Face to Face with Kaiserism Part 31

And for each country and for the Allies as a whole there is one word, Unity.

When all had signed our Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin said, "And now we must all hang together or we all shall hang separately."

Russia has, for the moment, failed and unless she recovers herself she will pay the penalty by submission to German rule.

Is there a defect in the Russian character? Is persistency lacking? In 1760, the Russian troops had taken Berlin. If Russia had gone on strongly with the war, the power of Frederick the Great might have been broken. But apparently the Russian troops simply turned around and went back to Russia. In 1854, in the Crimean War, after a long siege and bitter losses, the French, Turks, English and Sardinians succeeded in taking one Russian city, Sebastopol, in the extreme southern part of Russia. With this exception, Russian territory was intact and yet the Czar Alexander II, shortly after the death of Nicholas, begged for peace. As a result the Black Sea was made for a time neutral and no state could have warships or a.r.s.enals on it with the exception of small gunboats for police purposes.

In 1878, after the Russo-Turkish war, when the Russian troops were in sight of the minarets of Constantinople, the Russians allowed themselves to be bluffed by the diplomats of Europe from obtaining the fruits of victory.

Secretly or openly, Germany will propose to the world to take her pay from the skin of the Bear, from the conquered territories of Russia which remain in her possession. The inhabitants of those territories would have to become the slaves of Prussia as did the inhabitants of Belgium and Northern France. Prussians of Russia paid the agitators to talk about peace without indemnities.

Germany, since the first days of the war, has been taking indemnities not only in money, but in property and in labour from the conquered countries. Belgium alone has been compelled to pay a tribute of forty-million francs a month (lately sixty million) to her conquerors and vast sums have been exacted from Lille and other conquered cities. Property, including machinery, has been seized and transported to Germany in the effort, not only to obtain a temporary advantage, but to destroy forever factories that compete with German manufacturers.

Especially do the German autocrats hope to obtain the so-called Baltic provinces as a spoil of war. Of Courland, Livonia and Esthonia now largely occupied by the German invaders, Courland and Livonia were originally possessions of the Teutonic Knights, then became a part of Poland and finally pa.s.sed to Russia. The three provinces were governed semi-independently, until 1876, when they became in all respects an integral part of the Russian Empire. The land in the provinces is held by great landowners, mostly of German blood--and the ma.s.s of the population belongs to the Lutheran Church. The peasants have been kept down by the lords of the soil, whose sympathies turn to Germany.

In 1913-1914 I met in Berlin several landlords from these provinces who acted in Berlin and were treated in Berlin like Germans, although subjects of the Russian Czar. So backward were these provinces in liberty under their German landlords that it was not until 1848 that the infamous "right of the lord" (_droit du Seigneur_ or _Jus primae noctae_) was abolished.

What Tannenberg has to say about Courland, Livonia and Esthonia is well worth studying. He writes:

"The most precious portions for us of the Russian heritage are the German Baltic provinces, Courland, Livonia, Esthonia.

"To the north in Esthonia and in the northern part of Livonia live the Esthonians. In the South, the Livonians of the Lithuanian branch. Esthonians and Livonians are Lutherans and form the princ.i.p.al part of the population. There are 250,000 Germans.

But the civilisation is German and gives to the whole country a German stamp. In the rural districts, the great landlords, the ministers of the Gospel and the school masters are German. In the cities the middle cla.s.ses are Germans. But the workingmen are Esthonians or Livonians. The Russians are only represented in the large cities by officials.

"It was in the middle of the twelfth century that the first German settlements were made at the mouth of the Dina. In 1201, Riga was founded, and, in 1202, the Order of the Knights of the Sword. In 1237 this Order was united with the powerful Order of the Teutonic Knights. There was no thought then of the Muscovites. From Marienburg to Riga it is five hundred kilometres, from Koenigsburg to Riga, three hundred and fifty, to Moscow eight hundred and fifty. Moscow was then going through a very difficult period. In 1225, the battle of the Kalka took place which put an end to the power of the great Russian Princes.

"From Riga to Kalka, Dantzig, Stettin and Lubeck, there was sea communication. The all powerful merchant marine of the Hanseatic League was at its height...."

Tannenberg describes how these provinces finally became part of Russia and adds:

"Courland, Livonia and Esthonia became the model provinces of the whole Empire. The German n.o.bility furnished Russia with its generals and its high officials: the University of Dorpat was founded and was the model of the high schools created later in Russia.... The University of Dorpat exchanged its professors with the other German high schools of the Russian Empire. The students of the Baltic provinces pa.s.sed several terms in the German Universities of the South and East of Germany and then returned to Dorpat to undergo their examinations to enter in the service of the Baltic or Russian State.

"One encounters constantly in our literature allusions to the Baltic provinces. Kant, the philosopher of pure reason, published his work at Riga.... In the time of Goethe students from Courland and Livonia visited the great of Weimar.

Richard Wagner commenced at Riga his theatrical and musical career."

