The Great World War of 1914

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume VIII, Issue 3, 1 July 1915, Page 140

The Great World War of 1914

Archdeacon Mac Murray said it was necessary to discriminate between the occasion of the G:eat War and its causes. The occasion flowed from the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife in the chief town of the Province of Bosnia, which took place in June, 1914. "The Austrian Government held a secret enquiry into the crime, and practically charged the Serbian Government and nation with being the instigators of th murder. Xone of the evidence given was ever made public; the murderer was an Austrian, not a Serbian subject, and it is now known that a year previous to the murder, Austria proposed to attack Serbia, and only refrained because one member of the Triple Alliance — Italy — refused to countenance it. At the time, however, there was a general belief that Austria was making the charge honestly believing it to be true, and consequently there was wide-spread sympathy with Austria. Now, there is good ground for believing that the crime was engineered by subjects of the Austrian Empire, who were opposed to the policy of the Archduke, and that the charge against the Serbian Government was not justified. But Austria, backed by Germany, deemed it gave them a good excuse for doing what they wanted to do in the previous year ; that is, crush Serbia , and , by doing so , secure for the central European Powers a dominant position in the Balkan Peninsula, and at the same time discredit Russia in the eyes of the Balkan States. An ultimatum was sent to Serbia by Austria, making a series of demands which Serbia could not conceed without surrendering her independence — indeed, it was so worded as to make it certain that a full surrender was not desired— and only 48 hours were allowed for a reply. In response to the advice of Russia, Serbia conceded nearly everything — far more than could have been anticipated — and on the points not fully conceded she was willing they should be referred to the Hague Tribunal for settlement. With indecent haste the, Austrian Ambassador returned to Vienna, and war was declared by the great Austrain Empire against the little Kingdom of Serbia, This was the occasion of the

war, but its causes must be sought for in the past history of Austria and Germany. At the root of these causes lay the deepseated ambition of the German Kaiser and people for the establishment of a great w or] d -power ; and one step t owards the attainment of this end was to bar Russia out of all influence over the Slav races in the Balkan Peninsula, and to substitute the ascendancy of their Austrian ally. If the ascendancy of the German people was secured from the Baltic to the Adriatic and Aegean seas, there would be secured an open door through which to extend that ascendancy over Asia Minor and the Euphrates valley, and so threaten Great Britain in Egypt and in India. Germany hoped to secure her ends by sowing discord between other nations. She had stirred up France to seize Tunis, and so roused Italy's jealousy that sh joined Germany and Austria in the Triple Alliance, though she had more to fear from them than from anyone else. She sowed discord between Russia and Japan, which led to Russia being crippled by the war with Japan. Just then England and France whose rivalries had been long fomented by Germany, showed an inclination to settle their differences, and become friendly. Egypt and Morocco were the two causes of trouble, and an agreement was come to, by which France agreed not to make difficulties for England in Egypt, and England agreed not to interfere with France in Morocco. If the peace of the world was the object of the nations, then Germany ought to have rejoiced to see one menace to that peace removed ; but Germany's object was not peace, and consequently, when Russia was crippled by her war with Japan, Germany showed her resentment by challenging, in 1905, the AngloFrench agreement over Morocco. To secure peace the French Government was forced by the Kaiser to dismiss her own Foreign Minister, Decasse, for no reason other than that he had brought about friendly relations with Great Britain. This use of the mailed fist humbled France, but it made Great Britain see more clearly the hostile purposes of Germany, and prepared the way, in 1907, for an agreement between England, France and Russia, to

settle all their differences amicably — the Dual Entente thus becoming the Triple Entente. In the following year, Austria, with Germany's support, annexeel the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Serbia protested, anei her protest was supported by Russia. Germany stood by her ally, to use the Kaiser's phrase, ' in shining armour," and Russia was intimidated into withdrawing her protest. Germany had now humbled France and Russia in turn, and apparently deemed it safe to bully any of the Great Powers. In 1911 she again interfered in Morocco, but Great Britain made it so plain that she would stand by France in any conflict, and as the Kaiser was not ready for a naval war, it was the Kaiser who was rebuffeel tlxis time. But from this date the Crown Prince of Germany put himself at the head of the War Party in Germany, and practically forceel the Kaiser to play into the hands of the War Party. Two years later, Austria proposeel to attack Serbia, but Italy refused to consent to aggressh^e action, and in the next year the murder of the Archduke gave Austria and Germany the excuse for action, and so, in spite of the earnest efforts of Russia, France and England, the Great World War broke out in August, 1914, because Germany had willed it so. It was impossible for Russia to abandon Serbia to Austria, as Germany demanded. It was impossible for France to desert her aMy ; and once Germany invadeel Beligum, whose neutrality had been guaranteed by Prussia as well as England, it was impossible for England to deem the Treaty which she had signed as a scrap of paper to be torn up at will, and so England joined France, Russia, Belgium and Serbia in their contest against the mighty empires of Germany and Austria, who were later on joined by Turkey. The Archdeacon gave a sketch, of the part played by the British Navy in gaining control of every sea on the globe except the Baltic and the Black Sea ; how German commerce was destroyed, German colonies captured, German and Austrian soldiers prevented in hundreds of thousands from going to Germany and Austria to fight against us . While at the same time the seas were kept open for British commerce ; British Dominions were kept unscathed, except in South Africa, where the presence of an ael joining German colony

made war inevitable ; and hundreds of thousands of Canadian, Indian, Australian New Zealand and French soldiers were safely brought over the sea to fight for us wherever they were needed. He then turned to the German invasion of Belgium and France, and showed what a tremendous instrument of war was launched at a small, inoffensive power like Belgium, and used with ruthless cruelty to crush out all opposition — the resistance of Liege, the crushing of Namur, the wicked destruction of Louvain, the awful atrocities committed upon the citizens, men and women, of Belgian towns, were briefly sketched. The appearance of " General French's contemptible little army " at Mons, when it was struck by a German force five times as large — the heroic retreat to Paris, outrivalling the famous retreat to Corunna — the condition of exhaustion on September 6th whe.i the army lay in the shelter of a forest, when news came that made the British think there was nothing for it but to die game on the morrow — the good news on the morrow of General von Klucks blunder in marching to the south-east, and thus exposing his flank to General French and to the French army occupying Paris — the tremendous blow by British and French armies which sent General von Kluck's army reeling into the next German army- — the successive blows which were struck by the various French armies on the Marne on the flanks of the German armies exposed as a conssquence of von Kluck's blunder — the iv treat of the Gennan armies from the Marne to the Aisne, were all lightly sketched by the lecturer. Then followed a thrilling account of what the lecturer described as one of the greatest battles in history — the battle of Ypr^s — in which the Kaiser tried to capture Calais, anel open the door for an attack upon England and another assault upon Paris. The heroism of the British soldier at Ypres was never surpassed ; with a loss of 50,000 men they inflicted a loss of 300,000 upon the Germans ; saved England from the threat of invasion, and Paris from assault. The lecturer concluded by briefly referring to the part being played in the war by the Red Cross service. Nurses, doctors, clergy- — all had opportunities of serving their country nobly <> nd well, and he was assureel New Zealand nurses would be second to none in fidelity to duty.