Various - The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol 1, Issue 4, January 23, 1915

V >> Various >> The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol 1, Issue 4, January 23, 1915

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If things look doubtful in the north, the Germans are looking
confidently to the south, where the next big victory is hoped for. I
learn that Gen. von Beseler, "the conqueror of Antwerp," as his popular
picture postcard title reads, is now in charge of operations around
Verdun, and that four of the new 42-centimeter mortars, in addition to
more than thirty of the 30.5-centimeter, are already in place there. On
the strength of this combination well-informed German officers
confidently expect the quick fall of Verdun as soon as Beseler gives the
order for the "Brummers" to speak--rather high-priced oratory, for I was
told by an artillery officer that it cost the taxpayers 36,000 marks
($9,000) every time one of the 42-centimeter mortars was fired.

*The Belgian Ruin*

*By J.H. Whitehouse, M.P.*

[An Associated Press Interview, Published Oct. 2, 1914.]

LONDON, Oct. 1.--A graphic picture of the desolation of Belgium was
brought to London today by J.H. Whitehouse, member of Parliament from
Lanarkshire, who has just returned from a tour around Antwerp for the
purpose of assisting in the relief measures.

"Having always regarded war as the negation of all that is good," said
Mr. Whitehouse tonight, "I desired to see what its ravages were in a
country exposed to all its fury, and what steps were possible to
mitigate them. I do not think that any one here has realized the plight
of the civilian population of Belgium today, and can only attempt to
give any picture of this by describing some of my own experiences."

Mr. Whitehouse made the journey outside Antwerp with two military cars,
attended by Belgian officials. In describing the damage which he says
the Belgians had to inflict upon themselves to supplement the defenses
of Antwerp, he said:

"Hundreds of thousands of trees had been cut down, so that at some
points of our journey we had the impression of passing through a
wilderness of roots. The tree trunks had all been removed so as to
afford no cover to the enemy. All houses had been blown up or otherwise
destroyed. Later we passed through the country which had been flooded as
a further measure of defense. The damage resulting from these
precautionary measures alone amounted to L10,000,000, ($50,000,000.)

"In the villages all ordinary life was arrested. Women and children were
standing or sitting dumb and patient by the roadside. Half way to
Termonde we could plainly hear the booming of guns and saw many
evidences of the battle which was then raging.

"I had read newspaper accounts of the destruction of Termonde and had
seen photographs, but they had not conveyed to my mind any realization
of the horror of what actually happened. Termonde a few weeks ago was a
beautiful city of about 16,000 inhabitants--a city in which the dignity
of its buildings harmonized with the natural beauty of its situation, a
city which contained some buildings of surpassing interest.

"I went through street after street, square after square, and I found
every house entirely destroyed with all its contents. It was not the
result of the bombardment; it was systematic destruction. In each house
a separate bomb had been placed, which had blown up the interior and set
fire to the contents. All that remained in every case were portions of
the outer walls, which were still constantly falling, and inside the
cinders of the contents of the buildings. Not a shred of furniture or
anything else remained.

"This sight continued throughout the entire extent of what had been a
considerable town. It had an indescribable influence upon observers
which no printed description or even pictorial record could give. This
influence was increased by the utter silence of the city, broken only by
the sound of the guns.

"Of the population I thought that not a soul remained. I was wrong, for
as we turned into a square where the wreck of what had been one of the
most beautiful of Gothic churches met my eyes a blind woman and her
daughter groped among the ruins. They were the sole living creatures in
the whole town.

"Shops, factories, churches, and houses of the wealthy--all were
similarly destroyed. One qualification only have I to make of this
statement: Two or perhaps three houses bore the German command in chalk
that they were not to be burned. These remained standing, but deserted,
amid the ruins on either side. Where a destroyed house had obviously
contained articles of value looting had taken place.

"I inquired what had become of the population. It was a question to
which no direct reply could be given. They had fled in all directions.
Some had reached Antwerp, but a greater number were wandering about the
country, panic-stricken and starving. Many were already dead.

"What happened at Termonde was similar to what had happened in other
parts of Belgium under military occupation of Germany. The result is
that conditions have been set up for the civilian population throughout
the occupied territory of unexampled misery. Comparatively few refugees
have reached this country. Others remain wandering about Belgium,
flocking into other towns and villages, or flying to points a little way
across the Dutch frontier.

