Читать книгу A Passing World - Marie Belloc Lowndes - Страница 6

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Two of the young men belonging to my French family who spoke good English, and who had been wounded at the battle of Charleroi, were sent on missions to England. Thus Philippe, the elder son of the diplomat, René Millet, often came to London on official business. Our house was too small for him to sleep there, but he always dined with us, and told me the most interesting, and to me exciting, facts which were not in the papers. On one occasion he described a number of French disabled prisoners who had been sent back to France. They declared that each of the German orderlies at their camp had asked the French to give them testimonials saying, what was true, that they had been well treated. Certain of these Germans declared that if they were sent to the Front they would surrender at the first opportunity. The French did not believe they would do so, but a considerable number of German prisoners did come in tendering the testimonials stating they had treated the French well.

During Philippe's visits to London he constantly saw members of the British Cabinet. I once asked him which of the men he had met he regarded as the most able. At once he replied, "Milner."

I saw the already famous Colonel House several times at 10 Downing Street, and I heard him tell one striking story. This was that, during one of his visits to Berlin, he had dined with Bethmann Hollweg. One evening, towards the end of dinner, his host exclaimed, "Surely, Colonel House, you must agree that the British are very stupid?" "Yes," answered the Colonel, "but they are something else which begins with 'STU'."

"I know," answered Bethmann Hollweg, "you mean sturdy?" "No, I mean stubborn," replied Colonel House, adding, "When I am in London I hear them talking of a five years' war." His host turned on him. "My God!" he cried, "do you really mean that?" and the other replied, "I certainly do."

On another occasion I wrote to my mother, "I have just heard that Colonel House had brought back a good deal of news from Berlin. In his view the Allied High Command does not realize the severity of the blow which Germany is preparing against the Allies."

He was certainly right, for immediately after I had written those words the great German attack on Verdun began.

Belgium was constantly in everyone's thoughts during the early part of the first World War. A good many Belgians of all classes came to England when it was still possible for them to do so. One woman I met had been present at the fall of Antwerp, and she said the place had been thought impregnable until within a few hours of the end. She possessed three estates. In one of her castles three hundred Germans were quartered. She told us that so far they had not discovered the place where she had hidden her portable valuables. She had put them in one side of a very large room, then built a wall, and had the whole room papered, including of course the wall. On one occasion she went back to her castle, and had a great deal of talk with the German officers who occupied it. One of them said to her, "You should not go to England, for we shall be there soon, and although we shall give all foreigners two days to clear out, you may find it impossible to get away."

I had the feeling, as I often had when with Belgians who took refuge here, that she did not like English people, and enjoyed making their flesh creep.

At a ladies' luncheon party, I sat next to the Mayoress of Grimsby. She described most vividly the Zeppelin which was brought down. She said that all the Germans in the Zeppelin were dead from exposure, with the exception of one man. Great efforts were made to save him, but he died almost at once. His death justified Balfour's strong denial that any Germans had been saved.

I was often asked to meet Frenchmen who happened to be in London on official business. One such gave me an unforgettable account of Verdun, yet he said that its fall would impress neutrals, and have no other effect. I believe it to be true that the whole of the French Army at one time or another fought at Verdun. I never met a French officer who had not fought there.

I wrote to my mother:

"Rowland Prothero, who was the lifelong friend of the Empress Frederick, and knows Germany well, does not see the Germans giving in, though he believes they would stop if the War could be treated as a draw. I hope the Allies would never allow that to come to pass. If they do, Germany will immediately get ready for another war. But if the War does go on, the condition of people like us, I mean Freddie and me, will become very serious, as all publishing will stop. There is a good deal of uneasiness felt regarding Russia. Very little is known of what is going on there. It is rumoured that Reginald McKenna, accompanied by a small deputation of business men, knowing Russia, is going to Archangel in August. He wants to see the Russian Minister of Finance, and to find out for himself the state of Russia. But Russia refused to receive the deputation."

In the summer, Lloyd George made a malignant attack on Lord Haldane, and I wrote:

"I do not remember anything ever happening since I was grown up which caused me, personally, so deep a sense of disgust and, as far as I am English, of shame. Even if Haldane had been really imprudent—and no one who knows him can ever suspect him of being that—if he had really made some revelation which he might have kept to himself, as the action of a colleague, and of the man he vigorously defended at a time when Lloyd George was very ill thought of over the Marconi business, this attack would still be despicable. As it is, there is no shadow of excuse. Lloyd George took advantage of a fact which was being kept a profound secret—Asquith, Balfour and Kitchener being in France—to issue a statement which the innocent public naturally believed was authorized by the Prime Minister. But he has probably overshot his mark, for I saw a number of people yesterday, and not a single one—whatever his, or her, politics—but expressed loathing of Lloyd George's action. This was the case even amongst those who dislike and distrust Haldane. Many declare that Lloyd George wishes to be Prime Minister, and that he has been working for some time, in a subterranean way, to get rid of Asquith and Grey. Some people think he is being actively backed by Lord Northcliffe. This I do not believe. A man who has known Lloyd George well for many years, told me that in his opinion Lloyd George was childishly annoyed at the enthusiastic reception given to Haldane at the National Liberal Club, which L. G. regards as his own particular nest. But there must have been something in the background, no one yet knows or suspects, to provoke him to do what he did. How Mr. Asquith must now regret having upheld him and Rufus Isaacs over the Marconi affair."

