June 16—Official British statement shows that sixteen persons were killed and forty injured by a Zeppelin raid on the northeast coast of England on June 15, and that twenty-four persons were killed and forty injured by a Zeppelin raid on the same coast on June 6; German aeroplanes drop bombs on Nancy, St. Die, and Belfort.
June 17—Sub-Lieutenant Warneford, who won the Victoria Cross for blowing a Zeppelin to pieces, is killed by the fall of his aeroplane at Buc, France; French air squadrons bombard German reserve forces at Givenchy and in the Forest of La Folie, dispersing troops about to attack the French; squadron of Italian dirigibles bombards Austrian positions at Monte Santo and intrenchments facing Gradisca, doing considerable damage; the squadron also damages the Ovoladeaga station on the railroad from Gorizia to Dornberg.
June 18—Italian dirigible bombards an ammunition factory near Trieste.
June 19—In a duel between a French and a German aeroplane near Thann, in Upper Alsace, fought at a height of 10,500 feet, the French aviator kills the German.
June 20—Germans shoot down one allied aeroplane near Iseghem, Flanders, and another near Vouziers, in Champagne.
June 21—Austrian naval planes bombard the railway stations at Bari and Brindisi, doing considerable damage; allied aeroplanes bombard Turkish batteries on Asiatic side of the Dardanelles.
June 22—British aeroplane drops three bombs on Smyrna, causing seventy casualties in the garrison.
June 25—French aviators drop twenty bombs on the station of Douai, fifteen miles northeast of Arras.
June 26—British aviators drop bombs near Roulers, Belgium, causing the explosion of a large ammunition depot and the killing of fifty German soldiers.
June 27—French aeroplane drops eight shells on the Zeppelin hangars at Friedrichshafen.
July 1—French aeroplanes drop bombs on Zeebrugge and Bruges, but slight damage is done.
July 2—Austrian aeroplane bombards the town of Cormons, Austria, now in Italian hands, killing a woman and boy, and wounding five other civilians.
July 3—German aeroplanes bombard a fort near Harwich, England, and bombard a British torpedo boat destroyer flotilla; German aeroplanes also bombard Nancy and the railroad station at Dombasle, southeast of Nancy, severing railroad communication with the fort at Remiremont; a German aeroplane forces a French aeroplane to alight near Schlucht; German air squadron drops bombs on Bruges, doing slight damage; French airmen bombard the railroad stations at Challerange, Zarren, and Langemarck, in Belgium, and German batteries at Vimy and Beauraing, doing considerable damage.
July 13—A French squadron of thirty-five aviators drops 171 bombs at and near the railroad station strategically established by the Germans at Vigneulles-les-Hattonchatel, where ammunition and other stores are concentrated; the bombs start several fires; all the aeroplanes return, though violently cannonaded; French squadron of twenty aeroplanes bombards with forty shells the station at Libercourt, between Douai and Lille; aeroplanes furnished with cannon, part of the squadron, bombard a train.
July 15—A Red Book issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs charges cruelty and breaches of international law against the Allies.
July 2—General von Bissing, German Governor-General, issues an order forbidding, under penalty of fine or imprisonment, the wearing or exhibiting of Belgian insignia in a provocative manner, and forbidding absolutely the wearing or exhibiting of the insignia of the nations warring against Germany and her allies.
June 23—The Victoria Cross is conferred on three Canadians for bravery near Ypres, while seventy other Canadians get the C.B., the C.M.G., or the D.S.O.
July 10—The Canadian casualties since the beginning of the war total 9,982, of which the killed number 1,709.
July 14—Sir Robert Borden, Premier of Canada, now in London, on invitation of Premier Asquith attends a meeting of the British Cabinet, this being the first time a colonial minister has joined British Cabinet deliberations.
June 21—Announcement is made in Paris that the French Postal Service is handling mail in ninety towns and villages of Alsace, all of which bear the names they had in 1870; the total amount of credits voted since the beginning of the war exceeds $3,123,000,000; at present France's war expenses are about $400,000,000 a month.
July 1—Ministry of War officially states that at no time during the war has the French artillery used any shells whatever manufactured in the United States, this statement being called forth by German declarations that much American ammunition is being used by France.
June 18—Unofficial statement from Berlin shows that the prisoners thus far taken by the German and Austro-Hungarian armies total 1,610,000, of whom 1,240,000 are Russians, and 255,000 French.
July 1—The Prussian losses alone to the end of June total 1,504,523.
June 22—House of Commons unanimously gives a first reading to a bill authorizing the raising by loan of $5,000,000,000, if that much be necessary.
June 23—Minister of Munitions Lloyd George announces in the House of Commons that he has given British labor seven days, beginning tomorrow, in which to make good the promise of its leaders that men will rally to the factories in sufficient numbers to produce a maximum supply of munitions of war; failure will mean compulsion, he states.