"Sometimes when a town has been bombarded the Germans have withdrawn and
the civilians have returned to their homes, only to flee again at the
renewed attack. A case in point is Malines, which, on Sunday last, as I
was about to try to reach it, was again bombarded. The inhabitants were
then unable to leave, as the town was surrounded, but when the
bombardment ceased there was a great exodus.

"The whole life of the nation has been arrested. Food supplies which
would ordinarily reach the civilian population are being taken by the
German troops for their own support. The peasants and poor are without
the necessities of life, and conditions of starvation grow more acute
every day. Even where there is a supply of wheat available the peasants
are not allowed to use their windmills, owing to the German fear that
they will send signals to the Belgian Army.

"We are, therefore, face to face with a fact which has rarely, if ever,
occurred in the history of the world--an entire nation is in a state of
famine, and that within half a day's journey of our own shores.

"The completeness of the destruction in each individual case was
explained to me later by the Belgian Ministers, who described numerous
appliances which the German soldiers carried for destroying property.
Not only were hand bombs of various sizes and descriptions carried, but
each soldier was supplied with a quantity of small black disks a little
bigger than a sixpenny piece. I saw some of these disks which had been
taken from German soldiers on the field of battle. These were described
to me as composed of compressed benzine. When lighted they burned
brilliantly for a few minutes, and are sufficient to start whatever fire
is necessary after the explosion of a bomb.

"To the conditions of famine and homelessness which exist on such a
stupendous scale there must be added one which is bad--the mental panic
in which many survivors remain. I understood how inevitable this was
when I saw and heard what they passed through; eyewitnesses of
unimpeachable character described the sufferings of women and children
at Liege. As they fled from their burning houses, clinging to their
husbands and fathers, they were violently pulled from them and saw them
shot a few yards from them.

"I should supplement what I have said regarding the condition of Belgium
with some reference to Antwerp itself, where the excited Government now
sits. It is a wonderful contrast to the rest of the country, and the
first impression of the visitor is that there is little change between
its life now and in the days of peace. I approached it by water, and in
the early morning it rose before me like a fairy city. Its skyline was
beautifully broken by the spires and towers of its churches, including
the incomparable Gothic Cathedral.

"When I entered its shops were open, its streets crowded, and everywhere
there was eager activity. By midday the streets became congested. Early
editions of the papers were eagerly bought and great crowds assembled
wherever a telegram giving news could be read. This continued until
early evening, but by 8 o'clock a most extraordinary change had fallen
upon the city.

"Not a light of any kind in house or shop was to be seen. No lamps were
lit in the streets and the city was plunged into absolute darkness. Not
a soul remained in the streets. To the darkness there was added profound
silence. It was as though this amazing city had been suddenly blotted
out."

*The Wounded Serb*

[From The London Times, Oct. 18, 1914.]

VALIEVO, Sept. 25.

Valievo lies at the terminus of a narrow-gauge railway which joins the
Belgrade-Salonika line at Mladinovatz. Along this single track of iron
road the entire transport of the Servian Army is being effected.
Westward come trains packed with food, fodder, munitions, and troops;
eastward go long convoys crowded with maimed humanity. At Mladinovatz
all this mass of commissariat and suffering must needs be transferred
from or to the broad-gauge line. In this situation lies not the least of
the problems which beset the Servians in their struggle with the
Austrian invaders.

Valievo itself is a picturesque little town which in peace time is
famous as the centre of the Servian prune trade. Its cobbled streets
are, in the main, spacious and well planned. There still remain a few
relics of the Turkish occupation--overhanging eaves, trellised windows,
and the like--but these one must needs seek in the by-ways. I picture
Valievo under normal conditions as one of the most attractive of Balkan
townships.

Nor has the tableau lost anything in the framing, for it is encircled by
a molding of verdant hills which run off into a sweep of seeming endless
woods. The vista from my hotel window is almost aggravatingly English.
Across the red-tiled roofs of intervening cottages rises the hillside--a
checkerboard of grassy slopes and patches of woodland intersected by a
brown road which runs upward until the summit, surmounted by a
whitewashed shrine, amid a cluster of walnut trees, touches the gray
sky.

