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New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 2, No. 1, April, 1915 by Various

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The New York Times

CURRENT HISTORY

A Monthly Magazine

THE EUROPEAN WAR, VOLUME II

April, 1915-September, 1915

With Index

Number I, April 1915







[Illustration: [logo] THE N.Y. TIMES]



New York
The New York Times Company

1915




CONTENTS


NUMBER I. APRIL, 1915.

Page

GERMANY'S WAR ZONE AND NEUTRAL FLAGS 1
The German Decree and Interchange of Notes

GERMANY'S SUBMARINE WAR (With Map) 20

GERMAN PEOPLE NOT BLINDED 22
By Karl Lamprecht

REVEILLE 24
By John Galsworthy

CAN GERMANY BE STARVED OUT? 25
An Answer by Sixteen German Specialists

HOCH DER KAISER (Poem) 28
By George Davies

THE SUBMARINE OF 1578 29

THE TORPEDO (Poem) 30
By Katherine D.M. Simons, Jr.

"GOD PUNISH ENGLAND, BROTHER" 31
A New Hymn of Germany's Gospel of Hatred

THE GREAT HOUR (Poem) 32
By Hermann Sudermann

THE PEACE OF THE WORLD 33
By H.G. Wells

ZEPPELIN RAIDS ON LONDON (With Map) 46
By the Naval Correspondent of The London Times

JULIUS CAESAR ON THE AISNE 48

SIR JOHN FRENCH'S OWN STORY (With Map) 49
Continuing the Famous Dispatches of the British Commander

THE CATHEDRAL OF RHEIMS 60
By Emile Verhaeren

MUSIC OF WAR 61
By Rudyard Kipling

AMERICA AND A NEW WORLD STATE 63
By Norman Angell

SIR CHRISTOPHER CRADOCK (Poem) 84
By John E. Dolson

BATTLE OF THE SUEZ CANAL (With Map) 85
First-hand Account of the Turkish Invasion

A FULL-FLEDGED SOCIALIST STATE 89
By J. Laurence Laughlin

LETTERS FROM WIVES 92

"WAR CHILDREN" 92

NO PREMATURE PEACE FOR RUSSIA 93
Proceedings at Opening of the Duma, Feb. 9

TO THE VICTOR BELONG THE SPOILS (Poem) 96
By Madeleine Lucette Ryley

LESSONS OF THE WAR TO MARCH NINTH 97
By Charles W. Eliot

BELGIUM'S KING AND QUEEN 100
By Paul Hervieu

THE EUROPEAN WAR AS SEEN BY CARTOONISTS 101

THE CHANCES OF PEACE AND THE PROBLEM OF POLAND (With Map) 123
By J. Ellis Barker

THE REDEMPTION OF EUROPE (Poem) 128
By Alfred Noyes

GERMANY WILL END THE WAR 129
By Maximilian Harden

LOUVAIN'S NEW STREETS 133

THE STATE OF HOLLAND 134
By Hendrik Willem van Loon

HUNGARY AFTER THE WAR (With Map) 137
By a Correspondent of The London Times

THE WATCHERS OF THE TROAD (Poem) 139
By Harry Lyman Koopman

THE UNION OF CENTRAL EUROPE 140
By Franz von Liszt

TWO POOR LITTLE BELGIAN FLEDGLINGS 143
By Pierre Loti

WHAT THE GERMANS DESIRE 144
By Gustaf Sioesteen

ADDRESS TO KING ALBERT OF BELGIUM 147
By Emile Verhaeren

FORESHADOWING A NEW PHASE OF WAR 148
By Lloyd George, British Chancellor of the Exchequer