Tannenberg speaks of the revolution after the defeat by the j.a.panese of the Russian troops in these provinces when the castles of the German Barons were besieged by the people and says, "The cry of indignation resounded through all Germany. A military German intervention was generally expected. Against all expectation nothing of the kind happened." ... "When the Russian Government finally got control the Russian troops treated the rebels mildly and it was finally the sparkling on the horizon of five million German bayonets that hastened matters so well that superficially, at least, order was re-established."

Speaking on the annexation of those provinces to Germany he says:

"There is no money to be seized in the East but there is something which is of more value than cash and that is lands, lands of colonisation for new German peasants." And he points out that the Baltic provinces are about the same size as Bavaria and Wurttemberg, but in Bavaria and Wurttemberg there are eight and a half millions of inhabitants while the Baltic provinces support a little over two millions.

"The Baltic provinces have always occupied an important place in the thought and sentiments of the German people. The public as a whole does not inquire if it's true that only fifteen per cent of the population is German. For the public they are simply the German provinces of the Baltic and the German people are right, because since seven hundred years the proprietors of the land there are Germans and the civilisation has always been German."

Should Germany be allowed to seize these provinces, to increase her population and man power enormously, a second great war like this one will not be far off and Russia, deprived of what Peter the Great called "His window on the Baltic," will lose her place as an European Power.

The Germans will endeavour, during any peace negotiations, to keep their troops there in the hope that they will be permitted to occupy these provinces or that, if a vote should be taken to determine to which country the inhabitants wish to be annexed, the latter would be coerced through the German landlords, and by the use of money and terror made to appear as desirous of annexation to Germany.

Prince Munster, who had been in this section during the war, told me once how easy it was to observe that the more prosperous sections of the population were German and how anxious these people were to become Germans. In this case I think he was right to the extent that the feudal landlords of the Baltic provinces believe that as Prussian Junkers they would have a greater chance to continue to oppress the people than as Russian citizens, especially citizens of a new Russian republic.

The Allies must guard against any move which can add to the man power of the Central Powers, and this reason alone is sufficient reason never to permit the Arabs and Syrians, who have been so oppressed by the Turks, to suffer again under the rule of the Young Turks.

The world must not be disturbed again by Prussian dreams of world conquest, nor must Jerusalem and the Holy Land, towards which the eyes of all Christians have turned for twenty centuries, be voluntarily given back to the Turks.

To allow the Germans access to Bagdad is to invite trouble--a second attempt of the Kaiser to don the turban and proclaim a Holy War in the interest of the fat merchants of Hamburg and Frankfort.

If this were an old time war, when sly diplomats sat at a green table, exchanging territories and peoples like poker chips, we might consent to the part.i.tion and destruction of Russia as most natural. But this war is between two systems, and wars either will be continued or cease hereafter. We who hope for the end of war cannot permit Germany to add to her man power any part of the rapidly multiplying population of that great territory which we now call Russia.

It is probable that Russia will go through the stages of the great French Revolution. We have had already the revolution made by the whole nation, Duma, army, and the control of the respectable moderate Republicans. The period of the Jacobins, the extremists, has come, too, and we must in the end expect the appearance of the military leader, a strong man who will bring order. That is what will happen, for Russia cannot remain a nation under the control of any government which cheerfully consents to dismemberment of her territory. Perhaps Trotzky will be clever enough to transform himself into a patriotic militant leader, if not, then he will not long remain at the head.

All these movements of lesser so-called nationalities are fostered by Prussian propagandists.

The region of the Ukraine, in Southern Russia, is supposed to be clamouring for freedom and independent existence. Long before the Russian revolution, I and all the diplomats of Germany were flooded with newspapers, pamphlets and literature about the longing of the Ukraine--all as plainly issued by the Germans as if they had been stamped with the Royal arms of Prussia and the seal of the General Staff.

The Lithuanians, too, stir uneasily. There is, perhaps, more in their claim; they request the world not to confuse them with the Poles and they protest against incorporation with Poland. But should a number of little states be created, sliced from the map of Russia, they would enjoy but a short independence before falling, one by one, into the maw of Prussia.

Every one sympathises with the Poles and hopes for the establishment of a really free and independent Poland, and not a Poland under the rule or protection of either Austria or Germany.

It will be a great experiment, because in the past the great state of Poland, one of the greatest in Europe, was broken because of the incapacity of the Poles to rule themselves. Their armies showed great bravery, the Polish cavalry, winged like angels, terrified enemy cavalry horses and charged often to victory; but the Polish aristocrats, camped with thousands of retainers at the place where the King was elected, sat patiently waiting for the highest bidder before giving their votes.

And the King once elected, the Polish diet accomplished nothing, because any n.o.ble who voted against a proposition could defeat it. This was the so-called "liberum veto" so fatal to Poland.

Katharine of Russia, that clever, wise, dissolute but great German Princess, placing a puppet favourite on the Polish throne, insisted on the retention of the "liberum veto" in the Polish Const.i.tution, because she knew that by the mere existence of this asinine inst.i.tution Poland could be counted on to commit suicide for the benefit of the watching spoilers, Russia, Prussia and Austria.