But Valievo is not now to be seen under normal conditions. From the
street below rises the sound of clatter and creak as the rude oxen
wagons bump over the cobblestones. Morning, noon, and night they rumble
along unceasingly, and whenever I look down I see martial figures clad
in tattered, muddy, and blood-stained uniforms, with rudely bandaged
body or head or foot. Every now and then a woman breaks from the crowd
of waiting loiterers and rushes up to a maimed acquaintance. They
exchange but a few sentences, and then she turns, buries her head in her
apron, and stumbles along the street wailing a bitter lament for some
husband, brother, or son who shall return no more. A friend supports and
leads her home; but the onlooking soldiers regard the scene with
indifference and snap out a rude advice "not to make a fuss." They brook
no wailing for Serbs who have died for Servia.

The town itself has been transformed into one huge camp of wounded. All
adaptable buildings--halls, cafes, school-rooms--have been rapidly
commandeered for hospitals. Sometimes there are beds, more often rudely
made straw mattresses, for little Servia, worn out by two hard wars, is
ill-equipped to resist the onslaught of a great power. For 16 days a
fierce battle has been raging near the frontier, and wounded have been
pouring in much more rapidly than accommodation can be found for them.

And in the streets--what misery! The lame, the halt, the maimed. Men
with damaged leg or foot hopping along painfully by the aid of a
friendly baton; men nursing broken arms or shattered hands; men with
bandaged heads; men being carried from operating shops to cafe floors;
men with body wounds lying on stretchers--all with ragged,
blood-bespattered remnants of what once were uniforms. One sees little
of the glory of war in Valievo. The Servian Medical Staff, deprived on
this occasion of outside assistance, and short alike of doctors,
surgeons, nurses, and material, is striving heroically to cope with its
task. Where they have been able to equip hospitals the work has been
very creditably done. One building is almost exclusively devoted to
cases where amputations have been necessary. It is clean, orderly, and
the patients are obviously well cared for. Here, when I entered a ward
of some thirty beds in which every man lay with a bandaged stump where
his leg should be, I think I saw the Servian spirit at its best. They
had been newly operated upon, their sufferings must have been great, and
for them all the future is black with forebodings. There is no patriotic
fund in little Servia. Yet amid all the pain of body and uncertainty of
mind that must have been theirs they did not complain. All they desired
to know was whether the Schwaba (Austrians) had been beaten out of
Servia.

But it is when one leaves the organized hospitals and wends one's way
through the crowds of wounded who block the pavements, and enters a
lower-class cafe, that the appalling tragedy of it all fills even the
spectator with a sense of hopelessness. There, like cattle upon their
bed of straw, lie sufferers from all manner of hurts. They remain mute
and uncomplaining, just as they have been dropped down from the incoming
oxen transports. Their wounds--three, four, or five days old--have yet
received no attention save the primitive first-aid of the battlefield.
Blood poisoning is setting in; limbs that prompt dressing would have
saved are fast becoming victims for the surgeon's knife. Most of them
know the risk they run, for this is their third war--often, too, their
third wound--in two short years. Yet the doctors cannot come, because
every man of them is already doing more than human energy allows. It is
a heartrending sight to look down upon this helpless mass and to realize
that many of them have been sentenced to painful death for mere lack of
primitive medical attention.

One wonders whether, now that half Europe has been transformed into a
vast slaughterhouse, appeals for sympathy can be other than in vain.

*ANOTHER "HAPPY THOUGHT."*

By WINIFRED ARNOLD.

The world is so full
Of a number of Kings!--
That's probably what is the
Matter with things.

*Spy Organization in England*

*British Home Office Communication, Oct. 9.*

In view of the anxiety naturally felt by the public with regard to the
system of espionage on which Germany has placed so much reliance and to
which attention has been directed by recent reports from the seat of
war, it may be well to state briefly the steps which the Home Office,
acting on behalf of the Admiralty and War Office, has taken to deal with
the matter in this country. The secrecy which it has hitherto been
desirable in the public interest to observe on certain points cannot any
longer be maintained owing to the evidence which it is necessary to
produce in cases against spies that are now pending.

