# England, a Destroyer of Nations

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England
a
Destroyer of Nations
by Rudolf Cronau
PRICE 10 CENTS
Copyright, 1915, by Rudolf Cronau
340 East 198th Street
New York City
​SIR:
The following article is a reprint of chapter two of the
British Black Book
by RUDOLF CRONAU.
This book, one of the strongest ever published in the United States, has been written to promote true Americanism and the spirit of fair play. It contains the following chapters:
The Giant Octopus. England, a Destroyer of Nations. Germany's wonderful Rise and Success, the real Cause for England's present War. The unholiest Conspiracy in History. Honi soit qui mal y pense. The tenacles and ink-sac of the Giant Octopus and how it uses them. The German Emperor, Lord of War or Prince of Peace? German atrocities—"made in England." German Militarism or British Navalism, which is the Menace? Does America need a Third War for Independence?
Since many publishers of American newspapers and other periodicals have subjected themselves to the influence of British news agencies and forced their staff to ignore this "British Black Book" in order to withhold from their readers the real facts in regard to the origin and events of the present European war, your co-operation in recommending this book to your friends would be highly appreciated.
Copies of the "British Black Book" may be obtained by sending one dollar in check or money order to the author.
If 10 copies are ordered 40 per cent discount allowed.
Very respectfully,
RUDOLF CRONAU.
England a destroyer of Nations.
It is a long list of transgressions—stretching over four centuries—which is here enrolled before the eyes of the reader. It informs him of the rise and fall of brilliantly gifted nations, successful in the development of their culture, industry and commerce, and who, achieving prosperity, even wealth, thereby awakened the jealousy, the envy and greed of England, which thereafter destroyed and despoiled them by cunning and violence. I have, in the following, given only those facts, the truth of which the reader can easily ascertain and from which he can draw his own conclusions about England's policies during the past four centuries.
England, the Originator of Spain's Downfall.
The discovery of America by Columbus, the conquest of Mexico and Peru by Cortes and Pizarro, the exploitation of the gold-lands of Central America had made the Spain of the Great fleets of 16th century the richest land on the globe. Great fleets of treasure-laden galleons brought, year-in, year-out, new riches to Spain's rulers. But they also aroused the greed of English mariners, who, with the silent approbation of their government, went forth to prey upon the Spanish gold- and silver-ships home bound from the Americas.
It must be stated right here, that in those days friendly relations existed between Spain and England, that the two countries were at peace, wherefor the secret approval by the English Government of the piracy places the same in an unfavorable light. By it the English Government made itself an accomplice and abettor on a large scale.
To show the low state of the morals prevailing in England in those days, it will be necessary to peruse at some length the activity of those freebooters, which are heralded by English histories as "the great heroes of the sea." This retrospection is necessary because we wish to show that the pernicious influence emanating from them poisoned the morals of the English nation for centuries to come and has stamped its characteristics on their government to our day.
The first of these "heroes of the sea" was William Hawkins, of Plymouth. He it was who undertook the first slave hunts ​to the coast of Guinea and began that African slave trade in which England was engaged for nearly three centuries.
His son, John Hawkins, continued this lucrative business with eager persistency and grew rich. At the same time he was very pious and godfearing. When, invading a negro village near Sierra Leone, he almost fell into captivity himself and was exposed to the same fate, which he had inflicted, without compunction, upon thousands of others, he wrote in his logbook: "God, who worketh all things for the best, would not have it so, and by Him all escaped without danger; His name be praysed for it." At another time, when his vessels were becalmed for a long time in midocean and great suffering ensued "But Almighty God, who never suffereth His elect to perish, sent us the sixteene of Februarie the ordinarie Breeze, which is the northwest winde."
From which record it becomes evident that the English even in those days, whatever their questionable trades might have been, carried the name of God in their sacrilegeous mouths but cared damnably little for His commandments of brotherly love.
For the negroes, carried off in Africa, Hawkins found a ready market in Brazil, the West Indies and Mexico, though King Philip II. of Spain had strictly forbidden all dealings with Hawkins. To give the poorer settlers a chance to obtain laborers at low price, many officials tacitly permitted the bargain. In smaller towns, where authorities objected, Hawkins hushed the officials in having the boats, carrying the negroes, escorted by a force of some hundred men in armor, with cannon sufficient to awe the authorities, whereupon the slave-trade began. On account of complaints being sent to Spain concerning this unusual mode of carrying on business, the former inhibition was made more severe. But in spite of it the Englishman continued his lucrative voyages, well knowing that by so doing he was winning the applause of the English crown. Indeed, Queen Elizabeth, because of the riches Hawkins had brought to England, knighted him and granted him a coat of arms.
Translated from the jargon of heraldy, this patent of nobility meant, that he might bear on his black shield a golden lion rampant over blue waves. Above the lion were three golden dublons, representing the riches Hawkins had brought to England. To give due credit to the piety of this "nobleman" there was in the upper quartering of the shield a pilgrim's scallop-shell in gold, flanked by two pilgrim's staffs, indicating that Hawkin's slave-hunts were genuine crusades, undertaken in ​the name of Christendom. For a crest this coat-of-arms shows the half-length figure of a negro, with golden armlets on his arm and ears, but bound and captive.
To show to what extent the name of Christianity was abused, Hawkins, when in 1567 entering upon his greatest expedition with five ships, sacrilegeously baptized his flagship: "Jesus Christ."
But when this slave dealer imagined himself under the special protection of the heavenly host, he had made a miscalculation. For, when he arrived with 500 slaves in West India, he unexpectedly met, in the harbor of St. Juan de Ulloa with a strong Spanish fleet which burned three of his ships and defeated him so completely that he, with the remaining vessels was driven to sea without provisions.
How ill he fared on his homeward trip, Hawkins thus plaintively described in the following passage of his logbook: "With many sorrowful hearts we wandred in an unknowen Sea, tyll hunger enforced us to seeke the lande, for birds were thought very good meat, rats, cattes, mise, and dogges, none escaped that might be gotten, parrotes and monkyes, that were had in great prize, were thought then very profitable if they served the turn one dinner. If all the miseries and troublesome affaires of this sorrowful voyage should be perfectly and thoroughly written, there should need a paynstaking man with his pen, and as great a time as he had that wrote the lives and deathes of the martirs."
Among the martyrs of this eventful voyage was Francis Drake, who, later on, became the most famous of the "great" English sea heroes."
