Great Britain and The Great War: Selected Documents

By Ishmael Samad

There can be no denying that Germany must bear full responsibility for the Great War. But precisely what was the root cause of this terrible tragedy that befell mankind a century ago? The leading statesmen and scholars of the period enlighten us on the origin and nature of this devastating conflict.

War begins in the

• Language: English
• Publisher: URLink Print & Media, LLC
• Release date: Dec 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9781647530679

Ishmael Samad

ISHMAEL SAMAD TAPIAMAN PAR EXCELLENCE

Book preview

GREAT BRITAIN

AND THE

GREAT WAR

SELECTED DOCUMENTS

EDITED BY

ISHMAEL ANGELO SAMAD

Great Britain and The Great War:

Selected Documents

Second Edition Copyright © 2020 by Ishmael Angelo Samad. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author except as provided by USA copyright law.

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Published in the United States of America

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019918777

ISBN 978-1-64753-066-2 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64753-067-9 (Digital)

18.02.20

Also by ISHMAEL ANGELO SAMAD

In A Carpenter’s Overall: A Catechism for the Third Millennium

In memory of John Clifford Sealy (1927-1991)

If our Empire has the courage to follow an independent colonial policy with determination, a collision of our interests with those of England is inevitable. It was natural and logical that the new great Power in Central Europe should be compelled to settle affairs with all great Powers. We have settled our accounts with Austria-Hungary, with France, with Russia. The last settlement, the settlement with England, will probably be the lengthiest and the most difficult.

HEINRICH VON TREITSCHKE (1834-1896)

I have tried to get along with him and shall nominally do my best till the end. But trust him? Never. He is utterly false and the bitterest foe that England possesses!

KING EDWARD VII (1841-1910)

on his nephew Kaiser Wilhelm II

Contents

Brief Notes On The Dramatis Personae

Acknowledgements

Preface

Introduction

1913

GERMAN HEADQUARTERS STAFF

GERMANY SHARPENS THE SWORD

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

GERMANY’S INFERNAL PASSION FOR WAR

1914

THE TIMES CORRESPONDENT

THE EARNEST DESIRE OF FRANCE FOR PEACE

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

THE COMING APOCALYPSE

HELMUTH VON MOLTKE

REQUEST FOR FREE PASSAGE THROUGH BELGIUM

HENRI DAVIGNON

BELGIUM CHOOSES MARTYRDOM

EUGENE BEYENS

GERMANY’S REACTION TO BELGIUM’S DEFIANCE

THE TIMES EDITORIAL

GERMANY’S DECLARATION OF WAR

SIR EDWARD GREY

ENGLAND SHALL DECLARE WAR FOR A SCRAP OF PAPER.

THE DEBATE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

AGAINST THE FORCES OF BLOOD AND IRON

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

FRANCE CANNOT BE VANQUISHED.

BURTON HENDRICK

THE LAMPS ARE GOING OUT ALL OVER EUROPE.

SIR EDWARD GREY

ENGLAND’S ULTIMATUM TO GERMANY

SIR EDWARD GOSCHEN

GERMANY’S REACTION TO ENGLAND’S ULTIMATUM

KING ALBERT

BELGIUM RESISTS FOR HONOUR

RAYMOND POINCARÉ

FRANCE FIGHTS FOR JUSTICE AND LIBERTY

RENÉ VIVIANI

FRANCE FIGHTS FOR THE FREEDOM OF EUROPE

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

FRANCE FIGHTS FOR THE CAUSE OF HUMANITY

HERBERT GEORGE WELLS

A SWORD AGAINST GERMANY IS A SWORD FOR PEACE.

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

A CALL TO ARMS

HERBERT HENRY ASQUITH

FOR A JUST CAUSE ENGLAND UNSHEATHS THE SWORD.

ANDREW BONAR LAW

NAPOLEONISM ONCE AGAIN

SIR WILFRID LAURIER

WHEN BRITAIN IS AT WAR, CANADA IS AT WAR.

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

THE KAISER’S APPETITE FOR OMNIPOTENCE

HERBERT HENRY ASQUITH

ENGLAND’S UNFAILING SUPPORT FOR BELGIUM

HERBERT ALBERT LAURENS FISHER

THE INDUSTRY OF PRUSSIA IS WAR.

HERBERT ALBERT LAURENS FISHER

WE GO INTO THIS WAR WITH CLEAN HANDS.

HERBERT ALBERT LAURENS FISHER

THE STRUGGLE WILL BE LONG AND ARDUOUS.

SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

TO ARMS!

HERBERT HENRY ASQUITH

THERE IS A SPIRITUAL DIMENSION TO THIS CONFLICT.

RUDYARD KIPLING

AS THEY TESTED OUR FATHERS

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

THE LIFE OR THE DEATH OF FRANCE

WINSTON LEONARD SPENCER CHURCHILL

WAR HAS FINALLY COME.

BURTON HENDRICK

THE PROVIDENTIAL ROLE OF AMERICA’S AMBASSADOR

CARTON DE WIART

BELGIUM’S PLEA TO WOODROW WILSON

BRITISH AUTHORS DEFEND ENGLAND

BRITAIN’S DUTY AND DESTINY

HERBERT HENRY ASQUITH

IN DEFENCE OF SMALL STATES

DAVID LLOYD GEORGE

ENGLAND’S NATIONAL HONOUR IS INVOLVED.

DAVID STARR JORDAN

A WAR OF DISHONOUR

THE OXFORD FACULTY OF MODERN HISTORY

ENGLAND FIGHTS FOR THE PUBLIC LAW OF EUROPE.

HERBERT HENRY ASQUITH

THE MORAL BOND OF CIVILIZATION

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

A BATTLE FOR THE VERY LIFE OF FRANCE

ALBERT DE LAPRADELL

THE PERVERSION OF THE GERMAN MIND

HERBERT HENRY ASQUITH

THE PLAIN DICTATES OF ENGLAND’S DUTY

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

THE RADIANCE OF FRANCE SHALL NOT BE EXTINGUISHED.

GILBERT MURRAY

FIRST THOUGHTS ON THE WAR

WALTER ALEXANDER RALEIGH

‘MIGHT IS RIGHT’ IS THE CREED OF A STUPID PEOPLE.

HENRI-LOUIS BERGSON

THE INVINCIBILITY OF MORAL IDEALS

SIR IGNATIUS VALENTINE CHIROL

GERMANY PERCEIVES ENGLAND AS THE ENEMY PAR EXCELLENCE.

CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT

THE BARBARIC STATE OF THE GERMAN MIND

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

GERMANY’S AIM IS THE BRUTAL DOMINATION OF THE WORLD.

JAMES MONTGOMERY BECK

GERMANY’S WAR GUILT

SIR GILBERT PARKER

BELGIUM’S BITTER NEED

CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT

A GIGANTIC STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE AND LIBERTY

WALTER HINES PAGE

THE ENGLISH DON’T CARE A FIG WHAT AMERICANS THINK.

HENRI-LOUI BERGSON

THE SUPREME COMBAT AGAINST CIVILIZED BARBARISM

RENÉ VIVIANI

FRANCE WILL FIGHT TO THE END.

