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Show 1 i 1 1 i in III t J;' ' ' h lii iL'Jv--J.' - l!:-:. i i-- w-pj , I (TfZRAL GALZlZm I 4 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON I jimmiiiai;ii Armistice da' kindles emotions I I TTJ B and memories in the minds of citl- I I ULf l ens of the na,ons wnicn participated I MH as no otl,er d'J$ in tht. year has at I I tt Present the power to do. says the I IJlI Cr,t'sn niilitary. historian. Capt. B. I EOT m jgl O. LIddell Hart, Id the epilogue of I isli hIs Donk- "T:ie Ke' War" published I I c recently by Lirrle, Brown and com- I I U R nany "For those who shared In the I I in ii experiences of those four and a quar- I ter years of. struggle thf commemoration does I not stale with repetition," he continues. "But the , I mood In which It is commemorated has under- I !gone subtle changes. On the original Armistice I itself the dominant note was a sigh of relief, of I Infinite volume, most restrained among those who I had the most direct cause for relief, most exuber- I ant, perhaps, among those who least appreciated I " the relief. . I "The earlier anniversaries were dominated by I two opposite emotions. On the one hand grief " I a keener sense, now that the storm had passed, I .of the vacant places In our midst. On the other I hand, triumph flamboyant only In rare cases. I . but nevertheless a heightened sense of victory, I that the enemy had been laid low. That mood I again has been modified. I "Armistice day has become more a commerao- I ration than a celebration. The passage of time I has refined and blended the earlier emotions, so I that, without losing sense of the personal loss I and of quiet thankfulness that as a nation we I proved our continued power to meet a crisis I graver than any In past annals, we are today I conscious, above all, of the general effects on I the world and on civilization. In this mood of I reflection we are more ready to recognize both I the achievements and the. point of view of our I late enemies, and perhaps all the more because I we realize that both the causes and the course I . of war are determined by the folly and the frailty I rather than by the deliberate evil of human I nature. I ' "The war has become history, and can be' I viewed In the perspective of history. For good I it has deepened our sense of fellowship and com- I munity of Interest, whether Inside the nation or I between nations. But. for good or bad. it has I shattered our faith In Idols, our hero-worshiping I belief that great men are different clay from com- ' I mon men. Leaders are still necessary, perhaps I more necessary, but r awakened realization of I their common humanity Is a safeguard against I either expecting from them, or trusting In them, I too much. It. lias been for the benefit of both I history and of future generations that the past I decade has seen such a flood of evidence and rev- I elation, of documents and memoirs. That most I of the actors are still alive provides an inval- I uable check In sifting the evidence, while the his- I torlung themselves have been so Immersed In Hie I atmosphere of war that they have a certain lm- I munity from the abstract theorizing which a his- I torlan in his cloistered study fifty years later so I easily contracts. We know nearly all that is to I be known. The one drawback is, that the flood I has been so huge that only the student has been I able to cope with Its investigation." I That excellent statement of the spirit of Arml- I Btice day, as it 8 observed now and as It will be I observed in the years to come. Is a fitting climax I to an excellent one-volume history of the World I war which gives, the reader, as probal.ly no other I single book lias yet done, a clear Idea of that con- I flict how It came to be. how It was fought and I how and why it resulted as It did. The rending I of It might well be a singularly fitting part of the I observance of Armistice day. For after one has I read what is written there, there Inevitablv I comes to the mind of the reader-thnt cry wrung I first from the hearts of the war-weury nations when at last the hideous nightmare of four years of slaughter was ended, the cry which has become be-come a solemn vow "It must not happen again!" And Armistice day Is a day for repeating that vow. ' f , The pacifists will gain no comfort from "The Real War." For It shows all too clearly that, unless un-less they can change human nature, their recipe for avoiding war can never be made to work. Nor will the militarists fiud in Its pages any arguments argu-ments to support their theories as to the best way to ward off the danger of war On the contrary, con-trary, the history of the World war constitutes the most damning indictment that can be brought against the extremists on both sides. But somewhere some-where in between lies the answer In the common sense of the masses of the people of all nations, ' who have to fighi the wars which are brought to them by their blundering peace leaders and who suffer most In those wars through the mistakes of their blundering war leaders. It is from out that common sense wit. Its Increased recognition of "the folly and frailty rather than the deliberate deliber-ate evil of human nature" and Its "deepened sense of fellowship and community Interest, whether Inside the nation or between nations" that there comes the sorrowing cry and the solemn sol-emn vow of "It must not happen again J" The fundamental causes of the World war can be epitomized In three words, according to Captain Cap-tain LIddell HarL They ure fear, hunger and ' pride fear of one nation by another, whether there was any real Justification for It or not; hunger for more territory and more prestige In the family of nations: ? I pride which would . not allow the lenders and diplomats of the various nations to recede from stands they had taken even though their statin could gain them no real advantage and wp. oiil another threat . at the peace of Europe. Although Allied propaganda during the war, and even after It. fixed the blame . for the war upon the Central Powers, the evidence evi-dence which this British historian brings forth shows that all the nations France. England. Russia, Rus-sia, Germany.. Austria-Hungary. Italy and the Balkan Bal-kan states had their share In the fear, the hunger hun-ger and the pride whlrh brought on the war. Theyorigins of the war went back imre than 40 years and by 1014 "the surface of the Continent Conti-nent was strewn with powder." The fatal spark was struck at Sernjevn. Die Bosnian capital, on June 23. 