The European War

June, 1915

THE GERMAN WARNING.

[On Saturday, May 1, the day that the Lusitania left New York on her last voyage, the following advertisement bearing the authentication of the German Embassy at Washington appeared in the chief newspapers of the United States, placed next the advertisement of the Cunard Line:

Despite this warning, relying on President Wilson's note to Germany of Feb. 10, 1915, which declared that the United States would "hold the Imperial Government of Germany to a strict accountability" for such an act within the submarine zone; relying, also, on the speed of the ship, and hardly conceiving that the threat would be carried out, over two thousand men, women, and children embarked. The total toll of the dead was 1,150, of whom 114 were known to be American citizens.

The German Embassy's warning advertisement was repeated on May 8, the day following the loss of the Lusitania. On May 12 the German Embassy notified the newspapers to discontinue publication of the advertisement, which had been scheduled to appear for the third time on the following Saturday.]

GERMAN OFFICIAL REPORT.

[By The Associated Press.]

BERLIN, May 14, (via Amsterdam to London, May 15.)—From the report received from the submarine which sank the Cunard Line steamer Lusitania last Friday the following official version of the incident is published by the Admiralty Staff over the signature of Admiral Behncke:

The submarine sighted the steamer, which showed no flag, May 7 at 2:20 o'clock, Central European time, afternoon, on the southeast coast of Ireland, in fine, clear weather.

At 3:10 o'clock one torpedo was fired at the Lusitania, which hit her starboard side below the Captain's bridge. The detonation of the torpedo was followed immediately by a further explosion of extremely strong effect. The ship quickly listed to starboard and began to sink.

The second explosion must be traced back to the ignition of quantities of ammunition inside the ship.

It appears from this report that the submarine sighted the Lusitania at 1:20 o'clock, London time, and fired the torpedo at 2:10 o'clock, London time. The Lusitania, according to all reports, was traveling at the rate of eighteen knots an hour. As fifty minutes elapsed between the sighting and the torpedoing, the Lusitania when first seen from the submarine must have been distant nearly fifteen knots, or about seventeen land miles. The Lusitania must have been recognized at the first appearance of the tops of her funnels above the horizon. To the Captain on the bridge of the Lusitania the submarine would have been at that time invisible, being below the horizon.

Map Showing Locations of Ships Attacked in Submarine War Zone with American Citizens Aboard.

BRITISH CORONER'S VERDICT.

[By The Associated Press.]

KINSALE, Ireland, May 10.—The verdict, rendered here today by the coroner's jury, which investigated five deaths resulting from the torpedoing of the Lusitania, is as follows:

We find that the deceased met death from prolonged immersion and exhaustion in the sea eight miles south-southeast of Old Head of Kinsale, Friday, May 7, 1915, owing to the sinking of the Lusitania by torpedoes fired by a German, submarine.

We find that the appalling crime was committed contrary to international law and the conventions of all civilized nations.

We also charge the officers of said submarine and the Emperor and the Government of Germany, under whose orders they acted, with the crime of wholesale murder before the tribunal of the civilized world.

We desire to express sincere condolences and sympathy with the relatives of the deceased, the Cunard Company, and the United States, many of whose citizens perished in this murderous attack on an unarmed liner.

GERMAN NOTE OF REGRET.

BERLIN, (via London,) May 10.—The following dispatch has been sent by the German Foreign Office to the German Embassy at Washington:

Please communicate the following to the State Department: The German Government desires to express its deepest sympathy at the loss of lives on board the Lusitania. The responsibility rests, however, with the British Government, which, through its plan of starving the civilian population of Germany, has forced Germany to resort to retaliatory measures.

In spite of the German offer to stop the submarine war in case the starvation plan was given up, British merchant vessels are being generally armed with guns and have repeatedly tried to ram submarines, so that a previous search was impossible.

They cannot, therefore, be treated as ordinary merchant vessels. A recent declaration made to the British Parliament by the Parliamentary Secretary in answer to a question by Lord Charles Beresford said that at the present practically all British merchant vessels were armed and provided with hand grenades.

Besides, it has been openly admitted by the English press that the Lusitania on previous voyages repeatedly carried large quantities of war material. On the present voyage the Lusitania carried 5,400 cases of ammunition, while the rest of her cargo also consisted chiefly of contraband.

If England, after repeated official and unofficial warnings, considered herself able to declare that that boat ran no risk and thus light-heartedly assumed responsibility for the human life on board a steamer which, owing to its armament and cargo, was liable to destruction, the German Government, in spite of its heartfelt sympathy for the loss of American lives, cannot but regret that Americans felt more inclined to trust to English promises rather than to pay attention to the warnings from the German side.

FOREIGN OFFICE.

ENGLAND ANSWERS GERMANY. 1

[By The Associated Press.]

LONDON, Wednesday, May 12.—Inquiry in official circles elicited last night the following statement, representing the official British view of Germany's justification for torpedoing the Lusitania which Berlin transmitted to the State Department at Washington:

The German Government states that responsibility for the loss of the Lusitania rests with the British Government, which through their plan of starving the civil population of Germany has forced Germany to resort to retaliatory measures The reply to this is as follows:

As far back as last December Admiral von Tirpitz, (the German Marine Minister,) in an interview, foreshadowed a submarine blockade of Great Britain, and a merchant ship and a hospital ship were torpedoed Jan. 30 and Feb. 1, respectively.

The German Government on Feb. 4 declared their intention of instituting a general submarine blockade of Great Britain and Ireland, with the avowed purpose of cutting off supplies for these islands. This blockade was put into effect Feb. 18.

As already stated, merchant vessels had, as a matter of fact, been sunk by a German submarine at the end of January. Before Feb. 4 no vessel carrying food supplies for Germany had been held up by his Majesty's Government except on the ground that there was reason to believe the foodstuffs were intended for use of the armed forces of the enemy or the enemy Government.

His Majesty's Government had, however informed the State Department on Jan. 29 that they felt bound to place in a prize court the foodstuffs of the steamer Wilhelmina, which was going to a German port, in view of the Government control of foodstuffs in Germany, as being destined for the enemy Government and, therefore, liable to capture.

The decision of his Majesty's Government to carry out the measures laid down by the Order in Council was due to the action of the German Government in insisting on their submarine blockade.

This, added to other infractions of international law by Germany, led to British reprisals, which differ from the German action in that his Majesty's Government scrupulously respect the lives of noncombatants traveling in merchant vessels, and do not even enforce the recognized penalty of confiscation for a breach of the blockade, whereas the German policy is to sink enemy or neutral vessels at sight, with total disregard for the lives of noncombatants and the property of neutrals.

The Germans state that, in spite of their offer to stop their submarine war in case the starvation plan was given up, Great Britain has taken even more stringent blockade measures. The answer to this is as follows:

It was not understood from the reply of the German Government that they were prepared to abandon the principle of sinking British vessels by submarine.

They have refused to abandon the use of mines for offensive purposes on the high seas on any condition. They have committed various other infractions of international law, such as strewing the high seas and trade routes with mines, and British and neutral vessels will continue to run danger from this course, whether Germany abandons her submarine blockade or not.

It should be noted that since the employment of submarines, contrary to international law, the Germans also have been guilty of the use of asphyxiating gas. They have even proceeded to the poisoning of water in South Africa.

The Germans represent British merchant vessels generally as armed with guns and say that they repeatedly ram submarines. The answer to this is as follows:

It is not to be wondered at that merchant vessels, knowing they are liable to be sunk without warning and without any chance being given those on board to save their lives, should take measures for self-defense.

With regard to the Lusitania: The vessel was not armed on her last voyage, and had not been armed during the whole war.

The Germans attempt to justify the sinking of the Lusitania by the fact that she had arms and ammunition on board. The presence of contraband on board a neutral vessel does render her liable to capture, but certainly not to destruction, with the loss of a large portion of her crew and passengers. Every enemy vessel is a fair prize, but there is no legal provision, not to speak of the principles of humanity, which would justify what can only be described as murder because a vessel carries contraband.

The Germans maintain that after repeated official and unofficial warnings his Majesty's Government were responsible for the loss of life, as they considered themselves able to declare that the boat ran no risk, and thus "light-heartedly assume the responsibility for the human lives on board a steamer which, owing to its armament and cargo, is liable to destruction." The reply thereto is:

First—His Majesty's Government never declared the boat ran no risk.

Second—The fact that the Germans issued their warning shows that the crime was premeditated. They had no more right to murder passengers after warning them than before.

Third—In spite of their attempts to put the blame on Great Britain, it will tax the ingenuity even of the Germans to explain away the fact that it was a German torpedo, fired by a German seaman from a German submarine, that sank the vessel and caused over 1,000 deaths.

CAPTAIN TURNER TESTIFIES.

[By The Associated Press.]

KINSALE, Ireland, May 10.—The inquest which began here Saturday over five victims of the Lusitania was concluded today. A vital feature of the hearing was the testimony of Captain W.T. Turner of the lost steamship. Coroner Horga questioned him:

"You were aware threats had been made that the ship would be torpedoed?"

"We were," the Captain replied.

"Was she armed?"

"No, Sir."

"What precautions did you take?"

"We had all the boats swung when we came within the danger zone, between the passing of Fastnet and the time of the accident."

The Coroner asked him whether he had received a message concerning the sinking of a ship off Kinsale by a submarine. Captain Turner replied that he had not.

"Did you receive any special instructions as to the voyage?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Are you at liberty to tell us what they were?"

"No, Sir."

"Did you carry them out?"

"Yes, to the best of my ability."

"Tell us in your own words what happened after passing Fastnet."

"The weather was clear," Captain Turner answered. "We were going at a speed of eighteen knots. I was on the port side and heard Second Officer Hefford call out:

"'Here's a torpedo.'

"I ran to the other side and saw clearly the wake of a torpedo. Smoke and steam came up between the last two funnels. There was a slight shock. Immediately after the first explosion there was another report, but that may possibly have been internal.

"I at once gave the order to lower the boats down to the rails, and I directed that women and children should get into them. I also had all the bulkheads closed.

"Between the time of passing Fastnet, about 11 o'clock, and of the torpedoing I saw no sign whatever of any submarines. There was some haze along the Irish coast, and when we were near Fastnet I slowed down to fifteen knots. I was in wireless communication with shore all the way across."

Captain Turner was asked whether he had received any messages in regard to the presence of submarines off the Irish coast. He replied in the affirmative. Questioned regarding the nature of the message, he replied:

"I respectfully refer you to the Admiralty for an answer."

"I also gave orders to stop the ship," Captain Turner continued, "but we could not stop. We found that the engines were out of commission. It was not safe to lower boats until the speed was off the vessel. As a matter of fact, there was a perceptible headway on her up to the time she went down.

"When she was struck she listed to starboard. I stood on the bridge when she sank, and the Lusitania went down under me. She floated about eighteen minutes after the torpedo struck her. My watch stopped at 2:36. I was picked up from among the wreckage and afterward was brought aboard a trawler.

"No warship was convoying us. I saw no warship, and none was reported to me as having been seen. At the time I was picked up I noticed bodies floating on the surface, but saw no living persons."

"Eighteen knots was not the normal speed of the Lusitania, was it?"

"At ordinary times," answered Captain Turner, "she could make 25 knots, but in war times her speed was reduced to 21 knots. My reason for going 18 knots was that I wanted to arrive at Liverpool bar without stopping, and within two or three hours of high water."

"Was there a lookout kept for submarines having regard to previous warnings?"

"Yes, we had double lookouts."

"Were you going a zigzag course at the moment the torpedoing took place?"

"No. It was bright weather, and land was clearly visible."

"Was it possible for a submarine to approach without being seen?"

"Oh, yes; quite possible."

"Something has been said regarding the impossibility of launching the boats on the port side?"

"Yes," said Captain Turner, "owing to the listing of the ship."

"How many boats were launched safely?"

"I cannot say."

"Were any launched safely?"

"Yes, and one or two on the port side."

"Were your orders promptly carried out?"

"Yes."

"Was there any panic on board?"

"No, there was no panic at all. It was all most calm."

"How many persons were on board?"

"There were 1,500 passengers and about 600 crew."

By the foreman of the jury—In the face of the warnings at New York that the Lusitania would be torpedoed, did you make any application to the Admiralty for an escort?

"No, I left that to them. It is their business, not mine. I simply had to carry out my orders to go, and I would do it again."

Captain Turner uttered the last words of this reply with great emphasis.

By the Coroner—I am very glad to hear you say so, Captain.

By a juryman—Did you get a wireless to steer your vessel in a northern direction?

"No," replied Captain Turner.

"Was the course of the vessel altered after the torpedoes struck her?"

"I headed straight for land, but it was useless. Previous to this the watertight bulkheads were closed. I suppose the explosion forced them open. I don't know the exact extent to which the Lusitania was damaged."

"There must have been serious damage done to the watertight bulkheads?"

"There certainly was, without doubt."

"Were the passengers supplied with lifebelts?"

"Yes."

"Were any special orders given that morning that lifebelts be put on?"

"No."

"Was any warning given before you were torpedoed?"

"None whatever. It was suddenly done and finished."

"If there had been a patrol boat about might it have been of assistance?"

"It might, but it is one of those things one never knows."

With regard to the threats against his ship Captain Turner said he saw nothing except what appeared in the New York papers the day before the Lusitania sailed. He had never heard the passengers talking about the threats, he said.

"Was a warning given to the lower decks after the ship had been struck?" Captain Turner was asked.

"All the passengers must have heard the explosion," Captain Turner replied.

Captain Turner, in answer to another question, said he received no report from the lookout before the torpedo struck the Lusitania.

Ship's Bugler Livermore testified that the watertight compartments were closed, but that the explosion and the force of the water must have burst them open. He said that all the officers were at their posts and that earlier arrivals of the rescue craft would not have saved the situation.

After physicians had testified that the victims had met death through prolonged immersion and exhaustion the Coroner summed up the case.

He said that the first torpedo fired by the German submarine did serious damage to the Lusitania, but that, not satisfied with this, the Germans had discharged another torpedo. The second torpedo, he said, must have been more deadly, because it went right through the ship, hastening the work of destruction.

SUBMARINE CREW OBSERVED.

[By The Associated Press.]

LONDON, May 10.—The Fishguard correspondent of The Daily News quotes the Rev. Mr. Guvier of the Church of England's Canadian Railway Mission, a Lusitania survivor, as saying that when the ship sank a submarine rose to the surface and came within 300 yards of the scene.

"The crew stood stolidly on the deck," he said, "and surveyed their handiwork. I could distinguish the German flag, but it was impossible to see the number of the submarine, which disappeared after a few minutes."

ERNEST COWPER'S ACCOUNT.

QUEENSTOWN, Saturday, May 8, 3:18 A.M.—A sharp lookout for submarines was kept aboard the Lusitania as she approached the Irish coast, according to Ernest Cowper, a Toronto newspaper man, who was among the survivors landed at Queenstown.

He said that after the ship was torpedoed there was no panic among the crew, but that they went about the work of getting passengers into the boats in a prompt and efficient manner.

"As we neared the coast of Ireland," said Mr. Cowper, "we all joined in the lookout, for a possible attack by a submarine was the sole topic of conversation.

"I was chatting with a friend at the rail about 2 o'clock, when suddenly I caught a glimpse of the conning tower of a submarine about a thousand yards distant. I immediately called my friend's attention to it. Immediately we both saw the track of a torpedo, followed almost instantly by an explosion. Portions of splintered hull were sent flying into the air, and then another torpedo struck. The ship began to list to starboard.

"The crew at once proceeded to get the passengers into boats in an orderly, prompt, and efficient manner. Miss Helen Smith appealed to me to save her. I placed her in a boat and saw her safely away. I got into one of the last boats to leave.

"Some of the boats could not be launched, as the vessel was sinking. There was a large number of women and children in the second cabin. Forty of the children were less than a year old."

From interviews with passengers it appears that when the torpedoes burst they sent forth suffocating fumes, which had their effect on the passengers, causing some of them to lose consciousness.

Two stokers, Byrne and Hussey of Liverpool, gave a few details. They said the submarine gave no notice and fired two torpedoes, one hitting No. 1 stoke hole and the second the engine room. The first torpedo was discharged at 2 o'clock. In twenty-five minutes the great liner disappeared.

The Cunard Line agent states that the total number of persons aboard the Lusitania was 2,160.

MR. KESSLER'S DESCRIPTION.

[Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.]

LONDON, Monday, May 10.—Survivors of the Lusitania arriving in London yesterday from Queenstown told some of their tragic experiences to THE NEW YORK TIMES correspondent.

They forcibly expressed the opinion that the Lusitania was badly handled in being run into waters where it was known submarines were waiting. Although not for a moment attempting to shift the blame from the "murderous Germans" for the sinking of a ship full of innocent passengers, they insisted that the officers of the steamship, knowing that submarines were lurking off the Irish coast, ought to have taken a different path to avoid all danger....

George A. Kessler of New York, in an interview, gave the following description of the Lusitania sinking and of preliminary incidents aboard:

"On Wednesday I saw the crew taking tarpaulins from the boats, and I went up to the Purser and said:

"'It's all right drilling your crew, but why don't you drill your passengers?'

"The Purser said he thought it was a good idea, and added, 'Why not tell Captain Turner, Sir?'

"The next day I had a conversation with the Captain, and to him suggested that the passengers should receive tickets, each with a number denoting the number of the boat he should make for in case anything untoward happened. I added that this detail would minimize difficulties in the event of trouble.

"The Captain replied that this suggestion was made after the disaster to the Titanic. The Cunard people had thought it over and considered it impracticable. He added that, of course, he could not act on the advice given, because he should first have the authority of the Board of Trade.

"I talked with the Captain generally about the torpedo scare, which neither of us regarded as of any moment. The Captain (you understand, of course, that we were smoking and chatting) explained his plans to me. He said that they were then slowing down, (in fact, we were going only about eighteen knots,) and that the ship would be slowed down until they got somewhere further on the voyage, and then they would go at all speed and get over the war zone.

"I asked him what the war zone was, and he said 500 miles from Liverpool.

"According to the next day's run, ending about two hours before the mishap occurred, we were about 380 or 390 miles from Liverpool. So we were in the war zone, and we were going only at a speed of eighteen knots at the critical moment.

"For the two days previous, as well as I remember, the mileage was 506 and 501, and on Thursday the mileage was 488. On Friday I was playing bridge when the pool was put up on the day's run and I heard twenty numbers go from 480 to 499. I thought it would be a grand speculation to buy the lowest number, as we were going so slow. I did buy it, and paid $100. The amount in the pool was between $300 and $350, and when the pool was declared, I was the winner.

"The steward offered to hand over the money if I would go to his cabin, but I said that he could pay me later.

"Shortly after the steward had left me I was on the upper deck and looking out to sea. I saw all at once the wash of a torpedo, indicated by a snake-like churn of the surface of the water. It may have been about thirty feet away. And then came a thud."

Mr. Kessler told of the general rush for the deck and the second explosion. Then he continued:

"Mr. Berth and his wife, from New York, first-class passengers, were the last ones I spoke to. I should say that all the passengers in the dining saloon had come up on deck. The upper deck was crowded, and, of course, the passengers were wondering what was the matter, few really believing what it proved to be. Still they began to lower boats, and then things began to happen very quickly.

"Mr. Berth was trying to persuade his wife to get into a boat. She said she would not do so without him. He said, 'Oh, come along, my darling; I will be all right,' and I added to his persuasions.

"I saw him help her into the boat with the ropes of the davits. I fell into the same boat, and we were slipped down into the water over the side of the liner, which was bulging out, the list being the other way. The boat struck the water, and after some seconds (it may have been a minute) I looked up and cried out, 'My God, the Lusitania is gone!'

"We saw the entire bulk, which had been almost upright just a few seconds before, suddenly lurch over away from us. Then she seemed to stand upright in the water, and the next instant the keel of the vessel caught the keel of the boat in which we were floating, and we were thrown into the water. There were only about thirty people in the boat, and I should say that all were stokers or third-class passengers. There may have been one or two first class; I cannot recall who they were.

"When the boat was overturned I sank fifteen or twenty feet. I thought I was gone. However, I had my lifebelt around me, and managed to rise again to the surface. There I floated for possibly ten or fifteen minutes, when I saw and made a grab at a collapsible lifeboat at which other passengers were also grabbing. We managed to get it shipshape and clamber in. There were eight or nine in the boat, all stokers except one or two third-class passengers.

"It was partly filled with water and in the scramble which occurred the boat was overturned, and once more we were pitched into the water. This occurred, I should say, eight times, the boat usually righting itself. Before we were picked up by the Bluebell six of the party of eight or nine were lying drowned in the bilge water which was in the bottom."

When asked what he thought the effect of the sinking would be on the United States, Mr. Kessler answered:

"My God! what can America do? Nothing will bring back these people to life.

"It was cold-blooded, deliberate murder, and nothing else—the greatest murder the world has ever known. How will going to war mend that?"

To the question whether the loss of the liner could have been avoided, Mr. Kessler said slowly:

"That is a very serious question, and I hesitate to give an opinion on matters which are purely technical.

"Still, it seems to me as a landsman, and one who has crossed the ocean a great many times, that the safety of the Lusitania lay in speed. We were in the war zone by 140 or 150 miles, and every moment that we dawdled at fifteen or eighteen knots was an increase of our risk of being torpedoed.

"Again, (and of course I merely make the comment,) I cannot understand why there were no destroyers or patrol boats about, as we certainly had been led to expect there would be when we reached the war zone.

"The ship was torpedoed at 2:05 P.M. My watch stopped at 2:30. It was 5 o'clock when I was picked up by the Bluebell, and it was 10 o'clock before we were landed in Queenstown."

CHARLES FROHMAN'S DEATH.

[Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.]

LONDON, May 10.—A highly interesting story was told tonight by Rita Jolivet, the actress, who stood calmly chatting with Charles Frohman and Alfred G. Vanderbilt during the last tense moments before the Lusitania sank. The three of them, together with G.L.S. Vernon, Miss Jolivet's brother-in-law, and Mr. Scott, who had come all the way from Japan to enlist, joined hands and stood waiting to face death together. Miss Jolivet said:

We stood talking about the Germans and the rumor which had gained currency that a man, obviously of German origin, had been arrested for tampering with the wireless. The story was that the man had been discovered at 1 o'clock in the morning a day or two before doing something to the wireless apparatus and had been immediately imprisoned. I did not see the man arrested, so I am not sure about the story's truth, but there were good grounds for believing it.

We determined not to enter the boats, and just a minute or two before the end Mr. Frohman said with a smile: "Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure that life gives us."

Mr. Scott fetched three lifebelts, one for Mr. Vanderbilt, one for Mr. Frohman, and one for my brother-in-law. He said he was not going to wear one himself, and my brother-in-law also refused to put his on. I hear that Mr. Vanderbilt gave his to a lady, Mrs. Scott. I helped to put a lifebelt on Mr. Frohman. My brother-in-law took hold of my hand and I grasped the hand of Mr. Frohman, who, as you know, was lame. Mr. Scott took hold of his other hand, and Mr. Vanderbilt joined the row, too. We had made up our minds to die together.

Then Mr. Frohman, in a perfectly calm voice, said: "They've done for us; we had better get out." He knew that his beautiful adventure was about to begin. He had hardly spoken when, with a tremendous roar, a great wave swept along the deck and we were all divided in a moment. I have not seen any of those brave men alive since. Mr. Frohman, Mr. Vanderbilt, and my brother-in-law were drowned. When Mr. Frohman's body was recovered there was the most beautiful and peaceful smile upon his lips.

VANDERBILT'S HEROIC END.

[Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.]

LONDON, May 9.—Two survivors of the Lusitania disaster have given testimony that Alfred G. Vanderbilt died heroically; that he went to death to save the life of a woman.

Thomas Slidell, a friend of Mr. Vanderbilt, who lives at the Knickerbocker Club in New York, and was traveling with him, told of the sacrifice first. Then tonight Norman Ratcliffe, who lives in Gillingham, Kent, and was returning from Japan, offered verification. Mr. Ratcliffe was rescued, after clinging to a box in the sea for three hours. With him was a steward of the Lusitania. He said:

This steward told me he had seen Mr. Vanderbilt on the Lusitania's deck, shortly after the ship was struck, with a lifebelt about his body. When the ship gave every indication that it would sink within a few minutes, the steward said, Mr. Vanderbilt took off his lifebelt and gave it to a woman who passed him on the deck, trembling with fear of the fate she expected to meet. The steward said Mr. Vanderbilt turned back, as though to look for another belt, and he saw him no more.

Telling of his last moments on the ship and his last sight of Mr. Vanderbilt, Mr. Slidell said:

I saw Alfred G. Vanderbilt only a few minutes before I left the ship. He was standing with a lifebelt in his hand. A woman came up to him, and I saw him place the belt around the woman. He had none for himself, and I know that he could not swim.

Only the day before we had been talking of a day and a dawn some years ago when we went down the bay at New York in his yacht and waited to welcome and dip our flag to the Lusitania on her maiden voyage. We saw the first and last of her. Vanderbilt, who had given largely to the Red Cross, was returning to England in order to offer a fleet of wagons and himself as driver to the Red Cross Society, for he said he felt every day that he was not doing enough.

KLEIN AND HUBBARD LOST.

Oliver O. Bernard, scenic artist of Covent Garden, said:

Only one or two of the shining marks which disasters at sea seem invariably to involve have lived to tell the Lusitania's tale. Vanderbilt, the sportsman, is gone. Genial Charles Klein, the playwright, is gone. That erratic American literary genius, Elbert Hubbard, is gone, and with him a wife to whom he seemed particularly devoted. And Charles Frohman is gone.

Frohman's was the only body I could recognize in the Queenstown mortuary, and perhaps it will interest his many friends in London and New York to know that the famous manager's face in death gives uncommonly convincing evidence that he died without a struggle. It wears a serenely peaceful look.

Frohman must have found it more difficult for him to take his place in a lifeboat than any other man on the ship. He was quite lame, and hobbled about on deck laboriously with a heavy cane. He seldom came to the general dining saloon, either out of sensitiveness or because of distress caused by his leg.

I last saw Alfred G. Vanderbilt standing at the port entrance to the grand saloon. He stood there the personification of sportsmanlike coolness. In his right hand was grasped what looked to me like a large purple leather jewel case. It may have belonged to Lady Mackworth, as Mr. Vanderbilt had been much in company of the Thomas party during the trip, and evidently had volunteered to do Lady Mackworth the service of saving her gems for her. Mr. Vanderbilt was absolutely unperturbed. In my eyes, he was the figure of a gentleman waiting unconcernedly for a train. He had on a dark striped suit, and was without cap or other head covering.

GERMAN OFFICIAL REPORT.

BERLIN, May 8, (via wireless to London Sunday, May 9.)—The following official communication was issued tonight:

The Cunard liner Lusitania was yesterday torpedoed by a German submarine and sank.

The Lusitania was naturally armed with guns, as were recently most of the English mercantile steamers. Moreover, as is well known here, she had large quantities of war material in her cargo.

Her owners, therefore, knew to what danger the passengers were exposed. They alone bear all the responsibility for what has happened.

Germany, on her part, left nothing undone to repeatedly and strongly warn them. The Imperial Ambassador in Washington even went so far as to make a public warning, so as to draw attention to this danger. The English press sneered at the warning and relied on the protection of the British fleet to safeguard Atlantic traffic.

BRITAIN'S DENIAL.

LONDON, May 8.—The British Government today made the following announcement:

The statement appearing in some newspapers that the Lusitania was armed is wholly false.

COLLECTOR MALONE'S DENIAL.

In THE NEW YORK TIMES of May 9, 1915, the following report appeared:

Dudley Field Malone, Collector of the Port, gave an official denial yesterday to the German charge that the Lusitania had guns mounted when the left this port on Saturday, May 1. He said:

"This report is not correct. The Lusitania was inspected before sailing, as is customary.

"No guns were found, mounted or unmounted, and the vessel sailed without any armament. No merchant ship would be allowed to arm in this port and leave the harbor."

This statement was given out by the Collector yesterday morning at his home, 270 Riverside Drive.

Herman Winter, Assistant Manager of the Cunard Line, 22 State Street, who was on the Lusitania for three hours before she sailed for Liverpool, denied the report that she ever carried any guns.

"It is true," Mr. Winter said, "that she had aboard 4,200 cases of cartridges, but they were cartridges for small arms, packed in separate cases, and could not have injured the vessel by exploding. They certainly do not come under the classification of ammunition. The United States authorities would not permit us to carry ammunition, classified as such by the military authorities, on a passenger liner. For years we have been sending small-arms cartridges abroad on the Lusitania."

SIR ROBERT BORDEN, K.C.M.G.—Prime Minister of Canada

H.R.H. FIELD MARSHAL THE DUKE OF CONNAUGHT—
Uncle of George V. and Governor General of Canada—
(Photo from P.S. Rogers.)

"The Lusitania had 1,250 steel shrapnel cases, but they were empty. There was no explosive of any sort aboard. As to the report that the Lusitania had guns aboard, I cannot assert too strongly that it is positively untrue. There were no guns whatever aboard. The Lusitania was an unarmed passenger steamer. Furthermore she never has been armed, and never carried an unmounted gun or rifle out of port in times of war or peace."

"Then you unqualifiedly declare that the Lusitania was not armed against submarines?" he was asked.

"The ship," Mr Winter replied, "was as defenseless against undersea and underhanded attack as a Hoboken ferryboat in the North River would be against one of the United States battleships."

Captain D.J. Roberts, Marine Superintendent of the Cunard Line, said yesterday that he was prepared to testify under oath in any court and from his personal knowledge that the Lusitania did not carry any guns when she sailed from New York at 12:28 P.M. on May 1 for Liverpool.

"It is my invariable custom to go through the passenger ships every day they are in port," he said, "and I made my last inspection of the Lusitania on sailing day at 7 A.M. There were no guns or plates or mountings where guns could be fitted on the Lusitania, nor have there been since she has been in the service. The ship has never carried troops or been chartered by the British Government for any purpose whatsoever.

"In order that there should be no mistake about the ensigns flown by British merchant vessels, the Admiralty ordered after war had been declared that only the red ensign, a square red flag with the union jack in the corner, should be shown at the stern of a merchantman, and the white St. George's ensign by all war vessels, whether armored or unarmored. These are the only two flags that are hoisted on British ships today, with the exception of the company's house flag, when they are entering port or passing at sea, and the mail flag on the foremast, which every steamship flies coming in to denote that she has mails on board.

"Before the war both the Lusitania and the Mauretania flew the blue ensign of the Royal Naval Reserve, which any British merchant vessel is allowed to do if her commander and officers and two-thirds of the crew belong to the reserve."

NEUTRALS IN THE WAR ZONE.

[German Foreign Office Note.]

[Special to The New York Times.]

WASHINGTON, May 11.—Secretary Bryan received from Ambassador Gerard at Berlin today the text of an official declaration by the German Government of its policy with respect to American and other neutral ships meeting German submarines in the naval war zone around the British Isles and in the North Sea. This declaration was handed to Mr. Gerard by the German Foreign Office which explained that it was being issued as a "circular statement" in regard to "mistaken attacks by German submarines on commerce vessels of neutral nations."

First—The Imperial German Government has naturally no intention of causing to be attacked by submarines or aircraft such neutral ships of commerce in the zone of naval warfare, more definitely described in the notice of the German Admiralty staff of Feb. 4 last, as have been guilty of no hostile act. On the contrary, the most definite instructions have repeatedly been issued to German war vessels to avoid attacks on such ships under all circumstances. Even when such ships have contraband of war on board they are dealt with by submarines solely according to the rules of international law applying to prize warfare.

Second—Should a neutral ship nevertheless come to harm through German submarines or aircraft on account of an unfortunate (X) [mistake?] in the above-mentioned zone of naval warfare, the German Government will unreservedly recognize its responsibility therefor. In such a case it will express its regrets and afford damages without first instituting a prize court action.

Third—It is the custom of the German Government as soon as the sinking of a neutral ship in the above-mentioned zone of naval warfare is ascribed to German war vessels to institute an immediate investigation into the cause. If grounds appear thereby to be given for association of such a hypothesis the German Navy places itself in communication with the interested neutral Government so that the latter may also institute an investigation. If the German Government is thereby convinced that the ship has been destroyed by Germany's war vessels, it will not delay in carrying out the provisions of Paragraph 2 above. In case the German Government, contrary to the viewpoint of the neutral Government is not convinced by the result of the investigation, the German Government has already on several occasions declared itself ready to allow the question to be decided by an international investigation commission, according to Chapter 3 of The Hague Convention of Oct. 18, 1907, for the peaceful solution of international disputes.

This circular is understood to have been rather reassuring to high officials of the United States Government, although it does not cover the attitude of the German Government toward the treatment to be accorded to Americans and other neutral noncombatants, men, women, and children, on board vessels flying the flag of England, France, or Russia. The absence of any allusion to the principle involved in the Lusitania case is believed here to mean that the statement was prepared and was ready for promulgation before the destruction of the Lusitania on Friday. Several days usually have been required for messages to come to Washington from Ambassador Gerard, by roundabout cable relay route, and it is believed that this dispatch is no exception in this respect.

DR. DERNBURG'S DEFENSE.

The sinking of the Lusitania as a man-of-war was justified by Dr. Bernhard Dernburg, late German Colonial Secretary and recognized as quasi-official spokesman of the German Imperial Government in the United States, in a statement issued in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 8, 1915. The statement reads:

Great Britain declared the North Sea a war zone in the Winter. No protest was made by the United States or any neutral. Great Britain held up all neutral ships carrying non-contraband goods, detaining them, buying or confiscating their cargoes.

Great Britain constantly changed the contraband lists, so no foodstuffs of any kind have actually reached Germany since the war began. International law says foodstuffs destined for the civil population must pass. It does not recognize any right to starve out a whole people.

As a consequence, and in retaliation, Germany declared the waters around England a war zone, and started a submarine warfare. It became known in February that British ships were flying the American flag as a protection.

Great Britain replied by officially declaring its purpose to starve 120,000,000 Germans and Austrians. The United States very thoughtfully tried to mediate, proposing that foodstuffs should be passed and submarine warfare be stopped.

Germany agreed; England turned the proposal down. Then, in order to protect American passengers, they were warned by public advertisement of the danger of sailing under the flag of a belligerent.

Vessels carrying contraband of war are liable to destruction unless they can be taken to a port of the country that captures them. The right of search need not be exercised if it is certain such ships carry contraband.

Oil is contraband, like war ammunition and all metals. The master of the Gulflight (an American oil tank steamer sunk recently) swore before customs officials to his cargo of oil for France.

The master of the Lusitania similarly swore to his manifest of cargo of metals and ammunition. Both the Gulflight and the Lusitania carried contraband when attacked, it is obvious.

The Lusitania's manifest showed she carried for Liverpool 260,000 pounds of brass; 60,000 pounds of copper; 189 cases of military goods; 1,271 cases of ammunition, and for London, 4,200 cases of cartridges.

Vessels of that kind can be seized and be destroyed under The Hague rules without any respect to a war zone. The Lusitania was a British auxiliary cruiser, a man-of-war. On the same day she sailed the Cameronia, another Cunarder, was commandeered in New York Harbor for military service.

The fact is that the Lusitania was a British war vessel under orders of the Admiralty to carry a cargo of contraband of war. The passengers had had full warning, first by the German note to England in February, second by advertisement.

Germany wants to do anything reasonable so as not to make the United States or its citizens suffer in any way. But she cannot do so unless Americans will take necessary precautions to protect themselves from dangers of which they are cognizant.

What Germany has done, she has done by way of retaliation after her offer through President Wilson, regarding submarine warfare, was turned down and after Britain declared the war was directed toward the 120,000,000 innocent noncombatants, women and children.

Americans can do their own thinking when the facts are laid before them. I have really no authority to speak. But my mission in the United States is to inform your people of the German attitude. The German Ambassador, Count von Bernstorff, can speak only in official phrases. I talk straight out, bluntly.

Dr. Dernburg put much stress on the fact that the Cunard Line officials did not warn American passengers that the ship carried a large store of ammunition and other contraband of war. He continued:

Did they issue a warning? I would like an answer. If that warning was not given, American passengers were being used as a cloak for England's war shipments.

It is not reasonable that such a vessel could not be sunk because there were American passengers on board. They had been warned by Germany of the danger.

England could hire one American to travel to and fro on each of her ships, carry on shipments of arms, and place her men-of-war anywhere, if American passengers can be used as shields.

Asked whether he expected action by the United States because of the Lusitania's sinking, Dr. Dernburg said:

That is a question I cannot discuss. I can only say that any ship flying the American flag and not carrying contraband of war is and will be as safe as a cradle. But any other ship, not so exempt, is as unsafe as a volcano—or as was the Lusitania.

When he was told that the Transylvania, another Cunard liner, sailed from New York on May 7, to cover the same route as the Lusitania, Dr. Dernburg said:

I can only say that the German warnings will reappear henceforth by advertisement. That is significant.

GERMAN-AMERICAN PRESS COMMENTS.

Under the heading "The President's Note," Herman Ridder, editor of the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, one of the leading German-American newspapers, said in that publication on May 15:

The attitude assumed by the President, in the note delivered yesterday to the German Government, toward the infringement of our rights on the seas is diplomatically correct and must compel the support of the entire American people.

We have suffered grievously at the hands of more than one of the belligerent nations, but for the moment we are dealing only with Germany. The note recites a series of events which the Government of the United States could not silently pass by, and demands reparation for American lives lost and American property already destroyed and a guarantee that the rights of the United States and its citizens shall be observed in the future. All this the German Government may well grant, frankly and unreservedly and without loss of honor or prestige. It would be incomprehensible if it did not do so.

The note admits, as most diplomatic documents do, of two interpretations. They will be applied to it variously, as the reader is inclined to pessimism or to optimism. It is a document in which lies the choice of war or peace evenly balanced. I prefer to read into it all the optimism which can be derived from the knowledge that two nations, historically like-minded and bound to one another by strong ties of friendship, seldom go to war over matters which can be settled without resort to the arbitrament of arms. There is no question outstanding today between the United States and Germany which cannot be settled through diplomatic channels. I am inclined all the more to this optimism by the temperament and character of the President of the United for the time being.

I see in the note great possibilities for good. The undersea activities of the German Navy in their effect upon the rights of the United States and its citizens form, properly, the burden of its argument. We are addressing Germany, and it is only over her submarine policy that our interests have clashed with hers. The note takes cognizance, however, of the inter-relation of Germany's submarine policy and the British policy of "starving out Germany." The President has opened an avenue to the full discussion of the rights and obligations of submarines in naval warfare, and when Germany has stated her case it is not only not impossible but it is highly probable that he will be asked to suggest a modus vivendi by which the objectionable features of both these policies may be removed.

The situation is basically triangular and it is difficult to see how the settlement of our difficulties with Germany can escape involving at the same time the rectification of Great Britain's methods of dealing with the trade between neutral countries and her adversaries. It is but a step from the position of mediator in a question of this sort to that of mediator in the larger questions which make for war or peace. I believe that the note contains the hopeful sign that these things may come to pass.

The possibilities are there and the President, I am confident, will overlook no possibility of advancing the cause of an early return of peace to Europe nor leave any unturned stone to free this country of the dangers and inconveniences which have become the concomitants of the European struggle. Out of the troubled waters of our present relations with Germany may thus come a great and, we may hope, a lasting good. Should this happily be the case, the wisdom of the President will have been confirmed and the thankfulness of the nation secured to him. On the other hand, should his pacific hand be forced by those who wax fat and wealthy on strife and the end should be disaster untold to the country, he will still have the consolation of having fought a good battle and of knowing that he was worsted only by the irresistible force of demagogy in this country or abroad.

The subject with which the note deals is one of the same paramount importance to Germany as it is to this country, and we must wait in patience for Germany's reply; and I, for one, shall wait in the confidence that when it is received it will be found to offer a basis for a friendly solution of the questions which exist between Germany and the United States and, not unlikely, for those further steps which I have intimated.

Under the caption "A Word of Earnest Advice," the evening edition of the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung on May 14 issued the following warning to Germans and German-Americans:

The times are grave—even very grave.... A conflict between America and the old Fatherland is threatening. Such a conflict must rend the heart of every German-American who has acquired the rights of citizenship here, who has founded a new career for himself and brought up his children.

It is probably unnecessary to give any advice to the American citizens among our readers in regard to their conduct in this grave time. A series of years must pass before an immigrant can obtain his citizenship papers; nobody is forced to become a citizen. Of the man who has voluntarily become a citizen of the United States we may therefore expect that he knows the conditions here obtaining the institutions of the country of his adoption, as well as his rights and duties. But there are thousands upon thousands of our readers who are not citizens, and to them a serious word of advice shall now be addressed. In the grave time of the conflict let efforts be made to avoid every personal conflict. It is not necessarily cowardly to deny one's descent, but it is not necessary, either, to make demonstrations.

Where there is life there is hope. The hope still is entertained that the conflict will be eliminated, that the bond of friendship between Germany and America will not be torn. Through thoughtless Hotspurs, who allow themselves to be carried away by excitement and do not dam up the flood of their eloquence, much mischief can be done. Keeping away from the public places where the excited groups congregate and discuss the burning questions of the day must be urgently recommended. It was for many a sport to participate in these discussions, and with more or less skill, but always energetically to champion the German cause.

The American is in general very liberal in regard to expression of opinion. He likes to hear also the "other side," but it must not be forgotten that in times of conflict the "other side" may be regarded as the "enemy side." What has heretofore sounded harmless may now be interpreted as a criticism made against the United States. But the American as a rule repels a criticism made by strangers against the affairs of his own country. Through heated discussions and unwise demonstrations nothing is at present to be achieved but much can be spoiled.

Grave times!

Calmness is now the first duty of citizenship—for all non-citizens.

But whoever is a citizen—he would be doing well in any event to stay away from the streets and squares where the noisy ones congregate.

There are very many Germans whose motto here, too, is: "We Germans fear God and nothing else in the world." But whoever bellows that into the ears of hundreds of persons of hostile mind in the public market place is either a fool or—weary of life.

In submarine warfare the Germans may be superior to the British, but in undermining the latter are superior to the former. They have now succeeded in undermining the friendship between Uncle Sam and the Deutsche Michel. Let us hope that the fuse can be extinguished before the explosion follows.

Charles Neumeyer, editor of The Louisville (Ky.) Anzeiger, in a dispatch on May 14 to THE NEW YORK TIMES, said of President Wilson's note:

The American note to Berlin evidences the desire of the President to hold Germany to strict accountability for the loss of American lives in the Lusitania disaster. This proceeding on the part of the American Government is eminently just and proper. If the President had failed to hold Germany to strict accountability he would have failed of his official duty. The President's forceful action cannot be but of salutary effect in this country also. It gives the American people the assurance that the Government at Washington is prepared and ready for the protection of American citizens wherever they may chance to be.

There was a time when the Government did not resort to very vigorous measures in this respect. American citizens while traveling abroad were frequently subject to insult and violence, and the authorities at Washington seemingly paid little heed to complaints. The result was that the American citizen abroad was not held in that respect which emanates from the knowledge that his home Government is prepared to go to the length of its ability, if necessary, to accord him protection.

One or two of the demands formulated against Germany do not meet with our approval. The President demands a cessation of German submarine warfare on merchant vessels, but while the interruption of the starvation plan adopted by England against the civil population is urged upon the latter it will continue. The starvation plan is primarily being waged against the weak and helpless, and is, therefore, responsible. It is also in violation of the spirit if not the letter of international law. If the President can force a demand for the cessation of the submarine warfare, he ought also to have the right to demand the lifting of the starvation blockade. The tragedy was chiefly due to either stupidity or design on the part of the British Admiralty in failing to afford proper protection to the ship. While we do not agree with the President on some points in his note, we repose the fullest confidence in his patriotism as well as his deliberate judgment as giving assurance that, whatever the outcome, the case of the American people rests in trustworthy hands.

The people should by their action spare him unnecessary embarrassment and rely for a satisfactory solution of the grave questions confronting us on his patriotism and honesty.

A dispatch on May 14 to THE NEW YORK TIMES from Max Burgheim, editor of the Freie Presse of Cincinnati, Ohio, reads:

The part of the note referring to the Lusitania catastrophe had better been directed to London. England, not Germany, is responsible for the destruction of the Lusitania. England, through the violation of the rights of nations and the brutal threat to starve 70,000,000 Germans, has forced Germany to a policy against English commerce of which the Lusitania was a victim. Germany declared to our President her willingness to stop submarine warfare if England would allow the importation of food for the German civil population. England contemptuously cast aside the President's mediation.

It has not yet been proved that submarine warfare is not in keeping with international law. Distinguished authorities on international law have declared that Germany was not only justified but bound to adopt this method in the hour of need, because it is the only effective defense against England's warfare. Germany cannot cease this warfare unless she wishes to surrender with tied hands to a ruthless enemy. All we can justly ask of Germany is that neutral ships be not attacked, and that damages be paid in case of loss through mistakes. Germany has already agreed to this.

CASE OF THE FALABA.

A Washington dispatch to THE NEW YORK TIMES on March 31, 1915, reported that the records of the State Department's Passport Bureau show that a passport was issued on June 1, 1911, to Leon Chester Thrasher, a passenger aboard the British African steamship Falaba, which was torpedoed by a German submarine in the "zone of naval warfare" on March 28. The American citizenship of Thrasher, who was drowned, has been established.

[Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.]

LONDON, Wednesday, March 31.—An American citizen, Leon Chester Thrasher, an engineer, was among the victims of the German submarine that sank the British steamer Falaba in St. George's Channel last Sunday with a loss of 111 lives. Mr. Thrasher's name is included in the official list of the missing. For the last year he had been employed on the Gold Coast, British West Africa, and it is presumed he was returning to his post when he met his death at the hands of the German sea raiders.

