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England was comparatively free. Here the best attempt at an understanding could be made which would have effectively guaranteed the peace of the world. I acted accordingly. The way was narrow, which I knew well. For decades the British insular intellect has been evolving the political principle, the dogma that the arbitrament of the world is due to England, which she can only maintain by undisputed supremacy on the sea and the much-quoted balance of power on the Continent.
I never hoped to break the old principle by persuasion. What I believe possible was that the growing power of Germany and the growing danger of war could be made to compel England to perceive that this old principle was untenable and unpractical, and that a peaceable arrangement with Germany was preferable, but that dogma always paralyzed the possibility of an understanding. After the crisis of 1911 public opinion forced British rulers to a rapprochement toward Germany. By wearisome work an understanding was finally reached in different disputed questions of economic interest which related to Africa and Asia Minor. This understanding should have diminished possible political friction if the free development of our strength were not impeded. Both peoples had sufficient space to measure their strength in peaceful competition.
This was the principle always upheld by German policy. But while we were negotiating England was always thinking of strengthening her relations with Russia and France. The decisive factor was that more binding military agreements for the case eventually of a Continental war were concluded outside the political sphere. England negotiated, if possible, secretly. If anything leaked out of importance it was minimized in press and Parliament. It could not be concealed from us. The whole situation was as follows:
England was willing to come to an understanding with us in individual questions, but the first principle always was that Germany's free development of strength must be checked by the balance of power.
We did not fail to warn the British Government. As recently as the beginning of July I notified the British Government that we knew of the secret naval negotiations with Russia concerning the Naval Convention. I pointed out the serious danger which British policy meant for the peace of the world. A fortnight later what I predicted occurred. When war had broken out England dropped her disguise. She loudly announced that she would fight till Germany was conquered in an economical and military sense. We have only one answer. Germany cannot be destroyed. As her military strength has stood the test so has her financial strength.
Look at the diminution in the number of unemployed. The unemployed of yesterday are the army of today—their spirit is that of the soldier of yesterday and of today—the one spirit that animates us all.
When this spirit, this moral greatness of the people, when the proved heroism of our troops is called by our enemies militarism, if they call us Huns and barbarians, we can be proud enough and need not worry. This wonderful spirit in the hearts of the German people, this unprecedented unity, must and will be victorious. When a glorious and happy peace is concluded we will maintain this spirit as the holiest legacy of this terrible and serious and great time. I repeat the words of the Emperor:
"I know no parties. I know only Germans. When the war is ended parties will return without parties, without a political fight. There is no political life, not even for the freest and most united people."
Many seats are vacant here. Where are their holders? You know. There is the vacant seat of Herr Frank, (Socialist member;) but he will return no more. The spirit of cheerful self-sacrifice which animates us here as the guardians of the people's weal inspires the entire people.
Japan joined our enemies from a desire to seize as booty the monument of German culture in the Far East. On the other hand, we have found an ally in Turkey, as all the Moslem peoples want to throw off the English yoke and shatter the foundations of England's colonial power. Under the banner of our army and the flag of our fleet we shall conquer.
This, then, is our inspiration—our vow! Germany shall fight on and continue to sacrifice herself on the altar of civilization and progress and patriotism until she shall have secured a guarantee from all that none henceforth shall disturb—shall dare to disturb—the peace of this, our German land.
A SONG OF THE SIEGE GUN.
By KATHERINE DRAYTON MAYRANT SIMONS, Jr.
Welded in the devil-workshop of the Essen blacksmith's stall, There conceived and consecrated to the nations' final fall, In the iron of my entrails, in my thews of shrunken steel, In my mighty bore of barrel, in the claw of cleated wheel, Through the travail of my forging, was there bred the ancient hate— Primal blood-feud of the races, which the races' blood must sate!
You, the Empress of the Ocean—did your statesmen ne'er foretell That your fortresses should crumble at the hot kiss of my shell? While the garnered greed of ages lay in leash beneath my breast, Did you deem an oath of honor more than is a royal jest? While you slept my masters labored! In the metal of my frame Molded they the mighty promise of a continent in flame! In the casting of my carriage, in the boring of my sheath, They have riveted my armor with the dormant dragon teeth!
By my twelve-mile range projectile, by my weight of forty tons, Do I mock the slender playthings which Allies now call their guns! Ever angry and unglutted, when the rocking fight is red, Then my slogan stirs all sleepers save the still and dreamless dead!
Lo! The past is but a promise! When my Saturnalia comes, Then the Saxon stands uncovered to a march of muffled drums, Then the northern snows are trampled where the Slavic horsemen sleep, And the Latin women tremble for their lovers as they weep!
Why England Fights Germany
By Hilaire Belloc.
[Copyright, 1915, by The New York Times Company.]
Hilaire Belloc has for years been among the most prominent of English writers, his political and economic opinions being widely quoted. As a historian he has given special attention to the French Revolution, being the author of "Danton," "Marie Antoinette," "The Girondins," and other studies which are regarded by scholars as standard works. Mr. Belloc's military knowledge and experience (he served in the Eighth Regiment of French Artillery) and his understanding of history have made him an acute and interesting chronicler of the present war. The following article appeared in THE NEW YORK TIMES of Jan. 17, 1915.
I shall attempt in what follows to answer the question "Why is England at war with Germany?" It is perhaps the most important question upon which neutral countries, and especially neutral English-speaking countries, should have a true answer. Upon their just appreciation of England's position in this war a great deal of the immediate future of the world will depend.
But before proceeding to answer the question directly, we must get rid of certain misconceptions.
The question must be, as the French say, not only "put," but "put in its due proportion." It is not enough to answer the question "Why is England at war with Germany?" unless we know to begin with what that event means to this gigantic war as a whole.
Let us begin, then, by saying that this great war is not primarily a war between England and Germany at all. England and Germany are not the two chief combatants. The issue is not a victory to be achieved by Germany on the one side, or England upon the other. The victory of one of the parties in the great struggle would not produce a much stronger England, though it certainly would produce a much stronger Germany.
The struggle is primarily and essentially a struggle between two conflicting theories of life and government, which have the Continent of Europe for their theatre, and of which the Prussians upon the one hand, the French upon the other, are the protagonists and have been the protagonists for now more than three generations.
All human conflicts have spiritual roots, and the underlying spiritual forces which by their contrast have led to this war are the forces of the old Latin and Christian civilization, with its doctrines of human equality and the rest, and the North German reaction against that tradition. Of the first the French are the guardians and have always been. Of the second the North Germans of the Baltic plain, and particularly the Prussians, have been the exponents; and one may survey Europe as a whole and say that the conflict spreads through the minds of all Europeans, dividing them between those who would prefer their posterity to live, consciously or unconsciously, under the ancient and continuous tradition of the civilization inherited from Rome or under some reversal of that tradition.
That conflict is apparent in every department of life; in the arts, in the customs of society, and, most important of all, in philosophy.
The direct, immediate, and perceptible issue of the struggle is again something different. It is an issue between the German-speaking peoples and the Slav. If you were to ask an acute, well-traveled observer, say a European diplomat, what, at bottom, this war was, he would answer you thus:
"This war is an armed conflict provoked by the German-speaking peoples under the leadership of Prussia against the Slavs under the leadership of the Russian Empire. It has been provoked by Prussia as leader of the German peoples, not in a spirit of aggression but in a spirit of self-defense. The German peoples have for centuries regarded themselves as the bulwark of European civilization against Slav barbarism. They believe that the Slav power is rapidly getting so great as to be an immediate peril. They think it must be fought now or never. On this account Austria was induced by Prussia to challenge the Russian Government over the Servian question.
"Either that challenge would be accepted, with the result of war, or Russia would give way, thereby obtaining for the German peoples a victory without bloodshed. And Austria would proceed to administrate the Servian Slavs and to control them—driving a wedge into the whole Slav power and rendering it innocuous for the future.
"In this struggle between Teuton and Slav France comes in as an accessory, having made an alliance with Russia long ago for her own ends, and having nothing to do with the quarrel between Teuton and Slav. The German-speaking peoples regret the interference of France, but are prepared to take on the burden of a French war rather than abandon the moment for restricting the growing power of the Slav.
"Now, in all this," (your experienced man with a wide view of Europe would add,) "England was not concerned. Her position was quite subsidiary in all this quarrel. She had far less to do with it even than France had, and it was in every Cabinet of Europe doubted whether England would come in at all. By the Prussian Government it was taken for granted that England would have no reason to come in. By the French it was feared in spite of the recent relations between the two countries that England would remain neutral. And, in general, the fact that England is at war at all is a fact on one side of the original quarrel and its original motives, though it is a fact that will profoundly affect the progress and the results of the war."
Such a statement would be no more than the plain truth as educated men know and see it in Europe today. The entry of England into the field of conflict was an entry from one side. It did not fall into line with the general motives of the people. It was, among all English statesmen, a matter of debate; it was decided by but a narrow majority of those responsible for so enormous a decision.
When we have clearly grasped these two fundamental facts—first, that the war is not on its mechanical side mainly a war between England and Germany, but mainly a war between two contrasting European and Continental ideals; secondly, the correlative fact that the entry of England into the war was not certain until the last hour, and was, when it was made, made only after doubtful consideration and after a division among the politicians, responsible for the conduct of her affairs, something almost accidental, as it were—we can proceed to consider the three causes which converging were sufficiently strong in their combination to produce that result, and when we know what those three causes were, their strength and the accidents of their convergence, at this moment we shall have answered the question, "Why is England at war with Germany?"
These three causes are:
1. The fixed cardinal point for English policy upon which no English patriot worthy of the name would hesitate for a moment, and which no historian with any sense of justice can condemn, to wit, that no one, if England can help it, shall have naval predominance over the British fleet, particularly in the narrow seas.
2. The effect of certain undertakings, a whole network of diplomatic actions, particularly in connection with France, engaged in by the English Foreign Office during the last ten years.
