HISTORY OF THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 March 1922, Page 11

HISTORY OF THE WAR.

REMARKABLE LETTERS. REVEALING FROM THE INSIDE WHAT TOOK PLACE. London, Feb. 3. “The English rulers have no feeling of vengeance. I have never seen the slightest traces of that. But they are determined to secure future safety. They will not have this experience repeated if they can help it. They realise now that they have been living under a sort of fear—or dread —for ten years; they sometimes felt that it was bound to come some time, and then at other times they could hardly believe it. And they will spend all the men and all the money they have rather than. suffer that fear again or have that danger ....

“And the horror of it no man knows. The news is suppressed. Even those who see it and know it do not realise it. Four of the crack regiments of this kingdom— regiments that contained the flower of the land and to which it was a distinction to belong—have been practically annihilated twice. Yet their ranks are filled up and you never near a murmur. Presently it’ll be true that hardly a title or an estate in England will go to its national heir —the heir has been killed. Yet, not a murmur; for England is threatened with invasion. They’ll all die first. It will presently be true that more men will have been killed in this war than were killed before in all the organised wars since the Christian era began. The English are willing and eager to stop if things can be so fixed that there will be no Power in Europe that wishes or prepares to attack or invade England . .. .” —The American Ambassador to Colonel House. CRAFTY PEACE MANOEUVRES. The further instalment of the letters of Ambassador Page, published in the February number of the World’s Work, deals with the attempts made by the German Government after the first battle of the Marne to obtain advantageous peace terms which would leave them in the position of practical victors. Conditions at Washington favored their purpose. Secretary Bryan was an ul-tra-pacifist, and President Wilson regarded the European disaster as merely a selfish, struggle for power, in which both sides were almost equally to blame. A REMARKABLE FORECAST. The Ambassador was especially apprehensive of these peace manoeuvres when the victorious German armies were marching on Paris, and on September 3, 1914, he sent the following message directly to the President: “Everybody in this city confidently believes that the Germans, if they capture Paris, will make a proposal for peace, and that the German Emperor will send you a message declaring that he is unwilling to shed another drop of blood. Any proposal that the Kaiser makes will be simply the proposal of a conqueror. His real purpose will be to preserve the Hohenzollern dynasty and the Imperial bureaucracy. The prevailing English judgment is that, if Germany be permitted to stop hostilities, the war will have accomplished nothing. There is a determination here to destroy utterly the German bureaucracy, antt Englishmen are prepared to sacrifice themselves to any extent in men and money. The preparations that, are being made here are for a long war; as I read tha disposition and the character of Englishmen they will not stop until they have accomplished their purpose? THOUGHT THEY WOULD TAKE PARIS. The peace manoeuvres in the United States duly began, and Mr. Page, in a letter to Colonel House, dated September 10, 1914. explained their insincerity: “A rather serious situation has arisen: The Germans, of course, thought that they would take Paris. They were then going to propose a conqueror’s terms of peace, which they knew Tyould not be accepted. But they would hse their so-called offer of peace purely for publicity purposes. They would say, ‘See, men of the world, we want peace; we offer peace; the continuance of this awful .war is not oiir doing.’ They are using*Hearst for this purpose. I fear they are trying to use so good a man as Oscar Straus. They are fooling the Secretary. “Every nation was willing to accept Sir Edward ytlrey’s proposals but Germany. She bent on a war of conquest. Now she’s likely to get licked — lock, stock, and barrel —she is carrying on a propaganda, and publicity campaign all over the world. The Allies can’t and won’t accept any peace except on the condition that German militarism be uprooted. They are not going to live under that awful shadow and fear. They say trply that life on such terms is not worth living. Moreover, if Germany should win the military control of Europe, she would soon—that same war-party —attack the United States. The war will not end until this condition can be imposed—that there shall be no more militarism.

“But in the meantime, such men as Straus (a good fellow) may be able to let (by helping) the Germans appear to the Peace people as really desiring peace. Of course, what they want is to save their mutton. “Put the President on his guard.” On December 4 Colonel House wrote that the President desired to start peace parleys at the very earliest moment, and Mr. Page stated the situation in a long and despairing letter, from which the extracts at the top of this article are taken: A TALK WITH SIR JOHN FRENCH. A memorandum refers to an interview which Mr. Page had wivn FieldMarshal Sir John French in January, 1915. “Field-Marshal Sir John French, secretly at Home from his command of the English Forces in Franc/, invited me to luncheon. There wpre his especially confidential friend, Moove, who lives with him. and Sir John’s private secretary. The military situation is this; a trench stalemate in France. Neither Army has made appreciable progress in three months. Neither can advance without a great loss of men. I Neither is whipped. Neither can eonIquer. It would require a million more ' men than the Allies can command and a very long time to drive the Germans I back across Belgium. Presently, if-the Russians succeed in driving the Germans back to German soil, there will be another trench stalemate there .... | “General French informed me that the President had sent to England, at the request of the Kaiser, a proposal looking toward peace, Germany offering to |

give up Belgium and to pay for its restoration.