The Daily Mail says Mr. Thrasher was bound for Secondee, West Africa. Reference to the form which has to be filled out to satisfy the Board of Trade and customs requirements by every passenger embarking at a British port before tickets will be issued shows that Mr. Thrasher was a citizen of the United States. Here are the particulars:

Name, Leon Chester Thrasher; age, last birthday, 31; single; sex, male; profession, engineer; country of residence for last twelve months, Gold Coast Colony, West Africa; country of intended residence for next twelve months, the same; country of which citizen or subject, United States of America; present address, 29 Cartwright Gardens, St. Pancras, W.C.

When Mr. Thrasher went on board the Falaba he produced an American passport.

The British Official Press Bureau on April 8 issued the following report on the destruction of the Falaba:

It is not true that sufficient time was given the passengers and the crew of this vessel to escape. The German submarine closed in on the Falaba, ascertained her name, signaled her to stop, and gave those on board five minutes to take to the boats. It would have been nothing short of a miracle if all the passengers and crew of a big liner had been able to take to their boats within the time allotted.

While some of the boats were still on their davits the submarine fired a torpedo at short range. This action made it absolutely certain that there must be great loss of life and it must have been committed knowingly with the intention of producing that result.

The conduct of all on board the Falaba appears to have been excellent. There was no avoidable delay in getting out the boats. To accuse the Falaba's crew of negligence under the circumstances could not easily be paralleled.

THE GERMAN DEFENSE.

[By The Associated Press.]

BERLIN, April 13, (via Amsterdam to London, April 14.)—A semi-official account of the sinking of the British steamer Falaba by a German submarine on March 28 was made public here today. It follows:

On receiving the signal "Stop, or I fire," the Falaba steamed off and sent up rocket signals to summon help, and was only brought to a standstill after a chase of a quarter of an hour.

Despite the danger of an attack from the steamer or from other vessels hurrying up, the submarine did not immediately fire, but signaled that the steamer must be abandoned within ten minutes. The men of the Falaba quickly entered the boats, although the launching took place in an unseamanlike manner. They failed to give assistance, which was possible, to passengers struggling in the water.

From the time of the order to leave the ship until the torpedo was discharged not ten but twenty-three minutes elapsed, prior to which occurred the chase of the steamer, during which period time might have been used to get the boats ready.

The torpedo was fired only when the approach of suspicious-looking vessels, from which an attack was to be expected, compelled the commander of the submarine to take quick action. When the torpedo was discharged nobody was seen on board the ship except the Captain, who bravely stuck to his post.

Afterward some persons became visible who were busy about a boat.

Of the crew of the submarine, the only ones on deck were those serving the cannon or those necessary for signaling. It was impossible for them to engage in rescue work, because the submarine could not take on passengers.

Every word is superfluous in defending our men against malignant accusations. At the judicial proceedings in England no witness dared raise accusations. It is untrue that at any time the submarine displayed the English flag. The submarine throughout the affair showed as much consideration for the Falaba as was compatible with safety.

COMMANDER SCHMITZ'S STORY.

[From The New York Times, May 6, 1915.]

J.J. Ryan, the American cotton broker who went to Germany on March 30 and sold 28,000 bales of cotton he had shipped to Bremen and Hamburg, returned yesterday on the Cunard liner Carpathia very well satisfied with the results of his trip. He said:

While I was in Bremen I met Commander Schmitz of the German submarine U-28, which sank the British African liner Falaba off the English coast on March 28. He told me that he regretted having been compelled to torpedo the vessel, as she had passengers on board. In explanation, he said:

"I warned the Captain of the Falaba to dismantle his wireless apparatus and gave him ten minutes in which to do it and get his passengers off. Instead of acting upon my demand he continued to send messages out to torpedo destroyers that were less than twenty miles away, to come as quickly as possible to his assistance.

"At the expiration of the ten minutes I gave him a second warning about dismantling his wireless apparatus and waited twenty minutes, and then I torpedoed the ship, as the destroyers were getting close up and I knew they would go to the rescue of the passengers and crew."

I mentioned the fact to the commander that it had been reported by some of the survivors of the liner that while the men and women were struggling for their lives in the icy water his crew were standing on the deck of the submarine laughing. He looked very gravely at me and replied, "That is not true, and is most cruelly unjust to my men. They were crying, not laughing, when the boats were capsized and threw the people into the water."

CASE OF THE CUSHING.

[Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES.]

WASHINGTON, May 1.—Secretary Bryan today received from American Minister Henry van Dyke at The Hague a report on the attack by German aviators on the American steamship Cushing and said tonight that this report would be immediately cabled to Ambassador Gerard at Berlin for his information. Ambassador Gerard will bring the matter to the attention of the German Government. The report from Minister van Dyke was very brief, and read as follows:

The American Consul at Rotterdam reports that the American steamship Cushing, Captain Herland, with petroleum from New York to Rotterdam, flying the American flag, was attacked by German aeroplanes near the North Hinder Lightship, afternoon April 29. Three bombs dropped, one struck ship, causing damage, but no life lost.

The report of Captain Lars Larsen Herland, master of the American tank steamer Cushing, made upon his arrival in Philadelphia, Penn., on May 19, 1915, is as follows:

The airmen swept in narrow circles over the tanker, trying to get directly over the funnel, with the idea, apparently, of dropping a bomb into it and wrecking the engine room.

When attacked the Cushing was about twenty-five miles from Antwerp and eight miles from the North Hinder Lightship. It was near 7 o'clock in the evening, but the sun had barely touched the horizon, and there was ample light for the pilot of the biplane to see the words, "Cushing, New York, United States of America," painted on each side of the vessel in letters eight feet high, and to note the Stars and Stripes at the masthead and the taffrail.

When the airship was first noted it was several thousand feet in the air, but dropped as it approached the ship, and soon was only about 500 feet up. Suddenly it swooped down to about 300 feet above the Cushing. Then there was a tremendous explosion, and a wave flooded the stern deck. A second bomb missed the port quarter by a foot or so, and sent another wave over the lower deck.

The biplane swung up into the wind, hung motionless for a second or so, then came the third bomb, which just grazed the starboard rail and shot into the sea.

The airship hung around for a few minutes, then headed toward the Dutch coast. She was flying a white flag, with a black cross in the centre, the pennant of the German air fleet.

CASE OF THE GULFLIGHT.

Official confirmation of the attack on May 1, 1915, by a German submarine on the American oil tank steamer Gulflight off the Scilly Islands came to the State Department at Washington on May 3 in dispatches from Joseph G. Stephens, the United States Consul at Plymouth, England. Two members of the crew were drowned, the Captain died of heart failure, and thirty-four members of the crew were saved. Following is the sworn statement of Ralph E. Smith, late chief officer and now master of the Gulflight, received from Ambassador Page and published by the State Department at Washington on May 11:

I am Ralph E. Smith, now master of the steamship Gulflight. At the commencement of the voyage I was chief officer. The ship left port at Port Arthur on the 10th day of April, 1915, about 4 P.M., laden with a tank cargo of gasoline and wooden barrels of lubricating oil. The voyage was uneventful.

When about half way across the Atlantic the wireless operator told me there was a British cruiser in our vicinity and that he had heard messages from this ship the whole time since leaving Port Arthur, but she made no direct communication with or to our ship. From the sound of the wireless messages given out by the British ship, she seemed to maintain the same distance from us until about three days before we reached the mouth of the English Channel.

On the first day of May, about 11 o'clock in the forenoon, we spoke two British patrol vessels named Iago and Filey. We were then about twenty-two miles west of the Bishop Lighthouse. The patrol vessels asked where we were bound. After informing them we were bound for Rouen, they ordered us to follow them to the Bishop. The Filey took up a position a half mile distant on our port bow, the Iago off our starboard quarter close to us. We steered as directed, and at about 12:22, the second officer, being on watch, sighted a submarine on our port bow—slightly on the port bow—steaming at right angles to our course. The submarine was in sight for about five minutes, when she submerged about right ahead of us. I saw her, but could not distinguish or see any flag flying on her.

The Gulflight was then steering about true east, steaming about eight miles an hour, flying a large American ensign, six feet by ten feet. The wind was about south, about eight miles an hour in force. I personally observed our flag was standing out well to the breeze.

Immediately after seeing the submarine I went aft and notified the crew and came back and went on the bridge and heard the Captain make the remark that that must be a British submarine, as the patrol boats took no notice of it.

About 12:50 an explosion took place in the Gulflight on the bluff of the starboard bow, sending vast quantities of water high in the air, coming down on the bridge and shutting everything off from our view. After the water cleared away our ship had sunk by the head so that the sea was washing over the foredeck, and the ship appeared to be sinking.

Immediately after I went aft to see to the boats. On my way I saw one man overboard on the starboard side. The water at that time was black with oil. The boats were lowered and the crew got into them without delay or damage. After ascertaining there was no one left on board the ship I got in my boat and we were picked up by the patrol vessel Iago and were advised by her crew to leave the scene. We proceeded toward St. Mary's, but the dense fog which then came on prevented us getting into the harbor that night.

About 2:30 in the morning following I saw Captain Gunter, master of the Gulflight, who had been sleeping in the room of the skipper of the Iago, standing in the room with a queer look in his face. I asked him what his trouble was, and he made no reply. Then he reached for the side of the berth with his hands, but did not take hold. I went in the room, but he fell before I reached him.

He was taken on deck, as the cabin was small and hot. After reaching the deck he seemed to revive and said: "I am cold." After that he had apparently two fainting attacks and then expired in a third one—this being about 3:40.

We arrived at St. Mary's, Scilly, about 10 o'clock on the morning of May 2. The Gulflight was towed to Crow Sound, Scilly, on May 2 by British patrol vessels, and Commander Oliver, senior naval officer of the Port of Scilly, sent for some one to come on board the Gulflight, and I went, and the ship was anchored about 6 P.M.

I again left the ship that evening—she being then in charge of the Admiralty. I visited the ship on Monday. I went out again on Tuesday, but it was too rough to get on board. To the best of my knowledge there was no examination of the vessel made by divers until Wednesday about 3 P.M., when members from the American Embassy were present. The divers at this time made an external examination only of the ship's bottom and left the ship with me at 5:40 P.M.

I.—"AMERICA FIRST."

[President Wilson's address on April 20, 1915, to the members of The Associated Press at their annual luncheon in New York:]

I am deeply gratified by the generous reception you have accorded me. It makes me look back with a touch of regret to former occasions when I have stood in this place and enjoyed a greater liberty than is granted me today. There have been times when I stood in this spot and said what I really thought, and I pray God that those days of indulgence may be accorded me again. But I have come here today, of course, somewhat restrained by a sense of responsibility that I cannot escape.

For I take The Associated Press very seriously. I know the enormous part that you play in the affairs not only of this country, but the world. You deal in the raw material of opinion and, if my convictions have any validity, opinion ultimately governs the world.

It is, therefore, of very serious things that I think as I face this body of men. I do not think of you, however, as members of The Associated Press. I do not think of you as men of different parties or of different racial derivations or of different religious denominations, I want to talk to you as to my fellow-citizens of the United States. For there are serious things which as fellow-citizens we ought to consider.

The times behind us, gentlemen, have been difficult enough, the times before us are likely to be more difficult because, whatever may be said about the present condition of the world's affairs, it is clear that they are drawing rapidly to a climax, and at the climax the test will come, not only of the nations engaged in the present colossal struggle, it will come for them of course, but the test will come to us particularly.

Do you realize that, roughly speaking, we are the only great nation at present disengaged? I am not speaking, of course, with disparagement of the greater of those nations in Europe which are not parties to the present war, but I am thinking of their close neighborhood to it. I am thinking how their lives much more than ours touch the very heart and stuff of the business; whereas, we have rolling between us and those bitter days across the water three thousand miles of cool and silent ocean.

Our atmosphere is not yet charged with those disturbing elements which must be felt and must permeate every nation of Europe. Therefore, is it not likely that the nations of the world will some day turn to us for the cooler assessment of the elements engaged?

I am not now thinking so preposterous a thought as that we should sit in judgment upon them. No nation is fit to sit in judgment upon any other nation, but that we shall some day have to assist in reconstructing the processes of peace. Our resources are untouched; we are more and more becoming by the force of circumstances the mediating nation of the world in respect to its finances. We must make up our minds what are the best things to do and what are the best ways to do them.

We must put our money, our energy, our enthusiasm, our sympathy into these things; and we must have our judgments prepared and our spirits chastened against the coming of that day. So that I am not speaking in a selfish spirit when I say that our whole duty for the present, at any rate, is summed up in this motto, "America first." Let us think of America before we think of Europe, in order that America may be fit to be Europe's friend when the day of tested friendship comes. The test of friendship is not now sympathy with the one side or the other, but getting ready to help both sides when the struggle is over.

The basis of neutrality, gentlemen, is not indifference; it is not self-interest. The basis of neutrality is sympathy for mankind. It is fairness, it is good-will at bottom. It is impartiality of spirit and of judgment. I wish that all of our fellow-citizens could realize that.

There is in some quarters a disposition to create distempers in this body politic. Men are even uttering slanders against the United States as if to excite her. Men are saying that if we should go to war upon either side there will be a divided America—an abominable libel of ignorance. America is not all of it vocal just now. It is vocal in spots.

But I for one have a complete and abiding faith in that great silent body of Americans who are not standing up and shouting and expressing their opinions just now, but are waiting to find out and support the duty of America. I am just as sure of their solidity and of their loyalty and of their unanimity, if we act justly, as I am that the history of this country has at every crisis and turning point illustrated this great lesson.

We are the mediating nation of the world. I do not mean that we undertake not to mind our own business and to mediate where other people are quarreling. I mean the word in a broader sense. We are compounded of the nations of the world. We mediate their blood, we mediate their traditions, we mediate their sentiments, their tastes, their passions; we are ourselves compounded of those things.

We are, therefore, able to understand all nations; we are able to understand them in the compound, not separately, as partisans, but unitedly, as knowing and comprehending and embodying them all. It is in that sense that I mean that America is a mediating nation. The opinion of America, the action of America, is ready to turn and free to turn in any direction.

Did you ever reflect upon how almost all other nations, almost every other nation has through long centuries been headed in one direction? That is not true of the United States. The United States has no racial momentum. It has no history back of it which makes it run all its energies and all its ambitions in one particular direction; and America is particularly free in this, that she has no hampering ambitions as a world power.

If we have been obliged by circumstances or have considered ourselves to be obliged by circumstances, in the past to take territory which we otherwise would not have thought of taking, I believe I am right in saying that we have considered it our duty to administer that territory, not for ourselves, but for the people living in it, and to put this burden upon our consciences not to think that this thing is ours for our use, but to regard ourselves as trustees of the great business for those to whom it does really belong, trustees ready to hand over the cosmic trust at any time when the business seems to make that possible and feasible. That is what I mean by saying we have no hampering ambitions.

We do not want anything that does not belong to us. Isn't a nation in that position free to serve other nations, and isn't a nation like that ready to form some part of the assessing opinion of the world?

My interest in the neutrality of the United States is not the petty desire to keep out of trouble. To judge by my experience I have never been able to keep out of trouble. I have never looked for it, but I have always found it. I do not want to walk around trouble. If any man wants a scrap—that is, an interesting scrap and worth while—I am his man. I warn him that he is not going to draw me into the scrap for his advertisement, but if he is looking for trouble—that is, the trouble of men in general—and I can help a little, why, then, I am in for it. But I am interested in neutrality because there is something so much greater to do than fight, because there is something, there is a distinction waiting for this nation that no nation has ever yet got. That is the distinction of absolute self-control and self-mastery.

Whom do you admire most among your friends? The irritable man? The man out of whom you can get a "rise" without trying? The man who will fight at the drop of the hat, whether he knows what the hat is dropped for or not?

Don't you admire and don't you fear, if you have to contest with him, the self-mastered man who watches you with calm eye and comes in only when you have carried the thing so far that you must be disposed of? That is the man you respect. That is the man who you know has at bottom a much more fundamental and terrible courage than the irritable, fighting man.

Now, I covet for America this splendid courage of reserve moral force, and I wanted to point out to you gentlemen simply this: There is news and news. There is what is called news from Turtle Bay, that turns out to be falsehood, at any rate in what it is said to signify, and which if you could get the nation to believe it true might disturb our equilibrium and our self-possession. We ought not to deal in stuff of that kind. We ought not to permit things of that sort to use up the electrical energy of the wires, because its energy is malign, its energy is not of the truth, its energy is of mischief.

It is possible to sift truth. I have known some things to go out on the wires as true when there was only one man or one group of men who could have told the originators of the report whether it was true or not, and they were not asked whether it was true or not for fear it might not be true. That sort of report ought not to go out over the wires.

There is generally, if not always, somebody who knows whether that thing is so or not, and in these days above all other days we ought to take particular pains to resort to the one small group of men or to the one man, if there be but one, who knows whether those things are true or not.

The world ought to know the truth, but the world ought not at this period of unstable equilibrium to be disturbed by rumor, ought not to be disturbed by imaginative combinations of circumstances or, rather, by circumstances stated in combination which do not belong in combination. For we are holding—not I, but you and gentlemen engaged like you—the balances in your hand. This unstable equilibrium rests upon scales that are in your hands. For the food of opinion, as I began by saying, is the news of the day. I have known many a man go off at a tangent on information that was not reliable. Indeed, that describes the majority of men. The world is held stable by the man who waits for the next day to find out whether the report was true or not.

We cannot afford, therefore, to let the rumors of irresponsible persons and origins get into the atmosphere of the United States. We are trustees for what I venture to say is the greatest heritage that any nation ever had, the love of justice and righteousness and human liberty. For fundamentally those are the things to which America is addicted and to which she is devoted.

There are groups of selfish men in the United States, there are coteries where sinister things are purposed, but the great heart of the American people is just as sound and true as it ever was. And it is a single heart; it is the heart of America. It is not a heart made up of sections selected out of other countries.

So that what I try to remind myself of every day when I am almost overcome by perplexities, what I try to remember, is what the people at home are thinking about. I try to put myself in the place of the man who does not know all the things that I know and ask myself what he would like the policy of this country to be. Not the talkative man, not the partisan man, not the man that remembers first that he is a Republican or Democrat, or that his parents were Germans or English, but who remembers first that the whole destiny of modern affairs centres largely upon his being an American first of all.

If I permitted myself to be a partisan in this present struggle I would be unworthy to represent you. If I permitted myself to forget the people who are not partisans I would be unworthy to represent you. I am not saying that I am worthy to represent you, but I do claim this degree of worthiness—that before everything else I love America.

THE LATE ARCHDUKE FERDINAND—
Whose Assassination at Serajevo Precipitated the European War

H.M. NICHOLAS I.—King of Montenegro,
the Smallest of the Allied Powers— (Photo © American Press Assn.)

II.—"HUMANITY FIRST."

[President Wilson's speech in Convention Hall, Philadelphia, Penn., May 10, 1915, before 4,000 newly naturalized citizens:]

It warms my heart that you should give me such a reception, but it is not of myself that I wish to think tonight, but of those who have just become citizens of the United States. This is the only country in the world which experiences this constant and repeated rebirth. Other countries depend upon the multiplication of their own native people. This country is constantly drinking strength out of new sources by the voluntary association with it of great bodies of strong men and forward-looking women. And so by the gift of the free will of independent people it is constantly being renewed from generation to generation by the same process by which it was originally created. It is as if humanity had determined to see to it that this great nation, founded for the benefit of humanity, should not lack for the allegiance of the people of the world.

You have just taken an oath of allegiance to the United States. Of allegiance to whom? Of allegiance to no one, unless it be God. Certainly not of allegiance to those who temporarily represent this great Government. You have taken an oath of allegiance to a great ideal, to a great body of principles, to a great hope of the human race. You have said, "We are going to America," not only to earn a living, not only to seek the things which it was more difficult to obtain where you were born, but to help forward the great enterprises of the human spirit—to let men know that everywhere in the world there are men who will cross strange oceans and go where a speech is spoken which is alien to them, knowing that, whatever the speech, there is but one longing and utterance of the human heart, and that is for liberty and justice.

And while you bring all countries with you, you come with a purpose of leaving all other countries behind you—bringing what is best of their spirit, but not looking over your shoulders and seeking to perpetuate what you intended to leave in them. I certainly would not be one even to suggest that a man cease to love the home of his birth and the nation of his origin—these things are very sacred and ought not to be put out of our hearts—but it is one thing to love the place where you were born and it is another thing to dedicate yourself to the place to which you go. You cannot dedicate yourself to America unless you become in every respect and with every purpose of your will thorough Americans. You cannot become thorough Americans if you think of yourselves in groups. American does not consist of groups. A man who thinks himself as belonging to a particular national group in America has not yet become an American, and the man who goes among you to trade upon your nationality is no worthy son to live under the Stars and Stripes.

My urgent advice to you would be not only always to think first of America, but always, also, to think first of humanity. You do not love humanity if you seek to divide humanity into jealous camps. Humanity can be welded together only by love, by sympathy, by justice, not by jealousy and hatred. I am sorry for the man who seeks to make personal capital out of the passions of his fellow-men. He has lost the touch and ideal of America, for America was created to unite mankind by those passions which lift and not by the passions which separate and debase.

We came to America, either ourselves or in persons of our ancestors, to better the ideals of men, to make them see finer things than they had seen before, to get rid of things that divide, and to make sure of the things that unite. It was but a historical accident no doubt that this great country was called the "United States," and yet I am very thankful that it has the word "united" in its title; and the man who seeks to divide man from man, group from group, interest from interest, in the United States is striking at its very heart.

It is a very interesting circumstance to me, in thinking of those of you who have just sworn allegiance to this great Government, that you were drawn across the ocean by some beckoning finger of hope, by some belief, by some vision of a new kind of justice, by some expectation of a better kind of life.

No doubt you have been disappointed in some of us; some of us are very disappointing. No doubt you have found that justice in the United States goes only with a pure heart and a right purpose as it does everywhere else in the world. No doubt what you found here didn't seem touched for you, after all, with the complete beauty of the ideal which you had conceived beforehand.

But remember this, if we had grown at all poor in the ideal, you brought some of it with you. A man does not go out to seek the thing that is not in him. A man does not hope for the thing that he does not believe in, and if some of us have forgotten what America believed in, you, at any rate, imported in your own hearts a renewal of the belief. That is the reason that I, for one, make you welcome.

If I have in any degree forgotten what America was intended for, I will thank God if you will remind me.

I was born in America. You dreamed dreams of what America was to be, and I hope you brought the dreams with you. No man that does not see visions will ever realize any high hope or undertake any high enterprise.

Just because you brought dreams with you, America is more likely to realize the dreams such as you brought. You are enriching us if you came expecting us to be better than we are.

See, my friends, what that means. It means that Americans must have a consciousness different from the consciousness of every other nation in the world. I am not saying this with even the slightest thought of criticism of other nations. You know how it is with a family. A family gets centred on itself if it is not careful and is less interested in the neighbors than it is in its own members.

So a nation that is not constantly renewed out of new sources is apt to have the narrowness and prejudice of a family. Whereas, America must have this consciousness, that on all sides it touches elbows and touches hearts with all the nations of mankind.

The example of America must be a special example. The example of America must be the example not merely of peace because it will not fight, but of peace because peace is the healing and elevating influence of the world and strife is not.

There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right.

So, if you come into this great nation as you have come, voluntarily seeking something that we have to give, all that we have to give is this: We cannot exempt you from work. No man is exempt from work anywhere in the world. I sometimes think he is fortunate if he has to work only with his hands and not with his head. It is very easy to do what other people give you to do, but it is very difficult to give other people things to do. We cannot exempt you from work; we cannot exempt you from the strife and the heart-breaking burden of the struggle of the day—that is common to mankind everywhere. We cannot exempt you from the loads that you must carry; we can only make them light by the spirit in which they are carried. That is the spirit of hope, it is the spirit of liberty, it is the spirit of justice.

When I was asked, therefore, by the Mayor and the committee that accompanied him to come up from Washington to meet this great company of newly admitted citizens I could not decline the invitation. I ought not to be away from Washington, and yet I feel that it has renewed my spirit as an American.

In Washington men tell you so many things every day that are not so, and I like to come and stand in the presence of a great body of my fellow-citizens, whether they have been my fellow-citizens a long time or a short time, and drink, as it were, out of the common fountains with them and go back feeling that you have so generously given me the sense of your support and of the living vitality in your hearts, of its great ideals which made America the hope of the world.

III.—AMERICA FOR HUMANITY.

[President Wilson's address to the Mayor's Committee in New York, May 17, 1915, on the occasion of the naval parade and review in the Hudson:]

Mr. Mayor, Mr. Secretary, Admiral Fletcher, and Gentlemen of the Fleet: This is not an occasion upon which it seems to me that it would be wise for me to make many remarks, but I would deprive myself of a great gratification if I did not express my pleasure in being here, my gratitude for the splendid reception which has been accorded me as the representative of the nation, and my profound interest in the navy of the United States. That is an interest with which I was apparently born, for it began when I was a youngster and has ripened with my knowledge of the affairs and policies of the United States.

I think it is a natural, instinctive judgment of the people of the United States that they express their power appropriately in an efficient navy, and their interest is partly, I believe, because that navy somehow is expected to express their character, not within our own borders where that character is understood, but outside our borders, where it is hoped we may occasionally touch others with some slight vision of what America stands for.

But before I speak of the navy of the United States I want to take advantage of the first public opportunity I have had to speak of the Secretary of the Navy, to express my confidence and my admiration, and to say that he has my unqualified support, for I have counseled with him in intimate fashion. I know how sincerely he has it at heart that everything that the navy does and handles should be done and handled as the people of the United States wish them handled—because efficiency is something more than organization. Efficiency runs into every well-considered detail of personnel and method. Efficiency runs to the extent of lifting the ideals of a service above every personal interest. So that when I speak my support of the Secretary of the Navy I am merely speaking my support of what I know every true lover of the navy to desire and to purpose, for the navy of the United States is a body specially trusted with the ideal of America.

I like to image in my thought this ideal. These quiet ships lying in the river have no suggestion of bluster about them—no intimation of aggression. They are commanded by men thoughtful of the duty of citizens as well as the duty of officers—men acquainted with the traditions of the great service to which they belong—men who know by touch with the people of the United States what sort of purposes they ought to entertain and what sort of discretion they ought to exercise in order to use those engines of force as engines to promote the interests of humanity.

For the interesting and inspiring thing about America, gentlemen, is that she asks nothing for herself except what she has a right to ask for humanity itself. We want no nation's property; we wish to question no nation's honor; we wish to stand selfishly in the way of the development of no nation; we want nothing that we cannot get by our own legitimate enterprise and by the inspiration of our own example, and, standing for these things, it is not pretention on our part to say that we are privileged to stand for what every nation would wish to stand for, and speak for those things which all humanity must desire.

When I think of the flag that those ships carry, the only touch of color about them, the only thing that moves as if it had a settled spirit in it, in their solid structure, it seems to me I see alternate strips of parchment upon which are written the rights of liberty and justice and strips of blood spilt to vindicate those rights, and then, in the corner, a prediction of the blue serene into which every nation may swim which stands for these great things.

The mission of America is the only thing that a sailor or soldier should think about; he has nothing to do with the formulation of her policy; he is to support her policy, whatever it is—but he is to support her policy in the spirit of herself, and the strength of our policy is that we, who for the time being administer the affairs of this nation, do not originate her spirit; we attempt to embody it; we attempt to realize it in action we are dominated by it, we do not dictate it.

And so with every man in arms who serves the nation—he stands and waits to do the thing which the nation desires. America sometimes seems perhaps to forget her programs, or, rather, I would say that sometimes those who represent her seem to forget her programs, but the people never forget them. It is as startling as it is touching to see how whenever you touch a principle you touch the hearts of the people of the United States. They listen to your debates of policy, they determine which party they will prefer to power, they choose and prefer as ordinary men; but their real affection, their real force, their real irresistible momentum, is for the ideas which men embody.

I never go on the streets of a great city without feeling that somehow I do not confer elsewhere than on the streets with the great spirit of the people themselves, going about their business, attending to the things which concern them, and yet carrying a treasure at their hearts all the while, ready to be stirred not only as individuals, but as members of a great union of hearts that constitutes a patriotic people.

And so this sight in the river touches me merely as a symbol of that, and it quickens the pulse of every man who realizes these things to have anything to do with them. When a crisis occurs in this country, gentlemen, it is as if you put your hand on the pulse of a dynamo, it is as if the things which you were in connection with were spiritually bred. You had nothing to do with them except, if you listen truly, to speak the things that you hear. These things now brood over the river, this spirit now moves with the men who represent the nation in the navy, these things will move upon the waters in the manoeuvres; no threat lifted against any man, against any nation, against any interest, but just a great, solemn evidence that the force of America is the force of moral principle, that there is not anything else that she loves and that there is not anything else for which she will contend.

MR. ROOSEVELT SPEAKS.

[Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES.]

SYRACUSE, N.Y., May 7.—Ex-President Roosevelt, after learning details of the sinking of the Lusitania, made this statement late tonight:

This represents not merely piracy, but piracy on a vaster scale of murder than old-time pirates ever practiced. This is the warfare which destroyed Louvain and Dinant and hundreds of men, women, and children in Belgium. It is a warfare against innocent men, women, and children traveling on the ocean, and our own fellow-countrymen and countrywomen, who are among the sufferers.

It seems inconceivable that we can refrain from taking action in this matter, for we owe it not only to humanity, but to our own national self-respect.

On May 9 a Syracuse dispatch to THE NEW YORK TIMES conveyed this statement from Mr. Roosevelt:

On the night of the day that the disaster occurred I called the attention of our people to the fact that the sinking of the Lusitania was not only an act of simple piracy, but that it represented piracy accompanied by murder on a vaster scale than any old-time pirate had ever practiced before being hanged for his misdeeds.

I called attention to the fact that this was merely the application on the high seas, and at our expense, of the principles which when applied on land had produced the innumerable hideous tragedies that have occurred in Belgium and in Northern France.

I said that not only our duty to humanity at large but our duty to preserve our own national self-respect demanded instant action on our part and forbade all delay.

I can do little more than reiterate what I then said.

When the German decree establishing the war zone was issued, and of course plainly threatened exactly the type of tragedy which has occurred, our Government notified Germany that in the event of any such wrongdoing at the expense of our citizens we would hold the German Government to "a strict accountability."

The use of this phrase, "strict accountability," of course, must mean, and can only mean, that action will be taken by us without an hour's unnecessary delay. It was eminently proper to use the exact phrase that was used, and, having used it, our own self-respect demands that we forthwith abide by it.

On May 11, following the report of President Wilson's speech at Philadelphia, Mr. Roosevelt stated the course which he considered that this country should adopt, reported as follows in a Syracuse dispatch to THE NEW YORK TIMES:

Colonel Roosevelt announced today what action, in his opinion, this country should take toward Germany because of the sinking of the Lusitania. Colonel Roosevelt earnestly said that the time for deliberation was past and that within twenty-four hours this country could, and should, take effective action by declaring that all commerce with Germany forthwith be forbidden and that all commerce of every kind permitted and encouraged with France, England, and "the rest of the civilized world."

Colonel Roosevelt said that for America to take this step would not mean war, as the firm assertion of our rights could not be so construed, but he added that we would do well to remember that there were things worse than war.

The Colonel has been reading President Wilson's speech carefully, and what seemed to impress him more than anything else was this passage from it:

"There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right."

Asked if he cared to make any comment upon the speech of the President, Mr. Roosevelt said:

"I think that China is entitled to draw all the comfort she can from this statement and it would be well for the United States to ponder seriously what the effect upon China has been of managing her foreign affairs during the last fifteen years on the theory thus enunciated.

"If the United States is satisfied with occupying some time in the future the precise international position that China now occupies, then the United States can afford to act on this theory. But it cannot act on this theory if it desires to retain or regain the position won for it by the men who fought under Washington and by the men who, in the days of Abraham Lincoln, wore the blue under Grant and the gray under Lee.

"I very earnestly hope that we will act promptly. The proper time for deliberation was prior to sending the message that our Government would hold Germany to a strict accountability if it did the things it has now actually done. The 150 babies drowned on the Lusitania the hundreds of women drowned with them, scores of these women and children being Americans, and the American ship, the Gulflight, which was torpedoed, offer an eloquent commentary on the actual working of the theory that force is not necessary to assert, and that a policy of blood and iron can with efficacy be met by a policy of milk and water.

"I see it stated in the press dispatches from Washington that Germany now offers to stop the practice on the high seas, committed in violation of the neutral rights that she is pledged to observe, if we will abandon further neutral rights, which by her treaty she has solemnly pledged herself to see that we exercise without molestation. Such a proposal is not even entitled to an answer. The manufacturing and shipment of arms and ammunition to any belligerent is moral or immoral according to the use to which the arms and munitions are to be put. If they are to be used to prevent the redress of the hideous wrongs inflicted on Belgium, then it is immoral to ship them. If they are to be used for the redress of those wrongs and the restoration of Belgium to her deeply wronged and unoffending people, then it is eminently moral to send them.

"Without twenty-four hours' delay this country could, and should, take effective action by declaring that in view of Germany's murderous offenses against the rights of neutrals, all commerce with Germany shall be forthwith forbidden, and all commerce of every kind permitted and encouraged with France, England, and the rest of the civilized world. This would not be a declaration of war. It would merely prevent munitions of war being sent to a power which by its conduct has shown willingness to use munitions to slaughter American men and women and children. I do not believe the assertion of our rights means war, but we will do well to remember there are things worse than war.

"Let us, as a nation, understand that peace is worthy only when it is the handmaiden of international righteousness and of national self-respect."

MR. TAFT SPEAKS.

[By The Associated Press.]

MILWAUKEE, May 8.—"The news of the sinking of the Lusitania as it comes this morning is most distressing," said former President Taft on his arrival from Madison today. "It presents a situation of the most difficult character, properly awakening great national concern.

"I do not wish to embarrass the President of the Administration by a discussion of the subject at this stage of the information, except to express confidence that the President will follow a wise and patriotic course."

That it is possible for the United States to hold Germany "strictly accountable" for the destruction of American lives on the Lusitania without resort to war is Mr. Taft's opinion, reported in the following dispatch from Philadelphia to THE NEW YORK TIMES on May 11:

"We must bear in mind that if we have a war it is the people, the men and women, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, who must pay with lives and money the cost of it, and therefore they should not be hurried into the sacrifices until it is made clear that they wish it and know what they are doing when they wish it."

This was the keynote of a speech by ex-President Taft at the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Union League's occupancy of the historic home which it occupies in this city.

"Is war the only method of making a nation accountable? Let us look into our own history. England connived at the fitting out of armed vessels, to prey on our commerce, to attack our navy, and to kill our sailors. We protested, and what did we do then? We held her strictly accountable in the Geneva Conference. Was not our honor as much preserved by this method as it would have been had we declared war?

"I agree that the inhumanity of the circumstances in the case now presses us on, but in the heat of even just indignation is this the best time to act, when action involves such momentous consequences and means untold loss of life and treasure? There are things worse than war, but delay, due to calm deliberation, cannot change the situation or minimize the effect of what we finally conclude to do.

"With the present condition of the war in Europe, our action, if it is to be extreme, will not lose efficiency by giving time to the people, whose war it will be, to know what they are facing.

"A demand for war that cannot survive the passion of the first days of public indignation and will not endure the test of delay and deliberation by all the people is not one that should be yielded to."

THE "EYEWITNESS" STORY.

The following descriptive account was communicated by the British Official Eyewitness present with General Headquarters, supplementing his continuous narrative of the movements of the British force and the French armies in immediate touch with it:

April 27, 1915.

Since the last summary there has been a sudden development in the situation on our front, and very heavy fighting has taken place to the north and northeast of Ypres, which can be said to have assumed the importance of a second battle for that town. With the aid of a method of warfare up to now never employed by nations sufficiently civilized to consider themselves bound by international agreements solemnly ratified by themselves, and favored by the atmospheric conditions, the Germans have put into effect an attack which they had evidently contemplated and prepared for some time.

Before the battle began our line in this quarter ran from the cross-roads at Broodseinde, east of Zonnebeke on the Ypres-Moorslede Road to the cross-roads half a mile north of St. Julien, on the Ypres-Poelcapelle Road, roughly following the crest of what is known as the Grafenstafel Ridge. The French prolonged the line west of the Ypres-Poelcapelle Road, whence their trenches ran around the north of Langemarck to Steenstraate on the Yperlee Canal. The area covered by the initial attack is that between the canal and the Ypres-Poelcapelle Road, though it was afterward extended to the west of the canal and to the east of the road.

An effort on the part of the Germans in this direction was not unexpected, since movements of troops and transport behind their front line had been detected for some days. Its peculiar and novel nature, however, was a surprise which was largely responsible for the measure of success achieved. Taking advantage of the fact that at this season of the year the wind not infrequently blows from the north, they secretly brought up apparatus for emitting asphyxiating vapor or gas, and distributed it along the section of their front line opposite that of our allies, west of Langemarck, which faced almost due north. Their plan was to make a sudden onslaught southwestward, which, if successful, might enable them to gain the crossings on the canal south of Bixschoote and place them well behind the British left in a position to threaten Ypres.

The attack was originally fixed for Tuesday, the 20th, but since all chances of success depended on the action of the asphyxiating vapor it was postponed, the weather being unfavorable. On Thursday, the 22d, the wind blew steadily from the north, and that afternoon, all being ready, the Germans put their plan into execution. Since then events have moved so rapidly and the situation has moved so frequently that it is difficult to give a consecutive and clear story of what happened, but the following account represents as nearly as can be the general course of events. The details of the gas apparatus employed by them are given separately, as also those of the asphyxiating grenades, bombs, and shells of which they have been throwing hundreds.

At some time between 4 and 5 P.M. the Germans started operations by releasing gases with the result that a cloud of poisonous vapor rolled swiftly before the wind from their trenches toward those of the French west of Langemarck, held by a portion of the French Colonial Division. Allowing sufficient time for the fumes to take full effect on the troops facing them, the Germans charged forward over the practically unresisting enemy in their immediate front, and, penetrating through the gap thus created, pressed on silently and swiftly to the south and west. By their sudden irruption they were able to overrun and surprise a large proportion of the French troops billeted behind the front line in this area and to bring some of the French guns as well as our own under a hot rifle fire at close range.

The first intimation that all was not well to the north was conveyed to our troops holding the left of the British line between 5 and 6 P.M. by the withdrawal of some of the French Colonials and the sight of the wall of vapor following them. Our flank being thus exposed the troops were ordered to retire on St. Julien, with their left parallel to but to the west of the highroad. The splendid resistance of these troops, who saved the situation, has already been mentioned by the Commander in Chief.

Meanwhile, apparently waiting till their infantry had penetrated well behind the Allies' line, the Germans had opened a hot artillery fire upon the various tactical points to the north of Ypres, the bombardment being carried out with ordinary high-explosive shell and shrapnel of various calibres and also with projectiles containing asphyxiating gas. About this period our men in reserve near Ypres, seeing the shells bursting, had gathered in groups, discussing the situation and questioning some scattered bodies of Turcos who had appeared; suddenly a staff officer rode up shouting "Stand to your arms," and in a few minutes the troops had fallen in and were marching northward to the scene of the fight.

Nothing more impressive can be imagined than the sight of our men falling in quietly in perfect order on their alarm posts amid the scene of wild confusion caused by the panic-stricken refugees who swarmed along the roads.

In the meantime, to the north and northeast of the town, a confused fight was taking place, which gave proof not only of great gallantry and steadiness on the part of the troops referred to above, but of remarkable presence of mind on the part of their leaders. Behind the wall of vapor, which had swept across fields, through woods, and over hedgerows, came the German firing line, the men's mouths and noses, it is stated, protected by pads soaked in a solution of bicarbonate of soda. Closely following them again came the supports. These troops, hurrying forward with their formation somewhat broken up by the obstacles encountered in their path, looked like a huge mob bearing down upon the town. A battery of 4.7-inch guns a little beyond the left of our line was surprised and overwhelmed by them in a moment. Further to the rear and in a more easterly direction were several field batteries, and before they could come into action the Germans were within a few hundred yards. Not a gun, however, was lost.

One battery, taken in flank, swung around, fired on the enemy at point-blank range, and checked the rush. Another opened fire with the guns pointing in almost opposite directions, the enemy being on three sides of them. It was under the very heavy cannonade opened about this time by the Germans, and threatened by the advance of vastly superior numbers, that our infantry on our left steadily, and without any sign of confusion, slowly retired to St. Julien, fighting every step.

Help was not long in arriving, for some of our reserves near Ypres had stood to arms as soon as they were aware of the fact that the French line had been forced, and the officers on their own initiative, without waiting for orders, led them forward to meet the advancing enemy, who, by this time, were barely two miles from the town. These battalions attacked the Germans with the bayonet, and then ensued a mêlée, in which our men more than held their own, both sides losing very heavily.

One German battalion seems to have been especially severely handled, the Colonel being captured among several other prisoners. Other reinforcements were thrown in as they came up, and, when night fell, the fighting continued by moonlight, our troops driving back the enemy by repeated bayonet charges, in the course of which our heavy guns were recaptured.

By then the situation was somewhat restored in the area immediately north of Ypres. Further to the west, however, the enemy had forced their way over the canal, occupying Steenstraate and the crossing at Het Sast, about three-quarters of a mile south of the former place, and had established themselves at various points on the west bank. All night long the shelling continued, and about 1:30 A.M. two heavy attacks were made on our line in the neighborhood of Broodseinde, east of Zonnebeke. These were both repulsed. The bombardment of Ypres itself and its neighborhood had by now redoubled in intensity and a part of the town was in flames.

In the early morning of Friday, the 23d, we delivered a strong counter-attack northward in co-operation with the French. Our advance progressed for some little distance, reaching the edge of the wood about half a mile west of St. Julien and penetrating it. Here our men got into the Germans with the bayonet, and the latter suffered heavily. The losses were also severe on our side, for the advance had to be carried out across the open. But in spite of this nothing could exceed the dash with which it was conducted. One man—and his case is typical of the spirit shown by the troops—who had had his rifle smashed by a bullet, continued to fight with an intrenching tool. Even many of the wounded made their way out of the fight with some article of German equipment as a memento.

About 11 A.M., not being able to progress further, our troops dug themselves in, the line then running from St. Julien practically due west for about a mile, whence it curved southwestward before turning north to the canal near Boesinghe. Broadly speaking, on the section of the front then occupied by us the result of the operations had been to remove to some extent the wedge which the Germans had driven into the allied line, and the immediate danger was over. During the afternoon our counter-attack made further progress south of Pilkem, thus straightening the line still more. Along the canal the fighting raged fiercely, our allies making some progress here and there. During the night, however, the Germans captured Lizerne, a village on the main road from Ypres to Steenstraate.

When the morning of the 24th came the situation remained much the same, but the enemy, who had thrown several bridges across the canal, continued to gain ground to the west. On our front the Germans, under cover of their gas, made a further attack between 3 and 4 A.M. to the east of St. Julien and forced back a portion of our line. Nothing else in particular occurred until about mid-day, when large bodies of the enemy were seen advancing down the Ypres-Poelcapelle road toward St. Julien. Soon after a very strong attack developed against that village and the section of the line east of it. Under the pressure of these fresh masses our troops were compelled to fall back, contesting every inch of ground and making repeated counter-attacks; but until late at night a gallant handful, some 200 to 300 strong, held out in St. Julien. During the night the line was re-established north of the hamlet of Fortuin, about 700 yards further to the rear. All this time the fighting along the canal continued, the enemy forcing their way across near Boesinghe, and holding Het Sast, Steenstraate, and Lizerne strongly. The French counter-attacked in the afternoon, captured fifty prisoners, and made some further progress toward Pilkem. The Germans, however, were still holding the west bank firmly, although the Belgian artillery had broken the bridge behind them at Steenstraate.

On the morning of Sunday, the fourth day of the battle, we made a strong counter-attack on St. Julien, which gained some ground but was checked in front of the village. To the west of it we reached a point a few hundred yards south of the wood which had been the objective on the 23d and which we had had to relinquish subsequently. In the afternoon the Germans made repeated assaults in great strength on our line near Broodseinde. These were backed up by a tremendous artillery bombardment and the throwing of asphyxiating bombs; but all were beaten off with great slaughter to the enemy, and forty-five prisoners fell into our hands. When night came the situation remained unchanged.

This determined offensive on the part of the enemy, although it has menaced Ypres itself, has not so far the appearance of a great effort to break through the line and capture the Channel ports, such as that made in October. Its initial success was gained by the surprise rendered possible by the use of a device which Germany pledged herself not to employ. The only result upon our troops has been to fill them with an even greater determination to punish the enemy and to make him pay tenfold for every act of "frightfulness" he has perpetrated.

Along the rest of the British front nothing of special importance has occurred.

WHAT THE GERMANS SAY.

The comments of the German newspapers on the advance of the imperial army north of Ypres readily admitted and justified the use of asphyxiating gases. The leading Prussian military organ, the Kreuz Zeitung, said:

The moral success of our victory is quite upon a level with its strategic value. It has again been proved that in the west also we are at any time in a position to take the offensive, and that, notwithstanding their most violent efforts, it is impossible for the English and the French to throw back or to break through our battle line.

In another article the Kreuz Zeitung said:

When the French report says that we used a large number of asphyxiating bombs, our enemies may infer from this that they always are making a mistake when by their behavior they cause us to have recourse to new technical weapons.

Dealing with the same subject in a leading article, the Frankfurter Zeitung declared:

It is quite possible that our bombs and shells made it impossible for the enemy to remain in his trenches and artillery positions, and it is even probable that missiles which emit poisonous gases have actually been used by us, since the German leaders have made it plain that, as an answer to the treacherous missiles which have been used by the English and the French for many weeks past, we, too, shall employ gas bombs or whatever they are called. The German leaders pointed out that considerably more effective materials were to be expected from German chemistry, and they were right.

