Before retiring into the background the Executive Committee of the Duma, under M. Rodzianko, issued on March 20 the following noteworthy appeal to the nation:
A great event has happened. By one mighty effort the Russian people have overthrown the old order of things. A new free Russia has been born. In the course of nine long years all the rights won by the people were taken away from it one by one. The country was once again thrown into the abyss of arbitrariness and autocracy. All attempts to bring the Government to reason proved fruitless, and the great world-war into which our country was drawn by the enemy found it in a state of moral disorganisation, with a Government separated from the people, indifferent to the fate of the country, and sunk in the disgrace of vices of every kind....
The people were obliged to take over the power in the State into their own hands. The unanimous revolutionary impulse of the people, animated by the sense of the importance of the hour, and the resoluteness of the Duma, have created a Provisional Government which deems it to be its sacred and responsible duty to realise the people's aspirations and to lead the country on to the bright road of free civic organisation.
M. Rodzianko,
The Duma, March 20, 1917.
Among the many steps which are being taken by the Government to meet the emergency created by the submarine menace is the graduating of the first and second classes in the Naval Academy. The first class will be graduated on March 29, and the second class several weeks later. This measure will provide 374 additional naval officers.
Reuter, Washington, March 20, 1917.
All the reports which have reached us confirm the report that the enemy has systematically pillaged and ravaged the evacuated zone, mostly without reasons of a military nature. General von Fleck, the Commander of the 17th German Army Corps, in leaving Ham carried away the furniture of the house which he occupied in the town.
French Official, March 22, 1917.
Germany never had the slightest intention of attacking the United States of America, and does not intend to do so now. Germany never desired war against the United States of America, and she does not desire it to-day. How did things develop? We told the United States more than once that we announced the unrestricted use of the submarine weapon in the expectation that England could be made to observe in her blockade policy the laws of humanity and international agreements.
If the American nation regards this as a reason for declaring war against the German nation, with which it has lived in peace for more than a hundred years; if by this action it wants to increase bloodshed, not we shall have to bear the burden of responsibility for it. The German nation, which feels neither hatred nor hostility towards the United States of America, will also bear this and overcome it.
Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg,
Berlin, March 29, 1917.
Aid and comfort to our German enemy assume a peculiarly insidious and subtle form, as we are warned by leading papers in various parts of the country, in the attempts of certain journals to confuse the minds of the American people about our motives in entering the war, and to implant seeds of suspicion and distrust concerning our Allies.
Literary Digest, April, 1917.
God of the Ages, our father's God, and our God, whose holy influence has shaped and guided the destiny of our Republic from its inception, we wait upon that influence to guide us in the present crisis which has been thrust upon us.
Diplomacy has failed; moral suasion has failed; every appeal to reason and justice has been swept aside. We abhor war and love peace. But if war has been, or shall be, forced upon us, we pray that the heart of every American citizen shall throb with patriotic zeal; that a united people may rally around our President to hold up his hands in every measure that shall be deemed necessary to protect American lives and safeguard our inherent rights.
Let thy blessings, we beseech Thee, attend the Congress now convened in extraordinary session under extraordinary conditions which call for extraordinary thought, wise counsel, calm and deliberate legislation; that its resolves and all its enactments may spring spontaneously from loyal and patriotic hearts; that our defenders on land and sea may be amply supplied with the things which make for strength and efficiency.
And, O God, our Heavenly Father, let Thy strong arm uphold, sustain, and guide us in a just and righteous cause; for Thine is the kingdom, the power, and glory, forever. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Henry M. Couden,
In Congress, U. S. A.,
April 2, 1917.
We are now about to accept gage of battle with this natural foe to liberty, and shall, if necessary, spend the whole force of the nation to check and nullify its pretensions and its power. We are glad, now that we see the facts with no veil of false pretense about them, to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the peoples included: for the rights of nations great and small and the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and of obedience. The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities of ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can make them.
President Wilson's
Address to Congress,
April 2, 1917.
There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts—for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free. To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other.
President Wilson's
Address to Congress,
April 2, 1917.
Hard fighting took place again this afternoon on the northern end of Vimy Ridge, in which we gained further important positions and took a number of prisoners and machine-guns.
In the direction of Cambrai we have advanced our line north of the village of Louverval.
Such counter-attacks as the enemy has attempted at different points along our front have met with no success.
