HOW NOW, HINDENBURG?

Thames Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 18384, 4 July 1917, Page 4

HOW NOW, HINDENBURG?

PLAIN WOEDS TO THE BLATANT BRAGGART OF BERLIN.

By Horatio Bottomley (Editor of ,

"John Bull")

Marshal van Handenbuirg—& word with you. In many ways you are tiller type and epitome oi" the modern Hun. You are i-uthless, reckless, conscienceless, a fire-eating mouute,'bank, a pinchbeck (Napoleon, as vuiu a braggart as ever gave tongue. But you are not altogetiher a> fool ; and I have some nope that you may be alive to the virtue of ca,ndid 'speech.

■ You stand bo-day in a perilous: position. Your career as a national idol is nearing its close. I can foresee the day when that famous statue of yours in Berlin will be thrown "down' and''smashed to pieces by a. maddened populace in a frenzy of vd'efeated hopes. For at this very momemt you are .being found! out. Your reputation is tottering. Yo>r.r gireat watf plans have gone all awry. The British are your masters. Your jadedl troops are in retreat. It 's the ..beginning of the end.

Til© whole earth resounds with the glory of the Great, Advance. Not much longer will you be able to conceal the grim truth from the German ■ people. For the whole mad race of Huns the • hour of disillusionment is at hand 1. Even now the military glory of the Germain Empire is nut a memory of the past. Democracy marches tiriumtphant. America, joins hands with, the victorious 4Jli?B. Tsaa-ism has been overthrown by RevoilAition. Kaiserism succumbs to the sword. The doom: of the Hohenaollerns is written in letters of blood.. . . Yet I see you are still boasting. In a ireoemt "interview" with a Spanish; journalist you have run the ; whole gamut of vain-glorious mendacity. , Listen. Do you recosn^e • these words? "The Western Front has become so strong that we cab

withstand every attack." S are ly you must have known you were lyi ing. Sur-ely you must have been aware that Haiig and Nivelle were the masters of the situation. Before ' your braggart words were published the Battle of, Arras had begun. Did you "withstand" the Canadians a.t Vfmy ridge? Did you "withstand." the French at La Fere? Or was there a mistake somewliaret-—'an error in your calculations? Why, even your own official despatches ,cive the frame away. You cannot even lie

consistentilv. You admit that we

have "advanced 1" on an extensive front, while comforting your adniirers with th,e assurarice that we have not. yet. "broken through." But that will come, Henr Hindenburjr. You had better get rendv to break the news gently. You ih.ad" better take counsel with Potsdam as to the particular kind of fairy tale wriK-h ■vvill 'best suit tihe popular palate. Tell them whatever you please, my

sweet ffindenbrirg,, and whatever you think your confiding countrymen will swallow.

Only be quick about it*, for events are marching fast. Quick, or Defeat may be upon you swift and iuexora,bie, and no facile excuses r-jady to your hand. Our plans we laid. At. Last we are ready, lean 'prom: so ( you no respite. On sea and land you have had a taste of our njiettle. Our Airmies are nerved to. the lii.ghe.sl pitch of Tesolution." -Tiney are the> sbiirpened spearluead oi the irrtvit. Allied! offensive,, the vanguaa-d ol tlie world's dlamociiacies, arrayed in su'Ji..sfor the' nansoin of the \iorld. Nothing! can si-ay their glorious advaive. If you^prefei* it you may haive p^ac^ instead of war.

But P«ace only upon terms of unconditional surrender^ —<no iiollo-w "peace: by negotiation," but l-Vace the bride of Victioiy. This is th.: peace we demaod—«the peace v\c

are winning 1. ■Compare yourself with Haijr,. the British idol, for one little hour —■ if you dare. .You axe the antithesis of 0110 ano'tW; you are both soldiers, but as different as dawn is from dark, as night from d;iy. Ho i • cldau; you are foul. He is mod^t, though he has never lost a battiii; you are a 'bnajwart and a brute. He staikls for all that is best in jn.lll--fcind. lie is rfidiant wit,]i a. spleniour of n chivalry you can neither undwJift.and 1. nor appreciate, He knew, too, now to wait for the ripe moment, and he knew it wihen it came and seized it. You—you poisoner of "wellf, you torturer of prisoners; you, who put civilians in the firing lin«; >ou who stand for thb Ben*f f<n-e----+'>ldi in tJie Book of Revelations, how <lo you tihinfc'you oompar© with ''iour conqueror;? Have you soul vnoijsrh even to ™rt\sxt the meaning t>pithe comparison nnd to shrink into pxe>ih&ll of your own littleness?" The

whole vvorld is making the comparison between you; tbe democracy of the earth is weighing you both in tiie balance, we.ghing you both by i your fnuts, by your deed; and even you, vain as you an I©, shameless as you are, must by now realise the verd-icb of mankind. . IL-.s Ilaig ever done one foul thing 1, in war? You know he never has. Have, you don© one single thing' to which you can point in fpridfe and honour? You know }ou have not; and, as the leaders are, so are the contending armies, .so are tlhe rival natures. If you and yours had conquered', then of, a truth mankind had b^en justified in crying aloud to the hills "God is dead!" For life would Ji.'.vo lest its sweetness, and death, would have been a welcome respite. We Biitons are nob a nation of sn.uits; but, Hindenhurg, we .ii'ei a n:it.on of strong," true men and women, possessm*? —'if you will—■ . the fault's -of our qualities ; but in our hour of triumph, which is speeding, on like a cyclone, we will clev.ite mankind 1.;, we wil] try and make the old earth richer, cleaner, pum*, brighte!'—<a. place worth living in. But you, Hin'den.burg, you and voirr Kaiser, your Junkers and your brute beast' people, what, would you all have done, had you been victorious in the end? i Long ago in a little Judean village the Great Carpenter, the seer and thinker of tJie ages, said "by their fruits ye> shall' know them," and by _ what ye have done, Hindienburg, we know what you and yours would dc were ye masters of mankind. We ' look at Serbia, and we see your foul footsteps ■ in tha.b once fa 1 r land.. Heaveni what a sight to I nerve ouir hands &.11A steel our hearts

to justice! and —to vengeance"! look at devastated Roumiania, and again we cry, "Lord, let us not ear on the side of pity and weakness in the day of. iretiributioiv." .Belgium lies in front of us. like a. map of ruin, a picture of despair painted in blood and etched in crime—the wickedest picture on the map of i tune. Poland,- . poor, dauntless, i shattered Poland, stands before our eyes a. ruin, of what once was a i proud and prosperous people, liow I soaked in blood and shame. These be your fruits, Hindenburg! T!he rape of -vestals, the dishonouring i of matrons, the butchery of helpless I peasants, the defiling of altars, tlie i ruin of towns and villages, the plundering of rich and poor in every | land where your accursed hoof -has t trod 1 for ;a. -little while in triumph. 'Heaven's curse on you and. yours. for what ye hnv? done and w^ital yeti do luid ye the power. Haio- has met you with the TVitish I Army at h'\s tyiek—met you like the • li-ffh hiing' of Heaven, like a thunderbolt in the hand of an aveiming j Jove, a;n-rl your d'-i.v of doom cannot ; now be far off. Ho< on for vet a ; little longer w'th your villainies, i and nf we sltrav you mid yours in-ercy j to-day, may God &nw us in our turn ,no p:ty fon* our wAi^n.?^ in comlnninol the cr:rn°«! nf fhe foitlest $< nds who ever stnlk^'i the en.rth. HORATIO BOTTOMLEY.