Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 93, Number 1, 1 January 1923 — Page 9
THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM, RICHMOND, IND,. MONDAY, JAN. 1, 1923.
PAGE NINE
The Mistakes of the Kaiser By RENE VIVIANI Premier of France When the War Broke Oat Copyright. 1922, by The McClure Newspape Syndicate.
THE TRAP PREPARED And now we stood on the brink of , the abyss. Today, looking back over the years, flooded with documents bearing on the case, engaged in careful analysis of all details, it seems that weeks must have elapsed in order to have included such a great number of happenings. How can we believe that 60 many events, which changed everything on the face of thte earth, really happened in the restricted space of a few days? But, at the fateful time itself and even before the catastrophethings happened despite the fact that some minutes seemed very long with the rapidity of lightning. Let those struck by that lightning, yet not dazed or blinded by it, bear witness to the horror of those moments! And by the light of that catastrophe it has become clearly possible for us to read clearly that book of lies and falsifications which Germany and also Austria, under conditions which must again be recalled, ought to build up. Germany denies responsibility. Nevertheless, this responsibility on her part is both external that is, implied in the actual deeds which brought on the war and internal that is, implied in events wherein destiny played a weak part and in which we are aware to what extent preparation caused the coflagration. And are you not struck, moreover, by the growing degradation noticeable in the course of the years, of the months even, in the assertion of Ger
many? From the outset of the sinister
negotiations of July 1914, German
diplomacy was arrogant, uncompromising, hostile: it was the diplomacy Jik-of Bismarck. Those were the days
f when llerr von Jagow denied knowl
edge of the substance of the substance of the ultimatum to Serbia although lie knew about the said document and and lauded it. Those were the days
when it was on the evening of the
20th of July, 1914 Herr von Beth
inann-Hollweg sought to dicker with the British Ambassador at Berlin
with a view to secure British neutral
ity. Those were the days when thet
German Chancellor himself announced
to that same Ambassador that the decision had been made by Germany to violate the neutrality of Belgium,
and it was this very German Chan
cellor who is felled by the blow struck
at him in the British answer, a blow
that will re-echo forever in history.
That was the' moment of, the "Scrap
of paper," the moment when Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg debased his native country by scattering broadcast through the world as authentic truth he, a well-informed statesman! the silly tale of the French aeroplanes flying over Nuremberg, and founded a declaration of war upon a falsification, as Bismarck had done in the case of the Elms despatch. Then it was that the German Chancellor naid to the Reichstag on August 4. 1914 in speaking of the violation of Belgian neutrality: "Necessity makes law." Why this outcropping of cynicism? Here is the reason: Germany at that moment was sure of victory. The generals, whose pre-war writings has already been published, the
report of the German General Staff to the Emperor in 1913, declared German victory a certainty. Counting upon non-interference on the part of England and Italy, reckoning p in advance upon1 the neutralization of tl Russia's military operations and the V overcoming of Belgium, what sort of resistance, the Germans asked them- ' selves, could be made by France? A few months later, at Christmas time in 1914, according to the German emperor's prophecy, the German troops, gorged with booty, would return home. It would be for the victor to write the history of the war; the cowardice of the general public, interrupted on very rare occasions by bursts of courage, would believe anything told it. Night would fall upon Europe silence would come the silence of the tomb. Perhaps, a century later, truth would rise from the grave. But who cared? By that time everything would have been already said. But what came was the Marne! The imperial German eagle, grievously wounded, dug himself into the trenches. So the war was not to be over in four months after all? No! So England had come into it, and Ja
pan! Was America, though neutral in the legal sense, pouring upon French democracy her fraternal enthusiasm? Yes. Well, then, there mast bo a change in the German attitude. To the aid of the German trooper came the dishonest German pedant; side by .side witht the sword went the pen-knife, to scratch out what has been writton. Then it was the claim of Germany's innocence of responsibility for the war, was brought up, though it was not as yet known upon what nation the abominable burden of warguilt was to fall. And since, in spite Oof this, the war had been willed and declared by Germany, the Germans already began to turn their backs on the acts of the present in order Xo dig V' up the acts of the past. They cooked
up the story of the responsibility of the Entente on account of the crime of the encirclement of Germany. Oh, punv Triple Alliance you. it was selfevident, encircled nobody! Then came another phase. What was lacking was manufactured. Above alW however, silence was employed as a means of falsification. , The publication of the German White Taper was an unprecedented thing in history, something which no other nation, would have tolerated. Whereas the British White Paper contained 160 documents, the French Yellow Book 184, the Russian Orange Book 79, how many documents ar in the German White Paper that appeared in 1914? Exactly 36 documents! Think of it- The entire correspondence of the German government with London, Paris and St. Petersburg, and particularly with Vienna, during that mtHimiimmmniiMiimiimmmnntmimimmiiiiiiiimmitiiiiiiiiiiimimmiiim I Where Prices are Always f I the 4-o we s 1
feverish period, was limited to 36 documents!
