German
barbarities?"

POPE BENEDICT: "Because I don't want to be a protestant pope!"]

[German Cartoon]

[Illustration: The Modern Miracle

The Statue of Liberty suddenly changed into a Fury!

Referring to President Wilson's "force to the uttermost" speech.]

[German Cartoon]

[Illustration: Paris Under Bombardment

Poincaré and Clemenceau when the big gun roars.]

[German Cartoon]

[Illustration: German Hatred of England

--_From Kladderadatsch, Berlin._

A Berlin version of what would happen if the peoples under British rule
could do as they pleased.]

[Dutch Cartoon]

[Illustration: Emperor Charles' "Dear Sixtus" Letter

--_From De Amsterdammer, Amsterdam._

JESTER VON BUELOW: "I was discharged because my master talked
too much."

JESTER CZERNIN: "And I because my master wrote
too much."]

[English Cartoon]

[Illustration: The "Dear Sixtus" Episode

--_From Passing Show, London._

"And a smile on the face of the tiger!"]

[English Cartoon]

[Illustration: Another War Problem

--_From London Opinion._

THE LAND LADY: "Will you show me to the underclothing
department, please?"

THE SHOPWALKER: "Certainly--er--men's or women's?"]

[Swiss Cartoon]

[ Illustration: The War and the Bread Basket

--_From Nebelspalter, Zurich._]

[Italian Cartoon]

[Illustration: The German Drive

--_From L'Asino, Rome_

Still more blood--by the wish of the Kaiser and his people.]

[American Cartoon]

[Illustration: "Men! Bah!"

--_From The St. Louis Post-Dispatch._]

[American Cartoons]

[Illustration: Change, Son, It's One or the Other

--_St. Louis Republic._]

[Illustration: "We Must Tighten the Bonds"]

--_Baltimore American._

[Illustration: No Compromise

--_St. Louis Republic._]

[Illustration: The Harder the Blow the Brighter the Sparks

--_Cincinnati Post._]

[German Cartoon]

[Illustration: The German Obsession of Militarism

TROTZKY TO DIPLOMATS: "Nothing doing, gentlemen. I'm deaf in
both ears."

--_From Kladderadatsch, Berlin._

TROTZKY TO ARMY OFFICERS: "Why--yes!-- With pleasure--and
haste! Any peace looks good to me!"]

[American Cartoon]

[Illustration: Good Fishing in Troubled Waters

--_From The New York Times._]

[French Cartoon]

[Illustration: Bombs and Shells

--_From La Victoire, Paris._

"Who said peace?"]

[American Cartoon]

[Illustration: "The Bear That Walks Like a"--Lamb!

--_From The New York Herald._]

[American Cartoon]

[Illustration: Shearing the Victim

--_From The New York Times._

THE ALLIES: "Perhaps we should save the Bear, even though he
doesn't yelp."]

[German Cartoon]

[Illustration: German Anti-Japanese Propaganda

How "Wily Wilson" and "Juggling John" tried to use the Japanese puma--

--and the result, somewhat different from what they expected.]

[Italian Cartoon]

[Illustration: Italy's Fighters in France

--_From Il 420, Florence._

ITALY: "Here I am, to lend a hand!"]

[Spanish Cartoon]

[Illustration: The Russian Peace

--_From Iberia, Barcelona._

TROTZKY AND LENINE: "We have done more than Kerensky!"]

[German Cartoon]

[Illustration: The American Brother

"Damn! I believe I'm too late for the entry into Berlin!"]

[German Cartoon]

[Illustration: The Effect in New York When the
long-distance shells fall in Paris.]

[German Cartoon]

[Illustration: Seventy-five Miles

A Berlin boast of what the long-range gun will do.]

[American Cartoon]

[Illustration: Picking the Lock

--_From The Galveston News._

He expected inconvenience; he found difficulty, and is coming
up against impossibility.]

[German Cartoon]

[Illustration: The Wish Is Father to the Thought

--_From Kladderadatsch, Berlin._

To the Adventurer: Stay at home and remain all write, (right.)]

[Dutch Cartoons]

[Illustration: Holland Begging From Warring Powers

SHADE OF ADRIAAN VAN DER WERFF: "Has my story taught you
nothing? Look out for yourself. Suffer anything rather than budge."]

[Illustration: Paris Bombarded by the Kaiser

--_From De Amsterdammer, Amsterdam._]

[American Cartoons]

[Illustration: How Long Can They Keep It Up?

--_Chicago Herald and Examiner._]

[Illustration: A Bumper Hun Harvest Is Predicted

--_Central Press Association._]

[Illustration: The New Austro-German Treaty

--_Dayton Daily News._]

[American Cartoons]

[Illustration: Family Troubles]

[Illustration: The Winning Hand]

[Illustration: Ukrainian Independence]

[The Watch on the Rhine

--_From The San Francisco Chronicle._]

*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, No. 1, July 1918" ***

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