Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights Part 43

LORD WALTER CUNLIFFE.

Lord Walter Cunliffe, Governor of the Bank of England, is 52 years old.

He received his education at Harrow and at Trinity College, Cambridge, from which he graduated with the degree of Master of Arts. He is a Lieutenant of the City of London.

Lord Cunliffe has been active in the banking field for many years and is a member of the firm of Cunliffe Brothers. He is a Director of the North Eastern Railway Company and has been a Director of the Bank of England since 1895. He became Deputy Governor of the bank in 1911 and has been Governor since 1913. Lord Cunliffe is the first Governor of the Bank of England to receive the honor of re-election after serving his term of two years. In 1914 he was created the First Baron of Headley.

Among the dominating characters of the war and upon whose judgment and ability the destinies of France and the Allies depended for a long period is General Robert Nivelle, Commander of the French armies, and who succeeded General Joffre. General Nivelle is a man of silence; he speaks little. General Nivelle is four years younger than Joffre.

As a boy of fourteen he could not take part as did Joffre and Gallieni and Pau and Kitchener also, in the tragical war of 1870. Joffre studied at the Ecole Polytechnique, in Paris; Gallieni, at Saint Cyr, without the walls; Nivelle studied at both; he may claim to belong to all arms, artillery, infantry--even cavalry. And, in his youth, he was not only a magnificent all-round athlete, as indeed he still is, but also a headlong rider of steeplechases, in which, had he been fated to break his neck, his neck would infallibly have been broken. This is a trait he shares with General Brussiloff, and, like the great Russian General, he was famous for the skill with which he tamed and trained cavalry mounts.

SERVES AS JUNIOR OFFICER.

As a junior officer Nivelle saw service in the French General Staff; his part in the expedition to China we have recorded; he also served in Northern Africa. So that, like Joffre, Gallieni, Lyantey, Roques and so many leaders of French armies, Nivelle gained an invaluable element of his training in the out-of-the-way corners of France's vast colonial empire, which has outposts in every continent and measures nearly five million square miles.

At the outbreak of the World War Nivelle, with the rank of Colonel, commanded the Fifth Regiment of Artillery, which is the artillery element of the Seventh Army Corps, the corps of Besancon and the old Franche-Comte, under the Jura Mountains, at the corner of Switzerland and Alsace.

It was, in fact, in the section of Alsace invaded and retaken by the French army of General Pau--who lost an arm in Alsace in the war of 1870--that Nivelle struck the first of many hard blows which made him Field Commander of the splendid army of France. He directed the guns of his Fifth Regiment with such deadly accuracy against a group of German guns that he first scattered their gunners in flight and put them out of action, and then led them off in triumph, twenty-four guns in all, the first great trophy won by the arms of France.

In the battle of the Ourcq, fought with superb tenacity and dash by Manoury and his men, the first decisive blow of the great battle, the first definite victory, was gained; General von Kluck's right wing was smashed in and out-flanked, with the result that the whole German line was dislocated and sent hurtling backward.

In that battle and victory Colonel Nivelle, as he then was, had his part; but it was on the Aisne, a few days later, that a strikingly brilliant act brought him into especial prominence. The Seventh Corps was attacked by exceedingly strong enemy forces and forced backward over the Aisne. Colonel Nivelle, commanding its artillery, saw his opportunity, and, himself leading on horseback, brought his batteries out into the open, right between the retreating Seventh Corps and the strong German forces that were pursuing them, already sure of victory.

VICTORY TURNED TO SLAUGHTER.

With that calm serenity which is his dominant characteristic in action, he let the Germans come close up to his guns in serried ma.s.ses. Then he opened fire, at short range, with deadly precision, so that the expected victory was turned into a slaughter. The broken German regiments, fleeing to the woods beside the Aisne for safety, ran upon the bayonets of the rallied Seventh Corps, inspired to splendid valor by the magnificent action of their artillery. Of 6000 Germans who made that charge few indeed returned to their trenches.

This was on September 16, 1914. Before the New Year the Artillery Colonel had been made a General of Brigade, and in January, 1915, the new General distinguished himself by stopping the tremendous and unforeseen German drive against Soissons. He was forthwith recommended for further promotion, and on February 18 was gazetted General of Division. Shortly after this be gained new laurels by capturing from the Germans the Quenevieres salient.