But, however destructive these bombs and shells may have been, do the English and the other people think that it makes a serious difference whether hundreds of guns and howitzers throw hundreds of thousands of shells on a single tiny spot in order to destroy and break to atoms everything living there, and to make the German trenches into a terrible hell as was the case at Neuve Chapelle, or whether we throw a few shells which spread death in the air? These shells are not more deadly than the poison of English explosives, but they take effect over a wider area, produce a rapid end, and spare the torn bodies the tortures and pains of death.

The Frankfurter Zeitung then compared the results achieved as follows:

The shells of Neuve Chapelle cost the Germans a trench and a village, but on the edge of the ruin the German ring remained firm and strong. How was it at Ypres? The enemy was thrown back on a front of more than five and a half miles. Along this whole front we gained two miles. These figures would signify little in comparison with the distance to the sea, but our next goal is Ypres, and on the north we are now only a few kilometers from this stronghold.

The Cologne Gazette referred to Sir John French's reports as follows:

It is delightful to read the complaints about the use of shells containing asphyxiating gases. This sounds particularly well out of the mouth of the Commander in Chief of a nation which for centuries past has trodden every provision of international law under foot.

SIR JOHN FRENCH'S REPORT.

The British Press Bureau authorized the publication of the following report, dated May 3, by Field Marshal Sir John French on the employment by the Germans of poisonous gases as weapons of warfare:

The gases employed have been ejected from pipes laid into the trenches, and also produced by the explosion of shells specially manufactured for the purpose. The German troops who attacked under cover of these gases were provided with specially designed respirators which were issued in sealed patent covers.

This all points to long and methodical preparation on a large scale. A week before the Germans first used this method they announced in their official communiqué that we were making use of asphyxiating gases. At the time there appeared to be no reason for this astounding falsehood, but now, of course, it is obvious that it was part of the scheme. It is a further proof of the deliberate nature of the introduction by the Germans of a new and illegal weapon, and shows that they recognized its illegality, and were anxious to forestall neutral and possibly domestic criticism.

Since the enemy has made use of this method of covering his advance with a cloud of poisoned air, he has repeated it both in offense and defense whenever the wind has been favorable. The effect of this poison is not merely disabling or even painlessly fatal as suggested in the German press. Those of its victims who do not succumb on the field and who can be brought into hospital suffer acutely, and in a large proportion of cases die a painful and lingering death. Those who survive are in little better case, as the injury to their lungs appears to be of a permanent character, and reduces them to a condition which points to their being invalids for life.

These facts must be well known to the German scientists who devised this new weapon and to the military authorities who have sanctioned its use. I am of opinion that the enemy has definitely decided to use these gases as a normal procedure, and that protests will be useless.

THE "EYEWITNESS" STORY.

The following descriptive account, communicated by the British Eyewitness present with General Headquarters, continues and supplements the narrative published on April 29 of the movements of the British force and the French armies in immediate touch with it:

April 30, 1915.

As will have been gathered from the last summary, assaults accompanied with gas were not made on every position of the front held by the British to the north of Ypres at the same time. At one point it was not until the early morning of Saturday, April 24, that the Germans brought this method into operation against a section of our line not far from our left flank.

Late on Thursday afternoon the men here saw portions of the French retiring some distance to the west, and observed the cloud of vapor rolling along the ground southward behind them. Our position was then shelled with high explosives until 8 P.M. On Friday also it was bombarded for some hours, the Germans firing poison shells for one hour. Their infantry, who were intrenched about 120 yards away, evidently expected some result from their use of the latter, for they put their heads above the parapets, as if to see what the effect had been on our men, and at intervals opened rapid rifle fire. The wind, however, was strong and dissipated the fumes quickly, our troops did not suffer seriously from their noxious effect, and the enemy did not attempt any advance.

On Saturday morning, just about dawn, an airship appeared in the sky to the east of our line at this point, and dropped four red stars, which floated downward slowly for some distance before they died out. When our men, whose eyes had not unnaturally been fixed on this display of pyrotechnics, again turned to their front it was to find the German trenches rendered invisible by a wall of greenish-yellow vapor, similar to that observed on the Thursday afternoon, which was bearing down on them on the breeze. Through this the Germans started shooting. During Saturday they employed stupefying gas on several occasions in this quarter, but did not press on very quickly. One reason for this, given by a German prisoner, is that many of the enemy's infantry were so affected by the fumes that they could not advance.

To continue the narrative from the night of Sunday, April 25. At 12:30 A.M., in face of repeated attacks, our infantry fell back from a part of the Grafenstafel Ridge, northwest of Zonnebeke, and the line then ran for some distance along the south bank of the little Haanebeek stream. The situation along the Yperlee Canal remained practically unchanged.

When the morning of the 26th dawned the Germans, who had been seen massing in St. Julien, and to the east of the village on the previous evening, made several assaults, which grew more and more fierce as the hours passed, but reinforcements were sent up and the position was secured. Further east, however, our line was pierced near Broodseinde, and a small body of the enemy established themselves in a portion of our trenches. In the afternoon a strong, combined counter-attack was delivered by the French and British along the whole front from Steenstraate to the east of St. Julien, accompanied by a violent bombardment. This moment, so far as can be judged at present, marked the turning point of the battle, for, although it effected no great change in the situation, it caused a definite check to the enemy's offensive, relieved the pressure, and gained a certain amount of ground.

During this counter-attack the guns concentrated by both sides on this comparatively narrow front poured in a great volume of fire. From the right came the roar of the British batteries, from the left the rolling thunder of the soixante-quinze, and every now and then above the turmoil rose a dull boom as a huge howitzer shell burst in the vicinity of Ypres. On the right our infantry stormed the German trenches close to St. Julien, and in the evening gained the southern outskirts of the village. In the centre they captured the trenches a little to the south of the Bois des Cuisinirs, west of St. Julien, and still further west more trenches were taken. This represented an advance of some 600 or 700 yards, but the gain in ground could not at all points be maintained. Opposite St. Julien we fell back from the village to a position just south of the place, and in front of the Bois des Cuisinirs and on the left of the line a similar retirement took place, the enemy making extensive use of his gas cylinders and of machine guns placed in farms at or other points of vantage. None the less, the situation at nightfall was more satisfactory than it had been. We were holding our own well all along the line and had made progress at some points. On the right the enemy's attacks on the front of the Grafenstafel Ridge had all been repulsed.

In the meantime the French had achieved some success, having retaken Lizerne and also the trenches round Het Sast, captured some 250 prisoners, and made progress all along the west bank of the canal. Heavy as our losses were during the day, there is little doubt that the enemy suffered terribly. Both sides were attacking at different points, the fighting was conducted very largely in the open, and the close formations of the Germans on several occasions presented excellent targets to our artillery, which did not fail to seize its opportunities.

GENERAL SIR IAN HAMILTON—
Commanding the Allied Expeditionary Forces Operating
Against the Dardanelles—(Photo from P.S. Rogers.)

ANDREW BONAR LAW—
The Canadian-born Leader of the Opposition in the
British House of Commons—(Photo by Bassano.)

Nothing in particular occurred during the night.

The morning of the 27th found our troops occupying the following positions: North of Zonnebeke the right of the line still held the eastern end of the Grafenstafel Ridge, but from here it bent southwestward behind the Haanebeek stream, which it followed to a point about half a mile east of St. Julien. Thence it curved back again to the Vamheule Farm, on the Ypres-Poelcappelle road, running from here in a slight southerly curve to a point a little west of the Ypres-Langemarck road, where it joined the French. In the last mentioned quarter of the field it followed generally the line of a low ridge running from west to east. On the French front the Germans had been cleared from the west bank of the canal, except at one point, Steenstraate, where they continued to hold the bridgehead.

About 1 P.M. a counter-attack was made by us all along the line between the canal and the Ypres-Poelcappelle road, and for about an hour we continued to make progress. Then the right and centre were checked. A little later the left was also held up, and the situation remained very much as it had been on the previous day. The Germans were doubtless much encouraged by their initial success, and their previous boldness in attack was now matched by the stubborn manner in which they clung on to their positions. In the evening the French stormed some trenches east of the canal, but were again checked by the enemy's gas cylinders.

The night passed quietly, and was spent by us in reorganizing and consolidating our positions. The enemy did not interfere. This is not surprising, in view of the fact that by Tuesday evening they had been fighting for over five days. Their state of exhaustion is confirmed by the statements of the prisoners captured by the French, who also reported that the German losses had been very heavy.

On Wednesday, the 28th, there was a complete lull on this sector of our line, and the shelling was less severe. Some fighting, however, occurred along the canal, the French taking over 100 prisoners.

Nothing of any importance has occurred on other parts of the front. On the 27th, at the Railway Triangle opposite Guinchy, the south side of the embankment held by the Germans was blown up by our miners. On the 28th a hostile aeroplane was forced to descend by our anti-aircraft guns. On coming down in rear of the German lines, it was at once fired upon and destroyed by our field artillery. Another hostile machine was brought down by rifle fire near Zonnebeke.

Splendid work has been done during the past few days by our airmen, who have kept all the area behind the hostile lines under close observation. On the 26th they bombed the stations of Staden, Thielt, Courtrai, Roubaix, and other places, and located an armored train near Langemarck, which was subsequently shelled and forced to retire. There have been several successful conflicts in the air, on one occasion a pilot in a single seater chasing a German machine to Roulers, and forcing it to land.

The raid on Courtrai unfortunately cost the nation a very gallant life, but it will live as one of the most heroic episodes of the war. The airman started on the enterprise alone in a biplane. On arrival at Courtrai he glided down to a height of 300 feet and dropped a large bomb on the railway junction. While he did this he was the target of hundreds of rifles, of machine guns, and of anti-aircraft armament, and was severely wounded in the thigh. Though he might have saved his life by at once coming down in the enemy's lines, he decided to save his machine at all costs, and made for the British lines. Descending to a height of only 100 feet in order to increase his speed, he continued to fly and was again wounded, this time mortally. He still flew on, however, and without coming down at the nearest of our aerodromes went all the way back to his own base, where he executed a perfect landing and made his report. He died in hospital not long afterward. 2

The outstanding feature of the action of the past week has been the steadiness of our troops on the extreme left; but of the deeds of individual gallantry and devotion which have been performed it would be impossible to narrate one-hundredth part. At one place in this quarter a machine gun was stationed in the angle of a trench when the German rush took place. One man after another of the detachment was shot, but the gun still continued in action, though five bodies lay around it. When the sixth man took the place of his fallen comrades, of whom one was his brother, the Germans were still pressing on. He waited until they were only a few yards away, and then poured a stream of bullets on to the advancing ranks, which broke and fell back, leaving rows of dead. He was then wounded himself.

Under the hot fire to which our batteries were subjected in the early part of the engagement telephone wires were repeatedly cut. The wire connecting one battery with its observing officer was severed on nine separate occasions, and on each occasion repaired by a Sergeant, who did the work out in the open under a perfect hail of shells.

On May 5 the following account of the British Official Eyewitness, continuing the report of April 30, was published:

About 5 P.M. a dense cloud of suffocating vapors was launched from their trenches along the whole front held by the French right and by our left from the Ypres-Langemarck road to a considerable distance east of St. Julien. The fumes did not carry much beyond our front trenches. But these were to a great extent rendered untenable, and a retirement from them was ordered.

No sooner had this started than the enemy opened a violent bombardment with asphyxiating shells and shrapnel on our trenches and on our infantry as they were withdrawing. Meanwhile our guns had not been idle. From a distance, perhaps owing to some peculiarity of the light, the gas on this occasion looked like a great reddish cloud, and the moment it was seen our batteries poured a concentrated fire on the German trenches.

Curious situations then arose between us and the enemy. The poison belt, the upper part shredding into thick wreaths of vapor as it was shaken by the wind, and the lower and denser part sinking into all inequalities of the ground, rolled slowly down the trenches. Shells would rend it for a moment, but it only settled down again as thickly as before.

Nevertheless, the German infantry faced it, and they faced a hail of shrapnel as well. In some cases where the gas had not reached our lines our troops held firm and shot through the cloud at the advancing Germans. In other cases the men holding the front line managed to move to the flank, where they were more or less beyond the affected area. Here they waited until the enemy came on and then bayoneted them when they reached our trenches.

On the extreme left our supports waited until the wall of vapor reached our trenches, when they charged through it and met the advancing Germans with the bayonet as they swarmed over the parapets.

South of St. Julien the denseness of the vapor compelled us to evacuate trenches, but reinforcements arrived who charged the enemy before they could establish themselves in position. In every case the assaults failed completely. Large numbers were mown down by our artillery. Men were seen falling and others scattering and running back to their own lines. Many who reached the gas cloud could not make their way through it, and in all probability a great number of the wounded perished from the fumes.

It is to that extent, from a military standpoint, a sign of weakness. Another sign of weakness is the adoption of illegal methods of fighting, such as spreading poisonous gas. It is a confession by the Germans that they have lost their former great superiority in artillery and are, in any cost, seeking another technical advantage over their enemy as a substitute.

Nevertheless, this spirit, this determination on the part of our enemies to stick at nothing must not be underestimated. Though it may not pay the Germans in the long run, it renders it all the more obvious that they are a foe that can be overcome only by the force of overwhelming numbers of men and guns.

Further to the east a similar attack was made about 7 P.M. which seems to have been attended with even less success, and the assaulting infantry was at once beaten back by our artillery fire.

It was not long before all our trenches were reoccupied and the whole line re-established in its original position. The attack on the French met with the same result.

The Eyewitness then relates incidents showing the steadiness of the Indian troops, who, he says, "advanced under a murderous fire, their war cry swelling louder and louder above the din."

Prisoners captured in the recent fighting, the narrative continues, stated that one German corps lost 80 per cent. of its men in the first week; that the losses from our artillery fire, even during days when no attacks were taking place, had been very heavy and that many of their own men had suffered from the effects of the gas.

The writer concludes as follows:

In regard to the recent fighting on our left, the German offensive, effected in the first instance by surprise, resulted in a considerable gain of ground for the enemy. Between all the earlier German efforts, the only difference was that on this latest occasion the attempt was carried out with the aid of poisonous gases.

There is no reason why we should not expect similar tactics in the future. They do not mean that the Allies have lost the initiative in the Western theatre, nor that they are likely to lose it. They do mean, however, and the fact has been repeatedly pointed out, that the enemy's defensive is an active one, that his confidence is still unshaken and that he still is able to strike in some strength where he sees the chance or where mere local advantage can be secured.

The true idea of the meaning of the operations of the Allies can be gained only by bearing in mind that it is their primary object to bring about the exhaustion of the enemy's resources in men.

In the form now assumed by this struggle—a war of attrition—the Germans are bound ultimately to lose, and it is the consciousness of this fact that inspires their present policy. This is to achieve as early as possible some success of sufficient magnitude to influence the neutrals, to discourage the Allies, to make them weary of the struggle and to induce the belief among the people ignorant of war that nothing has been gained by the past efforts of the Allies because the Germans have not yet been driven back. It is being undertaken with a political rather than a strategical object.

The official British Eyewitness, under date of May 11, 1915, gives an account of the German attempts on the previous Saturday and Sunday to break the British lines around Ypres, and of the beginning of the Anglo-French offensive north of Arras. He said:

The calm that prevailed Thursday and Friday proved to be only the lull before the storm. Early Saturday morning it became apparent that the Germans were preparing an attack in strength against our line running east and northeast from Ypres, for they were concentrating under cover of a violent artillery fire, and at about 10 o'clock the battle began in earnest.

At that hour the Germans attacked our line from the Ypres-Poelcappelle road to within a short distance of the Menin highroad, it being evidently their intention while engaging us closely on the whole of this sector to break our front in the vicinity of the Ypres-Roulers Railway, to the north and to the south of which their strongest and most determined assaults were delivered.

Under this pressure our front was penetrated at some points around Frezenberg, and at 4:30 o'clock in the afternoon we made a counter-attack between the Zonnebeke road and the railway in order to recover the lost ground. Our offensive was conducted most gallantly, but was checked before long by the fire of machine guns.

Meanwhile, the enemy launched another attack through the woods south of the Menin road, and at the same time threatened our left to the north of Ypres with fresh masses. Most desperate fighting ensued, the German infantry coming on again and again and gradually forcing our troops back, though only for a short distance, in spite of repeated counter-attacks.

During the night the fighting continued to rage with ever-increasing fury. It is impossible to say at exactly what hour our line was broken at different points, but it is certain that at one time the enemy's infantry poured through along the Poelcappelle road, and even got as far as Wieltje at 9 P.M.

There was also a considerable gap in our front about Frezenberg, where hostile detachments had penetrated. At both points counter-attacks were organized without delay. To the east of the salient the Germans first were driven back to Frezenberg, but there they made a firm stand, and under pressure of fresh reinforcements we fell back again toward Verlorenhoek.

Northeast of the salient a counter-attack carried out by us about 1 A.M. was more successful. Our troops swept the enemy out of Wieltje at the bayonet's point, leaving the village strewn with German dead and, pushing on, regained most of the ground to the north of that point. And so the fight surged to and fro throughout the night. All around the scene of the conflict the sky was lit up by the flashes of the guns and the light of blazing villages and farms, while against this background of smoke and flame, looking out in the murky light over the crumbling ruins of the old town, rose the battered wreck of the cathedral town and the spires of Cloth Hall.

When Sunday dawned there came a short respite, and the firing for a time died down. The comparative lull enabled us to reorganize and consolidate our position on the new line we had taken up and to obtain some rest after the fatigue and strain of the night. It did not last long, however, and in the afternoon the climax of the battle was reached, for, under the cover of intense artillery fire, the Germans launched no less than five separate assaults against the east of the salient.

To the north and northeast their attacks were not at first pressed so hard as on the south of the Menin road, where the fighting was especially fierce. In the latter direction masses of infantry were hurled on with absolute desperation and were beaten off with corresponding slaughter.

At one point, north of the town, 500 of the enemy advanced from the wood, and it is affirmed by those present that not a single man of them escaped.

On the eastern face, at 6:30 P.M., an endeavor was made to storm the grounds of the Château Hooge, a little north of the Menin road, but the force attempting it broke and fell back under the hail of shrapnel poured upon them by our guns. It was on this side, where they had to face the concentrated fire of guns, Maxims and rifles again and again in their efforts to break their way through, that the Germans incurred their heaviest losses, and the ground was literally heaped with dead.

They evidently, for the time being at least, were unable to renew their efforts, and as night came on the fury of their offensive gradually slackened, the hours of darkness passing in quietness.

During the day our troops saw some of the enemy busily employed in stripping the British dead in our abandoned trenches, east of the Hooge Château, and several Germans afterward were noticed dressed in khaki.

So far as the Ypres region is concerned, this for us was a most successful day. Our line, which on the northeast of the salient had, after the previous day's fighting, been reconstituted a short distance behind the original front, remained intact. Our losses were comparatively slight, and, owing to the targets presented by the enemy, the action resolved itself on our part into pure killing.

The reason for this very determined effort to crush our left on the part of the Germans is not far to seek. It is probable that for some days previously they had been in possession of information which led them to suppose that we intended to apply pressure on the right of our line, and that their great attack upon Ypres on the 7th, 8th, and 9th was undertaken with a view to diverting us from our purpose.

In this the Germans were true to their principles, for they rightly hold that the best manner of meeting an expected hostile offensive is to forestall it by attacking in some other quarter. In this instance their leaders acted with the utmost determination and energy and their soldiers fought with the greatest courage.

The failure of their effort was due to the splendid endurance of our troops, who held the line around the salient under a fire which again and again blotted out whole lengths of the defenses and killed the defenders by scores. Time after time along those parts of the front selected for assault were parapets destroyed, and time after time did the thinning band of survivors build them up again and await the next onset as steadily as before.

Here, in May, in defense of the same historic town, have our incomparable infantry repeated the great deeds their comrades performed half a year ago and beaten back most desperate onslaughts of hostile hordes backed by terrific artillery support.

The services rendered by our troops in this quarter cannot at present be estimated, for their full significance will only be realized in the light of future events. But so far their devotion has indirectly contributed in no small measure to the striking success already achieved by our allies.

Further south, in the meantime, on Sunday another struggle had been in progress on that portion of the front covered by the right of our line and the left of the French, for when the firing around Ypres was temporarily subsiding during the early hours of the morning another and even more tremendous cannonade was suddenly started by the artillery of the Allies some twenty miles to the south.

The morning was calm, bright, and clear, and opposite our right, as the sun rose, the scene in front of our line was the most peaceful imaginable. Away to the right were Guinchy, with its brickfields and the ruins of Givenchy. To the north of them lay low ground, where, hidden by trees and hedgerows, ran the opposing lines that were about to become the scene of the conflict, and beyond, in the distance, rose the long ridge of Aubers, the villages crowning it standing out clear cut against the sky.

At 5 o'clock the bombardment began, slowly at first and then growing in volume until the whole air quivered with the rush of the larger shells and the earth shook with the concussion of guns. In a few minutes the whole distant landscape disappeared in smoke and dust, which hung for a while in the still air and then drifted slowly across the line of battle.

Shortly before 6 o'clock our infantry advanced along our front between the Bois Grenier and Festubert. On the left, north of Fromelles, we stormed the German first line trenches. Hand-to-hand fighting went on for some time with bayonet, rifle, and hand grenade, but we continued to hold on to this position throughout the day and caused the enemy very heavy loss, for not only were many Germans killed in the bombardment, but their repeated efforts to drive us from the captured positions proved most costly.

On the right, to the north of Festubert, our advance met with considerable opposition and was not pressed.

Meanwhile, the French, after a prolonged bombardment, had taken the German positions north of Arras on a front of nearly five miles, and had pushed forward from two to three miles, capturing 2,000 prisoners and six guns. This remarkable success was gained by our allies in the course of a few hours.

As may be supposed from the nature of the fighting which has been in progress, our losses have been heavy. On other parts of the front our action was confined to that of the artillery, but this proved most effective later, all the communications of the enemy being subjected to so heavy and accurate a fire that in some quarters all movement by daylight within range of our lines was rendered impracticable. At one place opposite our centre a convoy of ammunition was hit by a shell, which knocked out six motor lorries and caused two to blow up. Opposite our centre we fired two mines, which did considerable damage to the enemy's defenses.

During the day also our aeroplanes attacked several points of importance. One of our airmen, who was sent to bomb the canal bridge near Don, was wounded on his way there, but continued and fulfilled his mission. Near Wytschaete, one of our aviators pursued a German aeroplane and fired a whole belt from his machine gun at it. The Taube suddenly swerved, righted itself for a second, and then descended from a height of several thousand feet straight to the ground.

On the other hand, a British machine unfortunately was brought down over Lille by the enemy's anti-aircraft guns, but it is hoped that the aviator escaped.

In regard to the German allegation, that the British used gas in their attacks on Hill 60, the Eyewitness says:

No asphyxiating gases have been employed by us at any time, nor have they yet been brought into play by us.

ON THE WESTERN FRONT.

On the western front the principal scenes of action have been the front from Nieuport to Arras, the Champagne district, and the southern side of the German wedge from its apex at St. Mihiel to Pont-à-Mousson. On the northern part of the Allies' line from Ypres to Nieuport the Germans have been the aggressors. They have selected as the principal points of attack the Belgian line back of the Yser just south of Nieuport and the point of juncture of the British with the Belgian lines.

Both attacks have the same general object—the bending back of the line between these two points with a vision, for the future, of Dunkirk and Calais. The attack along the Yser has not been pushed to any extent, and what advantage there is rests with the Belgians. In fact, the Belgians have advanced somewhat and have been able to throw a bridge across the Yser near St. George, just east of Nieuport, on the Nieuport-Bruges road.

Around Ypres the fighting has been more than usually fierce and desperate. Blow after blow has been struck, first by one side, then by the other. Both German and British have admittedly suffered enormous losses, but the positions of their respective lines are almost unchanged from those occupied a week ago. The German gains of last week in the vicinity of Steenstraate produced in the British lines around Ypres a sharp salient, and it is against the sides of this salient that the Germans have been hurling their forces.

The town of Ypres is now in complete ruins, and, although it would normally be of importance because of the fact that it is the point of crossing of a number of roads, this importance is destroyed by the fact that it is entirely dominated by the German artillery. As long as this state of affairs exists the town has practically no strategic value. All that the Germans can accomplish if they take Ypres will have been a flattening out of the British salient.

Germany cannot be content with occasional bending of the Allies' line. The process is too slow and too costly. Germany has almost, if not quite, reached her maximum strength, and the losses she now suffers will be difficult to replace. Viewing the situation entirely from the German standpoint, success can only mean breaking through and attacking the two exposed flanks at the point pierced. This would force a retreat as in the case of the Russian lines along the Dunajec, which will be taken up later on. No other form of action can be decisive, though it might permit a little more of Belgian or French territory to change hands. This would, of course, in case the war were declared a draw, give Germany an additional advantage in the discussion of terms of peace, especially if the rule of uti posseditis were applied as a basis from which to begin negotiations. But this contingency is too remote for present consideration.

As to the probability of German success around Ypres, it seems to grow less as time passes. After the first rush was over and the British lines had time to re-form Germany has accomplished nothing. Moreover, it is certain that in back of the short twenty-five miles of line held by the British troops there is a reserve of almost a half million men. No other portion of the battle line in either theatre has such great latent strength ready to be thrown in when the critical moment comes. Just why it has not been used so far is a mystery, the solution of which can be found only in the brain of Sir John French. But it is known to be in France and is there for a purpose.

From Loos to Arras the French have undertaken the most ambitious and the most successful offensive movement made in the west since Winter set in. The entire French line along this front of twenty-five miles, taking the Germans by surprise, has gone forward a distance varying from one-half to two and a half miles. The attack was launched at an extremely opportune moment. The Germans were, in the first place, extremely busy in the north at Ypres, and were making every effort to drive that attack home. The probabilities were, therefore, that the line in front of the Arras-Loos position was none too strong, and that such reserves as could be spared had been sent north. Then, again, it would tend to divert attention from the Ypres line, and so relieve somewhat the pressure on the British lines at that point.

The objective of the French attack seems to have been the town of Lens, which is the centre of the coal district of France. Loos, which is about three miles north of Lens, has been one of the centres of fighting. This indicates how close the French are to their objective. Lens is an important railroad centre, and is the point of junction of many roads which radiate in all directions. As yet the French advance is not sufficient to denote anything, but another step in the "nibbling" process by means of which the French have kept the Germans occupied for some months.

In the German angle, from Etain to St. Mihiel to Pont-à-Mousson, the French achieved what will probably prove to be the greatest local success of the past week. That is, the complete occupation of the Le Prêtre woods. Sooner or later the continual French encroachments on the German area of occupation must cause the straightening out of this line and the retirement of the Germans to the supporting forts of Metz. The object of all the French moves against this angle has been the town of Thiancourt, on the German supply line from Metz. The capture of the last German line of trenches in the Prêtre Forest brings the French within six miles of this town. When the French reach the northern edge of this forest, and they must be very close to it now, it will be a simple matter to drop shells into Thiancourt and seriously endanger every train that comes in.

On the rest of the western front there have been a number of isolated actions, notably in the Champagne district, in the Argonne Forest and north of Flirey, between St. Mihiel and Pont-à-Mousson. They have been of no particular advantage however, and seem to have had no definite purpose beyond making additions to the casualty lists.

Considering the results of the week's operations in the west, therefore, it is safe to say that the advantage lies with the Allies. That part of the line which has been thrown on the defensive has more than held its own, while the French offense has resulted in a considerable advance over a wide front. If we may draw any comparison at all from this, it must be that the German line is not nearly so impenetrable as the British, and that when the Allies think the attempt will justify the losses that will be inevitably sustained, the German line can be broken even though the rupture may be quickly healed.

IN THE EASTERN THEATRE.

In the eastern theatre interest still centres in the battles in Galicia. In Western Galicia, between the Dunajec and the San, the Russian forces are steadily giving way before the attacks of the Germanic allies. Their retreat, which, during the past week, has been rapid, has been well protected by heavy rear guard actions, which have temporarily delayed the pursuing Austrians at various points. At the same time, however, but little respite was given to the Russians.

German and Austrian reports as to the number of prisoners and amount of booty will bear scrutiny, and, taken into consideration with recent disturbances in Italy, may safely be discounted. The surrender of such large bodies of troops, even in the Russian Army, cannot be forced when the lines of retreat are open or when sufficient notice is given that such lines are dangerously menaced. It is only when troops are surrounded or when a large hostile force is thrust in between units, as happened some months ago with the Tenth Russian Army in the Masurian Lakes district, that such surrenders occur.

This does not apply, of course, to the wounded, and in the present case the Russians, through the enforced rapidity of their retreat, must necessarily in many instances have left their wounded on the field of battle to fall into the hands of the pursuing enemy. Certainly the Russian losses were heavy. Equally certain is it that the battle for the Carpathian passes is now history.

This is evident from a brief review of the Russian position on the Carpathian front, with particular reference to the necessary lines of communications and an outline of the present Russian position as accurately as it can at present be determined. It must be stated at this point, however, that this position is a matter of doubt, as reports from Vienna and from Petrograd are greatly at variance as to what has been accomplished.

It was noted last week that the Russian line formed a huge crescent, the longer arc of which (and this was the Carpathian front) extended from Bartfeld north, then east along the Carpathian crests, north of Uzsok to a point on the Stryi River. This line is over 100 miles long. It was dependent for supplies on five roads, three of which were fairly good dirt roads, the other two railroads; of the latter one runs through Uzsok, and is so far east that only a small section of the line was reached by it.

The main line, however, has been supplied from the remaining four, all of which turn off either from the one lateral railroad from Przemysl to Jaslo or from the dirt road between Jaslo and Sanok, and run south to the various passes. As this latter road simply loops the railroad between these two points, the entire Russian Carpathian line may be considered to have been supplied by the lateral railroad from Sanok to Jaslo. In proportion to the number of troops that had to be fed and supplied, these lines were only too few, and the marvel is that Russia was able to keep up the necessary flow of food and ammunition throughout her effort against the Carpathian passes. The possession of all of these roads was the sine qua non of Russian success. The loss of any one of them would affect so many miles of her line that the whole line would have felt the influence.

The Austrian troops are said to have reached the lower San, but no particular point is mentioned. Nothing is said about the upper San or the stretch of Galicia between the two. It may, therefore, be assumed that the Russian left is on the Vistula, near the confluence of the San, and that the general line runs from there south, probably through Rzeszow along the valley of the Wistok River, occupying the wooded hills east of that river, and bending eastward slightly toward the upper San. This means that all of the lines of communication that supplied the Carpathian front except the line through Uzsok Pass are now in Austrian hands.

Russia still clings tenaciously to Uzsok, however, doubtless having under consideration the possibility that Italy may enter the war, and that another advance against the Carpathians may then be made. In such a contingency the Russian losses in the various engagements around Uzsok would not have been in vain.

Russia has answered the Austrian drive from the west by a vigorous offense against the defenses of Bukowina Province. The Austrian forces east of the San River are divided—one part which has been extremely active against the Russians being on the east bank of the Stryi, and the other, which has been quiescently defensive, along the Bistritza, the latter line running almost due east and west. This latter force the Russians struck, using large bodies of Cossack cavalry in a flanking movement from the north. The Austrian retreat has been more precipitate, and the losses greater in proportion than in the Russian retreat from the Dunajec.

If in addition the Rumanians came across Transylvania and caught the Austrians in the rear the defeat would almost offset that of the Russians in the west. Rumania's advent into the war is, however, still a matter of doubt, and any conclusions predicated on that assumption are entirely speculative.

The two known facts in regard to the Galician situation are that in Western Galicia the Russian Dunajec line is retreating, uncovering and therefore involving in its retreat the troops in the Carpathians, and in Eastern Galicia the Russians seem to have the greater measure of success. Of the two, however, the operations in Western Galicia are of infinitely greater importance. Eventually the Russian retreat will probably reach the general line of the San River north of Jaroslau, where there will be an opportunity to re-form on a much shorter line, and after recuperation of men and supplies preparations for a new offense may be begun.

Operation on the Russian Front

This map records the action for the week ended May 15. In the extreme north, in the Russian Baltic Province of Courland, the Germans still held the port of Libau, (1,) and a fierce battle was in progress south of Shavli, (2,) where the Russians stopped the raid toward Mitau.

In South Poland and West Galicia the changes brought about by the great Austro-German drive of 1,500,000 men from Cracow are shown by the heavy dotted and solid lines. The dotted line shows the approximate position of the German battle front when the drive began and the solid line its approximate position according to latest advices from Berlin and Vienna, Jaroslau (3) being the latest important position reported captured.

In extreme Eastern Galicia the situation was reversed, the dotted line showing roughly the position of the Russian line when the counter-drive by the Czar's forces was launched and the solid line its position, so far as was ascertainable, on May 15.

Their defeat, however, has been a severe blow, and has cost Russia a terrible price in men and in guns, the latter of which she could less afford to lose. On the other hand, they have inflicted terrible punishment on the victors, so that the victory partakes of a Pyrrhian character.

In the meantime operations in the Dardanelles are being pressed, but are not reported with sufficient definiteness to give an idea as to the probable result.

THE VICTORY IN APRIL.

[By the Correspondent of The London Times.]

Petrograd, April 18.

A dispatch from the Headquarters Staff of the Commander in Chief says:

At the beginning of March, (Old Style,) in the principal chain of the Carpathians, we only held the region of the Dukla Pass, where our lines formed an exterior angle. All the other passes—Lupkow and further east—were in the hands of the enemy.

In view of this situation, our armies were assigned the further task of developing, before the season of bad roads due to melting snows began, our positions in the Carpathians which dominated the outlets into the Hungarian plain. About the period indicated great Austrian forces, which had been concentrated for the purpose of relieving Przemysl, were in position between the Lupkow and Uzsok Passes.

It was for this sector that our grand attack was planned. Our troops had to carry out a frontal attack under very difficult conditions of terrain. To facilitate their attack, therefore, an auxiliary attack was decided upon on a front in the direction of Bartfeld as far as the Lupkow. This secondary attack was opened on March 19 and was completely developed.

On the 23rd and 28th of March our troops had already begun their principal attack in the direction of Baligrod, enveloping the enemy positions from the west of the Lupkow Pass and on the east near the source of the San.

The enemy opposed the most desperate resistance to the offensive of our troops. They had brought up every available man on the front from the direction of Bartfeld as far as the Uzsok Pass, including even German troops and numerous cavalrymen fighting on foot. His effectives on this front exceeded 300 battalions. Moreover, our troops had to overcome great natural difficulties at every step.

Nevertheless, from April 5—that is, eighteen days after the beginning of our offensive—the valor of our troops enabled us to accomplish the task that had been set, and we captured the principal chain of the Carpathians on the front Reghetoff-Volosate, 110 versts (about 70 miles) long. The fighting latterly was in the nature of actions in detail with the object of consolidating the successes we had won.

To sum up: On the whole Carpathian front, between March 19 and April 12, the enemy, having suffered enormous losses, left in our hands, in prisoners only, at least 70,000 men, including about 900 officers. Further, we captured more than thirty guns and 200 machine guns.

On April 16 the actions in the Carpathians were concentrated in the direction of Rostoki. The enemy, notwithstanding the enormous losses he had suffered, delivered, in the course of that day, no fewer than sixteen attacks in great strength. These attacks, all of which were absolutely barren of result, were made against the heights which we had occupied further to the east of Telepovce.

Our troops, during the night of the 16th-17th, after a desperate fight, stormed and captured a height to the southeast of the village of Polen, where we took many prisoners. Three enemy counter-attacks on this height were repulsed.

In other sectors all along our front there is no change.

THE GRAND DUKE'S STRATEGY.

Petrograd, April 19.

Today's record of the brilliant feats of the Russian Army in the Carpathians during the past month, contained in the survey of the Grand Duke, presents only one aspect—the discomfiture of the Austro-German forces. The Neue Freie Presse gives some indication of the other aspect.

In a recent issue it stated that "the fortnight's battle around the Lupkow and Uzsok Passes has been one of the most obstinate in history. The Russians succeeded in forcing the Austrians out of their positions. The difficulties of the Austro-Hungarian Army are complicated by the weather and the lack of ammunition and food." The question naturally suggests itself, why did these difficulties not equally disturb the Russian operations? On our side the difficulties of transport were, if anything, greater. The enemy was backed by numerous railways, with supplies close at hand, and was fighting on his native soil, and these advantages undoubtedly compensated for the greater difficulties of commissariat for the larger numbers of Austro-Germans. But from the avowal of the Neue Freie Presse it is suggested here that the Austrians were disorganized. The causes of this disorganization are attributed by military observers to the mixing up of German with Austrian units, rendering the task of command and supply very difficult.

The Grand Duke is fully prepared to take the field as soon as the allied commanders decide that the time for a general action has come. Never has the spirit of the Russian Army been firmer.

The critics this morning comment on the official communiqué detailing a gigantic task brilliantly fulfilled by the Carpathian army during March. Our position in the region of the Dukla Pass early last month exposed us to pressure from two sides, and might have involved the necessity of evacuating the main range. Our army thus required to extend its positions commanding the outlets to the Hungarian plain, before the Spring thaws, in face of a large hostile concentration between Lupkow and Uzsok. The chief attack was directed against the latter section, and an auxiliary attack against the Bartfeld-Lupkow section. The auxiliary attack began on March 19 against the Austro-German left flank and reached its full development four days later. Mistaking the auxiliary for the principal attack, the enemy began an advance from the Bukowina, hoping to divert us from Uzsok, but, instead, the larger portion of our army assailed the enemy's flanks while a smaller body advanced against Rostoki, surmounting the immense difficulties of mountain warfare in Springtime.

By means of the envelopment of both his flanks the enemy was, by April 5, dislodged from the main range on the entire seventy-mile front from Regetow to Wolosate. Convinced that we were directing our chief efforts against his flanks, the enemy now strove to break our resistance in the Rostoki direction, but, after sixteen futile attacks, he was obliged to cede the commanding height of Telepovce, our occupation of which will probably compel him to evacuate his positions at Polen and Smolnik and withdraw to the valley of the Cziroka, a tributary of the Laborez.

DEFEAT IN EARLY MAY.

[By The Associated Press.]

VIENNA, May 13, (via Amsterdam to London, May 14.)—An official statement issued here tonight after recalling that in November and December at Lodz and Limanowa the Austro-Germans compelled the Russians to draw back on a front to the extent of 400 kilometers, (about 249 miles,) thereby stopping the Russian advance into Germany, continues:

From January to the middle of April the Russians vainly exerted themselves to break through to Hungary, but they completely failed with heavy losses. Thereupon the time had come to crush the enemy in a common attack with a full force of the combined troops of both empires.

VICE ADMIRAL JOHN M. DE ROBECK—
Commanding the Allied Fleet Operating Against the Dardanelles—
(Photo © American Press Assn.)

FIELD MARSHAL BARON VON DER GOLTZ—
Commander of the First Turkish Army, Formerly Military Governor
of Belgium—(Photo from Paul Thompson.)

A victory at Tarnow and Gorlice freed West Galicia from the enemy and caused the Russian fronts on the Nida and in the Carpathians to give way. In a ten days' battle the victorious troops beat the Russian Third and Eighth Armies to annihilation, and quickly covered the ground from the Dunajec and Beskids to the San River—130 kilometers (nearly 81 miles) of territory.

From May 2 to 12 the prisoners taken numbered 143,500, while 100 guns and 350 machine guns were captured, besides the booty already mentioned. We suppressed small detachments of the enemy scattered in the woods in the Carpathians.

Near Odvzechowa the entire staff of the Russian Forty-eighth Division of Infantry including General Korniloff, surrendered. The best indication of the confusion of the Russian Army is the fact that our Ninth Corps captured in the last few days Russians of fifty-one various regiments. The quantity of captured Russian war material is piled up and has not yet been enumerated.

North of the Vistula the Austro-Hungarian troops are advancing across Stopnica. The German troops have captured Kielce.

East of Uzsok Pass the German and Hungarian troops took several Russian positions on the heights and advanced to the south of Turka, capturing 4,000 prisoners. An attack is proceeding here and in the direction of Skole.

In Southeast Galicia strong hostile troops are attacking across Horodenka.

BERLIN, (via London,) May 13.—The German War Office announced today that in the recent fighting in Galicia and Russian Poland 143,500 Russians had been captured. It also stated that 69 cannon and 255 machine guns had been taken from the Russians, and that the victorious Austrian and German forces, continuing their advance eastward in Galicia, were approaching the fortress of Przemysl. The statement follows:

The army under General von Mackensen in the course of its pursuit of the Russians reached yesterday the neighborhood of Subiecko, on the lower Wisloka, and Kolbuezowa, northeast of Debica. Under the pressure of this advance the Russians also retreated from their positions north of the Vistula. In this section the troops under General von Woyrech, closely following the enemy, penetrated as far as the region northwest of Kielce.

In the Carpathians Austro-Hungarian and German troops under General von Linsingen conquered the hills east of the upper Stryi and took 3,650 men prisoners, as well as capturing six machine guns.

At the present moment, while the armies under General von Mackensen are approaching the Przemysl fortress and the lower San, it is possible to form an approximate idea of the booty taken. In the battles of Tarnow and Gorlice, and in the battles during the pursuit of these armies, we have so far taken 103,500 Russian prisoners, 69 cannon, and 255 machine guns. In these figures the booty taken by the allied troops fighting in the Carpathians and north of the Vistula is not included. This amounts to a further 40,000 prisoners.

DECLARATION OF WAR.

[By The Associated Press.]

VIENNA, May 23, (via Amsterdam and London, May 24.)—The Duke of Avarna, Italian Ambassador to Austria, presented this afternoon to Baron von Burian, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, the following declaration of war:

Vienna, May 23, 1915.

Conformably with the order of his Majesty the King, his august sovereign, the undersigned Ambassador of Italy has the honor to deliver to his Excellency, the Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary, the following communication:

"Declaration has been made, as from the fourth of this month, to the Imperial and Royal Government of the grave motives for which Italy, confident in her good right, proclaimed annulled and henceforth without effect her treaty of alliance with Austria-Hungary, which was violated by the Imperial and Royal Government, and resumed her liberty of action in this respect.

"The Government of the King, firmly resolved to provide by all means at its disposal for safeguarding Italian rights and interests, cannot fail in its duty to take against every existing and future menace measures which events impose upon it for the fulfillment of national aspirations.

"His Majesty the King declares that he considers himself from tomorrow in a state of war with Austria-Hungary."

The undersigned has the honor to make known at the same time to his Excellency the Foreign Minister, that passports will be placed this very day at the disposal of the Imperial and Royal Ambassador at Rome, and he will be obliged to his Excellency if he will kindly have his passports handed to him.

Avarna.

FRANCIS JOSEPH'S DEFIANCE.

[By The Associated Press.]

LONDON, May 24, 5:45 A.M.—A Reuter dispatch from Amsterdam says the Vienna Zeitung publishes the following autograph letter from Emperor Francis Joseph to Count Karl Stuergkh:

Dear Count Stuergkh: I request you to make public the attached manifesto to my troops:

"VIENNA, May 23.—Francis Joseph to his troops:

"The King of Italy has declared war on me. Perfidy whose like history does not know was committed by the Kingdom of Italy against both allies. After an alliance of more than thirty years' duration, during which it was able to increase its territorial possessions and develop itself to an unthought of flourishing condition, Italy abandoned us in our hour of danger and went over with flying colors into the camp of our enemies.

"We did not menace Italy; did not curtail her authority; did not attack her honor or interests. We always responded loyally to the duties of our alliance and afforded her our protection when she took the field. We have done more. When Italy directed covetous glances across our frontier we, in order to maintain peace and our alliance relation, were resolved on great and painful sacrifices which particularly grieved our paternal heart. But the covetousness of Italy, which believed the moment should be used, was not to be appeased, so fate must be accommodated.

"My armies have victoriously withstood mighty armies in the north in ten months of this gigantic conflict in most loyal comradeship of arms with our illustrious ally. A new and treacherous enemy in the south is to you no new enemy. Great memories of Novara, Mortaro, and Lissa, which constituted the pride of my youth; the spirit of Radetzky, Archduke Albrecht, and Tegetthoff, which continues to live in my land and sea forces, guarantee that in the south also we shall successfully defend the frontiers of the monarchy.

"I salute my battle-tried troops, who are inured to victory. I rely on them and their leaders. I rely on my people for whose unexampled spirit of sacrifice my most paternal thanks are due. I pray the Almighty to bless our colors and take under His gracious protection our just cause."

ITALY'S CABINET EMPOWERED.

[By The Associated Press.]

Rome, May 20.—Amid tremendous enthusiasm the Chamber of Deputies late today adopted, by a vote of 407 to 74, the bill conferring upon the Government full power to make war.

The bill is composed of a single article and reads as follows:

All members of the Cabinet maintain absolute silence regarding what step will follow the action of the Chamber. Former Ministers and other men prominent in public affairs declare, however, that the action of Parliament virtually was a declaration of war.

When the Chamber reassembled this afternoon after its long recess there were present 482 Deputies out of 500, the absentees remaining away on account of illness. The Deputies especially applauded were those who wore military uniforms and who had asked permission for leave from their military duties to be present at the sitting.

All the tribunes were filled to overflowing. No representatives of Germany, Austria, or Turkey were to be seen in the diplomatic tribune. The first envoy to arrive was Thomas Nelson Page, the American Ambassador, who was accompanied by his staff. M. Barrère, Sir J. Bennell Rodd, and Michel de Giers, the French, British, and Russian Ambassadors, respectively, appeared a few minutes later and all were greeted with applause, which was shared by the Belgian, Greek, and Rumanian Ministers. George B. McClellan, former Mayor of New York, occupied a seat in the President's tribune.

A few minutes before the session began the poet, Gabriele d'Annunzio, one of the strongest advocates of war, appeared in the rear of the public tribune, which was so crowded that it seemed impossible to squeeze in anybody else. But the moment the people saw him they lifted him shoulder high and passed him over their heads to the first row. The entire Chamber and all those occupying the other tribunes rose and applauded for five minutes, crying, "Viva d'Annunzio!" Later thousands sent him their cards, and in return received his autograph, bearing the date of this eventful day.

