Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 11 March 1915, Page 21

Current Topics

Our Admirals’ Despatches : ••'V v .., * Our cables are now giving us details of the despatches forwarded by Admiral Sturdee after the Falkland Islands naval tight on December 5, and by Admiral Beatty after the North Sea fight of January 24; and they make interesting and thrilling reading. After reading , these two reports, and the earlier despatches of Sir John French, one cannot help reflecting what admirable war correspondents our present military and naval leaders would have made. All the essentials of engagements that lasted the better part of a day are given in a few swift strokes and the absence of anything in the way of embroidery or embellishment only serves to render the narrative more vivid and effective. A feature of both fights was the superior skill in manoeuvring shown by the victors. In the Falkland Islands fight the German ships from the first had apparently little chance, and the result was only a matter of time. The Germans appear to have fought with the utmost bravery ; but apart from being outclassed they had little luck, and the damage sustained by the British was merely nominal. * In the North Sea clash, the Germans apparently ' tried every device —Zeppelins, submarines, seaplanes, and destroyers emitting vast volumes of smoke—to cover their escape, but the ‘ Beatty touch ’ was too much for them. An article in the Christinas number of the I Vmdsor Magazine thus hits off the characteristics of the Wexford fighting man—characteristics which were again •exemplified in the North Sea contest: ‘ We looked for courage and dash in Bear-Admiral Sir David Beatty, who won his rank as commander for gallantry on the Nile, and that of captain for conspicuous skill and daring in China two years later. During the action in the bight of Heligoland his reputation ’Was finely vindicated, when on board the Lion lie led in i life battle cruiser squadron to the assistance of the smaller vessels fighting against odds with German cruisers and destroyers amid a sea of mines. Happiest in the hour of strife, Sir David was a joyful man that day.’ Joyful again, doubtless, on January 24. but, with a joy tempered by the reflection that but for one lucky German 5 shot he would have ‘sunk the lot/ It is gratifying to note that the New Zealand played an active and really useful part in compassing and completing the victory, and that three of her men are singled out by Admiral Beatty for special honorable mention. Spite of the critics, our Dreadnought—if we may be allowed to mix our metaphorshas proved itself anything but a white elephant. Archbishop O’Reily on the War Dr. O’Reily, the genial and universally beloved Archbishop of Adelaide, has been playing the role of war prophet—not willingly, indeed, but perforce, under pressure from the insistent interviewer. His Grace does not, of course, claim to speak as a military expert; still less does he pretend to any preternatural power of prevision. In addition to his natural gifts as a capable and shrewd observer, he has, however, certain credentials which entitle him to speak on the subject, the chief «f these being that in his comments and predictions on previous wars —covering the very lengthy period of 35 years—he has invariably proved a good ‘ guesser.’ ‘ I hate wars,’ said his Grace, to the Ade>laide Mail, representative. ‘lf I had my way there would never be one drop of human blood shed in war again. . . . Yet when war comes, in the actual study of the campaign, ( I find a grim fascination, only equal to the fascination I used to feel in working out complicated mathematical problems,,when I was a growing lad. For certainly 35 years I have followed every campaign with the keenest interest. A campaign had never started, but almost from the start I had my mind made up as to what the issue was to be. I was often

laughed at for my pains. . I was often challenged in my statements. ' Yet I cannot rememberl . speak with reluctance but with ’ honestythat I ’ was ’even’ once wrong in my forecasts. 1 Sometimes,! allowed a margin in my prediction, but; within that margin my words always proved true.’ After such a record, hte Grace’s opinion in regard to the outcome . and duration of the present war must be listened to with some measure of respect. On the latter point his opinion is quite definite and decided—the war, Dr. O’Reily declares, will end between October and December of this year. * As to the lines along which the struggle will proceed, and, in particular, as to the development and denouement of the naval situation, the Archbishop is perfectly clear. So far as the latter is concerned, three hours will settle it all. After illustrating, in homely fashion, the obstacles which make it impossible at present for Admiral Jellicoe to attack and make an end of the German fleet, his Grace continues ‘ The Brandenburger fleet has-its nest in the Kiel Canal. That nest is fenced in with mines and torpedoes. Jellicoe cannot go, in. But