JOHN GALSWORTHY

A CREDO FOR KEEPING FAITH

ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR

GERMANY’S MISTAKEN IDEALS OF NATIONAL GREATNESS

1915

REV. WILLIAM HENRY ACTON

SOME SPIRITUAL FACTORS OF THE WAR

GREGOR ALEXINSKY

THE FERVENT HOPE FOR A FREE AND DEMOCRATIC RUSSIA

RICHARD GRELLING

AN APPEAL TO THE GERMAN NATION: AWAKE!

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

THIS WAR IS THE GREATEST OF TERRESTRIAL STRUGGLES.

THE NEW YORK TIMES CORRESPONDENT

GERMANY IS CONFIDENT OF VICTORY.

DAVID LLOYD GEORGE

THIS WAR WILL DETERMINE THE DESTINY OF THE HUMAN RACE.

HERBERT HENRY ASQUITH

THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO TALK OF PEACE.

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

GERMANY’S TREACHEROUS AGGRESSION

SIR EDWARD GREY

OUR CAUSE IS JUST AND RIGHT.

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

THE GREATEST OUTRAGE AGAINST CIVILIZATION

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

THE HORRIBLE CATASTROPHE OF THIS WAR

RUDYARD KIPLING

THERE IS NO RETREAT IN THIS WAR.

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

THE MOST NOBLE STRUGGLE IN THE HISTORY OF MAN

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

GERMANY’S AIM IS THE SUBJUGATION OF MANKIND.

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

WHY GERMANY CANNOT WIN THIS WAR

ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR

THE DECISIVE ROLE OF ENGLAND’S ROYAL NAVY

FREDERIC R COUDERT

A WAR CONDUCTED WITH THE UTMOST BARBARITY

HERBERT HENRY ASQUITH

ENGLAND IS DETERMINED TO WIN THIS WAR.

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

THE MOST ABOMINABLE CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

1916

LORD BRYCE

IN DEFENCE OF RIGHT

HERBERT HENRY ASQUITH

PRUSSIAN MILITARY DOMINATION MUST BE DESTROYED.

SIR EDWARD GREY

PRUSSIAN TYRANNY WILL NOT STAND.

LAWRENCE PEARSALL JACKS

TO FIGHT IN THIS WAR IS A RELIGIOUS ACT.

EVELYN UNDERHILL

THE CONSECRATION OF ENGLAND

HERBERT HENRY ASQUITH

BELGIUM’S HEROIC RESOLVE

PAUL PAINLEVÉ

RIGHT IS GREATER THAN MIGHT.

HERBERT HENRY ASQUITH

GERMANY’S DISASTROUSLY FATAL ERROR

ANDREW BONAR LAW

THIS WAR MUST BE PROSECUTED WITH DETERMINATION.

SIR EDWARD GREY

A FUTURE FREE FROM THE SHADOW OF PRUSSIAN MILITARISM

WALTER HINES PAGE

MAKING THE WORLD A SAFE PLACE FOR DEMOCRACY

WALTER ALEXANDER RALEIGH

THIS IS A WAR OF IDEAS.

DAVID LLOYD GEORGE

VICTORY HOWEVER EXHAUSTIVE THE JOURNEY

EMILE JOSEPH DILLON

THE CHARACTER OF GERMANY

WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES

THE HIDEOUS BESTIALITY OF THE GERMAN DOCTRINE OF MIGHT

REPLY OF THE ENTENTE

GERMANY’S ILLUSORY PEACE PROPOSALS

1917

DAVID LLOYD GEORGE

VICTORY IS DIFFICULT, DEFEAT IMPOSSIBLE.

ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR

AMPLIFICATION OF ENTENTE REPLY

ARTHUR ZIMMERMANN

GERMANY URGES MEXICO TO ATTACK THE UNITED STATES607

THOMAS WOODROW WILSON

AN APPEAL TO THE ALLIES: A PEACE WITHOUT VICTORY

ANDREW BONAR LAW

THIS IS A WAR OF NAKED AGGRESSION.

THOMAS WOODROW WILSON

AMERICA SEVERS DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH GERMANY

ALEXANDER FYODOROVICH KERENSKY

AT LONG LAST! THE BIRTH OF A FREE RUSSIA

FRANK IRVING COBB

PRESIDENT WILSON’S ASTONISHING AMBIVALENCE

THOMAS WOODROW WILSON

THE WASHINGTON DECLARATION ENDS AMERICA’S NEUTRALITY

BURTON HENDRICK

AMERICA’S ENTRY UPLIFTS THE HOPES OF THE ALLIES

DAVID LLOYD GEORGE

ENGLAND WELCOMES AMERICA AS A COMRADE IN ARMS

ALEXANDER RIBOT

FRANCE ACKNOWLEDGES ITS GRATITUDE TO THE UNITED STATES

ALFRED E FRIEND

DEFENDING A RIGHTEOUS CAUSE AGAINST ORGANIZED EVIL

LORD NORTHCLIFFE

AMERICAN NEWSPAPER EDITORS AND THE WAR

EMILE M CAMMAERTS

THE MIRACLE OF AMERICA’S INTERVENTION

MYRON HERRICK

LAFAYETTE, WE ARE HERE!

ANNIE LANE

OUR DAY

OWEN JOHNSON

SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE

ROBERT HICHENS

OUR COMMON HERITAGE

FREDERICK COUDERT

TO FRANCE!

JAMES MONTGOMERY BECK

A TRIBUTE TO ENGLAND

RENÉ VIVIANI

THE GRANDEUR OF AMERICA’S DECISION TO FIGHT

RENÉ VIVIANI

AMERICA’S OUTRAGED CONSCIENCE

RENÉ VIVIANI

UPHOLDING THE IDEALS OF WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN

ENRIQUE LOPES DE MENDONCA

MORAL ASPECTS OF THE EUROPEAN WAR

JEFFERY FARNOL

ON THE SIDE OF FREEDOM, JUSTICE AND HUMANITY

FRANKLIN KNIGHT LANE

WHY AMERICA FIGHTS GERMANY

WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER

CIVILIZATION VERSUS PRUSSIAN DESPOTISM

JAMES WATSON GERARD

IF GERMANY WINS THIS WAR

GEORGE EMORY FELLOWS

DEMOCRACY VERSUS AUTOCRACY

WALTER ALEXANDER RALEIGH

THE FAITH OF ENGLAND

ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR

AT LAST! A HOME FOR THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL

1918

WALTER ALEXANDER RALEIGH

THIS WAR MUST BE SETTLED ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.

THOMAS WOODROW WILSON

THE BLUEPRINT FOR A PEACEFUL WORLD

FRANKLIN KNIGHT LANE

THE NOBILITY OF AMERICAN CIVILIZATION

FRANKLIN KNIGHT LANE

THIS IS THE GREATEST WAR HISTORY HAS EVER SEEN.

GEORGE ADAM SMITH

THE MORAL AIMS OF THE ALLIES

HALL CAINE

AMERICA COULD DO NO OTHER.

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

OUR AIM: VICTORY!