3. A certain vague attachment to the Western, or Latin, tradition of civilization with its routine of conventions in war and peace, and particularly of treaties as between first-class powers. This tradition was still sufficiently strong to act as a motive converging with the two others mentioned above to produce a sufficient moral stream in favor of war as, though sluggish, to help to turn the scale.
I say that these three things combined, upon the whole and doubtfully, discovered a sufficient strength between them to make the English politicians, after serious hesitation and close division, determine upon war.
Let me take them in their order:
1. The cardinal point of statesmanship upon which all English foreign policy has turned for two hundred years, that no one shall be more powerful at sea than England, especially upon the shores of the narrow seas, appears to foreigners unarguably arrogant.
It is, indeed, of its nature a challenge to the rest of the world, but if the reader will consider a moment he will see that it is a challenge to which modern England, at any rate, is inexorably condemned. However much such a position may clash with the temperament of chivalrous and peaceable men—and it does clash with the temperament of many an English statesman of the past and of the present—no one with a respect for his country, or paying the common duty of allegiance to it, can compromise upon the matter. It is here with England precisely as it has been with all her parallels, the great oligarchic commercial commonwealths of the past; she lives by the sea, and the closing of the sea would be to her not inconvenience, but death.
It is, I think, this very sentiment that England can live only on condition that the English fleet is supreme which has led England to use that supremacy so sparingly. It is true to say that there has been no force of so much superiority to its rivals as the British Navy which in all history has been used for such purely defensive purposes as the British Navy has been used during the present generation, and this moderation I conceive to be due to a clear recognition that morally the claim to supremacy at sea is a challenge which the great rival nations must feel acutely, and which they have a right to feel acutely, and which, therefore, must be softened in every possible way.
But if it is necessary that Great Britain should brook no rival at sea it is still more necessary that such a rival, should he arise, should not have naval bases within striking distance of her coast. The great exception has, of course, been France, and for two centuries at least that fact has molded the whole of British policy. Had Germany remained a Continental power and rejected maritime ambition that would still continue to mold British policy.
The French have, and Europe being what it is, will always continue to have the aptitude for the sea, the genius in mechanical invention and the superabundant wealth which between them are the three factors of the great modern fleet. A lengthy coast line training millions of her workers to a seafaring life, a long tradition of naval families, and pioneer in every form of modern naval war from the armor plate to the submarine, is the proof of this, if proof were needed.
As against the presence of some part of the French naval power on an opposing coast across a narrow armed water, the English Channel, Great Britain proceeded, generation after generation, to keep her control an essentially defensive naval force. She did it upon the position that her military effort, and therefore expenditure, should be slight; that her economic as her other energies should be chiefly devoted to her marine.
And though the French in the moments of their greatest prosperity were able, for all their constant military effort, to produce navies that rivaled those of Great Britain, yet Great Britain's effort was the more constant. She never engaged large bodies of men in war; she could take advantage of every French reverse during the two centuries when the French were perpetually engaged in huge Continental conflicts.
Great Britain, in a word, by ceaseless vigilance and at a great expense of energy, managed upon the whole to dominate one branch of the narrow seas, the channel. Upon the other branch, the North Sea, she felt nearly always secure. An exception to this security was found during the brief Dutch period in the seventeenth century and again, much more acutely, when the French were the masters of the Low Countries, and when Napoleon took control of the shipbuilding yards not only from Brest to Dunkirk, but from Dunkirk to the Bight of Heligoland.
This presence of the French power in Holland, Belgium, and Frisia, in particular the French control of Antwerp, was the true cause of violent anxiety, and the no less violent efforts in reply which Britain made during the Napoleonic wars. For twenty-three years she fought, with but two short intervals of repose, upon a dozen nominal pleas, but with one plain piece of statesmanship at the back of her mind—that no one should control the narrow seas against herself.
And especially that if she could not prevent the existence in normal times of a very powerful, dangerous French fleet, rendering her anxious for one-half of those seas, at least the other half should be free from such anxiety.
In the midst of such a secular determination, successfully maintained, Germany began to build her new great modern fleet.
The German Empire had a most unquestioned right thus to challenge the power of Great Britain. It was indeed the most effective challenge which a nation jealous of Britain's commerce could deliver, but it is none the less true that the plain policy of self-preservation compelled Britain to take up that challenge.
For the first time in three hundred years Britain found herself beginning to support French trades, in the general policy of the world.
The French, for reasons which had nothing to do with England and with which the mass of the English governing classes in no way sympathized, had maintained for more than thirty years a determination to restore their own power at the expense of Prussia. Because modern Germany was building her fleet, modern Britain, in order to check that movement, began thus in novel fashion and against all the old English traditions to support the French.
The thing was done at the bottom with reluctance. All Englishmen felt the common bond of religion which united their country with that which governs modern Germany. Many Englishmen believed that there was some vague bond of race between the two countries. Not a few worthy, ignorant men, and even one or two men of great ability, attempted to direct negotiations whereby a fixed ratio should exist between the two fleets; in other words, whereby the German Empire should pledge itself to a permanent inferiority at sea.
That empire would indeed have been more foolish even than cowardly had it listened to any such proposals. The position, therefore, was one of inevitable and increasing friction. It was a matter of life and death to England that no other great Western fleet should exist besides the French, and it was a matter of national existence to Germany once she had undertaken a policy not to give up that policy at the dictation of any other power—for, among other things, modern Germany lived on prestige; her whole internal structure depended upon it, and for Prussia to lose faith before Europe would be the end of the Germany that Prussia had made.
There are those who say that a Germany conducted by some Richelieu, or even by a surviving Bismarck, would never have attempted the building of a great fleet until accounts had been finally settled with France. There are those who say that the elements of statesmanship required the German Empire first to settle herself politically upon the shores of the Straits of Dover and the Netherlands, first to destroy the danger of a great war in the west on land, then and then only to begin building that fleet which must inevitably challenge Great Britain. It is no part of this criticism to consider the statesmanship of another nation, but at any rate once the policy of building the fleet was begun conflict with England was in sight.
2. The second cause of England's joining in this war is the effect of a number of internal arrangements, some of them of minor importance, but all leading in one direction and ultimately placing the Government of Great Britain in a position from which it was difficult to retire. In general terms these arrangements were based upon the idea of joining the group of powers, French and Russian, which formed the counterpoise to the Germanic group in Europe, the German Empire and Austria. At the same time there was running through these arrangements the idea of detaching Italy, whose Government was firmly attached to Germany, but whose population was very doubtful, from the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria, and Italy, which had been the cardinal point in European affairs for a generation.
The various steps by which Great Britain approached this position are well known. In the first place, she came to an arrangement with France whereby she should have a free hand in Egypt and France should be supported by England in the occupation of Morocco. This was done behind the back of Germany to the manifest loss of Germany's colonial ambition and, what is more noticeable, England was openly paying a very high price for the new state of affairs she hoped to create, for she had pretty well a free hand in Egypt, already, while France's opportunity of going to Morocco and exploiting a very large area of valuable territory—something quite new and additional to her—depended upon England's withdrawing her opposition.
That opposition was withdrawn; and though the most violent effect was produced in Germany, though there were threats of war, pitiable quarrels within the French Cabinet and a moment of grave danger, the pact was accomplished, and Morocco, all save the strip opposite Gibraltar, became French, while all that Germany had to show for her share was an irregularly shaped and not valuable couple of slices cut out of tropical Africa in the Congo Basin from the vast French possessions there, and added to her own still insufficient share.
Another group of arrangements was that with Russia, and here again England willingly paid a heavy price, and again completely reversed her traditional policy. She gave all that is vital in Persia to Russian control. She forgot her old anxiety about the Indian frontier; she lost her old and hitherto unbroken policy of supporting Turkey in Europe. When the war came she was with the French in supporting the Balkan powers, "The Little Nations."
Finally, in the matter of Italy, she supported or permitted the Italian attack upon and annexation of Turkish territory in North Africa, and consistently, before and after that event, worked for the strengthening of Italy in the Triple Alliance and for securing the neutrality of that country, at least in case of a European war.
There were many other arrangements besides these three principal and typical ones, but all, small or great, were based upon the same idea, and pointed in the same direction. England was leaning upon the Russian side against Germany. The most important in the minor details in this new policy, the one which has had most effect perhaps in producing the war, was an understanding whereby the French fleet should virtually evacuate the Northern Seas and undertake for England the policing of the Mediterranean trade routes, and the guardianship of that source of food supply to Great Britain, thus leaving the whole weight of the British Navy free to guard the North Sea, and to face the new and growing German naval force.
Now, it must always be borne in mind that these arrangements, large and small, detailed and general, whereby Great Britain gradually involved herself in a network of French and Russian supports and reciprocal duties, never took the form of an alliance. The utmost pains were taken by English diplomatists and permanent officials at the English Foreign Office, experts and servants, to state that England remained free in spite of all to act as her conscience or her interest might dictate, whenever, or if, war should break out between the two groups of Continental powers. No one can read the conflict of evidence between the German Ambassador and Sir Edward Grey in the highly typical telephone incident which took place immediately before the recent declaration of war without seeing that liberty of action was maintained by the Government of Great Britain until the very last moment.
But one cannot do a number of things, each weighted with a similar tendency, without one's whole conduct and fate being determined in the direction to which those actions tend. To preserve one's legal or technical independence is not enough. In this specific case, for instance, the naval arrangement proved an exceedingly weighty thing. France could say:
"Relying on your explicit, though not expressed, support of myself and Russia, I guarded your trade routes in the Mediterranean and left my northern coasts undefended. Here is war about to break out with those northern coasts of mine bare against the overwhelming attack from the German fleet, and with nothing wherewith I can guard it; and that nakedness is entirely due to having trusted you. You may not have a legal obligation, but the moral one is not to be shirked."
At any rate, I insist upon the tendency of all these various diplomatic acts, because it has been they that might have dragged the most reluctant Government into this conflict, and it was they which, in combination with the cardinal policy of preventing maritime rivalry in the narrow seas, decided the present policy of this country.
