outrageous my simple young sportsman from Singapore would whistle for his war canoe crew; paddle over to the Imperial Palace; sip coffee; smoke an enormous Sultanic cheroot; exchange a very few words with this august representative of Mahomet and then once more mount his war canoe and paddle back to his bungalow. All this was purely a pleasant piece of every day platonic politeness. No sabre was rattled, no mailed fist unveiled, no harsh words uttered. Our listless British visitor (his name was McArthur) merely remarked in a careless way-referring to some murderous or thieving project-"Yes-it has its good points, but, I wouldn't do it just nowit wouldn't look well on paper-they don't like those things in London-queer people, the English-yes-very-good day-etc.!!" Now this little episode has no particular importance unless you read on and learn that when the old Sultan died a few years later his empire became part of an English colony so quietly that few noticed what happened; and none regretted the change, least of all the natives. . Only those of superficial thinking talk of England as "gobbling up" or "conquering" colonial territory. This view is Prussian by origin and American by adoption. The truth is that in the last three quarters of a century Britain has had colonial responsibilities thrust upon her; has sought to divest herself of them but has been finally forced to expand not merely by the call of her countrymen but by that of the natives. In 1898 Stewart Lockhart was Colonial Secretary in Hong-Kong-the same who incorporated the adjacent territory of Kowloon. He is now Governor of Wei-Hai-Wei ruling another Chinese area, about 100 miles from Kiao-Chau. Here as in the southern post, not only does he find the Chinese contented under the British flag, but desirous of fighting under it and against the hated German. LUGARD'S WORK IN CHINA During my last visit to Hong-Kong (1910) the Governor (General Sir Frederick Lugard) laid the foundation stone of a Chinese University. The money for this important seat of learning was contributed largely if not entirely by Chinese merchants and officials. The three faculties of medicine, morals and engineering were represented and the purpose was to save Chinese students the cost of the journey to England by arranging for examinations in Hong-Kong that should entitle the candidates to degrees equal to those of the London University. Here then was the military governor of a British colony on Chinese territory commanding so completely the confidence of the public, no less than the officials, that they reared under the guns of his fortress a purely Chinese school of learning in perfect reliance on the word of an English administrator. So far I have met no one who ever heard of this Hong-Kong University, but I venture to think that in the history of our race no prouder page could be written than that which recorded this proof of British uprightness in her dealings with China. To be sure Sir Frederick Lugard deserves much credit; but without the system which permits the rise of such men, there would be in Hong-Kong the same dull colonial routine that has made Germany lose all her million square miles of colony at the first sound of a bugle proclaiming war against Prussianism. The name of Lugard was honored already some thirty years ago when first I had the honor of grasping his honest hand. He was then a young and very impecunious captain thirsting for an opportunity of getting killed or anything else that would keep him alive. He went to Eastern Africa, soon showed that he had in him the stuff of the empire builder and has risen from one post to another until now he is to Africa what Lord Roberts was to India. The word system I have used for want of a better. Perhaps I might say with more exactness that England's colonial success has been due to the fact that she never has had any system-at least in theory. Had the London Colonial office formulated a scientific theory of Colonial administration akin to that which Berlin has for thirty years applied to her tropical dependencies, the result might have been almost as disastrous. Fortunately for British fame, the very absence of uniformity or system permitted each Colonial administrator to apply to each native territory the rules most conformable to native custom or prejudice. It is the mania of the orthodox official to simplify his work by making rules to which all must conform. Now we know that no two people are alike even in our own state or village; yet a Prussian Minister will send out a book of paragraphs according to which all natives are to be ruled whether Mahommedan or Buddhist; Bantu or Papuan. The Berlin official cannot see why the drill regulations of the Potsdam garrison are not equally applicable to the Kanaka of Samoa or the Herero of West Africa. Nor can the German people penetrate the careless generosity of a British parliament, capable of permitting one million square miles of colonial territory to pass under the Kaiser's yoke merely because Queen Victoria was partial to things German and the British public dreamed the dream of the Pacifist and believed that the rule of William II meant the Rule of Peace throughout the colonial world. Germany gladly seized the colonies which England released and ever since that time has waged a campaign of hatred and slander against her benefactor. Yet to-day England can arm the natives in any one of her dependencies and turn them against our common enemy, whereas after thirty years of Prussianizing not a colony of the Kaiser but rejoices when the black eagle drops from over the governor's gate-way. INDIA A HUGE SUCCESS rule as affecting black, yellow, brown or alien races. We have known