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that England would have been in this war even
if Belgium had not been invaded, for she could
not have afforded to stand by and see France
crushed. There have been too many instances
in the past two decades when the Kaiser has
brought Europe right to the brink of a general
war, as in the Agadir business, and ceased his
threats only when his demands were reluctantly
granted by other powers. But in giving England
the opportunity to come into the struggle as the
defender of gallant but helpless little Belgium,
Germany immensely strengthened the case of
England at the bar of public opinion and of history.
And in making his contemptuous reference
to the treaty that guaranteed the independence of
Belgium as a "scrap of paper," Chancellor von
Bethmann-Hollweg committed one of the most
colossal indiscretions and fatuous asininities that
a trained diplomat and statesman has ever let
escape him—an undying illustration of German
"culture" which can neither be explained nor defended.
But whatever the mistakes of her statesmen,
there can be no denial that the wonderful efficiency
of the Kaiser's army was at once shown
to be fully up to the traditional specifications. On
August 2, the German troops marched through
the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg (a tiny country,
smaller than Rhode Island, whose neutrality was
also supposed to be guarded by treaty), and the
invasion of Belgium and Prance was begun. One
ot the flrstplaces to suffer from the rigors of
the German method of conducting war was "Vise
a manufacturing town of some 4,.000 people just
within the Belgian border, which was totally destroyed
because, as was asserted, some civilian
"snipers" shot at the invading soldiers. In like
case American soldiers would simply have hunted
down the offenders, and killed them, as they
did at "Vera Cruz. The Germans have destroyed
a great many cities, towns, and villages in Belgium,,
the most notable being Louvain, where, although
the City Hall was spared, the ancient university
and cathedral suffered. There is also a
long list of French municipalities that have vanished,
and the partial destruction of the great
cathedral at Rheims has been the occasion lor
bitter condemnation from artists and art-lovers
the world over. The German authorities defend
their course with the assertion that the French
were making a military use of the cathedral, by
using one of the towers as a signal station. This
the French as emphatically deny, and they declare
that the only military use made of the structure
was as a hospital. A number of wounded
Germans were burned to death in the Cathedral.
The Germans met their first serious check at
the fortified city of Liege. The city itself wa.5
quickly occupied, but some of the forts held out
for two weeks or more. Indeed, so obstinate was
their resistance, that German critics declared that
the forts must have been manned by the French
army—to their minds a complete justification for
their own violation of Belgian territory. The subsequent
exploits of the determined little Belgian
army have,, however, completely disposed of that
surmise. The resistance of the Belgians at Liege
not only heartened the Allies, but it is entirely
possible that it really saved Paris. The French
mobilization was so much slower than that of
the Germans that it certainly lends plausibility to
the stories some tourists have told, that mobilization
was really under way in Germany before war
was declared, although the Kaiser made Russian
mobilization a casus belli. The fightingat Liege
developed the fact that the Germans still stick
to their historic mass formation, even marching
to attack forts in close order. Their plan is to
crush through overwhelming numbers in the final
struggle, no matter what the cost may be in life.
Liege is memorable also, because it was there
that the Germans showed how quickly their huge
THE CHRISTIAN NATION. Vol. 61.
siege guns can demolish the strongest forts.
Other rumored surprises, as to a veritable fleet
of super-Zeppelins,, improved submarines, and
naval guns of terrific destructiveness, have been
talked of, but the only real surprise sprung as
yet has been the big siege guns, which were not
known even to the German army, beiug handled
by experts direct from the Krupp works.
On August 21, the Germans began their attack
oh the Belgian city of Namur, and when they captured
the place three days later, English military
critics were stupefled, as the fortifications weie
supposed to be capable of holding out indefinitely.
Again it was a case of the siege guns, which have
a bore of nearly 17 inches. A single shell from
one of them has sufficed to destroy a massive
steel "cupola," which is a development of the turret.
Later on the same thing was done at Maubeuge,
although for some unexplained reason the
French Government denied the fall of the city
for many days.
During the last ten days of August, roughly
speaking, the Germans were pushing their way
rapidly towards Paris. They were fighting nearly
all the time, night as well as day, and yet for a
week they made something like 25 miles a day.
This speed was largely due to the use of automobiles,,
but nothing like, that march is known to
history. The British army of something like a
hundred thousand, which was on the extrems
left of the Allies' line, bore the brunt of the attack,
and Field Marshal Sir John French, its
commander, has admitted that he had the utmost
difficulty to prevent his fiank being turned. To a
certain extent, it is known, this retreat was
strategic,, and was executed under the orders of
Gen. Joffre, the French commander; but just how
much was strategy and how much dire compulsion,
cannot be known as yet. The Germans
greatly outnumbered their foes, and they hurled
their men upon them with absolute indifference
to their fearful losses.