3. But, as I have said, there was a third cause, much vaguer and, until war actually broke out, of little effect. Though there had existed for thirty years from 1880 until after the beginning of the new century such strong bonds of sympathy between Great Britain and North Germany—bonds riveted by Court influence and much more strengthened by the influence of the universities and of religious leaders—though some contempt for and alienation from the French had become of increasing note in English public utterances and literature, yet Great Britain retained upon the whole the Western doctrine of civilization and of its traditions.
The increasing German reaction against those traditions, particularly in morals, was not wholly sympathetic to the temper of the gentry, at least in England, and was sometimes exasperating.
All nations have cynically violated treaties at one time or another, but there is about a solemnly undertaken treaty by the great European powers and affecting the happiness of the smaller neutral States something particularly sacred. And though it must not for one moment be regarded as the principal cause of the war, it is true that the crudity of Prussia's neglect of treaties, the too simple fashion in which Prussia proposed a breach of international obligations in the matter of Belgium, did affect the conscience of not a few powerful men in England, and, what is perhaps more important, furnished a definite and concrete point on which the doubtful issue of peace or war could repose.
It must be remembered in this connection that Prussia had a novel tradition of her own in such matters. The phrase "The Frederickian tradition" is an accurate phrase. Frederick the Great did start the open and avowed doctrine that a breach of international convention and of international morals is always tolerable in the aggrandizement of one's country.
I think one is not telling the truth if one says that the proposed violation of Belgian territory for the invasion of France was of a nature to cause an explosion of anger in the very hardened minds of the professional politicians in any modern country. There is not one group of them that has not been guilty of something of the sort before. But I think one is telling the truth if one says that the over-simple and cold way in which Prussia took it for granted that the violation of a solemn and most important treaty was nothing just shocked opinion, even of the politicians, sufficiently to help to incline the balance against her.
There is much more. The Prussian estimate of Russian, of French, and even of English psychology was very erroneous. The Prussian way of getting France not to join is about as subtle as spitting in a man's face, and the elephantine gambols of the German diplomats in London during the fatal week preceding the war were a positive aid to the catastrophe that was about to take place. They blundered as hard and as heavily as it was possible to blunder; going to the wrong people; despising the subtly powerful; paying court to the more advertised and less controlling of the English public men, and in a word behaving themselves after that fashion for which we have coined the adjective "newspaper."
There was further the peculiar aggravation of the tone in which the Austrian note had been addressed to Servia. There was further the patent and almost puerile double dealing of Berlin in the attempted negotiations for peace between Russia and Austria—in which negotiations the British Cabinet was very prominent. But beyond all these other minor points, these three causes I have mentioned, by their convergence, seem to have determined England's participation in the war, with all the enormous but as yet unguessed consequences that will follow therefrom.
I repeat, I do not say that any one of those three causes would in itself have been sufficient. The three combining were just sufficient, and this account, if I am not mistaken, justly presents the picture that history should have of the manner in which Great Britain determined to conclude the long process of her recent diplomatic revolution and to engage with the Allies against the German Empire and the Hapsburg house, which the German Empire tows in its wake.
AT THE VILLA ACHILLEION CORFU.
By H.T. SUDDUTH.
A haunting presence seems to fill the air, A shade of grandeur gone and e'er to be One with the legends of the Ionian Sea— One memory more linked with Corcyra fair, Disjoined, alas! from presence otherwhere— A lost illusion of the years once free And glorious in the kindling memory Of grand Homeric Past still lingering there!
The olive orchards crown the hills; the vine And rose still flourish on the sunny slopes As in Alcinous' Gardens; Morning opes Her eyes irradiant with the dawn divine! But now no longer at Achilleion The Kaiser wakes to see fair Eos dawn.
In Belgian or in Russian lands afar, Beneath the smoke-cloud cope of shrouded Heaven Where hissing shot and shell and War's red levin Spread far and wide the canopy of War! Where Nature shudders and seems to abhor The awful scene; where myriad souls, unshriven, From life and all its joys at once are riven, Behold the Kaiser now 'neath Mars' red star!
A stern and sombre, gray-haired figure he, And standing midst the wreck of youthful dreams Sees he at times through battle smoke the gleams Of rippling waves on blue Ionian Sea? Thinks he not sadly on the days now gone, And dreams he dreamed at fair Achilleion?
Germany's Strategic Railways
By Walter Littlefield.
Germany's explanation of her violation of Belgium's neutrality has thus far assumed two successive phases which have been placed on record by the Imperial Chancellor in as many speeches in the Reichstag. Before that body Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg said on Aug. 4, 1914:
Our troops have occupied Luxemburg, and perhaps have also found it necessary to enter Belgium territory. This is contrary to international law. The French Government has declared in Brussels that they will respect the neutrality of Belgium as long as she respects the opponent. We know, however, that France was ready to invade Belgium. France could wait; we, however, could not, because a French invasion in our lower Rhein flanks would have proved fatal. So we were forced to disregard the protests of the Luxemburg and Belgian Governments. We shall try to make good the injustice we have committed as soon as our military goal has been reached. Who, like we, are fighting for the highest, must only consider how victory can be gained.
On Dec. 2 last Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg said:
When, on Aug. 4, I spoke of the wrong which we were committing with our march into Belgium, it was not yet established whether the Belgian Government at the last moment would not desire to spare the country and retire under protest to Antwerp.... Now, however, that it is demonstrated by documents found in Brussels how the Belgians surrendered their neutrality to England the entire world knows two facts. One is that when our troops on the night of Aug. 3-4 entered Belgian territory they were on the ground of a State which had given up its neutrality long ago....
To both these charges the Belgium Government has made reply. To the first it said that, while the assurance that France would not invade Belgium was sufficient, yet if France did take the initiative the Belgian Army stood ready to defend its territory from a French invasion.
To the second, it said that the documents found in Brussels merely showed an exchange of ideas as to how England might aid Belgium in defending her neutrality against an attack by Germany, and that there was nothing binding on either England or Belgium as to the outcome of these "conversations" of military experts.
In rebuttal Germany has asked: But why were we also not taken into the confidence of Brussels and similar plans formulated by which we might aid Belgium in repelling an invasion from either France or England?
To this the answer is simple: It has always been one of the objects of British policy to preserve Belgian neutrality, and that, aside from moral considerations, it would not be good military science for France to seek Germany via Belgium.
But this answer is capable of an expansion it has not hitherto received. Why did Belgium appear to fear an invasion from Germany and not one from England or France?
One has heard a great deal about Germany's supposed ambition to expand her North Sea coast at the expense of Denmark, Holland and Belgium, by coercing the Danish and the Dutch Governments to rebuild their coast fortifications toward England and to dismantle their forts on the German frontier. Much has also been said of Germany's contemplated invasion of the Low Countries at the time of the Agadir incident in 1911.
Documentary proof of Germany's contemplated initiative has hitherto been missing. Certain facts have, however, recently come to hand which enable one to review the German explanation. One of these facts embraces a project for railway expansion engineered and carried out on the Belgian frontier, which can leave no doubt in any reasonable mind that Germany deliberately planned to violate Belgium's neutrality the moment it became a military expediency to invade France.[8]
[Footnote 8: Compare the railway maps of Northern France and Northern Germany in "Cook's Continental Time Tables" for the years 1908 and 1914.
A confidential agent of the British Government examined the ground in May, 1914. Part of the results of his work has been published from time to time by the military correspondents of The Times and The Morning Post of London and all is particularly designated in the British Foreign Office Memorandum secured by Prof. Hibben of Princeton on Nov. 9, 1914, and published in THE NEW YORK TIMES of Nov. 25. In this memorandum it is stated:
"The strategic dispositions of Germany, especially as regards railways, have for some years given rise to the apprehension that Germany would attack France through Belgium."
The disposition of the Third, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Germany Army Corps and the First, Fourth, and Fifth Cavalry Divisions, from Aug. 2 to 5, shown on French war maps, reveals that the attack was so made.]
If, according to jurisprudence, the planning to commit crime is legally on a par with its achievement, then Germany, for five years prior to the war, had been guilty of violating Belgium's neutrality—guilty in such a manner as to leave no doubt in the minds of Belgian, French, and English statesmen and military experts that the actual commission of the crime would some day take place.
It was Belgium's peculiar duty, as will be seen, to prepare for that day. To have taken Germany into her confidence on a point on which Germany was already fully informed would very likely have hastened the day and the tragedy thereof.
In keeping up her forts facing Germany and building none on the French frontier, in exchanging ideas with English military experts as to how best her neutrality could be defended, Belgium was preparing for the inevitable. This inevitableness is no longer a matter of moral conjecture. It is a matter of material evidence.
First, let us see what it was that Germany violated. Belgium, partly by a decree of the Vienna Congress in 1815 and partly by revolution, secured her independence from the Netherlands in 1830. The next year she inaugurated her Constitution, and by the Treaty of London, signed Nov. 15, 1831, became the god-child, as it were, of Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia, who guaranteed her neutrality for all time in the following manner:
Article 7—Belgium, within the limits specified in Articles 1, 2, and 4, shall form an independent and perpetually neutral State. She shall be bound to observe this same neutrality toward all other States.
Article 26—Consequent upon the stipulation of the present treaty there shall be peace and unity between H.M. the King of the Belgians, on one part, and H.M. the Emperor of Austria, the King of the French, the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the King of Prussia, and the Emperor of all the Russians, on the other, respectively, forever.
The treaty, however, was not at once put into force, for there was a pending quarrel between Belgium and the Netherlands. When peace was made in 1839 the treaty was again brought forward, signed, and promulgated. Thereupon all the States of Europe recognized the Kingdom of Belgium. The plenipotentiaries who then signed the treaty were Palmerston for Great Britain, Sylvan van de Weyer for Belgium, Senfft for Austria, H. Sebastiani for France, Buelow for Prussia, and Pozzo di Borgo for Russia.