Signor Marcora, President of the Chamber, took his place at 3 o'clock. All the members of the House and everybody in the galleries stood up to acclaim the old follower of Garibaldi.

Premier Salandra, followed by all the members of the Cabinet, entered shortly afterward. It was a solemn moment. Then a delirium of cries broke out. "Viva Salandra!" roared the Deputies, and the cheering lasted for five minutes. Premier Salandra appeared to be much moved by the demonstration.

After the formalities of the opening Premier Salandra arose and said:

"Gentlemen: I have the honor to present to you a bill to meet the eventual expenditures of a national war"—an announcement that was greeted by further prolonged applause.

The Premier began an exposition of the situation of Italy before the opening of hostilities in Europe. He declared that Italy had submitted to every humiliation from Austria-Hungary for the love of peace. By her ultimatum to Serbia Austria had annulled the equilibrium of the Balkans and prejudiced Italian interests there.

Notwithstanding this evident violation of the treaty of the Triple Alliance, Italy endeavored during long months to avoid a conflict, but these efforts were bound to have a limit in time and dignity. "This is why the Government felt itself forced to present its denunciation of the Triple Alliance on May 4," said Premier Salandra, who had difficulty in quieting the wild cheering that ensued. When he had succeeded in so doing he continued, amid frequent enthusiastic interruptions:

Signor Salandra was interrupted time and time again by rounds of applause from all sides, and the climax was reached when he made a reference to the army and navy. Then the cries seemed interminable, and those on the floor of the House and in the galleries turned to the Military Tribune, from which the officers answered by waving their hands and handkerchiefs. At the end of the Premier's speech there were deafening "vivas" for the King, war, and Italy.

Only thirty-four Intransigent Socialists refused to join in the cheers, even in the cry "Viva Italia!" and they were hooted and hissed.

After the presentation of the bill conferring full powers upon the Government the President of the Chamber submitted the question whether a committee of eighteen members should be elected. Out of the 421 Deputies who voted 367 cast their ballot in the affirmative. The other 54 were against. The opposition was composed of Socialists and some adherents of ex-Premier Giolitti.

Foreign Minister Sonnino then rose, and, taking a copy of the "Green Book" from his pocket, said: "I have the honor to present to the Chamber a book containing an account of all the pourparlers with Austria from the 9th of September to the 4th of May." He handed the book to Signor Marcora.

The Chamber then adjourned until 5 o'clock, when the committee reported in favor of the bill, and it was adopted.

Italy and the Austrian Frontier—The shaded portions on the Austrian frontier represent the provinces of "Italia Irredenta," which Italy would win back.

ITALY'S JUSTIFICATION.

The first complete official statement of the difficulties between Italy and Austria-Hungary, which forced the Italian declaration of war against the Dual Monarchy, was made public in Washington on May 25 by Count V. Macchi di Cellere, the Italian Ambassador. It took the form of a carefully prepared telegraphic statement to the Ambassador from Signor Sonnino, the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, with instructions that it be delivered in the form of a note to the Government of the United States. After presenting the communication to Secretary Bryan, Count Cellere made public the following translation of its full text:

The Triple Alliance was essentially defensive and designed solely to preserve the status quo, or, in other words, the equilibrium, in Europe. That these were its only objects and purposes is established by the letter and spirit of the treaty as well as by the intentions clearly described and set forth in official acts of the Ministers who created the alliance and confirmed and renewed it in the interest of peace, which always has inspired Italian policy.

The treaty, as long as its intents and purposes had been loyally interpreted and regarded and as long as it had not been used as a pretext for aggression against others, greatly contributed to the elimination and settlement of causes of conflict, and for many years assured to Europe the inestimable benefits of peace.

But Austria-Hungary severed the treaty by her own hands. She rejected the response of Serbia, which gave to her all the satisfaction she could legitimately claim. She refused to listen to the conciliatory proposals presented by Italy in conjunction with other powers in the effort to spare Europe from a vast conflict certain to drench the Continent with blood and to reduce it to ruin beyond the conception of human imagination, and finally she provoked that conflict.

Article I. of the treaty embodied the usual and necessary obligation of such pacts—the pledge to exchange views upon any fact and economic questions of a general nature that might arise pursuant to its terms. None of the contracting parties had the right to undertake, without a previous agreement, any step the consequence of which might impose a duty upon the other signatories arising out of the Alliance, or which would in any way whatsoever encroach upon their vital interests. This article was violated by Austria-Hungary when she sent to Serbia her note dated July 23, 1914, an action taken without the previous assent of Italy.

Thus, Austria-Hungary violated beyond doubt one of the fundamental provisions of the treaty. The obligation of Austria-Hungary to come to a previous understanding with Italy was the greater because her obstinate policy against Serbia gave rise to a situation which directly tended to the provocation of a European war.

As far back as the beginning of July, 1914, the Italian Government, preoccupied by the prevailing feeling in Vienna, caused to be laid before the Austro-Hungarian Government a number of suggestions advising moderation, and warning it of the impending danger of a European outbreak. The course adopted by Austria-Hungary against Serbia constituted, moreover, a direct encroachment upon the general interests of Italy, both political and economical, in the Balkan Peninsula. Austria-Hungary could not for a moment imagine that Italy could remain indifferent while Serbian independence was being trodden upon.

On a number of occasions theretofore Italy gave Austria to understand, in friendly but clear terms, that the independence of Serbia was considered by Italy as essential to Balkan equilibrium. Austria-Hungary was further advised that Italy could never permit that equilibrium to be disturbed to her prejudice. This warning had been conveyed not only by her diplomats in private conversations with responsible Austro-Hungarian officials but was proclaimed publicly by Italian statesmen on the floors of Parliament.

Therefore when Austria-Hungary ignored the usual practices and menaced Serbia by sending her an ultimatum without in any way notifying the Italian Government of what she proposed to do, indeed leaving that Government to learn of her action through the press rather than through the usual channels of diplomacy, when Austria-Hungary took this unprecedented course she not only severed her alliance with Italy but committed an act inimical to Italy's interests.

The Italian Government had obtained trustworthy information that the complete program laid down by Austria-Hungary with reference to the Balkans was prompted by a desire to decrease Italy's economical and political influence in that section, and tended directly and indirectly to the subservience of Serbia to Austria-Hungary, the political and territorial isolation of Montenegro, and the isolation and political decadence of Rumania.

This attempted diminution of the influence of Italy in the Balkans would have been brought about by the Austro-Hungarian program, even though Austria-Hungary had no intention of making further territorial acquisitions. Furthermore attention should be called to the fact that the Austro-Hungarian Government had assumed the solemn obligation of prior consultation of Italy as required by the special provisions of Article VII. of the treaty of the Triple Alliance, which, in addition to the obligation of previous agreements, recognized the right of compensation to the other contracting parties in case one should occupy temporarily or permanently any section of the Balkans.

To this end, the Italian Government approached the Austro-Hungarian Government immediately upon the inauguration of Austro-Hungarian hostilities against Serbia, and succeeded in obtaining reluctant acquiescence in the Italian representations. Conversations were initiated immediately after July 23, for the purpose of giving a new lease of life to the treaty which had been violated and thereby annulled by the act of Austria-Hungary.

This object could be attained only by the conclusion of new agreements. The conversations were renewed, with additional propositions as the basis, in December 1914. The Italian Ambassador at Vienna at that time received instructions to inform Count Berchtold, the Austro-Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs, that the Italian Government considered it necessary to proceed without delay to an exchange of views and consequently to concrete negotiations with the Austro-Hungarian Government concerning the complex situation arising out of the conflict which that Government had provoked.

Count Berchtold at first refused. He declared that the time had not arrived for negotiations. Subsequently, upon our rejoinder, in which the German Government united, Count Berchtold agreed to exchange views as suggested. We promptly declared, as one of our fundamental objects, that the compensation on which the agreement should be based should relate to territories at the time under the dominion of Austria-Hungary.

The discussion continued for months, from the first days of December to March, and it was not until the end of March that Baron Burian offered a zone of territory comprised within a line extending from the existing boundary to a point just north of the City of Trent.

In exchange for this proposed cession the Austro-Hungarian Government demanded a number of pledges, including among them an assurance of entire liberty of action in the Balkans. Note should be made of the fact that the cession of the territory around Trent was not intended to be immediately effective as we demanded, but was to be made only upon the termination of the European war. We replied that the offer was not acceptable, and then presented the minimum concessions which could meet in part our national aspirations and strengthen in an equitable manner our strategic position in the Adriatic.

These demands comprised: The extension of the boundary in Trentino, a new boundary on the Isonzo, special provision for Trieste, the cession of certain islands of the Curzolari Archipelago, the abandonment of Austrian claims in Albania, and the recognition of our possession of Avlona and the islands of the Aegean Sea, which we occupied during our war with Turkey.

At first our demands were categorically rejected. It was not until another month of conversation that Austria-Hungary was induced to increase the zone of territory she was prepared to cede in the Trentino and then only as far as Mezzo Lombardo, thereby excluding the territory inhabited by people of the Italian race, such as the Valle del Noce, Val di Fasso, and Val di Ampezzo. Such a proposal would have given to Italy a boundary of no strategical value. In addition the Austro-Hungarian Government maintained its determination not to make the cession effective before the end of the war.

The repeated refusals of Austria-Hungary were expressly confirmed in a conversation between Baron Burian and the Italian Ambassador at Vienna on April 29. While admitting the possibility of recognizing some of our interests in Avlona and granting the above-mentioned territorial cession in the Trentino, the Austro-Hungarian Government persisted in its opposition to all our other demands, especially those regarding the boundary of the Isonzo, Trieste, and the islands.

The attitude assumed by Austria-Hungary from the beginning of December until the end of April made it evident that she was attempting to temporize without coming to a conclusion. Under such circumstances Italy was confronted by the danger of losing forever the opportunity of realizing her aspirations based upon tradition, nationality, and her desire for a safe position in the Adriatic, while other contingencies in the European conflict menaced her principal interests in other seas.

Hence Italy faced the necessity and duty of recovering that liberty of action to which she was entitled and of seeking protection for her interests, apart from the negotiations which had been dragging uselessly along for five months and without reference to the Treaty of Alliance which had virtually failed as a result of its annullment by the action of Austria-Hungary in July, 1914.

It would not be out of place to observe that the alliance having terminated and there existing no longer any reason for the Italian people to be bound by it, though they had loyally stood by it for so many years because of their desire for peace, there naturally revived in the public mind the grievances against Austria-Hungary which for so many years had been voluntarily repressed.

While the Treaty of Alliance contained no formal agreement for the use of the Italian language or the maintenance of Italian tradition and Italian civilization in the Italian provinces of Austria, nevertheless if the alliance was to be effective in preserving peace and harmony it was indisputably clear that Austria-Hungary, as our ally, should have taken into account the moral obligation of respecting what constituted some of the most vital interests of Italy.

Instead, the constant policy of the Austro-Hungarian Government was to destroy Italian nationality and Italian civilization all along the coast of the Adriatic. A brief statement of the facts and of the tendencies well known to all will suffice.

Substitution of officials of the Italian race by officials of other nationalities; artificial immigration of hundreds of families of a different nationality; replacement of Italian by other labor; exclusion from Trieste by the decree of Prince Hohenlohe of employes who were subjects of Italy; denationalization of the judicial administration; refusal of Austria to permit an Italian university in Trieste, which formed the subject of diplomatic negotiations; denationalization of navigation companies; encouragement of other nationalities to the detriment of the Italian, and, finally, the methodical and unjustifiable expulsion of Italians in ever-increasing numbers.

This deliberate and persistent policy of the Austro-Hungarian Government with reference to the Italian population was not only due to internal conditions brought about by the competition of the different nationalities within its territory, but was inspired in great part by a deep sentiment of hostility and aversion toward Italy, which prevailed particularly in the quarters closest to the Austro-Hungarian Government and influenced decisively its course of action.

Of the many instances which could be cited it is enough to say that in 1911, while Italy was engaged in war with Turkey, the Austro-Hungarian General Staff prepared a campaign against us, and the military party prosecuted energetically a political intrigue designed to drag in other responsible elements of Austria. The mobilization of an army upon our frontier left us in no doubt of our neighbor's sentiment and intentions.

The crisis was settled pacifically through the influence, so far as known, of outside factors; but since that time we have been constantly under apprehension of a sudden attack whenever the party opposed to us should get the upper hand in Vienna. All of this was known in Italy, and it was only the sincere desire for peace prevailing among the Italian people which prevented a rupture.

After the European war broke out, Italy sought to come to an understanding with Austria-Hungary with a view to a settlement satisfactory to both parties which might avert existing and future trouble. Her efforts were in vain, notwithstanding the efforts of Germany, which for months endeavored to induce Austria-Hungary to comply with Italy's suggestions, thereby recognizing the propriety and legitimacy of the Italian attitude. Therefore Italy found herself compelled by the force of events to seek other solutions.

Inasmuch as the Treaty of Alliance with Austria-Hungary had ceased virtually to exist and served only to prolong a state of continual friction and mutual suspicion, the Italian Ambassador at Vienna was instructed to declare to the Austro-Hungarian Government that the Italian Government considered itself free from the ties arising out of the Treaty of the Triple Alliance in so far as Austria-Hungary was concerned. This communication was delivered in Vienna on May 4.

Subsequently to this declaration, and after we had been obliged to take steps for the protection of our interests, the Austro-Hungarian Government submitted new concessions, which, however, were deemed insufficient and by no means met our minimum demands. These offers could not be considered under the circumstances.

The Italian Government, taking into consideration what has been stated above, and supported by the vote of Parliament and the solemn manifestation of the country, came to the decision that any further delay would be inadvisable. Therefore, on this day (May 23) it was declared in the name of the King to the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador at Rome that, beginning tomorrow, May 24, it will consider itself in a state of war with Austria-Hungary. Orders to this effect were also telegraphed yesterday to the Italian Ambassador at Vienna.

THE GERMAN VIEW.

From the Frankfurter Zeitung of March 3.

Article VII. of the Austro-German-Italian Treaty, the terms of which have never before been made public, not only provides for the right of compensation in case one party to the contract enriches itself territorially in the Balkans, but also forbids either Austria or Italy to undertake anything in the Balkans without the consent of the other....

In the Tripoli war, when the energetic Duca degli Abruzzi made his advance in the Adriatic against Prevesa and wished to force the Porte to yield through a serious action in the Dardanelles, and when Italy wished to extend her occupation of the Aegean Islands, which lie as advance posts before the Dardanelles, she was obliged to forego her aims, and did loyally forego them, because Austria at that time did not yet desire a movement on the then still quiescent Balkan Peninsula. According to the Italian view, Austria, in determining to liquidate her matured account with Serbia without coming to an agreement in the matter with Italy, canceled the treaty in an important and essential part, irrespective of the assurance that she contemplated merely punishment of Serbia and not the acquisition of territory in the Balkans. The Italian policy considered itself from that moment free from every obligation, even if the speech of Premier Salandra in December could not be interpreted as a formal denunciation of the Dreibund....

We have today good grounds for assuming that much as we must reckon with the fact that the country is determined to go to war if nothing is granted to it, just so little would it support a Government bent on making war because it does not receive anything.

It will be as impossible to solve the Trentino question from the point of view of abstract right as to solve any other iridescent question in that way. The Trentino question, which was long a question of national, historical, and ethnological idealism, has now become a real question of power. The European war and its developments have placed Italy in a position to use her power in order to expand. This is not unusual in history....

But it should be carefully noted that only to an Italy remaining within the Triple Alliance can compensation be given, and, of course, only on the basis of complete reciprocity—(zug um zugleistung gegen leistung). To demand anything whatsoever Italy has no right. On the other hand, the ignoble exploitation of the needs of an ally fighting for her existence would correspond neither with the generosity of the Italian nature nor with her real interests.

The honest path for Italy, who finds herself unable to enter the war on the side of her allies in accordance with the spirit of the Alliance, is to preserve unconditional neutrality. A simple discussion between the leading statesmen of all the three powers will banish every shade of misunderstanding and clear the situation. Italy will spare her strength for the great task on the other side of the Mediterranean and for her correct and sensible attitude will receive, under the guarantee of her friend, (Germany,) the promise of the fulfillment of her comprehensible desire. Any other policy would be foolish and criminal.

ITALY AND ENGLAND.

From the Giornale d'Italia, March 26.

It is known in London, we believe, that Italy is firmly resolved to assure her own future in whatever manner seems best. A seafaring, agricultural, industrial, mercantile, emigrant people like the Italian must for its very existence conquer its own place in the sun, cannot endure hegemonies of any kind, cannot suggest exclusions, oppressions, or prohibitions of any kind, but must defend at any cost its own liberty, not only political, but economic and maritime. Italy is resolved to defend à outrance that sum total of her rights in which the whole future is inclosed. A people does not spend for nothing in a few months $300,000,000 to complete its military preparations and does not intrust for nothing, with a great example of concord, the most ample powers to the Government.

From the Messaggero, April 1.

As Prince von Bülow's negotiations have apparently failed, Italy naturally addresses herself to England. There is, however, this difficulty: England has already made arrangements with France and Russia for the solution of the questions of the Dardanelles and Asia Minor, whereas Italy wishes to have her say in these questions before giving her assistance to the Triple Entente. Moreover, there are Greek aspirations in the Levant and Serbian in the Adriatic to be reconciled with those of Italy. Consequently the situation is not easy.

From the Stampa, April 11.

Not only must Italy have her natural frontiers on the east restored, not only must she have her legitimate supremacy in the Adriatic assured, not only must she safeguard her interests in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the eventual partition of the Turkish Empire, but she must also see assured in the Western Mediterranean a greater guarantee for the safety of herself and her possessions and wider liberty of action than that of which she has recently had painful experience. These things must be guaranteed by an alliance with either Russia or with England....

Before having solved this difficulty any decision in favor of war would be a leap in the dark, an act of inconceivable political blindness. It would be, to adopt a rough, but inevitable, term, a veritable betrayal.

From the Giornale d'Italia of April 12, in criticising the foregoing.

We absolutely fail to understand the motive which induced the Piedmontese journal to print matter so calculated to confuse public opinion. Indeed, the care with which our contemporary seeks to embarrass Italian diplomatic action seems somewhat strange and cannot escape the blame of all those who think it necessary not to hamper the liberty of action conceded to the Government almost unanimously by Parliament and by the people....

It seems almost as though the Piedmontese journal had no thought but to put insoluble problems to the Government, in the face of public opinion, so as to try to prejudice its action in advance. The Stampa's program practically means that to the diplomatic rupture with the Central Empires would be added another diplomatic rupture with the Triple Entente, thus insuring the isolation which the Stampa professes to fear so much.

From the Corriere della Sera, April 12.

The article in the Stampa, which appears ultra-nationalist, is in reality purely neutralist. Italian aspirations must be kept within reasonable bounds. What would happen to Italy if demands were put forward which the Entente could not entertain? Quite apart from questions of direct interest and gain, other factors must be taken into account. There is the danger to Italy in case of the success of her late allies, which would mean the prostration of France, the annexation of Belgium to Germany, the arrival of Austria at Saloniki, British naval hegemony replaced by German, the revival of Turkey, and the consequent ambition to resume possession of lost territories.

ADRIATIC PROBLEM.

From the Politika of Belgrade, March 30.

Italy is claiming not only Italian territories which are under Austro-Hungarian domination, but also a very considerable part of the most purely southern Slav regions. Italy will have to realize one simple fact. Until this war Serbia was closed in on all sides by Austria-Hungary. She therefore asked that Europe should secure for her from Austria-Hungary at least a free outlet to the Adriatic, the price of which she had already paid in blood.

The two Balkan wars were waged primarily for the same thing, since they were wars of liberation. Today it is no longer a question of the economic independence of Serbia, since Austria-Hungary is passing from the scene, but it is a matter of the liberation and of the union into a single State of our race as a whole. This is the idea which at this moment governs the masses of our people, and the numberless graves of our fallen heroes testify to the sacrifice which we have made for the sake of this idea. Whoever, therefore, opposes our national union is an enemy of our race.

Deeply as it would pain Serbia to uproot out of her heart the sympathy which she feels for Italy, she will none the less do so without fail if ever it should become manifest that Italy's present policy signifies that she desires not only to consolidate her legitimate interests, but also to encroach upon the Balkans by attacking Serbia.

From the Giornale d'Italia, April 4.

No one in Italy has ever said or thought that in the event of a bouleversement in the Adriatic and the Balkans there should be denied to Serbia or any Slav State which might arise from the ruins of Austria-Hungary a wide outlet to the Adriatic. But, on the other hand, no one in Italy could ever permit that the reversion of Austria's strategic maritime position should fall into any hands but ours.

There are political and military considerations which are above any question of nationality whatever. It should be enough to cite the example of an England which holds a Spanish Gibraltar and an Italian Malta, besides a Greek Cyprus and the Egyptian Suez Canal. It should be enough to recall the claim made by all the press of Petrograd to establish Russia at Constantinople and on the banks of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, in spite of all the principles of nationality, Balkan or Turk.

Let the Serbians, in case of an Adriatic and Balkan upset, have an ample outlet to the Adriatic, but do not let them aspire to conquer a predominance in that sea. The Italian people is not, and can not be at this moment, either phil or phobe regarding any other people. The existence, or at least the future, of all the nations is at stake today, and whoever desires the friendship of Italy must begin by loyally recognizing her rights and interests.

From the Giornale d'Italia of April 19.

We reject altogether the idea that Italy would be satisfied with the western portion of Istria, leaving the rest of the Eastern Adriatic shore to the Croatians and Serbians. While Italy would certainly gain by the possession of Trieste and Pola, the strategic position in the Adriatic would still be exceedingly disadvantageous, especially as the Slav claim advanced by certain Russian newspapers, (that Croatia become an autonomous State and divide Dalmatia with Serbia,) includes the right to maintain fortified naval bases on the eastern shore.

This would merely mean exchanging Austrian strategical predominance for Slavonic, and, consequently, Russian predominance nearly as threatening to Italian interests.

The principal objective of Italy in the Adriatic is the solution once for all of the politico-strategic question of a sea which is commanded in the military sense from the eastern shore, and such a problem can be solved only by one method—by eliminating from the Adriatic every other war fleet. Otherwise the existing most difficult situation in the Adriatic will be perpetuated and in time inevitably aggravated.

From the Messaggero of April 21.

We understand that an Italian-Russian accord has been practically concluded. This accord refers both to the war, on which Italy will shortly embark, as well as to the peace which will be finally signed. The French and British Governments have taken an active part in facilitating this accord, as it deals with other questions besides that of the Adriatic.

From Idea Nazionale, May 10.

Italy desires war:

1. In order to obtain Trent, Trieste, and Dalmatia. The country desires it. A nation which has the opportunity to free its land should do so as a matter of imperative necessity. If the Government and the institutions will not make war, they render themselves guilty of high treason toward the country.

2. We desire war in order to conquer for ourselves a good strategic frontier in the north and east in place of the treacherous one which we now have. When a nation can assure the protection of its domain it ought to do so, otherwise its future will have less. It is a necessary duty. There is no other alternative but this—either complete the work or betray what has already been done.

3. We desire war because today in the Adriatic, the Balkan Peninsula, the Mediterranean, and Asia Italy should have all the advantages it is possible for her to have and without which her political, economic, and moral power would diminish in proportion as that of others augmented. To this has the Hon. Salandra borne witness. If we should avoid war we desire less than his words most sacredly proclaimed to the nation in Parliament. If we would be a great power we must accept certain obligations; one of them is war in order to keep us a great power. If we do not want to be a great power any longer, we deliberately and vilely betray ourselves.

The foregoing are the three reasons for entering the war—reasons which are tangible, material, and comprehensive.

From the Giornale d'Italia, May 12.

Italy is determined to realize her national aspirations, cost what it may. For this reason the Government has hastened its preparations for war which, when completed, caused Austria to offer compensations, thus tacitly acknowledging the claims of Italy.

When the Austro-Italian negotiations were begun Signor Giolitti most unfortunately obstructed their successful issue by his inopportune letter declaring that war was unnecessary. Nevertheless, owing to the firmness of the Government and the determination to resort to war, the conversations were resumed. However, Austria, aside from offering insufficient concessions, assumed a waiting policy and sought secretly to conclude a secret peace with Russia. Thereupon the Italian Government opened negotiations with the Allies, which had the effect of increasing the offers of Austria.

During the ultimate, delicate phase of the conversations, when those who advocate neutrality are causing great injury to the interests of the country and also helping its enemies, the Government, reposing in the support of the people, is determined to expose the intrigues and conspiracies intended to favor the Austrians and Germans.

Hence the Government will, if necessary, make an appeal to Parliament. Meanwhile, it will conserve its power and righteously defend the interests of the country.

THE SECOND DISPATCH.

Dardanelles, April 25.

Slowly through the night of April 24 our squadron, which was to land the covering force of the Australian contingent just north of Gaba Tepe, steamed toward its destination. The troops on board were the guests of the crews, and our generous sailors entertained them royally. At dusk all lights were extinguished, and very shortly afterward the troops retired for a last rest before their ordeal at dawn.

At 1 A.M. the ships arrived off their appointed rendezvous, five miles from the landing place, and stopped. The soldiers were aroused from their slumbers and were served with a last hot meal. A visit to the mess decks showed these Australians, the majority of whom were about to go into action for the first time under the most trying circumstances, possessed at 1 o'clock in the morning courage to be cheerful, quiet, and confident. There was no sign of nerves or undue excitement such as one might very reasonably have expected.

At 1:20 A.M. the signal was given from the flagship to lower the boats, which had been left swinging from the davits throughout the night. Our steam pinnaces were also lowered to take them in tow. The troops fell in in their assigned places on the quarterdeck, and the last rays of the waning moon lit up a scene which will ever be memorable in our history.

On the quarterdeck, backed by the great 12-inch guns, this splendid body of colonial troops were drawn up in serried ranks, fully equipped, and receiving their last instructions from their officers who, six months ago, like their men, were leading a peaceful civilian life in Australia and New Zealand 5,000 miles away. Now at the call of the empire they were about to disembark on a strange unknown shore, in a strange land, and attack an enemy of a different race. By the side of the soldiers the beach parties of our splendid bluejackets and marines were marshaled, arrayed in old white uniforms dyed khaki color and carrying the old rifle and old equipment.

These men were to take charge of the boats, steer them ashore, and row them to the beach when they were finally cast off by the towing pinnaces. Each boat was in charge of a young midshipman, many of whom have come straight from Dartmouth after a couple of terms and now found themselves called upon to play a most difficult and dangerous rôle like men. Commanders, Lieutenants, and special beach officers had charge of the whole of the towing parties and went ashore with the troops.

At 2:05 A.M. the signal was given for the troops to embark in the boats which were lying alongside, and this was carried out with great rapidity, in absolute silence, and without a hitch or an accident of any kind. Each one of the three ships which had embarked troops transferred them to four small boats apiece towed by a steam pinnace, and in this manner the men of the covering force were conveyed to the shore. More of the Australian Brigade were carried in destroyers, which were to go close in shore and land them from boats as soon as those towed by the pinnaces had reached the beach.

At 3 A.M. it was quite dark and all was ready for the start. The tows were cast off by the battleships and the ladders taken in and the decks cleared for action, the crews going to general quarters. Then we steamed slowly toward the shore, each of the battleships being closely followed by her tows, which looked exactly like huge snakes gliding relentlessly after their prey. I do not suppose the suppressed excitement of this last half hour will ever be forgotten by those who were present. No one could tell at the last minute what would happen. Would the enemy be surprised or would he be ready on the alert to pour a terrible fire on the boats as they approached the beach?

The whole operation had been timed to allow the pinnaces and boats to reach the beach just before daybreak so that the Turks, if they had been forewarned, would not be able to see to fire before the Australians had obtained a firm footing and, it was hoped, good cover on the foreshore.

Exactly at 4:10 A.M. the three battleships in line abreast four cables apart arrived about 2,500 yards from the shore, which was just discernible in the gloom. The engines were stopped, guns were manned, and the powerful searchlights made ready for use if required. The tows, which up to this time had followed astern, were ordered to advance to the shore. The battleships took up positions somewhat further out on either flank, for to them was assigned the duty of supporting the attack with their guns as soon as light allowed.

Very slowly the snakes of boats steamed past the battleships, the gunwales almost flush with the water, so crowded were they with khaki figures. Then each lot edged in toward one another so as to reach the beach four cables apart. So anxious were we on board the battleships that it seemed as if the loads were too heavy for the pinnaces, or that some mysterious power was holding them back, and that they would never reach the shore before daybreak and thus lose the chance of a surprise.

The distance between the battleships and the boats did not seem to diminish, but only for the reason that we steamed very slowly in after them until the water gradually shallowed. Every eye and every glass was fixed on that grim-looking line of hills in our front, so shapeless, yet so menacing, in the gloom.

At 4:50 A.M. the enemy suddenly showed an alarm light, which flashed for ten minutes and then disappeared. The next three minutes after its first appearance passed in breathless anxiety. We could just discern the dull outline of the boats which appeared to be almost on the beach. Just previously to this seven destroyers conveying the other men of the brigade glided noiselessly through the intervals between the battleships and followed the boats in shore.

At 4:53 A.M. there suddenly came a very sharp burst of rifle fire from the beach, and we knew our men were at last at grips with the enemy. This fire lasted only for a few minutes and then was drowned by a faint British cheer wafted to us over the waters. How comforting and inspiring was the sound at such a moment! It seemed like a message sent to tell us that the first position had been won and a firm hold obtained on the beach.

At 5:03 A.M. the fire intensified, and we could tell from the sound that our men were firing. It lasted until 5:28 and then died down somewhat. No one on board knew what was happening, although dawn was gradually breaking, because we were looking due east into the sun slowly rising behind the hills, which are almost flush with the foreshore, and there was also a haze. Astern at 5:26 we saw the outline of some of the transports, gradually growing bigger and bigger as they approached the coast. They were bringing up the remainder of the Austrians and New Zealanders.

The first authentic news we received came with the return of our boats. A steam pinnace came alongside with two recumbent forms on her deck and a small figure, pale but cheerful, and waving his hand astern. They were one of our midshipmen, just 16 years of age, shot through the stomach, but regarding his injury more as a fitting consummation to a glorious holiday ashore than a wound, and a chief stoker and petty officer, all three wounded by that first burst of musketry which caused many casualties in the boats just as they reached the beach.

From them we learned what had happened in those first wild moments. All the tows had almost reached the beach, when a party of Turks intrenched almost on the shore opened up a terrible fusillade from rifles and also from a Maxim. Fortunately most of the bullets went high, but, nevertheless, many men were hit as they sat huddled together 40 or 50 in a boat.

It was a trying moment, but the Australian volunteers rose as a man to the occasion. They waited neither for orders nor for the boats to reach the beach, but, springing out into the sea, they waded ashore and, forming some sort of a rough line, rushed straight on the flashes of the enemy's rifles. Their magazines were not even charged. So they just went in with cold steel, and I believe I am right in saying that the first Ottoman Turk since the last Crusade received an Anglo-Saxon bayonet in him at five minutes after 5 A.M. on April 25. It was over in a minute. The Turks in this first trench were bayoneted or ran away, and a Maxim gun was captured.

Then the Australians found themselves facing an almost perpendicular cliff of loose sandstone, covered with thick shrubbery, and somewhere half way up the enemy had a second trench strongly held, from which they poured a terrible fire on the troops below and the boats pulling back to the destroyers for the second landing party.

Here was a tough proposition to tackle in the darkness, but these colonials are practical above all else, and they went about it in a practical way. They stopped a few moments to pull themselves together and to get rid of their packs, which no troops should carry in an attack, and then charged their magazines. Then this race of athletes proceeded to scale the cliffs without responding to the enemy's fire. They lost some men, but did not worry, and in less than a quarter of an hour the Turks were out of their second position, either bayoneted or in full flight.

THE THIRD DISPATCH.

Dardanelles, April 26.

After the events I have previously described, the light gradually became better and we could see from the London what was happening on the beach. It was then discovered that the boats had landed rather further north of Gaba Tepe than was originally intended, at a point where the sandstone cliffs rise very sharply from the water's edge. As a matter of fact, this error probably turned out a blessing in disguise, because there was no glacis down which the enemy's infantry could fire, and the numerous bluffs, ridges, and broken ground afford good cover to troops once they have passed the forty or fifty yards of flat, sandy beach.

This ridge, under which the landing was made, stretches due north from Gaba Tepe and culminates in the height of Coja Chemen, which rises 950 feet above the sea level. The whole forms part of a confused triangle of hills, valleys, ridges, and bluffs which stretches right across the Gallipoli Peninsula to the Bay of Bassi Liman above the Narrows. The triangle is cut in two by the valley through which flows the stream known as Bokali Deresi.

It is indeed a formidable and forbidding land. To the sea it presents a steep front, broken up into innumerable ridges, bluffs, valleys, and sand pits, which rise to a height of several hundred feet. The surface is either a kind of bare and very soft yellow sandstone, which crumbles when you tread on it, or else it is covered with very thick shrubbery about six feet in height.

It is, in fact, an ideal country for irregular warfare, such as the Australians and New Zealanders were soon to find to their cost. You cannot see a yard in front of you, and so broken is the ground that the enemy's snipers were able to lie concealed within a few yards of the lines of infantry without it being possible to locate them. On the other hand, the Australians and New Zealanders have proved themselves adepts at this form of warfare, which requires the display of great endurance in climbing over the cliffs and offers scope for a display of that individuality which you find highly developed in these colonial volunteers. To organize anything like a regular attack on such ground is almost impossible, as the officers cannot see their men, who, the moment they move forward in open order, are lost among the thick scrub.

In the early part of the day very heavy casualties were suffered in the boats which conveyed the troops from the destroyers, tugs, and transports to the beach. As soon as it became light, the enemy's sharpshooters, hidden everywhere, simply concentrated their fire on the boats. Then they got close in. At least three boats, having broken away from their tows, drifted down the coast, under no control, and were sniped at the whole way, steadily losing men.

All praise is due to the splendid conduct of the officers, midshipmen, and men who formed the beach parties and whose duty it was to pass backward and forward under a terrible fusillade which it was impossible to check in the early part of the day.

The work of disembarking went on mechanically under this fire at almost point-blank range. You saw the crowded boats cast off from the pinnaces, tugs, and destroyers, and laboriously pulled ashore by six or eight seamen. The moment it reached the beach the troops jumped out and doubled for cover to the foot of the bluffs, over some forty yards of beach. But the gallant crews of the boats had then to pull them out under a dropping fire from a hundred points where the enemy's marksmen lay hidden amid the sand and shrubs.

Throughout the whole of April 25 the landing of troops, stores, and munitions had to be carried out under these conditions, but the gallant sailors never failed their equally gallant comrades ashore. Every one, from the youngest midshipman, straight from Dartmouth and under fire for the first time, to the senior officers in charge, did their duty nobly.

When it became light the covering warships endeavored to support the troops on shore by a heavy fire from their secondary armament, but at this time, the positions of the enemy being unknown, the support was necessarily more moral than real. When the sun was fully risen and the haze had disappeared we could see that the Australians had actually established themselves on the top of the ridge and were evidently trying to work their way northward along it. At 8:45 the fire from the hills became intense and lasted for about half an hour, when it gradually died down, but only for a short time. Then it reopened and lasted without cessation throughout the remainder of the day. The fighting was so confused and took place among such broken ground that it is extremely difficult to follow exactly what did happen throughout the morning and afternoon of April 25. The rôle assigned to the covering force was splendidly carried out up to a certain point, and a firm footing was obtained on the crest of the ridge which allowed the disembarkation of the remainder of the force to go on uninterruptedly, except for the never-ceasing sniping.

But then the Australians, whose blood was up, instead of intrenching themselves and waiting developments, pushed northward and eastward inland in search of fresh enemies to tackle with the bayonet. The ground is so broken and ill-defined that it was very difficult to select a position to intrench, especially as, after the troops imagined they had cleared a section, they were continually being sniped from all sides. Therefore, they preferred to continue the advance.

It is impossible for any army to defend a long beach in any force, especially when you do not know exactly where an attack will be made, and when your troops will come under the fire of the guns of warships. The Turks, therefore, only had a comparatively weak force actually holding the beach, and they seemed to have relied on the difficult nature of the ground and their scattered snipers to delay the advance until they would bring up reinforcements from the interior. Some of the Australians who had pushed inland were counter-attacked and almost outflanked by these on-coming reserves and had to fall back after suffering very heavy casualties.

It was then the turn of the Turks to counter-attack, and this they continued to do throughout the afternoon, but the Australians never yielded a foot of ground on the main ridge, and reinforcements were continually poured up from the beach as fresh troops were disembarked from the transports. The enemy's artillery fire, however, presented a very difficult problem. As soon as the light became good the Turks enfiladed the beach with two field guns from Gaba Tepe and with two others from the north. This shrapnel fire was incessant and deadly. In vain did the warships endeavor to put them out of action with their secondary armament. For some hours they could not be accurately located, or else were so well protected that our shells failed to do them any harm. The majority of the heavy casualties suffered during the day were from shrapnel, which swept the beach and the ridge on which the Australians and New Zealanders had established themselves.

Later in the day the two guns to the north were silenced or forced to withdraw to a fresh position, from which they could no longer enfilade the beach, and a cruiser, moving in close to the shore, so plastered Gaba Tepe with a hail of shell that the guns there were also silenced and have not attempted to reply since.

As the enemy brought up reinforcements toward dusk his attacks became more and more vigorous, and he was supported by a powerful artillery inland which the ships' guns were powerless to deal with. The pressure on the Australians and New Zealanders became heavier, and the line they were occupying had to be contracted for the night. General Birwood and his staff went ashore in the afternoon and devoted all their energies to securing the position, so as to hold firmly to it until the following morning, when it was hoped to get some field guns in position to deal with the enemy's artillery.

Some idea of the difficulty to be faced may be gathered when it is remembered that every round of ammunition, all water, and all supplies had to be landed on a narrow beach and then carried up pathless hills, valleys, and bluffs, several hundred feet high, to the firing line. The whole of this mass of troops, concentrated on a very small area, and unable to reply, were exposed to a relentless and incessant shrapnel fire, which swept every yard of the ground, although fortunately a great deal of it was badly aimed or burst too high. The reserves were engaged in road making and carrying supplies to the crests and in answering the calls for more ammunition.

A serious problem was getting away the wounded from the shore, where it was impossible to keep them. All those who were unable to hobble to the beach had to be carried down from the hills on stretchers, then hastily dressed, and carried to the boats. The boat and beach parties never stopped working throughout the entire day and night.

The courage displayed by these wounded Australians will never be forgotten. Hastily dressed and placed in trawlers, lighters, and ships' boats, they were towed to the ships. I saw some lighters full of bad cases. As they passed the battleship, some of those on board recognized her as the ship they had left that morning, whereupon, in spite of their sufferings and discomforts, they set up a cheer, which was answered by a deafening shout of encouragement from our crew.

I have, in fact, never seen the like of these wounded Australians in war before, for as they were towed among the ships, while accommodation was being found for them, although many were shot to bits and without hope of recovery, their cheers resounded through the night, and you could just see, amid a mass of suffering humanity, arms being waved in greeting to the crews of the warships. They were happy, because they knew they had been tried for the first time in the war and had not been found wanting. They had been told to occupy the heights and hold on, and this they had done for fifteen mortal hours under an incessant shell fire, without the moral and material support of a single gun ashore, and subjected the whole time to the violent counter-attacks of a brave enemy, led by skilled leaders, while his snipers, hidden in caves and thickets and among the dense scrub, made a deliberate practice of picking off every officer who endeavored to give a word of command or to lead his men forward.

No finer feat of arms has been performed during the war than this sudden landing in the dark, this storming of the heights, and, above all, the holding on to the position thus won while reinforcements were being poured from the transports. These raw colonial troops, in those desperate hours, proved themselves worthy to fight side by side with the heroes of Mons and the Aisne, Ypres, and Neuve Chapelle.

THE FOURTH DISPATCH.

Dardanelles, April 27.

Throughout the night of the 25th and the early morning of the 26th there was continual fighting, as the Turks made repeated attacks to endeavor to drive the Australians and New Zealanders from their positions. On several occasions parties of the colonials made local counter-attacks and drove the enemy off with the bayonet, which the Turks will never face.

On the morning of the 26th it became known that the enemy had been very largely reinforced during the night and was preparing for a big assault from the northeast. This movement began about 9:30 A.M. From the ships we could see large numbers of the enemy creeping along the top of the hills endeavoring to approach our positions under cover and then to annoy our troops with their incessant sniping. He had also brought up more guns during the night, and plastered the whole position once again with shrapnel.

The rifle and machine-gun fire became heavy and unceasing. But the enemy were not going to be allowed to have matters all their own way with their artillery. Seven warships had moved in close to the shore, while the Queen Elizabeth, further out, acted as a kind of chaperone to the lot. Each covered a section of the line, and when the signal was given opened up a bombardment of the heights and valleys beyond which can only be described as terrific.

Turkish infantry moved forward to the attack. They were met by every kind of shell which our warships carry, from 15-inch shrapnel from the Queen Elizabeth, each one of which contains 20,000 bullets, to 12-inch, 6-inch, and 12-pounders.

The noise, smoke, and concussion produced was unlike anything you can even imagine until you have seen it. The hills in front looked as if they had suddenly been transformed into smoking volcanoes, the common shell throwing up great chunks of ground and masses of black smoke, while the shrapnel formed a white canopy above. Sections of ground were covered by each ship all around our front trenches, and, the ranges being known, the shooting was excellent. Nevertheless, a great deal of the fire was, of necessity, indirect, and the ground affords such splendid cover that the Turks continued their advance in a most gallant manner, while their artillery not only plastered our positions on shore with shrapnel, but actually tried to drive the ships off the coast by firing at them, and their desperate snipers, in place of a better target, tried to pick off officers and men on the decks and bridges. We picked up many bullets on the deck afterward.

Some Turkish warship started to fire over the peninsula. The Triumph dropped two 10-inch shells within a few yards of her, whereupon she retired up the strait to a safer position, from which she occasionally dropped a few shells into space, but so far has done no damage.

The scene at the height of this engagement was sombre, magnificent, and unique. The day was perfectly clear, and you could see right down the coast as far as Sedd-ul-Bahr. There the warships of the first division were blazing away at Aki Baba and the hills around it, covering their summits with a great white cloud of bursting shells. Further out the giant forms of the transports which accompanied that division loomed up through the slight mist. Almost opposite Gaba Tepe a cruiser close in shore was covering the low ground with her guns and occasionally dropping shells right over into the straight on the far side. Opposite the hills in possession of the Australian and New Zealand troops an incessant fire was kept up from the ships. Beyond lay our transports which had moved further out to avoid the Turkish warships' shells and those of some battery which fires persistently.

Beyond all, the Queen Elizabeth, with her eight huge, monstrous 15-inch guns, all pointed shoreward, seemed to threaten immediate annihilation to any enemy who dared even to aim at the squadron under her charge.

On shore the rifle and machine-gun fire was incessant, and at times rose into a perfect storm as the Turks pressed forward their attack. The hills were ablaze with shells from the ships and the enemy's shrapnel, while on the beach masses of troops were waiting to take their places in the trenches, and the beach parties worked incessantly at landing stores, material, and ammunition.

This great attack lasted some two hours, and during this time we received encouraging messages from the beach. "Thanks for your assistance. Your guns are inflicting awful losses on the enemy." The Turks must, in fact, have suffered terribly from this concentrated fire from so many guns and from the infantry in the trenches.

The end came amid a flash of bayonets and a sudden charge of the colonials, before which the Turks broke and fled amid a perfect tornado of shells from the ships. They fell back sullen and checked, but not yet defeated, but for the remainder of the day no big attack was pressed home, and the colonials gained some ground by local counter-attacks, which enlarged and consolidated the position they were holding.

The Turks kept up their incessant shrapnel fire throughout the day, but the colonials were now dug in and could not be shaken by it in their trenches, while the reserves had also prepared shelter trenches and dug-outs on the slopes.

Some prisoners were captured, including an officer, who said that the Turks were becoming demoralized by the fire of the guns, and that the Germans now had difficulty in getting them forward to the attack. We are well intrenched and they will probably do likewise, and we shall see a repetition of the siege warfare out here.

THE FIFTH DISPATCH.

Dardanelles, April 30.

While Australians and New Zealanders were fighting so gallantly against heavy odds north of Gaba Tepe, British troops crowned themselves with equal laurels at the southern end of the Gallipoli Peninsula. A firm footing now has been obtained. The line stretches across the southern end of the entire peninsula, with both flanks secured by the fire of warships. The army holds many convenient landing places immune from the enemy's guns.

The problems British landing parties faced differed from those the Australians solved further north. Here the cliffs are not high and irregular, but rise about fifty feet from the water's edge, with stretches of beach at intervals. Five of these beaches were selected for disembarkation under the cover of warships. It was hoped the Turkish trenches would be rendered untenable and the barbed wire entanglements cut by the fire of the ships, but these expectations were not realized.

For example, the landing place between Gaba Tepe and Cape Helles was the scene of a desperate struggle which raged all day. The Turks held barbed wire protected trenches in force and their snipers covered the foreshore. After hours of bombardment the troops were taken ashore at daybreak. Part of the force scaled the cliffs and obtained a precarious footing on the edge of the cliffs, but boats which landed along the beach were confronted with a solid hedge of barbed wire and exposed to a terrible cross-fire. Every effort was made to cut the wire, but almost all those who landed here were shot down. Later the troops on the cliffs succeeded in driving back the Turks and clearing the beach.

