Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 93, Number 6, 6 January 1923 — Page 7
THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGKAM, RICHMOND, IND,. SATURDAY, JAN. 6, 1923.
PAGE NINE
The Mistakes of the Kaiser By RENE VIVIANI Premier of France When the War Broke Out Copyright. 1922, by The McClure Newspaper Syndicate.
HUMAN BESTIALITY SPEAKS I I What, then, had happened a Berlin Ho cause such tuchange in the drama? C'iere is -what happened, and it is an vent of the utmost importance for understanding the war and a3 a contrihvition to history: On the evening of that day July 29 en -which Count Pourtales, at about 4 p'clock, had delivered the ultimatum to Jilussia, there had been a meeting of hc council at Potsdam. There were present at It the crown prince, the chancellor, Herr von Jagow, Herr von Mold:e. chief of the general staff, the minister of war. Admiral Tirpitz, Admiral Pohl and Muller. The Terrible Council of War W'htLt was it that the said council
was gwing td.do? Of what was it go-
injt to peak? The list of those pres
ent shvws what the object of debate was to Je. Diplomacy, having played
its part was now to report humbly, on what', it had done, to the army,
which w.is now about to act. No sol
dier, no ;attor, would have succeeded in getting? into that council at which,
in additioir to the chiefs, les important
collaoratoi"'. were present had its ob-i ject been to discuss purely political matters. Yhere, on that terrible evening, was wUr decides upon. But suddenly, when the council had barely come to an end, Herr von Beth-mann-Hollwei: departs in great haste. He goes to Harlin, and, in the middle of the night, ,ummons the British ambassador (cortesponce of the British government w&'.h its ambassador, No. ho). Then it s that the attempt was made to divide, the forces of the en
tente. Before starting the war it wa3 necessary to find out more exactly what Kngland wished. The British government had not ifade a definite pronouncement; it fctid been unwilling to
bind itself to any Body. It had rightly described the ultimatum to Serbia and called for a meeti between the four powers involved, b at had remained, up to that moment, a 'alm looker-on. If England would ony remain neutral, anything would be ncssible. The talk between. Herr von Beth-mann-Hollweg and tlio ambassador hePan. It may be sutnimarized as follows: Germany wilfl make no territorial annexations at the expense of France in case of a ivar. But how about colonies? No assurance concerning them can be g'ven. Any military operations that maA- become necessary in Belgium wilA not prevent restoration of Belgian integrity after
victory (Blue Book, 85). In view of this, will not England remain neutral in case of conflict? This .is what the British ambassador, with tb e contempt felt by a diplomat for a bitker, called a high bid. But, at the same time, he paid that England would' preserve her liberty of action and he would not promise that his country vtmld keep out. Thus, at one full swoop, esery thing was ch'angpd. If England wsis going (o hold back, if she did not Jose her liberty of aciion, if it was not enough io tempt her in order to get her to bargaining, what was she govng to think, what could the world think, of the ulmitatum to Russia? If Russia was dragged into the war" against two nations atacking her, it would mean That France also would be dragged in. How was this to be explained? .Germany was not confronted with a mobilization threatening her own frontier. Austria has said nothing. How, tlien, Owas the peace of the world to be idismrbed under sueh conditions? All would be well, to be sure, if England wer to look on unmoved at the spectacle, but she was not to be bougltt! The old conception of honor was mt. dead nor was the ancient hatred of
that noble country, England, for. even'
threatening hegemony, nor her natural solicitude for her own interests. Then Count Pourtales called upon ' his chief orders to do so. No longer is the brutal demand made upon Russia to disperse her forces while those of Austria stand arrayed against her; she is now asked upon what conditions the will suspend her preparations. Blow Fails to Fall So the blow had failed on that day, at least. But who will maintain- that it was it a case of war, of war having been decided upon? What was the
use of that council hastily called together that evening, after the delivery
of an insulting ultimatum, if it did pot mean war? Why that supremely im
portant conversation with the representative of England, the statement of conditions, discounting of war aa a possibility, the proposed division of the spoils over the table of victory, if war had not been decided upon?
Decided upon? lt was ready to be launched. In fact, the next day, July 30, a fearful proof of this was to be given to the world. On July SO, at noon, the "Local Anzeiger," a semi-official paper, in close relations with the German government and with its columns at the tatter's disposal, publisher the official order of mobilization of the entire German army on the Russian frontier. This paper, moreover, was not the only one to publish this piece of news, which, false on that day, had been
true the day before. It certainly looked as if the paper had the news from
the German government, so much so that it was possible to keep the paper on sale all that afternoon, to offer it
to the embassies, feed it to the entire
population. Not until much later when the harm had been done was it suppressed by Herr von Jagow. The latter, to be sure, summoned M. Jules
Cambon for the purpose of protesting to him against the publication of the
news.