The number of prisoners taken by us since the opening of our attack yesterday morning now exceeds 11,000, including 235 officers.
We have also captured over 100 guns, among them a number of heavy guns up to 8-inch calibre, 60 trench mortars, and 163 machine-guns.
British Official, April 10, 1917.
According to the statements of an Austrian officer, a deserter, the German chancellor has sent a number of German Socialists to Stockholm to interview the representatives of Russian Socialists and negotiate for a separate peace.
Another Austrian deserter alleges that peace is being spoken of less frequently than formerly in the Austrian Army, and that everybody hopes the internal disorders in Russia will help in bringing about her destruction.
Russian Official,
Petrograd, April 14, 1917.
As it was herewith clearly demonstrated to the entire world, and especially to the people of Russia, that Russia was no longer forced to fight for her defences and for the freedom of her people, it should, in view of the conformity of the aims of the governments of the allies and of the Russian Provisional Government, not be difficult to find a way toward an understanding. This the less as the emperor (Charles) in agreement with the allied monarchs cherishes the hope of living in future in peace and friendship with a Russian people which, as regards its internal and external conditions of life, will be secured and content.
Austrian Government to Russia,
April 15, 1917.
On the evening of April 17 the S.S. Donegal and Lanfranc, while transporting wounded to British ports, were torpedoed without warning.
The Lanfranc, in addition to 234 wounded British officers and men, carried 167 wounded German prisoners, a medical personnel of 52, and a crew of 123.
British Admiralty Official,
April 17, 1917.
It's about time for the hamstringers that are lurking in the tall grass and the sabotagists who are trying to throw monkey-wrenches into the war machinery to shut off and up or look for unpleasant consequences.
These hidden-hangers do not come out in the open, even to the extent of the semi-treasonable sentiments of the Pro-German Socialists at St. Louis. If they did, it wouldn't be necessary to pay any attention to them. They work in a more insidious way. Under the guise of American citizenship they rise up every now and then, individuals or organizations of doubtful origin and purpose, to demand why the United States is in the war and what its intentions are....
Americans are in no mood to tolerate national sabotage of this sort any more than plain and open aid and comfort to the enemy. Every man of common sense knows why we are in the war and what we want to do. We are in it because we were forced into it by outrageous aggressions and because we are determined to make the world safe for American democracy.
Chicago Herald, May, 1917.,
At the last sitting of the executive committee of the Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates, M. Borgbjerg, on behalf of the Labour parties of Scandinavia—Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian—conveyed an official invitation to all Socialist parties in Russia to the proposed international conference at Stockholm.
Reuter, Petrograd, May 8, 1917.
The Washington correspondent of the Associated Press states that Congress will be asked to appropriate $1,000,000,000 (£200,000,000) for the building of an American merchant fleet to overcome the submarine menace.
The program of the Shipping Board contemplates the diversion to the Government of the product of every steel-mill in the United States and the cancelation of existing contracts between the mills and private consumers, and, where necessary, the payment of damages by the Government to the parties whose contracts are canceled. The Board estimates that from five to six million tons of steel and wooden vessels will be constructed by the Government in the next two years.
Associated Press,
Washington, May 8, 1917.
Isolated groups of certain classes of the population, lacking conscientiousness, seek to realize their aspirations by the medium of violence, and threaten to destroy the discipline of internal policy and to create anarchy.
The Provisional Government believes it to be its duty to declare frankly that this state of things, which renders the administration of the country difficult, may lead the country to internal disorganisation and defeat at the front. The phantom of anarchy and civil war threatening liberty arises before Russia.
Russian Provisional
Government Proclamation,
Petrograd, May 9, 1917.
As affairs are going now, it will be impossible to save the country. Perhaps the time is near when we will have to tell you that we can no longer give you the amount of bread you expect or other supplies on which you have a right to count. The process of the change from slavery to freedom is not going on properly. We have tasted freedom and are slightly intoxicated. What we need is sobriety and discipline.
You could suffer and be silent for ten years, and obey the orders of a hated Government. You could even fire upon your own people when commanded to do so. Can you now suffer no longer?