1014. However, even this spark might not have set off the explosion had It not been for the fact that In Germany. Austria and Russia, the military men. during the crisis Immediately preceding pre-ceding the uesassjriiitlon. had gained the upper . hand over their governments and were determined upon war. all inspired by a common fear of being caught off-guard In fact the blunders of military technique Is one of the main theiikes of this book. In It Moltkc. .. the German chief of stall, is shown as a blundering, blun-dering, war leader. He paints Ulndenburg imd Ludendorff us having grown great only in legend and ndulatioii. Allied military idols are as ruthlessly ruth-lessly exposed. Foch.ls shown as a much-overrated general, especially during Hie early part of , the war. Joffre fails to rise to Hie heights required re-quired of a great 'commander in chief because of lack of Initiative. LIddell Hart condemns '.his "unquenchable optimism divorced from reason." and shows that, popular opinion to the contrary notwithstanding. Joffre was not "the hero of the Marne." as his name has "ome down In nistory, nor a truly great military leader. In the four-year four-year struggle on the western front one stroke of Napoleonic genius In. noted and that was supplied by that most unmllitary of military men. General Galllenl, safely shelved when the war began in the Job of military governor of Paris. It was this professorial officer, In eyeglasses and yellow gal- ters. who saw the opportunity that Joffre did not see and Sir John" French did not see, who succeeded suc-ceeded in opening Joffre's eyes, with the result thnt an array was sent around Paris to strike the Germans on their exposed flank, stopping their advance and then forcing their retreat. This was - the first battle of the Marne. Nor does this British expert spare the military leaders of his own nation. It was blunders by high British oflicIalr"at home" which brought about th Dardanelles and Galllijiill fiasco when they refused-to refused-to heed the recommendations of their subordinates subordi-nates who. were on the' ground and knew best what was needed to make the campaign n success. suc-cess. It was thest same "arm chnlr warriors" who, though having had ample advance warning-of warning-of the German plans for using gas. either pooh-poohed pooh-poohed the idea or disregarded It entirely and If was the same men who delayed the adoption of tanks, which turned out to' be such a formidable formida-ble weapon, and then were only half-hearted In adoption of the Idea. Sir John French, the field commander who began the war. Is painted as "endlessly vacillating" and Sir Douglas Ilalg suffers suf-fers for his belief In his divine right to command and for his needless sacrifice of, men In the first three years of the war. . In fact It is that last factor which lends a tone of bitterness to the cry of. "It must not happen , again !" The masses of people of the nations might read Captain LIddell Hart's book and have only a casual Interest In his analysis of successful and unsuccessful military technique, of why this strategic stra-tegic move won and that tactical error lost a pawn In the great game of war. Nor would they' be Inclined to blame this general or that one for his failure. But when they read how this general or that one gambled with the lives of thousands of men when there was no real advantage to be gained and there is borne upon them the full horror of the needless slaughter of the young manhood of the nation then It Is that "It must not happen again!" takes on an ominous tone. Such cases are all too common In "The Real War." In It one reads how In September. 1!14. .loltre. "the unquenchable un-quenchable optimist" planned a break-through by the French and British in two sectors. His plan fulled. True, he did gain n slight amount of ground but the cost was a casualty list of 242.000! In 1!MS the world bailed I'oih as the general-lisslmo general-lisslmo of all the Allied forces who at last had brought victory. Rut Captain LIddell Hart's book reminds us that In 1 ! 1 1 r It was Foch who begged Sir John French to support French offensive to retake the Langernarck region at all costs.. So the British general hurled bis troops into r he attack and when his subordinates, seeing the uselessness of (thelr efforts, usked permission in withdraw. Sir John French, Influenced h.v Foch. overruled their wish and they were compelled to stay there to be in readiness to aid Hie French offensive. But that offensive never developed.' for finally "Foch confessed that Joffre. far from sending reinforcements, was calling for troops to be sent from Ypros to strengthen his forthcoming offensive offen-sive near Arras." F.ven after that the British commander kept his troops In the salient where they were "one huge artillery target, there to.be pounded and gassed Incessantly, with "their scanty ammunition running out. until relief came at" last, in the fourth week of May. through the Germans, exhausting their own' comparative superfluity of shells." The author of "The Real War" speaks volume? in these words: "To thrw good money after bails bai-ls foolish. But to throw away men's lives where there Is no reasonable chance of advantage is criminal. In the heat of battle. mistakes In the" command are Inevitable, and amply excusable. Rut the real Indictment of leadership arises when attacks at-tacks that are Inherently vain are ordered merely because If they could succeed they would, he useful. use-ful. For such 'manslaughter whether It springs from Ignorance, a faise conception of war, or a want of moral courage. commanders should- be held accountable to the-nation;"' ' ' " .' But lest one get the Idea that this British,' historian his-torian Is protesting , against the slaughter of his countrymen through the mistakes of the military leader of another nation, let It be recorded that he is no less strong in his denunciation of Britia?' . generals, too. , 4 ( by Western Newspaper . Union.) . |