THE GREAT WAR.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 253, 4 December 1914, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE GREAT WAR.

REAL REASON WHY GERMANi SIARTED IT.

This is the "inside and exclusive 6tory of how and why the present great conflict was begun, it was written by " Diplomatist" tor 'Nash's and Pall Mall Magazine," and gives plain facts of enormous significance. In the same issu© oi this most progressive magazine appears an appeal to the United States by Hall Came entitled "Britain to America."

The bewildered public only know s Inal Europe was quiet until Austria declared war on Soma on July '26, and that uut a week later Germany was waging .iu act.ui campaign against Belgium, Russia, i-ranee, and England, and had even in\.uad Switzerland. We know that Austr.a und Germany stand together, and, « i.i*ltaly, form the Triple At.lance, and that Russia, France, and England are bound together by an entente for th- . mutual protection. This ..s not enough to explain the lighting, l'he Austrian excu.se that Servia had itot made amends for tho assassination jf the Archduke Ferdinand and his Consort a few weeks before may be dismissed at once as the flimsiest of liimsy excuses for a military campaign. What is the vital, paramount importance of Servia, that Austria and Germany should have been willing to risk their very existence as nations to conquer her;-' What is the extraordinary »aluo of Servia to Russia that, at the aiero threat of war, and before a shot aad been fired, the Czar's armies were summoned together as hurriedly as -loops can be summoned together in Russia? These are the questions that dioukl be asked if the problem of the outbreak of war is be properly understood. The answer is tins. Servia. a sni-ll .mt powerful Slav country, is the only ouffor State in the Balkans that bars the approach of Austria to the sea—to the Aegean. Salonika, the chief port to the northern side of the Eastern Mediterranean, lies less than 300 miles from Belgrade the Servian capital, which Js itself situated on the very borders of Austria-Hungary. Clearly, it is all to tho advantage of any Great Power which has interests in the Aegean, in the Balkans generally, or in Asia Minor, that Salonika should be in iU possesson, and that" the way to Salonika should be at all times open without tho ihadow of doubt. Two Great Powers, or combinations ol Powers, have vital interests in Asia Minor and in the Aegean. They are Russia on the one hand, Germany plus Austria on the other. Up to 1908 the strength of Turkey rendered the two groups impotent; they could express vain wishes without taking steps to realise, them. The Sultan Abdul rlamid was known in Western Europe for his extraordinary diplomatic and political subtlety. A revolution, financed largely hy'Servia, Bulgaria, and Greece, who wished to expand at the expanse of Turkey, deprived him of his throne. Tho map of the Balkans was at once changed, and intrigues began to change it further. Turkev. even before the revolution of 1908, wa's the prey of European financial adventurers, chief among them being the representatives of German interests. The Germans extorted concession after concession, the principal one being that for the Baghdad Railway, to run from Constantinople to Baghdad, and thence to tho Persian Gulf—the latter by the nav being a British "sphere of influence." At the back of the company A-rTicft. arranged with •uropeafl kinking houses for the financing of the Baghdad Railway enterprise stands tho\Deuteche Hank, one of the most important financial institutions in Europe, which makes •i speciality of supplying or procuring money for German enterprises oversea MONEY AS A MOTIVE.

It was tli© founder of the Deutsche Bunk, Georg von Siemens, who secured the initial contract which led to the Baghdad JRaUway concession; and it is tho'present head'of the bank. Heir Ai thur von Gwinner, who has been financially responsible for piloting the scheme an its way to success. The railway is already noarlv half built, and it represents up to the present, a German investment of between L 10.000.000 and LlS.ooo.oo<t. Let this be thought of ,\ hen people imagine that Germany and Austria went to war with the idea of ivcnging tho murder of an Archduke, l'ho Deutsche Bank owns the Berlin unte'rground railways; it owns oil property's in Roiunania ; it controls the Gtr:nnn Electric Company, which stippl'os : jr|lt and power to half the cities of Vrgentiua, Chile, and Uruguay; and, through Heir von Gwinner. it formulated u. plan not many months ago foi ritionalisine the entire .petroleum sup■jlv of Germany with the object of crush ii" out of existence the German branch iAhe Standard Oil Company. The to tal deposits of the Deutsche Bank (111rluding the money at its branches m Constantinople. Brussels, and other large centres) are estimated at. £83.000, ■)00, apart altogether from its interests in other concerns. Heir Arthur von Gwinner is a trusted advised of the Kaiser, and Ins word is law in all political matters affecting economic security and development! If m (aid, for instance, that a clear line to tin. Aegean, tinder the control ol the Austro-Gcrinau Governments, was nec.vsarv for the security of German interests in Asia Minor, the German and Austr'an Governments (for they are both moved at Berlin) would have to sweep awav all obstacles in the way ol inch a line and such a Teutonic pathway. I'o mv personal knowledge. Arthur vou Gwinner has said the word; and ithers have supported him. It must bo remembered that Germany has other than colossal railway interests n Asia Minor. She has concessions for milding "incidentals." Tin. Baghdad Railway, then, and all !m. suUidary enterprises connected aIIIi it. mean more than steel rails. It will call tor railroad equipment, rails ,-.:giiies, bridges, river steamboats, boilers! locomotives, electric power machinery, water-works. These things will lit supplied—by Germany. In return the Germans will exploit coal-miuos, coppermines, forests of vast area, aud develop tho huge potential carrying'trado of a country tlie surface of which has not yet been even scntchsd. Gwinner has dm. lis work—let us drop the financial E>..Je of the railway and the concessions «■ skillfully obtained by the great banking interest's. What of tin* manufacturing rode?