of German machination and money widely distributed for the purpose of compelling the mother country to employ her army in quelling rebellious natives 1 rather than helping Frence on the western front. We have seen the Prussian plot a failure and the duplicity of the Berlin cabinet exposed. We have had the profound joy of seeing generosity rewarded; of seeing the natives of every creed, color and climate raising their voices in one common chorus of disgust at the cruelty, the treachery, the sacrilegious mutilations done by a Prussian monarch who dared to proclaim himself the apostle of Kultur! The Afghan from the Khyber; the Hindoo from Benares or Madras; the Zulu, Matabele or Basuto; the swarthy men of the Malay Archipelago; millions of Chinese and every island from the Bahamas to Trinidad—not a race, not a religion but would unite with Great Britain in driving back to his Baltic swamps and pine barrens the desecrater of Rheims-the unmistakable offspring of Europe's traditional enemy who have for near twenty centuries plundered on the outskirts of white man's civilizationtheir name has varied-now Goth, now Vandal -now Hun-now Hohenzollern. Is India an exception? Germans have wearied me for many years by their tales of alleged native discontent, and their groaning under the heels of British military boots! But how many military boots would be needed, think you, in order to successfully trample down a discontented population of 400 millions of intelligent people? These are matters so elementary that they are not to be discussed in the pages of such a review. The reader has but to consult the "Statesmen's Year Book" or any respectable almanac and there learn that in all India Britain maintains a military establishment so minuscule as to deserve the name of a merely nominal police force. It is some years since I was in Delhi and Calcutta (1910) but it needed no special training for any observer to note that the emissary of the Kaiser was at work there as in this country' working up a propaganda hostile to the government. In every German colony Englishmen have been hampered if not wholly prevented from doing business. On the contrary, Ger-, man commercial agents have been accorded equal rights and generous treatment wherever they moved under the British flag and this hospitality has been shamefully abused for the purpose not merely of spying but of organizing sedition under the specious cloak of socialistic pacifism. So far I have referred only to British Colonial Shall I say yet a word of the white man's greater Britain-Australia, New Zealand, North America, South Africa? Do we not all recall the monotonous assurances of Prussian professors that this war would be the signal for every colony to throw off the British Yoke! Alas, poor Prussia! When God distributed his gifts to the races of mankind he gave quick wits to the Yankee, laughter to the Negro and infinite patience to the Chinaman. But to thee, as to the donkey, he gave an impenetrable hide and total absence of humor. So go on with the war-it has made the Boer and Briton march together like brothers against the man who wrote the Kruger despatch; it has made Canada and Australia glad to pour out their blood in the trenches of France but above all, O Prussian donkey, I bless thy pachydermatous propaganda for thou hast at last opened the eyes of this good natured nation to the snake like quality of thy professions and the deadening effect of thy Kultur. The war is costly; the war is deadly and the end is not in sight; but however costly in death or dollars it can never be a price too high to pay if it restore to us our dignity as a nation and our manhood as Americans. THROUGH THE HOSTILE LINES A Zeppelin Attack on the Civilian Part of Antwerp and the Damage It DidHazards of Going Through the German and Belgian Lines-The B Journal of an American Diplomatic Officer FOURTH INSTALMENT BY HUGH GIBSON (Formerly First Secretary of the American Legation at Brussels) RUSSELS, August 27, 1914.-The day after my last entry [August 22d], I started on a trip to Antwerp, got through the lines, and managed to wriggle back into Brussels last night after reëstablishing telegraph communication with the Department and having a number of other things happen to and around about me. All I can remember now of the 23d is that it was a Sunday and that we could hear cannonading all day long from the east. It was hard to tell just where it came from, but it was probably from the direction of Wavre and Namur. It was drizzly all day. The German troops continued to pour through the city. From time to time during the last few days their march has been interrupted for a couple of hours at a time-apparently as a result of a determined attempt on the part of the French and English to stop the steady flow of troops toward the French frontier. Each time we could hear the booming of the cannon-the deep voices of the German guns and the sharp, dry bark of the French. At night we have seen the searchlights looking for the enemy or flashing signals. Despite the nearness of all this fighting and the sight of the wounded being brought in, the streets barred off to keep the noisy traffic away from the hospitals, and all the other signs of war, it has still been hard to realize that it was so near us. Our little German General von Jarotzky has kept clicking his heels together and promising us anything we chose to ask; we had run around day after day with our telegrams, and not one had got further than the Hôtel de Ville. Being naturally somewhat touchy, we got tired of this after a few days and decided that the only way to get any news to Washington was for me to go to Antwerp and get into direct communication over