From the time of that disaster Drake took up as a profession the work of plundering the Spaniards, for, after his arrival in England he, with the connivance of the government openly set out with the sole purpose of preying upon Spanish commerce and colonies. Of him his Spanish contemporaries speak only as of the "archpirate of the Universe" who, like a dragon, pounced upon Spain's colonies to devastate them. The greatest of his several predatory voyages covered a period of three years. Well equipped, accompanied by many English "noblemen" and able mariners, sure of the pious well wishes of his commerce and government, this buccaneer left Plymouth on Nov. 15th, 1577. with five ships.—When he returned, rich in booty, the Spanish Court demanded that Drake be arrested and tried for piracy. But the English Government ignored this request. Moreover, Queen Elizabeth showed her approval of Drake's acts and her aversion toward Spaniards ​in the most demonstrative manner possible in proceeding April 4th, 1581 with her court to Deptford visiting Drake aboard his ship which lay at anchor there, dining with him and knighting him.
This open sanction of piracy and almost unbelievable insult to a friendly nation started that terrible war, in which, to overcome Spain's power on the high seas, every alliance with other nations appeared proper to England. It not only formed an alliance with the Netherlands, then in rebellion against Spain, but also with its arch enemy, France, and even with Turkey.
In the hostilities ensuing, England found unexpectedly an ally in the very elements. When in 1588 the famous Armada appeared in the Canal, to punish England for the numberless offenses against the Spanish flag, the great fleet ran into terrible storms, which played such a havoc with it, that many vessels became wrecks. Others were attacked and burned by Dutch and English war vessels. Of the one hundred and thirty-five ships, compromising the Armada, only fifty-four returned to Spain. By this catastrophe Spain's power on the high seas was crippled so seriously, that she could interpose but little resistance against the furious attacks of Drake, Cavendish, Morgan and the countless other freebooters. Spain's predominance on the seas was lost. Too weak to oppose, she could not prevent the violent plundering of her rich West Indian cities by English, French and Dutch pirates, who also despoiled her of a number of her finest islands: Jamaica, San Domingo and many other of the lesser Leeward Islands.
By the many wicked acts of these buccaneers the Carribbean Sea became for centuries the most dangerous water on the globe. He, who studies the history of the Atlantic navigation of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries encounters everywhere striking proofs of how piracy, favored by the English Government, grew like a malevolent cancer, poisoning the morals of nations. Who wants to convince himself of this fact may consult in our public libraries the books on the Buccaneers, on Sir Henry Morgan, and last, not least, Captain William Kidd, who had been sent by the English Government to suppress buccaneering, yet instead turned pirate himself, who covered up his countless misdeeds by scuttling the vessels he captured and plundered, and sending them to the bottom of the sea with man and mouse. His spoils, buried somewhere, are still the goal of treasure hunters.
The success gained by Hawkins, Drake and other great and small "sea heroes" demonstrated to the English conclusively the importance of the control of the sea. As early as 1612 ​Chancellor Bacon wrote: "He who rules the sea has many advantages. He can, at his option, interfere in any war, while the greatest land powers are often in straits." From the discovery of this fact dates the aim of the English to gain the supremacy at sea and to destroy all rivals who might dare to enter into competition with them, on the ocean.
England, the Destroyer of Holland's Greatness.
When England had annihilated Spain's supremacy on the seas it turned against Holland. After her separation from the German Empire, Holland had by dint of indefatigable industry and the intelligence and energy of her inhabitants during the 16th and the 17th centuries reached a state of extraordinary prosperity. She maintained many flourishing industries which were distributed over her various cities. Haarlem was famous for its excellent linens, its beautiful flowers and its extensive trade in tulip-bulbs; Leyden furnished the finest broadcloth; Delft had gained a reputation for its hardware and its excellent brews; Zaandam was celebrated for its shipbuilding; Enkhuizen had an extensive fish trade, mainly in herrings. At the same time Holland had secured a large part of the worlds commerce. Middelburg was the principal export harbor for French wines; Dordrecht traded with England; Terweer with Scotland; Friesland with Iceland and Greenland; Flushing with the West Indies; Amsterdam with Spain, the countries bordering the Mediterranean and with East India. Besides, Holland possessed many valuable colonies; in Asia, for instance, Ceylon, Celebes, Java and several others of the Sunda Islands. In Hindostan it maintained trading stations which supplied Europe with valuable spices and products from China and Japan. In the Western hemisphere the Dutch had, in 1614, founded the Colony New Netherland, the chief trading post of which, Niew Amsterdam, had been raised to high prosperity by Peter Minnewit, a German in Dutch service. In South America Holland possessed Curacao and Surinam. At the South end of Africa, Dutch colonists had laid the foundation of those Boer settlements which afterward became important as the Free States. About 1650, Holland had reached the zenith of her power. Her commerce was five times larger than Englands; her merchant marine constituted four- fifths of the entire European mercantile fleet. Her national wealth was much greater than that of England. Arts and sciences flourished.
All through the nation pulsated that virile and joyful life. ​expressed so exquisitely in the paintings of the great contemporaneous was this very for masters of the Dutch School.—It was this very fortunate state of affairs, that the envy and rapacity of England could not endure. And so it intrigued to cut off the source of Dutch prosperity: its trade. The Navigation Act, issued in 1651, was the first blow at Holland. This law prohibited the import of all foreign merchandise into England and her colonies in ships not flying the English flag, or the flag of the country from which they were exported.
This utterly crushed Holland's commerce as far as England and her colonies were concerned. All efforts of Holland to bring about an amelioration of conditions peacefully availed naught. On the contrary, Holland was soon driven to defend her commerce by force of arms. Three extraordinarily bitter beginning in naval wars were fought, of which the first—beginning in 1652,—though it remained indecisive, inflicted heavy losses on Holland's commerce. In less than fifteen months she lost over sixteen hundred merchant ships. The commerce with the Baltic countries was almost destroyed, and the herring fishery and whaling was interrupted. In Amsterdam all business came to a standstill. More than three thousand houses were vacant. This enormous loss was caused largely by English privateers who were little better than pirates.
A second naval war began in 1665, a year after four English frigates—without any previous declaration of war—sneaked into the harbor of Niew Amsterdam and, by directing their sixty heavy guns upon the small settlement, had forced the surrender of this weakly defended post. "We need a greater part of the Dutch trade; it is immaterial what we employ to force war!" Thus the English Government had declared and had acted accordingly.
