Could
one imagine Germans making war in such a spirit as this? Think of that
old French bridge, and then think of the University of Louvain and the
Cathedral of Rheims. What a gap between them--the gap that separates
civilization from the savage!
Let us take a few of the points which, when focused together, show how
the Germans have degraded warfare--a degradation which affects not only
the Allies at present, but the whole future of the world, since if such
examples were followed the entire human race would, each in turn, become
the sufferers. Take the very first incident of the war, the mine laying
by the Koenigin Luise. Here was a vessel, which was obviously made ready
with freshly charged mines some time before there was any question of a
general European war, which was sent forth in time of peace, and which,
on receipt of a wireless message, began to spawn its hellish cargo
across the North Sea at points fifty miles from land in the track of all
neutral merchant shipping. There was the keynote of German tactics
struck at the first possible instant. So promiscuous was the effect that
it was a mere chance which prevented the vessel which bore the German
Ambassador from being destroyed by a German mine.
Pages:
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389