It has been asserted that, for various reasons, it was not incumbent upon the German Empire to observe the treaties contracted for by the Kingdom of Prussia. But these assertions, even to German statesmen, amount to nothing. That the German Government recognized that "the neutrality of Belgium is determined by international conventions" has been repeatedly asserted by its numbers, from the inauguration of the Imperial Constitution, April 16, 1871, down to Aug. 4, 1914, when the Imperial Chancellor admitted that the presence of German troops in Belgium was "contrary to international law."
This he stated in the Reichstag. "I speak openly," he had said. That same evening he is reported to have exclaimed to the British Ambassador that "just for a word—'neutrality,' a word which in war time had so often been disregarded—just for a scrap of paper Great Britain was going to make war on a kindred nation who desired nothing better than to be friends with her."
There can be no doubt that Germany realized just what she was doing when she marched her troops into Belgium. The question is, had she any preconceived idea of such a march?
In the southwest corner of Prussia is a rectangular piece of territory, the western and eastern sides of which are formed respectively by the Belgian and Luxemburg frontiers and the River Rhine. This territory includes about 3,600 square miles, and supports a population including the great centres of Cologne, Coblence, Aix-la-Chapelle, and Treves, of nearly 1,000,000 souls. In other words, it is an area about half as large as New Jersey, if we omit that State's water surface, and just about as thickly populated.
Five years ago this little corner of Prussia had about 15.10 miles of railway to every 100 square miles of territory and New Jersey 30.23. In five years the Prussian territory has increased her railway mileage to 28.30 and New Jersey to a little less than 30.25.
Five years ago, in the Prussian territory, the only double lines existing were those from Cologne to Treves, from Coblence to Treves, and the two double lines, one on each side of the Rhine, from Cologne to Coblence, thus forming the three sides of a triangle. There was also the double track running from Cologne to Aix-la-Chapelle. These double lines were fed as commerce required, by only two sets of single-track lines, all amounting to a little less than 550 miles of traction—a very fair service, considering the products of the country covered.
In five years, without any apparent industrial and commercial demand for it, this traction has been increased to nearly twice its length, or to about 1,020 miles. Villages like Dumpelfeld, Ahrdorf, Hillesheim, Pronsfeld, and the health resort of Gerolstein of comic opera fame, all of less than 1,300 inhabitants, have been linked up by double-track lines with towns like Remagen, St. Vith, and Andernach, whose populations only range from 1,500 to 9,000.
Exactly what has been done? In the first place the Stolberg-St. Vith line has been relaid and doubled, and very extensive detraining stations constructed at various points along it, especially at Weiwertz and St. Vith. Then the Remagen-Adenau line has been doubled as far as Dumpelfeld, whence a double line has been continued to Hillesheim, with double branches outward from Hillesheim to Pelm and Junkerath, both on the Cologne-Treves railway.
Then from Ahrdorf, between Dumpelfeld and Hillesheim, a single line has been built to connect with the Cologne-Treves line at Blankenheim, and a most important double track laid across the barren country from Junkerath to Weiwertz on the Stolberg-St. Vith line.
It will thus be seen that five lines converge on Pelm: the double line from Cologne, the new double line from Remagen via Hillesheim, and the single line from Andernach. Pelm is 2-3/4 miles from Gerolstein, and yet over this short distance between the two villages there are laid down six parallel lines of rail, besides numerous additional sidings. Moreover, the double line from Hillesheim to Junkerath crosses over the main Cologne-Treves line by a bridge, and runs parallel to it for some distance before turning off to the left to reach Weiwertz.
In fact the knot of lines around Junkerath, Pelm and Gerolstein is a marvel of construction for heavy, rapid transit, for no congestion would arise in a case of a sudden flood of traffic going in various directions, and to secure still more freedom the line from Gerolstein to Pronsfeld has been doubled.
Few of these lines, it is to be noted, cross the frontier. Three of them as late as last May led to blind terminals within less than a day's march from it—the double line from Cologne via Stolberg to Weiwertz, the double line from Cologne via Junkerath and Weiwertz to St. Vith, and the double line from Remagen via Hillesheim and Pelm to Pronsfeld.
The cost of the whole system, with its numerous bridges and multiple sidings, must have been enormous. The German average of $108,500 to the mile would hardly cover it.
Here is what a traveler saw when he visited this corner of Prussia last May:
The —— is as much struck by the significance of the ordinary traffic along these lines as he is by the huge embankments and cuttings on which nothing has yet had time to grow, and by the inordinate extent and number of the sidings to be seen everywhere. Baby trains, consisting of a locomotive and four short cars, dodder along two or three times a day, and if a freight train happens to be encountered, it will be found to be loaded with railway plant.
Another point that is noticeable is that provision exists everywhere at these new junctions and extensions for avoiding an up-line crossing a down-line on the level; the up-line is carried over the down-line by a bridge, involving long embankments on both sides and great expense, but enormously simplifying traffic problems when it comes to a question of full troop trains pushing through at the rate of one every quarter of an hour, and the empty cars returning eastward at the same rate.
The detraining stations are of sufficient length to accommodate the longest troop train (ten cars) easily, and they generally have at least four sidings apart from the through up-and-down lines. Moreover, at almost every station there are two lines of siding long enough for troop trains, so that they can be used to some extent as detraining stations, and so that a couple of troop trains can be held up at any time while traffic continues uninterrupted.
It is impossible to believe that this system was constructed for any other purpose than to prepare for the exigency which might some day force Germany to ignore the Treaty of 1839 and invade Belgium. At least it presumably accounts for the vast armies which invested Liege and Namur in the early days of last August.
Its existence, in both the light and the darkness of the Treaty of Neutrality, shows that Belgium was justified in taking any measures which were likely to preserve her national existence, so obviously threatened. That these measures were always within the letter and spirit of the treaty of 1839 is so much to her credit.
The strategic lines that Germany built on her frontier would have justified her in going further. Her obligations to herself and to her pledged protectors prevented this. Germany went on with her railway building unchallenged. She laboriously constructed an edifice which is both a monument and an altar—a monument to military forethought and expediency, an altar on which she has sacrificed her national honor.
GLORY OF WAR.
By ADELINE ADAMS.
"Singer, why are you white and sad, And staring through the stars?" "The friend and brother I once had Is fallen in the Wars."
"Was he at Mons, or by the Aisne, Or near the Flanders shore?" "Also at Rheims, and in Lorraine, And places many more."
"Had he no children, fair of limb?" "Yes, he had many sons, But most are fallen there with him, Before the monstrous guns."
"And were the daughters of his heart Crushed also to the sod?" "The nun who saw their lot and part Died maniac, cursing God."
"His wife?" "The woman lives, yet dies Daily, and with the grace Men say befits her sacrifice, As it befits her race."
"What was her race, and your friend's rank? Was he of the first line? And was he Briton, Russ, or Frank, Or from beside the Rhine?"
"Ah, many thousand times untold My friend was each of these, And went from mart or forge or fold, To drown in red, red seas!"
Chronology of the War
Showing Progress of Campaigns on All Fronts and Collateral Events from Oct. 15, 1914, to and Including Jan. 7, 1915.[9]
[Footnote 9: This war chronology is continued from the issue of Jan. 23, and will be carried on in successive issues.]
CAMPAIGN IN EASTERN EUROPE
Oct. 16—German-Austrian forces assume offensive between the Vistula River and Galicia; fighting near Warsaw and Przemysl; Germans forced back into arid country from vicinity of Ivangorod; Servians and Montenegrins defeat Austrians at Glasinatz.
Oct. 17—Germans advance near Mlawa; their attempts to cross the Vistula repulsed; Austrians claim successes in Galicia; Montenegrins, French, and British bombard Cattaro.
Oct. 18—Austrians repulsed at River San; both sides claim victories in Przemysl district; report that Germans have lost heavily in trying to cross the Vistula at Ivangorod; Servians rout Austrians on the Save and the Drina.
Oct. 19—Fierce fighting near Warsaw and Przemysl; Servians capture Serajevo forts.
Oct. 20—Przemysl forts damaged; Austrians advance in Stryi and Stica Valleys; Servians win at Prekiet.
Oct. 21—Russian General Staff announces German rout in Poland and halting of Austrians at the San; Servians repel Austrian attacks in Bosnia.
Oct. 22—Russians defeat Germans near Warsaw; Russians capture many Austrian soldiers and some guns in Galicia.
Oct. 23—Russians pursue retreating Austrians in Poland; Germans move fortified positions to River Warthe and claim victory west of Augustowo; Austrians reoccupy Czernowitz and announce capture of fortifications around Sambor.
Oct. 24—Russians drive Germans back forty miles from Warsaw; fighting south of Piliza River; Berlin reports repulse of attacks west of Augustowo; fighting in Galicia; both sides claim victory in Bosnia.
Oct. 25—Russians defeat German rear guard trying to cross the Rivers Ravka, Skernevka, and Rylka; German-Austrian forces repulsed near Przemysl; fighting in Bosnia.
Oct. 26—Battle raging between Rawa and the Iijanka River.
Oct. 27—New Russian Army crosses the Vistula north of Ivangorod; Russians drive Germans from Rawa; Austrians claim victory in Galicia.
Oct. 28—Germans admit that German and Austrian troops have been forced to retire from Russian Poland as fresh Russians come up; fighting along River San; Hungarian cavalry division almost annihilated in Galicia.
Oct. 29—Russians split opposing armies north and south of Piliza River; Northern German army in retreat.
Oct. 30—German Army retreating from the Vistula is hard pressed by the Russians, who capture guns and aeroplanes and reoccupy Czernowitz; Austrian defeat near Tarnow.
Oct. 31—Germans lose heavily on East Prussian line; Russians occupy towns beyond the Vistula; Austrians capture several Russian positions and win victory on border of Bukowina.
Nov. 1—Russians regain more of Poland and advance along whole front beyond the Vistula; fighting at Opatow; Montenegrins bombard Cattaro and advance in Herzegovina; Austrian movement checked at Nadworna.