The bitter war was renewed, resulting in victories for the great Dutch Admirals Van Tromp and De Ruyter. The latter, in the battle of New Foreland, defeated the English fleet so completely that she was compelled to flee up the Thames River. Even after England had secured the assistance of France, De Ruyter beat the united fleets of the Allies on July 7, 1672, at Southwell, and convoyed a fleet of Dutch merchant-men safely to their home-harbors.
But the incessant and ravishing wars which little Holland had to carry on against her mighty neighbors, England and France, consumed her strength. Exhausted, she had to enter into peace negotiations, in which she lost, beside her colony Niew Netherland, her settlements in South Africa, beautiful Ceylon, and her trading stations in Hindostan. Thus ​Holland's position as a maritime power was wrecked, and, like Spain she was reduced to the status of a minor sea power.
England, the Arch-foe of France.
After the British had humiliated Spain and Holland, they forced France, her whilom ally in the struggle with Holland, to the knees.
The position of France at this period was supreme on the European continent and she was almost the equal of England on the high seas. Her commerce was flourishing. As early as the 15th century and at the beginning of the 16th, French sailors visited the New Foundland Banks, known for their enormous wealth in fishes. The French furnished the Catholic countries of Europe with dried fish, which formed the principal diet during the many religious fasting days. In connection with these trips the French discovered vast stretches of the North-American continent. Verrazano explored, as the first, in 1524 the whole coast from North Carolina to Maine, whereby he also discovered New York Bay. Ten years later Cartier discovered the St. Lawrence River as well as the coasts of New Brunswick and Canada. Then followed the import important explorations by Ribault, Champlain, La Salle and many other so-called "voyageurs." In these great areas, comprising the system of the St. Lawrence as well as of the Mississippi, the French founded two great empires: New France and Louisiana. The first stretched from the mouth of the St. Lawrence westward to the Great Lakes, and across the Ohio and down to the mouth of the Mississippi. Louisiana included all the territory west of the "Father of Waters." In time it became more and more evident that France had gotten the best and most fertile part of North America. The British were not slow to perceice this fact and with this perception began their untiring efforts to dislodge their more fortunate rivals from their rich possessions. Encroaching constantly on French territory they started that system of border war-fare, which lasted with short intervals from 1689 to 1763. These wars reached an appalling character when the English as well as the French persuaded the Indians under their influence, to help in the mutual murder. In this savage butchery German emigrants from the Palatinate, which the English had settled at the most exposed points, had to bear the brunt of the hostile assaults. The chronicles of the Germans in Maine, in the valleys of the Mohawk and Schoharie of the Colony New York, in the Blue Mountains of Pennsylvania, and of numerous other places ​contain many stories of horrible excesses to which these settlers were exposed, without the Colonial Government bothering itself much about the fate of these unfortunate outposts. In 1754 the great war, which was to settle the predominance in America, broke out. It lasted nine years and brought new sufferings to the German settlers in the frontier districts.
The terrible struggle, which was also carried on in Europe, ended by the Peace of Paris in 1763. It cost France her colonial empires in North America, that she had established and developed with enormous efforts and outlay of money. Moreover the French lost the West Indian Islands Granada, St. Vincent, Dominique and Tobago. England's magnanimity left France nothing but the two minute islets of St. Pierre and Miquelon, south of New Foundland, in the neighborhood of which the French sailors are allowed to fish, in order that they might supply their co-religiously with cod fish.
But England was not yet satisfied with these results. Constantly keeping in view the idea of becoming the sole mistress of the seas, it was incessantly busy destroying also France's maritime power. This desire was satisfied during the wars of all Europe against Napoleon I, in the two naval battles at Aboukir (July 1st, 1798) and Trafalgar (October 2 1st, 1805) both of which were won by England's greatest admiral, Nelson. On account of these defeats, Napoleon had to forego his intention of attacking his most hated enemies, the English, their own country, as he had no vessels left to transport his armies thither. With the battle of Trafalgar the French flag was driven from the ocean, and France, as a sea power, became a negligible factor for many years to come.
England destroys Commerce and Fleet of Neutral Denmark.
During the Napoleonic period England seized the opportunity to deprive another nation of its fleet and commerce: the Danes. Denmark had succeeded in obtaining a part of the world's trade, and, for its protection, had created a navy, small but efficient. During the Napoleonic wars Denmark remained strictly neutral, had however entered a so-called neutral confederacy with Sweden, Russia and Prussia. This confederacy had been formed to prevent England from searching vessels of the various neutral countries for contraband of war. Such a neutral alliance was so much the more necessary as England had repeatedly seized Swedish and Danish frigates, which were to prevent such search, and had taken them to English ports. To force Denmark's withdrawal from this confederacy and ​to make it the unconditional vassal of England, there appeared in Spring 1801, an enormous English fleet before Copenhagen and opened on the 2nd day of April a bombardment on the peaceful city and its fortifications. This unwarranted assault, which took place while the two nations were at peace, worked great havoc everywhere. Though the Danes could not hope for victory, they nevertheless sturdily defended their city, causing the English a loss of one thousand men and considerable damage to their ships. The hostilities ceased when the news arrived of the assassination of the Czar Paul whereby the neutral confederacy appeared to be dissolved. Averse to becoming a vassal of England, Denmark maintained its neutral position also during the following years, thereby provoking the wrath of England to an even greater degree. It was July 31st, 1807, when Lord Castlereagh in open Parliament declared: "A large expedition will be fitted out, but those, whom it concerns, will not hear of it until they feel the death-blow in their neck." And indeed, on the 16th of August there appeared before unsuspecting Copenhagen thirty-six English warships and five hundred large transports. While the latter landed an army of 30,000 men which besieged the city from the landside, the fleet blockaded the harbor and shelled the city five days and nights. After twenty-eight streets with all the palaces, houses and churches had been utterly destroyed and more than 2,000 inhabitants had perished, the survivors submitted to the terms of the brutal intruders. Denmark was forced to surrender her whole navy, consisting of eighteen battleships, fifteen frigates, six briggs and twenty-five gunboats to the English, who, before their departure, destroyed also on the wharves all machines and equipment which they could not carry off. With one blow Denmark's commerce and defense were destroyed for decades to come. All this was done in a time of peace between the two nations, and without declaration of war by the nation, which to-day poses as the protecting arch-angel of Belgium and as the upholder of morals in the international dealings.