BRITAIN'S UNSHEATHED SWORD 153
By H.H. Asquith, England's Prime Minister

SWEDEN'S SCANDINAVIAN LEADERSHIP (With Map) 160
By a Swedish Political Expert

FROM ENGLAND (Poem) 164
By Maurice Hewlett

WAR CORRESPONDENCE 165

THE DRAGON'S TEETH (Poem) 181
By Caroline Duer

THE GREATEST OF CAMPAIGNS (With Map) 182
The French Official Account

BY THE NORTH SEA (Poem) 185
By W.L. Courtney

WHEN MARTHE CHENAL SANG THE "MARSEILLAISE" 187
By Wythe Williams

A WAR OF COMMERCE TO FOLLOW 189
By Sir William Ramsay

BELGIUM (Poem) 192
By Edith Wharton

DESIRED PEACE TERMS FOR EUROPE 193
By Proponents for the Allies and for Germany

THE BRITISH VOLUNTEERS (Poem) 195
By Katherine D.M. Simons, Jr.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR 196


[Illustration: H.M. HUSSEIN KEMAL

The New Sultan of Egypt, Which Was Recently Declared a British
Protectorate]

[Illustration: THE RUSSIAN ROYAL FAMILY

The Children of the Czar Have Inherited the Regal Beauty of Their Mother

(Photo from Paul Thompson)]




The New York Times

CURRENT HISTORY

A MONTHLY MAGAZINE

THE EUROPEAN WAR

APRIL, 1915




Germany's War Zone and Neutral Flags

The German Decree and Interchange of Notes Answering American Protests
to Germany and Britain


_BERLIN, Feb. 4, (by wireless to Sayville, L.I.)--The German
Admiralty today issued the following communication:_

The waters around Great Britain and Ireland, including the whole English
Channel, are declared a war zone on and after Feb. 18, 1915.

Every enemy merchant ship found in this war zone will be destroyed, even
if it is impossible to avert dangers which threaten the crew and
passengers.

Also neutral ships in the war zone are in danger, as in consequence of
the misuse of neutral flags ordered by the British Government on Jan.
31, and in view of the hazards of naval warfare, it cannot always be
avoided that attacks meant for enemy ships endanger neutral ships.

Shipping northward, around the Shetland Islands, in the eastern basin of
the North Sea, and a strip of at least thirty nautical miles in breadth
along the Dutch coast, is endangered in the same way.


AMERICAN NOTE TO GERMANY.

Feb. 10, 1915.

_The Secretary of State has instructed Ambassador Gerard at Berlin to
present to the German Government a note to the following effect:_

The Government of the United States, having had its attention directed
to the proclamation of the German Admiralty, issued on the 4th of
February, that the waters surrounding Great Britain and Ireland,
including the whole of the English Channel, are to be considered as
comprised within the seat of war; that all enemy merchant vessels found
in those waters after the 18th inst. will be destroyed, although it may
not always be possible to save crews and passengers; and that neutral
vessels expose themselves to danger within this zone of war because, in
view of the misuse of neutral flags said to have been ordered by the
British Government on the 31st of January and of the contingencies of
maritime warfare, it may not be possible always to exempt neutral
vessels from attacks intended to strike enemy ships, feels it to be its
duty to call the attention of the Imperial German Government, with
sincere respect and the most friendly sentiments, but very candidly and
earnestly, to the very serious possibilities of the course of action
apparently contemplated under that proclamation.

The Government of the United States views those possibilities with such
grave concern that it feels it to be its privilege, and, indeed, its
duty, in the circumstances to request the Imperial German Government to
consider before action is taken the critical situation in respect of the
relation between this country and Germany which might arise were the
German naval forces, in carrying out the policy foreshadowed in the
Admiralty's proclamation, to destroy any merchant vessel of the United
States or cause the death of American citizens.

It is, of course, not necessary to remind the German Government that the
sole right of a belligerent in dealing with neutral vessels on the high
seas is limited to visit and search, unless a blockade is proclaimed and
effectively maintained, which this Government does not understand to be
proposed in this case. To declare or exercise a right to attack and
destroy any vessel entering a prescribed area of the high seas without
first certainly determining its belligerent nationality and the
contraband character of its cargo would be an act so unprecedented in
naval warfare that this Government is reluctant to believe that the
Imperial Government of Germany in this case contemplates it as possible.