This great commander was the son of Colonel Nivelle--and an English mother, a former Miss Sparrow, whose family lived at Deal, on the English Channel. In his married life General Nivelle has been exceedingly happy.

The dominating figure in the English army when America entered the fray was Sir Douglas Haig. He succeeded Sir John French.

Sir Douglas Haig was born under so favorable a star that he has long been known as "Lucky" Haig. Not that he has depended upon his luck to push him ahead in the army, for his record as a student and a worker wholly disproves this. But nevertheless fortune has showered many favors upon him. Among these favors the first and by no means the least is his very aristocratic lineage and the consequent high standing he has had in royal and influential circles.

HAIG'S FAMILY TREE.

Haig's family tree dates back at least six centuries and he comes of the very flower of Scotch stock. The virtues of the "Haigs of Bamersyde"

were extolled by the poets of the thirteenth century. And to discuss this feature of his career without giving due credit to the position and influence of his wife would be ungallant as well as unfair. She was the Hon. Dorothy Vivian, daughter of the third Lord Vivian, and maid-of-honor to Queen Alexandra, and the pair were married in Buckingham Palace.

He did not enter the army until after his graduation from Oxford and then he took service in the cavalry, the usual choice of the English "gentleman." When twenty-four years old, he received his commission as a Lieutenant in the Queen's Own Hussars, one of the ultra-fas.h.i.+onable regiments. Six years later he was made a Captain and then decided to take a regular military course at the Staff College.

In 1898 he took part in Kitchener's campaign up the Nile and in the Soudan as a cavalry officer. He was then thirty-seven years old. He distinguished himself in several engagements, was "mentioned in the dispatches," was awarded the British medal and the Khedive's medal and was promoted to Major.

His career in the Boer war, which followed that in Egypt, was characterized by distinguished services and numerous rapid promotions.

It was during this latter war that Haig became attached to the staff of Sir John French, whom he succeeded in France and Flanders. He came out of the war in South Africa a full-fledged Colonel, and with a fresh supply of medals and "mentions." Then he was sent to India as Inspector General of Cavalry.

DIRECTOR OF MILITARY TRAINING.

He remained in the Indian service three years, and then was given a post at the war office in London, with the t.i.tle of "Director of Military Training." He remained in London three years, when he was sent to India as Chief of the Staff of the Indian Army. Three years later he returned to England and was given what was known as the "Aldershot Command,"

which, in fact, was the command of the real active British army. He had this post when the war broke. His a.s.signment as Commander of the First Army Corps under Sir John French soon followed.

The man, who next to the Kaiser had more to do with Germany's plans for world domination, is Dr. Theobold von Bethmann-Hollweg, Imperial Chancellor of Germany.

The elevation of Hollweg to the Chancellors.h.i.+p came when Prince Bulow stood in the way of complete domination of Germany's policies by the militarists, headed by the Kaiser. Prince Bulow was dismissed and Bethmann-Hollweg became Chancellor in 1909. From that time on he dedicated his life to the achievement of a single aim--the completion of Germany's plans of aggression.

Bethmann-Hollweg comes from an old Prussian family enn.o.bled in 1840. He was born about 1855 and was a student with the Kaiser at the University of Bonn. He studied law at Gottingen, Stra.s.sburg and Berlin, and for several years followed the law and was appointed a judge at Potsdam.

APPOINTED PRUSSIAN HOME SECRETARY.

In 1905 he was appointed Prussian Home Secretary, and it was then that his name first became familiar to the man in the street in Berlin.

Shortly afterward he was appointed a.s.sistant Chancellor of Prince Bulow, who was then Chancellor.

It was during his service as Home Secretary that Bethmann-Hollweg became largely converted to all that the most advanced Prussian militarism stood for. Ultimately he became a far more ardent Pan-German even than Prince Bulow. In a speech at Munich in 1908 he declared that though Germany was then happily free of all immediate anxiety so far as her foreign relations were concerned, her present and future position as a great Power must ultimately rest on her strong arm and though the strength of her arm was greater than it ever had been it must grow yet stronger.

It was a speech after the Kaiser's own heart--provocative and boasting to a degree. It had, as a matter of fact, it is said, been prepared by the Emperor, and was delivered by the Kaiser's order for the special benefit of Prince Bulow, who had at that time fallen out of favor with the Emperor.

