Part 10 (1/2)
The overt acts came quickly. Between February 3 and April 1 eight American merchant-s.h.i.+ps were sunk, and more than forty American lives were destroyed by the Potsdam pirates.
The die was cast. On April 2, 1917, the President advised Congress that the United States could no longer delay the formal acceptance of ”the status of belligerent which had been thrust upon it.” On April 6 Congress took the necessary action. On the same day the President proclaimed that ”a state of war exists between the United States and the Imperial German Government.”
Back of this momentous and n.o.ble decision, in which the hearts of the immense majority of Americans are with the President, there are undoubtedly many strong and righteous reasons. Some of these I have tried to set forth in the first part of this article. But we must never forget that the specific reason given by the President, the definite cause which forced us into the war, is the German method of submarine warfare, which he has repeatedly denounced as illegal, immoral, inhuman--a direct and brutal attack upon us and upon all mankind. These words cannot be forgotten, nor is it likely that the President will retract them.
They set up at least one steadfast mark in the midst of the present flood of peace talk. There can be no parley with a criminal who is in full and exultant practice of his crime. Unless the U-boat warfare is renounced, repented of, and abandoned by the Potsdam pirates, an honorable peace is unattainable except by fighting for it and winning it. [Footnote 8]
[Footnote 8: Belgian Relief s.h.i.+ps sunk: S.S. Camilla, Trevier, Feistein, Storstad, Lars Kruse, Euphrates. Haelen, and Tunis (the last two sh.e.l.led but not sunk).
Hospital s.h.i.+ps sunk: Britannic (probably but not certainly torpedoed); Asturias, March 24. 1917; Gloucester Castle, March 30; Donegal, April 17; Lanfranc, April 17 (with British wounded and German wounded prisoners).
Among the neutral nations Norway alone has lost more than six hundred s.h.i.+ps by mines and torpedoes of German origin. The dance of death still goes on.]
IV
Only a little s.p.a.ce is left for writing of my retirement from the post at The Hague and my experiences thereafter in England and France.
The reader may have gathered from the tenor of these chapters that the work at the legation was hard and that the situation was trying to a man with strong convictions and the habit of expressing them frankly. My resignation was tendered in September, 1916, with the request that it should not be made public until after the re-election of President Wilson, which I earnestly desired and expected. My reasons for resigning were partly of a domestic nature. But the main reason was a personal wish to get back to my work as a writer, ”with full freedom to say what I thought and felt about the war.”
The German-American press has tried to start a rumor that I was recalled to Was.h.i.+ngton to explain my action on a certain point. That is absolutely and entirely false. The government never asked for an explanation of anything in my conduct while in office, or afterward. On the contrary, the President has been kind enough to express his approval of my services in terms too friendly to be quoted here.
In November, after President Wilson had been triumphantly chosen for a second term, I ventured to recall his attention to my letter of September. He answered that he would ”reluctantly yield” to my wishes, but would appreciate my remaining at The Hague until a successor could be found for the post. Of course I willingly agreed to this.
In December the name of this successor was cabled to me with instructions to find out whether he would be acceptable to the Queen and the Government of Holland. Her Majesty said that this gentleman would certainly be persona grata, and I cabled to Was.h.i.+ngton to this effect.
Early in January a message came from the Secretary of State saying that, as all was arranged except the final confirmation of the appointment, I might feel free to leave at my convenience. Having cleaned up my work and left everything in order for my successor (including the lease of my house), I took s.h.i.+p from Flus.h.i.+ng for England on January 15, 1917.
The voyage through the danger zone was uneventful. The visit to England was unforgettable.
Everywhere I saw the evidences that Great Britain was at war, in earnest, and resolved to ”carry on” with her Allies until the victory of a real peace was won.
Women and girls were at work in the railway stations, on the trams and omnibuses, in the munition factories, in postal and telegraph service, doing the tasks of men. We shall have to revise that phrase which speaks of ”the weaker s.e.x.”
By night London was
”Dark, dark, dark, irrecoverably dark.”
But it was not still, nor terrified by the instant danger of Zeppelin raids. Every time a German vulture pa.s.sed over England dropping bolts of indiscriminate death, it woke the heart of the people to a new impulse, not of fear but of hot indignation.
By day the great city swarmed with eager life. Business was going on at full swing, though not ”as usual.” Women were driving trucks, carrying packages, running ticket-offices. Men in khaki outnumbered those in civilian dress. Wounded soldiers hobbled cheerfully along the streets.
The parks were adorned with hospitals. Mrs. Pankhurst spoke from a soap-box near the Marble Arch; not now for woman-suffrage--”That will come,” she said, ”but the great thing to-day is to carry on the war to a victory for freedom!”
Oxford--gray city of the golden dream, Learning's fairest and most lovely seat in all the world--Oxford was transformed into a hospital for the wounded, a training-camp for new soldiers, a nursery of n.o.ble manhood equipped for the stern duties of war.
Every family that I knew was in grief for a dear one lost on the field of glorious strife. But not one was in mourning. The great sacrifice was bravely accepted as a part of the greater duty.
The friends with whom I talked most--men like Lord Bryce, Sir Sydney Lee, Sir Herbert Warren, Sir Robertson Nicoll, Sir William Osler--were lovers of peace, tried and well-known. All were of one mind in holding that Britain's faith and honor bound her to accept the war when Germany violated Belgium, and that it must be fought through until the Prussian military autocracy which began it was broken.
There were restricted rations in England; but no starvation and no sign of it. There were partisan criticisms and plenty of ”grousing.” The Britisher is never contented unless he can grumble--especially at his own government. But there was no lack of a real unity of purpose, nor of a solid, cheerful, bull-dog determination to hang on to the enemy until he came down. It is this spirit that has enabled a nation, which was almost ignorant of what military preparedness meant, to put between three and four million troops into the field in defense of justice and liberty.