JUNE 28, 1918
The need of men
The Prime Minister intervened in a debate on the medical examination of the older recruits in the House of Commons tonight with an important statement on the need for men. After reminding members that the emergency was overwhelming, the Prime Minister declared that the comb-out in this country was not comparable with that in Germany or in France. It was true that the Americans were coming, and were prepared to be brigaded with our divisions. But, he explained, that was on the understanding that, when the new comb-out materialized, the men who came in would take the places of the Americans, so that they could form their own divisions.
Sir Auckland Geddes opened the debate. After reminding the house of the Prime Minister’s statement that it was proposed to post 7 per cent of the older men this year, he announced that so far 11.2 per cent had been medically examined, and less than one-third of 1 per cent had actually been posted. Turning to the comb-out of the younger men, he explained that for every man of the new age period who had actually joined the forces, approximately 30 young men had been combed out.
Sir Donald Maclean told him that he was still very nervous about the older men. He demanded that they should have at least as favourable a medical examination as men of lower age, and contended that there had recently been a change in the standard. He suggested that an equitable arrangement could be made if the Minister would meet the seven chairmen of tribunals who were members of the House.
The Prime Minister accepted Sir Donald Maclean’s suggestion on behalf of Sir Auckland Geddes. He gave an assurance that the War Office would use the older men, not for the fighting line, but for services behind the line and in this country. But he pointed out that their use in this way would enable the military authorities to comb out men who were fit for the fighting line, and so increase the combatant strength of the Army. As for the younger men, objections did not come from those combed out, but from the industries employing them. He appealed to the industries to remember how serious the emergency was. He said that about 6,000,000 men had already been taken out of civil life, including those who had volunteered.
JUNE 27, 1918
Harvest in danger
The following appeal by the Prime Minister was issued yesterday:
To the Women of Great Britain. The fields are ripening for the sickle; the toil of the winter and the spring is earning its reward. This is no ordinary harvest; in it is centred the hope and the faith of our soldiers that their heroic struggle will not be in vain. Before the war the world was our granary. Now not only are thousands of men fighting, instead of tilling our fields, but the German submarines are trying to starve us by sinking the ships which brought the abundant harvests of other lands.
To the Women of Great Britain. The fields are ripening for the sickle; the toil of the winter and the spring is earning its reward. This is no ordinary harvest; in it is centred the hope and the faith of our soldiers that their heroic struggle will not be in vain. Before the war the world was our granary. Now not only are thousands of men fighting, instead of tilling our fields, but the German submarines are trying to starve us by sinking the ships which brought the abundant harvests of other lands.
Women have already served the Allies by their splendid work upon the farms, but the Army in France has asked for still more men from the land to come and help their brothers in the desperate battle for freedom. The men must go; women will be first to say it. But the harvest is in danger. Once again, therefore, as often before, I appeal to women to come forward and help. They have never failed their country yet; they will not fail her at this grave hour. There is not a moment to lose.
Every woman who has the great gifts of youth and strength, if not already devoting these to essential work, should resolve to do so today. If she lives in a village, let her go out and work in the fields from her home. If she can give her whole time, let her join the ranks of the Land Army. I have watched with deep interest and admiration the splendid work already done. Never have British women and girls shown more capacity or pluck. I know this appeal will be heard. Ask the women who have already shown the way what they feel; they will declare that work in the fair fields of our green island is a privilege as well as a duty. harvest labour The Government came to a decision yesterday on the vexed question of agricultural labour. The “farmers’ comb-out” has been proceeding vigorously. The War Executive Committees have already effected the “clean cut” of younger men, who total more than half their additional quota of 30,000. The problem is that the “comb” is beginning to denude many farms of skilled workmen — horsemen, carters, and mechanics — when they are most needed. The decision taken yesterday maintains the 30,000 quota, but postpones the issue of further calling-up notices till after the harvest.
JUNE 26, 1918
Austrian losses on the Piave
The Austrian bolt across the Piave was a disaster. So closely did the Italians press upon their heels that Austrians were taken prisoner as they were trying to push off boats from the river bank. The lost Italian batteries have been retaken. Some were filled with explosive ready to be destroyed, but the Austrians, probably hoping to get them away, did not have time at the last to blow them up. Several enemy batteries, hundreds of machine-guns, rifles, and an aeroplane have been found on the evacuated ground.
It was on Saturday night that the Austrians made up their mind to get back over the river. They started the retreat at about 2am. Machine-guns were left in advanced positions to give the impression of unchanged strength by constant firing. At dawn news of the enemy’s withdrawal was flashed up and down the line from the Montello to the sea, and an attack was ordered. The Montello is now free of enemies, except fugitives hiding in holes. The only Austrians left on this side of the Piave are prisoners, with the exception of a rearguard trying to protect the evacuation of the San Dona salient.
The piles of corpses on the Piave shore show what losses the Austrians had in trying to get across the river by boats and footbridges under shell and machine-gun fire. When boats had been loaded with artillery horses, panic-stricken men pushed them overboard to be drowned in the swift river so they themselves might cross. The 31st and 32nd Rifle Regiments of the Austrian Army fought gallantly as a rearguard on the Upper Piave till yesterday afternoon. They had only 80 men unwounded, and when these surrendered the general commanding, called Von Cronstadt, shot himself. The Italian Army is at the zenith of its fighting enthusiasm. Man for man it is worth twice what it was a week ago.
The body of Major Baracca, Italy’s crack airman, who fell on the Montello, has been found by an Italian war correspondent and brought back for burial. It is only slightly burnt, although his machine was quite destroyed by fire. As I heard Major d’Annunzio say of his brother airman tonight: “It was the finest death an airman could have. No enemy flier can claim to have brought Baracca down. He died the unconquered champion of the air.”
