solution. To-day it is not only the protection of a country related to us and unjustly attacked that we must safeguard but the honour, the dignity and the integrity of Russia and her position among the Great Powers. We believe our faithful subjects will rise with unanimity and devotion for the defence of Russian soil; that internal discord will be forgotten in this threatening hour; that the unity of the Emperor with his people will become still more close and that Russia, rising like one man, will repulse the insolent attack of the enemy. This was followed by a Manifesto (1) to the Poles from Grand Duke Nicholas, as Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armies, and another (2) to the Slav inhabitants of Austria-Hungary: I. TO THE POLES Poles! The hour has struck in which the fervent dream of your fathers and forefathers can be realized. A century and a half ago the living body of Poland was torn in pieces, but her soul has not perished. It lives on in the hope that the hour of the renaissance of the Polish nation, of its fraternal reconciliation with Great Russia, will come. Russian troops bring you the glad tidings of this reconciliation. May the frontiers be obliterated which split up the Polish nation. May it unite itself under the sceptre of the Russian Czar. Under this sceptre Poland will be born anew, free in her faith, her speech and her self-government. One thing only Russia expects from you-like regards for the rights of the nationalities with which history has connected you. With open heart, with outstretched brotherly hand, Great Russia approaches you. From the shores of the Pacific to the North Sea the Russian armies are marching. The dawn of a new life is opening upon you. May the Sign of the Cross shine forth from this glorious dawn-symbol of suffering and resurrection of nations. II. TO THE SLAVS The Government of Vienna declared war on Russia because the great Empire, faithful to its historic traditions, could not abandon inoffensive Serbia or permit her enslavement. Peoples of Austria-Hungary, in making my entry into the territory of Austria-Hungary I declare to you, in the name of the Great Czar, that Russia, who has often shed her blood for the emancipation of nations from a foreign yoke, seeks only the restoration of right and justice. To you, peoples of Austria-Hungary, Russia also brings liberty and the realization of your national hopes. During long centuries the AustroHungarian Government sowed among you discord and hostility, for she knew that your quarrels were the basis of her empire over you. Russia, on the other hand, only aims at enabling each of you to develop and prosper while preserving the precious heritage of your fathers-your language and your faith-and allowing each of you, united to his brethren, to live in peace and harmony with his neighbours, respecting their national rights. The War followed in a long succession of 1914 victories and reverses, advances and retirements. When it commenced there was talk of Russia having called out 9,000,000 men. If so, not more than two or three million men were available at the close of the year. Since the Japanese War a great and effective re-organization had been going on; that it was not completed the first months of the new and greater struggle proved. A united Russia, was, however, behind the armies, new officers of an improved type were in command, modern equipment was available up to a certain point and, under rush construction for future movements, volunteer soldiers over vast spaces were drilling and preparing, skilled horsemen from the steppes of Central Asia and the Caucasus to the plains of European Russia were available, and the popular Russian song rang through the ranks of a united people from the Himalayas to the shores of the Baltic: God, the All-wise, by the fire of Thy chastenings, So shall Thy children in thoughtful devotion Laud Him Who saved them from peril abhorred, Sing in chorus, from ocean to ocean, War-Position and Policy of France Peace to the nations and praise to the Lord. Whatever other issues were debateable there was On the Way to practically no question as to France having been forced into this War-equally none as to her having for years prepared to meet a conflict which was deemed as inevitable as death. There had been a time in the first stages of recovery from the War of 1870-1 when France thought of a war of revenge; that day soon passed and it became a certainty to the French people that they would some day have to face a German attack involving, if successful, their destruction as a nation. The ten years following the 1871 struggle was a period of recuperation; from about 1881 to 1904 the people were wrapped up in the acquisition of Tunis and other Colonies. Then came the growing fear caused by German militarism and the tactful personal diplomacy of King Edward which evoked the gradual rapprochment with England and the initial agreement of 1904 as to difficulties in Egypt, Newfoundland, Morocco and Siam. So successful was this Colonial development that in 1914 the external French empire covered 4,538,000 square miles, with 41,000,000 people, and maintained in France about 28,000 Colonial troops. About 1897 these fears of German aggression developed and in 1905 and 1911 war loomed closely on the horizon as a result of German action in Morocco. Various diplomatic arrangements followed. In 1906 France and Italy agreed that each would respect and would defend the interests of the other in Ethiopia; and, significally enough, both agreed to accept the influence of England in Egypt and in the basin of the Nile. In 1912 France and Italy made a further agreement concerning their interests in Morocco and in Libya; in the same year Spain, by the Treaty of Madrid, acquired a protectorate over the remainder of Morocco. By 1909 Britain and Russia and France had got into a relationship which was practically, though not technically, an alliance. In succeeding years military preparations went on in France to meet, as far as might be, current advances in Germany. During the early part of 1914 events effecting these relations abroad developed rapidly. The charges of graft against M. Caillaux, Minister of Finance, and all the sordid events surrounding the Calmette murder seemed to indicate a social and political corruption which gave German critics increased conviction as to the decadence of France, the moral and religious weakness of the country, the probable inefficiency of its military system. An offset to these internal dissensions was the visit of King George and Queen Mary to Paris on April 21st, 1914; the great preparations for an event on which $80,000 was spent for decorations alone, and the enthusiastic reception given the visitors; the fact that they were accompanied by Sir Edward Grey and that, practically, the Entente Cordiale was given its final place and setting. In the London Standard of July there followed a series of studies of this relationship which threw much light on the situation. Lieut.Colonel Rousset, Professor in the Higher War College, wrote on the 1st that to make the Entente effective it was absolutely necessary that "(1) the British Expeditionary Corps should number at the very least 100,000 men, in order to form a flank guard capable of countering the effects of an almost certain violation of Belgian territory" and that (2) "this same Expeditionary Corps should be landed on the Continent from the very beginning of the operations, if not before the operations have actually begun." M. Yves Guyot declared on July 4th, that "the basis of the Entente is the necessity that no single Power shall succeed in dominating the Continent. Baron d'Estournelles de Constant looked upon it as an instrument of peace and not war and deprecated any formal alliance; Senator Humbert desired an alliance and urged the entire cession of the New Hebrides to France; Count Guy de Cassagnac thought the arrangement too vague and intangible, while Deputy E. Vaillant, a Socialist leader, and Alfred Duquet, the historian, were delighted with it. René Viviani became Prime Minister on June 5th, and his Government promptly met the German vote of $250,000,000 additional for the Army by authorizing a French loan of $360,000,000 and placing $160,000,000 of the amount with his own people which was at once largely over-subscribed. At the same time the period of military training was raised from two to three years. Strong efforts were made to check the intemperance curse of the day, and especially the use of absinthe, but success in the latter respect did not come till after the War had begun; something then was achieved which the best minds of France had hoped for, against hope, during many years. When War loomed on the horizon between Germany and France's ally, Russia, the Government of the Republic had before it an Official German Memorandum of March 19th, 1913, regarding the increase of German military strength,* in which it was pointed out that "the plans made in this direction allow of the hope that the offensive might be taken immediately the concentration of the Army of the lower Rhine is completed. An ultimatum with brief delay (to Belgium) followed immediately by invasion, would enable us to justify our action sufficiently from the point of view of international law." They had also the remark of General Von Moltke, German Chief of Staff, as reported by M. Cambon, Ambassador at Berlin, on May 6th, 1913: "The idea of the General Staff is to act by surprise. The commonplaces as to the responsibility of the *NOTE.-The French official Yellow Book,-translated and published by the London Times. |