The suspicion that enemy ships are using neutral flags improperly can
create no just presumption that all ships traversing a prescribed area
are subject to the same suspicion. It is to determine exactly such
questions that this Government understands the right of visit and search
to have been recognized.

This Government has carefully noted the explanatory statement issued by
the Imperial German Government at the same time with the proclamation of
the German Admiralty, and takes this occasion to remind the Imperial
German Government very respectfully that the Government of the United
States is open to none of the criticisms for unneutral action to which
the German Government believes the Governments of certain other neutral
nations have laid themselves open; that the Government of the United
States has not consented to or acquiesced in any measures which may have
been taken by the other belligerent nations in the present war which
operate to restrain neutral trade, but has, on the contrary, taken in
all such matters a position which warrants it in holding those
Governments responsible in the proper way for any untoward effects on
American shipping which the accepted principles of international law do
not justify; and that it, therefore, regards itself as free in the
present instance to take with a clear conscience and upon accepted
principles the position indicated in this note.

If the commanders of German vessels of war should act upon the
presumption that the flag of the United States was not being used in
good faith and should destroy on the high seas an American vessel or the
lives of American citizens, it would be difficult for the Government of
the United States to view the act in any other light than as an
indefensible violation of neutral rights, which it would be very hard,
indeed, to reconcile with the friendly relations now happily subsisting
between the two Governments.

If such a deplorable situation should arise, the Imperial German
Government can readily appreciate that the Government of the United
States would be constrained to hold the Imperial Government of Germany
to a strict accountability for such acts of their naval authorities, and
to take any steps it might be necessary to take to safeguard American
lives and property and to secure to American citizens the full enjoyment
of their acknowledged rights on the high seas.

The Government of the United States, in view of these considerations,
which it urges with the greatest respect and with the sincere purpose of
making sure that no misunderstandings may arise, and no circumstances
occur, that might even cloud the intercourse of the two Governments,
expresses the confident hope and expectation that the Imperial German
Government can and will give assurance that American citizens and their
vessels will not be molested by the naval forces of Germany otherwise
than by visit and search, though their vessels may be traversing the sea
area delimited in the proclamation of the German Admiralty. It is stated
for the information of the Imperial Government that representations have
been made to his Britannic Majesty's Government in respect to the
unwarranted use of the American flag for the protection of British
ships.


AMERICAN NOTE TO ENGLAND.

Feb. 10, 1915.

_The Secretary of State has instructed Ambassador Page at London to
present to the British Government a note to the following effect:_

The department has been advised of the declaration of the German
Admiralty on Feb. 4, indicating that the British Government had on Jan.
31 explicitly authorized the use of neutral flags on British merchant
vessels, presumably for the purpose of avoiding recognition by German
naval forces. The department's attention has also been directed to
reports in the press that the Captain of the Lusitania, acting upon
orders or information received from the British authorities, raised the
American flag as his vessel approached the British coasts, in order to
escape anticipated attacks by German submarines. Today's press reports
also contain an alleged official statement of the Foreign Office
defending the use of the flag of a neutral country by a belligerent
vessel in order to escape capture or attack by an enemy.

Assuming that the foregoing reports are true, the Government of the
United States, reserving for future consideration the legality and
propriety of the deceptive use of the flag of a neutral power in any
case for the purpose of avoiding capture, desires very respectfully to
point out to his Britannic Majesty's Government the serious consequences
which may result to American vessels and American citizens if this
practice is continued.

The occasional use of the flag of a neutral or an enemy under the stress
of immediate pursuit and to deceive an approaching enemy, which appears
by the press reports to be represented as the precedent and
justification used to support this action, seems to this Government a
very different thing from an explicit sanction by a belligerent
Government for its merchant ships generally to fly the flag of a neutral
power within certain portions of the high seas which are presumed to be
frequented with hostile warships. The formal declaration of such a
policy of general misuse of a neutral's flag jeopardizes the vessels of
the neutral visiting those waters in a peculiar degree by raising the
presumption that they are of belligerent nationality regardless of the
flag which they may carry.