JUNE 25, 1918
The Italian victory
When the Italian Prime Minister foretold some days ago that Caporetto would soon be avenged we ventured to better the phrase and to say that Caporetto had been avenged already. But the vengeance was not complete. It may not yet be complete. The great army which struck at the Italian lines with all the force of the Dual Monarchy is in full retreat. The Montello is clear, and the enemy troops, who have fought with desperation for eight days to maintain the positions they had rushed on the right bank of the Piave, have been driven back across the stream. One of our Special Correspondents states that on Sunday Italian cavalry, supported by infantry, were already across the Piave in pursuit. The Italians have won a great and signal victory over the whole armed strength of their hereditary enemy. Their English and French Allies have given them valuable help in the mountains, as they themselves are the first to acknowledge, but the victory is their own. It is Italian generalship and Italian valour which have hurled back the invaders and have liberated the peninsula from the deadly menace which hung over it for eight terrible days. All the British Empire, all the States and nations associated with Italy in this great conflict with “militarism”, will join with their whole hearts in the congratulations which the Prime Minister and Mr Asquith offered her last night in the name of the Mother of Parliaments. Mr Lloyd George did not hesitate to say that the repulse of the offensive, on which Austria had staked so much, has been “one of the greatest and most disastrous defeats of the war”. That, perhaps, may be putting the result too high. General Diaz, in his modest dispatch, describes the defeat of the enemy as great, but makes no suggestion that, so far, they are a broken army.
The Prime Minister touched upon another aspect of the victory. It has occurred, as he observes, at a time when there is very serious discontent in the Dual Monarchy itself. Want, as all history shows, is the fertile breeder of rebellion among disloyal populations. What will be the result upon populations seething with discontent, consumed by hunger, and convinced that they are being starved and slaughtered to gratify the ambitions and the greed of Germany?
JUNE 23, 1918
Fighting in the lagoons
General Diaz announces that the Austrians, defeated and in disorder, are recrossing the Piave, Italian forces in close pursuit. The first week’s fighting has ended the first phase of the Austrian offensive, which has cost the enemy a loss estimated at 180,000 men.
Here at Cavazuecherina, close to the mouth of the Piave, there has been an Italian advance into the swamps. What makes the fighting here especially interesting is the odd sort of ground. Here we are in the heart of the desolate lagoons that make a 20-mile broad moat round Venice. Only the canal dykes and road causeways stand up above the brown and brackish water. All the fighting has to be done along these narrow shelves, and one machine-gun would hold up a battalion were it not for the dense trees which make it impossible to see 100 yards unless you climb to the roof of a house. From this lonely housetop you have a panorama of a battle that is neither military nor naval. Some way back along the canal are the Italian field batteries, but their emplacements are pontoons and the enemy’s counter-battery fire sends up tall splashes of white water. The commander of one of these amphibious field batteries invited me to sleep in his cabin for an hour or two, but no sooner had I dozed off than a blast of air like a blow on the side of the head and the iron deck two feet above one’s face quivered and shook. It was no more than one of the guns on deck being fired. The others joined in and the rest of the night was an inferno of din. Eighteen guns fired 3,000 rounds in three hours. I sympathized with the battery commander living in this re-echoing iron coffin. “Well, it has one great advantage,” he said. “When the enemy fire obliges you to move, the whole outfit moves at once and in ten minutes it can be 500 yards away upstream.”
Italy’s greatest airman, Major Francis Baracca, has at last, it seems, met a gallant end. On his fourth outing of the day he was bombing a bridge over the Piave at 500ft above Montello Hill. Suddenly his machine, on which was painted the prancing red horse he has made famous, heaved over and fell gliding on a wing. The enemy’s machine-guns streamed incendiary bullets as it drifted groundwards, and the wreck burst into flames. It is doubtful if Baracca could have survived.
june 22, 1918
Does the Irish policy stand?
Not even Lord Curzon’s oratory could make his version of the Government’s Irish policy magnificent. His speech of Thursday sounded like a hopeless confession of failure. As an explanation of failure, on the other hand, it was incomplete. No one who had really followed Irish affairs was half so dumbfounded as he suggests by the revelation last month that Sinn Fein was in league with the Germans. That was abundantly patent, and the raison d’etre of the Convention and the project of self-government to which it led, was the belief that Sinn Fein could ultimately be checkmated by the forces of constitutional Nationalism. The real effect of the May revelations was not that they frustrated Home Rule, but that they compelled the Government to deport a number of Sinn Fein leaders — to the great practical advantage of Ireland. Lord Curzon was on firmer ground in dealing with the other “great event” which has affected the course of policy. The claim of the Roman hierarchy to interfere as a Church in politics is as serious as it is intolerable. This is by no means the first time that the Bishops have postponed self-government, which they have always detested and fought in secret; but it is the first time for many years that any Church in these islands has set itself in open opposition to the State and to the Law. No review of Irish affairs could fail to place this fact in the foreground, and here at least Lord Curzon is justified in describing the situation as radically changed. But the gravest defect in his speech was its obscurity about the future. He stated, in parenthesis, that the Government had neither abandoned their policy nor changed their front. Yet the impression conveyed to his hearers was that they have in fact done both, and that Home Rule and Conscription, these objects of a score of solemn pledges, have gone together into the abyss of forsaken causes. Is this really the case? Have the Government recanted or merely procrastinated (as indeed the hard facts of the situation may require)? We have said little hitherto of developments under the new regime in Dublin, but they are not calculated to establish belief in a far-sighted and consistent outlook. Taken together with this speech of Lord Curzon’s, they become more and more bewildering.
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