immediately, and as to territory which belonged to Russia it is provided
that the German troops now there shall withdraw within the frontiers
of Germany as soon as the allies, taking into account the internal
situation of those territories, shall decide that the time for this has
come.
Thirteen - Evacuation by German troops to begin at once and all German
instructors, prisoners, and civilian, as well as military agents, now on
the territory of Russia (as defined before 1914) to be recalled.
Fourteen - German troops to cease at once all requisitions and seizures
and any other undertaking with a view to obtaining supplies intended for
Germany in Roumania and Russia (as defined on August 1, 1914).
Fifteen - Denunciation of the treaties of Bucharest and Brest-Litovsk
and of the supplementary treaties. Sixteen - The allies shall have free
access to the territories evacuated by the Germans on their eastern
frontier, either through Danzig or by the Vistula, in order to convey
supplies to the populations of those territories and for the purpose of
maintaining order.
Seventeen - Evacuation by all German forces operating in East Africa
within a period to be fixed by the allies.
REPATRIATION AND REPARATION
Eighteen - Repatriation, without reciprocity, within a maximum period of
one month, in accordance with detailed conditions hereafter to be fixed,
of all civilians interned or deported who may be citizens of other
allied or associated states than those mentioned in clause three,
paragraph nineteen, with the reservation that any future claims
and demands of the allies and the United States of America remain
unaffected.
Nineteen - The following financial conditions are required:
Reparation for damage done. While such armistice lasts no public
securities shall be removed by the enemy which can serve as a pledge to
the allies for the recovery or repatriation for war losses. Immediate
restitution of the cash deposit in the National Bank of Belgium, and in
general immediate return of all documents, specie, stocks, shares, paper
money, together with plant for the issue thereof, touching public or
private interests in the invaded countries. Restitution of the Russian
and Roumanian gold yielded to Germany or taken by that power. This gold
to be delivered in trust to the allies until the signature of peace.
Twenty - Immediate cessation of all hostilities at sea and definite
information to be given as to the location and movements of all German
ships. Notification to be given to neutrals that freedom of navigation
in all territorial waters is given to the naval and mercantile marines
of the allied and associated powers, all questions of neutrality being
waived.
Twenty-one - All naval and mercantile marine prisoners of war of the
allied and associated powers in German hands to be returned without
reciprocity.
Twenty-two - Surrender to the allies and the United States of America of
all German submarines now existing (including all submarine cruisers and
mine-laying submarines), with their complete armament and equipment, in
ports which will be specified by the allies and the United States of
America. Those that cannot take the sea shall be disarmed of their
material and personnel and shall remain under the supervision of the
allies and the United States.
Twenty-three - The following German surface warships, which shall be
designated by the allies and the United States of America, shall
forthwith be disarmed and thereafter interned in neutral ports, or, for
the want of them, in allied ports to be designated by the allies and the
United States of America and placed under the surveillance of the
allies and the United States of America, only caretakers being left
on board - namely: Six battle cruisers, ten battleships, eight light
cruisers (including two mine layers), fifty destroyers of the most
modern type. All other surface warships (including river craft) are to
be concentrated in German naval bases to be designated by the allies
and the United States of America, and are to be paid off and completely
disarmed and placed under the supervision of the allies and the United
States of America. All vessels of the auxiliary fleet (trawlers, motor
vessels, etc.) are to be disarmed. Vessels designated for internment
shall be ready to leave German ports within seven days upon direction by
wireless. The military armament of all vessels of the auxiliary fleet
shall be put on shore.
Twenty-four - The allies and the United States of America shall have
the right to sweep up all mine fields and obstructions laid by Germany
outside German territorial waters and the positions of these are to be
indicated.
Twenty-five - Freedom of access to and from the Baltic to be given to the
naval and mercantile marines of the allied and associated powers. To
secure this, the allies and the United States of America shall be
empowered to occupy all German forts, fortifications, batteries, and
defense works of all kinds in all the entrances from the Cattegat into
the Baltic, and to sweep up all mines and obstructions within and
without German territorial waters without any question of neutrality
being raised, and the positions of all such mines and obstructions are
to be indicated.