The celebrated German historian Onken declared this act as an outrage unparralleled in history, committed against a neutral state, the only transgression of which was its weak defense and which, in consequence was attacked from ambush, pirate-fashion, strangled almost to death, robbed and then left bleeding by the way-side, a glaring example of the tyrannical depravity the armed English shop-keepers were capable of and who on their domain,—the sea, feared no longer any rival."
After this ignoble exploit the English Government declared ​by ministerial Ordinance (18th and 26th of November 1807) that all European harbors, which, on account of Napoleon's Continental System refused to admit English vessels, would be blockaded. Moreover, all ships of neutrals had to submit to contraband search by English cruisers and they were ordered under threat of confiscation to stop in English harbors before proceeding to the points of their destination. By this England bluntly declared that it would not recognize neutral states, ships, harbors and flags, but would treat every one as an enemy, who would not submit to English omnipotence.
England, the Scourge of Ireland.
England's nearest neighbors, the Irish, also belong to the nations who had to suffer from the violence and cupidity of the British. Erin, the "Emerald Isle" had in the early Middle Ages reached a high standard of culture and was an abode of Sciences and Arts, whence the first rays of Christianity radiated over the nations north of Europe, enveloped as yet in barbarism. This opulent position of the fair island aroused the Anglo-Saxon cupidity of a very early date, and they made frequent raids into Ireland, until during the days of Cromwell the whole island was subjected to English rule. In these times the black-browed puritanism committed horrible cruelties against the Irish who were Catholics. From 1641 to 1652 over 500,000 perished by sword, famine and disease. Almost 100,000 others were banished and their land and property confiscated. Those remaining were driven into the most barren parts of Ireland, where they had difficulties to maintain their lives. The sequestrated property was handed over to English and Scotch colonists or to favorites of the kings. Complaisant concubines were not forgotten, as for instance Elizabeth Villiers, who was created Countess of Orkney. Rebellions were suppressed with indescribable brutality and the confiscation repeated, where a few of the Irish had escaped before. In the interest of the English landlords, manufacturers and merchants, the growth of the Irish cattle breeding, industry and commerce was suppressed. When the Irish started to export cattle, sheep, butter and eggs to England, this was forbidden upon the instigation of the English cattle raisers. When they started to spin wool and manufacture worsted goods the Parliament, in 1699, passed a law forbidding their export to foreign countries. The magnificent harbors of Ireland, in order to exclude competition with the ports of England, were not to be used and and so finally became desolated. The suffrage ​was abolished. All these oppressions kindled in the hearts of the Irish that hatred which,, becoming hereditary from generation to generation, evidenced itself in countless conspiracies, and to-day burns in the hearts of the Irish fiercer than ever. When England lost her North American colonies, it flared up anew in a revolt, which, however, was suppressed at the cost of some 30,000 lives. The pitiable situation of the Irish became still worse. Reduced to the condition of tenants on their own former property, they were dependent more than ever upon the greed of their English landlords. By 1840 their misery and poverty was so abject that thousands of tenants could not pay their land rent, whereupon they were driven from their holdings by soldiers sent from England for this purpose. At the same time crops failed and starvation ensued, carrying off thousands. It was now that the exodus of the masses started, which deprived Ireland of over 3,764,000 persons, within the forty years 1841 to 1880. The majority of these emigrants found an asylum in the United States, where they established new homes, but still remember their "Green Erin" in melancholy sorrow.
England, the Vampire of India.
India in the 16th and 17th centuries consisted of a large number of independent principalities and kingdoms, the rulers of which allowed the Portuguese, Dutch and French traders to lease real-estate in certain places along the coast and there to erect trading stations. As these traders gained enormous profits an English "East India Company" was organized in 1612 and by the government furnished with far reaching privileges. Not only did it hold within its domains the criminal jurisdiction, but also the entire political administration of the land. England could not have put the management of its interests into abler hands. For, in the leaders of this "East India Company" were concentrated the spirit of piracy, the hypocrisy, the crafty deceit, the audacity and brutality of the "great sea heroes." They succeeded, by intrigues and force, not only in driving away their Portugese, Dutch and French rivals but, by cunning interference with the quarrels of the Indian princes, by supporting and playing off one ruler against the others to gain so great an influence in India, that they could venture from their secret to an open policy of conquest. This policy found its most audacious and inscrupulous exponent in Robert Clive who, in 1744 had come to Madras and in a most ingenious way exploited all occasions to increase the ​power of the company. Madras as well as the Bengal with the rich cities Calcutta, Benares and Allahabad became British and by this the victims of systematic plundering, which brought fabulous riches to the Company and made Clive the wealthiest man of his time. Since he had, like Hawkins and Drake, amassed so great a wealth for his country, it was but natural that he was knighted, as had been those pirates. This, however, did not prevent certain members of the Parliament, who were indignant over his terrible acts and rapacity, from arraigning him as a criminal and demanding his punishment because he abused the power with which he was entrusted to "the evil example of the servants of the public, and to the dishonor and detriment of the State."
The Government, however, could not allow the condemnation of a man who so clearly personified its own principles. It could not be expected to brand itself with the mark of infamy.—Therefore, the House of Commons found it proper not to vote on the arraignment, but to substitute a decision instead: "that Lord Clive has rendered to his country great and valuable services." Clive shortly afterward ended a suicide. Of his successors Warren Hastings continued the methods used by Clive. Undermining one principality after another, he brought them to fall by his cunning or caused them by force to seek the "high protection of England." By allowing his officers to follow his example and to enrich themselves at every opportunity the Indian population was subjected to incessant oppression. Revolts were put down with such inhuman cruelty, that a number of English philanthropists in 1786, on account of "high crimes and misdemeanors" demanded the impeachment of Hastings. The proceedings lastet 8 years, but ended in the verdict, by the House of Lords, "not guilty."—
During the 19th century all principalities between the Indus and Brahmaputra were subjugated; in the West the frontiers were extended over Baloochistan as far as Persia, in the East over Burma and Siam, and in the North as far as Tibet. The famous painting by Vereschagin, showing captured Hindus tied to the mouths of cannons to be shot into a thousand atoms, gives an adequate idea of this phase of English pacification and her civilization.