The most terrible of all landings, however, was on the beach between Cape Helles and the Seddul Bahr. Here the broken valley runs inland enfiladed by hills on either flank, on which were built strong forts, which defended the entrance to the strait until they were knocked out by our guns. Although the guns and emplacements were shattered the bombproofs and ammunition chambers remained intact, and, running back, formed a perfect network of trenches and entanglements right around the semicircular valley. The Turks had mounted pompoms on the Cape Helles side and had the usual snipers concealed everywhere. The foreshore and valley also were protected by trenches and wire, rendering the position most formidable.

One novel expedient was running a liner full of troops deliberately ashore, thus allowing them to approach close in under cover without being exposed in open boats. Great doors had been cut in her sides to permit rapid disembarkation, and she was well provided with Maxims to sweep the shore while the troops were landing. Owing to her going ashore further east than was intended, however, it became necessary to bring up a lighter to facilitate the landing. The Turks directed a perfect tornado of rifle, Maxim, and pompom fire on 200 men who made a dash down the gangway. Only a few survived to gain shelter. All the others were killed on the gangway. Disembarkation, therefore, which meant almost certain death, was postponed until later in the morning, when another attempt also failed.

Then, while the liner, carrying 2,000 men, packed in like sardines, with the officers huddled on the protected bridge, lay all day on shore, with a hail of bullets rattling against her protected sides, the battleships Albion, Cornwallis, and Queen Elizabeth furiously bombarded Seddul Bahr and the encircling hills. Meanwhile the Turks on the Asiatic side tried to destroy the liner by howitzer fire, which was kept under only by the bombardment from covering ships in the strait. In spite of this covering fire, the vessel was pierced by four big shells, and it was decided to postpone any further movement until night, when the troops got ashore almost without the Turks firing a shot, as a result, perhaps, of troops landed on other beaches having pushed along and destroyed some Turkish positions.

END OF THE THIRD WEEK.

[Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.]

IMBROS, (via Dedeaghatch, Turkey,) May 15, (Dispatch to The London Daily Chronicle.)—Operations in the Dardanelles have now been in full swing for just three weeks, and a glance from the mountaintop here at the far-spread region over which the war has been and is being waged shows instantly the material progress which has been made in that time.

When I first looked down on the fascinating and unique vision presented to my eyes from this point of vantage it was a sight truly marvelous. A fleet of transports stood at the entrance to the strait, and to the north of Gaba Tepe the warships were hammering away at the mouth of the Dardanelles, and at several points along the western coast of the peninsula one could see at different points on the land that severe battles were being fought. The heavy clouds of war hung over all, lit up grimly by the vivid flashes of the guns. At times the din was tremendous and went on night and day without cessation. Column after column of dense smoke betokened the falling of forts, and gradually the white puffs from our guns like long rollers on a broken coast advanced up the peninsula from the south and inland from the Gaba Tepe region.

Aeroplanes and dirigibles were always busy. Destroyers and huge transports churned up foam, and submarines left their faint trace on the wide extent of bluest ocean. The scene was one of war in all its picturesqueness and horror, for one could easily imagine awful scenes taking place under the far cloud of smoke and dust. It was war in all its force seen so for the first time.

Today the scene is strangely altered. Nearly all the transports have gone up the western coast of the peninsula, but a few battleships stand on sentry-go, as it were. All resistance in the region directly opposite has been fought down. The smoke coming from over the ridge in front shows that our warships have advanced far up to Kilid Bahr, while comparatively few ships stand at the entrance of the strait. From the inside the Asiatic coast is being bombarded, but the picturesque features of the scene have gone. It is a change which marks triumphant progress. The Turk is being slowly but surely pushed back, dying gamely.

Two days of thick mist were followed by a forty-eight hours' armistice granted to the Turks on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was impossible to see anything of the operations. Behind the veil of mist the fighting went sternly on and the big guns boomed incessantly. Wednesday night they were particularly active. Seldom in the past three weeks has the night sky been so brilliantly illuminated by the flashes of cannon. Serious work is evidently being done or completed. It was not until Thursday afternoon that the weather conditions made it possible to see the result of the warfare behind the screen of mist, and, as I have said, the whole aspect of the now familiar scene appears greatly changed when the coast of the peninsula is deserted by vessels, save for the few transports standing further out to sea than usual and half a dozen ships of war.

The peninsula beyond Gaba Tepe had apparently been cleared of the enemy. The tide of the struggle had passed away. On Thursday, too, I could see our guns flashing from a hill, firing probably at points northward or across the strait. Further north our artillery also appeared to be placed on a high ridge this side of Maidos. What a magic sight the southern part of the peninsula must present, where even at this distance the evidence of the havoc of three weeks' daily shell and lead is not hidden!

The point of the peninsula has become brown under the trampling of men and guns. Krithia lies a complete and pathetic ruin, and Tree Hill is scarred with trench and shell holes as far as I can see.

On Thursday the point of greatest activity was in the strait opposite the conquered portion of the peninsula. It stood out somewhat dim in the haze of battle, but the smoke and flash of the Allies' guns and the Turks' answering could be picked out without great difficulty. Added to this the air was still; the dull thud of the field guns at work there was different from the resounding boom of the naval guns, and the whirr of the machine guns could be plainly heard.

Hard work by land and water is going on along the front stretching away to the left from Erenkeui on the Asiatic side, and the difficulties of obtaining a substantial footing in that mountainous region had evidently been overcome. It was apparent that the enemy was putting up a stiff fight, and at times he must have run his batteries close to the water's edge.

Early in the afternoon the Turkish gunners managed to explode several shells on the land near Morto Bay on the European side. A little later they made the earth and stones of Tree Hill fly up in the air by a few well-placed shells, but such advances on the part of the enemy were brief. The warships in the strait instantly turned their guns on the daring batteries, and such diversions by the enemy were only of brief duration. Toward sunset a battleship was seen to send two shells against the cliff edge south of Suvla Bay.

Yesterday the thick smoke of battle still hung over all activities on the Asiatic side of the waterway. Nearly all the transports had gone, and most of the warships were engaged in the entrance and further up to near Kilid Bahr. Only one battleship that I could see was firing from off the western coast of the peninsula, standing well out off shore near Krithia. It was evidently firing long-range shells against the foe on the further side of the Dardanelles.

The land actions had another point of interest yesterday. In the afternoon very heavy fighting could be noticed far along the Sari Bair, (about sixteen miles north of the tip of the peninsula,) where the Australians are. Every now and again waves of smoke blotted out that part of the landscape. It would clear occasionally to show the hillsides dotted over with puffs of white. Often against the gray background spurts of flame would herald the thunder of heavily engaged artillery. Rifle fire at times, too, could be heard.

The supposition is that our forces in that region, who are forcing their way across the peninsula, must be near the completion of their task.

From what I have said it will be gathered, I think, that very substantial progress has been made since operations began three weeks ago. As one looks at the mountainous and rugged nature of the country beyond the strait it is evident that the enemy has there favorable ground for defensive fighting. That region now appears to be the main point of his struggle.

I learn that the Turkish losses amount to over 80,000 and that 50,000 wounded have been sent to Constantinople.

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LIÈGE AND DISTRICT.

On Aug. 4 the roads converging upon Liège from northeast, east, and south were covered with German Death's Head Hussars and Uhlans pressing forward to seize the passage over the Meuse. From the very beginning of the operations the civilian population of the villages lying upon the line of the German advance were made to experience the extreme horrors of war. "On the 4th of August," says one witness, "at Herve," (a village not far from the frontier,) "I saw at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, near the station, five Uhlans; these were the first German troops I had seen. They were followed by a German officer and some soldiers in a motor car. The men in the car called out to a couple of young fellows who were standing about thirty yards away. The young men, being afraid, ran off and then the Germans fired and killed one of them named D." The murder of this innocent fugitive civilian was a prelude to the burning and pillage of Herve and of other villages in the neighborhood, to the indiscriminate shooting of civilians of both sexes, and to the organized military execution of batches of selected males. Thus at Herve some fifty men escaping from the burning houses were seized, taken outside the town and shot. At Melen, a hamlet west of Herve, forty men were shot. In one household alone the father and mother (names given) were shot, the daughter died after being repeatedly outraged, and the son was wounded. Nor were children exempt. "About Aug. 4," says one witness, "near Vottem, we were pursuing some Uhlans. I saw a man, woman, and a girl about nine, who had been killed. They were on the threshold of a house, one on the top of the other, as if they had been shot down, one after the other, as they tried to escape."

The burning of the villages in this neighborhood and the wholesale slaughter of civilians, such as occurred at Herve, Micheroux, and Soumagne, appear to be connected with the exasperation caused by the resistance of Fort Fléron, whose guns barred the main road from Aix la Chapelle to Liège. Enraged by the losses which they had sustained, suspicious of the temper of the civilian population, and probably thinking that by exceptional severities at the outset they could cow the spirit of the Belgian Nation, the German officers and men speedily accustomed themselves to the slaughter of civilians. How rapidly the process was effected is illustrated by an entry in the diary of Kurt Hoffman, a one-year's man in the First Jägers, who on Aug. 5 was in front of Fort Fléron. He illustrates his story by a sketch map. "The position," he says, "was dangerous. As suspicious civilians were hanging about—houses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, were cleared, the owners arrested, (and shot the following day.) Suddenly village A was fired at. Out of it bursts our baggage train, and the Fourth Company of the Twenty-seventh Regiment who had lost their way and been shelled by our own artillery. From the point D.P., (shown in diary,) I shoot a civilian with rifle at 400 meters slap through the head, as we afterward ascertained." Within a few hours, Hoffman, while in house 3, was himself under fire from his own comrades and narrowly escaped being killed. A German, ignorant that house 8 had been occupied, reported, as was the fact, that he had been fired upon from that house. He had been challenged by the field patrol, and failed to give the countersign. Hoffman continues:

The entry, though dated Aug. 5, was evidently written on the 6th or later, because the writer refers to the suspicious civilians as having been shot on that day. Hoffman does not indicate of what offense these civilians were guilty, and there is no positive evidence to connect their slaughter with the report made by the German who had been fired on by his comrades. They were "suspicious" and that was enough.

The systematic execution of civilians, which in some cases, as the diary just cited shows, was founded on a genuine mistake, was given a wide extension through the Province of Liège. In Soumagne and Micheroux very many civilians were summarily shot. In a field belonging to a man named E. fifty-six or fifty-seven were put to death. A German officer said: "You have shot at us." One of the villagers asked to be allowed to speak, and said: "If you think these people fired kill me, but let them go." The answer was three volleys. The survivors were bayoneted. Their corpses were seen in the field that night by another witness. One at least had been mutilated. These were not the only victims in Soumagne. The eyewitness of the massacre saw, on his way home, twenty bodies, one that of a young girl of thirteen. Another witness saw nineteen corpses in a meadow.

At Blegny Trembleur, on the 6th, some civilians were captured by German soldiers, who took steps to put them to death forthwith, but were restrained by the arrival of an officer. The prisoners subsequently were taken off to Battice and five were shot in a field. No reason was assigned for their murder.

In the meantime house burners were at work. On the 6th, Battice was destroyed in part. From the 8th to the 10th over 300 houses were burned at Herve, while mounted men shot into doors and windows to prevent the escape of the inhabitants.

At Heure le Romain on or about the 15th of August all the male inhabitants, including some bedridden old men, were imprisoned in the church. The Burgomaster's brother and the priest were bayoneted.

On or about the 14th and 15th the village of Visé was completely destroyed. Officers directed the incendiaries, who worked methodically with benzine. Antiques and china were removed from the houses, before their destruction, by officers who guarded the plunder, revolver in hand. The house of a witness, which contained valuables of this kind, was protected for a time by a notice posted on the door by officers. This notice has been produced to the committee. After the removal of the valuables this house also was burned.

German soldiers had arrived on the 15th at Blegny Trembleur and seized a quantity of wine. On the 16th prisoners were taken; four, including the priest and the Burgomaster, were shot. On the same day 200 (so-called) hostages were seized at Flémalle and marched off. There they were told that unless Fort Flémalle surrendered by noon they would be shot. It did surrender and they were released.

Entries in a German diary show that on the 19th the German soldiers gave themselves up to debauchery in the streets of Liège, and on the night of the 20th (Thursday) a massacre took place in the streets, beginning near the Café Carpentier, at which there is said to have been a dinner attended by Russian and other students. A proclamation issued by General Kolewe on the following day gave the German version of the affair, which was that his troops had been fired on by Russian students. The diary states that in the night the inhabitants of Liège became mutinous and that fifty persons were shot. The Belgian witnesses vehemently deny that there had been any provocation given, some stating that many German soldiers were drunk, others giving evidence which indicates that the affair was planned beforehand. It is stated that at 5 o'clock in the evening, long before the shooting, a citizen was warned by a friendly German soldier not to go out that night.

Though the cause of the massacre is in dispute, the results are known with certainty. The Rue des Pitteurs and houses in the Place de l'Université and the Quai des Pêcheurs were systematically fired with benzine, and many inhabitants were burned alive in their houses, their efforts to escape being prevented by rifle fire. Twenty people were shot, while trying to escape, before the eyes of one of the witnesses. The Liège Fire Brigade turned out but was not allowed to extinguish the fire. Its carts, however, were usefully employed in removing heaps of civilian corpses to the Town Hall. The fire burned on through the night and the murders continued on the following day, the 21st. Thirty-two civilians were killed on that day in the Place de l'Université alone, and a witness states that this was followed by the rape in open day of fifteen or twenty women on tables in the square itself.

No depositions are before us which deal with events in the City of Liège after this date. Outrages, however, continued in various places in the province.

For example, on or about the 21st of August, at Pepinster two witnesses were seized as hostages and were threatened, together with five others, that, unless they could discover a civilian who was alleged to have shot a soldier in the leg, they would be shot themselves. They escaped their fate because one of the hostages convinced the officer that the alleged shooting, if it took place at all, took place in the Commune of Cornesse and not that of Pepinster, whereupon the Burgomaster of Cornesse, who was old and very deaf, was shot forthwith.

The outrages on the civilian population were not confined to the villages mentioned above, but appear to have been general throughout this district from the very outbreak of the war.

An entry in one of the diaries says:

VALLEYS OF MEUSE AND SAMBRE.

While the First Army, under the command of General Alexander von Kluck, was mastering the passages of the Meuse between Visé and Namur, and carrying out the scheme of devastation which has already been described, detachments of the Second German Army, under General von Bülow, were proceeding up the Meuse valley toward Namur. On Wednesday, Aug. 12, the town of Huy, which stands half way between Namur and Liège, was seized. On Aug. 20 German guns opened fire on Namur itself. Three days later the city was evacuated by its defenders, and the Germans proceeded along the valley of the Sambre through Tamines and Charleroi to Mons. Meanwhile a force under General von Hausen had advanced upon Dinant, by Laroche, Marche, and Achène, and on Aug. 15 made an unsuccessful assault upon that town. A few days later the attack was renewed and with success, and, Dinant captured, von Hausen's army streamed into France by Bouvines and Rethel, firing and looting the villages and shooting the inhabitants as they passed through.

The evidence with regard to the Province of Namur is less voluminous than that relating to the north of Belgium. This is largely due to the fact that the testimony of soldiers is seldom available, as the towns and villages once occupied by the Germans were seldom reoccupied by the opposing troops, and the number of refugees who have reached England from the Namur district is comparatively small.

ANDENNE.

Andenne is a small town on the Meuse between Liège and Namur, lying opposite the village of Seilles, (with which it is connected by a bridge over the river,) and was one of the earlier places reached on the German advance up the Meuse. In order to understand the story of the massacre which occurred there on Thursday Aug. 20, the following facts should be borne in mind: The German advance was hotly contested by Belgian and French troops. From daybreak onward on the 19th of August the Eighth Belgian Regiment of the Line were fighting with the German troops on the left bank of the Meuse on the heights of Seilles. At 8 A.M. on the 19th the Belgians found further resistance impossible in the district, and retired under shelter of the forts of Namur. As they retired they blew up Andenne Bridge. The first Germans arrived at Andenne at about 10 A.M., when ten or twelve Uhlans rode into the town. They went to the bridge and found it was destroyed. They then retired, but returned about half an hour afterward. Soon after that several thousand Germans entered the town and made arrangements to spend the night there. Thus, on the evening of the 19th of August, a large body of German troops were in possession of the town, which they had entered without any resistance on the part of the allied armies or of the civilian population.

About 4:30 on the next afternoon shots were fired from the left bank of the Meuse and replied to by the Germans in Andenne. The village of Andenne had been isolated from the district on the left bank of the Meuse by the destruction of the bridge, and there is nothing to suggest that the firing on the left came from the inhabitants of Andenne. Almost immediately, however, the slaughter of these inhabitants began, and continued for over two hours and intermittently during the night. Machine guns were brought into play. The German troops were said to be for the most part drunk, and they certainly murdered and ravaged unchecked. A reference to the German diaries in the appendix will give some idea of the extent to which the army gave itself up to drink through the month of August.

When the fire slackened about 7 o'clock, many of the townspeople fled in the direction of the quarries; others remained in their houses. At this moment the whole of the district around the station was on fire and houses were flaming over a distance of two kilometers in the direction of the hamlet of Tramaka. The little farms which rise one above the other on the high ground of the right bank were also burning.

At 6 o'clock on the following morning, the 21st, the Germans began to drag the inhabitants from their houses. Men, women, and children were driven into the square, where the sexes were separated. Three men were then shot, and a fourth was bayoneted. A German Colonel was present whose intention in the first place appeared to be to shoot all the men. A young German girl who had been staying in the neighborhood interceded with him, and after some parleying, some of the prisoners were picked out, taken to the banks of the Meuse and there shot. The Colonel accused the population of firing on the soldiers, but there is no reason to think that any of them had done so, and no inquiry appears to have been made.

About 400 people lost their lives in this massacre, some on the banks of the Meuse, where they were shot according to orders given, and some in the cellars of the houses where they had taken refuge. Eight men belonging to one family were murdered. Another man was placed close to a machine gun which was fired through him. His wife brought his body home on a wheelbarrow. The Germans broke into her house and ransacked it, and piled up all the eatables in a heap on the floor and relieved themselves upon it.

A hairdresser was murdered in his kitchen where he was sitting with a child on each knee. A paralytic was murdered in his garden. After this came the general sack of the town. Many of the inhabitants who escaped the massacre were kept as prisoners and compelled to clear the houses of corpses and bury them in trenches. These prisoners were subsequently used as a shelter and protection for a pontoon bridge which the Germans had built across the river, and were so used to prevent the Belgian forts from firing upon it.

A few days later the Germans celebrated a Fête Nocturne in the square. Hot wine, looted in the town, was drunk, and the women were compelled to give three cheers for the Kaiser and to sing "Deutschland über Alles."

NAMUR DISTRICT.

The fight around Namur was accompanied by sporadic outrages. Near Marchovelette wounded men were murdered in a farm by German soldiers. The farm was set on fire. A German cavalryman rode away holding in front of him one of the farmer's daughters crying and disheveled.

At Temploux, on the 23d of August, a professor of modern languages at the College of Namur was shot at his front door by a German officer. Before he died he asked the officer the reason for this brutality, and the officer replied that he had lost his temper because some civilians had fired upon the Germans as they entered the village. This allegation was not proved. The Belgian Army was still operating in the district, and it may well be that it was from them that the shots in question proceeded. After the murder the house was burned.

On the 24th and 25th of August massacres were carried out at Surice, in which many persons belonging to the professional classes, as well as others, were killed.

Namur was entered on the 24th of August. The troops signalized their entry by firing on a crowd of 150 unarmed unresisting civilians, ten alone of whom escaped.

A witness of good standing who was in Namur describes how the town was set on fire systematically in six different places. As the inhabitants fled from the burning houses they were shot by the German troops. Not less than 140 houses were burned.

On the 25th the hospital at Namur was set on fire with inflammable pastilles, the pretext being that soldiers in the hospital had fired upon the Germans.

At Denée, on the 28th of August, a Belgian soldier who had been taken prisoner saw three civilian fellow-prisoners shot. One was a cripple and another an old man of eighty who was paralyzed. It was alleged by two German soldiers that these men had shot at them with rifles. Neither of them had a rifle, nor had they anything in their pockets. The witness actually saw the Germans search them and nothing was found.

CHARLEROI DISTRICT.

In Tamines, a large village on the Meuse between Namur and Charleroi, the advance guard of the German Army appeared in the first fortnight in August, and in this as well as in other villages in the district, it is proved that a large number of civilians, among them aged people, women, and children, were deliberately killed by the soldiers. One witness describes how she saw a Belgian boy of fifteen shot on the village green at Tamines, and a day or two later on the same green a little girl and her two brothers, (name given,) who were looking at the German soldiers, were killed before her eyes for no apparent reason.

The principal massacre at Tamines took place about Aug. 28. A witness describes how he saw the public square littered with corpses, and after a search found those of his wife and child, a little girl of seven.

Another witness, who lived near Tamines, went there on Aug. 27, and says: "It is absolutely destroyed and a mass of ruins."

At Morlanwelz, about this time, the British Army, together with some French cavalry, were compelled to retire before the German troops. The latter took the Burgomaster and his man servant prisoner and shot them both in front of the Hôtel de Ville at Péronne, (Belgium,) where the bodies were left in the street for forty-eight hours. They burned the Hôtel de Ville and sixty-two houses. The usual accusation of firing by civilians was made. It is strenuously denied by the witness, who declares that three or four days before the arrival of the Germans, circulars had been distributed to every house and placards had been posted in the town ordering the deposit of all firearms at the Hôtel de Ville and that this order had been complied with.

At Monceau-sur-Sambre, on the 21st of August, a young man of eighteen was shot in his garden. His father and brother were seized in their house and shot in the courtyard of a neighboring country house. The son was shot first. The father was compelled to stand close to the feet of his son's corpse and to fix his eyes upon him while he himself was shot. The corpse of the young man shot in the garden was carried into the house and put on a bed. The next morning the Germans asked where the corpse was. When they found it was in the house, they fetched straw, packed it around the bed on which the corpse was lying, and set fire to it and burned the house down. A great many houses were burned in Monceau.

A vivid picture of the events at Montigny-sur-Sambre has been given by a witness of high standing who had exceptional opportunities of observation. In the early morning of Saturday, Aug. 22, Uhlans reached Montigny. The French Army was about four kilometers away, but on a hill near the village were a detachment of French, about 150 to 200 strong, lying in ambush. At about 1:30 o'clock the main body of the German Army began to arrive. Marching with them were two groups of so-called hostages, about 400 in all. Of these, 300 were surrounded with a rope held by the front, rear, and outside men. The French troops in ambush opened fire, and immediately the Germans commenced to destroy the town. Incendiaries with a distinctive badge on their arm went down the main street throwing handfuls of inflammatory and explosive pastilles into the houses. These pastilles were carried by them in bags, and in this way about 130 houses were destroyed in the main street. By 10:30 P.M. some 200 more hostages had been collected. These were drawn from Montigny itself, and on that night about fifty men, women, and children were placed on the bridge over the Sambre and kept there all night. The bridge was similarly guarded for a day or two, apparently either from a fear that it was mined or in the belief that these men, women, and children would afford some protection to the Germans in the event of the French attempting to storm the bridge. At one period of the German occupation of Montigny, eight nuns of the Order of Ste. Marie were captives on the bridge. House burning was accompanied by murder, and on the Monday morning twenty-seven civilians from one parish alone were seen lying dead in the hospital.

Other outrages committed at Jumet, Bouffioulx, Charleroi, Marchiennes-au-Pont, Couillet, and Maubeuge are described in the depositions given in the appendix.

DINANT.

A clear statement of the outrages at Dinant, which many travelers will recall as a singularly picturesque town on the Meuse, is given by one witness, who says that the Germans began burning houses in the Rue St. Jacques on the 21st of August, and that every house in the street was burned. On the following day an engagement took place between the French and the Germans, and the witness spent the whole day in the cellar of a bank with his wife and children. On the morning of the 23d, about 5 o'clock, firing ceased, and almost immediately afterward a party of Germans came to the house. They rang the bell and began to batter at the door and windows. The witness's wife went to the door and two or three Germans came in. The family were ordered out into the street. There they found another family, and the two families were driven with their hands above their heads along the Rue Grande. All the houses in the street were burning. The party was eventually put into a forge where there were a number of other prisoners, about a hundred in all, and were kept there from 11 A.M. till 2 P.M. They were then taken to the prison. There they were assembled in a courtyard and searched. No arms were found. They were then passed through into the prison itself and put into cells. The witness and his wife were separated from each other. During the next hour the witness heard rifle shots continually, and noticed in the corner of a courtyard leading off the row of cells the body of a young man with a mantle thrown over it. He recognized the mantle as having belonged to his wife. The witness's daughter was allowed to go out to see what had happened to her mother, and the witness himself was allowed to go across the courtyard half an hour afterward for the same purpose. He found his wife lying on the floor in a room. She had bullet wounds in four places, but was alive and told her husband to return to the children, and he did so. About 5 o'clock in the evening he saw the Germans bringing out all the young and middle-aged men from the cells, and ranging their prisoners, to the number of forty, in three rows in the middle of the courtyard. About twenty Germans were drawn up opposite, but before any thing was done there was a tremendous fusillade from some point near the prison and the civilians were hurried back to their cells. Half an hour later the same forty men were brought back into the courtyard. Almost immediately there was a second fusillade like the first and and they were driven back to the cells again. About 7 o'clock the witness and other prisoners were brought out of their cells and marched out of the prison. They went between two lines of troops to Roche Bayard, about a kilometer away. An hour later the women and children were separated and the prisoners were brought back to Dinant, passing the prison on their way. Just outside the prison the witness saw three lines of bodies which he recognized as being those of neighbors. They were nearly all dead, but he noticed movement in some of them. There were about 120 bodies. The prisoners were then taken up to the top of the hill outside Dinant and compelled to stay there till 8 o'clock in the morning. On the following day they were put into cattle trucks and taken thence to Coblenz. For three months they remained prisoners in Germany.

Unarmed civilians were killed in masses at other places near the prison. About ninety bodies were seen lying on the top of one another in a grass square opposite the convent. They included many relatives of a witness whose deposition will be found in the appendix. This witness asked a German officer why her husband had been shot, and he told her that it was because two of her sons had been in the civil guard and had shot at the Germans. As a matter of fact one of her sons was at that time in Liège and the other in Brussels. It is stated that, besides the ninety corpses referred to above, sixty corpses of civilians were recovered from a hole in the brewery yard and that forty-eight bodies of women and children were found in a garden. The town was systematically set on fire by hand grenades.

Another witness saw a little girl of seven, one of whose legs was broken and the other injured by a bayonet.

We have no reason to believe that the civilian population of Dinant gave any provocation, or that any other defense can be put forward to justify the treatment inflicted upon its citizens.

As regards this town and the advance of the German Army from Dinant to Rethel on the Aisne, a graphic account is given in the diary of a Saxon officer.7 This diary confirms what is clear from the evidence as a whole, both as regards these and other districts, that civilians were constantly taken as prisoners, often dragged from their homes, and shot under the direction of the authorities without any charge being made against them. An event of the kind is thus referred to in a diary entry:

The shooting of inhabitants, women and children as well as men, went on after the Germans had passed Dinant on their way into France. The houses and villages were pillaged and property wantonly destroyed.

AERSCHOT, MALINES, VILVORDE, AND LOUVAIN QUADRANGLE.

About Aug. 9 a powerful screen of cavalry masking the general advance of the First and Second German Armies was thrown forward into the provinces of Brabant and Limburg. The progress of the invaders was contested at several points, probably near Tirlemont on the Louvain road, and at Diest, Haelen, and Schaffen, on the Aerschot road, by detachments of the main Belgian Army, which was drawn up upon the line of the Dyle. In their preliminary skirmishes the Belgians more than once gained advantages, but after the fall on Aug. 15 of the last of the Liège forts the great line of railway which runs through Liège toward Brussels and Antwerp in one direction and toward Namur and the French frontier in another fell into the hands of the Germans. From this moment the advance of the main army was swift and irresistible. On Aug. 19 Louvain and Aerschot were occupied by the Germans, the former without resistance, the latter after a struggle which resulted early in the day in the retirement of the Belgian Army upon Antwerp. On Aug. 20 the invaders made their entry into Brussels.

The quadrangle of territory bounded by the towns of Aerschot, Malines, Vilvorde, and Louvain is a rich agricultural tract, studded with small villages and comprising two considerable cities, Louvain and Malines. This district on Aug. 19 passed into the hands of the Germans, and owing perhaps to its proximity to Antwerp, then the seat of the Belgian Government and headquarters of the Belgian Army, it became from that date a scene of chronic outrage, with respect to which the committee has received a great mass of evidence.

The witnesses to these occurrences are for the most part imperfectly educated persons who cannot give accurate dates, so it is impossible in some cases to fix the dates of particular crimes; and the total number of outrages is so great that we cannot refer to all of them in the body of the report or give all the depositions relating to them in the appendix. The main events, however, are abundantly clear, and group themselves naturally around three dates—Aug. 19, Aug. 25, and Sept. 11.

The arrival of the Germans in the district on Aug. 19 was marked by systematic massacres and other outrages at Aerschot itself, Gelrode, and some other villages.

On Aug. 25 the Belgians, sallying out of the defenses of Antwerp, attacked the German positions at Malines, drove the enemy from the town, and reoccupied many of the villages, such as Sempst, Hofstade, and Eppeghem, in the neighborhood. And, just as numerous outrages against the civilian population had been the immediate consequence of the temporary repulse of the German vanguard from Fort Fléron, so a large body of depositions testify to the fact that a sudden outburst of cruelty was the response of the German Army to the Belgian victory at Malines. The advance of the German Army to the Dyle had been accompanied by reprehensible, and, indeed, (in certain cases,) terrible outrages, but these had been, it would appear, isolated acts, some of which are attributed by witnesses to indignation at the check at Haelen, while others may have been the consequence of drunkenness. But the battle of Malines had results of a different order. In the first place, it was the occasion of numerous murders committed by the German Army in retreating through the villages of Sempst, Hofstade, Eppeghem, Elewyt, and elsewhere. In the second place, it led, as it will be shown later, to the massacres, plunderings, and burnings at Louvain, the signal for which was provided by shots exchanged between the German Army retreating after its repulse at Malines and some members of the German garrison of Louvain who mistook their fellow-countrymen for Belgians. Lastly, the encounter at Malines seems to have stung the Germans into establishing a reign of terror in so much of the district comprised in the quadrangle as remained in their power. Many houses were destroyed and their contents stolen. Hundreds of prisoners were locked up in various churches and were in some instances marched about from one village to another. Some of these were finally conducted to Louvain and linked up with the bands of prisoners taken in Louvain itself, and sent to Germany and elsewhere.

On Sept. 11, when the Germans were driven out of Aerschot across the River Demer by a successful sortie from Antwerp, murders of civilians were taking place in the villages which the Belgian Army then recaptured from the Germans. These crimes bear a strong resemblance to those committed in Hofstade and other villages after the battle of Malines.

AERSCHOT AND DISTRICT.

Period I., (Aug. 19 and following days.)

AERSCHOT.

The German Army entered Aerschot quite early in the morning. Workmen going to their work were seized and taken as hostages.

The Germans, apparently already irritated, proceeded to make a search for the priests and threatened to burn the convent if the priests should happen to be found there. One priest was accused of inciting the inhabitants to fire on the troops, and when he denied it the Burgomaster was blamed by the officer. The priest then showed the officer the notices on the walls, signed by the Burgomaster, warning the inhabitants not to intervene in hostilities.

It appears that they accused the priest of having fired at the Germans from the tower of the church. This is important because it is one of the not infrequent cases in which the Germans ascribed firing from a church to priests, whereas in fact this firing came from Belgian soldiers, and also because it seems to show that the Germans from the moment of their arrival in Aerschot were seeking to pick a quarrel with the inhabitants, and this goes far to explain their subsequent conduct. Hostages were collected until 200 men, some of whom were invalids, were gathered together.

M. Tielmans, the Burgomaster, was then ordered by some German officers to address the crowd and to tell them to hand in any weapons which they might have in their possession at the Town Hall, and to warn them that any one who was found with weapons would be killed. As a matter of fact, the arms in the possession of civilians had already been collected at the beginning of the war. The Burgomaster's speech resulted in the delivery of one gun, which had been used for pigeon shooting. The hostages were then released. Throughout the day the town was looted by the soldiers. Many shop windows were broken, and the contents of the shop fronts ransacked.

A shot was fired about 7 o'clock in the evening, by which time many of the soldiers were drunk. The Germans were not of one mind as to the direction from which the shot proceeded. Some said it came from a jeweler's shop, and some said it came from other houses. No one was hit by this shot, but thereafter German soldiers began to fire in various directions at people in the streets.

It is said that a German General or Colonel was killed at the Burgomaster's house. As far as the committee have been able to ascertain, the identity of the officer has never been revealed. The German version of the story is that he was killed by the 15-year-old son of the Burgomaster. The committee, however, is satisfied by the evidence of several independent witnesses that some German officers were standing at the window of the Burgomaster's house, that a large body of German troops was in the square, that some of these soldiers were drunk and let off their rifles, that in the volley one of the officers standing at the window of the Burgomaster's house fell, that at the time of the accident the wife and son of the Burgomaster had gone to take refuge in the cellar, and that neither the Burgomaster nor his son were in the least degree responsible for the occurrence which served as the pretext for their subsequent execution, and for the firing and sack of the town. 8

The houses were set on fire with special apparatus, while people were dragged from their houses, already burning, and some were shot in the streets.

Many civilians were marched to a field on the road to Louvain and kept there all night. Meanwhile many of the inhabitants were collected in the square. By this time very many of the troops were drunk.

On the following day a number of the civilians were shot under the orders of an officer, together with the Burgomaster, his brother, and his son. Of this incident, which is spoken to by many witnesses, a clear account is given:

This incident is spoken to by other witnesses also. Some of their depositions appear in the appendix.

GELRODE.

On the same day at Gelrode, a small village close to Aerschot, twenty-five civilians were imprisoned in the church. Seven were taken out by fifteen German soldiers in charge of an officer just outside. One of the seven tried to run away, whereupon all the six who remained behind alive were shot. This was on the night of Aug. 19. No provocation whatever had been given. The men in question had been searched, and no arms had been found upon them. Here, as at Aerschot, precautions had been taken previously to secure the delivery up of all arms in the hands of civilians.

Some of the survivors were compelled to dig graves for the seven. At a later date the corpses were disinterred and reburied in consecrated ground. The marks of the bullets in the brick wall against which the six were shot were then still plainly visible. On the same day a woman was shot by some German soldiers as she was walking home. This was done at a distance of 100 yards and for no apparent reason.

An account of a murder by an officer at Campenhout is given in a later part of this report, and depositions relating to Rotselaer, Tremeloo, and Wespelaer will be found in the appendix.

The committee is specially impressed by the character of the outrages committed in the smaller villages. Many of these are exceptionally shocking and cannot be regarded as contemplated or prescribed by the responsible commanders of the troops by whom they were committed. The inference, however, which we draw from these occurrences is that when once troops have been encouraged in a career of terrorism the more savage and brutal natures, of whom there are some in every large army, are liable to run to wild excess, more particularly in those regions where they are least subject to observation and control.

AERSCHOT AND DISTRICT.

Period II., (Aug. 25.)

Immediately after the battle of Malines, which resulted in the evacuation by the Germans of the district of Malines, Sempst, Hofstade, and Eppeghem, a long series of murders were committed either just before or during the retreat of the army. Many of the inhabitants who were unarmed, including women and young children, were killed—some of them under revolting circumstances.

Evidence given goes to show that the death of these villagers was due not to accident, but to deliberate purpose. The wounds were generally stabs or cuts, and for the most part appear to have been inflicted with the bayonet.

MALINES.

In Malines itself many bodies were seen. One witness saw a German soldier cut a woman's breasts after he had murdered her, and saw many other dead bodies of women in the streets.

HOFSTADE.

In Hofstade a number of houses had been set on fire and many corpses were seen, some in houses, some in back yards, and some in the streets.

Several examples are given below.

Two witnesses speak to having seen the body of a young man pierced by bayonet thrusts with the wrists cut also.

On a side road the corpse of a civilian was seen on his doorstep with a bayonet wound in his stomach, and by his side the dead body of a boy of 5 or 6 with his hands nearly severed.

The corpses of a woman and boy were seen at the blacksmith's. They had been killed with the bayonet.

In a café a young man, also killed with the bayonet, was holding his hands together as if in the attitude of supplication.

Two young women were lying in the back yard of the house. One had her breasts cut off, the other had been stabbed.

A young man had been hacked with the bayonet until his entrails protruded. He also had his hands joined in the attitude of prayer.

In the garden of a house in the main street bodies of two women were observed, and in another house the body of a boy of 16 with two bayonet wounds in the chest.

SEMPST.

In Sempst a similar condition of affairs existed. Houses were burning and in some of them were the charred remains of civilians.

In a bicycle shop a witness saw the burned corpse of a man. Other witnesses speak to this incident.

Another civilian, unarmed, was shot as he was running away. As will be remembered, all the arms had been given up some time before by order of the Burgomaster.

The corpse of a man with his legs cut off, who was partly bound, was seen by another witness, who also saw a girl of 17 dressed only in a chemise, and in great distress. She alleged that she herself and other girls had been dragged into a field, stripped naked, and violated, and that some of them had been killed with the bayonet.

WEERDE.—At Weerde four corpses of civilians were lying in the road. It was said that these men had fired upon the German soldiers; but this is denied. The arms had been given up long before.

Two children were killed in a village, apparently Weerde, quite wantonly as they were standing in the road with their mother. They were 3 or 4 years old and were killed with the bayonet.

A small farm burning close by formed a convenient means of getting rid of the bodies. They were thrown into the flames from the bayonets. It is right to add that no commissioned officer was present at the time.

EPPEGHEM.—At Eppeghem on Aug. 25 a pregnant woman who had been wounded with a bayonet was discovered in the convent. She was dying. On the road six dead bodies of laborers were seen.

ELEWYT.—At Elewyt a man's naked body was tied up to a ring in the wall in the back yard of a house. He was dead, and his corpse was mutilated in a manner too horrible to record. A woman's naked body was also found in a stable abutting on the same back yard.

VILVORDE.—At Vilvorde corpses of civilians were also found. These villages are all on the line from Malines to Brussels.

BOORT MEERBEEK.—At Boort Meerbeek a German soldier was seen to fire three times at a little girl 5 years old. Having failed to hit her, he subsequently bayoneted her. He was killed with the butt end of a rifle by a Belgian soldier who had seen him commit this murder from a distance.

HERENT.—At Herent the charred body of a civilian was found in a butcher's shop, and in a handcart twenty yards away was the dead body of a laborer.

Two eyewitnesses relate that a German soldier shot a civilian and stabbed him with a bayonet as he lay. He then made one of these witnesses, a civilian prisoner, smell the blood on the bayonet.

HAECHT.—At Haecht the bodies of ten civilians were seen lying in a row by a brewery wall.

In a laborer's house, which had been broken up, the mutilated corpse of a woman of 30 to 35 was discovered.

A child of 3 with its stomach cut open by a bayonet was lying near a house.

WERCHTER.—At Werchter the corpses of a man and woman and four younger persons were found in one house. It is stated that they had been murdered because one of the latter, a girl, would not allow the Germans to outrage her.

This catalogue of crimes does not by any means represent the sum total of the depositions relating to this district laid before the committee. The above are given merely as examples of acts which the evidence shows to have taken place in numbers that might have seemed scarcely credible.

In the rest of the district, that is to say, Aerschot and the other villages from which the Germans had not been driven, the effect of the battle was to cause a recrudescence of murder, arson, pillage, and cruelty, which had to some extent died down after Aug. 20 or 21.

In Aerschot itself fresh prisoners seem to have been taken and added to those who were already in the church, since it would appear that prisoners were kept to some extent in the church during the whole of the German occupation of Aerschot. The second occasion on which large numbers of prisoners were put there was shortly after the battle of Malines, and it was then that the priest of Gelrode was brought to Aerschot Church, treated abominably, and finally murdered.

GENERAL SIR WILLIAM ROBERTSON, K.C.B.—
Chief of the British General Staff, Who Made a Remarkable Record
as Quartermaster General in France—(Photo from Bain News Service.)

GENERAL FOCH—The Brilliant Strategist Who Commands
the French Armies of the North—(Photo from P.S. Rogers.)

One witness describes the scene graphically:

The actual details of the murder of the priest are as follows: The priest was struck several times by the soldiers on the head. He was pushed up against the wall of the church. He asked in Flemish to be allowed to stand with his face to the wall, and tried to turn around. The Germans stopped him and then turned him with his face to the wall, with his hands above his head. An hour later the same witness saw the priest still standing there. He was then led away by the Germans a distance of about fifty yards. There, with his face against the wall of a house, he was shot by five soldiers.

Other murders of which we have evidence appear in the appendix.

Some of the prisoners in the church at Aerschot were actually kept there until the arrival of the Belgian Army on Sept. 11, when they were released. Others were marched to Louvain and eventually merged with other prisoners, both from Louvain itself and the surrounding districts, and taken to Germany and elsewhere.

It is said by one witness that about 1,500 were marched to Louvain and that the journey took six hours.

The journey to Louvain is thus described by a witness: We were all marched off to Louvain, walking. There were some very old people, among others a man 90 years of age. The very old people were drawn in carts and barrows by the younger men. There was an officer with a bicycle, who shouted, as people fell out by the side of the road, "Shoot them!"

AERSCHOT AND DISTRICT.

Period III., (September.)

It is unnecessary to describe with much particularity the events of the period beginning about Sept. 10. The Belgian soldiers, who had recaptured the place, found corpses of civilians who must have been murdered in Aerschot itself just as they found them in Sempst and the other villages on Aug. 25. Some of these bodies were found in wells and some had been burned alive in their houses.

The prisoners released by the Belgian Army from the church were almost starved.

HAECHT.—At Haecht several children had been murdered, one of 2 or 3 years of age was found nailed to the door of a farmhouse by its hands and feet—a crime which seems almost incredible, but the evidence for which we feel bound to accept. In the garden of this house was the body of a girl who had been shot in the forehead.

CAPELLE-AU-BOIS.—At Capelle-au-Bois two children were murdered in a cart and their corpses were seen by many witnesses at different stages of the cart's journey.

EPPEGHEM.—At Eppeghem the dead body of a child of 2 was seen pinned to the ground with a German lance. Same witness saw a mutilated woman alive near Weerde on the same day.

TREMELOO.—Belgian soldiers on patrol duty found a young girl naked on the ground, covered with scratches. She complained of having been violated. On the same day an old woman was seen kneeling by the body of her husband, and she told them that the Germans had shot him as he was trying to escape from the house.

LOUVAIN AND DISTRICT.

The events spoken to as having occurred in and around Louvain between the 19th and the 25th of August deserve close attention.

For six days the Germans were in peaceful occupation of the city. No houses were set on fire—no citizens killed. There was a certain amount of looting of empty houses, but otherwise discipline was effectively maintained. The condition of Louvain during these days was one of relative peace and quietude, presenting a striking contrast to the previous and contemporaneous conduct of the German Army elsewhere.

On the evening of Aug. 25 a sudden change takes place. The Germans, on that day repulsed by the Belgians, had retreated to and reoccupied Louvain. Immediately the devastation of that city and the holocaust of its population commences. The inference is irresistible that the army as a whole wreaked its vengeance on the civil population and the buildings of the city in revenge for the setback which the Belgian arms had inflicted on them. A subsidiary cause alleged was the assertion, often made before that civilians had fired upon the German Army.

The depositions which relate to Louvain are numerous, and are believed by the committee to present a true and fairly complete picture of the events of the 25th and 26th of August and subsequent days. We find no grounds for thinking that the inhabitants fired upon the German Army on the evening of the 25th of August. Eyewitnesses worthy of credence detail exactly when, where, and how the firing commenced. Such firing was by Germans on Germans. No impartial tribunal could, in our opinion, come to any other conclusion.

On the evening of the 25th firing could be heard in the direction of Herent, some three kilometers from Louvain. An alarm was sounded in the city. There was disorder and confusion, and at 8 o'clock horses attached to baggage wagons stampeded in the street and rifle fire commenced. This was in the Rue de la Station and came from the German police guard, (21 in number,) who, seeing the troops arrive in disorder, thought it was the enemy. Then the corps of incendiaries got to work. They had broad belts with the words "Gott mit uns," and their equipment consisted of a hatchet, a syringe, a small shovel, and a revolver. Fires blazed up in the direction of the Law Courts, St. Martin's Barracks, and later in the Place de la Station. Meanwhile an incessant fusillade was kept up on the windows of the houses. In their efforts to escape the flames the inhabitants climbed the walls.

The prisoners were then distributed between different bodies of troops and marched in the direction of Herent. Seventy-seven inhabitants of Louvain, including a number of people of good position, (the names of several are given,) were thus taken to Herent.

Next day, Thursday, the 27th, a safe conduct to return to Louvain was given, but the prisoners had hardly started, when they were stopped and taken before a Brigade General and handed to another escort. Some were grossly ill-treated. They were accused of being soldiers out of uniform, and were told they could not go to Louvain, "as the town was going to be razed to the ground." Other prisoners were added, even women and children, until there were more than 200. They were then taken toward Malines, released, and told to go to that town together, and that those who separated would be fired on. Other witnesses corroborate the events described by the witness.

A woman employed by an old gentleman living in the Rue de la Station tells the story of her master's death:

On the 26th, (Wednesday,) in the City of Louvain, massacre, fire, and destruction went on. The university, with its library, the Church of St. Peter, and many houses were set on fire and burned to the ground. Citizens were shot and others taken prisoners and compelled to go with the troops. Soldiers went through the streets saying "Man hat geschossen."9 One soldier was seen going along shooting in the air.