THE TIMES EDITORIAL

DOWNFALL

AUTHOR UNKNOWN

THE 11TH HOUR OF THE 11TH DAY OF THE 11TH MONTH

THOMAS WOODROW WILSON

WHEN THE FATE OF THE WORLD HANGED IN THE BALANCE

RAYMOND POINCARE

FRANCE OFFERS AMERICA HER THANKS

1919

RAYMOND POINCARÉ

JUSTICE DEMANDS THE PUNISHMENT OF THE GUILTY.

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

GERMANY’S CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WAR

THOMAS WOODROW WILSON

THE CASE FOR A LEAGUE OF NATIONS

GABRIEL HANOTAUX

PEACE AT LAST!

FRIEDRICH EBERT

WE HAVE LOST THE WAR.

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

A JUST SETTLEMENT OF THE GREAT WAR

HENRY MAYERS HYNDMAN

THIS INDEFATIGABLE AND UNDAUNTED WARRIOR

TREATY OF VERSAILLES

GERMANY IS GUILTY OF WAGING A WAR OF AGGRESSION

APPENDIX

THE NEW YORK TIMES CORRESPONDENT

THE AGADIR CRISIS: PRELUDE TO 1914

MAURICE PELLE

THE POSSIBILITY OF WAR

PRINCE KARL MAX VON LICHNOWSKY

GERMANY DEFIANTLY REJECTED PEACE PROPOSALS

EDITORIAL

EUROPE’S HOUR OF DESTINY

HELMUTH VON MOLTKE

THE INEVITABILITY OF WAR

BARBARA TUCHMAN

THE METICULOUS WORDING OF THE BELGIAN ULTIMATUM

KAISER WILHELM II

GERMANY GRASPS THE SWORD IN SELF-DEFENCE.

THEOBALD VON BETHMANN HOLLWEG

NECESSITY KNOWS NO LAW.

THEOBALD VON BETHMANN HOLLWEG

GERMANY’S WAR AIMS

THEOBALD VON BETHMANN HOLLWEG

GERMANY BLAMES ENGLAND FOR THE WAR

THEOBALD VON BETHMANN HOLLWEG

GERMANY DESIRES TO AVOID FURTHER BLOODSHED

THEOBALD VON BETHMANN HOLLWEG

GERMANY’S RESUMPTION OF UNRESTRICTED SUBMARINE WARFARE

JOHANN HEINRICH VON BERNSTORFF

WHY GERMANY RESUMED UNRESTRICTED SUBMARINE WARFARE

THE MANIFESTO OF THE GERMAN INTELLECTUALS

EXPLICIT GOALS OF A VICTORIOUS GERMANY

GEORGES PAYELLE

HOW GERMANY WAGES WAR

FREDERIC COLLIN WALCOTT

THE INHUMAN TREATMENT OF POLISH CITIZENS

MAJOR GENERAL VON DISFURTH

PROUD TO BE CALLED BARBARIANS

VERNON KELLOGG

THE GOSPEL OF GERMAN INTELLECTUALS

LORD BRYCE

THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

ISHMAEL ANGELO

THE HOLOCAUST: A HORRID CONSEQUENCE OF THE GREAT WAR

EPILOGUE

COMMISSION ON WAR GUILT

GERMANY DELIBERATELY STARTED THE WAR

EDITORIAL

A GERMAN GENERAL ON THE NEXT WAR

BERNHARD RAGNER

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

ADDENDA

THE BRITISH WEST INDIES REGIMENT

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO’S ROLL OF HONOUR

EDITORIAL

THE DECLARATION OF PEACE

THE SONG THEY SING AS THEY MARCH ALONG

IT’S A LONG, LONG WAY TO TIPPERARY

ISHMAEL ANGELO SAMAD

REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY NOVEMBER 09 2014

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BRIEF NOTES ON THE DRAMATIS PERSONAE

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George William Buchanan (1854 -1924) British Ambassador in St. Petersburg

Sir Maurice de Bunsen (1852 -1932) British Ambassador in Vienna

Hall Caine (1853 -1931) English novelist, playwright

Jules Cambon (1845 -1935) French Ambassador in Berlin 1907-1914

Paul Cambon (1843 -1924) French Ambassador in London 1898 -1920

Emile Cammaerts (1878 -1953) Belgian playwright, poet, author

Sir Ignatius Valentine Chirol (1852 -1929) English historian, author, diplomat

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874 -1965) First Lord of the Admiralty 1911-1915; Minister of Munitions 1917-1918

Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929) French statesman, Premier 1917-1920

Frank Irving Cobb (1869-1923) American journalist, editorial writer

Frederic Rene Coudert (1871-1955) American lawyer, soldier

Henri Davignon (1879 -1964) Belgian Foreign Affairs Minister

Théophile Declassé (1852-1923) French Foreign Minister 1898 -1906

Emile Joseph Dillon (1854 -1933) English author, journalist

Von Disfurth Retired German Major-General

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 -1930) Scottish writer, novelist

Friedrich Ebert (1871-1925) German President 1919 -1925

Charles William Eliot (1834 -1926) President Harvard University 1869-1909

Erich von Falkenhayn (1861-1922) Chief, German General Staff 1914 -1916

Jeffery Farnol (1878 -1952) English author

George Emory Fellows American history professor

Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1875-1914) Austro-Hungarian heir apparent

Herbert Albert Laurens HAL Fisher (1865-1940) English historian

Baron von Freytag-Loringhoven (1855 -1924) Prussian general

Alfred E Friend New Church affiliate

Hermann T Frobenius (1841-1916) German military historian, journalist

John Galsworthy (1867 -1933) English novelist, playwright

George V (1865 -1936) King of England 1910 -1936; preceded by Edward VII

David Lloyd George (1863 -1945) Chancellor of the Exchequer 1908 -1915; Minister of Munitions 1915 -1916; Prime Minister 1916 -1922

James Watson Gerard (1867-1951) American Ambassador in Berlin 1913 -1917

Sir Edward Goschen ((1847-1924) British Ambassador in Berlin 1908-1914

Richard Grelling (1853-1929) German lawyer, journalist, peace activist

Sir Edward Grey ( 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon 1862-1933) British Foreign Secretary 1905 -1916

Gabriel Hanotaux (1853 -1944) French statesman, historian

Maximillian Harden (1861-1927) German journalist, publicist

Alfred Harmsworth (Lord Northcliffe 1865-1922) British newspaper magnate

Burton Hendrick (1870 -1949) American author

Myron Herrick (1854 -1929) American Ambassador in Paris 1912 -1914

Prince Philipp Eulenburg Hertefeld (1847-1921) German diplomat

Robert Hichens (1864 -1950) English novelist, journalist

Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934) Chief, German General Staff 1916 -1919; President of the German Republic 1925 -1934; succeeded by Adolf Hitler

Edward M House (1885-1938) American diplomat, Presidential advisor

William Morris Hughes (1862 -1952) Australian Prime Minister 1915 -1923

Henry Mayers Hyndman (1842 -1921) English writer, politician

Lawrence Pearsall Jacks (1860 -1955) English philosopher, Church Minister

Gottlieb von Jagow (1863 -1935) German Foreign Secretaty 1913 -1916

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Rudyard Kipling (1865 -1936) English writer, novelist

Lord Kitchener (1850 -1916) Field Marshal, British War Secretary 1914 -1916

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Paul Painlevé (1863 -1933) French politician, mathematician