the cable from there. We told General von Jarotzky what we intended to do and he was all smiles and anxiety to please. At our request he had an imposing passport made out for me signed with his hand and authorized with his seal. The Burgomaster wrote out an equally good letter for use when we reached the Belgian lines. We wanted to get away during the morning, but one thing after another came up and I was kept on the jump. We had to stop and worry about our newspaper correspondents who have wandered off again. Morgan came wandering in during the morning and announced that he and Davis had set out on foot to see whether there was any fighting near Hal. They had fallen in with some German forces advancing toward Mons. After satisfying themselves that there was nothing going on at Hal or Enghien, Morgan decided that he had had enough walking for one day and was for coming home. Davis felt that they were too near the front to give up, and with a Sherlock Holmes sagacity announced that if they stuck to these German troops they would succeed in locating the French and British armies. Morgan thought this so probable that he was all for coming back and left Davis tramping along behind an ammunition wagon in search of adventure. He found it. After getting out of their trouble at Louvain, McCutcheon, Cobb, and Lewis set forth on another adventure. There are, of course, no motor cars or carriages to be had for love or money, so they invested in a couple of aged bicycles and a donkey cart. Cobb perched gracefully on top of the donkey cart and the other two pedalled alongside on their wheels. They must have been a funny outfit, and at last accounts were getting along all right. After formally filing all our telegrams with the German General, Blount and I got under way at half past two. We pulled out through the northern end of the city toward Vilvorde. There were German troops and supply trains all along the road but we were not stopped until we got about half way to V. Then we heard a loud roar from a field of cabbages we were passing, and, looking around, discovered what looked like a review of the Knights of Pythias. A magnificent looking man on horseback, wearing several orders, surrounded by a staff of some ten or twelve others, was riding toward us through the cabbages, waving angrily at us to stop. The whole crowd surrounded the car and demanded hotly how we dared venture out of town by this road. While they were industriously blowing us up, the Supreme Potentate observed the sign on the front of the car, GESANDTSCHAFT DER VEREINIGTEN STAA TEN, whereupon he came straightway to salute and kept it up. The others all saluted most earnestly and we had to unlimber and take off our hats and bow as gracefully as we could all hunched up inside a little racing car. Then I passed out our pass, which the Chief of Staff read aloud to the assembled notables. They were all most amiable, warned us to proceed with great caution, driving slowly, stopping every hundred yards, and to tear back toward town if popping began in our immediate neighborhood. They were so insistent on our not getting in the way of bullets that I had to assure them in my best rusty German that we were getting into this ragged edge of their old war simply because it was necessary, for business reasons, and not because of any ardent desire to have holes shot through us. They all laughed and let us go our way with a final caution. From that time on we were in the midst of German patrols. We religiously observed the officers' advice to drive slowly and keep a look-out. Five minutes later we began to meet peasants running away from their homes in the direction of Brussels. They reported fighting near Malines and said that we were running straight into it. They were a badly frightened lot. We decided that the only thing to do was to go ahead, feeling our way carefully and come back, or wait if things got too hot for us. We were stopped several times by troops crossing the road to get into trenches that were already prepared, and once to wait while a big gun was gotten into place. It was a ticklish business to come around a turn in the road and light on a hundred men sneaking along behind a hedge with their rifles ready for instant action. Just beyond Eppeghem we met a troop of cavalry convoying a high cart filled with peasants who had evidently been taken prisoners. The officer in charge was a nervous chap who came riding at us brandishing his revolver, which he had tied to the pommel of his saddle with a long cord. He was most indignant that we had been allowed to come this far and reluctantly admitted that our pass was good. All the time he talked with us and told us of the skirmishing ahead he kept waving that large blunderbuss in our faces. I tried a little humor on him by saying as nearly as the unwieldy structure of the German tongue would permit: "Please point. that thing the other way; you can never tell when it may go off and hurt somebody." He was quite solemn about it, however, and. assured us that he had perfect control over it, emphasizing his remarks by shaking it under our noses. I was glad to get out of his range, for verily believe that if somebody had shouted boo! he would have let that gun off with a bang. The German officers we talked with from time to time said that the Belgians were advancing and that several skirmishes had taken place; that a big engagement was expected during the night or in the morning. We passed the last of the German outposts about two miles this side of Malines, but for fear we might tell on them they would not tell us whether we had any more of their kind ahead of us. We shot along through the open country between the last Germans