Many of the people hid in cellars, but the soldiers shot down through the gratings. Some citizens were shot on opening the doors, others in endeavoring to escape. Among other persons whose houses were burned was an old man of 90 lying dangerously ill, who was taken out on his mattress and left lying in his garden all night. He died shortly after in the hospital to which a friend took him the following morning.

On Thursday, the 27th, orders were given that every one should leave the city, which was to be razed to the ground. Some citizens, including a canon of the cathedral, with his aged mother, were ordered to go to the station and afterward to take the road to Tirlemont. Among the number were about twenty priests from Louvain. They were insulted and threatened, but ultimately allowed to go free and make their way as best they could, women and sick persons among them, to Tirlemont. Other groups of prisoners from Louvain were on the same day taken by other routes, some early in the morning, through various villages in the direction of Malines, with hands tightly bound by a long cord. More prisoners were afterward added, and all made to stay the night in the church at Campenhout. Next day, the 28th, this group, then consisting of about 1,000 men, women and children, was taken back to Louvain. The houses along the road were burning and many dead bodies of civilians, men and women, were seen on the way. Some of the principal streets in Louvain had by that time been burned out. The prisoners were placed in a large building on the cavalry exercise ground—"One woman went mad, some children died, others were born." On the 29th the prisoners were marched along the Malines road, and at Herent the women and children and men over 40 were allowed to go; the others were taken to Boort Meerbeek, 15 kilometers from Malines, and told to march straight to Malines or be shot. At 11 P.M. they reached the fort of Waelhem and were at first fired on by the sentries, but on calling out they were Belgians were allowed to pass. These prisoners were practically without food from early morning on the 26th until midnight on the 29th. Of the corpses seen on the road, some had their hands tied behind their backs, others were burned, some had been killed by blows, and some corpses were those of children who had been shot.

Another witness, a man of independent means, was arrested at noon by the soldiers of the One Hundred and Sixty-fifth Regiment and taken to the Place de la Station. He was grossly ill-treated on the way and robbed by an officer of his purse and keys. His hands were tied behind his back. His wife was kept a prisoner at the other side of the station. He was then made to march with about 500 other prisoners until midnight, slept in the rain that night, and next day, having had no food since leaving Louvain, was taken to the church in Rotselaer, where there were then about 1,500 prisoners confined, including some infants. No food was given, only some water. Next day they were taken through Wespelaer and back to Louvain. On the way from Rotselaer to Wespelaer fifty bodies were seen, some naked and carbonized and unrecognizable. When they arrived at Louvain the Fish Market, the Place Marguerite, the cathedral, and many other buildings were on fire. In the evening about 100 men, women, and children were put in horse trucks from which the dung had not been removed, and at 6 the next morning left for Cologne.

The wife of this witness was also taken prisoner with her husband and her maid, but was separated from him, and she saw other ladies made to walk before the soldiers with their hands above their heads. One, an old lady of 85, (name given,) was dragged from her cellar and taken with them to the station. They were kept there all night, but set free in the morning, Thursday, but shortly afterward sent to Tirlemont on foot. A number of corpses were seen on the way. The prisoners, of whom there are said to have been thousands, were not allowed even to have water to drink, although there were streams on the way from which the soldiers drank. Witness was given some milk at a farm, but as she raised it to her lips it was taken away from her.

A priest was taken on Friday morning Aug. 28, and placed at the head of a number of refugees from Wygmael. He was led through Louvain, abused and ill-treated, and placed with some thousands of other people in the riding school in the Rue du Manège. The glass roof broke in the night from the heat of burning buildings around. Next day the prisoners were marched through the country with an armed guard. Burned farms and burned corpses were seen on the way. The prisoners were finally separated into three groups, and the younger men marched through Herent and Bueken to Campenhout, and ultimately reached the Belgian lines about midnight on Saturday, Aug. 29. All the houses in Herent, a village of about 5,000 inhabitants, had been burned.

The massacre of civilians at Louvain was not confined to its citizens. Large crowds of people were brought into Louvain from the surrounding districts, not only from Aerschot and Gelrode as above mentioned, but also from other places. For example, a witness describes how many women and children were taken in carts to Louvain, and there placed in a stable. Of the hundreds of people thus taken from the various villages and brought to Louvain as prisoners, some were massacred there, others were forced to march along with citizens of Louvain through various places, some being ultimately sent on the 29th to the Belgian lines at Malines, others were taken in trucks to Cologne as described below, others were released. An account of the massacre of some of these unfortunate civilian prisoners given by two witnesses may be quoted:

Another witness, who was taken from Aerschot, also describes the occurrence:

JOURNEY TO COLOGNE.

The greatest number of prisoners from Louvain, however, were assembled at the station and taken by trains to Cologne. Several witnesses describe their sufferings and the ill-treatment they received on the journey. One of the first trains started in the afternoon. It consisted of cattle trucks, about 100 being in each truck. It took three days to get to Cologne. The prisoners had nothing to eat but a few biscuits each, and they were not allowed to get out for water and none was given. On a wagon the words "Civilians who shot at the soldiers at Louvain" were written. Some were marched through Cologne afterward for the people to see. Ropes were put about the necks of some and they were told they would be hanged. An order then came that they were to be shot instead of hanged. A firing squad was prepared and five or six prisoners were put up, but were not shot. After being kept a week at Cologne some of these prisoners were taken back—this time only thirty or forty in a truck—and allowed to go free on arriving at Limburg. Several witnesses who were taken in other trains to Cologne describe their experiences in detail. Some of the trucks were abominably filthy. Prisoners were not allowed to leave to obey the calls of nature; one man who quitted the truck for the purpose was killed by a bayonet. Describing what happened to another body of prisoners, a witness says that they were made to cross Station Street, where the houses were burning, and taken to the station, placed in horse trucks, crowded together, men, women, and children, in each wagon. They were kept at the station during the night, and the following day left for Cologne. For two days and a half they were without food, and then they received a loaf of bread among ten persons, and some water. The prisoners were afterward taken back to Belgium. They were, in all, eight days in the train, crowded and almost without food. Two of the men went mad. The women and children were separated from the men at Brussels. The men were taken to a suburb and then to the villages of Herent, Vilvorde, and Sempst, and afterward set at liberty.

This taking of the inhabitants, including some of the influential citizens, in groups and marching them to various places, and in particular the sending of them to Malines and the dispatch of great numbers to Cologne, must evidently have been done under the direction of the higher military authorities. The ill-treatment of the prisoners was under the eyes and often by the direction or with the sanction of officers, and officers themselves took part in it.

The object of taking many hundreds of prisoners to Cologne and back into Belgium is at first sight difficult to understand. Possibly it is to be regarded as part of the policy of punishment for Belgian resistance and general terrorization of the inhabitants—possibly as a desire to show these people to the population of a German city and thus to confirm the belief that the Belgians had shot at their troops.

Whatever may have been the case when the burning began on the evening of the 25th, it appears clear that the subsequent destruction and outrages were done with a set purpose. It was not until the 26th that the library, and other university buildings, the Church of St. Peter and many houses were set on fire. It is to be noticed that cases occur in the depositions in which humane acts by individual officers and soldiers are mentioned, or in which officers are said to have expressed regret at being obliged to carry out orders for cruel action against the civilians. Similarly, we find entries in diaries which reveal a genuine pity for the population and disgust at the conduct of the army. It appears that a German non-commissioned officer stated definitely that he "was acting under orders and executing them with great unwillingness." A commissioned officer on being asked at Louvain by a witness—a highly educated man—about the horrible acts committed by the soldiers, said he "was merely executing orders," and that he himself would be shot if he did not execute them. Others gave less credible excuses, one stating that the inhabitants of Louvain had burned the city themselves because they did not wish to supply food and quarters for the German Army. It was to the discipline rather than the want of discipline in the army that these outrages, which we are obliged to describe as systematic, were due, and the special official notices posted on certain houses that they were not to be destroyed show the fate which had been decreed for the others which were not so marked.

We are driven to the conclusion that the harrying of the villages in the district, the burning of a large part of Louvain, the massacres there, the marching out of the prisoners, and the transport to Cologne, (all done without inquiry as to whether the particular persons seized or killed had committed any wrongful act,) were due to a calculated policy carried out scientifically and deliberately, not merely with the sanction but under the direction of higher military authorities, and were not due to any provocation or resistance by the civilian population.

TERMONDE.

To understand the depositions describing what happened at Termonde it is necessary to remember that the German Army occupied the town on two occasions, the first, from Friday, Sept. 4, to Sunday, Sept. 6, and again later in the month, about the 16th. The civilians had delivered up their arms a fortnight before the arrival of the Germans.

Early in the month, probably about the 4th, a witness saw two civilians murdered by Uhlans. Another witness saw their dead bodies, which remained in the street for ten days. Two hundred civilians were utilized as a screen by the German troops about this date.

On the 5th the town was partially burned. One witness was taken prisoner in the street by some German soldiers, together with several other civilians. At about 12 o'clock some of the tallest and strongest men among the prisoners were picked out to go around the streets with paraffin. Three or four carts containing paraffin tanks were brought up, and a syringe was used to put paraffin on to the houses, which were then fired. The process of destruction began with the houses of rich people, and afterward the houses of the poorer classes were treated in the same manner. German soldiers had previously told this witness that if the Burgomaster of Termonde, who was out of town, did not return by 12 o'clock that day the town would be set on fire. The firing of the town was in consequence of his failure to return. The prisoners were afterward taken to a factory and searched for weapons. They were subsequently provided with passports enabling them to go anywhere in the town, but not outside. The witness in question managed to effect his escape by swimming across the river.

Another witness describes how the tower of the Church of Termonde St. Gilles was utilized by the Belgian troops for offensive purposes. They had in fact mounted a machine gun there. This witness was subsequently taken prisoner in a cellar in Termonde in which he had taken refuge with other people. All the men were taken from the cellar and the women were left behind. About seventy prisoners in all were taken; one, a brewer who could not walk fast enough, was wounded with a bayonet. He fell down and was compelled to get up and follow the soldiers. The prisoners had to hold up their hands, and if they dropped their hands they were struck on the back with the butt end of rifles. They were taken to Lebbeke, where there were in all 300 prisoners, and there they were locked up in the church for three days and with scarcely any food.

A witness living at Baesrode was taken prisoner with 250 others and kept all night in a field. The prisoners were released on the following morning. This witness saw three corpses of civilians, and says that the Germans on Sunday, the 6th, plundered and destroyed the houses of those who had fled. The Germans left on the following day, taking about thirty men with them, one a man of 72 years of age.

Later in the month civilians were again used as a screen, and there is evidence of other acts of outrage.

ALOST.

Alost was the scene of fighting between the Belgian and German Armies during the whole of the latter part of the month of September. In connection with the fighting numerous cruelties appear to have been perpetrated by the German troops.

On Saturday, Sept. 11, a weaver was bayoneted in the street. Another civilian was shot dead at his door on the same night. On the following day the witness was taken prisoner together with thirty others. The money of the prisoners was confiscated, and they were subsequently used as a screen for the German troops who were at that moment engaged in a conflict with the Belgian Army in the town itself. The Germans burned a number of houses at this time. Corpses of 14 civilians were seen in the streets on this occasion.

A well-educated witness, who visited the Wetteren Hospital shortly after this date, saw the dead bodies of a number of civilians belonging to Alost, and other civilians wounded. One of these stated that he took refuge in the house of his sister-in-law; that the Germans dragged the people out of the house, which was on fire, seized him, threw him on the ground, and hit him on the head with the butt end of a rifle, and ran him through the thigh with a bayonet. They then placed him with seventeen or eighteen others in front of the German troops, threatening them with revolvers. They said that they were going to make the people of Alost pay for the losses sustained by the Germans. At this hospital was an old woman of 80 completely transfixed by a bayonet.

Other crimes on noncombatants at Alost belong to the end of the month of September. Many witnesses speak to the murder of harmless civilians.

In Binnenstraat the Germans broke open the windows of the houses and threw fluid inside, and the houses burst into flames. Some of the inhabitants were burned to death.

The civilians were utilized on Saturday, Sept. 26, as a screen. During their retreat the Germans fired twelve houses in Rue des Trois Clefs, and three civilians, whose names are given, were shot dead in that street after the firing of the houses. On the following day a heap of nine dead civilians were lying in the Rue de l'Argent.

Similar outrages occurred at Erpe, a village a few miles from Alost, about the same date. The village was deliberately burned. The houses were plundered and some civilians were murdered.

Civilians were apparently used as a screen at Erpe, but they were prisoners taken from Alost and not dwellers in that village.

DIARIES OF GERMAN SOLDIERS.

This disregard for the lives of civilians is strikingly shown in extracts from German soldiers' diaries, of which the following are representative examples.

Barthel, who was a Sergeant and standard bearer of the Second Company of the First Guards Regiment of Foot, and who during the campaign received the Iron Cross, says, under date Aug. 10, 1914:

Matbern of the Fourth Company of Jägers, No. 11, from Marburg, states that at a village between Birnal and Dinant on Sunday, Aug. 23, the Pioneers and Infantry Regiment One Hundred and Seventy-eight were fired upon by the inhabitants. He gives no particulars beyond this. He continues:

Bombardier Wetzel of the Second Mounted Battery, First Kurhessian Field Artillery Regiment, No. 11, records an incident which happened in French territory near Lille on Oct. 11: "We had no fight, but we caught about twenty men and shot them." By this time killing not in a fight would seem to have passed into a habit.

Diary No. 32 gives an accurate picture of what took place in Louvain:

The last and most important entry is that contained in Diary No. 19. This is a blue book interleaved with blotting paper, and contains no name and address; there is, however, one circumstance which makes it possible to speak with certainty as to the regiment of the writer. He gives the names of First Lieutenant von Oppen, Count Eulenburg, Captain von Roeder, First Lieutenant von Bock und Polach, Second Lieutenant Count Hardenberg, and Lieutenant Engelbrecht. A perusal of the Prussian Army list of June, 1914, shows that all these officers, with the exception of Lieutenant Engelbrecht, belonged to the First Regiment of Foot Guards. On Aug. 24, 1914, the writer was in Ermeton. The exact translation of the extract, grim in its brevity, is as follows:

We may now sum up and endeavor to explain the character and significance of the wrongful acts done by the German Army in Belgium.

If a line is drawn on a map from the Belgian frontier to Liège and continued to Charleroi, and a second line drawn from Liège to Malines, a sort of figure resembling an irregular Y will be formed. It is along this Y that most of the systematic (as opposed to isolated) outrages were committed. If the period from Aug. 4 to Aug. 30 is taken it will be found to cover most of these organized outrages. Termonde and Alost extend, it is true, beyond the Y lines, and they belong to the month of September. Murder, rape, arson, and pillage began from the moment when the German Army crossed the frontier. For the first fortnight of the war the towns and villages near Liège were the chief sufferers. From Aug. 19 to the end of the month, outrages spread in the directions of Charleroi and Malines and reach their period of greatest intensity. There is a certain significance in the fact that the outrages around Liège coincide with the unexpected resistance of the Belgian Army in that district, and that the slaughter which reigned from Aug. 19 to the end of the month is contemporaneous with the period when the German Army's need for a quick passage through Belgium at all costs was deemed imperative.

Here let a distinction be drawn between two classes of outrages.

Individual acts of brutality—ill-treatment of civilians, rape, plunder, and the like—were very widely committed. These are more numerous and more shocking than would be expected in warfare between civilized powers, but they differ rather in extent than in kind from what has happened in previous though not recent wars.

In all wars many shocking and outrageous acts must be expected, for in every large army there must be a proportion of men of criminal instincts whose worst passions are unloosed by the immunity which the conditions of warfare afford. Drunkenness, moreover, may turn even a soldier who has no criminal habits into a brute, who may commit outrages at which he would himself be shocked in his sober moments, and there is evidence that intoxication was extremely prevalent among the German Army, both in Belgium and in France, for plenty of wine was to be found in the villages and country houses which were pillaged. Many of the worst outrages appear to have been perpetrated by men under the influence of drink. Unfortunately, little seems to have been done to repress this source of danger.

In the present war, however—and this is the gravest charge against the German Army—the evidence shows that the killing of noncombatants was carried out to an extent for which no previous war between nations claiming to be civilized, (for such cases as the atrocities perpetrated by the Turks on the Bulgarian Christians in 1876, and on the Armenian Christians in 1895 and 1896, do not belong to that category,) furnishes any precedent. That this killing was done as part of a deliberate plan is clear from the facts hereinbefore set forth regarding Louvain, Aerschot, Dinant, and other towns. The killing was done under orders in each place. It began at a certain fixed date, and stopped, (with some few exceptions,) at another fixed date. Some of the officers who carried out the work did it reluctantly, and said they were obeying directions from their chiefs. The same remarks apply to the destruction of property. House burning was part of the program; and villages, even large parts of a city, were given to the flames as part of the terrorizing policy.

Citizens of neutral States who visited Belgium in December and January report that the German authorities do not deny that noncombatants were systematically killed in large numbers during the first weeks of the invasion, and this, so far as we know, has never been officially denied. If it were denied, the flight and continued voluntary exile of thousands of Belgian refugees would go far to contradict a denial, for there is no historical parallel in modern times for the flight of a large part of a nation before an invader.

The German Government have, however, sought to justify their severities on the grounds of military necessity, and have excused them as retaliation for cases in which civilians fired on German troops. There may have been cases in which such firing occurred, but no proof has ever been given, or, to our knowledge, attempted to be given, of such cases, nor of the stories of shocking outrages perpetrated by Belgian men and women on German soldiers.

The inherent improbability of the German contention is shown by the fact that after the first few days of the invasion every possible precaution had been taken by the Belgian authorities, by way of placards and handbills, to warn the civilian population not to intervene in hostilities. Throughout Belgium steps had been taken to secure the handing over of all firearms in the possession of civilians before the German Army arrived. These steps were sometimes taken by the police and sometimes by the military authorities.

The invaders appear to have proceeded upon the theory that any chance shot coming from an unexpected place was fired by civilians. One favorite form of this allegation was that priests had fired from the church tower. In many instances the soldiers of the allied armies used church towers and private houses as cover for their operations. At Aerschot, where the Belgian soldiers were stationed in the church tower and fired upon the Germans as they advanced, it was at once alleged by the Germans when they entered the town, and with difficulty disproved, that the firing had come from civilians. Thus one elementary error creeps at once into the German argument, for they were likely to confound, and did in some instances certainly confound, legitimate military operations with the hostile intervention of civilians.

Troops belonging to the same army often fire by mistake upon each other. That the German Army was no exception to this rule is proved not only by many Belgian witnesses, but by the most irrefragable kind of evidence—the admission of German soldiers themselves, recorded in their war diaries. Thus Otto Clepp, Second Company of the Reserve, says, under date of Aug. 22: "Three A.M. Two infantry regiments shot at each other—9 dead and 50 wounded—fault not yet ascertained." In this connection the diaries of Kurt Hoffman and a soldier of the 112th Regiment, (Diary No. 14,) will repay study. In such cases the obvious interest of the soldier is to conceal his mistake, and a convenient method of doing so is to raise the cry of "francs-tireurs!"

Doubtless the German soldiers often believed that the civilian population, naturally hostile, had, in fact, attacked them. This attitude of mind may have been fostered by the German authorities themselves before the troops passed the frontier, and thereafter stories of alleged atrocities committed by Belgians upon Germans, such as the myth referred to in one of the diaries relating to Liège, were circulated among the troops and roused their anger.

The diary of Barthel, when still in Germany on Aug. 10, shows that he believed that the Oberburgomaster of Liège had murdered a Surgeon General. The fact is that no violence was inflicted on the inhabitants at Liège until the 19th, and no one who studies these pages can have any doubt that Liège would immediately have been given over to murder and destruction if any such incident had occurred.

Letters written to their homes which have been found on the bodies of dead Germans bear witness, in a way that now sounds pathetic, to the kindness with which they were received by the civil population. Their evident surprise at this reception was due to the stories which had been dinned into their ears of soldiers with their eyes gouged out, treacherous murders, and poisoned food—stories which may have been encouraged by the higher military authorities in order to impress the mind of the troops, as well as for the sake of justifying the measures which they took to terrify the civil population. If there is any truth in such stories, no attempt has been made to establish it. For instance, the Chancellor of the German Empire, in a communication made to the press on Sept. 2 and printed in the Nord Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of Sept. 21, said as follows:

No evidence whatever seems to have been adduced to prove these tales, and though there may be cases in which individual Belgians fired on the Germans, the statement that "the whole civilian population of Belgium was called out" is utterly opposed to the fact.

An invading army may be entitled to shoot at sight a civilian caught redhanded, or any one who, though not caught redhanded, is proved guilty on inquiry. But this was not the practice followed by the German troops. They do not seem to have made any inquiry. They seized the civilians of the villages indiscriminately and killed them, or such as they selected from among them, without the least regard to guilt or innocence. The mere cry, "Civilisten haben geschossen!" was enough to hand over a whole village or district, and even outlying places, to ruthless slaughter.

We gladly record the instances where the evidence shows that humanity had not wholly disappeared from some members of the German Army, and that they realized that the responsible heads of that organization were employing them not in war, but in butchery: "I am merely executing orders, and I should be shot if I did not execute them," said an officer to a witness at Louvain. At Brussels another officer says: "I have not done one-hundredth part of what we have been ordered to do by the high German military authorities."

As we have already observed, it would be unjust to charge upon the German Army generally acts of cruelty which, whether due to drunkenness or not, were done by men of brutal instincts and unbridled passions. Such crimes were sometimes punished by the officers. They were in some cases offset by acts of humanity and kindliness. But when an army is directed or permitted to kill noncombatants on a large scale the ferocity of the worst natures springs into fuller life, and both lust and the thirst of blood become more widespread and more formidable. Had less license been allowed to the soldiers and had they not been set to work to slaughter civilians there would have been fewer of those painful cases in which a depraved and morbid cruelty appears.

Two classes of murders in particular require special mention because one of them is almost new and the other altogether unprecedented. The former is the seizure of peaceful citizens as so-called hostages, to be kept as a pledge for the conduct of the civil population or as a means to secure some military advantage or to compel the payment of a contribution, the hostages being shot if the condition imposed by the arbitrary will of the invader is not fulfilled. Such hostage-taking, with the penalty of death attached, has now and then happened, the most notable case being the shooting of the Archbishop of Paris and some of his clergy by the Communards of Paris in 1871, but it is opposed both to the rules of war and to every principle of justice and humanity. The latter kind of murder is the killing of the innocent inhabitants of a village because shots have been fired, or are alleged to have been fired, on the troops by some one in the village. For this practice no previous example and no justification have been or can be pleaded. Soldiers suppressing an insurrection may have sometimes slain civilians mingled with insurgents, and Napoleon's forces in Spain are said to have now and then killed promiscuously when trying to clear guerrillas out of a village. But in Belgium large bodies of men, sometimes including the Burgomaster and the priest, were seized, marched by officers to a spot chosen for the purpose, and there shot in cold blood, without any attempt at trial or even inquiry, under the pretense of inflicting punishment upon the village, though these unhappy victims were not even charged with having themselves committed any wrongful act, and though, in some cases at least, the village authorities had done all in their power to prevent any molestation of the invading force. Such acts are no part of war, for innocence is entitled to respect even in war. They are mere murders, just as the drowning of the innocent passengers and crews on a merchant ship is murder and not an act of war.

That these acts should have been perpetrated on the peaceful population of an unoffending country which was not at war with its invaders, but merely defending its own neutrality, guaranteed by the invading power, may excite amazement and even incredulity. It was with amazement and almost with incredulity that the committee first read the depositions relating to such acts. But when the evidence regarding Liège was followed by that regarding Aerschot, Louvain, Andenne, Dinant, and the other towns and villages, the cumulative effect of such a mass of concurrent testimony became irresistible, and we were driven to the conclusion that the things described had really happened. The question then arose, how they could have happened. Not from mere military license, for the discipline of the German Army is proverbially stringent, and its obedience implicit. Not from any special ferocity of the troops, for whoever has traveled among the German peasantry knows that they are as kindly and good-natured as any people in Europe, and those who can recall the war of 1870 will remember that no charges resembling those proved by these depositions were then established. The excesses recently committed in Belgium were, moreover too widespread and too uniform in their character to be mere sporadic outbursts of passion or rapacity.

The explanation seems to be that these excesses were committed—in some cases ordered, in others allowed—on a system and in pursuance of a set purpose. That purpose was to strike terror into the civil population and dishearten the Belgian troops, so as to crush down resistance and extinguish the very spirit of self-defense. The pretext that civilians had fired upon the invading troops was used to justify not merely the shooting of individual francs-tireurs, but the murder of large numbers of innocent civilians, an act absolutely forbidden by the rules of civilized warfare.10

In the minds of Prussian officers war seems to have become a sort of sacred mission, one of the highest functions of the omnipotent State, which is itself as much an army as a State. Ordinary morality and the ordinary sentiment of pity vanish in its presence, superseded by a new standard, which justifies to the soldier every means that can conduce to success, however shocking to a natural sense of justice and humanity, however revolting to his own feelings. The spirit of war is deified. Obedience to the State and its war lord leaves no room for any other duty or feeling. Cruelty becomes legitimate when it promises victory. Proclaimed by the heads of the army, this doctrine would seem to have permeated the officers and affected even the private soldiers, leading them to justify the killing of noncombatants as an act of war, and so accustoming them to slaughter that even women and children become at last the victims. It cannot be supposed to be a national doctrine, for it neither springs from nor reflects the mind and feelings of the German people as they have heretofore been known to other nations. It is a specifically military doctrine, the outcome of a theory held by a ruling caste who have brooded and thought, written and talked, and dreamed about war until they have fallen under its obsession and been hypnotized by its spirit.

The doctrine is plainly set forth in the German Official Monograph on the usages of war on land, issued under the direction of the German Staff. This book is pervaded throughout by the view that whatever military needs suggest becomes thereby lawful, and upon this principle, as the diaries show, the German officers acted.11

If this explanation be the true one, the mystery is solved, and that which seemed scarcely credible becomes more intelligible, though not less pernicious. This is not the only case that history records in which a false theory, disguising itself as loyalty to a State or to a Church, has perverted the conception of duty and become a source of danger to the world.

PART II.

Having thus narrated the offenses committed in Belgium, which it has been proper to consider as a whole, we now turn to another branch of the subject, the breaches of the usages of war which appear in the conduct of the German Army generally.

This branch has been considered under the following heads:

TREATMENT OF THE CIVILIAN POPULATION.

(a) Killing of Noncombatants.

The killing of civilians in Belgium has been already described sufficiently. Outrages on the civilian population of the invaded districts, the burning of villages, the shooting of innocent inhabitants, and the taking of hostages, pillage, and destruction continued as the German armies passed into France. The diary of the Saxon officer above referred to describes acts of this kind committed by the German soldiers in advancing to the Aisne at the end of August and after they had passed the French frontier, as well as when they were in Belgian territory.

A proclamation, (a specimen of which was produced to the committee,) issued at Rheims and placarded over the town, affords a clear illustration of the methods adopted by the German Higher Command. The population of Rheims is warned that on the slightest disturbance part or the whole of the city will be burned to the ground and all the hostages taken from the city (a long list of whom is given in the proclamation) immediately shot.

The evidence, however, submitted to the committee with regard to the conduct of the German Army in France is not nearly so full as that with regard to Belgium. There is no body of civilian refugees in England, and the French witnesses have generally laid their evidence before their own Government. The evidence forwarded to us consists principally of the statements of British officers and soldiers who took part in the retreat after the battle of Mons and in the subsequent advance, following the Germans from the Marne. The area covered is relatively small, and it is from French reports that any complete account of what occurred in the invaded districts in France as a whole must be obtained.

Naturally, soldiers in a foreign country, with which they were unacquainted, cannot be expected always to give accurately the names of villages through which they passed on their marches, but this does not prevent their evidence from being definite as to what they actually saw in the farms and houses where the German troops had recently been. Many shocking outrages are recorded. Three examples may here suffice; others are given in the appendix. A Sergeant who had been through the retreat from Mons and then taken part in the advance from the Marne, and who had been engaged in driving out some German troops from a village, states that his troop halted outside a bakery just inside the village. It was a private house where baking was done, "not like our bakeries here." Two or three women were standing at the door. The women motioned them to come into the house, as did also three civilian Frenchmen who were there. They took them into a garden at the back of the house. At the end of the garden was the bakery. They saw two old men between 60 and 70 years of age and one old woman lying close to each other in the garden. All three had the scalps cut right through and the brains were hanging out. They were still bleeding. Apparently they had only just been killed. The three French civilians belonged to this same house. One of them spoke a few words of English. He gave them to understand that these three had been killed by the Germans because they had refused to bake bread for them.

Another witness states that two German soldiers took hold of a young civilian named D. and bound his hands behind his back, and struck him in the face with their fists. They then tied his hands in front and fastened the cord to the tail of the horse. The horse dragged him for about fifty yards, and then the Germans loosened his hands and left him. The whole of his face was cut and torn, and his arms and legs were bruised. On the following day one of his sisters, whose husband was a soldier, came to their house with her four children. His brother, who was also married and who lived in a village near Valenciennes, went to fetch the bread for his sister. On the way back to their house he met a patrol of Uhlans, who took him to the market place at Valenciennes, and then shot him. About twelve other civilians were also shot in the market place. The Uhlans then burned nineteen houses in the village, and afterward burned the corpses of the civilians, including that of his brother. His father and his uncle afterward went to see the dead body of his brother, but the German soldiers refused to allow them to pass.

A lance corporal in the Rifles, who was on patrol duty with five privates during the retirement of the Germans after the Marne, states that they entered a house in a small village and took ten Uhlans prisoners, and then searched the house and found two women and two children. One was dead, but the body not yet cold. The left arm had been cut off just below the elbow. The floor was covered with blood. The woman's clothing was disarranged. The other woman was alive but unconscious. Her right leg had been cut off above the knee. There were two little children, a boy about 4 or 5 and a girl of about 6 or 7. The boy's left hand was cut off at the wrist and the girl's right hand at the same place. They were both quite dead. The same witness states that he saw several women and children lying dead in various other places, but says he could not say whether this might not have been accidentally caused in legitimate fighting.

The evidence before us proves that in the parts of France referred to murder of unoffending civilians and other acts of cruelty, including aggravated cases of rape, carried out under threat of death, and sometimes actually followed by murder of the victim, were committed by some of the German troops.

(b) The Treatment of Women and Children.

The evidence shows that the German authorities, when carrying out a policy of systematic arson and plunder in selected districts, usually drew some distinction between the adult male population on the one hand and the women and children on the other. It was a frequent practice to set apart the adult males of the condemned district with a view to the execution of a suitable number—preferably of the younger and more vigorous—and to reserve the women and children for milder treatment. The depositions, however, present many instances of calculated cruelty, often going the length of murder, toward the women and children of the condemned area. We have already referred to the case of Aerschot, where the women and children were herded in a church which had recently been used as a stable, detained for forty-eight hours with no food other than coarse bread, and denied the common decencies of life. At Dinant sixty women and children were confined in the cellar of a convent from Sunday morning till the following Friday, (Aug. 28,) sleeping on the ground, for there were no beds, with nothing to drink during the whole period, and given no food until the Wednesday, "when somebody threw into the cellar two sticks of macaroni and a carrot for each prisoner." In other cases the women and children were marched for long distances along roads, (e.g., march of women from Louvain to Tirlemont, Aug. 28,) the laggards pricked on by the attendant Uhlans. A lady complains of having been brutally kicked by privates. Others were struck with the butt end of rifles. At Louvain, at Liège, at Aerschot, at Malines, at Montigny, at Andenne, and elsewhere, there is evidence that the troops were not restrained from drunkenness, and drunken soldiers cannot to be trusted to observe the rules or decencies of war, least of all when they are called upon to execute a preordained plan of arson and pillage. From the very first women were not safe. At Liège women and children were chased about the streets by soldiers. A witness gives a story, very circumstantial in its details, of how women were publicly raped in the market place of the city, five young German officers assisting. At Aerschot men and women were deliberately shot when coming out of burning houses. At Liège, Louvain, Sempst, and Malines women were burned to death, either because they were surprised and stupefied by the fumes of the conflagration or because they were prevented from escaping by German soldiers. Witnesses recount how a great crowd of men, women, and children from Aerschot were marched to Louvain, and then suddenly exposed to a fire from a mitrailleuse and rifles. "We were all placed," recounts a sufferer, "in Station Street, Louvain, and the German soldiers fired on us. I saw the corpses of some women in the street. I fell down, and a woman who had been shot fell on top of me." Women and children suddenly turned out into the streets, and, compelled to witness the destruction by fire of their homes, provided a sad spectacle to such as were sober enough to see. A humane German officer, witnessing the ruin of Aerschot, exclaims in disgust: "I am a father myself, and I cannot bear this. It is not war, but butchery." Officers as well as men succumbed to the temptation of drink, with results which may be illustrated by an incident which occurred at Campenhout. In this village there was a certain well-to-do merchant (name given) who had a good cellar of champagne. On the afternoon of the 14th or 15th of August three German cavalry officers entered the house and demanded champagne. Having drunk ten bottles and invited five or six officers and three or four private soldiers to join them, they continued their carouse, and then called for the master and mistress of the house.

In the evidence before us there are cases tending to show that aggravated crimes against women were sometimes severely punished. One witness reports that a young girl who was being pursued by a drunken soldier at Louvain appealed to a German officer, and that the offender was then and there shot. Another describes how an officer of the Thirty-second Regiment of the Line was led out to execution for the violation of two young girls, but reprieved at the request or with the consent of the girls' mother. These instances are sufficient to show that the maltreatment of women was no part of the military scheme of the invaders, however much it may appear to have been the inevitable result of the system of terror deliberately adopted in certain regions. Indeed, so much is avowed. "I asked the commander why we had been spared," says a lady in Louvain, who deposes to having suffered much brutal treatment during the sack. He said: "We will not hurt you any more. Stay in Louvain. All is finished." It was Saturday, Aug. 29, and the reign of terror was over.

Apart from the crimes committed in special areas and belonging to a scheme of systematic reprisals for the alleged shooting by civilians, there is evidence of offenses committed against women and children by individual soldiers, or by small groups of soldiers, both in the advance through Belgium and France as in the retreat from the Marne. Indeed, the discipline appears to have been loose during the retreat, and there is evidence as to the burning of villages and the murder and violation of their female inhabitants during this episode of the war.

In this tale of horrors hideous forms of mutilation occur with some frequency in the depositions, two of which may be connected in some instances with a perverted form of sexual instinct.

A third form of mutilation, the cutting of one or both hands, is frequently said to have taken place. In some cases where this form of mutilation is alleged to have occurred it may be the consequence of a cavalry charge up a village street, hacking and slashing at everything in the way; in others the victim may possibly have held a weapon; in others the motive may have been the theft of rings.

We find many well-established cases of the slaughter (often accompanied by mutilation) of whole families, including not infrequently that of quite small children. In two cases it seems to be clear that preparations were made to burn a family alive. These crimes were committed over a period of many weeks and simultaneously in many places, and the authorities must have known, or ought to have known, that cruelties of this character were being perpetrated; nor can any one doubt that they could have been stopped by swift and decisive action on the part of the heads of the German Army.

The use of women and even children as a screen for the protection of the German troops is referred to in a later part of this report. From the number of troops concerned, it must have been commanded or acquiesced in by officers, and in some cases the presence and connivance of officers is proved.

The cases of violation, sometimes under threat of death, are numerous and clearly proved. We referred here to comparatively few out of the many that have been placed in the appendix, because the circumstances are in most instances much the same. They were often accompanied with cruelty, and the slaughter of women after violation is more than once credibly attested.

It is quite possible that in some cases where the body of a Belgian or a French woman is reported as lying on the roadside pierced with bayonet wounds or hanging naked from a tree, or else as lying gashed and mutilated in a cottage kitchen or bedroom, the woman in question gave some provocation. She may by act or word have irritated her assailant and in certain instances evidence has been supplied both as to the provocation offered and as to the retribution inflicted.

BARON STEPHAN BURIAN VON RAJECZ—
The Hungarian Who Succeeded Count Berchtold as Austro-Hungarian
Foreign Minister and President of the Common Ministerial Council

H.M. FERDINAND I.—The New King of Rumania,
in succession to his uncle the late King Charles I.—(Photo from P.S. Rogers.)

Can any one think that such acts as these, committed by women in the circumstances created by the invasion of Belgium, were deserving of the extreme form of vengeance attested by these and other depositions?

In considering the question of provocation it is pertinent to take into account the numerous cases in which old women and very small children have been shot, bayoneted, and even mutilated. Whatever excuse may be offered by the Germans for the killing of grown-up women, there can be no possible defense for the murder of children, and if it can be shown that infants and small children were not infrequently bayoneted and shot it is a fair inference that many of the offenses against women require no explanation more recondite than the unbridled violence of brutal or drunken criminals.

It is clearly shown that many offenses were committed against infants and quite young children. On one occasion children were even roped together and used as a military screen against the enemy; on another three soldiers went into action carrying small children to protect themselves from flank fire. A shocking case of the murder of a baby by a drunken soldier at Malines is thus recorded by one eyewitness and confirmed by another:

These, no doubt, were for the most part the acts of drunken soldiers, but an incident has been recorded which discloses the fact that even sober and highly placed officers were not always disposed to place a high value on child life. Thus the General, wishing to be conducted to the Town Hall at Lebbeke, remarked in French to his guide, who was accompanied by a small boy: "If you do not show me the right way I will shoot you and your boy." There was no need to carry the threat into execution, but that the threat should have been made is significant.

We cannot tell whether these acts of cruelty to children were part of the scheme for inducing submission by inspiring terror. In Louvain, where the system of terrorizing was carried to the furthest limit, outrages on children were uncommon. The same, however, cannot be said of some of the smaller villages which were subjected to the system. In Hofstade and Sempst, in Haecht, Rotselaer, and Wespelaer, many children were murdered. Nor can it be said of the village of Tamines, where three small children (whose names are given by an eye witness of the crime) were slaughtered on the green for no apparent motive. It is difficult to imagine the motives which may have prompted such acts. Whether or no Belgian civilians fired on German soldiers, young children at any rate did not fire. The number and character of these murders constitute the most distressing feature connected with the conduct of the war so far as it is revealed in the depositions submitted to the committee.

(c) The Use of Civilians as Screens.

We have before us a considerable body of evidence with reference to the practice of the Germans of using civilians and sometimes military prisoners as screens from behind which they could fire upon the Belgian troops, in the hope that the Belgians would not return the fire for fear of killing or wounding their own fellow-countrymen.

In some cases this evidence refers to places where fighting was actually going on in the streets of a town or village, and to these cases we attach little importance. It might well happen when terrified civilians were rushing about to seek safety that groups of them might be used as a screen by either side of the combatants without any intention of inhumanity or of any breach of the rules of civilized warfare. But, setting aside these doubtful cases, there remains evidence which satisfies us that on so many occasions as to justify its being described as a practice the German soldiers, under the eyes and by the direction of their officers, were guilty of this act.

Thus, for instance, outside Fort Fléron, near Liège, men and children were marched in front of the Germans to prevent the Belgian soldiers from firing.

The progress of the Germans through Mons was marked by many incidents of this character. Thus, on Aug. 22 half a dozen Belgian colliers returning from work were marching in front of some German troops who were pursuing the English, and in the opinion of the witnesses they must have been placed there intentionally. An English officer describes how he caused a barricade to be erected in a main thoroughfare leading out of Mons when the Germans, in order to reach a crossroad in the rear, fetched civilians out of the houses on each side of the main road and compelled them to hold up white flags and act as cover.

Another British officer who saw this incident is convinced that the Germans were acting deliberately for the purpose of protecting themselves from the fire of the British troops. Apart from this protection the Germans could not have advanced, as the street was straight and commanded by the British rifle fire at a range of 700 or 800 yards. Several British soldiers also speak to this incident, and their story is confirmed by a Flemish witness in a side street.

On Aug. 24 men, women, and children were actually pushed into the front of the German position outside Mons. The witness speaks of 16 to 20 women, about a dozen children, and half a dozen men being there.

Seven or eight women and five or six very young children were utilized in this way by some Uhlans between Landrécies and Guise.

A Belgian soldier saw an incident of this character during the retreat from Namur.

At the battle of Malines 60 or 80 Belgian civilians, among whom were some women, were driven before the German troops. Another witness saw a similar incident near Malines, but a much larger number of civilians was involved, and a priest was in front with a white flag.

In another instance, related by a Belgian soldier, the civilians were tied by the wrists in groups.

At Eppeghem, where the Germans were driven back by the Belgian sortie from Antwerp, civilians were used as a cover for the German retreat.

Near Malines, early in September, about 10 children, roped together, were driven in front of a German force.

At Londerzeel 30 or 40 civilians, men, women, and children, were placed at the head of a German column.

One witness from Termonde was made to stand in front of the Germans, together with others, all with their hands above their heads. Those who allowed their hands to drop were at once prodded with the bayonet. Again, at Termonde, about Sept. 10, a number of civilians were shot by the Belgian soldiers, who were compelled to fire at the Germans, taking the risk of killing their own countrymen.

At Tournai 400 Belgian civilians, men, women, and children, were placed in front of the Germans, who then engaged the French.

The operations outside Antwerp were not free from incidents of this character. Near Willebroeck some civilians, including a number of children, a woman, and one old man, were driven in front of the German troops. German officers were present, and one woman who refused to advance was stabbed twice with the bayonet, and a little child who ran up to her as she fell had half its head blown away by a shot from a rifle.

Other incidents of the same kind are reported from Nazareth and Ypres. The British troops were compelled to fire, in some cases at the risk of killing civilians.

At Ypres the Germans drove women in front of them by pricking them with bayonets. The wounds were afterward seen by the witness.

(d) Looting, Burning, and Destruction of Property.

There is an overwhelming mass of evidence of the deliberate destruction of private property by the German soldiers. The destruction in most cases was effected by fire, and the German troops, as will be seen from earlier passages in the report, had been provided beforehand with appliances for rapidly setting fire to houses. Among the appliances enumerated by witnesses are syringes for squirting petrol, guns for throwing small inflammable bombs, and small pellets made of inflammable material. Specimens of the last mentioned have been shown to members of the committee. Besides burning houses, the Germans frequently smashed furniture and pictures; they also broke in doors and windows. Frequently, too, they defiled houses by relieving the wants of nature upon the floor. They also appear to have perpetrated the same vileness upon piled up heaps of provisions so as to destroy what they could not themselves consume. They also on numerous occasions threw corpses into wells, or left in them the bodies of persons murdered by drowning.

In addition to these acts of destruction the German troops, both in Belgium and France, are proved to have been guilty of persistent looting. In the majority of cases the looting took place from houses, but there is also evidence that German soldiers and even officers robbed their prisoners, both civil and military, of sums of money and other portable possessions. It was apparently well known throughout the German Army that towns and villages would be burned whenever it appeared that any civilians had fired upon the German troops, and there is reason to suspect that this known intention of the German military authorities in some cases explains the sequence of events which led up to the burning and sacking of a town or village. The soldiers, knowing that they would have an opportunity of plunder if the place was condemned, had a motive for arranging some incident which would provide the necessary excuse for condemnation. More than one witness alleges that shots coming from the window of a house were fired by German soldiers who had forced their way into the house for the purpose of thus creating an alarm. It is also alleged that German soldiers on some occasions merely fired their rifles in the air in a side street and then reported to their officers that they had been fired at. On the report that firing had taken place orders were given for wholesale destruction, and houses were destroyed in streets and districts where there was no allegation that firing had taken place, as well as in those where the charge arose. That the destruction could have been limited is proved by the care taken to preserve particular houses whose occupants had made themselves in one way or another agreeable to the conquerors. These houses were marked in chalk, ordering them to be spared, and spared they were.

The above statements have reference to the burning of towns and villages. In addition, the German troops in numerous instances have set fire to farmhouses and farm buildings. Here, however, the plea of military necessity can more safely be alleged. A farmhouse may afford convenient shelter to an enemy, and where such use is probable it may be urged that the destruction of the buildings is justifiable. It is clearly, however, the duty of the soldiers who destroy the buildings to give reasonable warning to the occupants so that they may escape. Doubtless this was in many cases done by the German commanders, but there is testimony that in some cases the burning of the farmhouse was accompanied by the murder of the inhabitants.

The same fact stands out clearly in the more extensive burning of houses in towns and villages. In some cases, indeed, as a prelude to the burning, inhabitants were cleared out of their houses and driven along the streets, often with much accompanying brutality—some to a place of execution, others to prolonged detention in a church or other public buildings. In other cases witnesses assert that they saw German soldiers forcing back into the flames men, women, and children who were trying to escape from the burning houses. There is also evidence that soldiers deliberately shot down civilians as they fled from the fire.

The general conclusion is that the burning and destruction of property which took place was only in a very small minority of cases justified by military necessity, and that even then the destruction was seldom accompanied by that care for the lives of noncombatants which has hitherto been expected from a military commander belonging to a civilized nation. On the contrary, it is plain that in many cases German officers and soldiers deliberately added to the sufferings of the unfortunate people whose property they were destroying.

OFFENSES AGAINST COMBATANTS.

(a) The Killing of the Wounded and of Prisoners.

In dealing with the treatment of the wounded and of prisoners and the cases in which the former appear to have been killed when helpless, and the latter at, or after, the moment of capture, we are met by some peculiar difficulties, because such acts may not in all cases be deliberate and cold-blooded violations of the usages of war. Soldiers who are advancing over a spot where the wounded have fallen may conceivably think that some of these lying prostrate are shamming dead, or, at any rate, are so slightly wounded as to be able to attack or to fire from behind when the advancing force has passed, and thus they may be led into killing those whom they would otherwise have spared. There will also be instances in which men intoxicated with the frenzy of battle slay even those whom on reflection they might have seen to be incapable of further harming them. The same kind of fury may vent itself on persons who are already surrendering, and even a soldier who is usually self-controlled or humane may, in the heat of the moment, go on killing, especially in a general mêlée, those who were offering to surrender. This is most likely to happen when such a soldier has been incensed by an act of treachery or is stirred to revenge by the death of a comrade to whom he is attached. Some cases of this kind appear in the evidence. Such things happen in a1l wars as isolated instances, and the circumstances may be pleaded in extenuation of acts otherwise shocking. We have made due allowance for these considerations and have rejected those cases in which there is a reasonable doubt as to whether those who killed the wounded knew that the latter were completely disabled. Nevertheless, after making all allowances, there remain certain instances in which it is clear that quarter was refused to persons desiring to surrender when it ought to have been given, or that persons already so wounded as to be incapable of fighting further were wantonly shot or bayoneted.