July 1—John E. Redmond, leader of the Irish Nationalist Party, in a speech at Dublin, states that up to June 16, 120,741 Irishmen from Ireland had joined the army.
July 2—The Munitions Bill is passed in all its stages by the House of Lords.
July 12—After more than a fortnight's work, the 600 labor bureaus opened when Minister of Munitions Lloyd George gave labor a chance voluntarily to enroll as munitions workers, closes with a total registration of 90,000.
July 13—The total subscription to the war loan is close to $3,000,000,000, subscribed by 1,097,000 persons, stated by Chancellor of the Exchequer McKenna to be by far the largest amount subscribed in the history of the world; Lord Lansdowne tells the House of Lords that there are now about 460,000 British soldiers at the front.
July 15—Two hundred thousand Welsh coal miners strike, defying the Ministry.
July 4—There are repeated and insistent reports in Europe, chiefly from German sources, that riots are occurring at various points in India; it is stated that recently the Indian cavalry at Lahore mutinied, killed their officers and British civilians, and pillaged and destroyed hotels and houses; two battalions of troops ready to be transported to Europe are also said to have mutinied and to have dispersed, after shooting their officers; there are declared to have been serious battles between police and mutinous troops in Madras.
July 7—The Austro-Hungarian Minister to Rumania presents to the Rumanian Prime Minister proposals offering Rumania certain concessions in exchange for definite neutrality and facilities for supplying Turkey with munitions of war; one month is given Rumania for decision.
June 21—General Christian de Wet, one of the leaders of the South African rebellion against the British Government, is found guilty of treason on eight counts at Bloemfontein, Union of South Africa; he is sentenced to six years' imprisonment and is fined $10,000.
June 16—A report is received by the State Department from Ambassador Page on the injury to the Nebraskan on May 25, when she was struck by either a torpedo or a mine; the report contains evidence tending to show that she was torpedoed by a German submarine.
June 28—Text of the American note to the German Government on the William P. Frye case, in reply to the last German note on this subject, which note has just been delivered by Ambassador Gerard, is made public in Washington.
June 29—Austro-Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs sends a note to the American Ambassador at Vienna protesting against the exports of arms from the United States.
July 2—A bomb wrecks the east reception room on the main floor of the Senate wing of the Capitol Building at Washington just before midnight, no one being injured.
July 3—J.P. Morgan is shot twice at his country estate on East Island, near Glen Cove, L.I., by Frank Holt, a former instructor in German at Cornell University, who, under arrest, states that he went to the Morgan home to induce the banker to use his influence to stop the exporting of munitions of war, the firm of J.P. Morgan & Co. being the fiscal agent of the Allies in the United States; both revolver bullets strike Mr. Morgan in the groin, the attending doctors stating that no vital organ is affected; by his own confession, Holt is the one who set the bomb that wrecked the Senate reception room in the Capitol at Washington last night, saying that he wanted to call the nation's attention to the export of munitions of war; extra precautions are being taken by Secret Service men to guard President Wilson, who is at Cornish, N.H.
July 6—Frank Holt kills himself in the Nassau County Jail at Mineola; identifications show that Holt was Erich Muenter, a former Harvard instructor, who murdered his wife by poison in Cambridge in 1906.
July 7—Government decides to take over the Sayville wireless plant at once, in the interests of neutrality.
July 10—The text is made public of the German reply to the last American note on submarine warfare and the sinking of the Lusitania; the reply evades the cardinal points of the American note; makes new proposals, and shows that the submarine war is to be continued; the American press generally regards the reply as unsatisfactory.
July 15—Germany expresses formal regrets for the torpedoing of the American steamship Nebraskan, stating it was due to a mistake, and offers to pay damages.
[1] Captain Trickey, describing the destruction of his vessel, through which several Americans lost their lives, said on July 1 in Liverpool:
"We sighted the submarine about 6.48 o'clock Monday night, June 28, when we were about twenty miles west of Trevose Head, on the northwest coast of Cornwall. We were then about four miles away. She drew closer. She fired two shots across our bows. I then turned my stern to her and ran for all I was worth. The submarine shelled us all the time, killing several of the crew and cutting away several of our boats. The boats had already been swung out, and some of the men had taken up positions in them ready for the order to lower away. In some cases the falls were cut by shrapnel, and several of the men fell into the sea.
"A stern chase ensued, lasting for about an hour, the German shelling us unceasingly. My steering gear was cut and knocked out of order. One shell came through the engine-room skylight, and another knocked the Marconi house away. Still another shell went down the funnel, disabling the stokehole and making it impossible to keep up a full head of steam. Thirteen of my crew were lying dead on the deck, and the ship was on fire in three places. Then I decided to surrender. It was the only thing I could do. By this time the submarine had decreased the distance between us to about a mile.
