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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1916-3-9, Page 6COMING TO I Ion from the classes recently called. I up, will be even more formidable by THE GREAT BULLY the spring. Frame is calling to the colors her lads of eighteen and nines AN ENGLISH WRITER ON THE WAR SITUATION, What the German Emperor Relies For and What He Is Sure , To Get. • "In the spring," the Kaiser has been hinting. to his tired people, "will come peace," The words sound very comforting in the ears of his soldiers, who have no longer the same' enthusiasm for war that' they had sixteen months ago, when Paris seemed within their grasp, says a writer in London Answers. They are a very gullible lot, these Iluns, and they forget, that on the debit side of the Kaiser's promises are already heavily overweighted. They were to be back in the dear Fa- therland "before the fall of the leaves"; they need have no fear, they were told, as to a second winter cam- paign; they were assured Russia would' give in when Warsaw was en- tered. Method in His Madness. None of these things has happened; yet they are ready to believe .the smooth words of the same voice tell- ing them there will be peaee in the spring. Not that the Kaiser would not be glad to have peace, not merely in the spring, but any time between then and now. He may be mad, but there is considerable method in his mad - hese. A good chess player knows when he Is beaten, and does not go on to be mated. The Kaiser looks ahead, and, though his armies occupy much of the Allies' territory, he sees only too well that the task of holding these enormously -extended lines must prove, before Long, too great a strain: for the depleted manhood resources of Germany to sustain. Before the vision of the Kaiser passes the spectre of his great proto- type, Napoleon, who, within eighteen months of his entry into Moscow, was an exile in Elba. Peace in the spring would suit the Kaiser very well. He could afford to be generous to the Allies. His terms, we might be sure, would be particu- larly favorable to us, because our pre- parations have planted a wholesome dread in his heart, and because he knows that we have a habit of going on to the end, and that, though we be- gin badly, we generally end well. Germany Hard at 'Work. Also the remark of the acute Ital- ian observer lurks unpleasantly in his mind: "The British only win one bat- tle in any war, but it is the last bat- tle." But vrhat the Kaiser hopes for and what the Kaiser believes he will get are two different things. He hopes for peace in the spring; he prepares for greater exertions than ever in the spring. Germany is full of fair words, whose note is the reasonableness of peace at the present time; .the words are to hearten the soldiers in the trenches, and to impress such neutrals as are not alert to German guile. Germany is also full of newly -train- ed troops, who are to make a last at- tempt to break through to Paris. Ger- man instructors are busy drilling raw German recruits, and German engin- eers are feverishly repairing baps in the line to re-establish railway com- munication between Berlin and Con- stantinople. The Near East, which is one great whispering -gallery, mur-; niurs: "Egypt in the spring." Tho German mind is incapable of any honesty. When IL. Germans talk loudly of peace, it is time to prepare for war; when they hope for peace, one knows instinctively that they be- lieve the reverse will happen. Potsdam's Biggest Bluff. „ Peace in the spring,"is the big- gest bluff that Potsdam has yet per- petrated. If it deceives the German people, it does not hoodwink the Al- lies, who are just beginning to get into their sta'ide in this war. So far from there being peace in the spring, the most terrible fighting yet witnessed in the campaign will take place. All the signs point in this direction. Germany is saving her young men for a great offensive in the West, and is rising her third-class elderly troops to make good wastage. Russia is equipping enormous armies, and is calling up youths, who will be twenty- ene in 1917, a year before their time. Japan has mobilized her industries to supply the millions of Russian troops With munitions of which they stand in great need—viz., rifles and heavy gene. The war factories of America are pouring a constant stream of muni - Lions into Russia's far -Eastern base, and when the British munition effort reaches its fullest scope, and our twenty new arsenate axe in full blast, we shall be able, with the supplies from Japan and America, to equip any number of Russian troops up to six one. Italy is constantly calling up ne claeses to the eiders, and long befere the spring the Serbians, whom she i to rearm and revictual, will provid 200,000 of the bravest and most $ea coned trooiis