The cases to which references are given all present features generally similar, and in several of them men who had been left wounded in the trenches when a trench was carried by the enemy were found, when their comrades subsequently retook the trench, to have been slaughtered, although evidently helpless, or else they would have escaped with the rest of the retreating force. For instance, a witness says:

Another says:

Another witness says:

In one case, given very circumstantially, a witness tells how a party of wounded British soldiers were left in a chalk pit, all very badly hurt, and quite unable to make resistance. One of them, an officer, held up his handkerchief as a white flag, and this

He looked at the men, laughed, and said something in German to the Germans who were waiting on the edge of the pit. Immediately one of them fired at the officer, then three or four of these ten soldiers were shot, then another officer and the witness, and the rest of them.

Another witness describes a painful case in which five soldiers, two Belgians and three French, were tied to trees by German soldiers apparently drunk, who stuck knives in their faces, pricked them with their bayonets, and ultimately shot them.

We have no evidence to show whether and in what cases orders proceeded from the officer in command to give no quarter, but there are some instances in which persons obviously desiring to surrender were, nevertheless, killed.

(b) Firing on Hospitals or on the Red Cross Ambulances or Stretcher Bearers.

This subject may conveniently be divided into three subdivisions, namely, firing on—

Under the first and second categories there is obvious difficulty in proving intention, especially under the conditions of modern long-range artillery fire. A commanding officer's duty is to give strict orders to respect hospitals, ambulances, &c., and also to place Red Cross units as far away as possible from any legitimate line of fire. But with all care some accidents must happen, and many reported cases will be ambiguous. At the same time, when military observers have formed a distinct opinion that buildings and persons under the recognizable protection of the Red Cross were willfully fired upon, such opinions cannot be disregarded.

Between thirty and forty of the depositions submitted related to this offense. This number does not in itself seem so great as to be inconsistent with the possibility of accident.

In one case a Red Cross depôt was shelled on most days throughout the week. This is hardly reconcilable with the enemy's gunners having taken any care to avoid it.

There are other cases of conspicuous hospitals being shelled, in the witnesses' opinion, purposely.

In one of these the witness, a Sergeant Major, makes a suggestion which appears plausible, namely, that the German gunners use any conspicuous building as a mark to verify their ranges rather than for the purpose of destruction. It would be quite according to the modern system of what German writers call Kriegsräson to hold that the convenience of range-finding is a sufficient military necessity to justify disregarding any immunity conferred on a building by the Red Cross or otherwise. In any case, artillery fire on a hospital at such a moderate range as about 1,000 yards can hardly be thought accidental.

(2) As to firing on ambulances, the evidence is more explicit.

In one case the witness is quite clear that the ambulances were aimed at.

In another case of firing at an ambulance train the range was quite short.

In another a Belgian Red Cross party is stated to have been ambushed.

On the whole we do not find proof of a general or systematic firing on hospitals or ambulances; but it is not possible to believe that much care was taken to avoid this.

(3) As to firing on stretcher bearers in the course of trench warfare, the testimony is abundant, and the facts do not seem explicable by accident. It may be that sometimes the bearers were suspected of seeing too much; and it is plain from the general military policy of the German armies that very slight suspicion would be acted on in case of doubt.

(c) Abuse of the Red Cross and of the White Flag.

THE RED CROSS.

Cases of the Red Cross being abused are much more definite.

There are several accounts of fire being opened, sometimes at very short range, by machine guns which had been disguised in a German Red Cross ambulance or car. This was aggravated in one case near Tirlemont by the German soldiers wearing Belgian uniforms.

Witness speaks also of a stretcher party with the Red Cross being used to cover an attack and of a German Red Cross man working a machine gun.

There is also a well-attested case of a Red Cross motor car being used to carry ammunition under command of officers.

Unless all these statements are willfully false, which the committee sees no reason to believe, these acts must have been deliberate, and it does not seem possible that a Red Cross car could be equipped with a machine gun by soldiers acting without orders. There is also one case of firing from a cottage where the Red Cross flag was flying, and this could not be accidental.

On the whole, there is distinct evidence of the Red Cross having been deliberately misused for offensive purposes, and seemingly under orders, on some, though not many, occasions.

ABUSE OF THE WHITE FLAG.

Cases of this kind are numerous. It is possible that a small group of men may show a white flag without authority from any proper officer, in which case their action is, of course, not binding on the rest of the platoon or other unit. But this will not apply to the case of a whole unit advancing as if to surrender, or letting the other side advance to receive the pretended surrender and then opening fire. Under this head we find many depositions by British soldiers and several by officers. In some cases the firing was from a machine gun brought up under cover of the white flag.

The depositions taken by Professor Morgan in France strongly corroborate the evidence collected in this country.

The case numbered h 70 may be noted as very clearly stated. The Germans, who had "put up a white flag on a lance and ceased fire," and thereby induced a company to advance in order to take them prisoners, "dropped the white flag and opened fire at a distance of 100 yards." This was near Nesle, on Sept. 6, 1914. It seems clearly proved that in some divisions at least of the German Army this practice is very common. The incidents as reported cannot be explained by unauthorized surrenders of small groups.

There is, in our opinion, sufficient evidence that these offenses have been frequent, deliberate, and in many cases committed by whole units under orders. All the acts mentioned in this part of the report are in contravention of The Hague Convention, signed by the great powers, including France, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States, in 1907, as may be seen by a reference to Appendix D, in which the provisions of that convention relating to the conduct of war on land are set forth.

CONCLUSIONS.

From the foregoing pages it will be seen that the committee have come to a definite conclusion upon each of the heads under which the evidence has been classified.

It is proved—

Sensible as they are of the gravity of these conclusions the committee conceive that they would be doing less than their duty if they failed to record them as fully established by the evidence. Murder, lust, and pillage prevailed over many parts of Belgium on a scale unparalleled in any war between civilized nations during the last three centuries.

Our function is ended when we have stated what the evidence establishes, but we may be permitted to express our belief that these disclosures will not have been made in vain if they touch and rouse the conscience of mankind, and we venture to hope that as soon as the present war is over the nations of the world in council will consider what means can be provided and sanctions devised to prevent the recurrence of such horrors as our generation is now witnessing.

We are, &c.,

BRYCE,

F. POLLOCK,

EDWARD CLARKE,

KENELM E. DIGBY,

ALFRED HOPKINSON,

H.A.L. FISHER,

HAROLD COX.

CAMPAIGN IN EASTERN EUROPE

April 1—Russians take up lively offensive in Central Poland, seeking to prevent reinforcements being sent to the Carpathians; they halt a raid from Bukowina; Austrians drive back Russians near Inowlodz, on the Pilica River; Germans check night attempt of Russians to cross the Rawka River; German bombardment of Ossowetz has been abandoned; cold weather is favoring German operations in East Prussia; German Headquarters Staff reports that in March the German Eastern army took 55,800 Russian prisoners, 9 cannon, and 61 machine guns.

April 2—Russians take the offensive along their whole front from the Baltic Sea to Rumanian border; they are reported to be concentrating an enormous force on the coast of Finland to prevent any attempt at a German landing; Germans in Poland are being pushed back to the East Prussian border; Russians capture another strongly fortified ridge in the Carpathians, scaling ice-covered hills to do it; vast bodies of Russian cavalry are held in readiness for a sweep across the plains of Hungary; main Austrian Army in Bukowina is falling back; Russians now stand upon last heights of the main chain of Beskid Mountains; Austrians repulse Russian attacks east of Beskid Pass; Russians drive back Germans to the east of Pilwiszka; Austrians repulse Russian attacks between the Pruth and Dniester Rivers.

April 3—Fighting in the Carpathians continues night and day along a forty-mile front; Russians are making gains and pressing Austrians hard; Germans are pouring reinforcements into Hungary to support Austrians; Austrians gain in Bukowina; Austrians are trying to cut off Montenegro from all communication with the outside world and starve her into submission.

April 4—Austrians retreat from the Beskid region after Russian success; Austrians make progress in the Laborcza Valley; fighting has been going on for twenty-four continuous hours on both sides of the Dukla Pass; Germans repulse Russian attacks near Augustowo.

April 5—Russians continue to make steady progress in the Carpathians; they are now on the Hungarian side of both the Dukla and Lupkow Passes and are making advances on the heights which dominate Uzsok Pass; Russians gain in Bukowina and in North Poland.

April 6—Russians continue their great offensive in the Carpathians; Austrians are retreating at some points and burning their bridges behind them; Russians make progress in direction of Rostok Pass; German reinforcements are being rushed from Flanders to Austria via Munich; Austrian and German troops take strong Russian positions east of Laborcza Valley; Russians have been repulsed in an attempt to cross to the left bank of the Dniester River southwest of Uscie-Diekupie; Austrian artillery is bombarding Serbian towns on the Danube and the Save.

April 7—Russians continue offensive between the River Toplia and the Uzsok Pass region; Austrians take guns and war material on the heights east of the Laborcza Valley; Austrians bombard Belgrade; Austrians win ground along the River Pruth; Austrians are reported to have passed the Dniester and to be advancing on Kamenitz Podolsky, in Russian territory.

April 8—Russian advance in the Carpathians cuts one Austrian army in two; Russians capture Smolnik, east of Lupkow Pass; fierce fighting is going on in the mountain passes.

April 9—The whole southern slope of the Carpathians has been strongly fortified by the Austrians; twenty-four Austrian and six German army corps are stated to be now facing the Russians.

April 10—Russians begin attack on German forces which hold the hills from Uzsok Pass eastward to Beskid Pass; Russians make gains in the direction of Rostok; the general Russian offensive continues on the Niznia-Destuszica-Volestate-Bukowecz line; in places in the Carpathians the Russians are progressing through seven feet of snow; Austro-German forces repulse a strong Russian attack in the Opor Valley.

April 11—All the main ridges of the Carpathians are now in the hands of the Russians, who hold the eighty-mile front Uzsok-Mezo-Laborcza-Bartfeld, with the head sections of five main railways; at some points the Russians are descending the southern slopes and are approaching the Uzsok Valley.

April 12—Germans repulse Russian attack near Kaziouwka, Russians losing heavily; artillery duels are in progress near Ossowetz and in the region of Edvabno; German attack on village of Szafranki is repulsed; Austro-Germans still hold the Uzsok Pass; they repulse Russian attacks east of there.

April 13—Large German reinforcements are being sent to the Austrians; 280,000 Germans, comprising seven army corps, are co-operating with the Austrians in a formidable attack on the left wing of the Russian army which is invading Hungary; Austrian Embassy at Washington gives out an official bulletin from Vienna saying the Russian advance in the Carpathians is halted; heavy fighting is in progress in the Bartfeld-Stryi region; Russians advance on both banks of the Ondawa, and gain success in direction of Uzsok, capturing certain heights; Austro-German forces strongly attack the heights south of Koziouwa, but are repulsed; Russians repel German attacks on the front west of the Niemen; Ossowetz is again bombarded by the Germans; fierce fighting is on in Bukowina.

April 14—After a twelve-hour battle the Austrians retreat precipitately from a strong position at Mezo Laborcz, on Hungarian side of the East Beskid Mountains; the whole main front in this district is in Russian hands; Austro-German forces are contesting stubbornly every foot of the German advance along the front from Bartfeld to Stryi; Austrians are trying to penetrate into Russian territory from Bukowina; Germans are active in Poland; Germans attack the town of Chafranka, on the Skwa River, near Ostrolenka; it is stated at Petrograd that 4,000,000 combatants, including both sides, are now engaged along the Carpathians.

April 15—Russians crush fierce counter-attack against their left wing in the Carpathians made by picked Bavarian infantry; Russians repulse an attack by Austrians on the extreme east; Austrians defeat Russians near Oiezkowice, on the Biala.

April 16—War correspondents at Austrian headquarters, in summing up the result of the fighting in the Carpathians, say that the Russian loss has been 500,000, and that the backbone of the invading army is broken; Germans prepare to attack along an 800-mile Russian front.

April 17—The melting of the snow in the Carpathians, resulting in overflowing streams and rivers and in seas of mud, is stopping various intended movements on both sides; artillery engagements are in progress in Southeast Galicia and Bukowina; Russians repulse attacks in the direction of Stryi; Russian Emperor leaves for the front.

April 18—In a review of the Carpathian campaign issued by Russian General Headquarters it is stated that since the beginning of March Russian troops have carried by storm 75 miles of the principal chain of the Carpathians, have taken 70,000 prisoners, 30 field guns, and 200 machine guns; fighting in the Carpathians on main line of Russian advance is now concentrated on the narrow section between the villages of Telepoche and Zuella; Russians gain on the heights of Telepotch; artillery duels continue in Southeast Galicia.

April 20—Russians repulse vigorous German attack east of Telepotch and Polen; severe fighting for the height near Oravozil is in progress, the Russians reoccupying it by a desperate assault after losing it earlier in the day; 600,000 Austro-German troops are now engaged over an irregular line between the Lupkow and Uzsok Passes.

April 21—Austrians repel, after several days' fighting, a strong Russian attack on the extreme wings of the Austrian forces in the wooded mountains near Laborcza and the Ung Valley; Austrians still hold Uzsok Pass; Russians repulse Austrian attack in Western Galicia near Gorlitz; Russians check an Austrian counter-attack against the heights of Polen; the counter-attack of General Litzinger's Bavarian army against Russian left wing in the Carpathian position has now been definitely halted; nevertheless the Russian advance in the Carpathians has now apparently come to a full stop; Russians reoccupy the hill village of Oravtchik.

April 22—Russians defeat Austrians in bayonet fighting on the Bukowina front; artillery duels are in progress in Russian Poland and Western Galicia; Austrians repulse Russian attacks on both sides of the Uzsok Pass, taking 1,200 prisoners; Russians check attempted Austrian outflanking movements on the central Carpathian front; in Galicia an Austro-German army, defeated by Russians, is falling back.

April 23—Austrians have success in artillery duel in the sector of Nagypolany; Russians gain in the direction of Lutovisk; a strong force of Russian cavalry invades East Prussia near Memel, the seaport at the northern extremity of the province, and is threatening the German left flank; Russians make gains in the region of Telepotch and at Sianka; Austrians repulse several day attacks at points near Uzsok Pass; heavy artillery engagements are being fought in the region of this pass.

April 25—Austro-German troops take by storm Ostry Mountain, in the Orava Valley, in the Carpathians, to the south of Koziouwa; the mountain is 3,500 feet high, with precipitous sides, and the Russians believed their fortifications had made it impregnable; this victory gives the Austrians command of the Orava Valley and allows them to advance their lines east of Uzsok Pass eleven miles into Galician territory; Russian artillery repulses a German attack between Kalwaya and Ludwinow in Prussian Poland; heavy fighting continues in the Carpathians in the Uzsok Pass region, the Austrians having brought up fresh units of heavy artillery.

April 26—Russian counter-attacks on the height of Ostry are beaten off; Austrians capture twenty-six Russian trenches; Austrians gain ground south of Koziouwa; artillery duel is being fought on the Dniester in Bukowina.

April 27—Russians have begun another strong offensive around the heights of Uzsok Pass; Austro-German casualties there in two days are estimated by Russians at 20,000; Russians repel Austrian attacks on the heights to the northeast of Oroszepatak; Russians are concentrating at Bojan, Northern Bukowina.

April 28—Heavy fighting continues in the Uzsok Pass region; a battle has been raging for five days in the vicinity of Stryi; Russians repulse Germans at Jednorojetz; Germans take twelve miles of Russian trenches east of Suwalki; Austrians occupy Novoselitsky, on border of Bessarabia, and are advancing into Russian territory.

April 29—Germans begin an offensive along nearly the whole of the East Prussian front, extending from north of the Niemen River to the sector north of the Vistula; Russians are beaten back in an attack in the Carpathians northeast of Loubnia; Russians repulse an attack on the heights of the Opor Valley.

April 30—German cavalry is invading the Russian Baltic Provinces; German attempt to advance on the left bank of the Vistula is checked: in the region of Golovetzko the Russians take the offensive, capturing trenches and prisoners; Russians check an attempted offensive north of Nadvorna; Austrians repulse Russian night attacks in the Orawa and Opor Valleys.

CAMPAIGN IN WESTERN EUROPE.

April 1—Artillery duels are in progress in the Woevre district; French occupy the village of Fey-en-Haye to the west of the Forest of Le Prêtre; outpost engagements take place near Lunéville.

April 2—Heavy artillery fighting is on between the Meuse and the Moselle; night infantry fighting takes place in the Forest of Le Prêtre.

April 3—Germans repulse French in Forest of Le Prêtre; Germans repulse French attack on heights west of Mülhausen; French make progress with mining operations southwest of Péronne; French check a German attempt to debouch near Lassigny; French repulse attacks in Upper Alsace.

April 4—Germans take from the Belgians the village of Drei Grachten on the west side of the Yser, this being the first time the Germans have gained a foothold on the west bank for weeks; French make progress in the Woevre district; French take village of Regniéville, west of Fey-en-Haye; Germans repulse French charges in Forest of Le Prêtre.

April 5—French capture three successive lines of trenches at the Forest of Ailly, near St. Mihiel; Germans repulse Belgians near Drei Grachten; Germans repulse French attempt to advance in the Argonne Forest and Germans gain ground in the Forest of Le Prêtre; French are advancing in Champagne; French gain ground in the Hurlus district and beyond the Camp de Chalons, capturing some of the Germans' prepared positions; bombardment of Rheims is being continued night and day, and it is reported that one-third of the houses have been destroyed and another one-third damaged.

April 6—French are conducting a sustained offensive between the Meuse and Moselle in an effort to dislodge Germans from St. Mihiel; French gain trenches in the Wood of Ailly; French make progress near Maizeray and in the Forest of Le Prêtre; strong French attacks at points east of Verdun are repulsed, but French occupy village of Gussainville.

April 7—French, continuing extensive operations, make gains in the Woevre district and southward between St. Mihiel and Pont-à-Mousson; east of Verdun the French take two lines of trenches, and repulse German counter-attacks; Germans report that French offensive, as a whole, is thus far a failure.

April 8—French official report states that since April 4 the French offensive between the Meuse and the Moselle has resulted in important gains on the heights of the Orne, on the heights of the Meuse at Les Eparges, in the Ailly Wood, and in the Southern Woevre between the Forest of Mortmare and the Forest of Le Prêtre, the Germans losing heavily; the German report is at variance with French claims and states that the French have failed; Belgians report that the western side of the Yser Canal, in the direction of Drei Grachten, is completely free of Germans.

April 9—Desperate fighting continues on the heights of the Meuse and along the St. Mihiel-Pont-à-Mousson front; French announce complete occupation of Les Eparges, one of their chief objectives; French say Germans were repulsed fifteen times in the Forest of Mortmare; Berlin report is at sharp variance with the French, stating that all French attacks in the Meuse region have been repulsed with heavy loss; Germans make gains in Champagne; Germans retake Drei Grachten from Belgians.

April 10—French extend their gains in the Woevre; French push forward on St. Mihiel-Pont-à-Mousson front in attempt to cut German communications; French hold Les Eparges firmly, where, according to the official French report, the Germans have lost 30,000 men in two months; Germans repulse French between the Orne and the heights of the Meuse, and in the Forest of Le Prêtre; French attacks on the village of Bezange la Grande fail.

April 11—French state that they maintain their gains of previous days in the St. Mihiel region, though Germans recapture some of their own lost trenches in Mortmare Wood; French repulse attacks in the Forest of Le Prêtre, though the Germans capture some machine guns; a strong French attack on German positions north of Combres results in failure; German main army headquarters denies that the recent French attacks in the St. Mihiel region have been successful; Germans take three villages from the Belgians; Germans are vigorously attacking positions recently taken from them by the French on Hartmanns-Weilerkopf; furious German attacks are made near Albert, being a continuation of an attack begun yesterday; Germans blow up some French trenches by mines; heavy German losses, due to the pounding of six miles of French artillery, occur in an infantry advance.

April 12—Lively fighting in the Woevre district; Germans attack Les Eparges, but are repulsed; French make gains at Courie; Germans have successes in close-quarter fighting in the Forests of Ailly and Le Prêtre; German sappers throw letters into British trenches saying they are tired of fighting and expressing hopes for peace.

April 13—French make slight gains east of Berry-au-Bac; Germans repulse French attacks at several points; Germans gain ground in the Forest of Le Prêtre; Germans are moving up reinforcements in the region of Thionville and Metz.

April 14—French penetrate the German line at Marcheville, but are driven out by counter-attacks; French extend their front in the Forest of Ailly, and make progress in the Forest of Mortmare; French artillery checks a German attack at Les Eparges; activity is renewed at Berry-au-Bac; Germans are strengthening the forts at Istein, on the Rhine.

April 15—The whole spur northeast of Notre Dame de Lorette has been carried by the French with the bayonet; French gain at Bagatelle in the Argonne; French repulse German counter-attacks at Les Eparges; Germans repulse French attacks at Marcheville, at the Forest of Le Prêtre, and elsewhere.

April 16—French repulse German attacks north of Arras and in the St. Mihiel region.

April 17—French make progress in the Vosges on both sides of the Fecht River; in Champagne, northeast of Perthes, the Germans explode mines under French trenches; Germans repulse French near Flirey; French repulse Germans at Notre Dame de Lorette; in the Valley of the Aisne French heavy artillery bombards the caves of Pasly, used as German shelters.

April 18—Germans repulse British attack in the hills southeast of Ypres; Germans capture an advanced French position in the Vosges southwest of Stossweier; French have successes in the Valley of the Aisne, at the Bois de St. Mord, and in Champagne, to the northwest of Perthes; French make progress in region of Schnepfen-Riethkopf in Alsace.

April 19—British line south of Ypres has been pushed forward three miles after much hard fighting; British take Hill 60, an important strategic point, lying two miles south of Zillebeke; German counter-attacks are repulsed; British attacks are repulsed between Ypres and Comines; French make gains along the Fecht River, and capture a division of mountain artillery; French gain the summit of Burgkorpfeld, and are advancing on the north bank of the Fecht; French repulse counter-attacks at Les Eparges; Germans repulse French attacks at Combres.

April 20—Heavy artillery fighting in Champagne and the Argonne; French infantry attack fails north of Four-de-Paris; French make slight progress in the Forest of Mortmare; Germans storm and reoccupy the village of Embermenil, west of Avrecourt.

April 21—Violent German counter-attacks are being made on Hill 60, but all have been repulsed, "with great loss to the enemy," according to the British; Germans capture a French battery near Rheims; French repulse German attacks at several points between the Meuse and the Moselle; French repulse attack in Alsace east of Hartmanns-Weilerkopf; Germans repulse French attack north of Four-de-Paris; Germans repulse French attack extending over a considerable front at Flirey; German gain in the Forest of Le Prêtre.

April 22—A great new battle is being fought at Ypres, Germans taking a strong offensive from the northeast; they drive the Allies back to the Ypres Canal, taking 6,000 prisoners and 35 guns; at Steenstraete and Het Sase the Germans force their way across the canal and establish themselves on the west bank; Germans capture villages of Langemarck, Steenstraete, Het Sase, and Pilken; Ypres is being heavily bombarded; British and French official reports declare that at one point where the French fell back they did so because of asphyxiating gas used by the Germans; the Germans, on the contrary, have claimed several times recently that the French have been using asphyxiating bombs at various points; Germans continue tremendous attacks on Hill 60, with what is declared to be one of the fiercest artillery bombardments in history, but the British still hold it; German troops are pouring through Belgium to the Ypres front; Germans gain ground south of La Bassée; Germans repulse French attack in the western part of the Forest of Le Prêtre; French repulse attack at Bagatelle, in the Argonne; French gain ground near St. Mihiel; French continue to advance on both banks of the Fecht River; official French report states that all the Ailly woods are now in the hands of the French after several days' fighting in the early part of April; infantry attacks were preceded by a concentrated artillery fire, at one point the French firing 20,000 shells in 90 minutes.

April 23—French make progress at Forstat and near St. Mihiel; artillery duels at Combres, St. Mihiel, Apremont, and northeast of Flirey; French take advanced German trenches between Ailly and Apremont.

April 24—One of the most furious battles of the war is now raging north of Ypres, where the Allies have regained some of the ground recently lost; Germans are pouring more troops into Flanders to push the attack; the Canadians make a brilliant counter-attack, regaining part of the ground this division lost, and retake four Canadian 4.7-inch guns which they had lost; the Canadians are highly praised in the British War Office report; Germans make further gains at another point on the line and they seize Lizerne on the west bank of the Ypres Canal; the French report says the French and Belgians recaptured Lizerne later in the day; the British have consolidated their position on Hill 60; fierce fighting is in progress in the Ailly wood; French repulse another attack on Les Eparges and an attack south of the Forest of Parroy; Germans repel a number of French attacks between the Meuse and the Moselle; Germans make progress in the Forest of Le Prêtre.

April 25—Germans gain more ground at Ypres and begin a terrific drive near La Bassée; Germans capture villages of St. Julien and Kersselaere and advance toward Grafenstafel, taking British prisoners and machine guns; Allies repulse Germans at several other points; Germans repulse French attack in the Argonne and win in the Meuse hills, southwest of Combres, taking seventeen cannon and 1,000 prisoners; London reports that clouds of chlorine were released from bottles by the Germans during the recent fighting at Ypres, the gas being borne by the wind to the French trenches, killing many men.

April 26—Allies rally and check the German drive near Ypres, fresh German assaults north and northeast of the city being beaten off; Berlin says that the Germans retain the west bank of the Yser, while London reports that the Allies have retaken it; Germans still hold Lizerne, on the west bank of the canal; Germans take from the French the summit of Hartmanns-Weilerkopf, capturing 750 men and four machine guns; French repulse German attack at Notre Dame de Lorette; fighting is in progress on the heights of the Meuse; German attack on Les Eparges fails.

April 27—Allies repulse German attack northeast of Ypres; British make progress near St. Julien; French retake Het Sase; Belgians repel three attacks south of Dixmude, and charge Germans with again using asphyxiating gases; Allies retake Lizerne; Germans still hold the bridgehead on the left bank of the canal just east of Lizerne; French state they have retaken the summit of Hartmanns-Weilerkopf, but the Germans declare all French attacks failed; German attacks near Les Eparges fail.

April 28—Allies are delivering counter-attacks in an attempt to regain the ground lost north and northeast of Ypres; Germans are bringing up reinforcements and hold firmly their present lines; scarcely a house is left standing in Ypres; Germans take French trenches near Beauséjour in Champagne; French repulse Germans in the Argonne, near Marie Thérèse; both the Germans and French claim to be in possession of Hartmanns-Weilerkopf; French gain ground on heights of the Meuse; Germans repulse strong French night attack in the Forest of Le Prêtre.

April 29—Germans repulse Allies north of Ypres; German official report states Germans have taken sixty-three guns in Ypres fighting; Germans repulse French night attacks at Le Mesnil in Champagne; Germans gain ground on heights of the Meuse; French repulse Germans at Les Eparges.

April 30—French gain ground north of Ypres, taking two lines of trenches; Belgians have repulsed a German attack from Steenstraete; Germans have fortified and hold bridgeheads on the west bank of Ypres Canal near Steenstraete and Het Sase and on the east bank of the canal north of Ypres; Germans repel a charge of Turcos and Zouaves; a huge German gun shells Dunkirk from behind the German lines near Belgian coast, about twenty-two miles away; twenty persons are killed and forty-five wounded; British airmen locate the gun and bombard it, while allied warships attack from the sea; French state that they hold the summit of Hartmanns-Weilerkopf; 500 shells fall in Rheims; French fail in an attempt in the Champagne district to win back their former positions north of Le Mesnil; Germans repulse French charge north of Flirey.

TURKISH AND EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGNS.

April 1—It is learned that the Turks lost 12,000 men and many guns in a fight against the Russians at Atkutur, Persia, on March 25; preceding the reoccupation by the Russians of Solmac Plains, northwest of Urumiah, 720 Christians were massacred by the Turks.

April 2—Turks are building new forts at San Stefano, near Constantinople, and thousands of Turkish troops are employed as workmen in the ammunition factories, which are being worked to their capacity.

April 3—Turks have repulsed an attempt to land troops from a British cruiser at Mowilah, at the head of the Red Sea.

April 7—Russians enter Artvin, Russian Armenia; the entire province of Batum has been cleared of Turks.

April 8—French War Office announces that the expeditionary corps to the Orient, under command of General d'Amade, has been ready for three weeks to aid the allied fleets and the British expeditionary force in operations against Turkey; the French troops are now in camp at Ramleh, Egypt, resting and perfecting their organization.

April 14—An official report is issued by the India Office of the British Government which states that 23,000 Turks and Kurds attacked the British positions at Kurna, Ahwaz, and Shaiba in Mesopotamia on March 12; they were driven off; Turks are daily massing troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula, especially at Kiled Bahr; heavy guns formerly around Constantinople, Principo, and Marmora seaports are being removed to the Dardanelles; a large number of German aeroplanes are with the Turkish troops.

April 15—The greater part of the garrisons at Adrianople, Demotika, and Kirk Kilisseh have been withdrawn for the defense of Constantinople.

April 16—India Office of the British Government makes public an official report stating that the British India troops have inflicted another defeat on the Turks in the vicinity of Shaiba, Mesopotamia; British casualties were 700; the Turkish forces numbered 15,000, their loses being so heavy that they fled to Nakhailah.

April 19—Reports sent to London state that the Turks have massed 350,000 men on the Gallipoli Peninsula, and have 200,000 more around Constantinople; 35,000 French and British troops are at Lemnos Island, off the entrance to the Dardanelles; Field Marshal Baron von der Goltz has been appointed Commander in Chief of the First Turkish Army.

April 21—Twenty thousand British and French troops have been landed near Enos, European Turkey, on the Gulf of Saros; General Sir Ian Hamilton, veteran of the Boer and other wars, is the Commander in Chief of the Allies' expeditionary force for the Dardanelles.

April 23—Troops of Allies are being landed at three points—at Enos, at Suol, a promontory on the west of the Gallipoli Peninsula, and at the Bulair Isthmus.

April 24—Observations made by aviators of the Allies show 35,000 Turkish troops are concentrated for the defense of Smyrna; they occupy trenches extending from Vourlah to Smyrna, and are posted on heights commanding the city.

April 26—British War Office announces that in spite of serious opposition troops have been landed at various points on the Gallipoli Peninsula, and their advance continues; a general attack is now in progress on the Dardanelles by both the allied army and fleet.

April 27—On the Gallipoli Peninsula the allied troops under General Sir Ian Hamilton are trying to batter their way through large Turkish forces led by German officers in an effort to force the Dardanelles and reach Constantinople; the French state that they have occupied Kum Kale, the Turkish fortress on the Asiatic side of the entrance to the Dardanelles, but the official Turkish report says the French were repulsed here; Turks repulse Allies at Teke Burum.

April 28—Allied troops have established a line across the southern tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula, from Eske-Hissarlik to the mouth of a stream on the opposite side; Allies beat off attacks at Sari-Bair and are advancing; Turks are strongly intrenching, and have constructed many wire entanglements; report from Berlin states that the left wing of the allied army has been beaten back by the Turks and 12,000 men captured.

April 29—The landing of allied troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula is still going on; forces disembarked at Enos have advanced twenty miles; 11,000 Turks have been captured, and many German officers; British aerial fleet is co-operating with the troops; Turks drive back Allies who landed near Gaba Tepeh, and sink twelve sloops bearing allied troops; the landing of one detachment of allied troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula was accomplished by a ruse, 1,000 decrepit donkeys with dummy baggage being landed at one point while the troops landed elsewhere; Russians have dislodged Turks from Kotur, 110 miles northwest of Tabriz.

April 30—After hard fighting the British have firmly established themselves on the Gallipoli Peninsula and have advanced toward the Narrows of the Dardanelles; the French have cleared Cape Kum Kalo of Turks; activity is renewed on the Caucasus front; Russians are advancing in direction of Olti, on border of Turkey, and have cleared the Kurds out of the Alasehkert Valley.

CAMPAIGN IN AFRICA.

April 1—British troops occupy Aus, an important trading station in German West Africa.

April 2—Madrid reports that Moorish rebels have occupied Fez and Mekines, and that the French hold only Casablanca and Rabat.

April 6—It is announced officially at Cape Town that troops of the Union of South Africa have captured Warmbad, twenty miles north of the Orange River.

April 7—It is announced officially at Cape Town that troops of the Union of South Africa have occupied without opposition the railway stations at Kalkfontein and Kanus, German Southwest Africa.

April 21—German troops in Kamerun have been forced by allied forces to retreat from the plateau in the centre of the colony; seat of Government has been transferred to Jaúnde; allied troops have forced a passage across the Kele River; British troops have taken possession of the Ngwas Bridge; French native troops from Central Africa have attained in the east the Lomis-Dume line; official news reaches Berlin of the defeat of a British force in German East Africa on Jan. 18-19 near Jassini, the total British loss being 700; Mafia Island, off the coast of German East Africa, was occupied by the British on Jan. 10.

NAVAL RECORD.

April 1—German submarines sink British steamer Seven Seas and French steamer Emma, thirty men going down with the vessels; British squadron shells Zeebrugge where Germans have established a submarine base, by moonlight; Hamburg-American liner Macedonia, which had been interned at Las Palmas, Canary Islands, but recently escaped, has now eluded British cruisers and sailed for South American waters.

April 2—It is learned that Chile has made representations to the British Government regarding the sinking of the German cruiser Dresden; Chile says she was blown up by her own crew in Chilean waters after bombardment by British squadron, and when the Chilean Government was on the point of interning her; three British trawlers are sunk by the German submarine U-10, whose Captain, the fishermen state, told them he has "orders to sink everything"; Norwegian sailing ship Nor is burned by a German submarine, the submarine Captain giving the Nor's Captain a document saying she was destroyed for carrying contraband; Dutch steamer Schieland is blown up off the English coast, presumably by a mine; British steamer Lockwood is sunk by a German submarine off Devonshire coast, the crew escaping.

April 3—Forts at entrance to the Gulf of Smyrna are bombarded by allied fleet; French fishing vessel is sunk by a German submarine, her crew escaping; Berlin estimates state that from Aug. 1 to March 1 a tonnage of 437,879 in British merchant ships and auxiliary cruisers has been destroyed.

April 4—German submarine sinks British steamer City of Bremen in the English Channel, four of the crew being drowned; German submarine sinks a Russian bark in the English Channel; three German steamers are sunk by mines in the Baltic, 25 men being drowned; Turkish armored cruiser Medjidieh is sunk by a Russian mine; it is learned that an Austrian steamer with 600 tons of ammunition aboard was blown up by a mine in the Danube on March 30, 35 of the crew being drowned; it is learned that the American steamer Greenbriar, lost in the North Sea a few days ago, was sunk by a mine.

April 5—A Turkish squadron sinks two Russian ships; Turkish batteries off Kum Kale sink an allied mine sweeper; an Athens report says that the British battleship Lord Nelson, recently stranded in the Dardanelles, has been destroyed by the fire of the Turkish shore guns; British trawler Agantha is sunk by a German submarine off Longstone, the crew being subjected to rifle fire from the submarine while taking to the boats; German submarine U-31 sinks British steamer Olivine and Russian bark Hermes, the crews being saved; German Baltic fleet, returning from bombardment of Libau, is cut off from its base by German mines, which have gone adrift in large numbers because of a storm.

April 6—A German submarine is entangled in at net off Dover specially designed for the catching of submarines; Stockholm reports that the Swedish steamer England has been seized by the Germans in the Baltic and taken to a German port.

April 7—United States Government, at request of Commander Thierichens, takes over for internment the German converted cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich, to hold her until the end of the war; German Admiralty admits loss of submarine U-9, already reported by the British as being sunk.

April 8—French sailing ship Chateaubriand is sunk by a German submarine off the Isle of Wight, the crew being saved.

April 9—British and French cruisers have taken from Italian mail steamers 2,300 bags of outgoing German mail, and it is planned to seize bags from abroad intended for Germany.

April 10—British steamer Harpalyce, which made one voyage as a relief ship with supplies for the Belgians donated by residents of New York State, is sunk in the North Sea by a submarine; some of her crew are missing.

April 11—German auxiliary cruiser Kronprinz Wilhelm anchors at Newport News, needing coal and provisions; Captain Thierfelder reports that his ship has sunk fourteen ships of the Allies and one Norwegian ship; allied fleet is bombarding Dardanelles forts from the Gulf of Saros; French steamer Frederic Franck, after being torpedoed by a German submarine in the English Channel, is towed to Plymouth.

April 12—United States State Department is notified by Ambassador Page that the British Government will settle the case of the American steamship Wilhelmina in accordance with the contentions of the owners of the cargo; the British state that they will requisition and pay for the cargo, and the owners of both ship and cargo will be reimbursed for the delay caused in sending the case before a prize court; Captains of the American steamers Navajo, Joseph W. Fordney, and Llama appeal to American Embassy at London to procure their release from British marine authorities at Kirkwall; British collier Newlyn is damaged by an unexplained explosion off the Scilly Islands, but makes port; a French battleship, assisted by French aeroplanes, bombards the Turkish encampment near Gaza.

April 13—British torpedo boat destroyer Renard dashes up the Dardanelles over ten miles at high speed on a scouting expedition.

April 14—Allied patrol ships bombard Dardanelles forts; a cruiser and a destroyer are struck by shells from the forts; Dutch steamer Katwyk, from Baltimore to Rotterdam with a cargo of corn consigned to the Netherlands Government, is blown up and sunk while at anchor seven miles west of the North Hinder Lightship in the North Sea; crew is saved; indignation expressed in Holland; Swedish steamer Folke is sunk by a mine or torpedo off Peterhead; thirty-one new cases of beri-beri have developed among the crew of the Kronprinz Wilhelm since her arrival at Newport News.

April 15—"White Paper" made public in London shows that Great Britain has made "a full and ample apology" to the Government of Chile for the sinking in Chilean territorial waters last month of the German cruiser Dresden, the internment of which had already been ordered by the Maritime Governor of Cumberland Bay when the British squadron attacked her; two allied battleships enter the bay at Enos and with shells destroy the Turkish camp there; Russian squadron bombards Kara-Burum, inside the Tchatalja lines; British steamer Ptarmigan is sunk by a German submarine in the North Sea, eight of the crew being lost; tabulation made in London of statistics of maritime losses shows that England and her allies have sunk, captured, or detained 543 ships belonging to Germany and her allies, while Germany and her allies have sunk, captured, or detained 265 ships belonging to England, France, Belgium, and Russia.

April 16—French cruiser bombards fortifications of El-Arish, near the boundary of Egypt and Palestine, as well as detachments of Turkish troops concentrated near that place; one cruiser bombards the Dardanelles forts; Russian squadron bombards Eregli and Sunguldaik, in Asia Minor, on the Black Sea.

April 17—Two British ships drive ashore and destroy a Turkish torpedo boat which attacked a British transport in the Aegean Sea; it is reported that 100 men on the transport were drowned; Greek steamer Ellispontis, en route for Montevidio from Holland, is torpedoed in the North Sea, the crew being saved.

April 18—British submarine E-15 runs ashore in the Dardanelles, the crew being captured by Turks; two British picket boats, under a heavy fire, then torpedo and destroy the stranded vessel to prevent her being used by the Turks.

April 19—Russian Black Sea torpedo boat squadron bombards the coast of Turkey in Asia, between Archav and Artaschin; provision stores and barracks are destroyed; many Turkish coastwise vessels laden with ammunition and supplies are sunk; six allied torpedo boats fail in an attempt to penetrate the Dardanelles.

April 20—Two Turkish torpedo boat destroyers are blown up while passing through a mine belt laid by the Russians across the entrance to the Bosporus.

April 21—British freighter Ruth is sunk by a German submarine in the North Sea, crew being rescued.

April 22—M. Augagneur, French Minister of Marine, and Winston Spencer Churchill, First Lord of the British Admiralty, hold a conference in the north of France as to the best means of forcing the Dardanelles; an Anglo-French fleet is sighted off the lower coast of Norway; German Admiralty gives out a statement that British submarines have been repeatedly sighted lately in Heligoland Bay and that one of these submarines was sunk on April 17; all steamship communication between the British Isles and Holland is suspended; allied fleet bombards Dardanelles forts and points on the west coast of Gallipoli; British trawler St. Lawrence is sunk in the North Sea by a German submarine, two of the crew being lost; a German submarine has taken the British steam trawler Glancarse into a German port from a point off Aberdeen; British trawler Fuschia brings into Aberdeen the crew of the trawler Envoy, which was shelled by a German submarine.

April 23—German Admiralty announces that the German high seas fleet has recently cruised repeated in the North Sea, advancing into English waters without meeting British ships; the British Official Gazette announces a blockade, beginning at midnight, of Kamerun, German West Africa; Norwegian steamer Caprivi is sunk by a mine off the Irish coast.

April 24—Finnish steamer Frack is sunk in the Baltic by a German submarine; Norwegian barks Oscar and Eva are sunk by a German submarine, the crews being saved.

April 25—Russian Black Sea fleet bombards the Bosporus forts.

April 26—French armored cruiser Leon Gambetta is torpedoed by the Austrian submarine U-5 in the Strait of Otranto; 552 of her men, including Admiral Senes and all her commissioned officers, perish; Italian vessels rescue 162 men; the cruiser was attacked while on patrol duty in the waterway leading to the Adriatic Sea, and sank in ten minutes after the torpedo hit; England stops all English Channel and North Sea shipping, experts believing that the Admiralty order is connected with the desperate fighting now going on at Ypres; German converted cruiser Kronprinz Wilhelm, lying at Newport News, interns until the end of the war.

April 27—Sixteen battleships and armored cruisers of the Allies attack advance batteries at the Dardanelles, but do little damage; British battleships Majestic and Triumph, damaged, have to withdraw from the fighting line; the fleet is operating in conjunction with the land forces.

April 28—Bombardment of the Dardanelles is continued by the Allies; French armored cruiser Jeanne d'Arc is damaged by fort fire; Captain of a Swedish steamer reports the presence in the North Sea of a German fleet of sixty-eight vessels of all classes.

April 29—British steamer Mobile is sunk by a German submarine off the north coast of Scotland, the crew being saved.

April 30—Allied fleet is co-operating with the troops in their advance on the Gallipoli Peninsula; British battleship Queen Elizabeth directs the fire of her fifteen-inch guns upon the Peninsula under guidance of aviators; a Turkish troopship is sunk; Zeebrugge is bombarded from the sea; British trawler Lily Dale is sunk by a German submarine in the North Sea; British Admiralty announces that the German steamship Macedonia, which escaped from Las Palmas, Canary Islands, a few weeks ago, has been captured by a British cruiser.

AERIAL RECORD.

April 1—British airmen bombard German submarines which are being built at Hoboken, near Antwerp.

April 2—French aeroplane squadron drops thirty-three bombs on barracks and aeroplane hangars at Vigneulles, in the Woevre region; French and Belgian aviators drop thirty bombs on aviation camp at Handezaema; allied aviators drop bombs on Mühlheim and Neuenberg, doing slight damage; Adolphe Pegoud, French aviator, attacks and brings down a German Taube near Saint Menehould by shooting at it; he captures the pilot and observer, unhurt.

April 3—French bring down a German aeroplane at Rheims, the aviators, unhurt, being captured.

April 4—German Taube drops bombs on Newkerk church, near Ypres; twelve women and Abbé Reynaert are killed; many persons injured; bombs are dropped from a British aeroplane on the forts at the entrance to the Gulf of Smyrna; the tenth Zeppelin to be constructed at Friedrichshafen has its trial trip; the latest type is longer and faster than preceding models.

April 5—French War Office announces that in the British raid on Belgium, at the end of March, 40 German workmen were killed and 62 wounded; at Hoboken two German submarines were destroyed, a third damaged, and the Antwerp Naval Construction Yards were gutted; French aviators bombard Mühlheim, killing three women.

April 6—German seaplane is brought down by the Russians off Libau, after dropping bombs on city, the aviators being captured.

April 7—Austrian aviators drop bombs in the market place of Porgoritza, Montenegro, killing twelve women and children, and injuring forty-eight other persons; many buildings are destroyed.

April 8—One Austrian aeroplane beats three Russian machines in mid-air, all the Russian aeroplanes falling to earth.

April 9—It is reported from Furnes, Belgium, that Garros, French aviator, recently won a duel in mid-air against a German aeroplane, shooting down Germans.

April 11—Captain of British steamer Serula drives off two German aeroplanes with a rifle; the aviators drop twenty-five bombs, all missing; German aeroplane bombards an allied transport near the Dardanelles.

April 12—German dirigible drops seven bombs on Nancy, doing slight damage.

April 13—French aviators bombard military hangars at Vigneulles, and disperse, near there, a German battalion on the march; according to a report printed in a Swiss newspaper, Count Zeppelin's secretary told this journal's correspondent that Germany is preparing for a great air raid on London in August, with two squadrons of five dirigibles each.