Even to-day India is nothing to England but an object of regardless plundering. Once enormously wealthy, India is today a luckless land in which famines, sweeping away millions of people, return frequently, a land whose history is filled with English crimes, with blood and tears, a land whose inhabitants ​curse the British and long for the day on which they can shake off their shackles.
England as Poisoner of the Chinese Nation.
The "Most Honorable East India Company," the activity of which we have just now related, committed many crimes beside those in India. And these are so atrocious that probably no more shocking were ever perpetrated in the history of mankind. Only cold-blooded cupidity, bare of all conscience, could lead the "East India Company" to demoralize and poison a whole nation numbering hundreds of millions. This was done with opium. This narcotic has been known in Asia since the 13th century; in China however, it was only used medically, as a cure against fever and dysenteria. As late as 1750, while the opium trade was in the hands of the Portuguese, the import of opium into China did not exceed 200 chests per year. Things changed when in 1773 the "East India Company" snatched the opium monopoly away from the Portuguese and started the opium-culture in Bengal on a grand scale. As early as 1776 the importation into China had increased to 1,000 chests, and fourteen years later to 4054 chests at 149 ¼ pounds each, as nothing was left undone to induce the Chinese to the ensnaring nature of the poison.—When, with the increasing consumption of opium the Chinese the terrible results of its habitual use began to appear and when the population of whole districts fell into retrogression and lingering disease, the Chinese Government, thoroughly alarmed, forbade the further importation of the drug and punished all opium smokers with severe penalties. When these measures, taken for the protection of the nation, were found to be insufficient, the penalties were made to be banishment and death. In order to remove the evil with the root, the English traders were forbidden to sell the dangerous poison. For those apostles of European civilization the opium trade was however too lucrative to be given up. Instead, they organized an extensive smuggler trade, whereby the opium trade was increased inside of ten years (1820-1830) to 16,877 chests per year (See Encyclop. Brittanica, Art.: Opium).—When all expostulations of the Chinese Government were unavailing, it issued in 1839 a proclamation to the English traders, threatening hostile measures, if the opium ships, serving as depots, were not sent away.
This demand not being complied with, the Chinese Government on April 3rd confiscated 20,291 chests of opium, valued at $2,500,000 and destroyed the same. When, at the same time English sailors killed a Chinaman and the English ​Government refused to give satisfaction, an imperial edict declared all the trade rights of the English as void and abolished, threatening with dire punishment the subjects of all other nations who would attempt to continue to import English goods into China.—John Bull, (national personification of England) who thus felt wounded in his most sensative spot, the money-bag, declared the edict as casus belli. At the instigation of the "East India Company" there appeared a strong English fleet of thirty-five men-of-war and seventy-five transports, which blockaded first of all the harbor of Canton and the island of Tshousan opposite Ningpo. In 1841 the fleet shelled the forts around the Bocca Tigris, and also the cities of Amoy, Tshinghai, Ningpo, Tshapu, Shanghai and Tshingkiang. When the English made ready to also bombard Nanking, the Chinese Government, to save this Southern capital from destruction, sued for peace. China was forced to pay $21,000,000 in war indemnity and cede Hongkong as well as open the harbors of Amoy, Futchou, Ningpo and Shanghai to the English trade. The most humiliating of the conditions forced upon the Chinese Government was that the latter had to revoke the edict against the opium trade. And moreover the English inserted the following paragraph into the treaty: "English smugglers shall be exempt from all punishment except the confiscation of such goods as are real contraband." And further: "British subjects and ships as well as Chinese subjects who have fled aboard British vessels shall be under English—not Chinese jurisdiction." After the "East India Company" had thus thrust, by force, the opium upon the Chinese and opened gate and door to lawlessness it turned with might and main to the profitable Opium-trade. How successful the Company was in her endeavors is evidenced by the statement in the Encyclop. Brit. that the Opium import into Chinese ports amounted in 1850 to 52,925 picul at 133 lbs. and increased in 1880 to 96,839 picul or 12,911,866 lbs. which resulted from this enormous consumption of Opium. Europeans have often enough described the terrible effects which resulted from this enormous consumption of Opium. The English physician Willamson, who, in 1874 with his own eyes, saw the ravages caused by the use of Opium in Southern China, branded the Opium import "as the greatest outrage of the 19th Century, which had destroyed already the health and welfare of over ten million people." He writes: "The Chinese Government still hopes to stop further importation of Opium; and it is the wish of all well meaning foreigners that it may succeed. The Government is afraid of the further distribution of the narcotic. And this is the chief reason, why it is opposed to build railroads and permit free intercourse with the interior ​of the country. Our own British merchants inflict upon themselves the greatest harm. Had they not forced upon China the import of Opium, the whole empire from one end to the other would have been opened long ago. It is the shortsighted greed of our merchants, that leaves to their successors a crippled trade and the curse of a numerous nation." With what hatred the Chinese ae filled against the destroyers of their nation is evident in a poster which was spread far and wide during a revolt against the English and which, in translation, reads as follows: "There is a spot on the Globe, called England, inhabited by an undisciplined, lawless race. The principal design of these people is to harm other nations. In boundless self-conceit they swindle, trespass upon the rights of other countries and become their suppressors. Their main dogma speaks of Jesus Christ. In the light of this dogma, they are all devils, endeavoring to lead others astray by their own false doctrines. No matter whether a place be rich or poor, they spare no efforts to set themselves in possession of it. Following their own selfish purposes they create discord wherever they go. Their plots take all kinds of forms, which are as numerous as the hair on our heads. By all that is good and pure: came this devilish race in our land? shall and can we in these days of peace tolerate these shameless demons, these red-bristled barbarians? As things stand, it only remains for us to tie ourselves with mutually binding oaths to a common purpose and to form a secret society to free us from this public calamity."
Though we find in this appeal laid open the purpose of the secret societies for driving out the foreigners, the Chinese have, in spite of all endeavors so far not succeeded in getting rid of the "red-bristled barbarians." Exploiting regardlessly their success in the Opium war, demanding of the Chinese the literal fulfilment of the treaties, themselves however not being guided by them, the English founded settlements in places where they had no right to do so. They promoted the smuggling-trade, prevented the punishment of the guilty ones and thereby undermined the authority of the Chinese Government. Following the advice of a correspondent of the London "Times": that the teeth of the Chinese should be pryed open and the English goods driven into their body, if necessary with powder and cannon" the English shopkeepers in the treaty-ports acted without conscience. In his work "On the Chinese Emigration" (1876) the celebrated geographer Friedrich Ratzel gave proofs that among the English shopkeepers there existed a regular war party, which directed its constant efforts upon the ​acquirements of more favorable mercantile privileges, and also hailed with delight any revolts which might be made a pretext of asking enormous indemnities for destroyed merchandise and thus get rich quicker and with less effort than would have been possible by honest, legitimate trade.