What was it that wa3 thus being
concealed? Kautsky gives us the answer. After the flight of the German Emperor he was able to collate and
publish 800 documents and what
documents they were! Concerning
some of them the Emperor expressed
his anger or joy by means of marginal notes. Later, the Bavarian book was
published, with documents of damn
ing character for Berlin. And Kurt
Eisner, who brought about the publi
cation of the Bavarian documents, was
assassinated! t
And then there was the publication
of the Austrian Red Book, showing the fearful responsibility of Germany in
spurring Austria on: Yet there are only 36 documents about all this! That
is ths total which these lovers of truth
could supply to us! But. at that time,
where was the tribunal of posterity?
Germany has acknowledged her re
sponsibility in fact, she has done so
twice: first. thrnnph the iwira imatv
and later which binds her even more by the solemn vote of the Reichstag
on May 10th, 1921. What has she to
say now? . She repeats that, in 1918,
sne ma not know of certain thines
She, who closed her archives, did she
not Know these things? And. in 1921.
was she still ignorant of them? After
the publication of the documents of
which we have spoken above, a nart
of which came from her own govern
ment, was she ignorant of these
things?
Germany adds that she made her
acknowledgement of -responsibility under the menace of invasion and for
the purpose of avoiding such a disas
ler. i- irst.that is not true. The truth
is that, in 1921, she again acknowledged it, when the terrifying spectre of invasion was far in the past. And
who, alter all, insults Germany more
grossly than her writers and minis
isters of state? A nation, assuredlv
can fall upon its knees before those who have vanquished it; it can sue
ror peace and surrender its arms! It can accept hard terms. But can it accept the -burden of confessing guilt
ior a crime which has bathed the world in blood, if it sincerely feels it
self innocent? At what moment was
it that Germany was no longer conscious of her honor won in the past? Was it when she was menaced by
reprisals or when those no longer
threatened her? Moreover why did
sue speak so tardily? It was not
because of a revulsion of conscience
No what leads her on is commercial interest. Since one of the hases of
her pecuniary responsiblity is politi
cal, military and moral responsibility
which she has acknowledged it is
to her advantage to sap this latter responsibility in order to destroy the
the former.
Let us get down to facts. Respon
sibihty for a war is a body of sue
cessive acts linked together, every one of which, from the time when the tempest bursts back into the past, when the cloud is hardly visible, should be of such a .kind as to explain the rest. Tae mobilizations, the dates and. hours of which will be
discussed In a later chapter, are merely one aspect of the conflict boreover, wars have Often been prevented in spite of mobilization. Nevertheless, for the sake of completeness, we shall prove that the sum total responsibility derived from mobilizations 'falls now upon Austria, now upon Germany. But mobilization was the result of an ultimatum. The ulti-
matum, which was a cause of the war because of its brutality and sudden
ness, was itself a result, a result of the war spirit, of the will toward domination, the wish for hegemony, of all that which has embroiled the world for centuries. ' Let us examine the ultimatum of July 23, 1914, in the light of another document, which deals with happenings preceding it by one year. On December 5, M. Giolitti, Italian premier in 1913. made a terrible speech in the Italian chamber of deputies, which we took up in the French chamber on the twenty-second of December. Here is what he said: "Since the principal thing Is that Italy's loyalty be maintained beyond all doubt, i call attention to the fact
that, in 19T3, Austria intended to taks steps against Serbia to which "she
wished to give the. character of, a defensive measure. Naturally, our minister of foreign affairs informed Austria that Italy did not feel herself obliged to associate herself In this action." Never was a more Eerioiw accusation made , against a country. It is false? Nobody, in Germany or Austria, answered It. Herr- von Bethmann-Hollweg never spoke of it; neither did Herr von Jagow. , Thus, before the Sarajevo crime, a year before it, while the sky was clear and the earth lay at peace, without the excuse; even though inac-
RUSS BOLSHEVIK DELEGATION AT LAUSANNE
l
1- 4
b ,' k : .