And a day or two later:

"Last night I saw Elizabeth Haldane. She was, as always, reserved and dignified; but I could see that this attack on her brother had cut her far more than his having been made to leave the Cabinet. The vulgarity of the attack pained her most of all. I had not the heart to remind her how she has always taken Lloyd George's part—not over the Marconi business, over which she naturally prefers to remain silent—but over everything else he has done during the last few years. I am amused to see that Margot, rather late in the day, has awakened to the fact that Lloyd George desires to supersede her Henry. I went to see her, at her wish, and I found her very worried and agitated. Indeed I had never seen her so unlike her usual brave self."

That same week I met at the Glenconners' a remarkable man, F. W. Bain, who wrote a strange fantastic tale I much admired, called A Digit of the Moon. He spoke with enthusiasm of the French Army, and he annoyed several men who were present by saying that people in England did not give France full credit for the achievements of her Army. He further declared that the war in South Africa would have been lost but for the Indian Government, and that if England were governed like India, this war would have been won long ago!

I wrote in my diary:

"Mr. Bain said he knew Germany well, and is certain that that country, being entirely run by means of an artificial discipline, will suddenly crack up, once the German people knew that they were not likely to achieve final victory. He said he had had letters from certain German friends not very long ago, and that they all believed not only they were winning, but that they were going to add enormously to their possessions in Europe, and also to their wealth.

There was some discussion concerning the Dardanelles. Mr. Bain disapproves of the operation, as he believes that owing to what is happening there, the attack on the West Front has been postponed, if not actually imperilled. So does my brother. But Pamela Glenconner declared that the Dardanelles operation taking place when it did, not only pleased Russia, but saved Warsaw, as it diverted an immense amount of German material and, what is more important, some of the best brains in the German Army.

Lord Glenconner told me the most interesting thing I have heard this week. Two Zeppelins were brought down at Newcastle the night before last—the first time the anti-aircraft guns have been of any use. The Zeppelins were a fleet of seven, and they were going to Armstrong's! Five turned back, but two were caught.

"I called on a friend who said that the most hateful word in the English language is 'patching'. She said, 'Everything is always being "patched up".' She spoke with deep feeling, and declared one trouble to be the age of the men who had fought in the South African War—that Kitchener still thought of himself as a young man, and considered his contemporaries as the only soldiers likely to do well in everything—so that the really splendid younger officers are not given a chance. The Staff College would like to see Haig in French's place, with Robertson as Chief of Staff. They do not dislike Sir John French, but they think him not up to modern warfare. She has been seeing a great number of men from the Staff College, and men back from the Front. She said no operation would succeed as long as things were going on as they are now, and that the waste of lives, as well as of time, was fearful.

I went on somewhere else where was a man home on leave. Naturally I did not say anything to him of all I had heard, but I was amused to hear him give one piece of corroboration which would not, however, have pleased my friend at all. He remarked, 'I heard last week that Joffre had observed that the only British general he would care to employ was Haig'.

I dined at Ciro's, a supper club situated between the National Gallery and Leicester Square. There were there the oddest crowd I have ever seen. Of the hundreds round me, the only people in the whole room I had ever seen were my host and hostess. My co-guests were a nice Danish youth, and Godfrey Isaacs. I was introduced to the latter as 'Mrs. Lowndes', the name of 'Belloc' being carefully kept out. But I could see he knew who I was. We had a curious talk. He is a miniature replica of his brother, with a clever, keen, enthusiastic face. He looks more like a musician than a financier. He said mysteriously he had just come from the Admiralty, where they had told him wonderful things which he could not reveal. But after he had had a little—a very little—champagne, he suddenly burst out—'I should not mind taking a heavy bet that the war will be over by August the 15th'. And when we all said we did not agree, he went on—'Last week a great financial authority, whose name I cannot give, was not only allowed, but engaged by the Government, to go to Holland to meet two German bankers with whom certain essential money matters had to be settled. The Englishman was an old friend of theirs, and they talked over the situation very frankly. Then one German banker said—"We are satisfied, and more than satisfied, with our military situation, but financially we are done, and within the next few weeks, in fact before August the 15th, the German Emperor is going to take a step which will astonish the world, and end the war."'

I observed that I supposed this neutral banker was a man of whom a Jewish friend of mine had spoken to me some weeks ago, as procuring very valuable information for the British Government. Mr. Isaacs went on to say that, apart from this strange tale, he had inside information of the present state of Germany. He had been told the bulk of the German people were getting very dissatisfied and restless; that the state of the country financially was terrible, and the moment the war is over, Germany will have to repudiate her public debt, and declare herself bankrupt.