Twenty-six - The existing "blockade conditions set up by the allies and
associated powers are to remain unchanged, and all German merchant ships
found at sea are to remain liable to capture. The allies and the United
States shall give consideration to the provisioning of Germany during
the armistice to the extent recognized as necessary.
Twenty-seven - All naval aircraft are to be concentrated and immobilized
in German bases to be specified by the allies and the United States of
America.
Twenty-eight - in evacuating the Belgian coasts and ports, Germany shall
abandon all merchant ships, tugs, lighters, cranes, and all other harbor
materials, all materials for inland navigation, all aircraft and all
materials and stores, all arms, and armaments, and all stores and
apparatus of all kinds.
EVACUATED ALL BLACK SEA PORTS
Twenty-nine - All Black Sea ports are to be evacuated by Germany; all
Russian war vessels of all descriptions seized by Germany in the Black
Sea are to be handed over to the allies and the United States of
America; all neutral merchant vessels seized are to be released; all
warlike and other materials of all kinds seized in those ports are to be
returned and German materials as specified in clause twenty-eight are to
be abandoned.
Thirty - All merchant vessels in German hands belonging to the allied and
associated powers are to be restored in ports to be specified by the
allies and the United States of America without reciprocity.
Thirty-one - No destruction of ships or of materials to be permitted
before evacuation, surrender, or restoration.
Thirty-two - The German government will notify the neutral governments of
the world, and particularly the governments of Norway, Sweden, Denmark,
and Holland, that all restrictions placed on the trading of their
vessels with the allied and associated countries, whether by the German
government or by private German interests, and whether in return for
specific concessions, such as the export of shipbuilding materials or
not, are immediately canceled.
Thirty-three - No transfers of German merchant shipping of any
description to any neutral flag are to take place after signature of the
armistice.
Thirty-four - The duration of the armistice is to be thirty days, with
option to extend. During this period, on failure of execution of any
of the above clauses, the armistice may be denounced by one of the
contracting parties on forty-eight hours' previous notice.
It is understood that the execution of articles three and eighteen
shall not warrant the denunciation of the armistice on the ground of
insufficient execution within a period fixed except in the case of bad
faith in carrying them into execution. In order to assure the execution
of this convention under the best conditions the principle of a
permanent international armistice commission is admitted. This
commission shall act under the authority of the allied military and
naval commanders-in-chief.
Thirty-five - This armistice to be accepted or refused by Germany within
seventy-two hours of notification.
PRESIDENT'S COMMENT ON ARMISTICE
"The war thus comes to an end; for, having accepted these terms of
armistice, it will be impossible for the German command to renew it.
"It is not now possible to assess the consequences of this great
consummation. We know only that this tragical war, whose consuming
flames swept from one nation to another until all the world was on fire,
is at an end and that it was the privilege of our own people to enter it
at its most critical juncture in such fashion and in such force as to
contribute, in a way of which we are all deeply proud, to the great
result.
"We know, too, that the object of the war is attained; the object upon
which all free men had set their hearts; and attained with a sweeping
completeness which even now we do not realize.
"Armed imperialism, such as the men conceived who were but yesterday
the masters of Germany, is at an end, its illicit ambitions engulfed in
black disaster. Who will now seek to revive it? The arbitrary power of
the military caste of Germany, which once could secretly and of its
own single choice disturb the peace of the world, is discredited and
destroyed.
"And more than that - much more than that - has been accomplished.
The great nations which associated themselves to destroy it had now
definitely united in the common purpose to set up such a peace as will
satisfy the longing of the whole world for disinterested justice,
embodied in settlements which are based upon something much better and
much more lasting than selfish competitive interests of powerful states.
"There is no longer conjecture as to the objects the victors have in
mind. They have a mind in the matter, not only, but a heart also. Their
avowed and concerted purpose is to satisfy and protect the weak as well
as to accord their just rights to the strong.
