DUST OF THE PAST

Taranaki Daily News, 15 July 1933, Page 13 (Supplement)

DUST OF THE PAST

TROUBLE IN EUROPE

(By

“Historicus.”)

There is nothing like your own troubles to obscure those of your neighbour. When Russia was enveloped in the smoke of a thousand revolutionary volcanoes, we ourselves were at death grips with an enemy. To the average man the Revolution came as another episode in the war. Tales of horror took , their place in the long list of barbarities for which the war was responsible. Sitting in a shell swept trench it was difficult to be greatly moved over blood shed in some far off country. Since that day there have been tales, rumours, and negations, but individual knowledge is still somewhat in a state of confusion. Some day, perhaps, a Carlyle will write the Russian Revolution, and posterity will see it with a clarity that is denied us to-day. It is likely, however, to prove a sordid affair even compared with the great French unheaval. Louis did have a trial, mockery as it may have been; the Czar Nicholas and his family, who fell victims to the rage of the Moscow mobs on July 16, 1918, were butchered with animal ferocity. Patriotism was the keynote of the French Revolution. Ground that lacked patriotism was the soil that nourished the seeds of the disciples of Lenin. France struggled with mediocrity, suffered extremists and gradually returned to reason; but they were Frenchmen all the time. In Russia mediocrity merely paved the way for anarchists of international repute whose creed was destruction and whose path to glory was of necessity over the ruins of a nation. “Sunk into a mob of selfish madmen, forgetful of their old virtues, babbling of uncomprehended pedantries,” the Russian nation was easily the prey of the maddened revolutionary. The murder of the Royal Family expressed the measure of its sordidness.

July 'l7 might well stand in English history, or the history, of the world for that matter, as an anniversary of outstanding importance, for to-day, eleven years ago, the German onslaught, that was meant to reach the gates of Paris, was finally stopped. The sounds of battle that had been drawing more dreadfully close to the ears of Paris still echoed through the air, but a new phase had begun. The German thrust in the forest region south-west of Rheims known as the Montaigne de Rheims, had been brought to a halt six miles from Espernay. An effort to relieve the German forces stranded south of the Marne was equally futile. Foch, ready and waiting until the situation developed as he hoped, now saw his opportunity and proceeded to take full advantage of it. On July 17/18 he Issued orders.for counter attack. From Soissons to Chateau Thierry Mangin and Degoutte thrust with all available reserves against the weak flank of the German salient, crumpled it, and destroyed its communications.

There comes a tide in all men’s lives which taken at the flood leads on to fortune. Foch had been great and wise enough to seize his opportunity. Not only had he wrested the initiative from the enemy, but he had laid the foundations of final victory. The decisive blow had been struck, little as it was realised at the time. Those cheery announcements “To Berlin” that the Old Contemptibles had posted on their carriages ere the flood came were at last- to be justified, and it was only the supplication of the beaten foe that prevented their ultimate fulfilment.

It was that same cry,-“To Berlin,” that filled the streets and cafes of Paris on July 18 in 1870. The war that was to end so disastrously for France and make the King of Prussia Emperor of the Confederation of German States had been declared. The pretext for war had been found in the candidature of a Hohenzollem prince for the Spanish throne. Bismarck awaiting another step in his scheme for Prussian supremacy, saw that the flame of public opinion in both countries was well fanned. The chance of war with France had come sooner than he had hoped. A certain disloyalty in the army and the convic* tion that the succession of his son would be best assured by a path of military glory, seems, to a great extent, to have driven Louis Napoleon, simple man, to play the game of the Iron Chancellor. But Prussia was ready for it. The position of France is best illustrated by the disasters from Saarbruck to Sedan. While Moltke left nothing to chance the French Generals appear to have acted greatly upon impulse. The enormous superiority of the Germans in regard to numbers completed the debacle. In the Palace of Versailles, where so many plans for Germany’s destruction had been schemed in vain the German Empire was founded, and William the First, with his great Chancellor Bismarck, were free to forward their plans for the union of Germany under the leadership of Prussia. Fortyfour years later the cry of “A Berlin” was ringing once again through the streets of Paris. But the end was different, and the same walls of Versailles, which had seen the birth of the German Empire, witnessed the acceptance of a defeat, a comparison to which history holds no record. It is remarkable that foreign disasters should draw attention to the weaknesses in one’s own particular defence. Such was the effect in England of the FrancoGerman war of 1870. The opening of the year 1871 saw Paris still surrounded »y the German forces. The obvious end of the struggle was in sight, and the question that was slowly thrusting itself upon the minds of the inhabitants of Great Britain was the deadly uncertain-, ty of our own position in the face of the organisation and preparation displayed by the Prussian forces. A clash with Germany even then was not looked upon as an unlikely possibility. An inevitable demand for army reform came from all sides, and the direction which the reform would take was apparent to all. The abolition of the purchase of Army Commissions had become the keynote of speeches throughout the country. Efforts had been made to stop the traffic in Commissions, but as early as 1702 the Law Courts had begun to declare the lawfulness of purchase. The Bill introduced by Mr. Cardwell, then Secretary for War, met with most bitter treatment from military members. The House of Lords, with reservations, declined to read the Bill a second time. Mr. Gladstone met the situation in a novel manner. Purchase was only legal so far as the Queens Regulations permitted it. Clearly, therefor, a slight alteration in regulations was all that was necessary to sign its death warrant. The alteration was duly brought about, and July 20, 1871 saw the abolition of Army Purchase by Royal Warrant. The storm of criticism that; followed was not unnatural, but there J can be little dispute that a system that allowed the entrance into a vital service of weak brains, while acute intellects were debarred through poverty, was absolutely indefensible.