The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-11-23


the hostile states were to be called upon
to proclaim and carry out the recon-
Citation of mankind. These endeavors
revealed woeful ignorance of human
nature, and certainly took no account
of the spirit of the enemy nations, nor
of our own; they did, however, in some
cases pursue decidedly revolutionary
objects.
No impression was produced on the
enemy, but with us and in Austria the
fighting spirit was weakened more and
more. Confidence in our own strength
was lost Government allowed the con-
duct of affairs to slip more and more
from it's garsp; and the worst OF II
was, it abandoned them not to the
people as a whole, but to certain
groups which, throughout their history
had never displayed critical and never
constructive faculties.
"HELOTS' PEACE" ON ITS WAY
These assemblies and all the talk of
peace by understanding suited the en-
tente very well. They disclosed our
state of mind. But, with a clear idea
of national feeling, they allowed no
socialist leaders to go to the meeting
and declined to be bound in any way,
They pursued quite different aims.
In the summer of 1917 the French
premier. Ribot expressed his country s
intention of destroying Germany SO
clearly that no misunderstanding was
POSSIBLE without deliberate self
ton. No one with the slightest sense
of reality could doubt that for the
entente all the beautiful catch words
were mere window dressing, intended
to deceive the multitude, and to give
might the appearance of right.
THE government, the Reichstag and
10 took IL all for Cos
mel In the Reichstag, for the first
time in the war, socialist representa-
tives onenly threatened revolution.
The "helots peace" 6of which the i'm
nerial chancellor spoke to G. ii. q,
about thiss time), which would come
If we gave in before the enemy felt
anv inclination to peace, was on It's
way.
The high command observed the
great spiritual decline with lncreas-
ing anxiety, and in view of the uneom-
promising attitude of the enemy gov
ernments felt bound to draw attention
to the harm that was being done to
the oeople and the army, especially IN
Rerlin More than once the field mar
shal reported to his majesty now
greatly G. H. @. missed the support OF
the imperial chancellor. We had urged
| the latter far more frequently to
! StrenSIneD lHt wei oPi+fS -
| ton.
MARSHAL WARNS CHANCELLOR
| on June 8. 1917, Field Marshal Won
| Hfndenburg wrote TO him as follows,
/ to warn him against the view thi,t9th
war would be over that autumn at the
latest;
These dangers (of submarine
| warfare) are undoubtedly recog-
| nized by clear-thinking people
| o1tr aneuias IF in spite
| of this they advocate continuation
| of the war, it is because they ex-
| peet the collapse of Germany and
her allies to take place before
| their own.
1t may be that they hope to
| bring about this collapse by vic
tory on land, but they rely far
| more on economic and political
causes. such as food difficulties,
shortage of raw materials, dis
| union. discomfort and the suprem-
| acy of the German radical social
| democracy They base this ex-
| pectation on the waning of our
| power of resistance at home. the
| growth of international sentiments
| the state of our food supply, and
| the longing for peace which we
| unfortunately give expression so
| often.
A revival Of our internal
| strength would be the most potent
means of persuNding our enemies
of the futility of prolonging the
war until their own means of eX-
stence- are in danger of destruc-
ton. On the other hand every
complaint of disappointed hopes,
every sign of exhaustion and hong
ing for peace on-our part. or that
| of our allies, any talk of the al
legged impossibility of standing
| another winter campaign, can only
have the effect of prolonging the
war.
| The wording of the chancellor's re-
ply, dated June 25. revealed extraordi-
nary depression His way of thinking
| differed from ours He could find no
way out of the situation, and still less
could he summon up the energy to act
He was afraid of that 'helots peace y
| but talked about a peace by under
1 standing. although he considered Eng
lands readiness for peace to be the
necessary condition precedent, and des-
paired of getting Lloyd George to agree
| to it.
APPEAL SENT TO THE KAISER
However his view of internal con-
| ditions soon became more hopeful, as
we may see from a telegram to the
Emperor of July S.
In the meanwhile, on June 27. the
field marshal had himself written Ia
| the Emperor
Our greatest anxiety at this
/ moment. however. is the decline in
! the national spirit 1t must be re-
| vlved, or we shall lose the ~xar.
Even our allies need a powerful
tonic otherwise there is a danger
OF their deserving us For this it
is necessary to solve those eco
monte problems which are the most
difflcult and are of the greatest
Importance for the future
The question arises whether the
chancellor is capable of solving
tnesa problems-and they must be 1
correctly solved, or we are lost,
An outward indication of the falling orr
OF our spiritual capacity for war was
anofded at the session of the main COM
mittee of the Reichstag on July s. Deputy
Erzberger made speech which utterly
surprised us. in which he maintained that.
the submarine war was perfectly hope
less, and that 1t was quite impossible for
US TO win the war at all
On this the spirit of the Reichstag
broke down completely. The imperial
chancellor had apparently been under a
delusion when he changed his MINI so
suddenly on July 5. Now it was perfectly
clear how far we had sunk IL things
continued in this way In Germany, if
nothing was done to encourage and
tary defeat was inevitable.
The war minister agreed with lis as to
the bad effect CT the events in Berlin on
our military position. and considered il
necessary for the field marshal to make a
report 70 the Emperor on the subject So
the field marshal and proceeded to Ber-
lin % the evening of the 9Th.