In view of the announced purpose of the German Admiralty to engage in
active naval operations in certain delimited sea areas adjacent to the
coasts of Great Britain and Ireland, the Government of the United States
would view with anxious solicitude any general use of the flag of the
United States by British vessels traversing those waters. A policy such
as the one which his Majesty's Government is said to intend to adopt
would, if the declaration of the German Admiralty be put in force, it
seems clear, afford no protection to British vessels, while it would be
a serious and constant menace to the lives and vessels of American
citizens.

The Government of the United States, therefore, trusts that his
Majesty's Government will do all in their power to restrain vessels of
British nationality in the deceptive use of the United States flag in
the sea area defined by the German declaration, since such practice
would greatly endanger the vessels of a friendly power navigating those
waters and would even seem to impose upon the Government of Great
Britain a measure of responsibility for the loss of American lives and
vessels in case of an attack by a German naval force.

You will impress upon his Majesty's Government the grave concern which
this Government feels in the circumstances in regard to the safety of
American vessels and lives in the war zone declared by the German
Admiralty.

You may add that this Government is making earnest representations to
the German Government in regard to the danger to American vessels and
citizens if the declaration of the German Admiralty is put into effect.


GERMANY'S ANSWER.

_BERLIN, (via London,) Feb. 18.--German Government's reply to the
American note follows:_

The Imperial Government has examined the communication from the United
States Government in the same spirit of good-will and friendship by
which the communication appears to have been dictated. The Imperial
Government is in accord with the United States Government that for both
parties it is in a high degree desirable to avoid misunderstandings
which might arise from measures announced by the German Admiralty and to
provide against the occurrence of incidents which might trouble the
friendly relations which so far happily exist between the two
Governments.

With regard to the assuring of these friendly relations, the German
Government believes that it may all the more reckon on a full
understanding with the United States, as the procedure announced by the
German Admiralty, which was fully explained in the note of the 4th
inst., is in no way directed against legitimate commerce and legitimate
shipping of neutrals, but represents solely a measure of self-defense,
imposed on Germany by her vital interests, against England's method of
warfare, which is contrary to international law, and which so far no
protest by neutrals has succeeded in bringing back to the generally
recognized principles of law as existing before the outbreak of war.

In order to exclude all doubt regarding these cardinal points, the
German Government once more begs leave to state how things stand. Until
now Germany has scrupulously observed valid international rules
regarding naval warfare. At the very beginning of the war Germany
immediately agreed to the proposal of the American Government to ratify
the new Declaration of London, and took over its contents unaltered, and
without formal obligation, into her prize law.

The German Government has obeyed these rules, even when they were
diametrically opposed to her military interests. For instance, Germany
allowed the transportation of provisions to England from Denmark until
today, though she was well able, by her sea forces, to prevent it. In
contradistinction to this attitude, England has not even hesitated at a
second infringement of international law, if by such means she could
paralyze the peaceful commerce of Germany with neutrals. The German
Government will be the less obliged to enter into details, as these are
put down sufficiently, though not exhaustively, in the American note to
the British Government dated Dec. 29, as a result of five months'
experience.

All these encroachments have been made, as has been admitted, in order
to cut off all supplies from Germany and thereby starve her peaceful
civil population--a procedure contrary to all humanitarian principles.
Neutrals have been unable to prevent the interruption of their commerce
with Germany, which is contrary to international laws.

The American Government, as Germany readily acknowledges, has protested
against the British procedure. In spite of these protests and protests
from other neutral States, Great Britain could not be induced to depart
from the course of action she had decided upon. Thus, for instance, the
American ship Wilhelmina recently was stopped by the British, although
her cargo was destined solely for the German civil population, and,
according to the express declaration of the German Government, was to be
employed only for this purpose.