Nov. 2—Russians advance on East Prussia, while northern force covers Warsaw; Germans retreat in three lines; German-Austrian armies in Poland make another stand; battle between Austrians and Servians near Rovrye.
Nov. 3—Russians continue advances in East Prussia and Poland; Austrians storm Sabao.
Nov. 4—Russians capture Barkalarjewo, drive left wing of German Army back toward Biala and Lyck, and dislodge rear guards from Kola and Przedborz; Austrians defeated on entire front from Kielce to Sandomierz.
Nov. 5—Germans in critical position; frost a new misery of the campaign.
Nov. 6—Russians recapture Jaroslaw; Austrians in retreat along entire Galician front; Germans continue to retreat in East Prussia.
Nov. 7—Russians attack last fortified German position at Sieradz on the Warthe; Germans check Russians at Kola; Austrian Embassy at Washington denies defeat.
Nov. 8—Russian cavalry invades Posen Province and destroys railroad near Pleschen; German border population in Posen and Silesia in flight; Russians in Wirballen; Przemysl again attacked.
Nov. 9—Russians are sweeping over the Prussian frontier; they occupy Goldapp; Germans withdraw further from the Vistula; Austrians are pushed back toward Cracow; Russians take many prisoners near Przemysl; Germans win victory near Wyschtuniz Lake and capture 4,000 prisoners; Servians force Austrian retirement near Shabats; Russians are twenty miles from Insterburg and seventy from Posen; Kaiser's estate at Riminten ruined.
Nov. 10—Right wing of German Army driven back toward Masuran Lakes; Germans rush reinforcements to Thorn and Posen; Russians occupy Miechow; Austrians defeat Servians near Losnitza.
Nov. 11—Russians attack Cracow defenses; Austrians are pursuing Servians on Shabats-Losnitza line.
Nov. 12—Russians control East Prussian frontier railway; siege of Przemysl resumed; Austrians win victory at Pruth; at the San River they try to halt advance on Cracow; Servians rout Austrians who attempt to cross the Danube near Semandria.
Nov. 13—Austrians evacuate Central Galicia; Russians take Tarnow, Jaslo, and Krosno; Germans face about and advance on Poland on forty-mile front; Germans defeat Russians in Galicia and near Kola.
Nov. 14—Russians continue advance in East Prussia; they cross the River Schreniava about fifteen miles from Cracow; Germans have successes at Stallupoenen and Vlaclaweo.
Nov. 15—Germans withdraw from Kalisz and Weljun; they are repulsed near Czenstochow; Russians reach Angerburg.
Nov. 16—Germans check Russian advance in East Prussia at Stallupoenen; Russians advancing from Soldau are defeated and driven back toward Plock; Russians in Russian Poland driven back to Kutno after German success at Wlozlawsk; Cracow is besieged.
Nov. 17—Great battle is being fought in Poland between the Vistula and Warthe Rivers; Germans are falling back on the entire line between Gumbinnen and Angerburg; Austrians reach the Kolubara River and capture 8,000 Servians.
Nov. 18—Russian advance guard between the Vistula and the Warthe driven back toward the Bzura; battle fought at Soldau; Russians advance in East Prussia; Servians and Montenegrins win fight near Trebinje forts.
Nov. 19—Russians driven back behind the Bzura; Germans, reinforced, advance twelve miles beyond Lenczyca; Russians push forward in East Prussia and Galicia.
Nov. 20—Russians check von Hindenburg on the Vistula-Warthe line and win success near Lodz; both sides claim successes on Cracow-Czentochowo line; Russian advance continues in East Prussia around Masurian Lakes; Russians take four towns in Galicia.
Nov. 21—Russians take Przemysl trenches and find them filled with lime as cholera preventive; heavy fighting in Poland; fighting at Cracow; lull in East Prussia; Servians fall back on strong positions; they deny Austrian reports of victories.
Nov. 22—German Army advances to forty miles from Warsaw; fighting on line from Lowicz to Skierniewice; Russians take Gumbinnen; Austrians evacuate Neu Sandec; Russians take 2,000 prisoners near Cracow; Austrians cross Kolubara River and capture many Servians.
Nov. 23—German advance on Warsaw checked by arrival of Russian reinforcements; many Germans captured near Lowicz; Austrians capture 2,400 Russians at Pilica; successful sortie by Przemysl garrison.
Nov. 24—Ten-day battle in Poland ends in Russian victory, Germans being pressed back.
Nov. 25—Left wing of main German Army surrounded in Russian Poland; remainder of army tries to retreat north of Lodz; von Hindenburg reported cut off from Crown Prince; Russians again invade Hungary and corner Austrians in Carpathian passes; Servians rout Austrians who crossed the Kolubara.
Nov. 26—Russians report continued successes, while Germans report victories between Lodz and Lowicz; Servians make gains; Austrians report Przemysl undamaged.
Nov. 27—Germans are sending reinforcements; Austrians admit evacuation of Czernowitz; Montenegrins defeat Austrians near Vishegrad.
Nov. 28—Germans retreat in Poland, fighting hard; Russians gain near Cracow, and near Strykow; Russians in Czernowitz.
Nov. 29—Montenegrins defeat Austrians in Bosnia; Russians split German Army at Lodz into three parts and repulse relief column at Gombin; fighting at Strykow and Zgierz; fighting in the Carpathians.
Nov. 30—Three battles are being fought in Poland; Russians report capture of ten miles of German trenches near Lowicz; Russians fail in attack on Darkehmen; Russians have successes in Galicia and the Carpathians.
Dec. 1—Germans break through Russian wing near Lodz, capturing 12,000 prisoners and 25 guns; Russians claim they have taken 50,600 Austrian prisoners in two weeks in Galicia; Austrians claim victories and capture of 35,000 Russians in Poland; Russians seize German ammunition barges on the Vistula; Servians capture 1,500 Austrians on the River Djid; Germans are suffering from the cold in Poland.
Dec. 2—Austrians take Belgrade; both sides claim victories in Poland; Russians win at Szczercow, enter Wieliczka, and occupy strong positions on the Vistula; Montenegrins repulse Austrians trying to cut them off from Servians.
Dec. 3—Germans claim capture of 100,000 Russians in battles in Poland; they attempt to flank Russian right wing; Austrians repulse assaults on Przemysl; Russians take Bartfeld; Austrians report continued victories and say that Belgrade was taken at the bayonet's point.
Dec. 4—Russians win at Lodz; Germans have suffered heavy losses in Poland; Allies land troops in Montenegro.
Dec. 5—Germans, reinforced, form new battle line and move on Piotrkow, after losing heavily at Lodz.
Dec. 6—Germans occupy Lodz and drive wedge into Russian centre; one Przemysl fort falls; Russians shell Cracow.
Dec. 7—Russians bombard Cracow suburbs; new battle on in Poland; Russians besiege fortress of Lotzen; Germans abandon Zgier; Servians check Austrian advance.
Dec. 8—Germans again in Cracow.
Dec. 9—Servians recapture towns of Valjevo and Ushirza, and take many Austrian prisoners; Germans lose heavily in attack on Lowicz; Austrians defeated near Cracow; Russians claim that they have 750,000 Austrian and German prisoners in Russia.
Dec. 10—Servians capture many Austrians and large stores of supplies.
Dec. 11—Three German columns repulsed in Poland; Austrians defeated north of Kesmaj and Parovnitza.
Dec. 12—Servians repulse Austrians at Kosmai; Germans occupy Przanysz, but their front line is pierced; Lodz has been evacuated by the Russians.
Dec. 13—Germans are defeated in Mlawa region; Posen prepares for a siege; Austrian right wing, driven into Bosnia by the Servians, is attacked by Montenegrins.
Dec. 14—Servians reoccupy Belgrade; Austrians reoccupy Dukla in the Carpathians and capture 9,000 Russians; Germans gain in Northern Poland.
Dec. 15—Austrians abandon Belgrade without a battle; Germans rush fresh troops to the Vistula; Austrians recross Carpathians into Galicia and drive Russian left back toward the San River.
Dec. 16—King Peter enters Belgrade at head of an army; Servian General Staff announces that country is free of invaders; Russians have new army in Warsaw.
Dec. 17—Germans report Russian offensive against Silesia and Posen to be completely broken; battle at Sochaczew; Austrians have success in West Galicia.
Dec. 18—Russians admit falling back and shifting battle lines, but they deny defeat; Russians win in Galicia between Sanok and Lisko; Austrians announce capture of Piotrkow and Przedborz.
Dec. 19—Germans capture Lowicz; battle on the Bzura; fighting in Galicia; Russians hold lines on Dunajec River against spirited attacks; Austria claims to hold all West Galicia.
Dec. 20—Von Hindenburg follows up his success at Lowicz; German wedge driven further toward Warsaw; Russians cross the Bzura and destroy bridges behind them; Death's Head Hussars reported as having been caught in a Russian trap and almost annihilated; Servians and Montenegrins again invade Bosnia.
Dec. 21—Russians claim that Germans are being pursued into German territory; both sides claim advantages in Poland.
Dec. 22—Russian Army menaces Thorn-Allenstein-Insterburg Railroad; Germans re-form to protect it; von Hindenburg's left threatened by a new invasion of Germany; Germans cross branches of Bzura and Rawka Rivers; Austrians are defeated in the Carpathians.
Dec. 23—Austrians defeated in Carpathians and Southern Galicia.
Dec. 25—Movement of civilians to interior of East Prussia.
Dec. 26—Russians gain in South.
Dec. 28—Russians have raised the siege of Cracow to shatter Austrian armies attempting flank movement; Russians believe German attack on Warsaw has been checked.
Dec. 30—Germans retreat over the Bzura; Russians advance in South Poland.
Dec. 31—Germans claim to have taken 136,000 prisoners, 100 cannon, and 300 machine guns in Poland since November; reports from Petrograd state that the Germans lost 200,000 men at the Bzura.