when the Allies, having crossed the Rhine, begin their advance towards Berlin, while the French take their way by the south, the English and the Belgians will advance by the north. Their advance will cut off completely the communication of the fleet with their capital city. For the Brandenburger fleet there will be no reinforcements, no fresh supplies of provisions or ammunition. The Brandenburger fleet will perforce leave its nest. Then will come a three hours’ fight and the fleet’s history will be over. Some of the ships will flutter back with broken wings to ,the shelter of their guns and of their loved torpedoes; some will go to the bottom; some, manned by English sailors, and commanded by English officers, will be -next heard of when they make fast to the Admiralty wharfs at Rossyth, Sheerness, or Devonport. When next they go to sea they will go flying the white ensign with the stately cross of St. George displayed thereon.’’ We think the three hours estimate is rather optimistic; but for the rest there is a smack of reasonableness and probability about these predictions, and it will be by no means matter for surprise if, when December comes round, it is found that the Archbishop has made a freeh addition to his laurels. Germany and Poland Mr. Raymond E. Swing, war correspondent for the Chicago Dally ears, has just made public his analysis of the war situation and his views regarding the probable outcome of the struggle, formed after three months’ travels in France, Germany, Belgium, and England. The general tone of his utterance gives one the impression that he is more than friendly to Germany, but at least he makes some attempt to be fair; and his pro-German sympathies give an added value, of course, to such admissions as he feels himself compelled to make. He frankly acknowledges that England is now facing the war in a spirit of entire confidence. 1 I was very much impressed,’ he says, ‘ with the difference in the British attitude toward the war, which developed from September to December. When I was first in England, the British were not at all alive to what the war meant, the sacrifices and problems which it involved. There was less knowledge and there was less confidence. London to-day seems much more quietly confident, the people now seem to realise what is going on, and they are facing the facts. So far as I could gather, England expects to win the war with her navy, and one of the important factors will be in preventing Germany from getting supplies. England will go just as far as the neutral nations will let her in trying to stop all contraband of war. She is determined to get the most out of her sea power, in this respect. She will not go so far as to proveike serious trouble, and I gather from what I heard that she is now feeling her way as to just how far she can go in the matter of stopping neutral cargoes.’ That was written, late in December. If it is a correct account of England’s plans and policy, it

is evident that the Kaiser, with his paper blockade, has played right into Britain’s hands, and furnished just the lever which she" needed to ; develop© her forward policy. If she was, really feeling her way as to how far she could go in the matter of stopping neutral cargoes, she has done so with some success', having now reached the stage of practically stopping them altogether. As to the actual outcome of the struggle, this returned correspondent is of opinion that the war will end in a draw. He does not believe that it will be possible for either side to score a decisive victory. Germany, he admits, cannot' advance much farther to the east or west, and the Allies will be unable, in his opinion, to penetrate either of the strongly fortified German frontiers. . That, of course, remains to be seen; but this general view of the position is interesting as showing that even the friends and admirers of Germany cannot see that she can possibly win through. * But to the English reader, especially at the present juncture, the special interest of Mr. Swing’s statements will be found to consist in the disclosures which they make as to the German plans in regard to Poland. On this point the American correspondent has something new to tell us. ‘ The Russians knew,’ he says, ‘ that they would have to swing superior numbers against Germany to win. They have probably been in a majority of two to one, some say three to one, but Hindenburg’s strategy has carried the day. If the Germans take Warsaw, they will establish winter quarters there. I do not believe that they will be able to carry the war a farther distance into Russia. The taking of Warsaw will v enable them to carry into effect some interesting plans relative to the Kingdom of Poland, about which very little, so far, has leaked out. My information is that Germany proposes to establish an autonomous Polish Kingdom, with a Polish King, and bearing the same relation to the German Empire as the Kingdoms of Saxony and Bavaria. This indicates that Poland will get a square deal out of this war, whichever way it goes.’ This, it will be remembered, was written about the end of December. It furnishes an explanation of the continuous and reckless wastage of human life in the tremendous efforts to capture Warsaw, and it gives us, also, some measure of the disappointment which Germany must feel at the prolonged failure of those efforts. * i Germany, according to the American correspondent, has not yet quite made up her mind as to what is to be done with Belgium. ‘ German public opinion,’ he says, * is strongly divided as to what shall be done with Belgium at the end of the war. There is a group of influential men in Berlin who want Germany to give it up absolutely as soon as the war is over. They point to the fact that as Germany has not been successful in assimilating the Poles and the Alsatians, they do not wish her to assume any further burdens of this kind. Then there are the extremists, on the other side, made up largely of the military element. They want to keep Belgium and make it a new “Neu Deutschland,” a name they have already given it. Then there is a third or intermediate group, and in my opinion its influence will ultimately prevail. It wishes Germany to maintain the right of free passage through Belgian territory in case of war, and to prevent Belgium from putting any obstacle in the way of a German military advance.’ Any worry cr discussion on the mart of Germany as to what will be done with Belgium is at least premature, and perhaps unnecessary. It is one of those problems which, as we all hope, will in large measure be settled for her. The War and Christianity A good deal has been said—mostly, we are sorry to say, in allegedly Christian circles, by the Mr. Doubtings and Mr. Fainthearts of various religious bodies—as to the evidence winch the war affords of the failure of Christianity. The world, it is said, has had nineteen centuries of Christianity, and is this all there is to show for it? No, it is not all. Brutal, horrible,

hellish as the war is, it is only ah episode. : ' The records of the past are filled with the triumphs of Christianity, and when the present temporary lapse into lunacy and paganism is over, the records of the future, too, will be laden with fresh stories of ' the gracious victories of the Cross. After the war, indeed, Christianity’s great opportunity will come, and • once again, as described by the inspired prophet, it will carry out its great mission*— 4 to Jbind up the broken-hearted; to proclaim' liberty to the captives; to comfort all that mourn; to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.’ The rejection of Christian principles which has made the war possible was purely sectional. There has, been no breakdown of Christianity among the mass of the peoples but only amongst a" handful of junkers and potentates who happen for the moment to control the destinies of nations. How deep a hold, after all, Christian sentiment has upon the hearts even of the very fighters themselves is most strikingly illustrated in letters from the front describing how Christmas was celebrated in the trenches. * In France—at one section of the trenches at least it was a Catholic chaplain who began the good work of fraternising, and his overtures evoked immediate response from the German officers. An officer’s letter, published in the Dai/;/ Mail, tells the story. ‘ Dotted over the sixty yards separating the trenches were scores and scores of dead soldiers, and soon spades were flung up by comrades on guard in both trenches, and by instinct each side set to to dig graves for*their dead. Our padre had seized his chance and found the German commander very ready to agree that after the dead had been buried a short religious service should take place. He told us that the German commander and his officers were as anxious as the British could be to keep Christmas Day as a day of peace. This was quite in keeping with the behaviour of the Germans, who had kept up only an occasional firing on Christmas Eve, and were very busy singipg carols and glees.’ ‘ We did not know all that was being said,’ adds the officer, ‘ but afterwards we asked the padre two questions. The one was, “Why did you and the German commander take off your hats to one another?” What happened, as we learned, w*as: The German took his cigar-case out and offered the padre a cigar, which was accepted. The padre said: “May I be allowed not to smoke, but to keep this as a souvenir of Christmas here and of meeting you on Christmas Day?” The answer, with a laugh, was: “Oh, yes; but can’t you give me a souvenir?” Then the hats came off. For the souvenir the padre gave was the copy of “The Soldier’s Prayer” \thich he had carried in the lining of his cap since the war began, and the German officer, in accepting it, took off his cap and put the slip in its lining, saying as he did it: “I value this because I believe what it says, and when the war is over I shall take it out and give it as a keepsake to my youngest child.” ’ What was in the notebook was interesting enough to be worth recording. 