FIFTEEN YEARS AGO

Hokitika Guardian, 6 August 1929, Page 8

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO

AUGUST 4, 1914 BRITAIN’S ENTRY INTO THE WORLD WAR

Sunday last iparked the.fitNjtm'.h anniversary o' the entry of the British Empire into the Great War.

*■ The world on the verge of its catastrophe was very brilliant. Nationsarid Empires- crowned with Princes and potentates rose majestially on every side, lapped in the accumulated treasures olf the long peace. . . . Tlic Old World in its sunset was fair to see. But there was a strange temper in the air. Unsatisfied by material prosperity the nations turned restlesslj itowards strife internal or external. National passions, unduly exalted in the decline of religion, burned beneath the surface in nearly every land with fierce, if shrouded, fires. Almost one might think the world wished to sufi i'er., Certainly men were everywhere eager to dare. On all sides the milltaiy preparations, precautions and counter-precautions had reached their height. France had her three years’ military service; Russia her growing strategic railways; The ancient Empire of the Hapsburgs, Uewly smitt-m by the bombs of Serajevo, was a prey to racial stresses and profound processes of decay. Italy faced Turkey. Turkey confronted Greece. Greece, Serbia, and Rumania stood against Bulgaria. Britain was lent by faction and seemed almost negligible. America was three thousand miles away- Germany, her fifty/ million capital tax expended on munitions,, her army increases completed, the Kiel Canai open for Dreadnought battleships that very month, looked i fixedly upon the scene and her gaze became suddenly a glare.” It is this Vivid picture which Mr Winston Churchil has drawn in his ‘‘World Crisis” that will recall to those old enough to remember memories of those last weeks before the great disaster. The spring and summer of 1914 were marked in Europe by an exceptional tranquility. At the end of June British naval visits to Kronstadt and Kiel took place. I For the 'first time for several years some otf the finest ships of the British and German navies lay at their moorings at Kiel. “There were races, .there were banquets, there were speeches. Officers and men fraternised and entertained one another afloat and ashore.” It was in the midst of •‘.Lose festivities, on June 28, 1914, that there came the fateful news of the murder of ithe Archduke Charles of Austria at Serajevo.

Party conflict in Britain. The strange' calm of the -European situation during that fatdful* summer -contrasted with the rising fury of ;party conflict in Great Britain. “As it became certain that the Home Rule •Bill would pass into law under the machinery of the Parliament Act,” says Mr Churchill, “ the Protestant counties of Ulster openly developed their preparations for armed resistance.” Not ,on]y in Ulster but in most other parts of Ireland volunteers were enrolled by thousands and “ gan running” and other measures to procure arms were employed by the opposing elements. Civil war was . imminent. The refusal of many British a tarty <.Ulcers irt Ireland to discharge their constitutional duty and other “ shocking events caused an explosion of unparalleled fury in Parliament and shook the state to its foundations.” The conference at Buckingham Palace summoned by the King to discuss a settlement of the Irish problem broke down, and on July 24 the disagreements and antagonisms seemed as fierce as ever. An all-sufficient shock to the contending factions was, however, at hand.

THE FIRST ALARM NOTE. The Cabinet on July 24 sat long revolving the Irish problem, Mr Churchill tells us. “The discussion had reached its inconclusive end, and the Cabinet was about to separate when the quiet, grave tones of Sir Edward Grey’s voice were heard reading a document Which had just been brought to him from the Foreign Office. It was the Austrian Note to Serbia. . . This Note was clearly an ultimatum; but it was an ultimatum such as had never been penned in modem times. It seemed absolutely impossible that any State in the world could accept it, or that any acceptance, however abject, would satisfy the aggressor. The parishes of Fermanagh and Tyrone faded back into the mists and squalls of Ireland, and a strange light began immediately, but by perceptible gradations, to fall and grow upon the map of Europe.” There followed days and nights of feverish negotiation between the Chancelleries of Europe and still more feverish preparation for the inevitable

catastrophe. The Britsih Cabinet, overwhelmingly .pacific, worked hard and unceasingly to preserve the peace of Europe and the world. As the situation rapidly degenerated, the Irish question faded into the' background, and it was a united people that faced the tremendous crisis in Europe, and finally entered the conflict in.defence of all that was implied by a “scrap of paper.”-

In the middle of July there was a test mobilisation of the Royal Navy. It constituted “ incomparably the greatest assemblage of naval power ever witnessed in the history or the world.” When this mighty fleet put to sea on July 19 for exercises it took more than six hours’ steaming at 15 knots to pass the King who watched this armada from the Royal yacht. “One after another the ships melted out of sight beyond the Nab. They were going on a longer .voyage than any of us knew.” A few days later the ships of the Third Fleet had dispersed their reservists crews, but the' whole of the First and eScond Fleets were still concentrated at Portland and ready for any eventuality. The situation in Europe rapidly grew more and more critical, and finally, in the evening of July 28, orders were given to the First Fleet to proceed to Scapa Flow. “We may now picture this great fleet, with its flotillas and cruisers, steaming slowly out of Portland harbour, squadron, by squadron, scores of gigantic castles of steel winding their wgy across the misty shining, sea, like giants bowpd in anxious thought. We may picture them again as darkness fell, eighteen miles of. warships running at high sneed and in absolute blackness through the narrow Straits, bearing with them into the broad waters of the north the safeguard, of considerable affairs. . . . The K'ing’s ships were at sea. . . .” . AUGUST 4, 1914. The prologue of the tremendous drama of August 4 is pictured by Mr Churchill. “It was 11 o’clock at night —l2 by German time —when the ultimatum to Germany expired. The windows of the Admiralty were thrown open in the warm night air. Under the roof from-which Nelson had received his orders were gathered a small group olf Admirals and captains and a ‘cluster of clerks, pencil in hand, wait■u.g. Along the Mall from the direction of the Palace the sound of-an immense concourse singing ‘ God Save the Kir.g’., floated in. On this deep v .V'fi there broke the chimes of Big Ben, and, as the first stroke or the hour boomed out, a rustle of movement swept across the room. The War Telegram, which .pt#,ap.t.‘ Commence hostilities against Germany,’ was flashed to the ships and establishments under the White Ensign all over the world.”

PART'OF THE COST. //.! Thus did Great Britain /enter the Great War. With the Mother Country marched the Whole Empire, in defence of freedom. .Jn the great struggle which lasted more than four years, the lEmpire mobilised, nearly 9,000,000 men, the, total casualties among whom numbered 3,200,000, including one million dead. Jt was truly a Great War. More than 65,000,000 men were mobilised by all the belligerents. The total casualties have been computed officially at over 37,000,000. More than 8,500,000 men gave their lives. The wounded totalled over, 1 21,000,000 and prisoners and missing 7,750,000.