In regard to the opium-import in China, it must be said that the Chinese Government never slackened in its efforts to fight the consumption of the poison. Everywhere anti-opium societies were founded, the members of which vowed to abstain entirely from its use and to work for the conversion of the habitual smokers. The Christian missionaries were called upon for help and to petition, simultaneously with the Foreign Office, the English Government to forbid the opium-trade. On account of these representations the House of Commons, 1891, with small majority passed a resolution in which it admitted that "India's opium-trade is morally indefensible, but economic considerations prevent any efforts to discontinue it." Since Christianity exists there has never so shamless degrading a declaration of bankruptcy of the Christian principles been passed by a Christian Government.
For 10 years the situation remained unchanged. Powerless, the statesmen of China had to see how the destruction of the Nation by English shopkeepers proceeded. Meanwhile these scoundrels had cursed also other countries of the Pacific Ocean with their devilish dissemination of the opium-vice: Formosa, the Philippines, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the Hawaii Islands, Canada and California, from whence the vice spread with alarming rapidity to New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago and New York. Startled by the rapid progress of this pernicious vice, industrial and religious societies. Chambers of Commerce and the International Reform Bureau asked the President of the United States to remonstrate with the British Parliament. On this instance in 906 negotiations were renewed, and when discussion came up, some very strong arguments were made. Mr. T. C. Taylor, member of Parliament, outlining with forcefulness the history of the opium traffic and holding England responsible for its continuance, met the arguments and objections of the revenue officers with the unanswerable moral aphorism: "Wrong cannot be justified by revenue nor misery by money." This moral argument was strengthened by the opinion of medical men, reference being made to the declaration of the harmfulness of opium, signed by five thousand physicians in 1892. Embarrassed by these proofs of growing anti-opium sentiment the House of Commons this time expressed its feelings in the following words: "This House ​reaffirms its conviction that the India-Chinese opium-trade is 'morally indefensible' and requests his Majesty's Government to take such steps as may be necessary to bring it speedily to a close."
Instead, however, of at once enacting this deliverance from the evil, China, on suggestion of Sir Edward Grey, was forced into a contract by which, dating from Jan. 1st. 1908 a gradual reduction of the opium-import was to take place until 1917 when it should cease altogether, provided "China furnished, during the first 3 years, the proof that its population was really decided to give up the use of Opium." This proof China rendered, though in 1908 the import still amounted to 61,000 chests, in 1905 to 56,800, and in 1910 to 51,700 cases, or for the 3 years 22,600,000 lbs. He who is interested in the recent history of the Opium-trade may find information in an article in the "Forum" by R. P. Chiles and entitled: "The passing of the Opium trade." There he will also find the contemptible clauses which are to make it possible for the English Government to draw, in all future the revenues it desires from the Opium-trade. The shopkeeper's spirit, which owns the English Government as much as it does the nation, leads to the apprehension that, after 1917 the opium-trade will find its continuation as well in Eastern Asia as over the rest of the world, if not in legitimate roads then in illegitimate ones, which to take the shopkeepers of England have never hesitated in the past nor will in the future.
England, the Suppressor of the Free Boers.
English cupidity also robbed those Dutch settlers of house and home, who in 1652 had colonized around the tableland of South Africa and who led a peaceful existence in the pursuit of agriculture and cattle raising. This pastoral life came to an end when in 1795 and 1815 England took possession of Capeland. From now on overburdened with heavy taxes and constantly oppressed, the Boers decided to quit their old homesteads and find new ones north of the Orange River, where they would not be molested by English tyranny. Trekking into the interior of the continent, they established the States Natal, Oranje, Transvaal and the South African Republic. But their oppressors followed them and stuck close to their heels wherever they might transfer their habitation. Unfortunately for the Boers diamonds and gold were found in their new homesteads. This caused an influx of adventurers of every description, and almost immediately England began to intrigue to obtain possession.
​In 1877 Sir Theophilus Shepstone, High Commissioner of England in South Africa, announced the annexation of the country. But the Boers objected and decisively defeated the British at Majuba Hill. The independence of the Boer's was recognized and confirmed at the London Convention in 1884.
But English greed would not let the matter rest. Promoters founded the "British South African Company," better known as the "Royal Chartered Co.", which soon obtained an importance—and quite as ominous—as the "East India Co." possessed in Asia. One of the leaders was the son of an English dominy: Cecil Rhodes, who possessed all the qualities of his English prototype Robert Clive. In a short time he had amassed an enormous fortune, becoming known as the "Diamond King." In 1890 he was made Premier of the Cape Colony, and conquered Matabeleland and prepared, in collusion with the English mine owners of the South African Republic, the invasion undertaken by Dr. Jameson. This raid, put in action with 1200 men on Dec. 30th 1895, had in view the taking unawares, and the abolition, of the government and the annexation of the State. But the Boers had been made aware of this design and, surrounding the insolent intruders forced them on Jan. 1st, 1896 to surrender. President Krueger, an all too mild man, instead of making an example of the raiders by having them shot, delivered them to the English Government for punishment. But the Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, the true type of a modern English pirate in dress coat, treated the conspirators not only with great leniency, but saw to it, that Jameson was indemnified properly, for the fright he had suffered, by a brilliant position in South Africa. Jameson as well as his conspirators were praised by the English press and, by the public, lionized as "heroes." Not less was this the case with Cecil Rhodes, the intellectual originator of the raid. When summoned by the Parliament, he denied not only all knowledge of the scheme, but moreover acted as accuser of the Boers. As a matter of course he was allowed to return to his post as Premier of the Cape Colony. It was only after the Government of Transvaal had proven his guilt beyond all doubt, that he resigned as Premier. But an English Official can remain a gentleman in English eyes, even if he is a proven liar and has perjured himself before the Parliament of his own country.