in the Balkans. `.Ch; Belgian army, drawing new forma teen, and passing all able'bodied Frenchmen into her armies; while Britain and the Colonies are making a feverish effort to have the Empire represented by anything between four and five million men. By the spring six million men— three and a half millien Allies, two and a half million Germans—should be faeing one another in the West, In the East, five million men—three mil- lion Russians, two million Austro; Germans—should be at grips. On the Austro -Italian Front two million inert should be locked in deadly< combat; while in the Balkans a million and a half men should be' fighting to decide whether the Crescent shall still wave o'er the minarets of Constantinople. Britain's Answer. "Peace in the spring" means that fourteen and a half million men will be fighting possibly the decisive bat- tles of the' greatest conflict in his: tory. Twenty months will have elapsed since the day when the first Uhlans crossed the Belgian frontier, the van- guard of a huge army, assured of vic- tory by all the resources that forty years' resolute preparation could give. The German army then was at its zenith. By all human calculation, it stood to win. In the spring of 1910, when Professor Muensterberg, the friend of the Kaiser, says he.knows there will be;peace for certain, Ger- many stands almost as good a chance ' of being beaten as' she did in August, 1914, of conquering Europe for bar -,i bar•iem. We have been slow, and we have made many mistakes, but'we have also done things well. We nre not spellbound by this latest German plot; we know what, indeed, the spring will bring forth. Two thousand Govern- ment -controlled war factories 10 Great Britain, working at full press!, sure, are the best answer to the Ger-' ntan bluff. I have before me a letter from a gunner at the front: "When the Germans worry us with their Jack Johnsons," he writes, "we send over ten to their one!" Five to One. My friend may be exaggerating a little; but it is true that we can com- mand double the shells that the en- emy can spare, and if the propheey of M. Millerand, the former French Min- ister'of War, comes true, in the spring or thereabouts—and thore is no reason for the contrary—we should have five shells to every one of the • enemy's. Do you know what five shells to every one of the enemy means? It means that we can smash his most elaborate defensive organization,' sweep away his wire, and leave huge gaps for our wonderful infantry to pour through. It means that, as our men advance, we can cut off the Ger- man reinforcements from the main body by an impenetrable curtain of : fire. The Kaiser knows this. Only too well he realizes the forces against Germany that should ripen in the spring. He wants peace before Ger- many is beaten. He wants peace while the German armies still bivouac on enemy soil. He wants peace before his deluded Huns become dangerously • weary of the incessant fighting; and,' above all, he wants peace before the economic strain on his people becomes I too intolerable. "Peace in the spring!" How little does it correspond with. the realities' of the situation! Peace, forsooth, with the certainty of fourteen and, a' half million men then struggling for mastery, with the advantage for the first time on our side. DOGS LOCATE ZEPPELINS Became Uneasy During Latest Raid Over England. of Scarborough, The bombardment g, ; England, over a year ago by Getman lcruisers•led to some interesting state-; ments as to the sense of hearing pos-; sessed by pheasants, and there can be little doubt that the senses of birds' and animals are in some instances al- most uncanny. I In one of the latest Zeppelin raid nights, a man who possesses a ken- nel of retrievers said tht about the CORFU AND KAISER'S HOUSE IN ALLIES' HANDS NOT STRAFING ENGLAND NOW GAS MGT MARE IN THE TRENCHES 'CUE MOST MERCILESS WAR IN HISTORY:' College Professor Writes of Services as Sergeant in French Army. The horrors and tribulations of life in the trenches are vividly depicted ,,in a letter written from Champagne to Professor Weston of Williams Col- lege, by J. Norton Cru, once professor of French at the same institution, who is serving as a sergeant in the French army. Unmolested and undisturbed, Professor Cru scribbled the epistle in an underground passage while the en- emy's big shells exploded above. Gas is the only thing that is really feared in' the trenches, according to. hlr. Cru, and the forces are kept bus- ily engaged combating gas attacks. The war is characterized by him .as "the most merciless in history." No truce, even for the burial of the dead, is allowed, and consequently innu- merable corpses are rotting as they fell' months ago in "no man's land." Extreme difficulty is experienced in procuring sufficient quantities of