We hear it said that we no longer need the front because they are fraternizing there. But are they fraternizing on all the fronts? Are they fraternizing on the French front? No, comrades, if you are going to fraternize, then fraternize everywhere. Are not enemy forces being thrown over upon the Anglo-French front, and is not the Anglo-French advance already stopped? There is no such thing as a "Russian front," there is only one general Allied front.
Kerensky, Russian Minister of Justice,
May 14, 1917.
The day here named is the time upon which all shall present themselves for assignment to their tasks. It is for that reason destined to be remembered as one of the most conspicuous moments in our history. It is nothing less than the day upon which the manhood of the country shall step forward in one solid rank in defense of the ideals to which this nation is consecrated. It is important to those ideals no less than to the pride of this generation in manifesting its devotion to them, that there be no gaps in the ranks.
From President Wilson's
Proclamation
of the Draft Law, May 18, 1917.
Sir Edward Carson was the chief speaker at a luncheon given at Princes Restaurant on the 17th inst., by the Navy League to the chairman and committee of the Navy League of the United States. The gathering was representative of the British Parliament and Navy, and several American Naval officers were among the guests.
The Duke of Buccleuch, who presided, gave the toasts of "The King" and "The President of the United States."
Mr. Irwin Laughlin (Councillor to the United States Embassy), in responding, expressed regret that the Ambassador was unable to be present. He would like to say, in thanking his Grace for the very flattering and agreeable words he had been good enough to utter in regard to the President, and the alliance, that he was sure both the President and the Ambassador felt that the binding force of any alliance sprang not from a matter of treaties, but from a reciprocal confidence in mutual aims.
British Admiralty, Official,
May 22, 1917.
Sir Douglas Haig, who has never yet made a premature claim of success, has been able to announce that ten miles of the vaunted Hindenburg line have passed into the possession of his gallant troops. The Germans say that "there is no Hindenburg line," and in one respect at least they are correct. Our Special Correspondent, in a despatch published in this issue, declares that the Hindenburg line is "now undiscoverable." The attacking forces gained possession of a very long stretch of pulverized ground, but the line itself had been battered out of recognition.
The Times, May 25, 1917.
A brief résumé of what the United States have accomplished during the seven weeks which have elapsed since they entered the war may not be without interest as demonstrating America's complete participation in the war and her ability to give immediate and powerful aid.
A selective Draft Bill which will ultimately give an Army of 2,000,000 men has passed Congress, and will be put into operation forthwith. The loan legislation has passed Congress, and the law is already in operation with prospects of the greatest success; $750,000,000 has already been advanced to the Allies.
British Press Bureau,
May 27, 1917.
The following telegram, signed by Mr. Havelock Wilson as President of the Sailors' and Firemen's Union, has been sent to the Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates in Petrograd:
Comrades, I am instructed by the Committee of the National Sailors' and Firemen's Union of Great Britain and Ireland, representing 100,000 organized seamen, to inform you that we have decided not to work on any ship which conveys delegates to Petrograd or Stockholm until such delegates give an undertaking in writing that no war settlement can be made with Germany until the German Government make restitution to the relatives of Allied and neutral seamen who have been murdered when endeavouring to escape from their sinking ships that were torpedoed by German submarines. We desire that you will make inquiries as to the noble part played by the British Seamen's Union towards the Russian revolutionary party in 1905 and 1906, when, you will find, we were the true friends of Russian democracy.
June, 1917.
The German conspiracy for a separate peace received a severe setback when the General Congress of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates of all Russia, by a vote of 640 to 121, approved the attitude of the Government in expelling from Russia Robert Grimm, a Swiss Socialist pacifist, who had received the following communication, when in Petrograd, from M. Hoffman, member of the Swiss Federal Council:
"Germany will not undertake an offensive so long as she considers it possible to arrive at an understanding with Russia. Numerous conversations with prominent politicians lead me to believe that Germany is seeking to conclude with Russia a mutually honorable peace, and a peace which would result in the re-establishment of close economic and commercial relations with Russia; the financial support of Germany to Russia for her restoration; no intervention in the internal affairs of Russia; a friendly understanding with regard to Poland, Lithuania, and Courland; and the restoration to Russia of her occupied territories, in return for the districts of Austria invaded by Russia. I am convinced that if the allies of Russia desired it, Germany and her allies would be ready immediately to open peace negotiations."
Current History, June, 1917.
The exchange value of the mark fell to-day to the lowest point yet recorded here, namely, 35.40 florins per 100 marks. The Austrian crown also touched its lowest, the exchange being 22.40fl.
