"THE RED GLUTTON"

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2489, 16 June 1915, Page 3

"THE RED GLUTTON"

AN AMERICAN WITNESS TO ! " FRIGUTFULNESS " ; MR. IRVIN COBB-S BOOK The prophet Balaam, as we all know, was once taken to tho front by Balak, Kin" of Moab, and shown the outskirts of the linos of Israol, in order that he might curso tho King's enemies and bless the arms of Moab. The result was not a success; the blessing was not forthcoming, and the prophet did not long remain a persona grata in allhighest Moabite circles. Mr. Irvin Cobb may be described a3 a Balaam of to-day. Ho was one of those specially privileged American war correspondents who were allowed to see something of the German armies; lie was dined by the General Staff at Laon, sent along tho front in charge of intelligent officers, and treated with many "requisitioned" _ French vintages, and the best of campaign fare. If tho Germans expected to have from him in return a book which would please tliem, or do their cause any good in America or other neutral countries, they ' will be profoundly disappointed. We fancy that they will regret that he was ; allowed to see so much, and that so ' many of his questions received a free 1 and full answer. The Machine at Work. ' For this most interesting volume of 818 pages —it gives the most vivid of all the impressions of onlookers from ; the front that we have seen—is calculated not- only to make the reader loathe war, but more especially to make him ; loathe war as conducted by the Germans. Mr. Cobb has a full acknowledgment of the awful efficiency of the German army machine, and of tho selfsacrificing zeal of those who work it, but it has produced in him an uncomfortable feeling of horror, not admiration. He has se6n bleeding Belgium, heard the plea of the invaders about the necessity of terrorising a recalcitrant 1 population, and can only decide that ' there is no parallel for such conduct as 1 that whose results he has witnessed. The Germans in "reprisals" havo not ® only done things that some other nations ' might not have done, but have "gone j further than the heads of any modern | army ever went before." And he adds; ' "All the laboriously built-up ethics of civilised peace came into contact with [ the bloody ethics of war, frequently : bora in the instant and moulded ' on the instant to suit the purpose , of those who create them. Louvain is t'iie most finished and perfect 1 example in the world to-day to show the consequences of such a clash" (p. 314). We r tear that the officers of the General Staff who showed Mr. Cobb around the J front will be dissatisfied at the impression made on their guest. Most of all, , morovcr, because ho comes to the con- . elusion lhat the sufferings of the civi- , lian population in France have been , made less dreadful than those in Belgium, not becauso of any difference in . tiieir attitude towards the invader, nor , because t : h« Germans recognised their own earlier system to havo been atrol cious, but from pure policy. "1 reached the private conclusion that because i of the chorus of protest that arose lrom . all neutral countries and particularly f from the United States, against tho 1 severities visited on Belgium in August , and September, the word went round . to tho German forces in tho field that . the scheme of punishment for offenders ivlio violated tiieir field-code should be ; somewhat softened and relaxed." (p. 290.) l Negleot of tho Wounded. ' Another chapter which will hit Get--1 man prido hard is the picture of awful • neglect and callous cruelty in the field 1 hospitals and entraining stations where : the wounded are dealt with. At the 1 station of Maubeuge "grease spattered ' the earth, the floor of the buifet-room • was literally ankle-doep s in discarded ' bandages and blood-stiffened cotton; the ' nurses, doctors, and helpers dropped ; down in the midst of it to snatch'a few '' minutes of precious rest bofore the next ' creaking caravan of misery arrived. ■ . . . Presently a train rolled in. It r had been days sinco the wounded had started from tho field hospitals, where [ they had had their first-aid treatment. They had nioved by sluggish stages. Always the wounded must wait upon sidings while the troop-trains from home sped on to the smoking front. The man who had got himself crippled became an obstacle to further progress, ' a drag upon the wheels of tlio machine. ' So tho fresh grist, to the mill was ex- ' pedited on its way to the hoppers, that which had already been ground up was relatively of tile smallest consequence. ! Because of this law whidli might not 1 be broken or amended, these wounded J would perforce spend several days aboard trains before they could expect to reaoh the base-hospital on German | soil. They were messed and mangled • in every imaginable fashion, wallowing in dirty, matted straw. ... No surgeon i accompanied this afflicted living freight, age, not even a qualified nurse. According to the classifying processes of those in high authority, these men were lightly wounded, and it was presumed that en route', they would be competent to minister to themselves or to each other. Under the grading system a man who was still all in one piece, and who probably would not break apart in transit, was designated as 'lightly wounded.'' This is sober, unexaggerated truth. These ligntly-wounaed men—men with their jaws shot away, men with holes in their breasts a.nd | abdomens, men with their spine-tips splintered, men with their hands and feet shredded with shrapnel, men with their scalps ripped open, mon with tlioir ears, fingers, ana toes gone, men | for. whom' ordinarily soft beds would have been provided and expert care and , special food, came trundling up alongside that noisome station, and through | the door-openings where they were housed like dumb beasts looked out 1 upon us with the glazed eyes of dumb beasts. . . . When the train had gone out of sight I spoke to a head sur- , geoil. 'A lot of those poor devils will die?' I suggested. 'Less than 3 per cent, of those who get back to the base hospital will die,' he said with a snap of the teeth, as though challenging "me to doubt the statement." (p. 266 et seq.) But what of those who never got to the base hospital? "The trip thither might last a week, or even two weeks." A Horrible Experlenoe. It was at this same station that Mr. Cobb came on a small party of English prisoners, whose greatcoats had been stripped from them, and who were complaining of the cold. He ventured to intercede for them to the officer commanding the convoy, who replied tliat the overcoats of all sound men, Ger- j mans as well as English, were confiscated to furnish coverings for the wounded. But as the Germans guardinc the train had all got their overcoats on "I do not vouch for accuracy of his explanation." (p. 27?.) Another chapter well worth reading is that detailing tho unfortunate adventures of Mr. Cobb's friend, the American artist Steovens, whose tale was partly told in certain nowspapers last September. Though furnished with a regular passport and a certificate from the Gorman military commandant of Brussels, he was arrested by an officer, who proposed lo shoot him without the vain preliminary of a court-martial. He was beaten, bound with ropes, and told • that he would be executed next morning. A grave was dug under tho window of his prison, and he was paraded opposite it, and then suddenly released ;ind sent back to Brussels. "He never Uuttiad, out

butt of a hideous practical joke by a half-mad brute or whether his tormentor had really meant to send him to death, and was deterred at the last moment by foar of the consequences. For some time after his release he was in Mr. Cobb's company, and gave him full details of his awful twelve hours of captivity. Two ohapters may bo commended to the military readers, that dealing with tho German 42-centimetre howitzers, whose -work on tho fortifications of Maubeuge Mr. Cobb was permitted to investigate soon after the end of tho siege of that unlucky fortress. We have soldom seen tho effect of big guns on stono forts of the old style better described. (Chapter XII). The othor deals with tho position and arrangements of the German trenches and heavy artillery before Reims. (Chapter XI). As the line of demarcation between French and German in this front has hardly varied a yard since Mr. Cobb wont over the line in October, the description of tlie position of the German guns, magazines, hospitals, eto., may still havo some interest for tho French General Staff. Some of the localities are so well described that they must be perfeotly identifiable.