It was clearly ascertained five or six years ago that the Germans were
making great efforts to establish a system of espionage in this country,
and in order to trace and thwart these efforts a Special Intelligence
Department was established by the Admiralty and the War Office which has
ever since acted in the closest co-operation with the Home Office and
metropolitan police and the principal provincial police forces. In 1911,
by the passing of the Official Secrets act, 1911, the law with regard to
espionage, which had hitherto been confused and defective, was put on a
clear basis and extended so as to embrace every possible mode of
obtaining and conveying to the enemy information which might be useful
in war.

The Special Intelligence Department, supported by all the means which
could be placed at its disposal by the Home Secretary, was able in three
years, from 1911 to 1914, to discover the ramifications of the German
Secret Service in England. In spite of enormous efforts and lavish
expenditure of money by the enemy, little valuable information passed
into their hands. The agents, of whose identity knowledge was obtained
by the Special Intelligence Department, were watched and shadowed
without, in general, taking any hostile action or allowing them to know
that their movements were watched. When, however, any actual step was
taken to convey plans or documents of importance from this country to
Germany, the spy was arrested, and in such case evidence sufficient to
secure his conviction was usually found in his possession. Proceedings
under the Official Secrets act were taken by the Director of Public
Prosecutions, and in six cases sentences were passed varying from
eighteen months to six years' penal servitude. At the same time steps
were taken to mark down and keep under observation all the agents known
to be engaged in this traffic, so that when any necessity arose the
police might lay hands on them at once; and, accordingly, on the 4th of
August, before the declaration of war, instructions were given by the
Home Secretary for the arrest of twenty known spies, and all were
arrested. This figure does not cover a large number--upward of 200--who
were noted as under suspicion or to be kept under special observation.
The great majority of these were interned at or soon after the
declaration of war.

None of the men arrested in pursuance of the orders issued on Aug. 4 has
yet been brought to trial, partly because the officers whose evidence
would have been required were engaged in urgent duties in the early days
of the war, but mainly because the prosecution by disclosing the means
adopted to track out the spies and prove their guilt would have hampered
the Intelligence Department in its further efforts. They were and still
are held as prisoners under the powers given to the Secretary of State
by the Aliens Restriction act. One of them, however, who established a
claim to British nationality, has now been formally charged; and, the
reasons for delay no longer existing, it is a matter for consideration
whether the same course should now be taken with regard to some of the
other known spies.

Although this action taken on August 4 is believed to have broken up the
spy organization which had been established before the war, it is still
necessary to take the most rigorous measures to prevent the
establishment of any fresh organization and to deal with individual
spies who might previously have been working in this country outside the
organization, or who might be sent here under the guise of neutrals
after the declaration of war. In carrying this out the Home Office and
War Office have now the assistance of the cable censorship, and also of
the postal censorship, which, established originally to deal with
correspondence with Germany and Austria, has been gradually extended (as
the necessary staff could be obtained) so as to cover communications
with those neutral countries through which correspondence might readily
pass to Germany or Austria. The censorship has been extremely effective
in stopping secret communications by cable or letter with the enemy, but
as its existence was necessarily known to them it has not, except in a
few instances, produced materials for the detection of espionage.

On Aug. 5 the Aliens Restriction act was passed, and within an hour of
its passing an order in council was made which gave the Home Office and
the police stringent powers to deal with aliens, and especially enemy
aliens, who under this act could be stopped from entering or leaving the
United Kingdom, and were prohibited while residing in this country from
having in their possession any wireless or signaling apparatus of any
kind, or any carrier or homing pigeons. Under this order all those
districts where the Admiralty or War Office considered it undesirable
that enemy aliens should reside have been cleared by the police of
Germans and Austrians, with the exception of a few persons, chiefly
women and children, whose character and antecedents are such that the
local Chief Constable, in whose discretion the matter is vested by the
order, considered that all ground for suspicion was precluded. At the
same time the Post Office, acting under the powers given them by the
Wireless Telegraphy acts, dismantled all private wireless stations; and
they established a special system of wireless detection by which any
station actually used for the transmission of messages from this country
could be discovered. The police have co-operated successfully in this
matter with the Post Office.