wa- ter. • When ground is won from the enemy this difficulty is increased be- cause the Germans, knowing the ex- act locality of the water pumps, keep firing salvos of shrapnel all around them. As told by Mr. Cru, the sol- diers because of the scarcity of water do nob wash for weeks, the little pro- cured at great peril being used for making coffee, one cup of which is at times allowed a man. Down in a Tunnel. • The letter is as follows: "I ant writing you by the flickering light of a candle end, seated in a red velvet armchair dragged out of some ruined house. It is 'broad daylight above, but I ata in a kind of tunnel in the bowels of the earth, access to which is gained by a series of stairs leading down from the trenches. This tunnel is wide enough bo accommodate on each side of a central passage a series of bunks one above the other,; ship fashion, and some of us are • lucky enough to have straw mat- tresses. And so, away down under- ground, I am writing tranquilly while big shells are bursting up above. "In this vast plain we have little fear of attacks, for it would take time to cross the intervening space be- tween the lines, and our artillery would hays -plenty of time to act ef- fectively against the assailants. On the other hand, the plain is very fav- orable for the use of gas, and this is 1 the only thing we fear; consequently we are busy protecting ourselves against gas attacks, and we have now found many ways of combating this treacherous method of fighting. time the Zeps. were over his locality his dogs were plainly uneasy. Short- ly after eight o'clock, he states, the dogs commenced to growl and then to snarl, "I could hear nothing unusual," he states, "beyond the low growling of the dogs, and in the darkness noth- ing could be seen. I was unable to quiet them in any degree. By and by they did calm down, but it Was only for' a few minutes that there was peace, for the dogs suddenly jumped' up and repeated their antics," aware that there had been a Zeppelin raid, but later, on making inquiries, he found that at the time his retraiv- ers commenced to show signs of irri- tation the Zeps. were actually in the vicinity. The keen hearing of the dogs had undoubtedly located the in. vaders. Qualification. W She—Father doesn't want me to marry you. He says you are too' s thrifty. e He --Why, of that's the case, he - ought to like me, alt? She.:. -But you are so spend -thrifty, - dear, 'ire .tura snows the town (:A LOal,,, as stu., 31.0+0 t..a +. 't Vr. The Kaiser's yacht, 1iohenzollern, 1s seen at the lefp, while the v.•- iel at the right is tho English royal steamer Alexandra, on which the Britieh royal family. have 0 requently vLtted their relatives in Greek waters. The :meat house shown 1n the- lower picture la. the Acihilleion (the home of Achiile5) built for the 7Dmpress of Aus- tria, used by the.German Kaiser as a summer resort, and `recently seized by the Allies and used ns n hosnital. far Ser"', ^iclle':s. Both pictures aro reproduces; from The Christian Advo,ytte. difficulty to the tranquil life of the trenches. That day they took a large number of prisoners whom we saw pass by, piteous, lamentable, exhaust- ed by our informal bombardment. I can still see those Africans bearing the people of Brussels are concerned, their wounded to the rear somas the the German occupation constitutes a field where big shells were raining moral as well as a physical martyr - down and throwing eruptions of earth dem, into the air. They walked with their A private correspondent whose let rapid, lithe step, impassive in that ter has reached the Hague through a hell. BRUSSELS IS SPY INVESTED. Agents of "Kultur" Manage to Keep Themselves Busy. So far as a considerable number of Dirt Falls in the Soup. "We live as though hygiene had never been invented. I must say that a man thinks little of germs when he is bombarded with big shells, and he eats with appetite, although much dirt has fallen in the soup from the nar- row sides of the trenchlike lanes that lead from the kitchens, a mile or two in the rear, up to the firing line. Some- times water has to be fetched from a pump after a long journey through winding trenches; sometimes when the ground has been won from the en- emy he knows where the -pump is and keeps firing salvos of shrapnel all around it. "Now, Champagne is very dry (no pun intended), and we experienced lately the scarcity of water and the decided objections the Germans had to our approaching the pumps. We went unwashed for two weeks, the lit- tle water we got at peril of life being used to make, coffee, just one cup a day for each man. Sometimes when I come to think of it I can't believe that I have been here for more than a year playing my part in the most, merciless war in history. "For the first time no truce is al- lowed, no white