I 111. POWER OF "INTERESTS." .Ml 'Herman trade would suffer if the Ha rlui id Railway scheme were to fail—'l tii.il is. it were lo he ''got at" by Hiissij). 'l'h is he/'.'ime nhvintig la si year. were (Jraftfd and fo'

increasing the German army by nearly 300,000 men, making the peace strength of this vast military machine nearly MX),OUO strong. It cost £SU,UUO,UOU to do this; but the country had to pay. The "interests' 1 had spoken. Previously to last year, when Russia showed signs oi waking up to the importance of the concession, England had been regarded as the enemy. The " interests" Lad spoken again, and the result was a seres of Nary Bills which left Germany with the second strongest fleet in the 'world. In the name of all that is diplomatic, did tho people of this country imagine that Germany was budding ships for the Tun of the thing? Well, tne manufacturing interests. Who lias ever heard ot August Thysscn:' He is known in own land as tjio Uertnan Carnegie, or as "ivng I'liyssen." Jn coal, iron, ami steel no is supieino on tne Continent, between i**~) «nd 1!H0 Germany's production of pigiron increased by i*2o per cent., anu oi coal and Ignite by well over 200 per cent. In tne same period the German output of iron and steel assumed incredible proportions. Last year she produced nearly twice as much pig-iron. At the back ot all this great output stands August lhysseii who owns coal-mines, roiung-milis, harbours and docks througnout Germany, iron-ore mines in France, wareliouses in Kussia. and ou-tre-pott; in nearly every country from Hr. zil and Argentina to India, ric has tounded syndicate after syndicate, and has done more than an- other Herman io apply the American Trust system. Expansion- merman expansion iu Asia Minor must be safeguarded at all costs. There are st'll others. There i 6, for example, Emil von Rathenau, founder and owner of the Allegeme'Jie Elektrizitats Gesellschaft—literally, the General Electric Light Company—which is estimated to be worth £200,000,000. Ratbenau, Thyssen, and Gwinner are three out-sanding figures; but they must be supplemented by a fourth, that of Alfred Ballm, owner of the HamburgAmerika Line. And there are other financial magnates, less known but almost as powerful—Carl Furstenberg, Baron (jppenheim, Paul Mankiekitz, Arthur Salonionsohn, Paul von Schwabach. These men are as well known in Germany as tho Rothschilds, the Levers, and the Cadburys in England, or the Vanderbilts, Carnegies, and Rockefellers in the United .States. Not recognised at Court becau.se they are. strictly speaking, tradesmen and not men of noble, blood, they nevertheless influence the whole policy of the German Empire, which in its turn lays down the policy to bo followed irr foreign affairs by the Government at Vienna. In 1910 Russia made smooth matic representations to Asm Miner. The consequence was the famous Potsdam interview between the Czar and the Kaiser. Russia appeared to lie content with assurances on the part of the Kaiser's Government that the interests of Russian business men in Asia Minor —for Russia holds large coal and other concessions on the southern shores of the Black Sea, and beyond—would be respected. But neither s'do was satisfied at heart with the attitudo of the other; and everybody in touch with the Foreign Offices of St. Petersburg and Berlin realised that war would com© sooner or later. Various industrial interests had made their appearance in what had long been a purely agricultural country. The Baku Mines, the Lena Gold Fields Company, and the innumerable naphtha and oil and rubber companies (e.g.. Prowodnicks and Naphthe Russe) had turned the eyes of the Russian Government in a new direction. Men like C6unt WUte. M. Kokofftseff, and M. Krivoshein were quick to realise that Russia had interests in Asia Minor, Anatolia, and Armenia winch were, equal in importance to those of Germany. Methodically they .set about safeguarding them. The intrigues of the smaller Balkan States resulted in a declaration of war in the autumn of 1012. and the remnante of the Turkish Empire in Europe vanished. Russia, of course, was the originator of the Balkan League. It was her Minister at Belgrade. Mr. de Hnrtwig, who died n few weeks ago, that urged the plan upon the 'Servian Prime Minister, Al. Pashiteh. who in turn put it before the Greek Premier. M. Venizelos. With the financiers urging them on—or rather urging on their Governments—the diplomatists were pitted against one another. ' "" " A TOO EARLY WAR.

