The Audacious War Part 6

There are in the United States to-day only two Belgian settlements, one of about 1000 people in Montana and one of about 1500 in western New York. The Belgian loves his land and sits by his home though it be in ruins. The history of the land of the Belgians shows that, as the c.o.c.kpit of Europe, it was the battle-ground of centuries; yet her people are more immobile than those of any other country in Europe.

Earthquakes do not make sunny Italy or golden California less attractive to their inhabitants.

About $20,000,000 (more than 10 per cent of this came from Belgian people) has been raised to feed starving Belgians, and $20,000,000 more should be forthcoming.

The English war office objected at first to the American proposals for food supplies to the little country. It was held to be the duty of the invading Germans to feed the population of the conquered country, as the Germans had appropriated large stores of supplies that were in Belgium, notably at Antwerp.

England finally a.s.sented to the proposal, as well she might, for Belgium would starve without food from the outside, irrespective of war losses. In normal times, she imports 240,000 tons of food every month.

She also imports most of her raw supplies for manufacturing. Belgium is, therefore, to-day without food, or raw materials for her industries, and probably without outlet had her industries the ability to produce. Although about fifty ships are bringing food to Belgium, they are of small capacity and in the aggregate represent less than one month's supply. In the early part of December about 80,000 tons of food were going through the American committee by permission of Germany and England. The people have been put on one-third rations. Every inhabitant of Belgium is allowed a pint of soup a day and about as much coa.r.s.e brown bread as would make one American loaf.

The German idea of responsibility and power is that of force. They have ordered the people of Belgium to love them, cooperate with them, and go about their business. But the Belgians refuse to love the Germans, refuse to cooperate with them and will not resume their work for the Germans to appropriate the results. The people of Antwerp were invited to come back from Holland and it was proclaimed that there would be no indemnity levied, yet a huge one came down upon the city.

The Germans levied a war tax of 50,000,000 francs on Brussels, and Rothschild and Solvay are not permitted to leave the city.

Payment on the tax was agreed to, and then the Germans demanded 500,000,000 francs from the entire province of Brabant, which includes Louvain as well as Brussels. The inhabitants said it was impossible and the demand was reduced to 375,000,000 francs. The inference must be that the latter levy covers a term of years.

The Germans are provoked that the bank money got out of Belgium. The Bank of Belgium sent its gold reserve to the Bank of England, 600,000,000 francs, and Germany demanded that this reserve be transferred from England to a neutral country; but, of course, England refused. There are some banks still doing business in Belgium, but the Belgians reject the German money except when obliged to take it.

The Belgian stores remain closed for the major part, and the Germans threaten that unless the Belgians reopen and proceed with business they will confiscate the stores and sell them to Germans who will do business. The people of Antwerp must be in bed by 9 o'clock. The people of Liege are ordered to retire at 7 P.M. No Belgian is permitted the use of a telephone, the entire system having been appropriated by the military authorities.

The Germans have decreed German time, which is one hour different from that of London, but the Belgian people refuse to set over their watches and clocks. The Belgian railroad system is different from that of the Germans,--left-handed tracks and a different system of signalling. The Belgians refuse to do the bidding of the Germans and operate the railroads. The Germans must move the trains themselves.

The Germans do not hate the Belgians. They simply pity them, that they were so shortsighted as not to accept German gold for right of pa.s.sage through the country. The German hate is reserved entirely for the English above all people on the surface of the globe. In Belgium 200 marks reward is offered for the capture of any Englishman found in that domain.

The latest response to Bernhardi's book, "England the Va.s.sal of Germany," is Kipling's poem in the King Albert book issued December 16 to augment the Belgian Relief Fund. I clip two verses:--

They traded with the careless earth, And good return it gave; They plotted by their neighbor's hearth The means to make him slave.

When all was readied to their hand They loosed their hidden sword And utterly laid waste a land Their oath was pledged to guard.

After the German Kaiser sounded the battle sentiment of Europe by sending the warship "Panther" to Agadir three years ago in violation of the treaty of Algeciras, it was intimated by the French and the English that Belgian neutrality might be in danger; also that the Lord and the Allies helped those who help themselves.

Therefore, a bill was introduced in Belgium's Capital providing for the raising of an army of 600,000 men where before were 46,000 and a war footing of 147,000. The leader of the Catholic party opposed the programme, declaring that Belgian neutrality was guaranteed by Germany, France, and England. A compromise was effected by which an army of less than half this number was authorized.