But finally, on September 2, when the Germans
had got within five miles of the outer fortifications
of Paris, they turned abruptly to the eastward
and abandoned their efforts to eiivelope the
Allies' left. Just what happened then may not ^e
known until after the war, and if the Germans
should win,, it may never be known. But military
critics have guessed that Gen. Joffre's strategy
was about to mature, and that Gen. von Kluck
who commanded the army on the German right
wing, and who is unquestionably a very able general,
got out of a very bad situation just in time.
Two or three days later there began a battle
which will probably be known in history as the
Battle of the Marne, in the territory to the east
of Paris. It was no doubt the greatest battle up
to that time in the history of the world. Probably
more than a million men were engaged on
each side. It continued for a week, and then the
Germans suddenly retreated for some 25 or 30
miles, where they took positions in trenches previously
prepared. Then began the Battle of the
Aisne, but a movement soon developed which was
the reverse of the march on Paris,, in the westerly
zone of operations, each side trying to turn the
other's flank. The Battle of the Aisne has been
talked of as continuing more than four weeks, but
it gradually shifted to territory north of the River
Aisne, until the lines reached the seacoast in
Belgium, the Germans occupying Ostend October
15. The battle-line then extended all the way
down through France into the southwest corner
of Germany, in Alsace, near Switzerland, a total
front of something like 350 miles.
From the eastern theatre of war,, the accounts
are so contradictory that it is difficult to form a
conclusion. This much appears, however, that
the Russians have exhibited a mobility and energy
that proves a vast improvement over their
methods in the Japanese War. It looks as though
they had inflicted very heavy losses on the Austrians,
and even the Germans are findingthem
much more difficult to attend to than they had
anticipated. At this writing there seems to be a
battle-line several hundred miles in length from
some point in East Prussia down across Russian
Poland and well into the Austrian dominions
with more than a million men on each side, possibly
even more than are engaged in the western
zone. One curious incidental result ot the
war is that the lowly Russian moujik is, for th^
first time in history,, saving money and putting it
in the bank. The cause of this phenomenon—
and in war-time at that!—is that the government
has closed all the vodka shops, and is enforcing
prohibition (except in very high-class places) with
the iron rule of the army. So marvelous ha^e
been the results that the suggestion has been
seriously made in high quarters that this policy
be made permanent.
Space forbids more than a mere mention of
the fact that Japan, as the ally of England in the
Far East, has taken a hand in the game, and is
giving material assistance to the British and
French in the task of despoiling Germany of all
her colonial possessions. The naval situation is
undeveloped to a degree that is exasperating to
students of naval affairs, neither side having lost
as many as a dozen war-ships at this writing,
and those in sporadic forays. Great Britain haa
had the enormous advantage of keeping control
of the sea, except that a good many mercnantmen
have been sunk by a tew wandering German cruisers
that have not yet been caught. Such captures
are wholly without military significance,, although
they may increase the indemnity which Germany
may have to pay in the end. In the matter ot
colonial possessions, this war illustrates a certain
peculiar inability of the Teutonic mind, with all
its thoroughness, to understand other peoples. Beyond
question, the Germstns counted on revolts in
India, Egypt, South Africa, and- in Ireland, it
England should really join in the war. The only
thing at all in the way of an uprising, to date, has
been a little rebellion in the Union of South
Africa, adjoining a German colony, which apparently
has died a-borning and the premier. Gen.
Botha, who fought the British so long, has publicly
declared that the Boers would ten times
rather be under the British flag than the German.
The gigantic Sikhs, who are now at the front in
France, are sufBcient demonstration of the attitude
of India.
At the time this resume is written, Octohef 22,
practically all of Belgium is in the hands of the
Germans, who have set about administering the
government as though it were a part of the German
Empire. They have Invited the refugees
who fled to France,. Holland and England, to return
to their homes in Belgium. These people
are estimated as numbering fully 1,500,000, and
there are thought to he just as many relugees
from the devastated region of France. In innumerable
cases their homes have been burned, and
the people are penniless.
The Belgian capital was removed from Brussels
to Antwerp on August 17, and from there to
Ostend just before the fall of Antwerp under the
big German guns, on October 9. Again, on October
13,. the Belgian government was transferred
to the French city of Havre.
The French capital is still in Bordeaux, where
it had been transferred when Paris seemed to be
in danger.
As to the final outcome, the one thing that can
he said with reasonable certainty is that both
sides are now so embittered that it is going to
be a fightto a finish. But with the British army
of a million men, which Lord Kitchener as war
minister, is organizing, and with the superior
financial resources of both France and Germany,
there can be little doubt as to the outcome. H
that if a sticks Rhine, probably mark, Italian she their powers. empire and many,
Germany
Germany republic, may Lorraine Schleswig-Holstein colonial to will including provinces Belgium, is If the get of
wins.
be should as the course, present more back, restored,, empires,, France Allies
Prance
now of the have Luxembourg.
favorable Austria lost, and order. Kiel declared win, did with will and
and
probably Prance revolution Canal forty-four the will additional become
England
terms annexed restored German will go It as and is than and take third- far years also Italy.
will
territor^SM that colonial by to become Alsace
likely as Ger­
lose
rate the ago, Den­
But she the