and the edge of Malines at a fairly good rate and kept a lookout for the English flag which we had 'been given to understand was flying from the tower of the Cathedral. That is what we had been given to understand in Brussels; but along the road they were very noncommittal about the whereabouts of the British troops. When we finally did get a clear view of the Cathedral spires we saw the Belgian flag standing straight out in the good breeze that was blowing, and while that showed that the English troops had not taken over the place it at least convinced us that the Germans were behind us. As we drove through the little suburb on this side of the canal which runs through the edge of the town, we found that all the houses were battened up tight. One lone man who came out from a little café told us that the Germans had been through about fifteen minutes before and had shot up the town until they were driven off by a small force of Belgian cavalry which had appeared from nowhere and had as quickly gone back to the same place. Not knowing what forces were ready to start in again on short notice, all the inhabitants who were fortunate enough to have cellars were hiding in them, and the rest were trying to get into town as best they could, leaving their belongings. When we reached the canal we found that the drawbridge had been taken up and that there was no way to get across. There were a few gendarmes on the other side of the canal and a few carts on our side. All hands were anxious to get across, but the Burgomaster had ordered traffic suspended until things had quieted down. We prevailed upon a genial gendarme to run back and get orders to govern our special case. After waving our credentials and showing how much influence we had with the local administration we were quite popular with the panic-stricken peasants, who wanted to get into the town. Orders came very soon and we made straight for the Hôtel de Ville to thank the Burgomaster for letting us in and also to pick up any news he had as to conditions. We did not get any great amount, however, as he could not get over the fact that we had come straight through from Brussels without having been shot by the German or the Belgian patrols who were out with orders to pick up strays like us. We tried several times to get information out of him, but he could do nothing but marvel at our luck and above all at our prouesse, which left him quite bowled over. We gave him up and went our way. He has had other things to marvel about since. Not far out of Malines we ran into the first Belgian outpost. When we were about fifty yards from them they surged across the road and began brandishing rifles, swords, lances, a veritable armory of deadly weapons. Blount put on the emergency brakes and we were bracing for quick and voluble explanations when we saw that they were all grinning broadly and that each one was struggling to get our particular attention. We had our laisser-passers in our hands and waved them in the air; no one would pay the slightest heed to them. From the hubbub that was seething about our ears we learned that ten minutes or so before they had finished a little brush with the Germans and that the articles they had been waving in our faces were the trophies of the combat. Each fellow was anxious to show us what he had taken and to tell just how he had done it. They seemed to take it for granted that we were friends and would enjoy the sight and share their delight. One of the boys-a chap about eighteen-held aloft a huge pair of cavalry boots which he had pulled off a German he had killed. It was a curious mixture of childish pride and the savage rejoicing of a Fiji Islander with a head he has taken. We admired their loot until they were satisfied, and then prevailed upon them to look at our papers, which they did in a perfunctory way. Then, after shaking hands all round, they sent us on with a cheer. We were hero-curiosities as the first civilians who had got through from the German lines since the occupation of Brussels. And perhaps we were not glad to be safely inside the Belgian lines! It was nervous work that far, but once inside we found everybody friendly and got through without any trouble, although we were stopped every kilometre or so. Soon after we passed the first outposts we began passing Belgian troops advancing toward Malines in large force. They seemed in good spirits and ready for anything. Our position here has gone steadily up since the beginning of the hostilities, and everywhere we went the flag was cheered and we got a warm welcome. We had a slow time of it working our way through the fortifications and convincing posts every fifty yards that we were all right. This forward movement of the troops was a part of a concerted operation by which the Belgians were to attempt to retake Malines and Brussels while the main German army was engaged in attacking Mons and Charleroi. About twelve kilometres out of Antwerp we were stopped at a little house and asked if we would take a wounded man into town to the hospital. He had been shot through the hand and was suffering from shock and loss of blood but was able to chew on a huge chunk of bread all the way into town. He had no interest in anything else, and after trying one or two questions on him I let him alone and watched the troops we were passing. They were an unbroken line all the way in and a lot of them had not left town. The whole Belgian army and a lot of the Garde Civique were inside the ring of forts and were all being put on the road with full contingents of supply wagons, ambulances, and even the dog artillery. These little chaps came tugging along the road and turned their heads to bark at us. |