Maurice Paléologue (1859-1944) French Ambassador in St. Petersburg 1914 -1917

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Raymond Poincaré (1860 -1934) French President 1913 -1920

Friedrich von Pourtalès (1853-1928) German Ambassador, St. Petersburg 1907-1914

Walter Alexander Raleigh (1861-1922) Scottish poet, author, scholar

Alexander Ribot (1842 -1923) French Premier 1917

Claus von Below Saleske (1861-1939) German Ambassador in Brussels 1914

Sergei Dmitrievich Sazonov (1860 -1927) Russian Foreign Minister 1910 -1916

Alfred von Schlieffen (1833-1913) Chief, German General Staff 1891-1906

Wilhelm von Schoen (1851-1933) German Ambassador in Paris 1910 -1914

George Adam Smith (1856 -1942) Scottish theologian

Wilhelm von Stumm (1869 -1935) Diplomat, German Foreign Office 1911-1916

William Roscoe Thayer (1859 -1923) American author, editor, historian

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Barbara Tuchman (1912 -1989) American author, historian

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René Viviani (1863-1925) French Premier, Foreign Minister 1914/1915

Frederic Collin Walcott (1869 -1949) American Senator

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The miracle of the World Wide Web made this book possible. That I could gain access to several libraries in North America from the comfort of my home in the Caribbean is indeed a miracle. I thank the following Universities whose digitized books I have accessed:

Columbia University

University of Toronto

Princeton University

University of Michigan

Wellesley College

Stanford University

Cornell University

Brigham Young University

Harvard University

Indiana University

University of California

I have also accessed the following libraries:

Harvard Law Library

Library of Congress

New York Public Library

I have relied on the following digital libraries/archives:

Universal Digital Library

Hathi Trust Digital Library

Internet Archive Digital Library

Project Gutenberg Digital Library

New Church Life Digital Archive

New York Times Digital Archive

Scientific American World War I Digital Anthology

World War I Document Archive

The following are the digitizing sponsors:

MSN

Google

Internet Archive

The Sloan Foundation

Boston Library Consortium

Library of Congress

Project Gutenberg

I am indebted to Completely Novel Ltd (Publishers of the First Edition 2015) and Sarah Juckes (UK) in particular. Her guidance and encouragement made this book possible. Richard Hamel-Smith’s (T&T) input was also crucial. I thank him for introducing me to Linux.

PREFACE

I saw eight German soldiers and they were drunk. They were singing and making a lot of noise and dancing about. As the soldiers came along the street, I saw a young child come out of a house. The child was about two years of age, whether boy or girl I could not see. The child came into the middle of the street so as to be in the way of the soldiers. The soldiers were walking in twos. The first line of two passed the child; one of the second line, the man on the left, stepped aside and drove his bayonet with both hands into the child’s stomach, lifting the child into the air on his bayonet and carrying the infant away, he and his comrades still singing. The child screamed when the soldier struck with his bayonet, but not afterwards. (An eye-witness from Malines) The Great War and How It Arose (1915)

At the stroke of 11pm GMT (midnight in Berlin) on Tuesday August 04 1914, the British Government’s ultimatum to Germany to halt the invasion of Belgium ended. Britain and Germany were at war. The Foreign Office released the following statement: Owing to the summary rejection by the German Government of the request made by His Majesty’s Government for assurances that the neutrality of Belgium would be respected, His Majesty’s Ambassador in Berlin has received his passport, and His Majesty’s Government has declared to the German Government that a state of war exists between Great Britain and Germany as from 11pm on August 4th.

Great Britain’s decision to come to the aid of Belgium and France (and inevitably Russia) was the most momentous event of the 20th century. Indeed, it changed the course of European and world history. To put it bluntly, Great Britain’s decision to intervene in the Great War saved Western civilization. In all the annals of English history, it is England’s most valiant and glorious accomplishment.

The Great War was decided in the first four months of its outbreak and Britain’s contemptible little army, the Old Contemptibles of the British Expeditionary Force, played a decisive role during those crucial one hundred and twenty days of combat. To quote David Lloyd George in moving the Vote of Thanks to the Forces in the House of Commons on October 29, 1917: The Old Army was the finest body of troops in the world at that time. In the retreat from Mons it delayed overwhelming hordes of the enemy, and at the Marne helped to roll back the invader. At the First Battle of Ypres, with unparalleled tenacity and sacrifice it held superior forces for weeks. By the end of November France was saved and Europe, but there was hardly a man left from the Old Army. One division went into battle 12,000 strong. It came out 2,000. Of 400 officers only 50 were left in one battle. The Old Army is the Army that gathered the spears of the Prussian legions into its breast, and in perishing saved Europe. No sarifice in the history of the world has had greater results.

To appreciate why Britain was compelled to fight in the Great War, it is necessary to read the riveting statement made in the House of Commons by Sir Edward Grey, the memorable debate that followed, the inspiring speeches delivered to the people of the British Isles by Herbert Asquith, David Lloyd George, and Andrew Bonar Law, the passionate orations by Georges Clemenceau, René Viviani, and Raymond Poincaré, the eloquent discourses by Henri-Louis Bergson, James Montgomery Beck, Enrique Lopes de Mendonca, and Walter Alexander Raleigh, the uplifting sermons by Evelyn Underhill, George Adam Smith, William Henry Acton, and Lawrence Pearsall Jacks, the insightful correspondence of Franklin Knight Lane and Walter Hines Page, as well as contemporary perspectives on the War by publicists, statesmen, and scholars in England, France, Russia, Canada, and the United States. It is only then one becomes aware of the awesome peril the world faced a century ago and why it was England’s sacrosanct duty to unsheath the sword.

The distinguished historian HAL Fisher made it explictly clear that there can be no measure of doubt whatever that the most formidable and influential body of German opinion regards the British Empire as its prospective prey. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle also admonished: It is a matter of common knowledge that for many years Germany has regarded the British Empire with eyes of jealousy and hatred. Likewise Rudyard Kipling: The violation of Belgium, the attack on France, and the defence against Russia are only steps by the way. The Germans’ real objective, as she has always told us, is England and England’s wealth, trade, and worldwide possessions. If you assume for an instant that that attack will be successful, England will not be reduced, as some people say, to the rank of a second-rate Power, but we shall cease to exist as a nation. We shall become an outlying province of Germany, to be administered with what severity German safety and interest require. We have no reason to believe that Germany will break up suddenly and dramatically. She took two generations to prepare herself in every detail and through every fibre of her national being for this war. She is playing for the highest stakes in the world—the dominion of the world.

Never must it be forgotten that the Great War of 1914-1918 was a conflict of unrelenting ferocity for the conquest and subjugation of Europe and ultimately the world. The German army waged a war of the utmost cruelty and barbarity, burning and pillaging towns as it advanced. German soldiers massacred unarmed men, women, and children, even infants. To quote one of them, reservist Johann Wenger: I have bayoneted a good number of women. During the battle of Budonwiller, I did away with four women and seven young girls in five minutes. The captain told me to shoot these French sows, but I preferred to run my bayonet through them.