However this did not free the Boers of their grudges. As is everybody's memory, England in October 1899 started that disgraceful war against Transvaal which lasted until 1902, ​cost England its best troops and the reputation of its best generals. Let us see, in what benevolent manner England, in her present war simulates abhorrence and dismay over the alleged ruthless conduct of the war by the German army, achieved finally this success.
As usual, England employed also in the Boer War savages. It was General French who sent Zulus to fight the Boers and destroy their property. This happened in violation of the express pledge given by Mr. Balfour at the outset of the war. The horrible cruelties, committed by these Zulus, incited the government of Natal to a strong protest against this mode of warfare which is contrary to all civilized usages. In consequence of this protest General French was shifted from his command in the northwestern Transvaal for barbarous warfare.
But General French was not the only English "hero" who disgraced his name in this cruel war. The great fieldmarshall Kitchener did likewise by dragging women and children of the fighting Boers from their homes and imprisoning these poor defenseless creatures in the so called concentration camps.
During the month of September 1901 there were 38,022 women and 54,326 children under Kitchener's tender care. As Henry Labouchere, then editor of the "London Truth," has stated, 20,000 of these hapless women and children perished. The "London Daily News" of November 9th said: "The truth is that the death rate in these concentration camps is incomparably worse than anything Africa or Asia can show. There is nothing to match it even in the mortality figures of the Indian famines, where cholera and other epidemics have to be contended with." And Reynold's Newspaper (London) of October 20th 1901 speaks of the women and children "perishing like flies from confinement, fever, bad food, pestilential stinks and lack of nursing in these awful death-traps."
Kitchener, who earned during this war the epithets "the butcher" and "the blood-hound," gave together with the late Lord Roberts the order, that, wherever Boers fired at military trains "all the farms should be burned within a radius of ten miles."
The manner in which this order was complied with, is illustrated by a letter written by Leutenant Morrison, of the Canadian Artillery, and published in the "London Truth." From his account of the sacking of Dullstroom we quote the following lines:
"During the track our progress was like the old-time forays ​in the highlands of Scotland, two centuries ago. We moved on from valley to valley lifting cattle and sheep, burning, looting, and turning out the women and children to sit and weep in despair beside the ruins of their once beautiful farmsteads. It was the first touch of Kitchener's iron-hand—a terrible thing to witness. We burned a track about six miles wide through those fertile valleys. The column left a trail of fire and smoke behind it that could be seen at Belfast....
"Nobody who was there will ever forget that day's work. About 7 o'clock in the morning our force seized the town after a little fight. The Boers went into the surrounding hills, and there was nobody in the town except women and children. It was a very pretty place nestling in a valley. The houses had lovely flower gardens and the roses were in bloom. The Boers drove in our outposts on the flank and began sniping the guns and amid the row of the cannonade and the crackle of rifle fire the sacking of the place began. First there was an ominous bluish haze over the town, and then the smoke rolled up in volumes that could be seen for fifty miles away. The Boers on the hills seemed paralyzed by the sight and stopped The town was very quiet save for the roaring and shooting. On the steps of the church a group of women and children were huddled. The women's faces were very white, but some of them had spots of red on either cheeks, and their eyes were blazing. The troops were systematically 'looking the place over' (looting), and as they got quite through with each house they burned it. As I stood looking, a woman turned to me and pathetically exclaimed: "Oh, how can you be so cruel!" I sympathized with her and explained but all the same that it was an order and had to be obeyed. But all the same it was an extremely sad sight to see the little homes burning and the rose bushes withering up in the pretty garden, and the pathetic groups of homeless and distressed women and little children weeping in abject misery and despair among the smoking ruins as we rode away."
Such is the sad story told by an officer of the British army. Nothing remains for us, but to ask if men, who do not show courage enough to resist against their degradation, to hangman's assistants, have any claim to the title soldier, a name, that should mean a "defender of the right, a protector of homes and the weak."
A brief extract from a letter, written by President Steyn, of the Orange Free State, to Kitchener, in August 1901, throws strong light on the behavior of the British defenders:
"Your Excellency's troops have not hesitated to turn their ​artillery on these defenseless women and children to capture them when they were fleeing with their wagons or alone, whilst your troops knew that they were only women and children, as happened only recently at Gras-pan on the 6th of June near Reitz, where a woman and children laager was captured and retaken by us whilst your Excellency's troops took refuge behind the women; and when reinforcements came they fired with artillery and small arms on that woman laager. I can mention hundreds of cases of this kind," etc.
In the pictures, produced by the "Illustrated London News," the "Graphic" and other English periodicals, we don't see Tom Atkins, as he is in reality, but as he lives in the imagination of Mr. Caton Woodville and other artists, who draw their vivid war sketches not on the battlefield, but in their much more comfortable studios.
To return to the Boers, the whole world knows, that after a heroic resistance they were finally overwhelmed and their land annexed.—Again the blood-tainted crown of England was enriched with some scintillating jewels, though the robbing of them had cost the blood, tears and welfare of thousands of happy and peaceloving families.
England, the False Friend of the United States.
Hardly had England thrown France out of her rich colonial possessions in North America when her greedy merchants forced the Parliament to forbid settlers in English colonies to keep up trade-relations with any non-British countries. They should be forced to obtain all their necessities from the "mother land" and deliver their own products to the same. In other words: it was demanded of them, to buy their necessities in England from British shopkeepers at often usurious prices, and sell their own goods to those same shopkeepers for whatever these were willing to offer. That these offers were always way below prices paid by other countries in free competition goes without saying. It was this very law which was one of the causes of the Revolutionary War of the English colonies of North America. To suppress this revolution the mother land employed the vilest means. She committed the most atrocious crime when she engaged the Indians as allies and used them against her own subjects. The redskins were hired to accomplish a double task. It was expected of them to destroy Western settlements and at the same time to attack the colonists in the rear, while they were engaged in repulsing the attacks of the British from the coast. By this arrangement the British intended to compel the Americans to split up their ​forces. To crown the infamy and inflame the bloodthirstiness of the Indians a prize of $8. was offered for every American scalp, be it of man, woman or child. Nothing further was needed to stimulate the savages to the wildest blood-orgies. In small troops and large bands they roamed all over the border territories, attacked every settlement and committed the most atrocious massacres. To accomplish this work of destruction the British secured the assistance of the powerful chief of the Iroquois: Thayendanegea or Joseph Brandt, who devastated with his warriors mainly the western parts of New York and Pennsylvania. Burned houses, barns and stables, ruined fields, the corpses of scalped men, ravished women and murdered children marked the track of the redskins. And in the commission of these crimes, British officers and soldiers as well as loyal Tories from these localities lent helping hands.