But a new, real Poland would not be governed by its aristocracy, and under a democratic government the splendid Polish race could be trusted to work out successfully their political salvation.

Should the strong man fail to appear in Russia and the Bolsheviki continue to rule, then the confusion of Russia may not prove an immediate help to Germany.

In the first place, no one now works in Russia; the population will be in want of food and will not have any great surplus to export; and it will be a long time before Germany can draw any material help from the Steppes of incompetency. Had Russia immediately settled down to a new form of government, the case might have been different, but now Germany or some power in Russia must first organise that vast country for production under new conditions before Germany can begin to profit from the withdrawal of Russia from the war except, perhaps, in that important factor--the release of German troops from the Eastern frontier. But as time pa.s.ses the Germans may use food from Russia to bribe northern neutral nations into an alliance with the Central Empires.

Revolutions are contagious. In 1848, the movement started in France spread all over Europe. The burdened horse on the road evinces a tendency to get out of hand at the mere sight of another horse cavorting about a pasture. The Germans are in blinders and driven by heavy hand, but forgotten as liberty is in Germany, the German Michael, the peasant chained to the soil, the hard-driven, poorly paid worker of the cities, at least, will exhibit a spirit of uneasiness, when across the line he sees Ivan, the Russian moujik, capering about, free from restraint and running things at his own sweet will. The yoke fits tight to Michael's neck, the German Kaiser drives hard from his All Highest Place; but no Emperor seemed more secure than the head of the Romanoffs, and the very fact that the chains of the yoke seem so strong may make the driven cattle all the more ready to toss the yoke aside when knowledge of power comes to the lower castes of Germany and Austria.

On the question of war Prussia is a civilisation as different from that of France, Great Britain and America as is China.

Ministers of the Gospel, professors, poets, writers, teach war; the necessity, the glory, the n.o.bility of war. Long before Nietzsche wrote and Treitschke taught war as a part of the Prussian creed the teachings of these mad philosophers expressed an indigenous feeling in Germany. It is not some abstract belief to be studied. It is a vital, burning, ever-present question which affects deeply, intimately, every man in this world. For until the Prussians are made weary of this belief and converted to a milder life, there is no woman in any corner of the earth, however remote, who may not have to see her son or husband go out to die in the fight against Prussian aggression, who may not, if this fight fails, be dragged away with her daughters to become slaves or endure that which is far worse than slavery.

[Ill.u.s.tration: REPRODUCTION OF A POST CARD CELEBRATING THE PROWESS OF THE ZEPPELIN, SOLD IN GERMANY]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ZEPPELIN POST CARD OF PATRIOTIC SENTIMENT SOLD IN GERMANY POPULARIZING THE AIR RAID ON DEFENSELESS CITIES]

If the Prussian people themselves cling to their G.o.ds of War, if Kaiser and Crown Prince fulfil their ideals, if the Prussian leave the reins in the hands of these warlike task masters and refuse to join the other peoples in stamping out the devil of war, then the conflict must go on, go on until the Germans get their stomachs full of war, until they forget their easy victories of the last century, until their leaders learn that war as a national industry does not pay, until their wealth and their trade has disappeared, until their sons are maimed and killed and their land laid waste, until the blinders fall from their eyes and they sicken of Emperor and Crown Prince, of the almost countless Kings and Grand Dukes and Princes, Generals and Admirals, Court Marshals and Chamberlains and Majors and Adjutants, Captains and Lieutenants, who now, like fat, green, distended flies, feed on the blood of Germany. What is there in war for any one but those men of froth at the top? It is this infernal king business that is responsible; so much of the king tradition is bound up with war that a king with power feels that he is untrue to the traditions of his ancestors if he fails at some period of his career to give the court painters and the court poets and the court historians a chance to portray him as a successful warrior.

The British air minister recently announced that reprisal raids were to be made on German towns. Who is not sorry for the poor people who may suffer, but the war must be brought home to them.

They have made no protest while Zeppelins killed babies and women and children in the "fortress" of London. The "fortress" of London, indeed! First the Germans attack an open town, contrary to every rule, and then, when guns are mounted to ward off future attacks, the Germans christen the town a "fortress" and claim the right to continue this slaughter of non-combatants.

Postcards were sold and eagerly bought all over Germany showing the Zeppelins bombing towns. When some German father sits by the hospital bed of his dying daughter, who sobs out her life torn with a fatal wound, let him tack one of these postcards over the bed and in looking on it remember that "he who lives by the sword shall perish by the sword," that it was at the command of the Kaiser and the Crown Prince when they thought only the German Zeppelins could make a successful air raid that these ma.s.sacres were ordered and that the German people at the time yelled their approval of deliberate dastardly murder.

"Te Deum" has been always the favourite psalm sung in cathedrals for all Christian conquerors, but neither psalms nor the paid pastor's praises of the Emperor will satisfy the German people, who have made awful sacrifices for intangible victories.