Women, including sisters in convents, were violated with impunity. Thousands of civilians were deported to work in Germany, those left behind reduced to suffering and starvation. When compelled to retreat, German soldiers set fire to homes, felled fruit trees, poisoned wells, and destroyed machinery and tools in the factory and on the farm. (See: Georges Payelle, How German Wages War p 884)

Brand Whitlock, the United States Minister to Belgium reported to the State Department: All these deliberate, organized massacres of civilians, all these murders and outrages, the violation of women, the killing of children, wanton destruction, burning, looting, and pillage, whole towns destroyed, were acts for which no possible military necessity can be pleaded. They were willfully committed as part of a deliberately prepared policy of terrorism. In the words of the American Ambassador to France after visiting an area which the Germans had just evacuated: I left with the conviction that history records no parallel in the thoroughness of destruction wrought by a victorious or a vanquished army. The Lord Bryce Tribunal came to the same conclusion: Murder, lust, and pillage prevailed over many parts of Belgium on a scale unparalleled in any war between civilized nations during the last three centuries.

On the battlefield, injured Allied soldiers were methodically clubbed to death with rifle-butts. And the Germans initiated the use of poison gas which resulted in an utterly agonizing death for victims. They also devised liquid fire made from burning oil which they sprayed on the Allied trenches as they attacked. Another cruel practice was the unrestricted use of submarines. Without warning, German U-boats torpedoed merchant vessels and hospital ships, leaving all on board to perish. On May 07 1915, the great ocean liner Lusitania was sunk off the coast of Ireland with the the lost of 1200 lives. This was acclaimed with delight in Berlin. (The German fleet of 375 U-boats sank well over 5,000 neutral and Allied merchant ships. U-34 destroyed 121.)

The Great War was a monumental battle between the forces of good and evil. In the words of Lawrence Pearsall Jacks: Beyond the attack on the British Empire lay a deeper design which was nothing less than the overthrow of the moral foundation on which Western civilizaton has been built. It is naked Evil, shorn of the trappings which disguise it with the appearance of Good. Reason and persuasion are out of the question, for the essence of evil is that it refuses to hear reason and cannot be reasoned with. Name it as you will, there is a power which is not amenable to peaceful entreaty, to the persuasion of reason. It exists in nature, it enters into man, and there are times when it dominates his will. At the present moment it has found an exponent in the policy and deeds of the German Government.

George Adam Smith shared a similar perspective: The outbreak of such a war could not but shock the faith of many Christians. Not only did it rend Christendom asunder and seem to spell failure of religious forces which had been at work in Europe for nineteen centuries; but the war exposed a moral recklessness and malignity more awful than faith had ever encountered. The minds of men staggered before this conspiracy of brute force and remorseless intellect against the common moralities, and trembled at the possibility of its triumph. The sovereignty of God Himself was challenged. The moral universe seemed shaken to its basis.

William Henry Acton, Evelyn Underhill, Walter Alexander Raleigh, and Henri-Louis Bergson all expressed similar convictions. The Great War was a colossal combat against evil. The bayoneting of the Belgian infant and the seven French girls exemplified its horrid nature and magnitude. The German nation glorified war. The German nation sanctioned acts of the utmost cruelty and barbarity. The German nation embraced evil. And evil sows the seeds of its own destruction.

Paul Painlevé lamented the terrible fate that had befallen the French nation and affirmed: Let us endure any sacrifices, any tests, let us shed all our blood—but not that! So long as the monstrous pride of Germany is not abased, so long as she does not rouse herself in disgust from her bloody madness, so long as that awful slaughtering-machine, Prussian militarism, is not shivered to atoms, the world will know neither freedom, nor safety, nor justice.

And Frederic C Walcott, in revealing the heinous brutality perpetrated upon the Polish population, denounced Prussian militarism as an evil monstrosity that must be eliminated, no matter what it entailed: It is monstrous, it is unthinkable. In all the world such a think has never been. If it takes everything in the world and every one of us, this abomination must be overthrown. It must be ended or the world is not worth living in. No matter how long it takes, no matter how much it costs, we must endure to the end, as we fight against the evil that is in Germany.

Good finally triumphed over the diabolical forces of evil, at enormous cost in human life and human suffering. We owe an eternal debt of gratitude to that vast army of the Glorious Dead, the close to six million brave Allied, American, and Commonwealth soldiers who perished in that epic confrontation one hundred years ago. The supreme sacrifice they made must never be forgotten.

Ishmael Angelo Samad

Boissiere, Maraval, Trinidad/Tobago

January 31 2014

INTRODUCTION

A century has come and gone since the outbreak of the Great War and historians are unanimous in their verdict. The burden of responsibility for that horrendous conflagration fell exclusively upon the German nation. Germany must also take full responsibility for the consequences that followed four harrowing years of death and destruction: the emergence of Nazism within her borders and the tragic infliction of atheistic Communism on the long-suffering people of Russia. The German nation, consumed with the infernal lust for revenge, rearmed and resumed the carnage 20 years later. Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919 and commenced rearming on June 29. The war’s resumption in 1939 culminated in the diabolical attempt to annihilate European Jewry who were made the scapegoat for Germany’s defeat. (See : The Holocaust: A Horrid Consequence of the Great War p 903)

When the German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, made the fateful decision to sign the Declaration of a State of War on Friday, July 31 1914, he sealed the fate of untold millions of men, women, and children who subsequently perished in the Holocaust and throughout the Gulag Archipelago. He unknowingly opened the very gates of Hell. And he, along with his General Staff and the entire German nation, must be held culpable for unparalleled crimes against humanity. This is the undisputed verdict of history.

An insignificant minority of historians, however, have begged to differ: Samuel Williamson, Margaret MacMillan, Christopher Clark, Sean McMeekin, and the most controversial of them all, Niall Ferguson, author of The Pity of War. The subtitle, Explaining World War I, is misleading and ought to have been Trivializing World War I, because that’s precisely what this tome is: a grotesque and sacrilegious trivialization of the Great War. Ferguson absolves Germany of responsibility for the Great War, blasphemously affirming that the villain was Great Britain. He places a heavy responsibility for the War on the shoulders of one individual: Sir Edward Grey.

