America's War for Humanity Part 72

Within three days, before even the a.s.sociated Press discovered the fraud, these outrageous German lies had taken effect. Subscriptions to the loan began to slacken, alarmingly. Interest in the battle news began to fade. People were telling each other the war was over.

PRINCE MAX WRITES A NOTE

Then on October 6th, 1918, came the note of the German Chancellor, Prince Maximilian of Baden, asking an armistice and a peace conference--in essence, an astounding request for time to reconsolidate the German armies and bring up fresh guns and munitions. America might have been fooled into a frightful error if the great war-organizations had not come forward with a roaring counterblast. The peace offensive failed.

More than that, the people resented it in a prompt and highly practical way. They oversubscribed the six billion loan. Most of them, especially the smaller subscribers, doubled their subscriptions in the last two days of the time allotted for the flotation. October 7th, President Wilson answered Prince Max's request with a refusal.

But it was a fortunate thing for the allied cause that the peace offensive was made, for its one effect was to create a profound distrust of all war news coming out of Amsterdam or Copenhagen. It revealed the fact that Berlin had been closely censoring all news dispatches that a.s.sumed to disclose the state of affairs in the central empires; censoring them rigorously, and inventing most of them. Germany had not yet learned that lies would not win the war; but the rest of the world had learned that Germany, as a liar, was so supernally endowed that her feeblest efforts in that domain would have made Ananias, Baron Munchausen, and Joe Mulhatton look like a trio of supersaints, choking with truth.

FIRST HUN CRY FOR PEACE

Germany's definite turn toward peace came in October, 1918, in the form of further and very awkward notes written by Prince Maximilian of Baden, the German Chancellor, and Doctor Solf, German Minister of foreign affairs. While the first of these notes was coming along, the Leinster was sunk by a German submarine on the Irish coast. The Leinster was a pa.s.senger ship, employed in regular service on a long ferriage. She had a full pa.s.senger list, nearly 400 people, peaceable folk all, just about such as may be found any day aboard a Staten Island ferry boat. It was not in any sense an act of war, but mere and open piracy, killing for the love of killing. It was one of the most horrible acts in a long, long list of horrors for which Germany has learned she must account in the long reckoning she has been forced to face.

VIRTUE, VICE AND VIOLENCE

At the same time, strangely contrasting with the virtuous att.i.tude a.s.sumed in the notes, towns and cities in France and Belgium were being blown up before evacuation by the Germans, their men were being marched away to slavery in Germany, their women and young girls a.s.signed as "orderlies" in the service of German officers--such "orderlies" as Turkey buys and sells for its harems. The contrast between German professions of virtue and German b.e.s.t.i.a.lity of act was ghastly. It is hard to believe that such things could happen between earth and sky, and they who did them still live; yet the things, hypocritical on one side and sickeningly horrible on the other, were actually done.

RESULTS OF A FEW BUSY MONTHS

Between the day when that little group of Americans stopped the hordes of h.e.l.l at Chateau Thierry, and Germany's acceptance of the American and allied armistice terms, these other and happier things had come to pa.s.s.

Bulgaria had been forced to quit. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey sued for peace. Turkey's military power was broken in Asia Minor, Germany undertook the greatest retreat in history, and these countries and Austria-Hungary were suffering from serious internal dissensions.

The allies took about half a million prisoners and some 4,000 cannon.

They destroyed more than 300 airplanes and 100 balloons. They recovered more than 7,000 square miles of territory in France and Belgium, 20, square miles in Serbia, Albania and Montenegro, and 15,000 square miles in Asia Minor.

In France, the cities of Lille, Turcoing, Roubaix, Douai, Lens, Cambrai, St. Quentin, Peronne, Laon, Soissons, Noyon, La Ba.s.see, Bapaume, St. Mihiel, Chateau Thierry, Grand Pre, Soissons, Vouziers, LaFere, LeCateau, Juniville, Craonne, and Machault were reoccupied. Valenciennes fell to the British. Reims and Verdun were freed, after four years'

artillery domination.