When on Sunday evening, August 2d, at 7 P.M., the German ultimatum was handed to Belgium, she was given twelve hours or until morning to declare whether or not the country would be surrendered to the free pa.s.sage of the German war battalions. Belgium had then an army of 200,000 men; 60,000 volunteers sprang to arms, and that 260,000 was the maximum Belgian army that attempted to withstand the millions of Germany's armed forces. Even these were not effectively placed. The 30,000 men at the frontier were not sufficient to permit of any effective sorties to protect the approaches to the Liege fortifications. It was a forlorn hope from a military standpoint, but for three weeks the Belgians with shrinking forces held in check the war power of Germany. Every week help was expected from the Allies, but no help came, for no country in Europe outside of Germany and Austria had any expectation of war.

Down to the ground and their graves fought the plucky little Belgians, until they numbered, not 260,000, but nearer 60,000. After every able-bodied man in Belgium was demanded by King Albert, the ranks of the Belgians began to swell, and, with able-bodied refugees returned from England, there are now about 120,000 men in the ten divisions of the Belgian army.

But England carries, as she ought, the financial burden. She feeds, clothes, and equips the Belgians and furnishes the money-supply. The Germans still strive, not so much against the Allies as against the English in Belgium. Here the fighting is fiercest, casualties are greatest, and here the reinforcements on both sides are the greatest per mile of line.

Meanwhile the more than a million Germans in Belgium have trenched across the whole country, rebuilt the forts at Namur, Liege, Antwerp, and other places, and are digging themselves into the ground doggedly and determinedly, and with as great precision and more science than the Allies. The German trenches are rather better made and the machinery for trenching has been, of course, better prepared by the Germans.

The great surprise of the war was the demonstration in Belgium that forts costing millions, in defense of cities, are absolutely useless against the big German sh.e.l.ls. The defense at Liege was prolonged because the Germans could not at first find the exact location of the central defense. Finally a German approached bearing a large white flag of truce. Belgian orders were given to receive him. The German, under his flag of truce, signalled the desired information and then fell. Soon after, fell the fort. The Germans had found the desired range, and shot. At Antwerp a single sh.e.l.l was able to put an entire fortress out of business.

It is the Landwehr and the older men that have been called by Germany to do duty in Belgium, while the younger troops are sent back and forth between the eastern and western frontier defences.

An American who has lately been all through Belgium, representing both commercial interests and charity work, tells me;--

"I left America absolutely neutral. I was not a student of the war or of the cause of the war. What I saw in Belgium convinced me that the Allies must win and will win. I am no longer neutral. What I saw in Belgium of the wanton destruction of villages, towns, and cities has prejudiced me as no argument could have done. The Allies' losses will begin when they take the offensive against the German works which are now being constructed. Soon England will have 600,000 more men on the Continent and there will be more doing.

"The losses of the Germans have been two or three times the losses of the Allies in the Belgian trenches, because the Germans have been the attacking parties. If the Allies become the attacking parties they will have to sustain the heavy losses. But I cannot see it otherwise than that the Allies must win. The crime against Belgium is the greatest crime since Calvary, and it has set the whole world against Germany.

"It is not only a crime, but it was a military error, for to-day Germany has 600 miles of front to defend, 300 east and 300 west, and her losses have been enormous. At Liege 7000 Germans went down in a single day's fighting. One man I met a.s.sisted to bury 500 Germans in front of a single trench.

"I do not believe Brussels is mined; but if ever the Germans got into Paris they would destroy the whole city before they left.

"I shudder to think what the Germans will suffer at the hands of the Belgians when once the rout of the Germans has been begun by the Allies. The Belgians are unreconciled, and if they ever get weapons in their hands--well, I will not predict, I will just tell you one fact: I traveled the length and breadth of the land, saw the women and the children sitting by their ruined hearthstones, but I never saw a tear on the cheek of a Belgian."

CHAPTER IX

RUSSIA AND THE RUSSIANS

Russian Reforms--A United Russia--Russian Armaments--The Greatest Future--Two Water Outlets--The Slav Invasion Bugaboo.

Russia also is likely to bring forth some notable men who have not previously been heard of before the world. General Evanoff is the idol of the Russian army. He is the strategist who plans the movements against Austria and Germany in the East, who surrounds Przemysl and says, "Now, we can take it when we please, but we will not sacrifice Russian troops to take it now; Cracow is more important. Lodz is not important from a military standpoint. We will surround it later."