Germany forced the continental war of 1914, but the British government ultimately decided to turn the continental war into a world war. Britain’s decision to intervene was the result of secret planning which dated back to 1905. The key was the conviction of a minority of generals, diplomats, and politicians that in the event of a continental war, Britain must send an army to support France. This was based on a misreading of German intentions which the proponents of intervention imagined to be Napoleonic in scale. The critical point is that had Britain not intervened immediately, Germany’s war aims would have been significantly different from those in the September Programme. Bethmann Hollweg was prepared to guarantee the territorial integrity of France, Belgium, as well as Holland in return for British neutrality. Had Britain stood aside, continental Europe could therefore have been transformed into something not wholly unlike the European Union. The First World War was nothing less than the greatest error of modern history. It remains the worst thing the people of my country have ever had to endure. (1)

According to this eminent historian, Great Britain’s decision to intervene in the Great War was a colossal mistake, the greatest error of the 20th century. Britain’s decisive intervention, which ensured Germany’s ignominious defeat, stemmed from a misreading of German intentions as revealed in Bethmann Hollweg’s September Programme. Uppermost in the mind of the Kaiser was not the conquest and subjugation of continental Europe, but rather the creation of a Central European Customs Union similar to the European Union of today. But that certainly was not all. The German Chancellor’s September Programme gave an insight into German war aims which Ferguson has deliberately chosen to ignore. (See Appendix: Bethmann Hollweg, Germany’s War Aims p 853)

France must be so weakened as to make her revival as a great Power impossible for all time. The means of achieving this permanent subjugation and humiliation of France centred on the imposition of a burdensome war indemnity. In addition, her rich iron-ore fields of Briey were to be ceded. And Belgium, even if allowed to continue to exist as a State, must be reduced to a vassal State, while Russia must be thrust back as far as possible from Germany’s eastern frontiers. Ferguson makes the utterly preposterous statement that if England had only remained neutral, Germany would have solemnly respected the territorial integrity of France, Belgium, and Holland. This is purely wishful thinking on the part of this distinguished Oxford don who has become a transparent latter-day apologist for Wilhelm and his Chancellor. (See Appendix: Bethmann Hollweg, Germany Blames England for the War p 856)

In addition to the September Programme of 1914, there is the Manifesto of the German Intellectuals dated June 20, 1915 that proclaimed in explicit detail the German war aims. The 1200 plus signatories affirmed that absolutely no mercy must be shown to France, that she must be saddled with a heavy indemnity that would cover the public cost of the War, guarantee the establishment of a pension fund for cripples, widows, and orphans, and provide for the further development of our armaments, even suggesting that France could turn to her ally across the Channel for the alleviation of this enforced burden. England was denounced in no uncertain terms. Indeed, the origins of the War could be traced to England’s envy of Germany’s naval ascendancy, her rapidly expanding commerce, as well as her prestige as a World Power, and since this is the motive of England’s hostility against us, our war aims against England are clear: we must wrest a free field for our foreign trade and enforce the recognition of our naval power and world prestige.

The Manifesto declares that Russia is exceedingly rich in territory. Therefore, in lieu of a war indemnity, she shall surrender adjacent lands in the Baltic, Russian Poland, and the Ukraine in order to meet the need for erecting a boundary-wall and the need for maintaining the increase of our population. The fate of Belgium was crystal clear. The German people consider it an unquestionable matter of honour to keep a firm hold of Belgium; on no point is public opinion so unanimous. The Manifesto of the German Intellectuals certainly makes for interesting reading. It is also a frightening document. (See Appendix: Manifesto of the German Intellectuals p 873)

The crushing of France, proclaimed in both the September Programme and the Manifesto, had long been an utterly heinous obsession of the German nation. Friedrich von Bernhardi made this explicitly clear in his book, Germany and the Next War published in 1911. Never was a more candid and lucid statement made as regards Germany’s determination to be recognized as a World Power. And she was quite prepared to win her place as a World Power through her military might, through the sword, through trampling underfoot the rights and interests of rival nations. And one such nation was France.

In the first place, our political position would be considerably consolidated if we could finally get rid of the standing danger that France will attack us on a favourable occasion, as soon as we find ourselves involved in complications elsewhere. In one way or another we must square our account with France if we wish for a free hand in our international policy. This is the first and foremost condition of a sound German policy, and since the hostility of France once and for all cannot be removed by peaceful overtures, the matter must be settled by force of arms. France must be so completely crushed that she can never again come across our path. (2)

Germany’s other perceived rival was England. (See Sir Valentine Chirol, Germany Perceives England as the Enemy Par Excellence p 343) In an updated edition published the following year entitled, Our Future: A Word of Warning to the German Nation, (published under the title, Britain as Germany’s Vassal) Friedrich von Bernhardi reaffirmed Germany’s determination to become the dominant Power on the European continent, and fearlessly threw down the gauntlet to Great Britain. She must choose war, or become Germany’s vassal. Germany sincerely desired to establish close and cordial relations with England, but she must stand aside and allow France to be crippled. Furthermore, Britain must also surrender her naval supremacy to Germany.

England would have to give Germany an absolutely free hand in all questions touching European politics, and agree beforehand to any increase of Germany’s power on the continent of Europe which may ensue from the formation of a Central European Union of Powers, or from a German war with France. England would have to agree that she would no longer strive to prevent by her diplomacy the expansion of Germany’s colonial empire, as long as such development would not take place at England’s cost. She would further have to agree to any possible change of the map of North Africa that might take place in Germany’s or Italy’s favour. England would further have to bind herself that she would not hinder Austria’s expansion in the Balkan Peninsula. She would have to offer no opposition to Germany’s economic expansion in Asia Minor, and she would have to make up her mind that she would no longer oppose the development of Germany’s sea power by the acquisition of coaling stations. The basis of all negotiations between England and Germany would have to be the demand that England would have to leave the Triple Entente, and would have to effect a redistribution of her fleet. After all, it must be clear to all endowed with intelligence that Germany can never arrive at really close and cordial relations with England as long as England is allied with Germany’s enemies. Besides, Germany could never have confidence in the honesty of England’s peaceful assurances as long as the whole British fleet is concentrated in the North Sea, and kept ready for a war with Germany. (3)

Niall Furgeson must be aware that three years before the September Programme, Bernhardi declared to the world precisely what Germany wished to accomplish in the next inevitable and necessary war: the conquest and subjugation of continental Europe. There was no misreading of German intentions as claimed by the author of The Pity of War. Britain’s Foreign Secretary knew precisely what was to follow in the wake of a German victory. (See quote by Paul Bronsart von Schellendorf p 736) He summoned the American Ambassador, and in a memorandum of that memorable occasion Page deligently recorded Sir Edward Grey’s thoughts on the unfolding catastrophe as revealed in The Life and Letters of Walter H Page.

It will not end with Belgium. Next will come Holland, and after Holland, Denmark. This very morning, the Swedish Minister informed me that Germany has made overtures to Sweden to come in on Germany’s side. The whole plan is thus clear. This one great military Power means to annex Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and the Scandinavian States, and to subjugate France. England would be for ever contemptible if it should sit by and see this treaty violated. Its position would be gone, if Germany were permitted to dominate Europe. (4)

The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime. This was Grey’s ominous utterance on the evening of Monday August 03, as he contemplated the approaching cataclysm from his Foreign Office window that overlooks St James Park where the lamps were being lit as dusk fell. Just hours earlier he had delivered his historic address to the House of Commons, the greatest speech of the 20th century, all seventy five minutes of it, painstakingly making the case for England’s intervention based on British interests, British honour, and British obligations. (His Address to the Foreign Press is likewise exceedingly discerning. p 548) Quoting William Gladstone (1809-1898) he asked: Would this country quietly stand by and witness the perpetration of the direst crime that ever stained the pages of history and thus become perpetrators in the sin? He had absolutely no illusions as regards German intentions, as Niall Furgeson would have us believe.