Jan. 1—Russians invade Hungary; Germans in Poland move south; Austrian Army split by Russian operations in Carpathian region.
Jan. 2—Germans commence offensive movement against Kielce; Germans fortify captured Polish towns.
Jan. 3—Germans capture Bolimow; German advance on Kielce fails, as well as German advance between Bzura and Rawka Rivers; Russians take thousands of Austrian prisoners and sweep through Bukowina; Germans rush to defend Cracow.
Jan. 4—Russians occupy Suczawa; Cracow again threatened.
Jan. 5—Russians defeat Austrians in Uzsok Pass and prepare to invade Transylvania; Germans renew activities along the Vistula.
Jan. 6—New Russian army to take offensive against Germans at Mlawa; rain is interfering with many field operations; Germans help Austrians check advance against Cracow.
Jan. 7—Mud is hampering Germans.
CAMPAIGN IN WESTERN EUROPE.
Oct. 16—Germans occupy Ostend; battle line reaches the sea; Allies gain near Lille; French are near Metz; Allies check Germans in attempt to reach Dunkirk.
Oct. 17—Germans advancing again on Dunkirk; sharp fighting in Alsace; British take Fromelles; Allies take Fleurbaix and claim gains on line from Ypres Canal to the sea.
Oct. 18—Announcement that Allies' left has pushed forward thirty miles; they retake Armentieres; battle near Nieuport; Belgians repulse German attacks at River Yser; French repulse attack on St. Die and cut railroad in Alsace; Germans evacuate Courtrai; German forces in Bruges move toward French frontier.
Oct. 19—Allies advance between Nieuport and Dixmude; fighting from Ostend to Lille.
Oct. 20—Germans gain near Lille; Allies report recapture of Bruges.
Oct. 21—Allies repulse German attacks at Nieuport, Dixmude, and La Bassee; heavy fighting on the Yser; Germans gain near Lille.
Oct. 22—Battling on the coast; Allies helped by their fleets; cavalry battle at Lille.
Oct. 23—German right wing reinforced and gains ground at La Bassee; Allies gain near Armentieres; French retake Altkirch; heavy fighting between the Ghent-Bruges line and Roulers.
Oct. 24—French gain at Nieuport, but lose ground near Dixmude and La Bassee; desperate fighting along Yser Canal.
Oct. 25—Germans cross Yser Canal near Dixmude; Allies press Germans at Ostend; French gain near Lille and they claim command of German line of communication near St. Mihiel; battle at Nieuport.
Oct. 26—German advance checked on the Yser; fighting at Nieuport.
Oct. 27—Allies capture Thourout; fierce fighting on the Yser Canal; Allies claim that Germans have been driven across the eastern frontier near Nancy.
Oct. 28—Allies repulse night attack near Dixmude; they make gains in Ypres region and between La Bassee and Lens.
Oct. 29—Allies gain near Ostend; Germans gain west of Lille and southwest of Verdun; Germans dig intrenchments near Thielt.
Oct. 30—Belgians flood lower valley of the Yser River and compel Germans to withdraw; Germans gain in Argonne region.
Oct. 31—Allies yield ground in Belgium; Germans take two towns south of Ypres; they have success near Soissons; fighting around Verdun.
Nov. 1—Germans reinforced in Belgium; their advance made difficult by floods along the Yser; Allies take Mariakerke and are near Ostend; Allies cross the Yperlee and occupy Bixschoote.
Nov. 2—Germans, reinforced, capture Messines; French gain at several points in advance to Ostend; Allies take Ramscapelle with the bayonet.
Nov. 3—Germans are being flooded out of the Yser region; they capture men and guns east of Soissons and gain ground east of Vailly; Allies check Germans in Argonne region; Belgians trap Germans by ruse at Furnes.
Nov. 4—Germans lose along the Yser and shift their line for a new attack; they repulse Allies south of Verdun and in the Vosges; they gain near Vailly; British and Germans have battled for three days in Ypres region; Germans suffer much in flooded trenches.
Nov. 5—Germans repulsed at Arras; Allies lose, then retake trenches; Germans, stated to have been watched by the Kaiser, beaten at Armentieres; Germans gain in Argonne region and in the Vosges; Belgians report progress.
Nov. 6—Allies retake Soupir; they capture German trenches on the Meuse and east of Verdun; battle raging around Ypres; French trap Germans in Arras.
Nov. 7—Battling from the sea to Alsace; Allies recapture lost trenches in centre and take St. Remi; Germans gain southwest of Ypres; Germans set up guns at Ostend.
Nov. 8—Allies gain plateau of Vregny; fighting centres at Ypres; Germans continue attacks between North Sea and the Lys; they gain in Argonne region; Belgians gain at Dixmude and Ypres.
Nov. 9—Germans renew attacks at Ypres and Dixmude; Ypres in flames; fighting on the Aisne.
Nov. 10—Allies advance between Ypres and Armentieres and between Rheims and Berry-au-Bac.
Nov. 11—Germans capture Dixmude, cross Yser Canal, capture first line of Allies' position west of Langemarck, and drive them out of St. Eloi; Allies reoccupy Lombaertzyde and repulse attacks near the coast.
Nov. 12—Both sides claim successes on the Yser.
Nov. 13—Germans break through British lines at Ypres; Allies advance on the coast to Bixschoote.
Nov. 14—Allies check German assaults near Ypres; fighting at Dixmude; Germans win in centre and take Berry-au-Bac; Germans gain in forest of Argonne.
Nov. 15—Allies drive Germans across the Yser; German gains in Argonne region; they prepare defensive lines from the North Sea to the Rhine.
Nov. 16—Snow and floods check fighting; artillery duels in progress from Yser Canal to Dixmude; British Press Bureau report of operations up to Nov. 10 praises bravery of Germans.
Nov. 17—Allies gain ground on the Yser between Armentieres and Arras; Germans resume bombardment of Rheims.
Nov. 18—Zouaves take forest near Bixschoote; Germans mine and blow up west part of Chauvoncourt, occupied by the French; fighting continues in West Flanders; Germans have successes in Argonne region and near Cirey; pneumonia is in the trenches.
Nov. 19—Fighting in Flanders slackens; French retake Tracy-le-Val; they are repulsed in the Argonne region; British bombard Dixmude; many cities in West Flanders are in ruins.
Nov. 20—French abandon Chauvoncourt; artillery duel south of Ypres; British gain at Bixschoote; new big gun of Allies is doing effective work; French wreck German earthworks and supply trains near Rheims.
Nov. 21—French artillery stops German attacks in Woevre district; French capture heights at Ornes and advance in Argonne region.
Nov. 22—Cold halts fighting on the Yser; Ypres is bombarded; artillery fighting near Soissons and Vailly; Germans trapped by floods at Dixmude; Germans fortify Belgian coast.
Nov. 23—Fierce fighting in the Argonne; Ypres again bombarded; German operations in Belgium checked by bad weather.
Nov. 24—Germans attack Allies from Ypres to La Bassee.
Nov. 25—French bombard Arnaville and claim general gains; Germans gain at Arras; Indian troops retake lost trenches in Flanders.
Nov. 26—Allies' armored train wrecks bridge across the Yser.
Nov. 27—Rheims again bombarded; French gain in Alsace.
Nov. 28—Germans mass near Arras; new British army has landed in France.
Nov. 29—Allies capture important positions near Ypres; health of Germans on the Yser endangered by flooded trenches.
Nov. 30—German losses on the Yser are found to have been very heavy.
Dec. 1—Germans prepare for new dash toward the sea; cold is depleting the British ranks; Germans on the Belgian coast are suffering from famine, disease, and cold; battle on the Yser renewed; Germans are active north of Arras.
Dec. 2—British, reinforced, take over the command of the Yser region.
Dec. 3—Germans take offensive between Ypres and Dixmude; they lose heavily in trying to cross the Yser on rafts; French occupy Lesmenils; they take Tete de Faux in the Vosges, and Burnhaupt in Alsace.
Dec. 4—Allies repeatedly attack the German lines in Flanders; fresh reserves are waiting behind Allies' lines.
Dec. 5—French gain in Upper Alsace; they try to drive Germans from St. Mihiel.
Dec. 6—Allies make advances in France.
Dec. 7—Allies begin a general offensive movement; Belgians repulse a German boat attack along Yser Canal; Germans are leaving Alsace.
Dec. 8—German headquarters moved from Roulers; Germans make new attack on Dixmude.
Dec. 9—Belgians capture German trenches on the Yser by a ruse; Germans shell Ypres and Furnes.
Dec. 10—Germans evacuate Roulers and Armentieres; French win victory at Vermelles.
Dec. 11—Allies push forward; Germans rush guns to Ostend.
Dec. 12—Allies drive Germans across the Yser Canal.
Dec. 13—Allies have repulsed persistent German attacks in a three-day battle on the Lys; French gain in St. Mihiel region.
Dec. 14—French continue aggressive movements in Alsace and Lorraine.
Dec. 15—Allies advance on the whole front in movement to drive Germans from Belgium; German attacks south of Ypres repulsed and way to Roulers opened.
Dec. 16—Germans evacuate Dixmude; German defenses near Arras mined; Allies maintain offensive; Germans force the fighting in Argonne region; Allies make gains from Arras to the sea; Germans repulsed in Woevre region and in Alsace.
Dec. 17—Allies enter Westende; Germans rush more troops to Belgium.
Dec. 18—Allies take Roulers; fighting in Lille and near Arras.
Dec. 19—Allies gain at several points from the North Sea to the Oise; they lose near La Bassee.
Dec. 21—Allies extend offensive operations; they report progress in the centre.
Dec. 22—Allies press offensive; Germans shell hospital at Ypres; they claim that Allies' advance has failed.
Dec. 23—Allies make slight gains.
Dec. 24—British are using new howitzers; some German trenches have been torn to bits by French guns.
Dec. 25—Reported that the French are shelling the outer forts of Metz; unofficial truce along much of the battle front; soldiers feast and get many gifts from home; in some instances Allies and Germans exchange gifts and visits.