"The humane temper and intention of the victorious governments has
already been manifested in a very practical way. Their representatives
in the supreme war council at Versailles have by unanimous resolution
assured the people of the central empires that everything that is
possible in the circumstances will be done to supply them with food and
relieve the distressing want that is in so many places threatening their
very lives; and steps are to be taken immediately to organize these
efforts at relief in the same systematic manner that they were organized
in the case of Belgium.
"For, with the fall of the ancient governments which rested like an
incubus upon the people of the central empires, has come political
change not merely, but revolution; and revolution which seems as yet to
assume no final and ordered form.
"Excesses accomplish nothing. Unhappy Russia has furnished abundant
recent proof of that. Disorder immediately defeats itself. If excesses
should occur, if disorder should for a time raise its head, a sober
second thought will follow and a day of constructive action, if we help
and do not hinder.
"To conquer with arms is to make only a temporary conquest; to conquer
the world by earning its esteem is to make permanent conquest. I am
confident that the nations that have learned the discipline of freedom
and that have settled with self-possession to its ordered practice are
now about to make conquest of the world by the sheer power of example
and of friendly helpfulness.
"The peoples who have but just come out from under the yoke of arbitrary
government and who are now coming at last into their freedom will never
find the treasures of liberty they are in search of if they look for
them by the light of the torch. They will find that every pathway that
is stained with the blood of their own brothers leads to the wilderness,
not to the seat of their hope.
"They are now face to face with their initial tests. We must hold the
light steady until they find themselves. And in the meantime, if it be
possible, we must establish a peace that will justly define their place
among the nations, remove all fear of their neighbors and of their
former masters, and enable them to live in security and contentment when
they have set their own affairs in order.
"If they do we shall put our aid at their disposal in every way that
we can. If they do not we must await with patience and sympathy the
awakening and recovery that will assuredly come at last."
GERMAN MALTREATMENT OF PRISONERS
Prisoners set free under terms of the armistice brought back tales of
their almost unbelievably barbarous treatment in German prison camps. A
correspondent, Philip Gibbs, describes some of them as living skeletons.
Of one typical group he says "they were so thin and weak they could
scarcely walk, and had dry skins, through which their cheekbones stood
out, and the look of men who had been buried and come to life again.
Many of them were covered with blotches. 'It was six months of
starvation,' said one young man who was a mere wreck. They told me food
was so scarce and they were tortured with hunger so vile that some of
them had a sort of dropsy and swelled up horribly, and died. After they
left their prison camp they were so weak and ill they could hardly
hobble along; and some of them died on the way back, at the very
threshhold of new life on this side of the line."
[Illustration: MAP OF WORLD WAR ZONE
Showing Final Battle Line from Holland to Switzerland. Shaded Portion
Shows German Territory Evacuated.
1. Rhine line to be occupied by Allied troops as provided in Armistice,
showing cities and brdgeheads.
2. Neutral Zone Line as provided by terms of Armistice.]
CHAPTER XXXIV.
HONOR TO THE VICTORS
November 16, 1918, the American Distinguished Service Medal was
conferred upon General Pershing at his headquarters in the field by
General Tasker H. Bliss, representing President Wilson. The ceremony
was witnessed by the members of the allied missions, and was most
impressive, Admiral Benson, representing the United States Navy, and
William G. Sharp, American Ambassador to France, were also present.
SERVICE MEDAL TO GENERAL PERSHING
General Bliss, in presenting the decoration, read this order issued by
Newton T. Baker, Secretary of War:
"The President directs you to say to Gen. Pershing that he awards the
medal to the commander of our armies in the field as a token of the
gratitude of the American people for his distinguished services and in
appreciation of the successes which oar armies have achieved under his
leadership."
After reading the order General Bliss called to mind that when the first
division went away many doubted if it would be followed by another for
at least a year.