Grey remained convinced that with continental Europe prostrate, Great Britain would be the next victim of German aggression. France was not the only country earmarked to be completely crushed. Germany long regarded England as "the enemy par excellence" and therefore she too must be crippled. An invasion of the British Isles was no illusion but a dire certainty. Christopher Addison, a fellow Liberal MP, certainly shared Grey’s conviction that Great Britain was in mortal danger. After Grey’s speech his diary entry is as follows, as revealed in his book, Four and a Half Years:

It satisfied, I think, all the House with perhaps three or four exceptions, that we were compelled to participate; that the Kaiser meant to ride roughshod over Belgium and get onto the Channel coast; and that unless we were prepared to see both France and Belgium wiped out, with no guarantee that we ourselves would not be the next victims, we must join with France and Belgium, apart altogether from the fact that we were pledged, as much as a nation could be, to defend Belgium. (5)

In Munroe Smith’s book, Out of Their Own Mouths, the distinguished Professor of Zoology, Ernst Haeckel (1834 -1919), on November 16, 1914 listed the fruits that he considered as highly desirable for a victorious Germany, number one being the invasion of Albion by the German army and navy and the occupation of its capital.

In my view, the following fruits of victory are highly desirable for the future of Germany and at the same time for the future of a federated Continental Europe: (1) Liberation from the tyranny of England. (2) As a necessary means to this end, invasion of the British Pirate State by the German navy and army and the occupation of London. (3) the Division of Belgium: the largest part as far west as Antwerp and Ostend, a State in the German Empire; the northern part to Holland; the eastern part to Luxemburg—also thus enlarged, a State in the German Empire. (4) Germany obtains a great part of the British colonies as well as the Congo State. (5) France must cede a portion of her neighbouring northeastern provinces. (6) Russia is to be made powerless by restoring the kingdom of Poland and connecting this with Austria-Hungary. (7) the German Baltic provinces revert to the German Empire.(8) Finland becomes an independent Kingdom and is to be connected with Sweden. (6)

In Chapter 3 of the Pity of War entitled Britain’s War of Illusions, Ferguson contemptuously dismisses the claims of the Foreign Secretary and senior officials at the Foreign Office and the General Staff that Germany had hegemonic ambitions on continental Europe. He would have us believe that these alarmist claims were exaggerated, even fabricated and conjured up. They all suffered, especially Edward Grey, from Germanophobia. Hence they were quite prepared to impose grandiose plans for European domination to the Germans. These alarmist claims of a German Napoleonic design were all illusions, and Britain’s decision to intervene in the Great War was erroneously based on illusions. And this was, as he put it, the greatest error of modern history.

On the contrary, the claims of a German design for Napoleonic power by Grey and his senior staff were not in the least exaggerated. Neither were they fabricated or conjured up. In books and newspaper editorials, in military journals, in speeches in the Reichstag, in lectures and even in sermons from the pulpit, the German nation proclaimed to the world their nefarious intentions, as revealed in Conquest and Kultur, compiled by Wallace Notestein and Elmer Stoll.

It is therefore necessary to convince ourselves and to convince the generation we have to educate, that the prediction of a supreme struggle in which the existence and power of Germany will be at stake is by no means a vain chimera, emanations from the imaginations of a few ambitious madmen. This supreme struggle will burst forth one day terrible and momentous. (General von der Goltz 1907) What men are most honoured in the history of the nation? Not Goethe, Schiller, Wagner, Marx. No! It is Barbarossa, Frederick the Great, Blucher, Moltke, Bismarck, the men of Blood and Iron. It is they, who have sacrificed thousands of lives, for whom the German people cherish their tenderest feelings and a gratitude which almost amounts to worship. Because they have done what we ought to do today. (Dr. W Fuchs 1912) Oh! If we could only have another war soon. (General von der Goltz 1913) A just war is better by far. Nay! Better even to fight and be beaten, than never to have fought at all. (General von Wrochem 1913) From one end of Germany to the other, people voice but one question. When do we get our marching orders? (Evangelical Church Journal 1911) A United States of Europe with Germany as the leading State and the German Emperor at the head—this is my vision. We must confine ourselves to making preparations for this ideal. If we win (as is our hope and trust), we must utterly destroy the power of England, our most formidable foe. We must take from her her colonies and her fleet. We might take the French fleet too, and also make France bear the cost of the war. The Belgian king could be removed, and Belgium could be joined to Germany as an integral part of the Empire. (Dr. Oppenheimer 1914) (7)

This infernal obsession to punish England permeated all levels of German society. (See:The NY Times Correspondent: Germany is Confident of Victory. p 423)

In Germany we find important elements in the population and especially in the rank and file of the common people, who are bitterly prejudiced against England, and the ill will against England is so great that the body of the people at the time of the Moroccan crisis (1911) would have hailed an Anglo-Saxon war with enthusiasm. That may seem exaggerated, but the author was at the time in Germany and observed with much pain the prevailing excitement. (Max Waechter 1913) No one but a German understands Germany. We are morally and intellectually superior to other nations. We are without equals. We are forced to sacrifice our best and our noblest. This time we shall wipe the slate clean. Our real enemy is England. Woe to thee, Albion! God is with us and defends our just cause. (Professor Lasson 1914) It is not easy for Germans to understand England. The English character is developed to an extraordinary degree: daring self-confidence, joy in independent action, the gift of enforcing obedience by sheer power of will. The Englishman possesses the marvellous art of drawing power from his own limitations. There is but one way to check this power: another power must be set up against it, a mighty power which the English will encounter at every turn and on which they will break their bones. (Houston Stewart Chamberlain 1916) (8)

In the summer of 1913, Dr David Starr Jordan of California’s Leland Stanford University visited Germany. In Charles F Horne’s (ed) The Great Events of the Great War is a brief statement by this American scholar. He identified 1914 as the fateful year when all hell would break loose on the European continent. (See: Germany Sharpens the Sword p 52)

Through my friends I learned a good deal of the plans of the Pan-Germanists and especially of the German General Staff. In brief, they hoped to bring on war in 1914. Presumably, at that time, through disturbances to be created in Alsace-Lorraine. They were then proposing to take Belgium and Holland—Holland for the sake of making Antwerp the centre for the coming attack upon England. They wished especially to take the two departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais from France. They were also to take Paris and exact an indemnity that would pay the expenses of the war; 25,000,000,000 marks was the figure I heard mentioned. (9)

The evidence is overwhelming. Germany resolved to become the dominant Power on the European continent. Mitteleuropa (Middle Europe) must fall under German leadership. Therefore Russia, France, and Great Britain must submit to German hegemony or face the demonic frightfulness of its invincible army. And since it was utterly inconceivable for these proud nations to surrender their honour, their freedom, their very existence to the Prussian war lords, the Great War could not have been avoided, contrary to the absurd claims of Niall Ferguson. Germany glorified war. Germany expected war. Germany prepared for war. And the Chief of the German General Staff merely awaited the occasion and the opportunity to initiate war. (See Epilogue: Germany Deliberately Started the War p 910)

On the fateful Sunday morning of June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo, the capital of the Balkan province of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the occasion and the opportunity finally came. As fate would have it, earlier that very month Helmuth von Moltke urged the German Foreign Secretary, Gottlieb von Jagow, to conduct a policy with the aim of provoking a war in the near future.