As is well known England used for the war against the Americans also soldiers which they had hired at great expense in Germany, the Hessians. This proceeding found even in England severe critics. Chatham declared in Parliament: "Were I as good an American as I am an Englishman and had to behold how a foreign army appeared in my own country I would never lie down my arms—never!" These words express precisely the deep revolt of all Americans, upon hearing that for their suppression England had enlisted foreign hirelings. But the Americans soon had occasion to get enraged over still other British treacheries.
When Congress attempted to meet the prevailing lack of currency by the issue of paper money the perfidious Britishers used this circumstance to increase the terrible difficulties of the Americans. They turned counterfeiters, imitated the notes issued by Congress and brought enormous numbers of those falsifications in circulation. This brought the paper money in such discredit that everybody shied from accepting it. The depreciation in the value of the paper money increased to such a degree that forty paper dollars were necessary to buy one silver dollar. A pair of boots cost 400—600 paper dollars, and the monthly wages of a soldier was just sufficient to buy one dinner. That, in spite of all these dreadful obstacles, the Independence of the Colonies was established, is the merit of the heroism of the colonists, the admirable devotion of George Washington and of the patriots who surrounded him. And last not least, the co-operation of such true champions of liberty as Steuben, Kalb, Herchheimer, Mühlenberg, Lafayette and many others. And hereby was fulfilled a prediction made by Napoleon when in 1803 circumstances compelled him to ​sell Louisiana to the United States: "The English want to grab the riches and the commerce of all the world. To free the nations from England's unbearable commercial tyranny it is necessary to balance its influence by a maritime power which will be able to wrest their commercial supremacy from them. If I strengthen the position of the United States by the cession of the Mississippi Valley, then England will find a rival who, earlier or later, will dampen her arrogance." —
That the prophetic words of the far seeing Corsican might be fulfilled, became evident to England by the fast growing commerce of the United States. Therefore England left nothing undone to get rid of this new rival in the world's commerce and to sustain all movements that might bring about a disruption of the Union. The war of 1812 to 1814 meant the first attempt for the annihilation of the Union. While the English fleet carried on the war at the coast shelling the American sea-ports, the commanders of the land forces again engaged the redskins to attack the Americans in the rear. The incessant incitement of the English agents succeeded in uniting all tribes of the Northwest into one great anti-American alliance, which was led by Tecumseh, the famous war chief of the Shawnees. Death and destruction in their most terrific forms ruled again over all border lands. The year 1812 passed luckily for the English. On water and land the Americans suffered heavy defeats. Michigan was lost and all western settlements were ravished terribly.
In the two following years the struggle went on with varying success. In August 1814 the British took Washington, burned the Capitol, the White House and numerous other public buildings. Of course, they did not forget to destroy also all American ships on the Potomac. But the enraged resistance which the British found in Baltimore and elsewhere, finally brought about the peace of Ghent (Dec. 24, 1814), the centenary of which Americans were impudently invited to celebrate.
How little reason America had for such a celebration should be evident to its promoters when they bring home to their mind that the secret and open intrigues of England against the States have never ceased and that, in the heart of the English shopkeepers now, as ever, glows the ardent wish to sweep away this successful rival as they did the others.—Stimulated by this desire and to hasten the dissolution of the Union, England, at the outbreak of the American Civil War solemnly proclaimed her neutrality, while secretly it was a confederate of the Confederacy. She assisted the slaveholders by every means in her power, recognized them as a belligerent ​nation, by this strengthening their cause and position materially. More than that! She allowed that recruiting stations were opened all over Great Britain for the Confederacy. She subscribed for immense numbers of the bonds of the Southern States. She smuggled arms, ammunition and all kinds of contraband of war to the Confederates, enabling them to continue the struggle. She permitted her own consuls in the Northern States to act as spies for the South. She established in London a press bureau for the dissemination of false reports, which spread wholesale rumors of rebel victories and pernicious lies about Lincoln and the Union, just as the London press bureaus do to-day about the Kaiser and the successes of the Allies.
Furthermore, England allowed her newspapers to express openly the hope "that the Union, the great snake, might be cut in two by the war and rendered powerless." And last but not least, England not only opened her ports to the southern pirate craft, but violated the neutrality laws by building, equipping and manning a number of southern privateers, among them the "Alabama," "Florida," "Shenandoah," "Tallahasee," "Nashville" and others, which served as commerce destroyers.
Burning and sinking all prizes, these destroyers swept all merchant vessels of the Union from the ocean, during the war, causing a loss of over $17,000,000. They damaged the over-sea trade of the United States so grievously, that, since it has never recovered its former prominence.
But England had to pay for her treacheries. After the war was over the States demanded indemnity for the destruction, committed by these privateers. A court of arbitration, sitting in Geneva, found England guilty of the charges and sentenced it to pay to the States $15,500,000. Any one eager for more information on this subject, may find it by studying the transactions of the "Alabama Claims."—
Numerous acts of more recent date leave us suspicious as to England's true sentiments toward our Union. With France it persuaded the Austrian Archduke Maximilian to the calamitious attempt to establish an empire in Mexico, hoping thereby to kill the Monroe Doctrine and to create for the States a neighbor who might some day become very inconvenient.—
Furthermore England caused the United States endless troubles and cares in the Venezuela controversy, in the questions regarding the Alaskan boundaries and the Bering Sea fisheries; in Mexico, in the present European war and in many other instances.
What future plans England may have in regard to the ​Panama Canal is hidden in the folds of the future. Just as England's shrewd diplomatists tried to get the better of the States in all treaties concerning the Canal it can hardly be assumed that during the last decenniums it has strengthened its fortifications on the Bermudas, in Jamaica and elsewhere simply for the sake of a passing whim. Indeed, with these strongholds in the East and South of the States, with Canada in the North and Japan as ally in the West, John Bull might some day get Brother Jonathan in a tight hole.
If especially favorable political constellation were ever to come, John Bull would hardly remember his pet-phrases: "Hands across the sea" and "Blood is thicker than water," which are now used after every meal and at bed-time by our anglophil Depews and, also by some degenerated American diplomatists, who misrepresent our United States.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1939, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 84 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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