flag is used, no possi- bility of burying the dead or of pick- ing up the wounded, except at peril of life, and that is why so many corpses are rotting as they fell in `no man's land, that weird stretch of ground between the linee; that is why so many wounded cry vainly for help and are left to die a horrible death after two, four' or even six days of agony. T have seen such things and still cannot believe it. Africans Take Prisoners. "At tho beginning of the war we had to co-operate ono day with the Moracean5, These are star troops for attack, bub they adapt themselves with the wounded, • friendly diplomatic channel, says that I saw the post for a worn a the German system of espionage has where a crowd of Africans, dressed ; reached such a point that the more as weat see them in Tunis, were lying nervous minded of the- people live in on stretchers on the ground, raising a state of perpetual dread. themselves on their elbows to drink i "There is an ariny here of more than the coffee which the nurses .poured out teen hundred spies;" he. writes. for them and smoking cigarettes with „Mese are well paid, but they are a tranquil air, their clothes covered paid by results; the live extravagant - with earth, their bandages red with l, and when funds are low more vic- blood, which filtered . tluegh. Others tims nest be made. There are spies lay stretched out, dying amid the of Query grade and species. whirling of the motets of the Red Cross ambulances ready to carry them ! "There is the, roeiety woman, such to the railway stations. !as that relative of von Bisaing who All that filled and blocked the main succeeded in forming a little court street of a .little ruined village.' The ofher own and who herself attends German lines were formerly at the; the society teas in private .houses very edge of this village, now they and at the fashionable confectioners are far Miele, and out of curiosity I in order to exercise her espionage; visited vrhat was once our first line. there is the one-time factory agent In the wire entanglements I saw who, taking advantage of his pre-war what remained of three Germans kill- connectionsworms himself into fin- ed months before. Only skeletons and suets; and industrial circles; there is fragments of uniforms and boots re the officer's or professor's wife who mained. i frequents middle class coteries; there is the demi-mondaine who keeps an A Shot From Wife. ` eye on the theatres, the cafes and the McGinnis is no Adonis,' and his boulevards, and there are men in temper is in direct ratio to his lack hundreds who penetrate like ants into of personal beauty. Mrs. McGinnis the innermost recesses of private life. also is rather peppery of temper The letters we receive from our and is rather inclined to "get back" dear exiled 'friends we may neither at her husband during the course of keep •nor answer, for a domiciliary a quarrel. visit may be made at any moment, One such alternation had been had and on the slightest pretext, or none soon'at all, both men and women may be the other evening, but things hurried away to the kommandantur, quieted down and McGinnis had re - and thence to prison after a mockery gained his temper and thought his of a 'trial.' wife had, too. But hewas speedily 1 "Two days ago I was reading the undeceived. y i Mac had been playing with the ba- war. repent posted at the corner e by and observed, "Every time the ba -the BoulevardleThere B e were,ire„an the Rue by Iooks into my eyes he smiles." Royale. we a silent ;lata group. Aman joined us and began w pain u "Well," said his wife, with an ons- to read the news aloud Ith • f 1 inous gleam in her eye, "it may not slotyiises, almost spelling out the words, Coming to a number he read 'seven thousand' instead of seventy thousand,' the words appearing on. be exactly polite of baby, but shows he has a sense of humor." Probably Father. the notice board. A young Hien and a young woman He got no further. A man forming lean over the front gate. They are part of the group placed his band on lovers. It is moonlight. He•is about his shoulder and dragged' him along to leave, as the parting is the last. to the kommandantur. We were He is about to go away. They swing lucky to escape arrest for having on the gate. "I'll never forget you, heard him makethe blunder. he says, and if death should claim "In the tramway car from Brussels me my last thought will be of you. to Tervueren I saw a man arrested never see anybody else or love because he carried a parcel wrapped them as long as I live,' They part. in a copy of a London paper, the date Six years later he returns, His of which wes September, 1014. sweetheart of.former years had mar- "In the Rue de Flandre I saw two r rued. They met at a party. Shehad brewer's men being matched off as changed greatly. Between the