Evanoff orders his men to keep out of the valleys and engage the Germans in the open plain, where their own numbers will count in action; for in the valleys the German big guns have the advantage.

Russia has been at work steadily since the j.a.panese war reforming her army within and without. More than one third of her officers were dismissed after that war. The Russian officials now say that the j.a.panese war was to Russia most providential. It showed the lines of Russian weakness, inefficiency, and graft, which could flourish at a distance from St. Petersburg but became exposed when war put the Russian organization to the test. Steadily every year Russia has been systematically and thoroughly routing out graft and inefficiency. When Russia starts to do a thing she does it thoroughly.

It was because Russia was rebuilding, reorganizing, and was indulging in criticism and putting its mind on the weak spots, that Russian confidential papers stolen in the interest of Germany misled both Berlin and Vienna as to the possibility of Russia going to war to defend Servia in the year 1914.

War has united Russia as never before. The Czar now moves about unattended, and the country is a unit behind him and the war and unitedly against the Germans. From Warsaw to Siberia the German agents and merchants have been arrested and impounded. n.o.body in Germany can yet realize how this war has destroyed her commercial relations and commercial organizations throughout the world. Everywhere German people are subjects of suspicion. You will even hear in all seriousness that the Kaiser had an army of 150,000 reservists in the United States with a partial equipment of arms ready to attack Canada; and I have been told by supply agencies that these arms are now offered for sale, as the uselessness of any German movement on the American continent is apparent.

How far Germany is unable to measure the spirit of the English-speaking people is shown by the fact that she cannot understand why the United States does not take this opportunity to possess Canada.

I heard of a retired German-American of wealth, residing in Germany, who was actually invited to go to America to stir up a raid on Canada.

Of course he obediently returned to the United States, and then he sat down to wonder how he could effectively report back the foolishness of such an idea without offense to Berlin.

Russia has been perfecting her military organization for ten years.

The expansion was to come in the next two years. At the opening of the war she had only 2,500,000 available troops. For two years she has been building factories to manufacture ammunition and arms, and these are now being rushed to completion. People who have offered her contracts for arms and munitions have been told that Russian factories shortly to be completed will make their weapons more quickly than they can now be ordered and received from other countries.

With arms and equipment Russia can draw 17,000,000 men to her German-Austrian frontier just as readily as Germany can draw 7,000,000 men to both her frontiers. In both calculations only one in ten of the population is counted upon for service.

The story is told of a Russian who was asked in London why he did not return for military duty. He replied, "Oh, I belong to the 14th million, and it will be some time before the 18th million is called out."

Russia has the greatest future of any country in Europe. She has the largest unturned arable soil of any country in the world. Russia in Europe is a great agricultural plain. To the east are her rich oil-fields steadily expanding north in the Ural Mountains, and east lies Siberia, endowed by nature as one of the richest countries in the world, an area in which you could deposit the United States. From the Siberian railroad other railroads are now projected; mineral wealth is being uncovered; and English and French capital and American engineers will in the future work wonders with the country.

What Russia has long sought is an outlet to the ocean. This war is likely to give her benefits which she could never have asked and could only have fought for. Germany, defeated, will lose the control or monopoly of the Kiel Ca.n.a.l, and possibly the country around it which she took from Denmark. The Kiel Ca.n.a.l under international control will extend the Baltic Sea of the Russians and the Scandinavians most directly to the North Sea and the English Channel.

To the south Russia will have something to say in Asia Minor and much to say concerning Constantinople. Certainly her influence in the Balkan States and on the Bosphorus will be as great as she could desire. As long as the Turks remained loyal to England, Great Britain was bound to maintain their integrity and hold upon Constantinople and the Bosphorus. With the pa.s.sing of the Turk Constantinople is in the hands of the Allies when they are victorious. Its final disposition is not yet clear, but the English people can see compensation in Egypt, Asia Minor, and Persia for any necessary Russian control of Byzantium.

While seeking one direct outlet by waterway, Russia may get two with the suicide of Germany and the destruction of her latest ally, the Mohammedan Turk.

Russia is beginning to be better understood throughout the British Empire and the world. The fear of an invasion of Western Europe by the Slav races is a bugaboo set afloat by Germany, who also propagates the bugaboo of a j.a.panese invasion of North America.

Russia is not a competing nation. She needs the capital and the brains of the outside world for her development, and in time she will offer the greatest field for world cooperation.