The St. Mihiel salient was wiped out by Pershing's American army, the great St. Gobain ma.s.sif recovered, the Hindenburg line and lesser defensive systems shattered, and the Argonne ma.s.sif won.

The Belgian Coast was cleared of the enemy and the Belgian cities of Bruges, Ostend, Zeebrugge, Roulers, Courtrai, Ghent, Audenarde, and Tournai were recaptured.

The allied advance in France was about fifty miles eastward from Villers-Bretonneaux, near Amiens, and nearly the same distance northward from Chateau Thierry. In Belgium, the allies had progressed about forty miles eastward from Nieuport.

Three-fourths of Serbia, four-fifths of Albania, and a large slice of Montenegro were repatriated.

The allied advance covered more than 200 miles northward to Negotin, on the Danube, within twenty-two miles of Hungarian Territory.

The British in Asia Minor advanced over 350 miles and took Aleppo, possession of which gave them the key to Constantinople from the south.

The British expedition in Mesopotamia began an operation designed to capture Mosul and open the way to the eastern terminus of the proposed Berlin-to-Bagdad railway, which ends at Nesibin.

In Russia the allies advanced 275 miles up the Dwina river and penetrated about 350 miles southward from the Murman coast. They also pushed 600 miles inland from Vladivostok.

OPENS UP THE DARDANELLES

On the very last day of October, 1918, Turkey surrendered to the British, opening the Dardanelles and through those waters giving the allied fleets access to the German-dominated Black Sea and the coast of southern Russia, and putting at the mercy of the allies the only active units of the German navy. The surrender included Palestine and the Mesopotamian fronts. General Allenby's farther drive at Constantinople became unnecessary, having served the purpose of hastening Turkey's decision; and Allenby himself was a.s.signed to the occupancy of the Turk Capital.

The same day, October 31, 1918, the Austrian government ordered demobilization of the Austrian armies, and the Austrian forces began a hasty retreat from Italy. The retreat became a rout before evening of that day, the Italians pursuing and capturing over 50,000 men and cannon, and cutting off some 200,000 Austrians in a trap between the Brenta and Piave rivers. General Diaz, the Italian commander, after considerable entreaty, consented to receive General Weber of the Austrian command, who brought a plea for armistice.

The result of their conference was an agreement for an armistice that should go into effect at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of November 4th--an allowance of time sufficient to get the acceptance signed at Vienna.

Meanwhile there would be no cessation of fighting.

AUSTRIA SURRENDERS

The terms were thorough and severe. They amounted to Austria's unconditional surrender, disarmament, demobilization of armies, delivery of the major fleet and all submarines to the United States and allies, restoration to Italy of all the Italian provinces that Austria had taken in older wars, free pa.s.sage to American and allied forces through Austrian territory, abandonment of land, sea and island fortifications to the Americans and allies, immediate release (without reciprocation) of all American and allied soldiers and sailors held prisoner in Austria, return of all allied merchant ships held at Austrian ports, freedom of navigation on the Danube by American and allied war and merchant ships, internment of all German troops remaining in Austria by November 18th, 1918, and immediate withdrawal of all Austrian troops serving with the German armies anywhere between the Swiss border and the North sea.

The terms were accepted in full by the Vienna government, but between the time it was delivered by General Diaz to General Weber and 3 o'clock of November 4th, the Austrian armies on Italian soil stampeded in a panic so complete that the pursuing Italians had taken 200,000 of them prisoner, making altogether nearly half a million taken since October 24th. In the same time about 7,000 guns, 12,000 auto cars and over 200,000 horses were captured, and Austrian fatalities ran into numbers almost equal to the largest army Napoleon ever had under command in any one of his great campaigns.

Austria had begun to yield during the last week of October, when Hungary abandoned the empire, released its civil and military officials from their oath of allegiance to the imperial crown, and formed arrangements for an independent government of its own. Count Tisza, formerly premier of Hungary, and the most reactionary of Hungarian statesmen, was a.s.sa.s.sinated toward the close of that week.