Russian delegation t the Near East peace conference. Front row, left to right. Radovsky, Tchitcherin, Mdivani, Vorovsky, Sabanlne and Pastoukhoff.
The Russ soviet government evidently believes that in numbers there is Urength, for its delegation at the Lausanj Near East peace conference is one of
the lr-rgest of any o the participating nations. A number of women are included in the membership of the delegation, which is under the leadership - of
Tchitcherin and Radovsky. However, despite their numerical strength, the Russians have been unable to achieve any of their principal aims.
ceptibler as "we shall see of national excitement, the two. central empires were embarking upon war.
Italy s refusal amazed Germanv
It had not been foreseen, since con
ceptions or honor are so different
among different peoples, that some are unable to realize that others will not act as they do. a prmanu Ho.
cided to wait, to furbish un more
numerous weapons to take the place of the nation that refused to dishonor
nseir. Then it
of Austria perished on Austrian soil, guarded by a police force composed entirely of Austrians, especially organized for that day by an Austrian general. "My whole work must be begun over again," said William II. on board the yacht where the news WasLbro,Vght to him- in th Preesnco of the Prince of Monaco, who noted at the same time his deathly-pale color. From that day June 28, 1914. the trap was to be prepared Austria said nothing. Germany said nothing. The blow was being prepared. Public anxiety was lulled through the press and verbal assurances that a prudent course would be followed, were given to the public, which showed alarm for a little while. But the invasion of Serbia, the militant execution of that country' were being prepared, and the guilty ones were getting ready for action, refraining from the very beginning to plead lack of realization of what they were doing, knowing as indeed they subsequently avowed that the
conflict would involve Russia and light up a general conflagaration. Did Germany know about the ultimatum? Really, such a question should not be asked even in an elementary school. How could anyone maintain that Austria, which the year before had arranged with Germany to strike at Serbia, had not again come to an agreement with her ally in the following year, .before again leveling the blow at Serbia? How can it le maintained that Austria, knowng in what direction she tria, knowing in what direction she was bound to be the outcome, as
sumed the sole responsibility, without notifying, her more important ally, thus risking being abandoned alone to her fate as a punishment for her tinrigues and her silence? Moreover, Austria was not an ally in the noblesense of the word, which presupposes independence. She was a subjugated nation, delivered up by her lord to another nation. And, in any event even if there could be doubt on this matter, it would be swept aside and dissipated ' by documents. It is but just to state that the fact of these documents being available, is due to the German revolution, to the Austrian revolution, and more especially, to the Bavarian revolution, since the honesty of the
German statesmen who were respon
sible had, up to 1919, furnished us nothing but lies.
At the beginning of the very outset, the German ambassador at Vi
enna, von Tschirschky, realizing the
seriousness of the step under consideration, sought to bring counsels of moderation to bear upon Austria, This was purely personal impulse on his part, and one that was quickly abandoned. And how that diplomat was snubbed by his supreme lord, William! In a report submitted to the German emperor, the German ambassador at Vienna had taken the liberty of writing: "I avail myself of every opportunity for discouraging, quietly but earnesly, all hasty measures." Wil
liam wrote on the margin of this report: "Who authorizes htm to do this? It is very foolish. -This does not concern him in the least. .It is entirely up to Austria to decide what she is to do. Afterwards, if things go badly, people wall say: 'It was Germany who was unwilling!' Let Tschirschky do me the honor or stopping all thft nonsense. The question with Serbia must be finished up, and
that as soon as possible. Now or never." (Notes of Jury 4, 1914. in the handwriting of the German emperor; Kautsky German Documents, No. 7.) That, then, was the state of . mind of Emperor William, who dares prate, in bis memoirs, of his innocence and ignorance! There we have what he was thinking on the fourth of July, 1914. six days after the Sahajevo murder, one month before the wax!