The mark has fallen since June from 36.15fl. to the value above mentioned. The pre-war rate was 59.25fl.
Amsterdam, June 7, 1917.
President Wilson's Address on
Flag Day, June 14, 1917.
We know now clearly, as we knew before we ourselves were engaged in the war, that we are not enemies of the German people, and they are not our enemies. They did not originate, or desire, this hideous war, or wish that we should be drawn into it, and we are vaguely conscious that we are fighting their cause, as they will some day see it themselves, as well as our own. They themselves are in the grip of the same sinister power that has stretched its ugly talons out and drawn blood from us.
President Wilson,
Washington, June 14, 1917.
My Fellow-Citizens: We meet to celebrate Flag Day because this flag which we honor and under which we serve is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought, and purpose as a nation. It has no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation. The choices are ours. It floats in majestic silence above the hosts that execute those choices, whether in peace or in war. And yet, though silent, it speaks to us—speaks to us of the past, of the men and women who went before us and of the records they wrote upon it. We are about to carry it into battle, to lift it where it will draw the fire of our enemies. We are about to bid thousands, hundreds of thousands, it may be millions, of our men, the young, the strong, the capable men of the nation, to go forth and die beneath it on fields of blood far away—for what? For some unaccustomed thing? For something for which it has never sought the fire before?
These are questions which must be answered. We are Americans. We in our turn serve America, and can serve her with no private purpose. We must use her flag as she has always used it. We are accountable at the bar of history and must plead in utter frankness what purpose it is we seek to serve.
President Wilson, Washington,
Flag Day, June 14, 1917.
The police on Saturday arrested a certain Baron von Rautenfels, who declares that he was born in Finland, but is now a German subject, and two Finlanders. At their lodgings and in the luggage of these persons the police found nearly a ton of explosives of a very powerful variety. Part of these explosives was made up to resemble coal briquettes, and was all ready to be mixed with the coal in ships' bunkers. The baron's luggage also contained cigarettes and tobacco mixed with carborundum, which can be used to ruin engines or machinery. The baron and the other arrested persons declare that the bombs and other explosives were to be used in Finland.
Christiania, June 24, 1917.
M. Kerensky (the Russian War Minister) and General Brusiloff have organised a new offensive in Galicia which has had a magnificent success, a tremendous blow being struck at the enemy. The news of victory has transformed Petrograd, and the pessimism that was paralyzing the people has given way to a flood of eager patriotism.
Times Correspondent,
Petrograd, July 4, 1917.
Three airships only were able to approach the outskirts of London.
One of them appeared over the northern districts at about 2:15 a.m., where she was at once picked up by searchlights and heavily engaged by anti-aircraft guns and aëroplanes. After a few minutes the airship was seen to burst into flame and to fall rapidly towards the earth. The ship was destroyed; the wreckage, engines, and the half-burned bodies of the crew being found at Cuffley, near Enfield.
British Official, September 3, 1916.
Since the first day the war has been to us nothing but the defence of our right to existence and freedom. Therefore we were able first and alone to declare our readiness for peace negotiations. I spoke on July 9, 1915, and afterwards repeatedly with sufficient clearness on the subject. Mr. Asquith and Lord Robert Cecil do not get rid of my words by asserting that Germany had announced none, or only intolerable and humiliating peace conditions. We did our part, nor does any one dare to demand that we should make offers to-day when the enemy, as M. Briand recently did, characterises the conclusion of peace to-day as weakness for the memory of the dead. They continue the war because they hope to be able to attain their Utopian war aims.
Bethmann-Hollweg,
Berlin, October 5, 1916.
Eight vessels (including one passenger liner) have been torpedoed so far by the U-53, which has caused a sensation since her appearance in Newport Harbor only to move again in a few hours. As far as is known no lives have been lost. The crew of one vessel is not yet accounted for.
Times Correspondent,
New York, October 9, 1916.
A German Embassy official, who stipulated that his name must not be used, said that the terms include "practically" the restoration of the status quo ante bellum (including the return of Germany's colonies), the creation of new kingdoms of Poland and Lithuania, and changes in the Balkan boundaries, but at least part of Serbia and Rumania to be restored.
Times Correspondent,
New York, December 12, 1916.