“‘This,’ said Sir John, ‘is their fourth proposal.’

“ ‘And/ he went on, ‘if they will restore Belgium and give Alsace-Lorraine to France and Constantinople will go to Russia, I can’t see how we can refuse it.’

“He scouted the popular idea of ‘crushing out militarism’ once for all. 'lt would be desirable, even if it were not necessary, to leave Germany as a first-class Power. We couldn’t disarm her people for ever. We’ve got to leave her and the rest to do what they think they must do; and we must arm ourselves the best we can against them.” GERMANY’S GREATEST CRISIS. “Between the Battle of the Marne and the sinkihg of the Lusitania,” says The World’s Work, “four German attempts were made to end the war. President Wilson was the man to whom the Germans appealed to rescue them -from their dilemma. The fact that the British Empire, with its immense resources, naval, military, and economic, was now leading the alliance against them convinced the most intelligent Germans that the Fatherland was face to face with the greatest crisis in its history. “Count Bernstorf! arrived in the United States from Germany in the latter part of August, evidently with instructions from his Government to secure the intercession of the United States. There were two unofficial men in New York who were ideally qualified to serve the part of intermediaries —Mr. James Speyer- and Mr. Oscar S. Straus. A DINNER-TABLE CONVERSATION. “Mr. Straus’s well-known pro-British /sentiments made him an ideal man to act as a liaison agent between the Germans and the Allies. On September 4 Mr. Straus arrived at New York on the Mauretania. He had hardly landed when he was called up on the telephone by Mr. Speyer. Count Bernstorf!,, the German Ambassador, Mr. Speyer said, was a guest at his country home, Waldheim, at Scarborough-on-the-Hudson; Mr. Speyer was giving a small, informal dinner on the next evening, Saturday, September 5. and he asked Mr. and Mrs. Straus to come. “A few minutes before Count Bernstorf! sat down at Mr. Speyer’s table, with Air. Straus opposite, he had learned that the magnificent enterprise which Germany /had planned for forty years had failed and that his country was facing a monstrous disaster. Count Bernstorf! plunged into the usual German formula—that Germany did not want war in the first place, that the Entente had forced the issue, and the like. “ ‘Would your Government entertain a proposal for mediation now ?’ asked Air. Straus. “ ‘Certainly,’ Bernstorf! promptly replied. He hastened to add, however, that lie was speaking unofficially. But he was quite sure that the Kaiser would be glad to have President Wilson take steps to end the war. “Air. Straus saw in this acquiescent nod a chance to appeal directly to President Wilson. ‘Do you object to my laying this matter before our Government ?’ “‘No, I do not.’ “Mr. Straus glanced at his watch; it was 10.15 o’clock. “I think I -shall go to Washington at once—this very night. I can get the midnight train.’ Next morning he was laying tHe whole matter before Secretary Bryan at the latter’s house. Mr. Bryan was overjoyed; lie summoned Bernstorf! to Washington, and went over the suggestion personally. “The German Ambassador repeated the statements which he had made to Air. Straus —always guardedly qualifying his-Yemarks by saying that the proposal had not come originally from him, but from his American -friend. Meanwhile Air. Bryan asked Air. Straus to discuss the matter with the British and French Ambassadors. WHAT THE AMBASSADORS SAID. “The meeting took place at the British Embassy. The two representatives of the Entente, though only too glad to talk the matter over, were more sceptical about the attitude of Bernstorf! than Mr. Bryan had been. ‘Of course, Air. Straus.’ said Sir Cecil Spring Rice, ‘you know that this dinner was arranged purposely so that the German Ambassador could meet you?’ “Mr. Straus demurred at this statement, but the Englishman smiled. ‘Do you suppose,’ Sir Cecil asked, ‘that any Ambassador would make such a statement as Bernstorf! made to you without instructions from his Government?’ “‘The Germans,’ added Sir Cecil, ‘have a way of making such statements unofficially and then denying that they have ever made them.’ ”