GERMANY PREPARED And the autograph letter of . July 2nd, 1914, written by the Emperor of Austria to William II. delEvered a few
days after to the latter by Count Hovos. Head Secretary of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did the German Emperor receive It? He did. But it is not he who tells us that he
did. That letter contained the plan
for the invasion and the fiery germ of the ultimatum. Listen to it:
. ."The efforts of my governmer.ft
should in future have as their goal the
isolation and weakening of Serbia But this will only be possible if Serbia, which now forms the corner-stone of of Pan-Slavic piloy, is eliminated as
a political factor in the Balkans. Hence also, after this recent and terrible occurence in Bosnia, one feels convince j that, no endeavors should be made ts patch up the antagonism which separates us from Serb'a, and that the maintainance on the part of all European monarchs of a peace policy will be jeopardised just as long as that focus of criminal activities at Belgrade remains unpunished." So Emperor William knew all about it. What joy must have lighted up his face! He himself, two days befori, on July 4th, had reproved his ambassador for showing moderation! Did he keep to himself the news of
the crime under preparation and which he had made possible, which he even
hastened forward by paralyzing the efforts of his ambassador? In any event, be proceeded to assemble around him the important personages of his Empire. Proof of a Crown Council The Eniperor caused it to be sail in 199, and he now repeats in 1m memoirs, that there was no Crown Council held at that time at Potsdam. Let us not quibble about words. Here Is what is prov?d by the White Book of 1919: The Austro-Hugariau Ambassador at Berlin, Count Szoyeni, received from the hands of Count Hoyos the letter of the Emperor William.
Immediately thereafter Eethmann
Hollweg arrived from nis residency where he had been resting. Then Herr Zimmerman arrived, in place of Herr von Jagow, who was absent. What did they talk about? A noU
by Chevalier von der Bussche, Under Secretary of State for War, written August 30th, 1917, who was present at the conversations held in those days will serve to enlighten us. Here is exactly what he wrote: .."The day after thg Austro-Hungar-ian Ambassador had delivered, in July, 1914, the letter of the Emperor
Francis Joseph, brought by Count Hovos, to His Majesty the Emperor, and after the reception of Chancellor vol Bethmann and of Under Secretary of State Zimmerman, a conference of military, chiefs was held at Potsdam at the home of His Majesty.. There
were present: . His Excellency Capells, j
in piace ot nrpitz, captain Zenker, representing the Navai Staff, representatives of the Ministry of War and of the General Staff.. It was resolved, ir-
order to guard against any eventuality, i
to adopt preparatory measures for war. Orders were consequently, issued. From an absolutely reliable source.
(Signed Bussche.". (Kautsky C?man Documents, No 8) And this communication was so serious that General von Bertrab, who wsj present at the conference repreentin" the Starf, felt constrained to report i; to Count von Waldevsee, Minister ic War.
The latar wrote the following note: . ."The Emperor told the General that he had promised Emperor Francis Joseph to stand .behind him with th? power of Germany if complications resulted from the measures contemplated against Serbia.. As for me, wh) acted in place of General von Moltke in all matters appertaining to war, ' had nothing to do after the audience of General von Bertrab at Pctsdam My work with regard to mobilization in acordance with plans made, ha-1 come to a close on May 31st, 1914.-The army was ready, as it always was.'' (Origins of the War, Page 193. Poi' care.) , If it was not a Council, what then was this lot of interviews? And '" things were so cleverly managed order to avoid letting what was undo:" preparation get noised abroad that no formal meeting was held from the-4:h of July onward, does not what- occurred suffice for tho moral judgmen'. of history? A conference between the men responsible for these euccc-s-(Please Turn to Page Ten)
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