Glances prisoners because, after unloading a the recognition took lace. Let me , y - 6 p heavy barrel of beer, they had re see," she, muses, with her fan beating marked, "The Keiser himself could a tatoo onher pretty hand. "Was it not do it as neatly." GERMAN'S BEGINNING TO SEE THR LIf,IIIT, Intrigues of Von Tirpitz Perry Threaten the imperial Chtt;icellor,. A Scandinavian correspondent of the London Times writes; "I recently had a visit front an old university friend, belonging to a neutral country, who has lived in Germ any since the begilting of the war, has associated with well iiformed industrial elides, and consequently has acquired some inside knowledge. According to him, the most striking fact is the change of tone which has taken plaee in Ger- many. "The 'Gott strafe England' sonti merit is 0 thing of the past. The pre- arranged declarations in the Reich- stag about the Baralong affair do not really count. Many university men who signed the various mad declara- tions. about German innocence and British perfidy at 'the beginning of the war now feel positively ashamed. They excuee their foolishness in put- ting their names to :them by saying that they diel not know the exact wording. Seeing the Light. "The 'Liberals' also begin in pri- vate to admit that the German ver- sion of the diplomatic prelude to the war tragedy will not stand closer ex- amination' andthey even recognize Germany's responsibility toward Bel- gium. "The intrigues of the Von Tirpit'r, partyhave been and still are a dan- ger cloud threatening the Chancellor. Admiral Von Tirpitz has been inclined to retire, but his staff has so far per- suaded him to remain. His inspired, press campaign agaihst the Chancel-; for is not only carried on by Count Reventlow, but to various foreign newspapers have been furnished in- sidious articles. It is reported, how- ever, that the Kaiser shares the views of the diplomatists- and disapproves of the Zeppelin raids on England, which; in his opinion, are senseless, being of no military importance and. only calculates to' make friendly re- lations with Britain more difficult af- ter the war. Mischievous Peace. you or your brother whom I need to know?" "Really I 'don't know,' he says; "probably my father." Why They Grew Lulu wee watching her working among the flowers. "Mamma, I know "I could cite hundreds of astonish- ing facts, but it would bore you, as they are all more or less of the same category." .. Somehow at engagedcouple mu - wily flowers grow," she said; they ally think all the insane Peoria nue want to get out of the dirt," its asylums, "This eventually is still hoped for in Gorman diplomatic circles, which cling to the belief that a peace, what- ever its outward appearance, can be so arranged as to .create future trouble between Great Britain and Russia. "The German diplomatic service is still the fovorite object of abuse among the German public. It is understood that the Colonial Secre- tary, Dr. Self, regards himself as the only possible Foreign Secretary after the war and is confident of defeating the ambitions of Count Von Bern- storff, German Ambassador at Wash- ington." 98 PER CENT. SOLDIERS CURED. Report From the American Women's War Hospital. Ninety-eight per cent. of the wound- ed soldiers treated at the American Women's War Hospital have been cur- ed or improved, according to a report just issued on the eecond, thousand cases handled by that, institution. The hospital is at Paignton, South Devon, with Sir William Osler as consulting physician and Dr. Penhalloty as chief surgeon. The report shows that of the sur- gical cases sixty-three per cent. were cured and thirty-three per cent. im- proved. The same percentage of cures and improvements was secured in medical cases. In .the thousand cases there were but five deaths, or considerably less than one per cent. The promptness with which relief is given to men on the battlefield im- mediately' after they are wounded is brought out by the statistics of the -report. Of the total wounded cases, one-quarter of them had received immediate first aid field dressing, and an additional thirteen per cent, had received this field dressing within fif- teen . minutes. Another twenty-five per cent. had been treated on the field within one hour of being wounded, white a small remaining percentage were treated within a few hours, and a very few after a long delay of for- ty-eight and seventy-two hours, Gas -poisoning' is one of .the princi- pal causes of the cases treated, and while typhoid has been largely reduc- ed, there were seven cases. The num- ber of amputations was fourteen, which, considering the number of seri- ous cases, was an exceptionally favor. able showing. As showing the different classes of wounds received in action, the follow- ing percentages were given on