"But," he added, "you have created and organized and trained here on
the soil of France an American army of between two and two and a half
million men. You have created the agencies for its reception, its
transportation and supply. To the delight of all of us you have
consistently adhered to your ideal of an American army under American
officers and American leadership.
"And I know that I speak for our president, when I say that, as to those
who have died, the good God has given eternal rest, so may He give to us
eternal peace."
At a previous date, and while hostilities were still in course, Marshal
Foch had conferred upon General Pershing the grand cordon of the Legion
of Honor. The names of these two great commanders, reflecting supreme
honor upon their respective countries, have become imperishable in the
records of civilization. Their careers present unusual analogy. They
were bred to the art of war, and stand among the foremost in the roll of
great soldiers who have fought for and established Peace, in many lands
and many ages.
PERSHING'S SPLENDID RECORD
John Joseph Pershing was born September 30, 1860, in Linn county,
Missouri, to John F. and Ann E. (Thompson) Pershing. He was given the
degree of Bachelor of Arts by the Kirksville (Missouri) normal school in
1880; graduated at West Point in 1886; was made Bachelor of Laws by the
University of Nebraska in 1893; married Francis H. Warren, daughter of
Senator Warren of Wyoming, at Washington, January 28, 1905. (His
wife and two daughters perished in the fire at the Presidio, San
Francisco, August 15,1915.) He was commissioned a second lieutenant
in the 6th cavalry July 1, 1886; became a captain in the 10th cavalry
October 20, 1892. Passed through the other grades up to that of
Brigadier General in 1913, after the battle of Bagsag, P.I., in June of
that year. Had seen service in several Indian campaigns, in Cuba and the
Phillipines, and was United States military attaché with the army of
General Kuroko in the war between Japan and Russia. Later was officer
commanding at the Presidio, going thence to the Mexican border in 1913.
Was in command of the troops that went into Mexico in pursuit of Pancho
Villa in 1916. When the United States entered the European war he was
placed in command. Here was displayed in full not only his genius as a
soldier, but as an organizer of the very highest skill. His home is in
Cheyenne, Wyoming.
HONORS TO MARSHAL FOCH
At Senlis in France on Tuesday, November 12th, the day after the
armistice was signed, General Pershing conferred upon Marshal Foch the
American Distinguished Service Medal. The presentation was made in
the name of President Wilson, at the villa where Marshal Foch had his
headquarters, and was an impressive ceremony.
A guard of honor was drawn up and trumpeters blew a fanfare as Marshal
Foch, with General Pershing on his right, took position a few paces in
front of the guard. General Pershing said:
"The Congress of the United States has created this medal to be
conferred upon those who have rendered distinguished service to our
country. President Wilson has directed me to present to you the first
of these medals in the name of the United States Government and
the American army, as an expression of their admiration and their
confidence. It is a token of the gratitude of the American people for
your great achievements. I am very happy to have been given the honor of
presenting this medal to you."
In accepting the decoration, Marshal Foch said:
"I will wear this medal with pleasure and pride. In days of triumph, as
well as in dark and critical hours, I will never forget the tragical
day last March when General Pershing put at my disposal, without
restriction, all the resources of the American army. The success won
in the hard fighting by the American army is the consequence of the
excellent conception, command and organization of the American General
Staff, and the irreducible will to win of the American troops. The name
'Meuse' may be inscribed proudly upon the American flag."
MARSHAL FOCH'S RECORD
Ferdinand Foch, Marshal of France, was born at Tarbes in the French
Pyrenees, August 4th of 1851 - a year during which all Europe was
agitated by the approach of war. His earlier education, largely
religious, was had at the schools of Saint Etienne, Rodez and Metz. In
his twentieth year he entered the Ecole Polytechnique at Paris for
a course of instruction in military science, after which he was
commissioned a lieutenant in the artillery branch of the French army,
rising to a captaincy in 1878.
In 1892, with the rank of major, he became an instructor in the war
school, specializing in military history and theory. He returned to army
service as a lieutenant colonel in 1901, and in 1907 was made a general
of brigade. Shortly thereafter, at the close of a term in command of
artillery in the Fifth Army Corps, he was put at the head of the war
school.