4 The second question was, “What was in the notebook the German commander showed you?” The answer was that he had been shown the name and address in England of a certain brave British officer. He had been killed, and as he was dying the commander happened to pass and saw him struggling to get something out of a pocket. He went up and helped the dying officer, and the thing in the pocket was a photograph of his wife. The commander said, “.I held it before him, and he lay looking at it till he died a few minutes after.” Our padre took down the name and address, and has been able to pass on the information to the bereaved home. . . * A similar spirit was displayed —and, to their credit be it said, the initiative appears to have been mostly taken by the German soldiersright along the lines. ‘ You need not have pitied us on Christmas Day,’ writes an officer in a Highland regiment. * I have seldom spent a more entertaining one, despite the curious conditions. We were in the trenches, and the Germans began to make

merry on Christmas Eve, shouting at us to comd out and meet them. I was horrified at discovering some of our men actually had gone out, imbued more with the idea of seeing the German trenches than anything else; they met half-way, and there ensued the-giving of cigarettes' and receiving of cigars, and they arranged (the private soldiers of one army and the private soldiers of the other) a -eight hours’ armistice. It was all most irregular. . . Christmas Day was very misty, and out came these Germans to wish us “A Happy Day”; we went , out, told them we were at war with them, and that really they must play the game and pretend to fight; they went back, but again attempted to come towards us, so we fired over their heads, they fired a shot back to show they understood, and the rest of the day passed quietly in this part of the line, but in others a deal of fraternising went on. So there you are; all this talk of hate, all this fury at each other that has. raged since the beginning of the war, quelled and stayed by the magic of Christmas.’ * Even in the Belgian —where, if anywhere, the spirit of unrelenting hatred might have been expected to hold sway—there is the same touching story of the Christmas truce. ‘ During the day of the 24th there was a rather severe cannonade,’ writes a Belgian soldier. ‘ln the evening the chaplain administered the Communion to the soldiers and heard confession in the cellar of a ruined house. We seemed to be living again in the time of the catacombs. Before us lay the town ; all is in ruins ; the houses that are left are rent and torn by shells and riddled by bullets. Of the church only part of the tower is left, and the priest, driven from his temple, was utilising instead an underground cellar, dark and wretched. Never shall I forget that touching ceremony, when amid the deafening roar of the guns I took Communion on Christmas Eve. Christmas in the trenches ! It must have been sad, do you say Well, lam not sorry to have spent it there, and the recollection of it will ever be one of imperishable beauty. At midnight a baritone stood up and in a rich resonant voice sang “ Minuit Chretien.’ The cannonade ceased, and when the hymn finished applause broke out from our side and —from the German trenches ! The Germans, too, were celebrating Christmas, and we could hear them singing 200 yards away from us. Now lam going to tell you something which you will think incredible, but I give you my word that it is true. At dawn the Germans displayed a placard over the trenches on which was written “Happy Christmas,” and then, leaving their trenches, unarmed, they advanced towards us singing and shouting “Comrades!” No one fired. We also had left our trenches and, separated from each other only by the half-frozen Yser, we exchanged presents. They gave us cigars, and we threw them some chocolate. Thus, almost fraternising, we passed all the morning. Unlikely, indeed, but true. I saw it, but thought I was dreaming. Was it not splendid Think you that we were wrong? We have been criticised here; it is said that we ought to have fired. But would it not have been dastardly? And then, why kill one another on such a festival day ?’ * There it — a remarkable and unanswerable testimony to the reality and vitality of the Christian spirit, under perhaps the severest test to which that spirit has ever been subjected. Spite of all precedents, spite of regulations, spite of the iron rule of militarism, the Christian sentiment and instinct asserted itself, and the sworn enemies became mutual friends. The moving incident of this Christmas in the trenches throws the whole brutal business of the war into its proper perspective, and gives a faint adumbration of what the world would be like were Christianity given free scope and play. No, Christianity has not failed. The word ‘ failure ’ implies that a thing has been tried and has not succeeded. The present war has been caused not by the failure but by the blind rejection of Christianity.