It was intended that the war should break out next year, by which time the Germans expected to have their additional troops dispersed strategically and in good order. The asassination of the Archduke merely forced the pace. J have been privileged to see certain extracts from correspondence which, in so far as is necessary to reproduce them here, will speak for themselves. Three (lays after the murder the German Ifcreign Minister. H?rr von Jagow, sent a d spateh to his Ambassador in Vienna: " Please ascertain," ran one passage of it, " what are the views of Count Bereli told" (i.e. the Austrian Foreign Minister) "with reference to steps to be taken against Servia. If the tune has como to subject the Royal Government of Serra to tho will of Austria the Imperial Government will support by force of arms any measures which may be deemed necessary to that end." This was followed by a consultation between Count Berchtold and the German representative in Vienna, and further consultation in Berlin. The next step was to find out what other Powers were likely to do if a joint Austrian and German expedition were organised against Servia. Through the courtesy of diplomatic friends 1 have bee:; permitted to see copies of the replies transmitted by the German Embassies in Paris, London, and St. Petersburg. Prince Liehnowsky, who departed from Cadlton House Terraco on August 0, strongly advised his Government not to rely upon tho differences caused in England by the Ulster question. From independent sources the Berlin Government believed itself to be better informed; and the Ambassador's advice was unheeded. Baron von Schoen. in Paris, stated that the French army was disorganised on account of the change from the two years' to the three years' service, authorised by the French Parliament last year, and would not bo likely ti assist Russia. The report sent in by (lie German Ambassador, in St. Petersburg, a paroled version of part of which appeared in some Russian ne.w s pa|iei , s. was the most extraordinary document of all. Count vou Pourtriles-iaid: "The Czar's Government is at present menaced by a revolutionary- movement dis guised as a general strike. "Tt would b<» impossible for tho Russian Government to undertake any mobilisation measures at this .juncture, owing to the danger to the Imperial House involved."

It is truo that there was a strike — fin •!'<-.' '.■• fiorpinny—in progress in St P. *.•! I. '.it .1 '. weeks ago; and it is li ii.i r.-v> ili;.i re ilutionarie*. as always, li.id i.i-ch .wil'fi. to start it. But the A.idi.i-..idnr n\»i lookf*] "'ie importing fiit »i'u to ujobilisaliou. Til*

Austrian menace was directed against Servia, another Slav country, identical in blood and partly in language, us well us in religion, with the great Russian people ot the East. A war on behalf of ihe oppressed s:ster nation in the Balkans was sure to bo a popular cry. Everyono acquainted with the feelings of the people knew that; and it would not have been necessary for Count von Pourtaies to have gone far from his Emabssy to convince himselt of the truth of tne belief, Russia has always rallied to the assistance of Balkan Slavs.

Feeling sure that Russia would not I act, ami believing, reasonably enough, j that France would not act if Russia did I not; believing further, that England would not intervene in what appeared to be a far-off quarrel, Germany decided that the tune had come to strike at Servia. and thus clear the way to the absolute .security of German interests m the Balkans, tho Aegean, and Asia Minor. It i.i clear enough from the remarkable despatch of Heir von Jagow to the Getnian Ambassador in Vienna, apart from ihe strict inquiries miule by the Berlin Fore gn Office, that the idea of an Austrian war against Servia as u preliminary to a Teutonic conquest ot the district, lying between huugary and the port ot Salonika, originated in berlm. J his, indeed, is no secret in political circles in the Gorman capital. The men responsible for the preliminary war are tho Crown Prince —hot-headed and anxious for "glory"; Admiral von Tirpltz, head of the navy; Count Moltke, head oi the army ; the Kaiser ; Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg, the Chancellor, and a, few others, all of wiium were considerably influenced by t|o impetuosity and persistent demands of the Crown Prince.. -Prince Furstenberg—nobleman, largo landowner, and industrial magnate, and close friend of the Kaiser —and Ernst von Hydebrand, "the uncrowned King of Prussia." and leader ot the agricultural interests, cannot also I be entirely acquitted of the initial measures which led to the Austrian Note to I Servia.

This Note has been published, and tlie sharpness of its demands is likely to become proverbial in its diplomacy. There has never been anything like it addressed by one Government to another. Soma's almost immediate compliance i\ ith the demands was disregarded. Germany had made up her mind that war had to come, and that the time was ripe. The long struggle between the Teutons and the Slavs for the possession of tho Balkan. Peninsula was to bo fought out. Servia's paramountcy meant that Russia would dictate the policy of tho Peninsula; Servia's decline would mean the end of Russian prestige in tho Peninsula, as well as the C nd of Servia herself.

That—the struggle for Asia Minor—i* the sole reason why Europe has been plunged into war. Of the enormous Germai: miscalculations, the rapid mobilisation of France and Russia, the English participation, and the unexpected check to the Germr.n arms in Belgium, this is not the place to speak. Germany might have struck with good effect later on. If. after the war, there is no German Empire left, but only a congeries of individual States, tho responsibility will lie with the financial magnates behind the throne a,ud with tho Crown Prince who backed them up.