April 14—A Zeppelin makes a night raid over the Tyne district of England; inhabitants of the whole region from Newcastle to the coast, warned by authorities, plunge the territory into darkness, which has the effect of baffling the airship pilot; bombs, chiefly of the incendiary kind, are dropped from time to time haphazard; a Zeppelin, while flying over the Ypres district, is shot at and badly damaged, coming down some hours afterward a complete wreck near Maria Aeletre; a Zeppelin drops bombs on Bailleul, the objective being the aviation ground, but this is not hit; three civilians are killed; two German aeroplanes are forced to come to the ground within the French lines, one near Braine and the other near Lunéville.

April 15—Fifteen French aeroplanes drop bombs on German military buildings at Ostend; German aviator drops bombs on Mourmelow; French aviator drops five bombs on the buildings occupied by the German General Staff at Mazières; French aviators bombard Freiburg-in-Breisgau, killing six children, two men, and one woman, and injuring fourteen other persons, including several children; three allied aeroplanes make a flight of 170 miles over the Sinai Peninsula, aiming bombs at the tents of Turkish troops.

April 16—Two Zeppelins attack the east coast of England in the early morning, dropping bombs at Lowestoft, at Malden, thirty miles from London, while one of the raiders is seen near Dagenham, eleven and one-half miles from London Mansion House; one woman is injured and considerable property damage is done; a German biplane flies over Kent, dropping bombs, which do little damage; at Sheerness the anti-aircraft guns open fire, but the machine escapes; a single bomb, dropped by a German Taube on Amiens, kills or wounds thirty persons, mostly civilians, while twenty-two houses are destroyed outright and many others seriously damaged; French aviators drop bombs at Leopoldshöhe, Rothwell, and Mazières-les-Metz; two civilians are killed at Rothwell; a combined attack is made by one British and five French aeroplanes on a number of Rhine towns; two allied hydroplanes fall into the Dardanelles as a result of Turkish fire; Garros kills two German aviators in their aeroplane by shooting them from his aeroplane.

April 17—French airship bombards Strassburg, wounding civilians; two German aeroplanes drop bombs on Amiens, killing seven persons and wounding eight.

April 18—Garros brings down, between Ypres and Dixmude, another German aeroplane, his third within a short period.

April 19—Two French aerial squadrons attack railway positions along the Rhine, and bombard the Mühlheim and Habsheim stations; at Mannheim huge forage stores are set on fire; Garros is captured by the Germans at Ingelmunster, Belgium, after being forced to alight there; German aeroplanes drop bombs in Belfort; Germans repulse French aeroplanes at Combres.

April 20—German aeroplane squadron drops 100 bombs at Bialystok, Russian Poland, killing and wounding civilians; a Zeppelin bombards the town of Oicchanow, doing slight damage; the Rhine from Basle to Mülhausen is the scene of a considerable engagement lasting two hours, in which two French and two British aeroplanes attack a larger German squadron and are driven off; returning with reinforcements and now outnumbering the German squadron, they drive off the Germans; no report as to losses; reports from Swiss towns around Lake Constance on which the Zeppelin works are situated, state that Emperor William has ordered much larger Zeppelins constructed; each of the new Zeppelins, it is stated, will cost over $600,000, and will throw bombs double the size of those now used.

April 21—French aeroplanes bombard headquarters of General von Etrantz in the Woevre; French aeroplanes bombard German convoys in the Grand Duchy of Baden and an electric power plant at Loerrach, at the latter place injuring civilians; British aviators drop bombs on the German aviation harbor and shed at Ghent; Russian aeroplanes bombard the railroad station at Soldau.

April 23—Russian aeroplanes drop bombs on Mlawa and Plock, and bombard the German aviation field near Sanniky; Germans bring down a Russian aeroplane at Czernowitz, the pilot being killed.

April 24—French aviator drops two bombs on Fort Kastro, at Smyrna, killing several soldiers; official German statement says a British battleship was badly damaged in the recent Zeppelin attack on the Tyne region.

April 25—Aviators of the Allies are making daily attacks on the Germans between the Yser and Bruges; a Zeppelin throws bombs on the town of Sialvstok.

April 26—A Zeppelin drops on Calais large bombs of a new type, with greatly increased power; thirty civilians are injured; a Russian aeroplane drops three bombs on Czernowitz, injuring children.

April 27—British airmen bombard eight towns in Belgium occupied by Germans; Russians damage and capture two Austro-German aeroplanes; Russian aviators drop bombs on German aeroplanes at the aviation field near Sanniky; French aviators drop bombs at Bollweiler, Chambley, and Arnaville; French airman throws six bombs on the Mauser rifle factory at Oberdorf.

April 28—A German aeroplane throws three bombs at the American tanker Cushing, owned by the Standard Oil Company, the attack taking place in daylight in the North Sea; the ship was flying the American flag; splinters from one bomb strike the vessel and tear the American ensign, according to the report of the Cushing's Captain; Russian giant aeroplane drops 1,200 pounds of explosives on the East Prussian town of Neidenburg; allied airmen drop bombs on Haltingen, Southern Baden; German aeroplane drops bombs on Nancy, three persons being killed and several injured; allied airmen bombard Oberdorf, killing six civilians and wounding seven; six allied aeroplanes bombard the hangars of dirigibles at Friedrichshafen; French aviators drop bombs on the station and a factory at Leopoldshöhe; French capture or destroy four German aeroplanes.

April 29—Three German aeroplanes drop bombs on Belfort, four workmen being wounded; German aeroplanes bombard Epernay.

April 30—A Zeppelin drops bombs on Ipswich and other places in Suffolk; no lives are reported lost, but a number of dwellings are set on fire; four Zeppelins are sighted off Wells, Norfolk; they change their course and head out to sea; French airship bombards the railway in the region of Valenciennes; a destroyed French aeroplane falls within the German lines; British bring down a German aeroplane east of Ypres.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.

April 1—Report from Prague states that something akin to a reign of terror prevails in certain parts of Austria, people being punished severely for trivial offenses.

April 2—Czech regiment refuses to entrain for the front; most of the Czech territorials have been sent to Istria; Government issues appeal to cooks and housewives to exercise economy in foodstuffs.

April 3—It is officially denied at Vienna that Austria has opened negotiations with Russia for a separate peace, as has been persistently reported of late.

April 4—Budapest continues gay despite the war, and night life goes on much as usual.

April 11—The Foreign Office publishes a second "Red Book," charging atrocities and breaches of international law against Serbia, Russia, France, and England; it is declared that there is not an article of international law which has not been violated repeatedly by the troops of the Allies.

April 12—A law court at Vienna, in the case of Dubois, a Belgian, holds that despite the German occupation Dubois has not lost his Belgian citizenship.

April 14—Wealthy Hungarians are preparing to flee before the Russian invasion.

April 15—Some of the Hungarian newspapers are discussing peace.

April 17—War Office announces that men between 18 and 50 of the untrained Landsturm will hereafter be liable for military service.

April 18—Bread riots occur in Vienna and at points in Bohemia; Vienna is now protected by long lines of trenches on the left bank of the Danube; $14,000,000 is said to have been spent in fortifications at Budapest and Vienna.

April 19—The food situation in Trieste is critical.

April 21—All Austrian subjects in Switzerland are recalled by their Government.

April 22—Riots in Trieste are assuming a revolutionary character; "Long Live Italy!" is being shouted by the mobs; it is reported from Paris that the Hungarian Chamber at its opening session refused to vote the new military credits demanded by the General Staff.

April 25—Anti-war riots continue at Trieste; there are also serious riots at Vienna, Goerz, Prague, and elsewhere; the Austrians have fortified the entire Italian frontier, at places having built intrenchments of concrete and cement.

April 28—Railway service on the Austrian side of the Austro-Italian frontier has been virtually suspended for ordinary purposes; all lines are being used to carry troops to the frontier.

BELGIUM.

April 1—The German Governor General has revived an old law which holds each community responsible for damage done during public disturbances; a Berlin newspaper charges that American passports have been used to smuggle Belgian soldiers from the Yser to Holland and thence to the Belgian Army; the Pope expresses his sympathy for Belgium's woes to the new Belgian Minister to the Vatican.

April 3—Officials of the Belgian Public Works Department resign when ordered by the German administration to direct construction of roads designed for strategic purposes.

April 5—Gifford Pinchot, who has been superintending relief work for Northern France, has been expelled from Belgium by order of the German Governor General; the reason is that Mr. Pinchot's sister is the wife of Sir Alan Johnstone, British Minister at The Hague, with whom Mr. Pinchot stayed on his way to Belgium; Prince Leopold, elder son of King Albert, 13-1/2 years old, joins the line regiment famous for its defense of Dixmude.

April 6—Cardinal Gasparri, Papal Secretary of State, sends a letter to Cardinal Mercier inclosing $5,000 as a personal gift from Pope Benedict to the Belgian sufferers from the war; the letter expresses the Pope's love and pity.

April 8—President Wilson cables greetings to King Albert on his birthday.

April 13—The German Governor General orders establishment of a credit bank which will advance money on the requisition bills given in payment for goods seized by the authorities.

April 15—It is reported from Rome that the German Embassy there has asked the Belgian Government, through the Belgian Legation to the Quirinal, whether, in event of the German armies evacuating Belgian territory, Belgium would remain neutral during the remainder of the war.

April 17—The German Governor General has ordered the dissolution of the Belgian Red Cross Society, because, it is stated, the managing committee refused to participate in carrying out a systematic plan for overcoming the present distress in Belgium.

April 24—A memorial addressed to President Wilson, signed by 40,000 Belgian refugees now in Holland, expressing gratitude for the aid which the United States has extended to the Belgian war sufferers, is mailed to Washington.

BULGARIA.

April 7—Travelers from Serbia and Saloniki are barred from Bulgaria because typhus is epidemic in Serbia.

CANADA.

April 1—Canadians approve the anti-liquor stand taken by King George, and prominent men declare themselves in favor of restricting the use of alcohol in the Dominion.

April 10—Premier Borden tells Parliament that Lord Kitchener has called on Canada for a second expeditionary force; the first contingent of the first expeditionary force numbered 35,420, and the second contingent of that force 22,272.

April 15—Parliament is prorogued, the Duke of Connaught, Governor General, praising Canada's troops for "conspicuous bravery and efficiency on the field of battle."

April 25—King George cables to the Duke of Connaught an expression of his admiration of the gallant work done by the Canadian division near Ypres; General Hughes, Canadian Minister of Militia, cables the appreciation of the Dominion to General Alderson, commanding the Canadian division.

April 28—About 200 Canadian officers were put out of action in the fighting near Ypres, out of a total of 600.

April 29—Four prominent German residents of Vancouver are arrested on a charge of celebrating German successes over the Canadians near Ypres, indignation being aroused among Vancouver citizens.

EGYPT.

April 8—An attempt is made at Cairo to assassinate the Sultan of Egypt, Hussien Kamel, a native firing at him, but missing.

FRANCE.

April 1—A delegation of foreign newspaper men who have visited the prison camps say they found the German prisoners well treated and contented.

April 3—General Joffre is quoted as predicting a speedy end of the war in favor of the Allies.

April 4—The second report of the French commission appointed to investigate the treatment of French citizens by the Germans charges many acts of cruelty; 300 former captives of the Germans tell, under oath, stories contained in the report of brutality, starvation, and death in the German concentration camps.

April 5—There are insistent reports that the French have a new shell which kills by concussion; it is officially stated in an army bulletin that a new explosive recently put into use doubles the explosive force of shells of three-inch guns.

April 9—The General commanding the Vosges army has forbidden, with General Joffre's approval, the use of alcoholic drinks in the district under his command; the general movement to restrict the sale of intoxicants is growing; the municipal authorities of Paris are preparing a decree prohibiting the tango.

April 10—A court-martial acquits Captain Herail of the Eleventh Hussars, who shot and killed his wife in November because she persisted in following the army to be near him, in direct violation of orders issued by the military authorities; the President of the Touring Club of France states that the French people want American tourists as usual this Summer; the Almanach de Gotha is being boycotted by the allied royalty and nobility and a new volume, to be called the Almanach de Bruxelles, is being prepared for speedy publication in Paris.

April 11—Computation made by the Paris Matin shows that the total length of the battle front of the Allies is 1,656 miles, the French occupying 540 miles of trenches, the British 31, and the Belgians 17, while in the east the Russians are facing a front of 851 miles, and the Serbians and Montenegrins are fighting on a front of 217 miles.

April 12—General Pau, who has been on a mission in Russia, Italy, and the Balkan States, gets a notable reception on arriving in Paris.

April 13—President Poincaré leaves Dunkirk for Paris after three days with the French and Belgian troops; M. Poincaré had a long conference with King Albert; the War Office is organizing an expedition of cinematograph operators throughout the whole French line; it is planned to multiply and circulate the films.

April 15—An official denial of reports from Berlin that public buildings in Paris are being used as military observation posts is cabled to the French Embassy at Washington by Foreign Minister Delcassé; vital statistics for the first half of 1914, just published, show that the net diminution in the population of France was 17,000, while the population of Germany increased in the same period, nearly 500,000; the Temps says that the problem of depopulation must receive serious consideration after the war.

April 19—A regiment of women is being formed in Paris; it is planned that they wear khaki uniforms, learn how to handle rifles, and undertake various military duties in areas back of the firing line.

April 22—General Joffre retires twenty-nine more Generals to make way for younger and more active men; the Cabinet decides that children made orphans by the death in the war of their fathers should be cared for by the State; it is decided to appoint a commission to study the question and decide what steps should be taken; "Tout Paris," the social register of the capital, contains the names of 1,500 Parisians killed in action up to Feb. 25, including 20 Generals and 193 men of title.

April 24—The famous Chambord estate is sequestrated on the ground that it is the property of Austrian subjects; the Bank of France releases $1,000,000 gold to the Bank of England for transmission to New York to assist in steadying exchange; French official circles and French newspapers are pleased with the American note to Germany in reply to the von Bernstorff memorandum on the sale of arms to the Allies, and with the expressions of German annoyance resulting from the note.

April 30—President Poincaré receives a delegation of Irish Members of the British Parliament, headed by T.P. O'Connor and Joseph Devlin, bringing addresses to the President and Cardinal Amette, and assurance of devotion to the Allies' cause.

GERMANY.

April 1—Circular of the Minister of Agriculture says that through economical use of available grain the bread supply is assured until the next harvest; it is decided to hold horse races this season, including the German Derby; 812,808 prisoners of war are now held in Germany, 10,175 being officers.

April 3—It is reported from Königsberg, East Prussia, that along a line of 150 miles, and for a distance varying from five to fifty miles from the Russian border, there is nothing but ruins as the result of the Russian invasion; thousands of women and children are stated to have been carried off to Russia; it is learned that spotted fever has been introduced into concentration camps by Russian prisoners, but spread to the German civil population has thus far been prevented; skilled artisans, urgently needed in various lines of industrial work, are being granted furloughs from the front.

April 6—Postal officials suspend parcel post service to Argentina and several other South American countries and to Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italian colonies, and Dutch West Indies; Press Bureau of the French War Office gives out figures, compiled from official German sources, showing that the Germans have lost 31,726 officers in killed, wounded, and missing since the beginning of the war, out of a total of 52,805 who started in the war; General von Kluck is recovering from his wound and has been decorated by Emperor William.

April 8—Germans are mourning Captain Otto Weddigen of submarines U-9 and U-29, it being now accepted as a fact that the U-29, his last command, has been lost.

April 9—Official list shows that on March 1 there were in Germany 5,510 pieces of captured artillery.

April 12—The Government is making reprisals for the treatment of captured German submarine crews in England, having imprisoned thirty-nine British officers in the military detention barracks.

April 13—Germany is detaining freight cars belonging to Italian lines; semi-official statement says the passengers and crew of the steamer Falaba were given twenty-three minutes to leave the ship and were shown as much consideration as was compatible with safety to the submarine; according to a dispatch from Switzerland, there is an alarming increase of madness in the German Army.

April 14—It is reported from Switzerland that Emperor William last month paid a visit to Emperor Francis Joseph.

April 15—Several thousand parcel post packages mailed from Germany for the United States have been returned to the senders by Swiss postal authorities, because the French and British Governments have given notice that parcels addressed to German citizens in the United States will be seized whenever found on shipboard; the Reichsbank's statement up to April 15 shows an increase in gold of $2,000,000.

April 17—Ten British officers have been placed in solitary confinement in Magdeburg as a measure of reprisal for the treatment accorded captured German submarine crews by Great Britain; a letter from Dr. Bernhard Dernburg, former Colonial Secretary of Germany, who has for some time been in the United States, is read at a pro-German mass meeting in Portland, Me.; it suggests the neutralization of the high seas in time of war and makes various other proposals, which are regarded in some quarters as a possible indication that Germany is willing to discuss terms of peace; because of a shortage of rubber, the Government is arranging a special campaign to collect rubber in all shapes throughout the empire.

April 19—The second officer and some of the crew of the German converted cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich, now interned at Newport News, reach Copenhagen on their way to Germany; it is stated in the Copenhagen report that they are provided with false passports describing them as Swedish subjects.

April 20—A conference of German and Austrian Socialists in Vienna has agreed that after the war international treaties for limitation of armaments must be agreed upon, with a view to disarmament.

April 21—All German subjects in Switzerland are recalled by their Government; reports from The Hague declare that German Socialists are trying to get a basis on which the war can be stopped; the soldiers at the front are asking for flower seeds to plant on the graves of the slain.

April 22—During the last few days Emperor William has been visiting the German front in Alsace; he promoted Colonel Reuter of Zabern fame to the rank of Major General; the Government has sent 2,203 more maimed French officers and men to Constance, where they will be exchanged for German wounded; university courses are being conducted by Belgian professors in the prison camp at Soldau.

April 23—The Federal Council has extended until July 31 the operation of the order which provides that claims held by foreign persons or corporations which accrue before July 31, 1914, cannot be sued upon in the German courts; many newspapers comment bitterly upon the American note replying to the Bernstorff memorandum on the sale of arms to the Allies by the United States; there is rejoicing in Berlin over German gains near Ypres.

April 24—Dr. Dernburg, in address at Brooklyn, says that evacuation of Belgium depends on England's agreeing to the neutralization of the sea, free cable communications, revision of international law, and consent to German colonial expansion; interview printed in Paris quotes M. Zographos, Foreign Minister of Greece, as declaring that Greece is ready to unite with the Allies in the operations at the Dardanelles if invited to do so.

April 27—Copenhagen reports that systematic efforts are being made, under instructions from Imperial Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg, to buy sufficient foodstuffs in neutral countries to last Germany for four years.

April 28—The Supreme Military Court has confirmed the sentence of death imposed on Dec. 29 on William Lonsdale of Leeds, England, a private in the British Army, for striking a German non-commissioned officer at a military prison camp at Doeberitz.

April 30—The subscriptions for three-quarters of the latest war loan have already been paid; the payments reach the total of $1,687,750,000, more than twice the amount required at this time under the stipulated conditions of the issue; German Embassy at Washington states that the Emperor of Russia has ordered prisoners of war of Czech or other Slav origin treated kindly, but prisoners of German or Magyar race treated severely.

GREAT BRITAIN.

April 1—Lord Kitchener follows the lead of King George in announcing his intention to abstain from liquor during the war; the nation is stirred by the drink question, and prominent observers believe that anti-alcohol legislation will not be necessary; 25,000 women volunteer to aid in making munitions of war.

April 2—Text is made public of a protest by Germany, transmitted through the American Ambassador in London, against treatment of captured German submarine crews; Germany threatens reprisals in the form of harsh treatment of captured British officers; Sir Edward Grey in reply says the submarine crews have violated the laws of humanity and they are segregated in naval barracks.

April 3—Government takes control of all motor manufacturing plants to accelerate the supplying of war material.

April 4—The Archbishop of Canterbury in his Easter sermon dwells upon the national necessity for prohibition during the war; a band of the Irish Guards, arriving in Dublin on a recruiting tour, is enthusiastically cheered; John E. Redmond reviews at Dublin 25,000 of the Irish National Volunteers; Limerick welcomes recruiting officers; every man in the British Navy has received a pencil case, the gift of Queen Mary, formed of a cartridge which had been used "somewhere in France," with silver mountings.

April 6—Official announcement states that "by the King's command no wines or spirits will be consumed in any of his Majesty's houses after today"; George M. Booth heads committee appointed by Kitchener to provide such additional labor as is needed for making sufficient war supplies.

April 8—Official report of the bombardment of Hartlepool, Scarborough, and Whitby by a German naval squadron on Dec. 16 states that 86 civilians were killed and 424 wounded, of whom 26 have died; 7 soldiers were killed and 14 wounded; nearly all industries are working at top speed; unemployment has largely disappeared; King Albert's birthday is celebrated in London by Belgian refugees, many thousands of English joining in the observance.

April 9—A "White Paper" is published giving correspondence which passed between the British and German Foreign Offices through the United States Ambassador regarding treatment of British prisoners of war in Germany; testimony which is included is to the effect that Germans treat British prisoners brutally; John B. Jackson of the American Embassy at Berlin, who, on behalf of the German Government, recently inspected German prison camps in England, reports that prisoners are well cared for; Captain and crew of the steamer Vosges, sunk in March by a German submarine, are rewarded for persistent attempt to escape the submarine; in party circles it is accepted as a fact that there will be no general election this year, and that the terms of the present Members of Parliament will be extended.

April 11—A great campaign to obtain recruits for Kitchener's new army is begun in London, it being planned to hold 1,500 meetings.

April 12—Government is now transferring men from the working forces of municipalities to factories, making munitions of war.

April 13—Official announcement states that 33,000 women had registered themselves up to the end of March for war service, as being ready to undertake various forms of labor in England usually done by men; the Foreign Office cables the United States State Department, asking that an investigation be started at once of Berlin reports that thirty-nine British officers have been put in a military prison as a measure of reprisal for England's declining to accord full privileges to German submarine prisoners; a serious explosion occurs at Lerwick, Shetland, in which many persons are killed; Lerwick is one of the chief stations in Scotland for the Royal Naval Reserve.

April 14—Report from Field Marshal French on the Neuve Chapelle fight is made public; the British losses were 12,811 in killed, wounded, and missing; German losses are declared to have been several thousand more; French says his orders were badly executed in some instances, resulting in disorganization of infantry after victory was won; it is intimated that British artillery fired on British troops; Government decides against placing cotton on the contraband list; Government is making huge purchases of wheat.

April 15—The total British casualties from the beginning of the war up to April 11 were 139,347, according to an announcement in the House of Commons by the Under Secretary for War; part of Kitchener's new army, after six months of training, is going into camp at Salisbury Plain, where it is stated that 100,000 men will soon be encamped.

April 16—The Foreign Office is advised by Ambassador Page that press reports are correct which state that the Germans have put thirty-nine British officers in military detention barracks as a measure of reprisal for British action in refusing honors of war to crews of German submarines; the London Times states that $9,500,000 in life insurance claims has been paid to heirs of British officers thus far killed in action.

April 17—Wages are rising and unemployment is decreasing.

April 18—Ten thousand Protestant churches observe "King's Pledge Sunday," thousands of persons signing a pledge to abstain from intoxicants for the rest of the war.

April 19—English Football Association announces that with closing of present season on May 5 no more professional football games will be played during the war.

April 20—Premier Asquith, in an appeal made at Newcastle to the workmen of the northeast coast to hasten the output of munitions of war, refrains from all mention of the drink question and declares that there has been no slackness on the part of either employes or employers, this statement being at variance with recent statements made by other Cabinet members, who have blamed tippling on the part of workmen for slow output; the Government has made an arrangement by which skilled workmen now at the front can be recalled to England to work in munition factories as needed; David Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer, says in the House of Commons that the Government does not believe that the war would be more successfully prosecuted by conscription, adding that Kitchener is gratified with the response to his appeal for volunteers; since the war began, 1,961 officers have been killed, 3,528 wounded, and 738 are missing.

April 21—Chancellor Lloyd George states in the House of Commons that the expeditionary force in France now consists of more than thirty-six divisions, or about 750,000 men; the Chancellor also states that as much ammunition was expended at Neuve Chapelle as was used during the entire Boer war, which lasted for two years and nine months.

April 22—F.T. Jane, a well-known British naval expert, in an address at Liverpool declares that the Germans tried to land an expeditionary force in England, but the vigilance of the British Navy caused the expedition to turn back.

April 24—An official list received in London of the thirty-nine British officers placed in detention barracks by the Germans in retaliation for English treatment of German submarine crews shows the names of seven Captains and thirty-two Lieutenants, included being the names of Lieutenant Goschen, son of a former Ambassador to Berlin; Robin Grey, a nephew of Sir Edward Grey, and many sons of peers.

April 25—Jamaica begins raising money to send a contingent to join Kitchener's army.

April 26—The "war babies" question is to be investigated by a committee headed by the Archbishop of York, and a report is to be made.

April 27—Lord Kitchener, speaking in the House of Commons, scores the Germans for what he declares to be their barbarous methods of conducting war; the importation of raw cotton from the United Kingdom is specifically prohibited; Lord Derby, in an address at Manchester, intimates that conscription is to come soon; British War Office states that medical examination shows that Canadian soldiers died in the Ypres fight from poisoning by gases employed by the Germans.

April 28—Clergy oppose prohibition, the lower house of the Convocation at York going on record as believing it would be unwise and would lead in the end to an excess of intemperance; opposition newspapers and politicians are criticising the conduct of affairs by Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty.

April 30—Large numbers of protests from all parts of the country are being made against the proposal of Chancellor Lloyd George to increase the duty on alcoholic drinks.

GREECE.

April 4—After being repulsed in their raid on Serbia, a detachment of Bulgarian irregulars makes a raid on Dorian, Greece; the Greeks repulse them with machine guns.

HOLLAND.

April 1—More reservists are called; traffic between Holland and Germany has practically ceased.

April 10—Government has handed to Germany a note of protest on the sinking in March of the Dutch steamship Medea by a German submarine.

April 16—Intense indignation and resentment are expressed by the newspapers over the sinking of the Dutch steamer Katwyk by a German submarine; some of them talk of war.

April 21—It is reported from Amsterdam that Emperor William has sent a long personal message to Queen Wilhelmina about the sinking of the Katwyk, declaring that full compensation would be made if it is proved that the Katwyk was sunk by a German ship; arrangements have been made between the Dutch and British Governments whereby not only conditional contraband, but also goods on the contraband list of the British Government, may be given safe passage to Holland through the blockade lines.

April 27—The forty-two delegates from the United States to the International Women's Peace Congress arrive at The Hague; the congress is formally opened for a four days' session with delegates present from many neutral nations and from most of the warring nations, including England and Germany.

April 28—Miss Jane Addams presides over the Women's Peace Congress, the first business session being held.

INDIA.

April 12—Lieutenant Seybold of the Philippine Constabulary, on arriving in New York, says that the Fifth Native Light Infantry, composed of Hindus, revolted in Singapore on Feb. 15, while en route to Hongkong, and nearly 1,000 of them were killed before the mutiny was quelled; the rebellion is stated to have been fomented by agents of the German Government in Singapore; seven Germans are stated to have been executed for connection with the uprising.

April 27—Reports from the Straits Settlements state that serious disorders are taking place in various parts of India, the effect beginning to be felt of the Turko-German alliance and of the German propaganda; riots have occurred at Cawnpore and in the Central Provinces; a mutiny by native troops has taken place at Rangoon; it is reported from India that the Ameer of Afghanistan has been assassinated.

ITALY.

April 1—There is economic distress in Italy due to eight months of war; budget of the Government, which for years has show a surplus, shows a deficit of $13,800,000 since Aug. 1.

April 5—Many Italian troops are being assembled on the Austrian frontier; great excitement prevails in Genoa in consequence of a report that a German submarine has sunk the Italian steamer Luigi Parodi, and strong measures are taken by the authorities to protect the German colony.

April 6—Owner of the Luigi Parodi declares the steamer has not been lost.

April 7—The fleet concentrates at Augusta, Sicily, and at Taranto, within a few hours of the Adriatic.

April 11—Demonstrations at Rome in favor of Italian intervention in the war cause riots and collisions with the police.

April 12—An order is printed in the Military Journal directing all army officers to dull the metal on their uniforms and sword scabbards; it is reported that the Pope is ready to espouse the Italian cause if the nation enters the war.

April 14—Indignation is expressed at the Papal Court over an alleged interview with Pope Benedict recently printed in the United States, Germany, and other countries, some of the statements attributed to the Pope being characterized as false; particular exception is taken to a statement, credited to the Pope, urging President Wilson to stop exportation of munitions of war to the Allies; many telegraphic protests on the interview have reached the Vatican from Roman Catholic clergy and laity in the United States, Britain, and France.

April 16—Italy now has 1,200,000 first-line soldiers under arms.

April 20—Reports from Rome state that Austria is rapidly gathering troops on the Italian border; Austrians have fortified the whole line of the Isonzo River with intrenchments; it is stated that the German and Austrian Ambassadors are secretly preparing for departure; Papal Guards are enlisting in the regular army.

April 21—Sailings of liners from Italy to the United States have been canceled; Council of Ministers is held, a report on the international situation being made by the Foreign Minister.

April 24—It is stated in high official circles that it is becoming increasingly improbable that Italy will participate in the war, at least for some time to come; the Austrian Ambassador and the Italian Foreign Minister have a long conference; it is reported from Rome that Austria has made further concessions in an attempt to preserve Italian neutrality; nevertheless further military preparations are being made by Italy; the exodus of German families from Italy continues; French military experts estimate the full military strength of Italy at 2,000,000 men, of whom 800,000 form the active field army.

April 25—It is reported from Rome that Austria has offered to give autonomy to Trieste; Italian opinion, as expressed in the newspapers, is that Austria must yield all the territory occupied by Italians and must yield not only the Province of Trent, but Pola, Fiume, and the greater part of Dalmatia.

April 27—The Italian Ambassadors at Paris, London, Vienna, and Berlin have been summoned to Rome to confer with the Foreign Minister.

April 29—It is reported from Rome that Italy and the Allies have reached a definite agreement concerning terms on which Italy will enter the war, if she ultimately decides to do so, and that she will become a member of a quadruple entente after the war; Prince von Bülow, German Ambassador to Italy, is stated to have failed in attempts to get Italy and Austria to come to an understanding.

April 30—Belgian and French Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bishops have united in an appeal to Pope Benedict for the Vatican to abandon the attitude of neutrality it has maintained since the beginning of the war.

LUXEMBURG.

April 23—Grand Duchess Marie has sent an official protest to Berlin against the methods of distributing food supplies, which is said to have brought nearly half her subjects to the verge of starvation; she says that gifts of food, money, and clothes have been sent to Luxemburg from all parts of the world, but that only a small part of these reach the civilian population.

PERSIA.

April 24—Confirmation has been received at Dilman, Persia, of the flight of from 20,000 to 30,000 Armenian and Nestorian Christians from Azerbaijan Province; of the massacre of over 1,500 who were unable to escape; of the death of 2,000 in the compounds of the American Mission at Urumiah.

POLAND.

April 22—It is stated in London that 7,000,000 Poles are in dire need of food.

RUMANIA.

April 9—Artillery and supplies of ammunition are reaching Turkey through Rumania.

April 14—The army, reported as splendidly equipped, is ready for instant action.

RUSSIA.

April 1—Persistent rumors are current in Petrograd that Austria has opened negotiations for a separate peace; General Ruzsky, who won praise for his conduct of the Galician campaign, taking Lemberg, and also for his success at Przasnysz, retires because of ill-health.

April 3—General Alexiev is appointed Commander in Chief of the army on the northern front in place of General Ruzsky; it is officially announced that Colonel Miassoydoff, attached as interpreter to the staff of the Tenth Army, which was badly defeated in the Mazurian Lake region, has been shot as a German spy.

April 4—Petrograd reports that the Russians have taken 260,000 prisoners on the Carpathian front since Jan. 21.

April 7—All towns in Russian Poland are given local municipal self-government; Petrograd reports that during the celebration of Easter, the greatest of Russian festivals, there has been an entire absence of drunkenness.

April 14—Imperial order calls up for training throughout the empire all men from twenty to thirty-five not summoned before; it is stated that the call will ultimately almost double the Russian strength; the men summoned are all untrained.

April 17—The General Anzeiger of Duisburg, Rhenish Prussia, says it learns "from an absolutely unimpeachable source" that the reported sickness of Grand Duke Nicholas, Commander in Chief of the Russian forces, was due to a shot in the abdomen fired by the late General Baron Sievers of the defeated Tenth Army, who is stated to have then committed suicide.

April 20—Orders have been issued that Austrian officers who are prisoners of war shall no longer be allowed to retain their swords, as a penalty for the cutting out of the tongue of a captured Russian scout who refused to betray the Russian position.

April 21—As a substitute for vodka shops there have been erected in open places in communities throughout Russia "people's palaces," where the public may gather for entertainment and instruction; in the Government of Poltava alone 300 of these recreative centres have been opened or are projected.

April 22—Details of an $83,000,000 order for shrapnel and howitzer shell, placed early in April by the Russian Government with the Canadian Car and Foundry Company, show that contracts for $21,724,400 of that amount have been sublet by the Canadian company to American manufacturers; it is also learned that the Russian Government recently placed a $15,000,000 contract with American mills for miscellaneous artillery; a letter from an American Red Cross nurse states that she and other American Red Cross nurses were recently received by the Czar at Kief, where he shook hands and chatted with each.

April 23—The Czar arrives at Lemberg and holds a council of war with the Grand Duke Nicholas.

April 24—Copenhagen reports that the Czar has decided to re-establish the Finnish army with the same constitution as previous to 1898; Grand Duke Nicholas has been much impressed with the brilliant strategic work done by Finnish officers serving with the Russian Army.

April 25—Army orders contain the promotion of a young woman, Alexandra Lagerev, to a Lieutenancy; she has been fighting alongside male relatives since the beginning of the war.

SERBIA.

April 2—American sanitary experts, who will work under the direction of Dr. Richard P. Strong of Harvard, now in Europe, sail from New York on their way to Serbia, where they will fight typhus and other diseases devastating the nation.

April 3—Several thousand Bulgarian irregulars cross the Serbian frontier near Vallandovo, surprising and killing the Serbian guards; Serbian reinforcements, after an all-day fight, repulse and scatter the invaders; Bulgarians lose heavily.

April 4—Serbia protests to Bulgaria because of the raid, which is said to be the fifth of the kind since the beginning of the war; the Bulgarian Minister to Rome says that the raid is the work of Macedonian revolutionists in Serbia.

April 6—Bulgarian Government disclaims responsibility for the raid on Serbia; it is stated that the invasion was initiated by Turks among the inhabitants of that part of Macedonia included in Serbia; Serbians are not satisfied and say that more attacks are being planned on Bulgarian soil, with the object of cutting off supplies from the Serbian Army.

April 10—Disease conditions are growing worse and the percentage of deaths from typhus is very high; 107 Serbian doctors out of 452 have died of typhus; the municipality of Uskub decides to name its finest street after Lady Ralph Paget, who has been working in Serbia with the Red Cross and is now convalescing from a resultant illness.

April 16—Rockefeller Foundation War Relief Commission's first installment of a report on Serbia states that disease is spreading all over the country; there are more than 25,000 cases of typhus, while other fevers are also epidemic; cholera is expected with the warm weather; the nation is declared unable to aid itself.

April 17—The Government submits to Parliament a new army credit of $40,000,000.

April 21—Two invasions into Serbian territory are made by Bulgarian irregulars.

April 28—Serbia holds 60,000 Austrian prisoners.

SWEDEN.

April 7—Sweden makes a strong protest to Germany against seizure of the Swedish steamer England.

SWITZERLAND.

April 13—German shells fall upon Swiss territory for the third time since the war began, according to a Delemont newspaper; the shots were intended for the French, but the aim was bad and they dropped near the town of Beurnevesain.

TURKEY.

April 1—Troops are being concentrated at Adrianople as a precaution in case war starts with Bulgaria.

April 2—Both the Turkish and Russian Ambassadors to Italy deny a report that Turkey is seeking a separate peace.

April 7—Field Marshal von der Goltz, in an interview in Vienna, says that Turkey is well prepared for war; she has 1,250,000 well-trained men and several hundred thousand reserves; the Sultan gives an interview at Constantinople to American newspaper men; he deplores "unjust" attack of Allies on the Dardanelles, adding that he does not believe the strait can be forced.

April 15—Pillage and murder are reported to be rife in villages and smaller towns of the littoral near Smyrna; lives of Christians are in danger.

April 18—Enver Pasha, War Minister and Generalissimo of the Turkish Army, in a newspaper interview lays the blame for Turkey's participation in the war on Russia and England; he says Turkey has a well-prepared army of 2,000,000.

April 24—Refugees who have reached the Russian line near Tiflis, Transcaucasia, report that widespread massacres of Armenians are being carried out by Mohammedans; they state that all the inhabitants of ten villages near Van, in Armenia, Asiatic Turkey, have been killed.

April 27—An appeal for relief of Armenian Christians in Turkey is made to the Turkish Government by the United States; a plot is discovered to blow up the council chamber in the Ministry of War at Constantinople during a session of the War Council.

April 29—The War Minister has called all available men to arms; Kurds are massacring Christians in Armenia.

UNITED STATES.

April 1—Secretary Bryan orders an inquiry into the circumstances of the arrest by the authorities in Paris of Raymond Rolfe Swoboda, stated to be an American citizen, held in connection with the recent fire on the French liner La Touraine in mid-ocean; the State Department is investigating the death of Leon Chester Thrasher of Hardwick, Mass., who was lost when the British steamer Falaba was sunk by a German submarine; information is being sought as to whether Thrasher was an American citizen at the time of his death.

April 2—The Government is informed by the British Government, through Ambassador Page, that no trade messages can be sent over British cables if they refer to transactions in which the enemies of Britain are interested.

April 5—Text is made public of the United States note to Germany, recently presented by Ambassador Gerard, demanding payment by the German Government of $228,059.54, with interest from Jan. 28, for the destruction of the American sailing ship William P. Frye by the German converted cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich; Secretary Bryan makes public the text of the identic notes recently sent by the United States to the British and French Governments protesting against invasion of neutral rights involved in the recent British Order in Council, establishing a long-range blockade of European waters; the note insists on the right of innocent shipments "to be freely transported to and from the United States through neutral countries to belligerent territory, without being subjected to the penalties of contraband traffic or breach of blockade, much less to detention, requisition, or confiscation"; it is reported from Washington that the reason for the order, issued a few days ago, for the recall of the five American Army officers who have been acting as military observers in Germany, is due to the growing feeling of hostility to Americans in Germany, and the belief that it is wise to withdraw the officers before they become involved in any incident that might cause embarrassment in American-German relations; Dudley Field Malone, Collector of the Port of New York, announces that he has evidence of a widespread conspiracy to violate President Wilson's neutrality proclamation through the establishment here of an agency to supply the British warships lying outside the three-mile zone with food and fuel; he asks the Government for additional warships to protect the harbor's neutrality.

April 6—An official message from Berlin is issued by the German Embassy at Washington giving an intimation that Germany would not regard with favor the idea of paying damages for the death of Leon Chester Thrasher; the statement says that neutrals were warned not to cross the war zone; the German Embassy gives out a statement on the stopping of the German merchant ship Odenwald, halted by a shot across her bows when she was attempting to leave San Juan, Porto Rico, without clearance papers, on March 22; statement refers to the episode as an "attack," and says "a sharp fire" was opened, but the American official report shows that only warning shots were fired.

April 7—British Government denies Collector Malone's charge that British warships have been receiving supplies from ports of the United States in violation of neutrality; acting upon a request of the German Ambassador, the Government is making a new investigation of the Odenwald case.

April 8—Secretary Bryan makes public the reply of the German Government to the American claim for compensation for the loss of the William P. Frye; Germany is willing to pay both for ship and cargo, basing this readiness wholly on treaties of 1799 and 1828 between the United States and Prussia, but under international law justifying the destruction of both ship and cargo; Collector Malone says investigation shows that charges that supplies have been sent to British warships from New York in violation of neutrality were part of a plot to involve this country in trouble with England.

April 11—Count von Bernstorff, the German Ambassador, makes public a memorandum addressed to the United States Government and delivered several days ago, charging in effect that the United States is violating the true spirit of neutrality by permitting vast quantities of arms to be shipped to England, France, and Russia, and characterizing as a failure the diplomatic efforts of the United States to effect shipment of food supplies to Germany; the memorandum intimates that the United States maintained a true spirit of neutrality to Mexico in placing an embargo on arms exports to Huerta and Carranza, and quotes a statement attributed to President Wilson on the Mexican situation.

April 13—The Government War Risk Insurance Bureau settles its first claim for losses by paying $401,000 to the owners of the American steamer Evelyn, sunk off the coast of Holland, supposedly by a mine, on Feb. 21; London reports that negotiations are under way for a short-term loan of $100,000,000 to England by American interests.

April 14—Secretary Bryan announces that arrangements have been completed with the British Government by which two shiploads of dyestuffs may be shipped from Germany to the United States without interference from British warships.

April 15—The text is made public of a letter written by Theodore Roosevelt to Mrs. George Rublee of Washington, in opposition to the principles advanced by the Woman's Party for Constructive Peace, in which he says the platform is "both silly and base"; at a meeting in New York of the Central Federated Union a resolution is passed in favor of a general strike in those industries employed in producing munitions of war.

April 16—The American Locomotive Company has practically completed arrangements with the Russian Government for the manufacture of $65,000,000 worth of shrapnel shells.

April 17—The Hamburg-American steamship Georgia is transferred to American registry and renamed the Housatonic.

April 20—French military authorities decide to abandon the charge of setting fire to La Touraine preferred against Raymond Swoboda, because of lack of evidence.

April 21—The Government replies to the recent memorandum from Ambassador von Bernstorff on American neutrality; the American answer regrets use of language that seems to impugn our good faith, and it restates our position; it declares that we have at no time yielded any of our rights as a neutral, and that we cannot prohibit exportation of arms to belligerents, because to do so would be an unjustifiable breach of our neutrality; the State Department has cabled the American Consul at Warsaw to report fully on the present situation of Jews in Poland.

April 23—The Telefunken wireless plant at Sayville, L.I., through which the German Government and its embassy at Washington chiefly communicate, has been trebled in power for the purpose of overcoming climatic conditions likely in Summer to be unfavorable for the handling of messages; Secretary Bryan is refusing to issue passports to Americans who wish to visit belligerent countries in Europe for sightseeing purposes.

April 28—Secretary Bryan replies to the German note on the sinking of the American ship William P. Frye; the answer declares that the destruction of the vessel was "unquestionably" a violation of existing treaties between the United States and Prussia; the answer states that the American Government does not believe the matter should go before a prize court, as suggested by the German note.

April 29—Samuel Pearson, who was a Boer General in the Boer war and is an American citizen, begins an action in Wisconsin aimed at preventing shipment of munitions of war from the United States to the enemies of Germany; a complaint is filed on Pearson's behalf under the so-called "Discovery" statute of Wisconsin, to obtain information whether the Allis-Chalmers Company and others have entered into a conspiracy with the Bethlehem Steel Company and others to manufacture and ship shrapnel shells to European belligerents contrary to Wisconsin law.

April 30—Directions are given by President Wilson for an investigation to be made of the Pearson bill of complaint; German Embassy at Washington publishes an advertisement in the newspapers declaring that "travelers sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk."

RELIEF.

April 1—American Red Cross sends 200,000 pounds of disinfectants to Serbia for use in the fight against typhus.

April 2—Mme. Lalla Vandervelde, wife of the Belgian Minister of State, sails from New York after collecting nearly $300,000 for relief in Belgium.

April 3—Henryk Sienkiewicz, the Polish writer, appeals to the United States for help for Poland; it is stated that an area seven times as great as Belgium has been laid waste, 5,000 villages have been destroyed, 1,000,000 horses and 2,000,000 cattle are dead or seized by the enemy, and damage to the extent of $600,000,000 has been done; Serbian Agricultural Relief Commission of America announces that Walter Camp will take charge of Serbian relief in the colleges and universities of the United States.

April 6—Australians have contributed $700,000 in four days for Belgian relief, and measures are being taken to insure $500,000 a month from the Australian States.

April 8—German Red Cross sends through Ambassador Gerard its thanks for gifts from the United States.

April 9—Commission for Relief in Belgium announces the organization of a New York State Belgian Committee which will work in co-operation with the commission, Dr. John H. Finley being Chairman.

April 10—Major Gen. Gorgas, U.S.A., has been invited to go to Serbia for the Rockefeller Commission to take charge of an attempt to stamp out typhus.

April 12—The State of Oklahoma makes Belgian relief an official matter, and the Governor has issued a proclamation calling upon the people to do all in their power to aid.

April 15—Three hospital trains, each consisting of an automobile with two trailers, have been presented to the Military Commander at Frankfort-on-Main as a gift "from friends of Germany in the United States"; Mme. Marcella Sembrich, President of the American Polish Relief Committee, issues an appeal to "all America" for aid for Poland; Paderewski arrives in New York to seek American help for Poland.

April 17—Donations to the American Red Cross total to date $1,415,000; during the last week eight steamers have sailed from the United States for Rotterdam carrying relief for Belgium; the cargoes totaled 55,000 tons, valued at $3,000,000.

April 21—Rockefeller Foundation gives out a report of its Relief Commission concerning Belgian refugees in Holland; up to Feb. 22 cases containing 1,386,572 articles of clothing, contributed by the neutral world, principally the United States, have been delivered in Rotterdam for the Belgians.

April 24—Report of the American Red Cross, covering the period from Sept. 12 to April 17, shows that supplies valued at over $1,000,000 have been sent to France, which got the largest individual share of the shipments, and to Great Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, and the Belgians; the supplies have included 600,000 pounds of absorbent cotton; surgical gauze that if stretched in a single line would reach from the Battery, New York, to Niagara Falls; 32,600 pounds of chloroform and ether; 65,000 yards of bandages, and 1,123 cases of surgical instruments.

April 26—A new British committee, with many well-known Englishmen on it, has been organized for Belgian relief, King George heading the subscription list.

April 27—American Red Cross ships a large consignment of supplies to the Russian Red Cross at Petrograd.