Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1931 A PAGE OF HISTORY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 10 January 1931, Page 6

Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1931 A PAGE OF HISTORY

THE death of Marshal Joffre necessarily caused us to revert to those tragical and stupendous days when he played a major part in the terrible drama which filled Europe’s stage from 1914 to 1918. In consulting records of those momentous years, we have been more than surprised to find how little Joffre’s generalship was appreciated by his fellow-country-men' and the French politicians who were his contemporaries during the two years and few months when he was in command of all the French armies on the western battle-front. But time lias created the right perspective. Then, it was thought he accomplished at the Marne less than a more active and energetic general might have performed; now, that mighty struggle is rightly considered one of the great decisive battles of the world. Then, he was blamed for the initial successes which the Germans had when they made their first terrific assaults upon Verdun; now, it is acknowledged that Joffre’s management of the defence of that historic fortress was masterly. Time puts events and people in proper focus. Joffre is now known for what lie actually was —the very man of all men to have led the armies of France, in the early stages of the World War, when she was forced to play a defensive role, naturally distasteful to her soldiers, but absolutely necessary in the circumstances. The time is not yet ripe for making a correct analysis of the events of those cataclysmic years, but it becomes possible with the flight of time to appraise with some degree of correctness the principal actors in the great tragedy, and to marshal the events of their day in accordance with their comparative importance.

To understand and appreciate those tremendous events properly, it is essential to determine their basic cause or causes. Ever since the war ended there has been an organised attempt by the German monarchists to obscure those causes, and their propagandists and those of the exKaiser have been busy in trying to fix the war-guilt on anyone but themselves. Those activities have been very marked in the United States, the ex-Kaiser making special efforts to clear his character, per medium of prominent New York publications. But we get the truth when we turn to the book recently written by Major-General J. E. Seely, who, as a member of Mr Asquith’s pre-war Cabinet, was in charge of the War Office. In his capacity of Secretary of State for War he privately met the German Ambassador, Baron Marshall von Bieberstein, and the following is General Seely’s account of the interview: It was arranged that I should meet him, —(the German Ambassador) —informally at a house in Belgrave Square. A party was going on. and his wife and. daughter were there. We strolled into a quiet corner, and lie at once began the conversation. He said: “Why can’t our people be at peace together?” I replied : “I am sure that every Member of the Cabinet and almost every man in England, would agree with me in replying that we do not want to go to war with Germany. All we want is to let things be as they are.” His heavy face lit up as he turned to me and said: “You want to maintain the status quo. It means that for all time you will have command of the whole sea and all the best places on the land.” Still looking at me intently, he added: “Our people cannot accept your status quo.” I replied : “They had better do so. It is the only way.” There was a long pause, then he said: “May I introduce you to my daughter?” and the interview ended. ... I set to work with redoubled energy and secrecy to prepare. The work of the Committee of Defence was divided up into many sections. As I have said before I was chairman of five of these committees at one time. Every possible form of enemy attack on the Empire was considered. An interesting fact is that no single scheme of attack by us on others was brought out and prepared. This omission may or may not, have been wise. But it was so. , . .

Those remarks bear internal evidence of their truth. For instance, if as Baron Marshall Von Bieberstein said, Great Britain possessed “command of the whole of the sea and all the best places on the land,” what object could she have had in making war on Germany, and plunging herself into the maelstrom of Europe’s antagonisms ? On the other hand the German Ambassador

gave away his Government’s case by showing its hand. And the astute Englishman made preparations accordingly. Even so, the meagre extent of those preparations proves that they were defensive.

The aggressive policy of the Kaiser Wilhelm having been revealed by his Ambassador, the events of 1914 leading to the violation of Belgian territory and the invasion of France need no explanation. They formed part of the pre-con-ceived plan of von Schlieffen, which was adopted by the German General Staff, and worked to as closely as possible, in August, 1914. That plan also explains Germany’s strategy, and the aggressive tactics of her generals. So that, from the time when the German Ambassador spoke to the Right Hon. J. E. B. Seely until the Battle of the Marne, events plainly followed in their inevitable sequence. The Kaiser had almost grasped his prize—Paris. Then it was that the modest preparations which Seely had made bore their greatest fruit, for then it was that the first six divisions of the British Army (sneered at by the Kaiser as “Contemptible”) played so glorious a part in bringing to a halt the Germans’ triumphant advance, and in frustrating definitely and finally that policy of conquest which their Kaiser and his generals had so arrogantly conceived, and put into operation with such ruthlessness. The ex-Kaiser and his militarists are discredited to-day, not only by the world in general, but by the great bulk of the German nation itself. Nothing fails like failure. Never did aggressive warfare fail more dismally than that which the Teutonic Emperors waged in 1914. Today their Empires have vanished. The German Republic has repudiated Wilhelm and all his works. His arrogance and aggression ended in nothing but trouble for the world and misery for Germany. The great majority of Germans see the events, to which we have referred, in their proper perspective. They would be the first to eschew the policy revealed by Baron Marshall Von Bieberstein, and to acknowledge the justification for the preparations made by the British Government to meet that policy. Nothing can dull the fame of Joffre. Nothing which his hired apologists may say can obliterate the ex-Kaiser’s infamy. The pen of history has already written indelibly the record of each—the one a hero, the other a runaway; the one a victor, the other an exile; the one the defender of his country, the other the destroyer of his people’s happiness; the one admired and extolled, the other despised and hated.