THE KILLING OF TISZA

An Amsterdam report dated November 3d quoted from the Vossische Zeitung of Berlin an account of that event, from which it appears that about o'clock in the evening three soldiers invaded Count Tisza's residence and presented themselves in the drawing room. Count Tisza, with his wife and the Countess Alma.s.sy, advanced to meet the intruders, asking what they wanted. "What have you in your hand?" a soldier demanded of Tisza.

Tisza replied that he held a revolver. The soldier told him to put it away, but Tisza replied: "I shall not, because you have not laid aside your rifles." The soldiers then requested the women to leave the room, but they declined to do so. A soldier then addressed Tisza as follows: "You are responsible for the destruction of millions of people, because you caused the war." Then raising their rifles, the soldiers shouted: "The hour of reckoning has come." The soldiers fired three shots and Tisza fell. His last words were: "I am dying. It had to be." The soldiers quitted the house, accompanied by gendarmes, who previously were employed to guard the door.

It was the removal of Count Tisza that really cleared the way for the new Hungarian state. Bohemia and the other Slavic va.s.sal states of Austria had already broken away. President Wilson had recognized Poland as an independent and belligerent state. Austria's remaining dependence, after Hungary's defection, was upon the German population of its north and northwestern provinces, and the provinces wrenched from Italy forty years before. Austrian armies numbering more than half a million men had driven the Italians back from the territory they had won in 1917 under General Cadorna, and had been brought to a stand on the river Piave, where a deadlock somewhat resembling that in front of Verdun had been maintained many months. These armies were affected by the movement that was dissolving the empire, and gave way, with the result above stated.

The terms of the Austrian armistice were furnished to General Diaz through Marshal Foch, by the American and allied council sitting at Versailles.

During the interim between the delivery and the acceptance of the Austrian Armistice and the surrender of Austria, the Versailles Council prepared terms of an armistice that had been sued for by the German government.

TERMS PREPARDED FOR GERMANY

On November 4th, 1918, Berlin was notified by the Versailles council that Marshal Foch had in his hands the terms on which armistice would be granted. November 8th, a German commission of five were admitted to audience with Marshal Foch, who read and delivered the doc.u.ment, with notice that it must be accepted and signed within seventy-two hours.

A request by Herr Erzberger, one of the German commissioners, that fighting be suspended during that time, was curtly refused; and the armistice terms were communicated by the commissioners to the German revolutionary government, which had come into power by voluntary transfer of the chancelorship from Prince Maximilian of Baden to Friedrich Ebert, Vice-president of the social democratic party.

The revolution began in the German fleet at Kiel, where the sailors mutinied and hoisted the red flag. It spread with great rapidity and very little disorder throughout all the German states.

November 9th the Kaiser was compelled by the revolutionists to abdicate, and the crown prince signed a renunciation of his right to the succession. The abdication of the Kings of Bavaria and Wurtemburg occurred at the same time. The ex-emperor and the crown prince, in an attempt to reach the British line and surrender themselves, were headed off by the revolutionary forces and took refuge in Holland.

ARMISTICE SIGNED BY GERMANY

November 11th, 1918, the armistice was signed by the German commissioners, upon orders from Berlin. On the morning of that day, at 11 o'clock Paris time, fighting ceased on all fronts.

The terms of the armistice were in substance as follows. They demanded:

Evacuation within thirty-one days of Belgium, France, Alsace-Lorraine, Luxemburg, Russia, Roumania and Turkey, all territory that had belonged to Austria-Hungary, and all territory held by German troops on the west bank of the Rhine.

Renunciation of the treaties of Brest-Litovsk and Bucharest.

Delivery to and occupation by American and allied troops within nineteen days, of Mayence, Coblenz and Cologne, together with their bridgeheads.

The bridgeheads include all German territory within a radius of eighteen miles on the east (German) bank of the Rhine, at each of these points.

The surrender of 5,000 cannon, 25,000 machine guns, 5,000 motor lorries, 8,000 flame throwers, 1,700 airplanes, 5,000 locomotives, 150,000 wagons (railway cars) and all the railways of Alsace-Lorraine.

Establishment of a neutral strip twenty-four miles wide on the east (German) side of the Rhine, paralleling that river from the Holland border to the border of Switzerland.