Germany is as good as cut off from her overseas supply by the silent or
protesting toleration of neutrals, not only in regard to such goods as
are absolute contraband, but also in regard to such as, according to
acknowledged law before the war, are only conditional contraband or not
contraband at all. Great Britain, on the other hand, is, with the
toleration of neutral Governments, not only supplied with such goods as
are not contraband or only conditional contraband, but with goods which
are regarded by Great Britain, if sent to Germany, as absolute
contraband, namely, provisions, industrial raw materials, &c., and even
with goods which have always indubitably been regarded as absolute
contraband.

The German Government feels itself obliged to point out with the
greatest emphasis that a traffic in arms, estimated at many hundreds of
millions, is being carried on between American firms and Germany's
enemies. Germany fully comprehends that the practice of right and the
toleration of wrong on the part of neutrals are matters absolutely at
the discretion of neutrals, and involve no formal violation of
neutrality. Germany, therefore, did not complain of any formal violation
of neutrality, but the German Government, in view of complete evidence
before it, cannot help pointing out that it, together with the entire
public opinion of Germany, feels itself to be severely prejudiced by the
fact that neutrals, in safeguarding their rights in legitimate commerce
with Germany according to international law, have up to the present
achieved no, or only insignificant, results, while they are making
unlimited use of their right by carrying on contraband traffic with
Great Britain and our other enemies.

If it is a formal right of neutrals to take no steps to protect their
legitimate trade with Germany, and even to allow themselves to be
influenced in the direction of the conscious and willful restriction of
their trade, on the other hand, they have the perfect right, which they
unfortunately do not exercise, to cease contraband trade, especially in
arms, with Germany's enemies.

In view of this situation, Germany, after six months of patient
waiting, sees herself obliged to answer Great Britain's murderous method
of naval warfare with sharp counter-measures. If Great Britain in her
fight against Germany summons hunger as an ally, for the purpose of
imposing upon a civilized people of 70,000,000 the choice between
destitution and starvation or submission to Great Britain's commercial
will, then Germany today is determined to take up the gauntlet and
appeal to similar allies.

Germany trusts that the neutrals, who so far have submitted to the
disadvantageous consequences of Great Britain's hunger war in silence,
or merely in registering a protest, will display toward Germany no
smaller measure of toleration, even if German measures, like those of
Great Britain, present new terrors of naval warfare.

Moreover, the German Government is resolved to suppress with all the
means at its disposal the importation of war material to Great Britain
and her allies, and she takes it for granted that neutral Governments,
which so far have taken no steps against the traffic in arms with
Germany's enemies, will not oppose forcible suppression by Germany of
this trade.

Acting from this point of view, the German Admiralty proclaimed a naval
war zone, whose limits it exactly defined. Germany, so far as possible,
will seek to close this war zone with mines, and will also endeavor to
destroy hostile merchant vessels in every other way. While the German
Government, in taking action based upon this overpowering point of view,
keeps itself far removed from all intentional destruction of neutral
lives and property, on the other hand, it does not fail to recognize
that from the action to be taken against Great Britain dangers arise
which threaten all trade within the war zone, without distinction. This
a natural result of mine warfare, which, even under the strictest
observance of the limits of international law, endangers every ship
approaching the mine area. The German Government considers itself
entitled to hope that all neutrals will acquiesce in these measures, as
they have done in the case of the grievous damages inflicted upon them
by British measures, all the more so as Germany is resolved, for the
protection of neutral shipping even in the naval war zone, to do
everything which is at all compatible with the attainment of this
object.

In view of the fact that Germany gave the first proof of her good-will
in fixing a time limit of not less than fourteen days before the
execution of said measures, so that neutral shipping might have an
opportunity of making arrangements to avoid threatening danger, this can
most surely be achieved by remaining away from the naval war zone.
Neutral vessels which, despite this ample notice, which greatly affects
the achievement of our aims in our war against Great Britain, enter
these closed waters will themselves bear the responsibility for any
unfortunate accidents that may occur. Germany disclaims all
responsibility for such accidents and their consequences.

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