Dec. 26—Fog halts fighting in Flanders.
Dec. 27—Germans pushing preparations for defense of Antwerp.
Dec. 28—New Paris defenses are completed; the Rhine is being additionally fortified.
Dec. 29—Germans reinforce line in Belgium.
Dec. 31—Lull in the fighting on most of the front in Flanders and France; French take half of the village of Steinbach, Upper Alsace, which is of strategic importance.
Jan. 3—French gain near Rheims and St. Mihiel, but are repulsed near St. Menehould; floods hinder fighting; conditions in Yser trenches are very bad.
Jan. 4—Germans admit loss of Steinbach.
Jan. 5—Germans are moving big guns from Ostend; French press on toward Cernay.
Jan. 6—French make further progress at St. Mihiel; bombardment of Furnes necessitates shifting of Belgian headquarters.
Jan. 7—French make progress in direction of Altkirch.
CAMPAIGN IN FAR EAST.
Oct. 30—Japanese attack Germans at Tsing-tau; Indian troops aid Japanese.
Nov. 1—Desperate fighting at Tsing-tau; city is in flames.
Nov. 4—Japanese capture German guns and 800 prisoners at Tsing-tau.
Nov. 6—Germans surrender Tsing-tau fortress.
Nov. 7—Formal capitulation of Tsing-tau; Japanese will administer city.
CAMPAIGN IN AFRICA.
Oct. 28—Belgians defeat Germans on Lake Tanganyika.
Oct. 29—Allies take Edoa.
Nov. 4—Germans defeat British in German East Africa.
Nov. 7—Belgians aid British forces in the Congo.
Nov. 23—British defeated in attack on German railway terminus in East Africa.
Nov. 27—Maritz, Union of South Africa revolutionist, defeated.
Dec. 10—Governor General Lord Buxton says that the revolution in the Union of South Africa is ended and reports capture of 7,000 rebels.
Dec. 23—Portuguese retreat before Germans in Angola.
CAMPAIGN IN ASIA MINOR AND EGYPT.
Oct. 29—Turkey begins war with Russia by bombarding Odessa from the sea.
Nov. 2—Russians and Turks are fighting near Trebizond.
Nov. 3—Turks claim victory over Russians in Armenia; German officers are with camel corps on Turkish-Egyptian frontier; Suez Canal threatened.
Nov. 4—Russia begins invasion of Armenia.
Nov. 5—England and France declare war on Turkey; Russians seize Armenian towns; Turks have successes in Kara-Killissa and Tehan districts; England annexes the Island of Cyprus; German officer sentenced to life imprisonment by Egyptian police for having plans to dynamite Suez Canal.
Nov. 6—Armenians besiege town of Van.
Nov. 7—Russians have successes northeast of Kara-Killissa.
Nov. 8—Russians take Keprekioi in Armenia and hold road to Erzerum.
Nov. 9—Russians take Turkish fort near Erzerum and pursue Kurdish cavalry; Russians win at Kohrikoi on River Araxes.
Nov. 10—France, England, Russia, Belgium, and Servia issue a formal declaration of war against Turkey; both sides claim victories in Erzerum region.
Nov. 13—Russians advance on Erzerum from three directions; Turks fail in flank attack.
Nov. 14—Russians rout Kurds in cavalry battle in Armenia; Turks have success on Caucasian border.
Nov. 15—Turks occupy Persian town of Kotur; British troops land in Basra Province; Indian troops, aided by British cruiser, occupy Turba, Arabia.
Nov. 16—Russians defeated near Koprukeui; British take Turkish camp at Fao.
Nov. 17—Russians checked near Fao; Turks occupy Duzkeuy.
Nov. 19—Russians defeat Kurds in Persian Armenia; fighting near Urumiah; British success in Arabia.
Nov. 22—Turks win near Port Said and reach Suez Canal; Russians gain near Juzveran.
Nov. 23—British defeat Turks near Persian Gulf.
Nov. 24—Russians defeat Turks in Armenia.
Nov. 26—Turkish advance checked in Armenia.
Nov. 28—Fierce fighting in the Caucasus; Enver Bey starts for Egypt.
Dec. 6—Turks occupy Keda.
Dec. 8—Turks defeated near Batum.
Dec. 9—Turks at Kurna surrender to Indian troops.
Dec. 10—British take 1,100 Turkish prisoners and nine guns.
Dec. 11—Sheik Kiazim, Chief of the Shiites, proclaims a holy war; Turks report occupation of Geda.
Dec. 15—Senussi tribesmen threaten Egypt.
Dec. 18—Turks reinforced in Asia Minor.
Dec. 20—Turks gain near Lake Urumiah.
Dec. 21—Russians win in Armenia—Turks lose equipment.
Dec. 22—Arabs menace Christians in Hodeida; French Consul is seized.
Dec. 23—Turkish Army leaves Damascus and marches toward Suez Canal.
Dec. 25—Russo-Turkish operations stopped by cold.
Jan. 1—Turks invade Russia but fail to envelop Russian forces.
Jan. 2—Turks penetrate into the Russian Caucasus and occupy Ardahan.
Jan. 4—Turks ravage Persian territory.
Jan. 5—Russians rout Turkish columns at Ardahan and Sari-Kamysh; Russians capture Izzet Pasha.
Jan. 7—Turks occupy Urumiah.
NAVAL RECORD.
Oct. 16—British cruiser Hawke sunk by German submarine U-9; British tramp steamship Induna sunk by Germans; British steamer Guendolen fires on German ship on Lake Nyassa; British and Japanese warships bombard fort near Tsing-tau.
Oct. 17—British squadron, led by the Undaunted, sinks four German torpedo-boat destroyers off Dutch coast; allied fleets bombard Cattaro.
Oct. 19—British battleship Triumph damaged at Tsing-tau; Japanese cruiser Takachiho sunk by German submarine S-90 in Kiao-Chau Bay; British fleet helps to repel German land attacks between Nieuport and Dixmude; Austrian submarine sunk in Adriatic by French cruiser.
Oct. 20—German warships sink British submarine E-3; British gunboats fight German submarines and coast batteries; Japanese fleet takes islands of Marianne group; two German ships sunk at Jaluit; British steamer Giltera sunk by German submarine off Norwegian coast.
Oct. 21—British monitors Severn and Mersey shell German right flank; Cattaro again bombarded by French fleet, attack of Austrian submarines being repulsed; German cruiser Emden sinks five British steamships and captures a sixth in Indian Ocean; British steamer Cormorant sunk.
Oct. 22—British torpedo boat damaged by German artillery fire off Nieuport; French ships aid British in bombardment near Ostend; British auxiliary cruiser Carmania damaged.
Oct. 23—Allies' squadrons seeking German cruisers Emden and Karlsruhe; Emden's activity is having a bad effect on Indian shipping; French ships aid British in shelling Belgian coast towns.
Oct. 24—British destroyer Badger sinks German submarine; Ostend bombarded by French warships.
Oct. 25—Japanese sink German cruiser Aeolius off Honolulu.
Oct. 26—Vessel containing French and Belgian refugees sunk near Calais, probably by a mine, the passengers being rescued by a British ship; Germans claim that the British ships have been driven back from the Belgian coast.
Oct. 27—Germans lay mines off Irish coast; British freighter Manchester Commerce sunk; Germany demands that China release shipwrecked sailors of submarine S-90, which was destroyed by the Germans when being pursued by Japanese.
Oct. 28—Emden sinks Japanese steamer; Japanese cruiser Chitose repulses attack by two German warships.
Oct. 29—Emden, flying the Japanese flag, enters Penang Harbor and sinks Russian cruiser Jemtchug and a French destroyer; Turkish warships shell Theodosia and sink two Russian steamers; British vessels slightly damaged off Belgian coast, with ten men killed; Swedish steamer Ornen and two British fishing boats sunk by mine in North Sea; British sink German steamer in the Adriatic.
Oct. 30—Russian and Turkish fleets in battle in the Black Sea; Turkish torpedo boats bombard Odessa, sinking Russian gunboat Donets, three Russian liners, and French steamer Portugal.
Oct. 31—Japanese and British warships attack Tsing-tau; German submarine sinks British cruiser Hermes in Strait of Dover; Turkish cruiser bombards Sevastopol; Russian fleet attacks Turkish fleet near Sevastopol.
Nov. 1—German squadron under Admiral von Spee defeats British squadron under Rear Admiral Cradock off Coronel, Chile; British flagship Good Hope and the cruiser Monmouth go down with all on board: Germans suffer but slightly; shelling of Allied fleets sets fire to Tsing-tau.
Nov. 2—Turkish (formerly German) cruiser Goeben damaged by fire from Russian forts; British ship scuttled in Black Sea; Turkish commander sinks his ship to prevent capture; Germans blockade coast of Asiatic Turkey with mines; Karlsruhe captures British steamers Vandyck, Hurtsdale, and Glanton.
Nov. 3—Anglo-French squadron bombards the Dardanelles forts; British cruiser Minerva bombards Akabah, Arabia, and sailors occupy the town; British submarine D-5 sunk by mine in North Sea.
Nov. 4—Austrian cruiser Kaiserin Elizabeth sunk by Germans to prevent seizure; Anglo-French fleet continues bombardment of Dardanelles forts; German warships seen off coast of England; German cruiser Yorck sunk by mine in Jade Bay.
Nov. 5—British tow German sailing ship into Queenstown, the Captain not having heard of the war; British mine sweeper Mary sunk in North Sea.
Nov. 6—British ships shell Belgian coast; Turks bombard Batum; British warship damaged while shelling Dardanelles forts.
Nov. 7—Japanese squadron searches for German squadron in the Pacific; Russians bombard Turkish Black Sea ports.
Nov. 8—Russians report sinking of four Turkish transports; Turks sink Greek steamer carrying British flag; two Dardanelles forts destroyed by bombardment.