Grand Admiral Von Tirpitz is said to be the man who made the German navy. Having won the recognition of the Kaiser in 1894 he was promoted to Chief of Staff in the German navy, and was placed in command of Kiel.

He was made Secretary of State in 1898 and immediately began the building up of the navy. New and modern methods of engineering were developed and finally he made such an impression with the Kaiser that he was enn.o.bled. Von Tirpitz was the princ.i.p.al advocate of Germany's plans during a decade for having the navy powerful enough to equal the combined powers of any three great naval powers.

Sir John Jellicoe, Vice Admiral and Commander-in-Chief of the British Naval Home Fleet had served more than forty years in the navy when the war broke out. He was a Lieutenant at the bombardment of Alexandria and was a member of the Naval Brigade which partic.i.p.ated in the battle of Tel-el-Kebir, for activity in which he was presented with the Khedive's Bronze Star for gallant service. He was in command of the naval brigade which went to China in 1898 to help subdue the Boxers and was shot at Teitsang, where he was decorated by the German Emperor, who conferred upon him the Order of the Red Eagle. He was Rear-Admiral of the Atlantic Fleet in 1907-08, and Commander of the Second Home Squadron in 1911-12.

To Admiral Jellicoe is given credit for having developed a high degree of efficiency among the gunners in the English navy.

ADMIRAL HUGO POHL.

Admiral Hugo Pohl, of the German navy, was born at Breslau in 1855. He became a Lieutenant in the Imperial German navy when but 21 years of age. He gained rapid promotion, and within a few years was Commodore in charge of the scouting s.h.i.+ps. He had charge of setting up the now famous German naval stations from Kiel to Sonderberg in Schleswig in 1908 and was afterwards made Vice Admiral. He wears the medal of the Order of the Crown, bestowed upon him by the Kaiser for admirable service.

One of the men whose names will be forever linked with the war, particularly with relation to the adoption of new methods of warfare, is that of Count Zeppelin, who died on March 8, 1917, and who was the father of the Zeppelin or dirigible balloon. The idea for the big airs.h.i.+p did not originate with Count Zeppelin, but with David Schwartz, a young Austrian, who built his first dirigible in 1893. He tried to arouse interest in his aircraft in Russia, but failed and finally went to Berlin, where he interested the then Baron Zeppelin. A balloon was made, but Schwartz fell ill and died. Zeppelin was later accused of attempting to steal the young Austrian's patents, and the courts made an award to Schwartz's widow of $18,000.

Count Zeppelin's first airs.h.i.+p came out about 1898. It was 300 feet long and had an aluminum frame. Short cruises were made in 1899 and 1900, and the craft maintained a speed of about sixteen miles an hour. A second airs.h.i.+p was completed in 1905, and later a third aircraft was finished.

This dirigible made a cruise of 200 miles at an average speed of twenty miles. The success led Count Zeppelin to make his most ambitious attempt and he tried to cross the Alps carrying sixteen pa.s.sengers.

IN THE AIR THIRTY-SEVEN HOURS.

He succeeded and pa.s.sing through hailstorms, crossing eddies and encountering cross-currents he traveled 270 miles at an average speed of twenty-two miles an hour. Subsequently he made a flight to England, remaining in the air thirty-seven hours. Fate played him false, however, in many of his ventures and he returned home after making remarkable voyages, only to have his craft destroyed at its very landing place.

The German Government and the Kaiser joined in giving him a grant of money to carry on his work, and a plant was built at Frederichshafen.

But while Count Zeppelin's name will be forever identified with aeronautics the successes which he attained were not enduring, for the Zeppelins proved not entirely satisfactory in military warfare in compet.i.tion with the aeroplane.

In the counsels of Greece the outstanding figure from the beginning of the war was Eleutherois Venizelos. He is credited with being responsible for the national revival in Greece when the country seemed doomed after the Turkish war of 1897. He was the leader of the country in the movement to join the Allies in the fight against German domination and he swayed the nation and held them as few men have. He was born in the Island of Crete in 1864, and according to tradition, his family descended from the medieval Dukes of Athens. He was educated in Greece and Switzerland and became active in Cretan politics, and won recognition as the strong man of the "Great Greek Island."