But who had given the paper the
chance to do this bad deed? Who
had provided it with the means? On the day before, July 29, which had been decided upon, as we have just seen.
and the plan had not failed until three
days later, when the chancellor learned
the, to him, unexpected state of mind
of England. The order for mobiliza
tion had been got ready posibly it had
been prepared a long time before.
in an event, Decause or tnis new feature .the Russian ambassador at Berlin, who had rut been informed
by Herr von Jagow (through mobilization concerned Russia) telegraphed to
nis government.
uei us xorgei notmng. Tbe czar, deply impressed by the ultimatum.
had telegraphed on July 29 to Emperor
wiinam: "it would be better to en
trust 'tne Austro-Serbian problem to The Hague conference. I trust to thy wisdoms and friendship." No answer
was made to this telegram! . Not even
did it receive the honor of being in
eluded in the 1914 White Book! This supreme proposal of mediation did not
become known, in fact, until the war
was in progress, when it appeared in
the official Russian newspaper.
France Makes Supreme Peace Effort In addition, two more conciliatory
proposals were made at that time
that of Sir Edward Grey, backed by
King George, and addressed to Em
peror William, and that of M. Sazonoff, to the same entente. Neither was accepted. Her von Jagow, the
presumptuous spokesman for Austria
reiusea even to transmit these proposals. And this occurred between the 29th and 21st of July! During those dreadful hours, when the life of nations
depended on minutes, Austria an.'
swered not a word. Germany was si
lent and refused to co-operate. The soldiers marched, war broke out. And yet it was Austrian mobilization! And
Serbia had been invaded. Nevertheless
we allowed nothing to daunt or stop us; the efforts of Sisyphus to move his rock up the slope were not more desperate than what was now being done by human strength, strained to
its utmost, in the cause of peace. On July 30, however, there came
ray of hope. Herr von BethmannHollweg, in view of the attitude of England, brought to his knowledge by the German ambassador at London, and aware now that Sir Edward Grey did not wish to forfeit his freedom of
action ut would, nevertheless, not re main aloof if France's duties as an ally involved her in the conflict, decided to yield in the face of this new situation and to act at last or at, least trv to act! So far lie had spurned the clearheaded advice of the German ambassador at London listening rather to the mediocre and Selfish reports of the delegate who has been set to watching his chief there, and he had also
believed the tales of Prince Henry of Prussia who prophesied English neutrality as a certainty. But now Beth-mann-Hollweg, realizing at last and too late Jn what direction he was going, telegraphed to Vienna. . Then he sent this second dispatch (July 30, 1914). which reached Vienna the 31st at 3 o'clock in the morning: "If England is successful in its efforts (toward conciliation) whereas
Vienna refuses, Vienna will prove ab-
eolutely that she desires war, into which we shall be dragged, while Russia will be entirely free from guilt Thus, we find ourselves in an absolutely untenable position before our
own country, and can but insist energetically upon the acceptance by Austria of the proposal of Grey, who still keeps It open in its entirety."
Why This Procrastination? Why did he not speak earlier? How
valuable that advice would have been
had it been given on July 26t! Granted, even, that it had not been given until
the 2Sth or 29th, even after the armed
intervention of Austria in Serbia, what a difference it would have made! If
the occupation of Serbia by Austria
seined to Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg.
on July 30, sufficient for disposing Austria toward conciliation, why were
forty-eight hours lost before such advice was given to Austria?
It will be seen that even assuming
the hypothesis most favorable to Herr von Bethmann and to Germany what
we point out is of prime importance,
As a matter of fact, all of a sudden,
he sent also, on July 30, 1914 (German
Documents, No. 45), a dispatch where
by he retracted the telegram which
he had just sent. The man was drsfw
ing back- He was afraid Of peace! So
he sent that other telegram, revoking the one which had preceded it, and this, of course having been revoked
so promptly was not delivered to the
Vienna government by tne uerman
ambassador at Vienna.
Thus the chancellor, on the same
day, sent to the German ambassador
at Vienna a conciliatory telegram and
then revoked it. This vitally impor
tant telegram (No. 441) left Berlin at 9 p. m. and arrived at Vienna the 31st
at 3 a. m. This was th edispatch ad
vising negotiation. As to the second telegram (No. 450), cancelling the advice to be moderate which had just been sent, it was dispatched from Berlin on July 30th at 11:20 p. m. Thus,
DUTCH DIPLOMAT SLATED FOR DUTY AT U. S. CAPITAL
J! . ' '
A.
De Graeff.
A. De Graeff, Dutch diplomat; will represent the Netherlands at Washington, according to latest reports from The Hague. He is expecttd in America soon to take up his duties at the legation.
during that night of July 30-31, the en tire burden of responsibility falls upon Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg.