He then jumped up to go out and telephone to his wife, whereupon our host said sadly, 'All hot air!' I asked the Dane, who was a cousin of the Danish Minister, and whom I thought the most honest pro-British neutral I have met, what he believed. He said he thought the war would go on for a long time, but that it was quite true that Germany, financially, was in a serious condition. The most hopeful thing he had heard lately was contained in a letter from his father, who told him that the Germans were running short of torpedoes for submarine warfare, and that this was the real reason why there has been such a curious slackening lately in the German naval warfare."

During that July there was some talk on presentiments and fortune-tellers at the Thirty luncheon club.

"A member told a story which I had heard before, of a stockbroker who went to a fortune-teller last year. She told him that he was going to become a soldier, and that he would lose an arm. He said he had no connection with the Army, and that if her words came true he would give her fifty pounds. Her words did come true, and when he was in England on sick leave, he went to see her again, and paid her the fifty pounds. She then told him further things, and they impressed him so much that he again said he would pay her fifty pounds if they came true. But she observed, 'You will not be able to do that, for I shall die in March,' and this part of her prophecy has been fulfilled. As was the case during the South African War, people are going more and more to fortune-tellers."

I went to Cambridge to stay with the famous educationalist Mr. Rouse and his sister. He and I talked about crime for three solid hours, then we discussed education. His account of the Germans in Cambridge was curiously illuminating, and the only direct reference to the war made during my visit. They both agreed—he and his sister were very different—that practically every German who was there just before August 1914 was in an unofficial sense a spy; always trying to find out military secrets, even asking the undergraduates—to the latter's natural amusement—what they thought would happen to the British Colonies and overseas possessions, in case of war! One young German they all liked very much, and who was attached to the Emperor's household, left ten days before the war so hurriedly that he did not even stop to pack up his clothes and take them with him.

I spent Friday morning watching the teaching at the Perse School. It impressed me very much, and I thought it the best teaching by far I had ever seen. I heard a number of boys make little speeches on subjects chosen by themselves. Four of the ten subjects were about the Navy, not one about the Army. The other subjects were concerned with natural history and a light railway.

I had long had a special feeling for prisoners of war. Some of my French great-uncles were taken prisoners during the great Retreat from Moscow. So I was exceedingly moved by a most pathetic account given by Lady Vera Herbert, of the prisoners of war now in Germany.

"She sends parcels every ten days to a hundred and twenty-seven prisoners who have no friends to look after them, as well as to those who have official adopters. She told me they have had news of an officer who was paralysed from shock. Great efforts are being made to persuade the Germans to exchange him, but so far without result. All the unhappy people who have those they love among the missing, hope it is this man. With every parcel Lady Vera encloses a postcard, saying what is in the parcel, and this checks the thefts at the other end. The greatest trouble concerns boots and shoes. The prisoners are helping with the harvest, and even being sent down into mines, and they have no foot coverings.

The British Government sent out a large consignment of boots and shoes, but they never reached the prisoners. The Germans are very short of leather, and are getting hold of everything of the sort they can for their own soldiers; so the British are now sending shoes with canvas tops and leather soles—they are all right for our prisoners, but useless from the point of view of a marching soldier. Lady Vera seemed in great distress over the lot of the Russian prisoners. They are practically starving, and after the British and French soldiers have eaten the food in their parcels, the Russians come and pick up the scraps off the floor. All exchanged prisoners mention this, and she is making great efforts to persuade the Russian colony in London to take charge of their own prisoners. Unfortunately there are millions of them. She has just met Henry James who had seen an American back from Germany. He said the prisoners were being given less and less, and that even in the best managed camps they are kept so short as to be always frightfully hungry and therefore more liable to infection and disease."

The next day I noted:

"A dear Jewish friend of mine gave me an extraordinary account of her house near Cromer, which is entirely deserted. It is regarded as the acute danger zone for an invasion, so no one will go and live there. In fact all the people who can afford to do so have left the East Coast. This woman is highly interested in every form of religion, more so than anyone else I know. She said with deep feeling that the kind of will a Jew often makes, barring his children from marrying out of their own faith, should be forbidden by law. She declares that when people are determined to do so, they can drive a coach and four through any will. She gave me some curious examples of this fact. One of the Goldsmids made a will which contained the sentence, 'Any one of my daughters who marries out of her own religion forfeits all benefit under this will'. Two of his daughters became Christian Scientists, and married in due course men who were not Jews. As they had already become Christian Scientists before their marriages, it was held that the words of their father's will did not apply to them. Another daughter actually became a Roman Catholic and a nun, which, as my friend observed, would have made her father frantic with rage and horror. But as she did not marry, she kept all her money. She also told me of a Jewish girl whose father left her a fortune under the same kind of condition. She married a Jew, and after a time he died. She then fell in love with a Christian, and having once fulfilled the condition of the father's will, her money had become her own to do with it what she liked."