New and still more stringent powers for dealing with espionage were
given by the Defense of the Realm act, which was passed by the Home
Secretary through the House of Commons and received the Royal Assent on
Aug. 8. Orders in council have been made under this act which prohibit,
in the widest possible terms, any attempt on the part either of aliens
or of British subjects to communicate any information which "is
calculated to be or might be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy";
and any person offending against this prohibition is liable to be tried
by court-martial and sentenced to penal servitude for life. The effect
of these orders is to make espionage a military offense. Power is given
both to the police and to the military authorities to arrest without a
warrant any person whose behavior is such as to give rise to suspicion,
and any person so arrested by the police would be handed over to the
military authorities for trial by court-martial. Only in the event of
the military authorities holding that there is no prima facie case of
espionage or any other offense triable by military law is a prisoner
handed back to the civil authorities to consider whether he should be
charged with failing to register or with any other offense under the
Aliens Restriction act.

The present position is therefore that espionage has been made by
statute a military offense triable by court-martial. If tried under the
Defense of the Realm act the maximum punishment is penal servitude for
life; but if dealt with outside that act as a war crime the punishment
of death can be inflicted.

At the present moment one case is pending in which a person charged
with attempting to convey information to the enemy is now awaiting his
trial by court-martial; but in no other case has any clear trace been
discovered of any attempt to convey information to the enemy, and there
is good reason to believe that the spy organization crushed at the
outbreak of the war has not been re-established.

How completely that system had been suppressed in the early days of the
war is clear from the fact disclosed in a German Army order--that on the
21st of August the German military commanders were still ignorant of the
dispatch and movements of the British expeditionary force, although
these had been known for many days to a large number of people in this
country.

The fact, however, of this initial success does not prevent the
possibility of fresh attempts at espionage being made, and there is no
relaxation in the efforts of the Intelligence Department and of the
police to watch and detect any attempts in this direction. In carrying
out their duties the military and police authorities would expect that
persons having information of cases of suspected espionage would
communicate the grounds of the suspicion to local military authority or
to the local police, who are in direct communication with the Special
Intelligence Department, instead of causing unnecessary public alarm and
possibly giving warning to the spies by public speeches or letters to
the press. In cases in which the Director of Public Prosecutions has
appealed to the authors of such letters and speeches to supply him with
the evidence upon which their statements were founded in order that he
might consider the question of prosecuting the offender, no evidence of
any value has as yet been forthcoming.

Among other measures which have been taken has been the registration, by
order of the Secretary of State made under the Defense of the Realm act,
of all persons keeping carrier or homing pigeons. The importation and
the conveyance by rail of these birds have been prohibited, and, with
the valuable assistance of the National Homing Union, a system of
registration has been extended to the whole of the United Kingdom, and
measures have been taken which, it is believed, will be effective to
prevent the possibility of any birds being kept in this country which
would fly to the Continent.

Another matter which has engaged the closest attention of the police has
been the possibility of conspiracies to commit outrage. No trace
whatever has been discovered of any such conspiracy, and no outrage of
any sort has yet been committed by any alien--not even telegraph wires
having been maliciously cut since the beginning of the war. Nevertheless
it has been necessary to bear in mind the possibility that such a secret
conspiracy might exist or might be formed among alien enemies resident
in this country. Accordingly, immediately after the commencement of
hostilities, rigorous search was made by the police in the houses of
Germans and Austrians, in their clubs, and in all places where they were
likely to resort. In a few cases individuals were found who were in
possession of a gun or pistol which they had not declared, and in one or
two cases there were small collections of ancient firearms, and in such
cases the offenders have been prosecuted and punished; but no store of
effective arms--still less any bombs or instruments of destruction--have
so far been discovered. From the beginning any Germans or Austrians who
were deemed by the police to be likely to be dangerous were apprehended,
handed over to the military authorities, and detained as prisoners of
war; and, as soon as the military authorities desired it, general action
was taken to arrest and hand over to military custody Germans of
military age, subject to exceptions which have properly been made on
grounds of policy. About 9,000 Germans and Austrians of military age
have been so arrested and are held as prisoners of war in detention
camps, and among them are included those who are regarded by the police
as likely in any possible event to take part in any outbreak of disorder
or incendiarism.

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