When war broke out in August, 1914, General Foch was in charge of the
military post at Nancy, a point commanding the way between the Vosges
mountains and the Duchy of Luxemburg. When the Germans came down toward
the Marne and the situation in the field became very critical, his
controlling doctrine of attack was brought into brilliant play.
The part of the French line under his command being endangered, he
reported to Marshal Joffre: "My right wing is suffering severe pressure.
My left is suffering from heavy assaults. I am about to attack with my
centre."
He did. That attack stopped the German advance, turned their forces from
the road to Paris, and sent them suddenly southward.
Looking back over those days, it is seen now that this action marked
the shock-point of the war. It disjointed the whole German plan, saved
France, and gave France and England time to raise and equip their
armies, and mobilize their industrial resources. The German high command
had promised the German people to finish the war in six weeks. General
Foch inaugurated their finish in less than four.
His operations since that time are well remembered. Down to the day when
at President Wilson's earnest urging he was placed in supreme command of
the allied armies on all fronts, March 29, 1918, he had been steadily
victorious. The week before, the Germans had begun their last and most
powerful "drive." The manner in which General Foch sold terrain to them
for the highest price they could be made to pay in German lives is
understood now, and admired. When he had teased them along and worn them
down, he sharply altered his strategy and attacked with a force and
continuity so terrific that it practically destroyed the German armies,
and compelled Germany to beg for the armistice that ended the war. From
July 18, 1918, down to November 11, he pounded and powdered the enemy
without cessation.
It is a matter of which Americans may well be proud that Marshal Foch,
with keen judgment and knowledge of military values, selected the first
and second divisions of the United States regular army to strike
the first blow in that tremendous assault. The only other troops
participating were those of a French colonial division, from Morocco.
GENERAL PERSHING'S THANKSGIVING ADDRESS
Thanksgiving Day, 1918, was celebrated in the most befitting manner
at the American Army headquarters in France. After Bishop Brent's
benediction, a band concert was given. General Pershing then addressed
his victorious army as follows:
"Fellow soldiers: Never in the history of our country have we as a
people, come together with such full hearts as on this greatest of all
Thanksgiving days. The moment throbs with emotion, seeking to find
full expression. Representing the high ideals of our countrymen and
cherishing the spirit of our forefathers who first celebrated this
festival of Thanksgiving, we are proud to have repaid a debt of
gratitude to the land of Lafayette and to have lent our aid in saving
civilization from destruction.
"The unscrupulous invader has been driven from the devastated scenes of
his unholy conquest. The tide of conflict which during the dark days of
midsummer threatened to overwhelm the allied forces has been turned into
glorious victory. As the sounds of battle die away and the beaten foe
hurries from the field it is fitting that the conquering armies should
pause to give thanks to the God of Battles, who has guided our cause
aright.
"VICTORY OUR GOAL"
"Victory was our goal. It is a hard won gift of the soldier to his
country.
"In this hour of thanksgiving our eternal gratitude goes out to those
heroes who loved liberty better than life, who sleep yonder, where they
fell; to the maimed, whose honorable scars testify stronger than
words to their splendid valor, and to the brave fellows whose strong,
relentless blows finally crushed the enemy's power.
"Nor in our prayer shall we forget the widow who freely gave the husband
more precious than her life, nor those who, in hidden heroism, have
impoverished themselves to enrich the cause, nor our comrades who in
more obscure posts here and at home have furnished their toll to the
soldiers at the front.
"Great cause, indeed, have we to thank God for trials successfully met
and victories won. Still more should we thank Him for the golden future,
with its wealth of opportunity and its hope of a permanent, universal
peace."
THE HOMECOMING OF KING ALBERT
The world rejoiced with Belgium when King Albert and the Queen returned
in triumph to Brussels, November 21, 1918, just a little over four years
after the bodeful day when they left it, in 1914. Belgium, the first
martyr to German ferocity, had come back to its own - had justified