Moltke described to me his opinion of our military situation. The prospects of the future oppressed him heavily. In two or three years Russia would have completed her armaments. The military superiority of our enemies would then be so great that he did not know he could overcome them. Today we could still be a match for them. In his opinion, there was no alternative to making preventive war in order to defeat the enemy while we still had a chance of victory. The Chief of the General Staff therefore proposed that I should conduct a policy with the aim of provoking a war in the near future. (10)

We must be careful what we fervently wish for because the gods may conspire and grant us our hearts’ desire. Helmuth von Moltke could bear testimony to this; likewise the men of 1914 eager for war: Wilhelm von Stumm, Erich von Falkenhayn, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, Gottlieb von Jagow, and Arthur Zimmermann. (See: Barbara Tuchman, The Meticulous Wording of the Belgian Ultimatum p 845) Friedrich Engels’ incredible prophecy which he made in 1888, the year Wilhelm became Emperor, was about to come to pass. (See: p 933)

(1) Niall Ferguson, The Pity of War: Explaining World War I (Basic Books 1999) pp 461, 443, 170, 460, 462

(2) Freidrich von Bernhardi, Germany and the Next War, (Longmans, Green and Co 1914) pp 105-106

(3) Friedrich von Bernhardi, Our Future: A Word of Warning to the German People published under the title Britain as Germany’s Vassal (William Dawson and Sons 1914) pp 154, 156

(4) Burton Herdrick, The Life and Letters of Walter H Page Volume I (Doubleday, Page and Co 1923) p 314

(5) Christopher Addison, Four and a Half Years (Hutchinson and Co 1934) p 32

(6) Munroe Smith (ed), Out of Their Own Mouths: Utterances of German Rulers, Statesmen, Publicists, Poets, Journlists (D Appleton and Co 1918) p 54

(7) Wallace Notestein & Elmer E Stoll (eds), Conquest and Kultur: Aims of the Germans in Their Own Words (Government Printing Office 1917) pp 119, 132, 136, 136, 122, 148

(8) Munroe Smith (ed), Out of Their Own Mouths pp 48, 71; Wallace Notestein & Elmer E Stoll (eds), Conquest and Culture p 131

(9) Charles F Horne, Editor-in-Chief The Great Events of the Great War Volume 1 (National Alumini 1923) p 229

(10) John Röhl (ed), 1914 Delusion or Design? The Testimony of Two German Diplomats (St Martin’s Press 1973) p 31

1913

Germany has the right to extend the area of her dominion according to her needs. We are waging war because of our solid conviction that Germany, in view of her achievements, has the right to demand and must obtain more room on the earth and a broader sphere of action. Spain and the Netherlands, Rome and Habsburg, France and England seized, ruled, settled great expanses of the most fertile soil. Now the hour has struck for German supremacy. Who gave her leave? Her Right is in her Might. Therefore she is waging a good war. That Germans do not fit into the bustle of peaceable nations is the proudest ornament of the German character. War has always been their chief business. Germany means to grow, to coin the achievements of its men and its State into rights of sovereignty before which every head must bow in reverent greeting … . We shall stay in the Belgian lowlands, to which we shall add the narrow coast strip to and beyond Callais. From Callais to Dover is not far. Do you doubt our being able to reach them? With such an army anything can be done. There will be no peace before the English receive their punishment. (See p 424 Gott strafe England!)

MAXIMILLIAN HARDEN (1861-1927)

German Headquarters Staff

Memorandum March 19 (Excerpts)

GERMANY SHARPENS THE SWORD

The Conference of Algeciras (1906) has removed the last doubt with regard to the existence of an Entente between France, England, and Russia. Moreover, we have seen that Austria-Hungary was obliged to keep some of her forces mobilized against Serbia and Italy; finally our fleet was not at that time sufficiently strong. At the end of the dispute the first matter taken in hand was the strengthening of our coastal defences and the increase of our naval forces. To meet the English plan of sending an Expeditionary Force of 100,000 men to the Continent, it would be necessary to make a better formation of reserves, to be used according to circumstances in the protection of the coast, in fortresses and in siege operations. It was already clear at that time that it would be absolutely necessary to make a great effort.

The French having violated the Morocco Conventions, brought on the incident of Agadir.(1911) At that time the progress made by the French army, the moral recovery of the nation, the technical advance in the realm of aviation and of machine guns rendered an attack on France less easy than in the previous period. Further, an attack by the English fleet had to be considered. This difficult situation opened our eyes to the necessity for an increase in the army. This increase was from this moment considered as a minimum. The war in the Balkans might have involved us in a war in support of our ally. The new situation in the south of Austria-Hungary lessened the value of the help which this ally could give us. On the other hand, France was strengthened by a new loi des cadres; it was accordingly necessary to anticipate the date of execution contemplated by the new military law.

Public opinion is being prepared for a new increase in the active army, which would insure Germany an honourable peace and the possibility of properly insuring her influence in the affairs of the world. The new army law and the supplementary law which should follow will enable her almost completely to attain this end. Neither ridiculous shriekings for revenge by French chauvinists, nor the Englishmen’s gnashing of teeth, nor the wild gestures of the Slavs will turn us from our aim of protecting and extending German influence (Deutschtum) all the world over. The French may arm as much as they wish, they cannot in one day increase their population. The employment of an army of negroes in the theatre of European operations will remain for a long time a dream, and in any case be devoid of beauty. Our new army law is only an extension of the military education of the German nation.

Our ancestors of 1813 made greater sacrifices. It is our sacred duty to sharpen the sword that has been put into our hands and to hold it ready for defence as well as for offence. We must allow the idea to sink into the minds of our people that our armaments are an answer to the armaments and policy of the French. We must accustom them to think that an offensive war on our part is a necessity, in order to combat the provocations of our adversaries. We must act with prudence so as not to arouse suspicion, and to avoid the crises which might injure our economic existence. We must so manage matters that under the heavy weight of powerful armaments, considerable sacrifices, and strained political relations, an outbreak (Losschlagen) should be considered as a relief, because after it would come decades of peace and prosperity, as after 1870. We must prepare for war from the financial point of view; there is much to be done in this direction. We must not arouse the distrust of our financiers, but there are many things which cannot be concealed.

We must be strong in order to annihilate at one powerful swoop our enemies in the east and west. But in the next European war it will also be necessary that the small States should be forced to follow us or be subdued. In certain conditions their armies and their strong positions can be rapidly conquered or neutralized; this would probably be the case with Belgium and Holland, so as to prevent our enemy in the west from gaining territory which they could use as a base of operations against our flank.

Our aim must be to take the offensive with a large superiority from the first days. For this purpose it will be necessary to concentrate a large army, followed up by strong Landwehr formations, which will induce the small States to follow us or at least to remain inactive in the theatre of operations, and which would crush them in the event of armed resistance. If we could induce these States to organize their system of fortification in such a manner as to constitute an effective protection for our flank we could abandon the proposed invasion. But for this, army reorganization, particularly in Belgium, would be necessary in order that it might really guarantee an effective resistance.

If, on the contrary their defensive organization was established against us, thus giving definite advantages to our adversary in the west, we could in no circumstances offer Belgium a guarantee for the security of her neutrality. Accordingly, a vast field is open to our diplomacy to work in this country on the lines of our interests. The arrangements made with this end in view allow us to hope that it