If, on the 30th, he thought it his
duty to advise moderation, why did he not give this advice earlier, put
ting to an end to the state of general
nervous tension and preventing the
situation from growing worse? And,
particularly, having given the advice
tardily, why did he retract it that same evening, between 9and 11:20 o'clock?
Bethmann-Hollweg Tries to Cover
Himself The truth is that Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg sent his first telegram merely to cover himself, merely to give the appearance of wishing intervention in the interests of peace. He was not even able to carry out this Machiavellian attempt to the limit. The German general staff interfered, demanding war; it alleged as a reason the preparations of Russia and France, on Jdly 30, at the very moment when the French government had caused its troops to withdraw ten kilometers, and when M. Sazonoff, in agreement with the German ambassador at St. Petersburg, was dictating to the latter a conciliatory formula which Herr von Jagow refused to transmit! That 30th day of July was two-fold In character. On the one hand, Germany pretended to wish peace, advised moderation, and later revoked the telegram counselling moderation at the very moment when it had been dispatched! Russia asked that negotiations be start eid and France exposed her frontiers! On that day it was that Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg started the war. He started it on that day by his fatal telegram; he gave the order to begin the massacre; he hurled the world toward the charnel-house. Did he yield to the German general
staff which, the day before (July 29 in the evening), already desired war? Was he Irresolute, incapable, a slave to that docility which, in Germany, is typical of statesmen? The grave is a refuge into which Herr von Bethmann has taken his secret.
His crushing responsibility for the war, of course, falls also upon the German general staff. The latter wished to put an end to the period of waiting.
Slowly but surely the good sense of
Europe, piercing into this chaos of violence, would succeed in clearing up
everything. And that would mean al
ready, in fact, peace was beginning to
dawn!
No! This must not be! So the
general staff now adopted a most for
midable threatening tone toward the poor vacillating civilian official. "Germany is menaced! She i3 being en
circled! Deutschland uber alles!" And Herr von Bethmann took up his pen and withdrew those two first dispatches. After that, he remained silent " ' It was now the turn of human bestiality to speak! . Who was the first to upset the existing state of peace and put arms into the hands of men by means of a pro
longed and intensive preparation for! war? Which was he country that first resorted, in a' general way, to mobilization? That is now the question and the answer to it must have a most important influence on the judgment of history. We shall prove, by invoking every bit of evidence, including the most recent available, that the burden of having been the first to resort to general mobilization falls upon Austria, also upon Germany. But, before entering upon this question, we wish to recall the fact reserving to ourselves the privilege of returning later to it that the preparations made by these two countries went further back still, even
if these did not legally come under
the head of mobilization. "It was the German general staff which laid all
the plans necessary for sweeping along
with it the vacillating will of the civil
government. In addition, what we
know of the war-like intentions of the
German Emperor, as they appeared on July 5 and July 21, 1914 (see preced
ing chapters), would suffice for plac
ing upon the attitude of Germany and
her leaders immeasurable responsibil
ity.
Who wish the war? Who knowingly
and silently prepared It? Who refused
absolutely to be moved hy persuasion,
stifled debate by threats, made the sit
uation constantly more serious, especially during the last crucial, days? This is the principal question that comes up for decision before the tribunal of history. We have begun to examine thi3 question and we shall continue to do so. Let us, at the same time, study that other matter of mobilization. Making Ready for War. It will be recalled that Russia, handicapped in mobilization by the slowness of concentration to which we have already made allusion, mobilized parially on July 29, in answer to Austria's partial mobilization of July 29, at the same time assuring Austria of her desire for peace. It will be recalled that
Germany addressed a violent ultimatum to Russia, demanding though she demanded nothing .-.imilar from the aggressive government of Austria that Russia demobilize, although the frontiers of Germany were not threatened. The nocturnal Council of Potsdam will be recalled (July 29), where war was so definitely decided upon (the German general staff) was represented there and demanded liberty of action) that, a few minutes later during the same night, at Berlin, Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg so announced to the British ambassador, and asked that Great Britain maintain her neutrality, which request was refused. It will be recalled that the German chancellor, all of a sudden, terrified and shaking
on his legs, on that very same night
withdrew the ultimatum (night of July
29-30), and that M. Sabonoff dictated to Count Pourtales, German ambassador of Russia, the formula, now submitted again, of his proposal of a fourcornered agreement. It will be recalled, in conclusion, that Herr von Jagow on July 30, refused to transmit these proposals Austria, the reason for this refusal never having come out. And that brings us to the 30th of July. What is it that is suddenly happening? During the night of July 30-31, at about one in the morning, Austria decreed and made public her general nioblization (Dumaine dispatch. Yellow (Please Turn to Page Eleven)
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