Nov. 9—Emden escapes British warship, but loses her store ships; Russians bombard Bosporus ports; Swedish steamer Ate blown up by mine.
Nov. 10—Australian cruiser Sydney wrecks German cruiser Emden, which had destroyed more than $5,000,000 worth of British shipping; war risks drop in consequence; British Admiralty reports that the German cruiser Koenigsberg has been bottled up in the Rufiji River, German East Africa.
Nov. 11—British torpedo boat Niger sunk by German submarine; Japanese torpedo boat sunk by mine in Kiao-Chau Bay.
Nov. 12—Turkish torpedo boat captured by Allies; Turkish cruiser Goeben crippled by shell.
Nov. 14—News comes to America by mail of the sinking of the British super-dreadnought Audacious on Oct. 27 off the Irish coast; apparently done by a mine.
Nov. 15—Many mines picked up by Dutch coast guards; mine layer flying Norwegian flag and manned by German sailors captured at Belfast; British cruiser Edinburgh aids in capture of Turba, Arabia, by Indian troops.
Nov. 16—Mine cast up by sea kills seven in Holland.
Nov. 17—Swedish steamer Andrew sunk by mine in North Sea; German squadron bombards Libau; Russian Black Sea fleet attacks Trebizond; German cruiser Berlin interns at Trondhjem to escape enemy.
Nov. 19—British naval guns bombard Dixmude; French cruiser Waldeck Rousseau sinks Austrian submarine.
Nov. 20—Austrian steamer Metkovitch sunk by mine off Dalmatian coast.
Nov. 21—The Goeben badly damaged in Black Sea.
Nov. 22—Turkish warships shell Taupse, but are repulsed by Russian land batteries.
Nov. 23—British warship Patrol rams German submarine U-18 and captures crew off coast of Scotland; German destroyer S-124 wrecked in collision with Danish steamer.
Nov. 24—French bark Valentine sunk by Germans near Island of Mas a Fuera; British ships attack German naval base at Zeebrugge.
Nov. 25—British steamer Malachite sunk by German submarine near Havre.
Nov. 26—British battleship Bulwark blown up in the Thames; magazine explosion is the accepted theory, but there is some suspicion that it was the work of spies; Turkish mine layer sunk in the Bosphorus; cruiser Goeben is being repaired.
Nov. 27—British collier Khartoum blown up by mine off Grimsby.
Nov. 28—Norwegian and Danish trawlers seized by the British for laying mines while using English port as base; British fishermen sweep coast waters for mines.
Nov. 30—British ships again bombard Zeebrugge.
Dec. 3—Danish steamer Mary blown up by mine in North Sea, six men dying.
Dec. 6—Forty British and French war vessels are off the Dardanelles.
Dec. 7—British steamer Charcas sunk by German transport in the Pacific; Swedish ships Luna and Everilda sunk by mines.
Dec. 8—British squadron under Vice Admiral Sturdee defeats German squadron under Admiral von Spee off the Falkland Islands; German flagship Scharnhorst and the cruisers Gneisenau, Leipzig, and Nurnberg are sunk; the British casualties are slight.
Dec. 9—Three German merchantmen sunk in South Atlantic; Gulf of Bothnia closed because of mines.
Dec. 10—German submarine raid on Dover repulsed by the forts; Turkish gunboat sunk by defense mine.
Dec. 12—Turkish fleet bombards Batum.
Dec. 14—British submarine B-11, by diving under five rows of mines, sinks Turkish battleship Messudieh in the Dardanelles.
Dec. 15—German cruiser Cormorant interned at Guam; Turks bombard Sevastopol.
Dec. 16—German warships shell the English coast towns of Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby; about 120 persons are killed and 550 wounded; British warships shell Westende.
Dec. 17—Austrian training ship Beethoven sunk by mine; British squadron bombards Turkish troops on Gulf of Saros; Russians sink German steamship Derentie off Turkish coast; Norwegian ship Vaaren sunk by mine in North Sea; three British ships sunk by mines.
Dec. 18—British auxiliary cruiser Empress of Japan captures collier Exford with forty of Emden's crew on board; Russian Black Sea fleet sinks two Turkish ships.
Dec. 19—Russian warship Askold captures German steamer Haifa and sinks a Turkish steamer; British warships shell German positions between Nieuport and Middelkerke.
Dec. 20—Allied fleets bombard interior forts of the Dardanelles.
Dec. 21—British capture German steamers Baden and Santa Isabel.
Dec. 22—Allied fleets shell German positions along Belgian coast; French destroyer shells Turkish troops; allied fleets shell Kilid Bahr.
Dec. 23—Russian destroyers in Black Sea bombard coast villages.
Dec. 24—French cruiser slightly damaged by Austrian torpedo; French submarine sunk by shore batteries.
Dec. 26—British make naval and air attack on German fleet without important results; French attack Austrian naval base at Pola on the Adriatic.
Dec. 27—British cruisers, assisted by seaplanes, attack German naval base at Cuxhaven; British claim to have done considerable damage.
Dec. 29—English coast towns expected American sympathy over German raid; dread new raid, and hold navy was dilatory.
Dec. 30—French submarine torpedoes Austrian dreadnought Viribus Unitis, but fails to sink her.
Dec. 31—Thirty French and British warships are bombarding Pola.
Jan. 1—British battleship Formidable torpedoed and sunk in English Channel; 600 men lost.
Jan. 4—Official Press Bureau at Berlin announces that the Formidable was sunk by a submarine off Plymouth; British ships shell Dar-es-Salaam, German East Africa.
Jan. 6—Turkish cruiser Goeben damaged by mines.
Jan. 7—Germans state that Austrian submarines are holding back French fleet in the Adriatic.
AERIAL RECORD.
Oct. 23—German Taube brought down in Dunkirk; Reymond, French aviator, killed near Verdun; German aviators drop bombs on Warsaw.
Oct. 24—Zeppelins harry fighters southwest of Ostend.
Oct. 25—Five German aeroplanes destroyed by French.
Oct. 27—New Zeppelin flies northward from Friedrichshafen; new British gun is effective against airmen.
Oct. 29—German airmen drop bombs on Bethune, nineteen women being killed; British airman chases bomb-dropping Taube at Hazebrouck.
Oct. 30—French airmen rain bombs on German officers near Dunkirk.
Nov. 3—German airman drops bombs on Furnes; three German aeroplanes brought down near Souain; British airman drops bombs in Thielt.
Nov. 6—Austrian airmen drop bombs on Antivari.
Nov. 13—Russian cavalry captures two German aviators near Plock.
Nov. 14—Austrian aeroplane drops bombs on Antivari.
Nov. 15—Prince Danilo's villa in Antivari wrecked by aeroplane bomb.
Nov. 21—French and British aeroplanes drop bombs on Zeppelin sheds at Friedrichshafen; one French airman shot down.
Nov. 24—Aeroplane bomb dropped in Warsaw street kills several people and narrowly misses American Consulate; airmen are using steel arrows to drop from aeroplanes.
Nov. 26—British aviator wrecks German military train.
Nov. 29—German aviators drop bombs on Lodz; French aviators drop circulars inviting German soldiers to desert.
Dec. 5—Aeroplane bombs dropped near Baden.
Dec. 6—Russian aviators attack Breslau forts; French aviators attack Freiburg.
Dec. 7—Major Gen. von Meyer killed by an arrow dropped by an aviator; Ostend set on fire by aeroplane bombs; ten killed at Hazebrouck by bomb dropped by German aviator.
Dec. 8—German airmen drop appeals to Indian troops to desert British.
Dec. 9—Aviator of Allies destroys Scheldt pontoon bridge at Antwerp; Belgian aviator destroys three German motor trucks and scatters cavalry detachment.
Dec. 12—German airman who dropped bombs on Hazebrouck killed by French shells.
Dec. 16—British and French aviators are making raids almost daily into German territory.
Dec. 18—French aviators drop bombs in Lorraine.
Dec. 19—Two German aviators stranded on a Danish island and interned in Denmark.
Dec. 20—German aeroplane drops bomb on Calais.
Dec. 21—Aviators of Allies drop bombs in Brussels and make night attack near Ostend.
Dec. 22—Deschamps, Belgian aviator, killed by his own bomb.
Dec. 24—German aeroplane, trying to reach Paris, is shot down; German aviator drops bomb in Dover.
Dec. 25—Two German aviators fly up the Thames, but are routed by British.
Dec. 26—Zeppelin drops bombs on Nancy; German aeroplanes make raid in Russian Poland; French aviators attack Metz.
Dec. 30—German airmen drop bombs in Dunkirk, killing fifteen; French aviators active in Flanders.
Jan. 1—German aeroplanes bombard Dunkirk.
Jan. 3—Austrian aviator drops bombs on Kielce.
Jan. 4—French aviators drop bombs near Brussels.
AMERICAN INTERESTS.
Oct. 30—Slight damage to American property in bombardment of Odessa.
Oct. 31—American Refugee Society formed in the United States.
Nov. 10—Henry Field, grandson of the late Marshall Field, is serving as a British Army chauffeur.
Nov. 13—British authorities demand that Americans show passports on embarking for home.
Nov. 19—American Consulate in Berlin takes charge of the work of finding American baggage in Germany.
Nov. 25—Rush for new passports by Americans in London.
Nov. 28—American Ambassador to Turkey says American missionaries are not being molested.
Dec. 28—American Government sends memorandum to British Government through Ambassador Page vigorously protesting against interference with American commerce by British warships; American Relief Committee in London still busy, and renews lease of its offices.
Dec. 31—Full text of American note on British interference with American trade is given out in full simultaneously at Washington and London; the war has cost the United States $382,000,000 in decreased exports up to Dec. 1, according to statement issued by Department of Commerce.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.
Oct. 17—Men formerly found physically unfit to be now re-examined.
Oct. 20—Wounded fill Budapest and South Austrian towns.
Oct. 21—Troops rushed from Italian frontier to strengthen German line in Belgium; Gen. Bruderman, defender of Lemberg, disgraced. |
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