"From the moment we surrendered the Germans acted fairly toward us and gave us ample time to get out of the ship. They even rescued some of the men—three, I think—who had previously fallen from the boats and were still afloat aided by their lifebelts. When we had got away from the ship the submarine fired two torpedoes into her and she sank at 8.07 o'clock. We remained in the boats all night and were picked up the next morning by the Belgian steam trawler President Stevens."
[2] In a long statement seeking to justify the use of asphyxiating gases in warfare the semi-official Wolff Telegraph Bureau asserted in German newspapers of June 25 that the Allies first used such gases against the Germans, and it cites French documents as proof that France in February, months before the German advance at Ypres, made extensive preparations for the application of gases and for counteracting their effects on the attacking troops.
After quoting the official German war report of April 16 that the French were making increased use of asphyxiating bombs, the statement says:
"For every one who has kept an unbiased judgment, these official assertions of the strictly accurate and truthful German military administration will be sufficient to prove the prior use of asphyxiating gases by our opponents. But let whoever still doubts consider the following instructions for the systematic preparation of this means of warfare by the French, issued by the French War Ministry, under date of Feb. 21, 1915:
Minister of War, Feb. 21, 1915.
Remarks concerning shells with stupefying gases:
The so-called shells with stupefying gases that are being manufactured by our central factories contain a fluid which streams forth after the explosion, in the form of vapors that irritate the eyes, nose, and throat. There are two kinds: hand grenades and cartridges.
Hand Grenades.—The grenades have the form of an egg; their diameter in the middle is six centimeters, their height twelve centimeters, their weight 400 grams. They are intended for short distances, and have an appliance for throwing by hand. They are equipped with an inscription giving directions for use. They are lighted with a small bit of material for friction pasted on the directions, after which they must be thrown away. The explosion follows seven seconds after lighting. A small cover of brass and a top screwed on protect the lighted matter. Their purpose is to make untenable the surroundings of the place where they burst. Their effect is often considerably impaired by a strong rising wind.
Cartridges.—The cartridges have a cylindrical form. Their diameter is twenty-eight millimeters, their height ten centimeters, their weight 200 grams. They are intended for use at longer distances than can be negotiated with the hand grenades. With an angle of twenty-five degrees at departure they will carry 230 meters. They have central lighting facilities and are fired with ignition bullet guns. The powder lights a little internal ignition mass by means of which the cartridges are caused to explode five seconds after leaving the rifle. The cartridges have the same purpose as the hand grenades but because of their very small amount of fluid they must be fired in great numbers at the same time.
Precautionary measures to be observed in attacks on trenches into which shells with asphyxiating gases have been thrown.—The vapors spread by means of the shells with asphyxiating gases are not deadly, at least when small quantities are used and their effect is only momentary. The duration of the effect depends upon the atmospheric conditions.
It is advisable therefore to attack the trenches into which such hand grenades have been thrown and which the enemy has nevertheless not evacuated before the vapors are completely dissipated. The attacking troops, moreover, must wear protective goggles and in addition be instructed that the unpleasant sensations in nose and throat are not dangerous and involve no lasting disturbance.
"Here we have a conclusive proof that the French in their State workshops manufactured shells with asphyxiating gases fully half a year ago at least," says the semi-official Telegraph Bureau. "The number must have been so large that the French War Ministry at last found itself obliged to issue written instructions concerning the use of this means of warfare. What hypocrisy when the same people grow 'indignant' because the Germans much later followed them on the path they had pointed out! Very characteristic is the twist of the French official direction: 'The vapors spread by the shells with asphyxiating gases are not deadly, at least not when used in small quantities.' It is precisely this limitation that contains the unequivocal confession that the French asphyxiating gases work with deadly effect when used in large quantities."
[3] General Sir Herbert Charles Onslow Plumer, K.C.B., was born in 1857. He entered the York and Lancaster Regiment in 1876, and served with distinction in the Sudan and South Africa. He was Q.M.G. and third military member of the Army Council, 1904-5, and commanded the 5th Division Irish Command, 1906-9. He was knighted in 1906.
[4] His first report, covering the actions from March 13, when he left London, to May 20, is here omitted because other official reports covering the same period were printed in the June and July numbers of Current History.
[5] Professor Dake.
[6] On the score of certain names important in Germany—names not found under the manifesto of the Intellectuals—a question arises: Were they not solicited as well to cover up these crimes, or did they refuse? If the question were one of a simple memorial, carrying with it no abdication of conscience, this point would be without importance, for it would simply mean that a list, however long, could not bring together all the men of renown of a country, and omissions would often have to be laid to chance. But here a venomous manifesto was to be signed, made up of violent lies and of arbitrary theories; and with this in mind one may see a meaning in certain abstentions. Without any possible doubt they are the act of courageous men, who, feeling deeply where the truth is, will not ally themselves against it; and by their resistance they do it honor.
[7] Throughout this work we shall often have recourse to the reports of these commissions. At the end of the present volume will be found certain of these documents, unpublished till now.