porfor. ating wounds: shrapnel, 12 per cent.; shell, 2 per cent.; bullet, 89 per cont,; grenade, 1 per Cent. Its surface w einds the percentage of ehrapnei in- jury is greater and of bullet injury less. The wounds from bayonets is the smallest, being less than one per Cent. FACT STRONGER THAN FICTION ADVENTURES OF A SOLDIER , FROM CANADA. Experiences of Trooper V. T. Brown of Strathcona's Horse Most Extraordinary. Tlie adventures wliiels have befallen Trooper Victor Reginald Brown, once more bring home the truth of the old saying that fact is stranger than fic- tion, says the British (England) Ob- server, • Early in December a letterreached this office from Private R. richt, City of London,. P.O.R,, in which the writer expressed a desire to"tnank on behalf of himself and others, a trooper in Strathcona's Horse, who, after a great charge at Festubert, in May last, regardless of the 'risks, helped the many wounded, of whom Wright was one. Trooper Brown " kept his suffering charges supplied with food and water, to obtain which he had to run over 200 yards in the open exposed to rifle fire. Wright heard that Brown used to live in Bristol, and' .had relatives living somewhere in Clifton, and he hoped that the publication of a letter would bring it to their notice. Now, it so happened that at. the time it appeared in print, Trooper Brown was on a visit to his brother, Mr. H. R. Brown, at Westbury -on - Trym, who is a director of Messrs. Chas. Wills and Sons;. of Rupert Street. Some 12 years ago, Trooper Brown was with that fixm, but he went to Canada, and the day after war was declared he enlisted in Strathcona's Horse. Ile is the young- est son of Mr. S. W. Brown, late of Salisbury (now living in retirement at_. Leytonstone, Essex). His Adventurous Career. • This week Trooper Brown called at this office to express his thanks for the publication of Private Wright's letter, and with considerable reluct- ance he conceded further details of his adventurous career. Before the Fesbubert affair he had been wound- ed slightly three times. When the memorable charge on Whit Monday was made it was found that nearly all the Germans had cleared out. Four, apparently were cut off, and in the bayonet fighting three went down. The fourth would have shared the same fate, but for a miraculous intervention, Just as a bayonet was about to be thrust home,. a khaki -clad figure emerged from a dug -out, and throw- ing himself in front of the German soldier, exclaimed: "If you kill him, you kill Inc." The blow was stayed; a chance was given for explanation. A few words revealed an amazing in- stance of chivalry on the part of a Saxon. In a previous charge by the 10th Canadian Battalion he had cap- tured this boy.and had hidden him in the dug -out, bestowing every care and attention upon him. Trooper Brown's souvenirs include this Sax- on's autograph. c Another of his stories is of a wounded man to whose assistancehe went after the charge. "I asked him," Trooper Brown said, "if he could manage to get back," and he said: "Yes, but wait a minute. I see a sniper. Keep still, P11 get him." He raised himself up on his elbow, and was bakiifg aim when a bullet took him right in the head. I The Sniper Got His Shot First. I Some time later, while located at Ploegstreot, known to "Tommy" as "Pleb Street," Trooper Brown bad a remarkable escape. With two others • he set off to get water. They "talk- ed into" a bursting shell which killed the other men, and the next Brown knew was that he was in the hos- pital. He was paralyzed and appar- ently in a hopeless condition but at Dublin Castle Hospital be met with such marvellous treatment that he is now as fit as ever. Trooper Brown was close by when the brother. of Mrs. Asquith; an offi- ' ter in Strathcona's Horse, was killed, Brown was present at the funeral, and was detailed to give a verbal re- port of the incidents to Mrs. Asquith, Mrs, Asquith subsequently read in j Western Daily Press an account of !Trooper Brown's good work, and she has written him a letter which he will always prize, Have Her Own Way. "When Wh Henryand I ware mnr'Pied •Y Pnt to have my own way in every- thing." "Guess you don't." "Indeed I will! That's the bargain, Don't you remember I told you, he proposed to me in a row boat and naked me if I'd float throuh life with bins just that way?" £'Yes, but what's that got to do with' it?" "Well, he was rowing but I was steering." The Modern Way. "Your daughter and. her ,husband seem very happy." ,. "They ought to be , Pe and I were marled. 20 years before we thought of putting on half the style they're starting out with." 11 a man ever becomes civilized it is through the influence of some good woman, Painted Over. She— 1 hero that ruck, has a now girl. Fie ---No that's just b's olid one painted over, T 3r • -,®